Difficulty scaling in PVE raids

In PVE they've said that the difficulty would scale based on how well you've done against the previous bosses. At first, I thought it seemed like a good idea because one set difficulty locks out either hardcore or casual players and I don't particularly like the idea of choosing difficulty before raids. After thinking about it more I realized when I'm doing a raid I don't want to be worried about how well I'm doing against a boss, and wondering if a small time loss will ruin the raid because of invisible mechanics. When I'm doing a raid I just want to be thinking about killing the boss. Also, failing a raid because you were too slow or one too many people died seems like a far more disappointing and unsatisfying defeat than losing because you all died. Are there any major benefits I don't see or flaws in what I've said?

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daveywavey

You're going to want to be playing your best at all times, anyway, so you I don't suppose you'll notice too much impact from the system. If you get through on the hardest bosses, you'll get better loot. If you can't manage the hardest bosses, then you can still have fun in the dungeon facing the slightly weaker boss.

Sathrago

Focus on doing the mechanics right and your best rotation. The speed will come naturally.

maouw

A second Toast(y)?
There can only be one.

Considering Ashes doesn't want to give free gifts to everyone...
The top end stuff is really only meant for the 1% - so cruising through a raid doesn't strike me as the playstyle of the top 1%. Especially for PvE content where you literally cannot hide invisible mechanics from the top 1% (because understanding the invisible mechanics is a large part of what makes them the top 1%). Hopefully this method means most of us don't have to clench our butts to beat the raid at a more basic level, and we get rewarded gear equivalent what we put in.

daveywavey

I'm hoping I can run along behind the uber-group and leech.

Damokles

How difficulty is supposed to scale:
-if you are fast in killing the boss, then the difficulty of the next boss will go up
-if you are slow, then the difficulty will go down
-if too many people die in the boss fight, the difficulty will go down for the next boss
-if no one dies during the boss fight, then the difficulty of the next boss will go up

Higher Difficulty = better or more materials
Lower Difficulty = less or worse materials (quality wise)

maouw

You can always find the niche market on your server, capitalize on it and then buy the gear? But it's probably going to be a while before any of that gear hits the market. But you never know!

McShave

I was thinking of a system where the boss scaling is not so much decided by speed of kill, but by party composition. If you have 3 mages, maybe the boss will throw out more silences. I don't want a huge variance of boss "difficulty" like more health and more damage, but different mechanics is good.

edit: IMO, if you're group is struggling to defeat the first boss of the dungeon, then maybe you guys aren't ready for it. I don't want this type of system to "cater to all players".

Warth

Damokles wrote: »

How difficulty is supposed to scale:
-if you are fast in killing the boss, then the difficulty of the next boss will go up
-if you are slow, then the difficulty will go down
-if too many people die in the boss fight, the difficulty will go down for the next boss
-if no one dies during the boss fight, then the difficulty of the next boss will go up

Higher Difficulty = better or more materials
Lower Difficulty = less or worse materials (quality wise)

@Damokles
I'd personally also bind it to certain key boss mechanics, so overgeared players/raids would still have to worry about doing those properly. Which would keep them relevant.

Very simple examples:
A boss places a bomb on somebody. Overgeared players might not even bother taking it out of the raid as they can easily survive the impact of the bomb nowadays. If the bomb however did reduce "difficulty score" they will stay inclined to do the mechanic properly, to ensure the following bosses/bossphases/loottables stay on the highest tier.

The boss spawns adds running towards him, if they aren't killed - they'll heal the boss for a certain amount.
Overgeared players might just ignore them, as their DPS is easily sufficient to clear the boss. Making those mobs reach the boss decrease the "difficulty score" would ensure, that people do the mechanics properly, no matter how overgeared they are.

Damokles

Warth wrote: »

Damokles wrote: »

How difficulty is supposed to scale:
-if you are fast in killing the boss, then the difficulty of the next boss will go up
-if you are slow, then the difficulty will go down
-if too many people die in the boss fight, the difficulty will go down for the next boss
-if no one dies during the boss fight, then the difficulty of the next boss will go up

Higher Difficulty = better or more materials
Lower Difficulty = less or worse materials (quality wise)

@Damokles
I'd personally also bind it to certain key boss mechanics, so overgeared players/raids would still have to worry about doing those properly. Which would keep them relevant.

Very simple examples:
A boss places a bomb on somebody. Overgeared players might not even bother taking it out of the raid as they can easily survive the impact of the bomb nowadays. If the bomb however did reduce "difficulty score" they will stay inclined to do the mechanic properly, to ensure the following bosses/bossphases/loottables stay on the highest tier.

The boss spawns adds running towards him, if they aren't killed - they'll heal the boss for a certain amount.
Overgeared players might just ignore them, as their DPS is easily sufficient to clear the boss. Making those mobs reach the boss decrease the "difficulty score" would ensure, that people do the mechanics properly, no matter how overgeared they are.

Thats what I meant with higher difficulty. Faster animations, higher damage, lowered wait time between mechaniks.

Example:
A boss has a 3-hit combo that he tellegraphs. One overhead smash with two side swipes.
Lets say that he normally has a 3sec telegraph timer before using each part of the combo. At higher difficulty he could maybe only take 1.5sec to telegraph them.
He could also start to use them more often, where he would for example use them every 2minutes he could start using them ever minute.

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