World Bosses

SeaGtGruff · September 5

With one of this week's weekly endeavors being to kill 30 world bosses, I thought it might be interesting to share opinions and experiences with world bosses.

Some possible topics (just suggestions): Which zones are your favorite for doing world bosses, and why? Which zones are your least favorite? Which bosses have you never been able to solo? Which ones have you only recently soloed? Do you go running to help when another player cries out in zone chat for help with a boss, or do you take the nearest wayshrine to somewhere else? Which bosses have the most interesting mechanics? Etc.

When this type of weekly endeavor comes up, I like to do all of the bosses in a given zone, and this week I decided to pick alliance zones I haven't focused on as much in the past.

On PC EU I've been working through the AD zones. Auridon was no problem to solo-- although a few players showed up near the end of some of the fight-- but the two Senche tigers in Grahtwood were almost impossible for me. I kept getting killed, and after the fourth or fifth failed attempt I was getting extremely salty. I finally stuck a stack of tri-stat restoration potions on my quickslots and started using them whenever the tigers were about to kill me. (As a general rule, I don't mind using food and drink, but I don't like using restoration potions in ESO unless absolutely necessary.) I still died at least once, but refused to give up or call for help, and eventually was able to kill them.

On PC NA I've been working through the EP zones. The shrine boss in Stonefalls has always been too tough for me to solo, but this time I was able to succeed on my first attempt. As I was porting out of the zone later, I saw someone asking for help with that boss, so I returned to Stonefalls and helped them. It felt good to know I'd been able to finally solo that boss, and I'm much more likely to help someone else with it if I know I can do it on my own.

I'm not crazy about bosses that heal themselves so much that you can't kill them without doing a certain amount of DPS, especially if there's no way to interrupt their healing. The troll boss in Deshaan is one such; I'm not looking forward to trying that one tonight, but it will be interesting to see if I can pull it off solo.

Northern Elsweyr is one of the zones where I enjoy killing all of the bosses, not because of their mechanics or anything, but simply because they used to be beyond my ability to solo, then a year or two ago I tried again and was able to kill them, so I had a lot of fun riding in a big circuit around the zone and killing all six bosses. (Yes, it would have been quicker to take the wayshrines, but riding through the zone on my mount was part of the fun.)

I haven't been able to solo most of the bosses in the newer zones yet, but look forward to the day when I finally can.

Necrotech_Master · September 5

i would say i enjoy most WBs because they are all a bit different, but i greatly dislike WBs that have nonsense mechanics

WBs that i dislike:

walks-like-thunder in murkmire because of the ridiculous amount of healing it has
the hunger WB in vvardenfell, as it has an interruptible pin that you cant break out of, which also heals it
any boss with unnecessary invulnerability phases (all it does is consume time)

AcadianPaladin · September 5

I'm mostly a solo player so I generally stick to the alliance zones for WBs since I can solo all but 2 or 3 of them.

Though I have been able to solo a couple DLC WBs, I generally ignore them as too hard/no fun. When a new DLC zone comes out, I follow the novelty crowd and turn all the WBs white, then ignore them after that. I love killing alliance zone WBs though - again, because I can solo them.

I don't monitor zone chat due to the inane spam/drivel, but if I see someone fighting a WB, I jump in to help. Similarly, when I'm soloing a WB, I don't mind if others join me.

LaintalAy · September 5

I generally only do bosses that have other players waiting at them.
Outside of that, I don't care.

darvaria · September 5

Guard Cleo is easy and when there is an endeavor usually has several players waiting. Daggerfall wayshire in Glenumbra takes you right to it.

I que for cyro there and when you log out it takes you right back there.

AzuraFan · September 6

When this endeavor comes up, I usually bop between two world bosses: Strifeswarm Hive in Stonefalls and Western Overlook in Glenumbra. I do the one in Glenumbra, port to one of my houses (Cyrodiil Jungle House), and go to Strifeswarm Hive. Kill, port, go back to Glenumbra. Rinse and repeat. If I'm lucky, the timing works out and I don't have to wait long at each boss. I usually do 10 a day until the endeavor is done. I can solo both bosses if need be, but there are usually players there. For a break I might go to another boss I can solo (in base game zones, though I can solo a few DLC ones too).

