Propose a New Type of Scenario

[zhengma]

I haven't seen any similar idea explicitly proposed on any WoW forum that I visited. If there are anyone who has proposed something similar in general idea before me, please link.

Here, I propose a new type of single-player scenario. The spirit has been witnessed throughout previous versions of WoW, but here I push it to the extreme.

A. Basic Layout

Once the player enters the scenario, he will receive a huge buff, like HPx1000(no typo, no percentage symbol), enhanced armor, increased attack/spell power, etc. Furthermore, he can't be interrupted, CCed, dispelled, etc.

He will face one or two dozens of mobs. These mobs have similar HP as the player had pre-buff. That is to say, the total HP of all the mobs in this instance combined won't exceed 1/10 of the buffed player.

Sounds like an extremely easy fight? Here comes the best part: one of the mobs (let's call it "Type I mob" for now, although a better and innovative name shall be given later) will give the player a debuff, so that if they player ever attempt to target any mob other than the Type I mob, he will automatically and instantly re-target the Type I mob. In other words, the player cannot perform any action that requires a target without the Type I mob being the target. Furthermore, if the player is out of the melee range of the Type I mob, they will temporarily lose control of their movement (spellcasting and ranged attack unhindered) and move back to the Type I mob. Any pet/companion summoned by the player will also suffer the same debuff.

Once the Type I mob dies, the debuff will immediately be removed, and the player can move on mowing down all the other mobs easily. However, besides being tough itself and can't be one-shot by the player at full HP, the Type I mob is supported by Type II mobs, who make sure the Type I mob, and all the mobs including themselves, are at full HP any time. Even worse, the Type II mobs will attempt to remove the DoT/debuff applied by the player.

Beside these two types (making up 1/3 of all the mobs), the rest are Type III mobs, who keeps damaging the player. Their damage will only deplete the player's buffed HP pool very slowly, but due to the debuff of the Type I mob, you can't pick out any Type II or III mob with single target ability, and they will last for a long time.

Any AoE, however, are not affected by the debuff, and the player can AoE damage mobs of Type II and III. However, the buff on the AoE abilities is weaker, and Type II or III mobs, despite being more vulnerable, can't be killed by a few AoE abilities. Type II mobs have multi-target healing abilities to further diminish the effect of the player's AoE.

If the player manage to survive in the scenario for a set period of time, he will gain a huge buff, making him immune to the mob's attack and can one-shot any mob. Or, to make it simpler, all mobs instantly die once the timer runs out. To balance this, self-healing abilities will receive a smaller buff than the rest of the abilities, making it heal a much smaller percentage of the player's (buffed) HP.

The goal is simple: kill all the mobs before the mobs put the player down. Evidently, the player must use a set of strategies very different from conventional PvE (or PvP) to succeed.

B. Extra Brainstorming

1. There could be two Type I mobs, but only one can apply the debuff on the player or a given player-controlled unit at any given time. This will increase the difficulty hugely, because it prevents two strategies: a) Putting a DoT/debuff (like Weakening Blow) on the Type I mob won't work, because the other Type I mob will apply its debuff, while the first Type I mob can wait for the player's DoT/debuff expiring; b) Overwhelming the Type I mob with pets won't work, because the other Type I mob can apply its debuff on and only on the pets, dispersing the DPS of the player.

2. Tyep I mobs should be immune to crit, to prevent player from one-shot them too easily. To balance for some specs that relies on crit, like Fire mage who needs Pyroblast! and Frost mage who needs Shatter, the extra damage from crit can be applied as a DoT, similar to the Staggering of the Monk.

3. The mobs could have relatively high AI. For example, they will move out the Death and Decay or Frozen Orb cast by the player; they will make sure the totem/pet/minion/Elemental/Mirror Image of the player dies quickly, etc.

4. Type II mobs need mana to function, and their multi-target abilities cost much more mana. If the player can persistently deal a large amount of AoE damage, the Type II mobs could run out of mana, and the rest of the fight will be breeze.

5. There could be a personal achievement of defeating a same group of mobs a certain number of times. Failing the scenario will not stop the streak. However, a few random mobs will get a stackable buff called [Geared Up] will slightly increase its damage, healing and/or HP. If the player fails too many times, every mob will have several stacks of the buff, and the player might find it easier to start over with a new group.

6. There could be a guild achievement. The guild pick e.g. 10 members in a fixed sequence, and submit the sequence to the server. Then, the first player in the sequence start doing this scenario with a group of mobs, until he fails for the first time. Once he's defeated and the mobs get the [Geared Up] buff, the second player will have to fight the same group of mobs, and so on. The guild achievement will be given when this sequence clear the scenario for a total of, say, 1000 times. The key will lie in determining the sequence, as players appearing rearward in the sequence will face a larger buff on the mobs.

I know it's a rather crude idea, and numerous balance issue will emerge if if comes live. But the idea itself is so exciting!

