this boss was previewed 3 years ago, and feedback was given at that time too, why would you showcase the exact same boss, 3 years later, with 0 new mechanics, and then ask for more feedback, when clearly none of the previous feedback was important enough to make it into any sort of change. not sure what happened here..
visually boss looks okay, a bit stationary on the movement side but that can be put down to being an alpha, the fog and dust or sun shafts were way to strong, i would guess most likely to hide the fact that nothing except the area of the boss fight has been remotely finished and has 0 polish, however i will say the sunshafts and lighting look really nice, but just not needed for this location
combat wise, definitely needs some upgrades, if not an entire re work, its basically the exact same as onxiya, a 20 year old boss, i would reccomend checking out some GW 2/ Final fantasy boss fights and taking ideas from both, that being said it is only a level 25 world boss, i do feel it was a bit easy though
More Interaction, Less Static Combat:
- Combat should be engaging, not just button-mashing while watching health bars deplete.
- Current systems feel outdated and monotonous, especially in games like WoW where raid bosses "melt" under repetitive attacks.
Dynamic Boss Behaviour:
- Bosses should adjust their behavior based on the party composition (e.g., more melee-focused vs. more ranged players).
- This change in behavior would keep fights unpredictable, preventing a stale or "meta" strategy where players could easily exploit a certain approach (e.g., simply ranging down a boss).
- By adapting to the group’s tactics, bosses would discourage players from relying on one specific strategy, ensuring the fight remains challenging and engaging no matter the composition.
Damage Indicators:
- Visible signs of boss damage (e.g., broken horns, scars, colour changes) offer a sense of achievement.
- Games like *Monster Hunter* handle this well, offering a tangible connection between player actions and the boss's state.
Rage Mechanic & Phases:
- Instead of a single-phase battle, bosses should have multiple phases or elemental changes, each with different attack patterns.
- Example: *Monster Hunter’s* Alatreon, which changes elementally throughout the fight.
Environmental Interaction:
- Engage other mechanics during the fight, like ballista, cannons, or shielding from powerful attacks.
- Interaction with the environment can make boss fights feel more epic and strategic.
Weight of Attacks:
- Boss attacks should feel impactful (e.g., being knocked back or stunned by a tail swipe).
- The gravity and magnitude of boss actions should be felt by players, enhancing immersion.
Potential of Ashes of Creation:
- The game’s hybrid combat system and movement fluidity (dodge, roll, etc.) can make boss encounters feel dynamic and challenging.
- The goal is for players to feel the epic scale of bosses, especially dragons, which should induce tension and keep players engaged.
Overall Vision:
- Boss fights should be epic, challenging, and keep players on their toes with unpredictable, immersive mechanics.
- This isn't a comparison to other games, but a reflection on what has made other encounters feel fun and deep.
This is based on my own opinion I just hope the game will be great and will have its own take or spin on things but also keep things relevant. Really looking forwards to playing and I’m sure it will be a success 🙏🏼
How do you feel about the Citadel of the Steel Bloom & Firebrand Preview?
What excites you about playing and interacting within the Citadel, its enemies, and Firebrand?
Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Citadel of the Steel Bloom & Firebrand Preview?
Are there similar areas or enemies you’ve seen in other games that you like or dislike? If so, please explain!
This is how I honestly feel about the cosb / firebrand
I'm not really interested. These types of fights are just boring to me.
What I find interesting is more along the lines of exploring, being the first to discover areas and things in the game, crafting the best items, helping a guild to build, own and keep a city/castle, owning a freehold and just killing things one on one or with a small group and farming.
So if these fights are somehow required to do any of those things, I'll probably end up participating in some fashion. If not, then probably not.
"Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes." - Ephesians 6:11
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ruohtasMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
I'm sorry. The game looked like such trash, and no-where near to what's been shown on the Livestreams, that I simply couldn't play it. I'm a KS Braver of Worlds, and hoping that I get my monies worth when this finally releases.
Randomized mechanics! If the mechanics of a fight are predictable and follow a set pattern, the fight becomes more like a 'dance' where you just memorize the steps, instead of being aware of your surroundings and looking for tells, thinking & reacting on your toes.
I'd focus on audio of dragons roars, etc., also music. I thought more epic music would be better than dreary violin. Violin maybe better for a narrative story of betrayal.
Didn't understand steel bloom point of entering just to exit to do a dragon fight. The fight should be at the heart of the POI imo. I'm not into lore and more focused on the feel and visual experience. I'd like music that gets the blood flowing, not sad or dreary tone for a dragon fight.
Scenery is important. In A1 testing there were terrific locations for many of the fights. I'd like to see memorable and epic dragon lair locations to have the big raid fights. Random locations make the fights less grand and are a missed opportunity. The dragon could crawl out of the top of a volcano and we have to march up the volcano side to get to the encounter. The first fire dragon in A1 had a sweet lair that was thematic. Dragon's slowly coming out from a waterfall are always good cinematic moments. Could play with that and a throaty rumble to begin a fight.
The visual effects and abilities direction is nice. On the tail swipe I'd like to see players get whipped back 10m+ and take damage. Like the mace swing from Sauron attack in LotR movie. Make it impactful. Could be cool to have a telegraphed attack that melee have to dodge to avoid getting eaten.
If players die to being burned alive their corpse remains could be skeleton with any metallic gear remains like a weapon and shield with a rib cage and skull on the ground as a marker.
I'd like to hear the dragon roar and a loud blast of wind when the flying flame breath is sprayed on the earth to hear the pressure emitting.
I'd like to see the dragon's entrance be the start of the fight rather than sitting like a duck for the player group's approach at their leisure. The dragon should be a menace, not a passive dog waiting for a command. A few menacing facial gestures would be a nicr touch.
If those elements are killer, audio, visual dragon detail, visual effects, music, memorable landscape, and dragon entrance to the fight, are done well I think most will be very satisfied.
Summary of Dungeon Mechanics Feedback: Steel Bloom
Additionally from my previous post on September the 9th about Boss Mechanics I want to add a separate thread about the dungeon itself.
Graphics and Design:
- Graphics and lighting are stunning, with impressive armor designs.
- UI is clean and well-organized.
- Desire for more player customization and diverse scenery.
Story and Engagement:
- Enjoyable narrative with an engaging backstory involving the Queen's special unit.
- The dungeon's plot feels more developed compared to typical instances of clearing mobs without context.
Mob Behaviour and Logic:
- Observed mobs within sight of combat standing idle, which feels unrealistic.
- Recommendation for mobs to react to proximity with a clear aggro range for more immersion.
Combat Experience:
- Dungeon felt too short despite dialogue making it seem longer.
