Cloakshire

Sixth wrote: »

Ohh sure, I would be confident too if only I could see all those stupid circles... But guess what? I don't. I get hit by invisible things. How do you dodge invisible things?
Fix these graphical bugs and I will call that last phase acceptable, but until that happens, I will just lay down on the ground the moment it starts, not wasting potions on a bugged mechanic.

Other than that, I don't have issue with Cromm, but I do like Colru more, mainly because it is way more nostalgic to me than Cromm times.

I mean, yeah the big waves that close in can turn invisible, but their spawn in effect still shows up which makes knowing where the invisible waves are feasible. The light blue wave itself disappears but the blue/black smokey effect at the wave's edge is always visisble, at least for me.

However, that's no excuse for graphical bugs. Just saying that despite the invisible wave issue, there's a reliable way to predict their location based on other factors. +shy Again, I'm not trying to make excuses, but rather say that there is a workaround. I still wish they'd fix it though.

FlameSama1 wrote: »

Oh bullshit. It isn't a 'mechanic' to work around, it's spamming unavoidable (since I'm a Staffie) AOE attacks

Unavoidable huh? Looks like this Staffie has no issue dealing with the waves and this was 2014 before your mana amber got changed. As far as I know, you can now mana amber in the middle of your hop which should make waves easier. People call it a "perfect mana amber" I think? But the point is that if a Staffie could do it years ago with less options available, what's stopping you from doing the same today?




I even personally asked one of our Evie's about this and he says that he has no issue with Cromm's waves.

FlameSama1 wrote: »

You can't use feathers because the circles chase you around

Yes you can if you know the timing window to squeeze one in. Maybe you should learn it instead of concluding that it's impossible just because you can't do it.

FlameSama1 wrote: »

You lose arbitrarily if everyone goes down.

That used to happen back in Season 2 because not everyone had bottomless pockets of GG's like they do today. So I don't see how this is a relevant issue anymore. Still, if the party is bad enough to wipe during the last phase, they don't deserve the clear. Poor play should not be rewarded, but actively discouraged with consequences such as the boat failing. This however just my opinion.

FlameSama1 wrote: »

It's contrived imaginary difficulty because it just decides to change the rules solely to screw with the player.

This is only your opinion but I respectfully disagree and say that it's not contrived but rather fits the fight. Cromm knows he's going die, and the last phase is his attempt to take the player down with him. It's cool in my opinion.

FlameSama1 wrote: »

Just like the last three bars of Dulla where I just get teabagged for five minutes because every attack is an undodgable stunlock and there's barely enough time for me to wind up an attack (literally doing it right now and got four times by one single AOE red circle-wow such skill much mechanics).

You do know that you could always walk away from Dullahan and let him walk to the middle right? You don't have to facetank his last 3 bars. Sure it's gonna extend the fight by a minute b/c of the whole Blizzard/Ghost phase, but what's an extra minute of your time worth? Doing so would solve the issue of you getting tea-bagged for five minutes which is an exaggeration in and of itself. If the party is capable of skipping Dulla's last phase, it won't take five minutes but rather only 1-2 minutes. Since you're apparently in such a hurry and don't want to let Dulla's last phase play out, you have to eat those red aoe circles to the face which is the price you pay for trying to bypass his last phase. A prime example of poor play being discouraged.

EDIT: Regarding Cromm's last phase. Ima team up with the Evie I spoke to and record them doing last phase for you I'll edit it in after I upload it.

@FlameSama1 Tell me again how Cromm's waves are "Unavoidable as Staffie." All it takes is proper hops, mana ambers, and positioning. Our staffies don't seem to have an issue

FlameSama1 wrote: »

Oh yeah, I loved those lobbies when people sucked at the chainhooks and bombs and they took 20 minutes to clear. They're all neat in theory but in practice people will suck hard at that. Also what does any of this have to do with Cromm? Cromm's final phase you just run around spamming health pots, hoping you don't fail because it's a trash ass raid.

Assuming that the host is good and that lag isn't a factor, people shouldn't suck hard at them if they practice and learn the mechanics. If the run took 20+ minutes, that's because of a player's poor performance/ignorance, not because of the mechanic itself. Parties that master mechanics will clear much faster, and the satisfaction from doing so is immeasurable.

As for what this has to do with Cromm, my point is that allowing people to bypass intended mechanics makes the game more boring and braindead. Thankfully they didn't do with Cromm. My quote that you replied to wasn't even aimed towards you but rather Vladino who brought up the topic of other boss mechanics through mentioning Arcana. If you want to read my reply that was indended for your original post, see my first reply on this thread.

Lastly, In Cromm's final phase, I rarely ever use pots nor do I run around. For the most part, I'm calmly walking without worrying about failing b/c I'm confident in my ability and know I will not die. I only dodge when I need to, and I try to stay properly spaced away from my party members. It's like @Emerthyst said; the last phase isn't so bad once you master it and know what you're doing. It was easy back then, and it's even easier now.

