Chapter 0060
Altreyes changed into Rayael as she assesses her gear. Plate armour, shield, sword, done! It isn’t because Rayael is negligent or careless about gear; it is because at low levels gear doesn’t interest the experienced gamer.
Rayael turned to look at the wary faces of her group, grunted, then did an about face and jumped off the cliff. Did they think she was going to enact her nefarious schemes after she reveals her plan? Only an idiot would do something like that. It is like a thief posting on social media their plans for robbing a bank and actually rob the bank. The police would be all over them like a fly on honey… urg wrong metaphor. Forget it.
The element of a good plan is actually a good plan, something Rayael hasn’t thought of yet. Therefore, she’d put the grudge at the back of her mind and pull it out at the right time and get her revenge.
The short Perrian Let would rather focus on the present fight. Sylphie is right. They lack coordination among themselves. Now add in Egarious and Aetharious and fragile teamwork they have right now will shatter like a mirror after it is introduced to a big rock.
The Grieza Canyon is a good choice to grind and work on their teamwork. The fishes are level 35, high enough for their current group level and low enough that it doesn’t pose any danger to them. They can tackle the bears when they are comfortable enough with each other. The wyverns will be the true challenge.
Rayael’s aim when she jumped off is a little spot at the base of the cliff out of aggro range of the bears and near enough to the river for them to attempt to kill the fish. As for jumping off the cliff, she always want to bungee jump but no one will let her. Now she can do it without the safety and equipment hassles. She got wings. She can fly. No way is she going to trek down to the base of the canyon on her two feet.
She might be tempted to take a mule ride down to the bottom of the canyon if it was available, then she remembers the literal pain between her legs from sitting on a saddle for a long time. To this day, Rayael wondered why they didn't put a cushion on those darn contraption and if they said it was because of tradition, then she’s sure she can convince them to change the so called tradition. Or buy a custom made saddle tailored to her comfort.
It was only when she was falling did she remember her motion sickness problem. In a panic, Rayael flared out her wings and slowly glide down to the base of the canyon all the while keeping an eye out for the wyverns. Looking up is better than looking down.
Bang.
“Ouch.”
Bang.
Bang.
Looking forward is also a requirement for flying and if one forgets to pay attention to their surrounding they’d end up like the directionally challenged Perrian Let who has wings but flies into a cliff.
At least she made it to the spot she chose without much damage, aside from her pride.
“Are you alright?” Being shown concern from the enemy is more humiliating than the act that humiliate her in the first place.
“I’m fine.” Rayael replied in a gruff voice. She ignored the hand Aetharious has extended, got up and watch as the other gently flew to the safe spot.
Nobody said anything about her little encounter with the cliff wall.
Later Rayael would spin the tale of her engaging a level 50 wyvern in fierce aerial combat when she was only level 30 because an eager little boy took on more than he can chew trying to prove his worth to the group.
The epic battle pushed her endurance to the limit and she nearly plummeted to the bottom of the cliff if her tail hadn’t grabbed on to a protruding tree growing out of the cliff, buying her enough time to regain her flight ability. Rayael was perilously close to dying as the wyvern attacked her with its sharp claws and sharper tails but she persevered and was able to kill the wyvern with 1% health at the end of the fight.
The grandstanding little boy thanked her profusely for saving his bacon. Slowly, the friendship between two Emperor class Perrian Let was formed.
Friends and guild members will applaud her story telling and then when she wasn’t looking, turn to Aetharious for the real version of the event.
But the story is for a later date.
The current Rayael was waiting for the rest of the group land gracefully on the safe zone before trying to establish her position as the leader of the group. “Sylphie, you are on healing duty. I hope you actually put points into the healing tree so I’d be sorely disappointed in you. Soliel, don’t try to pull aggro, either with your attack or with your mouth. I’m not going to save you when mobs kills in two hits. Stupid onii-san, look after yourself and your little brother.”
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Everyone ignored the paper tiger and turned towards the real leader for directions. “I’ll be on healing duty with Erica, Aetharious and Egarious dpsing at the side. Try not to pull aggro since our tank doesn’t have the necessary skill to actually save you when it happens.”
“Sylphie, how can you say that about me?” Rayael cried out indignantly.
“I’m the one who is going to heal you.” That shut Rayael right up.
Some players call it the holy trinity in gaming. Rayael calls it the ‘people you’d never want to piss off’ in gaming. For a tank, it’s their healers. Piss off the healers and they let you die. End of story. Well, a tank can find another healer, but seriously think about it, which player would willing follow another player around like a servant or slave and dedicate their heals so the other player can get all the glory and reward? There a reason why good healers are hard to find!
For a healer, the person not to piss off is a good tank. Any idiot can charge into a group of mobs and attack them all to get the initial aggro. Holding the aggro is a different story, especially in the presence of a high dps class. The tanks get the aggro, but dps can easily grab the aggro off the tank if they aren’t focus firing, or target the same target the tank is targeting. Trying to keep the tank and the squishy dps alive is hard work and most of the time the healer will chose to focus heals on the tank, however once the situation is already fubar, the healer will die if the tank can’t pick up the mobs fast enough. Most tanks can do well if things goes as plan. An excellent tank can control the situation even when everything is in disarray.
The dps… can never piss off the tank or the healers. Dps are a dime a dozen. They can be replaced. There is a reason why groups are always asking for either a tank or a healer when forming a group.
Therefore, Rayael decided to shut up and tank.
Rayael’s first target are the [Frenzied Salmon] in the river. They range from level 35 to level 38 with an elite [Frenzied Salmon] here and there.
Elites are different from normal mobs. They have more hp, mana, defense, offense… just more of everything. They aren’t as strong as a boss, but they are much stronger than the regular mobs by at least 30%.
Rayael estimate their group can take on a level 38 regular mob. They are nowhere near ready to take on the [Gigantic Black Grizzly Bear] roaming along the river bank, so Rayael approach the river with caution.
Once she spotted a nice level 35 [Frenzied Salmon], Rayael realize she had a problem: how was she supposed to pull the mob?
Pulling a mob is the second most important aspect of a tank. The first is getting and keeping aggro.
If the mob is in a wide open space and the tank is confident in the ability of the group, the tank can run up to the mob and attack it. This method can apply to single or group mobs, but it is one of the stupidest pulling method in Rayael’s book. Heck it isn’t even a pulling method but a charging method.
Most regular mobs can be pulled by the charging method, but players don’t form groups to after regular mobs. For elite or boss mobs, the groups find a safe place away from wandering mobs or place large enough for the group to kite the mobs or separate the boss away from their guards and kill one at a time.
Therefore, tanks stand in a safe spot and either use a range attack to attract the initial aggro or carry a range weapon to pull.
Rayael is in a pickle right now. The mob density in the river is high enough it becomes dangerous if Rayael was to charge in and tank in the river but low enough for Rayael use a range attack to pull a single mob to the edge of the river without attracting the other mobs in the area.
Except she doesn’t have a range attack or a range weapon.
Before anyone can say a sarcastic comment, the formerly useless piece of flesh grabbed a rock and threw it at the mob.
Tail for the win!