Breakfast Topic: Design yourself as a raid boss
by Anthony Meier 
Apr 5th 2011 at 8:00AM
One day, I was running a few low-level guild members through Zul'Farrak. We finished the dungeon, and I took the opportunity to sit in his throne, informing my group that I had claimed the dungeon for my own and I was now the final boss.
We all had a good laugh, but that got me wondering. What kind of raid boss would players make? For me, my main was a ret paladin at the time. I sometimes pinch heal, too, so I think I would have to have some annoying healing ability, like the Twin Val'kyr when they use Twin's Pact. I love my bubble, so I would want to have that; maybe pop the bubble and cast a big heal. The raid would have to dispel/break my bubble and interrupt. Maybe some giant, AoE holy attack that opens up holy fissures in the ground. They'd do damage but make healers more powerful, to keep up with any enrage-like effects.
If you had to convert yourself into a dungeon or raid boss, what unique mechanics or abilities would you have? How would they reflect your abilities, unique playstyle and personality? What quotes would your character have? Would you have a cool story behind why you're there? Who are you as a raid boss?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Neyssa Apr 5th 2011 8:06AM
I would hate to be alone: most of all I enjoy the group aspect of the game. So I guess I would be part of a council-type boss with my guildies - rl friends.
It would also involve lots of drinking. We would stun everyone to just sit there until we go out for a drink. If players drink our beer they get a buff but we would all enrage.
Malozing Apr 5th 2011 10:47AM
Haha. Same for me. On the Learn to Raid forums, Druzza, Saz, and I decided we would be fight together each as a different spec of Shaman. If you try to farm us for loot, we will try to feed you to the Saz's spirit wolves.
Rylka Apr 5th 2011 12:21PM
As a teacher, my boss encounter would be a trip down memory lane.
Upon entering the chamber for the final boss battle, the players pass through a shimmering energy curtain. On the other side they find themselves transformed back to their starting level 1 forms, right down to starting gear, beginner spells, and no talents. [Any healer classes that do not normally start with a healing spell do have their lowest heal available.]
In order to leave the chamber the raid must defeat the elite level boss, similar in toughness to old school Hogger.
The fight takes the form of a series of lessons in basic dungeon mechanics, with different phases requiring traditional tanking, healing, LOS, staying out of literal fire, kiting, managing aggro etc.
Upon defeating the boss, the final words spoken are, "Remember what you have learned."
Loot is a soulbound bag for each player containing a full set of level one gear with stats matching their current decked out selves.
Rylka Apr 5th 2011 12:22PM
Sorry Geiss, I did not mean to hijack your thread. This was meant as its own reply.
Rylka Apr 5th 2011 2:00PM
Make that sorry Neyssa. I can't even link apologies correctly today :)
CDave Apr 5th 2011 2:36PM
I'd get myself and the entire raid drunk, giving everyone in the raid a 99% chance to miss and myself a 95% chance to miss. Here's the catch: everyone, including me, would also go down in one hit (because one you're drunk, it's really hard to get back up). So basically the entire raid just wails on me as I slowly take people out until they finally land one hit. There would be achievements for losing only one person, losing no one, and also for only having one person left.
And there would be some sort of Guinness related themes to it, like a harp trinket drop and "great head" jokes.
Lowlight Apr 5th 2011 8:07AM
TANK AND SPANK all the way baby. And he'd drop HUGE shoulder pads and a hammer that didn't look ridiculous. Every time.
Just maybe to mix it up, he'd randomly death touch ranged DPS while throwing down delicious chocolate for mDPS to stand in.
Signed:
~ A Ret Pally.
Hrothgar Apr 5th 2011 10:59AM
So, of course, you would never down the boss because all the real DPS would be dead. zing!
vertigobliss86 Apr 5th 2011 8:07AM
I'd be a raidboss that is similar to a NPC. I am on a quest for knowledge and power, and setting the world right to my own views. The PCs would have to outsmart me in some manner, so it's less of a gearcheck fight and more of a situational fight.
Josho Apr 5th 2011 8:45AM
What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Elwoods Apr 5th 2011 8:54AM
African or European swallow?
vertigobliss86 Apr 5th 2011 9:41AM
Exactly!
Not to mention having awesome quotes like that.
WaterRouge Apr 5th 2011 8:09AM
I would totally be a Medivh style wizard but all about the water/frost spells. I be like BAM tidal wave and then BAM in-door whirlpool. Lady Nazjatar ain't got nothing on what I could do with water!
My most famous quote would be...
"Too soon Nebulonous! You have awoken me too soon!"
mark Apr 5th 2011 3:35PM
i would have to be all about the fire
randomcast fireballs, LB style dot explosions, longcast pyo's that need LoS to survive, random AoE slowing/disorienting the melee while i move round the room.
the tricky abilitys:
LB has auto-impact procs, spreading the dot if your to close on explosion.
The hard healing:
the more LB's there are up the faster all casts go, making errors all the worse
The dps race:
When reaching 0% i pop up to 50%, with a 3 minute debuff to stop it working again.
(non enrage but if you take to many attempts your healers go OOM.)
and while this debuff is up superhard dots (combustion style) pop up on people
basicly a giant version of me!
awsome :)
Amnesiatic Apr 5th 2011 8:16AM
I play a Blood DK, so it would probably have something to do with diseases, debuffs and parasites. Also, I would annoy people with my dutch accent.
Calicia Apr 5th 2011 8:16AM
I'd vanish and just wait for my enrage timer to hit.
GreenNight Apr 5th 2011 8:16AM
I would be part of a multimob boss fight.
My main is a palatank, so I wouldn't have a normal aggro-list, but I would attack players who were the most damaging to my companions. I would have an ability (taunt/enrage) that would cause a player to attack me and not my companions for a while, some auto healing/mana regeneration, quite vulnerable on silences, having good physical damage reduction but susceptible to magical damage.
Faltor Apr 5th 2011 10:50AM
This is actually such a neat idea. Why not turn the tables a little, Bliz? A fight where the boss(es) act like a dungeon group. The hardest guy to kill has a taunt ability that makes raid members be forced to target him for damaging abilities, and he has fairly low hit points but is buffed/healed by another member. When we attack that other member is when he taunts.
Maybe the taunt only hits half the raid group (or maybe just our tank?), and the other bosses act like dps and try to nuke down whomever is highest on their healer's threat list.
In such a scenario, our tank wants to stay on top of their healer's threat list so their dps focus on him while we try to nuke the healer. At intervals their tank taunts our tank off, which then leads to cases where we try to damage the other healer without going over our tank's threat lead, since that would make the enemy dps start to kill our dps.
I like this idea....
Jeremie Apr 5th 2011 8:17AM
There is a way to temporarily become a dungeon boss. Just run some lower levels thru Stratholme and let yourself become mind controlled by the one mini-boss and let the terror ensue.
Learned about this the hard having not run the vanilla dungeons much until was level 70. The level 70 priest was a bit surprised and very dead when my tank got done with him. Ahh, good times, good laughs.
Billlop Apr 5th 2011 8:22AM
Id have different forms for each phase. First phase would just be normal caster form, second phase would be a damaging cat form, third phase would be a tanking bear form and final phase would be a healing tree with adds.
First phase is pretty easy, just to force people into a false sense of security. then Phase 2 i use some mean DoTs and bleeds that have to be dispelled. Phase 3 i go around randomly attacking party members so its a test on the healers. Finally, phase 4 is a DpS race as raiders try to out dps my heals.