Hey everyone, At first I wanted to review all the Neo Tokyo bosses but I lack the time so I'll just focus on Dunas V2 and later talk on bossing in general. Dunav V2 so far was the most frustrating boss I have ever done as a Hero. The frustration comes almost entirely from the fact that this boss basically dispels every few seconds which render Heroes completely useless as our DPS relies on a skill which has to be recharged each time it is cast. This difficulty is not a, let's say, "fun difficulty" where your performance is determined by your skills but it is merely an Artificial Difficulty where you are facing an impossible situation and just have to deal with it. To make things more fun I'd like to suggest a change in how Dunas V2 dispels work. My suggestion is to make a No-dispel zone as follows: The No-Dispel Zone would be a short zone close to Dunas. This way melee classes can take advantage of the fact that they can Tank and thus avoid the constant dispels of Dunas. Moreover, that way melee classes would actually be a viable choice for Dunas V2 parties since they would be able to deal constant DPS. ------ Now, while thinking about how to make Dunas V2 runs more interesting and fun I came with some general ideas for bossing in general. These ideas take advantage of the inherent traits of each of the attacking classes, which would give a new strategic dimension to bossing. Let's first review the attacking classes and categorize them based on attacking range: Melee classes: Warriors, Shadower, Buccaneer Mid range: Night Lord, Corsair Long range: classes: Archers One idea that came to my mind, and can be implemented quiet easily (I think), uses the fact that monsters can shoot projectiles in MapleStory (which for some reason was never implemented for bosses) and it goes as follows: In the example above we can see how each section has its own advantages and disadvantages. The Melee Range attackers will enjoy not getting dispelled (Just like in Dunas V2) but they would have to tank the boss. Mid range attackers don't need to tank but have to evade the projectiles thrown at them. Night Lord is a very mobile class so avoiding projectiles kinda fit them (not to mention this class has high avoid and Shadow shifter so it's up to them to player to try to avoid the projectiles or not. Corsairs would have a harder time but they're the highest dealing DPS class so it compensates. Long range attackers (archers) are not very mobile and having a specific spot for them to attack would utilize the fact that they have the longest range of all classes. This idea (and other ideas) can be implemented in Neo Tokyo bosses since they were renewed anyway in this server and it wouldn't affect the nostalgia. These are just some ideas that can be further expanded upon and I'd really like to read what you guys think about my suggestions and if you have some suggestions of your own!
To add on to the original poster's point, I have just finished a run on Dunas v2. During the run, I counted how many times Dunas cast dispel on my party in the span of 1 minute. First count: 7 dispels Second count: 7 dispels Third count: 2 dispels Fourth count: 4 dispels So on average, Dunas cast dispels 5 times per minute on my party. Since it was difficult to get a figure on how many times it cast dispel in a prolonged fight. I decided to use the number of times Shadow Stars was casted to get a ballpark figure. Since the skill consistently consumes 200 stars per use, I just need to check my inventory after the expedition is over. Here is the aftermath of a roughly an 18 minutes long battle. So that is approximately 60 times ≈ (You can minus 5 counts assuming it was used to bring Dunas Unit down) For reference, I usually cast Shadow Star on average 15 times in a normal Zakum/Krexel expedition that lasts about 25 to 35 minutes. While I am all in for challenging boss fights or bosses with interesting mechanics, I feel Dunas version 2's spamming of Dispel is quite unbalanced and it doesn't really present a challenge but more of an annoyance. Especially, when it seems to able dispel right after it just cast dispel. I believe some twerks can be made, such as reduce the number of times it can cast dispel per minute should be reduced or like what the poster has mentioned, certain positions or distance can free you from getting dispels, similar to Papulatus. However, in exchange, I think very reasonable to increase Dunas's difficulty elsewhere, such as increasing it's HP, give it the ability to summon mobs, cast darkness or confusion or be hyper-aggressive in defending Dunas unit (First stage).
We can increase the cooldown on dispel and reduce the range of dispel, but we cannot add a non-dispel zone in between, it has to be one single rectangular area. We can look into doing this if it will help.
Actually there's a spot to avoid Dunas V2 dispel for melee atkers. It's on the right bottom of the map, you can stand on the pillar of the debris and atk him. Need to lure him to the location though, while it's kinda easy to do. BTW, range atkers' atk will be block by debris, or unable to land skills on him while standing on the pillar since he is too close, so better team up with melee/range separately(melee atkers a pt, range atkers a pt).
I think dispel mechanics are great for balancing against nl since they have a longer buff recast time. Anyways, from my experience, the best way to fight it is to have a melee attacker control dunas to the left of the undispellable zone. You can't really pin with rush or anything but you can at least aggro and make it stay there. Your job as a melee won't be to deal damage then, so dont rebuff at all.
Thank you Matt for looking into this ^^ If the dispel zone has to be single rectangular area I have two suggestions: In the first suggestion the Dispel Zone would be the half plane Dunas is facing and it would start slightly further from Dunas in a way melee attackers can tank it from both directions and still avoid dispels. In the second suggestion the Dispel Zone would be just the half plane Dunas is facing. Since Dunas frequently teleports around, can't be KB easily and cannot be rushed, the direction at which he faces during the run is kinda random, combined with either suggestion above it would effectivly give a feeling that there are less dispels, even though the dispelling rate hasn't changed. Suggestion (1) would give an advantage to melee attackers, but they would need to tank it (~10k dmg) to avoid dispels. And as you said, the cooldown between dispels can also be increased, regardless of the suggestions above.
But the game is not about making NL lives harder, but to give a chance to other classes to feel relevant. Your suggestion to make all melee classes luring dummies for Dunas doesn't sound right (or fun..).
Isn't the job of the melee to tank and draw aggro? That's literally what you can do with the melee class at dunas 2. If your idea of fun is to do damage, melee classes aren't exactly the best for that and that isn't bad at all. They excel at other aspects of the game. Don't downplay the role by calling it a lure dummy. Having somebody do the luring enables the run.
Does feel relevant only mean see big damage numbers? Personally, I’d more than welcome bosses introduce any strategic element beyond holding down a button for 30 minutes (cough krex cough), although from time to time I am reminded of the fact that this is just everyone’s childhood favorite mushroom game
What I am trying to say is that we should all think outside of the box. It's not either you deal big damage numbers or just lure to the point that there's no reason for you to even rebuff, it can somewhere between! The purpose of this thread, beside trying to make Dunas V2 a more reasonable boss, is to try and come up with ideas that would make the gameplay richer and more interesting, and give an option for players to come up with actual strategies to beat a hard boss (hard = not artificial difficulty!)
