Set Dungeons in the season journey

I will preface this by saying that this is how I experience set dungeons now. I welcome any other viewpoints on the matter. I would love to hear from someone that actually likes set dungeons.

So ive been giving this some thought and every season i try to do guardian and every season i eventually reach the “Master a set dungeon” part of the journey.

This is the point that is just frustrating. The set dungeons havnt been updated throughout the years while most sets have changed.

This leads up to them being more frustrating than challenging and in some cases borderline impossible.

Every season i actually end up leveling either a crusader to do the invoker one or gear up a multishot build to do unhallowed just to get past it.

And to me that feels wrong for a journey that should be a travel through a season. There could be so many other things to get in there.

I can come up with a few examples that could go in their place:

  • Kill Greed, Baroness of the Treasure Realm
  • Complete a full bounty run on Torment 16 (Maybe do X amount of full bounties)
  • Add a socket to a weapon using a Ramaladnis Gift
  • Convert one resource to another using the cube (White, Blue, Yellow materials)
  • Convert 9 gems of any quality to another type (Example: Ruby to Topaz)

These are just ideas of the top of my head. Other ideas are more than welcome.

While i know this is just a minor thing its still an issue i hit every single season and ive heard from quite a few others they feel the same way.

Hope you guys have some thoughts or ideas on the subject.

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Every class has a dead easy set dungeon.

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The difficulty isnt really the topic here. The relevance is. Set dungeons seem to be a somewhat abandoned feature and their inclusion into every journey seems outdated.

Which is why i offered up alternatives that seem more relevant for a “journey” through a season.

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Set Dungeons are an abomination which should be anbandoned.

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I think they should encourage the playstyle actually used by the build rather than force you to, for many, downgrade on purpose to remove damage or require weird interactions of skills you’re not actually going to use - for example, Firebirds; why in the hell do I want to kill myself when that is a very subpar aspect of the set’s abilities? Very few are good, and of those, they are generally too easy… like Immortal King.

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I enjoy the challenge of the set dungeons. I’ve even done the set dungeon conquest. Twice. Nothing wrong with leaving them in the Season Journey. Heaven forbid you play something outside of the meta…

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That “dying” thing in the FB set dungeon is the WORST. I normally run with Storm Armor so I have to remember to NOT cast it or the bolts of lightning it puts out will easily kill the mob before they can kill me. What the frack were they thinking? So to get thru that dungeon I have to severely gimp my toon, or swap to some random pre-ordained set of abilities, all to “master” it in a way that no high level master of the set would ever do. As Kulle might say… “Brilliant”.

Its cool you enjoy the challenge. I have zero problem with that. But “playing something outside the meta” ? Did you read the post?

Im not talking about meta. Im talking about Set Dungeons not being a part of a normal seasonal “journey”. Specially not when they arent even updated by Blizzard.

Its niche content that has outlived its point and doesnt add anything to seasonal play.
But it was nice hearing from someone that actually likes them.

On a sidenote: Journeys in themselves would probably not be considered “meta”

Set dungeons are anoyeing. Specialy the ones that you can’t complete, because you’re too strong. WTF

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C’mon, the set dungeon requirement is easy, every class has at least one that is difficult to fail (Barb’s IK is my go-to). You can even have a buddy do clean-up for you so there is no way you can fail the timer.

Yeah, you might have to gimp your build to do less damage (gasp!), or play in a way that you wouldn’t outside the SD (gasp!), and actually have to think about which skills you’re using and when you use them (gasp!). None of those things are difficult or time-consuming.

They should absolutely be a part of the season journey, which is about experiencing everything in the game.

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As you progress through the chapters of the season journey, the tasks are supposed to get harder to complete. The intention is to lead you through becoming more and more powerful. The set dungeons are complete anathema to that insofar as they often force you to alter your build into a way no-one would otherwise play that build (Wastes dungeon says hi here - a Barb dungeon where you can’t get hit?) and/or reduce your hero’s damage precisely so that you do not kill the mobs too quickly. The issue isn’t the ease of them, it’s that they stick out like a sore thumb in an otherwise smooth progression curve.

