Chapter 864: Defense Commander Sand Leopard
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
The second boss, Defense Commander Sand Leopard, didn’t have three different weapons hanging on him to make players worried like Brother Wolf. Sand Leopard held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, a typical set of equipment for a Knight.
This class was one of the most annoying NPCs for players to deal with.
For one, Knights were very tanky, and their Spirit wasn’t shabby either, giving them a well-rounded defense. For another, a Knight’s aggro pulling skills, like Provoke and Roar, was an immense disturbance on the field. Uncontrolled attacks and movements while working in a team could easily cause the situation to slip from their grasp. In addition, bosses often had more than one class, and the Healer classes Cleric and Paladin were both under the same class type as Knights. If the boss had healing skills, that would be even more devastating for players.
It was especially so under the current circumstances. It was already very difficult since it was a new dungeon and they were coming in with very little knowledge and a large gap in levels. This kind of boss put a lot more pressure on their DPS.
After having Lord Grim go up to try the boss out, it was evident that this Sand Leopard was definitely a Knight class. Lord Grim’s attacks seemed to do nothing, especially when that shield was used to defend.
"We’ll have to take this one slow." Though it might be hard to deal with, with Ye Xiu’s skill, he easily found a solution. "Compared to the last one, we’ll have to carefully note the quality and efficiency of our DPS; we can’t let our guard down for a second."
"One Inch Ash has a large responsibility this time. Stat boosts should be precise to get the maximum effect; try to not waste even a moment." Ye Xiu began to order.
"Understood," Qiao Yifan agreed.
"Soft Mist and Steamed Bun Invasion should take care to cooperate with the support from the Ghost Boundaries."
"Chasing Haze has to be more open with her attacks. As for Concealed Light, summon some creatures with powerful offensive capabilities, but considering efficiency and mana consumption, limit your summons to five or less. Otherwise, it might cause unnecessary waste."
"Don’t worry, we’re going slow. Efficiency is key. We must be efficient," Ye Xiu emphasized in the end.
"What if he has healing skills? We would need rapid DPS to suppress that. If the pace is too slow, we might not be able to hold on," Wei Chen asked.
"Let’s see if we can interrupt them first! If we can’t, then we’ll cross that bridge when we get there." Ye Xiu had obviously not missed that point, but only just estimated a possibility. If there was a possibility, then they should prioritize interrupting his heals.
"You’ll do the interrupting?" Wei Chen asked.
"I’ll do it." Ye Xiu accepted the responsibility.
Soon enough, the battle officially began. When Ye Xiu was testing the boss out with Lord Grim, Sand Leopard had only revealed his immense defensive capabilities. As for aggro and healing skills, they never appeared so far, probably because it was just a one on one and there was no reason to use them. Now that everyone had joined in, the situation might change.
Aggro skills could only be dealt with via a character’s spirit or a counter-skill. This sort of skill wasn’t something that Team Happy’s current line-up possessed, so there wasn’t much to say. If he really used an aggro skill, then they’d deal with it once they figured out who the victim was.
In the end, the situation was better than Ye Xiu had dared imagine. Aggro skills never appeared, and heals did, though they could be interrupted. With Ye Xiu’s skill, Sand Leopard’s heals might as well have been nonexistent. The biggest problem Ye Xiu ran into was steadying the aggro through DPS while attacking from the front, where Sand Leopard held his shield.
This sort of DPS method of pulling aggro would put great pressure on him if the boss OTed. Since they didn’t have any aggro skills, they would have to create another OT if he wanted to force the aggro back onto himself. However, OT situations had requirements. It wasn’t as if an OT would follow immediately once one character had pulled more aggro than another. If that actually happened then all they had to do was use similar DPS to control the aggro and then just see-saw. If two ranged characters attacked one after another with this sort of pace, then they would be able to get the boss to just run around aimlessly between them.
So under normal circumstances, to cause an OT, one needed to pull a certain percent more aggro than the current target. If you wanted to use an OT to negate an OT, you would need quite a while to accomplish it, even if the OT target stopped attacking. Ye Xiu’s caution was because he didn’t want something like that to occur, otherwise who knows what would happen during the chaos.
Everyone took their own role seriously, attacking according to the instructions Ye Xiu had given. Ye Xiu controlled the situation very well, too, holding the boss’s aggro steady. Seeing the boss’ health fall and everyone’s mana consumption, Ye Xiu was a little apprehensive. It seemed that it might be a bit of a stretch.
"Keep an eye on your pace of mana potion usage," Ye Xiu said. Unlike the Arena, the best thing about dungeons was that item usage was only limited by their cooldowns. With a good rhythm, potions could give an immense boost to their endurance in battle. Knowing that they were going into an all new dungeon levels above them, Ye Xiu and co had naturally prepared well for it, stocking up on potions for everyone. Now, chugging them down without hesitation wasn’t an option; they had to watch the efficiency of their potion usage as well.
