So, I was able to solo Floors 1-10 with Scholar without too much trouble. Until you get to level 4 it is torturous because you don't have Eos yet, but it's smooth sailing after that. I mean, it gets even easier when you hit level 10 and can use cross-class skills and have access to Cleric's Stance, but that was barely even on my radar at that point.
Time wise, I feel like you should get more time if you're in there solo. I got to the end with 10 minutes remaining, and ended the boss fight with only 2 remaining, so I was cutting it very close.
I was not able to solo floors 10-20 though, because of the stupid Palace Slimes that explode if you can't kill them fast enough, with no warning or prior notice, so you just automatically die and wonder what happened.
Anyway, I then restarted with a matched group. Floors 1-10 were painless. We ended up having three Scholars and a Bard. Let's just say that there was no way any of us could even have gotten below half health, what with three Scholars, all with Eos out.
The first boss has a few AoEs. If I remember correctly, a frontal cone, a circle centered around the boss, a one targeted circle. He also does a roomwide, unavoidable AoE that puts a wind DoT on you.
Floors 10-20...less painless. Still relatively easy, but I don't know...I feel like it looked like I was bad at positioning because I kept accidentally pulling things with my butt, but I honestly think things just kept spawning behind me since that's what happens in Palace of the Dead. We also had awful luck with traps and treasure chests. I think we got our equipment upgraded once; the rest of the time the chests just exploded.
Anyway, our group composition was a Warrior, a Ninja, an Astrologian, and me as Scholar. So, two healers.
At one point, I had once again gotten attacked by a freshly spawned enemy, and was trying to kill it since I think my tank was done with me at that point and ignored it. So, I was off killing that. Apparently, in the meantime, the rest of the group went off and started fighting one of the Palace Slimes, and they clearly didn't kill it fast enough because the next thing I know they're all dead.
I'm not very good at sarcasm, so I felt really bad and I felt like they were making fun of me. They probably weren't. Because I wasn't right with them, I didn't get killed by it, so I was able to resurrect all of them.
The rest of the floors went fine.
The Floor 20 boss is a bit trickier than the first, but only slightly. He has a long column AoE and targeted circle ones. He marks a player (it was always the tank for us) with Prey, and whoever that is will be targeted by two Bee adds that can be killed. He also does an occasional room-wide AoE that does a surprising amount of damage, but too bad if you have healer. I think that was it for this fight. I feel like the boss probably also poisons you, but maybe not. I might be confused with the couple earlier floors where there was poison flying like crazy.
Floors 21-30 are a considerable difficulty raise, primarily due to two new enemies, the Palace Cyclops and the Palace Scatane. The Palace Cyclops does huge amounts of damage, and the Scatane does an AoE Sleep which we couldn't figure out how to avoid.
This time around, my party composition was a Black Mage, an Arcanist, a Machinist, and me as an Astrologian. So, no tank. Luckily, we didn't run into a Cyclops + Scatane combo, which I've heard can happen. The Cyclops does do a huge amount of damage, so I would advise any healers to make sure everyone has as close to full HP as you can manage. I know that I got hit by one of its attacks and I survived with a tiny bit of HP and was able to Essential Dignity myself to life. The Scatanes will Sleep you regardless (maybe it can be Silenced?). I tried to send out an Aspected Helios before the cast went off. It appears taking damage will negate the Sleep. In this case, I theorize that if you were in the situation where pulling both a Scatane and a Cyclops was unavoidable, perhaps you should have a healer pull the Scatane so it wakes them up immediately so they can keep everyone else alive / cleanse? Just a thought. Of course, this would only work if you have a healer.
I haven't really gotten a good look at the boss yet, since we had three DPS so it went down insanely quickly. As far as I can tell, it will target a random player and put a fire or ice puddle under them. The fire ones do damage, the ice ones slow your movement speed drastically. He also does an AoE blast that doesn't do too much damage. Also, and I'm not sure what caused this (perhaps it was the AoE?) he Fears you, which can be quite catastrophic if luck is not with you and you end up running straight into the fire puddles.
Floors 31-40 are...I think they're easier than 21-30 trash-wise, but things can get hairy pretty fast too. Our composition was a Dragoon, a Ninja, and two Astrologians. Most of the trash is straightforward. There's some that have huge cone AoEs from their tails. On the later floors there's Palace Troubadours who do pretty high AoE damage. Also, if you're think you're smart like we did and try to have a Ninja sneak through to pick up chests, be aware that the Palace Zombies and some other mobs can see them and will pull the entire room to them. So, you know, I would only do that if you know for a fact there's a silver chest in there and no zombies.
