Hypothetical: You are the boss

Sequestration. Lord Recluse's towers. Director 11's bombs. Protean's energy drain. The war-walker orbital lasers, and Battle Maiden's nanoswords. For good or ill, the end-game encounters are getting more complicated, requiring more teamwork than before.

Here's a hypothetical situation: You've become so famous, so awesome, and your character backstories are so cool that the Devs have decided to put a character of your choice into the game as a boss encounter. What can they do that separates them from a normal elite boss or archvillain? What special mechanics are in play during their fight?

This is a great question, and I can't wait to see everyones' answers.

Psych Physicians Arch-villain fight would start like a normal fight. Then at 75% health I take control of the minds' of lackeys around me (I.E, ambushes.) That would continue until 25% health, where my psychic power goes berserk, and I enter domination (Psych is a mind/psi dominator) making me a tough son of a ***** at the end. Nothing fancy for my villain, just a tough battle of the minds.

Well, the first thing I'd do is...

Build a base (like a boss)
Mocking laughter (like a boss)
Taunt the heroes (like a boss)
Boring task force (like a boss)
Hide some glowies (like a boss)
My own throne room (like a boss)
Min-max the minions (like a boss)
Powerset synergy (like a boss)

Hit on War Witch (like a boss)
Get rejected (like a boss)
Swallow sadness (like a boss)
Send ambushes (like a boss)
Call the Pocket D (like a boss)
Cry deeply (like a boss)
Demand a refund (like a boss)
Eat a bagel (like a boss)

Minions nerfed (like a boss)
Merit reduction (like a boss)
Fifth of vodka (like a boss)
Puke on Recluse's desk (like a boss)
Buy a gun (like a boss)
In my mouth (like a boss)

...**** man, I can't ******* do it, ****!

***** out (like a boss)
Puke on Recluse's desk (like a boss)
Jump out the window (like a boss)
Suck a dude's **** (like a boss)
Score some 'dyne (like a boss)
Crash my flyer (like a boss)
Suck my own **** (like a boss)
Eat some chicken strips (like a boss)

Tear my IOs off (like a boss)
Black out in the sewer (like a boss)
Meet the Kraken (like a boss)
**** his brains out (like a boss)
Turn into a jet (like a boss)
Bomb the Council (like a boss)
Crash into Boomtown (like a boss)
Now I'm dead (like a boss)

Given how my main is a regen and I have the running gag of getting my legs blown off ("Just gimme a sec to pull myself back together!"), I'd probably be the weakest boss ever. But I'd make the Freakshow's self-rezzing seem tame by comparison. XP

I dunno. Maybe a 'hold 'em off while you get a power nullifier operational!' thing?

Punch, I go down. I get back up. Punch, I go down. I get back up. Punch...

Skipping over Pinny, because she'd be a boring tank and spank boss fight.

Shadewing is unique in that she summons her own sentient shadow to help fight. Throughout the fight, she'd pick a person at random (aggro rules don't apply) and send her shadow out to hold/slowly drain the person's life. Nothing close to instant death or anything like that, but the only way to get it off would be to hit it. AoE's wouldn't effect it, so you'd have to manually target it and hit it ONCE to get it off. Nothing serious, but if the team doesn't pay attention then people will start dropping and she'd constantly be healing.

At 75%, she'd summon a bunch of shadow beast monsters to attack the party while she becomes unaffected by everything: Her natural HP regeneration would also stop to prevent her from going back up to 100%. While the party fights off the shadow beasts, Shade'll sit in the back flinging out debuffs, she also loses her shadow's life drain ability in this state. Once they're all dead she becomes targettable again.

At 50%, she loses her life drain ability and instead summons up her shadow to fight with her full time. Shade functions as normal while her shadow acts as she was at 75% HP: A debuffer. To keep the party from just steamrolling her, once Shade gets to 25% HP she stops taking damage, forcing the party to kill off her shadow first.

At 25%, she gets pissed off and forces part of the netherworld to flow into the battlefield, causing a stacking damage over time effect on the entire party. The fight effectively becomes a damage race: Beat her before the DoT defeats your whole party.

No one-shot gimmicks involved.

If it sounds similar to how That Other Game worked some raids, it's because I played it a bit, so blame that >_>

Neat. I'll do one of mine then:

Sable Tentacle is a dark/dark corruptor, who uses arm-blasters to create his powers. His AV fight would involve him plugging his arms into a big machine and overcharging it with dark matter. The entirety of the fight he'd have protection from repel, knockback, and would be immobilized, essentially turning him into a big AV turret.

