Captain fights at the end of assassination missions are way too easy and boring, most of the time they die within 1 minute max. The Karnak twins were a much more interesting fight fatshark please make assassination missions not boring, make them multi phase fights with interesting attacks or something
Contrast the karnak twins “instant fight” against an end-of-mission boss where you’ve invested 20-25 minutes to get there.
Yeah. It’s generally a gimme, but if you lost that fight 50% of the time, that mission would be hugely underpopulated.
I’m not saying it has to be as hard as Karnak twins but the twins are mechanically much more interesting to fight than captains which spend 90% of the fight on their ass after getting their shield broken
Magistrati oubliette is a short mission anyway
I think the difficulty on those stems from the rest of the spawns that come to the captains aid which I think is cool and fitting for a scab captain. What I dont like is how the Chasm Terminus version got nerfed and how the Magistrati Oubliette one is still completely way too easy, it doesn’t even spawn specials. The train one is also kinda lame, but it’s excusable due to the mission type.
If they actually spawned a challenging array of Scab regiments they could be great.
A few possible solutions:
1.) The Captain has its own retinue of Elites that spawn alongside them. This will help cover the gap between when they spawn in and when reinforcements arrive. I recommend an especially beefy retinue for the Magistrati level, as the current setup is a bit cheesable. Might even want them to drop down first to deal with campers.
2.) Increase weapon variation. Right now, only two types of captains spawn, and they’re almost identical that most folks don’t even notice the differences. Giving the captains more unique/varied melee movesets and different ranged weapons with more distinct behavior would improve replayability. Some examples:
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Devil’s Claw. Much faster attacks necessitating blocking over dodging. No “Power Attacks”. When the shield is broken, the Captain can enter a “Parry” stance, where if they’re struck with a melee weapon they do a quick, high damage attack. This stance can be broken with ranged attacks, or can be waited out. Further emphasizes the “Melee when shield is up, ranged when shield is down” protocol.
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Chain weapon. Slower attacks, but if they hit the target is rooted and their toughness is gradually drained. If the captain is not staggered in this state within a set period of time, the rooted target is dealt massive damage. Emphasizes dodging and if that fails, CC. Since the target is only immobilized and not incapacitate, certain setups can break out of the psuedo-stun themselves (Such as an Ogryn’s Bull Rush).
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Crusher. One of the current weapon variants, but might I suggest giving them a powered-up attack? It could cause an explosion on hit, dealing knockback and more damage, at the cost of a small charge-up animation.
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Saber/Rapier. Alternates between highly mobile thrusts and quick flurries (Similar to current moveset) but includes a backstep to quickly make space that can also combo into the next attack. Could also have a “Rally” maneuver that buffs nearby enemies.
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Revolver. Faster fire speed than the plasma pistol, but only has 5 shots before a lengthy pause to reload. Can enter a “Dead-eye” stance where a player is targeted, and they have a short period to find cover or ready a well timed slide-doge to avoid a barrage of 5 rapid-fire shots. Alternatively, they could rapidly switch to ranged to fire a shot and then back to melee, emphasizing the “quickdraw” aspect.
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Flamer. Acts the same as a Flamer’s flamer, sans the exploding backpack of course.
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Recon/stubber. Targets one player with a stream of bullets that start with a slow ROF and ramps up overtime, forcing said player to find cover or get creative (Staggering, for example). Slide-dodge spamming can only get you so far when it’s at full tilt. Alternatively, they could spray the arena, forcing players to dodge through the hail of lead as they wildly sway it around the arena.
3.) Add a “Plague Priest” support enemy that buffs/heals the captain and tries to hide/run to the opposite end of the arena. This would force players to split their attention between two high-value targets. As a tangent to this, having targets be significantly different (Other than just weapon selection) would also improve replayability as it would force players to adapt to whichever arch-heretic they get dealt. Like, you could get a Captain, a Buffed up Plague priest casting spells, a stealth-focused assassin you have to chase all about the arena, or the tag-team mentioned above. I would also like to fight a squad of corrupted rejects myself.
