[i]Before I start this, I'll be posting a poll up to see if I'm not alone here. Do you agree with me? Do you think the boss fight needs some fixing? Are you maybe kinda cray and think it needs to be harder? Do you think it's fine as is? Do you agree with my solutions I've listed below? Or do you have others? This is all my opinion on the matter so please don't think I think this is all indefinitely right. It is what I think would help is all.[/i]
Edit: after seeing everyone's opinion on the matter, and also being told I or my fireteam sucked a few times, I can see it's not as hard as maybe I'm making it out to be.
So I just tried doing the level 32 Prison of Elders this week. And I gotta say, when I last fought against Qodron, as a week level 31, with two other 31's, on the first week of the DLC. I didn't think he was a broken boss fight, I thought we were just low level and couldn't kill him cause we had to level up more.
But after going back against him after this apparent "nerf" to his fight, as a level 34, with two other 34's, I gotta say, it's worse. I've been able to kill every other boss with relative ease in the PoE, I haven't killed Skollas yet but I honestly think he'd be easier to kill.
Why do I think it's still overpowered? Well first of all, I think it's worse somehow, or at least, not any better. Considering this was a PoE 32, and we were three 34's, we weren't exactly bad players either. We spent about an hour on the boss before I quit out just because I'd rather wait a week than deal with Qodron another time.
So how is Qodron's fight broken in my opinion aside from the fact that three 34's that were relatively well equipped weren't able to kill him? Well first of all is those detainment chambers. Yes I know it's been nerfed so you can break out of them, but it really REALLY doesn't matter, we all ended up killing Qodron's eye anyway, because he always runs into us firing like nuts. On top of that, sometimes he doesn't even come around, we can't exactly leave cover to go and find him thanks to the constant barrage of enemies and splash damage from Qodron himself, so in turn we end up saving special and sometimes heavy bullets, not to damage Qodron at all, but to get out of the bubbles.
The bubbles happen so frequently that it makes it hard to deal nearly any damage on Qodron, most of our ammo went to surviving the adds and the rest went to breaking out of the bubbles if we didn't kill Qodron's Eye with good timing.
There doesn't SEEM to be any waves of enemies in this boss fight, it seems rather constant, never ending, and over 50% of the adds seem to be major/ultra Hobgoblins. Not even one of us 34's could even step out of cover without being killed within seconds by a barrage of Hobgoblin rifles, grenades, harpies and Qodron.
I'm CERTAIN some pro's can kill Qodron, don't get me wrong, or even just a highly coordinated fireteam (like way above average coordinated). But considering I've been able to kill every other boss in the Prison of Elders 32 and 34, and that I can't with this 32 level Qodron. I feel like SOMETHING has to be wrong.
No, I'm not here to just complain, not entirely, I'm somewhat still butthurt about the whole thing as spending an hour or so fighting a boss 2 levels under you and getting owned will do that to a person. But I do got my opinions on how to maybe fix it.
NOTE: THIS IS JUST MY OPINION (important, I don't want people getting all mad at me for telling bungie to make the game easier or anything, I just feel like the boss should be about the same level of difficulty as the other bosses, and personally speaking, it's easier to kill a lvl 34 PoE boss than a 32 Qodron, or Qodron in general.
[b]1. Lessen the frequency of when Qodron searches and detains Guardians[/b] (like preferably a lot, I know bubbles are awesome, but yeah)It's pretty annoying to have to stop every minute or so to hope we don't all die, and having to save up ammo to either kill the ONE Qodron's Eye in the map causes a lot less focus on the actual boss.
[b]2. Make it so the enemies spawn in waves like every other boss fight. [/b] As much as I can understand the requirement to have enemies be there to keep us occupied, having them there ALL the time with no breathers at all is just kinda ridiculous.
[b]3. Potentially add another Qodron's Eye or something along the lines of making it easier to get him. [/b] You wouldn't believe the amount of times I, or one of my teammates accidentally killed this guy without realizing it too early. And you might be surprised how frequently he didn't even show up on the side of the map we were on so we didn't even get the chance of even putting a single bullet into him. Yes I know you can break out now without having to kill him, but it'd still help knowing that one of the key points of the boss fight wasn't singular, sometimes not even there, and some other time accidentally killed early.
[b]4. Reduce the number of Hobgoblins that spawn, or at least Majors or Ultras. [/b] Yes these guys specifically are my focus, I'm a level 34 hunter with a fully upgraded exotic hand cannon, and STILL can't kill these guys with just my one magazine. Again, I understand why they're there, and throwing in a small handful into the mix of enemies definitely adds some spice to the murder spree us Guardians get. But along with Qodron, his Eye, the looming Detainment coming along and the seemingly nonstop spawning of enemies, we spend more time behind a literal rock then shooting things, as we're saving up bullets for those bubbles or the eye.
[b]5. If none of these sound appealing to you, maybe just reduce his health a bit. If all of theses fixes were to be applied though, I don't think reducing his health would be needed.[/b] Yeah I kept this one for last because it's kinda the one I'm least okay with. I'd rather have the boss fight feel fair, instead of just a rush to burn his health. But considering we're more distracted with enemies, the bubbles and everything else I previously mentioned and more, we barely get to shoot him anyway, heck half the time he's behind cover from where we stand.
So, in brief, excluding #5, lower the frequency of the detainment bubbles. Make the enemies spawn in waves instead of this seeming constant spawning of enemies. Maybe add another Qodron's Eye or two to the map. And finally, greatly lower the number of Hobgoblin Majors/Ultras.
These are the things I feel would make the Qodron fight slightly fairer. I don't see any other boss fight with maybe targets that can only be killed at a certain time to be effective, but that will still attack you the entire time, making it so you just have to run away from him, or kill him cause he's a nuisance. I don't see other boss fights either that don't have small breather times where enemies don't spawn for a bit.
As mentioned before, this is all my [b]opinion[/b]. I've only fought Qodron twice, once before nerf, and this week. He doesn't seem improved at all sadly, I was even a higher level this time, I can't help but feel like the boss fight needs more balancing.
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-blam!-ing hobgoblins man....get me and my fireteam every time lol.