Guild Wars 2

First and foremost this is entirely under the assumption the guy they hired to work on raid content has been playing around with the new bosses.

So after doing the final boss for this chapter and the last few bosses as well as vinewrath in the silverwastes + Breech bosses, anyone thinking Anet’s new raid designer they hired is really starting to hit the mark? I know hopping into a position like that would force you to learn a new game all it’s mechanics and the inner workings…

But He really seems to be making kitten ed good bosses. This is to assume he’s been working on this content, but if you look, there is a huge difference between something like “The Shatterer” And vinewrath.

Anyone else thinking the same? Also if we could get a red post on if this actually is their new raid designers work or if the usual boss team just decided to randomly step up their game all of a sudden.

Shatterer and Claw were also created before mega-server and it was possible to do them
with 10 people .. i doubt this is possible with the new bosses, and on empty maps it
will be maybe as impossible as teq was before megaserver on most of the servers.

Yeah indeed. Finally a good comment to read upon. And yes I like these new bosses also. Much more fun then bashing a dragon’s little toe :p. And how they added the marionette play style, which was so asked by the players, surprised me. Whoever made this at Anet, raise his/hers daily amount of cookies

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box! (But really, there isn’t just one boss designer on the Living World as all the designers contribute to the encounters in both design, implementation, and feedback. They all deserve cookies.)

Surprisingly all content that was all well received, which certainly is an impressive feat to hit 3 marks in a row in such a fashion.

I agree, the encounter is well designed, although I do have a feeling it might be a tad on the easy side, as I see it being finished almost constantly already.

Definitely well received content. Good job Lisa (and others).

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box! (But really, there isn’t just one boss designer on the Living World as all the designers contribute to the encounters in both design, implementation, and feedback. They all deserve cookies.)

. . . and how can I send said cookies to you?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

. . . and how can I send said cookies to you?

ArenaNet, LLC.
3180 139th Ave SE
5th Floor
Bellevue, WA 98005

Is the address I believe ^^

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box! (But really, there isn’t just one boss designer on the Living World as all the designers contribute to the encounters in both design, implementation, and feedback. They all deserve cookies.)

yea clearly smells like the marionette (in a good way obviosly)…and i do gotta say that to fight champ that spazzes out with everything it got and dodge the darn death star flower that easily can 1 shot a squishy guy at the same time is quite nice. Also the lane defence is rather funny. 10\10 will fight again (next breach)

lordkrall.7241:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

. . . and how can I send said cookies to you?

ArenaNet, LLC.
3180 139th Ave SE
5th Floor
Bellevue, WA 98005

Is the address I believe ^^

Okay, but I can’t mail them cookies from here. Or cheesecake, which is my first choice.

. . . hmmmm. It’s time to see what the prisoner . . . er, pet asura has come up with as far as translocating edibles . . .

I found the “new marionette” to be too easy. While the original required a lot of coordination and felt like a raid event where each player mattered (and yes, as a result was susceptible to trolling and noob failing), this one feels zergy like all other current world bosses: spam skills, spam more skills, spam skills again, wait for others to finish, collect loot.

Maybe it’s just the result of the content being new and everyone doing it, but since there’s nothing else to do in the map when it’s up and the megaservers keep people together, I assume we will always have more than enough people to zerg stuff down without really needing to look at what specific bosses do at all.

I never had a favourite Dev until now. Lisa, you deserved it ^^.

Tom Gore.4035:

I agree, the encounter is well designed, although I do have a feeling it might be a tad on the easy side, as I see it being finished almost constantly already.

Because it’s not timed. You’d have a lot more rage and failures if it was timed like the Marionette and Jungle Wurm, etc.
I like it the way it is; you still have to handle all the tasks in each lane and you have a set number of attempts (until carriers are all gone).

I would like to add that the short video sequence when Vinewrath realizes that one of her champions is gone is really nice. Your animators did a good job to transfer emotions on a somewhat emotionless creature like a plant. It reminds me of the Mirage Iboga in Polymock of GW1, who shakes her leaves in delight after she won.

“Plant animator”. Doesn’t sound like a terribly interesting job description at first glance. But only at first glance.

