Dungeon Difficulty

StormDragonZ

StormDragonZ

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2008

New York

W/R

So just for the hell of it, I asked a total of 883 random people on Guild Wars between last Saturday and yesterday what they considered to be the hardest dungeon in Eye of the North. This was based on both NM and HM experiences in PUGs, H/H users & Guild Groups.

Slavers' Exile was excluded.

The top three answers were:
- Shards of Orr (23.44%)
- Catacombs of Kathadrax (22.54%)
- Frostmaw's Burrows (20.84%)

Surprisingly enough, not one person said Ooze Pit nor Raven's Point.

So I simply ask:
- Do you agree that at least one of the three dungeons listed is very or extremely difficult regardless of play in NM or HM?
- If not, what do you consider to be the hardest?

Still Number One

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2008

W/

Well if Slaver's is excluded then I would agree that Shards of Orr is probably the toughest, but I don't think any of them are particularly hard.

Mesmers Are Bad

Academy Page

Join Date: Aug 2008

NJ

RoCk

Me/

I'm surprised Vloxxen Excavations wasn't on the list.
It's got no incentive other than mastery points, a boss that is fairly tricky to kill, slaver's dwarves on two levels, heavy enchantment hate on the third AND has ressing foes on all levels so I'd say it is the hardest to do.
But all of this is pretty silly, I've H/H'd all the eotn dungeons (including slaver's) in nm and hm on my mesmer(pre-panic buff) and sin, even at their hardest eotn dungeons are a great deal easier than say UW and to a lesser extent DoA.

Marty Silverblade

Marty Silverblade

Administrator

Join Date: Jun 2006

-Well, I would say nothing in PvE is extremely difficult in NM. 99% of HM is pretty simple once you know what you're doing too. I'm talking full H/H teams and no cons too.
-I disagree with that list. Hardest dungeon for me would be Rragar's Menagerie. Vloxen had a couple of tricky spots, as did Duncan. Shards of Orr was simple with a bit of holy damage and condition removal (300+ damage DSlashes, 500+ damage Sun and Moon Slashes = win). Kathandrax was easier than expected, especially after doing Rragars the previous day. I can't speak for Frostmaws because I joined a PuG due to it being the ZQuest.

A11Eur0

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Apr 2005

W/

And once again, posting up a 'what's hardest' thread brings in the "nothing's hard, I faceroll the game in HM without armor" people. Seriously guys...stop with the shenanigans...I guarantee you that in HM with henchmen, you're going to be feeling the burn from Vloxen's 12-man enemy dwarf mobs with massive MMs and rezzers, you'll be feeling Fendi's armor-ignoring AoE and repeated spirit spam/deb-shot ranger spawns, and I think even Kathandrax's bombs get a little annoying when he tosses them on heroes/henchmen.

Dzjudz

Dzjudz

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

gwpvx.com/user:dzjudz

I'd say Vloxen HM is the most difficult if you exclude Slavers' Exile.

Wenspire

Wenspire

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Mar 2008

USA - W.Coast

HiME

Mo/

Only the end portion of Shards of Orr is a pain. But because of that I do say it's one of the more painful one's to do with a non gimmick group setup. Though classes that rely on attacks (W,R,D,A) are easily made useless by enemy elementalists with their constant blinding.

Frostmaw.... Wurm Bile says "hi!". Agreed as one of the more difficult one's being 5 levels and all. Random wurm pops (along with their KD) and Incubus make for some fun times. And ya, I know level 1 and 5 are short. Incidentally, this is also my favorite dungeon.

Kathandrax is only painful because of the massive AoE fire damage, but that alone does make it difficult for many. Having a ShelterUnionDisp rit or Imbagon pretty much alleviates that problem for the most part.



Ooze pit is rather easy. One level, and since there is no enchant stripping going on, you can run bonds and such with little problems. Raven's Point, I can't think of any reason why it would be difficult at all. Both of these dungeons are among the easiest, IMO.

LifeInfusion

LifeInfusion

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

in the midline

E/Mo

Vloxen. Maybe because there isn't a SC for it.

Shards of orr is annoying if you're a physical without heavy duty cleaning.

Dzjudz

Dzjudz

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

gwpvx.com/user:dzjudz

Quote:
Originally Posted by LifeInfusion View Post
Vloxen. Maybe because there isn't a SC for it.
There was a thread about a VloxenSC (and a successful one), but I guess it was deleted. It's not so much that an SC isn't possible, it's more that there are no rewards (other than filling a book/motn).

