Curse

Mercury Angel · Feb 09, 2006, 07:17 AM // 07:17

Talking with friends spawned ideas for new bosses, and since I worked them out, I thought I might as well put them up here. This set of bosses was inspired by the idea that since PvE balance is largely fragmented from PvP, that ANET should make more use of the [monster only] skills, to make the monsters more challenging, and more importantly, more interesting or unusual.
Each of the following bosses is themed loosely off of the backstory provided througout the game and in the manual, and each boss is tied to different God or Goddess, with their own story, and 2 unique Monster Only skills.
I apologize in advance for the excessive use of tragic drama, but I needed to give the motivations to be attacking human players, and that's pretty hard to write differently each time, particularly as depicted by the last 2 bosses.
===

Lyssa's Siren {Mesmer Boss} -

Long ago, there was a young girl, patron of the twin Goddesses, Lyssa, who was not able to capture the heart of the man she loved in her home village. Ashamed by her disgrace, she ran away from the village. Night fell and she slept at the altar of Lyssa, crying, her dreams filled with the essence of unrequited love.
Lyssa saw her child cry, and came from the heavens and blessed her, giving her her heart's desires by changing her into a Siren, with the power to captivate men's minds through song. She awoke in the morning, feeling the magic course through her, making her voice sweeter than the rarest honey, and granting her immortality.
Though she had the power now to gain the happiness she thought she wanted, her heart grew twisted and black by her lust for revenge. She returned to the village and sang before the man she once loved, and he instantly fell in love with her. Without a single pause in her song, she left the village, and the man, whose heart was snared within the spell, followed her unquestioningly. Deep into the forest, wolves fell upon the man, devouring him, his final gaze being adoration for the woman he once scorned.
She smiled to herself, corrupted by the power and anger within. The wolves saw this power and fled, having had their snack anyway.
Lyssa saw how she was plagued by hatred, but could not remove the boon she had given, so she whisked her away in the night, placing her on a small island, where she would do no harm.

Though no sightings in the present have indicated the existence of the Siren today, ships sometimes mysteriously disappear in the seas...

Health: 520
Armor: 120 vs Physical, 200 vs Cold, 120 vs Earth, 80 vs Air, 100 vs Fire
Half Hex and Condition duration
Energy: 80

Attributes-
Illusion: 16
Domination: 16
Inspiration: 16
Fast Casting: 10

Skills:
Siren's Song [Monster Only]
Siren's Charm [Monster Only]
Power Block {E}
Diversion
Sympathetic Visage
Distortion
Power Drain
Ether Feast

Siren's Song [Monster Only] -
Energy Cost: 5
Casting Time: 1/4th second
Recharge: 20 seconds
Type: Skill

All nearby foes cannot attack for the next 12 seconds.

Siren's Charm [Monster Only]
Energy Cost: 5
Casting Time: 1 second
Recharge: 10 seconds
Type: Hex

For 8 seconds, target foe's next attack heals the target instead.

Ideal Minions-
Bog Skales and Mergoyles

===

Grenth's Gorgon {Necromancer Boss}

An orphaned girl, whose mother died in childbirth, and father was killed in a bandit raid, grew up alone in the world, in a small village. Jaded by loss, she saw the cruel, ignorant world around her, and knew immediately to whom her loyalties lay. By 6, she had taken an oath of faith to the great god, Grenth, in return granted her great powers of Necromancy.
Her fierce determination and skill reaped great rewards, making her one of the most powerful Necromancers of the time period. Villagers saw that power and feared her. One night, while the moon was full in the sky, they gathered around her modest home, wielding weapons and torches. She would have been burned alive had she not prayed to Grenth to bestow upon her a boon.
Her house burned down around her, but she emerged from the ashes unscathed. Her body, however, was forever changed. Her hair had been replaced by long twisting snakes, her skin tinted a dark green. The villagers looked upon her visage, a costly mistake.
In the morning she was gone, and the few remaining villagers awoke to see a congregation of statues around charred earth, where once a house stood. They cried out an Oath of Vengeance through Balthazar, who cursed the girl to pay for her deeds by taking away her voice, so that she could never find peace among humans again, and so she hid, her remaining human emotions torn apart by grief.