However, for the first time, this week I decided to do the dungeons one by running RNDs. When I'm done, I'll post about my experience doing that.

Syldras · September 6

For the endeavor I park my character at a world boss where many other players are around, usually the Unmaker in the Deadlands. Then I leave my computer to grab an interesting book from my shelf. I return to my computer and begin to read, only taking a short break to fight and collect loot every now and then when I hear that the boss has respawned.

In general I don't dislike world bosses, but 30 a week is a bit much, especially if I've already fought all of them often enough.

katanagirl1 · September 6

I try to do ones that are in zones where I don’t have sticker book completion because that always means I don’t have all of the weapons yet.

If I’m in a hurry or don’t want to do much fighting I go to the 3 werewolf bosses in Glenumbra, there are always plenty of players there.

LalMirchi · September 6

World bosses are my favorite sparring partners, I go through them form easy to hard. I use them to fine-tune my builds & rotations. They are also very useful for tweaking my companions with the object of companion being alive at the end of the fight.

I do this quite often as I find the target dummies extremely boring (they don't fight back) and long for some actual sparring opponents as placeable furnishing objects. (One can but dream)

AlnilamE · September 6

Corinthac in Wrothgar was the first "harder" world boss I encountered when Wrothgar came out. Two guildies and I walked up to him and promptly died. It was quite a shock.

I remember when they overhauled the base game world bosses with One Tamriel, and suddenly the guar in Deshaan, which used to be a pushover was quite the challenge.

The crab in Stormhaven is fun too, because the mini-crab attach shows up as "crabouchet" in your death recap, and that cracks me up.

And there's the one WB in Glenumbra that used to be a croc with some eggs nearby. Well, the eggs have hatched now...

SeaGtGruff · September 6

@Necrotech_Master, use the Psijic ultimate to break free of Wuyuvus. You need to generate enough ultimate before he grabs you again, but you should be able to do that while fighting his adds.

N00BxV1 · September 6

I dislike most of the newer "chapter" zone world bosses like in West Weald, Apocrypha, Telvanni Peninsula, etc. They're just not fun to solo IMO... So if I'm gonna farm world bosses for endeavors it's gonna be the ones in any of the base game alliance zones. Sure they're older and I've done them many times, but they're fair and easier to do solo. It's not worth pulling hair out just for some measly endeavors.

I'm just gonna farm the world bosses in Deshaan since that's the zone I usually hang out in while doing pledges. All of those world bosses are really easy and fast to solo. Well, Caravan Crest is annoying, but it's still easier and more fair than the chapter zones' world bosses.

Scratch that... I've already completed the "Complete 6 Dungeons" weekly endeavor without even realizing that I had done it. Yeah, I usually don't even pay attention to the endeavor system...

For anyone wanting some fast weekly endeavors: completing 6 group dungeons is a helluva lot faster and easier than killing 30 world bosses. You can just run normal Fungal Grotto I solo and it only takes about 5 minutes each run (skip the 3rd and 4th bosses by jumping down the waterfall). This isn't how I competed my weekly endeavor quest this week, but I have done this before for other endeavors and easy boxes during the Undaunted Event.

Grizzbeorn · September 6

I can solo most of the base-game zone WBs, and I've managed to solo at least one of the DLC WBs (the Sea Giant WB in Western Skyrim).
I get a little antsy waiting for any one of the WBs to respawn if I'm feeling like I might get interrupted (a 24/7 possibility in my house), and jumping around to different WB locations doesn't always work well to decrease wait-time.

I have seven of the thirty done so far, without a great deal of time to sit at my computer this week.
Five of the seven are the WB just outside of Seabloom Villa.
Seabloom is a popular spot this week, so there has always been a few people waiting there when I've had a few minutes here and there to log-in.

Thirty bosses is a bit much, even for a Weekly, so I resigned myself to not caring whether or not I complete it.
I'm over 17,000 seals, and just waiting for the Gloam Wolf Mount to reappear in the Crown Store, which 16,000 seals should definitely cover, so I'm not gonna stress it.

