2008 Leipzig: Diablo 3 Bosses Dynamic Explained

By Medievaldragon Aug 21, 2008
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Jay Wilson was interviewed by Eurogamer at the 2008 Leipzig GC today, where he explains his background before joining the Diablo 3 team. He was an avid Blizzard player just like you back in the days. He remembers seeing the Diablo 1 advertisements on the back of the Warcraft II manual. He played Diablo 1, and 2 and Lord of Destruction expansion.

Other games he has played are Zelda and God of War, and from them he has learned that a boss shouldn't be all this all powerful big health, one-shot hit type of monster that deals tons of damage and requires you to spam healing pots.

Fans have been wondering for the past weeks how in hell - no pun intended - people is gonna heal during a boss encounter with no health potions or health orbs around ...

Jay Wilson reveals his vision for the future of the next action-dripping Diablo 3 game's boss mechanics ... you won't be fighting a lonely boss. You will fight a boss and a horde of mobs. The boss and the mobs won't do crazy damage, but lower your health at different paces. They are designed to do that with different abilities -- however, these mobs that help the boss engage you are there to supply you with health orbs to continue battling the boss.

Now people ... that's what I call genious. It is gonna be challenging, yes, hard. Yet entertaining and possible by using skills and tactics. And the best reward is you won't get carpal tunnel or have to port back to town to replenish health pots. Read the full interview

Eurogamer: I guess this is where the influences you've mentioned from enemy design in Zelda and World of Warcraft come into play...

Jay Wilson: Or God of War. Games like that are some of my favourite games. It would be far more interesting if we could have a boss monster that wasn't just a giant sack of health that deals out ridiculous damage. We've got monsters that drop health at percentages of their damage, we also sometimes spawn monsters that are just there basically to drop health. Even there: if you have a boss that just walks around and hits you, and a bunch of smaller monsters that continually spawn and generate health, that's already a far more interesting fight than you ever got in Diablo. And that's just the bear minimum of what we can do.

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Umpa
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
I'm not so sure this is a "vision of the future" because its just like every other boss fight that are like different parts of a play. You play along with what the boss battle is supposed to be like. You finally damage the boss for the first time, he gets pissed and cowers in a corner and sends a mob after you and you get mana and health stuff from him. Its like a lot of console/ zelda type boss fights. Cool though, i just hope it isn't....TOO structured.

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necronergal
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
i think this sounds like we have geniuses working on the game. instead of using pots we have to be more thinkative about where we go and what not. i cant wait to battle the first boss. lol.

@umpa65

bad guys never start the fight out, you always see some kind of lower lvl people fighting you all the time till you get to him. then he either fights you or runs away to figure out how to kill you.
its basic, tv show, video games, and sometimes life situation.

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tenaciousg
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
thats awesome dynamic bosses will really mould how you have to fight this boss and forces you to step back and think of how you should do this and that to beable to take him down.

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Stena
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
Sounds fun, wonder if there is gonna be life leech still in the game. BTW great news!

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lights_warrior
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
Well I can imagen how it will take place in a party

2 or 3 guys concentrate on killing random mobs, the rest attack the boss...

In single player
hit the boss,--> run away,--> kill some random mobs,--> heal,--> hit boss again,--> run,--> kill mobs,--> heal,--> etc..

not that different from the old system.

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jewunit69
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
Quote from "lights_warrior" »
not that different from the old system.

Ummm.... r u kidding? The old system was spam pots and spam one massively upgraded spell at the boss.

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lights_warrior
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
old way
Hit boss,->drink pot until ran out of pots. -> go to town buy pots, ->go back to fight boss. Repeat as necessary.

General idea is the same, hit a run. Only difference is that you will need to fight random mobs to heal instead of going to town. A bit more challenging? Perhaps if the random mobs are strong. But is it really revolutionary?

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Medievaldragon
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
Quote from "lights_warrior" »
old way
Hit boss,->drink pot until ran out of pots. -> go to town buy pots, ->go back to fight boss. Repeat as necessary.

General idea is the same, hit a run. Only difference is that you will need to fight random mobs to heal instead of going to town. A bit more challenging? Perhaps if the random mobs are strong. But is it really revolutionary?
Revolutionary, for the Diablo franchise yes. It puts you to use your brains and keep you in the battle until the job is done, instead of the usual pot galore > port to town > rinse and repeat. That's a waste of time and gold.

