Elemental Shaman raid boss!


tl;dr I wish playing ele was as rewarding as it was writing out this massive post.I began writing this post the other day when the "class raid boss" thread came about, but I had to abandon it for reasons. Now that I'm able to sit and focus and write again, here's my rough draft for a 20 man boss with an elemental shaman theme! Also, I'm aware that that thread was mostly satire and humor, but I took it seriously because I thought it would be cool to try my hand at encounter design. Enjoy! :DElemental Shaman raid boss, henceforth referred to as "boss."Circular platform with boss standing on the edge (think Mythic Archimonde last phase).The boss has two auras: one called Astral Shift, and one called Spirit Link. Astral Shift makes the boss immune to player attacks, which means it can only take damage from Spirit Link. Spirit Link connects the boss with the four totems around the platform: one Fire, one Water, one Earth, and one Air. Each Totem is equal to 20% of the boss health. When all four totems are destroyed, the boss will be at 20% remaining health, and Astral Shift will be removed. Boss is not tankable until Astral Shift is removed.10 seconds after pull and every 45(?) seconds after, boss will summon an Elemental from each of the active totems that will rush toward the center of the platform and then choose a random non-tank player. Once they choose a target, they will fixate that target and move slowly toward it until killed. If the elemental reaches the player, bad things happen to the player. Killing the elemental will grant 20% haste to the fixated player for 10 seconds.Boss will spam cast Lightning Bolt at random players for low damage. Every 4 Lightning Bolts he will cast Lava Burst at a random non-tank target for very high damage. Players will need to watch for this and use personals appropriately. Boss will also periodically cast Earthquake at the location of Earth Totem, which will last for 10 seconds, dealing high ticking damage every 2 seconds to players stood in it.Totem AbilitiesEach Totem is equal to 20% of the boss health. When all four totems are destroyed, the boss will be at 20% remaining health, and Astral Shift will be removed.Fire TotemFire Totem will spam cast Sear at five random raid members for moderate fire damage. Fire Totem will also cast Flame Shock on X random raid members every X seconds. Flame Shock will be a non-dispellable DoT effect that splashes damage within 3 yards. Any players hit by the splash will also be affected by Flame Shock. Flame Shock can only be removed by standing near a player affected by Roaring Waves. Flame Shock cannot be applied to tanks.Water TotemWater Totem will cast an interruptible spell called Healing Wave every 15(?) seconds. Healing Wave will send a wave of healing from the totem across the platform, healing the Totems for 20% of their HP. Water Totem will also have a pushback called Raging Current around it constantly so that melee cannot get into range. Players who stand in the Raging Current will also be applied with Roaring Waves. Roaring Waves is a non-dispellable DoT that deals moderate splashing damage. This effect stacks. One stack of this debuff may be removed by damaging an ally that is affected by Flame Shock. When Water Totem is destroyed, Roaring Waves gains 4 seconds of duration per stack, and will fall off once the duration expires.Earth TotemEarth Totem will move across the ground to the location of a random player every 15 seconds, applying Entangle to any players it passes by. Entangle will root and instantly deal high damage. This can be dispelled. Cannot target players with Flame Shock. Earth Totem will also periodically cast Tremor, which will shake the earthen platform, dealing massive damage to all players.Air TotemAir Totem will cast Slicing Gale every 30(?) seconds, which will send an air pulse across the platform from its position. Any player struck by Slicing Gale will be silenced for 20 seconds. Air Totem will also periodically cast Tailwind on X random raid members. Tailwind will constantly push players away from the Air Totem. The pushback is lessened for players who are moving towards the Air Totem. Tailwind can only be removed by being Entangled by the Earth Totem, or when Air Totem is destroyed. Tailwind cannot target tanks. When Earth Totem is destryed, Tailwind will become a 30 second debuff.When any totem reaches 80% or 40%, a corresponding Primal Elemental will spawn.Primal Fire ElementalPrimal Fire Elemental will melee its target for (high boss physical damage). Each melee attack will apply a stacking debuff called Singed, which deals ticking fire damage. One stack of Singed will be removed when the player gains one stack of Soaked. When Primal Fire Elemental dies, the Singed debuff on the tank will gain 1 second duration for each stack that it had, the damage will double, and will fall off when the duration expires.Primal Fire Elemental will gain 10% damage every 2 seconds while standing still. Moving will reduce the damage. Primal Fire Elemental will also leave a Fire Patch in its wake when moved. Fire Patch deals medium/high damage every 1 seconds to players standing in it.The dead elemental will also flare up into 5 Lesser Fire Elementals. Lesser Fire Elementals will melee the target with the highest threat.Primal Water ElementalPrimal Water Elemental will attack its target with Water Bolt (cooler name needed) for (high boss damage, like a melee attack but deals nature damage). Each Water Bolt will apply a stacking debuff called Soaked, which deals ticking nature damage. One stack of Soaked will be removed when the player gains one stack of Singed. When Primal Water Elemental dies, the Soaked debuff on the tank will gain 1 second duration for each stack that it had, the damage will double, and will fall off when the duration expires.Primal Water Elemental will gain 10% every 2 