The big gimmick of the fight would be that occasionally he would charge up a giant cone of blasty doom, snipe-attack style. The heroes would have to take cover behind convenient pillars or walls to avoid eating a truly massive amount of negative energy.

ooo I'm not really sure.....


if Lukerion was a boss, he'd summon a bunch of little ice/water imps everywhere and or blast out solar flares.

If Magisterum was the boss....err....I didn't really give him any super defineable powers.
He smells memories and emotions...so maybe he'd randomly call up bosses from previous fights of yours to rush foward and fight people....

Either that or he'd randomly attempt to hold onto a character(regardless of agro) and drain their life.

Hmmm...

...if we go how I see her, she'd have high defense, not elude status, but enough defense you'll want to have tohit buffs, increased regen, high S/L Resist, decent F/C Resist, subpar (maybe even no) E/N Resist, with a lot of slow resist and high END Recovery, with Taunt/Fear/Confuse Protection.

Access to Strength of Will (WP tier 9) which she uses whenever it's active after the first use which is at the 80-90% mark.

Now the fight starts out the typical okay gather around and beat her up!

She's going at it with Dual Blades, throwing out some -Resist and Electric Damage, with a Mu Shackles hold no redraw, with enough mag to upset the squishies with no mez protection.

Then at 75% Life, she switches from Dual Blades to Katana and begins to hit harder throwing out more -Defense and the -Resist and Electric Damage, not to mention the Mu Shackles.

At 50% life, she switches from Katana to Dual Pistols, do the same damage as with Katana, but now with range, she loses the Electric Damage part of the attacks, keeps the -Def and -Resist and gains Fire Damage, while still maintaining the Mu Shackles.

The real kicker? AI is smart enough to know when to use Hail of Bullets AND doesn't suffer from being locked in place while attacking.

At the 25% life mark, her Immobilize Protection doubles/triples.

At 0%...SHE REZES just once.

The purpose...two really get people to diversify those builds! Those melee might just want to grab those hold/immobilize powers to stack with the Trollers/Doms/squishy ATs. She'd be easier to stack holds on with immobilizing being the much harder lock down.

To really make it perfect, at the 75%, 50%, and 25% marks, you see more and more damage...like she's fighting you with a hole in her chest.

To make it even MORE PERFECT...all Radiation Emission users get extra aggro once hit by any Rad Toggle. You think a shield scrapper pulling aggro off a tanker is impressive? Using a Radiation Toggle would have that Rad user pulling aggro off the shield users.

Generic boss with an unresistable Storm Summoning tornado summoned every ten seconds who appears in every mission of my TF. Also gale. And Hurricane. Maybe make them unresistable too.

Doc Q, your competition is coming.

As a mind mind dom I'd like to see my main villian Mistress Mindlash force two groups to fight each other... Not a simple confuse attack just a big PvP fest where the "winners" get to fight her.

I laughed out loud. Just wanted you to know.

Kai is a reality hacker and as such there is nothing really mechanically in game right now that would really be apropos to if she was in a serious fight, but assuming they could add things...

1) She would fly
2) She would have dual blades and dual pistol attacks for melee/range and a deflection/phased defense
3) At 75, 50, 25 percent she would fire a auto hit power that set the players into a phased state for 30sec and swap their AT+powers with someone else's on the team

In a fight against Coldcrash...

He'd be almost unkillable, so the team would have to run around the map and collect something like Mental Enhancers that allow you to psychically break through his power and hurt him, all while he's trying to fight you... and then at about 50% health a cutscene would play where he turns into a huge, hulking yeti that quickly murders your characters, forcing you to delete whatever character you were fighting him with. SUCKS.

Wild Streak - Lv. 50(+3) Beast Mastery/Sonic Resonance Mastermind, Amnesty - Lv. 50 Staff Fighting/Dark Armor Stalker

Character: BS/Regen Scrapper. Has stealth, but not invisibility.

1. Ala the Rikti Riders from Lady Grey's Task Force or Snaptooth or Mary Macomber: multiple stage fight that gets harder each time. Use the /regen self-res and each time it is used upgrade from EB to AV, to +1 Level AV (only three stages). Also, each res changes attacks a bit (see below).

2. Have a custom Agro list that ignores taunt/threat rating and actively determines who is most critical to party success based on weighing #1 party buffs, #2 damage dealt, #3 debuffs (AVs already resist debuffs so buffs are more important than debuffs). So I attack and kill the most important PCs first.

