... And no, this isn't us controlling the clockworks boss monsters.

Boss Battles would be a brand new PvP gamemode centered around the differences in tiers. Games would have two variants: 1 vs. 4, and 2 vs 10.

At the start of each round, one or two players are chosen to be the "boss(es)". Bosses have set-in-stone health, abilities, gear, etc. Any player not chosen to be a "boss" can choose from several playable classes with set-in-stone health, abilities, gear, etc... Except for the "custom" class, where you can bring any assortment of 1* gear that you'd like.

What, Fangel, 1* gear?

Yup. Boss Battles is themed around a bunch of low star knights attempting to kill one to two 3-5* knights. All non-boss classes consist of 1* gear... However the 1* geared players can respawn. Respawn timers for non-bosses are pinged every 10 seconds. Wait times are thus only ever maxed out at 10 seconds.

HOW IT ALL WORKS:
Boss Battles would have several different "modes". By "modes", I mean "Objectives". The gist of it is that the "boss" player must complete a number of tasks on the battlefield while the other players try to stop and kill the boss. Sounds simple enough right?

GAMEPLAY
"Objectives" can consist of various things. Here's a quick list of potential objectives:

• Capture control points

Control points would have to be captured linearly to open up the path to the next control point. Non-bosses cannot re-capture control points after they are taken, however they can revert captures that were not completed. Reverting captures takes 4x as long, so you would need 4 people standing on the point to equal the boss's capturing powers.

• Destroy battlepods

Non-bosses would have to defend a series of battlepods from being destroyed. The battlepods themselves fight back, but are not very good at it.

• Clear paths

There may be a long path that the boss player needs to break through, such as 3-hit blocks, timed explosives, etc. Non-boss players would simply have to attack the boss.

• Hold down a spot

Boss players would need to hold out for a set amount of time. Additional hazards may come into play here, such as respawning anti-boss turrets, level themed grunt monsters, etc. All these defenses are also tier 1, as not to make the PvP part obsolete. Non-boss players will respawn faster during these segments, requiring only half the normal respawn time.

• Hack a terminal

Boss players would "start" a hack. Non-boss players would need to hit the object being hacked 3 times to stop the hack. The hack will maintain progress between hacks, but if non-bosses stop the hack frequently then the boss will be halted fairly often.

Objectives would be randomized at game start, and each map would have a "theme" to it, depending on what boss is chosen. That being said, let's go ahead and showcase these bosses!

BOSSES
Bosses have many different shapes and sizes, however each one of them is sure to put pressure on the non-bosses. Bosses are chosen at round start and cannot be changed. If you don't like the boss you've been chosen to be, hopefully a bit of practice and change that.

A few things would be in place to prevent bosses from bring trivialized:
Bosses cannot be inflicted with a status they are already inflicted with, and will gain immunity to said status for 2 seconds after it wears off.
Bosses cannot walk into their respawn room and heal. The "boss minis" however, can.
When a boss kills a player, the player will have a 10% chance to drop a heart.

Each boss and boss mini will be summarized in italics at the end of the boss description.

• The Iron Giant (+ the Keeper)

The Iron Giant would be a player decked out in a full ancient plate set. Helmet, armor, shield... All of that jazz. While they have incredible defense, they lack a bit in offense, having only the 2* troika and 4* irontech bomb.
However this boss has a few extra tricks up its sleeve... They can channel ancient energies! Activated with battle sprite perks, the Iron Giant could smash the ground, creating a powerful shockwave that both stuns and shocks players(20 second cooldown), summon turrets for defense (4 tier 2 gun puppies, 60 second cooldown), and finally buff attack, speed, and defense for 10 seconds (45 second cooldown).

The Iron Giant uses the red personal color and an extra tall height modifier. No special accessories.

This boss has the "beast" monster theme. All non-boss defenses are generated from a beast level set.

When in a 2v10 round, one player is selected to be the "Iron Giant". The second player becomes "the Keeper", which garbs them in a prismatic gremlin costume. "The Keeper" is the Iron Giant's "boss mini".

