Infinity Thanos is probably the best boss fight design in this game's history
Haji_Saab
Member Posts: 5,837 ★★★★★
This is the best boss fight design in the history of this game and this is because:
A) There is no RNG
All his abilities can be predicted with pinpoint accuracy. You can read what's coming, you can see it, you have the timers to indicate when it is coming and then the outcome has no RNG attached to it. Brilliant!
B Free Practice Runs
I have to admit that the Guillotine fight last month was also well designed and was at appropriate level for uncollected. However, it was marred by the fact that you had to spend somewhere between 78 to 99 energy just to reach her. And when you reached her 5 hours after starting the quest, there was no will left to practice and quit on her. So, I just used "safe" god tier champs and powered through using a revive or two if needed. Same issue is in LOL where there is no room for experimentation unless you are willing a pay a steep cost.
This is where it is so good this month. You can have 4 to 5 practice runs on Thanos' in one full energy.
C) No "**** you, I win" button on Thanos
The first difficult boss fight that came into the game was Act 4 Maestro. Before him, it was simple parry / dexterity, smash to oblivion. This was the first time you had to plan. He required champs that could stop healing or nullify it. It required players who could time their dodges perfectly to his sp1. He had the means to destroy perfect block teams, the go-to strategy of that time.
Fast forward to 5.2. The Collector. Unblockable specials that are impossible to dodge. Ability that reduces ability accuracy over time so no power control. Goes unstoppable without notice in the middle of your combo. Even if you play him with top skill, at some point the Collector just goes "ok **** you, I win". And that really isn't enjoyable. This was also the era of LOL Maestro who has similar mechanics for certain classes. Plus the enrage timers achieve the same thing.
Thankfully, I can see a shift away from that design. We had 5.4 Ultron who can be soloed (but still has the broken evade). Then came Uncollected Guillotine last month. First truly hard Uncollected Event Quest boss who didn't have unavoidable damage. She was simple and good. Thanos is continuation of that. He is complicated and brilliant. He does get free sp3s but you can eat 4 of them with any champ, 10 with avengers, 20 with iceman and unlimited with duped gwenpool. That is a bit of damage-gate I suppose as you have to kill him quickly in that phase before he gets too many sp3s, but I am willing to give it a pass as we have fair bit of choice in the tools that we can use.
I see a lot of threads on BS bosses and there is a lot of negative feedback on things that have gone wrong in the game (**gold shortage**), so I thought we should have positive feedback on something that we like.
A) There is no RNG
All his abilities can be predicted with pinpoint accuracy. You can read what's coming, you can see it, you have the timers to indicate when it is coming and then the outcome has no RNG attached to it. Brilliant!
B Free Practice Runs
I have to admit that the Guillotine fight last month was also well designed and was at appropriate level for uncollected. However, it was marred by the fact that you had to spend somewhere between 78 to 99 energy just to reach her. And when you reached her 5 hours after starting the quest, there was no will left to practice and quit on her. So, I just used "safe" god tier champs and powered through using a revive or two if needed. Same issue is in LOL where there is no room for experimentation unless you are willing a pay a steep cost.
This is where it is so good this month. You can have 4 to 5 practice runs on Thanos' in one full energy.
C) No "**** you, I win" button on Thanos
The first difficult boss fight that came into the game was Act 4 Maestro. Before him, it was simple parry / dexterity, smash to oblivion. This was the first time you had to plan. He required champs that could stop healing or nullify it. It required players who could time their dodges perfectly to his sp1. He had the means to destroy perfect block teams, the go-to strategy of that time.
Fast forward to 5.2. The Collector. Unblockable specials that are impossible to dodge. Ability that reduces ability accuracy over time so no power control. Goes unstoppable without notice in the middle of your combo. Even if you play him with top skill, at some point the Collector just goes "ok **** you, I win". And that really isn't enjoyable. This was also the era of LOL Maestro who has similar mechanics for certain classes. Plus the enrage timers achieve the same thing.
