Belfry map boss (based on Kitava) heart question

So I've been running a bunch of Belfry maps, and have noticed that I always seem to kill the boss before I kill the heart.

1) Is it possible to kill the heart, or are the phases based on life breakpoints and boss will always come back before the heart dies?

2) Is there any benefit to killing the heart rather than the boss (e.g. increased drops)?

You can't kill the heart. It's based on life thresholds. Same sequence as Act V Kitava: Boss - heart - boss - heart - boss. Then the last blast from the sign and done. Act V Kitava would come up again, Lord of the Grey doesn't.

thx for the confirm.

Believe it or not, I've never actually done Kitava... I haven't made a new character since that content was released, I just reuse old characters when we get passive resets from patches (I only play standard).

Almost all map boses introduced in 3.1 have those annoying sequencing and life thresholds mechanics, in the campaing is fine but in maps just annoying as hell, specially desert springs maps which takes 1-2 min just the mid phase while maps takes 1 min to clear. They should be reworking these fights imo.

i dunno, seems like they kind of can't win in a situation like this.

If they don't make interesting/unique/complex boss fight mechanics, then players complain that all the bosses are just walk up -> DPS -> loot.

If they make complex boss fights without clear signaling, then new players complain about it being too difficult/unintuitive. I just saw some comments like that about the Hallowed Ground map, where a lot of players complained that it wasn't clear that they had to kill the other bosses before the main one became vulnerable.

If they make complex boss fights with clear signaling (such as through stages/sequences), experienced players complain that it's too slow/annoying.

I'd say that the current system is as close to a best-of-both-worlds approach as they can get. If you want "interesting" boss fights, run the maps that have them. If they annoy you, run the maps with tank-n-spank chumps. Sure, you're kind of forced to do them in the campaign, but let's be honest, most players spend 99% of their time in the endgame.

I haven't even done the campaign (except skill quests) in over a year, but IIRC it only took me 8-9 hours to clear it last time I did -- and I know that nolifers can do it in less than half that.