SkaiFaith · September 6

I jump through many WBs when this endeavor comes up. Usually: there are 2 near to each other in Malabal Tor and 2 near to each other in Greenshade; these are great since you can get leads for Wild Hunt ring. The goblin chief in Wrothgar for the Pale Order lead and the Crab in Storm Haven for the Oakensoul lead. Then I jump between active Eastmarch WBs (any) and the Duneripper in the Desert just because I find them easy and fast.

World Bosses and World Events are my favourite activities (reason why I enjoy the Archive too) and I enjoy soloing them but... Do I help when asked in zone chat? Depends on the boss... Usually someone asks to know and if it's easy I join, but if it's something tedious like the Apocrypha one with billion immunity phases or the High Isle faun I skip.

I would note that DLC WBs work better imo, while base game ones would need a rework: they have all the same amount of health but some are more difficult and others are infinitely easy - I don't see a reason why a super easy base game WB should have so much health, it just makes the fight boring. I get they need to have varying degrees of difficulty to accomodate for every player, but those aimed to weaker players shouldn't have too much health, while those aimed at veteran players could last longer, as seen in DLCs.

Also, I would enjoy Daily base game WBs quests, which would revive older zones if proper rewards are added, and would help newer players having veterans show up.

OsUfi · September 6

I'm someone who enjoyed killing world bosses for a long time. I was happy to take world boss dailies in all regions and farm motif pages from the quests each day.

Base game bosses were all fairly trivial past cp 300 in basic sets of armour. I can solo them all wearing light war maiden/oblivion foe/resto staff/oakensoul on my soul magic based necro.

Most of the DLC ones were more interesting. The Daedric era had some good ones, but also had that darned Sload in Summerset. The Sload and Walks with Thunder in Murkmire are two that I eventually soloed, but never tried a second time.

Orsinium bosses are some of the best. Side tangent, I loved the Orsinium bosses that summoned a horde of monsters / baddies, and actually summoned a HORDE! Like, in the main quests of so many expansions and DLCs the good guys companion will yell "hold on, there's more baddies attacking", you wait a minute, and three baddies turn up that you mince in 3 seconds. High Isle in particular, I love you, but I'm looking at you. I'd love it if you actually got attacked by an actual swarm. Even if they're easy to kill, just, something more than three baddies, then a gap.

Greymoor and Elswyr both had good bosses.

I found the High Isle/Galen era the best balance of tough bosses, with cool mechanics, nice adds, and so on. Would happily go hunt everything up to that era. That big Faun fella in particular where I had a... Skill issue... For a while. Would still happily punch his face in again.

Necrom and West Wield bosses I certainly enjoyed more than most folks did, and I'm not even that bothered by immunity stages, but I found a lot of them awfully bland.

robwolf666 · September 6

I only do WB's if I'm in the mood and feeling far too confident in my ability to solo them. I enjoy exploring and questing much more, so it's usually what I'm doing.

Necrotech_Master · September 6

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

@Necrotech_Master, use the Psijic ultimate to break free of Wuyuvus. You need to generate enough ultimate before he grabs you again, but you should be able to do that while fighting his adds.

i know, but not all of my characters have that, i only have the full psijic line unlocked on a handful of characters

i havent tried to solo it again with a companion tank to see if they can bash it

my point is that it you should be able to cc out of it, it shouldnt be a hard lockdown mechanic, its not very damaging but if you go in with a tank, you wont have the damage to deal more than it heals while its pinning you for 20 seconds

SeaGtGruff · September 6

@Grizzbeorn, 30 is not so bad for a weekly, I think-- 6 a day for 5 days, or 5 a day for 6 days, or 10 a day for 3 days, etc. That's why I like to do them a zone at a time, since there are 6 per zone (except in the smaller zones). Many base-game zones have at least 1 boss that gives me trouble, so going through 1 zone a day would be 5 or 6 bosses a day, and going through 2 zones a day would be 10 to 12 bosses a day. And when there's a weekly endeavor there will almost always be someone else doing them, too, so if you need help you can announce in zone chat that you're about to do a WB run through the zone, then call out each boss as you get to it. Even if you don't need help, other players might not be able to solo them and will usually jump at the chance to join in.

@OsUfi, as far as bosses that actually summon a lot of help, how do you feel about the Vvardenfell bosses? Most of them do summon a lot of adds, and have many waves of adds during the fight. I can get frustrated by that on some characters, but on characters who are tanky enough to survive the onslaught I actually enjoy the feeling of power I get by being able to take on each onslaught.

