Ideally, something knowledge and skill-based instead of being based entirely on raw hp and damage.
For example, I really liked the final boss in the Nightfall Sanctum on Tier 7 because he spent so much time casting abilities that the bloated hp and damage hardly mattered. You just had to make sure to dodge the 2-4 abilities he used in the 0.5 to 2.0 seconds he spent casting or channeling them. That’s almost a Wildstar-esque definition of “challenge” where it’s just about two opponents exchanging skillshots.
In WoW terms, the thing that keeps coming to my mind was the final fight of the green fire quest for Warlocks. I did it back when it was current content and it was more punishing and unforgiving that I’d like for current delves, and the Pit Lord boss was a health sponge that hit like a truck, but by utilizing all of your skills cleverly, you could beat the Pit Lord even if you were naked.
Other games I’d point to for comparison would be Monster Hunter and the Soulsborne/Elden Ring games. They’re all difficult. They’re all challenging. They’re all punishing. But if your knowledge and skill are up to snuff you can beat them as a level 1 naked character.
I don’t think you can remove the gear treadmill from WoW, and like I said, those other games tend to be punishing, and “punishing” is distinct from “challenging”. For example, taking rewards away from players as they wipe in Delves is “punishing”, not “challenging”, because it doesn’t serve a constructive purpose. It’s an overly harsh detriment that you can’t really play around. You have zero comeback mechanics. You have absolutely no way to work your way out of it, so it’s not “challenging”.
There is no way to do better in that delve and reclaim some of the rewards that were taken from you, no matter how much you improve. You are permanently screwed in that specific delve. Just as a penalty for not being perfect in the first place. It’s absurdly unforgiving and it doesn’t make the game better.
Its sole purpose is to make players feel bad as they struggle with content. It actually incentivizes you to stop striving to be better and just go back to lower level delves where you can more comfortably play without risking losing rewards to a stray spore explosion or something. It’s a punishment for daring to push delve tiers that are beyond what you’re capable of completing perfectly.
That’s legitimately insanely bad game design. Telling your players: “Hey, stop trying to be better. Go back to easier content and farm that for a week or two and then come back and see if you’ve trivialized this tier yet.”
The cynic in me would say that this is a shallow attempt to stretch out limited content, but it seems too complex for people that can’t make content harder without cranking up hp and damage to come up with.
But, again, what I’d really prefer higher tier delves to test players on is how well they time their CDs, how well they utilize synergies in their kit, how well they react to new challenges on the fly, etc.
Ex: Instead of making an enemy hit for 2.5 million damage in a huge AoE with a 0.5 second cast time, add a second enemy that spams telegraphed lunge attacks that hit for 2.5 million damage. Now you have to monitor and dodge those lunges while fighting the challenging enemy normally. The 2.5 million damage is coming at you in a line with a delay that makes it avoidable, instead of being a big 30-yards AoE that a melee spec can’t avoid without blowing a CD.
