What's up with recycling boss mechanics/visuals?

[Deleted]

I feel like as I player I shouldn't be able to see behind the curtain and it was quite a let-down to see how many mechanics/visuals were copy pasted
from bosses that were introduced in the very same expansion. (and slightly altered)

Am I the only one who noticed & is bothered by it?

It's not the re-usage of mechanics that bothers me, what bothers me is how often it happened within the same expansion.
I know that mechanics are somewhat limited, but the way you deliver it can be done in a way where it still feels fresh.
That was not the case for me on many bosses.

I will show you some examples.

Nythendra's "Heart of the Swarm" & Harjatan's "Draw In"


Hide behind a pillar mechanics (scorpyron, goroth, tichondrius)


Soak mechanics (basically just switched color to green, go soak some more... kj, garothi worldbreaker, kin'garoth...)



Visuals of KJ Obelisk & Reverberating Strike's "charge" (kil'jaeden, kin'garoth)
basically just recolored and decreased in size


...and all the "don't run into a player mechanics"...

I'll just stop here.
Gifs taken from fatbosstv.

What happened to great fights like thogar, hans & franz etc?
where mechanics were re-used BUT they were delivered in an awesome way that makes it feel fresh

[Proskill]

small indie company etc etc

[BadguyNotBadGuy]

Nothing new. some of those mechanics are staples of many bosses and are used to force certain actions by the players.

recycling visuals just cuts down on dev time and allows them to focus on other things.

[seraknis]

Yeah let's never repeat anything, I'm for it and I don't care if that will bring an enormous content drought after every patch. /s

[Deleted]

Nothing new. some of those mechanics are staples of many bosses and are used to force certain actions by the players.

recycling visuals just cuts down on dev time and allows them to focus on other things.

I don't think it's necessarily that. Regular quest mob npcs sometimes have more unique visuals than bosses.

[Illusions]

I find it silly to complain about art assets (regarding the pillars of killy and kingaroth). It's so much needless work to create 100% new art assets for every raid. And they need to look good together etc, so why not reuse things?

And mechanics you listed that are 'copy pasted' are fine, I don't feel like the draw in mechanics are super tiresome or repetitive. Soaking is the only one, because of Tomb of Soakgeras, they'd be fine on their own.

I feel like every raid should have one more gimmicky fight eg hans'gar or the railroad boss, but they're only there for their gimmicks. Even then, thogar had stuff on the ground you had to avoid, you're not going to complain about those? Those weren't crafted just for that boss either.

Visuals really are one of the lesser evils here, and even then they often differ enough for me for them not to become 'oh god it's this again'. Though it'd make a deceiving boss where you know a small intensive green circle means you should soak it, as they have been in past raid tiers, but instead you're meant to avoid them................

[Deleted]

Even then, thogar had stuff on the ground you had to avoid, you're not going to complain about those?

that's what I meant by "depends how it's delivered"

[Taeldorian]

You want something new for every single fight? That’s ridiculous.

If they did that some of the “new” mechanics they implement may not even work. For example, the death mechanic on argus is the first time we’ve ever seen that but it made the fight a lot more forgiving than others so it would need some tweaking.

Antorus actually has a lot of mechanics that are pretty new. It delivers mechanics in a very good way even if most have been seen before. I’ve enjoyed most of the fights because most felt refreshing even with 2 or 3 mechanics being repetitive every fight.

In terms of visuals, Antorus is great. Haven’t had an issue. Not sure why this is a problem but I haven’t noticed anything bad about the visuals at all. Argus is awesome, kin is great, aggramar is good, etc.

[meroko]

i think your argument is a bit of a stretch, bosses have resused mechanics over every expansion, unique encounters come in each expansion, we have a few even in Legion. I don't mind them repeating mechanics, in moderation. They don't seem to overdo it, imo.

[Yorimar]

You want something new for every single fight? That’s ridiculous.

If they did that some of the “new” mechanics they implement may not even work. For example, the death mechanic on argus is the first time we’ve ever seen that but it made the fight a lot more forgiving than others so it would need some tweaking.

