World New Boss Altar Idea - Crystalline Cynote

Note: If you voted the 2/3 option, please tell me what you would change, as just saying 'it's ok' tells me that I need to change something, I just need to know what it is.

There has been a recent increase of Ocean ideas (totally not related to the WynnTheory Ocean Lore Rework, ok maybe it is) so I shall join the trend.

And yes, this is going to be based on another idea to build on it.

Spoiler: Pre -Boss Fight

Location: Deepest part of Kraken Island, somewhere around -250, -2740

Tribute Hint (Some signs that point towards what is needed like the Orange Wybel's lab):
Surely... Surely something
must! I have tried
everything! Squids,
Axe Heads, Permafrost...

The only thing I
haven't tried yet is
magical ice from the
Ice Islands... If there

is any hope at curing
the cult-like following of
this island, reader, please
free my broth^\.. (Yes the last four characters are meant to be dried blood)

Tribute: 4 Ice Slivers

Level Min: 50

Lore: The strange energy being emitted by this natural structure has lead many to make theories of what lives down here. The most popular of which is a large squid-like creature. Most people, however, shrug it off as nothing more of a legend.

Spoiler: Boss Fight: The Kraken

Intro dialogue:
A cold, slimy thing can be felt on your back...

The main boss of the altar is The Kraken, which is a stationary boss, made entirely of stationary blocks like The Eye and The Colossus, although its minions will use custom models.

The Arena will be a large, circular platform surrounded by geysers, which harm you for 20% of your Max HP when jumping in there. The Kraken will be in the back of the arena, with the 2 Kraken Manuses making an X shape as if they are guarding the main body.

The fight will have 2 phases. The first phase will have the Kraken being guarded by 2 Kraken Mani/Manuses (Feel free to debate what the plural is in the replies), with several smaller, Kraken Tentacles also spawning throughout the fight, with up to 8 total in the arena at once, although these are not necessary to pass through the phase. Drowned Cultists can also spawn in the fight, and while they are not really going to deal damage, they exist instead to serve as a stunner, and up to 5 will spawn at a time. The second phase begins once the 2 Kraken Mani/Manuses are defeated.

Main boss info:
Kraken Manus
Level: 50
HP: 30,000
AI: Stationary Rapid Ranged
Abilities: Arrow Storm, Heavy Meteor, Push
Spell Chains:
Push, (2-second delay) Heavy Meteor
Push, (0.5 second delay) Arrow Storm
Heavy Meteor (3-second delay), Arrow Storm
Elemental Stats: Thunder - Weakness, Water - Damage & Defense, Earth - Damage, Fire - Defense

Minions:
Kraken Tentacle
Level: 45
HP: 3,500
AI: Melee
Abilities: Multihit
Elemental Stats: Thunder - Weakness, Water - Damage & Defense

Drowned Cultist
Level: 25
HP: 1,000
AI: Jumper
Abilities: Pull
Elemental Stats: Water - Defense
Other Notes: Very Fast

The Second Phase has you fighting the main Kraken itself. However, the Kraken is like the Grootslang in RoL 1, simply just being an obstacle to avoid. The true mob to kill is the Crystal Growth on the head (Not very high up to compensate for the poor range of classes like Mage, Warrior, and Assassin, so it would be somewhere around the eyes). Kraken Tentacles will also become a new enemy called Severed Tentacles.

Main Boss(es) Info:
The Kraken
Level: 100
HP: 3M
AI: Burst Ranged (5 second delay between shots)
Abilities: Push, Blind (3 second duration), Arrow Storm, Heavy Meteor
Spell Chains:
Blind -> Arrow Storm (2 second delay) -> Push
Heavy Meteor (1 Second Delay)-> Arrow Storm (0.5 Second Delay)-> Push
Elemental Stats: Thunder - Weakness, Air - Damage, Water - Damage & Defense, Fire - Defense, Earth - Defense

Crystal Growth
Level: 55
HP: 50,000
AI: Ranged
Abilities: Wave, Crystal Spike (A large Crystal Spike is summoned, either being Blue, Purple, or Red, each color giving different effects while in its AOE (5 block radius), Blue deals 60% of your Max HP as damage when in its AOE when it is summoned, but otherwise is just there for the rest of the fight, Purple will give a random debuff while in its AOE, being Weakness or Slowness, and Red does 5% of your Max HP as DPS)
Elemental Stats: Earth - Weakness, Thunder - Weakness, Fire - Damage & Defense, Water - Defense

