#1 - Nov. 6, 2013, 7:41 a.m.
In Reaper of Souls, it would appear that Bosses and Mini-bosses are making a glorious return. It seems (from my understanding) that there will be Bosses/Mini Bosses at the end of Loot Runs (Nephalem Rift?). It also appears that there will be bosses/mini bosses inside many Nephalem Trials. Who knows... there might even be some random boss encounter in the open world (finger crossed).
With that said...
1) How will Bosses challenge us in Reaper of Souls? At Gamescon, we saw a mini-boss. It wasn't particularly impressive. It seemed to push you away and Teleport away. Well, it's unfair to judge it right now, but I feel that it could be so much more than this. I want bosses to make me feel uncomfortable. Against Belial, I need to stay on top of my game or I will die. Against Magda... well, I just run in circle around and kite her down --- pretty boring for a DH. Bosses should be dynamic.
2) Bosses and Mini Bosses are largely scripted event. How about adding some randomness to them? Perhaps they could have a random affix (some restrictions need to occur --- like no Waller or Jailer on Belial for instance!). Perhaps there could be a random elite pack assisting the boss. Perhaps the monsters assisting the boss could be a bit more random. Perhaps the boss should be given a random ability. A bit more randomness surely can't hurt.
3) How will bosses and mini bosses reward us in RoS? Clearly, the additional loot from NV stacks aren't enough. The added crafting plans aren't enough (mostly because they are a 1 time use only). The guaranteed legendary sounds like fun... but again, it's a one time event. Bosses should have something that we desire. What if "every additional crafting plan" would grant you a free craft (only the ones that drop in RoS. They would have their drop-rate drastically reduced)? That ought to be interesting. Design: Amulet of Vitality, well, I guess I could craft an amulet for free. It would reduce the amount of useless loot dropping since Plans would have a secondary use. Aside from that, they could have slightly more chance of dropping certain item (The Butcher dropping the Butcher's Carver, for instance).
4) We need a variety of them! Don't be shy... you could even create a "Legendary Trial" in which there's 2 randomly chosen bosses in there --- like an Uber fight! At the end of every Loot Run, there should be a different a randomly chosen boss/mini boss combined with at least 1 elite pack! Go ahead, challenge us! We could even have an improved Jar of Soul, in which after the 1 minute timer, a random mini-skeleton-boss may spawn and the event will continue until you kill it (additional skeletons don't give XP or loots to prevent abuse). Imagine this: The Jar of Soul is already frenetic as it is when you kill a lot of skeletons... now, the Skeleton King appears! He will spawn even more Skeleton... combined with the other ones! There's plenty of unique ways to challenge players.
5) How about a "First Boss kill of the day?". It's somewhat similar to Starcraft 2's First win of the day. Basically, the first boss kill will reward you a bit more. That's a good way, IMO, to encourage people to kill a boss at least once per day. The bonus isn't that big, but it's still something nice to have.
Edit:
6) We could add some surprise element to the game. For example, walking in the open world in Act 3 could trigger an ambush event --- A bloodthirsty Siege Breaker breaks out of a wall and attack you. That would take you out of your comfort zone. The Jar of Soul could "unexpectedly" be extended, as a mini-boss appears. The "Avatar of Rakanishu" could occasionally become Rakanishu himself (harder fight). Breaking a random destructible could make a pack appear. Looting a regular corpse could make that corpse reanimate as a mini-boss. Grotesque could explode and spawn a pack of Electric Eels. The "surprise" element can be a challenge.
