(Please read before posting. The title is sort of misleading)
I found the wither boss really difficult to defeat while in survival, even with a full set of diamond armor, a diamond sword, and healing potions, I still died multiple times and had to revert back to creative to defeat it.
He moves really fast
He regenerates health fast
He can send out continuous, exploding heads without really any cooldown at all
He has a ton of health
He can fly
He's immune to arrows at half health
His attacks do a ton of damage, poison you, and make your health bar hard to see
Seems kind of overpowered to me.
When I fought him, he hovered right over me; just beyond the reach of my sword, and followed me while constantly bombarding me with his exploding heads, making it incredibly hard to draw and shoot my bow without getting damaged. If I let him get away for a few seconds, his health just comes right back and I have to do it all over again.
EDIT: I don't necessarily want him to be any easier, but I want him to be challanging. Not a mob that you can just brute-force through with the proper materials. For more detail-
I've said it before, and i'll say it again. The Wither is indeed hard, but he is not needing a nerf; merely a change.
The Wither is pretty limited in terms of attacks; he pretty much just nukes your face until it dies or you're dead. That's it. The Wither skulls are pretty hard to dodge, so if you don't have really good equipment you'll inevitably die.
That's not a good enough boss. Where's the challenge if your victory is practically predetermined? There's no strategy; all you need is full diamond armor, a Strength II potion, a Health II splash potion, and plenty of food. Just run at him on a flat surface and spam the left mouse button like it was any other mob that you had to kill. Sounds fun? In my mind, no.
Compare a game that has good bosses; the Legend of Zelda. Pretty much every game in the series (besides the first and parts of the second) have exceptional bosses. Take, for an example, Rebonack; the boss of the third temple in the second game. Compared to the Wither, he seems rather mundane; he's a pixelated knight on a horse, whereas the Wither is a pixelated demon skeleton thing.
Rebonack has two stages; one where he's charging you down on a horse, and one where he's fighting you on foot.
The Wither has two stages; one where he takes damage from arrows and one where he doesn't. (As if they were viable; he closes distance quickly and is just as deadly from a range as up close, whereas you're weaker from a distance.)
Rebonack's first stage composes of him on a horse trying to charge him down. You have to jump over him and stab him on the head with your sword enough times to get to the next stage.
The Wither's first stage composes of him trying to blow you up. They deal a lot of damage, and they'll kill you very quickly if you wear any armor besides diamond. You have to hit him with your sword, shoot him with your bow, or throw enough healing splash potions at him to get to the next stage.
Rebonack's second stage composes of him trying to kill you on foot. He's clad in heavy armor, he has a shield, and he has a sword. He'll swing his sword at you regardless of how far away you are from him, but it doesn't matter because his sword shoots lasers (fortunately they can be blocked with a shield). Your sword can do the same, but only when you're at full health. Not like it matters, as he's immune to your lasers. You have to get up close to him to hit him, as you have no ranged options. Don't worry, though, as he's still hard as heck; his shield can block all of your attacks, but your shield cannot block his. He'll move his shield to match your attack, but if you're lucky, his timing will be off and you'll score a hit. You have to do this eight or so times or so before you finally kill him.
The Wither's second stage composes of him trying to blow you up. They deal a lot of damage, and they'll kill you very quickly if you wear any armor besides diamond. This time he's glowing, and he's immune to your arrows. You have to hit him with your sword or throw enough healing splash potions at him to finish him off.
Zelda II was created in early 1987 for the NES.
The Wither was created in mid 2012 for the modern PC (the sort capable of handling games like Crysis).
The Wither, as a boss, was outclassed in terms of complexity by a boss made 25 years prior on vastly inferior hardware.
Come on, Mojang. You can do better than that, can't you? All you need to do is give it more attacks (seriously, the only mob with multiple attacks is the Blaze, and all it has in addition to it's normal attack is contact damage), make it have a unique attribute (besides a variant of poison), and in general make it different from every other mob in the game.