Minions:
Severed Tentacle
Level: 47
HP: 4,000
AI: Jumper
Abilities: Pull, Multihit
Elemental Stats: Water - Defense

The fight will end when the Crystal Growth is defeated, as a cutscene will happen when the Kraken's head falls over, revealing a large barnacle in the back of the head. This is technically the third phase of the fight, with a passive Crystal Barnacle on the back of the head, which gives the drops. I am not a good class builder or item maker, so if you want to give some ideas, then put them in the replies.

Crystal Barnacle
Level: 50
HP: 100
AI: None

Spoiler: Boss Altar Drops (Community-Made)

@Potatomancer

To answer some stuff:

- Why is this on a Level 25 island? The island is called Kraken Island, so it is probably the best place to put it, although that is not to say that the only place to put it.

- Why is it so powerful as well as it having annoying spells? It is definitely not to say that this is easier than other fights for the time, but Boss Altars are meant to be HARD(challenging) at the level. The Prison of Souls is also pretty hard at level, and that is around the same level as this Boss Altar as well, so by comparison, it will probably be on-par or slightly easier. Edit: @Shots left a reply stating that there is a difference between being Hard and Challenging. This Boss Altar is meant to be Challenging, not hard, as it is a tough trial that must be overcome in turn for great rewards, compared to completing it, and then getting a garbage item for the latter.

- Does the blue name mean something special? No, I just want it to signify that it is a special mob.

- From a lore standpoint, which crystal would it be? Since this is based on WynnTheory's Ocean Lore Rework, either the Purple or the Red Crystal, although the crystals on the island are more teal, so I would say that Purple might be the best color for the crystal. Edit: @DaCorruption left a reply saying that a blue crystal might also work as well, since some Gavel Excavation ships could have left a fragment of it in the Ocean. It might also work well if it was from Gavel Ex. as the Meteors are tied with Cosmic Magic, and it is implied that Cosmic Magic can make people obsess over things, such as Mushrooms, Chickens, or maybe even the cause of the obsession altogether.

Accepting any criticism.

Edit: Changed the Tribute from 4 to 2

Edit 2: Changed the Tribute from Viking Stones to Ice Slivers, Reverted Tribute Amount from 2 to 4

Edit 3: Made the fight more challenging as a reference to @Shots criticism

 

Nice. While participating in the Ocean Lore Rework I wanted to implement something for Kraken Island but I couldn't really think of anything appropriate that would fit it, so I just left it alone. Implementing a boss altar is a wise idea though, so +1.

P.S.: As the quest Purple and Blue shows, there are more colors of crystals than just the WynnExcavation ones, namely there are also blue colored crystals. Perhaps those can be used instead?

 

Pretty cool idea! Also here is a concept for one of the items you could get.
Also if the damage is too high for level 55 it can be decreased to 150 neutral damage and 50-70 fire damage

 

I like this idea, the formatting is simmilar to mine and ocean update is always great, just Viking Stones are tier 1 and it's an unwritten rule that boss altar ingredients should be tier 0

 

I couldn't find any ingredients that are around Lv 50 and have to do with the Ocean, so Viking Stones were kind of the only option I could go to.

 

Ice Sliver?

 

Oh nvm, will update the post

 

The boss's hp is very low for a level 55 recommended (since your minimum level is 50) boss altar. For reference, Plague Doctor, the altar the same level as yours (level 50 min, 55 recommended) has 75,000 health. Yours has a measly 27,500 total across two phases, which allows any non-hypertank setup (i.e. anything that's not Elf Set) to nuke the boss in an instant. I'll address what I would make the hp values later when I address the design, but it's worth noting that right away.

The only change I would make would be to swap Push and Arrow Storm in the second combo (Push -> Arrow Storm). Due to being both rapid ranged and Arrow Storm's inherent nature of hit-stunning you into oblivion if you get hit by it, it'd be pretty easy to get perma-locked by an arrow storm even after the push happens. When we consider that there will be projectiles coming from two places at once, it can be pretty unfair to just have an Arrow Storm come out of nowhere as well.

