Haganeko
commented
7 years ago Thank you for the post. I have a question: should we really strive to have one of the two be optimal? It feels to me like having them have each their benefits and disadvantages would be best - it creates more strategic possibilities. As it regards the minions' damage, given that they help bounce the spell, and mean wasting damage to get rid of, I am unsure they need to be more damaging the projectile, even if we intend tanking the projectile to be optimal.
$BOSS
Arena
Arena has several $smallareas, possibly marked with circles with $smallobjects in their middles.
Boss
$BOSS is a big monster in the middle of the arena. $BOSS attacks in melee and has $targetedspell which is cast on the furthest hero within $range. $BOSS uses both modes of attack with no restraint. $BOSS walks rather slowly.
Phase 1 (100-70% HP)
$BOSS uses the following abilities: $ability1: $BOSS throws $bigprojectile in an upward arc, so it will land in an indicated $bigarea. It deals physical damage to units in $bigarea and spawn up to two $minions in $bigarea. Each unit hit will reduce the number of $minions spawned by one. $minions have enough HP, attack speed and damage to ultimately deal more damage before being killed than the projectile does on impact. $minions also have a large collision box. $ability1 has a $long interval between casts.
Phase 2 (70-40% HP)
$ability1 $bigprojectile will now spawn up to three $minions. $BOSS gains the following ability: $ability2: $BOSS teleports to the center of the arena and charges a spell for several seconds, gaining additional damage reduction. $BOSS does not attack, move or cast $targetedspell when charging, but it can't be interrupted. Every unit that's not $minion or $BOSS becomes marked with $red or $blue. (Stand-in visual effect: Morph.) Two random $smallareas begin emitting $verticalbeams, one $blue and one $red. Upon finishing channeling, $BOSS causes $hugeexplosion which hits everything in the arena and deals $superhigh magic damage to each colour-marked unit not standing in the same-coloured $verticalbeam. $verticalbeams then disappear. $ability2 is cast in the middle of the interval between casts of $ability1, so the two alternate with no reduction of frequency of $ability1.
Phase 3 (40-0% HP)
$ability1 $bigprojectile will now spawn up to five $minions. $BOSS gains the following ability: $ability3: $BOSS launches $bouncyprojectile at a random hero. $bouncyprojectile deals $moderate magic damage and applies $debuff after damaging. $debuff increases damage of $bouncyprojectile $several times and makes it pure damage. $bouncyprojectile does not travel very fast. It can bounce to $minions if no other units are in $bounceradius, dealing no damage. It has $kindahigh limit on bounces. (12?) $ability3 is cast 1 second after $bigprojectile lands or $hugeexplosion happens.
Strategy
Blocking $minion spawns by intercepting $bigprojectile is optimal. Not getting hit by $hugeexplosion by standing in the right $verticalbeam is optimal. In both cases there is enough time to reasonably run to the right location assuming roughly centralized positioning. When more $minions spawn from phase 2 onward, killing them when waiting for $hugeexplosion is preferable over attacking $BOSS due to damage reduction during charging. Both of these abilities require units to bunch up in a location. Due to $ability3, splitting up afterwards is optimal. $BOSS is tanked by two players, one standing further than others to take $targetedspell and one tanking the melee attacks. It is possible to kite $BOSS instead of tanking melee hits, but it makes positioning of the $targetedspell tank difficult and might make reacting to $abilities difficult.