Hmm, a lot of mixed results in this thread. I have to say, I am disappointed by the number of people who probably only read the title, and then came in screaming and saying that everyone other than them was whining. I was expecting a civil conversation here, as is the purpose of a feedback section.
Now, if you've read at all, I stated specifically why I thought the boss was too difficult. Literally, when I was fighting him, all he did was hover above me while blasting me over and over again. I'm not sure if this was a behavior glitch or not, but basically it seemed like something where if you don't have the proper materials, it's impossible, but if you have enchanted diamond armor, it's easy. This does not provide a challange. A challange should be something that takes a large amount of skill to do, and has a chance of killing you, but not something that you have to have brute strength to complete. This is what the boss seems to me right now.
All I really propose here are two things, otherwise it would be too easy:
1. The boss can't break through any block on contact. Thoughtout the thread I see all kinds of cool things involving custom arenas, and these sound like they could be really fun. Sort of provides an ability to do custom PVP matches in singleplayer, but with the wither instead of another player. Unfortunately, all of these are void if the boss can simply break through your arena.
2. The boss sends his heads out slightly slower, or he can send a quick volley of them and then has to cooldown for a second. It seems like, if you're not strong enough, he's just going to wear away at your health slowely, as the heads are extremely hard to dodge, especially when he gets right over your head like I mentioned earlier.
Or, for those out there who do want the boss to be more difficult, there's a compromise: keep him the way he is now in hard mode, change his behavior to what I said in normal mode, and make him even easier in easy mode. After all, the difficulties are there for a reason.
I found the wither boss really difficult to defeat while in survival, even with a full set of diamond armor, a diamond sword, and healing potions, I still died multiple times and had to revert back to creative to defeat it.
He moves really fast
He regenerates health fast
He can send out continuous, exploding heads without really any cooldown at all
He has a ton of health
He can fly
He's immune to arrows at half health
His attacks do a ton of damage, poison you, and make your health bar hard to see
Seems kind of overpowered to me.
When I fought him, he hovered right over me; just beyond the reach of my sword, and followed me while constantly bombarding me with his exploding heads, making it incredibly hard to draw and shoot my bow without getting damaged. If I let him get away for a few seconds, his health just comes right back and I have to do it all over again.
1st phase - be mlg pro and shoot him with a cup of coffee in your hand with a power IV
2nd phase - get to a high place, jumpcrit with Smite IV and repeat
You don't have to fight the Wither Boss, so with that in mind I think it is fine that they made it a challenge.
Well, some people would like to fight the Wither Boss but might find it too hard, they should at least make it a little easier. They shouldn't just dismiss it because it's optional, especially since defeating it is required for the beacon block.
Also, you can spawn it by making a "T" out of soulsand, like you would to spawn an iron golemn, except put 3 wither skulls on top of it.
They seriously need a weakness, or some kind of downside that's critical to killing it. Right now that seems non-existent aside from abusing its height.
The Wither can basically use brute force to get through the player's efforts until the player's gear exceeds the Wither's difficulty, at which the player can always brute force through the Wither's efforts unless they do something stupid.
On the other hand, a boss with a wider variety of attacks (namely, pretty much every boss from The Legend of Zelda except for the early games) poses a different challenge instead of a "you win you lose" fight. Pretty much every boss in TLoZ requires some form of skill. If you aren't skilled, you'll fail (but each time you fail you gain skill, so you'll win eventually). If you are skilled, you'll be able to kill them more easily and with worse equipment. In Minecraft, there is no skill against the Wither fight; just stay close, hit it as much as you can, and throw a health potion on your foot if your health gets low.
So, the Wither is hard. He can brute-force through anything if your equipment isn't good enough. Some TLoZ bosses are hard. People kill them with the minimum amount of health (for those who don't know, that usually means you'll die in one or two hits).
Aka, i'd rather the Wither require a lot of skill or some skill and some equipment rather than requiring a lot of good equipment.
