Monday, November 22, 2010

Boss Mechanics I Wouldn't Mind Seeing Again

As we get ready to see Azeroth torn up tomorrow, according to MMO Champion, I feel like going back in my almost 3 years of playing WoW and go through what were some of my favorite boss mechanics that I would like to see again.  There are some mechanics I never hope to see again. (Defile, I'm looking at you.)  However, there are some very interesting mechanics I would like to see in some boss fights again.  Here are a few of my favorites.

1) No Aggro Table - Not so much in the style of Faction Champions in Trial of the Crusader, but more like the mechnanics in Karazhan with Shade of Aran.  There was a lot of raid wide damage going out, everybody had to be able to protect themselves somehow, and everybody had to be on their toes.  It was a lot of fun to try and DPS that boss as cat and would love to do something as moonkin with it.

2) Lasers - Netherspite in Karazhan may be my favorite raid boss of all time.  Why you ask?  His mechanics with lasers were absolutely awesome.  You had to split your 10 man raid with 6 members standing in the laser as specific times.  Also, people like tanks couldn't stand in a laser too long without killing themselves so they had to weave in and out.  It was so much fun to play with.

3) Water - Although I did not ever get a chance to fight The Lurker, I have looked at videos and it seems like an incredibly fun fight where diving under the water is actually a mechanic in a fight.  It makes it better than just moving out of the way of exploding floors, etc.

4)  Malygos-Like Fights - Pretty much any element from the Malygos fight, I would love to see again.  Whether it is taking his buffs to running under shields to flying around on disks to air combat done correctly, any mechanic in that fight could easily be repeatable and would be fun.

5) Random Raid Bosses - Although this was kind of done in Violet Hold and Trial of the Champion, I'm thinking more in line with the Opera Event in Karazhan (Notice a pattern of my favorite raid mechanics?).  3 different bosses with 3 different mechanics.  And while the mechanics of the individual fights were nothing really different, the fact that you didn't know which one you would have until it announces it made it a lot of fun.

6) Healing Raid Bosses - As weird as it seems, the most unique fight in ICC was Dreamwalker.  I would definitely not mind seeing bosses where you either heal a friendly mob or the only way to damage the boss would be to heal it.   

7) Time Limit - Done really well with the Blood Quarter weekly in ICC and in Zul'Aman, I would love to see extra bonuses for doing something in a certain time limit.  In Zul'aman, it was a cool exclusive mount.  In ICC, it was JPs with a chance of gems or gear.  If you make the reward worth it, time limits are awesome.  Plus, it doesn't fail the raid, you just miss out on getting a cool reward.

8) Ulduar-Like Hard Modes - Please, let us get away from switching it in a menu.  Let the players do something to actually make it harder.  Push a button.  Don't kill the other drakes.  Clear a channel in a certain time limit.  Don't use helpers.  Something that makes a hard mode feel like a hard mode. 

3 comments:

Julio Biason/Thorianar said...

I wish we had a Thaddius encounter again. Not just the tank swap, but also the "move some part of the raid" debuff mechanic.

Xorkrik said...

What I would like to see are more bosses like the ones in Ulduar. With achivements for doing the bosses in all kinds of different ways. Makes the fights less monotonous when you kill the same bosses week after week. If you do a new achievement/tactics each week it's a lot more refreshing then doing the same old tactics every time.
Also extra loot for killing the boss faster is a great incentive for trying extra hard on a boss that you generally don't have a problem killing.

It just feels like there was a lot of thought and effort going into the bosses of Ulduar compared to the average ToC or ICC.


What I don't want to see are mechanics like Sindragosa. Where several mechanics makes you stand around doing nothing for long periods of time. Like the unstable magic where the best thing to do is stand still and do nothing, if the raid can afford it in regards to dps/healing. If you get stuck in a ice block you don't get to do anything either. Just sit there and wait to be permitted by the game to play again. And at the air phase as a healer your doing nothing while hiding and even the dps only get to do something for a short time.
I hope Blizzard realizes how much of a failure that fight is in a gameplay mechanic standpoint. Standing around doing nothing is very bad gameplay in any game.

Redhawks said...

@Thorianar

Thaddius was a great encounter in terms of it's design. If I had to include another mechanic, that would be high on my list. Especially when trying to coordinate 25 people to stand in the proper place and move correctly.

@Xorkrik

Sindy was my major disappointment in ICC and probably raiding in general in Wrath. It was nothing by Sapphiron with a slightly different mechanic.

Also, I agree that Ulduar was probably the gold standard of raiding in Wrath. Every fight was different and it was difficult. (At least to start with). Then you can change the mechanics slightly to make it even more difficult. Just like I think Karazhan was the gold standard of raiding in BC.