A 7 headed hydra-type monster. You need to split your raid and each one deal with a different head, working in coordination to destroy the heads withing a very short period of time from each other otherwise a head (or several) will regenerate.
If not that, then an Orc Pawn because noithing would be more hilarious than a raid of 40+ people facing off against, what appears to be, a simple orc pawn but is actually a highly deadly killing machine, the king of all orcs....all inside a diminuitive orc pawn body.
Besides killing the epic lag monster which may be DOA by the time the network stack is complete, I would say an encounter with multiple baddies while having to deal with numerous fractures (atmospheres), shifting dispositions, and the need for some raid members with high lore masteries. Oh, and the kitchen sink.
A Epic creature that teleports the whole encounter raid deeper into it's realm to deal with the elements and it's minions.
The Element of Chaos. Scripted to be completly unpredictable. It changes forms at random and has diffferent effects. It might heal itself, you, the raid; It can cast a variety of spells that can nuke, in cones/lines/areas, polymorph players into a vartiety of forms like a sheep or rabbit; or transport you to a random area of the world. It can summon 10 troll adds, or drop random game assets in the area, like a rock or a house. It Blows up the whole raid and then picks everyone back up just to torment players. Every time you fight it will be different.
An electric fleshed see-through dragon with 3 heads shooting purple fire, blue fire and red fire.
A being once very similar to ourselves, one who rose to power through violence alone (murder hobo) achieving or at least maintaining immortal status by sacrificing countless others (as opposed to relinquishing immortality/embodying self-sacrifice, as seen with Khazas and Syronai)...only to be defeated by a serverwide raid, with the event being referred to by NPCs as the fall of an arisen...suggesting there might be others still who could take his or her place.
It starts with sieging the giant-scale ruins of a castle from eons past. The siege starts near sunset and when it gets dark, an endless hoard of undead spaen all around it. Players need to breach the castle before nightfall and some of them need to defend its choke points while the rest hunt down The Caretakers, a group of raid bosses from which 3 are randomly selected to spawn. They all have to be engaged simultaneously and kept apart. Each time one dies, the others get stronger.
This would provide excellent replayability since there are many different aspects that need to be handled. It would require good coordination and since it's multiple simultaneous engagements, it gives more players critical roles to fill.
Death itself.
How could you defeat that?
Maybe you have to heal him back to life before you can kill him (again?). Maybe you have to disarm it from its’ scythe. Maybe it calls all critters in the world that are marked for death to help him or it calls the recently died creatures from the world (or both), adding a random element to your opponent. It could also use any raid members that have died to defend it (having to resurrect the fallen before they are no longer in its' control)?
Maybe it puts a mark on you that stays with you for having the audacity to try? This mark would make you more prone to being attacked (higher natural hate level) when engaged in combat, and could only be removed when you actually kill Death?
Insta-events. travelling. multiple checkpoints. density dependent. The server population helps the "raid"/the "raid" benefits the server population. - With TLC. (yes , TLC)
howzzat?
Spirit of a broken world. Like a reluctant frankensteins monster forced together from spare parts and painfully shocked into existence. The trigger requires a researched piece from one of the atmospheres- which one?- the final trigger requires a researched combnination of all the researched pieces from all the atmospheres. Monster chooses Pantheonic avatar to appear in, once initially summoned. (For instance, Raid goes to poison, researcher combines poison, nothing. - RNG in play- Raid goes to Anerobic, researcher combines anerobic, BOOM Monster is...Spriggan! and its manifesting ICE atmosphere! what a strange evergreen winterfest (christmas) this is! quick! adjust your glyphs!. Researcher has other atmospheres to combine for end, but event is triggered)
fighting fighting fighting-(insert devilish Dev mechanics for a portion only) monster dissapeares... wut?
highest perception gets ping as to whereabouts of incarnation- its...a level 6 chicken in thronefast? and...uh-oh a swarm of 10 level 20 narwhals in Syronai's rest? and...what the-a 36 level vampire wolf in amberfaet from which we need an egg, a fin and a tooth. But TLC. So we must split and go and inform- the broadcast message has already been made, the beasts canot be attacked unless one of us so tainted from triggering and given this ability then "buffs" those who will help us and attack those monsters- inform those people in those areas of the ...chicken. The newbies may wish to attempt it, we will buff them from our given event taint ability buff so that allows them to attack the chicken. We may also buff them some more as can stick to them for their level. Chickens corpse willl unlock for them once they defeat the chicken and we loot the egg, buff ends. Chicken will have nice stuff for those newbies. Raid has to split and travel to those places. Then those items combined for research element in frost atmosphere to trigger...a Giant! manifesting poison atmosphere! quick change glyphs!
fighting fighting fighting ( DIFFERENT dev mechanics) monster dissapears...
Lightinig place! entire raid moves- crossing (no ports) land masses to be met with a swarm of bees! players moan about time-sinks and poor design as they hack through which prove to be a challenge as there are some mini bosses. players in the world, being so alerted initially may be motivated to come and help with the swarm there is plenty for all, drops are merchant fodder and gems mostly, raid force sniffs at it for the area is littered with corpses as far as the eye can see mini bosses have interesting things for raid as they move on. Cautious lower levels having heard of the going on may come to area so cleared and loot from corpses- there re so many- and leave once encumbered, after all spoells are costly.
research combine and Boom! (for as many as there are atpospheres)
mini pops around the world again for population raid splits and runs and encourages (newbies and levels get a taste of raiding and leadership in a raid and flavor of guild character)
Final boss is final combine of all research items to make final trigger, closed event. Maybe....carousel atmpshperes? changing too fast for raid to swap glyphs so- just have to muscle through as best as possible?