I think the key behind beating him is giving yourself home field advantage. They allow you to spawn him where ever you want for a reason. I couldnt beat him at all just out in the open. So jumped in creative and through together a little arena that has a ceiling and shielded pathways. In survival it may take an hour or so to make it, but its worth it. After i built my little arena and stocked up on potions and a few weapons, it becomes a doable fight. Not easy by any means, but possible.
I think the key behind beating him is giving yourself home field advantage. They allow you to spawn him where ever you want for a reason. I couldnt beat him at all just out in the open. So jumped in creative and through together a little arena that has a ceiling and shielded pathways. In survival it may take an hour or so to make it, but its worth it. After i built my little arena and stocked up on potions and a few weapons, it becomes a doable fight. Not easy by any means, but possible.
Exactly, its not easy to make a cage for him, considering his abilities. Cobble doesn't work, since he can "chew" holes in it. Obsidian I think works, but lets face it, even a MINIMAL containment cage of obsidian would take quiet the effort to do, and even then iv seen him somehow slip through the walls and then goodbye world.
And if hes out in the open, hes pretty much impossible since he flies half a mile up, and becomes immune to arrows. Seriously I can see this thing getting banned on every single server if it was implemented at its current state...It would just cause waaaaay to much havoc, even for a well organized, well armed community, if say, a griefer constructed one on the border to town.
Seriously, if you don't fight that thing in a contained environment, your screwed. dead. RIP.
Trap him in a room with dispensers full of arrows. Then idk make a small opening and throw in splash healing potions.
I dunno if you can drown it or force it into cactus. When when you see its almost dead have a piston knock the cactus out. Maybe it can even be squished with pistons for a while. Idk.
You can totally make a trap room for it. Since mobs don't use buttons and things only you could get in/out.
Once you beat it you have what you need for the op becon block. And you'll still have a wither prison trap for more.
Trap him in a room with dispensers full of arrows. Then idk make a small opening and throw in splash healing potions.
I dunno if you can drown it or force it into cactus. When when you see its almost dead have a piston knock the cactus out. Maybe it can even be squished with pistons for a while. Idk.
You can totally make a trap room for it. Since mobs don't use buttons and things only you could get in/out.
Once you beat it you have what you need for the op becon block. And you'll still have a wither prison trap for more.
It destroys blocks. Trapping him in a room will cause some very unpredictable outcomes.
Even with the (painstaking) option of making an obsidian room with a single slot and then raining healing potions down on him, I'd rather the boss actually be challanging but fun to battle. Sort of like Kholdstare said. Right now he just flies around while constantly trying to shoot exploding heads at you; he needs some sort of weakness to exploit to make it fun and possible (though challanging) for less-equipped people.
Even something as basic as a recharge time would do- sort of like the blazes. The wither shoots a volley of heads at you, and you dodge all of them, and then you have a chance to hit it with an arrow or something.
I don't think we should call for nerfs just yet, as a point of interest splash potions of healing will cause damage once he gets his regen shield up at half health. does soul sand slow it down do we know?
So only once he has his shield up huh?...well, perhaps, but potions have much less velocity than arrows, meaning it would be difficult to hit him (or impossible) when he flies up into the air... Can someone perhaps make a video of killing this thing in ANYTHING but creative?...I'm interested to see if someone can even do this.
I think this is the kind of boss where we should have to build an arena to fight it in, I mean since we can summon it its something we should be extremely prepared for, it would also make for some really cool arena design I think.
No they damage him all the time, sorry should have been clearer.
No, actually turned out I was using regeneration....my bad.
However how would you carry that many potions to kill him considering they don't stack?
I did just try pelting him with instant heal potions on creative, and what with the full auto infinite potions, he actually died not too hard...but in survival you can only carry 36 potions before needing to grab more from a chest or something. and im sure I used more than that.
I found the wither boss really difficult to defeat while in survival, even with a full set of diamond armor, a diamond sword, and healing potions, I still died multiple times and had to revert back to creative to defeat it.