[zhengma]

As an example, here are some ideas on the strategy mages (in Patch 5.4) can employ to complete this scenario.

All specs:

If there are many melee Type III mobs, Frost Bomb will be a good choice. Otherwise, Living Bomb will be better as the high DPCT can quickly deplete the mana of the Type II mobs.
RoP should be good, since there's little movement involved. Glyped RoP can constantly heal the player if the player plans to survive till the timer runs out.
Cauterize+Ice Block can be very good (if the "50%" part is retained after the buff), which will almost guarantee survival until the timer runs out. So I guess Cauterize will be relatively nerfed.

Frost:

Use Glyph of Splitting Ice to damage one extra mob other than the current Type I mob. However, if the mobs have high AI, all the Type II and III mobs will stand behind the player, and the Glyph will be useless.

If the mobs decide to kill the WE, summon it on cooldown. It's very tough and will waste a lot of damage from the mobs. However, if the mobs have a higher AI, they may let the "off" Type I mob hold it while focusing on the player, in which case use Freeze on cooldown for extra FoF charges.

Try to Deep Freeze the Type I mob for extra burst damage (if Type II mobs can't dispel it).

Frozen Orb will either kill a few melee mobs, or at least give a very hard time to Type II mobs. If the AI is high, however, the Type I mob will start moving, and the player will involuntarily move with it (as I described in the original post). Although it won't hinder spellcasting, all mobs could quickly leave the range of the FO, making it less effective.

Arcane:

Spam 4-charge Arcane Blast and use up Missile procs, make sure Tier 5 talent is always up of the current Type I mob. They're so strong that a larger number of Type I mobs (like 3 or 4) will have to apply the debuff in turn to buy time for Type II mobs to heal them. If there are fewer Type I mobs in the group or the AI is not too high, it'll be a relatively easy victory.

Spam AE and glyphed CoC if there are many melee mobs to deplete the mana of Type II mobs.

Barrage will be good in a similar way as Glyph of Splitting Ice, no good if the AI is higher.

Fire:

Guess Fire will be somewhat better than the other two specs for such a scenario. When Ignite on the current Type I mobs is very high, use Inferno Blast to spread it will cause huge pressure on the multi-target capacity Type II mobs, and a Combustion at this moment will more than stretch the single-target capacity of the Type II mobs even if a different Type I mob immediately apply his debuff onto the player. Since the IB and the Combustion can be cast in quick succession, it almost guarantees some dead mobs every 45 seconds. To balance for this, I guess the DoT part of Pyro, Ignite and Combustion should be somewhat dispellable (although not mass-dispellable which will make the fight too hard).

[Aowyn]

I understand the concept: we're playing reverse PvE. Instead of having players raiding to kill a boss, we are the boss and the mobs are raiding against us.

Why not making a PVP scenario instead, where one player is a boss and a 10/25 man raid tries to kill him/her? And, instead of having target restriction to the tank, have us dealing bonus damage to those who has the highest "threat" only?

You may need to add scenario objectives for the "boss player", as just a tank-and-spank is prone to get tedious quickly.

It could be an Alliance x Horde group of scenarios, where the boss player is a general calling for reinforcements (yes, we have mobs too with their own abilities and we are waiting for the main army to arrive), making an heroic stand aided by a deity, (like Cenarius against the Warsong Clan) or preparing some powerful weapon that will be used on the raid players (like the Forsaken Apothecary ready to deploy the plague on Gilneas).

Each of these scenarios grant different tactical options for the boss player to employ in order to counter the raid strategies. Good use of them allow us to prevent it from being just a tank-and-spank.

Issues with the current player vs mob iteration:

Because there are so many balance issues, each spec would likely need to have its own scenario, different from those of any other spec:

- Glyph of Regenerative Ice would likely be overpowered here, since it doesn't work based on spellpower or similar effects, just on max HP. In theory, a mage could attempt to clear this scenario by outlasting through this glyph, Cold Snap, glyph of Spellsteal and smart use of whatever lvl 30 talent he's using.

- Healers too can just try to overlast and ignore the mobs. It's hard to see a boss in PvE that just tries to heal everyting we do for good reason.

- The current concept doesn't seem to allow much control over the mobs, making it not much different from standard PvE tank-and-spank. It doesn't allow for kiting strategies either. This is very melee-oriented and can hardcounter the toolkit of many casters (mainly affliction locks, who rely on multidotting with single-target swaps).

- An unholy DK could easily complete this scenario by talenting into Gorefiend's Grasp and spamming Pestilence. They would be able to kill Type II and III mobs simply because those diseases are always being refreshed on everyone, overwhelming Type II dot cleansing. Especially if the DK is a blood elf or a tauren, since both have an AoE control racial.

For mob's names:

Type I: tank/taunter/defender
Type II: healer/supporter/leader
Type III: dps/striker