Buff the Shadow Behemoth world boss.

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

2 minutes ago, Zephire.8049 said:

There also has to be consideration for player retention and making the first world boss people come across too punishing doesn't help with retention, especially with GW2 billing itself as a casual-friendly MMO. You can scale things up when it comes to difficulty and mechanics, but a game really only has one shot at a good first impression and if someone's first experience is eating dirt because a starter boss was tuned more for veteran players than newbies, why would they stick around when there are other games they can play for free that don't essentially insult them for the grave sin of being new?

 

100% this and well said.

[unknowable.8470]

People are saying that Shadow Behemoth does damage... I didn't notice damage on low level characters even before the release of HoT and healing specs (I was introducing friends to the game at the time and wanted to show off the visuals of the event).

I will have to go back there but I am pretty sure its red circles are 5 target capped. I will go back and record a video on a level 3 character and stay towards the back of the zerg though.

I get what people are saying though, it isn't about making it hard content but rather just doing justice thematically. Even if they had it deal percentage based damage (which from raids we know is something they can do) they could handle it in such a way that it didn't actually present a threat to players while still appearing as a threat. This is something I have learned is important to manage in years of GMing ttrpgs, having people feel threatened but not actually beating them down.

As for the other world bosses in starter zones:
- Jungle Worm does hit players and can knock back.
- Fire Elemental does hit players (unfortunately there is a cheese spot that was never fixed and is even easier to get up on now thanks to mounts).
- Svarnir Shaman sadly all the mechanics are far away from the boss or easily mitigated. I know people who didn't even realise there was a giant ice elemental behind the shaman -laughs-

Nothing in early zones should be THAT sedentary, it should be there to excite players and have them thinking "that was cool" not "oh, this is what visually impressive stuff is like in GW2, ah...". Complex no, hard certainly not, engaging with basic movement and requiring dodge or heal absolutely.

[Sobx.1758]

9 hours ago, lokh.2695 said:

tl,dr: Maybe if early world bosses were machanically a bit more challenging, players would become more proficient in the game mechanics and would be better prepared for later encounters. Nothing life-threatening, just a well telegraphed attack with a cc bar attached to it, that the zerg has to break to prevent taking a hit, big enough to feel but not big enough to oneshot players with 20% or more health. No one wants to bring the horrors of Fractal CMs into starter zones.

Or maybe you can leave that for later zones instead of the starting one, where players unlock their weapon skills one-by-one to slowly get into the game. For all we see, the leveling process 0-80 is pretty much part of the tutorial with all the pop-ups [that explain mechanics] people get on the way, so maaaaaybe it would be better to start worrying about "players becoming more proficient in the game mechanics" at higher levels instead of pretending the 0-15 zone bosses needs a rework because stacked players comming back there don't feel like it's threatening enough.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Sobx.1758

[Blude.6812]

19 hours ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

I get that it's the new player area, but that thing SCREAMS at you while you're facing its massive frightening head and you take 0 damage from it. Nothing happens.

The damage doesn't have to be lethal. It doesn't even have to remove more than 1/5 of my health. But I'd like to take some damage during that encounter so that I may feel like that massive, epic looking monster that's the size of a building is actually a threat to me. 

Something as simple as some AoE poisonous bolts would be enough. You know, something. 

Nah, if you find it so easy/bad etc., don't bother with it any. No need to change it just for you.

 

[Astralporing.1957]

18 hours ago, FrigginPaco.4178 said:

Let me be clear, I'm looking for an example of a thing that got buffed, not the outcry. Like you say, there's always a group of us players who'd like generally harder overworld content, but since when have things actually been buffed in recent times?

Well, there's Tequatl and Shatterer. New Tequatl became okay only half a year of following nerfs, and Shatterer still has some problems that should have been fixed, but probably will never be, because devs no longer care. Also, i don;t generally like how most of the new boss fights turned out. As such, i'd rather they didn't mess with more of the old bosses.

 

Also, if you want to see why Shadow Behemoth should be left alone, try to do it when it's not daily, and without a number of veteran players around. I often end up doing him on my key runs, and let me tell you that on off hours, with only ~10 low level people around, things can get weird. I remember running out of time on him more than once, for example.

[DarcShriek.5829]

Maybe the OP should find a place other than starter areas to hang out in.

[Hesione.9412]

It would be nice if there were bosses that taught players to dodge.

 

I see lots of dead bodies every time I do an AB meta and go down afterwards to fight this: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tarnished_Traitor

[unknowable.8470]

3 hours ago, Hesione.9412 said:

It would be nice if there were bosses that taught players to dodge.

 

I see lots of dead bodies every time I do an AB meta and go down afterwards to fight this: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tarnished_Traitor

That is mostly because framerates can hit single digits imo, couple that with ping issues and the sheer number of circles that are created and I don't blame in the slightest people for going down there. 

[Hesione.9412]

2 hours ago, unknowable.8470 said:

That is mostly because framerates can hit single digits imo, couple that with ping issues and the sheer number of circles that are created and I don't blame in the slightest people for going down there. 

I'm in OCX with ping that fluctuates between 250 and 270. My fps drops as well. I have arthritis in two hands, and have problems seeing contrast of orange/yellow AoE circles on orange/yellow floors because of age. I'm not pointing this out for sympathy, I'm pointing this out that, as a slightly better than average player even with these problems, I don't die.

 

I used to get wiped on boneskinner in the first 5 seconds due to ping. I have problems in Dragonstorm due to ping. I have problems in DRMs, even solo, due to ping. I don't die to those tarnished traitor AoEs.

 

Edited to add: I also don't die to the chak gerent donut/falling rock mechanics in TD unless I am particularly unlucky. I see a lot of players die to those, even when I have typed in map chat to avoid the donuts and the orange circles.

 

Shout out to anyone reading this, who was in the same AB meta, when we had a lively and funny map chat over this a couple of days ago.

Edited May 25, 2021 by Hesione.9412

[Astralporing.1957]

6 hours ago, Hesione.9412 said:

It would be nice if there were bosses that taught players to dodge.

 

I see lots of dead bodies every time I do an AB meta and go down afterwards to fight this: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tarnished_Traitor

Tarnished traitor when done in bigger groups has some large visibility issues. The attack that is most often responsible for downing players, for example, sometimes just isn't visible all that well, so it catches people by surprise.