Stage 1 EB:
* Room has low roof to minimize ability to hover-blast and tactical challenges: two randomly appearing tar patches (to trap running PCs, uses full mechanics from dark miasma including -res, use targeting mechanics developed for Apex TF). Instead of ambushes, add popup turrets with Malta Sapper end-drain/hold attacks. 1-3 appear every so often (not tied to my HP), about 1/3 the rate of the ambushes in the Barracuda TF climax but they never stop.
* Use mostly single target attacks with the occasional slice. Pretty generic tank and spank except for the funky aggro mechanics and complete lack of ranged attacks.
* So ideally a rad defender drops some debuffs then runs me in circles while the team chases and whomps me down from behind while hoping the runner doesn't get stuck in a slow patch. Only heal power other than a higher than normal regen value for an AV is reconstruction on a very slow recharge (and with a low heal %).
* When defeated, all remaining turrets self-destruct.

Stage 2 AV:
* Half of the floor panels drop away and become lava patches. Add a third tar patch, raise the ceiling 30' but cover it with caltrops (so "effective" ceiling is only raised 20'). Add 1 normal "machine gun-style" popup turret to each spawn.
* Gain 1 ranged AoE that is never used against the current "target": animates like rune of protection day job power but hits like a "backwards" knock power with -fly. Instead of pushing PCs away, it pulls them toward melee range and leaves them on the floor.
* Add whirling sword and headsplitter to attack list. Give Headsplitter high priority. Add current PC version of Moment of Glory (15 second duration, not the annoying one paragon protectors use) and a slightly nerfed dull pain replaces (not in addition to) reconstruction. (lower heal and max hp values much MUCH slower recharge).
* When defeated, all remaining turrets self-destruct.

Stage 3 AV +1 level:
* Half of the remaining floor tiles fall away (so 75% of the floor is lava). Increase popup turret spawns slightly (still less than 1/2 the rate of the barracuda fight climax), add one that fires webgrenades (immobilize, -fly) and normal machinegun attacks to 33% of spawns.
* Slightly buff the dull pain power.
* Add ~2s Confuse effect to the AoE pull attack. Meaning the first power each PC uses upon standing up is selected by the server and targetted against another random PC within range of the power. You stand up and attack your own party once. Make sure the confuse lasts long enough for PCs to stand, but never long enough for two powers to be triggered. Heavily weigh ranged attacks over melee, but thanks to the knock effect it is likely more than one PC will be in range anyway.
* Make all single-target attacks PBAoEs in effect, but don't change what defense they target. So "Hack" is a 30-degree narrow cone with a 15' range, but still counts as melee-lethal. Increase Area of actual PBAoEs by 50%.
* When defeated all remaining turrets self-destruct.

Hum... My Kinetics/Regeneration would have a power or two that played off of each power-set.
Kinetics: A fluffy, heavy aura like a jacked-up version of power siphon. Each melee attack gives a considerable damage buff. Each ranged attack gives a smaller damage buff. Some stack limit that'd take a minimum of four players to hit. She'd have a barrage of Focus-esque long range kinetics powers which everyone would ask for in the much wanted Kinetics Blast set.

Regeneration: Another fluffed up animation, sorta' like a black hole of shiny green regenerative powers. It'd sap at each person around her, stealing a chunk of their regeneration ability and adding some to her's- on top of her own regenerative powers.

Extra: Oh. And MoG'd look like a fiery explosive overflow of regenerative powers. Normal MoG-effects. Shadow Meld would be combined with Concentrated Strike and the visiual effects would be concentrated strike Ala greatly exaggerated 'kinetics lines' swirling around her that naturally deflected physical damage- hence raising her defense. And her Fear Incarnate would effect more then minions.
Ya'. Incarnate girlie ain't no pushover. She would more or less completely cancel out straight damage dealers.

Liora Kate: Volcanoes! Like Battle Maiden's blue patches, except with a bigger area, a longer warning period before the damage hits, and an Earthquake in the area just before and during the eruption.

Silverbuilt: Her entire thing is adaptation and assimilation, so every 30 seconds or so, she'd gain temporary high-mag resistance to the debuff type that was applied to her most during the last 30 seconds, plus the damage type that was applied to her most during the last 30 seconds. Every time an enemy died close to her, she'd get a short-term damage buff and self-heal as she assimilated their matter into herself. Bring a varied team and she falls pretty painlessly. Also flagged as a robot for things like EM Pulse.

Sorrow-Weave: Feeds on the pain and suffering of others. Every attack she landed would grant her a temporary +damage/+recharge buff and a very small heal. Basically, keep her at range or just don't let her land many hits, or she turns into a frenzied force of nature.

