"Bosses" really suck.

[Jay and Silent Rob]

Making bosses HP sponges is bad game design.
Making bosses hit like trucks is bad game design.
Giving bosses no weaknesses is bad game design.

And yet every boss has the first and second problem, and every 3rd boss had all three problems.

Why would you design a boss that can outrun the player, hit like a truck, and has attacks that trigger big AoEs or drops a lot of damage outside of the main attack area so that even if you dodge the big attack, you still get hit by the AoE or secondary effects of the attack?

I just tried to fight the bear boss and it's faster than me, hits harder than I can heal with a full blood setup, and even if you dodge its big ground pound attack, the area around it gets hit by falling rocks, meaning you not only have to dodge the attack, but then have to keep retreating in the tiny cave as rocks fall. But once you've retreated a little bit, the bear will use a charge attack, often from off-screen, and slam into you.

This single boss just randomly has complete coverage of every battle strategy a player might throw at it. And before the bear, it was the pig-headed necromancer that could shield itself and teleport away from damage and covered the area with AoEs that you had to run through to reach it, and its teleportation often carried into other enemies that would aggro you and raise skeletons to block you. Again: Full coverage defense. You can't run in because of skeletons and lingering AoEs, and when you do make it in, the enemy just shields itself or teleports away or both.

There's no nuance or skill to these battles, so they shouldn't be so impossible. The combat system in the game is far weaker than the likes of a standard ARPG/Diablo-like game, so you can't throw enemies into the game that would be challenging even in an ARPG with great combat and 6 skill slots.

[Jay and Silent Rob]

Originally posted by Avallac:

Your iq is too low to even increase your mouse sensitivity to turn the camera faster, go play a game that has special needs mode.

There is no sensitivity slider in the options and my mouse doesn't come with it. And even if it did, I'm not going to turn up my sensitivity on ALL mouse movement just to improve the camera in one game missing a fundamental feature all games have had for 20+ years.

Originally posted by Azure.Margaran:

A boss that has a high attack rate that gives you few or no openings does not allow for a back-and-forth.

I dont see how boss in MH or Soul game is standing idle and allow you for attacking. you attack during their wind-up animation or post attack animation.

They're not. I'm not asking for bosses that are immobile and don't attack you at all. That's just the bad assumption some responders are making to avoid the fact that they can't respond to what I'm actually saying.

Originally posted by Azure.Margaran:

A boss that can't be evaded because it magically floats to track you as you circle around it or teleport to the other side of it does not allow for a back-and-forth.

All the boss do not immediately float or teleport, it only after the opening window is expired. It is you the player do not met the window.

You misunderstood. I'm saying some bosses track you even if you teleport or strafe around them. Jade is a major example. You can be mid-air in an attack, or behind a barrier, or teleporting at an angle and her shot might still land. What I meant with the bear was it would rotate quickly, without animation, to just constantly land hits.

Originally posted by Azure.Margaran:

A boss that punishes even the slightest of greedy hits by taking off 10-30% of your hp does not allow a back-and-forth.

huhuhuhu, in MW or SoulGames boss take away more than 30% of your hp in single hit or just one shot you if you are not gear up. I do not see how this can a point of complaining since you already love playing MW or Soul.

I specifically said, "for the slightest of greedy hits." I did not say "any hit." Your english needs a lot of work because that was a clear qualifier I gave you.

I'm saying that if 100% of the time you take a risk and over-extend the boss gets a free hit on you for 30+% of your hp, there cannot be a dynamic back-and-forth. MH and Souls games prevent this by allowing bosses to miss! They do not land 100% of their attacks even if you stand still for a moment or jump in and make a risky attack.

The AI in this game is not as sophisticated so it lands 100% of the shots it attempts unless you take action after it begins its attack.

Originally posted by Azure.Margaran:

A boss with tons of health that takes so long to kill that you must execute ideal responses for several minutes without making too many mistakes does not allow a back-and-forth.

you are not require to execute ideal response in MW or Soul???

Nope! You get 3 carts in the MH franchise and both MH and Souls games allow you to make many mistakes and recover from them. MH allows you to run from danger as well, and Souls games put up fog walls to prevent other enemies from intruding on your fight. In this game, bosses often draw in several nearby enemies to make things harder.

[Vegetable Vampire]

Originally posted by Jay and Silent Rob:

Making bosses HP sponges is bad game design.
Making bosses hit like trucks is bad game design.
Giving bosses no weaknesses is bad game design.

And yet every boss has the first and second problem, and every 3rd boss had all three problems.

Why would you design a boss that can outrun the player, hit like a truck, and has attacks that trigger big AoEs or drops a lot of damage outside of the main attack area so that even if you dodge the big attack, you still get hit by the AoE or secondary effects of the attack?

I just tried to fight the bear boss and it's faster than me, hits harder than I can heal with a full blood setup, and even if you dodge its big ground pound attack, the area around it gets hit by falling rocks, meaning you not only have to dodge the attack, but then have to keep retreating in the tiny cave as rocks fall. But once you've retreated a little bit, the bear will use a charge attack, often from off-screen, and slam into you.

