This example in particular is the one I feel most mixed about. I personally LOVE the reworked dungeons. And it includes DDocks, and I usually will do my best to complete it, especially if I’m soloing. But I can see why people don’t like completing it.
Take where it used to drop: Crystal Prisoner, one of the few enemies that nearly guarantees a bunch of people will be around to see the dungeon, thanks to the prerequisite of needing to break the crystal. Inside, you got a bunch of people camping out for one of the few rushers to call troom or boss. If you’re rushing, you’re employing the exact same strategy in every single room: Outrun the enemy, kite them the same way because they have the same pattern of attack, kill them, and repeat until you reach one of those two locations. The boss door needs DPS, but aside from that, at least 90% of those people won’t see the full path from the spawn to the boss room, or the path from spawn to the troom. Then after going through the DPS gate, they fight a rather plain boss that does hit hard, but ultimately isn’t all that interactive, thanks to the numerous people present absolutely STREAMROLLING it.
All that to say, it was low effort AND low risk 99% of the time, but potentially decent rewards of good pots (including life IIRC), and a couple of pretty neat UT’s.
Now, we have a much more interesting dungeon. Calamity Crab, the cannons autofiring, the different variety of enemies. There was that AR puzzle piece with the stowaway. The boss has more phases, and they’re certainly more interesting to try and dodge. I think the only less interesting room is the treasure room where you have to clear to get the treasure, instead of walking what felt like a tightrope. I feel like if they made that more interactive by adding cannons, it would be SUPER cool to see that old concept combined with something new. But that’s just me, because I have trash taste.
But, rushing is far more of a chore and FAR more dangerous. It isn’t worth it, unless you’re a really cautious rogue (which still can get dicey if you get silenced), And the last thing you want is to run into the crab. So clearing becomes the better option. You finally reach boss, and you have like a minimum of 4 or 5 phases (I believe) to go through, assuming you get that pure DPS. But you still gotta dodge and aim. You can’t stand still on the bottom left corner and assume you’ll be fine, or you’ll get destroyed by coins and scimitars before the first phase even ends.
DDocks takes longer, and takes more mental capacity, compared to the previous iteration. BUT, the rewards at the end of the tunnel are simultaneously much less and way too much. This dungeon, soloed and cleared, drops a minimum of SEVEN pots, four of which are Greater Pots. That’s a LOT of reward. But it’s also specifically Life pots (which are not that crazy worthwhile nowadays, but you also usually only get one per run, but hey, it’s probably the fastest way for mid-tier players to get maxed life), and a combination of Speed and Dexterity pots, the latter drops from the other reworked dungeon, the Sprite World (which is excellent IMO), and the former drops from Godlands stuff AND an easy as heck dungeon in the Snake Pit. All that’s left are UTs and STs, most of which are items that were once available to get in a once-lower effort dungeon, where the people doing them were numerous and the risk was resultingly low.
I think if this was a brand new dungeon, or if there were maybe two or three drops that were worth something, this dungeon would be ran more. Or who knows, maybe people will do the typical thing I’ve been seeing, where they kill the crab, and then immediately leave.
Thus ends my thesis on DDocks. :]
to use than any previous method, since it can remember previously visited nodes.