I just went through the final mission, fighting hard all the way dieing a few times. It was hard, it was intense, we fought off hoards of Titans and their offspring. We came the bastardised undead Rurik, we bested him with avreage -40 dp each. I then plundered his body for his Hundred Blades, we pressed on to the Lich.
The Lich stood before us surrounded by his hand of titan minions, we bested them and began figthing our real foe. We fought hard, then suddenly I found myself way off to the side in the middle of the lava flow. What in the hell? I thought to my self, looking down at my DSL modem blinking oddly. I figured it was lag, I returned to the fray. *Blink* there I was again in the lava flow, what? A third time I engaged my foe, *blink* WHAT IS GOING ON?! A comrade informed me it was a skill the Lich had mastered. Confused I returned to the fray, I believed Arenanet were champions of good game design. Not moronic skills to achieve artificial difficulty, a little dissapointed but undetered I returned to the fight.
We bested the Lich but to my suprise no cinematic played, suddenly the Lich rose and two more minions with him. The three warriors, myself included were caught un prepared and killed off. The monks managed to retreat, they then ressurected us. We killed off the minions after much headaches, then on to the Lich. What followed was a series of deaths and ressurections that eventually lead to the Lich's second demise. But then he rose again, with two more minions. Again we died, only this time we didn't have the spirit to continue.
Of this foray into the final mission I obtained Hundred Blades, and Arenanet lost two community members. Yes the end boss was so infuriating that two of the players in my group vowed never to play again with a hearty "F this game!".
All I have to ask is, WHAT THE HELL WAS ARENANET THINKING? Theres hard and then theres stupid ladies and gentlemen. Devil May Cry 3 is hard, not once do you feel the game is being unfair. Genuine difficulty, then theres the Lich. He's hard yes, but coupled with the teleport you to the lava ability (the most moronic skill ever divised in my humble opinion) and the difficulty of the rest of the mission the Lich forays into the realm of stupid game design and cheaply increasing the difficulty of the game. Almost to the level of NFS's auto catchup AI cars.
And that's all I have to say about that.
A