- Combat time between players and mobs was relatively brief.
Challenge and Group Coordination:
- Dungeons should feel more challenging, requiring teamwork to defeat tougher elite mobs.
- Suggested mechanics include prioritizing enemy targets based on role (e.g., healers, mages, rangers).
Mobility and Dynamics:
- Mobs should move more, forcing tanks to reposition and manage aggro dynamically.
- Recommendation for threat-switching mechanics to keep healers and tanks engaged.
- Fight dynamics should move away from simple grouping and AOE tactics to a more strategic approach.
Once again this is based on my own opinion I just hope the game will be great and will have its own take or spin on things but also keep things relevant. Really looking forwards to playing and I’m sure it will be a success 👍🏼
This seemed fine as an entry level raid. However I hope you have some planned where the trash mobs are more than just trash time sink. Please make it to where the basic mobs are very capable of wiping a raid if you mess up. Putting in mobs around a 40 man raid boss that a team a 8 can rip right through is not meaningful. Mobs around a 40 man raid boss should be expecting a pack of 40 players to be clearing them not a small party.
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KrystalKittenMember, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
I love these previews, they are amazing.....just have one question, how is this gonna be effected by PVX?
OK group we are on the 3rd form of Firebrand......WAIT!! WHAT'S THAT??? 2 MORE GROUPS COMMING IN TO KILL FIREBRAND AND US?
how is the PVX aspect gonna effect this?
Leaving feedback on the 7th page feels like it may take a back seat, but this is some of the first I'm leaving so I'm hoping it'll get looked at!
The environment is looking very good, the bloom and dust is a bit overkill, but other than that everything is looking great and really drives home that appeal.
The AI bosses just standing there seems a bit dated, having them have a larger aggro range or just immediately go into combat upon spawning would feel much more enticing. Make sure you have everything ready to go before moving on.
With epic battles/raids like dragons (and who knows what else in the future), there should be a world wide change that happens, so everyone knows that a big fight has started. Whether its the skybox changing colors, alarms or callings that start happening in cities, or quaking and rumbling with giant roars you hear in the distance. It's moments like this that make everyone remember something from when they first started playing the game. A wow factor of the unknown and what is that!?
The dragon itself looked great, the fire looked great, the AOE indicators were a bit lacking, but if you're going for hard mode, then that's fine, but the fire on the ground was REALLY hard to see (but maybe that was just a stream issue). A bit more work on the animations, and I think it'll be set and good to go! Maybe a few more team based triggers would be fun, big bosses should have phases they go through as they get more desperate to survive making them harder as the battle goes on. Usually at the 50% and 25% mark and maybe even the last 5% for that added struggle, dragons are old, smart and WANT to live, they usually don't fight to the death.
Some of the early bosses should have many mechanics that help introduce the players to more difficult mechanics in the later stages of the game. Things that require immediate team work, attention to focusing single (or multiple) objects down within a time limit, otherwise large damage is incurred or someone from the party gets wiped. Seemed like resurrections were a bit much, the cooldown on those should be like 5-10 minutes so that way they aren't spammed that often and feel impactful when you have to use it.
More difficult high damage fights or things to keep people active vs HP sponges are much more engaging these days. Having to dodge, block and counter heal high damage hits makes big battles feel like you're in a struggle to survive, or endless low level mobs spawning where it gives that feelsgood boost of just laying into hundreds of mobs over a short period of time.
Hey all,
For those of you who are concerned about mobs just standing around...
I submitted this question some time ago:
"Up to now, while watching videos and joining the livestreams, all I've seen is MOBs spawning in one place and standing there. Are there plans in the future to have MOBs follow a course of action? For example, will a pack of wolves hunt along game trails; will a village of orcs have mobile scouts and cook and hunt and move within the village as if they have a purpose?"
Intrepid did reply to me stating (and I'm paraphrasing this):
"Yes"
So it is in their plans to give life to mobs... when?... only Intrepid knows.
just wanted to let you all know.
I have to say there are a ton of great ideas in this post regarding how you can make this encounter better.
I have one more.
Why isn't the dragon roar not incorporated in the fight? You already have the animation for it so why not add it as an attack in battle?
lets say a 60' cone roar and anyone caught in the cone flees in "FEAR" (like GW2) for 5-10 sec. after that you regain your composure, clean your shorts and return to the fight.
Anyone running IN to fight the dragon seeing 15 people running in fear FROM the dragon, might just change their mind; not to mention it would look really cool to see that play out on the battle field.
In general the fight was with a decent choreographed movement Dragon wise however they could do more to make it much more lively. Like some are saying about adding additional setup movements. I really think they need to add grabbing mechanics and tearing at characters that get caught or stomping down and pinning characters. Tails swipes can impale players if the spikes hit them right and they stay there until they die slowly. Also add other mechanics where there is a selection that’s picked so there are random power sets or attack movements used each time. UE 5 can support this style from what I understand, so lets use it.
In general people will respond to the above with:
“A lot of that would be cool but not really work in an mmo like the tail spike thing. Now more knock downs and knock backs from tail swipes and wing buffets, based on the character positioning around the dragon would work really well.”
My response to that is:
Sure in older MMO's that is what we have grown to expect or people from WoW would expect that from a mob Boss because that’s all they have ever known. I disagree that it wont work mainly because you will already have people dying or being knocked bac or down, so mix up how everyone is taken out instead of the entire group having the same thing.. Plus some coop and single player games already have this added, so why not? Make it part of the challenge to get the player off before he dies. By having the group broken down to smaller parts and being taken out or repelled differently it would help to make it far more fresh and new.
Sorry, but the Dragon moved and created a knock back or Dragon spun around and sent people flying 20 feet or Dragon swiped in a general direction as everybody swarmed the feet is boring and been around for 2 decades, time to do something different.
Overall im a bit disappointed, I was hoping to see more in the direction of emergence, depth, and skill in the encounter design.
The overall combat experience and boss designs are still looking a bit bland to me, which I am hoping for that to just be a pre-alpha 2 symptom. If that is not the case though, I feel like there is no excuse to not have better designs that are geared toward AOC's design pillars, just because there are so many other mmos, genres, and games to get "cold hard examples" from, in terms of features, mechanics, and designs that could be adapted into AOC for better combat and boss experiences.
Overall if you want more comprehensive and detailed feedback on my boss design philosophy, please reference my post in the dev discussion on boss mechanics. I will reference just a few of those topics here and give some examples relevant to this Firebrand showcase, but that post is a more comprehensive form of my philosophy and feedback on bosses.
1. More skillful:
There is a lot to learn from games like Crosscode, Armored core 6, Cuphead, and Lost Ark from their bosses designs and combat
Overall the fight needs to be more interactive, engaging, and challenging imo from a gameplay standpoint.
