May 7 Varlamore Group Boss Podcast

Hosted by Sarnie and Squid

Big game update tomorrow! (this is more chaotic and casual than a stream)
Lore: its a boss on the mountain, was supposed to be looked after by the dwarves, they apparently neglectied their duties and now its mad and need help taking it down

Group content, aimed at players 90 combat and higher. Overhead prayers req Recommend team size 3-8 for best experience You'll have to climb up the mountain with a dwarven party, take down different parts to reach its head, then take down the head New rewards:

Tome of earth ( & muddy pages)
New dueling wand (Uses Dueling Shot spell, 30% rune save chance)
Prayer restoration potions (8 pts/min, 4 dose potion, 264 ppoints/potion)

Mod sarnie: Reward blogs - its where we think the rewards are in a good place and ready to discuss the proposal with players. Should have gone a bit sooner, but we had to wait a bit for the Runefest blog

Q: Is there a reason to deviate from the pattern of skilling bosses dropping tomes?
A: Its cool that the last two tomes are from skilling, but now its time to try one from combat. It fits this boss, and goes nice with the wand so why not. We also want to get out the tomes of earth and air quickly with weaknesses. We want to get an uptick of elemental spells with the rebalance too. We dont currently have a plan for the air tome yet though.

Q: Should the design space for dueling wand (dps wise) be reconsidered to fit between warped scepter and trident?
A: The regular trident is about the same dps at 85 magic, before that with tome the wand is better. Scepter doesnt overtake until 96 magic. This fills in the gap at the lower-ish levels and gives you a low tier option for earth elemental damage If you didn't play the beta, it might be difficult to grasp the amount of lifting that elemental weakness does but its an extremely strong earth-damage option. Maybe this is something that will change once rebalance comes out, but this is currently planned to poll before rebalance comes out but we can look into changing the timing

Q: Are the effects of the prayer regeneration potion stackable?
A: No, it doesn't stack with itself. If you keep drinking it, it will extend/reset timer. Chat what do you think? (Chat overwhelming picks reset timer)

Q: Is the group boss draconic?
A: I don't think so. It has wings and it can glide around, but its more of a serpent. It snakes across the mountain or drags along the ground, its not a dragon. Dragonbane weapons "probably" wont work. Merchers in shambles

Q: Does group boss retaliate with each part of its body during that phase, or is it closer to skotizo/hespori where you attack one piece at at a time
A: Theres obstacles to avoid that aren't coming from the boss directly, think the head attacking you from top of the mountain while you hit other parts of the body on the mountain. you're trying to aggravate it enough to shift

Q: Does the dwarven priest require protection from the boss during the encounter, will you fail the encounter if he dies?
A: No, its not an escort mission. He won't help you either though.

Q: What do you think about dropping the new prayer potion secondary from both the new boss and the varlamore herblore activity? Thematically this makes sense since the bosses scales can fall off while it travels around.
A: Its a possibility, it would be nice to have a tie in between the two things. There will be discussions internally about how/if we integrate the two. Mod Sarnie isn't sure what this will look like exactly, maybe one shared secondary? There are balance concerns about the herblore activity producing the secondary at a rate we're not happy with.

Q: Does the new prayer potion have an interaction with holy wrench? A: We didn't think about it. What does chat think? (Chat is slightly more yes than no).

Q: Do you see run energy management / stams being needed? A: There is not that much run involved.

Q: Will the tome offer anything beyond 10% damage? The tome of water gets accuracy and damage and entangle spell buffs A: Post rebalance all the tomes will be 10% damage, thats why the new tome is at 10%. Mod Sarnie notes that hes been detached from project rebalance, and is pretty sure that all the tomes are going to just be 10% damage post rebalance, so it will be the same as other tomes.

Q: Quest needed for boss? A: No, probably not. We're not currently planning to and it depends on how much time we have. Its just a boss in the world you can see and fight.

Q: Pet?
A: Yes

Q: Tome of earth from a mining activity?
A: The problem with that is that we don't have any plans for a skilling boss/activity in the near term, and with project rebalance coming out so soon we want to get the tome out quicker so don't hold your breath for it

Q: Spellbook restriction on the wand?
A: As a reminder, dueling shot is a spell off standard spellbook that gets sped up to 3 ticks with the wand. It is not a powered staff. Standard spellbook spell, maybe arceus, definitely not ancients. Worth a discussion

Q: Are you sureeeeeee about dragonbane not working?
A: Mod squid: Its based on a feathered serpent bird creature, its kinda dragon-ish but its more winged serpent.

Q: Dueling wand in pvp?
A: Probably yeah, Mod Manked left some comments about it during design an wasn't opposed.

Q: Why earth for wand?
A: Post project rebalance, there aren't any good earth options for mid levels, so this wand with the spell is there to fill that gap

Q: Were these items designed for this boss or existing design ideas just thrown on?
A: The boss is very tunnel-y, its earth thematic. Its not exactly flying around, its closer to tunneling around. I know we said its based on the wind god, but we don't have to strictly follow real life mythology with these. We can be inspired by visual design then do something else with it.

Q: Why does everything have to be made solo? Game is having less and less interactions
A: Because people like solo bosses. Its intended for groups but we're giving you a solo option. Expect it to be harder/longer in solo. "Viable for solo" is open to interpretation.

Q: How do loot rolls work?
A: Based on the nex system, everyone (16 people?) get a loot roll based on contribution

Q: Tome of air?
A: Soon

Q: Can you give the wand a niche at tob?
A: We are aware standard spellbook restriction makes it useless at tob. We will discuss it internally, but no guarantees on action.

Q: Do we need pickaxes as we embark with our dwarven party?
A: No

Q: Any idea of what other loot can be expected?
A: blessed bone shards, maybe antelope meats.

Q: Do you have the boss kinda designed to be sight-read (like scurius) where its obvious how to do it and you dont need to read the wiki beforehand?
A: Yes

Q: Where do you see this boss fitting into account progression?
A: Mid game is very broad, this is around people that are just getting their fire cape, fairly new to bossing/pvm. This boss is intending to focusing more on the group mechanics/social aspect of it

Q: Can we have a slayer helm interaction using the bosses head? A: There currently is no slayer tie in, Mod Squid was thinking about it. It would likely have to be a new task or exclusively a boss task. Chat generally in favor of a slayer tie-in.

Mod Sarnie comment: Its hard to see where people are coming from, theres no way to tell what kind of feedback is coming from what kind of player, paraphased: can't really tell if a commenter is someone who can't get their firecape or a max zuk helmer

Q: If this is added as task, can we get an overhaul for all bosses to drop items from the superior item table?
A: Mod squid: No comment. Mod Sarnie: Would be cool to randomly get an imbued heart from a boss or whatever

Q: Can you bring prayer regeneration potions into inferno?
A: Theres been some conerns about using this to wait out wave-based content. You can already effectively do this by waiting for falador shield regen. If you really think waiting an hour for an extra prayer potion is a good trade thats for you to decide. Calling this abusable is a stretch. We'll have a discussion (with good inferno players) and do testing with it.

Q: GIM instance?
A: Probably not for exlusively GIM, but you'll have the option for solo/private instance that you can use

Q: Will it affect prestige groups?
A: Probably like nex, if you join a group that has anyone thats not in your group it'll cause you to lose prestige

Mod Sarnie closing comments: Please fill out the survey on the newspost!