A while ago i was talking to a hardcore raider friend (i don't like grinding the same instances more than a few times, personally) about the appeal of doing the same raids and dungeons over and over. Our train of thought lead us to the conclusion that, in order to make the game a bit more varied and interesting, a good thing might be to randomize boss mechanics.
What i mean by this is that, for example, boss X has a pool of 10 possible attacks or phases - summoning different types of adds, different attacks, debuffs and buffs, ranged and melee attacks etc. Out of these 10 possible phases, during a fight, 3 or 4 can come up randomly. So basically the group would go into the battle and would need to be prepared for anything. The fight would be at least slightly different every time.
Another possibility would be to have a general pool of random boss abilities (one big list) that get applied to random bosses in dungeons. So during a dungeon run all bosses (maybe except the last one) are randomized in fighting style and mechanics.
For raids, i imagine, this could work too. The boss has a list of possible mechanics but you have no way of knowing what will come until the boss does it. Of course this would mean making the initial attack slightly more forgiving to give the group a chance to adapt.
The idea behind this is that it would make grinding instances a lot more dynamic and would remove the static feel of boss fights where you have basically just learn your dance steps.
What do you people think? Do you think it's a viable way of designing fights or just a dumb idea?
Input welcome.
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