The dragon is too static in its positioning. You should be compelled to move around a lot more to both avoid attacks, and to pursue the boss or to get into a better position youself, which would be encouraged if the dragon moved around a whole lot more. More fire breath strafing runs, more rampaging around, and more repositioning and adaptation on the dragon's part based on intelligent A.I. decision making in response to the raid party's tactics.
You should feel compelled to use traversal skills to navigate the environment and get into strategic positions to take down the boss, like scaling the building to jump on the dragon, or just chasing the dragon around while dodging firebreath as the dragon kites you, and stuff like that.
The games I listed vary in genre but have in common that they pull elements from the "bullet hell" genre for their boss designs.
I've already linked a bunch of boss examples in the boss dev discussion. Another example would be Balteus from armored core 6.
Talk about an epic and engaging boss fight, this one was super fun and awesome.
You have to actually move around constantly to dodge stuff, and have to think strategically and tactically about your range, positioning, your movement direction/angles, and the combat tools you want to use and how you will create opportunities to use them. When I go from playing bosses like this to watching the dragon, it seems way less fun, engaging, and challenging to me to be able to stand in relatively the same spot the whole time and avoid a lot of dragon attacks while still being setup in a pretty good position to be able to spam offensive abilties without thinking a whole lot.
There should overall be more of an emphasis on managing distance strategically, reacting more to the dragon's behaviors, having to use more of your mobility tools, and using the environment around you. The boss and combat system should work in harmony and you should be encouraged to make use of full combat system (don't pidgeon hole players into dull repetitive strategies), it should feel reactive and comprehensive, challenging your overall combat knowledge and skill.
There are buildings and terrain everywhere so make use of them. Line-of-sight should matter more and so should high ground and "power positions" during the fight. If your not sure how to do this then reference FPS games like Counterstrike, COD, Halo, and Battlefield with how they make use of walls, angles, terrain, high ground, power positions, map lane strategies, destruction, balancing different ranged weapons, etc.
The overall combat flow and pacing seems very slow and dull to me still. It doesn't have to be as zippy as armored core (though I would enjoy that) but it should feel more engaging than what I am watching during the dragon fight. I want the combat to feel more aggressive and proactive, which the Doom games do really well.
2. More emergent:
I think there is a lot of value in looking at games like Dragons Dogma, Hitman, Monster Hunter, and Assasins Creed to create more of a variety in combat approaches and playstyles through allowing more emergence in the boss, combat, and world design.
It would be awesome to have more options and playstyles available through making use of various mechanics in emergent ways. For example, like if the desctruction mechanic would interact with the boss, you could topple buildings over onto the boss to do damage. This would siege equipment could be useful for knocking buildings down during boss fights. Well, if let's say some random siege equipment was stored on a nearby rooftop and protected by enemies, then that would be a power position that you would need to take by using your traversal skills to get on the rooftop and thinking about the map strategy aspect of luring the dragon near the rooftop as it flys around the area. Layering these things different mechanics together makes the fight a lot more interesting by allowing more emergent strategies and playstyles which is more fun to optimize. This would be even better if new mechanics were introduced, like how Dragon's Dogma lets you climb on bosses, or how Monster Hunter lets you cripple bosses and disable different body parts, which all factors into that emergence, such as having to identify weak points on the dragon and using the buildings as a traversal option to jump on the dragon to climb to access that weak point, or targeting that weak point with the building that you toppled over, or using other unique tools that might interact with the dragon in emergent ways like chopping trees then rolling them down the hill to trip the dragon over. There should also be a lot more tools, options, and utility available to players imo, like having environmental tools such as pitfall traps, trip wire tools, training other mobs, hiding from the boss, etc.
Overall I think boss battles should feel more emergent and immersive in the ways I talked about. You should be thinking more about all the tools at your disposal, all the systems and mechanics, how they interact with each other, all the potential and possibilities, efficiently using your environment and surroundings to your advantage, adapting your strategies/tactics, and constantly be thinking about how to further optimize your approach as you craft your own unique playstyle and experience within this emergent game.
Don't you want your boss fights to feel like real emergent challenges where players will be coming up with new creative strategies, approaches, and playstyles years and years down the road? This is what Hitman manages to do with its design (with some help from community mods to add to the challenge for these tournaments). This video shows how players are always finding new creative optimizations for beating boss challenges in this game using the emergence of the mechanics, the environment, the tools, stealth, and their movement skill, in order to come up with their own unique playstyles and strategies to approach these boss challenges. There is a lot of potential for a dedicated community just around these types of unique challenges and boss encounters, as shown by this video with millions of views and a very high like-ratio, which stems from interest in this kind of design and gameplay within a competitive setting.
There should be in-depth scoring systems for boss fights that aren't just relating to loot drops. You should have your overall combat efficiency tracked during the encounter based on how you are making use of the full combat system, your creativity in your strategy/tactics, and your overall performance. This should be used for incentivizing optimization as a gameplay chase, for encouraging the intended experience, and for adapting the challenge in the boss behaviors.
4. Narrative design:
Does the narrative design support the opportunity for different perspectives on the story aspect of the boss fight (like players who want to either support or kill the dragon?) and are these player's perspectives challenged throughout the dragon's story arc, and do you support a variety of moral role-playing options for players within the story arc of this boss fight?
I think this is important for the story/immersion aspect of the boss fight and for player investment into the fight itself.
5. Knowledge-based gameplay:
Are there non-combat behaviors that are useful for other systems, like observing the dragon's behavior to make some kind of discovery in the world, or observing him to uncover some lore secret that can be used to make some kind of story connection or solve some mystery?
This adds to the emergenct aspects, and I think this also keeps players immersed in the game world and keeps everything feeling like a connected whole.
I thought about something funny so I will post a second time here.
It would be cool if there was more interaction with the environment with the mechanics of the boss. For example if there was cows and the area was more like farmland. A mechanic could be to protect the cows from being eaten by the dragon. Maybe everyone needs to stand around the cow to hide it or something. The dragon would heal for each cow he manage to eat.
I miss those funny mechanics in ashes so far and I think they are memorable. This fight is not very memorable, instead works exactly how you would expect, fighting a dragon.
The fight seemed good but a little generic. It would be nice if the battle was more dynamic and had some more excitement and strategy around it.
One idea I had was for the water puddles around the battleground to remove a burn effect that the dragon applies to players with attacks. Then have a dramatic threshold in the fight where the dragon flies up and causes the water to heat up, eventually dealing damage to players in the water and ramping up as the water begins to boil more and more and then eventually all the water would evaporate leaving you with no water to put out the burn effect. This is just one example of the type of thing that would make things exciting and dynamic.