The delay between Blind->Arrow Storm should be slightly longer. We have to keep in mind that Blind's effect acts somewhat like a slowness debuff as well, since you can not sprint during its duration. This would make it a bit more fair to actually get away in time, especially for melee setups.
I am also going to be a technical asshole here and say that Blind is not currently a spell mobs can use (unless it was added while I have not been playing Wynn in the past month ish, which I am then the ultimate clown). Heavy Teleport is the only non-custom spell for mobs that has it. However, I am going to assume that you want Blind to be added as a mob spell in game, which fair enough I guess.

In regards to these minions, I would merge the idea of the Severed Tentacle and Drowned Cultist into a single minion with the Kraken Tentacle coming into play during the second phase. The former is an active distraction during the fight, while the latter can act more as an arena hazard. The player will already have to juggle between multiple different points of aggro at once during the first phase, so having a minion that actively tries and distracts you from the fight like these jumper mobs would be more fitting there. I would also give them a low damage Multihit or Pull over Slowness in that regard. Slowness is befitting to mobs you can actively control and/or slow moving mobs that you can easily kite, not fast moving disruptor mobs like this one.

I think it would be better to give the Crystal Growth a different spell than Pull as well, since being pulled into combos at random is always a fun time. It could be a custom spell like the infamous "upcoming attack" or it could just be Wave or something. I think it'd be neat to have a custom spell that works well with the Kraken Tentacle's Pull, since realistically their Pull is going to benefit you in most situations, but you can decide that for yourself.

Going back to what I had said earlier regarding the boss hp, it seems that your design is inherently in favor of a longer fight. Most of these combos are heavily telegraphed in advance with significant delays in between, especially for the second phase. Boss Altars technically are supposed to be 1.5* the baseline stats for a boss at that level, but since I have zero clue what that baseline is, and I do not really care to be honest, I am just going to use Plague Doctor as a reference again. I would give the Kraken Manus ~15,000-20,000 hp and the Crystal Growth ~40,000 hp. This is ~70,000-80,000 total, which seems fairly reasonable. Likewise, I would buff the minion hp of the Drowned Cultist/Severed Tentacle to around 2,500-3,000 and the Kraken Tentacle to around 5,000-6,000, higher or lower depending on how many minions can actually spawn. Again, these are just rough values and can be adjusted easily, but your current hp is just way too low for a boss altar at this level.

This is actually piss easy as an altar with your current hp values. If I go under the assumption that they increase, it would still theoretically be around the middle of the pack or lower.

But I disagree that boss altars are meant to be hard. They are meant to be challenging. The difference between something being challenging and something being hard in regards to this is that something that is challenging actively rewards a player for understanding and reacting to mechanics or punishing them in a fair way that encourages them to become better and keep trying. Something that is hard is simply meant there to punish the player regardless of what they do for the sake of being frustrating, which has the opposite impact and discourages the player from wanting to return to do said task again. Essentially, boss altars solely designed to be hard would equate to Orange Wybel's Disintegrator Cores still having Pull.
I understand that this is what people mean when they say "this should be harder" in regards to actual design (generally), since these two things can and usually do go hand and hand, but I heavily disagree with the idea that "hard=good". Something being "hard" tends to just be a byproduct of that inherent challenging design.

But deep philosophical bullshit lecture aside, I believe that this boss would be kind of janky for a boss altar since its design is more fitting of a spectacle-like fight in a quest/secret discovery. You for sure can make it work (I wouldn't be writing this if you couldn't), but the design is so drastically different from other altars it would seem out of place other than just having a sizeable amount of health/damage compared to other bosses around that level. I also just don't really care for the idea of having another level 55-60 altar when we already effectively have two of them in that level range (Plague Laboratory/Tribal Sanctuary), but oh well we already have the level 70 trio.

Also, there's a good chunk of information that's missing that would be helpful to understanding what you're envisioning with your design, such as arena size/design, maximum amount of minions, walkspeed of mobs, etc. I personally don't really care for exact values, especially since this is more or less a "rough draft", but elaboration like what you had said with the spell combo cooldowns and such is fine. For example, saying "this minion moves fast" is good enough in regards to walkspeed. It just helps me get a better picture of what you're going for rather than me having to solely rely on what I envision it being.

 

Took most of it into consideration and added it to the boss stuff. Thanks for the criticism.