Curse

EFGJack · May 27, 2011, 04:23 PM // 16:23

New (repeatable) end-game content.

Hello. I have had this idea for a while now and I decided to write it down. Basic idea is to update old bosses to various levels of difficulity and add bounties for them. There could be 12 updated bosses total, 3 in each campaign / expansion, and only one boss bounty is active each week. Much like the Zaishen bounties these quests would be limited to maximum of 3 bounties active and you can hold onto one for as long as you wish. After a week has passed the new bounty becomes available – I propose the time to be the same as Nicholas’ scheluded location swap.
The bosses will always be accessible if they are in an explorable zone, but rewards will only be assigned to players if they have the respected Bounty active and not completed. This leaves little reason to kill the bosses without the Bounty.

The weekly bounty will reward coffer-like items that yield gold, lockpicks and minor consumables at a random chance, plus Faction points if they are in a zone controlled by an in-game faction, And make players eligible for Flux Residue, tokens dropped by each boss. Several NPCs are interested in the Flux influx affecting the world, how some specific monsters can absorb it’s power and grow strong enough to pose serious threat to human settlements and they ask for piles of Flux Residue. In order to research it further these NPCs offer weapons, and possibly armor pieces (be it for heroes or player) and consumables in trade for Flux Residue. Flux Residue is customized for the player, but it can be placed in storage. Rewards can be traded in between players.

Weapons and armor pieces would cost 15 pieces of Flux Residue and Consumables would cost 1-3 pieces each. Consumables “Flux cookies” would cost 1 piece of Flux Residue and it’s effects are comparable to Birthday Cupcake or Golden Egg. Armor of Salvation, Essence of Celerity, Grail of Might and Powerstone of Courage are also available here, for 3 pieces of Flux Residue. These consumables are in place so the Flux Residue will have use after players have attained the weapons they desire. These weapons and armor can be placed in the Hall of Monuments.

Each bounty yields 3 pieces of Flux Residue on Normal Mode and Hard Mode. This way there’s little discrimination of players who prefer Normal Mode. Although there could be an account-wide Monument with criteria to kill 6 out of 12 Flux bosses under Hard Mode setting. Due to the nature of the weekly completion it doesn’t feel like a grind, or a huge timesink, but players will return to kill the bosses in order to attain the new weapons and possibly armor.

two of the bosses I propose to be updated are the following: Arrahhsh Mountainclub of Pongmei Valley & Crush Kill of Nolani Academy. These two encounters differ as the other one is in an instance with a party size of 8 while Crush Kill is in Nolani Academy, party size is limited to 4. Arrahhsh has large healthpool and the fight promotes movement to an extent, while Crush Kill’s encounter is a short, simple and brutal.

Arrahhsh Mountainclub, a gruesome menace.

This boss will be the first to join the rotation so the players get a good idea of what’s to come. Arrahhsh lives in a mountain cave by the waterfall, this doesn’t sound too gruesome, right? for this reason I propose Arrahhsh’s cave to be expanded to that of a spirit’s range and Arrahhsh’s model to be updated to a larger, more Ogre-ish type. He will be wielding a large, two-handed Swamp Club model type of mace. There could be ancient Turtle Shells and beast carcasses inside the cave.

Arrahhsh has a high health pool: 22,500 on Normal Mode, 30,000 on Hard Mode. Although he is a warrior I suggest his armor value to be as low as 60 on Normal Mode to encourage people to play their elementalists, and other classes that are affected by Armor. Hard Mode armor value for Arrahhsh is 80. Cracked Armor will reduce it to 60, but it shouldn’t be required for certain professions. Detailed information and skills below:

Normal Mode (Hard Mode)

Armor value: 60 (80)
Health: 22,500 (30,000)
Attack Speed: 1.5 (1)
Melee Damage on a 80 Armor Target: 120-145 (180-225)
No natural health regeneration
Knockdown Immunity, even with Earthbind (he is supposed to be challenging)
Immunity to Blind. (Immunity to Blind & Halved Hex Duration)
Agro Radius: Spirit Range
Will reset to full health if pulled too far away from his spawn location, this range can be spirit range; the size of his cave.

