What Kinds of Bosses Would You Like to See?

[RemnantWolf]

Sadly after all my time playing MMOs I have only really seen 3 kinds of bosses... The hard hitting but quick to kill, the weak hitting but 1-2 hour battles and the mix of the first two.

But my question is if you could have a boss of any kind you wanted what would it be? SE has a great opertunity to really give the game a some personality of it's own. A chance to really wow us and give us something to look forward to discovering as well as something to return to simply of the epic moments. But I think they need some good ideas as to what we would like to see.

Would you want a boss in which you have to interact with the environment and use tools to kill it, such as destroying energy sources or knocking objects onto it before destroying it.

Or maybe a monster that after taking enough damage breaks down into smaller pieces, and you have to kill the smaller parts before they merge together again, or else you have to fight the big boss again.

Or even a monster that is so big that you have to kill it section by section. Killing its feet before having to climb higher in some tower to reach another section of the boss to be destroyed (A boss a whole dungeon long!?)

With the implementation of dungeons and bosses just around the corner I think it is a great time to ask, if you were in charge of basic boss ideas what would you like to see?

[Lienn]

I like the strategic bosses...like the old RPG ones. Those where straight fight does not win battle...where you need to defeat certain parts first for only them get access to main boss...like those old bosses where you ned to make it fall so you can hit the head for damage or kill orbs that make the boss invincible or beat certain parts that trigger devastating attacks over time.

And what i don't want to see here is fights that last more than 1hr. IMO a 30 min fight is good enough...more than this makes it become tiring and boring.

[Jinrya-Geki]

Boss fight transformations. Like Kefka changing after a certain amount of Hp was taken.

[ZethLyons]

Maybe...a boss that each time you battle it, he will have a different method to kill him. And each time you enter battle, it's a race to see what hurts him and then use that to take him out before he does too much damage to your party.

And no cheating. The boss doesn't do anything different nor does he look any different in each version...so you can't just run in and say "Use cures to kill him because he has the feather on his head!"

:P

[Belial]

Sadly after all my time playing MMOs I have only really seen 3 kinds of bosses... The hard hitting but quick to kill, the weak hitting but 1-2 hour battles and the mix of the first two.

But my question is if you could have a boss of any kind you wanted what would it be? SE has a great opertunity to really give the game a some personality of it's own. A chance to really wow us and give us something to look forward to discovering as well as something to return to simply of the epic moments. But I think they need some good ideas as to what we would like to see.

Would you want a boss in which you have to interact with the environment and use tools to kill it, such as destroying energy sources or knocking objects onto it before destroying it.

Or maybe a monster that after taking enough damage breaks down into smaller pieces, and you have to kill the smaller parts before they merge together again, or else you have to fight the big boss again.

Or even a monster that is so big that you have to kill it section by section. Killing its feet before having to climb higher in some tower to reach another section of the boss to be destroyed (A boss a whole dungeon long!?)

With the implementation of dungeons and bosses just around the corner I think it is a great time to ask, if you were in charge of basic boss ideas what would you like to see?

If you've played a lot of MMOs, there are certainly more than those kind of boss types. The problem is a lot of old bosses become stagnant and unimportant, thus losing their stategy.

But as far as what you're asking, I'd like to see some real dynamic fights. One's that require:
- positioning & timing (what, moving? paying attention to others actions and battle flow? -gasp-)
- enmity management for classes besides the tanks (I know, you're all like, wtf is enmity)
- Balanced class involvement (ie; different but viable strategies for different party set-ups).
- more responsive boss AI (holy shit, it can adapt mid-battle!? crazy!)
- environment-related encounters (fighting some fire shit??? bring it into a pool of water!)
- roaming bosses! (how fucking boring is it to run to the same god damn room in the same god damn dungeon time, and time, and time again? build us a fucking dungeon where the bosses aren't whiney emo kids hiding in the basement of whatever hell-hole we're in... let them fucking walk around so we're not always encountering them in the same way. this alone provides many possibilities)

I'm sure I, among everyone else could list a shitload of other ways to inspire unique and interesting boss encounters. But considering the direction of this game is being dictated by a majority playerbase who wants easysauce all over everything, I simply won't get my hopes up.

[Xatsh]

I would not say the majority wants it easy for the fights... they want it casual where when you kill the hard fight it drops everything 100% of the time or crap like that. I disagree with that too but different thread.

Most want the game harder, I read very very few things in these forums where anyone complains X is too hard, or I just can't beat this leve quest it is too involved. Honestly I see more rage quit post over everything being a easy zerg fest, and the fact a rank 20 could probably beat the rank 36 quest line mobs.

I want to see more things like salvage, more things like einherjar/walk of echos (without that free for all BS they did in that). Things that anyone can do, but you can't be a complete noob if you want to succeed. I want boss fights where it involves the whole group working together. Make it where you have to incap bosses... or they can do say a 2000dmg aoe attack or something (like Khimera's wing attack or something). Or make say a Adamantoise mob and make it where it takes 1 dmg from everything unless it is regimented or chained, with the ability to break that defense by incap when it takes enough dmg. I would love to see terrain play a part in large boss fights. The last thing i want is where a random pickup group or a large amount of people can win everything with ease. All reward and no challange... there is nothing fun at all about that. I want some stuff at ffxi-CoP (prenerf) difficulty.

I want something that really takes a close nit group to succeed in, you know something that requires alot of skill not just from yourself but the whole guild. What I loved in XI's endgame, everyone needed to be on the ball to do really well.

[_C-a-e-r-i-t-h_]

Bruce Springsteen.

[_C-a-e-r-i-t-h_]

Also Long-Bowed Chariot, Long-Armed Chariot, Armored Chariot, and Battleclad Chariot.

Probably the four best boss fights in FFXI.

Gilgamesh from FFV/XII was a lot of fun too.

[Jinrya-Geki]

Ohhhh a boss that eats a random player. Not based off hate pr anything, just random picks one player and eats them. The player gets spit out when they are ko'ed, or enough damage is dealt to make the boss regurgitate.

Counter-magic, boss gets hit with a powerful spell, they throw something powerful back. Example: Ruby weapon gets hit with Knights of the Round, he'll use ultima.

A boss that uses mini :O. Not enough FF use mini anymore. Lalafels beware! You get reverted back to a baby!

Boss with emotion! Example: Boss hates Dragoons. If there is a dragoon in your party, the boss' strength is increased. For increased difficulty, the rewards are increased.

[_C-a-e-r-i-t-h_]

Ohhhh a boss that eats a random player. Not based off hate pr anything, just random picks one player and eats them. The player gets spit out when they are ko'ed, or enough damage is dealt to make the boss regurgitate.

How about a boss that eats random players but the players can then attack it from the inside, a la belly of the whale?