Guild Wars 2

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not whine Topic, im not complaning that champions are too hard(actualy for me its too easy, i can solo most of the fights), what im writeing here is purely a sugetion.

As in the topic curently fight whit champions mobs r extremely boring, both in terms of fight and music that usualy play during the fight, of course if ther is actualy any battle music that play at all.
Before i start whit the main problem, i will go throu the music issue first.
The Problem whit music that i have is not a bug, its just that the music is too normal for a champion fight, i mean its the same music that u hear during fights whit normal mobs, at this point whenever i see that ther will be champion fight i immediately play some EPIC track from winamp to have some beter battle experience.
I think that it wouldn’t be a problem to give champions mobs some epic music to play in the background to make them feel more intimidating.

Now to the main problem at hand, First i will give an example of how fights currently look(for me at least), i will use champion spider as a example.

Firstly we have some normal entrance of the champion(u could expect something more surprising/epic, of course i mean the none quest chamipons)and then u just get rid of the mobs that usualy r in the area since they like to get in the way, then after that u just focus on the champ. Im not too sure what u exactly do when u r melee weapon user but as a range weapon user the deal is simple, just run in circle from time to time dodging to the side to avoid strait line attack and hit him even whit auto attack, it will take a lot of time to get down his hp but u will get to the end of the fight whit no problem, THE END.
I know that i explained it extremely simple but thats because its so simple to deal whit it, thats why for me its boring to fights champions(spider for that matter).

Now before we have an answer in style “Why not add more mobs to guard the champion or increas respawn rate of mobs in the area of champion fight” i will point this out, thats not a solution, its like u trying to fix a hole in the street by covering it whit wooden planks instead of just filling it up and repairing it properly.
…

In my opinion the best way to fix it is by giveing champions more action/attacks to perform during a fight, this is an example of what would make the fight look more fun and be more challenging(again champion spider as an example):

1. enterance, he should(instead of sliding down on a web like a certain spider-man) jump down from his hiding place on the players and launch them backward to give them some distance and time to get up before he will starts attacking them

2. music, the moment he jumps down on players the music starts playing, some unique and epic music would be nice(Anyone who played Shadow of the Colossus should know what music type i mean), ther is a lot of good music in the game so i know that u can make something great if u want

3. the attacks/movements, this is the important part that determine the fun/challenge factor of the fight, curently champ’s have like 2-3 simple and straitforward attacks so the best idea would be to increas and make some of them situation based , like:

• ability to walk on walls or ceiling(its a spider, right?), from time to time he will jump on walls or celling and start attacking from ther whit some range condition attacks, in order to take him to the ground u would need to first get throu his stability stacks and then use some knockback/down skill to make him fall down to the ground(he will deal adtional damage to nearby players if they r too close the landing place) when he fall he will land on his back and will strugle to get up on his legs, during that time he will get a 20 stacks of vulnerability so player will have some time to deal some biger hits to him before he gets up(10 sec max befor he gets up would be good), he will be doing that move randomly during fight

• a web pull shoot, he will be doing the same animation like during that poison attack but instead of poison ther will be a web flying out in a strait line anyone who gets hit by it will be pulled infront of the spider and get 2sec stunt in that time spider will do a short hit combo that will take like 40-50% of player hp then the player will regain controll and will have only 1 sec to escape before another attack will came oftherwise they can get downed

• a slowdown web aoe attack, spider will shoot an web that will cover big area surounding the spider(on the ground), anyone who will step on it will get 50% movement speed redution(like chilling but whitout skill cd increas) it will be permanent as long as u stand on the web if u get out from the web the efect will be gone, the web will disappear on its own after 10 sec

• a jump attack, from time to time if the target that the sipder chose is out side of his range he will performe a jump attack, during which he will jump high and land knocking down the target he falls on for 3 sec and doing some big damage(ther will be a circle landing indicator)

• a suprise back attack, if ther is a player behind in melee range, spider will randomly performe a kick whit his back legs and push the player a way

• a block, from time to time spider will use its front legs to block incomeing attacks

4. fight gets harder the less the spider have HP, the spider will get boons every time 25% of his have is gone, like 5 stack of might and 0.1 attack speed increas every 25%, it would look like this:

• at 100% hp ther is no boons
• at 75% hp 5 stack of might, 0.1 attack speed increase(permanent)
• at 50% hp 10 stack of might, 0.2 attack speed(permanent)
• at 25% hp 15 stack of might, 0.3 attack speed and aditionaly protection(permanent)

This is only an example what would make the fights more interesting, afterall its just weird that champion mobs r so boring to fight whit, like i always wonder why giant never try to grap the players and throw them, instead he just throw some rocks.
I honestly wish that Anet have some good ideas to make the game more fun…oh and it would be nice if i got an ansewr if my ideas r possible to implement, or if the game engine even alows for that to happen.

