[Concept] The Challenger's Rise

[bclumas]

Hey everyone. I wanted to share with you a little (sort of) something that I have been working on for months now. This is a concept that I have made called the Challenger's Rise. In short, it's a mix between Zul'Aman from Burning Crusade and the Brawler's Guild.. and it really isn't even anything like what you're thinking.

~EDIT~

Based upon several suggestions, I've decided to take a few minutes and break this into four documents. The first document is simply the introduction with a second page that gives links to the other two documents. It really has very little information. The second link will direct people to the Lore and Attunement of the island. The final two links are two individual raids. Additionally, I am working on formatting the text so that you can divert your eyes to what is important, and what is not. The detail will remain, but only for reference. Thanks for checking into this:

• Introduction Page
• Lore & Attunement Page
• The Desecrated Rise (Raid) Page
• The Darkmoon Asylum (Raid) Page

[syllass]

I'm still reading over the boss encounters, but from the ones that I have read...wow. You certainly put a lot of effort into this and in my opinion several of these bosses look seriously legit.

I think the whole design sounds good as well, though I'm sure Blizz would change the way you access the island since it sounds a lot like attunements (which I happen to like).

[bclumas]

Wow. Like.. seriously! I thought this was all dead and forgotten.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read it. Yes, I did put a lot of effort into those encounters. My girlfriend was quite annoyed when I'd go on a drive and say "How does this sound to you?" I'd get an eyeroll and a "the bosses again"-face.

I think my next step is going to be actually scripting these encounters (the raids, not the prior ones) and go from there. I think what I will do is break this up into two smaller bits that are more easy to read.

Thank you again for reading. Do you have any specific feedback? Are there any of the bosses that you think (from the ones you've read so far) have abilities that do not work or are not cohesive? I'd love to hear feedback.

[seni]

This is cool. I don't really understand how it fits into current lore though? I understand some of it is Titanic, but then you throw some undead stuff in there?

[bclumas]

This is cool. I don't really understand how it fits into current lore though? I understand some of it is Titanic, but then you throw some undead stuff in there?

It is just a way to introduce new raiding content during the lull between major patches. The first raid fits with the "Titan" (and Greek Mythology) theme. The second raid is a completely different raid. The lore behind the two raids and why they're being sealed by the Paragon Sanctuary is written down on a file on my desktop, and I'd be more than happy to share it. Originally I left it out due to length (it was 45 pages, after all), but I guess I can include it in the Lore & Attunement section now. I'll probably have to even break that up since it's already lengthy due to the Attunement portion.

Thanks for the suggestion.

As a note -- it appears that I somehow deleted a portion of the Darkmoon Funhouse "Method" (how the fight works) when transferring files. I don't know how this happened, but I will fix it soon for those few interested people.

[syllass]

Ok, so before I go into any suggestions, you should know that these encounters look very fleshed out and I already want to try some of these bosses. So definitely a job well done!

For the Desecrated Rise raid, here's a couple of things that came to mind:
1. I really like how the bosses seem to progress in difficulty. From an early dps check to increasingly difficult mechanic bosses....wow. It almost reminds me of Sunwell.

2. The penalty for dying due to the Soul Fuel mechanic seems a bit steep. I mean, one wipe increases Aether and his minion's health by 100%. I feel like that may need to be toned down a bit? However, I'm really intrigued by the idea that dying on earlier bosses penalizes the raid later. It seems like that would give top-end progression a whole new feel and difficulty. It seems like it would also cause progression to take significantly longer, which would make the raid's lifespan longer, which is ultimately a good thing.

3. I think some of the numbers may need to be tuned. For example, the Deep Poison from the Life Reactor on the Aether encounter seems to be a bit harsh. 50% increased cast time on random targets is probably a bit too punishing and too RNG.

4. I really want to do this raid.

Thoughts on the Darkmoon Asylum raid:
1. I am very interested to see how you envision the layout of the Darkmoon Funhouse. I think this sounds like an extremely cool encounter. Having 4 separate groups coordinate with their own bosses is just...awesome. I'm sure more is mentioned in the part that got deleted, and I would be interested in reading more about the hardmode. Though from what I could tell, having to kill Kalypso with the first 4 bosses still alive...damnnn.

2. For the Haunted Carousel encounter, the only question I have regarding this is does the spin cause players to fall off? Is it like Ji-Kun's down draft where it pushes players to the edge? I ask because I'm curious if it would be absolutely necessary for players to ride the carriages at all? It seems like you could potentially nuke the boss without touching any carriages.

3. The Son of Silas encounter sounds extremely difficult and awesome. A couple of questions / concerns though. The grappling hook grabbing a random mask off the wall sounds like it could have RNG issues with the moonlight. For instance, if several players grabbed a mask and it happened to completely cover up several of the channeling necromancers, that might really screw melee. Just a thought. Also, can a player choose to take off the mask early? For example, if the group inside the Untouched is about to kill a necromancer, could they take off the mask to avoid the damage from Final Breath or is the point to time the necromancers' deaths with the amount of time left in the Untouched? Also, do the Blood of Undeaths and Lurking Shadows spawn before players enter the Untouched, or do they start spawning once there are players there?

