In Guild Wars 2, you can find out how a raid boss is created and how often the design is completely overhauled.
The Fiery Sabetha – Good Things Take Time
If you have ever wondered how a raid boss in Guild Wars 2 is created, you will be pleased with the latest developer blog by Crystal Reid, who provides more insight on the topic.
This part of the job seems to bring her a lot of joy, as it allows her to “develop funny and exciting ways to surprise players.” She specifically mentions the boss fight against Sabetha, who will be the final challenge in the upcoming raid wing “Erlösungspass” set in the Spirit Vale.
Interestingly, the actual location for the fight against Sabetha – a “floating” platform surrounded by smaller areas – was created many years ago. The map was more or less redundant until then and was never used – now it is finally seeing some action after being slightly revamped.
While not all details of the boss fight are mentioned, as players should experience that themselves, it is explained what design issues arose. The concept envisioned that cannons would appear on the 4 small platforms at regular intervals, targeting the main platform. A small team must therefore go to the smaller platforms to disable the cannons as they appear. This sounded good and fun in theory – but it was not in practice.
The long travel times of the “cannon team” were boring, and players did nothing but rush from A to B. This led to the development of a new mechanic, the “Explosive Firing.” Friendly players must be targeted to be bombed onto the platforms. This is fun, requires skill, and serves its purpose.
Also interesting is the development of an ability, which often starts quite classically on paper with lots of numbers and considerations. Even during the implementation in the game, the developers do not use models or animations; the effect is represented only by a “blue stick.” It took the developers three attempts to finalize the ability “Firestorm” (a surround attack that must be dodged clockwise).
If you are interested in more details and have some time to spare, you should read the detailed developer blog in its entirety, which we have linked in our sources.
For more information and news about the game, you can visit our Guild Wars 2 topic page.