When I fought him, he hovered right over me; just beyond the reach of my sword, and followed me while constantly bombarding me with his exploding heads, making it incredibly hard to draw and shoot my bow without getting damaged. If I let him get away for a few seconds, his health just comes right back and I have to do it all over again.
EDIT: I don't necessarily want him to be any easier, but I want him to be challanging. Not a mob that you can just brute-force through with the proper materials. For more detail-
Quoted to help stop redundancy:
How do you summon him anyways?
The only current way to spawn him is through MCedit. I think when the official update comes along they will make it much easier.
1st phase - be mlg pro and shoot him with a cup of coffee in your hand with a power IV
2nd phase - get to a high place, jumpcrit with Smite IV and repeat
Well, some people would like to fight the Wither Boss but might find it too hard, they should at least make it a little easier. They shouldn't just dismiss it because it's optional, especially since defeating it is required for the beacon block.
Also, you can spawn it by making a "T" out of soulsand, like you would to spawn an iron golemn, except put 3 wither skulls on top of it.
Just saw that in the new snapshot changelog, ignore my previous post.
They see right through invisibility.
They seriously need a weakness, or some kind of downside that's critical to killing it. Right now that seems non-existent aside from abusing its height.
The Wither can basically use brute force to get through the player's efforts until the player's gear exceeds the Wither's difficulty, at which the player can always brute force through the Wither's efforts unless they do something stupid.
On the other hand, a boss with a wider variety of attacks (namely, pretty much every boss from The Legend of Zelda except for the early games) poses a different challenge instead of a "you win you lose" fight. Pretty much every boss in TLoZ requires some form of skill. If you aren't skilled, you'll fail (but each time you fail you gain skill, so you'll win eventually). If you are skilled, you'll be able to kill them more easily and with worse equipment. In Minecraft, there is no skill against the Wither fight; just stay close, hit it as much as you can, and throw a health potion on your foot if your health gets low.
So, the Wither is hard. He can brute-force through anything if your equipment isn't good enough. Some TLoZ bosses are hard. People kill them with the minimum amount of health (for those who don't know, that usually means you'll die in one or two hits).
Aka, i'd rather the Wither require a lot of skill or some skill and some equipment rather than requiring a lot of good equipment.
And if hes out in the open, hes pretty much impossible since he flies half a mile up, and becomes immune to arrows. Seriously I can see this thing getting banned on every single server if it was implemented at its current state...It would just cause waaaaay to much havoc, even for a well organized, well armed community, if say, a griefer constructed one on the border to town.
Seriously, if you don't fight that thing in a contained environment, your screwed. dead. RIP.
I dunno if you can drown it or force it into cactus. When when you see its almost dead have a piston knock the cactus out. Maybe it can even be squished with pistons for a while. Idk.
You can totally make a trap room for it. Since mobs don't use buttons and things only you could get in/out.
Once you beat it you have what you need for the op becon block. And you'll still have a wither prison trap for more.
Try stone bricks. Those have a high explosive resistence.
It destroys blocks. Trapping him in a room will cause some very unpredictable outcomes.
He is invulnerable for about 10 seconds after he's created. Although he can't attack during that time period, he is simply generating health.
Even something as basic as a recharge time would do- sort of like the blazes. The wither shoots a volley of heads at you, and you dodge all of them, and then you have a chance to hit it with an arrow or something.
Ok, this is an issue people. It DOES work with bedrock but bedrock isnt normally obtainable is it?
this guy needs a Nerf...or several...now....
He destroys any block that can be destroyed by players, which is pretty much every normal block except for bedrock.
However how would you carry that many potions to kill him considering they don't stack?
I did just try pelting him with instant heal potions on creative, and what with the full auto infinite potions, he actually died not too hard...but in survival you can only carry 36 potions before needing to grab more from a chest or something. and im sure I used more than that.
NERF! NERF! NERF! NERF! NERF! NERF!