A "Psycho Mantis" like boss encounter?

[Deleted]

Greetings,

With World of Warcraft: Cataclysm housing bosses that are seemingly more dependent on more specialized mechanics than most encounters in Wrath of the Lich King, one can only anticipate what is in store for us, yet my idea may go a bit overboard, though I would like some thoughts on it.

Those who have played Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation are certainly familiar with the boss Psycho Mantis and probably know what this is all about. For those that haven't played this masterpiece, Psycho Mantis is a boss that can read your memory card, alter your controller in some ways and even turn the screen pitch black. And an encounter with such features in World of Warcraft is what I am proposing.

As an example:

Shalim, Master of Dusk
Race: Ogre
Level: ?? Boss
Health: 157.05M
Location: Deathwing's Lair
Status: Defeatable

25-man abilities

Melee: on plate ~12k

PHASE 1

Gravity Lapse - Reverses gravity. Lasts 30 sec.
Glimpse of Madness - Disorients the target, causing it to wander aimlessly for up to 10 sec.
Backlash - Inflicts 8500 to 10000 damage to all enemies in front of the caster and knocks them back.
Dust Field - Knocks nearby enemy targets back and inflicts 15310 to 19685 Nature damage over 5 sec.
Hand Snap - Disarms a target as well as dealing 36 to 44 damage over 8 sec.
Sluggish Mind - Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 0 Shadow damage over until cancelled and slowing their movement speed by 500%.

PHASE 2

At 50 % of health, Shalim enters a state of meditation where he loses his previous abilities but gains three new:

Aura of Desire - Damage dealt when damage taken. Healing increased by 100%.Decreases maximum mana over time.
Friendly Fire - Applies debuff "Friendlies are hostile to you" to random targets. Lasts 10 sec.
Possess - Takes control of a humanoid enemy up to level 100 for 2 min. and increases its maximum health by 2000%.

Phase one lasts five minutes. During this time, Shalim must not fall below 40 % nor above 55 % of health as he enrages and gains following abilities:

Blade Dance Targeting - Allows the caster to move at extremely high speeds and perform devastating weapon attacks for a short time.
Disconnect - Disconnects a random target.This effect cannot occur more than once every third minute.
Word of Mass Recall - Returns all raid members to their respective <Hearthstone Location>.

PHASE 3

Shalim loses all previous abilities, but gains these:

Enervating Brand - Brands an enemy target, siphoning power from the target and any allies within 12 yards of the target. This effect occurs every 2 sec, and reduces affected enemies' damage and healing by 2% per application, while increasing the caster's damage accordingly.
Focused Bursts - Inflicts a random spell on an enemy for until cancelled.
Column of Frost - Marks the location under a random player target. After 2 seconds a column of frost errupts from this location, dealing 11310 to 12690 Frost damage to all enemies within 3 yards, knocking them into the air.
Disconnect - Disconnects a random target.This effect cannot occur more than once every third minute.
Illuminating Darkness - Reduces the screen brightness of a random target by 80 % for 5 sec.

Due to the complexity of the fight, it has to be an optional Algalon the Observer like encounter, perhaps best suited for heroic 25-man. Disconnect and Word of Mass Recall may be something that many players find dreadful, but it is something that Blizzard not yet has implemented, and something that could create very entertaining encounters. Inverted controls, jumping hurts you etc. are more examples. What do you think?

[gathanasiou]

It could be a really nice idea for a boss encounter, although I think that this boss would be nrealy undefeatable. There are so many cc and healing abilities that wouldn't let an entire 25-man raid handle him. Also some of the mechanics (such as Disconnect or WoMR), don't suit the mechanics of a boss encounter. Basically wtf about them? Who wants to be dc'ed in the middle of a boss-fight? Duh..

[Swizzle]

It would cause as much griefing as the original Psycho Mantis did, not that it's a bad thing though.