Maybe he could cause the sun to become more intense as the fight progresses dealing tick damage the ramps up as it intensifies. Then one of the players must cast some sort of cloud coverage spell they picked up in the dungeon that has a cool down that keeps it from being spammed that cuts off the tick damage. Then after a little time in the cloud coverage, the dragon flies up and creates a gust of wind with its wings that removes the cloud coverage and begins the growing sun damage again.
These are just a couple ideas of having ways for the boss and the players to interact with the battlefield and the environment to make the battle much more dynamic, exciting, and immersive.
There should NOT be unlimited battle resurrections.
Healers should be required to be in close proximity to their patients.
Healers should be the primary target behind tank and top DPS not just free to run around as they please.
"That's the way it was. That's they way it ought to be."
Pardon me if I missed it but I would like to see a facility for raiding the raid and stealing their hard earned loot. Having to post security after a kill makes more sense to my mind.
And another thing,
Isn’t item dropping a but outdated?
By removing item dropping you open the door of item crafting and professions in general. Here is how I envision it:
You kill a dragon: the teeth can be turned into swords, the nails into daggers, the skin into leather armor etc. This specific dragon can provide X amount of scales with elementary proficiency, going up to XXX% at maximum proficiency. People with enchanting can absorb and store the magical powers of the creator and then sell the potions to interested adventurers. So mobs and bosses provide resources: physical and magical that are turned into weapons and armor through professions. Quite simple actually.
However, professions can be so much more! By discovering the world of Vera players can get to know different processing techniques from the peculiar people that live all around it, discover new recipes and skills that eventually transition into improving their weapons and armor.
My only criticism I have towards this game is the horrible combat it has. Two years ago they showed an excellent combat prototype that is melee, and then they remade it to make it look more like the target combat of classic MMOs, horrible decision by the developers.
Sooner or later they will have to change the combat, and adapt it more to modern demands. The graphics are good, but they need a darker, medieval fantasy environment, like references to Souls and LOTR.
Mobs and AI, is this game supposed to be next generation? or is it a set of classic MMOs? They need to integrate an improved AI so that the mobs have more prominence, improve their combat and add better mechanics so that it is difficult to kill them. The boss is very easy to eliminate, the guys in the comments added several references to recreate a good boss. Diablo IV is a very good reference.
Seriously guys, if you offer a renewed combat more adapted to this time, this game will live and more players will want to try it and play it. You don't need to revive classic mmos Steven.
And last thing, the classes should have more prominence, the healer must have damage skills, he can't just be a healer. They urgently need a druid.
Overall, I think it's a great start. That being said I think there is room for improvement.
My main focus of interest is the mob AI. As for the most part they are doing the standard stand around aimlessly, like a lost little puppy routine. Which is fine for most mobs that you'd expect to have little to no discipline. But less so for soldiers and guards, which one would expect to be highly trained and regimented.
So I would like to see different AI patterns, depending on the type of mob.
What I'd like to see with soldier and guard type mobs, which could also be used to city nodes, is an escalating 'party aggro' that increases as they draw attention to themselves. Think the GTA star bounty system, the more havoc you cause, the more enemies and more powerful enemies spawn to chase you down. You will get overwhelmed eventually. The key is to be sneaky, to kill off guards and scouts quickly and quietly, and to strategically reduce aggro by finding spots to hole up in and cool down.
Behavior wise I'd want soldiers and guards to act with more deliberate regimented behavior. Guards standing equally far apart at doorways, facing forward without budging. Patrols of 4-8 marching around. A stronger guard captain that will inspect certain locations, as the other mobs turn to salute them. Scouts positioned at elevated positions scanning for intruders. Weaker bullhorn enemies that will aggro everyone nearby if you get their attention, and let them blow on their horn, etc.
One thing in particular I want to see is a larger aggro radius, that can chain together to aggro more groups of mobs if you fight them too close together. You'd have your immediate circular radius, which represents their hearing. And a much larger cone of vision, that will occasional scan around. As well as a default and alert states, which changes their behavior.
When you get into a fight with them, it'll create a radius of sound that emanates outwards, and the more enemies your fighting the larger it is. If that enters their individual radius, they will aggro too. Or at least go towards the source of the sound, only properly aggroing when they see you. If you fight in a room, there is less sound, so whenever possible you'd want to fight them in an enclosed space.
Their cone of vision however, isn't always 100% reliable. If their is an object between you and them like bushes, or some other kind of environmental element like smoke or fog, or using skills that hide you, then they won't automatically aggro. Instead they will do the Metal Gear !, as they have become alerted to your presence, but don't know where you are. So they will first being scanning around, before moving closer to where the source of the disturbance was. Before eventually returning to their original position and returning to their normal state.
So a way to deal with them is that you can draw them away from other mobs to kill them quietly. Maybe you could even toss a stone or use other skills to draw attention.
The entire idea about fighting these types of mobs, is about managing aggro. If you go in bows ablazing, your going to draw unwanted attention and likely get overwhelmed by waves of guards and soldiers. Sure they will eventually expend all their reserves, but it's the hard way to go. Or you could choose to do it like a heist mission, and avoid trouble as much as possible. Each have their risks and rewards.
The difficulty seems too easy and no challenge, can't feel the needs to have a good enough teamwork to beat the contents. Easily feel doing nothing and feel meaningless. Fatalis in MHWI is one perfect example you can learn from.
so I am a passionate raider in other games like WoW, Lost Ark, etc.
I played all kinds of classes so this might be helpful for you:
1.) Please indicate incoming healing.
As a healer this is kinda mandatory to assign the correct targets for healing. If healer A is already casting a spell I can top someone else instead. This helps a lot keeping everyone alive.
2.) Please indicate AGGRO
I mean I rechecked the video and cannot see it somewhere. Its just highlighted on the healthbar in red if you have aggro. But nothing worse than a DPS pulling AGGRO on a boss, because he overextended or whatever. Maybe the aggro system works different can't tell yet, but it either shouldn't happen or have indication, cause I guess this opens up more kinds of encounters where DPS have to offtank things or some sort of stuff.
3.) If you have selected a player as your target, highlight it also on the GROUP UI
So you see whom you clicked. Just quality of life things.
4.) I watched the entire video and even though I could distinquish between the different mobs in size and some small abilities, their differences felt not really like it would matter.
Pull together, Kill. No real tactics required. They basically are trash bags to kill, which makes it kinda boring until the boss fight. Mobs should have certain mechanics. Like a Giant which makes a stomp any now an then requiring the group to get away from him for a second. Maybe also tactics depending on how many players are in the group or how fast you chop the first 50% health of the mob. Be creative. I think the trash groups should not be like oh 20 mobs but like 2 giant swordguards, 7 infrantry, 15 grunts whatever.