Time slipped by and Sand Leopard’s health was also slipping away. This sort of endurance match was a test of the players’ stability and focus. After everyone had focused calmly and efficiently dealt damage for almost forty minutes, Sand Leopard’s health finally approached ten percent.
"As always, temporarily scatter, everyone. Dawn Rifle is going to be responsible for the last hit again." Facing an equally unknown Enraged State, they would naturally have to use the same tactics.
Seeing Sand Leopard’s health about to hit red, everyone retreated. As Wu Chen’s Dawn Rifle landed the last hit, Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim had to swiftly retreat as well.
It was the Satellite Beam just as it was before. Sand Leopard raised his shield to block, but this defensive move had already been considered. Even with the shield reducing its damage, the Satellite Beam would still deplete Sand Leopard’s health to under ten percent.
Crack!
The sound of something shattering rang out.
The Satellite Beam had somehow managed to shatter the shield after hitting it. Everyone watched on, dumbstruck, recalling how the first Boss’ spear had also shattered upon reaching red blood. Was this dungeon using signals like this to tell the players that the boss was about to enter an enraged state?
What would Sand Leopard’s Enraged State be like?
Everyone’s eyes widened and saw Sand Leopard roaring. His now empty left hand gripped the hilt of his sword with his right hand. Red light flashed in his eyes as his body also glowed with red light; even his hair seemed to be lit up.
"Berserker?" Wei Chen’s experience wasn’t just for show. He had already made a judgement upon seeing the pose. This state seemed akin to the activation of the Berserker’s passive skill, Blood Awakening, when a Berserker’s health was low and entered a berserk state."I want to test it out first." Ye Xiu didn’t rely solely on this estimation, playing safe once more. After Lord Grim charged forward, what met him was a Sand Leopard whose speed and attack had been greatly boosted, as expected. With a few wild slashes, even Ye Xiu had to hurriedly get Lord Grim to roll around, becoming especially passive.
Ye Xiu was unphased, continuing this for a while. Seeing that Sand Leopard really didn’t have any other tricks up his sleeve, he immediately called for the others, "It’s a Berserker. Don’t hold back, everyone!"
Under this sort of circumstances, a Berserker’s offensive capabilities would be greatly improved, but their defensive capabilities would immensely suffer. This second boss had gone from one extreme to the other. At first, his defense was immense, but after reaching red blood, his offense had exploded.
Though they never encountered anything like Season Wolf’s last Downwind Sword Slash, this second boss was much harder to beat than Season Wolf. However, since most of the problems were dealt with by Lord Grim, the others weren’t too hindered. If it was someone else who was the MT, Sand Leopard would be tough enough to make someone’s heart stop.
With the boss’ defense greatly reduced, Sand Leopard’s wild style didn’t allow it to live very long. Under everyone’s furious attacks, his health was quickly depleted.
"Careful, hold your attacks!" Ye Xiu hastily yelled. Everyone simultaneously stopped, but Mo Fan’s Deception didn’t manage to, landing two skills on Sand Leopard and ending the battle.
Seeing Sand Leopard’s health empty, everyone let out a breath of relief. This boss luckily didn’t have any dirty last resort moves. Even so, Mo Fan’s mistake wasn’t overlooked. No one really liked this guy in the first place, so when something like this happened, not many showed sympathy, only scorn.
Mo Fan was clear about this as well. When everyone threw scornful looks his way, he didn’t look back at them, but he could feel it. He lowered his head subconsciously and his expression became a little awkward.
The system announcement rang out again, declaring that the second boss Defense Commander Sand Leopard had been defeated. The global chat exploded again and the heads of the big guilds gritted their teeth once more, cursing wildly, but helpless to change reality.
Chen Guo took the initiative in going forward to collect the dropped equipment. Once again, it was a blue and a purple piece, but they were of classes they could use. However, after checking their stats, they didn’t seem to be very worth it, compared to the Orange Equipment they already had anyways.
"Ai, why is there never any Orange equipment!" Chen Guo lamented, clearly knowing that this equipment wouldn’t help them increase their strength.
"We’ll get an Orange equipment soon enough," Ye Xiu chuckled.
"It’s not that easy!" Chen Guo rolled her eyes.
"We got two First Kills! For these types of rewards, orange equipment and rare materials aren’t uncommon," Ye Xiu said with a smile.
Chen Guo immediately realized what he was saying. Wild Boss rewards were a level above dungeon Bosses, or even Hidden Bosses, but dungeon record rewards were on the same level as Wild Boss rewards. Now that each Boss had a First Kill record, the real rewards would come when they cleared the dungeon!
Chen Guo was excited, but Ye Xiu didn’t linger on the thought any longer. He sent out the DPS Chart again, calmly saying, "Let’s have a look at the DPS chart for the second section."