Jump to content

R-4 Boss: Lord Kanoth Feedback thread


JackieKo

Recommended Posts

  • Dev Post

Please feel free to answer as many questions as you like for Lord Kanoth.

 

  • What role did you play on PTS?
  • What difficulty did you test on PTS?
  • When providing feedback, please note the difficulty mode and role(s) you were playing?
  • What are your overall impressions of Lord Kanoth?
  • Does the Lord Kanoth encounter deliver an appropriate level of challenge for its place within the operation?
  • Were the mechanics and patterns of Nihrot growth learnable? If not, which ones were problematic?
  • Was the state of of the floor tiles sufficiently readable at a glance? If not, where was it problematic?
  • Do mechanics in the encounter give you enough time to respond?
  • What are your impressions of the usability of the player abilities in this encounter?
  • What are your impressions about the pacing of events and mechanics in the encounter?

  • Veteran Only
    • Is this phase too frantic?
    • Do the additional layered mechanics push this phase outside the boundary of Veteran content?

     

Edited by JackieKo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I played a mDPS concealment operative, and we tested SM. The entire group was geared in 330, with several being augmented.

 

Overall, Kanoth like the rest, were enjoyable but felt very mechanic-heavy compared to other ops. The Nihrot was interesting, but can very easily get out of hand without constant calls to clear it.

 

Difficulty-wise, Kanoth felt good. I think we had zero deaths on him.

 

The Nihrot cleaning and spread were easy enough to learn, but actually putting it into practice was more problematic. Several times we had very aggressive growth due to a lack of clearing, and when it did overtake the majority of the board, it had minimal impact. Perhaps some kind of system message to alert players that Nihrot is spreading could help?

 

Readability was good enough, though the difference between Nihrot and Hardened Nihrot did take a second to see in the dark.

 

Response time and overall pacing felt good, no problems there. However, when Kanoth would disappear and spawn three ghost copies, there was no impact on the fight here. I'm not sure if this is intended or not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Today, we killed Lord Kanoth in SM on the third try despite having no prior experience on the boss.

Combat log: https://parsely.io/parser/view/635493/10

 

The boss felt similar in difficulty to Watchdog but easier than IP-CPT. It could be slightly buffed but not too much.

The mechanics were easy to understand thanks to the descriptions on the temporary abilities.

We did have problems differentiating the fresh growth from hardened growth. While there is a small difference in color, it is hard to notice mid-fight. Please add a stronger difference to hardened growth.

I am concerned that the Fire Probes could be missed by players with disabled friendly NPC nameplates. Maybe add an overhead icon to these probes so they are still visible with nameplates disabled.

The burn phase felt like a great step up in difficulty. In general, the pacing of the fight seems great and can be released as-is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am concerned that the Fire Probes could be missed by players with disabled friendly NPC nameplates. Maybe add an overhead icon to these probes so they are still visible with nameplates disabled.

 

maybe make them neutrals (yellow)?

I had an issue selecting one while an enemy "overlapped" one of them them, it wasn't a Problem considering there's not much time pressure but it could be improved.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Info: Sin tank, completed fight on SM.

 

Much easier fight than first two (team two-shot, iirc). Our group was in voice, which made communication/coordination much easier. If the fight is made harder, I would be worried about the fight no longer being pugable as it would require too much coordination.

 

My group also found it hard to differentiate between regular vines and hardened squares as the colors/brightness as very similar. I also found it difficult to click on droids. (Make hit boxes bigger?) Overall I like the ideas of the fight and I like that there is a little red circle IMMEDIATELY after throwing a fire bomb (unlike flares in Dxun which take a moment to appear). Smart choice. I wish it were easier to cancel/interrupt the cast after clicking (ditto Dxun flares).

 

Overall fun fight and I look forward to it on live.

Edited by CelieSelie
Wording
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today, we killed Lord Kanoth in SM on the first try. We noticed that the outgoing damage was slightly higher than last week but the boss still felt in a good spot. I'd say it is good to go live in this state.

We did notice one bug: The Nihrotic Monstrosity stayed alive after Lord Kanoth died. Ideally, it should automatically despawn.

Edited by Jerba
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Yesterday, we killed Lord Kanoth in SM on the first try.

 

Kill video (healer POV):

 

Unlike our previous kills, this time we were overwhelmed by Nihrot growth in the final phase; not sure if the mechanic changed or we were playing poorly. Nevertheless, we were able to survive it and kill the boss.

The boss feels correctly tuned but with only one try, we cannot be sure. The fight still feels very fun, clearing tiles from Nihrot growth is satisfying and not overwhelming.

 

Our main concern is that hardened Nihrot growth is difficult to tell apart from normal Nihrot growth. Maybe add a stronger visual differentiator.

And as mentioned previously, please add an overhead icon to the fire probes for players with nameplates disabled.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
Pulled this fight once at the end of raid got to 25% when people died to the explosion in the middle haha. Fun fight. Seems better tuned for SM than the first two bosses in the raid from what ive seen. We basically ignored the mechanic for the most part just messing around on our last pull of the night.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My feedback on this boss:

 

What role did you play on PTS?

Tank

 

What difficulty did you test on PTS?

VM

 

What are your overall impressions of Lord Kanoth?

It generally promotes a bit more of a chaotic playstyle instead of a clean stratetic one. Something that I personally didn't really enjoy at the beginning, but I think it is growing on me and I believe the boss is in a good position atm.

 

Does the Lord Kanoth encounter deliver an appropriate level of challenge for its place within the operation?

Even tho the overall dps requirement is not really there the Nihrot mechanics provide a adequate challenge. Playing as a tank I see a lot of room to become better on this fight in regards to boss/add placement, I think this boss leaves a lot of room for improvements.

 

Were the mechanics and patterns of Nihrot growth learnable? If not, which ones were problematic?

It may have been bit much at the beginning, but someone who knows SM mechanics can easily figure out HM mechanics and how to play around them.

 

Was the state of of the floor tiles sufficiently readable at a glance? If not, where was it problematic?

The only thing that comes to mind is telling the normal to the hardened Nihrot tiles appart. Gets better the more we played it though.

 

Do mechanics in the encounter give you enough time to respond?

Generally yes, one thing where I'd like a bit more headroom is that if the boss uses "Fortify Ground" or after "Abduct" he then stands on a Nihrot tile and does not like to move out of it. (because he stands still for other casts.)

 

What are your impressions of the usability of the player abilities in this encounter?

Very good and I appreciate the small tutorial before the boss room.

 

What are your impressions about the pacing of events and mechanics in the encounter?

Overall pretty good. One thing that may be improved upon: (I believe!) that adds spawning and the shockwave apparition are both based on time (so players are not really able to control when they are happening). Having a add alive during shockwave apparition is really punishing bc the group then stacks up and the add is able to cleave into that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...