The Keeper would be in 3* cobalt armor, and be armed with a wrench wand and an antigua. They have a 3* cobalt shield, however it holds the appearance of a darkfang shield. This "boss mini" can respawn, but must wait 45 seconds to respawn.

The Keeper is prismatic to your knight's color - no special color on this boss mini! However this boss does have a toasty wrench on their back, and a fire vial bandolier, as well as an extra short height modifier.

The Keeper has a few special attacks as well. The Keeper can raise defeated knights into dust zombies (tier 1, 10 second cooldown), and activate a healing aura (the "stay close" mender ability - heals keeper for 25% health and the Iron Giant for 1 pip of health, 45 second cooldown).

(Iron Giant would have level 10 ancient plate helm/armor/shield, level 10 troika with ASI: high CTR: low, and an irontech bomb with CTR: med. Can do a tortodrone shockwave, summon tier 2 turrets, and get a 10 second all stats buff through sprite abilities)
(The Keeper would have a level 10 cobalt helm/armor/shield, but look like a gremlin. Has a ASI: low CTR: med wrench wand, and a no-uv'd antigua. Can spawn dust zombies on defeated knights, and utilize the "stay close" mender heal ability through sprite abilities)

• Twin Tortoknights

The Toroknights Twins are a duo of two very fierce looking knights garbed in tortodrone attire. One is themed after the "shadow" themed line of tortodrone gear, the other after the "normal" line. Despite appearances, both are based on the normal line.
These bosses will only appear in 2v10 matches. The "Lone Tortoknight" will appear in 1v4 matches. (See Below)

This boss has the "fiend" monster theme. All non-boss defenses are generated from a fiend level set.

The Twin Tortoknights would be garbed in a costume resembling a tortodrone. If we ever get actual tortodrone armors, use those. If not, they will take on the appearance of color-correct storm promo gear, named the "plate mail" + "crusader helm". They would have the "power piston" and "aggro aura" accessories, and have pink/purple personal colors, and tall height modifiers.

The Twin Tortoknights would be wearing a 4* plate set, but also have their appropriately themed 5* tortodrone shield. They would have +2 to all statuses. While their defense isn't 5*, their attacks would be difficult to avoid with two of them around. They both have 5* tortoguns which can inflict shock, 4* shard bombs that also inflict shock, plus a 1* rocket hammer to keep the pressure on.
They also have a few special abilities. However, the twin toroknightsshare the cooldown of these abilities, making teamwork and communication more important. The first ability is a shockwave smash, identical to the Iron Giant's first ability (16 second cooldown). The twins can also summon fiends to join the fray through creating a fiend portals at the location of each twin (40 second cooldown). Lastly, the twins can go berserk, increasing their attack speed and reducing charge times to the maximum value (30 second cooldown, only applies to the twin that used it).

(Twin Tortoknights would be two level 10 4* plate knights that look like tortodrones. They have level 10 5* tortoshields. They also have level 10 5* tortoguns that can inflict shock with ASI: high CTR: low, level 10 4* shocking salt bombs with CTR: low, and level 1 1* rocket hammers with ASD: med CTR: med and DMG reduction: high. They can do a tortodrone shockwave, summon tier 1 fiends through fiendish portals, and individually go berserk for max ASI and CTR using sprite abilities. Cooldowns on said abilities are shared between twins.)

• Lone Tortoknight

The Lone Tortoknight is nearly identical to the "Twin Tortoknights" boss, however their armor has been buffed and their attacks balanced for a single player.
This boss will only appear in 1v4 matches. The "Twin Tortoknights" will appear in 2v10 matches. (See above)

This boss has the "fiend" monster theme. All non-boss defenses are generated from a fiend level set.

