(Marriage proposal to Zantai for changing the healer mobs and human hero resists still pending)
Since such a major improvement to SR is being made, I was thinking this could be a good time to discuss some other potential things people would like to see.
I will be working off the assumption the player is playing at SR65-80, as I haven’t spent enough time at the lower levels to be able to discuss specific imbalances there.
- Bosses
I feel there are some bosses in higher SR that really don’t need to be there or that just don’t really feel like bosses at all. These are:
Allostria: I don’t think I’ve ever felt even remotely threatened by anything she does on any character.
Bloodlord Thalonis: Similar case, also feels fairly redundant given Karroz also appears in high SR boss rooms. In fact Karroz feels overall more threatening (if not killed before crystals are summoned) and more memorable (due to the 2-phased design) despite supposedly being a lower ranked member of the cult compared to Thalonis.
Galfang, Night Terror: Often dead before the rocks start falling, the rocks are also the only thing of note he does. GT shows a bunch of skills he has, he either doesn’t get to do them at all or if he does, the player doesn’t feel them have any impact.
Karnath Chillblood: Overlaps with Ilgorr and Moosilauke too much. He’s essentially a hybrid of two bosses we already have.
Lagoth’Ak, Harbinger of Blood: Does absolutely nothing of note, is a free kill for anything. I understand some easy bosses are a nice reprieve (hence why I don’t mention some like the Dermapterran trio or Duskreaper) but there’s easy, there’s real damn easy, then there’s a 50 foot gap and then at the very bottom is this guy. Hits like a wet noodle and none of his skills matter. If he was just a hero he’d probably fit right in. Doesn’t even hold the honour of being THE bleed boss cause he can’t debuff bleed res and also Kuba holds that spot already.
Okaloth, the Messenger: Would be perfectly fine but for one thing. His “projectiles from the sky” skill only triggers at medium range. That means melee characters that close instantly into melee never have to deal with it, ranged characters that can facetank him in melee (i.e. probably all of them) never have to deal with it and ranged characters that need to keep their distance never get hit by it cause he’ll never get close enough for long enough. As it stands the player just closes into melee and all Okaloth does is swing away at them. Also his cleaving “wave” attacks have a strange delay to them where the two swing animations have already completed and only then the damage comes in.
Ragarroth the Tormented: Could possibly be dangerous with his 6-level charge-up attack. He never gets that far cause he dies so fast.
-
Maps
I’m generally very happy with the maps, there’s great diversity in tilesets, layouts, threat levels and densities. Even though some are consistently absolutely nutty (most tiny maps, such as Immolation), it gives the mode a lot of variety so I’d be fine with leaving those as is. One map, however, stands out a lot to me: the Bonebleach Basin. There’s often so little there. Medium clumps of damage spongy camels at regular-ish intervals, which give very little progress when killed, and very few hero and nemesis spawns spaced waaay out. -
Riggs’ Surprise!
Those damn Associates! They’re a fun challenge, don’t get me wrong, but it’s so hard to tell them apart from normal enemies. The first time you notice they’re not normal humans is when your health starts disappearing and by then you may have pulled too much thinking you’re fine. And given how much harder they are they don’t seem to give any more progress than heroes that die in two seconds flat.
So my ideas: increase the mob density on Bonebleach. Fewer camels, more hero spawns. Make Okaloth’s meteors trigger in melee. Take Riggs’ Associates out of the hero spawn pool, add them as bosses to the boss rooms. GT shows there are 5 types of Associates in SR, there are 15 in the game. Add them all in and they could be picked similarly to Morgoneth’s Magi in randomised spawns of two or three at a time, so they get more of a spotlight on them in terms of abilities, and aren’t such an unpleasant shocker when encountered in normal chunks.
In addition, some notable enemies could be added to replace some of the above bosses that underperform or just aren’t all that interesting. Most if not all of these already appear at lower SR but vanish higher up:
Rutnick: this is pretty much the only shooter boss of note in the game, let’s give him a place to shine.
Avris Marrowill or Kalis’Ka: could take Lagoth’Ak’s spot as a bleed boss, except they can actually debuff bleed res and have meaningful skills other than “dying real fast”.
Balegor: troll representation! Could take the place of Galfang since there is plenty of eldritch bosses in SR already (Okaloth, Map Room Guards, Inashkor, Ishtal, Steward, Kymon etc.). Still a physical hitter but not as phys heavy as Voldrak so SR doesn’t become necessarily harder and more full of phys nukers, just gets more varied.
Father Abaddoth or Zaria: considerably more interesting alternatives to Thalonis IMO.
Rolderathis, Zarthuzellan or Kilrian: replacements for Karnath. More skelly variety, we currently only have Zantarin.
Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk and feel free to add any ideas you’ve had.
EDIT:
Hope this doesn’t apply to SR, heh 
promised. SR Sets and vendor may stay, of course. Or not 
.
