devtrackers.gg
Greetings,
with Thursdays AMA and many developers mentioning that Behemoth improvements are a focus this summer i would like to collect and discuss some community feedback on what you would like to see changed or improved on the existing Behemoths.
I myself am a veteran player since the alpha days and always liked the way Behemoths look and fight in this game (some small raid mechanics or the more "magic" attacks like Shrowd bomb/clone are what made the game interesting and stand out from stuff like Monster Hunter in the early days).
To gather some feedback i reforged with a weapon i usually not play (sword) and just set the goal to fight every Behemoth solo, underleveled and observed how the Behemoth would fight and react in a normal fight without stunlocking.
Overarching observations:
- Behemoths have problems facing you/turn passive. We all know the moment you want to break a Drask tail and Drask just randomly turns with your resulting in both of you just spinning on the spot. Other behaviours would be slowly walking to you just to turn sideways to stomp and Behemoths having AI freezes where they stand around for 3-5 seconds doing nothing.
- Behemoths disengage to heal mid combat. A problem often reported here. I know its a anti cheese mechanic but Behemoths resetting in the middle of combat because there own moves moved them outside the combat arena or they just decide now is the time to resett and heal happens way to often to be overlooked.
Behemoth specific observations:
Skarn
- Nothing mayor was found by me but it would be nice if his big spin move could be reworked in a way that it could be added back into hunting grounds.
Boreus
- More general attacks. His concept of beeing a minion summoner caused us and PHXlabs more trouble than he is worth. His minions and ice armor are in a good spot now but he still suffers from the initial concept of him letting his minions fight for him. This results in a awesome looking Behemoth with like 5 attacks.
Pangar
- One of the older Behemoths and he shows his age.
- His interruptible role has a questionable hitbox. I hunted him several times and often i could be hit directly by this attack without getting damaged or knocked down.
- His two leg breaks need to be revisited. The toppling over two times is to much for such a easy break and makes him into a punching bag even for beginner Slayers. Best solution would be to turn the first leg break into a flinch like Gnasher does and the second leg break sends him down like usual.
- His aether mode. Pangar was created for a much slower game where hunts took longer and he had much more time to build up the ice to start his aether mode. The fact that we can break the ice and how easy he is to stunlock with his two leg breaks results in Pangar never reaching aether mode. I would suggest two solutions: either make his ice buildup way faster and let us the option to break it to prevent his mode or remove the ice breaking, up the speed a little and keep the ice plates as a indicator how close he is to turning aether charged.
Nayzaga
- Same problem like Pangar, his main gimmick and cool mechanic with the big pylon is just to slow for the state of the game. For him i have no real solution atm.
Valomyr
- Delete him.
- Joke, i know PHXlabs has plans with him so i ignored all his problems for now and wait till he gets a rework.
Koshai
- His thorn tower attack fails to spawn projectiles most of the time.
- He has more AI freezes then other Behemoths and just casually walks around while beeing murdered.
Sporestruck Embermane
- Probably the most broken AI ingame and thereby a very frustrationg fight.
- He has so many new terra based attacks but spams small charges or his mounting attack 80% of the fight.
- Has a tendency to run around doing nothing or run around and spamming small charges without clear direction.
Shadowtouched Koshai
- His tail turns half invisible after the first stagger/interrupt.
- His portal jump attack is without a interrupt just a big time wast attack and in both cases not a real threat.
Shadowtouched Nayzaga
- His umbral clone portal is often bugged and all the way inside the ground.
- His double frontal swipe attack has a 2-3 seconds windup... why?
- His teleport slide faces the same problem Shadow Koshai has: its just not threatening, too predictable and without a interrupt just a big time waster.
- Would personally like it if his slides would leave umbral pools behind him.
Shrowd
- Veteran Slayers that were around when Behemoths would flee probably remember that Shrowd had a unique fleeing/respawn mechanic. He would not just turn up in another arena but spawned a dozend umbral pools and ambushed you when you got to close. I would like to add this unique attack back into the game, probably for Bloodshot Shrowd to make him stand out more. It would be appropriate to add this back when Shrowd enters his ragemode and turns the screen black. He now either spawns as usual somewhere in the dark OR could use this attack and spawn a bunch of umbral pools and ambush you in the dark.
Urska
- Small problem, big impact: He still pushed and yeets you around the arena way to often. I fought him once for this post and i wash pushed once across the arena, managed to bug myself up his back two times and was once turned into a rocket and flew through the arena ceiling.
Alyra
- the same problem i see in Boreus and Valomyr: a Behemoth with a awesome concept that has problems using this concept because the main fight consists of 4-5 attacks and by the time the gimmick of the fight would spice up stuff the Behemoth is already on the last heart chunk.
If you managed to read till the end: Thank you so much! I really like this game and the Behemoths PHXlabs created over the years and it always pains me to see there mechanics not working or stuff that totaly breaks the fight in a frustrating way.
I hope some of this finds its way into some developer discussions. If not then i atleast spoke up and shared my observations with you and PHXlabs.
What are your opinions on some Behemoths and what would you like to see changed this summer to make the Behemoth more fun or interesting to fight?
See you on the shattered islands and good hunt!
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