Zoe

  Zoe rolled her shoulders as the group moved in to engage the new boss. Feeling like the mild stretch wasn’t quite enough, she let her head droop forward and rolled it around, too, stretching out her neck. When she recentered her head, her shoulders still felt tight, but that wasn’t new. It was almost definitely from spending so much of her average day at the computer.

  She did her best to stretch out a bit further, but was cut short when the battle truly began.

  The party ran forward in formation, with the tanks in the lead. Fiona led with her shield up, running straight at [Spio the Bastion]. The boss reared back as the group closed in, and swung at Fiona.

  [Spio’s] attacks used the spiked shields attached to its arms like punching weapons, slamming them against Fiona’s shield in slow but powerful attacks. Even with Fiona blocking them, the damage was nothing to sneeze at.

  “We’re lucky those attacks are slow.” Mellody said. “Fiona, play carefully for now. I don’t want to see how much HP a missed block will cost.”

  “I promise nothing.” Fiona responded, though for the moment wasn’t risking missing blocks to aim for [Perfect Guards], which would allow Fiona’s [Counter] skills. Zoe didn’t know Fiona all that well yet, but she was pretty sure that playing it safe wouldn’t last all that long.

  Zoe used [Shadow Slip] to get behind [Spio] quickly, ready to start her opener. Caoimhe also used [Driver] to close the distance and get things rolling.

  While swapping Nyx over to [Dirge] had been a potential misplay when they were fighting a large group of paper thin mobs, she really had a chance to shine now. [Dirge] was a single target, damage over time specialist, that included a lot of detrimental effects. It was rare that a boss was susceptible to all of the status effects she could inflict, but anything that did work was still helpful.

  Zoe opened with some quick basic attacks while weaving in her first group of [Poison] skills. The timing was tight to avoid interrupting her attack string, because the attacks with [Knives] were so quick.

  [Wolf’s Bane] went up first. It was essentially a simple damage amp that added an extra 50 [Might] to every attack she used for a minute. [Nightshade] was next, which gave her attacks a stacking DoT. Every time she landed a hit, she’d give the target a stack of the [Poison], which was a 10 [Might] Dot, with a max of ten stacks.

  [Cold Iron Drip] was third, which added a second damage amp to her attacks of 40 [Might] that doubled to 80 [Might] against Fae enemies; and the Fomorians were typically considered Fae, so it was useful here.

  And finally was [Fuzz Root], a [Poison] that would add another stacking effect to her attacks, this time applying a [Slow] effect that would max out at ten stacks with a 10% effect. It may not be a huge boon, but if [Spio] wasn’t immune, it would make the [Perfect Block] windows a few frames longer for Fiona to really capitalize on her [Counters].

  Once Nyx had her first poison cocktail active, she started rotating through her actual attack skills. [Knife Work], [Dagger Dance], and [Knife’s Edge] were all used while she had the damage amp skills online, and then she started applying her DoT skills, of which there were many.

  [Poison Lotus], [Artery Cut], [Bloodletting], and [Deep Cut] were all decently high DoT skills that were part of her regular rotation as a [Dirge], ranging between 100 and 150 [Might].

  Zoe caught herself tunnel-visioning on her opener, and snapped out of it just in time for [Spio] to make his first real attack. She apparently had missed the traditional opening raidwide, given everyone’s slightly damaged state.

  A red zone appeared around [Spio], indicating a classic point-blank AoE, which all of the melee simply danced out of. It made Nyx lose contact with the boss for a moment, so she hit [Dagger Toss] - her only real ranged attack - to cover the down time, before slipping back into the fight.

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  “Are we comfortable yet?” Fiona asked, sounding almost fidgety.

  “Not yet.” Mellody chuckled. “No risking counters until we know how much party damage there is.”

  “Fine.” Fiona muttered, clearly disappointed. Which Nyx didn’t necessarily think was fair, because Fiona currently had plenty to do. Even with Nyx’s [Slow] from [Fuzz Root], the boss’ attacks were coming frequently enough that Fiona needed to be on top of things.