Jessica Reid: Has a legion of gang members dosed with her mind-controlling drug... and, well, a mind-controlling drug. She'd summon waves of enemies that would make the end of Barracuda look smalltime, except they'd be Underling-level and only have Hellion/Skulls minion attacks. Plus, high-mag ST confuses in the form of her mind-control drug.

Hmm... the most epic of my characters, in boss form, would probably be The First Elemental, also known as Primus. I'm not sure under what context heroes would ever battle him, but any villains with a "destroy the world" goal in mind would have to go through him first, since he is the final line of defense for the Earth, and serves as the Incarnate of the goddess Gaea.

Players would fight him in a large underground cave chamber. As the First Elemental ever created, he embodies the four "primal elements" (Earth, Fire, Air, and Water), and thus, his fight would have five distinct phases:

Phase 1: Earth
The most straightforward phase, Primus begins the fight in his Earth form (a mighty stone construct, similar to a Granite tanker), where players must penetrate his tremendous damage resistance while dealing with regular earthquakes (a series of several very high-magnitude knockdown effects with some damage attached), footstomps (like the SS power), and powerful single-target melee attacks. Flying characters are immune to both the earthquake and footstomp effects, making this phase much easier for airborne heroes.

Phase 2: Fire
Once Primus's hit points drop below 75%, his rocky form crumbles away, revealing a lithe, agile humanoid form beneath, wreathed in searing flames. He lifts off the ground, hovering close to the floor as he begins the phase with a MASSIVE Inferno attack (a much bigger version of the Blaster power of the same name, hitting all targets within line of sight). Squishies better take cover behind nearby structures, or they're gonna be toast. Throughout this phase, he takes much more damage than in his Earth form, but delivers constant AoE damage to nearby players, and tosses AoE fireballs randomly for moderate damage (these attacks ignore aggro). Finally, mobile "hot spots" of Rain of Fire gradually expand across the large chamber, dealing massive damage to players foolish enough to stand within them for long (think Battle Maiden's sword drops). By the end of this phase, most of the chamber will be covered in lethal fire unless players kill him quickly, making this phase a race against time.

Phase 3: Air
At 50% health, a whirling tornado engulfs the First Elemental, knocking back nearby players and lifting him high off the ground as he assumes a wispy, gaseous form. For this phase, the tactics of the Earth phase are reversed - any player attempting to fly is subjected to high-magnitude knockback effects and a powerful Hold. Periodic cone-shaped AoE gusts of wind from Primus batter anyone in their area, so the tank would do best to keep him facing away from the rest of the team.

Phase 4: Water
When Primus finally falls to 25% health, his body breaks apart, crashing to the floor of the chamber as liquid water, which coalesces into his Water form. As players fight him in this form, he occasionally switches between two modes: High Tide, and Low Tide. At High Tide, water surges into the chamber, initially knocking over players on the ground, and preventing players above the water level from even damaging Primus, who lurks below the waves. Players underwater, however, will have to contend with a gradually increasing Damage over Time effect, as the crushing pressures of the sea grow ever stronger. Most players will have to fly or jump up out of the water for a few moments to allow the DoT effect to fade, before rejoining the fight. At Low Tide, Primus absorbs all the water in the chamber into himself, greatly buffing his resistance and damage, and gains several AoE knockback attacks.

Phase 5: Nexus
At 0% life, players will be granted a brief respite as the water drains out of the chamber. However, they shouldn't let their guard down, for Primus's final form awaits! Returning to 100% life (though with a far smaller HP total this time), Primus channels Earth, Fire, Air, and Water all at once, using all the special attacks (not including High Tide mode) of his previous forms. These attacks are all weaker than before, but players need to deal with all of them simultaneously.

If players wear Primus down to one phase, his hit points will gradually regenerate, but he will not return to a previous phase.

(Wall of text incoming. Snark about said wall of text is not appreciated.)

Fighting Nalrok as a boss would be one hell of a task. The entire thing would need to pan out like an arc, however.

Mission 1: Contact sends you to kill Nalrok's right-hand-man (and closest friend) Kommodore Alexandre Schwertmann. He will be protected by a demon group (all Claws/SR brutes) called The Raxx, enemies with black skin and luminescent green veins across their bodies.

Schwertmann is a Mercs/Dark MM, but his henchmen would spawn as six boss-level soldier types, while he sat back and dark-debuffed and dark-blasted.


Once Schwertmann is down, Nalrok explodes into reality.

Cutscene