I would like to encourage players to put forward suggestions for what they would like to see from 2023 raid.
I figure devs are in early stages of designing this and proactive thoughts whilst stuff is malleable may help lead to a quality raid. Once stuff is on PTR it is generally 80% finalised and more about tweaks and bug fixing rather than raid design.
I would like to see the following from Brimstones Raid:
-
A story driven experience with cut scenes
-
A multi-boss raid with progression save points (raid locks) with 3 difficulty levels: Tier 1 (story mode), Tier 2 (M10 level challenge), Tier 3 (super difficult/near Impossible requiring T2 raid armour sets)
-
Raid locks to be different (independent) for each tier encouraging players to complete all 3 Tiers weekly. This way, higher skilled/geared players encouraged to help out lower skilled players.
-
5 Raid Bosses: Sha-Neshan The Devourer (initial encounter), raid boss 2 & 3 tied to the lore, Sha-Neshan The Devourer (full encounter), Adriana The Wild Huntress (final boss & most powerful)
-
T1, T2, T3 Achievements unlocking unique titles, housing furniture and special emotes for completing each raid boss at each difficulty level.
-
An instanced visually stunning journey across Brimstone Sands spanning day and night , starting off above surface during daytime with initial encounter against Sha-Neshan, journey to ancient secrets below the sands following the worms trail encountering two more raid bosses along the way in unique environments, resurface at night time to face Sha-Neshan full encounter under the night sky on top of the brimstone dunes and then finally be teleported somewhere special to take on Adriana The Wild Huntress.
-
Unique trash mobs with unique skill sets/mechanics found only in raid. Some limited asset re-use on environment is understandable but on mobs and bosses we want to see all new stuff please visually and mechanically. I cannot stress this enough.
-
A high focus on mechanics, teamplay and coordination requiring players to stay up (Ennead M10 final boss was a step in right direction)
-
Each boss requiring a minimum of 2 tanks and 2 healers.
-
Enrage timers so each boss has to be completed within a certain timeframe before group auto-wipes or bosses start 1 shotting players
-
Personal loot from bosses & chests (no master loot nonsense) with ability to trade drops up to 1 hour (from time of drop) to those present in raid at time boss was killed. An example of this system can be found in Lord of the Rings Online.
-
A raid size of 10-12 players (two groups). My concern is any larger and we will struggle to pull together players or mechanics will be over simplified to compensate for larger raid size. I would like to see some tough fights that encourage a lot of interplay / class knowledge / coordination from players rather than just tank n spank.
Thank you for reading.