So lets hear everyones thoughts on the starter dungeons. I tried them all, spindle clutch as a Templar healer, Grotto as a Sorc healer and Banished Cells as a dps/cc nightblade. Note I was only lvl 10 when I attempted them but found them pretty challenging and was only able to complete Grotto and banished cells mostly due to the pug factor. The ones I completed both had a Templar Tank, dedicated healer and two dps.

Banished Cells was the best visually for me and the last boss was the toughest as well, we wiped many times. It did seem like having CC was a big plus on many of the pulls and then switching a few abilities around before a boss fight. The damage output and fight mechanics were definitely right. One thing I didn't get was a couple people said that you could just rush through with no heals, I just don't see how this was possible unless your way over level.

Healing was really fun and not one dimensional like most games. At first the fights are chaotic but once you get them down you can really take roles and it paid to focus fire and lock down or target certain mobs first. One thing is sure I'm really looking forward to the higher level dungeons when you finally have swap weapons.

I liked Spindle clutch.

For the first dungeon the difficulty was just right I think, some interesting mechanics in the mix (didnt know what to do with those hundreds of glowing spider coming down at the last boss^^) and the lighting effects where amazing.

So yes I very much look forward to more dungeons and especially the master dungeons

I was planning on a Temp healer, but a Temp Tank might be more functional. They get great AOE abilities.

I just watched Force Gaming and they managed Banished Cell with a healer and three ranged dps, but it looks like they were all at least level 15. They had a bunch of deaths and close calls but they used CC extensively.

I only managed 2 runs on Banished Cells...one never got past the 1st boss because there were no heals (3x lvl10's & me lvl12)

The 2nd run we had one guy with some healing ability and 3 dps ( I was lvl15, they were lvl12 I believe). We got to the last boss, but because of his attack abilies & power, we couldn't beat him.

Tbh...we did great on that last run. The guys worked well together & covered each other, also using support skills where possible. And although out "healer" wasn't in any way a dedicated healer, he did a great job.

So..IMO you definitely need a healer in any group that has proper healing skills.

In some cases, you might find you would need a tank to try & control the bosses a little.

Its a little up in the air tbh......it provides an open ended freedom to do what you want, but because of this can lack a little direction (knowing what you need & being able to determine what the Group Finder should be finding for you).

In my experience, any party would do better with a Templar healer, but they would also benefit from a defensive tank protecting that healer. In other words, you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. I'm not sure if a nightblade could be that tank. A knight could for sure.

A good video regarding the instanced dungeon is shown here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmD2JF5Os8s

I healed them as well as rdps during beta , enjoyed the healing 1 thing i wish they would improve on is the ability to better aim or control who your heals are directed to , different factors like when dps is running all over the place out of range your regen can target npc's , or as in the case of the shield, it targets the player with the lowest health and puts it on them, well in some cases where the boss randomly targets a dps member and does alot of damage in one shot , sure he's hurt, but the hit is over and now you know the damage is about to be on the tank again , so you cant even pre cast the shield on him to mitigate damage while you catch the dps up real quick because the shield will go on the dps and not the tank, because he is the lowest at that moment even though he isnt going to be taking anymore damage.

I did Spindleclutch as a dragon knight tank. The difficulty im was spot on for a starter dungeon. The rest of my group consistet of a mage with frost staff, a resto staff templar and and dual wield (med armour) nightblade.

The mechanic of the final boss was deadly, but simple enough for beginners to grasp and figure out how to avoid it.

What I also really liked was the quality of the "trash" mobs. I think those where really frantic and engaging fights. Especially later, when enemy healers come into play. Man they can ruin your day if you don′t prioritise them.

A point of critique though is the total lack of buff icons and also visual cues for some things. Our templar had some sort of short range AoE heal for example and the problem of that was that no one actually noticed when he used that ability. Now that is more of a general thing rather than related to the specific dungeon but since it was the first real group experience for me, I′d like to point it out.

Also from a tank perspective, stamina management felt a bit demanding. I checked my stats screen and although I had like 8 points in stamina and only 1 in magicka the actual stamina and magicka points where almost even. So maybe it has more to do with stat allocation, rather then with the gameplay mechanics themselves.

Anyway Spindleclutch was a very enjoyable first dungeon and I hope ESO keeps up the quality in later dungeons.

I did all three on the last day of the beta in a guild group (Grin), playing a level 13 bow sorc, CC and DPSing from range. Some of the others in my group had played a lot more beta than I had, and we did great Really enjoyed the experience. Was the first time I'd been exposed to some of the synergy skills like whatsitcalled, blood well etc, was very impressed by the functionality of that. Helped a lot that I knew the folks I was with and they're a relaxed, friendly, cooperative group with a TS server, and capable of communication Even though some of them had done some of the content previously, they didn't rush through, so I got to read the quest dialog and so on, and we shared quest loot and drops.

Definitely a very active style of gameplay compared to what I was used to from WoW. We had a good DK tank but I had to be prepared to keep mobs off me and to move around a LOT, heh. Also, no tab targeting means you actually have to have a line of sight on the enemy to hit it, which with melee group members circling around is not that easy. Wonder if that's why they limited group size to four

Banished Cells was definitely my favorite, but then I'm an AD person

I actually like the targeting for the healer - it basically just decides "this person needs it the most" and auto heals that person

I did all the dungeons multiple times and loved them all - spindle was easy as hell though in comparison to the other two - fungal having the hardest hitting bosses imo, but banished cells being the 'hardest' due to the last boss mechanics and the sheer number of tough enemies/ tight quarters

But yeah, I basically stood beside the tank and threw down buffs/protection circles for him - and when the healer/sorc started dying I literally just turned around 180^o and insta-healed whoever was lowest

If there was ever a challenging boss fight we would just sit in a tight circle (in my protection circle from the fighters guild skill line) and I would prayer-heal spam - basically unstoppable!