Let's TheoryRaid #4: Briareus and Tourblek 'Reimagined'

Azherae

This one is structured differently because it's data collection. I have a request, basically.

I'm going to outline some stuff about two similar bosses, one old one from FFXI (Briareus) and one new one from Throne and Liberty (Toublek, Tyrant Isle boss).

Then I'm going to present some numbered lists to the reader. Two for each boss, just stuff I imagined up from knowing their base mechanics. One list is mostly for 'ways mechanics can affect PvP around the boss' and the other mostly for 'ways mechanics could theoretically make the boss more complex'. Sometimes they will be the same list entries in different order. They're mostly imagined because I'm 'thinking about them in Ashes' (the lower level stuff on the second list might just be explanations of stuff the boss already does).

I request your opinions on 'at what point you don't care anymore' about the additional mechanics, dreamed up or otherwise. If you reach item 6 in the list and you feel 'yeah that's enough'. It can be because you think it's too complicated to be fun, too 'PvP', 'not PvP enough anymore', or just 'I'm tired of reading random boss mechanics, who cares?'

All I ask is that you give the numbers for each list, so like:
Briareus List 1: 4
Briareus List 2: 5
Toublek List 1: 3
Toublek List 2: 6

If you reach the end of a list and think 'yes, all this and more!' just use some variation of the 'up to 11' meme. Always funny.

So yeah, here's some videos, lists are underneath them. I've purposely chosen videos that don't really explain the bosses. It'd be helpful to me if you gave your answers without looking into them too much other than watching the videos and maybe skimming the 'Traits and Abilities' section on Briareus' page I linked. Consider making sure you're watching these at 720p minimum, YouTube can be weird about this...

Briareus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt7piY6GC_8

Briareus 'PvP' List:

1. Briareus does special attacks and self buffs more frequently as more players affect it.
2. Briareus prioritizes self-buffs and AoE when it notices others attacking members of the party that are high on its hate list
3. Briareus gains additional special effects/attacks against players flagged as Combatants (does not generally affect who he is choosing to attack)
4. The 'Zombie' effect (negative status, hard to remove, prevents healing magic effects) that comes from certain attacks, is spread from Player A to B when player B attacks player A (melee probably)
5. When using Meikyo Shisui (fills a special attack gauge to full, allows 3x usage of special attacks but at normalized strength') each of the 3 consecutive attacks targets the person highest on the hate list in their respective party.
6. When a player is killed in the vicinity, Briareus repositions somewhat toward the fallen corpse at a higher movement speed (doesn't trigger any specific attack though)
7. When a player is affected by hard CC within Briareus' range, it immediately uses a special attack with huge knockback on that player (and/or the surrounding area, dependent on hate levels).
8. Briareus gains an aura that reduces the CC resistance of those near it when multiple players are close to it (note that Briareus itself does not have much CC, at least not against nonCombatants, see item #3)
9. When struck by an AoE attack and not the primary target of that attack, Briareus gains a status causing it to slowly gain hate against the source over time, for some period.
10. Briareus gains additional hate for targets within its vision cone that it is not currently attacking, and uses slightly more AoE when taking damage from targets not currently in its vision cone (has multiple conal attacks)

Briareus 'PvE/C/X' List:

1. Briareus' special attack choices other than through the Mercurial Strike mechanic are entirely random, interval affected by number of players doing some specific types of damage to it.
2. Within those random special attack choices, there are at least two with the same name but slightly different effects
3. At least one of those special attacks can put some or all of a character's skills on CoolDown immediately
4. After using the 'Reset Cooldowns' attack, Briareus attempts to attack the person second/next on his hate list immediately, for a short period, ignoring the target that was hit by the Cooldown reset
5. If CCed during that period, Briareus then 'locks on' to the CC source for an even longer time, and prioritizes different, more effective attacks
6. The attack from item #3 can be Conal, and if so, the 'lock on' from CC prevention from Item #5 applies.
7. In addition/contrast to strong negative effects like Knockback and Zombie, players experience additional strong negative statuses from not being positioned close to each other when certain special attacks are used
8. Briareus builds up a defense (or more than one) over time that must be deactivated using special items or combination attacks/Synergy effects
9. When using Meikyo Shisui (fills a special attack gauge to full, allows 3x usage of special attacks but at normalized strength') each of the 3 consecutive attacks targets the person highest on the hate list in their respective party.
10. When a player is affected by hard CC within Briareus' range, it immediately uses a special attack with huge knockback on that player (and/or the surrounding area, dependent on hate levels).

