Codename “Splitter”, this was another boss I was asked to quickly rework before it was released. It was the only boss being added for the first free DLC, and had been made long before the boss designs shifted away from being very add-centric. So in this case, the fight was just a pre-existing normal enemy that split off copies of itself, as well as spawned copies from the edges of the arena. I only had about a week to rework it, so my approach was:

• Make it so the split-off copies all share the same health pool, and there are no otherwise adds
• Make it behave more like a hive-mind, coordinating attacks between the copies
• Give it 2 new moves that utilize this approach
  • A shockwave attack, so clones could stagger the shockwave in a rhythmic way
  • A “continuous heal until staggered”, so clones in the back could start this and cause the player a sudden priority shift and fix the monotony of just kiting the group of clones for the whole fight
• Adjust its existing “throw axe” projectile move to be more boss-like (exaggerated tell, more deadly, more exciting visuals), with coordination between the clones
• And since this fight naturally favors AoE builds, add some explosives to the arena so single-target players can utilize those to not have the fight drag on / get some really satisfying AoE hits

The rework was very effective at turning the fight into something memorable, unique, and challenging, which targeted returning “let’s check out the free DLC” players well.