Vladino wrote: »

Forcing players to do something never goes good.

That all depends on what the player is forced to do.

Vladino wrote: »

Imagine you could skip those annoying cinematics (macha, selren), you'd be pressing the ESC button every fight.

If you're talking about the cut scene between Macha's first and second phase, then yeah I'd be in favor of skipping it. However the move she does at 2bars with the whole swords falling from the sky, I'd be in favor of making players unable to skip that. Selren doesn't really have a cinematic worth skipping since they're all super short and don't really break the flow of battle.

Vladino wrote: »

They gave every char a stun skill but lately bosses are just imune to that. So why you have it if you can't use it?

It's to keep players from exploiting the power of their lockdowns to prevent intended mechanics. To name a few: Regina can't be stunned when she's increasing the area of the corruption zone; Glas can't be stunned while his barrier is up; Eochaid can't be stunned from bar 8 to bar 1 unless the parasite is ripped out; and Dullahan can't be stunned while his shield is up.

Vladino wrote: »

And what about arcana kick phase. You can only kick her but why? Because for the time you forgot how to dodge and use your weapon. Yea nice immersion.

Arcana's kicking phase is kinda weird and it feels out of place, but to me it's something that shakes up the fight a bit and I'm alright with that.

Vladino wrote: »

So you are totally ok when there will be next boss and you will be able to use only kicks and nothing else during 10 mins of whole fight... I don't think ppl are playing this game for boring minigames... Would you like to have more alban festival updates in the future? No1 runs that...

I'm not gonna bother with this as they're extreme and arbitrary hypotheticals that don't have any relevancy.

Vladino wrote: »

My point is that colru doesnt have boring mechanics at least and you should be able to chose if you want to play mechanics or just skip it if you are able. The more options the better IMO.

This is where we're going to have the biggest clash of opinions. I agree that the more options a player has the better, but sacrificing the necessity of intended mechanics for the sake "player freedom," isn't worth it. I mean look at Dullahan and Abomination; both of them were interesting fights that required mechanics to be performed. Dulla had the bombing/ghost mechanics and Abom had the bell ringing, albeit the chainhooks could be glitchy if the host was bad. Players had to perform these mechanics, and successfully pulling them off added a sense of satisfaction to the fight. Now the fights have devolved into just smacking the boss till it dies with nothing special being required anymore which detracts from the experience imo. I know I'm in the minority, but I'd be in favor of restoring Dulla/Abom's mechanics with the added change to make them 99% dmg resistant while their shields are up which would make the mechanics necessary again. I enjoy fights that are more than just mindlessly hitting the boss till it dies.

Colru was fun and Cromm wasn't? Really? Don't get me wrong, both raids are fun in their own sense, but in my opinion Cromm is much more fun than Colru.

The first part of Colru is mildly entertaining but once the four golems are down, the party just takes turns chaining their holding skills till Colru dies while everyone sandbags the crap out of him. His break-off is fairly easy provided everyone attacks his left arm while he's down. His attack that sends 2-3 black homing orbs to everyone used to be a scary attack which would make people frantically get behind a barrier.... Apparently the dev's didn't scale this attack up at all and it only deals ~1400dmg. Colru has some novelty, but it's pretty much a brain-dead sandbag raid considering the power creep.

Cromm on the other hand is much more entertaining and engaging. He moves around quite a bit which prevents him from turning into an outright sandbag. His breakoff is harder to get and requires the use of secondary weapons depending on party composition. He mixes it up with clones every so often which can punish a party if not dealt with, but shouldn't be an issue with how powerful people are nowadays. The statue mechanic can be annoying but it's easy to prevent statues if the party knows what they're doing. The statues themselves are not hard to deal with if parties actually split up to handle the mechanic. If he happens to stack both clones and statues, a single person transforming solves the problem.

As for the last phase, it only lasts a whopping 2:10 which is less than the original final phase time of 3:10. I won't deny that Cromm's final phase waves could use some visibility tweaks though as that is something that I feel they should have fixed. They apparently tweaked Cromm so that he'll break out of a lockdown for the last phase and prevents people from bypassing it which is a welcome change in my book. Forcing players to do the intended mechanics instead of powering through them, I love it.

So yeah, I personally looked forward to Cromm's special raid. He was my favorite S2 raid, aside from Kraken, and I'm glad to have him back. The environment, the music, and the varying mechanics make for a grandiose experience. Compare that to Colru where all you do spend three minutes sandbagging a giant rock..... yeah, Cromm is definitely more fun for me.

Oh and @Nokaubure
Statues are fairly simple. Starting at bar 8, he'll try to summon them after which he'll try again every 2:30. When he hits his 5th bar, the statue timer is immediately reset , and the cooldown time is lowered to 2:00. If you have characters like Hurk/Lann in party, statues should never be a thing.