I'm not going to beat around the bush, the bosses in this game suck. Most of them are just massive bullet sponges that fail to interact with anything in the game world aside from players. Even then all they do is dish out damage. This is an utter failure since what few Strikes are available make up most of the endgame content and end in a bogged down 10 minute boss fight. The main issues with boss fights is the minions, attacks schemes, lack of stages, and lack of character. [u]Minions:[/u] [spoiler] Many games feature boss fights that will spawn minions so that it creates a break in the boss fight, adds tension, and provides players needed supplies. Bungie obviously went with this route, and had good reason to do so. However, in Destiny, the amount and strength of minions in a boss fight can become absurdly high, forcing players to completely shift their focus from the actual Boss to the minions just to survive. This shouldn't be happening. This lengthens and hardens boss fights without actually adding any value to the boss battle. Phogoth, Archon Aksor from Winter's Run, and Zydron the Gate Lord are easily the worst transgressors since majors and heavy enemies will continually spawn right after the last wave was dispatched, leading to 10 to 15 minute boring and highly repetitive boss fights. This needs a serious tune-up to keep the focus on the bosses while also making the minions a viable part of the battle. The first and easiest way would be to lower the amount of minions that spawn at once and/or making them weaker so that players aren't quite as pressured to eliminate them. Another option is have them interact with a boss by either directly healing, protecting, or receiving a boost from them. Suggestions and Ideas to for inspiration: [quote]My Suggestions: Phogoth: Have Wizards spawn and infuse Phogoth with more darkness that increase the strength of his attack while making him slower and have a slightly longer charge up. Zydron: Make his weak point bigger and give him a "magnetize" ability that will pull destroyed Vex parts to him that will create armor that players need to destroy while it's travelling towards him or once it's actually attached. Valus Ta'aurc: Have Phalanxes that spawn in the first wave directly shield Ta'aurc, allowing him to launch missiles at players. This forces players to have to cut down the phalanx to actually damage Ta'aurc when he's not firing missiles. Have the Psions generate a shield with a random element so that players either have to break the shield or hunt down the Psions to damage Ta'aurc. Psion Flayers: Whenever enemies spawn, the Flayers will choose one enemy to support and stay in close proximity to them, giving them multipliers and abilities that they would not have during normal gameplay. Examples would be increased speed, a powerful shoulder rush, Psionic powers, and extra shielding. All Bosses: Give the bosses animations to "call" for minions. It would let players know that new enemies have spawned while they are focused on the bullet sponge(s), and will provide players the opportunity to get in some extra damage. [/quote] [quote]Suggestions by ash55: Winter's Run - The Archon Priest periodically summons golden Servitors with random elemental shields. As long as they're alive, the boss will slowly recharge his HP. Kill them quickly. Nexus - The rotating shield around the Hydra is cool, but reduce the amount of HP the boss has, then special Vex adds can spawn periodically, (at 80% HP, 60% HP etc.) and slowly walk to the Hydra to sacrifice themselves (similar to public events). The boss is healed a little with every sacrifice you fail to stop. Also the Hydra will periodically create a huge barrier around the central half of the arena. When he does this, you need to get close to the boss because anyone outside the barrier will take periodic damage. [/quote] [/spoiler] [u]Attacks:[/u] [spoiler] Most of the bosses share the same attack scheme, continually shoot players without a charge up and don't stop until all of the players are out of line of sight. Some still shoot at players even when they aren't visible which is unfair to players. Only one Boss will actually stop shooting players even when they are visible. Nearly all bosses need serious improvements in telegraphing their attacks, the pace of their attacks, and transitioning from player to player. Most bosses don't telegraph they are going to attack. This literally makes no sense for a boss fight. It's not fair for players since bosses are capable of doing massive amounts of damage in the blink of an eye, and a player wouldn't even know it's coming. The worst offender is Sekrion, the Nexus Mind. This boss is capable of one hit kills at any given time and unless players hide once it has faced them, there is no real defense against his attacks. This makes the boss battle less about a player's skill, and more about "do you feel lucky, punk?" Bungie needs to do what they did with Devil Walkers, the Goliath Tank, Sepiks Prime, and Ta'aurc, and then apply them to all bosses in the future. All of these bosses (or mini-bosses) will telegraph what they are about to do. This gives players a way to recognize that they are about to get hit with massive amounts of damage. That's fair. Pacing out fire is nearly nonexistent for boss battles, with nearly all bosses continously shooting at players. This could add a layer of skill, if bosses didn't transition from target to target so quickly. As it is, this is unfair to players and people playing as a . The bosses need to attack in set amounts, with breaks between volleys so players can shoot back or recover. Again, Sekrion is the worst about this. The entire time it is alive, Sekrion will shoot without pause, even when it is staggered. This is pure and utter BS since it has no tells, it can kill in one shot, and transitions alarmingly fast. On the other hand, Sepiks and Devil Walkers do an amazing job of this. Sepiks will fire a total of three shots then pause before firing again. The Devil walker has large gaps between its attacks since it's supposed to be an easier mini-boss. This is actually sad since Devil Walkers have a better boss design than actual bosses. An easy and interesting way to break up Sekrion's fire is to not only limit its shots per voley, but make its shield block its shots. This would require players to manuever to not only attack, but defend as well. Transitioning in this game is atrocious. When players aggro a boss, they don't have any time to get to cover or pull back behind what ever cover they already. Bosses simply change targets to quickly, regardless of direction. This removes a player's option of baiting and doesn't promote teams to juggle a bosses aggro to catch a break. Both the Devil Walker and Goliath tank do a better job of transitioning simply due to their size. Bosses should not be as slow as these tanks, but they shouldn't be able to swivel around as quickly as they do. Some final gripes is that bosses shouldn't be able to hit players behind cover with splash damage. Several bosses have large amounts of splash damage, leading to players being killed even when behind cover. Although it's necessary to damage players with near hits, they need to be toned down so players can corner peek and then shift back behind cover quickly without risking instant death. [/spoiler] [u]Immutability and Lack of Character:[/u] [spoiler] Bungie has left out a crucial Boss fight element in their boss fight, stages. None of the bosses have stages that they go through. They just move around and constantly absorb damage rather than change attacks, appearance, and/or location. I was constantly disappointed by how Dinkelbot would build up a boss, saying they are vicious enemies, only to just sit there and constantly spray bullets at a weak point over the course of ten minutes without change. This makes boss fights incredibly boring and uninteresting. Large health bars don't make epic boss fights, character and creativity is what makes a boss fight epic and memorable. I barely remembered Zyrdon as a boss since it was just a large minotaur with an extra large health bar. That's just sad and disappointing. [/spoiler] I really want to see some interesting and awesome boss fights soon, because constantly doing bullet sponge missions in the Vanguard playlist gets old incredibly fast. As of HoW, the bosses are still pretty lackluster. The PoE bosses have 1 interesting idea apiece, but they are still just gigantic bullet sponges. [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-bgNcfxxJA[/url] Holy Balls [url=https://youtu.be/oPOoTaWXoq0?t=481]Ain't that something?[/url]