5.) The 1st. Raidboss needs to be a DPS check. More and more groups should spawn on a timer (fixed) so that the group has to get rid of the previous group as quickly as possible. (Adjust that of course because I know already everyone brings the 40 man group from the start).
6.) Nice Loot 'n' Scoot midfight Steven!
7.) The Lady of the rose encounter is pretty boring as the trash is not really strong. Several Mobs castet abilities, but the healers could just cast through it. Take advantage of things like CC or Terrain to make it interesting. Line of sight certain AOE explosions, CC a specific mob or something could make the fight more refreshing.
7.1) If one mob is left unattended and casts an ability on the Lady the Lady has to take like 1/3 of her health away. The healers can heal her and she nearly gets no damage. This is a boss fight.
7.2) There for example could be a sniper mob which cannot be aggroed which is like casting a long spell to sniper the Lady and he has to be killed quickly or otherwise the Lady will take like huge damage.
7.3) Or a horseman which cannot be hold aggro which charges through the group and has to be dodged by the entire group until the range DPS killed him.
8.) The bossfight against firebrand. The shockwave he makes does nearly no raidwide damage at the beginning of the fight.
9.) The fucking music made me coom. Great job on that I love it. Thats boss fight music!
10.) The breath attack where Firebrand jumps back. It kills some of the players. I think the only place where it should be save is in his back. or behind a tank ability (raid wide shield or whatever). It should be an event where you have a certain amount of time to get behind the dragon or gather behind the tank to not wipe. It should actually kill everyone instant. But you nearly have no time to get behind the dragon.
11.) If you resurrect a player the player should be ported to the healers position where the rez was casted. (Like in wow). Because if you die in Lava, get rezzed in Lava, you die instantly again. Normally the Healers position on the rez is a safe one.
Comments
this boss was previewed 3 years ago, and feedback was given at that time too, why would you showcase the exact same boss, 3 years later, with 0 new mechanics, and then ask for more feedback, when clearly none of the previous feedback was important enough to make it into any sort of change. not sure what happened here..
visually boss looks okay, a bit stationary on the movement side but that can be put down to being an alpha, the fog and dust or sun shafts were way to strong, i would guess most likely to hide the fact that nothing except the area of the boss fight has been remotely finished and has 0 polish, however i will say the sunshafts and lighting look really nice, but just not needed for this location
combat wise, definitely needs some upgrades, if not an entire re work, its basically the exact same as onxiya, a 20 year old boss, i would reccomend checking out some GW 2/ Final fantasy boss fights and taking ideas from both, that being said it is only a level 25 world boss, i do feel it was a bit easy though
More Interaction, Less Static Combat:
- Combat should be engaging, not just button-mashing while watching health bars deplete.
- Current systems feel outdated and monotonous, especially in games like WoW where raid bosses "melt" under repetitive attacks.
Dynamic Boss Behaviour:
- Bosses should adjust their behavior based on the party composition (e.g., more melee-focused vs. more ranged players).
- This change in behavior would keep fights unpredictable, preventing a stale or "meta" strategy where players could easily exploit a certain approach (e.g., simply ranging down a boss).
- By adapting to the group’s tactics, bosses would discourage players from relying on one specific strategy, ensuring the fight remains challenging and engaging no matter the composition.
Damage Indicators:
- Visible signs of boss damage (e.g., broken horns, scars, colour changes) offer a sense of achievement.
- Games like *Monster Hunter* handle this well, offering a tangible connection between player actions and the boss's state.
Rage Mechanic & Phases:
- Instead of a single-phase battle, bosses should have multiple phases or elemental changes, each with different attack patterns.
- Example: *Monster Hunter’s* Alatreon, which changes elementally throughout the fight.
Environmental Interaction:
- Engage other mechanics during the fight, like ballista, cannons, or shielding from powerful attacks.
- Interaction with the environment can make boss fights feel more epic and strategic.
Weight of Attacks:
- Boss attacks should feel impactful (e.g., being knocked back or stunned by a tail swipe).
- The gravity and magnitude of boss actions should be felt by players, enhancing immersion.
Potential of Ashes of Creation:
- The game’s hybrid combat system and movement fluidity (dodge, roll, etc.) can make boss encounters feel dynamic and challenging.
- The goal is for players to feel the epic scale of bosses, especially dragons, which should induce tension and keep players engaged.
Overall Vision:
- Boss fights should be epic, challenging, and keep players on their toes with unpredictable, immersive mechanics.
- This isn't a comparison to other games, but a reflection on what has made other encounters feel fun and deep.
This is based on my own opinion I just hope the game will be great and will have its own take or spin on things but also keep things relevant. Really looking forwards to playing and I’m sure it will be a success 🙏🏼
This is how I honestly feel about the cosb / firebrand
I'm not really interested. These types of fights are just boring to me.
What I find interesting is more along the lines of exploring, being the first to discover areas and things in the game, crafting the best items, helping a guild to build, own and keep a city/castle, owning a freehold and just killing things one on one or with a small group and farming.
So if these fights are somehow required to do any of those things, I'll probably end up participating in some fashion. If not, then probably not.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=LcVNLX2fTfc
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dsUirl_RA58
Etc:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WfViWtdH-nc
You dont need to copy paste this fights, but at least get some inspiration from them.
Didn't understand steel bloom point of entering just to exit to do a dragon fight. The fight should be at the heart of the POI imo. I'm not into lore and more focused on the feel and visual experience. I'd like music that gets the blood flowing, not sad or dreary tone for a dragon fight.
Scenery is important. In A1 testing there were terrific locations for many of the fights. I'd like to see memorable and epic dragon lair locations to have the big raid fights. Random locations make the fights less grand and are a missed opportunity. The dragon could crawl out of the top of a volcano and we have to march up the volcano side to get to the encounter. The first fire dragon in A1 had a sweet lair that was thematic. Dragon's slowly coming out from a waterfall are always good cinematic moments. Could play with that and a throaty rumble to begin a fight.
The visual effects and abilities direction is nice. On the tail swipe I'd like to see players get whipped back 10m+ and take damage. Like the mace swing from Sauron attack in LotR movie. Make it impactful. Could be cool to have a telegraphed attack that melee have to dodge to avoid getting eaten.
If players die to being burned alive their corpse remains could be skeleton with any metallic gear remains like a weapon and shield with a rib cage and skull on the ground as a marker.
I'd like to hear the dragon roar and a loud blast of wind when the flying flame breath is sprayed on the earth to hear the pressure emitting.