  Zoe focused back on herself for a few attacks to make sure she finished going through the rest of her main rotation. [Dirge], being so focused on DoT damage and debuffs, worked primarily on something like a priority system. The DoT damage caused by her attacks lasted longer than the cooldowns on the skills themselves, but it was a DPS loss to reapply them too early.

  In essence, most of her gameplay as a [Dirge] was spent watching timers tick down on her DoTs and clicking the right one at the right time to reapply it. All while managing her damage amp skill cooldowns and making sure they didn’t drift from the cooldowns on her main attacking skills.

  It wasn’t too complicated, but it felt different enough from most other [Paths] to be a good switch up to keep things fresh. Especially as a swap from [Knife], which was all about linking the right attack skills together to get the best damage combinations. [Knife] in particular had a rather interesting and complex combo system that Zoe loved.

  Didn’t mean she didn’t need a break now and again, though.

  “That looks like a tank buster.” Cass called. Zoe smiled; Cass knew Zoe could use callouts like that sometimes. And indeed, [Spio] was raising both his arms above his head, preparing to bring a combined hammer-fist down on Fiona.

  “Got it.” Zoe said, and hit her right mouse button, and by extension, [Debilitating Pierce].

  For as dangerous as both [Knife] and [Dirge] were in the offense department, Zoe really loved how support-like they were. Their damage could keep up with most other DPS [Paths], though they certainly didn’t top the charts in most parties.

  In return though, the suite of debuffs and hindrance skills they got was simply too much fun to play around. And when it came to group content, nothing was quite as well regarded as [DP]. Reducing your target’s outgoing damage in general was great. Reducing it by 15% was one of the most potent reductions available to players in the game. Being able to do it every 30 seconds? One of the best skills in the game, period.

  But the best part? For something that didn’t do appreciable damage at only 200 [Might], the attack animation looked so satisfying. Nyx flipped her [Knives] around to hold them back hand, and leapt up to slam the two [Knives] down into the target with a flourish.

  It made Zoe smile every time she did it, as she did now. Fiona held her shield up, ready to take the hit. Without having seen the tank buster animation yet, it would be very difficult to get a [Perfect Guard] timed correctly. Instead, Fiona just hit a mitigation skill and waited for the hit to land.

  When [Spio] slammed his spiked shields down onto Fiona’s shield, there was a solid thunk and Fiona’s HP dropped by 8k down to just under 2k.

  “Ow, that hurt.” Fiona said, as Zoe watched the 2k jump back up to 10k with some targeted healing.

  “We’ve got you.” Cass said.

  “We do, but if you miss a block on one of those, you may just straight up die.” Mellody said. “Be careful.”

  “Will do,” Fiona said. “Also, I’m bleeding.”

  “I can see that,” Mellody said. “I’ll keep an eye on you.”

  “Thanks. Aleister, be ready.”

  “Ready for what?” Aleister said, but Zoe saw her hit some [Threat] generating abilities, just in case Fiona went down. Zoe was pretty sure Fiona was about to do something monumentally stupid.

  [Spio] kept swinging attacks while the party went about doing their own jobs, but Zoe was starting to notice the boss’ rhythm - and that was as a DPS. She had no doubt that Fiona had also started adjusting to it.

  And sure enough, Zoe heard the distinctive clang sound that denoted a [Perfect Block], followed by one of the flashy [Counter] skills at Fiona’s disposal.

  In addition to [Counter] access, [Perfect Blocks] also reduced the damage of the blocked attack further, which might have actually been worth the risk with the [Bleed].

  “I think I’ve got it.” Fiona said. “His attack string is actually predictable.”

  “That’s good, I guess.” Caoimhe said.

  “I’m starting to feel really safe out here,” Firo said. “And that’s usually a bad sign.”

  “You know, I wasn’t even paying attention when he did the raidwide. What was it?” Zoe asked.

  “He slammed the ground a bunch like DK.” Bisky said, punctuating her sentence with a flashy arrow flying across Zoe’s screen.

  “Okay, so that’s not that concerning, theme wise.” Zoe shrugged, still laying into the boss.

