Ice Witch Boss Fight Feedback

[PlaQ]

We recently fought the Ice Witch with over 20-30 players, and would like to suggest the following balance changes to improve the experience:

1. Increase Hitbox Size / Attack Range​

The current hitbox is too small, especially for melee players. It’s difficult to consistently land hits, and attacks often miss or deal no damage even when seemingly within range. A larger hit range would make the fight smoother and more accessible for all roles.

2. Fix Kiting Issues​

The Ice Witch is too easily kited around the area, leading to a chaotic and unstructured fight. This makes the encounter feel more like a running marathon than a boss battle. Consider mechanics to prevent excessive kiting (e.g., leashing, slows, aggro resets, or anti-kite abilities).

3. Reduce HP Significantly​

Despite being over 30 players, it took nearly one full hour to bring her down. The current HP pool feels excessive and turns the fight into a tedious grind rather than a fun or strategic challenge. A significant HP reduction would greatly improve the pacing.

4. Random Kicks During Fight​

Multiple players got kicked from the game during the boss fight, often more than once. This caused frustration and interrupted the flow of the event. Stability needs to be improved.

5. Mounting After Dealing Damage​

Currently, players can remount instantly after dealing damage, which can be exploited in PvP and PvE alike. Introducing a 3-second cooldown before mounting is possible after engaging would improve balance.

6. PvP Damage Reduction Too High​

Players were only dealing around 1-3k damage on targets with PvP EQ and 25k HP. This makes PvP during the event nearly irrelevant when you can Mount and run. The current damage reduction is too high and should be adjusted to allow meaningful PvP interactions.

 

[Blasphem]

I’d like to add my thoughts:
I’m on board with everything Plaq suggested, and I’d add three more points:

1. Remove horses entirely, but lower boss HP accordingly. This would make combat more dynamic in both PvP and PvM instead of endless horseback chases;
2. Fix the Ice Witch Board timer. At the moment it doesn’t show the next respawn time, which looks like a bug;
3. Fix the loot. The loot, in most cases - as far as we’ve seen till now - doesn’t even cover the cost of the alchemy and potions. Please don’t turn it all into a mere amusing waste of time!

P.S. The new system is ambitious and already a lot of fun; it just needs some fine-tuning, which is perfectly normal for a brand-new feature.

 

[Synesthesia]

I completely agree, and I’d like to add my own thoughts. Many of these issues seem to originate from Wobba, which has essentially become a “ranged farming class” boss. At the moment, getting into the top 10 as a melee class is extremely difficult. This happens mainly because the boss’s hitbox is incredibly small compared to its actual size. You’re forced to use the horseback skill just to reach the small circle under the boss in order to deal damage but this becomes a game of cat and mouse, since the top-damage player is constantly dragging the boss around the entire map.

Also, even though this may go against my own interests (as I don’t yet have a pvp char ready and a guildmate and haven’t reached level 96/105) you should seriously consider slightly reducing PvP damage reduction. Right now, you often see 7–8 PvM players under the Red Dragon, with several PvP characters attacking them yet nobody dies, because everyone takes so little damage. I think a good starting point would be to test lowering the damage reduction from 50% to around 35–40% and then gather data from there.

Overall, new update are looking fantastic the bosses finally feel like true world bosses. Seeing 30–50 players inside an arena is absolutely amazing.