(Lone Tortoknight would have level 10 volcanic plate armor/helmet and look like a tortodrone. They have a level 10 5* tortoshield. They also have level a 10 5* tortogun that can inflict shock with ASI: ultra CTR: med, level 10 4* shocking salt bomb with CTR: med, and a level 1 1* rocket hammer with ASD: low, CTR: med. They can do a tortodrone shockwave, summon tier 1 fiends through fiendish portals, and go berserk for max ASI and CTR using sprite abilities.)

• Unfortunknight (+ the Cursed)

The Unfortunknight is a fierce, powerful boss themed around the wicked black kat Margrel. Unfortunknight has fallen into a state of misfortune, and plans to wreck havok upon the world...

This boss has the "gremlin" monster theme. All non-boss defenses are generated from a gremlin level set.

Unfortunknight's appearance is that of a black kat with dread wing and a dreadful aura. They also have a dread seal, and a divine tome of rage. Has the magenta personal color and extra tall height modifier.

Unfortunknight is garbed in full 5* black kat armor, and has been graced with an invisible recon shield. However, this boss's recon shield cannot mark for death, does not notify players when they are around, but also only lasts 3 seconds before it breaks and must recharge. Shield bashing with this shield will curse any enemy it hits rather than stun them, however it will completely deplete the shield's health. This boss also has a built in MSI: med, racking them up to a staggering MSI: VH! Try to keep up with them!
Unfortunknight's arsenal consists of a few sneaky items. They have a vile striker, obsidian carbine, and a graviton vortex. Don't let these nontraditional weapon choices fool you into a false sense of security - the damage maximum from the armor is sure to pack a punch!

Unfortunknight has a few special abilities. Unfortunknight can summon a large grimalkin which will seek out the nearest enemy. If no enemy is found within 7 seconds, the grimalkin will despawn on its own (20 second cooldown). They can also summon 2 tier 2 spookats to join into the fight (40 second cooldown). Lastly, this boss can activate their tome book, and several summon seeker orbs that will seek out enemies and ram them, dealing damage and has a fair chance to inflict poison or curse (60 second cooldown).

When in a 2v10 round, one player is selected to be the "Unfortunknight". The second player becomes "the Cursed", which garbs them in 3* black kat armor. "The Cursed" is the Unfortunknight's "boss mini".

The Cursed looks to be in 3* black kat armor with prismatic seraphic wings and a dread seal. Has the magenta personal color and extra short height modifier.

The Cursed does have 3* black kat armor on, granting them the MSI and damage bonuses. However, their own arsenal is rather small. The Cursed has a cutter and a flourish, both 2*. However, instead of a recon cloak, the Cursed has a striker boost! This boost has all the properties of a normal striker boost, but without any of the stat upgrades.

The Cursed becomes deathmarked while boosting, and remains deathmarked for 1 second after boosting. The Cursed thus is very fragile, and thus must watch their attack methods. The Cursed respawns on a 30 second timer, meaning they will likely only be around for a little while every life... However when they respawn they will respawn on top of Unfortunknight. If the Cursed is killed while deathmarked, they will permanently deathmark the player that killed them (for the remainder of that life at least).

(Unfortunknight would have level 10 5* black kat gear and look like Margrel. On top of the gear boost, they have a built in MSI: med. They have a recon shield without deathmark abilities and only lasts 3 seconds, however can curse on shield bash. They have a level 5 vile striker with CTR: high, level 5 obsidian carbine with damage reduction: med, and a level 10 graviton vortex with CTR: VH. Can summon a single-bite grimalkin, tier 2 spookats, and the seeking projectiles from the margrel boss fight using sprite abilities)
(The Cursed would have level 1 3* black kat gear. They have a striker boost similar to lockdown's, but without stat boosts. They have a level 5 cutter with ASI: med, and a level 1 flourish with ASD: low. While boosting the Cursed becomes deathmarked and it lasts for 1 second after shielding, and if killed while deathmarked will perma-deathmark whoever killed them for that life. Has no special abilities, but respawns on Unfortunknight)

• Wolf Pack

The Wolf Pack is a duo of two wolver-themed enemies. Namely, Skolver and Vog Cub want to play.
These bosses will only appear in 2v10 matches. The "Lone Wolf" will appear in 1v4 matches. (See Below)

This boss has the "construct" monster theme. All non-boss defenses are generated from a construct level set.