Lyger

Lyger

Academy Page

Join Date: Aug 2005

Cambridge, UK

Metal Headz

Me/

To H+H in HM, I'd say the trickiest dungeons are Vloxen, Shards of Orr (Fendi irritates me no end), and Rragars. In that order.

Frostmaws isn't too bad as long as you're packing plenty of interrupts (though the huge number of pop ups can be a pain), and Kathandrax isn't too bad with plenty of hero micro to make sure the AoE doesn't hit all your H+H at once.

Carboplatin

Carboplatin

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jul 2005

[PIG]

W/A

frostmaw is easy.

Vloxen or Shards probably gets my vote

Xenomortis

Xenomortis

Tea Powered

Join Date: May 2008

UK

N/

Excluding Slaver's I would say:
SoO HM is the hardest by a long way, if only for Fendi Ninn.
Catacombs of Kathandrax HM and Vloxen HM are next. I wouldn't want to separate, but I would say Vloxen is more annoying for physicals than it is for casters.
Frostmaw's is often thought to be hard but it really isn't.
Rragar's is easier than Vloxen, not so sure on Kathandrax.

This is all gauged from my H/H experiences in HM. In NM everything is fairly easy, but I would say Vloxen plummets down the list and SoO still sits at the top.


Vloxen HM: People say this is hard but it's only got three hard mobs - two are toned down mobs from Slaver's Exile and the other is the Mesmer boss mob, but you can separate the boss from the rest after the initial pull. I think the Mesmer's group is easier than Bellok's, but you need to be careful with Bellok - a longish pull makes it easy enough. For physicals it's a little different as there is a large amount of enchantment removal and Clumsiness spam is infuriating.
I think people are just taken aback by the massive jump between this dungeon in NM and Hit in HM. Something similar happens in the Ooze Pit but Ooze can be dealt with much more easily.

Shards of Orr is really only tricky as a result of Fendi Ninn. The rest of the dungeon is fine and the only annoyance is the constant blind spam, but you can build for that.

Kathandrax has some scary Eles. That's about it. Certainly since the Mesmer buff this shouldn't be much of a problem.

Painbringer

Painbringer

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2006

Minnesota

Black Widows of Death

W/Mo

Shard of Orr only becuase of the 4000' away rez portal

It is the hardest as well IMO

Slavers is hard for certain characters (solo with hench) but a cake walk for others IE: Mesmer

Frostma was my first one I ever did but i rezed my way through it it can be tough for some and very tome consuming

snowman relic

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2009

your just a meatsheild to me

N/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by StormDragonZ View Post
So just for the hell of it, I asked a total of 883 random people on Guild Wars between last Saturday and yesterday what they considered to be the hardest dungeon in Eye of the North. This was based on both NM and HM experiences in PUGs, H/H users & Guild Groups.

Slavers' Exile was excluded.

The top three answers were:
- Shards of Orr (23.44%)
- Catacombs of Kathadrax (22.54%)
- Frostmaw's Burrows (20.84%)

Surprisingly enough, not one person said Ooze Pit nor Raven's Point.

So I simply ask:
- Do you agree that at least one of the three dungeons listed is very or extremely difficult regardless of play in NM or HM?
- If not, what do you consider to be the hardest?
What? frostmaw's is hard? i facerolled it in HM no cons nothing am i missing something here?

Zodiac Meteor

Zodiac Meteor

Imma Firin Mah Rojway!

Join Date: Aug 2008

At the Mac Store laughing at people that walk out with anything.

E/Mo

Frostmaws is be hard as hell,

Has those dreaded spiking Incubus in large groups that spam knockdown, blind and daze.
Wurms Bile is an AoE hex, lasts 20 seconds, dealing 40 damage each second with a total of 800 damage. Bosses increase damage dealt to 80 over 20 seconds and Frostmaw increases it to 160 per second.
Wurms cause AoE knockdown, immune to knockdown and have cover hexes.

Quote:
It's got no incentive other than mastery points, a boss that is fairly tricky to kill, slaver's dwarves on two levels, heavy enchantment hate on the third AND has ressing foes on all levels so I'd say it is the hardest to do.
It's difficult at parts but those parts are few and far between. The boss can be a total joke if you just add 1 GDW.

Ghull Ka

Ghull Ka

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

Seattle, WA

Grenths Helpdesk

N/

I'd be interested in seeing an overall ranking, 1-18, for all of them. Do eeeeeeet!





