Not feeling the Warmaster Encounter (Ideas...)

I probably won't be participating in this content. :[ I did buy Arkbreaker, and I did look forward to the idea of a big "raid boss" fight...

But the problem here, for me, is that it's just a DPS race. You completely ignore the other completely valid play-styles... The support, who may prefer to bring in a BMG and keep people alive. The melee, who want to bring in their Charge Blades and not get roflstomped / laughed out of the instance. Ultimately, it seems like people are saying you're only worth bringing along if you are "just like everyone else, with the same weapons as everyone else, reaching for max DPS". That's NOT what co-operative play is about, that's not what groups and raids are about. Groups and raids are about different people bringing different things to the table and adding to the overall success of the team.

Like I said, I probably won't be going into these new Major Arkbreaks again, because I don't like feeling like I'm bringing people down by playing the way I want to play. No, I haven't been delusional enough to try hitting him with my Charge Blade, but I did get a terrible terrible score in one Arkbreak and 5th in another (when I gave in and used a weapon worth bringing).

Here's how I think it should have been (roughly):

-No time limit. Time limit = DPS race = Not fun (for me).

-BMGs should be necessary, not a hindrance. There's enough damage going out, and enough people dying, that a BMG should fit right into the scheme of things...

-Each ego power should have it's own important roles to fulfill throughout the encounter.

--Decoy should be necessary for distracting mobs of adds or getting them into a corner where everyone can AOE them quickly.

--Blur should be necessary for dashing from one end of the room to another, beating down powerful adds who have HUGE shields (blur makes melee attacks ignore shields, any other weapon at this point would take a LONG time just to get the shields down). The adds would be taken down with one or two blur-enhanced Charge Blade attacks.

--Cloak should be necessary for-... Okay, here's an idea... Maybe some key item (like a super-bomb-thing) drops in the center of the room, someone with cloak has to grab it... But when they do, the Warmaster focuses in on them, gaining speed and power over time. The "cloak runner" has to kite the Warmaster around the room maybe twice then cloak, dropping the Warmaster's hate. But-... The speed/power buff doesn't go away, so another runner has to pick up the item (it's dropped when you cloak). So instead of going and smashing all of your friends into a pile of gore, the Warmaster turns right back to the second runner, and after one more (terrifying) run around the room (he's a lot faster now) the runner turns around and hurls the (now charged) item at the Warmaster, taking a big chunk of health and knocking off his damage and speed buff. (Also I think the second runner may need to be a blur runner to outrun the freakishly fast (at this point) Warmaster.)

--And we all know what Overcharge is for... Damage. Maybe they need to have Overcharge ready once the bomb hits, because the warmaster is particularly vulnerable and you can knock out a lot of damage for a brief period of time.

None of the specifics of my ideas are the point of this thread. The point of this thread is to say that a boss fight like the Volge Warmaster needs to consider all playstyles, all ego powers, and a good variety of weapon types.

I agree, I've not enjoyed one battle yet. It feels like something you have to go though in order to get your loot. The only tactic seems to be - Shoot Right Arm > Die > Respawn > Repeat. I don't seem to be able to avoid the projectiles whatever I do and most of the time just see white screen and I'm instantly down. I prefer fights where you have cover options and use a strategy that can help you survive rather than the strategy of "you will die, don't wait for a revive, respawn".

I'm not even going to mention nerfs or buffs as I want to avoid that particular hot potato. I just hope I can beat him and get the killshot to tick the achievement off, then I can leave him be.

If you do enjoy this boss, then good for you. But as it stands, a lot of players like myself (who play for the loot chase rather than the challenge), will slowly give up on the fight.

PS I'm NOT the guy with the BMG/Infector :D

Good points Bakku.

Same here, I like to ark hunt and get my keys fast not spend time fighting a boss for green loot. lol

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Originally Posted by quick

Same here, I like to ark hunt and get my keys fast not spend time fighting a boss for green loot. lol

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I've done a lot of warmaster fights and while I do see and agree with Bakku's points I think it should be said that the major Arkballs (thanks Umfafa for that) are quick and give some pretty good loot.

Considering the entire game is a DPS race and doesn't encompass all play styles, why should this? The entire game doesn't require any support at all in fact going support actually hinders other players. So why are you calling out one encounter while ignoring the rest of them?

Great post. Though the current boss rewards a specific playstyle and he should stay, you make a valid argument. However, I feel that what you are wanting would be best for a Hard Mode Co-op map, not a "smash and grab" sort of instance. I do hope that they add more of what you are referring to though.

Agreed totally After this DLC dropped i noticed the game is more empty than i've ever seen yesterday, i'm yet to even get a warmaster pop, but in my experience 99% of populations do not like stupid hard content and move on, this is especially bad when your populations were already gone anyway..

This stand there and pump thousands of damage at a sponge boss IS BORING, not everyone has the best crap in the game, i have ZERO Orange weapons to use on this event..so my damage is already lower..

Kinda pointless experience all round in my opinion..Spikes cost way too much and promote greedy behavior, which just separates the community even more..

OP makes an incredibly valid point, and Touch also makes a good point in that the game does not truly push all kinds of play styles to co-OP together...
The problem with that though is the game would be too hard for people to solo and too many carebears would rage quit...
Fact...

So I imagine leave the current content as is, and heed OP's (Original Poster) words when bringing out new content...

Make a raid which would require some serious End Game Co-Op team play for all 'classes'
Sure all the newbies and carebears may complain that a single part of the game is too hard, but lets face it every game has that ;)

Very good points...the mad rush to each instance to maximize dps so the player gets better drops is disappointing. Anyone who heals and or rescues players get almost nothing for their effort. And I have been in 4 of the new Warmaster instances so far and he hasn't been killed do to the short time limit and massive health pool.

Some of us don't have epic weapons yet, and like Rift the non DLC weapons now have been reduced, and the NPC's are more powerful. (Noticed this after being owned by a group of elite raiders...it was like I had butter armor on). I also noticed the stats on the DLC weapons are more powerful like Storm Legion's weapons. It would also be nice to be able to use the weapons that I pick up, but the game won't allow players without the DLC to equip these weapons (These items show up red).

And I just hope the updates don't eventually make Defiance a lag fest like some locations in Rift (Lag Island in Storm Legion is one that comes to mind).