Arrahhsh is a strong Yeti boss with two phases. 100%-51% and 50%-0. In >50% phase, phase 1 Arrahhsh promotes mobility from players and in phase 2 he promotes add control. Players will get another chance on Arrahhsh much like they do against Rotscale, however Arrahhsh will not recover any lost health while players are recovering from a wipe. Similar to Ilsundur, Lord of Fire.

Arrahhsh Mountainclub’s abilities

Roar
Mountainclub
Boulder Throw
Avalanche (Phase 1 only)
Giant Stomp (Phase 1 only)
Primal Instinct (Phase 1 only)
Discard Mace (One time only, at 50%)
Primal Rage (Phase 2 only)
Return of the Yeti (Phase 2 only)

Arrahhsh’s abilities in detail

Mountainclub
Type: Attack Skill |Activation: ½ second |Cooldown: N/A
Knocks down target and adjacent foes. This skill can’t be diverted. This skill is be disabled for 12 seconds.

Arrahhsh’s signature ability. Knockdown can be prevented by a variety of (PvE) skills.

Primal Instinct
Type: Stance | Activation: N/A | Cooldown: N/A
For 8 seconds, Arrahhsh’s melee attacks are unblockable, steal 125 (200) life and cure Arrahhsh from one condition and hex (Arrahhsh moves and attacks 33% slower). This skill can’t be diverted. This skill is disabled for 24 seconds.

This Skill is a Phase 1 ability, Arrahhsh will not use it below 50% health. Three ways to deal with this ability, tank through it although not recommended as he heals himself with each successful attack. Using anti-stance skills, and just running away from him.

Avalanche
Type: Spell | Activation: ½ second | Cooldown: N/A
Arrahhsh roars in pain, causing an avalanche from the mountains above. The area near a random target will be hit by an Avalanche. After three seconds, targets caught in the Avalanche will take 120 (160) cold damage each second. Lasts 3 seconds. Targets hit by Avalanche will suffer from Chilled. 25%/50%/75% slowed Movement, Attack & skill activation speed. Scales by # of times hit by the Avalanche. Chilled lasts 5 seconds. This skill can’t be diverted.This skill is disabled for 30 seconds. Triggers 5-second-cooldown in Giant Stomp.

This Skill is a Phase 1 ability, Arrahhsh will not use it below 50% health. This is one of the key abilities in the first phase of the encounter. It promotes movement. Targeted area will be indicated by snow and shadow before Avalanche hits. It can be interrupted and it will be disabled if interrupted by skills such as Distracting Shot and Psychic Distraction. Disabled duration is limited to 5 seconds on Hard Mode.

Giant Stomp
Type: Skill | Activation: 1 second | Cooldown: N/A
Arrahhsh stomps, causing 80 (120) blunt damage to foes within Earshot. Inflicts Knockdown. This skill is disabled for 30 seconds. Triggers 5-second-cooldown in Avalanche.

This Skill is a Phase 1 ability, Arrahhsh will not use it below 50% health. 5 second cooldown is a grace period for players so they can’t get hit by an avalanche while recovering from Stomp. Cheating PvE monsters are never fun.

Roar
Type: Shout | Activation: N/A | Cooldown: N/A
Arrahhsh roars in pain, causing dirt from the ceiling to fall down on players. Removes an enchantment, deals 30 (45) Earth Damage and Inflicts Blindness and Dazed (3 seconds). This skill can’t be diverted. This skill is disabled for 24 seconds.

