While the Death Fiscalists' mains are busy taking out airport security inside Terminal 5, stationed both at the check-in counters and at the baggage carousels, Clavet realizes there is one significant limitation to this plan of using alcohol clouds to fake sandstorms.
"I just realized that the risk of hurting innocent people with alcohol clouds is perhaps greater than with using sandstorm spells because of intoxication, especially because, for some reason, giving some wind to an alcohol cloud makes it indiscriminate" a female rebel alcohol witch tells the other two alcohol wizards in Karine's player McMansion.
"Alcohol clouds should be reserved for when there are no civilians within the area affected; otherwise, cast a sandstorm spell if the circumstances call for faking sandstorms for us to sneak in" Clavet then draws her conclusion about the field use of cloud spells.
"Got it" the male alcohol wizard nods.
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Meanwhile, inside Terminal 5, the two tanks anticipate the Cyber-Tech Alligator, the second boss plaguing the airport, being a big DPS check, but the boss was apparently solo-tankable in brutal mode.
"Depending on how fast the venom stacks decay, I'd say our best DPS at tank mechanics taunts off whoever is going to tank it when it's time to swap. That said, this boss tends to favor ranged since you need to switch targets often and, the faster the adds die, the better" Karine has a discussion with Ram about how to approach the boss.
"You said it so yourself that DPS need to change targets often in brutal mode, and honestly, it's a multi-dotting kind of fight" Ram comments on the target switching.
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With that said, Karine logs Monseigneur off from the game and logs back in on Clavet, who's at her player home. While Karine is at the loading screen stage of getting Clavet ready to run the Cyber-Tech Alligator, the following scene is happening in her player home:
"I've been called up to fight Belzebuth at the airport, so take care" Clavet tells the other two rebel alcohol wizards.
"Hope you bring something nice from duty-free!" the female alcohol wizard formulates her wishes for Clavet.
However, seeing NPCs at her home that aren't on-call services seems to trigger a reaction in Karine as the two NPC Perserian rebel alcohol wizards are walking away from her McMansion. (MAA allows not only freedom to decorate player housing, it also allows freedom to build it, so long as they could afford it)
"What's going on here? My alcohol witch had guests come over at my home without my prior approval?" Karine is fuming at the presence of NPCs that weren't supposed to be there because they aren't on-call servants. "This game's world really has gone out of control!" she screams even when the NPCs leave.
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She promptly asks Ram to invite her alcohol witch to the party, and once that is done, Ram invites her to the party, all the while Kataparuto has already started pulling the boss, in its departures version. However, the Death Fiscalists are about to enter the baggage handling system by the carousel.
The first phase begins and... wow. They must wade through the innards of the baggage handling system, and, in the arrivals version of the fight, they need to destroy the container unloaders, while being chased around by baggage handlers. Which Ram takes care of, since the players must fan out to get to the container unloaders in time; otherwise, the boss will start hitting the players who couldn't destroy their assigned unloader in time.
And, of course, true to her multi-dotting form, Karine is the one who ends up casting DoTs on each container unloader (the alcohol cloud, and then the alcohol shooter, AoE and single-target respectively) while making sure that she aims the alcohol clouds for some baggage handlers to get hit if possible.
However, the first phase proves to be the easy part of this boss, regardless of whether it's the departures or the arrivals version. The second phase is where the boss proper comes down to fight the party.
Yes, as soon as the boss comes down, and hence the second phase starts, there are wing attacks, sweeping arcs sideways to the boss, but here they must target the boss' rotator cuffs and the anterior cruciate ligaments (or ACLs) all the while dodging (or killing if possible) the booby-trapped containers coming from the tarmac (arrivals version) or the check-in counters (departures version). And, of course, venom stacks when the boss bites the player holding aggro on it.
"I've got four venom stacks; Caro, swap!" Ram screams on voice, with Caroline taunting the boss because he deemed Karine to be the better multi-dotter.
"Spread out!" Karine, seeing red circles around everyone, hollers.
The question is: how many venom stacks can Caro eat before it becomes too much for our healers to heal through? Especially since we just ate the saturation rockets (i.e. the red circles forcing us to spread)! Karine starts thinking about how this information could affect further pulls of this boss.
They spend hours changing things between wipes, and not only the Japanese do the same, but the Chinese, Danish and Koreans. So it seems like bards can eat 4 venom stacks but all other tanks specs can eat at most two or three. And very few DPS can eat two.
"If we want to solo-tank this, we need to rotate two DPS holding aggro on the boss off at one stack" Caroline suggests, mostly because of their experiments on how many venom stacks players can eat.
