Dev Discussion Episode 40: The Royal War (Alert)

Greetings from the World of Flashpoint!

The war between Atlantis and Themyscira is out of control and threatens everyone throughout the World of Flashpoint! Join the Flash as he works with Flashpoint Batman to find the root source of the warfare and turmoil in this branch of the Multiverse. Experience all that and more in the 4-player operation: "The Royal War."

Please post feedback, comments, and any bugs you encounter in this official thread and be sure to mention which version you were in at the time: Event, Normal, or Elite.

Have fun!
- Quixotic

The feat "Mission Impos-Zoom-ble (Elite)" can be completed in the regular version of the alert.

This ^ just ran regular and got the feat.

Ran this on elite and enjoyed the first two bosses-- good challenge with a lot going on, especially the Queen Diana fight.

However, the Zoom fight needs to be looked at. In particular, the healing pools that spawn while Zoom is doing his group pull make it impossible to turn the cogs to stop the process. There's already enough going on in that fight I would suggest one or all of the following:
-ensure that Zoom never does his pull at the same time the pools spawn
-disable the healing pools
-reduce Zoom's overall health by 23-33%

Overall, a fun alert ruined by a currently way way way overtuned last boss with mechanics that make it a miserable wipe fest. Yuck.

I'll look into having Zoom hold off on using his spinning pull for a few seconds after the healing rifts appear.
- Quixotic

Updated: Looking into whether that's the best change or not. Still considering it but gathering more info.

Awesome thank you!

Elite is pretty cool. Just ran my lamest alt thru regular... 120arts and 245sp 326. 4 dps. Very easy. And wasn't a carry situation, topped the charts so the others weren't OP or anything. We did have some downs tho if that's worth noting but no wipes

Zoom healing in elite just makes the fight into an endless loop, not fun. It should have a limit of how many times he can do it.

I'm not a fan of limiting how many times he heals. Not for an Elite mechanic, anyway. Seems like that would mean you could just wait it out and then win after he hits his heal limit without having to do the mechanic.

I'll keep an eye on your feedback though, so keep it coming! If Zoom needs it, we'll find the right balance for him one way or another.
- Quixotic

Do the next raids quixotic, that would go a long way. Plenty of mechanics and new stuff on elite alert clearly shows youre the man for the next ones.

Amazing alert, is even better then my favourite alert FE.

First Boss
Seems pretty fine, there is an objective save flash and some good mechanics.

2nd Boss
My favourite boss so far. Wonder Woman is pretty tough, but adding an hilarious Ares charging just made my day. The amount of side mechanics in conjunction with the Greek letters make this boss an amazing experience. Please keep it up!
Ares>Aphrodite>Hera>Zeus>Hades

LB
I really hate Johnny Quick is one of the most lame boss ever made, but zoom is by far way more interesting.
I couldn't beat it because the portals were consistently healing him, but I'm very happy.
I also have a few question how the portals work? Is it a timer after he reaches bellow 30%?

If that's the case and it's a burn check, I don't think it should be changed. After all if you want to beat elite you need to increase your cr, test new options and most important have good coordination.
For example Im rage and on portals I was using 2 group immunities just in case.
Being able to adapt is what Elite should be for.

So make Zoom Pulls us, Stun us, Throws us in the air, drop everything you got!

Exactly my thoughts this elite alert after YEARS is something where i can say this is oldschool difficulty which i wouldve expected to see but in a elite raid. Thumbs up Quixotic i hope you will do the next Elite raid. I already said this before it went into the Live servers.

its actually funny that people are at the 3-4th stage of difficulty already on future of the flash elite raid since im pretty sure thats easyier then this elite alert lol

Zoom needs to be adjusted, heal debuff does nothing against him (why??). Every time the healing pools appear, he will do his mechanics, worst case stun. This makes very hard to close his pools.

I would look at it like Cosmic Boy and his adds on HQE, there aren't unlimited adds nor should there be unlimited rounds of healing. That mechanic with his pulls and cogs is just awful. Why not make it like 3 or 4 rounds then call it?

The elite is the best alert for years in my opinion.

However it seems a bit strange to beat SM R30 but have to disband at Zoom. There just isn’t enough opportunity to do the healing mechanic the required number of times without someone being incapacitated by one of the other mechanics.

I’ve been about to hit my cog and pulled away from it several times. Or teleported to, etc.

There’s also situations where if he has countered the tank just before combat ends and we all have to mash square button to break out and then lunge him, he still has immunity, and one shots the group.

Hello I would suggest not listening to the first person asking for nerfs, this is not always the way to go.

Or I could be the first guys saying raids are too hard,nerf them please, just NO.

Why not just try when you’ll get better gear? The mechanic is fin, remove that and there is 0 challenge anymore

I'm sorry but I'm going to echo the comments of some others in here. The Professor Zoom fight in elite is an absolute mess of tedious overlapping mechanics that suck the joy out of it.

The healing back mechanic is fine, but when you've got a timer on those and you've decided to make it so Professor Zoom overlaps his suck in mechanic at the same time... Yeah sorry, but that's not cool. That's if you don't decide to have the funnels move at the same time as the healing cogs as well as the suck in and perhaps you could just chuck a Tiger Uppercut in there for good measure.

You should not have to put up with RNG based overlapping mechanics to beat something, please tone that sort of thing back when the healing pools come up...

Hi, I just want to disagree with everyone complaining about the healing cogs and the pull happening at the same time.

Some people are even calling it "impossible" to close the cogs if that happens. I just want to say it's far from impossible as my group had no issue with it yesterday after we got used to the mechanics. There are some things you can do to counter the pull mechanic like the tank using his group immunity or each player individually using a breakout trinket. A third option is to break out of his pull as soon as possible and then go for the cog, although this method is a lot more risky and far from a guarantee.

So while Zoom did heal many times before we got the hang of it, once we did, this healing + pull thing was not a showstopper at all and is now one of the specific occurrences that makes the fight challenging and fun, in my opinion.

One thing that should be looked at is the healing + encasement happening at the same time as that actually would make it impossible to hit the cogs. I'm not sure if this even happens since (if I recall correctly) my group didn't experience it, but a leaguemate said his group did.

Overall, I just want to say that I really like the Elite alert so far. I've only run it once but it actually felt like an elite instance. Each boss fight has it's own unique mechanics that can't be ignored and some of which are unforgiving which I love. In my opinion, it doesn't need a nerf and any good enough group will find a way to beat it no problem. After all, that's why a normal version exists. The goal isn't for the entire server to be able to run through Elite with ease.