Boss Battle Mechanics In Story Mode

[Ashianyl.5917]

I just finished the PoF story. I hated it. Not the story itself, but the boss fight mechanics which were not intuitive and required a google search to see how others would win the fight. Take Balthazar's fight for example - there is so much special effects going on that I couldn't even see the blue circle I was supposed to go towards to coordinate with Aurene to break Balthazar's shield. And I couldn't see the chains that bound Aurene in the subsequent rounds and didn't realize I had to break those. I was also confused initially by the dialogue - stay close to me, Aurene? So I just stuck close to Aurene and missed the fact that I had to be on the opposite side of the shield to break it.

Same thing with the Souleater nonsense. What on earth possessed your designers to make such an impossible boss fight that required us players to go online to watch youtube videos to exploit a wall glitch just to win the fight?

[RoseofGilead.8907]

I will agree that the Aurene combined attack is not intuitive or obvious if you haven't played through Living World Season 3 or don't remember the early parts of Season 3. Back in one of the early episodes of Season 3, we learn to use that attack in one of the instances. So I, as a person who did remember it, didn't have any trouble realizing "Oh, it's that mechanic again" when the circle appeared. I didn't have trouble noticing the chains, personally, but I suppose I could see how someone could miss it at first.

But Souleater doesn't require glitching it, especially not since it was fixed. Before the fix, it was difficult for certain players or for certain classes because it would do things it wasn't supposed to do (and had a much shorter duration where you could CC his breakbar). But now, all it takes is just paying some attention. For future reference: bring some CC to stop him from doing his life steal move, or just dodge away from him as quickly as possible to shorten its duration.

[Fluffball.8307]

I completed both of those instances on the first try with no trouble or googling. That's not bragging, that's proving a point that your experience is not universal.

I'm not sure why you had so much trouble, but hopefully you were able to become a better player from the challenges. Since you bugged one of the fights out rather than doing it the right way, I'm not sure you learned.

[Lunarlife.5128]

What class did you play Fluff, with what gear?

[Fluffball.8307]

@Lunarlife.5128 said:What class did you play Fluff, with what gear?

Zerker druid, although I think that's pretty meaningless. I'll likely eventually do it on all my characters, just ranger is my main.

[Ashianyl.5917]

@Fluffball.8307 said:Yes, I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I was responding to this line:

What on earth possessed your designers to make such an impossible boss fight that required us players to go online to watch youtube videos to exploit a wall glitch just to win the fight?

You were not required to google or glitch to win the fights, you choose to. And since you didn't rise to the challenge yourself, you'll probably have the same complaints next time you are challenged in the game.

There usually isn't a way to respond to these types of threads in a helpful manner, I think you just want to complain publicly. Every now and then someone will take me up on an offer for help or accept a challenge and learn, but often people just get called elitists for pointing out they didn't fail.

I experienced that fight prior to the patch where the CC was unbreakable. I wasn't aware that it wasn't the intended experience and that Anet has patched it. I take back that part of my criticism.

Anyway, I'm not going to argue with you. I believe there's a legitimate problem in the way the mechanics are telegraphed in the final Balthazar fight that isn't obvious. That criticism was for the devs to take notice. I understand that I'll be labelled 'the lowest possible denominator' for stating it, but I'll just leave the comments as a genuine feedback even if you and others like you do not agree to what I have to say about the game.

[Haishao.6851]

@Ashianyl.5917 said:

@RoseofGilead.8907 said:I will agree that the Aurene combined attack is not intuitive or obvious if you haven't played through Living World Season 3 or don't remember the early parts of Season 3. Back in one of the early episodes of Season 3, we learn to use that attack in one of the instances. So I, as a person who did remember it, didn't have any trouble realizing "Oh, it's that mechanic again" when the circle appeared. I didn't have trouble noticing the chains, personally, but I suppose I could see how someone could miss it at first.

But Souleater doesn't require glitching it, especially not since it was fixed. Before the fix, it was difficult for certain players or for certain classes because it would do things it wasn't supposed to do (and had a much shorter duration where you could CC his breakbar). But now, all it takes is just paying some attention. For future reference: bring some CC to stop him from doing his life steal move, or just dodge away from him as quickly as possible to shorten its duration.

I probably played the souleater part prior to the patch then. I had a lot of CC on my weaver. It didn't dent his CC bar.

I find that hard to believe. Either you didn't have CC, only had soft CC, or used them at the wrong time.I played the mission 3 times before the patch and never had an issue breaking its bar with a single CC.

@Ashianyl.5917 said:

I experienced that fight prior to the patch where the CC was unbreakable. I wasn't aware that it wasn't the intended experience and that Anet has patched it. I take back that part of my criticism.

There was never a time its defiance bar was unbreakable. The only change they did to the defiance bar is making it 0.5 second longer.The other changes were to make him drain less HP and to stop make it drain from minions and pets.

As for Balthazar fight, it feel a bit chaotic at first but it's not so bad. Mechanics are very clear with pretty obvious visual and audio cue for what and when to do things.I will agree that noticing Aurene in chain the first time was maybe a bit less obvious, especially if she got underneath Balthazar and the small red arrow on top of other red stuff isn't that helpful. It could have been green, to stand out. But it does say on screen "Aurene is trapped by Balthazar's Grasp" so it's kinda obvious she needs help.The blue circle is exactly how you train with her during season 3. Even without having done season 3 it should be obvious enough to stand in there. If not then you die and try again, when you figure it out you just do it again the 2 other time.

[Fluffball.8307]

No one is arguing with you, calm down.

The cc bar was always breakable as far as I know. I also fought it pre patch. The "intended" mechanic was and I assume still is to use a single cc to interrupt the heal. That's all you had to do to win the fight.

[Shirlias.8104]

It can happen everytime you see a different mob you don't know its animations.You have to learn and think in order to defeat and next time anticipate it.Same goes with a boss fight ( though they are pretty easy in pof story, they do have some mechanics ).

For Balthazar ie, you probably happened to see that aurene were blocked and needed help, and after she was set free a moderately wide flashy blue spot appeared near the boss.

Here's the situation:

1. Infinite red aoe spots, you probably have to avoid em. i mean, if they cover all the ground you are definitely going to avoid em cause they will not safe zones.
2. 1 single blue spot during a fight with an invulnerable boss could be worth a shot. Go for it and see what happens ( if goes wrong, you can dodge/immune/block/evade/blink/whatever ).

I don't see many ways of interpretation.