Now you will have a continuous epic battle without the downtime.

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PhrozenDragon
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
Quote from "lights_warrior" »
old way
Hit boss,->drink pot until ran out of pots. -> go to town buy pots, ->go back to fight boss. Repeat as necessary.

General idea is the same, hit a run. Only difference is that you will need to fight random mobs to heal instead of going to town. A bit more challenging? Perhaps if the random mobs are strong. But is it really revolutionary?
Well I don't know how much more revolutionary you can get with the hack and slash design of Diablo.

And this all depends on the strength of the mobs. if these adds have 5 hp and fully heal you, there's no difference. I don't think that's going to happen though.

And let's not forget that this is probably not only new feature of boss fights. This is just one part which explains how to deal with health.

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Homer_rex
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
Just a note to say that Diii.net has screen pics from Leipzig... and that I'll miss the potions. The globes just seem like a hassle, and you can't sell them!

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oren88
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Posted Aug 21, 2008
That's freaking awesome! thanks a lot for the news !

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Zkid
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Posted Aug 22, 2008
nice but pots was fun lol

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akse
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Posted Aug 22, 2008
Yeah felt kinda stupid to fight the lord of terror the allmighty diablo.. while having the battle to save the world you say to diablo "wait a sec I go town to get some more potions"

about same thing was BVB in 1.09 when there was huge life leech on every barb and in hc duels where people used potions too it was almost endless duels sometimes and eventually the potions ended and some were chicken enough to not continue because they ran out of pots .P

I love this new way of things that probably make the possible threat, botting harder.

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Asynchronic
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Posted Aug 22, 2008
These new boss fight mechanics will add a whole new level to the game, one which actually requires thinking (outside of the usual character design). I do hope that it isn't as structured as Zelda games. Once you figure out the boss's patterns it can get kind of repetitive.

Quote from "milanv" »

@ lights_warrior

man, do you have to spit on every new piece of info we get? what's the point of posting anyway when your every post is saying how that certain thing is bad?

Agreed, after all the name of this site is Diablofans.com. Not Diablohaters.com. This IS the new Diablo, if you hate it so much, why come here?

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InterrogatorChaplain
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Posted Aug 23, 2008
yes i have to admit, i was sick of going to hell difficulty in diablo2, and being one shot pwned by mephisto. i also like the fact that mobs come with the boss, if there is a necro or a corpse-raising class, more corpses to use if he kills my pets!

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Makenshi
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Posted Aug 25, 2008
Quote from name="Medieval Dragon" »
Quote from name=""Jay Wilson"" »
It would be far more interesting if we could have a boss monster that wasn't just a giant sack of health that deals out ridiculous damage.

So you won't be fighting a lonely boss. You will fight a boss and a horde of mobs. The boss and the mobs won't do crazy damage, but lower your health at different paces. They are designed to do that with different abilities -- however, these mobs that help the boss engage you are there to supply you with health orbs to continue battling the boss.

Now people ... that's what I call genious. It is gonna be challenging, yes, hard. Yet entertaining and possible by using skills and tactics. And the best reward is you won't get carpal tunnel or have to port back to town to replenish health pots. Read the full interview

100% agreed MD, this guy is a genious. Bosses that 1 hit-kill, like Duriel, always were retarded, imo. Besides, no boss should act alone, it just doesn't suit evil guys - they're supposed to ALWAYS use cannon folder and dirty tricks to beat good guys.

And just to ice the cake, there's the logic: If I were Diablo, I'd camp in front of the Town Portal; Should the player come back, I'd use that imba fire beam and say "IMA FIRIN MA LAZOR!!!"

Quote from "InterrogatorChaplain" »
... if there is a necro or a corpse-raising class, more corpses to use if he kills my pets!

I guess that's why they took the Necromancer away. It would be the ultimate imba!

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Lucion
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Posted Aug 26, 2008
Here's a different take:

I don't play Barbs because I just can't handle the "risk" of walking up to a monster and hacking away at it. But DII is a HnS game yet I'm afraid to HnS? WTF?

So I always play a necro or sorceress or a ranged druid (i.e. no fury or rage melee attacks) or a bowzon. I have to think strategy rather than brute force.

So obviously I like the DIII changes - it just formalises the way I play already.

Those of you who play a barb are in for a culture shock and I feel sorry for you. You're now going to have to think.

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2008 Leipzig: Diablo 3 Bosses Dynamic Explained

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