I'm actually kind of sad about some of the changes to Dzemael Darkhold. I liked how the All-seeing Eye was this looming terror as you go through the dungeon. The boss fight that entailed finding refuge in the light of the crystals was clever in making you become more aware of possible mechanics. That's all been done away with now.
(What I *don't* miss is having to stand in those blue magitek terminals, getting hit by blasts, to unlock the door!)
I'm not sure why they felt the need to dumb dungeons down.
A Ninja's Guide to Eorzea, Part 4: Leveling in Heavensward
part 1 | part 2 | part 3
what's up y'all it's been a while, but I'm finally light farming for my anima relics, so that means I'm going to be running a lot of Heavensward dungeons, and that means I'm going to have opinions on 'em!
I know I kind of soft-canceled the series at the end of part 3 bc I thought every dungeon after ARR made all their fights mandatory, but it wouldn't be science if we just assumed things, would it? in that vein, I'm also going to be covering some dungeons I failed to finish in the previous sections too.
As before, we're running things on a letter grading scale: F means sneaking past enemies somehow makes the dungeon worse, and D is generally given to dungeons with nothing but mandatory fights. Past that, dungeons get higher grades the better they fit into the fantasy of being a ninja mechanically and thematically- i.e., sneaking past hordes of faceless goons to assassinate high-priority targets (in this case, the bosses). I also tack on plusses and minuses as I see fit.
without further ado-
The Lost City of Amdapor: C-
The Lost City of Amdapor is one of the three dungeons in ARR that scored a DNF its first go around purely because the very first boss is kind of a brick wall for soloers. I didn't have high hopes for this dungeon because it starts out with plenty of forced fights, but once you get past the Decaying Gourmand there's quite a few enemies you can sneak past, though this only lasts til you fight the Arioch.
well, you can sneak around these guys for whatever reason, but you still have to fight them eventually. yeah, giant flying eyeballs don't break sneak, but slugs do- go figure.
thematically, fighting bugs and voidsent doesn't sound like something ninjas would do, and there's not a ton of treasure lying around to justify calling it roguish, so it gets a ding to its score for that. also because I keep misspelling it as Amdapoor.
Castrum Marinum: D+
yeah this one goes about as expected, but I'm giving it a plus because it's literally about infiltrating an evil military's headquarters and murdering a general.
The Praetorium: D
same as previous, but it loses those bonus points for being 30 minutes long even if you could skip all the fights, and you can't. also because two thirds of this dungeon has you either in an empty hallway, in a mech suit (which is cool but not the point of this rating system), or in a boss fight.
The Dusk Vigil: F
this one should be a D but I'm giving it a F anyways because I hate fighting the towering oliphant solo. "god I love not playing the game for like a full minute, I'm so glad this is a mandatory boss mechanic". also, there's one pack you can sneak past, but you have to go back and fight it eventually.
Sohm Al: D+
this dungeon also has no skips, but I did find some neat tech. if you burst down the ice dragon's boulders fast enough, you can sneak between volleys. that's not useful at all in this list, but it might help recharge your mudras in a regular fight.
the plus is because you can get the gaelikitten here.
The Aery: D+
Solo Only made me think this one would be a lot harder than it turned out to be, but tbf I am ten levels over the regular cap while writing this. again, no skips here. the plus is because I literally got the lesser panda minion while doing my grading run on this dungeon.
I'm not immune to being bribed. hint hint, Neverreap.
The Vault: D
again, zero skips, and I know I just gave the MSQ dungeons bonus points for being about killing major antagonists, but the palpable catholicism here just kills the ninjaing mood.
The Great Gubal Library: D
nothing special to say about this one. I'm not surprised it got this rating by this point.
Final Thoughts
I know this looks dire, but I'm going to finish up with the level 60 dungeons before I call it quits on this series permanently. and to be honest, I'm weirdly optimistic about our chances here. why, you ask? because all of these dungeons except one are part of the MSQ. the odd one out? The Dusk Vigil. the only HW dungeon on this list with any skippable fights? Also the Dusk Vigil. The odds aren't in our favor, but things turning around isn't completely out of the cards either.
This is just my approach to teaching people to play the game. And it terrifies everyone who experiences it
But also, they're all very good at the game now.
Please, contact me if you want to learn how to play the game while terrified out of your fucking mind.
Edit: since this is kind of starting to branch out of being on my little blog in the middle of nowhere if you know the original artist tell me who they are so I can credit them for their excellent Disc World art.
