Despite the fact that this boss can be overcome merely by overgearing it through other methods like grinding EV every week, I feel that this is without a doubt the worst boss encounter I have seen in a long time.

 

First off, it's buggy as all hell. Players consistently die as soon as they zone into the area, starting the group off a man down. Bonethrasher's hitbox is so large, it's virtually impossible to predict exactly where you need to stand in order to avoid the planted cleave. Bonethrasher himself will behave extremely erratically if any lateral movement occurs on his target during his planted stage. I've seen players survive the cleave by moving into Bonethrasher's hitbox, and I've seen players who are standing behind the boss die instantly instead. While the idea of a no-tank boss is novel (impractical, given you NEED a tank to get to that point in the instance), where it excels in its relative creativity, it fails miserably in its execution.

 

Even when the stars align and the fight doesn't gimp you by immediately killing one of your zoning in party members, the end result is a frantic mess of a boss fight that relies more on luck than it does in preparation or strategy. Any hope of defining a plan of action for the fight is immediately thrown out the window as soon as the battle begins because the group can never reasonably predict what the boss will do.

 

The only aspect of this fight that you can more or less control is the direction of the boss's planted cleave. Even this control is tenuous, as the boss is prone to immediately switching targets either right before or in the middle of a planted-cleave. The end result is a massive aoe firing off in erratic directions.

 

This kind of boss would be more entertaining if there was some other sort of mechanic built into it that allowed you to better control the movement of the boss. Place a piece of cheese in the middle of the arena and have the boss aggro whoever is carrying the cheese. Allow Light Armor classes to run faster with the cheese. Who cares. Just do something that makes the fight, especially on hard mode, at least a little bit tolerable.

This boss on hardmode is pretty ***.

 

Not to mention if you fail the first attempt enjoy starting the boss off with *most likely* one man down and everyone at 30% hp.

 

Kind of like SOA and his lightning balls. Just to many with to much range.

This is the worst designed boss I've ever seen. A big lump of meat randomly chasing people. Must've been done during a coffee break. Not to mention that you don't even need a tank, it's bad enough that there's only 1 spot for us tanks to fight over.

Raiding in this game because of all the bugs is about is appealing is chewing on tin foil.

The zone in is pretty dumb but there is a way to do it with no deaths.

Send the tank in first, have him turn the boss and eat the first cleave, then have everyone else enter. You still have to hope that no one dies upon entering the arena, but the raid shouldn't get cleaved at least.

 

The boss suffers from some nasty animation bugs. He will sometimes appear to turn away from his target and cleave, but his cleave will end up hitting behind him. This often occurs after the boss rapidly changes target to 2 or 3 different people in a short space of time.

 

The fight is further exasperated by the fact that you almost need one person dedicated to repeatedly pressing Target of Target and calling when the boss changes to someone new (works best if you give this job to your tank). If the game had a working (persistent) target of target display it would alleviate so many problems.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Sheridyn

If you can't beat it, it MUST be bugged.

 

 

Why hasn't someone made this a meme yet? Oh wait, we did!

If you can't beat it, it MUST be bugged.

 

 

Why hasn't someone made this a meme yet? Oh wait, we did!

 

Just because something is bugged doesnt mean its not beatable. In fact I would say 99% of the endgame is buggy yet beatable outside of Soa Nightmare mode.

 

But anyways. You were trying to troll whILE bragging about how awesome you and your guild are so I'll give you the attention you so desperately desire.

 

WOW YOU ARE IN "ONE PERCENT WIPES" THE PROGRESSION GUILD! OH WOWWOWOWEE THATS SO KEWL I CANT BELIEVE I ACTUALLY GOT TO MEET SUCH A LEGEND. SO AMAZING

Edited January 16, 2012 by ValaxDarkseer

If you can't beat it, it MUST be bugged.

 

 

Why hasn't someone made this a meme yet? Oh wait, we did!

 

So watching my melee DPS get cleaved when they are far behind the boss because of a crap animation glitch is really their fault.

So watching my melee DPS get cleaved when they are far behind the boss because of a crap animation glitch is really their fault.