Skolver is garbed in a 5* Skolver set, and Vog Cub is, you guessed it, in a Vog Cub set. Both have costume appropriate wolver tail accessories. Skolver has a divine parrying blade and a divine flower, tall height modifier, and has a cyan personal color. Vog Cub has a volcanic aero fin, volcanic shoulder boosters, and a tall height modifier and an orange personal color.

Now, these two bosses are themed around their respective armor lines. Skolver is hard hitting and ferocious, meanwhile Vog Cub moves and attack quickly. As such, Skolver will have a sealed sword, a grand flourish, and a triglav. Vog cub on the other hand will have a swift flourish, a hunting blade, and a fang of vog. Both of these bosses have the equivalent of a 4* jelly shield, themed divine and volcanic respectively.

Now, both bosses share their cooldowns here as well. However, statuses that are inflicted differ from freeze to fire on Skolver to Vog. First ability is a large release of power, much like using a spark of life, except instead of stun the statuses depends on the boss that used them - however the statuses are applied a second after the attack is used (20 second cooldown). Skolver and Vog Cub can also use a "team burrow", where they burrow into the ground and pop up at the other one's feet. Upon burrowing, a defense up is applied that lasts 10 seconds (40 second cooldown). Lastly, the Wolf Pack can call upon their pack, summoning a tier 1 alpha wolver and three tier 1 wolvers of the appropriate status onto the battlefield (60 second respawn).

(Wolf Pack consists of Skolver and Vog Cub. Both have level 1 5* armor of their respective type, but Skolver has ASD: low and Vog Cub has DMG reduction: low. Skolver has a level 10 sealed sword with CTR: low, level 1 grand flourish with ASD: low, and level 10 triglav with CTR: med. Vog Cub has a level 1 swift flourish, level 5 hunting blade, and a level 10 fang of vog. Both bosses have a color themed rock jelly shield. Bosses have status-reflecting their armor's defense in special attacks, which consist of a spark of life knockback with their status replacing stun, a teleport-to-team member burrow, and lastly summoning of wolvers through sprite abilities, and share cooldowns)

• Lone Wolf

The Lone Wolf is a single wolver-themed enemy. It relies mainly on itself, and is very brutal.
This boss will only appear in 1v4 matches. The "Wolf Pack" will appear in 2v10 matches. (See Above)

This boss has the "construct" monster theme. All non-boss defenses are generated from a construct level set.

The Lone Wolf is garbed in a full Snarbolax set. It has a a shadow aero fin, wicked scarf, shadow wolver tail, and a toasty bomb bandolier. It has an extra tall height modifier, and a red personal color.

The Lone Wolf is tricky. It has learned to rely on only itself, and thus is able to attack rather dangerously. It's fast, deadly, and overall not the best of times for a knight. The Lone Wolf's arsenal consists of a dark thorn blade, callahan, and a dark briar barrage. It also has a barbarous thorn shield, knocking sword damage up to maximum!

Now the Lone Wolf's abilities center around being tricky, and confusing its opponents. Its first ability is that it can convert its shield into a striker boost, but only until the boost breaks, in which case it will regenerate back into a barbarous thorn shield (15 second cooldown). The Lone Wolf can also cloak itself, hiding in the shadows and gaining MSI: maximum for this duration. All actions will break out of this cloak, but upon breaking cloak the Lone Wolf will gain an impressive damage up (35 second cooldown). The last ability up its sleeve is the roar of storms, which stuns all enemies on the map, regardless of where they are, and grants the Lone Wolf infinite dashing for 5 seconds (60 second cooldown).

