… the difference between the rather weak regular boss attacks and the deadly one-shot environmental effects in combination with the fact that bosses disappear and therefore can’t be killed while the environmental effects rip the player apart.
This leads to 99% deaths caused by environmental effects and only 1% deaths caused directly by the boss itself.
Example: Lilith
What kills players most of the time is this stupid environmental effects that make the ground go lava and instantly kill a char. Also here the boss often disappears from the screen or becomes invulnerable, thus can’t be killed, while the environmental effects (ground goes lava) or the shadow orbs erratically chasing after you like auto-missilies, may rip your char apart. This is the worst designed boss fight ever.
Example: Andariel
All direct attacks of this boss are extremely weak. What kills players most of the time is the environmental effects, especially the fire beam, but also the shadow damage on the ground or the lightning sparks erratically flying around. In addition to this the boss can’t be normally killed and gets invulnerable once the lifebar of the boss hits the minimum. Then follows a seconds long animation only to make the boss disappear after that animation. And then all you have to “fight” is three stupid statues while environmental effects may rip you apart. After Lilith, this is the worst designed boss fight.
Example: Ice Beast
All direct attacks of this boss are extremely weak. What kills players most of the time is the environmental effects, especially the icy wind breeze that almost covers the whole ground or the surrounding hurricane-like blizzad-storm that you get pushed into e. g. by the icy wind breeze. In addition to this the boss often disappears from the screen to cast the deadly icy wind breeze or to cast his summons, so that you can’t even hit the boss most of the time of the boss fight. After Lilith and Andariel this boss is the the worst designed boss fight.
i think Andariel’s the worst, not because she becomes invulnerable, but because of that ground effect feels like 3 different devs each tried to design it in a race to see whose version kills the player first.
It also has to do with monster AI. When monsters use basic attack they mostly just stand still. Environmental attacks is an easy way to create fights which are based on patterns. And in a fight which is based on patterns, there need to be easy parts where players can relax.
In Diablo monsters have always been fairly simple, but I think it would be nice to see some monsters which react to player actions. For example there could be a small chance that a boss does something different when a debuff is cast or when someone uses a defensive skill etc.
The arena is very small. The white on white indicator is bad design AND the timing is very tight so recognition into reaction is difficult. Controls are not as precise as they need to be (at least with mouse) to justify the small size of the safe zone.
Compare the snake boss in undercity. Even though I generally have to move further to get to the safe spots, they are clearly telegraphed, decent in size, and if I move right away I can get to them in time.
There’s an argument to be made for “magic” but Andariel doesn’t feel like the fight is against Andariel, but that I’m fighting a mostly pointless target while wading through a danger room. It just feels out of place and there’s way too much nonsense to keep track of. Even just making the dual danger bars present (maybe the second one lighting up at 1/3 health) and having her present the entire time as an actual danger, and getting rid of the other crap would be a marked improvement.
You pinpointed one of issues I have every time I fight Andariel. I’ve never understood the point of having to destroy the three totems has anything to do with fighting Andariel. It’s just a stupid mechanic you have to complete before you can attack her again.
Also her death animation is incredibly annoying. Her death animation takes almost as long as the time it took to kill her.
The funniest and most idiotic thing is that they leave too small dodge windows, which are hard to hit, and in addition to this, the duration of attacks greatly exceeds the cooldown of self-preservation skills.
This turns the game more into an arcade than an RPG.
Andariel is the maiden of anguish, right? The game already has those little hellraiser tether things. Why not work those into the fight, summoned by her, as a visceral depiction of pain actually thematically connected, and maybe use them as DPS checks (free yourself in time to hit her so she loses focus on a super attack; or to get out of the way of zone attacks she directly manifests?)
But then again outside of the narrative the designers seem to have a problem linking the enemies to their roles. Duriel is the lord of pain because…he head butts you and poison hurts?
Belial was good in Diablo 3’s story because it fit his background, but D4 is probably just going to be a copypaste of his D3 fight. Where’s the lies?
I would love to see someone try and do a boss fight like a world boss solo and then complain about the drop rate. Take 5 minutes to defeat a boss, get 0 good loot and try that for the next 2 hours.
My character is pretty durable from fortify so I don’t know if it would be different for other characters/classes. But Andarial to me is mostly avoid that timed beam that blasts through all the stuff and I’m good.