Zealoid Prelate: i'm mostly content.

[taiiat]

pre tl;dr to be laser clear on the overall tone of this: this encounter isn't blowing my mind or anything, but, i don't have anything to hate about it.

 

alright, unlike a couple recent 'Boss' type encounters recently in Warframe, this one sits firmly positive as a whole, for me. _{^{*cough* Exploiter and Ropalapalapa *cough*}}

to begin with, it didn't seem like any Abilities were artificially restricted, and the encounter still works just fine (imagine that! removing Abilities isn't necessary for something to work). infact nothing was specifically restricted at all. high marks for that.

the Boss is cool in its own right, not the most flashy thing but it's something distinctly different, so it stands out and has some memorability.

 

 

normally 'invulnerability phases' are meh - but here, it feels like it works since you have something to do and what you do feels like something you're doing, not just hitting a button and waiting. the active part of stripping that invulnerability is what makes it work.

however, there's a caveat - the thing you go get from another room, detracts from the encounter in a way. the action that you're doing is fine, it's just that you kinda... spend like 4/5 of the fight away from the Boss, which feels strange. if you didn't have to go so far away from the Boss, that feeling wouldn't happen.

the object itself, IMO feels neat - it gives you a reason to Kill Enemies. good!

- - - - - - - - - - 

the invulnerability phase and the object to retrieve also left me with something that seemed like was being missed out on. what i mean is that, it seemed like a perfect opportunity for the object to be used with the Boss after you're 'done with it'.
it would be snazzy if after the Damage Phase, that dropping the object right at the feet of the Boss would let you 'Friendly Fire' him or something like that. if you're still holding it or IIRC if you're very close to it when he deletes the object, you get 'flashbanged' in a sense. if you were to drop it next to the Boss, it would be cool if it would 'flashbang' him!
i'm thinking of doing that would Stun the Boss temporarily, preventing him from starting the Healing Phase for a few seconds. with that in play, the Infested that Spawn could Spawn more aggressively, and ergo put on a fancier show, since you'd have that extra time opportunity.
it would just be cooler, essentially.

- - - - - - - - - - 

the start of the encounter is a bit odd and perhaps also disappointing, however. so you run into the Boss in the first room, where it confronts you. alright.... but then after you deal some moderate Damage, another short Cutscene happens and then this dude's just gone. like, where did he go? he didn't move, he didn't seem to even Teleport, he's just friggin' gone. you go to the Waypoint but having to use the Waypoint to know what the heck just happened means something went wrong here.
and that also leaves a bit of disappointment, as the visual themeing of the Boss feels sorta Vampire-like to me, which could be taken advantage of here. if say, instead of just straight vaporizing, the Boss quickly traveled to the second room (not in a Cutscene! actually watching him do that himself in 'real Gameplay' would have a stronger impact). yno, like the classic 'Vampire dash' style hyperspeed movement, use that, IMO.
which in the context of Warframe might look like the Boss using Mach Rush, haha. 

this can also be applied to when the Boss moves in the second room, he also seems to just vaporize into a new location, when a cool looking way of moving could be employed here (ala the mentioned 'Vampire dash').

- - - - - - - - - - 

lastly, the Boss doesn't seem to do all that much with the Pathocyst that he's holding. i would have expected some Throw/ranged attacks to be featured but it didn't seem to happen. if he's already doing stuff like that, then all i can say is that i didn't exactly notice.

and then rounding that out with a grumble that carrying objects in Warframe still restricts you to specific Weapon Slots. the game shouldn't be doing this, objects that we carry should not prevent using all of our Weapons, this is kinda like restricting Abilities, it just feels a bit disappointing when it happens.

 

but again, overall, this is cool, and doesn't punish me for existing - so overall it's a positive addition.

(also i hope that this extension to Infested Invasions will be permanent in some way, as it adds something to Invasions to make them less bland)

Edited October 4, 2019 by taiiat

[GPrime96]

I really think Prelate’s Invincibility makes more sense at how it’s design than how it is for, Sargas Ruk for example. Since it requires a lantern from the other Zealoid to damage him at the second Phase. A Team would end the fight in less than 5 Mins though but i prefer spending less than 5 Mins with Zealoid Prelate than the other “Invincible” Bosses (excluding the ones in Open Worlds.)

[taiiat]

1 hour ago, GPrime96 said:

than how it is for, Sargas Ruk for example.

perhaps. on paper, Sargus Ruk actually seems like it would be good... then in play it just feels like you're standing around. i'm not sure that's entirely just due to Damage Mods(or just overall Powercrepe as having zero threat of dying also doesn't help) either - i think there's something more.
i guess it might be that the 'Weakpoints' literally are just based on time, and as such are a passive part of the encounter rather than the Player going and doing something to get those Weakpoints.

perhaps both of those facets together is what creates the problem. on the flip side, Lephantis is.... passable despite being almost the same thing. or atleast it's not quite as boring feeling.

Edited October 4, 2019 by taiiat

[GPrime96]

20 minutes ago, taiiat said:

perhaps both of those facets together is what creates the problem. on the flip side, Lephantis is.... passable despite being almost the same thing. or atleast it's not quite as boring feeling.

Lephantis have more time to get hit but he uses a Damage Cap which is more noticeable at lvl 100 instead of using Armor. He’s more of a Damage sink instead of a Time waster like how Sargas Ruk is.