In response to this post by Colin, I figure it’d be useful to have a general feedback thread for bosses that players think have too much health to match their few (or simple, or unthreatening, or uninteresting) mechanics. In particular, the idea was thrown around that too many bosses amount to “tank and spank”, generally being sacks of health with little bite.
If others wish to contribute, feel free, I may update the OP in my spare time. It’d be easiest if you followed a similar format. (Edit: Hey, it’s kinda wordy on my part … I should trim it down a bit.)
- Caudecus’s Mansion
- Butler Route
- Vallog: Stands on the dock the entire time, flinging spells or reflecting player projectiles. Nothing engaging. Frost (asura path) would be a good example of a fairly challenging yet enjoyable end-boss in the same dungeon.
- Seraph Route
- Tulaire: Unclear that he’s a necromancer sort of character, given his default bandit skin. The fight is okay, but the fact that he goes completely invulnerable when in his plague form is more irritating than it is enjoyable or engaging.
- Butler Route
- Sorrow’s Embrace
- Inquest Path
- Tazza: Has no mechanics listed next to her portrait, but she seems to summon clones of the players. She doesn’t do this very often, and I can’t remember what the clones actually do because the most threatening thing they’ve done is get in the way of my projectiles (to which they die very quickly). Possibly the least threatening mob in this route despite being the final boss.
- Rasolov/Free the Miners Path
- The Overseers: I think these are the first bosses? It basically amounts to killing off four Dredge champions that happen to be on more steroids than their fellows. They don’t offer anything new or exciting in terms of mechanics – this section felt like 15 minutes of grinding through walls of HP, a problem that plagues this route in general. (See: the metric arseload of mobs near the Crusher boss, the unnecessary mortars around War Minister Shukov).
- War Minister Shukov: It’s unclear that you have to bring down both of his war golems at the same time, lest they recover. Also, Shukov randomly drops dead once you kill both golems. Unsure if that’s working as intended or not. Bit of a let-down if it is.
- Inquest Path
- Honor of the Waves
- Zealot Path
- The Zealot: The boss seems to only have two mechanics: freezing clouds and explosive jellyfish. He takes forever to take down since it’s an underwater fight, and underwater balance in general is all over the place. It was rather boring and unpleasant, and the trash before him was especially awful, having to keep track of aggro in three dimensions while your camera is backed up against a wall. (When I put it this way, I actually hope he doesn’t get touched, at least until underwater skills are polished a bit)
- Zealot Path
- Crucible of Eternity
- Submarine Path
- Bjarl the Rampager: A decent boss fight implementing one of the many cornerstone mechanics of action games: baiting the bull into charging into a pillar so that he lays stunned and vulnerable to damage for awhile. Easy enough that it feels like it’d be better off in some story mode dungeon. Nonetheless, it’s unclear when he’s using his “run at you to slice your legs off” charge vs. his “run at you to hit a pillar and get stunned” charge.
- Submarine Path
(edited by Furienify.5738)