(and fwiw, i didn't find frostmaw's "hard" -- i found it "long" and "time consuming" -- cons or no cons. that many morale-boost-providing wurm 'bosses' makes any dungeon slog bearable)

mage767

mage767

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2006

USA

LOVE

Me/E

Order of difficulty in HM (assuming no speed clears, no cons, balanced grps, no SF/OF tanks...):

1. SoO (Most of dungeon is easy except Fendi spawning bunch of rits with mass AOE, hexes)

2. Vloxen (Most of dungeon is challenging, but final boss is easy)

3. Catacombs of Kathandrax (Need to be prepared against fire eles)

4. Frostmaw (Above average difficulty)

Rest of the dungeons don't even make it on my list...

Hyperventilate

Hyperventilate

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2007

Somewhere in California

I Gots A Crayon [Blue]

Me/Mo

If Slavers is excluded, I agree on Shards. Just did it recently and agree with the previous poster that the res shrine is 10 miles away from where you need to be.


It wasn't rip my hair out difficult, but just difficult enough to be annoying.


I would've lol'd if a few people mentioned the Snowman dungeon... I love that place.

MithranArkanere

MithranArkanere

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Nov 2006

wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigo

Heraldos de la Llama Oscura [HLO]

E/

Ooze pit and raven's point are amongst the easiest I've tried. Oozes just slowly fade away under some snare and Panic.
The easiest(excluding the Snowmen and Fronist ones) would be Arachni's, since most enemies are physical attackers, and it's rather empty.

The hardest... that would be SoO and Kathadrax.
Vlox would be hard too, not the last boss, but the travel there.

Anyways, with a proper team, all are easy. I did SoO under 50 minutes with a PuG in one Zaishen quest, and we never got even close to a wipe in the last boss.

Life Bringing

Life Bringing

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2008

Fissure of Woe

[LOD]/[GS]/[DL]/[LOD*]

N/P

Depends on your team comp ofc, but the hardest are probably SoO/rragars. Vloxxen is exceedingly simple except for the one necro boss. If you can prevent him from making minions its a cakewalk. The 200 damage death novas are what truly make that fight difficult.

SoO is much, much easier if you're using some form of melee character because you can abuse holy damage easier than a caster can.

Kath is a simple matter of flagging/agroing properly, and compared to Forgewight it's nothing.

Frostmaw's would be difficult if all the worms didnt pop up in the exact same place and proceed to explode 10 death novas on themselves. The 4 norn are excellent meatshields for the incubus as well. A copy of Ward of Stability and flagging helps immensely too.

Oddly enough, duncan isnt difficult at all. Hardest dungeon overall would be forgewight, although we were excluding slavers so..SoO on a caster, rragars otherwise.

RedStar

RedStar

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2007

_____________________ (\__/) (\__/) (\__/)Help (='.'=)(='.'=)(='.'=)Bunny (")_(")(")_(")(")_(")

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E/

You just need to be careful in Frostmaw and it won't be that hard. I was actually surprised that I managed to do it without wiping more than once.

SoO...The whole dungeon is easy and then for some reasons I can't kill Fendi...(don't have the patience too). Luckily I ended up doing it with a guild group (still was a pain killing him).

H/H in CoF is annoying because of eles.

And the last boss group at the end of the second floor in Vlox is hard, but once he's dead, the end is easy.

So :
-SoO
-Vlox

And maybe Ooze's Pit, but it's been such a long time since I did it that I can't recall if I had a hard time or not. Oh and HotS when the end-boss isn't the wurm...took me more time and more deaths to kill all of his group than it took me to get there...

gw_poster

gw_poster

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

so cal

R/

vloxen HM hands down...I h/h'ed 99.5% of the game and that was the hardest time I had with any of it - even more of a hassle than joko's vanquish with that god-awful huge mob full of paragon rezzers and a rit boss iirc...if i had only remembered to bring frozen soil 3 hours before starting that vanq!

frostmaw's was just a time-consuming nightmare going in unwiki'd and no dp removal stuffs!