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It is a part of the season journey. Just because you happen to not like them doesn’t mean that they aren’t. Blizzard is the only one that dictates “what is part of the season journey.” The same can be said about transmogrifying items, or being forced to put 40 legendary powers into the cube. IMO that is the most pointless task of the season journey. Yet it is, and every time I completed Guardian, I was forced to run a bunch of bounties and cube a bunch of useless items in there. At least Set Dungeons can be fun instead of the mindless tedium of that task.

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Set dungeons vary in difficulty, but many can be done immediately after getting the full set, so their place in the journey is apt. And there is nothing “difficult” about cubing legendary powers. So why are we forced to cube 40 of them?

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Yes.

Some of the set dungeons are a PITA. They are difficult to complete. A challenge. But if you just want to speed through your season journey by doing an easy one, you can do that too.
There’s no reason to remove them from the season journey, which is already too short and too easy. A 5 or 10 minute detour where you have to do something slightly different should be welcomed.

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You can say the same for ubers. Pretty much no build in game uses a hellfire amulet, and I don’t see anyone complaining to have all of those requirements removed from the Journey. As Timber pointed out, most players aren’t going to cube 40 powers. Hell, most the conquests aren’t something you would ordinally do and they are just as outdated as set dungeons.

Many of the requirements of the journey aren’t part of the natural progression of the game. This is the point of the Season Journey. It is there to expose players to different aspects of the game, which set dungeons are. I totally agree they are outdated and were implemented horribly to begin with, but if we are going to make the Season Journey become “run rifts, bounties, GR’s”, then there is no point in having the Season Journey.

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Agree mostly but the set dungeons are so polarizing. Many people feel they are completely unfun, particularly in their current state. They are antiquated to the current power levels that you NEED to gimp yourself to complete them. Which feels silly, even to me. Who personally enjoyed them when they were first introduced.

I would prefer to see them have an update and retooling, rather than removal from the journey. But that also means taking away developer time from new systems or updated sets. So here we are. I suppose the simplest option would be the ability to “upgrade” them with a GR key, ranging in equivalent difficulty numbers (1 to 150). Even expanding them to include leader boards could help give them some fresh life.

As an old, I always hated when game ‘achievements’ were first added to video games. And 90% of them were “play the game as normal.” Make something unique, funny, cool, or exciting. So I have no problem with ‘cubing 40 items’ or, in theory, mastering a set dungeon. But the latter is a part that most people dread. In their current state, I will personally complete every other journey task - even gearing several other alts for the season - before doing the set dungeon.

On that note, it’s probably time the entire journey got a quick once over. Most of the achievements have become so trivial they may as well be:

“run rifts, bounties, GR’s”

Which I agree with you again. What’s even the point? Cheers.

e: Besides, wouldn’t it be much cooler if there were some update/tie-in from whatever is the current seasonal theme?

Only some of them require you to really lower your power level. But that also means that most of them can be mastered as soon as you receive your full set. Even if they aren’t perfectly rolled, even if you don’t have all the supporting pieces, even if you haven’t levelled up your gems (legendary or otherwise), you can still master the dungeon.

Speaking from the perspective of a DH player (since that’s all I basically play), 3 of the 4 set dungeons can be mastered with just the 6 set pieces and whatever weapon you happen to have: Nats, Shadow, Marauder. UE can be done, but having a Yangs (regardless of its rolls) is helpful, as is illusory boots. But those aren’t absolutely necessary. So you can finish them early on in your Season Journey, long before you level up really high.

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You could say that for every boss kill that isn’t at T16. Or tasks like upgrading a gem to anything below 100. Plus what TimberWolf has said :point_down:

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Strongly disagree with any efforts to modify set dungeons. Blizz resources are limited and I’d far prefer they spend their time on set balance, season themes, new items. I don’t mind rolling a charge barb once a season just for the express purpose of moonwalking through the IK dungeon.

Yes, there are stupid easy set dungeons. However that’s utterly irrelevant.

I don’t mind that set dungeons are part of the journey. The real issue is that they vary in difficulty and some really don’t make any sense in regard of how the sets are normally used in builds. Also one shouldn’t need to gimp his character’s power so that he doesn’t kill things too fast, that’s just absurd.

Most set dungeons need a redesign. Make them sensible to the set mechanics.

IMO, don’t forget that the Journey is also a tutorial for new players.

Or just remove Season Journey.

I usually advise playing the season to learn the mechanics of the game, dungeons are one of them.