I’ve finally hit level 71 and have seen about 60% of the world. So far I’ve seen three types of bosses:
1. The kind that are really easy, to the point they aren’t fun to fight at all. The champion ogre from Field of Ruin is this. He barely does damage and spends most of the fight invincible while his pets do the fighting. I’m not saying buff him, but don’t expect anything epic from him.
2. The kinds of bosses that offer challenge but aren’t too difficult to fight. They can be soloed if needed. I say “soloed” because let’s face it- other than the newb areas no one bothers with events unless they have to be there for completion. This makes some boss fights annoying impossible. Thankfully these bosses aren’t that. They’re tough but if you know what you’re doing you can take them down. Or they have a cool premise about them. The behemoth from Queensdale could classify as this. You have to clear away his portals while avoiding stone rocks (which you can see coming easily) then you can wail on his face for a while. It’s good because while the portals most likely need a ranged weapon, melee players can focus on the minions that spawn, and everyone can attack the behemoth when he comes down to roar at people.
3. Those bosses. You know what I mean. The ones that are just bullkittenly annoying to fight. They don’t offer challenge, they aren’t fun, they’re a nuisance because they rely on some mechanic that makes it more of a fight against luck than one of skill. The fire elemental from Metrica is this 100%. Although it stands still, it lobs hundreds of fireballs at random parts of the area that, if they make contact with you, knock you down for 3 seconds and damage you the entire time. A level 60-ish guardian based around toughness and vitality is brought down to less than half hp if she gets caught in one of those rings. And if they don’t hit you they summon minions that can make their own fire pits! The elemental doesn’t focus on a particular player, it just spews lava wherever it wants, so you can’t have one character circle strafe it drawing aggro and pelting it with arrows while everyone else bombards it. The ranged characters end up getting melted from the very edge of the room while the melee characters have to run around jumping over circles of fire and avoiding 15 embers chasing them and taking pot shots! I don’t care if you can solo it, it’s an annoying fight and doesn’t make me want to go back! Caledon Forest has two of these bosses- the krait witch and the fight with the hylek warrior who transforms you. The transformation one is obvious- try fighting as a jellyfish on land- and the witch has this insta-cast grapple skill that not only pulls players towards her but poisons them, does massive damage, and hits twice. She does it so quickly I don’t see how anyone can dodge both of them, and in that case they’re out of endurance so now t hey have to avoid the krait you’ve just pulled by avoiding her! Some of the champion bandits in Kessex might count too. There are these two in particular with sledgehammers. In melee it’s fine, you can see the attack coming, but out of nowhere they practically warp to your location and slam their sledgehammer into the ground and do massive damage to anyone nearby, and you can’t dodge it for some reason like the champion giant in Diessa Plateau (which is in the second category btw). I could be ressing someone on the sidelines, not attacking him, not anywhere near him, and he immediately beelines for me with that attack and I can’t avoid it. Maybe I’m just slow, but if you saw a man teleport to you with a weapon designed to knock down buildings and slam the ground so hard it causes a mild tremor, you’d panic too.
Anyway, you get it. Anyone else agree with this? Disagree? And if you think I’m whining because you can solo every boss in the game in 15 minutes or less or whatever…well, maybe. But any boss where the man strategy is “circle strafe, u nub” or “zerg it” then we have a problem.
