As Titan Quest 2 steadily marches on through early access, developer Grimlore Games has spoken about how it plans to use scaling to stop players from instantly killing the plethora of bosses they encounter while exploring Ancient Greece and fighting its more or less mythological opponents.
One strategy that action RPG players use to overcome these stronger opponents revolves around leaning heavily into damage, often for so-called glass cannon builds that forego investing in defenses. The goal is to ultimately skip boss mechanics by instantly killing the big bad, although that may soon not be possible in Titan Quest 2.
Titan Quest 2 Leans Into Scaling to Stop Players Instantly Killing Bosses
When asked about how the team working on Titan Quest II aims to approach players instantly killing bosses, in an interview with YouTuber Darth Microtransaction, Lead Systems Designer Balint Marczin notes that they will rely on “scaling.”
“This is not in place right now, but […] the intended boss duration would be one minute and maybe if you really do go for damage and end up being a bit of a glass cannon, you will do it in 40 seconds. But the point is [that] you will experience the entirety of what the boss has to offer. You’ll fight all the phases, you’ll see all the abilities,” he goes on to explain.
“What we have to achieve is that the scaling needs to be in line with what the boss is capable of and your damage shouldn’t outdo what the boss can take. If it does, you’re overleveled or we messed up.”
But although developer Grimlore Games wants to ensure that Titan Quest II’s bosses act as notable challenges as we progress through the sequel, it does remain flexible in terms of when and how players approach these opponents.
“[…] you spend up to a minute, a minute and a half in the lower DPS cases, and it’s really a hard back and forth. You have to evade certain boss abilities, they’re going to litter the arena with all sorts of stuff that is dangerous to you, and you get in your damage in your little windows, running around a lot, speccing into heavy armor and resistances when necessary.
“[…] it should be challenging but it shouldn’t be frustrating and that’s a difficult thing to find. But, fortunately, because we’re an open world game, […] you can just go and level up, come back later, deal with it when you’re more powerful. Or you can use rituals and straight up level them down if you find them too tough. Your stat scaling will absolutely carry you in such an instance. But if you’re bored […] then you can go the opposite way – you can fight underleveled and you can overlevel the boss.”
One thing is clear, as much as Titan Quest II positions itself as classic-style action RPG that does not follow its modern-day peers in embracing a live service approach to content, the team’s desire to deliver a game that appeals to old-school fans of the genre doesn’t get in the way of modernizing its systems.
This can also be seen through other additions, such as the ability to dodge and easily respec characters.
Although Titan Quest II’s scaling is only coming in a later update, the action RPG did receive the new Forge mastery – essentially a new class – earlier this month, allowing us to enhance weapons and armor mid-battle while deploying armed devices to help kill opponents.
Titan Quest II will remain in early access “for as long as needed,” its Steam page notes, although developer Grimlore Games is currently eyeing a 2026 release.
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