I'd like to see the dragon's entrance be the start of the fight rather than sitting like a duck for the player group's approach at their leisure. The dragon should be a menace, not a passive dog waiting for a command. A few menacing facial gestures would be a nicr touch.
If those elements are killer, audio, visual dragon detail, visual effects, music, memorable landscape, and dragon entrance to the fight, are done well I think most will be very satisfied.
Additionally from my previous post on September the 9th about Boss Mechanics I want to add a separate thread about the dungeon itself.
Graphics and Design:
- Graphics and lighting are stunning, with impressive armor designs.
- UI is clean and well-organized.
- Desire for more player customization and diverse scenery.
Story and Engagement:
- Enjoyable narrative with an engaging backstory involving the Queen's special unit.
- The dungeon's plot feels more developed compared to typical instances of clearing mobs without context.
Mob Behaviour and Logic:
- Observed mobs within sight of combat standing idle, which feels unrealistic.
- Recommendation for mobs to react to proximity with a clear aggro range for more immersion.
Combat Experience:
- Dungeon felt too short despite dialogue making it seem longer.
- Combat time between players and mobs was relatively brief.
Challenge and Group Coordination:
- Dungeons should feel more challenging, requiring teamwork to defeat tougher elite mobs.
- Suggested mechanics include prioritizing enemy targets based on role (e.g., healers, mages, rangers).
Mobility and Dynamics:
- Mobs should move more, forcing tanks to reposition and manage aggro dynamically.
- Recommendation for threat-switching mechanics to keep healers and tanks engaged.
- Fight dynamics should move away from simple grouping and AOE tactics to a more strategic approach.
Once again this is based on my own opinion I just hope the game will be great and will have its own take or spin on things but also keep things relevant. Really looking forwards to playing and I’m sure it will be a success 👍🏼
OK group we are on the 3rd form of Firebrand......WAIT!! WHAT'S THAT??? 2 MORE GROUPS COMMING IN TO KILL FIREBRAND AND US?
how is the PVX aspect gonna effect this?
The environment is looking very good, the bloom and dust is a bit overkill, but other than that everything is looking great and really drives home that appeal.
The AI bosses just standing there seems a bit dated, having them have a larger aggro range or just immediately go into combat upon spawning would feel much more enticing. Make sure you have everything ready to go before moving on.
With epic battles/raids like dragons (and who knows what else in the future), there should be a world wide change that happens, so everyone knows that a big fight has started. Whether its the skybox changing colors, alarms or callings that start happening in cities, or quaking and rumbling with giant roars you hear in the distance. It's moments like this that make everyone remember something from when they first started playing the game. A wow factor of the unknown and what is that!?
The dragon itself looked great, the fire looked great, the AOE indicators were a bit lacking, but if you're going for hard mode, then that's fine, but the fire on the ground was REALLY hard to see (but maybe that was just a stream issue). A bit more work on the animations, and I think it'll be set and good to go! Maybe a few more team based triggers would be fun, big bosses should have phases they go through as they get more desperate to survive making them harder as the battle goes on. Usually at the 50% and 25% mark and maybe even the last 5% for that added struggle, dragons are old, smart and WANT to live, they usually don't fight to the death.
Some of the early bosses should have many mechanics that help introduce the players to more difficult mechanics in the later stages of the game. Things that require immediate team work, attention to focusing single (or multiple) objects down within a time limit, otherwise large damage is incurred or someone from the party gets wiped. Seemed like resurrections were a bit much, the cooldown on those should be like 5-10 minutes so that way they aren't spammed that often and feel impactful when you have to use it.
More difficult high damage fights or things to keep people active vs HP sponges are much more engaging these days. Having to dodge, block and counter heal high damage hits makes big battles feel like you're in a struggle to survive, or endless low level mobs spawning where it gives that feelsgood boost of just laying into hundreds of mobs over a short period of time.
For those of you who are concerned about mobs just standing around...
I submitted this question some time ago:
"Up to now, while watching videos and joining the livestreams, all I've seen is MOBs spawning in one place and standing there. Are there plans in the future to have MOBs follow a course of action? For example, will a pack of wolves hunt along game trails; will a village of orcs have mobile scouts and cook and hunt and move within the village as if they have a purpose?"
Intrepid did reply to me stating (and I'm paraphrasing this):
"Yes"
So it is in their plans to give life to mobs... when?... only Intrepid knows.
just wanted to let you all know.
I have one more.
Why isn't the dragon roar not incorporated in the fight? You already have the animation for it so why not add it as an attack in battle?
lets say a 60' cone roar and anyone caught in the cone flees in "FEAR" (like GW2) for 5-10 sec. after that you regain your composure, clean your shorts and return to the fight.
Anyone running IN to fight the dragon seeing 15 people running in fear FROM the dragon, might just change their mind; not to mention it would look really cool to see that play out on the battle field.
In general people will respond to the above with:
“A lot of that would be cool but not really work in an mmo like the tail spike thing. Now more knock downs and knock backs from tail swipes and wing buffets, based on the character positioning around the dragon would work really well.”
My response to that is:
Sure in older MMO's that is what we have grown to expect or people from WoW would expect that from a mob Boss because that’s all they have ever known. I disagree that it wont work mainly because you will already have people dying or being knocked bac or down, so mix up how everyone is taken out instead of the entire group having the same thing.. Plus some coop and single player games already have this added, so why not? Make it part of the challenge to get the player off before he dies. By having the group broken down to smaller parts and being taken out or repelled differently it would help to make it far more fresh and new.
Sorry, but the Dragon moved and created a knock back or Dragon spun around and sent people flying 20 feet or Dragon swiped in a general direction as everybody swarmed the feet is boring and been around for 2 decades, time to do something different.
The overall combat experience and boss designs are still looking a bit bland to me, which I am hoping for that to just be a pre-alpha 2 symptom. If that is not the case though, I feel like there is no excuse to not have better designs that are geared toward AOC's design pillars, just because there are so many other mmos, genres, and games to get "cold hard examples" from, in terms of features, mechanics, and designs that could be adapted into AOC for better combat and boss experiences.
Overall if you want more comprehensive and detailed feedback on my boss design philosophy, please reference my post in the dev discussion on boss mechanics. I will reference just a few of those topics here and give some examples relevant to this Firebrand showcase, but that post is a more comprehensive form of my philosophy and feedback on bosses.
1. More skillful:
Overall the fight needs to be more interactive, engaging, and challenging imo from a gameplay standpoint.
The dragon is too static in its positioning. You should be compelled to move around a lot more to both avoid attacks, and to pursue the boss or to get into a better position youself, which would be encouraged if the dragon moved around a whole lot more. More fire breath strafing runs, more rampaging around, and more repositioning and adaptation on the dragon's part based on intelligent A.I. decision making in response to the raid party's tactics.