4. After reading the first raid, I didn't think that the second would compare. I was wrong. This one has encounters that I feel like Blizzard needs to make.

Overall, I personally feel like this would be an amazing idea. These raids especially sound difficult and rewarding, especially for top-end progression. If you ever want to run ideas like these by someone, I love stuff like this. Feel free to add my battletag - Syllass#1576 - if you want to chat about this or other ideas you may have. Cheers!

[bclumas]

Thank you to whomever is adding comments (to fix grammar) to my posts. I assume it's your Syllass, and I really appreciate it.

Your feedback is awesome regarding the encounters, so let me see if I can shed some light for you.

I have updated the Darkmoon Funhouse encounter to make the Method section complete. I also have started working on the specifics for the Darkmoon Asylum raid lore, and will post both it and the Desecrated Ruins lore together once it is completed.

For the Desecrated Rise raid, here's a couple of things that came to mind:
2. The penalty for dying due to the Soul Fuel mechanic seems a bit steep. I mean, one wipe increases Aether and his minion's health by 100%. I feel like that may need to be toned down a bit? However, I'm really intrigued by the idea that dying on earlier bosses penalizes the raid later. It seems like that would give top-end progression a whole new feel and difficulty. It seems like it would also cause progression to take significantly longer, which would make the raid's lifespan longer, which is ultimately a good thing.

I guess I did not do a clear job of explaining Soul Fuel and how it would work. Soul Fuel would only stack from any deaths incurred on the trash and bosses PRIOR to the Aether's Awakening encounter. Any dying on that fight would not grant a stack of Soul Fuel. I felt that, like you, it would be infinitely too punishing to have a progress wipe on that encounter. It would, however, encourage clean kills on the fights beforehand in order to have simpler attempts on that encounter later on.

The increased difficulty was the point, however, and I'm glad that you think it's well done.

3. I think some of the numbers may need to be tuned. For example, the Deep Poison from the Life Reactor on the Aether encounter seems to be a bit harsh. 50% increased cast time on random targets is probably a bit too punishing and too RNG.

I agree. I was trying to encourage Reactor switching, especially at higher stacks of Soul Fuel. I'll readjust those numbers.

Thoughts on the Darkmoon Asylum raid:
1. I am very interested to see how you envision the layout of the Darkmoon Funhouse. I think this sounds like an extremely cool encounter. Having 4 separate groups coordinate with their own bosses is just...awesome. I'm sure more is mentioned in the part that got deleted, and I would be interested in reading more about the hardmode. Though from what I could tell, having to kill Kalypso with the first 4 bosses still alive...damnnn.

Yea, I still do not know what happened to those words. As said above, I've updated that section to make it final. If you see any more errors there (and have the free time), make more comments and I'll fix those up.

2. For the Haunted Carousel encounter, the only question I have regarding this is does the spin cause players to fall off? Is it like Ji-Kun's down draft where it pushes players to the edge? I ask because I'm curious if it would be absolutely necessary for players to ride the carriages at all? It seems like you could potentially nuke the boss without touching any carriages.

Yes. Exactly that. Another instance where a few more words out of 72751857110 of them would have helped, eh? The point would be for people to either ride carriages frequently towards the end of the encounter for the easier kill, or ride specific ones (Winter Reindeer) and couple the Ice Skates with movement boosts to stay alive as its health dwindled.

3. The Son of Silas encounter sounds extremely difficult and awesome. A couple of questions / concerns though. The grappling hook grabbing a random mask off the wall sounds like it could have RNG issues with the moonlight. For instance, if several players grabbed a mask and it happened to completely cover up several of the channeling necromancers, that might really screw melee. Just a thought. Also, can a player choose to take off the mask early? For example, if the group inside the Untouched is about to kill a necromancer, could they take off the mask to avoid the damage from Final Breath or is the point to time the necromancers' deaths with the amount of time left in the Untouched? Also, do the Blood of Undeaths and Lurking Shadows spawn before players enter the Untouched, or do they start spawning once there are players there?

Good point. Moonlight should only extend through once the boss reaches the final phase. There's already enough going on in the Untouched that RNG doesn't need to play a role. As well, the people will be able to take the mask if they desired, but would not be able to re-enter until their debuff has expired. Finally, the Lurking Shadows and the Bloods of Undeath DO spawn after approximately 20 seconds into the start of the raid. This will be the penalty for deaths earlier in the raid, as each death will prolong the removal of the shield by 1 second. Many deaths will equate to increasing raid damage, little boss damage, and a prolonged encounter.

Thank you again for reading!