Hey guys! I re-did Arah’s story mode the other day, and I was rather disappointed with the ‘grand finale’ to the character’s personal story. The dungeon itself is fine, but the fight with Zhaitan feels rather unengaging and simple, considering he’s the final boss. I understand this is a 5 man story instance, so it can’t be made too difficult – but at the same time, this is the game’s finale – this isn’t a dragon lieutenant, but an actual elder dragon, who single-handedly raised an entire nation from the ocean and constructed an endless army of undead. Killing this beast should be a challenge, and feel like a real achievement! Instead of just sitting there, smooshing the same undead we do in Orr and occasionally firing a cannon at Zhaitan, I propose a few changes.
Instead of forcing Zhaitan to clutch to a pillar in the sky, the Pact Megalazer forces the elder dragon to retreat to his lair within Arah – the throne room of the human Gods. The Pact follows him in pursuit, and players disembark from the airship to finish Zhaitan off. The throne room could have statues of the human Gods all around, and communing with these statues would give the player powerful buffs, each of which would help counter Zhaitan in a different way. For example, Balthazar could cause every attack the player launches to create a violent explosion in an AoE, allowing you to clear out his risen minions. Melandru could stun Zhaitan for a brief period of time, the idea of life clashing with death. These statues can only be communed with every couple of minutes though, and only one player can have a God’s buff at any given time, so some co-ordination with the team is required.
When it comes to Zhaitan’s attacks, I thought it’d be cool to have some really powerful, over-the-top style attacks that can devastate unprepared players, but can be all but negated by using the correct God buff. Here are some ideas.
- Death’s Caress: Zhaitan corrupts a player’s mind by overwhelming them with death magic, causing the player to stop attacking and walk harmlessly towards him. If the player reaches Zhaitan, they are consumed, killing them instantly and restoring a small amount of Zhaitan’s health. This attack has a windup where Zhaitan raises up on his hind legs and slowly glances around the map, eyeing players. This attack can be interrupted by stunning Zhaitan. (Zhaitan can be stunned by communing with the Statue of Melandru.)
- Unholy Covenant: Zhaitan slams his stomach into the ground, doing moderate AoE damage, and high damage to players directly beneath them. Upon rising again, massive hoardes of undead (trash mobs) will fall from the dragon’s belly.
– Feast On The Dammed: After using Unholy Covenant, Zhaitan will consume the undead he has spawned, regaining a portion of his health for each entity consumed. This attack can hit players, and will kill them instantly if it does. This attack has a windup of ~5 seconds, during which time Zhaitan will salivate acid around his body, giving players a chance to back off.
- Fury of The Ancients: Zhaitan charges between each player in the area, doing a large amount of damage to them on-hit, knocking them back and applying poison and weakness for a moderate duration (10 seconds sound good?) During the rampage, Zhaitan takes double damage from confusion and torment. (Maybe Lyssa’s statue could allow a player to apply stacks of confusion and torment on-hit?)
- Fresh Meat (Passive): Upon killing a player, Zhaitan spawns a champion risen at their location based on the player’s chosen class (EG, if a Guardian dies, a Champion Sentinel will spawn where he died, and so on. I think this is a powerful but logical passive effect for a dragon that is essentially a giant necromancer).
- Brush With Death: Zhaitan communes with the ancient magic of undeath, rapidly regenerating health while he channels. The regeneration effect of this ability can be negated by communing with the Statue of Grenth, causing the player’s attacks to apply heal-negation on hit.
These are just a few hair-brained ideas that I’ve thought up this morning, but I feel that they’d make the fight more challenging without making it Tequatl-levels of difficulty. The idea of a heavy regeneration boss with the ability to profit from a player’s death seems to be fitting for a death dragon made of the bodies of others. What do you guys think? If any of you have any ideas for the fight, please post them below, I’d love to hear what you think!
TL;DR: Revamp the Zhaitan fight to allow players to fight him properly, giving him powerful attacks and regenerative abilities that the player can counter by interacting with the environment they’re fighting in.