You should feel compelled to use traversal skills to navigate the environment and get into strategic positions to take down the boss, like scaling the building to jump on the dragon, or just chasing the dragon around while dodging firebreath as the dragon kites you, and stuff like that.
The games I listed vary in genre but have in common that they pull elements from the "bullet hell" genre for their boss designs.
I've already linked a bunch of boss examples in the boss dev discussion. Another example would be Balteus from armored core 6.
Talk about an epic and engaging boss fight, this one was super fun and awesome.
You have to actually move around constantly to dodge stuff, and have to think strategically and tactically about your range, positioning, your movement direction/angles, and the combat tools you want to use and how you will create opportunities to use them. When I go from playing bosses like this to watching the dragon, it seems way less fun, engaging, and challenging to me to be able to stand in relatively the same spot the whole time and avoid a lot of dragon attacks while still being setup in a pretty good position to be able to spam offensive abilties without thinking a whole lot.
There should overall be more of an emphasis on managing distance strategically, reacting more to the dragon's behaviors, having to use more of your mobility tools, and using the environment around you. The boss and combat system should work in harmony and you should be encouraged to make use of full combat system (don't pidgeon hole players into dull repetitive strategies), it should feel reactive and comprehensive, challenging your overall combat knowledge and skill.
There are buildings and terrain everywhere so make use of them. Line-of-sight should matter more and so should high ground and "power positions" during the fight. If your not sure how to do this then reference FPS games like Counterstrike, COD, Halo, and Battlefield with how they make use of walls, angles, terrain, high ground, power positions, map lane strategies, destruction, balancing different ranged weapons, etc.
The overall combat flow and pacing seems very slow and dull to me still. It doesn't have to be as zippy as armored core (though I would enjoy that) but it should feel more engaging than what I am watching during the dragon fight. I want the combat to feel more aggressive and proactive, which the Doom games do really well.
2. More emergent:
It would be awesome to have more options and playstyles available through making use of various mechanics in emergent ways. For example, like if the desctruction mechanic would interact with the boss, you could topple buildings over onto the boss to do damage. This would siege equipment could be useful for knocking buildings down during boss fights. Well, if let's say some random siege equipment was stored on a nearby rooftop and protected by enemies, then that would be a power position that you would need to take by using your traversal skills to get on the rooftop and thinking about the map strategy aspect of luring the dragon near the rooftop as it flys around the area. Layering these things different mechanics together makes the fight a lot more interesting by allowing more emergent strategies and playstyles which is more fun to optimize. This would be even better if new mechanics were introduced, like how Dragon's Dogma lets you climb on bosses, or how Monster Hunter lets you cripple bosses and disable different body parts, which all factors into that emergence, such as having to identify weak points on the dragon and using the buildings as a traversal option to jump on the dragon to climb to access that weak point, or targeting that weak point with the building that you toppled over, or using other unique tools that might interact with the dragon in emergent ways like chopping trees then rolling them down the hill to trip the dragon over. There should also be a lot more tools, options, and utility available to players imo, like having environmental tools such as pitfall traps, trip wire tools, training other mobs, hiding from the boss, etc.
Overall I think boss battles should feel more emergent and immersive in the ways I talked about. You should be thinking more about all the tools at your disposal, all the systems and mechanics, how they interact with each other, all the potential and possibilities, efficiently using your environment and surroundings to your advantage, adapting your strategies/tactics, and constantly be thinking about how to further optimize your approach as you craft your own unique playstyle and experience within this emergent game.
Don't you want your boss fights to feel like real emergent challenges where players will be coming up with new creative strategies, approaches, and playstyles years and years down the road? This is what Hitman manages to do with its design (with some help from community mods to add to the challenge for these tournaments). This video shows how players are always finding new creative optimizations for beating boss challenges in this game using the emergence of the mechanics, the environment, the tools, stealth, and their movement skill, in order to come up with their own unique playstyles and strategies to approach these boss challenges. There is a lot of potential for a dedicated community just around these types of unique challenges and boss encounters, as shown by this video with millions of views and a very high like-ratio, which stems from interest in this kind of design and gameplay within a competitive setting.
3. Player performance tracking:
4. Narrative design:
I think this is important for the story/immersion aspect of the boss fight and for player investment into the fight itself.
5. Knowledge-based gameplay:
This adds to the emergenct aspects, and I think this also keeps players immersed in the game world and keeps everything feeling like a connected whole.
It would be cool if there was more interaction with the environment with the mechanics of the boss. For example if there was cows and the area was more like farmland. A mechanic could be to protect the cows from being eaten by the dragon. Maybe everyone needs to stand around the cow to hide it or something. The dragon would heal for each cow he manage to eat.
I miss those funny mechanics in ashes so far and I think they are memorable. This fight is not very memorable, instead works exactly how you would expect, fighting a dragon.
One idea I had was for the water puddles around the battleground to remove a burn effect that the dragon applies to players with attacks. Then have a dramatic threshold in the fight where the dragon flies up and causes the water to heat up, eventually dealing damage to players in the water and ramping up as the water begins to boil more and more and then eventually all the water would evaporate leaving you with no water to put out the burn effect. This is just one example of the type of thing that would make things exciting and dynamic.
Maybe he could cause the sun to become more intense as the fight progresses dealing tick damage the ramps up as it intensifies. Then one of the players must cast some sort of cloud coverage spell they picked up in the dungeon that has a cool down that keeps it from being spammed that cuts off the tick damage. Then after a little time in the cloud coverage, the dragon flies up and creates a gust of wind with its wings that removes the cloud coverage and begins the growing sun damage again.
These are just a couple ideas of having ways for the boss and the players to interact with the battlefield and the environment to make the battle much more dynamic, exciting, and immersive.
Healers should be required to be in close proximity to their patients.
Healers should be the primary target behind tank and top DPS not just free to run around as they please.
"That's the way it was. That's they way it ought to be."
Pardon me if I missed it but I would like to see a facility for raiding the raid and stealing their hard earned loot. Having to post security after a kill makes more sense to my mind.
And another thing,
Isn’t item dropping a but outdated?
By removing item dropping you open the door of item crafting and professions in general. Here is how I envision it:
You kill a dragon: the teeth can be turned into swords, the nails into daggers, the skin into leather armor etc. This specific dragon can provide X amount of scales with elementary proficiency, going up to XXX% at maximum proficiency. People with enchanting can absorb and store the magical powers of the creator and then sell the potions to interested adventurers. So mobs and bosses provide resources: physical and magical that are turned into weapons and armor through professions. Quite simple actually.