  And then [Spio] started to curl in on himself. Nyx’s attacks were getting a shrill ting sound in response, as if they were bouncing off. She held back, as did everyone else, as [Spio’s] armored plates fit neatly into each other like an armadillo’s plates.

  “Uh…”

  “He’s invulnerable for everyone?” Zoe asked.

  “Yep. Not doing damage.” Bisky said.

  When [Spio’s] armor started glowing a bit, Zoe raised an eyebrow, curious where this was going. Then he started spinning in place as if he was revving up.

  “So now we’re suddenly fighting Knuckles, is that it?” Kieran snorted.

  “Stay on your toes.” Mellody said, ever the voice of reason. “Evie, be ready with heals.”

  “Of course.” Cass responded as everyone danced away from the boss and spread out. Without knowing exactly what was coming, but assuming that the boss was going to try to run them over, spreading seemed like the right idea. They also actively avoided the direction the boss was facing.

  That turned out to be the right call, when [Spio] shot forward. He had been facing toward the city and away from the gate, leaving him spinning off down the road.

  “Hot damn.” Fiona said while someone whistled in appreciation.

  The rolling ball of armor eventually slammed into a building, taking out a wall. As the building started to creak and crumble, [Spio] spun back toward the party and shot off again, this time returning to the fighting space.

  However, rather than blasting forward in a straight line, tha spiked metal ball swerved left and right, crashing into as many soldiers and NPCs as it could, taking many of them down in one charge.

  “Well good to know it can change directions.” Firo muttered.

  “Yeah but how do we stop it?”Aleister asked.

  “Assuming we have to? I’m not sure. Should I try to just block it?” Fiona offered. “What’s the worst that can happen? I die?”

  “We can keep your death as a backup plan.” Bisky said. “We don’t actually know that it’ll just keep going.”

  “True but - oh, shit -” Fiona, as well as Nyx, Caoimhe, Bisky and Evie all had to quickly dash out of the way as the boss seemed to get the party back in his sights. He launched toward them at speed, drifting a bit to each side dangerously. It looked like a motorcycle going through the wobbles about to spin out.

  And then the red AoE marker flashed for just a moment. Just long enough for the people standing in it to register that they were in danger before they had to [Sprint], dash, or dive to get out of harm’s way. The amount of time to avoid the ball of death felt like it was designed to be just enough that if you reacted immediately and moved out of the line of fire, you would just make it.

  When [Spio] came flying through the area, Zoe narrowly got Nyx out of the way in time, but it seemed like the attack wasn’t over. The boss, instead of running all the way past toward the gate, turned to the side at the last moment and began circling the party. It was still moving quickly, and the outer edge of their makeshift fighting arena was a constant donut of red AoE as the boss just kept circling.

  “Guys? That donut AoE is getting smaller; we need to do something.” Firo said, and launched a few attacks at the spinning ball of death.

  “Now?” Fiona asked, sounding like an excited puppy.

  “Evie?”

  “Yeah? Just go for it. What do we have to lose?” Evie responded to the unasked question from Mello. Zoe was positive that she was already queueing up a [Resurrection].

  Fiona cheered and ran toward the outer ring, she applied a few mitigation abilities before raising her shield and stepping into [Spio’s] path.

  There was just a moment where Nyx thought it worked. Fiona stood her ground and there was a clashing animation.

  “Healing!” Someone yelled, although Zoe wasn’t sure whether it was Fiona or Mellody. There were a few healing spells tossed out at Fiona, but her HP had dropped to zero before they had finished casting, and Fiona’s body went flying.

  The boss, meanwhile, just continued closing in.

  “That sorta worked?” Fioan said hesitantly as Evie [Reserve Casted] her [Resurrection], sending it out instantly, since she had prepared it ahead of time.

  “No it didn’t!” Both healers yelled back.

  “It kinda did, though.” Firo said. “Fiona wasn’t killed immediately and there was a clash animation for it. That has to mean something.”

  “Well, we better think quick or we’re all going to be roadkill.” Zoe said helpfully.

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