Antorus actually has a lot of mechanics that are pretty new. It delivers mechanics in a very good way even if most have been seen before. I’ve enjoyed most of the fights because most felt refreshing even with 2 or 3 mechanics being repetitive every fight.

do you mean where he kills the whole raid? thats a Lich King copy, as he does the exact thing. the only difference is that we cant fight him when we release spirit. we get ressurrected instead by Terenas

[Taeldorian]

do you mean where he kills the whole raid? thats a Lich King copy, as he does the exact thing. the only difference is that we cant fight him when we release spirit. we get ressurrected instead by Terenas

You seriously can’t tell the difference between that and the Argus death mechanic? Have you done the fight?

You can have people stay dead to collect orbs in the dead realm in order to grant the raid a buff. You can have tanks swap doing that or you can designate someone to it. Lich king was nothing like that, he killed us and we were revived but with Argus dying is a huge part of the last phase.

So no, it’s not a Lich king copy at all.

[LanToaster]

If you complain about reusing Mechanics. Than, you are a bit late to the Party.

While there are new Mechanics along the way. Most/Many of them exist since forever.

But, going to the Visuals:
I feel, its actually a good thing to make visuals of similar/same mechanics similar.
Its a good gameplay move. Difficulty shouldn´t come from: "Lets cram Stuff in the Encounter that People dont Recognize". Because that doesnt work very well in the Long run.

So, its actually good that you know: "This is a Soaking Mechanic", "This is a Stack Mechanic", "This is a Bomb".
As for Reused/tweaked Models: Nothing new, I´m more suprised that you didn´t mention/complain about the same (ancient) Animation Sets.
Its because: Models and Animation are Damn Expensive.

Name one instance where this is the case.

To be Honest, the Coven of Shivarra are not that Unique. *laughs*

[Halwyn]

do you mean where he kills the whole raid? thats a Lich King copy, as he does the exact thing. the only difference is that we cant fight him when we release spirit. we get ressurrected instead by Terenas

Wrong. When LK kills you, the fight IS over. In case of Argus it is a transition AND a P4 mechanic. That is what makes it unique

[Kaeth]

Reuse of mechanics that have been thoroughly tested and vetted by players means less buggy boss fights and a faster development cycle. Tomb of Soakgeras was a bit much, though.

[Justpassing]

Man there's like 200 bosses in WoW, nobody can come up with a different theme / mechanic overlay for each.

[BadguyNotBadGuy]

I don't think it's necessarily that. Regular quest mob npcs sometimes have more unique visuals than bosses.

there is a solid chance some if not most of the regular mob visuals are just reskinned visuals of mobs and bosses we havent seen in a while

[Deleted]

there is a solid chance some if not most of the regular mob visuals are just reskinned visuals of mobs and bosses we havent seen in a while

That might be it. Maybe I just don't know where it's from.

Name one instance where this is the case.

Sister subversia (atleast I don't know where it's from)




It's weird, the "obelisk 2.0" on kin'garoth used to look different and they still decided to go for the obelisk recolor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cizn...outu.be&t=1m7s

[Super Kami Dende]

Because after 300 Bosses, things are going to start having repeats here and there.

[Jurani]

As far as the green soak circles that we see multiple times in Antorus, those are meant to be identical. In case you didn't notice, it's Fel Reaver type enemies that use it. It's thematic. Also the fire that erupts from them if there's no one inside is a good consistent visual for these types of mechanics.

[Swizzle]

You seriously can’t tell the difference between that and the Argus death mechanic? Have you done the fight?

You can have people stay dead to collect orbs in the dead realm in order to grant the raid a buff. You can have tanks swap doing that or you can designate someone to it. Lich king was nothing like that, he killed us and we were revived but with Argus dying is a huge part of the last phase.

So no, it’s not a Lich king copy at all.

Well the group wipe IS actually identical to the one in LK. Raid gets pulled into the air, choked, and then fall down dead. The mechanics after are completely different, though I guess you could say the dead realm is similar to being drawn into Frostmourne.

In any case, Aggramar and Argus both have very nice and unique visuals (for WoW, both bosses feel like they've been ripped straight out of FF XIV), so it's not fair to say everything is re-used. Given that Antorus is where all demons are made and commanded from, it makes sense that the mechanics the demon bosses have would be similar to ones we've seen demons use before.