Statues of almost lifelike quality of animals and people have appeared sporadically around Tyria since, though there is no evidence that it is linked to a Gorgon.

Health: 520
Armor: 120 vs Physical, 100 vs Cold, 200 vs Fire, 120 vs Air, 80 vs Earth
Half Hex and Condition duration
Energy: 80

Attributes-
Blood Magic: 16
Curses: 16
Death Magic: 16
Soul Reaping: 10

Gorgon's Gaze [Monster Only]
Venomous Snakes [Monster Only]
Lingering Curse {E}
Shadow Strike
Vampiric Gaze
Desecrate Enchantments
Shadow of Fear
Putrid Explosion

Gorgon's Gaze - [Monster Only]
Energy Cost: 10
Casting Time: 1 second
Recharge: 10 seconds
Type: Spell

Target foe's movement speed is reduced to 0, can not attack for the next 20 seconds, and their skills are disabled for 20 seconds.

Venomous Snakes - [Monster Only]
Energy Cost: 5
Casting Time: N/A
Recharge: 30 seconds
Type: Skill

For the next 30 seconds, whenever you are struck in melee, you steal 20 health from the attacker, and the attacker is poisoned for 8 seconds.

Ideal Minions -
Grasping Ghouls, Zombie Warlocks, Skeleton Mesmers, and Necrid Horsemen

===

Melandru's Dryad {Earth Elementalist}

Fire poured down from the sky in waves. Lightning coursed across the jungle on a cloudless day. The forces of a corrupt guild swept down upon the lands of a tranquil tribe of druids. In no time, they had leveled the homes of the druids, turning to ash what was not needed, and taking any artifacts the tribe possessed. In a time of great struggle between powerful clans (which would later become Guilds), only 3 things really mattered to them. Magic, money, and land. There were valuable resources tied up in these lands, and ancient rituals of nature passed down by tribes; An apple ripe for the picking.
The druids had already fled with their children deep into the forest through paths not seen by the naked eye, knowing that their way of life had ended. Deeper and deeper through the jungle across vines and trees, they came to their most sacred shrine of Melandru and prayed to the Goddess for their salvation.
The Goddess heard their plight and transformed them into immortal sages, druidic spirits providing help and wisdom to those in need in the forest, all save a single girl, with a strong passion in her heart, seething at the thought of the jungle's beauty being torn apart by savage men seeking to claim its treasures for their own. To her, she gave the gift of power to protect the jungle, making her into a Dryad spirit, with power over the domain of earth.
And with that, Melandru vanished, though the girl felt her warmth radiating through the jungle, in a way she'd never felt before, as if she were the trees themselves, in Melandru's embrace.
The girl rushed into her former home to find the men still searching for treasures, and traces of the druids that fled. "You will leave this jungle immediately.", she said, unwaveringly. The men heard her and looked about but could not see her spirit. "Show yourself!" They shouted furiously, and so she settled into a nearby tree, fully entering it, taking on its mind and heart, while the tree shaped itself into the semblance of a body, though it remained rooted in place.
"Witch!", they cried, and charged towards her, chanting spells that they thought would render her into ash. The spells singed her bark, but little more. Thorny tendrils grew from beneath them, tearing into their bodies, and dragged them under, to become fuel for the jungle, taking from them the debt they owed to the land they had destroyed.

The legend has never been verified as true, though it is said that when the citizens of Tyria try to expand their homes into the jungle, she will do all within her power to stop them.

Health: 520
Armor: 120 vs Physical, 100 vs Cold, 70 vs Fire, 150 vs Air, 200 vs Earth
Half Hex and Condition duration
Energy: 80

Attributes-
Earth Magic: 16

Thorny Embrace - [Monster Only]
Earth's Repose - [Monster Only]
Glyph of Energy {E}
Obsidian Flame
Stoning
Eruption
Ward Against Elements
Ward Against Foes

Thorny Embrace - [Monster Only]
Energy Cost: 5
Casting Time: 1 second
Recharge: 10 seconds
Type: Skill

Target foe moves 50 percent slower, suffers from 3 degeneration, and takes 15 additional damage per second for the next 5 seconds. When Thorny Embrace ends, that foe is knocked down.