Shout, can be disabled with Vocal Minority and countered by anti-condition abilities such as Recovery, Pure Was Li Ming, and so on. Enchantment removal fights groups that chain protective enchantments and maintainable bonds. 24 second timer is fairly predictable and competitive groups will quickly learn to cover bonds with party-wide enchantments after 20 seconds have passed since the last Roar.

Boulder Throw
Type: Skill | Activation 3/4th second | Cooldown: N/A
Arrahhsh throw’s a boulder at the target. Inflicting 100 (140) Earth Damage, Weakness and dazed (5 seconds) and Knockdown on target and adjacent foes. Slow moving Projectile. This skill can’t be diverted. This skill id disabled for 30 seconds.

An ability Arrahhsh will be using throughout the encounter. Promotes mobility and situational awareness, as well as positioning. It is not too punishing but players want to avoid it.

Arrahhsh will begin Phase 2 once his health drops to 50% by throwing his weapon at the players and continuing the fight barehanded.

Discard Mace
Type: Skill | Activation 1/4th second |Cooldown: N/A
Arrahhsh grows weaker and throws his weapon at a random target. Inflicting 140 (190) Blunt Damage, and 5 second knockdown on target and adjacent foes. Projectile. This skill can’t be diverted. This skill will be disabled for 12 hours.

I don’t know if there’s a better way to force the boss to use this ability only once per encounter.

Primal Rage
Type: Stance | Activation: N/A | Cooldown: N/A
Arrahhsh’s attacks will become unblockable, inflict Cracked Armor (4 seconds) and his attack & movement speed is increased by 33% (Arrahhsh has -40 armor). Lasts 8 seconds. This skill can’t be diverted. This skill is disabled for 24 seconds.

This Skill is a Phase 2 ability, Arrahhsh will not use it above 50% health. Stance, it can be ended by skills such as Wild Blow, but as Arrahhsh is more vulnerable strong groups can try their luck and keep Arrahhsh in this stance.

Return of the Yeti
Type: Skill | Activation: 1 second | Cooldown: N/A
Arrahhsh roars and alarms his kin. Four Yeti Warriors will enter Arrahhsh’s Cave from the same entrance the players did. Arrahhsh suffers the same amount of damage as these summoned warriors. This skill can’t be diverted. This skill is disabled for 45 seconds.

Alarmed Yeti Warrior
Health: 450 (650)
Armor: 60 (80)
Melee Damage on a 60 Armor Target: 35-45 (55-65)
Attack Speed: 1.5 (1)
Remove enchantments with attacks
Skill Bar: Enraging Charge. Earth Shaker. Power Attack. Sight Beyond Sight.

This Skill is a Phase 2 ability, Arrahhsh will not use it above 50% health. This ability speeds up the final phase of the encounter as Arrahhsh suffers the damage inflicted to adds. It can be exploited by using Heal Area on the adds but I see it as an unlikely strategy. However I suggest the adds should be immune to healing and health gain just in case. Enchantment removing melee attacks further promote players to deal with the adds instead of tanking them at the entrance.

Defending the Academy

Crush Kill is a rock elemental boss in the Nolani Academy. After coming in touch with the Flux energy this boss grew in power and intellect. He now holds a grudge for the human adventurers tormenting him for the last six years. The clever, newborn elemental backtracked the human footprints to the Academy and has it under siege.

This boss will be on rotation on the second week. Unlike Arrahhsh, this boss will be a fast and a brutal encounter. As Crush Kill is a piece of rock specialized in brute force, he won’t have many abilities. Being different from the Arrahhsh encounter, Crush Kill has a high armor value. He is a piece of rock after all. This encounter will take place in an instanced version of the Nolani Academy Outpost.

Armor value: 100 (120)
Health: 2,500 (4,000)
Attack Speed: 1.5 (1)
Melee Damage on a 60 Armor Target: 225-245 (265-300)
Natural Health Regeneration: None. Party will be removed from the instance if it’s a wipe.
Type: Elemental. Immunity to Poison, Disease and Bleeding. (Halved Hex Duration)
Crush Kill is a pretty straight forward encounter. He hits like a truck in Flux but he can be Weakened, Blinded, and knocked down, and he dies fast.

