What Happened to Gunbad?

[Roids]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share my thoughts about the recent changes to Gunbad, because honestly… what’s going on?

Gunbad was supposed to be the starting dungeon for new level 40s (or even from level 32 like it was originally meant to be). But with the latest changes, it feels completely overtuned — like one of the hardest dungeons in the entire game! This isn’t what a “first step into PvE” is supposed to feel like.

It really seems like all the testing and balancing was done by the top 5% of elite players running full BiS gear and perfect setups. That’s not how the average player experiences Gunbad. If you want to test it properly, do it with actual entry-level gear and the level range it’s meant for. Most people going in there are not fully geared veterans — and player experience makes a huge difference.

Right now it feels like you’re forced to bring AoE-heavy classes or even group cleanse just to survive and it makes the whole thing way less fun. Gunbad should be accessible, not a nightmare that only organized premades with specific classes can clear.

The damage spikes are absolutely insane — so many things like cooldown increases, silence, and self-heal are just completely overtuned unless you have a perfect setup. It’s honestly scary to think about what’s going to happen with Gunbad mid next.

Why turn the entry dungeon into one of the hardest in the game? It’s supposed to introduce players to PvE, not punish them right out of the gate. Please tone it down a bit and test it under realistic conditions and gear — for normal players, not just the elite few.

Let’s make Gunbad fun again, not frustrating.

[Mordecaieth]

I was worried this would happen when they restored the mechanics for boss fights. When they were disabled it was a much more streamlined experience for gear that you would quickly replace. Gonna agree with OP that a lot of PvE doesn't need to be reworked mechanics wise. And on an off shoot, the bosses in Bilerot Burrow similarly have way too much health now after the removal of Bloodwrought Enclave. This stuff shouldn't be a rookies barrier to gear progression or "the road less traveled".

[Roids]

It’s more than okay to take some of the burden off the tank and introduce new mechanics, but this feels so poorly thought out. Especially the constant damage spikes—let's not even talk about the RNG in the game where everything hits at once and you can't prevent death.

[Roids]

Way too many trash mobs, with way too many abilities and damage. It's just super frustrating when you're trying to pull as a tank, getting disarmed, losing all your AP with the AP regen debuff, and then maybe getting silenced as a healer, etc., etc.

A boss fight with mechanics where half the group is incapacitated at some point, along with puddles, knockups, and other AoE or high-damage abilities. Then, adds spawn that heal the boss, and you need AoE damage to deal with them.
Preferably all at once with way too much damage and CC involved.

[nocturnalguest]

Oh, thats absolutely no surprise. They dont understand such PoV and share totally different approach which is fine for endgame dungeons (e.g. LV being perfectly balanced and great success) but a nightmare for starter dungeons.

As soon as they mention they touch it, i was totally sure they will create even worse chore of it.

So like i said multiple times in multiple threads before this one - correct design of Gunbad is when whole group of 2-2-2 being below combat rank 40 (with avarege of 36) are able to complete it lesser then an hour for whole main thing (=skipping optional things), average run time should be 45 minutes.

Before that i was always advising to completely skip this timewaste (if one wants to explore it can go back there later with much better gear, just for sightseeing) and get conq with 800 crests minus gloves&boots from AH and its even more relevant now.

Current design for entry dungeon cant be like this. Wasted efforts.

[Rubius]

We've got some adjustments arriving in the next patch that should help address this, but if you have time, please write out which bosses / mechanics you find most challenging.

Having specific bosses noted can help us determine if some of these are true damage spikes just from the boss, or perhaps mechanics being ignored that do have some counter-play already available. The goal is to make every fight have some mechanic / challenge but still feel fair, so we'll continue to tune the fights as part of this re-work until we get them into the right spot.

[shoelessHN]

If they have stats on how many times On Your Marks has been completed since the patch I'd love to see it. Making each boss take 2-3x as long to kill as previous iteration, leaving all the trash there, and then proclaiming "we're happy with the current time to clear and want it to remain the same" is a good joke.

None of the mechanics are hard, none of the bosses do a lot of damage besides big bouncing (add longer delay between announcement, damage, and lower range of attack).

You've taken something rather mindless that people would carry lowbies in for gold and turned it into a chore. So less people will carry, and groups doing it will be weaker than before. Once you add mechanics to middle, I'll probably never do gunbad again -- there's easier/faster ways to make money.

[Sadsong]

That was exactly what I was fearing. I even told on thread where they announced these changes that I was worried about they turn GB into the hardest dungeon of the game. Dev answered that would not happen but seems they don't have control under their own job. Sadly.

[diedrake]

Even though the community asked the devs not to mess with GB, devs still did. And now, like it was b4, GB is ignored. I used to run it with players who needed the gear, easy 30-45 min run out of my time, with 50-100 gold profit for my time. Now though, nah.

If the plans of BS is the same as to what they did to GB, thats another dungeon off my list as well. I enjoy running dungeons to assist with new players and alts for guild, but if pve ends up being a nightmare, many will be in the same boat and say no thanks to pve.

Remember pve devs, this isnt WoW, pve has never been the community drive to play on your server.

[cairlaith]

If some players requested that the developers make Gunbad harder, where are those players now? Or if it was a suggestion made by developers, it wasn't a very good suggestion. Players literally spend hours on chat /5 looking for other players to join Gunbad. You don't have to add a mechanic to every boss. Do you? I used to join during RVR dead times or Destro heavy blob times to help new players or whoever needs, but I don't anymore. Gunbad seemed pretty balanced before, some exploitable bugs were fixed, and only one belt boss was bugged. It's your decision though; it's clear that many players are no longer joining Gunbad.