Bungie talks about the raids in Destiny 2. We might soon be fighting against a big boss – without adds, without specific mechanics.
Joe Blackburn is the raid team lead of Destiny 2, so the raid chief at Bungie. Just a few days ago, he explained in a series of tweets what matters in Destiny raids: Namely, the right positioning and the line of sight during a fight. In a first-person shooter, the design of the environment plays a significant role.
Now Blackburn shared some information about the raids in Destiny again. He has read a lot of criticism in the forums that all previous raid boss encounters only allow brief damage phases on the boss. Why not have a fight with a “permanent damage phase”, where you can continuously shoot at the boss?
When designing such a raid fight, it should be fun
According to Blackburn, prototypes of such fights have already been tested, but they all come with the same core problem: It simply isn’t fun to constantly shoot at the same target.
There are opposing voices saying that this would work in other online games as well. As an example, he mentions WoW, where DPS boss fights are fun. However, there are significant differences between traditional MMOs and Destiny: In traditional MMOs, much depends on pressing the right keys at the right time. When do I use the ability, when do I use the potion? In the FPS Destiny, such elements are eliminated. Here you keep pressing the same shoot button whenever you have your target in sight.
The fun and challenge in first-person shooters lies in quickly switching targets, aiming at them, and finding new, better positions for new combat situations.
The simple idea of placing a boss in the middle, where six guardians shoot at it for four minutes, does not work. This is why there are
- damage phases
- and phases when the boss is immune, and new targets are prioritized,
available. The few seconds when the boss is vulnerable feel much more intense.
The idea of a pure DPS fight is still not off the table. Blackburn writes that he is still intrigued by the challenge of creating a fight where six guardians are alone in a room with just one boss. There are no adds and no “wrong time” to shoot at the boss. But if Bungie does something like that, Blackburn wants the guardians to love that fight.
A user asked in the comments where to send design ideas for the “One Boss, No Adds, 6 Guardians” fight to the developers. Blackburn replied that he looks at every design idea for a boss or activity on the Reddit front page. The challenge then lies in bringing an idea into the game.
Do you have cool ideas for raid fights?
By the way: The title image is from the “Wrath of the Machine” raid in Destiny 1.
Raid chief of Destiny 2 came from ESO, had to rethink boss fights