seconds while moving, and will lose 10% damage while standing still (cannot go below 100% normal damage). Primal Water Elemental will also leave a Puddle in its wake for 10 seconds. Puddle will douse any Fire Patches it comes into contact with, leaving Steam for 10 seconds. Any player who stands in the Steam will be instantly burned for high fire damage, and then burned again every 1 sec stood in it. When Primal Water Elemental dies, it will splash up into 5 Lesser Water Elementals that will melee the target with the highest threat.Primal Earth ElementalPrimal Earth Elemental will melee its target for (very high boss physical damage). After 10 seconds and every 30 seconds after, it will cast Earthen Smash on the tank, which will deal damage to its target and cause the ground to Ripple outward slowly, with its target as the epicenter. Any player (except for the target) hit by Ripple will be killed and their body will be flung into the air for the lulz. When Primal Earth Elemental dies, it will leave an Earthquake on the ground in a (idk what would be good here, but ideally 25% of the platform if standing on the edge) radius that lasts until the end of the fight.Primal Air ElementalPrimal Air Elemental will attack its target with Wind Gust for (very high boss damage, like a melee attack but deals nature damage). Every 10 seconds, Primal Air Elemental will cast Almighty Gust, which sends a shockwave of air across the platform in a circle around the elemental. Players hit by it will be knocked back and knocked down for 1 sec. Players who jump over it will be knocked into the air and applied with Grace of Air, which grants slowfall, 20% movement speed, and allows casting while moving for 20 seconds. When Primal Air Elemental dies, it deals massive raid damage instantly and applies Grace of Air to all players for one minute.Once all four totems have been destroyed, boss will enter Phase 2: Elemental Overload.Phase 2Boss gains Elemental Overload, stops summoning the fixate elementals, and becomes tankable.Elemental Overload grants the boss two new abilities: Lava Pulse and Earth Pulse. Five seconds after entering Phase 2, and every 15 seconds after, the boss will alternate between casting Lava Pulse and Earth Pulse. Lava Pulse sends a single ring of lava across the platform from the boss. Players who jump over the ring will gain (badass buff name needed), which increases the damage you take and deal by 10% until the next pulse. Earth Pulse will cause spikes to pop out of the ground under the feet of every player after 5 sec, every 5 sec, until the next pulse.Boss will also stop using Lightning Bolt and will instead spam Lava Burst on the target with the highest threat. Each time Lava Burst deals damage, it applies Magma to the target, which increases fire damage taken by 20% per stack. Lasts 30 sec. (Intended to be similar to the Operator Thogar tank debuff)Boss will also gain the ability Chain Lightning, which he will cast every 10 seconds. Boss will target the most dense clump of players with Chain Lightning (will work like Carve a la The Butcher). It deals instantly deals (insanely high) damage to the player struck, but the damage is reduced based on how many players it jumps to. Chain Lightning can jump up to (8?) yards.Each time the boss casts Chain Lightning, he gains a stack of Elemental Focus, which increases his nature damage dealt by 20%.After the fifth Chain Lightning, the boss decides he's had enough of your shit. He stops casting all other abilities and starts to cast Tectonic Rage for 10 seconds. At the end of those 10 seconds, the boss slams a massive totem into the center of the platform, which then crumbles and you fall to your death in the swirling ocean.HOLY FUCKING SHITBALLS THAT WAS FUN TO WRITE.You all should let me know what you think. Let me know if all the mechanics make sense. Or if any dont make sense, I can elaborate. Off the top of my head, there are a few that I can elaborate on before I stop writing.-The Totems are intended to be killed in pairs; Obviously, the fire/water totems are a pair, and the earth/wind totems are a pair. You aren't forced to kill them in any order, but the elementals only spawn based on totem health, so padding on the second pair you decide to kill is not recommended.-For Fire/Water, you are intended to move the flame shock people out of the way, get someone/group to run into the water totem to get the debuff to put out the flame shock people.-For Earth/Air, you have to get rid of the pushback by getting yourself rooted by the moving Earth Totem. If you fuck up and kill the earth totem before the tailwind debuffs are gone, tailwind becomes 30 sec debuff so you aren't TOTALLY fucked, but still punished. I think I put a similar failsafe in for the fire/water totem debuffs.-Similarly, the fire/water elemental tanks have to work together to keep not only their debuff stacks under control, but also the fire patches. The water ele has to be kited over the fire patches to get rid of it. And you can't just tank the two elementals together because of the steam, it would fuck the tanks up in a heartbeat.-Air/earth elementals you have to rely on your tank calling out when the air wave will be, so you can watch for it and dodge it, gaining the buff for that and also dodging the oneshot from earth elemental.-Ideally you'd tank the earth elemental near the back edge of the platform as it's dying, because once both earth eles die, the back half of the platform would be unusable. The buff you get when the air elemental dies is just a grats for getting through phase 1. Because, in my mind, it's almost mandatory to kill the fire/water totems before killing earth/air.-Last phase is pretty much a stack and burn phase, with the exception of the earth pulse, where you kinda have to move around to dodge spikes (think iron juggernaut in SoO). The numbers would all be fine tuned of course.