Boss Mechanics

[~WhiteFang 0]

I'd like to poll the community for their opinion on "boss mechanics", do you like to have unique/special boss mechanics in helbreath?

If you do, feel free to tell us what kind of mechanics you're looking for.

If you don't feel like it, explain us why you wouldn't want any specific/unique mechanics in helbreath.

 

To clearify what I mean with "boss mechanics" I'll briefly show the tip of the iceberg of an idea that has been floating around to possibly come to nemesis.

Boss mechanics could be monsters that perform specific abilities or use specific armors and spells in a certain way.

For example a boss mob could be offensive at the start of a battle, but once you drop its health below a certain threshold (e.g. 50%) the mob will change strategy and fight you in a different way.

It could be that the mob fights offensive using magic spells, once it drops below 50% hp it goes defensive and starts using a merien shield for example.

 

Another mechanic could be that a boss mob spawns additional monsters (in game-terms often called "adds") to aid it in battle and effectively makes it slightly harder to actually kill the boss mob as the adds could possibly deal significant damage, be irritating/aggrevating, cast protection spells on the boss or even completely change mechanics where you'd be required to kill adds before you can continue killing the boss mob.

[DamaBlanca 0]

I think its better atm putt all legendary , capitain and some like that meen while ppl come to play with that you can get a little chance to get more drops and more exp thats the ppl looking for

[~WhiteFang 0]

I think its better atm putt all legendary , capitain and some like that meen while ppl come to play with that you can get a little chance to get more drops and more exp thats the ppl looking for

 

The ranked mobs fitted perfectly for halloween, but putting them out in others areas their coloring is not actually that fitting for their environments. I like to change their coloring to be different or another clear way showing that these mobs are stronger than usually.

[alkaholik 0]

new monsters would be nice, but special abilities like merien shield would be really awkward when the mob is almost dead and suddenly activates that... its already tough hunting runners and the ones with the rampage mode which can hit you 6 times in 1 second and chasing you at mad speed.

 

i like the monsters-abilities but not the defending-activation idea, he could frozze in a 10x10 radius when low hp at MCW rate (10 seconds) or icesword rate (30 seconds) or when he droped to 5% HP just activate an AURA of freezing or poisoning which lasts until the mob is dead, in cases the mob regains AT LEAST 10% of his HP the aura would shutdown, if this mobs have more HP than an HC or TW they also should have more chances at secondary DROPRATE as it would be a pain in the *censored* to bring em down while all the team is frozzen or maybe poisoned but an upgraded version of the Critical Poisonous (some ppl have no pr and it can be a pain in the butt for them but not 100% deadly).

 

i like the idea about spawning little minions when low hp but they should be bothersome and not deadly (IE: being able to super-stun instead of actually kill somebody, just to make the hunt harder).

 

i voted for Yes but we need to look deep inside the idea for not messing with the PvM system thus messing with the players.

Edited March 17, 2014 by alkaholik

[DamaBlanca 0]

 

I think its better atm putt all legendary , capitain and some like that meen while ppl come to play with that you can get a little chance to get more drops and more exp thats the ppl looking for

 

The ranked mobs fitted perfectly for halloween, but putting them out in others areas their coloring is not actually that fitting for their environments. I like to change their coloring to be different or another clear way showing that these mobs are stronger than usually.

 

 

Or maybe spawn 1 for month in aleatory map can get results

[~WhiteFang 0]

new monsters would be nice, but special abilities like merien shield would be really awkward when the mob is almost dead and suddenly activates that... its already tough hunting runners and the ones with the rampage mode which can hit you 6 times in 1 second and chasing you at mad speed.

 

i like the monsters-abilities but not the defending-activation idea, he could frozze in a 10x10 radius when low hp at MCW rate (10 seconds) or icesword rate (30 seconds) or when he droped to 5% HP just activate an AURA of freezing or poisoning which lasts until the mob is dead, in cases the mob regains AT LEAST 10% of his HP the aura would shutdown, if this mobs have more HP than an HC or TW they also should have more chances at secondary DROPRATE as it would be a pain in the *censored* to bring em down while all the team is frozzen or maybe poisoned but an upgraded version of the Critical Poisonous (some ppl have no pr and it can be a pain in the butt for them but not 100% deadly).

 

i like the idea about spawning little minions when low hp but they should be bothersome and not deadly (IE: being able to super-stun instead of actually kill somebody, just to make the hunt harder).

 

i voted for Yes but we need to look deep inside the idea for not messing with the PvM system thus messing with the players.

 

Interesting ideas and opinion here.

 

I've noticed that in many major mmo's such special abilities often are pre-seeded with a warning of some kind, either that be an attack animation stopping, a text being shouted or a visual effect being added. These warnings clearly show the players what's about to come, so they can prepare for it accordingly. So if the effect be a large area freeze, poison or an item-activation, a warning was given making it possible to act accordingly (run away, equip anti-poison gear, stop attacking, etc...)

 

Minions are meant to be supportive to the boss and should be seen as "part of the boss" as a whole. As bosses who have minions under their control are effectively harder than without them, the minions could drops their own unique items and/or the boss could have increased drop rate as the overall difficulty is higher, and drop rates are based on the difficulty of the enemy, whether that be a single mob, or a mob with minions.

Usually minions aren't deadly if you kill them as they spawn, while not killing them and solidly focusing on the boss could prove them being deadly, especially if they overwhelm you in numbers or simply you losing hp at a faster rate than you can (be) healed. This mechanic would rather prove overwhelming when trying to solo a boss, but the task becomes easier of you duo the boss where one could focus on dpsing the boss while the other could focus on minions. Essentially that can be translated from small-scale bosses to large scale bosses with big-*censored* minions or huge numbers of minions.

 

I especially liked the ideas of freezing and poisoning areas aswell as para'ing.

 

To give you a more details idea, I've quickly taken an extract from a larger concept in which boss mechanics would/could be featured.

The draft I have up now has mechanics as following:

 

While the rift summoner is hostile he will spawn a number of rift defenders (depends on number of players present with a minimum of 1 being spawned) every 60 seconds.

 

Rift Summoner: Close to the power of a demon but has a lot more Health.

Rift Defender: Close to the power of Ogre and Werewolfs, slightly stronger maybe closer to MT-Giant and Ettin. Perhaps the power of stalker sounds right. - Keep in mind that players will fight 1 or more defenders every X seconds.

 

Rift Summoner Mechanics:

- HP > 50% -> Offensive strategy (= Magic over Physical AI, casting magic spells)

- HP 25%~50% -> Defensive strategy (= Physical only, no more magic casting, merien shield mechanics)

-- Merien Shield mechanics: Enemy equips merien shield, 5 sec after equiping it'll activate the merien shield for 15 seconds then unequips it again until the cooldown of 60 seconds is passed.

- HP < 25% -> Retreat strategy (= 1-step runner AI, no more magic casting, increase merien shield mechanics: 25 seconds with 45 seconds cooldown)

 

Rift Defender Mechanics:

- HP > 50% -> Offensive strategy (= Physical damage, high search ratio)

- HP 25%~50% -> Break strategy (= merien plate mechanics)

-- Merien Plate mechanics: Enemy equips merien plate, 5 sec after equiping it'll activate the merien plate for 5 seconds, then unequips it again until cooldown of 45 seconds is passed.

- HP < 25% -> Rampaging strategy (= Rampaging AI, increased merien plate mechanics: 10 sec, 30 sec cooldown)

 

* Note: Keep in mind that this is solidly a DRAFT, nothing is permanently determined, it hasn't even been tested at all if the described powers or mechanics give the desired game-play effect.