Crush Kill’s abilities in detail

Enrage
Type: Passive | Activation N/A | Cooldown: N/A
Crush Kill gains 10% damage and movement speed every second he isn’t attacking. Crush kill is cured from a condition and a hex every 8 seconds. Enrage resets when Crush Kill successfully hits with an attack.

Without this ability Crush Kill can be kited permanently with Cripple and other snares. This is to promote thoughtful play.

Crush
Type: Skill | Activation: 1/4th second | Cooldown: 20 seconds
Crush Kill leaps to a target, inflicting 280 (360) blunt damage and knockdown to foes in the area.

This ability appears powerful but as Crush Kill lacks offensive abilities this one is basically his only real threat.

Kill
Type: Attack Skill | Activation: 1/4th second | Cooldown: 30 seconds
Crush Kill charges a random target and attacks him, if it connects, the target and adjacent foes lose 480 health.

This ability is to counter spirit spam – namely Wanderlust and Shadowsong. It can target human players as well, but as Crush Kill doesn’t have many abilities and he can be weakened and blinded the party has plenty of time to recover. It's an attack, so it can be blocked and it can miss.

Overpower
Type: Attack Skill | activation ½ second | Cooldown: 12 seconds.
Attacks target and adjacent foes. Damage doubles on each new target. Initial damage: 150 blunt damage. Crush Kill loses 1 condition and hex per struck target.

First target takes 150; second target suffers 300; third target 600. Further countering spirits and anti-melee abilities.

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That’s about it. I don’t mind if this idea doesn’t catch wind under it’s wings as it was fun typing it. Any comments, critics and further ideas are welcome.

instanceskiller · May 27, 2011, 04:58 PM // 16:58

First inspection, waterfall of text

Further inspection, this idea sounds very fun and it's obvious you put a lot into this. I wouldn't mind seeing this happen but, and I'm sure I won't be the only one to say this, but with the release of guild wars 2 looming closer, and the current live team not having finished with the Guild Wars beyond for Cantha and Elona, I doubt they will have the time to implement this in this year. THey even said they had the whole year planned out in terms of big projects which this would be. However, it would be a very fun thing to implement after guild wars beyond and guild wars 2 to make coming back to guild wars 1 more fun when taking a break from guild wars 2.

EDIT: Oh and I do hope they do more than 12 updated monsters. After guild wars 2 and guild wars beyond, I wouldn't mind this being the BIG project and having them flux-ify every boss on every continent...Yeah, unlikely, but if they have the time...

artemis-fowl · May 27, 2011, 05:10 PM // 17:10

/agree ofcourse
super extra idea

Skyy High · May 27, 2011, 05:29 PM // 17:29

Nothing bad to say, except for the lack of time / resources.

Imevil · May 27, 2011, 06:21 PM // 18:21

Great idea ..the Overpower skill is kinda..overpowered but nothing pve players can't handle with
/signed

jazilla · May 27, 2011, 06:30 PM // 18:30

sounds good.
/signed

Xsiriss · May 27, 2011, 06:39 PM // 18:39

Or just add cons/whatever it is you want to zaishen collectors? That and add 'Hard mode bounties' like they apparently are doing for some quests. At this rate we'll be lucky to see WoC, look how long it took them to make Dhuum and all the stuff to stop speedclearing UW. Not going to happen. Let alone any sort of new armour/weapon pieces.

IronSheik · May 27, 2011, 07:28 PM // 19:28

So it's sorta like the new hard mode quest thing just implemented+ a little WiK system?

Apache215 · May 27, 2011, 07:45 PM // 19:45

DAMN- wall of text.

Anyway, very creative and thought out I like it. But as stated above with the live team having other priorities, it won't happen soon. That's not to say it won't ever happen, considering this is a brilliant idea.

