Guild Wars 2

These world bosses are far too easy now. With time players have learned how to make better builds, for one, and also learned how these bosses fight. They’re scripted bosses—the attacks aren’t as wide-ranged and random as regular mobs. Here are some suggestions, both major and minor, that can be added as a “bandage” for the time being until there is more time to put toward making the bosses more complex:

Minor
-Buff the stats for the pulsing crystals. The players at this event know they need to go down so the dragon doesn’t heal himself, and they go down VERY quickly.

-Spawn more veterans and champions around the dragon. Give them excellent AoE damage skills. Players right now will clump up near the dragon’s right front claw. They are a prime target for any mobs with AoE/PbAoE damage skills.

-Make the pre-events more difficult. Escort the sentinels spawns no veterans or champions. Usually only two or three players do this event. If the event scales, force a default level higher than it is right now to make more players be required to complete it.

Major
-Add a new pre-event that happens at Lowland Burns. The waypoint will become contested as Branded forces attempt to occupy and defend The Shatterer’s landing zone. This event scales with the number of people waiting for the dragon and has a wide range (otherwise players will simply wait just beyond the event range).

-Give the dragon some new abilities. Make him beat his wings to cause knockdown and make his roar cause fear.

-Take a cue from Claw of Jormag’s corrupted ice. Ominous winds blow during this fight. Corrupted crystal particles hitching along with these winds could damage players and cause blindness from time to time. (Ever have dust blown in your eyes?)

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I will be studying the world boss mechanics and habits of players and post more topics on each one. Or I may reply to this single topic to keep things cleaner. I want to see this change. Anet, this is Living Story potential and material. From a Lore perspective we know that The Shatterer is a rank given to Kralkatorrik’s dragon champions. It’s been a year since the first Shatterer appeared. It makes sense that Kralkatorrik would adapt to his repeated defeats and work to strengthen his next Shatterers.

Addition: If possible, event scaling should take into account the total cumulative player level, as well as the number of players in the area. This is a level 40-50 zone, but the high amount of level 80 characters showing up to fight the dragon makes the boss far less challenging.

Bump! Tequatl the Sunless post coming next.

Improving Tequatl the Sunless

Now that The Shatterer is on Tequatl’s level in terms of difficulty, it’s time to beef up Teq to a higher glory. Here’s where we can start:

-Tequatl’s Fingers should spawn more and closer to the dragon. I personally have seen maybe two at most near Tequatl himself; the rest are in the distance behind me. Players opt not to use the provided turrets, but instead rush straight up to Tequatl’s front-right claw (like The Shatterer) and do damage the old fashioned way. This leads into the Bone Walls.

-Bone Walls are meant to protect Tequatl from the turrets. However, as just stated, players seldom if not ever use these turrets. Tequatl’s Fear skill needs to last longer and occur more often. While players are running away uncontrollably, Tequatl should summon Bone Walls near his front claws and Tequatl’s Fingers in front of those walls to get a distance between himself and the players.

-Bloated Creepers are a wise choice for Risen mob, but they should spawn with a slightly greater density and attempt to move into the middle of the player crowd, in order to affect the greatest number of players. In addition, Risen Brutes should spawn at the same time to cause knockdowns to players on the frontlines, and these mobs should be veteran and champion class.

-The Risen around Tequatl’s landing spot vanish before he arrives. Why? There are enough Risen there to block players from moving to Tequatl’s spot before he has time to set himself up for protection. These Risen should rush to the beach nearest the waypoint as soon as Tequatl spawns in an attempt to block player advances.

-Players currently never have to worry about defending the Megalaser. More mobs, including veterans, should spawn around the laser and attack it with priority over attacking players.

-During the Tequatl event, the closest waypoint should become contested if it isn’t already. Players can decontest this waypoint for one minute by clearing all Risen in the immediate area. (Make a cap zone around the waypoint to show the area to protect)

-Tequatl is an undead champion of Zhaitan. This would logically give him necromancer abilities. Allow Tequatl to summon bone minions and risen thralls from downed players; this skill would take effect immediately and would not cancel any other skills Tequatl may use at the same time.

Up next: Claw of Jormag and how to move him up a tier.

Also, make it easier to get the achievement for freeing people from crystals. Right now the Shatterer rarely manages to trap anyone in crystal before dying. Making this achievement frustratingly hard to get. What he needs is a couple of really massive attacks that force players to move from their safe spot, and is more likely to trap players in crystals.