Hardest OG Dungeon?

gamerguy757 · August 2023

So just wanted to start a fun discussion.
Look we all know that the base dungeons are simple…but even is Vet players have been around from the beginning still have a place in our hearts for the OGs.
What would y’all say, in 2023, is the hardest dungeon or even hard mode from the OG dungeons?
For me, I was gonna say CoA2, but now the Hm is crazy easy…although I remember it used to ruin friendships back in the day.
So my vote is for Tempest Island. That psycho lady end boss always kills at least 2 people every run

MikeSkyrim333 · August 2023

Darkshade Caverns 2. You need a lot of heal when hm

amig186 · August 2023

As far as I remember, Nerieneth in Crypt of Hearts 2 was the most annoying HM to do. Similarly, HM Rilis XII in Banished Cells 2 seems trivial in theory, but a lot of people I ran with had trouble staying alive long enough for the 3 daedroths to spawn.

abigfishy · August 2023

For a PUG groups:
FG2 second boss is an utter PUG killer when the group doesn't attack the assassins.
DC2 is a serious heal check on the final boss HM.
I have had issues in Blackheart Haven when the tank gets transformed into a skeleton.
When you are a vampire and the finder puts you into EHII that fire dragon at the end hurts in HM.

ssewallb14_ESO · August 2023

The only base game boss I've seen actually wipe pugs in years is Rilis in BC2.

zaria · August 2023

amig186 wrote: »

As far as I remember, Nerieneth in Crypt of Hearts 2 was the most annoying HM to do. Similarly, HM Rilis XII in Banished Cells 2 seems trivial in theory, but a lot of people I ran with had trouble staying alive long enough for the 3 daedroths to spawn.

Yes that HM is annoying, more than BC 2. Except once as tank, pugged it, went directly to last boss, perfect as I was there for the quest skill point. The problem was not low DPS, the problem was that they believed they could not kill any daedrots so I ended up having to handle more than 10.

the1andonlyskwex · August 2023

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "hard".

Vaults of Madness and Crypt of Hearts 2 are both really hard to PuG without someone dying. VoM has the boss that reflects damage, which requires everyone to actually stop DPSing, and CoH2 has the boss where everyone has to roll apart and someone dies of two people roll the same way.

CoH2 is probably the hardest to HM because the HM condition requires DPS to slow down and avoid AoE. (Banished Cells 2 is similar, but I've had fewer problems with it.)

Direfrost Keep is probably the hardest to actually complete because one person who doesn't know mechanics can keep healing the final boss.

Blood_again · August 2023

The most HM failures are CoH2, BC2 and FG2. Especially CoH because it is not a big problem to just kill the boss, but HM is often failed due to bad group coordination.

The most player killers are CoH2 (pre last), Tempest, Direfrost and Spindle2 (mr. "why nothing goes easy" Praxin Douare). There are nice joints of oneshots and resource drain.
I could add first boss of VoM, Keeper Imiril of BC2, last of Blessed and Daedroth of CoA2. It is more about players cooperation than oneshots but anyway these bosses are often nodeath-poopers for many unexperienced groups.

The most "how to kill that thing" are last of Direfrost, Netch of DC2, the Shepherd of FG2 and Urata of CoA2. Many unexperienced groups had huge problems with killing them. The Direfrost can be even blocked with one newcomer and some bad luck

Gray_howling_parrot · August 2023

I personally don’t consider any of the base game dungeons difficult even remotely after playing for quite a while, but there are a few that come to mind when I think of PUGs and it being sorta annoying:

1. Dark shade caverns 2 - the netch boss is a pain in the butt just because it’s time-gated essentially. Also the final boss, people don’t understand what’s going on and run around frantically where the healer can’t reach them rather than staying with the group and getting healed easily
2. Dire frost keep - the final boss’s siphon ability can be broken out of (new players don’t know this and sit there through the whole cast just to heal the boss up) . The boss’s frost AOE also heals themselves if it hits a player. So all in all if I’m not a dps (I’m healing or tanking) I usually despise this dungeon because people just stand there healing the boss and don’t do any dps lol
3. Vaults of madness - seeing people do the final boss mechanic of stand near him or away depending on the visual is pretty funny when they do the complete opposite XD

AlterBlika · August 2023

From the solo perspective, WS1 is the toughest one for me. The boss on hm hits almost like a vdlc boss. But I'm playing melee stamina build so I have to deal with it, while ranged setups have easier times I guess. I have no problems with BC2 hm, I'm even glad there are additional targets for my master 2h, and also no problem with CoA2 hm because I have enough dps. Spindleclutch, 1 and 2, have somewhat difficult bosses if you don't use addons. The Whisperer also hits hard, plus has two heavy/charged attacks that are quick to cast and cc you, also they aren't so easy to spot. The second boss in the 2nd version has that rune mechanic combined with resource drain that you must dodge (you can't while the rune is up), although the boss doesn't hit hard and it's manageable, although annoying.

