Better Boss Spell Telegraphs

With endgame bosses, avoiding spells is incredibly important as they often deal heavy damage. As a melee player, the spells that give me the most trouble are flamethrower, meteor, and teleport. Currently, with the exception of the creeper hiss for self destruct, there is only one telegraph for incoming spells (white firework particle rings accompanied by the... nether portal sound?). This is especially problematic when the boss has several spells at its disposal and casts them in quick succession.

The idea is simple. Give the more dangerous spells different particle effects so that the player can react accordingly. Here are some examples:

• Flamethrower - Flame particles appear around the boss and begin to converge on the boss. The flamethrower is cast when the flame particles reach the boss.
• Meteor - Similar to flamethrower, but perhaps using black smoke and lava particles.
• Teleport - Purple particles (instant_effect) form a ring around the boss and begin to converge on the boss. When the ring closes on the boss, the teleport is cast.

Again, these are just examples. The content team is more than capable of improving on this as they see fit.

That's... all I have for now. I feel that something like this would be a huge step to making bosses feel more enjoyable and giving players a greater sense of control over a fight.
Next is to remove the heal spell from every boss's arsenal, or at least give it a cooldown period (why is this a thing?)

Anyway, thanks for readin', and leave your opinion on the matter if you can.
Also, I feel like something like this has already been brought up before, so let me know if that is the case.

 

Aka especially flamethrower so I know to back up upup.

 

Add poll? +1 tho

 

I may add one if someone can come up with a legitimate reason as to why this shouldn't be implemented

 

It should t because the creator is too lazy to add a poll

 

I said legitimate >:(
Polls are best used when the idea can spark controversy among members of the community. That being said, there are plenty of examples of polls in this subforum being completely pointless—ideas covering quality of life improvements that have no reason not to be added, to be specific.
But, if it bothers you that much, I suppose I can add a poll

 

Legitimate disagreement here - this would make boss battles too easy. Part of the challenge is balancing your offensive/defensive play against the various options that the boss has, and telegraphing the particular spell beforehand would make the game too easy.

 

You present a valid point. However, I cannot say I am surprised you would make this statement given the fact that you only play ranged (if the statistics do not lie). So, in most cases, avoiding the most dangerous spells bosses have to offer should not be a problem for you. On the other hand, I firmly believe that your average melee build—being forced to close the gap in order to deal decent damage—is stuck playing the guessing game on whether or not it is safe for them to engage (as a side note, this aspect of balance concerning how spells interact with ranged and melee play is an entire discussion on its own that I will probably not attempt to delve into here).

You have heavy flamethrower, where if you so much as touch the start of its cast you are guaranteed to take several more hits (less if you invest heavily into agility, naturally) no matter how much distance you put between the boss and yourself. Meteor, where at melee range, it can detonate almost instantly. Finally, heavy teleport, which can deal a good chunk of damage and cannot be dodged at point blank range due to its hitbox. Now, you might be thinking these melee classes have the option of throwing the enemy into the air or escaping under the cover of invisibility, but again, they have no guarantee of what's to come with all of the spells being telegraphed identically (e.g. a pull or heal cast would be safe, but a heavy charge may not be if the player is attacking, as this can stall the charge and cause it to detonate on top of them).

I can see where you are coming from when you make this statement, but I do not believe the current state of boss fights pitting the player against pure RNG is a healthy one. One might say that RNG is present in plenty of boss fights across games, where bosses may use a particularly punishing move multiple times in a row, but at the very least there is some sort of visual indicating that the move is coming (take a look at the bosses from the Souls series, for example). The implementation of clear telegraphs will probably require more dynamic and punishing mechanics, but I do not know what the developers can come up with within the limitations of Minecraft.

 

i love going in for a melee hit and the boss has whiteness around him and i either have to run backwards or dodge to the left
man its great when i do the wrong thing and get flamed or multihit

 

I'd personally like having this. I feel like a lot of games have at least some sort of animation or action that indicates a specific attack an enemy is using, and this would be a decent way to portray this in Wynncraft. It also makes fights a lot less of a guessing game, since you won't have to worry about whether or not that boss is casting the one spell you hate.

 

Originally I was in agreement with you, being a warrior main myself. The unpredictability of boss spells can make or break an encounter. However, I believe if each spell had a different effect it would make fights formulaic and thus they would lose their longevity. One part of boss fights that makes them enjoyable is running the risk of getting hit so that you can do some extra damage. I suggest a different approach which would consist of a rota-esque system. Essentially, the spell pool will be split into 3 groups (a red effect, a white effect, and a black effect all similar to the one we have now). Red effect could be either heal, charge or flamethrower, white could be vanish, multi-hit or teleport and black could be meteor, pull or push. Its up to the player when they see each colour whether to risk getting hit or will they dodge. It is similar to what we have now but with less guessing. The only problem is for mobs with a smaller spell pool the system would become easier to predict, but for lower level fights this won't be such a bad thing. Additionally, I suggest this method because your method also relies on one effect per spell which gives the CT an increased workload,