TLDR up front: Can’t see when the boss is about to take a big swing because there’s too many spell effects on it. A lot of short-range AOE and melee damage taken in boss fights feels unpredictable. Playing as melee in Scarlett boss fights is frustrating.
Long version:
Damage in a lot of the larger fights, like Scarlett’s Hologram and the generals, is really difficult for me to predict. Frequently, I’ll be in melee range of a boss and suddenly I’ll take roughly a third to half of my life in damage from seemingly out of nowhere. Obviously, I’m dodging out of red circles and watching for wind-up animations, but the animations are especially hard to see due to the boss being covered in dozens of flashy spell and impact effects. Additionally, even when I can see that I’m behind the boss, there will still be short-range AOE spike damage that feels really random which I didn’t see coming.
Also, depending on how many other players are participating, I also have to set my graphics to Best Performance, in which case sometimes the boss’s model has such little detail that I can’t tell what it’s doing at all.
This isn’t unique to this Living Story event, either. This has been an issue for me throughout the game, and I’ve just had to learn the timing of bosses’ incoming damage. But it’s gotten to the point where playing as melee is frustrating because I spend more time dodging out, running away, trying to heal up, then running back in than I do actually hitting things. I love playing both my warrior and my elementalist, but during boss fights my elementalist is much less frustrating to play thanks to being able to stay at range.
Any suggestions on how I can better see when a big attack is coming? Is there a way to turn off or reduce other players’ spell effects? If there isn’t currently a way to do this, Anet, could you put that into the game, please? It’d be much appreciated.
Hit me. I dare you.