This thread regarding angry squirrels is inspired! Tell us your potentially unpopular mob mechanic idea that would bring the danger and the lulz. Basic beasts need not apply.
How about a mob that has a specific trait, maybe parasite, that attaches itself to you permanently until you get a cure disease or some other type of player interaction. It could attach to your head or your back, which would unequip your head or back slot item and place it in your inventory, but the mob graphic would then be attached to you until you had it removed. Could have a wide range of negative side effects associated with it while the mob was attached, maybe even an obsure positive one or two as well. Seems like it could be both dangerous and funny to experience.
1. Mobs warping to locations because no route, apparently, exists between where the NPC is and where it needs to go. I suspect, however, that this will be very common to prevent climbing exploits.
2. Mobs with excessively long melee range that is well beyond what would be physically possible given their model size.
3. Perma-rooted mobs. Just a stupid mechanic.
Concerning the initial message, I like squirrels... and being killed by angry chickens.
However, when it comes to things that I do not like... things that do not make any sense world wize: too often, mobs and characters seem to not live with the same world rules. Infinite mana for bosses, instant casting, ... without mentioning the fact that mobs seems to have much more HPs and hitting you much harder that what you would expect (and let us mention here that i RL you can get killed by a wolf bite, but it will be the poison from a snake that kills you, not its bite).
Xanafel said: For some one who loves to tank, my worst enemy is an un-taunt-able mob. I love aggro management. So for me it would have to be a melee mob that only attacks casters and can not be taunted off. Call the disposition Seeing Red or Berzerk.
Agree with Xanafel, I prided myself on Agro-managementy in Everquest. A boss that could warp, drop agro or was agro-less made me useless. As a paladine I loved having the fear-less trait in Everquest and being able to tank Bosses that would fear (I know warriors hated this).
One of the worst things to me is a mob that can be trained. Following a character all the way to a zone line, for example, and then attacking other characters instead of going back to its spawn point and ignoring characters that never bothered it. Training is a way to let us, indirectly, pvp other characters on a pve server and should never be permitted.
Yes of course I know that many people, perhaps even a majority although perhaps not, disagree with me. But Savanja did say unpopular ideas were welcome in this thread.
Savanja said:This thread regarding angry squirrels is inspired! Tell us your potentially unpopular mob mechanic idea that would bring the danger and the lulz. Basic beasts need not apply.
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Angry squirrels kind of says it all though, or at least enough.
Since PRotF will have gliding, why not include NPCs that are able to lift players and carry them away short/high distances (onward and upward!), until finally dropping them and for potentially life-threatening damage if the location allows? Harpies, drakes, griffawns, giant bats, etc. The smaller the player's race, the greater distances/heights those NPCs might carry them. This would give some advantage to large races which might only be held in place (grappled and unable to perform in combat), being too heavy for smaller winged NPCs to lift. The disadvantage? Larger races would also be more attractive targets for larger NPCs, such as griffons, sphinxes, etc.
Unpopular moon logic mechanics are a great counterbalance, keeping the playerbase in check and preventing us from ever feeling like gods. WTB more, not less, as long as it makes sense. Rank and file NPCs with tricks up their sleeves that max level player characters wish they had. Unfairness encourages teamwork (007's golden gun). Having said all of this, please no NPCs that AE dispel en masse.
Charm that prioritzes the use of players long cooldown and high resource cost abilities.
Boss that has a stacking self buff for every player it kills that lasts until it is killed (example: 1% increase HP for every player killed) and a stacking debuff for the players that are killed by the boss(example: 1% miss chance in combat and 1% fizzle chance when spellcasting).
The enrage mechanic, and especially when it is based on a timer. I think it is just an artificial hard cap on DPS and mechanically on equipment level. I don’t like this mechanic cause it makes impossible for groups / raid to apply defensive strategies based on resistance and slow burn.