(Lone Wolf is in level 5 5* Snarbolax armor/cap, plus a level 10 barbarous thorn shield. Has a level 5 dark thorn blade with ASI: med CTR:high, level 5 callahan with CTR: low ASI: med, and a level 10 dark briar barrage with CTR: med. Can swap shield for a temp striker boost until the boost breaks, a shadow cloak ability, and the ability to stun all enemies on the map + infinite dashing for 5 seconds, activated by sprite abilities)

By Nick's pipe, that took me several hours to write. I've probably forgotten several of the boss monsters I was initially thinking of at this point, but hey, we can always add more and balance these ones out!

But we aren't done yet! Moving on, we have the non-boss classes!

PLAYER CLASSES
In much less detail, we can go over the player classes! There are 5 main player classes, plus a custom class. We'll go over the custom one last, but let's get right to it!

• Striker

The Striker class is themed off of the lockdown class. It has the striker boost shield, but without any penalties or buffs. Why not? Because this class has its own entire loadout attached to it!

The Striker is garbed in a fencing jacket and a cyclops cap. Aesthetically however, they are wearing regal fur coats and regal fur caps. These costumes have a random selection of accessories, and players can find themselves with prismatic ribbons, flowers, regal wolver tails, and regal ankle boosters. Players also will be set to the short height modifier, and locked in with the orange personal color.

Strikers' arsenal consists of a few weapons to compliment their speed. They have a statusless red saber, a stunning thwack hammer(ASI: med), and a chip-damaging chilling duelist (ASI: low).

Strikers can deal more damage the lower their health, so make a final stand! Their low base health creates more tension, as a powerful hit could easily wipe them out in two, or even a single hit.

• Recon

Recon Rangers are on the scene, with their trusty recon shield taken from the lockdown class. It has the cloaking and deathmark functions of the PvP shield, however instead of a deathmark a double-pulse will inflict a defense down.

The Recon is wearing the newly-added padded set. However their costume reflects that of the items from the Dangerous Times promo. Costumes are randomly chosen, but come from a small pool of items from the Dangerous Prize Box - accessories from the box may also be randomly applied. Recons are given extra short height modifiers, and yellow personal colors.

Recon's arsenal consists mostly of guns to assist in battling each boss. They gain a super stun gun and a frost gun to keep the boss at bay, but also keep a pummel gun (ASI: med) at their side for when it's needed. They also keep a proto bomb(CTR: high) on them in case the boss singles them out.

Recons also gain additional defense and health to prevent them from dying so quickly. Two powerful hits, or three average hits will be enough to take them out however.

• Guardian

Guardians appear on the battleshield, with their ruthless guardian shield taken from the lockdown class. While it's defenses are not tremendously high, the healing and protection of teammates makes it very powerful in the field.

The Guardian is a bit moved up in the world, wearing 2* plate mail and its helmet. Appearance-wise, they are garbed in various themes of warden armor, and randomized accessories made up of prismatic ruinous crystals, trojan tails, wings (gen 1), wind-up keys, and crests. Players are set to extra tall height modifier, and personal colors are randomized.

Guardian's arsenal consists of slow but steady. They hold a heavy hatchet (ASI: high, CTR: low), super slime slasher (ASI: low), static flash (CTR: med) and proto bomb (CTR: med).
Why "slow but steady" then ASI? Well, the armor give ASI: low each, so we're making it even.

While inflicted with a status, walking into a guardian will cure you of said status. Keep a guardian alive when fighting status-heavy bosses!

• Scout

The Scarlet Scouts join into the battle! This class is new to Boss Battles, and thus may need a bit more written.
Scarlet Scouts move in, get info, and get out. As a class in Boss Battles, what does this mean?

Well, the Scout class shield is designed for speed, but not the offensive kind. Instead of a striker boost, the Scout shield will expand, much like that of a guardian shield. However, this shield isn't for defense, no, instead, all allies within the shield have their movement speed increased to maximum. This shield is lightweight, and will not slow you down all that much while deployed. Additionally, any boss that enters the shield will be set to MSD: medium.