[Laplace]

I would find that very challenging, but fun nonetheless. Ideas like this and innovations seen in the MGS Series is the reason many view Hideo Kojima as a genius in game design and why the mantis fight is still voted in the top 10 boss encounters of all time to this day. I for example like how he incorporates the intro and training on Peace Walker for the PSP.

Anyone who disagrees, seems like the type that like to mindlessly play games with no change or innovation period. Those type of people have and lead boring lives and will always be ....boring. Those are the type of people who cry for nerfs, brag about their DPS output and brag about their GS. Not to mention sit and chat in trade all day like its Facebook. I got 3 words for those people: GO PLAY HALO

If I ever decide to quit WoW it will be because of one of two things:

Hearing those type of people complain

or

Blizzard continues to cater to that type of crowd


I don't pay $15 a month to Blizzard to get carried through raids and sit in trade channel all day bragging about my gear, mounts, and pets. I think its a fresh idea that would help to continue sorting out the "bad" players from people who actually put some real effort into this game.

Blizzard FUND IT.

[SLUSHER]

I see you've been playing starcraft 2!

[Umbra]

Gravity Lapse just adds unnecessary complexity to the fight, and doesn't synch at all with the other abilities.

Disconnect and Word of Mass Recall do not make the encounter challenging, just annoying and disliked by everyone.

Phase 2 seems pretty cakewalk: Just sit around for five minutes and DPS down / CC any player that's MC'd.

Overall, the abilities just seem random, thrown together recklessly, and not thought through enough.

Try again.

[Zethras]

Phase 2 seems pretty cakewalk: Just sit around for five minutes and DPS down / CC any player that's MC'd.

.

Maybe make it so that he has to take a certain amount of damage during this time (maybe he gains a 5 min HoT or something) so you have to dps him precisely so he doesn't drop below 45% or go above 55%

[Kaymann]

So would i have to plug my mouse and keyboard into another USB port. Also i dont think a boss needs to be looking at my computers memory I dont need a Boss monologing about internet porn.

J/k honestly its kinda of a cool idea Mantis is one of the most memorable boss in gaming history especially us that did it right when the game came out and you couldnt immedialty google " ZOMG phsyco manits is HARD help"

I almost broke my beloved Ps1

[Deleted]

Umbra: Shalim's abilities are a mix of shadow/frost magic with Disconnect etc. as exceptions. I assume though that Gravity Lapse could be changed to something else, though the encounter is mainly based on the premise of disorientating the players. Also, this was only an example and the initial question formulation is regarding a potential inclusion of a "Psycho Mantis" like boss encounter and if such would be enjoyable.

[Arrowstormen]

things like Disconnent and Word of Mass Recall sucks really. its really dumb to get the entire raid to stop in the middle of the boss fight and end some place (which may happen not even to be the same!). and if it was there, people would say "okay guys, we need to make our hearthstone as close to the raid as possible". and even there, it would still be the most annoying crap to happen. and Disconnect? thats sooo meta, and if it targets a important healer or tank the whole raid is doomed.

[Elween]

I like the mass recall thing but i hope that doesnt reset the boss i mean if everyone is teleported out of the raid the boss will reset right? or he will be there waiting like 3 mints to all raid members to get there?

over all i like it blizz really should make a boss like that for the lols and the fun, playing around with those features.

[Deleted]

What's the lore behind these abilities?

[Deleted]

What's the lore behind these abilities?

Hoggers pet. Duh.

[Deleted]

I'd rather have a boss that scans your harddrives and browsing history and mocks you for all the gay p0rn you've been watching.

[Vasti]

interesting idea but lame implementation. Disconnect and Heartstone abilities are stupid. Hate to get a DC 10 sec before he dies...you dont get the achievement and whatnot. Same when u get hearthed to dala and need to fly back.....that makes no sense and is jsut lame and annoying.


Instead try this:
Pitch Black:
Turns the targeted players screen completely black, blocks all add-onns. Only the chat pane and the actionbar is visible. Increases damage dealt by 300% and enables you to attack friendly targets. Lasts 20 seconds. During this time, every 5 seconds you will target a random player.