Oh and of course WS2 and FG2 are the most challenging because I've never cleared them solo

Malprave · August 2023

Valkyn Skoria hm in City of Ash 2 kept everybody entertained for a while. Back when players were actually wearing that monster helm, which I put on my DK recently for nostalgia.

sarahthes · August 2023

amig186 wrote: »

As far as I remember, Nerieneth in Crypt of Hearts 2 was the most annoying HM to do. Similarly, HM Rilis XII in Banished Cells 2 seems trivial in theory, but a lot of people I ran with had trouble staying alive long enough for the 3 daedroths to spawn.

I think it's more common for there to be a LOT more than 3 daedroths...

Tommy_The_Gun · August 2023

For me every OG Dungeon that is impossible to solo is super annoying. Even normal FG2 has a perma-stun boss at some point. Like the dungeons itself is trivial and bosses are easy, but whenever there is this: Oh, sorry, you can't do anything right now, you need to wait for your ally to save you ! What ? You play as you want ? You have an NPC Companion ? Sorry, nope, they can't do anything either. You have chosen to play as you want, but not as we want !.... yeah.... kinda annoying.

finehair · August 2023

If you know mechanics you can check every og dungeon. Except one, City of Ash 2. Valkyn is the bane of pugs and people would accept only premade teams for that dungeon. It is long as balls, at the beginning if your DPS is low that healing lady will drain you slowly. Then your tank and healer needs to prove themselves at Ash Titan and his 2 immortal air atronach buddies.
Then the whole group needs to prove themselves at interrupting and kiting aoe mechanics TWICE at Xivilai lightning mode bosses.
Only then you'll gain the honour of getting destroyed by the valkyn himself.
That place was the ultimate end game.
Now it is long past his glory days but Valkyn still claps cheeks of unsuspecting pugs whenever he can..

AcadianPaladin · August 2023

I'm only really familiar with the ones I can solo which generally do not include any of the 'II' ones or hm.

VoM is not a hard dungeon for me to solo but I'll no longer pug it since both times I did that I was killed by other players. First time was the first miniboss who reflects damage. Other time, someone raced ahead and caused the bridge to ignite while I was half way up it. It is fun with friends on voice though.

I have pugged WR1 a couple times on hm and, as a healer, always lose someone to a one shot kill from the final boss. So I won't do that one anymore either.

ZOS_Icy · August 2023

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic.

Thank you for your understanding.

Blood_again · August 2023

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Even normal FG2 has a perma-stun boss at some point.

Well, this normal is soloable with lowlevel, if apply aoes in time. Some struggle, but it is fair enough way to pass through it.
I think Direfrost and WS2 are more irritating. They are soloable only with tricks on the edge of bug exploiting.

Dagoth_Rac · August 2023

zaria wrote: »

amig186 wrote: »

As far as I remember, Nerieneth in Crypt of Hearts 2 was the most annoying HM to do. Similarly, HM Rilis XII in Banished Cells 2 seems trivial in theory, but a lot of people I ran with had trouble staying alive long enough for the 3 daedroths to spawn.

Yes that HM is annoying, more than BC 2. Except once as tank, pugged it, went directly to last boss, perfect as I was there for the quest skill point. The problem was not low DPS, the problem was that they believed they could not kill any daedrots so I ended up having to handle more than 10.

The daedroths are a huge pain to kill. I am not sure if they have a billion health or 90% mitigation or something, but they are extraordinarily hardy for base game adds. That hard mode is easy if you have super high DPS to burn the boss fast after 3rd Daedroth. But even good-but-not-great DPS leaves you in a situation where you either get daedroth building up while you focus boss, or you focus 4th or 5th daedroth and entire fight takes forever because boss teleports around. So trying to keep daedroth numbers in check leaves little opportunity to DPS boss because boss is often on other side of room from tank and daedroth.

CoH2 is easiest to mess up HM if pugs do not know to leave ghosts alive. BC2 is easiest to mess up if you don't have really solid DPS.

Necrotech_Master · August 2023

nowadays? in terms of actual difficulty i would say darkshade 2, BC2, direfrost

when people say OG vets, i think of only what is currently the "2" dungeons, as most of the dungeons did not have a vet mode (banished cells normal mode was banished cells 1 and banished cells vet mode was banished cells 2)