Toublek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U36rvEZkoIg

Toublek 'PvP' List:

1. Toublek has a special attack that pulls an enemy in close, that targets someone in a cone behind him (some multiplier based on their angle and position on the hate list)
2. Toublek has a special attack that uses tail to splash a large amount of mud on someone close behind him (reactive to rear damage, or random, can be conal) which drastically reduces their movespeed, prevents at-will morphing, and can't be cleansed (or requires a nonstandard cleanse method such as getting to one of the geysers)
3. Toublek's immediate damage physical-type special attacks (not part of special mechanics sequences like the Rat transformation) are mostly if not entirely random
4. Toublek prioritizes attacking characters that are near to rats but are not currently transformed into rats. This is just as true for dead rats, if not moreso.
5. Toublek's 360 spin attack has additional random negative effects on characters at certain angles (usually Knockback)
6. Players whose Rat transformation wears off due to time instead of due to 'Rat Transformation Antidote' get more powerful debuffs based on how LOW they were (numerically) on Toublek's relative hate list (being in the area at all puts you on the hate list)
7. Toublek gains an aura that reduces the CC resistance of those near it when multiple players are close to it (assume Toublek has minimal or no harder CC other than the mud-slow and knockback)
8. When there are 'too many' players near Toublek, in place of using the AoE-Geyser mechanic, it will switch the second part of the attack to either 'using it's pull attack on a semirandom player that got launched by the Geyser and doing large damage that way', or 'facing one of the Geysers as if to use the pull, but then doing the 360 spin'
9. Certain of Toublek's more powerful attacks also cause more 'Rat Transformation Antidote' spots to spawn, but this also works the opposite way, if Toublek never uses these attacks, there are never 'enough' Antidote spawns for a large group.
10. Under certain conditions, a player may be affected by an electrostatic effect from Toublek which causes melee attacks to sometimes Stun an attacker (if the Attacker is Toublek, he gains a small buff instead)

Toublek 'PvE/C/X' List:

1. Toublek's immediate damage physical-type special attacks (not part of special mechanics sequences like the Rat transformation) are mostly if not entirely random
2. Toublek has a weakness to fire, in terms of damage, but using more fire attacks will trigger the Geysers early/out of timing
3. The Geysers apply an Accuracy debuff when used, and cause affected players to take additional lightning damage
4. Toublek has a second 'Draw in' special attack that pulls an enemy in close, that targets someone in a cone behind him (some multiplier based on their angle and position on the hate list)
5. Toublek has a single-target DoT effect that drastically ramps up in lethality while the target is under the effect of the Rat Transformation (can be cleansed in a normal way... usually)
6. Toublek's own fire magic (the cross shaped ground ones), if activated too close to a Geyser or centered on one, can also trigger a Geyser early/out of timing
7. When Toublek hits enemies with certain lightning attacks, it causes a hate reset (or a temporary period of ignoring that person's position on the hate list). Some special attacks cause Toublek to 'build up' more lightning to use this more often
8. When Toublek's current target uses a stealth or 'detarget' skill, Toublek generally responds with a sudden AoE attack
9. Players whose Rat transformation wears off due to time instead of due to 'Rat Transformation Antidote' get more powerful debuffs based on how LOW they were (numerically) on Toublek's relative hate list (being in the area at all puts you on the hate list)
10. Toublek builds up a defense (or more than one) over time that must be deactivated using special items or combination attacks/Synergy effects, however deactivating these defenses usually triggers a special attack or builds up something that benefits Toublek's attacks (e.g. Fire based things affecting Geysers due to item #2)

(I'm trusting this forum software to actually number my lists, if it doesn't, blame Vanilla).

Not as much of an actual discussion or thought-stream today, I guess. So it goes.

Ludullu

Across the board, except maybe for the Toublek X #3, cause it seems like the most "negative + negative" effect out of all of these.

If, say, it was "increases the chance to be hit by Toublek's lightning attacks" instead of "take additional lightning damage" - that I could definitely work with and would like.