The waves of reinforcements that pops from nowhere. In an instanced game it is acceptable even if I don’t like it anyway, but in a non-instanced game that’s a big no. If a boss can have reinforcements, these reinforcements should be already present somewhere in the zone at the beginning of the fight and “called” by the boss or sent by a watcher that detects players. etc … such a logic offers to the players more strategic options : should we kill the reinforcements first or blast the boss and kill watchers, or impeaching the boss to call them, etc …
Locking the fight zone with artificial walls that pops when the boss is attacked. I miss the time when we were able to pull a boss from very far and bring him to a spot that was intelligently chosen to offer tactical advantage.
The overuse of :
boss/mobs abilities dropping tons of perma-zones on the floor that inflicts damages / slow / etc … especially not fun if mobs stay in the zones they dropped … yay …
AoE abilities that every 20s oneshot 90%-100% of players if they do not move away immediately.
bosses/mobs that have to be kited cause they hit too hard, even for the biggest tanks
Having to run 80% of the time during a fight is not funny, it’s just a pain in the ass and it also is far more crippling for cac dps classes than distance dps classes, making them less desirable in group / raids.
Massive immunities. Raising resistances is ok, but immunities and especially when a boss is nearly immune to everything … meh … when all your class signature abilities are useless, it makes these fights less interesting by reducing your contribution to a dps / healing machine. I prefer if players have a chance to overtake very high resistances by combining abilities from different classes.
Khendall said:The waves of reinforcements that pops from nowhere. In an instanced game it is acceptable even if I don’t like it anyway, but in a non-instanced game that’s a big no. If a boss can have reinforcements, these reinforcements should be already present somewhere in the zone at the beginning of the fight and “called” by the boss or sent by a watcher that detects players. etc … such a logic offers to the players more strategic options : should we kill the reinforcements first or blast the boss and kill watchers, or impeaching the boss to call them, etc …
Locking the fight zone with artificial walls that pops when the boss is attacked. I miss the time when we were able to pull a boss from very far and bring him to a spot that was intelligently chosen to offer tactical advantage.
The overuse of :
boss/mobs abilities dropping tons of perma-zones on the floor that inflicts damages / slow / etc … especially not fun if mobs stay in the zones they dropped … yay …
Agree with these points.. However I kinda disagree with your other points.
Khendall said:
AoE abilities that every 20s oneshot 90%-100% of players if they do not move away immediately.
bosses/mobs that have to be kited cause they hit too hard, even for the biggest tanks
Having to run 80% of the time during a fight is not funny, it’s just a pain in the ass and it also is far more crippling for cac dps classes than distance dps classes, making them less desirable in group / raids.
Massive immunities. Raising resistances is ok, but immunities and especially when a boss is nearly immune to everything … meh … when all your class signature abilities are useless, it makes these fights less interesting by reducing your contribution to a dps / healing machine. I prefer if players have a chance to overtake very high resistances by combining abilities from different classes.
A boss can and should at some point be massively stronger than an average (and even the best) character. I mean, a 100,000 pound dragon should be able to one shoot you with his pawn, no matter how much armor you have on you by simple inertia. At some point, I think fights should not be restricted to tank going head to head and mass healers and DPS behind the guy.
Counterfleche said:
- Enemy that lives at the top of steep cliffs and tries to ram players, knocking them off.
- Heal-leeching mob that steals half of all healing done to a target in melee range. Tank needs to break off for a second to get a full heal or half goes to the mob.
- Brain fog effect: when hit, one random ability slot on the LAS is grayed out for a minute or two.
- Creature mob with a slime attack. If hit, you get a massive debuff to climbing until you wash it off (submerge yourself in water).
- NPC bard that Rickrolls. When heard, you are charmed and perform a minute long dance.
- Giant rock golem that likes to pretend it's part of a rock face. If you try to climb it, it wakes up and aggro you.
- A large, carnivorous vine that pretends to be a vine bridge until you venture onto it.