The idea is that during this time, you have to dps the boss, because withouth the extra dps from the 300% extra damage buff, the boss wont die on time and enrage.

but you cant see anything, so you have to rely on your raidmembers to look at what your targeting. (they can see the target of your target)
They will tell you if your targetting the boss or not. So you will hear them scream over vent, or say trough chat to <tab> to the next target, till you target the boss then you nuke the boss. Every 5 sec your target changes and you need to re-aquire the boss as your target.

[JebJoya]

How about a mechanic where mouse-turning and hotkey pressing damage the player - limiting the player to keyboard turning, ability clicking and mouth breathing? Seems like the sort of in-joke 4th-wall-breaking ability that this boss should thrive on, neh?

[loudmutes]

How about leave in the Hearth stone ability, but place an in-combat summoning stone in the boss arena, and have the boss port out 1-2 people on 10, 4-5 people on 25, Top two threat positions are untargetable. That would add some great synergy to a 'patch of fire' type ability (it would be unusable for a short time after a port), forcing people to not stand near the summoning stone the entire fight. Meanwhile 1 or 3 (depending on raid size) people would be getting MC'd, only targeting the top threat (so a hunter would have to be on his toes to distracting shot the boss and kite until the tanks can take over again.

As a phase transition he could open up a mage portal to say, Dalaran, and in the spirit of the Dalaran book achievery, the rid has to split up and find a book with the bosses name on it within 45 (1 minute on 10 man) seconds or else all but one member of the raid is MC'd, (any killing blow releases the MC and lasts 20 seconds(I feel it gives a good raid a chance to recover, and makes more sense than insta-gibbed raid)). After the book is found, everyone gets ported back to the boss arena where the core mechanic is that all damage and healing is reversed (except for the bosses own white melee to necessitate tanking).

This phase would largely revolve around everyone doing what they arn't supposed to do. Find something dangerous, get hit by it, repeat. The boss will melee fairly softly in this phase as tanks cannot be healed (it would go to the boss instead) The phase should last long enough that the tanks have to switch before the boss takes enough of his own damage to move on.

Another transition phase, this time to an entirely dark room, save for a box of flares in the center. Goal is to loot flares to light up 2+ clickables that end the phase. 30 second duration, There are bottomless-pits scattered around to prevent running about in the darkness.

Port back to the bosses room. He now places debuffs on all raid members. every debuff carries the same icon, though there are several different actual effects that you can read from the tooltip. One debuff would actually be a sequence of debuffs that must be removed in numerical order or else it does increasing damage per debuff dispelled out of order. Another debuff would cause instant death upon being dispelled, and the third debuff would place a stacking dot on the boss upon being dispelled. All debuffs would last a total of 15 seconds, at which time they are all reapplied. Debufs would all be magical.

Aside from the debuffs, this phase would be tank and spank, and upon 'killing' the boss, he wipes the raid and loots our corpses (we rez when we click return to the graveyard, though you'd have to wait the 30 seconds until the boss leaves the arena and leaves behind his loot chest).

[KeyserSoze]

Can you imagine how incredibly broken Gravity Lapse would be? Every other use would dump half the raid in Westfall. Even after it's been tested. But it would be cool if the fight area supported an entire environment flip or something like that. Just to disorient people for a couple seconds while everyone gets back in position. Call it a vertical knockback of sorts.

A more MGS-like idea would be an ability that minimizes the WoW window, or brings another application to focus. That would be pretty annoying.

Or, perhaps an ability that reverses your mouse movement for 10 seconds? Or remaps your keybinds for 10 seconds. Or inverts all colors, UI included - though that may cause seizures.

[CyborgOctopus]

i imagine they'll have to do stuff like this eventually, they'll be running out of raid encounter ideas by now

[SLUSHER]

disconnect could just kick you to a fake login screen, where you are actually in an ice bock in the encounter, and you need to type in you info and select your character to break the block.