This single boss just randomly has complete coverage of every battle strategy a player might throw at it. And before the bear, it was the pig-headed necromancer that could shield itself and teleport away from damage and covered the area with AoEs that you had to run through to reach it, and its teleportation often carried into other enemies that would aggro you and raise skeletons to block you. Again: Full coverage defense. You can't run in because of skeletons and lingering AoEs, and when you do make it in, the enemy just shields itself or teleports away or both.

There's no nuance or skill to these battles, so they shouldn't be so impossible. The combat system in the game is far weaker than the likes of a standard ARPG/Diablo-like game, so you can't throw enemies into the game that would be challenging even in an ARPG with great combat and 6 skill slots.

The answer is simple: The devs want you to grind to get a higher/same level to the boss, so you don't get one-shotted or play in a clan. The game is absolutely hostile to solo players and the grind it takes it ridiculous.

If you are even just one level above the bosses, they are a joke, but don't you ever ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dare be 3 levels below them...

[Blowfeld]

For me the only boss that felt like a damage sponge was gorecrusher. So I did that guy on a blood moon.

[biosmonkey]

As others said, I knew this post was about the bear before I read all of it.
I struggled with the bear too as a solo PvE player. Did I rage quit and go complain? No. I realized that this is the point where you have to strategize your abilities. You dont have a ton of different abilities to choose the prettiest one and never change it... you have to use the best abilities situationally. I agree that at this point you don't have a lot of them, however, you DO have the tools to beat it.
If I remember correctly the AoE rocks were almost a "trick" to make you use up your dodge as they did not hit nearly as bad as the bear swipe. Use the ability with the double dodge, and slot the counter/shield when the bear attacks.
Slow Forging? Make sure you are getting the "forge floor" buff and USE MORE THAN ONE forge. I went through the haunted mine, got a ton of iron ore, then just set 3 of my forges to work while I went off and did other things.
Slow Travel? Get a horse. They are all over the place up north.
Can't Port Resources? Change the server setting
Some Boss is Wrecking You and You Dont like the Walk Back? Use a castle heart to build a temp base and coffin near the boss until you win (pve obviously). Deconstruct and move to the next one.
Need more Buffs? For tough encounters do other things until a blood moon. If you're REALLY lucky find an 80%+ blood mob.
If you are doing PvE I also recommend lengthening the (total) day and adjusting the start and stop hour of daylight. I think I have 3 hours of daylight LOL but it makes the game far more enjoyable as a single player.
I did not adjust any other parameter as I wanted the experience to be as "default" as possible. Fights require patience (some more than others), careful positioning, and learning attack patterns.

All that said - the game is not perfect. As I mentioned in another thread, patrolling bosses seem to have the invisible "tow line" that keeps running even when engaged... that means that if you are fighting them, you take too long and their tow line gets too far ahead they will stop fighting, reset, and run to catch up to it. This has happened to me several times. At least I *think* this is what is happening. I do know that a lot of boss encounters reset when I was NOT that far from them...

[DUCK]

got to say going in for a boss fight do kinda suck

[SirPancake]

So I'm a 6/10-ish player on a solo-mode server with 100% completion, and while I agree that bosses aren't the fun part of this game (with a few notable exceptions), I do think they are all doable solo. I'm not even too creative with my builds and I approached each boss with the best gear I could manage, so I seldom fought a boss with a gear level disadvantage.

What is most difficult for the devs with this game is to gauge difficulty, not because they don't understand how that works but who wildly diverse gaming has become, where certain genres have developed very specific ways of thinking and looking at things. From where they sit, with their experiences and "education" (as in, what are the things the games they played taught them that they may or may not be consciously aware of), the game is fine from a purely mechanical perspective. Given the game's polish compared to other EA titles, they've clearly tested this game thoroughly; however, things check out only from their perspective, compared to their own playbook. I'd say that once they start respecting the player's time a bit more (the late/endgame grind is horrible, fishing is a time sink, servants bring in a pittance for how long it takes them to come home) this game will be excellent. However, when you and I hop in, we look at it from the context of our own gaming knowledge and experience, so it is entirely possible that from where we're standing, there are some pretty glaring mistakes.

I remember looking at the increasingly wide array of skills, thinking "okay, which ones are lies, which ones are actually useful?", because that's what I'm used to as a gamer: fake diversity of tools and builds. I had to get into an argument on this forum to find out I was wrong, like you are right now, because it's not the game that is poorly made, it is us who are a sub-optimal match for this game, and to an extent it's not even our fault, since we work with what we've learned and honestly, V Rising's crowd is vastly different from Battlerite (a game I didn't even know existed until I found this one). I cleared out the last God of War with all the Valkyries, so I was used to fights with little room for error, so I was frustrated with my own frustration at some of the bossfights, none of which are complicated, but all of which require you to work with the tools you have - and as I said, I'm not creative with my builds in this game. The game expected more and more of me as my toolkit expanded, and I had a hard time adapting, if you could even call it that.