"Caro, you'll take the first tank swap, I will take the second. Also, Ram, if you feel you can't take four stacks, let us know and we will taunt off you" Karine adds to the comments about the tank swaps.
Just because that aspect of the fight happens more smoothly, doesn't mean there aren't other mechanics troubling other players. However, for this boss, which version of phase 3 is happening will depends on which body parts are taken off first.
At lunch, when the other people at Karine's office catch a glimpse of the race to world first, they are bewildered to see a fight taking place inside the baggage handling system, and to see people try to determine which strategy is better for dealing with phase 3 of the cyber-tech alligator. Taking the rotator cuffs out (and then the boss can't fly anymore) or tearing the boss' ACLs (in which case the boss needs to fly to move).
"I wonder what is it that she finds interesting in playing this game" one of Karine's colleagues is dumbfounded about watching her fight a dragon with one cybernetic wing and cybernetic legs at an airport.
"I work with her on stuff such as consumer proposals, and from time to time she does slip a few mentions of the game. She's my colleague, it's the least I could do to encourage her in this race to world first" another coworker adds.
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And then comes, a few pulls later, the allergy mechanic, where the tank needs to properly line up the boss against the automated container handling systems when a certain type of container drops allergens onto its body.
Which they discover that, in fatal mode, it forces a tank swap irrespective of the number of venom stacks one has since the next bite, while the boss has an allergen active, is an insta-kill if the one holding aggro on it has a preexisting venom stack. However, said allergen is the only way to remove the last-ditch defensive buff for the final phase, taking place on the tarmac.
"Final burn! Ignore adds!" Karine announces while she shifts focus on the boss.
And, after the first allergen falls on the boss, Caroline taunts the boss off Ram, while slowly and steadily getting the boss into position for the second allergen. We won't let these Japanese catapults beat us to the kill just because they fought the departures version! The Chinese, Danish and Koreans aren't even at the allergen phase yet! Caroline seems to have DPS optimization on her mind.
However, as they get to the second allergen, the Death Fiscalists are beaten to the world first on this boss (the manufacturer ignores the versions for RWF purposes) by Kataparuto. And therefore, Japan scores its first world first on a boss in a MAA fatal RWF.
"Looks like this tier, rather than being a China-Denmark duel as so many expected, is shaping up to be a Canada-Japan duel instead" Caroline comments as her character dies right before the boss gets to the second allergen.
"Down with Kataparuto!" Karine yells while taunting the boss, moments before the second allergen drops on the boss.
"What makes nationalities so important to MAA RWFs, unlike in other games?" a new viewer asks her on the stream.
However, Karine is unable to answer it because she's holding the boss for the final burn, moving it from an automated container handling system to another. Come on, little DPS! Even without Monseigneur's target painting, we can still get it done with Ram's offensive buff songs! Karine starts thinking furiously while the second allergen drops on the boss, as she sees the boss' health bar steadily melting away.
For the final push, Francis rezzes Caroline so that she can contribute to the boss burn on the tarmac. However, with the adds standing between her and the boss, Caroline closes in on it, just enough to be able to hit it.
Yet, everyone's so focused on the boss that they forget about the adds breathing down their throats. Until Ram uses an AOE taunt to take the boss from Karine, and then both Caroline and Karine spread DoTs on the adds still alive. With the boss' ACLs torn, the boss can't move anymore, but there's so few HP left that the boss isn't simply bleeding.
Its death leaves a puddle of blood on the tarmac, and a container is unloaded from a nearby conveyor belt, revealing the loot. It's only then viewers' questions can be answered on Karine's stream.
"Nationalities are important in MAA raiding because of the logistics of raiding. It's much harder to coordinate with players in different time zones. At top levels, some guilds outright ask applicants if they are legally authorized to work in the guild's home country, which, in practice, amounts to asking for citizenship of the country in question. Sorry for not having answered earlier"
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But while Karine switches characters to control Monseigneur rather than Clavet, the latter returns into the baggage handling system and, from there, the duty-free shopping area, looking for items she feels her fellow Perserian rebels would like.
Between fashion accessories, perfumes, makeup, alcohol, and books for light reading, Clavet feels like time is short for her to get items from duty-free shopping using the credit cards of fallen police officers, which she knows the players can't use. She takes three of these, but only uses one to go on a shopping spree.
Knowing Karine, and what awaits her next, I have some time to deliver the goods to my fellow Perserian rebels. And, perhaps, I can help get the rebels' morale up on Belzebuth's dime! When Karine controls me, it always seems like I must use my magic in rapid succession. And she tends to make me use my spells in a specific order. But now that Monseigneur is going to fight again, and, hopefully take the fight to Belzebuth, I can do things I wouldn't otherwise, Clavet reflects on how her life differs depending on whether she is actively controlled by Karine.
