So I just finally got around to finishing the Jedi Knight Story. I'd played the 2 Sith, the Consular and agent but never finished this. And having played into the new content on my Sith Warrior, I was pumped to see what had come before, how cool the Emperor was.

Holy crap was this a let down.

He killed me once with his one-shot thing, but then the next try I beat him in less than 30 seconds. And he's only a one-phase fight, seriously? I mean, this game tends to be on the really really easy side, but come on...not to mention his character model looks so boring and generic. He looks like every other Sith mook from Korriban and Dromund Kaas.

I read some people saying it's actually hard? Did they change something in recent years? Because this was the easiest boss since Fable 2. And at least that one made sense for it to be easy. So much for the "all powerful" Emperor...

Yeah, he was much harder in the old days.

I joined some time after the game went free to play and before Rise of the Hutt Cartel. The only class story I finished before RotHC was Jedi Knight, and Vitiate was a beast, especially when there were suddenly eight of him (one real, seven fake).

I completed the Jedi Knight story for the second time, just before Shadow of Revan iirc, and Vitiate was a lot easier than I remembered, even taking into account my greater experience and extra 5 levels, the fight just seemed much shorter.

I don't know if they nerfed him again when KotFE happened, but I'm pretty sure he was nerfed some time between RotHC and SoR.

So I just finally got around to finishing the Jedi Knight Story. I'd played the 2 Sith, the Consular and agent but never finished this. And having played into the new content on my Sith Warrior, I was pumped to see what had come before, how cool the Emperor was.

 

Holy crap was this a let down.

 

He killed me once with his one-shot thing, but then the next try I beat him in less than 30 seconds. And he's only a one-phase fight, seriously? I mean, this game tends to be on the really really easy side, but come on...not to mention his character model looks so boring and generic. He looks like every other Sith mook from Korriban and Dromund Kaas.

 

I read some people saying it's actually hard? Did they change something in recent years? Because this was the easiest boss since Fable 2. And at least that one made sense for it to be easy. So much for the "all powerful" Emperor...

All of the Chap 3 story bosses were difficult before 2.5 With Vitiate topping them all. But noobs complained, and BW has been nerfing all of them ever since. When I completed my first story (SI), instead of complaining about how difficult Thanaton was (68k HP, 3 Phase fight with insane dmg, made worse by my 96-104 rated gear) I did what any normal MMO player does when they meet an opponent they can't beat. I went and got help. I found a SW on Corellia who was having trouble with Lord Drahg, I offered him help with Drahg and Baras in exchange for help with Thanaton. He agreed, and those fights were the among the most intense, exciting, and challenging I've ever had. Now they're pushovers due to the nerfs, and I'm praying that, with all this recycling, one day BW will introduce a HM Class-story replay mode, with all the bosses back to their old difficulties pre-2.5 and balanced to take into account the new gear levels and Level sync. From what I read Vitiate at one (very early) point was so tough that several players had to use line-of-sight (somehow) to avoid his attacks. Now he's laughable.

HOWEVER. According to the lore, this still makes sense. Vitiate has always been a man of understated presence. His favored tactic has always been to appear as no threat to his rivals and enemies (read up on his origin if you don't believe me) until it is too late. Very rarely does he showcase the full extent of his power, and usually only when it no longer matters whether his enemies know how powerful he truly is. His purpose in allowing himself to be so easily defeated by the JK was in the hopes of causing the JK to severely underestimate him in future encounters (which he knew were coming and had already planned for) and to make his death seem convincing to allow him space and time to work and plan (which is what I assume is what he was doing while recovering between the end of the class stories and the end of SoR).

As far as his appearance goes...like I said he is a man of understated presence. If anything him dressing like ordinary, run-of-the-mill sith is even more intimidating. To me it personally gave him more of a Sidious-like vibe. You notice Sidious had simple, long black robes. Not fancy battle-armor or a 2-foot tall cone-hat like some sith...lol

He killed me once with his one-shot thing, but then the next try I beat him in less than 30 seconds

Welcome to post-KOTFE SWTOR, where all the difficulty was removed from everything that isn't a hard / nightmare mode operations boss fight.