One of the common complaints about the game is the ease of the PvE content. ANet’s idea to make something harder is to basically use simple tricks.
Boss goes down too quickly? Increase toughness and hp
Players can just stand in one spot and spam one? Increase the damage so players have to dodge.
Players can get though by simply stacking? Add a condition that, when put on a player, pulses dealing damage to the rest of the party within range forcing that person to leave the stack.
While these tricks do help to spice things up, it doesn’t solve the root of the issue.
As it is now, players will stack around a corner so that even enemies that are ranged will go around the corner into melee range. So the players stack to share boons/buffs, and they stack around a corner so the enemy stacks on them to be cleaved.
There is no one single change that can fix the problems that currently exist. It’ll take a couple changes.
Increase the range of boon/buff sharing. Take rangers for example. I was playing around and actually came up with a shout ranger. Trooper runes, the trait that grants swiftness and regen to allies, and take three shouts. You don’t need the 25% signet since you can actually gain perma swiftness (especially if Wh offhand). Your shouts will regen, swift, and remove a condition off nearby party members. Unfortunately the range is barely beyond melee (350 I think).
If the range was increased, the need for stacking in order to share is decreased.
AI use of skills. Right now, it’s way too scripted. Some boss fights are like fighting a bad player who simply uses a skill because its off CD rather than the situation calling for it. What if an enemy that is capable of blocking only did so based on a trigger instead of a timer (and no, hp reaching 50% is not a good trigger). Say there is a 75% chance for the enemy to use it’s block if it detects certain skills being used on it. The trigger is the skill being used by the player, with a 75% chance of the enemy actually responding.
In addition to that, the enemy could have an interupt skill and would have a 75% chance of using it if it detects a healing skill being used.
Rather than defiance being an automatic thing, what if it was a skill that must be triggered. A warrior uses a stun on the boss, the boss uses a stun breaking skill which leaves it with defiance. Again, with a chance to proc (instead of it being a sure thing), it is more unpredictable.
Another is AI positioning. Ranged enemies shouldn’t cut corners. They should go around the corner wide and maintain range.
Positioning can work for melee enemies too. If swinging your weapon deals damage to any enemy within a zone in front of your character, they should be trying to move out of this zone when taking damage while trying to keep you in their zone. Same goes for ground AoE. I can take my necro around a corner after grabbing aggro, drop all my wells, marks, and then pop DS #5 and #4 for a nice AoE burst. As for the enemy? They stand there and take it. Why?
Very few enemy actually dodge and they’ll do so regardless if the attack you are doing to them is trivial or significant. Again, trigger appropriate.
Take a look at the guards in WvW. They start immobilize and then stun. It’s like clock work. The immob I can see being used, especially if you are trying to run by them. The stun should be triggered based on what you are trying to do (eg. use a healing skill or a channel based skill).
It all basically comes down to the enemies actions falling to one of two catagories.
Proactive and Reactive.
In the proactive, these would include the time based skills, and skill performed on their own. The guard starting out with an immob is an example of a proactive. Or an enemy buffing itself as soon as it’s aggo’ed. However, these need to be given a chance to proc in order to produce unpredictability.
The reactive are the actions the enemy makes as a result of the situation it faces. These are your triggered skills like a stun that is triggered by a player using a heal. Again, these too should be given a chance to proc instead of being a sure thing to produce unpredictability.
ANet like rng and yet very little rng goes into the fight mechanic…