That last one is just plain evil
Grobobos said:A boss can and should at some point be massively stronger than an average (and even the best) character. I mean, a 100,000 pound dragon should be able to one shoot you with his pawn, no matter how much armor you have on you by simple inertia. At some point, I think fights should not be restricted to tank going head to head and mass healers and DPS behind the guy.
Thx for answer Grobobos. Basically I agree with that. The form of my original message may be inaccurate, I do not question the existence of mechanics, I do question the fact it is often overused, not always for good reasons, and that it creates unpopular side effects.
The main one is cac dps classes being often disadvantaged cause they have to run constantly and loose far more dps power than distance dps classes, and that’s a real problem in many games in which cac dps classes literally disappear from group / raid compositions when the difficulty raises.
Your point about mobs size / power link is interesting and very true. There are also so many examples of bosses (trash mobs even) that are ‘player sized’ and have AoE effects as dangerous (more dangerous even) than dragon breath, and it makes absolutely no sense.
I believe solution can be found in boss / abilities design.
For example let’s imagine a huge dragon that breath fire or whatever. I think his breath should be implemented as a 3d cone centered on his mouth, and not as a 2d “cone” centered on his belly and projected on the floor. So for example, cac dps that are facing him and are near his legs or under his head should NOT be concerned because his head is 7-8 meters above them, but distance dps should be. What would be cool is dragons being able to move their head to breath depending on who they target, high head position to target distant players, low head position to target closer ones.
About tanks being forced to kite, I’m trying to translate what a tank friend of mine said to me some weeks ago : I signed with this class to tank bosses, not to be a scared rabbit that runs through a minefield praying not to be oneshot. In too many cases, turning the fight into a Benny Hill chase (sorry for the old ref, I’m an old person eh eh) is the only solution, and these are not very fun fights.
First I think some adjustments could be made on how aggro is managed to avoid these situations, it makes no real sense a boss chasing a guy that is running and makes nearly no damage to him while a whole group / raid is literally blasting him like hell.
Next maybe break a bit the concept of “Main Tanks” and make them work together instead of one at a time taking aggro when the previous one died or have a cumulative debuff he must clean by not being hit.
There could be skills that have cooperative effects allowing 2 tanks or more that are side by side and activate the skill at the same time, to share the damages between them, or to create a zone shield for everyone. That could be positive, requiring cooperation and synchronization between members of a group / raid. And it would be an even greater idea to make those types of skill common to every tank class (through a mastery maybe ?). Wouldn’t it be badass to see 5 or 6 warriors / dire lords / paladins to regroup when a boss prepares a devastating skill to create some kind of a huge shield wall to protect a whole raid ? And going further why not adding such kind of skills for casters to create more powerful elemental shields ?
Sorry for the long post maybe a bit off topic … but the underlying subjects are interesting
Im fine with death-touch PROVIDED there is some telegraphing AND reflect or mirror spell WORKS. The reflect/mirror spell is long cast, short duration- longer cast time than the death-touch telegraph so you have to do it by feel and hope it doesn't run out by the time the death touch is cast but if you get the sweet spot- the Mob death touches itself- haha! and you watch like spraying a mosquito with "Off" knowing it is now repelled from itself. False limb syndrome- all over.
We saw a Giant snake mini-boss once a while back in some ruins. IIrc it had the ability to immobolize and suffocate one player (constrictor) while at the same time still attack biting (head) and kicking (tail whip/slash) this sort of is like the parasite idea but without the random armor disarm function.
All giants should see invis. Any place with live giants and undead giants is a PITA and a necessary crawl.
Pets going rogue. Summoner cannot summon another pet-even though pet is no longer under summoners control- until that pet is dead or summoner leaves zone or dies. So a summoner becomes a minor caster while pet is loose. Higher level summoner spells allow the summoner to reclaim control of their level pet OR OTHER PETS 2 levels lower and below that have gone rogue. Enchanters can charm rogue pets (the chanter becomes the summoner!)