BasP · September 6

I like most World Bosses, even those in West Weald despite some of the immunity phases, and I usually respond to people asking for help in zone chat (if I'm not in the middle of something and am on a character that has a nearby wayshrine unlocked, that is).

When it comes to WBs I've recently soloed for the first time, that would be three of West Weald's bosses. Most of the time other players join in or have already started a fight, though, so that makes soloing them a bit tricky. Not that I mind that, of course.

Like one player above, I also like the World Bosses of High Isle/ Galen best however. After I've put a new build together I tend solo the Ascendant Executioner/Ascendant Harrower, Glemyos Wildhorn, and Serpent Caller Vinsha. If the build struggles a bit, I'm going back to the drawing board.

I_killed_Vivec · September 6

Strifeswarm Hive in Stonefalls. I just wait between spawns, and do something more interesting. If you see someone in cat contemplation just where the boss spawns that will be me.

20 is OK for one evening, 30 a bit much so I did the undaunted this time.

EldarOfSuburbia · September 6

Favorite zone for running WBs solo: Reaper's March (with Malabal Tor a close second). Reaper's in particular, the WBs present zero challenge, even on my weaker toons.

Least favorite: Bangkorai and Rivenspire (the one with the three witches in the tower who spam fire AoEs? fugeddabadit)

SeaGtGruff · September 6

@I_killed_Vivec, if you can do 20 in one evening, just do 15 in one evening and another 15 the next. Remember, it's a weekly.

@EldarOfSuburbia, I enjoy some of the bosses in Bangkorai and Rivenspire, although there is one in each of those zones that eludes my ability to solo-- Valeguard Tower in Rivenspire and Arlimahera's Sanctum in Bangkorai. I can solo the others, but it can take a while. One of my favorites is Telesubi Ruins, just because they're liches.

As far as Reaper's March, I think Big Ozur's Valley was the one that took me the longest time to finally figure out how to solo. Now I enjoy taking him on.

OsUfi · September 6

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

OsUfi, as far as bosses that actually summon a lot of help, how do you feel about the Vvardenfell bosses? Most of them do summon a lot of adds, and have many waves of adds during the fight. I can get frustrated by that on some characters, but on characters who are tanky enough to survive the onslaught I actually enjoy the feeling of power I get by being able to take on each onslaught.

Never had an issue with adds in world bosses. I'd say my comment more reflected that ZoS can do actual waves of attacks, like the Poacher's Encampment in Orsinium. But while questing we still get 3 baddies - wait 30 seconds - 3 baddies - wait 30 seconds. Meanwhile there are NPC's yelling "look out, another wave is coming!" I guess while questing I'd like to see waves be more of a wave I guess.

SkaiFaith · September 7

OsUfi wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

OsUfi, as far as bosses that actually summon a lot of help, how do you feel about the Vvardenfell bosses? Most of them do summon a lot of adds, and have many waves of adds during the fight. I can get frustrated by that on some characters, but on characters who are tanky enough to survive the onslaught I actually enjoy the feeling of power I get by being able to take on each onslaught.

Never had an issue with adds in world bosses. I'd say my comment more reflected that ZoS can do actual waves of attacks, like the Poacher's Encampment in Orsinium. But while questing we still get 3 baddies - wait 30 seconds - 3 baddies - wait 30 seconds. Meanwhile there are NPC's yelling "look out, another wave is coming!" I guess while questing I'd like to see waves be more of a wave I guess.

If you talk about that, the biggest offender I think would be the West Weald fort siege quest - felt so underwhelming... But yeah, it happens frequently in regular questing, I guess to be accessible to new players.

I_killed_Vivec · September 7

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

@I_killed_Vivec, if you can do 20 in one evening, just do 15 in one evening and another 15 the next. Remember, it's a weekly.

I am aware of the principles of division

I feel that I can "waste" an evening sitting in one location, killing the boss when it spawns, while doing other real life stuff in between. But I wouldn't want to spend two evenings doing that.

So I did the undaunted - soloing two a day over three days, doing the "easy" assignments if I get them otherwise doing FG. At about 20 minutes a go that's less than an hour a day doing something that I actually enjoy