The Chessmaster's Board: ideas for a trial/raid

[Ekimmak]

So, I don't know where I'd post something like this, so I thought this would be as good a place as any.

What would be the general consensus on a trial or raid where the party takes the place of chess pieces, fighting against other chess pieces specifically designed for a role? I was thinking something like

• Pawn: DPS
• Tank: Rook
• Bishop: Healer
• Queen: Enrage mechanic

The pieces wouldn't auto-attack, instead they'd all charge a specific skill (Pawn's Advance, Bishop's Route, etc) that deals a consistent amount of damage to their highest threat target over the cast, and at the end, it has an effect, and the piece moves.

The goal for DPS and Tanks is to stand in front of the piece, as that reduces the distance they can move, while healers have to counter raidwide damage dealt by bishops.

If a rook reaches the final row, it uses a skill called Castling to grant any other piece that enters the final row the Tactics buff (Allowing them to use a hard enrage skill, Checkmate). If a pawn enters the final row and doesn't have tactics, they use Promotion to become a Queen, which grants the same buff as Castling to any other final row pieces, but additionally deals high raidwide damage.

I do recognise that I'm missing pieces, but I've been stewing over this for a while, and I'm not sure how they could be used.

[Ekimmak]

Anyway, here's the specifics on what I've been thinking about:

Pawns: These pieces are countered by DPS. They have a debuff that's essentially a permanent True North, so you don't end up with melees leaving their tile unattended and letting the Pawn move forward too much. Pawn's Advance deals consistent damage to their highest threat target, and upon casting, it knocks back any unit in the two spaces ahead one tile back. If the front tile is open, it moves one space ahead. If the tile after that is open, it moves another tile, and anyone in the tiles directly left or right of to it gain a damage buff (to represent En Passant).

If the Pawn reaches the final tile, and does not have the tactics buff, they promote into a Queen. This is generally a *Very Bad Thing*, although I can see that being a necessary step for a savage/extreme version.


Rooks: These pieces are countered by Tanks. I dunno what will need to be done to make them a less enticing target than Pawns, but to make them the sort of thing you don't stand in front of is easy: they deal far more damage than a Pawn does, and Rook's March is effectively a tankbuster. It deals damage to all players in the column in front of it, and knocks them back, before moving to the furthest unoccupied tile. If on the second last row, it moves to the last row.

In actual Chess, two rooks can checkmate a King just by chasing him across the board, since they can cover two columns/rows at a time. Representing that is Castling: letting any other piece that reaches the final row (including the other rook) wipe the raid. Not how the actual move goes, but I thought it was clever.


Bishops: These pieces are countered by Healers. Rather than coming up with mechanics for them to counter, I see it that they counter them the same way as everything else: by countering raidwide damage with healing. I thought I'd go extra clever and make it that you want them downed simultaneously: one will inflict a specific element resistance debuff, damage pieces of an opposite colour, places a HoT on ones of the same colour, and remove a specific element resistance debuff, so if you kill one, the other side will quickly spiral out of control.


Queens: Essentially, a sign that things are going really badly. If they aren't casting Checkmate to wipe you, they cast Queen's Glory, which deals significant damage to all players and pieces of the opposite colour, while placing a strong HoT on pieces of the same colour. As mentioned before, the Savage/Extreme strategy might involve using these to finish off the Bishops before killing them.


Putting it all together: DPS focus on burning down 2 Black Pawns and 2 White Pawns so they can move on to killing Bishops/Rooks. Tanks keep the Black Rook and White Rook from advancing forward too far (although writing this now I did notice a weakness in that they only cause problems when another piece is in the back row, so a daring group could let one go the full distance, and have the Tank block a pawn). Healers keep the group alive by negating what the Bishops can do on top of the specific Piece vs Player damage.

Savage/Extreme: I don't know whether this would be better as an Omega style raid, or a Primal type Trial, so I don't know which difficulty to use. That said, I've thought of a few ways to make it a bit more brutal. Pawns now grant a tether to another same-colour piece. That piece is now harder to kill. But, when the pawn has taken enough damage, it redirects the tether back to the pawn, and they begin to cast Promotion, turning them into another of that piece. So not only are they rather hard to kill for the cast, but then they'll unbalance the board and cause a wipe (Either as a third tankbuster, or unbalancing the debuffs inflicted by Bishops).

Another idea I've had is for Bishops to gain a substantial Stoneskin effect when their health is depleted by a certain amount. The trick here is to get both Bishops to this point, then allow two alternately coloured Pawns reach the final row and become Queens. Queen's Glory will finish off the Bishops (as it kills them before the HoT can restore them), and then it's a race to kill the Queens before they can use Checkmate.