Because its so complex anbd depends on multi level server population and people being on the server at various levels playing earnestly and not rushing to max and liking being 20 in a year and a half at 2hrs 3 days a week and 6 hrs on sat and sundays...then the loots I think must be one of a kind, each time, like dev time spent creating a table each time, or have tables precreated that will never be used again and unique and uber. just the final boss raid loots. Because this may encourage it wanting to be done more, and chatter because everyone that got involved may want that guild to do it again or become part of the team to do it again.
*edit* "artifact" was the word I was looking for. loots would be artifact. At all levels so newbies would get level 1-5 artifact loot from chicken and TLC so raid force cant loot. corpse opens for levels 1-5 that engaged with buff once tagged raid force loots egg. for instance. same with narwhals and vampire werewolf. Care given to artifact design so the player would want to keep it not just for artifact status and bragging rights but for a clicky or something (can turn into a boulder once a day- that also hides your nameplate from populous-rooted while illusion is on,can turn a little, broken once spell cast or stand up)
*edit edit* at any given time of a fail- raid can start at the end of previous "public" events. So like if newbies fail on chicken and get discouraged, they can leave expedition (from buff) but raid will still get egg. (yes this will also allow finageling, good or bad. Create newbies just for "fail" to hurry it along, or, bribe newbies- whatever can't stop that. but its still social and there may actually be newbies clamoring to want to try because they heard the broadcast message). Otherwise they start at last boss not defeated. Max timer 3 in game RL days. if the raid cannot complete event in 72 total Rl hours- DONT GET ME STARTED ON NAKED CORPSE RUNS- research itmes are returned and raid can re-muster.
*edit edit edit* for those that don't know: you die, your stuff is at the bottom of a lava lake, you are naked. corpse timer is 7 days. No one is around to rez, no one high enough with acclimation to get you. You log on the next day, still no one, you panic. Corpse timer is 7 days. You win the lottery. You spend the next 5 years building your dream home including a sweet gaming rig. you log into account, corpse timer has 6 days 2 hours, 3min left to get corpse. get a towel.
Most Epic boss would have to be one that able to transform into other Epic boss and be able to use some of their abilities and the players will have to adjust and understand the mechanics that comes with that boss.
This can be a raid boss or final main quest Boss
Edit: also add Pantheon random environmental hot, cold, etc to the mix for more challenges
Kilsin said:Community Opinion - What would you like Pantheons most epic and feared boss to be and why? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
I have always enjoyed bosses with mechanics that you need to figure out. Not something that uses twitchy reactions (like if you don't move the SPLIT second, you die), but something where you need to break objects in a room, flip switches, or the like. Something that all players need to be a part of.
I vaguely remember a fight in EQ2, where there was 4 pillars of some kind. Each pillar could only be activated by one archetype (healer, or fighter for example). If the wrong archetype touched it ... something else happened.
I like fights where you need to think. That sort of thing
A god who gets around the barrier by incarnating himself as a parasite. He Takes over a dragon, mixxing the incredible clerical abilities of the gods with the awesome destructive power of a dragon.
You need to stop his clerical casting with support classes, block his fire breath with tanks and cllerics working together to make a huge and magical shield, outdo his massive regeneration with moar dots, and of course burst through his enrage with everyone else.
Joking answer: It would be cool if the dev team broke the fourth wall and put themselves in as the final encounter for the game when it reaches its end (if it reaches its end).
Serious answer: I think it should be a god/supreme being who embodies void and emptiness. A being whose only desire is to unmake everything and leave nothing. I don't think there is anything more freighting than a reality where nothing exists.
FatedEmperor said:Joking answer: It would be cool if the dev team broke the fourth wall and put themselves in as the final encounter for the game when it reaches its end (if it reaches its end).
That would be a fun little easter egg. Hidden behind the final boss's lair is another treasure room protected by Aradune the War Wizard and his team of developers, and they spawn in a ton of level 1 loot boxes with gold in them named after the VIPs. It's an interactive credits scene!
I would like it to be not a traditional, single all-powerful entity, but a multi-faceted, mysterious organisation/cult with multiple 'bosses' that need beating, perhaps simultaneously, by multiple raid forces.
I would basically like the biggest challenge the game has, to be something requiring multi-guild co-op, not something guilds squabble over...
Maybe even something that requires interaction from random players in the world at the same time?... Something that even mega-guilds cannot easily 'control'?
The spit-ball is rolling now... Maybe something that requires those taking part to have been good community members?
"A cry echoes across the land: 'Uber-Guild A is fighting the Ultimate Conclave Members! Should the gods aid them? Or hinder them? Vote (/pray or /curse) now!'"
A crazy off-the-cuff thought, but I do wonder if guild/player reputation and dynamic world interaction can someone be a factor in these epic encounters?