P.S. English is not my native language so im sure that ther r some grammar or other misstakes in my text, please be considerate.

As i Guardian I have 2 things to add: we suck at range so I just keep melee weapons on me. This means that if spiders climb walls it will be hard for me to get it off it.

As melee I often just run in circles around the mobs while using my oh so greatsword to carve bas-reliefs of my latest adventures in its back. Works very often, takes time but gets the job done.

But I am all in for harder champions

Well, ther could always be a rock to throw that have a knockback/down effect somewher near the fight place, or even champion will be the one that will be spawning them(spawning a rock bundle every time it climbs on the walls).
But the general idea is to make champions fights more fun and hard at the same time.

I found another 2 problems whit champions, that make the fight whit them too easy.

1. agro mechanics(still not too sure if im right about this one)
2. champion’s lack of mobility

1. I will use here an example that make me notice the problem, i was fighting Champion Branded Devourer(i think that was the name) on map Fields of Ruin, i suppose that i had the bigest dps out of 7 players that was ther whit me since most of the time i was the one geting the agro of the champion.
Now, during that fight i had the most fun since i had to dodge constantly as i was under constant attacks, but when i read in chat coments like “Zzzzz” i noticed that i was the only one that need to actualy move, the rest of the players had to just stand and spam attacks, anyone can understand how boring it is.
The thing that u can notice here is that as long as the mob/champion is focusing on one player the rest of players that r in this fight can just stand still and spam skills whitout a care because they dont have to wory about the attack(sometimes they will have to move left or right to get out from aoe attack circle indicator since some of the champ’s use them)especialy when they know who have biger dps then they have, since agro is swiched to the player whit next biger dps.
This makes the fight boring to those who dont take the champion agro, the soultion to this is rather simple, just make the champion switch target randomly(whitout a care about dps/con/healing skills), this would make the fight more unpredictable, as anyone could be the next target, it would be also good if the agro switch was more frequent(each 10-15 sec)
Good idea would be also giving mormal attacks of the champion some aoe effects, like cone aoe splash dmg, or piercing, so not only target player would get hit but all of the players in range.

2. Lack of mobility is also a reason that make champions fight easy(boring), i will use a coment from the chat during the fight that point this out rather clearly “Stop throwing him around, it makes the fight harder, since we cant focus our dps when he constantly jumps left and right”, in other words, more movements=harder fight, right?
Well, basically it mean that giving champions some fast movement skills(leap attacks, jumps, charge, etc.) it would make fight more challenging since it would be harder to focus attacks and even harder to predict wher the champion will be standing in next few seconds.

Example:
3 players is fighting whit a champion, 1 melee is next to the champion, while 2 range profession r at distance from the champion as well each other(triangle formation), the melee take the agro will the rest keep distance out side of champion attack range.
Now the champion(if he have the random agro switch from point 1 )switch his agro to one of the range players, but instead of just running to that player, he do a charge attack or leap attack covering the distance to that player in 1 second, surprising the player who become targeted and attacked in 1 second despite keeping oponent at range.

Whit something like this no one would be given a chance to feel bored as everone could get attacked instantly no matter the distance from champion, or the dps of their attacks.

IMPORTANT NOTE Nr. 2: I’ve noticed from game chat that most of the players have wrong idea of how to measure the difficulty of the champions, so to stop ppl from posting replies like “just give them more HP/Defence/DMG and it will be ok”, i will tell u this:

U dont measure the difficulty by the amount of the HP, Defence, DMG of the champions, or the length of the battle, but by how easy/hard is to stay alive during the fight.

And please, just because u die a lot during the fights, like getting killed by giant stomp, it doesn’t mean that the champion is too hard, its just that u didn’t pay attention to the surroundings.

I wish there was more boss battles like Monster Hunter. GW2 has the mechanics to pull it off, it just needs the AI and better skills for bosses…

My suggestions for bosses:

1. Add charging directional attacks
2. Remove charging single target attacks where player’s really can’t dodge, but have to “evade”. Players should only have to “evade” when there’s no way of dodging out of the line of sight of an attack.
3. Add directional AOE attacks
4. Remove 360 AOE attacks at position of boss, unless it’s like a stomp or something where it actually makes sense.
5. DON’T just buff their stats or give them more health. Groups will just be doing the same thing, cornering a boss and attacking it until it drops, just for a longer period of time.
6. DON’T just give them higher damage AOE poison/fire/fear/knockdown. (Like in the last dungeon patch. It just feels lazy.)

On another note, chain fears and chain knockdowns that where added in the dungeons to “counter” speed clearing dungeons is just really stupid. It’s so annoying and feels like a lazy way to counter speed clearing.