DRGN

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2005

In Memorium [iBot]

Mo/A

The dungeon I found worst with H/H was Rragar's simply because h/h love to stand in jesus beams

Jeydra

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2008

Of all the dungeons the only one that requires special techniques is SoO, so that is the hardest. Vloxen's is probably second simply because you need Frozen Soil there, and at the start of the second level you have a backs-to-the-wall fight against a reasonably strong mob (you cannot afford to wipe). Kathandrax might make the list simply because of the rather annoying part directly before Illsundur where you have lots of traps and wurms to deal with. Everything else gets progressively easier and easier. Rragar's is a simple matter of flagging, same as Ooze Pit. Frostmaw's is even easier - none of the mobs there have healers.

So:

SoO > Vloxen's > Kathandrax > everything else.

Boogz

Boogz

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2008

Variable Speed Farmers[VsF]

Mo/

Raven's Point is a joke.

Hardest dungeon for me is, by far, Shards of Orr (excluding slavers ofc). Took me more than 40mins to kill Fendi Nin with a discord/spiritway/SH hero setup with a necro friend. (we gave up on bringing holy damage melee heroes due to BSurge/eruption that made them useless 95% of the dun)

Btw, why don't you try making a forum poll, just to compare the results

jackinthe

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2007

Vloxen. i love seeing all the pugs get so frustrated with it.
soo really isn't that bad, fendi is sort of a pain, but just because the end will get repetitive.
as for frawmaw, people just get cranky from five levels.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghull Ka View Post
I'd be interested in seeing an overall ranking, 1-18, for all of them. Do eeeeeeet!





(and fwiw, i didn't find frostmaw's "hard" -- i found it "long" and "time consuming" -- cons or no cons. that many morale-boost-providing wurm 'bosses' makes any dungeon slog bearable)
Let me see...

(excluding Slavers per the rules.)

NM:
  • Frostmaw's Burrows -- long, worms and boss are some of the hardest NM foes.
  • Rragar's Menagerie -- Charr builds are decent, even in NM. They AoE and rez. And the jesus beam dogs obliterate H+H.
  • Shards of Orr -- long, hard boss
  • Catacombs of Kathandrax -- Lots of big AoE. Particularly bad for H+H. Relatively hard boss for H+H.
  • Heart of the Shiverpeaks --relatively hard boss.
  • Darkrime Delves -- Annoying mesmers, KD, long.
  • Raven's Point -- Long.
  • Oola's Lab -- Puzzles are annoying, especially with H+H.
  • Vloxen Excavations -- Boss is marginally challenging.
  • Cathedral of Flames -- ditto.
  • Ooze Pit -- a bunch of pushover monsters
  • Bogroot Growths -- ditto. And a MM's paradise.
  • Sepulchre of Dragrimmar -- short and easy. Boss is only challenge.
  • Bloodstone Caves -- uh... you can aggro the huge bunch of undead if you don't know to pull that one guy. Not much of a dungeon.
  • Arachni's Haunt -- They're like lvl 10.
  • Secret Lair of the Snowmen - Durrrrrr
  • Fronis Irontoe's Lair - Double Durrrrr

HM:
  • Vloxen Excavations -- Changed mobs makes this 1000x harder than NM.
  • Shards of Orr -- Monsters much strong in HM. They hit hard and shut you down. Amendable to gimmicks (tank-n-spank w/ RoJ), but nasty on a balanced group.
  • Rragar's Menagerie -- Charr hit hard with significant AoE in places. Rezzing becomes a real problem. And the jesus beam dogs are just ridiculous.
  • Catacombs of Kathandrax -- Not particularly harder in HM, but AoE is still a threat.
  • Frostmaw's Burrows -- not significantly harder in HM. For a HM dungeon it's only notable for being looooong..
  • Ooze Pit -- a bunch of pushover monsters got a lot nastier with earth AoE, suicide blasts, and that devourer skill
  • Cathedral of Flames -- undead casters are significantly more dangerous in HM.
  • Darkrime Delves -- Long, reasonably hard foes, and it never lets up.
  • Heart of the Shiverpeaks --relatively hard boss. Falls in the rankings because the rest of it isn't much worse.
  • Raven's Point -- Long.
  • Oola's Lab -- Puzzles are annoying, especially with H+H.
  • Bogroot Growths -- Harder than in NM, but not terribly so.
  • Arachni's Haunt -- Monsters actually gained a lot from level boost
  • Sepulchre of Dragrimmar -- Boss is improved in HM
  • Bloodstone Caves -- Really not harder than HM
  • Secret Lair of the Snowmen - Durrrrrr
  • Fronis Irontoe's Lair - Double Durrrrr

mrmango

mrmango

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2006

Southern California

Charter Vanguard [CV]

Me/Rt

ITT: Rage
Vloxens, Slavers, Rragrars, Kathandrax.