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box! (But really, there isn’t just one boss designer on the Living World as all the designers contribute to the encounters in both design, implementation, and feedback. They all deserve cookies.)

And milk! It’s a sin to eat cookies without milk

I must say devs are better and better with boss design. More mechanics and less HP to tank and spank is definetrly the right way.

I have to agree. The fights are not “stack and spank”. These fights are more designed to break away from that mode. I think ANET took up the challenge and is improvising as the game matures. Without a question, GW2 art is world-class. I have GW2 Wallpapers framed as art in my home office for a reason. I only wish they do away with cutscenes during a boss encounter. But, overall ANET is doing a good job in keeping me entertained. I came back after a 10+ months break and got totally immersed in the game in a day or two.

yea i gotta admit the boss fights have been a lot of fun since the Marionette and all those changes like circles marking thr aoe area and such. Now they need to implement that in 10 men raids (dungeons) or such lol, maybe for the expansion that is rumored hopefully.

Very good fight. Though I have to say, waiting for the other two lanes to finish isn’t really all that fun. The actual fights are awesome but that’s unfortunately only 1/3 of the whole encounter for a lane. The rest is basically waiting and killing mobs that don’t give loot.

Maybe the (very talented) devs could have a look and try to improve in that regard.

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box! (But really, there isn’t just one boss designer on the Living World as all the designers contribute to the encounters in both design, implementation, and feedback. They all deserve cookies.)

Then bravo to the entire team. You guys are getting better and better at these bosses, shifting them from damage sponges to actual, interesting encounters. I have enjoyed kitten near every boss from season 2 both hard and easy and while Vinewrath himself may be a tad on the easy side of them I feel that the encounter is amazingly fun and because of that it makes up for a slight downscale in difficulty. I will happily take an easy, interesting both like Vinewrath or

SPOILER!

The shadow of the dragon from this most recent patch then something that lacks creativity and is incredibly difficult. It’s been a good balance of accomplishment and enjoyment. You can’t sit there, nod off and take a boss down near AFK and at the same time the bosses aren’t in your face, ungodly hard. It accents the story while not depriving you of it.

Yeah I’m really enjoying the new boss fight. It took what was good from the marionette fight and made it a bit more forgiving, but you get great rewards from it which is nice.

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box! (But really, there isn’t just one boss designer on the Living World as all the designers contribute to the encounters in both design, implementation, and feedback. They all deserve cookies.)

All great encounters….unfortunately, 2/3 of those are unavailable to players…such a shame

Zietlogik.6208:

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box! (But really, there isn’t just one boss designer on the Living World as all the designers contribute to the encounters in both design, implementation, and feedback. They all deserve cookies.)

All great encounters….unfortunately, 2/3 of those are unavailable to players…such a shame

Well WoodenPotatos made a REALLY good point, see Anet’s projected earnings are high for june and July, so it’s assumed that might be when we’re getting the “Potential” expansion. So he basicly said. “We need things to do in the mean time, which is perfect for the next segment of SAB” Now none of this is set in stone of course, but it’s to be assumed that they’ve been working on this for months and probably have alot of it polished off I doubt we’ll be seeing a four + month break so we’re going to get a bit of content in the meantime.

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box! (But really, there isn’t just one boss designer on the Living World as all the designers contribute to the encounters in both design, implementation, and feedback. They all deserve cookies.)

I guess that is why Vine Wrath has a Marionette feel to it. lanes, lane debuff lockout, limited fails.

What is sad is that it feels like Vine Wrath will be a ghost town in the next week or so because everyone will have gotten their coats and stuff. Rewards for certain bosses like these have to be much better than they are now.

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette….

nothing else needed…i’m excited to play again.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box! (But really, there isn’t just one boss designer on the Living World as all the designers contribute to the encounters in both design, implementation, and feedback. They all deserve cookies.)

I guess that is why Vine Wrath has a Marionette feel to it. lanes, lane debuff lockout, limited fails.

What is sad is that it feels like Vine Wrath will be a ghost town in the next week or so because everyone will have gotten their coats and stuff. Rewards for certain bosses like these have to be much better than they are now.

the obvious/but permanent flaw that GW2 has. farming easy things is always greatly more monetarily efficient than doing challenging “chest events”.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

I guess that is why Vine Wrath has a Marionette feel to it. lanes, lane debuff lockout, limited fails.

