I’m gonna have to agree with several other players. While a good idea to take old dungeons and add a tougher more rewarding version of them. This is not the way to do it. As they are now, its just another dungeon I would rather avoid than bother grinding through. The upgraded dungeon’s challenge shouldn’t be ‘takes longer and is more tedious’. It should follow the path that this game has developed into, which is high paced with the addition of pets. Risk in this game now comes from trying to do things quickly, and I think it is a hell of a lot more fun that way. To essentially copy and paste fairly boring dungeons and simply take away pets, the one thing that made these mid tier dungeons satisfying to do - rushing through the enemies, trampling the boss, and doing risky shenanigans that has almost killed my maxed characters several times - is lazy at best. If you want it to be Heroic, than make the dungeon feel like something new and exciting for the hero to explore. No longer are they venturing into a simple undead lair with a mediocre excuse for a ghost who calls himself a ‘god’, we should feel like we are venturing into the underworld itself and battling against foes worthy of our fear. Their should be rewards worth the payoff. This is a good opportunity for more end game content for players who have already reached the end of the game. A challenge worth us risking our characters for, similar to that of LH and shatters. Inching our way slowly through a dungeon we are so familiar with that I physically get depressed when I have to go run more abysses or udl’s (keep in mind at least when I have to, they only take a minute or so) is not that risk or satisfaction that any of us are looking for.
If you want to make it a challenge and limit the usage of our pets, than make it seem like its worth while. Develop a new dungeon with lore along the lines of it being to dangerous or inaccessible to our pets (despite our pets obviously being immortal gods and the true main characters of our account). Maybe a dungeon where you have to physically transport your soul and your pet can’t follow you. Something like that could actually work for both of these dungeon types as they are related to different dimmensions. But make sure that they are implemented in a way where it is a fun challenge even without a pet. Have fewer more powerful enemies that are satisfying to battle, fewer rooms, and a unique boss that is both difficult, but possible to dodge and battle. As it is now, I can just peek around the tiny corner of a room and die, with no chance, and even if I don’t, I’m still going to have to drag myself kicking and screaming through the torture that is what the current heroic dungeons are.
This isn’t to be a hate filled response, I placed and continue to place a lot of faith in Deca with their decisions in the game, and have been quite happy with a lot of the things they have done. Please consider this feed back and continue to work on these heroic versions of \dungeons until its something truly unique that the players look forward to dying in for that sweet, sweet chance at cool loot.