My issue with the Captain fights is how uninteractive the Captains feel. Every attack is telegraphed and slow, even if it hits like a truck, very rarely does the Captain put anyone down. There’re not hugely energetic or mobile or aggressive.
The Captain also doesn’t appear to…lead anything. They don’t act in concert with adds, they don’t lead or command anything or shape the engagement, they’re not enhancing or buffing the adds, they’re just the biggest thing on the room, basically just a big Mauler with an energy shield.
Having some faster attacks to cycle in, a bit more movement, and some more active directing of the fight (maybe have the Captain call out a player for the adds to concentrate on, basically popping an Ogryn Shout on random players) would help a lot.
I want him to jump on top of one of the trains when you get him to a certain % hp then start calling in elite/special waves
I’ve sent this feedback a few times. personally, since it’s a boss fight, I’d like the boss to be made stronger. If possible, I’d prefer that only mobs spawn, without specialists or elites. I’d like the boss to have multiple attack patterns, such as fast consecutive single-target attacks, AOE attacks, and binding attacks, to make it feel more like a true boss
Not that I’m advocating the same solutions, but thinking on VT2 bosses
The sorcerer in his lair equivalent … Probably too difficult. Darktide I don’t think fits the hokey cokey style boss fights.
The captain who mutates into a chaos monstrosity half way through… Probably just right?
Good point, but I don’t think anyone would argue that having some of the entourage actually appear during the boss fight, rather than right before the cutscene is a bad thing. At least Chasm Terminus has that going for it.
Magistrati is a great map, but the boss fight is very much a boring anti-climactic gimme.
I would say to make it interesting have him get 2 weakened plague ogryns as body guard reinforcements when he hits 2/3 hp.
No, I don’t disagree.
I think other than the old Hab Dreyko ending, they all lack jeopardy. I dunno. Massive boss fight is an ask I think, but I like the ones where you have to basically run a gauntlet of side spawning enemies.
what captain fight, i remember only an execution.
I’m definitely on the side of I don’t want to lose a match to a strong boss at the end. With the twins you specifically accommodate for that fight in your loadout from the outset, versus quickplay woes.
That said, I think there are a lot of ways the climax can be more climactic. Space out the boss phases and have them call in waves:
“RELEASE THE CRUSHAHHHS” - wave of strong armoured melee scabs
“SMOTHER THEM IN FLATULENCE” - big poxwalker horde with some pox bombers thrown in
“WHOOPS, ALL RAGERS” - To quote a recent thread
Just picture it: Kydd’s blessed soundtrack pounding in your ears, Captain roaring orders, wreaking bloody havoc on wave after wave of baddies in between laying the everloving smackdown on some Scab fool who thinks he’s all that.
I’d be kind of pumped for this kind of thing. Then we’re still playing Darktide and not Bosstide
I think we all, consciously or not, equip ourselves optimally for the Captain fight, and that’s why it is so easy.
If you have a Psyker burning the mobs, a Veteran sniping the elites, a Zealot sawing the shield and an Ogryn cracking the captain’s skull with his huge pickaxe, then of course the fight is easy.
For starters they should not get knock down when their shield fails. Second maybe its time Fatshark that at least for human boss enemies to learn how to dodge / block player attacks. I’m actually surprised you haven’t leveraged a duellist like enemy class in Tide games.
I think you’re right. But to be fair; it could also be that most people take weapons that are “do-it-alls” so we can all melee the hel out of a shield, pop-shoot the specials/elites, and for the most part just ignore the trash mobs while dodge strafing the boss. meta is what meta does.
Think the only time I’ve seen this go a bit awry was when I was playing with three aoe psykers and they couldn’t really engage the boss.
or 4 guys poking him with dueling swords.
It’s not possible for me to experience this.
I refuse to use a Dueling sword on principle. This is 40k. I use Chain Weapons, Thunder Hammers and Boltguns or the Holy Flamer.