EFGJack · May 27, 2011, 10:06 PM // 22:06

@Xsiriss - It's not about the consumables mate, the Zaishen NPCs offer fine rewards and I wouldn't touch them. As for the time & resource issue, yeah.. They've got their hands full I've heard. They could host a "Design a Weapon (and a few shields while you're at it)" type of contest as they have done before. Altough it's quite the hassle to go through every submission. Heh, we can only hope they had the time.

@IronSheik - Galrath was a nice addition (everything new is always welcome), but it was hardly different than a normal dwarf group in Slaver's Exile. WiK can be compared to Bonus Mission Packs, not this. Anyway, thanks for the response.

@Imevil - chances are Overpower will only hit one target at a time unless players are hugging eachother for reasons I can't quite understand. It's a four-player boss after all.

HigherMinion · May 27, 2011, 10:59 PM // 22:59

Yeah, Galrath was hardly a challenge. As a boss, he should really be harder than his mob... He went down in 3 seconds, when his mob took a bit longer.

More health, more reward, more skillful AI/enemy build/monster skills pls.

melissa b · May 28, 2011, 01:44 AM // 01:44

I like some things like the new enemy skills to try fighting against while other things I would make different. Instead of reusing an old enemy with new skills make a new enemy with new skills.

Also, rewards should be different in hard mode versus normal mode.

Also would like more details about the weapons.

/3 Stars (I'm for it after polishing up the idea)

Jeydra · May 28, 2011, 02:24 AM // 02:24

I'll argue that instantly killing any target is not a good idea (especially if Kill targets the hero ball that you can't flag apart and instagibs 4 people). That said, I'm for any kind of extra content, I need more things to do anyway.

EFGJack · May 28, 2011, 08:36 AM // 08:36

@Melissa_b - I didn't spend as much time thinking about the reward system, but there is the additional HoM monument for killing them on Hard Mode. Not many people you pug with will ever see your monument, but they can't distinguish if you got your weapons from normal or hard mode, anyway.

@Jeydra - The boss is fought in a 4-player instance, Nolani Academy.

Reward system can be reworked to reward 2 tokens at normal mode and 3 on hard mode. And Kill reworked: It is an attack skill (block/miss are possible), and it now makes the eligible targets lose 480 health, the amount of health a player has at level 20 without any modifiers. The highly intelligent rock elemental assumes this is enough to score a kill on the humans.

HigherMinion · May 28, 2011, 11:26 AM // 11:26

The solution to killing any boss with ease: Just use PS.

Mordiego · May 29, 2011, 06:28 AM // 06:28

is this reinventing GW? Come on... aNet would never bother to implement SO many changes. Crazy idea.

Kanyatta · May 29, 2011, 11:37 PM // 23:37

It sounds like you put a lot of thought into this, and it sounds like a good idea to give older players something to do rather than quit the game.

However, the "give players repeatable content" thing was sort of done with Embark Beach and the new Z-Quests, which I think they did a spectacular job with. Maybe this suggestion could be implemented with basically a "make end-game content harder" and "make Guild Wars 2 fun."

kelloggs · Jun 04, 2011, 02:45 PM // 14:45

ha, it seems like your wishes have been partially answered. i wonder why nobody started a new thread about this by now. i'm talking about the new titan HARD MODE quests....

I guess you work on some builds right now but i have to say: is this a challenge or a simple death sentence to everyone who tries it?!? top lvl 42 enemies, emphasis on plural, rampaging everything to dust including the best hero builds that are out nowadays with skillbars to prevent anykind of tanking, enemy hexing, friendly enchanting, anti melee abilities, godlike interupts, devasting single and aoe damage (shelter stands like 2 seconds because of attack speed and damage even from small groups) and so on.

any solutions by now?!

edit: what a surprise, they lowered the level from wind, earth and water born titans from 38 to 36