GW2 and SW:TOR at the forefront of MMORPG?

[Alaris]

1) He froze several allies which you could break the ice to free them
2) It was shooting flaming balls which did substantial damage if you didn't dodge
3) He spawned allies
4) He flew into the air so he was out of melee reach

Yeah, this is totally *like* a rancor. Somebody hand a nobel prize to jam for pointing the obvious. Everything is a rancor.

Difficulty can be adjusted, but let's face it: (1) however epic the fight is, it's not fun if you're getting owned, it has to be challenging but not frustrating, (2) the rancor in question didn't look hard either, and even if he was tough, it was all stats no actual play skill... as in, can you out-dps him.

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Conclusion: GW2 is the place to go for epic boss fights in the MMO genre.

[raspberry jam]

He did all that, and yet for the most of the battle he was standing still. Fighting a retard isn't epic no matter how flashy that retard looks.

Conclusion: GW2 is the place to go for epic boss fights in the MMO genre.

Well, I hope they have some tricks up their sleeve. As of yet, they haven't revealed them.

[Lensor]

Of course, one could have a challenging fight even with a perfectly stationary boss, as long as there are other things in the fight that are unpredictable and demanding of skill and focus. I am not saying that the Shatterer fight is (or will be) like this, just that being stationary in and by itself does not speak to the challenge of the fight.

[Alaris]

Look, if that dragon behaved intelligently, we'd be toast no matter what. It's a fantasy game. Get used to it. I don't expect these bosses to move around, but then again, they don't have to for the fight to be epic.

I've looked at a lot of videos for WoW bosses, and frankly, I don't see anything there that GW2 bosses don't also have. I haven't played against those high-level bosses though (I got bored before ever getting close, I did a bunch of mid-level instances though) but I did also sit with a friend who did a few endgame instances and explained to me all the mechanics while he was playing. I've seen more than a few hints that GW2 bosses will also have similar mechanics.

Combo that with no tanking and with a bunch of other activities (like defending or manning cannons)... the only real thing lacking is a system where you can climb on the boss's back (Shadow of the Colossus-style) and stab him in the eyeball.

[RD]

My whole point with the Shatterer comparison, btw, was ONLY that he didn't move and his animations were repeated, because that was the common complaint about that rancor boss. And I sort of only brought it up initially to be a wise-cracker because Alaris said he didn't like hugemongous bosses.

While I haven't played (obviously), my money is on the Shatterer being a more intense / interesting encounter.

[Alaris]

I do like hugemongous bosses. It just doesn't make sense that you'd tank one.

Looking at the videos for GW2 fights, people are acting a lot more like they would in the same circumstances: running wild in all directions, shooting arrows from far away, shooting cannons at it, and getting killed when they get too close.

[Giggles]

we need more humongous

[Skyy High]

He did all that, and yet for the most of the battle he was standing still. Fighting a retard isn't epic no matter how flashy that retard looks.

.....and?

He still did everything Alaris listed. He does have varied attacks, he does spawn allies, he does require you to help free/res your teammates, and he can be attacked with environmental weapons if you want to. In addition, I'm positive that his difficulty was scaled way down for the demo (and we STILL see players eating dirt pretty regularly because his attacks hit hard). If your only complaint is "he's stationary, therefore he's retarded," you need to come up with a better argument. A boss doesn't need to be mobile to be dangerous and scary. Hell, how many Zelda bosses are effectively immobile, and yet that franchies provides some of the consistently best boss fights of any that I can think of.

No, this isn't Shadows of the Colossus. That'd be cool, really, it would, and I certainly wouldn't complain if these big bosses did have more movement to them, but poo-pooing the obvious differences between the Shatterer and other open-world MMO bosses is not being "critical", it's inane.

[Alaris]

Although to be fair, poo-pooing SWTOR based on the rancor is not fair. The rancor fight looks like a very boring amateurish standard-MMO melee fight, but I have seen a few SWTOR bosses that looked really fun (if not for lack of dodge, and for tanking).

There's one I remember of a giant robot sentry shooting missiles and stuff with laser turrets or something around it, placed at the *beginning* of an instance. I'd have to see a rancor as the end boss of that instance.

Maybe rancor will become a new meme.

[RD]

God, I loved Shadow of the Colossus.

There was one (really tough) boss in SWTOR where you basically just fought him on a platform and he would try launching rockets throughout the battle (one at a time to start, up to three at a time as he lost more HP). The rocket exhaust would burn you to death pretty quickly if you didn't move.