The boss is fairly difficult, particularly since these floors take a bit longer to clear anyway, leaving you a bit time crunched. He throws out a lot of circle AoEs, but they are easily avoidable. I'm not sure if all of them stick to the ground as puddles, or if I just wasn't paying attention as things got hectic. He also uses "Accursed Pox" which is a much larger AoE circle. I assume standing in this will give you the Pox debuff, which can only be cleared with one of the dungeon-specific items (Pomander of...Purity, I think? Maybe it's not Purity, I don't know), so, you know, don't do that.
He also does a big roomwide AoE which does a little damage, freezes you in place, and then does a TON of damage. We lost our poor Dragoon at this part, but it was easy to get him back up and into the fight. He was our "tank" for the fight. I assume he died because he already had a bit of damage going into the AoE. I would advise having your "tank" healed to full before it begins, as well as anyone who may have damage.
Floors 41-50 have hard-hitting trash. Our group composition was a Warrior, a Dragoon, a White Mage, and me as an Astrologian. These floors were the first time I encountered three of the floor effects: Gloom, which makes all enemies on the floor more powerful, the one that makes you unable to use abilities, and the one that makes you unable to use items (including Pomanders). These effects are all rather obnoxious at best. If you get the one that makes you unable to use abilities, you had better hope you have a Pomander that can clear floor effects, because I'm not sure how the floors are possible without abilities. We got unlucky and got the one that stops items/Pomanders from being used PLUS Gloom, so we couldn't clear Gloom. The trash is hard hitting, but nothing too bad mechanically.
The boss is interesting. I wouldn't say it was entirely difficult, but interesting. The skill names were rather memorable, so I actually have those this time. Please be warned that the skill names may be spoilers for some people, so do not read the detailed version if you don't want to know.
The relatively spoiler free version first:
Not much damage going out. The major things to be aware of are a roomwide AoE with a safe zone beneath the boss's feet, a circular AoE under the boss's feet that you need to run out of, a skill called "Cold Feet" which when you see it casting you need to turn away from the boss, targeted circle AoEs, and an unavoidable roomwide blast. Avoid all the AoEs and turn away for Cold Feet, and the boss shouldn't be too much of an issue.
------SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT-----
Her first ability is Dark Harvest, which just is an attack on her primary target. It doesn't do too much. I'm not sure if it has a secondary effect or something.
Next up, we have In Health. This skill takes two forms. The first is a roomwide AoE with a safe spot underneath the boss. The second is a large circle AoE under her that you need to run out of. The first one she does will be the roomwide one, and the second will be the circle. At this point, she'll usually use them one after the other, so there's a lot of going in-and-out.
Black Honeymoon is a roomwide AoE that can't be avoided, but luckily doesn't do too much damage.
Cold Feet is an important move to be aware of. When you see her start casting, you need to turn away from the boss or you'll be petrified.
At some point she will also spawn some adds which cannot be attacked, but they target the group with circle AoEs which need to be avoided. For us, this was immediately followed by the roomwide In Health.
Not too difficult of a fight as not much damage is going out so long as everyone dodges AoEs.
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Overall opinions, after completing all 50 floors plus the "true ending" questline that you can only accept once you've completed all floors + Tam-Tara Hard?
Pretty positive! I liked the difficulty of the content, it was just difficult enough while still being mildly relaxing and not setting off my anxiety. I also quite liked that I was able to slowly ease myself back into healing on my Astrologian. Since running the Vault a few times last time I played, I've been too nervous to pick AST back up and try it again, especially after taking a month-long break, but Palace of the Dead has helped me regain my muscle memory and healing confidence.
In that sense, I feel like Palace of the Dead is could end up becoming a truly useful tool for returning players who want to slowly get a re-handle on their high level characters. Another big benefit that I foresee is trying out new classes that you're not sure if you're going to like yet. I may do this with Ninja or Machinist. I have to go through more in order to get my weapon anyway, so I might as well try some new things besides healing.
I really like the freeform party system, as well, even though I am typically a huge supporter of the trinity setup (I like healing!). I felt like I still had my "role" as healer, but I also had a bit more freedom to DPS more too, and it was rather fun. It was neat to see everyone else being more creative and lenient with their typical roles too. I feel like it actually probably has made me a better healer in trinity content because, well, if I was unconfident stance swapping before I certainly am comfortable now. It also helped me get more comfortable with the concept of my party members dying and it being beyond my control, thanks to the Palace Slimes and Palace Cyclops, explosive traps, etc. I can probably be a bit more stoic and cool-headed healer now rather than the anxious mess I always am. Okay, slightly less anxious.
I think tomorrow I'm going to try the Vault again and face my fear! And if all goes well, I will hopefully continue the MSQ, since I stalled on that out of nervousness.
If all doesn't go well, well, I can always try out more classes in the Palace of the Dead! :D
Also, that last boss fight was seriously so fun for me. I hope they will eventually implement a way to skip ahead to floors you've completed once you've cleared the Palace so I can go and do that one again without having to do the entire thing again, because 21-30 is kind of a pain :|
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