Guild Wars 2

Ok, so the Fight between Shatterer and the Players, as well as Teq and the Players, seems to me to have the ground works for being of the most epic fights ever encountered in an MMO. Sadly, their current difficulty is lacking, when the Strat is just… “Stand to the Side and Auto-Attack”…

The Claw of Jormag is -somewhat- better, in that it has multiple mechanics, and that the boss actually moves and seems to have a 2nd Form/Phase all together. However, it is still a… “Stand there and auto-attack” type of fight…

That out of the way, I see this type of discussion going on throughout the forums all over the place, yet I see very little, if any actual suggestions on how to make the fight more epic, without making it hard beyond belief. An easy example of a fight being -beyond- belief in difficulty would be Grenth… 90% of the time, the players don’t pay attention to the mechanics, and just burn the boss… Then they get upset, because no one can beat it. From what I hear, it used to be easier, but that wasn’t because the mechanics weren’t there, it was because the boss died quicker, and there weren’t as many adds, or the boss didn’t do as much dmg. Perhaps a combination of all three?

So after some real thought, I came up with a good way to -truly- improve how epic these fights really are… Without having to modify the -real- difficulty of them… Changing the fights to how I would suggest definitely would make it -seem- more difficult, but it wouldn’t actually have to change. People would still be able to auto-attack through the fight, but have a sense of the fight being… “More Epic”

First and foremost…. Require that there be people in front of the boss… Guardians or Warriors, who can take a decent amount of dmg… Or perhaps even a mesmer to reflect or a ranger’s pet in case there -aren’t- any of those heavily armored individuals. Basically -require- that someone be in front of the dragon at all times… To do this, a “Capture” zone needs to be placed there… If no one alive resides inside that capture zone, then have the dragon start doing a massive, large scale AoE. This will make it seem like… “Ok, the dragon actually isn’t a complete fool to utterly ignore the people at his side doing all the dmg”.

Secondly, have multiple Phases… Just like the Claw of Jormag has 2 -truly- different phases, make all the dragons have multiple phases. Also include actual transitional phases… An example of which would be… At 60% health, the Shatterer takes flight, and begins to raise Branded Foes in certain areas around “Shattered Crystals”. Lay down 3 Shattered Crystals that would reside -under- the boss, where all three must be engaged at the same time. This would require the group to split up, and engage all three crystals, killing off foes as they came in. Also, if the entire group attempts to -zerg- the crystals moving from one to the next, then the Branded Creatures would simply enter the “Capture” zone of the Shattered Crystals and raise it back up. During this transitional phase, if a Crystal is recharged, the boss would gain back 10% of it’s health. Also, make it so that during this transitional phase, one of the crystals would be chosen at random, and while players reside inside the capture zone of that single crystal, there would randomly be players that actually get turned against their allies. They would lose control of their character temporarily, they go to full health, their health and dmg gets doubled, and the only way to come out of being “Branded” would be to go down to half health. At which point, the character regains control of their character, back at full health (Since their health doubled when they were branded). This entire time during the transitional phase, all players residing in the capture zones are under attack from the branded that are being raised from the Shatterer.

At this point, once all three crystals are taken down, the Shatterer will land, and provided that none of the crystals recharged and he gained health back, then the boss would continue forward and begin a second phase… During this phase, it would identical to the first phase, except now the players will need to deal with any remaining Branded from the transition.

The players take down any of those additional “Branded”, then switch back to the boss, and drill him down to 30%. At which point, he performs the exact same transition phase as the first time… And again, provided all three “Shattered Crystals” get destroyed, the Shatterer lands. Maybe during this transitional phase, make it so that 2 of the crystals get selected for having the ability to turn a player, or two, against their allies, instead of just 1 crystal. Then comes the final phase…

At which point, the “Heart” of the Shatterer drops from his still somehow living body, and appears to be a Shattered Crystal. Destroying this crystal would not be required, however doing so would deal 10% of the Shatterer’s total health, in damage, to him. Also providing a damage buff, or maybe stunning the Shatterer all together? However, this final phase, unlike the first 2 real “Phases”, there are Branded that will come to the Shatterer’s aid, and begin to attack the players…

Please note, I am not saying stick a -CRAP- ton of Branded Creatures in there like has been done with Grenth, with Spiders… Maybe make it a -CRAP- ton if you include the Branded Creatures that are already attacking the players in the final phase -AND- the Branded that are “Guarding” the Shatterer’s Fallen heart.

There doesn’t have to be a bunch of adds, or even really a heightened difficulty… Throw in a few transitions, phases, and capture zones with a small amount of adds… And BLAM… You’ve got yourself a whole new epic outcome, instead of just… “Stand at side of boss and auto-attack”. Also, adding in the ability to “Engage” a 2nd level of difficulty (via the Heart in the Final Phase), you can reward those who -do- truly want to take the difficulty to a new level, by rewarding them with a chest separate from the boss entirely. It also allows players who want to engage in a separate level of difficulty to do so, without forcing the other players to do so as well…

Now, what I have recommended, I honestly never expect to see to come to pass… However, the reason I have posted this topic is not because I want to see it come to pass, but because I want to spark a discussion about -HOW- these events can be improved… As I said before… I constantly see that players want to see improvement on how epic these Dragon Fights (And World Boss fights in general) truly are… Yet I see no real recommendations on how to do so. Hence, why I have started this topic… I want to discuss ways on how to actually improve these fights, instead of people just saying “It needs improvement, but I don’t know how”.