What is your suggestion?:
A revamp to TOB/Hard Mode TOB
Is this in OSRS?:
Yes.
Has this suggestion been accepted already?:
No, but TOB has undergone several changes already.
How would this benefit Alora?:
It would benefit Alora by making end game content more engaging, fun to play and skill based. Currently TOB and HMTOB are very stale and lack many of the mechanics the boss fights have in OSRS. While I agree that the encounters should be a bit easier on Alora, I still think the fights should be more engaging and mechanic-based rather than bosses like Verzik just putting out unavoidable damage to increase "difficulty". High unavoidable damage just feels inherently bad as a player. You aren't doing anything wrong, yet you are being punished for it and there's nothing you can do to change it. If even half of these changes to mechanics were to be added I think it would be monumental for making TOB more enjoyable to play. All the text may come off as a bit complicated but if you watch any of the guides linked throughout it makes things incredibly easy to understand.
Pre-Maiden:
- Add the vampire NPC on the landing before the entrance to Maiden which allows the team to forfeit the raid. The only way to leave currently is for the entire team to relog. This would be incredibly useful if you enter the wrong mode of TOB or someone in the team forgets something, is on the wrong spell book, etc. When forfeiting you just spawn outside as if you had finished the raid.
- Allow for players to Pre-pot for TOB. Currently all your stats, run, HP, prayer, etc. reset when entering a raid so any boost you have before entering gets wiped.
Maiden:
- In Hard Mode TOB, the blood trails from blood spawns do not disappear until Maiden is defeated. They remain on the ground and deal damage to players if stepped on.
Bloat:
- Bloat should also be attackable when walking around the room, players will take constant damage from flies when doing so in line of sight.
- 0:55 Bloat TOB WR - YouTube
Nylocas:
- Small nylocas can sometimes spawn inside a pillar when large nylocas pop and spawn the two smaller nylocas. This can only be fixed by an admin coming to kill it or resetting the raid. This is more of a bug, but I figured I may as well list it here.
Sotetseg:
- Add Sotetseg's melee attack instead of him shooting ranged projectiles. He should only shoot red magic projectiles that can then split into either magic or ranged balls when bounced off a player in the raid.
- If player's stand or step outside of Sotetseg's melee distance, they will not be able to take melee damage and Sotetseg will shoot a magic attack.
- Protect from melee can be used to reduce melee damage by 50%
Sotetseg - OSRS One Minute Guide - YouTube
Xarpus:
- Xarpus will occasionally get stuck staring at the NW corner during regular TOB when it should change its focus every 8 ticks to a new quadrant. As far as I'm aware, it only happens in the NW corner.
- Remove these two poison tiles in Hard Mode in front of the barrier into the room. IxHkt5l.png (904×637) (imgur.com)
Verzik Vitur:
P1
- Add the dialogue with Verzik to initiate the start to P1. This will stop the player(s) from taking random damage from Verzik while running up to the pillar and allow the cycle of attacking and hiding behind the pillar to be consistent from the start of the fight.
Dialogue for Verzik Vitur - OSRS Wiki (runescape.wiki)
Allow all players to attack Verzik during P1. Attacks other than Dawnbringer do reduced damage but still allow other players to participate.- Make the Dawnbringer Special attack work properly
Theatre of Blood/Strategies - OSRS Wiki (runescape.wiki)
Dawnbringer - OSRS Wiki (runescape.wiki)
- In Hard Mode, debris falls from the ceiling during P1. Similar to the debris that falls at Grotesque Guardians.
P2
- Verzik should not be able to be attacked or be able to attack players until she has made her way to the middle of the room to start P2.
- Add the melee bounce mechanic to P2 and remove the red mage attack until the final 35% of P2. This will force players to time their attacks properly and reward good gameplay rather than having to tank unavoidable mage damage. If a player is bounced, they take damage, get stunned for one attack cycle (4 ticks) and sent back 4 tiles from Verzik.
https://youtu.be/_oUe6rUdraU?t=473
- At 35% HP Verzik will spawn red spiders every 8 auto attacks. These spiders heal her for the number of hitpoints they still have. Verzik enters a healing phase for the first 2 cycles (8 ticks) after a new set of red crabs spawns. Any damage done to Verzik during this time heals her instead of damaging her.
- Additionally at 35%, Verzik will begin using a red healing magic attack. This slightly drains the players prayer when prayed against and does no damage. If not prayed against the magic attack will damage the player and heal Verzik.
- The 8 auto attacks Verzik does after 35% HP will cycle between the ranged bomb and the red magic attack.
- Make sure the exploding spiders deal appropriate damage for how far the player is from them (yellow numbers are max hits for normal mode TOB)
https://i.imgur.com/POBwQHP.png
P3
- P3 Verzik needs a complete overhaul. She should not be static in one position for P3, allow her to move freely like she does in OSRS with one person delegated as the tank.
- To swap tanks, the current tank must be out of Verzik’s melee distance for 3 consecutive auto attacks without entering melee distance during that time. To prevent Verzik from meleeing the entire team for up to 60 damage, the tank must either step under or step 1-2 tiles away from Verzik 1-2 ticks before her next auto attack (every 7 game ticks during P3)
- Verzik’s mage attack and ranged attack change to a blue ball and green spikes and damage isn't calculated until they hit the player, allowing time for players to change prayers for each attack.
https://youtu.be/_oUe6rUdraU?t=932
Verzik P3 - OSRS One Minute Guide - YouTube
- Verzik has 4 special attacks that repeat in a cycle. Nylocas (like P2), Webs, Yellow Orbs, Green Bomb. To make things easier on Alora the green bomb special could be skipped or be exclusive to hard mode. Verzik would just cycle between the other 3 specials instead.
- At 20% HP purple tornados spawn that follow each individual player at walking speed. If hit by a tornado, it deals half the player's current HP and heals Verzik for that amount.
- In Hard Mode, tornadoes heal Verzik for the triple the amount they hit the player for.
- Under 20% HP Verzik attacks every 5 ticks instead of 7 during P3 but this count be left out or just be included for Hard Mode to increase difficulty.
Rewards:
While I don't necessarily think the rewards need a buff, I wouldn't be against a slight increase to the rate of uniques if the content is made more difficult, engaging, and the community wants it.