Earth's Repose - [Monster Only]
Energy Cost: 5
Casting Time: 1/4th second
Recharge: 15 seconds
Type: Skill

You and allies in the area are healed for 120 health, gain 15 energy, and are cured of Poison, Bleeding, Disease, Weakness, Blindness, Crippled, Dazed, and Burning.

Ideal Minions-
Maguuma Spiders, Redwood Shepard, Moss Scarabs, Life Pods

===

Dwayna's Sylph {Air Elementalist} and Balthazar's Ifrit {Fire Elementalist}

Before the power of magic was split into 4 parts, when the Gods were still closely connected to the Earth, there was a couple known throughout the land for their deep and pure love, secured by an oath as eternal. This, however, was before the fighting for dominance by various races had become deeply embroiled.
The man was called upon to serve King Dorric in the army, as were many others, while the woman remained behind to await the birth of a child that would not come. After months of combat, as entire villages of humans vanished off the continent of Tyria, she realized that was barren, and would have nothing left of her love, should he perish. She rushed off to war, despite warnings by friends and family, and though the time had not yet come to accept women on the battlefield so readily, there was no way they could afford not to.
Just as she arrived at the most recent skirmish her husband had engaged in, an arrow pierced his chest, and he fell to the ground, his armor soaked in blood. She ran to him, and though arrows flew near her, they all seemed to change course just as they would have struck. Holding his body, cold with blood loss, she prayed to Dwayna, in the name of all the good she had done, to give to him all of the remaining life she had, so that he could again walk on this world.
Moved by this selfless prayer, Dwayna granted it, infusing his body with her life. His eyes opened once more, only to see her body fall lifeless to the ground. Though he was a strong man, tears streamed down his eyes. He cried out to his patron, Balthazar, on the honour he had built up, which had previously ended in a true warrior's death,asking that for his life of service he be granted a boon; Return her remaining time to her.
The Gods were at odds; Both wished for the equal and opposite desire, and both were devout worshippers, fully worthy of a boon. The only thing they could do, in the end, was to give them new life, reborn. He became an Ifrit, a spirit of Fire, while she became a Sylph, a spirit of Air.

Both spirits are have said to live on, acting on behalf of the gods who left the world forever, together eternally, as they swore in life.

Slyph

Health: 520
Armor: 90 vs Physical, 100 vs Cold, 100 vs Fire, 200 vs Air, 120 vs Earth
Half Hex and Condition duration
Energy: 80

Attributes-
Air Magic: 16

Blessing - [Monster Only]
Shimmering Wind - [Monster Only]
Mind Shock {E}
Blinding Flash
Lightning Orb
Ennervating Charge
Whirlwind
Gale

Blessing - [Monster Only]
Energy Cost: 5
Casting Time: 3/4th second
Recharge: 8 seconds
Type: Enchantment

Target other ally is healed for 80 health, and damage taken by that ally is reduced by 10 for the next 5 seconds.

Shimmering Wind - [Monster Only]
Energy Cost: 10
Casting Time: 1 second
Recharge: 15 seconds
Type: Spell

Target foe and all adjacent foes are knocked down, and suffer from blindness for the next 10 seconds.

Ifrit

Health: 520
Armor: 120 vs Physical, 80 vs Cold, 200 vs Fire, 100 vs Air, 120 vs Earth
Half Hex and Condition duration
Energy: 80

Attributes-
Fire Magic: 16

Honour Guard - [Monster Only]
Searing Aura - [Monster Only]
Mind Burn {E}
Immolate
Incendiary Bonds
Fireball
Meteor
Rodgort's Invocation

Honour Guard - [Monster Only]
Energy Cost: 5
Casting Time: N/A
Recharge: 15 seconds
Type: Skill

For the next 8 seconds, all damage taken by target other ally is halved and redirected to you.

Searing Aura - [Monster Only]
Energy Cost: 5
Casting Time: 1 second
Recharge: 12 seconds
Type: Enchantment

For the next 5 seconds, foes adjacent to you take 30 fire damage and lose 1 enchantment each second.

Ideal Minions:
None or Ghostly Soldiers (or whatever they are...)

Starsky-sama · Feb 09, 2006, 03:19 PM // 15:19

Ouch those stats/spells hurt.

/nice reading.