However, professions can be so much more! By discovering the world of Vera players can get to know different processing techniques from the peculiar people that live all around it, discover new recipes and skills that eventually transition into improving their weapons and armor.
Sooner or later they will have to change the combat, and adapt it more to modern demands. The graphics are good, but they need a darker, medieval fantasy environment, like references to Souls and LOTR.
Mobs and AI, is this game supposed to be next generation? or is it a set of classic MMOs? They need to integrate an improved AI so that the mobs have more prominence, improve their combat and add better mechanics so that it is difficult to kill them. The boss is very easy to eliminate, the guys in the comments added several references to recreate a good boss. Diablo IV is a very good reference.
Seriously guys, if you offer a renewed combat more adapted to this time, this game will live and more players will want to try it and play it. You don't need to revive classic mmos Steven.
And last thing, the classes should have more prominence, the healer must have damage skills, he can't just be a healer. They urgently need a druid.
My main focus of interest is the mob AI. As for the most part they are doing the standard stand around aimlessly, like a lost little puppy routine. Which is fine for most mobs that you'd expect to have little to no discipline. But less so for soldiers and guards, which one would expect to be highly trained and regimented.
So I would like to see different AI patterns, depending on the type of mob.
What I'd like to see with soldier and guard type mobs, which could also be used to city nodes, is an escalating 'party aggro' that increases as they draw attention to themselves. Think the GTA star bounty system, the more havoc you cause, the more enemies and more powerful enemies spawn to chase you down. You will get overwhelmed eventually. The key is to be sneaky, to kill off guards and scouts quickly and quietly, and to strategically reduce aggro by finding spots to hole up in and cool down.
Behavior wise I'd want soldiers and guards to act with more deliberate regimented behavior. Guards standing equally far apart at doorways, facing forward without budging. Patrols of 4-8 marching around. A stronger guard captain that will inspect certain locations, as the other mobs turn to salute them. Scouts positioned at elevated positions scanning for intruders. Weaker bullhorn enemies that will aggro everyone nearby if you get their attention, and let them blow on their horn, etc.
One thing in particular I want to see is a larger aggro radius, that can chain together to aggro more groups of mobs if you fight them too close together. You'd have your immediate circular radius, which represents their hearing. And a much larger cone of vision, that will occasional scan around. As well as a default and alert states, which changes their behavior.
When you get into a fight with them, it'll create a radius of sound that emanates outwards, and the more enemies your fighting the larger it is. If that enters their individual radius, they will aggro too. Or at least go towards the source of the sound, only properly aggroing when they see you. If you fight in a room, there is less sound, so whenever possible you'd want to fight them in an enclosed space.
Their cone of vision however, isn't always 100% reliable. If their is an object between you and them like bushes, or some other kind of environmental element like smoke or fog, or using skills that hide you, then they won't automatically aggro. Instead they will do the Metal Gear !, as they have become alerted to your presence, but don't know where you are. So they will first being scanning around, before moving closer to where the source of the disturbance was. Before eventually returning to their original position and returning to their normal state.
So a way to deal with them is that you can draw them away from other mobs to kill them quietly. Maybe you could even toss a stone or use other skills to draw attention.
The entire idea about fighting these types of mobs, is about managing aggro. If you go in bows ablazing, your going to draw unwanted attention and likely get overwhelmed by waves of guards and soldiers. Sure they will eventually expend all their reserves, but it's the hard way to go. Or you could choose to do it like a heist mission, and avoid trouble as much as possible. Each have their risks and rewards.
so I am a passionate raider in other games like WoW, Lost Ark, etc.
I played all kinds of classes so this might be helpful for you:
1.) Please indicate incoming healing.
As a healer this is kinda mandatory to assign the correct targets for healing. If healer A is already casting a spell I can top someone else instead. This helps a lot keeping everyone alive.
2.) Please indicate AGGRO
I mean I rechecked the video and cannot see it somewhere. Its just highlighted on the healthbar in red if you have aggro. But nothing worse than a DPS pulling AGGRO on a boss, because he overextended or whatever. Maybe the aggro system works different can't tell yet, but it either shouldn't happen or have indication, cause I guess this opens up more kinds of encounters where DPS have to offtank things or some sort of stuff.
3.) If you have selected a player as your target, highlight it also on the GROUP UI
So you see whom you clicked. Just quality of life things.
4.) I watched the entire video and even though I could distinquish between the different mobs in size and some small abilities, their differences felt not really like it would matter.
Pull together, Kill. No real tactics required. They basically are trash bags to kill, which makes it kinda boring until the boss fight. Mobs should have certain mechanics. Like a Giant which makes a stomp any now an then requiring the group to get away from him for a second. Maybe also tactics depending on how many players are in the group or how fast you chop the first 50% health of the mob. Be creative. I think the trash groups should not be like oh 20 mobs but like 2 giant swordguards, 7 infrantry, 15 grunts whatever.
5.) The 1st. Raidboss needs to be a DPS check. More and more groups should spawn on a timer (fixed) so that the group has to get rid of the previous group as quickly as possible. (Adjust that of course because I know already everyone brings the 40 man group from the start).
6.) Nice Loot 'n' Scoot midfight Steven!
7.) The Lady of the rose encounter is pretty boring as the trash is not really strong. Several Mobs castet abilities, but the healers could just cast through it. Take advantage of things like CC or Terrain to make it interesting. Line of sight certain AOE explosions, CC a specific mob or something could make the fight more refreshing.
7.1) If one mob is left unattended and casts an ability on the Lady the Lady has to take like 1/3 of her health away. The healers can heal her and she nearly gets no damage. This is a boss fight.
7.2) There for example could be a sniper mob which cannot be aggroed which is like casting a long spell to sniper the Lady and he has to be killed quickly or otherwise the Lady will take like huge damage.
7.3) Or a horseman which cannot be hold aggro which charges through the group and has to be dodged by the entire group until the range DPS killed him.
8.) The bossfight against firebrand. The shockwave he makes does nearly no raidwide damage at the beginning of the fight.
9.) The fucking music made me coom. Great job on that I love it. Thats boss fight music!
10.) The breath attack where Firebrand jumps back. It kills some of the players. I think the only place where it should be save is in his back. or behind a tank ability (raid wide shield or whatever). It should be an event where you have a certain amount of time to get behind the dragon or gather behind the tank to not wipe. It should actually kill everyone instant. But you nearly have no time to get behind the dragon.
11.) If you resurrect a player the player should be ported to the healers position where the rez was casted. (Like in wow). Because if you die in Lava, get rezzed in Lava, you die instantly again. Normally the Healers position on the rez is a safe one.