Feedback talk:User/Greep/Dynamic Challenge Boss

Good suggestion. I do like the idea behind this as well as the other recent feedbacks of a similar vein suggesting bosses that spawn in random locations or are unique in one way or another. It gets a little boring to see the exact same monster/boss in the exact same location with the exact same skills that gets farmed to death by the exact same wiki build noobs over, and over, and over. It would be nice to liven things up by throwing in *GASP!* some randomness and challenge into the game.

My only issue with this suggestion is to give the boss a cap such that it doesn't become more powerful than Zaitan, for example. I don't think a random wandering boss - even a tough one - should be more powerful than the end-game boss. I don't think this cap would take away from the terror value of the dynamic boss though. It could still be quite powerful and - in a relative sense - present nearly as great a threat as Zaitan if it happened to spawn in a lower level area.

Kind of reminds me of a monster from my Dungeons & Dragons days (yes, I AM that old) that could never be truly defeated. It was akin to a force of nature in that every 10 years or so it would re-awaken. It could be harmed but never truly killed; reducing its health to zero simply sent it back to sleep/dormancy for another decade. I'm not suggesting this boss only spawn once every 10 years in GW2. Just the concept that it can never be truly killed. Instead, it goes dormant when defeated (maybe for a day or a week?) before respawning again, stronger than the last time.

Also, along the lines of your suggestion that it have a randomized skill set every time it is defeated, make the new skill set dependant (at least in part) on when it spawns. If we go with the whole "immortal-force-of-nature-monster" concept, then the skill set being tied to the time of day and season of its spawning would be consistent with this suggestion. For example, if it spawns at night, perhaps its utility skills can come from the necromancer, thief, and/or mesmer professions. Spawning during the day would give it guardian and/or warrior utility skills. Depending on the season, its weapon skills would be based on ranger and/or elementalist skills (spawns during the Winter it has water ele skills, spawns during the Summer it has fire ele skills, etc.). Lastly, to round out its uniqueness, it would have one or two skills specific to this boss alone.

Perhaps another interesting little twist is it becomes tied in spirit to those who last defeated it. It then will respawn near to the location of one of its previous vanquishers chosen at random. It doesn't have to be right at their exact location; just the vicinity or somewhere near where that player has visited in the last 24 hours. But once spawned, the boss will start wandering throughout the whole world until "defeated" again rather than remaining in one specific area. Now any players who think they're up the challenge of fighting this boss will have to actively hunt for it rather than hearing in chat, "Eek!!! Zog the Destroyer of Worlds is loose in Blazeridge Steppes!". Then every glory hound map jumps to Blazeridge Steppes to fight the boss. Now we're back to static boss farming (of a sort). But with the boss on the move, such players would map jump to Blazeridge Steppes only to find the boss is no longer there. Hmmm? Which way to go? Maybe a swathe of destruction through the surrounding countryside gives clues to Zog's passage.

Even take it another step further and make the boss seek out players who had previously defeated it if they happen to be nearby. It won't make a direct line for a previous opponent from half a continent away while ignoring all others. But if they are within line-of-sight, for example, and the boss has 10 players to choose from to aggro on, it will aggro on the one it has faced in a previous incarnation. Drawn to those who defeated it, bent on revenge, haunting those who have harmed it. And, as it gains in strength with each new spawning, it will become increasingly more difficult to defeat should it meet the same players who had defeated it previously. Guild Wars 3 perhaps 09:22, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Well as for anti-farming, like I said it would only spawn far away from map travel locations, so it could not be farmed. Additionally, and probably a better solution, would be that it quite simply makes a giant forcefield around it that players can exit but not enter. Something like a large ward: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ward . Or depending on the nature of the demon, maybe something like it teleports all people in the vicinity to location that can be exited but not entered. As for whether or not it's harder than Zhaitan, remember Zhaitan will be fought in a dungeon and thus with no more than 5 players. To always open the possibility of the challenge boss being defeated, perhaps it simply doesn't scale or has a max scale of 10. So if a large enough gathering is met, it will be defeated again (or for the unlucky group, maybe not ;)) And even if it's too powerful, it could be balanced by having a rich "losing" reward. And since reward is based on participation, it'd behoove you to at least give it a shot in most cases. Greep 17:16, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Hmm, though the active hunting idea sounds good. I'm just thinking it might be too easy if it wandered close to a large town. It'd take a lot of work to programming a route that avoids them. Greep 17:22, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Dynamic Bosses reminds me to Diablo3... same stuff, different game... I think something like this will de implemented. --Kali Shin Shivara 02:38, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

I am REALLY become fond of this idea, thinking about it more. I think A-Net could EASILY and effectively pull this off by making it a mix of Zaishen Bounty and Nicholas Sandford. Have the boss appear daily/weekly, in a random location, with different skillsets (perhaps that compliment the surrounding area). Here are my thoughts:

• The problem would be if it only appears ONE time during the day, which would put people who are in certain timezones at a disadvantage. This boss sounds like a pretty unique fight, and should not be limited to only a few timezones (in essence due to work, sleep, school, etc.) To make this work, it may work to ALSO add in elements of the OGW Holiday events, such as Wintersday, where every few hours the event would repeat itself. This gives many people many oppurtunities, while still keeping would be farmers at bay.

• Also, to keep the surprise factor, it would have to be a truly RANDOM choice: No schedule for where it would turn up. It would be a massive hunt for the creature, with the entire community (who is interested in finding it) out searching for it, kind off like Nic Sanford is in OGW.

• I would also like to present a different option to your idea and make the fight hot-joinable, where players can join any time during the fight. This would make it more fair and accessible to players.

In conclusion, great idea, I love it! You definantly have my support! Derikvyreflame 02:56, 9 September 2011 (UTC)