Post-Mortem 9: Bone Cold Steve the Dragon (Nightbane)

Alternate Title: How strafing runs are not enough and Shaman cannot tank vs. taunt

Quest-ionable Origins

Alex Afrasiabi: Yes, yes, come in to my office, Mr. Brazie.
Me: Hey dude, Scott said you needed me to make a quest boss for you?
Afrasiabi: A quest boss? No sir, what I need from you is excellence!!
Me: Uhm… okay?
Afrasiabi: This is no mere quest boss, this will be a secret, unlockable raid boss, the likes of which can only be obtained by the most powerful of heroic dungeon runners?
Me: Oh, alright, well, let me get…
Afrasiabi: No! There is no time for that. For not only will you need to make a raid boss, you will also need to script a bit of an event for my assistant, Luis.
Me: Right, so let me get Lui…
Afrasiabi: Yes, yes, you can figure that all out afterwards. But first let me make sure you understand – this boss must be TOUGH. I want the players hearts CRUSHED as they vie for the phat lewts contained within!
Me: I’ll make sure Travis puts some good stuff on there.
Afrasiabi: Excellent! Now, be gone! *dramatic swing of the cape*
Me: … all you did was turn around in your chair.
Afrasiabi: Scram.

I shrugged and wandered over to the quest pit. Luis Barriga, a warm and friendly, if heavily tattoo’d and ripped, vegan sat docilely behind his monitor.

Me: Heeeey, Luis! Alex said you needed a quest boss… but in a raid zone?
Luis: Oh hey, dude. Ya, let me walk you through the story.

Slowly rippling flashback blurs fill the room.

Luis: Once upon a time,  a powerful man named Medivh explored the dark powers of the twisting nether from his grand tower, Karazhan.

Flashback rips.

Me: Yeah…. I know about Medivh.
Luis: Well, shush and I’ll tell you for a second what’s up.

 

A powerful man named Medivh. (http://www.facebook.com/GeekyRed.Cosplay)

Clouds reform. 

Luis: Medivh, possessed by Sargeras, began to tamper with the ancient layline magics, feeding additional power into Karazhan – so much that it drew the attention of the Blue Dragonflight. Charged with the eternal protection of magic on Azeroth, Malygos, leader of the blue flight, sent his second eldest son, Arcanagos, to draw Medivh from his tower and warn him of the impending danger!
Me: *yawns a bit*
Luis: Finding the tower impenetrable by normal means, Arcanagos set fire to the village outside of Karazhan, drawing the Guardian out of his tower. Arcanagos attempts to stop Medivh, but Sargeras corrupts the magic Arcangos flings at him, burning him from within.
Me: I’m still not hearing any gameplay here.
Luis:  *exasperated* Fine. Look, the players recover Medivh’s journal, read it on the balcony of Karazhan and get an extra boss. If they beat him, they get access to Tempest Keep.
Me: Oh. Okay, so you basically need a gear check boss.

Luis: Yes.
Me: Got it.

I moved to leave the office. 

Luis: He’s also a BONE dragon. Burning from the inside.
Me: Oooooooohhhh.

Mechanical Mandates

I wandered over to talk with Scott.
 
Me: Okay, I have a pretty good grasp of what Luis and Afrasiabi want for this boss.
Scott: Oh yeah? Typical one-off?
Me: Nah, they want a gear check repeatable raid boss.
Scott: Hrmmm…
Me: They also want him to be very tough.
Scott: Well, alright, I’ll go talk to Roman about a unique model. What are you thinking for gameplay?
Me: Well, as much as I’d love to do something crazy, we’re kind of short on time here.
Scott: *nodded with more relief than I realized at the time*
Me: So I’m thinking we take the standard dragon kit – cleaves, cone flame breath, an aoe fear, then add some cinematic moments – say, a few fly-by strafing breath attacks and mostly cosmetic excitement.
Scott: Hrmm…. yeah, that sounds pretty doable.
Joe: Seems a little bit like a waste of a good view. Maybe he should stay in the air a little bit?
Me: Well, I did JUST do that with Nazan and Vazruden.
Scott: Yeah, but it will have been like 30-40 hours of gameplay since they saw him. I think you can get away with it.
Me: Erm, I mean that more in terms of I’m familiar with how to do this. Okay, cool, I’ll go get started on this. How hard can it be?
TO BE CONTINUED.