Frontline Interviews: Dragonfei – Boss Rush (Rogue)

Summoners!

Frontline Interviews is back! I’d like to thank Dragonfei from the UMCOC Podcast (Live on Discord, 8pm EST every Monday) for taking time out of her day to share her thoughts on designing the Rogue fight for the International Women’s Day Boss Rush.

How did you feel when you learned that Kabam was planning an International Women’s Day Boss Rush and wanted you to participate?

Super excited! We haven’t had a Boss Rush in a while, so hearing that they were planning to do one for International Women’s Day, plus bringing in community members to design it? It’s the ultimate compliment to be asked to participate!

Did you ask the game design team to add Jubilee to the game just so you could debut her in the Boss Rush?

No, but the only reason I didn’t was because I think if I keep asking, Gabe (Gabriel Frizzera, the Creative Director at Kabam) is going to refuse to add her to the game just to spite me, and I might deserve it….

As soon as the promo art was released, I knew Rogue had to be your pick. Was there ever any doubt about picking Rogue, as she’s not traditionally seen as a tough defender?

Anyone who has ever listened to the Podcast knows that Rogue is my favorite character currently available in the game – so no, there really wasn’t any doubt. I also wanted to take, as you pointed out, someone who isn’t always seen as a tough defender and make a fight that people were going to both remember, and have a difficult time with!

You helped design the Domino fight your UMCOC Podcast co-hosts. How did that experience influence your design for the Rogue fight?

That Domino fight is probably the most talked about one from the last Boss Rush – because of its difficulty and the fact that it countered some of the more common champions that people like to use for these challenges! That inspired me to shoot for the same thing – I wanted to make the fight that would give people trouble and they’d have to put in some effort to get through! But I also didn’t want to make the same fight – so I took a few of the lessons from Domino and a few from an older Boss Rush to come up with the node design for Rogue!

I think your fight had the fasted pace of any of the 6 fights, because of the two different timers involved (unstoppable and regeneration). Was that intentional?

That was 100% intentional. The harder and faster you go after this fight – the easier it is. Keeping in mind that it’s designed for folks with 5/50’s more so than 5/65’s – you have 10 seconds at the beginning of the fight to really just damage the heck out of her. If you fight more defensively, or have a more defensive style, this fight is going to be harder for you! I tend to fight very defensively myself so it was a shift from my usual way to think about a fight!

You purposely added Invade but then countered in with nodes, why was that important to your fight’s design?

Invade is the secret to beating this fight quickly and effectively. In the last Boss Rush, Dave set up his fight to have Spite help you if you used it correctly, and I wanted to do the same here – I wanted a node to be the way to beat the fight. Invade also massively broadens the pool of champs that can beat her, because you’re (if you’re quick enough) using that 300% attack increase to your advantage.

The combination of Brawl and Aggression: Regen is a fun one – and I added Death Touch because Rogue does have very easy to dodge specials. They’re both nodes that can be countered, but not as easily as folks might think and it’s very easy to get lost in timer counting if you aren’t aggressive enough, which is exactly what I wanted!

Who did you use to beat your boss, and what other champions would you recommend?

I’ve done a couple of runs so far and my two favorites are, admittedly, Warlock and Corvus. Warlock is probably the best of the bunch, because while you can’t parry and put on 5 infection charges easily – you can shut down her regen. Which means all you have to worry about is Brawl! I’m planning to do a run with Ghost, Void, Sunspot and a few others! She can, technically, be beat by anyone though!

-Dano0357