On an alternate thought with Bishops, since real Bishop pieces are colour locked for the game, you could add that they only apply their cleanse to players standing on the same/different colour squares. Throw in that the pawns will inflict debuffs of their bishop's colour, but won't remove them, and it's a hectic dance to ensure that while Pawns remain challenged all the time, which players oppose them changes constantly.

Perhaps Savage Rooks now inflict a debuff that forces a tankswap? How about the Rook's March inflicts/removes the resistance debuff, but the channel deals consistent elemental damage of that type, forcing the main tank and offtank to swap rooks every other move? Make Castling far nastier by having it deal raidwide player damage of the Rook's element, and then apply that elemental debuff. So you really can't afford to let them move into the final row.

And after all that, why not give it an ordinary boss that plays as the King piece: while untargetable chess pieces target the board with AoEs like their chess moves, he alternates between being a White piece and a Black piece, and the MT has to drag the boss to the correct tiles to ensure he's getting hurt, rather than healed, by all these moves.

[KaivaC]

Sounds interesting...but I dunno.

A lot of NA players have trouble dealing with animal farm in Deltascape v3.0 Savage. This might be too much for the general casual base. Plus, a lot of players tend not to coordinate standing in the path of a charge to reduce damage, as seen with an S rank hunt in the Azim Steppe, or the Third Demiurge (or whatever it's called) in Sophia Ex.

Still, I'm all for a fight like this. Could be pretty fun.

[Texa]

as seen with an S rank hunt in the Azim Steppe, or the Third Demiurge (or whatever it's called) in Sophia Ex.

Also in
-In the last phase of Thordan where one of the knights tosses a spear and the party has to stack in a specific order to keep the healers alive. This was where a lot of people hit a wall with the fight when it was current.
-Zurvan's wave cannon where it was almost universally cheesed with the tank LB once people had the trial on farm.

[KaivaC]

Also in
-In the last phase of Thordan where one of the knights tosses a spear and the party has to stack in a specific order to keep the healers alive. This was where a lot of people hit a wall with the fight when it was current.
-Zurvan's wave cannon where it was almost universally cheesed with the tank LB once people had the trial on farm.

Tank LBs are rare, but that feeling when they're used properly in the appropriate fight feels good.
Yeah, Thordan was a pain to do it with as well. Even now with Lvl 70s, if you don't stack for it, it can potentially wiped out the healer - that's what happened when i finally cleared it. The WAR and PLD had to solo the remaining 24% by themselves.

[Ekimmak]

Thanks for feedback.

I still feel bad that I can't use Knights for anything. The trait of the Knight piece is that it can't be blocked, so maybe they could be pieces that just wander about, throwing extra damage at people standing on tiles said Knight can reach?

[KaivaC]

mechanics explanation

Hmm....I dunno. I get it, personally, but I dunno how it would work in casual content. That's an awful lot of teamwork for an 8-man. In full, probably not something that isn't too difficult, but then again, like I quoted above, take away the overwhelming damage of O3S and random casuals today will still wipe to the mechanics. Simultaneous downs are the same - remember that Guildhest in the DF when you had to down five voidsent within seconds of each other?

[Ekimmak]

Simultaneous downs are the same - remember that Guildhest in the DF when you had to down five voidsent within seconds of each other?

Yeah, that's still a pain to get in Guildhest roulette. But I'd think by the time you get to something endgame, people would have a better grasp on how to kill things at relatively the same time.

That said, I'd see things like "kill in this specific order close to the end of the lifebar" in savage, hard mode would get easier on each piece downed.

If anything, all these complicated mechanics feel more like a DPS check phase (similar to Bismarck's or A9) than a full fight on its own. So have the Chessmaster as an actual boss, and this for the DPS/organisation check mechanics.

[Fredco191]

It sounds pretty cool. I mean- I’d suck at it but it’d be cool to watch.

[KaivaC]

snip

Mmm....maybe. It would be an interesting challenge for sure, though. I could see it in hard mode, because at least healers could keep folks relatively healed with our current kit. I'd love for them to bring back some of the more interesting mechanics that we saw in the Crystal Tower raids, to be honest. Actual mechanics like putting the chain back on Cerberus, or having the appropriate number of people stacking for a Lvl 100 Death. To add to your idea, maybe we have something like DPS stand in certain parts of the chessboard, or have them pick up certain roles to counter the chess pieces.