There are way too many elements to the Vanaduke fight that you can't control. Vanaduke in himself is not a terribly difficult boss. Before Slag Guards were added as auto respawns I could get him without an energy revive. Now... that isn't the case.
1) This battle is against the camera, not Vanaduke. All three enemies in this battle have dash attacks, and when they aren't on the screen, you have absolutely no way to know when you're going to get hit. My suggestion is that a Vanaduke icon is added to the radar. Perhaps he could should up as a large skull, or something like that, and the Slags could show up as large purple dots. It's an idea. The camera in this battle is so screwy that it was probably the cause of more than half of my damage in my last Vana run.
2) As any knowledgable Vanaduke runner knows, there are eight fireballs surrounding Vana during his final phase. You can throw a water ball at him, knock out one of these fireballs, and watch it come right back within the next 10 seconds. Given the fact that there are exactly three guns that even have a reasonable chance of getting through this barrier (Argent Peacemaker, Callahan, Blitz Needle), Vanaduke's final phase has an absurdly high amount of health. Did I mention you can DPS Vanaduke with a sword around two times faster than you can with a gun? The fact that swords are a complete no-no in this phase also contribute to the absurdity.
3) There is so much going on in this battle, that anyone who doesn't have the latest in computer technology is going to get some lag. I have a reasonably fast computer, but when the floor starts falling down, fire tiles are everywhere, and Vana and his cronies are dashing around like madmen, this is one big recipe for Lagcon 2011.
I could probably name a few other problems with his last phase, but that should be enough for OOO to realize that their final boss is overwhelmingly difficult for all the wrong reasons.
Call me a wimp if you want, and to get some skills, trolls, but that is my opinion on the Vanaduke fight in its current state. I feel that I'm not the only person with this opinion, either.
Thanks for reading,
-Tri
I like a good fight, but not if it involves fake difficulty like this. It's acceptable on a single player game where you can reload a save and try the boss fight again, but in a game like SK where trying again basically involves shelling out money, random deaths due to ceiling falling in on you or small lag spike while Vanadork and his thugs are bumrushing you is a no-no.
I suggest eliminating the magma in phase 5, and replacing it with the need to put out fireballs (i.e. Vanaduke regenerates a fireball every three seconds). Under this type of condition, a small lag spike is less likely to result in death and copious amounts of rage.