Before I get jumped for saying that Liadri is actually kinda easy please read the rest of my post.
I defeated her on my guard on the second day of Queen’s Jubilee and made enough progress on my warrior for other achievement that I will eventually beat her.
However, many players are upset about her for multiple reasons and almost all of them can be summarized with help of tvtropes:
I will approach the problem from the outside.
The first two major complains have nothing to do with Liadri herself ironically but have their strongest impact in her fight.
The Arena
First you have a glassdome arena that does not allow you to change your camera in a way that enables you to see the whole battlefield. Not only will the camera zoom in when you are near the edges but thanks to the rather limited space above your character a top-down view will actually decrease your sight. Additionally, the constant shifting is kitten my eyes and makes me nauseous.
The Floor
The nice orange grid floor not only makes for a nice cagefight experience but also makes any fight with -AoE-circles unnecessary harder. Fights become increasingly more difficult thanks to this if you have other aspects to look out for. It should also be noted that colorblind players are at a disadvantage because they cannot see the circle.
Both are problems before you face Liadri but there they are whole other story! With all the things the player has to pay attention to (Liadri, Illusions, pulling orbs, light crystals and the red-circles) he not only has to deal with his opponent but with the game itself too!
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Next on my list are the mechanics which again make any fight unnecessary more difficult than it should have been.
Time-Limit
While I agree that you should be punished for cheesing your way to victory the current time limit is just bad. Not only does it promote “moar DEEPS” without any strategy (the faster you kill the better) but a time limit also forces the player to engage in dangerous situations instead of waiting for an opening. However, the latter is most prominent in the Liadri fight.
Randomness
When skill is not important. This applies to Suriel, Salazan, Strugar and Chomper and of course Liadri. Sure, you can challenge them again and again but sometimes it is not about your skill but more about RNG. When Suriel refuses to move or Strugar throws meat everywhere like right beneath his pet there is no skill involved. Losing to Liadri not because you missed a dodge but because the orb appeared just somewhere (hello camera)- or her illusions sometimes explode on touch while othertimes they take like 1-2 seconds to do so – is not my definition of fun.
Time Limit on Shards
This one I do not understand. Why do the shards have to despawn after 20 seconds? Again, this makes the fight needlessly harder in unnecessary ways. Sometimes it is impossible to pick them up and when you want to throw them they disappear from your hands. What was the design decision behind this?
In conclusion we have five problems with the Queens Gauntlet and only one adressing Liadri directly. Of course, there a more problems than just these five but I will only name them:
- Some fights more difficult for certain classes than others.
- The random lagspikes thanks to the zerg beneath the arena.
- Post processing effects like the random blind on Liadri allowing you to cheat the fight by disabling them. Then again, why would you want to make any fight needlessly harder. ‘nudge, nudge’
- Bugs like mobs lingering around in the arena, multiple bosses, multiple players, random gambits, fights beginning with the time limit of the fight before…
Td;dr: I claim that Liadri is actually pretty easy but the design of Queens Gauntlet make the fight needlessly complicated.
edit: Somehow got her name wrong.