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trey1232 -> RE: Boss Difficulty Discussion (7/8/2014 21:20:08)
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Let me start by saying that I am a DA-holder who uses Riftwalker for almost every battle. I agree with others saying that the bosses are definitely difficult without access to DA content (how I would have beaten Dr. When without my dragon and Rolith to soak up damage, I will never know). Here is how I understand it so far (correct me if I am wrong):
1) No one wants "harder" bosses to be more hp/less damage tanks since it would just be more of what there is now.
2) Bosses the likes of Mysterious G. are too difficult for the casual gamers of DragonFable just in it for the story, but are welcome relief from the steamrolling high-level DA-holders do for most of the game.
To the above I would suggest a similar button to "Let a DragonLord handle it," allowing casual players to skip the boss (at the cost of quest drops, perhaps), but still get on with the story. That, or many of the other ideas already suggested
I will say that I have never fought Baron Jaysun Valrith (missed the 13th event), and heard of Manacrest for the first time here. From the stories I am hearing, Valrith seems like a weakened Wargoth (the unbeatable boss in the Wrath of Wargoth war), maybe lacking the amount of raw damage and healing power Wargoth puts out, but still has the annoying stun. This stun is probably the only thing I have a problem with. I mean, it is one thing to have a monster reduce your bonus to hit with an outrageously low number, making you incapable of *easily* landing a hit; but it is another thing entirely to lose a turn and not be able to do anything at all. The first allows you to buff yourself in order to make up for the momentary loss of damage, or perhaps use a potion. The other, when used too often, is like starting off the battle with 1/4 to 1/2 of your health gone. I feel like chain-stunning should be reserved for VERY difficult/unbeatable bosses, to represent that beating this monster is impossible, or merely for bragging rights.
As for suggestions for change, it seems like most of the good ones have been taken already... Perhaps, instead of a flat-out "easy mode," there could be some set difficulty for bosses that decreases with every subsequent loss, like Kid Icarus Uprising. Perhaps more variations to the boss' themselves would help as well. I especially liked how in Book 3, Z was nigh untouchable until you defeated the goons with him, and I also liked Guffer (Yaga Stone Circle Boss), whose difficulty tied into the remaining amount of monsters. Either that, or have monsters who specifically counter certain player strategies (Titan Wargoth and his debuff preventing the use of the powerful Bacon primal, Mysterious G. and his mana-burning attack, Sepulchure and his increased everything for switching items come to mind).
I am somewhat surprised Titan-battles haven't come up in this discussion, but I feel that they are slightly better off difficulty-wise than the bosses we face on foot because there is already variation between many of them. This is likely because they appear at the end of quest chains. I liked how many of the titan battles gave you guests that significantly altered the course of battle (Aquella, Sepulchure, the Professor), guest that, if defeated, you would lose the battle with almost definite certainty. Perhaps we need something similar for normal boss battles.
From what I understand, boss difficulty here means how far the player must deviate from their basic attack order (as a warrior, it tended towards stun -> power -> warcry -> double -> triple -> defend -> final -> repeat, and as a Riftwalker power -> warcry -> double -> triple -> final -> repeat if not dead by the first move) in order to defeat a boss. Aside from the bosses already mentioned in this thread, and those at the end of the primal quests, I cannot think of any beatable boss that caused me to deviate heavily from this while playing (level 63 Riftwalker who takes Rolith and a fully trained dragon on just about every non-Book 3 adventure with health/mana potions at about 480/~150 (usually unnecessary) and a beastmaster build for perspective).
Thinking about being a non-DA here: the sheer thought of being restricted to the left side of any class while taking on a boss the likes of Dr. When sends shivers down my spine. If I were a free player faced with that, and was told that this were to continue for every boss thereafter, I probably would have put down this game forever.
Apologies if I veered off-topic.
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