So based on this, I'd hazard a guess that you're in a similar boat, so I'll give you the solution I gave myself: mouth shut, eyes on the youtube vid on the bossfight, get back to said bossfight, ignore some or all the advice, improvise, endure. I know how that sounds, and I had some hard feelings for the less amicably worded instances of "git gud scrub" on this forum. However, the things I told you gave me peace and I share them with you in the hopes they will give you peace as well, even if ultimately, you still have to get back to the bossfight and deal with it. Or, you know, cut your losses and uninstall.

[War...war never changes]

Imagine failing at PVE...sucks to be that low skilled I guess.

[Little Strawberry]

Originally posted by Ob4m4 B1n L4den:

If you are even just one level above the bosses, they are a joke, but don't you ever ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dare be 3 levels below them...

What? I have done plenty of bosses 10-15 levels below of what's suggested. Bosses - with 3 exceptions - are all skill based. Your spell setup makes or breaks fights (most early spells are the best) and for some bosses your blood type too. They're puzzle fights and your gear (besides weapon type) only matters if you're lacking the skill to manage your resources and are trying to bruteforce the encounter. Like they're way easier than most Elden Ring bosses and I'm perplexed that you struggle so hard with it.

[Evilsod]

Originally posted by Jay and Silent Rob:

Nope! You get 3 carts in the MH franchise and both MH and Souls games allow you to make many mistakes and recover from them. MH allows you to run from danger as well, and Souls games put up fog walls to prevent other enemies from intruding on your fight. In this game, bosses often draw in several nearby enemies to make things harder.

You mean the bosses that almost without exception have some sort of aggressive ranged attack they will use the very moment you attempt to heal? Most likely chunking you for more than you just healed? You mean those bosses?

We get it man, you don't want to accept that maybe you aren't actually that good at this game, but quit the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Nothing you've tried to say about these other games is even close to true.

Originally posted by Ob4m4 B1n L4den:

If you are even just one level above the bosses, they are a joke, but don't you ever ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dare be 3 levels below them...

So... nothing at all to do with you perhaps, failing at the boss multiple times, then gearing up a bit and going back with prior knowledge of their fight pattern on top of better gear?

I killed Tristan about 10 levels below him. Octavian was by far the first genuinely tough boss that took a few attempts and making sure I had the best gear available. The third tier ones I can't really comment on as I did half of them at 81 so brute forced them.
I'm now trying the 3 endgame bosses and holy crap do I need to prep more and play better to beat them, but I will beat them.

[Piu]

The bear was really hard the first time I tried. Even after I got better gear and was way above his lvl he stil took me like 70% hp. It's nearly impossible to dodge his attacks once your travel skill or defensive skill are on CD, but anyone can solo him at any given moment on a horse. Just ride in circles and slap him from time to time. Or wait for better gear.
The rest of the bosses are fun and challenging

[Evilsod]

Originally posted by Piu:

The bear was really hard the first time I tried. Even after I got better gear and was way above his lvl he stil took me like 70% hp. It's nearly impossible to dodge his attacks once your travel skill or defensive skill are on CD, but anyone can solo him at any given moment on a horse. Just ride in circles and slap him from time to time. Or wait for better gear.
The rest of the bosses are fun and challenging

Oh yeah I forgot that boss. Definitely one of the more annoying ones early on.

[Kozzy]

Are you kidding me? The bosses are amazing, one of the best aspects of the game. Each one is unique, LOVE the combat and the bosses. Git Gud

[Monkey]

An option for boss difficulty would be best so that people that want the game to be easier or harder can both enjoy. Too many games have been "dumb down" due to poor dev decisions and would hate to see something like that happen again...

[DUCK]

fighting the bosses aren't that bad, more so if one have them in a orange level not red.
As with others, not knowing how the healing system works and if there is some better solutions can make the bosses a lot harder or going in with the "wrong" weapon or abilities selected. some abilities are lot more fun and useful PvE than others.

one annoying aspect is that you have to go through the whole camp to fight the bosses that do the same generic minion summons for a lot of the bosses? which isn't bad, just a bit tedious. movement for bosses is a bit dodgy, mostly on the hitboxes that are just a bit longer than expected. with a healing that goes away on taken damage and when being solo? can further get that frustration. as with a more memory focused game like dark souls to hit a rhythm for attacking, it doesn't quite work as well here, maybe others do a build that makes their style more fun. While not everyone would do that or even have a style to follow.

so would say the bosses depending on the difficulty you are on and gear score, is decently balanced, although could be more strategy with them and stealth ways to access combat with them. I do wish older bosses could scale better too, and some loot or extra blood from that.

[Boiledteabag]

Originally posted by ArmedMonkey:

An option for boss difficulty would be best so that people that want the game to be easier or harder can both enjoy. Too many games have been "dumb down" due to poor dev decisions and would hate to see something like that happen again...

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