Chapter 331: Boss Mechanics

The first team out was Sanchez with Esmeralda, who found Kalli waiting with the rest of the members who were over level sixteen.

"It’s a level twenty-two Frost Giant instance. The first boss is a Frost Giant Mage, and there are casters for the whole second half of the pulls. It’s not going to be a kind one to people, but we might be able to do it with enough damage output.

The trick will be finding a way to keep that first boss from dealing so much area damage that the healers can’t keep up.

We had Amber, who is great at that, but not all the other healers are suited to healing the whole group at once.

Reggie chuckled. "You also didn’t bring a tank or a rogue, so you had no taunts and no interrupts. I think that a group focused less on pure damage might do alright, as long as they can get through the rest of the dungeon.

Level twenty two sounds pretty gnarly."

The second team emerged from the dungeon, less than a minute behind the first, and Niall shook his head at Kalli.

"I’m not sure that every group is going to be able to do that. I see the undead pulled them through in good time, but we really struggled with damage output in the second half, and the final boss has an enrage effect, where he gets slowly stronger as the fight goes on.

If you drag it out too long, he’s going to become a menace.

So, we’re going to need a couple of top tier damage dealers in the team perhaps Flight Suit assassins? I know that they don’t use their Rogue skills for much, but they should have them, right? If they can ambush the Giants and get their damage up, I think that they can do enough to make a real difference.

The Pulse Cannons drain mana fast, but if you’re using them for burst damage, it’s all worth it."

One of the flight suit members nodded. "Yeah, the suits might not be the best for ambushing giants, but until we can get a weapon that does more sustained damage over a two minute period than the Pulse Cannon, they’re still our best bet.

The thing is, if we can get a clean shot off against a Giant facing away from us to start the fight, something with more single strike damage would be better.

Perhaps we could use the suits to fly in and give them a proper backstab strike, then dart away?

Normally, we use height as the advantage, but the suits are extremely fast and agile. We can still fight up close with them, we just don’t, because they’re expensive."

Kalli nodded in agreement. "They are expensive, but compared to the cost of a squished rogue? It’s probably cheaper."

Not in a literal sense, it was only a hundred points to resurrect them without loss, and the suits were far more than that. But if they couldn’t be resurrected from within the dungeon, then the difference was immeasurable.

Then, Kalli realized that she had the perfect weapon for them. Well, two of them.

"I have options for you. First is a Force Sword, a form of magical energy blade that you can buy at Rare Grade if you don’t have an Epic Grade blade yet. I’m assuming that all of you do, so that one can mostly be skipped.

But the second is a rocket launcher.

If you buy them at Rare Grade, they can be reloaded with mana, ten points per shot and you can pick high explosive or armour piercing. That will give you the single shot damage that you need to start a pull. Assuming that it doesn’t alert the Giants and ruin the backstab."

Kalli purchased one for ten points, and the group examined it, before shaking their heads.

Niall frowned as he replied, "No, that is going to be way too loud and flashy for the rogues. The single shot damage is great, but thirty seconds to reload, and only one shot? It’s not really practical for them. Now, if we were giving them out to wall guards, to stop a mass rush, sure.

But not in the dungeon, where the skill bonuses matter the most.

The amount of damage that I can do with a backstab is five times what I can do with a standard attack skill.

Unless there is something that will let me do more than that, I’m not sure it’ll be worth the loss of the skill."

Kalli thought about the options "Well, we’ve come to three options. There is an AC30 auto cannon, intended to be vehicle mounted, so I doubt we have anyone that can use it. It’s even too large for the flight suits. Same with the Plasma Cannons. Finally, I could give you an anti tank charge with a sticky back..."

The Rogue laughed at the thought of slapping an anti armour charge onto the Giants as a way to start the fight.

If it worked, it would be absolutely horrific. But if it didn’t it would be absolutely hilarious.

"I think that we’re going to have to stick with melee weapons, poison, and agility. Unless some of us have a lingering damage skill other than poison. I think that getting the toxin applied right away will be our best choice, as most of the poison skills have a paralysis type effect that can hinder mages casting times," Niall agreed.

He knew, he had been using it to great effect in the second half of the dungeon, though the first boss was mostly immune to it.

The other teams were taking notes, and considering how they could rearrange their teams to make this possible. They needed stun effects, ambush damage or burst damage, high enough sustained damage for facing a level twenty two Giant pack, and both a tank and healer strong enough to survive what the dungeon sent back at them.

It was fairly specific, but they should be able to do it.

The issue was mostly that if they were on the lower end of the power spectrum, they might not have enough damage for the final boss. Burning him down with the enrage effect active was going to be an issue.