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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Who could be a new world boss in Cataclysm?
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Mar 1st 2010 at 8:00AM
Blizzard touched a bit on why they've not used world bosses in Wrath in the recent Twitter developer chat. They observed that there are issues with the bosses that have prevented them from feeling comfortable making more world bosses, such as issues with groups racing to bosses, or the ability of people outside raid groups to deliberately mess up boss attempts. On the other side of the coin, though, they did imply that they like world bosses, and will probably implement more in Cataclysm if and when they can find a satisfactory work-around for the problems.
Now, as a former player of Everquest, where pretty much every major raid boss was a "world boss," I can vouch that it wasn't always pleasant. Druids kiting bosses, uber guilds racing each other to bosses, and arguments over who got to kill what on which week were all common occurrences, and the drama that occurred over such things would put most guild drama in WoW to shame. That said, there's something that's rather epic about fighting a large imposing boss in the "open air," knowing that you're not stuck on a special server and that the fate of the world could be at stake -- or at least, the fate of a poor clueless newbie who could stumble on the guy by accident.
So there's a few questions we could ask here. Are the problems the devs list a good enough reason to keep world bosses off the table? Are they fixable? And either way, what world bosses would you like to see in Cataclysm?
I have to say, I'd sort of like to see that awesome giant Kraken model get used for a boss battle. We've seen it used most in single-person quests, but it's so amazingly large and beautiful that I'd love to see a chance for a raid to take it on, maybe in tandem with the Kvaldir, who are awesome and shouldn't disappear into the mists of "that was last expansion" like the Ethereals mostly did. A Ragnaros-like encounter where the Kvaldir summon the Kraken and attack you every time it "submerges" could be a lot of fun.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 7)
Dalrand Mar 1st 2010 8:14AM
'I'd sort of like to see that awesome giant Kraken model get used for a boss battle. '
It already has been used for a boss battle! Appeared there before anywhere else, correct me if I'm wrong.
You forget SSC, Lurker Below.
intorachel Mar 1st 2010 8:33AM
Lurker was not a kraken model.
Thon Mar 1st 2010 8:37AM
It does have a Kraken model. Just google it and you'll see.
Matt Mar 1st 2010 9:22AM
The Lurker Below does not look like a traditional Kraken, but the model name has "kraken" in it. It's also the same exact model as the Kraken the author wants to see as a boss, so I dunno what's up with that, as the Lurker Below was a raid boss before these single-player quests.
Frank Mar 1st 2010 9:47AM
i love the kraken idea! couldn't they make a kraken on a huge travelling pattern with a super-low spawn time, like the time-lost proto drake? that would eliminate a lot of the problems that existed with world bosses in the past.
saregos Mar 1st 2010 7:26PM
Actually, Frank, that's exactly the problem there already was with world bosses.
Long spawn times reward those who track them religiously. What used to happen was you'd have world bosses (such as the dragons) on set spawn timers of, say, 96 hours from when the boss last died. So whoever last killed it would typically be standing right there waiting 4 days later when the boss respawned, and the end result was that 95% of the raiding guilds never saw the boss because the same single guild would kill it every respawn cycle.
What could be interesting is to exploit phasing with the world bosses. For example, set it up so that when you kill one, you can't see it again for a week, while the actual respawn time sits closer to a few hours.
My major concern, though, is that world bosses almost have to be balanced around a 40-man raid by default. Unless you implement some clunky mechanic to limit raid size (like giving the boss an ability that kills anyone who has engaged it in combat above/beyond 25 people?) balancing for anything less than 40 trivializes the encounter, because you'll always have people bringing 40 men to kill it, instead of developing the skill necessary to down it with 25.
Lastly, world bosses tend to allow for graveyard zerg strategies, and I really don't want to see those come back.
Blondies Mar 2nd 2010 3:23AM
I didn't play in Vanilla, so I can't say if it was before TLB or not, but there is a quest in Dustwallow Marsh for alliance where you kill a beast with that model by the use of cannons. Tethyr is his name.
There are no mentionings of him being added in a later patch on wowwiki, so I guess this is the first implementation of the Kraken model.
Letharginator Mar 3rd 2010 4:53PM
Tethyr and the associated quests were added during the revamp of dustwallow in BC.
ROB13 Mar 1st 2010 8:15AM
We need a Fel Reaver to patrol outside the gates of the 1 - 5 Starting Areas.
Chukie Mar 1st 2010 10:19AM
And we thought the welcome bear was bad.
Killchrono Mar 1st 2010 10:47AM
Why not compromise and make it the infamous BEAR REAVER?
cmichaelcooper Mar 1st 2010 8:18AM
Have the area that houses the boss phase for everyone that is grouped, either in a party or in a raid. If you're alone, it still phases for you, and you can still get squashed like the old days.
Docp Mar 1st 2010 8:32AM
The problem with the phasing suggestions is that you seem to pretty much be instancing the boss by another name.
cmichaelcooper Mar 1st 2010 9:28AM
But it's not the instancing of the boss that seems to be the problem, as much as it is that everyone wants to fight bosses in the world environment.
Itanius Mar 1st 2010 8:22AM
Didn't the recent Dev Twitter chat have a question about why they didn't want to do World Bosses anymore?
"Q. Why have we not seen World Bosses in this expansion?
A. They just have problems. It's always a race to get to them, which tends to favor larger groups who are online often, and it's hard to discourage or even prevent players outside the raid from helping or screwing things up. "
Itanius Mar 1st 2010 8:23AM
Fail. Coffee first, comments later. =\
Sleutel Mar 1st 2010 8:24AM
This is why you want to read past the first paragraph. The second paragraph of this article is:
"Blizzard touched a bit on why they've not used world bosses in Wrath in the recent Twitter developer chat. They observed that there are issues with the bosses that have prevented them from feeling comfortable making more world bosses, such as issues with groups racing to bosses, or the ability of people outside raid groups to deliberately mess up boss attempts. On the other side of the coin, though, they did imply that they like world bosses, and will probably implement more in Cataclysm if and when they can find a satisfactory work-around for the problems."
JKWood Mar 1st 2010 8:25AM
From the article:
"Blizzard touched a bit on why they've not used world bosses in Wrath in the recent Twitter developer chat. "
Don't judge an article by its title.
Anathemys Mar 1st 2010 8:55AM
Well, I think that the whole "race to the boss" thing sounds fun. What they should do is design the bosses around this. Make them a LITTLE (not underpowered or e-z mode) and add in mechanics that buff the raid when non-encounter foes take damage (or something like that).
Sleutel Mar 1st 2010 8:26AM
Malfurion Stormrage. The corruption in the Emerald Dream finally drove him over the edge. Plus, he's been jealous of his brother getting all the attention in TBC. :D