Thankfully, I can see a shift away from that design. We had 5.4 Ultron who can be soloed (but still has the broken evade). Then came Uncollected Guillotine last month. First truly hard Uncollected Event Quest boss who didn't have unavoidable damage. She was simple and good. Thanos is continuation of that. He is complicated and brilliant. He does get free sp3s but you can eat 4 of them with any champ, 10 with avengers, 20 with iceman and unlimited with duped gwenpool. That is a bit of damage-gate I suppose as you have to kill him quickly in that phase before he gets too many sp3s, but I am willing to give it a pass as we have fair bit of choice in the tools that we can use.
I see a lot of threads on BS bosses and there is a lot of negative feedback on things that have gone wrong in the game (**gold shortage**), so I thought we should have positive feedback on something that we like.
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Comments
I also felt Death Touch was a little extreme - but with some aggressive gameplay and snap back intercepts it was manageable.
All in all, it was good as a one-off and deserving of an iconic boss like Thanos.
For Thanos I had to read all his abilities, specials, then go on youtube to watch someone play against him so I knew how to evade his specials. Then remember everything that happens in every phase, while also fighting with the inverted controls. And then when you have done all that, there is another Thanos waiting right behind him where you have to reread all is abilities again and remember those phases.
It was a bit much. New champion, new specials, changes mechanics midfight (mutliple times), etc.
I will agree, once I did all that prep work (took me around 30 minutes), it is an enjoyable boss fight (managed to kill him without spending items cause of all the prep work).
p.s. Only 1 path in the last chapter is AMAZING!
It's some reading on his Info in game, and then watching timers and health percentages. It's even split into 2 fights so you don't have to memorize 6 Stone phases, just 3. Not that complex to do, certainly within the capabilities of anyone who makes it to him. I want bosses that are more than Parry+Smash, and less than '**** you, I win', and Thanos is in a good spot between those. He's not simple, but not complete BS, just how a boss should be, rather than just a normal fight with bigger numbers.
I see your point, but not everyone is a superstar skilled player. I am honest, I am struggling with it. You can say I am terrible, but while I practice on 3 second fights I have to keep feeding money into the coin slot and that pisses me off. So much so, I want to just break my phone and stop playing the game. So if you want to say piss off to the 99% of the player base who won't get through this with out lots and lots of revives. good luck with that.
Then this fight isn't for you. Guys that have played this for 4 years shouldn't be on the same level as guys that started a year ago. We need fights that are challenging too
but isn't that the essence of a boss fight. Read up and prep as much as you can because you know it isnt a faceroll
I am not superskilled either, but the relatively low energy cost of that map means you can afford to do several practice runs and not use items. He is a fight that requires patience and good timing, not just smashsmashsmash. And good intercepting skills for his later forms, when he has Death Touch.
I have been playing since almost inception, this is a second account. I always chuckle when people think that time equals skill. There is a big difference between flawless and 1 mistake. You have to play flawless to beat these guys. Ok, narrowing the range at which flawless can be achieved makes it dramatically harder. My main account i beat it, but I won't even try on my second account, why? the rewards aren't worth the hassle. I am sure there are more in my boat then the leet skilled boat.
Agree 100% and can't give them enough credit for all three of these points. I can't stand RNG mechanics that lead to death (unstoppable mid combo, labyrinth evade, etc.) because it's basically fake difficulty that completely ignores any skill you've developed to deal with that particular fight. The fact that they designed a challenging boss without using those tactics is awesome. The fight is complicated and it's a lot to learn, but that problem is almost completely mitigated by Kabam letting us practice the fight over and over again for a pretty minimal energy cost which is also great design. As a side benefit it also drastically cut down on the energy cost for this months quest which kind of makes up for last months slog. Good Work Kabam!
We didn’t have that luxury last year.
Not to mention his unstoppable timer is reduced this year as well to make him easier.