Guild Wars 2

One of the most requested changes to Fractals since its inception has been for additional mechanics for Bosses and Mobs as you progress higher in difficulty. However, very few if any additional mechanics have been added with the latest iteration. This leads me to believe that Anet finds going through and changing many different bosses and mobs to give them additional mechanics is prohibitively time-consuming. So, I would like to suggest adding additional types of Agony as a way of adding additional mechanics.

First of all, Agony deals percentage hp damage based on the number of stacks of it. Agony can be reduced by a player’s armor’s Agony Resistance to a non-zero minimum amount. So, the new agony would follow similar formulas. For example:
1) A White Colored Agony that reduces by percentage healing dealt to a player.
2) A Blue Colored Agony that reduces by percentage power damage dealt by a player.
3) A Green Colored Agony that reduces by percentage condition damage dealt by a player.
4) A Brown Colored Agony that reduces by percentage the Armor Value of a player.
5) A Black Colored Agony that deals percentage damage to near by allies but none to the affected player.
I am sure there are plenty of additional colors and types of agony that could be conceived and added at even higher 100+ fractal levels, which helps play into the “infinitely expanding” creed fractals were originally founded on.

Now mechanically per fractal level, agony would behave as follows. When a boss uses an attack that causes agony, it will glow the color corresponding to the agony he inflicts. While low fractals may only cause the Current Red Agony, higher levels will have different and possibly multiple types of Agony. In addition, certain levels could only cause Blue agony making condition damage builds preferable for those levels and other levels only cause Green Agony making power builds preferable. Finally when a boss causes multiple types of agony, the agony would be randomly applied. However since the Boss glows the appropriate color beforehand, this would lead to skillful play on the players part as he could decide whether to avoid the agony based on whether it harmed him or not.

Ultimately, adding different types of agony would be good for fractals. It would encourage different types of builds and play styles without kittening certain ones as the current instabilities do. It would create different high skill situations for players to react based on observations. It would be simple for Anet to apply as it is a global change as opposed to a specific fractal changes for additional mechanics. It would simply satisfy Fractal Runners long term desire for new and varied boss mechanics.

This is actually a very interesting idea, because, as you said, it would encourage other builds and playstyles. Of course however, the ratios could should not be so high as to prohibit people from running those builds. What would happen if agony dealt damage based on power/precision at like a level 85+ fractal? They’re already a pretty huge grind fest (hitting the mob over and over again due to insane toughness and vitality), and pretty much invalidating power and precision would mean no one would ever want to run those fractals (assuming the type of agony switches between fractals). I think adding different agony though would be very interesting, it would just require a lot of texting and foresight.

DrEckers.2039:

5) A Black Colored Agony that deals percentage damage to near by allies but none to the affected player.

HowTo troll everybody.

ZachAttack.3957:

This is actually a very interesting idea, because, as you said, it would encourage other builds and playstyles. Of course however, the ratios could should not be so high as to prohibit people from running those builds. What would happen if agony dealt damage based on power/precision at like a level 85+ fractal? They’re already a pretty huge grind fest (hitting the mob over and over again due to insane toughness and vitality), and pretty much invalidating power and precision would mean no one would ever want to run those fractals (assuming the type of agony switches between fractals). I think adding different agony though would be very interesting, it would just require a lot of texting and foresight.

First, I am not suggesting all colored Agony would deal damage. That situation would be little different than the current situation and not actually satisfy players’ desire for “new mechanics” in Fractals. Instead instead of damage, new agony types would cause effects like reducing power damage, reducing condition damage, reducing toughness, etc. etc. by a percentage based on number of stacks and Agony resistance.

Also, I would imagine it would scale similarly to how agony scales currently. If you are below the recommended AR, Agony can scale to ridiculous amounts. But if you are above the intended AR, then Agony does a minimum of 1% per stack per second. So using the reduced Power Damage as an example, each stack would reduce Direct Damage Done by 1% per stack if you were above the recomended AR and potentially 100% of the damage done if below the recomended AR.

@Harold: The idea for Black Agony came from Mark of Pain from the original Guild Wars. I think plenty of the Hexes from Necromancers and Mesmers from the original Guild Wars would make very interesting Agonies.