Make Raiding Special Again (Babbling Ideas)

ArchivedUser

I don't think there has ever been a raid across all MMOs that have really given the "OMG" effect from pure mechanics and environment. Looking back at WoW the big cool raids are only cool because of the lore behind the character players are downing and yet lack in anything truely innovating mechanic wise (yes yes old engine blah blah).

I think you guys truly have the design and imagination to change raiding for the better. I want to see a group of 5+ (dunno raid numbers) grown men and woman absolutely crap themselves in a dark shadowy cave barely lit, not knowing what to expect then BOOM this huge roar and huge boss just starts on you.

Having walk into a room and have the boss sat there in front of you watching you sharpen your blades and buff up really takes the excitement away. It needs to be spontaneous. Have the boss spawn from different areas of a room or area etc. upon different runs.

It would be cool to be walking along a frozen lake and the raid has to separate or it'll crack and you fall through = death. Imagine the environment around that lake, nothing but frozen waste, everything dead and being silent, only the wind blowing snow along the frozen floor can be heard and as you place a foot down this deafening crack just makes your heart pause and in a second the boss will erupt from beneath you smashing through the ice throwing you back and taking everyone by surprise (Noise meter or something you have to keep under a certain limit).   

Think Zelda bosses the sick intros that had you on the edge of your seat you know something was coming as you walk around the empty area and WHAM boss baby. Even Dark Souls.

Boss Mechanics wise ust don't fall into the usual of re-using and mix matching boss mechanics over and over players will pick up on that in a heart beat. 

We all believe in you! 

Shout off below what you think could change Raiding as a whole for the better

ArchivedUser

if they have raids that our based on the weather so the mechanics change or if raids have no difficultly mode but bosses are just difficult or  have there own challenge system  the reason being if you can't do it you can't do it simple don't nerf or complain learn tactics or get better gear. mmorpgs of old just nerf the raids to the bone that pisses me off.

ArchivedUser

The beautiful thing about ashes is its node based rather than team based.
In a typical game teams are isolated and have little to no impact on each others future.
Where there is any interplay, it has nearly always been competitive rather than collaborative.

Ashes opens up a whole new meaning to the term Raids. Where mutiple teams of different sizes and playstyles can be given a node quest that must be run in parallel in a lock and key system that can happen at different sides of the map. But instead of doing this to advance personal progress or even team progress...you are instead advancing node progress.

Raids....pfft....I laugh at such things in comparison to what ashes enables. I am waiting for Intrepid to redefine the term EPIC ADVENTURE!

ArchivedUser

I've been in raid guilds in almost a dozen MMO's, and I can say in all honest, WoW raid encounters in general are shit.

The game started off ok - though not great - and went downhill from there. Another game released at about the same time, EQ2, started off also ok, but drasticaaly improved year upon year. It helped that the combat mechanics in EQ2 are far more complex than WoW, allowing for more diversity, but the design of the encounters was also far superior.

EQ2's Theer is a raid mob every developer that is designing a raid boss should be aware of - especially the four rune version.

If the PvE raiding portion of this game takes queues from EQ2 more than WoW, I for one will be happy here.

ArchivedUser

Ok so i was going to make a separate post on this but i guess i'll do it here. Not sure if devs will take this suggestion but heres something i really wanna see.

A labyrinth raid: As the name suggests, a complex labyrinth thats extremely difficult to complete because no one has a map. (also make a few dozen variations of the labyrinth. don't want any hardcore gamers figuring the map out and posting it online. Reall just takes away from the adventure). And heres the cool thing. No group of monsters in the raid. Just occasional boss level minotaurs are encountered at dead ends. Treasure chests with rare gear can be found or treasure chests with a monster inside. And the main difficulty factor will be puzzles and traps. No straight running around in the labyrinth. You run out recklessly you die PERIOD. Tons of traps that require careful maneuvering or dodging. And at the very center of the maze is... NO FINAL BOSS!!! Yeah at the center will be a group of 20 AI controlled players. Same classes as we've been given to play as. Of course there will be variety of classes and they can change since theres 64 of them. And the 20 AI controlled players will use their abilities in the best possible sequence for best synergy. This sequence will be decided by devs but the pattern will always be the same to compliment each others abilities so defeating them is extremely difficult but not impossible if you counter the pattern. The only advantage actual players get is the fact that 40 man raids are supposed to be a thing. So 40 players fighting 20 AI controlled players with the best ability sequence. Of courses actual players will be weakened by everything in the maze if they can't find the center fast enough and run into too many traps.

ArchivedUser

i used to draw my own maps of lower guk and upper guk...HEY! i'm a frog i remember these things

ArchivedUser

Someone on forum posted about open boss room. Like in SAO. If someone fighting with boss. (boss room 10/20 persone) Another 10 person can easly come and help you, but Can't escape until boss is defeated.

And Most of dungeons will be placed in open world without closed instantions. What will be interesting. When you fighting with boss someone gank you.

I am sure they will do something awesome if we are talking about showing boss in dungeon.

ArchivedUser

Rainer said:

Someone on forum posted about open boss room. Like in SAO. If someone fighting with boss. (boss room 10/20 persone) Another 10 person can easly come and help you, but Can't escape until boss is defeated.

And Most of dungeons will be placed in open world without closed instantions. What will be interesting. When you fighting with boss someone gank you.

I am sure they will do something awesome if we are talking about showing boss in dungeon.

Getting ganked in a boss fight would be a pain. So maybe have the boss heal for every player killed by another player. That way good players will make sure to leave their enemies low instead of finishing and let the boss do the cleanup then they can kill the boss themselves?

ArchivedUser

FFXI had an aspect of this in HNM's. High level monsters that had up to 72hr spawn timers in the open world, dropping some of the best gear in the game at the time. Guilds used to learn the time of death and camp these things around the clock. Because they were in the open world, other guilds used to turn and some of the more disreputable ones would pull adds into you while you were fighting to try to get you to wipe so they could claim the monster.

I love raiding and agree with the OP that it would be great to see something awesome and new. I'm a huge fan of mechanics that make you think and plan to win the fight, not just throw 40 people at a boss and pound it into the ground.

I've seen raids in other game that split the party and make them complete separate but linked things in order to progress and its an interesting way to go and definitely makes more interesting.

ArchivedUser

Good boss fights should have various mechanics but nothing too over the top. The mechanics should be complex but not be impossible to coordinate. Their should be no element of rng and definatly nothing that can just one shot you for no reason. For me personally some of my favorite boss fights where lady vashj, illidan, magtheradon. For overall raids i think anything out of ulduar was great. being able to trigger a hard mode by doing a certain action was a great concept. In cataclysm the ffirst tier of raiding was also great. I dont want the game to be like wow. If i wanted to play wow i would. but i think these are great examples of not over the top raids.

ArchivedUser

Story.  I mean mechanics are awesome and I hope that AoC does some really nifty things in both their open and instanced raids.  But for the instanced raids give me the story of the raid as part of the progression.  Give me lore behind the place I'm in, the things I'm fighting.

The open world stuff will take care of itself with emergent stories from nodes rising an and falling, but make sure you craft a decent tale into the instanced stuff.