The forth fly

The forth fly

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2008

england

Mo/

Vloxen it was the last dungeon i needed to finish leg master north no perma teams like SoO,kath or ragars,took me about 2 weeks and 10 tries to get it done

Dzjudz

Dzjudz

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

gwpvx.com/user:dzjudz

I think Chthon has it down pretty much right in his list. I agree that Frostmaw isn't very difficult (our last party forgot to bring anti-KD in HM and didn't have any trouble). Just bring a mesmer and Pain Inverter and you'll breeze through.

Just Sai

Just Sai

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2009

aotearoa

Mo/

vloxxen was the only one i couldnt hh in hm due to the sheer diversity of enemy and size of groups.
totally insane, love it.

Uriel_Wolfblood

Uriel_Wolfblood

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2009

The House of Wolfblood

R/

Frostmaw's is just long and annoying. And SoO is only difficult if you don't plan on party wide damage mitigation against Fendi.

Raven's is a piece of cake, Ooze pit is both fun and easy. Vloxen excavations is the only one I had any trouble with in HM, was using H/H of course. But it was a cinch once a guildy got on and we tag-teamed it with heroes.

Honestly with the new hero update pending I don't think any dungeon would be extremely difficult.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Folks can't seem to avoid using this thread to brag "oh, everything's just so easy for me... in HM... H+H... without armor... with 900 ping... with 1 hand tied behind my back... with my computer monitor off... uphill, both ways... in the snow..." Look, this isn't about the absolute ease or difficulty. It's about the difficulty of each dungeon relative to the others.

Gennadios

Gennadios

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2009

N/A

Ug, Vlox was the only dungeon outside of Slaver's that my guild repeatedly failed on back when I was going for the mastery points.

I remember I ended up beating it H/H, took me roughly 3 hours and it was the only dungeon I ever had to use consets and powerstones in. Definitely the hardest one in the group.

It really should have been voted hardest.

Kath is rendered piss-easy with a Bonder. Shards can be completed with a full-para group that isn't even prepared well enough to have a non-adrenal blind removal (heh.) Frostmaws is somewhat difficult, but my last few guild runs blew through it no problem, so meh.

Lanier

Lanier

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2010

[Pink]

P/

Chthon's list pretty much reflects my opinions, though I would put Oola's lab lower on the HM list. The enemies there arnt too bad and they don't come in any large mobs or anything like that. Hardest in HM is definitely Vloxen... I don't even bother doing it anymore without guildies, and rragars, while rather easy with real people, is pretty tough H/H due to all the RoJs and Spirit Rifts.

Life Bringing

Life Bringing

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2008

Fissure of Woe

[LOD]/[GS]/[DL]/[LOD*]

N/P

Just a question, besides bellok, which groups/parts of vloxen are giving you so much trouble?

Gabriel of Ravn

Gabriel of Ravn

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2010

Virginia

None, retired to GW2.

W/A

Quote:
Originally Posted by Life Bringing View Post
Just a question, besides bellok, which groups/parts of vloxen are giving you so much trouble?
I would imagine the dwarven groups with Res and such I just brought frozen soil on my Rit relatively easy.

Pleikki

Pleikki

WTB q8 15^50 Weapons!

Join Date: Nov 2006

???oo ???ugs ???lan [?????????]

Personally i didnt have problems in nm or HM with any of those, Most problems i had with Vloxen..

Edit: Yeah so i dont pug or use PvE skills etc, pretty much doing h/h balanced

Gennadios

Gennadios

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2009

N/A

Quote:
Originally Posted by Life Bringing View Post
Just a question, besides bellok, which groups/parts of vloxen are giving you so much trouble?
Bellok IS the problem. Not only is his mob larger than even the average Slaver's group, but if taking them on using the long pull method, wiping will have a pretty good chance of rezzing your group in the shrine immediately behind the group you just pulled, cutting off any retreat options and guaranteeing failure then and there.

Not to mention having to wait for the corpses to disappear in between pulls. That part alone has taken up about 40% of my Vloxen runs.

mr monk rupsie

Academy Page

Join Date: Nov 2007

woot

Mo/

Since my team mostly takes a soul twisting ritualist with shelter/other prot spirits + save yourself. It reduces the difficulty overall.

I would say frostmaw is a pain. especially those hexes.