Scout appearance is that of the Hazardous Promo, thus costumes and accessories found within the Hazardous Prize Box are selected at random when you choose this class, however a hazardous-themed field/plumed/stately cap can also be in the randomization! Scouts are also given a tall height modifier, and a lake personal color. Underneath all that glitter however is a randomly chosen breaker set. Much like costumes, these are randomized per player on map start, so you can't choose to change your armor!

The Scout's arsenal is designed to hit hard, but still keep them on their feet to fight. They wield a hot edge (CTR: low), big beast basher (ASI: low), a statusless chilling duelist, and a zapper.

Scouts naturally have increased movement speed (MSI: med), however the lower their health the faster they move! If a boss becomes too much, don't feel bad running away to heal, or helping a team member escape.

• Technician

Last of the preset classes, the technician is a genius on the battlefield. Their shield ability is new to the game from here as well, so let's jump to it!

The Technician "shield" is more of a hacking device. When held, it will create a short-range shock beacon that has a high chance to shock enemies...
However! The technician tool goes further than that. If standing still and shielding, and the player has not moved for 3 seconds, the shield will begin to assemble an ally. This ally is nothing more than your very own mecha knight! Each mecha knight takes 10 seconds to create, 13 if you count the 3 seconds standing still, and each technician can only create 3 mecha knights.

Technician try not to be in the firefight, but if so, they have armor to back them up. A technician is randomized between 2 sets - tri-guard, or ignition. Just like the scouts, there are randomized at map start, so you can't change them! Appearance-wise however, technicians wear military flak jackets paired with a round helm. Accessories are randomized between plumes, binocular vision, knight vision, goggles, shoulder boosters, ankle boosters, and rebreathers.

A technician's arsenal is mostly explosive. However, they contain the wonders of shard bombs! Technicians carry a splinter bomb (CTR: low), crystal bomb (CTR: low), firecracker (CTR: med), and a spitfire (ASI: med).

Technicians find themselves meddling with the elements a bit more, and thus have increased resistance to all statuses! Go techs!

• Custom

Now here's the oddball of the bunch. The custom class is exactly what it says it is: something you customize. However it's not a pick and choose, as that's not fair to your team. Instead, you can select a loadout marked for "Boss Battles". This is a new option from the loadouts menu, and "boss battles" loadouts must be entirely composed of tier 1 items. You're stuck with the shield you choose however, thus if you want the powers of those shields you have to work within the weapons they give you.

Customized classes can be swapped at any time as long as you are still set to be the "custom" class. Your costumes won't show, but you'll be your own personal color and all the accessories on your lower star gear will be shown. However, be warned, because any and all Unique Variants and Trinkets you bring into the battle will also be applied to the boss you are fighting. Yup, if you have normal MAX on your tri-guard gear and waltz in you'll be making the boss you're fighting that much harder to kill. If your entire team changes to custom, you'll be fighting harder bosses if you all are maxed out with UVs and using health trinkets.

If you change to your custom loadout while still in the battle, you will apply everything to the boss. However if you swap back to another loadout without your UVs/trinkets, the boss will lose the boost that you gave them. Health cannot be modified once the boss reaches 5 pips remaining however, as to prevent trolling on either side of the fence.

Holy molely, long suggestion huh? If you see any spelling or grammatical errors in there let me know, because I ain't reading through all this again before posting it!

But now, finally, for the TL;DR.

TL;DR - A new PvP coliseum gamemode where lower starred (1*) knights battle against a single higher starred knight (5*). There are two modes - 1v4, and 2v10. There are many various kinds of bosses, each with a specific loadout and special abilities activated by an invisible battle sprite. The 1* knights have 5 unique classes to choose from, but can additionally create their own loadout (custom) if the classes don't suit their personal playstyle.
The objective of the game is for the boss to pass through various obstacles/puzzles to reach the enemy base. The 1* knights must try to kill the boss before they can reach the base. If the boss reaches the 1* knight's base, they win. If the 1* knights manage to kill the 5* knight(s), they win.