 

You just have to see what direction the boss was facing when he starts the cleave, that's the direction the damage goes - regardless of what direction the model is facing.

 

This fight is very easy on 8man normal/hard mode. 16man normal is simple to... everything else is pretty rough on this fight.

 

You can avoid your raid taking damage on zone in by having someone drop in & resetting the boss then having everyone zone in before the boss pops back out.

You just have to see what direction the boss was facing when he starts the cleave, that's the direction the damage goes - regardless of what direction the model is facing.

 

This fight is very easy on 8man normal/hard mode. 16man normal is simple to... everything else is pretty rough on this fight.

 

You can avoid your raid taking damage on zone in by having someone drop in & resetting the boss then having everyone zone in before the boss pops back out.

 

It's not that. He'll be on a target chasing him and he'll cleave that target and a melee who's nowhere near takes a random cleave.

He has a 180 degree cleave, you cannot be at his sides or in front of him.

Raiding in this game because of all the bugs is about is appealing is chewing on tin foil.

 

I have to agree here. They better get raiding undercontrol soon or this game is in trouble.

He has a 180 degree cleave, you cannot be at his sides or in front of him.

 

Yes, I know this. What I am saying is that people who are well behind him are still randomly taking cleave. I had a melee who was chasing him randomly take a cleave 3 times last night when he was nowhere near the 180 degree attack. He was attacking a group in a corner and my melee still randomly ate the cleave and he was further away from him than the other 2 melee in the group.

The only thing I dislike (and which is changing) is that upon a wipe, the boss doesn't reset. That aside, I haven't seen too many bugs though we do have a few people that die upon zoning in still. We've not cleared him on nightmare but have on normal and hard.

 

We just eat the cleave sans having the dubuff after the donkey kong smash in to the ground. Beat on normal and hard doing that without him enraging. The red glowing guards are easy enough to kill. The adds that spawn can be CC'd or nuked down. This fight is easier with more ranged dps than melee. A marauder (or two for a rotation) can put a damage debuff up on the boss before an earthquake that negates a lot of its damage.

Send the tank in first, have him turn the boss and eat the first cleave, then have everyone else enter. You still have to hope that no one dies upon entering the arena, but the raid shouldn't get cleaved at least.

.

 

That works but there is still a better way to do it. Honestly it's a stupid design to have you drop in right in front of a cleaving boss. It's even worse that it leaves you stunned for 2-3 seconds unless you use an escape ability. It really is the buggiest pos encounter in the game. Getting cleaved when you are standing behind him and he hasn't spun is the best.

This fight is fine. The swipe isn't an exact 180 from his midpoint, it extends further toward his back on the side where his hand comes from. If you had actually tried to understand the mechanic, instead of assuming it was bugged, you probably wouldn't have raged and posted here.

 

As for the "ougear or else" idea, my guild killed this in blues. Easy encounter is easy.

 

I have to agree here. They better get raiding undercontrol soon or this game is in trouble.

 

Absolutley, they are already releasing new content and have fixed ONLY ONE bug in EV, and it wasn't even a fight mechanic bug, it was a lockout/loot chest bug. They do not have much time before people start shifting back to wow, or another mmo, for raiding purposes.

Edited January 16, 2012 by boomdead

Those who are claiming their melee are getting cleaved from behind - have your melee constantly checking the range to Bonethrasher, underneath the boss portrait.

Basically, even if you're behind him, you're still at 0.0m range - you have to stand quite far back to not be within his hitbox. If you're within his hitbox, you'll get owned. If you're not, you'll be fine.

 

Makes the fight so much simpler for melee once they know to keep an eye on the rangefinder, especially on hard/nightmare.

He has a tell tale animation before his cleave. He will "set" his feet in the ground similar to what a sumo wrestler does. This is where the cleave will be centered. He will move after he sets his feet and change position however, where he cleaves does not. Thankfully this has been fixed on test.

 

Also, people calling this fight easy, please give 16 man hm/nm a whirl, pre-patch at least.

done it a couple of minutes ago on 16 man hardmode, pretty fun fight !