Bluu
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I'd give this fight a solid 7.5/10. I enjoyed it a lot and had a lot of fun playing it. Thoughts on the Old Man of the Wastes:
- The Old Man of the Wastes is a well-designed boss imo. I really like the two distinct phases that play into each other, the unique attack conditions, the RNG split telegraphs, etc. This makes him a dynamic and interesting boss that plays the fight differently each time. I'll admit it was rather frustrating while I was playing it, but in hindsight, it did actually challenge me in a unique and interesting way and that's kind of the reason I play these fights.
- The Old Man's presentation is fantastic. If AQW assets are to be reused, then the Blade Master monster model is easily one of the better assets to reuse, and this one takes it a step further from Kitsune by actually incorporating Ninja tactics into his skillset. He plays like he was designed for espionage, with autocrit lifesteal attacks to erase your progress and build his own progress towards his nukes, and him nuking you at moments he considers opportune whilst himself being safe most of the time, even his camouflage with the environment and choice to hide behind his student do a lot to create a vibe of a wise, ancient mentor with a lot of experience.
- The Old Man's mechanic of empowering Kinnar's basic attack by allowing it to hit twice (therefore doubling the debuff it can inflict) is a really good addition to the duo fight and really helps with the storytelling, about how much stronger Kinnar was under the guidance of the Old Man despite the Old Man not considering him to be a worthy student. It does have the unfortunate effect of making Kinnar easier once the old man dies, but Kinnar has his own set of problems that I will get to soon.
- I do think that the 1200% w/ +100 Bonus +200 Crit Stone nuke that he uses if he uses a nuke in two consecutive rotations is a little strong and could have done with reduced damage given that the Solid effect is already tacked onto it to disrupt the player. I would also appreciate if bosses like this used Tomix and Drakonnan's Base Bonus formula (~58 at level 90) but I understand that having lower base bonus does create variance in the fight and that the player is at the liberty to use lower MPM items like Chaotic Blade of Swordhaven to naturally reduce the chance of him missing too often - as an example, when you're planning for him to use the nuke on a specific turn because it allows you to stall one more turn for your shield to come back and eat a debuff instead.
- I will also take a moment to complain that it is quite annoying to keep track of his successful hits and when he will nuke given that you also have to consider Solidifying for this boss as well as a partner that spams stuns and stacking debuffs. If not a status or a popup or a log entry, then maybe a slight visual indicator like Jaania's gears would help keep track of the fight and avoid the player from feeling bad about dying to it because they couldn't keep track of everything in their heads. Like, you do get better at it with a few attempts or you just have a bulletproof strategy, but it feels better in the prep phase if you can exactly pinpoint to and diagnose the problem.
As for Kinnar, the Unifier:
- Not a fan of this boss and see this as more of a template for future usage of a mechanic that has needed consideration for a while: the mana bar. I really like the usage of the mana bar in this fight as compared to other bosses with barrier mechanics (like Kartherax and Zorbak) that display the barrier health as a popup. The mana bar is a much cleaner location for such information and presents it to the player much more conveniently. I really appreciate this technology and would like to see it used in the future!
- However, the actual implementation of the Mana Barrier is not very fun to play against. When tackling the Old Man first, Kinnar is potentially going to fill up his mana bar and get 1.5x effective HP for half the fight once the Old Man goes down, which actually creates a great dichotomy wherein you are encouraged to take the unsafe route of leaving the Old Man for last just to get done with the fight quickly or to stall it out patiently and eventually win with the safe path. However, I don't think that the Mana Barrier should have absorbed 100% of the damage done to Kinnar's HP. It would feel better to fight against if it only absorbed say 60% of the damage dealt to Kinnar's HP, so you felt like you were still making some progress whilst chipping down the brick wall.
- The boss is too unthreatening in the entire period that you try to take him down which really drags out the fight and makes it feel like a slog. It would have tied the boss together for him to be able to consume a portion of his stored-up mana during one of his nuke attacks to not only add an extra threat for when he becomes bulkier but to also naturally reduce his bulk and spice up the fight rather than drag it out. Perhaps if his MP% is greater than his HP%, he would panic and convert the difference into damage while setting up the barrier or while taking it down.
- Kinnar is certainly very annoying, but not a challenging boss to fight. I really dislike the rate at which the Immobility debuff stacks (-20 per basic attack hit) because it feels too restrictive and overkill. I understand the need to have a high initial debuff value such that the debuff has any meaning though - which is why I would've personally added an intercept to the function and lowered the rate, say -(40+8X) Immobility, though a method to reduce the Stormcrushed stacks manually would have helped as well. However, I do appreciate how it stacks with the -All debuff and interchanges with it as the rotation shifts. This makes it feel like the boss has somewhat of a gameplan by trying to stun you with a high -Immo debuff, then swapping that out for -All and nuking you, although his fairly low damage output kinda gets in the way of that.
Overall, the Old Man of the Wastes is a fantastic boss and Kinnar is a good boss in concept but not in execution, which slightly drags down the fight. However, this is a very enjoyable experience and I am glad that the past string of inn challenges has been so strong.
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