What is sad is that it feels like Vine Wrath will be a ghost town in the next week or so because everyone will have gotten their coats and stuff. Rewards for certain bosses like these have to be much better than they are now.

This is true, once players have all they need/want they move on. Personally, I think the only way to address the “ghost town” problem is instances. But then of course, the epic feel of taking down a big boss with an army of players will be lost. So in other words, Anet’s hands are tied.

We as players must adapt to the current system, I suppose. Basically, get it while it’s hot. Play and play alot during the 1st week or you sneeze, you lose. Content nowadays are added permanently to the game, so it’s playable whenever. Playable does not equate to being able to defeat the boss or get the loot. Big bosses such marionette or vinewrath requires much players to attend. Once attendance is covered, only then do we start with strategies and know-hows.

I think Vine will still have a place. We still do teq and worm. Even shatter and shadow behemoth are done on regular basis. This boss is very engaging, has a good loot haul and is entertaining to say the least, I doubt we’ll see vinewrath dead any time soon.

Very nice fights, it took me a while to know what to do at every boss type. But I kinda loved it that way.

Some fights in the lanes where a bit too much for my taste. Due to health scaling through the roof some of these champs and even vets and normal foes had wayyyy too much health.

If there’s one thing that’s consistently improved, it’s boss encounters. Pretty much every boss encounter in S2 has been good.

For the record, I really enjoyed the Shadow of the Dragon fight in the latest ep, too.

Lishtenbird.2814:

I found the “new marionette” to be too easy. While the original required a lot of coordination and felt like a raid event where each player mattered (and yes, as a result was susceptible to trolling and noob failing), this one feels zergy like all other current world bosses: spam skills, spam more skills, spam skills again, wait for others to finish, collect loot.

Meh. The original didn’t require coordination. Where it broke down was that one could not help struggling platforms from others that finished early. As such, 5 people could mess up a entire lane outcome.

Anet I don’t care if you copied some aspects of Marionette for the Vinewrath my most favorite boss event is still and may always remain the Marionette and she’s gone q—q

I like the Vinewrath fight a lot. It took all of the good bits from the Marionette fight, but left out the annoying parts (how people in your lane could not help weaker platforms, meaning that you could have 4 platforms absolutely crush their Champion, but then watch helplessly as the 5th platform screws up and the entire lane fails). This new system means that EVERYBODY in the lane had to screw up for the fight to fail, so it’s not just down to a few individuals.

The one thing Marionette did better though? The music. It felt SO much more epic fighting the Marionette thanks to the music, as well as the Marionette’s attacks. In contrast, the Vinewrath’s attacks aren’t very well telegraphed (outside of its special attacks) and gives the impression that it’s a largely passive participant in the entire fight, rather than the primary objective we are trying to destroy.

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box!

Wait, she did BOTH marionette AND Super Adventure Box???

I want Heart of Thorns to be enteirely designed be her! Marionette, SAB and Vinewrath are/were the best bosses/features ever released in PvE so far.

Creator of the Marionette gets all of the karma!cookies.
Hopefully she’ll design Raids for HoT.

Frenk.5917:

Crystal Reid.2481:

The designer behind the Vinewraith was Lisa Davis. You might remember her from such releases such as the Marionette, and Super Adventure Box!

Wait, she did BOTH marionette AND Super Adventure Box???

I want Heart of Thorns to be enteirely designed be her! Marionette, SAB and Vinewrath are/were the best bosses/features ever released in PvE so far.

Seconded.

Youre looking for how to make an expansion people will enjoy playing. Lisa Davis obviously understands what we want to play.

Meet the Super Adventure Box team!

It’s definitely one of the more interesting world bosses.

What I found interesting is that it has the mechanics of a megaboss but the failure tolerance is so high most PuGs can figure out their mistakes in time to beat the boss. So in a sense it’s kind of training megaboss you can use to prepare the community for tougher content.

Personally I’m still holding out the next megaboss but hopefully this is a stepping stone so a difficultly spike to Teq or TT level difficultly isn’t as steep.