Guild Wars 2

Some even completely lack mechanics. They literally just auto attack. The dungeon bosses that do have mechanics only have about 3 and are very simple and cliche. Caudecouses manor was a huge let down and don’t even remind me of Zhaitan… Lets look at honor of the waves for example.

First Boss (Forgot the name): The boss’s abilities wern’t telegraphed well enough. Red circle outlines that overlap eachother is a bad way to show where to stand and where not to.

Second Boss (Forgot the name): This fight was probably the best designed boss in the whole dungeon and thats not saying much. It was a somewhat dull fight but atleast it had mechanics that were identifyable…

Honor’s Voice: No mechanics at all, absolute tank and spank.

The Huntsman: Neither the huntsman nor his pet had any unique abilities or mechanics. All of the huntsman’s abilites are recycled Ranger abilities. His pet had a breath like all drakes do and he had a skelk pool ability. For such a dull fight with recycled mechanics why was he a Legendary mob and why did he have such a huge health pool?

The trash mobs in this dungeon weren’t very exciting or challenging either…

Everyone is going to be at my neck for this comment but World of Warcraft did good on their boss mechanics in raids. They were unique most of the time and weren’t recycled abilities from playable classes… I was hoping to have a similar if not better experience here but the dungeons in this game are sub par and poorly designed… I hope they get a rework.

I also feel like dungeons are a bit too chaotic and its impossible to have complex mechanics without having tanks and healers in the game…

Not to say it as an excuse, but the enemies in GW1 borrowed from player skills as well, so it’s nothing new to the series.

Having said that, I find bosses to be incredibly frustrating when they become completely immune to CC (or were from the start). Even moreso when all of their abilities utilize attack styles that cannot be blocked with defensive mechanisms, such as a flamethrower plowing right through any Guardian bubble/wall. If we are given so many tools to help avoid damage, then why insist on bosses being immune from such devices? That’s why bosses like the Huntsman are annoying—the lack of any ability to control them and thus force everyone into maximum dps/tank mode—and not necessarily due to recycled player abilities. There are a ton of fun abilities out there, and one can even say that PvE utilizing them helps people when/if they migrate to PvP.

As for your other HotW examples, I didn’t find it too terribly hard to find a safe spot close to the boss. It appears the red circles follow a set pattern, so once you find a good spot, I suggest you stay put. I actually had my entire squad sitting on a 1×1 spot of realty whenever he tossed it up. Was rather humorous. The Second boss was easier to “control” than the Huntsman, tho it does end up with everyone just hitting as hard as possible while trying to tank the minions and evade his attacks. Again, would be a bit better if bosses were even just a smidgeon less resistant to CC.

I actually enjoy not having healers, and you can actually tank in this game. It’s just not really advised most of the time, but by utilizing the proper skills and combo fields, you can easily faceroll many a boss. Remember, the chaotic nature will arise from people not communicating their build. I know that before every fight I make sure everyone knows what I’m using (utility-wise), and a general idea of the fight.

Naturally, vent helps, but once you run with the same people enough, they know what to do in a given situation, as well as what you are going to do. Combo fields, proper elites, and weaponry is all vital. Do these, and you’ll find the need for a healer goes out the window.

TL,DR: Agree with boss mechanics (slightly), but I’d suggest you find a good group to avoid chaos.

I’m going to join you and bear my neck ready for biting.

I also think World of Warcraft does a good job in boss design.
I think some bosses have elements of good design, some are great!
For example last boss in CoF – Story was really fun.

Pretty much all the bosses in CoF – Story were good to me.

But if we took Kasha in AC-Story for the other side.
Dodge the red circles and kill adds which die too easily.
(She steals helath from them in a beam, it’d be a lot better if the beam were deadly, the adds took a lot more to die and they walked in a circle, so the beams rotated.
Effectively making you move and kill the adds)

Just my thoughts.

Draeka.5941:

I actually enjoy not having healers, and you can actually tank in this game. It’s just not really advised most of the time, but by utilizing the proper skills and combo fields, you can easily faceroll many a boss. Remember, the chaotic nature will arise from people not communicating their build. I know that before every fight I make sure everyone knows what I’m using (utility-wise), and a general idea of the fight.

I’ll be honest, I find the static bosses the most fun.

Even the bosses where you CC them around I don’t find particularly engaging.
Or the point of CC’ing them isn’t an interesting part of it, I enjoyed Kholer pull dodging.

I prefer bosses that do definable 1 shots that are telegraphed, I kinda wish the dodge wasn’t so invincible and downed states are in. Because I feel that’s a reason why things can’t be so do things ‘100% right or die.’

Good Story mode bosses that I can recall:

AC – Lovers

CM – The robot

TA – 2nd boss and final boss. Heck I would toss the mesmer fight in too just for the funny cat morph ability.

CoF – Final boss was alright.

SE – Nothing much. Final boss was way too easy.

CoE – Kudo final fight. Tad bit of hp on him, but the multiple phases and unique abilites were fun.

Arah – Grub eater boss ( forgot his name) was fun, Mouth of Zhaitan was fun, and the dragon fights were a blast.

I think thats all the dungeon in the game. Mechanically speaking TA final fight had the most work put into it (Maybe followed by Kudo/Kudo’s Monster), but it was prolly painful for unskilled PuGS.