Also, she buys takeout pizza for the other alcohol wizards, in hopes that this fight won't require Karine to go back to deploying her again. Which means a few hours of respite for the alcohol witch to supply the rebel wizards.
Once Clavet returns to her player's McMansion, with two handbags full of duty-free merchandise from Operation Heathrow's Terminal 5 that players can't normally buy, while Monseigneur is busy grappling with the third boss on the tarmac:
"Because you might be called upon to risk your life for Perserian freedom at any time, especially since you're part of the special units, here are some luxury items you might never again obtain!" Clavet starts laying down the items on the floor.
The other two alcohol wizards rejoice upon receiving these items, and eat the meal Clavet brought from the food court of Operation Heathrow.
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Speaking of the tarmac, the Death Fiscalists are discovering the hard way that, while the enrage timer of the firepower kill phase, that is, the first phase (4 minutes 12 seconds of firing one 120mm round at the tank every six seconds) has remained unchanged, what has changed is the effect of using AOE attacks on the boss, turret or hull.
Here in fatal mode, the bosses' ERA (for explosive reactive armor) tiles would blow up if hit by AOE attacks, also causing players caught in the blast to get hurt. Which means that all the ranged DPS are hitting one tank, while the melees would be hitting the other, at least in the firepower and mobility kill phases.
Speaking of mobility kill phase, which is the second phase, the onus is on the team to dodge the bombs dropped from above. Which also cause the ERA tiles to detonate as if they were hit by a player-launched AOE attack. After a wipe in the mobility kill phase:
"For this phase, we put the bombs on the treads in the mobility kill phase, and then run away! The ERA tiles are indiscriminate, and so are the bombs; that being said, to put the bombs on the treads in the mobility phase, we need to lead the target" Karine suggests another plan for the team to implement in the mobility kill phase. "These Japanese catapults, like their namesakes, tended to have the bombs drop where the bosses were, and not where they will be"
"Monseigneur, these... Japanese catapults are not the only ones we need to worry about" Francis realizes that it wasn't just about Kataparuto anymore.
"If friendly fire doesn't work..." Caroline, worried about the loss of DPS in the mobility kill phase to friendly fire, starts feeling her blood boil upon hearing about this adjustment. "we'll have bigger problems than just Kataparuto!"
But by then, with each passing pull, they start losing concentration and, twenty pulls later, no guild has been able to get to the kill. And each wipe appears to be draining their repair budget, but they hold on to hopes that they can still get the kill. Even when Kronborg seems to be far along the tank crew phase of this fight.
When they finally get the mobility phase of the fight down, now it's time for Karine to use the high mass to put the tank crew to sleep.
"Everyone hit the medic!" Karine hollers while time is short for them to act.
With the medic down, the turn then comes for the remaining crewmen to take to the field. So while Karine goes for the AOE taunt, this time around, she positions the bright line so that, while the assault rifle-equipped crewmen can cross it, the squad leader, on the other hand, can't. Especially since the squad leader fires a machinegun in a cone from a static, pintle-mounted position.
Whereas most other people would rather kill the squad leader first, as was done in brutal mode, here the team prefers to put the rest of the squad into the conical area, making it eat a double dose of AOE attacks. For some reason, this phase is easier mechanically in fatal mode because of friendly fire that wasn't there in brutal mode! Ram starts thinking while he holds aggro on the squad leader.
Yet everyone discovers that killing squad members make the survivors hit harder, presumably by increasing their weapons' rate of fire. Fueled by their despair, they give their all into killing the remaining crew members. And when the healers feel like everyone else will live long enough to kill them, they start mowing down the squad leader who, for some reason is left alive until the very end.
"Man down!" Karine shouts, the bishop's frailty playing tricks on her upon death.
But this time around, Monseigneur falls first, and then Béteulle. With less than one percent left, the squad leader does a 180 and fires in Caroline's direction. Yet, it was too little, too late, and the squad leader dies after hours of them struggling on the tarmac.
Once this is all over, the tarmac is littered with wreckage, corpses and blood, and the loot being somewhere else on the tarmac, near another aircraft.
"We did it! However, we might have been playing for hours upon hours!" Karine warns her teammates, some of whom played since early in the morning. Like Ram, living in Calgary and hence in the mountain time zone.
"Canada is back in the lead!" Caroline shouts, after looking at the main opponents still fighting the tank crew. "Way to stick it to these... Japanese catapults, who just killed the boss, too"
"The choice of whether to sleep or to keep playing is not going to be easy, guys!" Ram then yawns.