I pretty much ignored S8 after my experience with endgame in S7. Util this past weekend.
I just want to say… Well done on new lair bosses and updates to the old ones. this is improvement.
Here is to hoping there will be more where that came from! 
2 Likes
I personally think they went overboard with the immunity phases to each boss, aside from Belial, but that’s me.
3 Likes
from the loot experience, i don’t conclude the S8 boss revamp is an improvement.
S7 – 600 varshan-tier boss mats could yield about 2 mythics and lots of ga uniques for upgrade.
S7 – 100 duriel-tier boss mats could yield about 1 mythic.
S8 – mythic rate from varshan and duriel-tier bosses is close to zero.
S8 – slim 1/20 chance to spawn belial apparitions to drop husk for exalted belial mats.
S8 – the better loot drop from exalted belial isn’t rewarding enough.
put it into an hourly wage perspective:
S7 – 1 hour = $8
S8 – 1 hour = $4
1 Like
Lair boss changes were probably the worst thing about s8.
And when you chose to do them they barely ever dropped GA uniques outside of Belial.
2 Likes
Belial should have at least 1 immune phase if nothing else is changing. I like his mechanics, its a show to blow through them
2 Likes
Overall, I think they made Duriel fight better, Andy too much of a nuissance, and the others “whatever” i.e. ok
The problem I have with boss fights in D4 is there are no perimeter damage penalties i.e. get KO-ed even if collide with goo on one pixel
THAT is my issue
The main issue with the boss fights as I see it, is there is too much incentive to chain killing them many many times.
While players might reasonably disagree over the inclusion of immunity phases, I’m not sure anyone would disagree that if killing a boss was a once or twice per session activity, with corresponding increase in rewards, there wouldn’t really be an issue.
Maybe the number of Keys required should go up by a factor of 2, 3 & 4 as you go up in Torments with a proportional increase in loot? This would make the bosses still accessible on T1 to get your build online and on T4 it would divide the number of kills you do by 4. You would do it once, return to town and unload, and maybe be done with that or at least only be doing it a few times.
In later Torments it would either become a thing you save up for and only do as a big encounter when there’s a Whisper, for example. Or for those who play more and have lots of mats at least the process is a lot more efficient and less annoying.
This would, I think, help everyone. Those who like the fights as they are still get a more engaging fight. Those who don’t at least don’t have to repeat it as much.
2 Likes
Well the problem with this is obvious that Boss fights are useful only on T3 and T4 when people need loot the least in return 
I get it, but that’s also fixable, make like 20 “butcher like” monsters and adjust loot tables, so not all uniques come from boss fights, but that’s “target farm” community feedback lol
So the devs had even more “genius” solution: splitting the game in “convenient” lanes cause “convenience” is never enough for prominent community members. Now we have the 4-lane “olympics” in
- Obducite lane
- Glyph lane
- Unique farm lane
- Prep lane
And sal gud 
I think in principle the target farming of Uniques from Bosses is fine. It doesn’t take many kills to get at least a decent ancestral. If the player wants 2+ GAs on specific affixes it might take quite a a lot more but those are generally not ‘required’.
I do not like them also being the best source for Mythics as they are too rare an item to lock behind one single repetitive activity.
I have said elsewhere, but if it were my choice I would try giving all Ancestrals X% chance of being a Mythic no matter where they drop. I don’t know what X would be but maybe something like 0.5-1% would be a starting point. So you might need to find 100-200 Ancestrals per Mythic. Maybe that’s too high or low though.
I believe that’s how it currently is everywhere except for Bosses anyway but the % is far too low. It’s very unlikely to find a Mythic anywhere except Bosses or Undercity. I don’t believe I ever have.
I would put Legendary Runes in the same category. I’m not sold on them increasing the rune drops from Bosses in S9 which I believe they said they have done?
Yeah they are not in the ballpark of perfection to be sure, but they are much more interesting than previous.
I agree with the whole time to kill vs loot issue, but things with this team move in geological time. i think making the bosses more than “bullet sponges” is a step in a positive direction.
To be clear I am praising the choice to go in the direction of making them more interesting. I hope the trend continues toward harder more interesting more rewarding bosses 
As generally unsatisfied as i am with the game right now for reasons mentioned here and many others, I do try to be fair with my opinions/feedback. when i loved the game i criticized things i didn’t like about it and now when Im at the other end of the enthusiasm scale, i wont let that stop me from offering kudos for something i see as positive
What’s crazy for me is I timed out both the Andy and Duriel fight from the time I summoned to the time I opened the chest after beating each and Duriel took roughly 12 seconds longer than Andy from start to finish, but players overwhelmingly prefer his mechanics.
Andariel just pissed people off for some reason, most likely the visual clutter and the unavoidable damage. With Duriel what you see is what you get. With Andy you can’t see @$&!
That, my friend, is a valid reason 
Boss changes with forced immunity phases in S8 has got to be the worst thing they ever done to this game, since S1 massive nerfs to the entire game. And that still takes the cake.
Revert lair bosses to pre-S8 or change the immunity phases to 1 only per boss. And if you can out dps it, then let it be…
Eh? I never got ancestral versions of the uniques I was using in S8 other than a few not so great rolls on Starfall Coronet (basically unusable since the unique affix cooldown was too high). Granted I didn’t kill 1000+ bosses, but they weren’t that easy to get. And I saw all of three legendary runes the entire season. I am glad they’re increasing the drop rates for those.