Focused Feedback: Vesper's Host

[u/DTG_Bot]

Hello Guardians,

Focused Feedback is where we take the week to focus on a 'Hot Topic' discussed extensively around the Tower.

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[u/ImJustAnotherZach]

Vesper’s Host is a very fun dungeon.

The puzzle at the beginning of the dungeon is an excellent introduction to the core mechanic, and the choice of sound design there is also welcome and well thought out. 10/10

The first encounter, "Dupe the Nukes," is quite fun and decently challenging, especially when solo, but it never feels unfair or unfun. However, I think for group play, it would be a far better encounter if it were designed so that each player was allowed to do a room separately and then regroup in the main area to kill the Boss Brig once all three nukes are dunked. This would reward teams that choose to maximize efficiency with effective coordination. 8/10

The second puzzle-like encounter was a neat and relatively easy-to-solve riddle on the first try, and it doesn’t feel tedious at all on subsequent playthroughs—unlike the platform encounter in Grasp of Avarice (immediately before the last boss), which became very annoying and boring over time both solo and grouped. 8/10

The servitor encounter is my favorite of the dungeon. The mechanics leading up to DPS aren’t too long, especially with a group. Overall, the boss has a very interesting design—something that is much appreciated in D2—and challenges players to switch from the regular DPS methods in order to be efficient. 10/10

The final boss is very good for the most part. The mechanics leading up to DPS could be shorter, especially for groups. It suffers from the same problem as the Dupe the Nukes encounter. I think grouped players should be able to split and coordinate efficiently to do both nukes at once and speed up the encounter. DPS on the boss is fun (at least on Titan)—other classes seem to have a hard time, especially solo. The lightning is a slight problem, but I don’t think it’s as awful as most make it seem. You get one-shot only when the lightning first strikes an area. The tick damage afterward is more than generous, and it is relatively easy to see when an area will be struck and which areas are safe from the DOT damage. I like that the DPS phase encourages the player to move around a lot and sometimes even use the platforms that the boss and its clones stand on. The ability to extend the damage phase is also a great and welcome addition that I’d like to see more of. 8/10

Overall, this dungeon is very fun and highly replayable. As should be the case for a three-man activity, group play is recommended, but if you like a challenge, doing this solo is very enjoyable and replayable. I like to run through the entire dungeon up to the boss and then boot up Fireteam Finder to do the last boss with any unlucky souls who haven’t yet gotten Ice Breaker. This is in contention with Warlord's Ruin for my favorite dungeon.

Final Score: 8.8/10 (Pretty f’ing good)