Floor -Multiple - Front Line is Floor 39
October 13
Bladescape led Backbreaker, Joltron, Thunderborne, Astro, and Lessa to Agil’s shop. The small shop wouldn’t hold all of them, so the others were forced to wait outside while Bladescape went in alone.
“Hey! Be with you in a minute,” Agil greeted her. He was dealing with a customer. The guy was pouring over stats and weighing the options, so Agil tried to balance both of them. “What are you looking for? Or are you looking to sell?”
“Buy,” Bladescape said. “First priority is a knife or dagger. A One-Handed Daggerskill weapon.”
“You got the dagger or stats of the previous one?”
“Knightstar gave me a list of minimum required stats.”
“She always has you guys prepared.”
“She does. She knows the equipment better than we do. We depend on her for a lot, for better or for worse. I have a list of other stuff we need too. We are pretty wiped after getting our guild headquarters, but we need to look at equipment if we are to advance in the next few levels.”
“You guys scored-” Agil had to move back to his first customer. It took a little bit more time and then he finally made his purchase and departed.
“You guys have a guild headquarters now?” Agil asked, getting back to where he had left off.
“It’s right by the teleport gate in Mishe. It cost all we had, but it is a beautiful 5 story, 12 bedroom building with everything we need for crafting and relaxing. We can’t even furnish it at this point, but when that comes, it will be amazing. And Knightstar will have a place to do her consultations in private. That will be very nice.”
“Sounds like it. I might have to do a consultation just to check the place out. The KOB has their headquarters on Floor 25 right now. Floor 35 is a great location. It will last you guys quiet a while.”
“I hope so. I really don’t want to upgrade. They are expensive.”
“Out towards Floor 60 you may need to, just to keep up your presence. I’m already planning to upgrade out around Floor 50. It is expensive, but let’s talk business. I have a few knives in stock. I don’t buy a lot of them because few players carry them, but I do buy the good ones.”
Agil pulled up his shop menu and selected the knives. Bladescape had the list out and began comparing them. All three were right about the same, they only varied in a few balancing factors like Critical Damage and Attack Damage. Critical Damage was important to Bladescape, but she preferred the weapons with more Attack Damage. If you didn’t get a critical attack in, you at least got a higher attack, and the one she was looking at had an Attack Damage rating that was enticing to Bladescape.
Agil pulled the dagger out for Bladescape to look at. She knew it was right immediately. It was on the longer side with a slight curve to the single edged blade. While the knife was single edged, the tip was double edged for better stabbing. What really stood out was the colors. It was a soft yellow with pink accents that was just crying Fluttershy.
“Oh yeah,” Bladescape grinned. “Now that is perfect. We still need more though.”
Agil chuckled. “I can see the list. What is the rest you need?”
“Two-handed spear, two-handed axe, two-handed sword, one-handed curved blade, still looking for a better war hammer, a mace, two swords, and a one-handed axe, and several shields. I’ve got half the guild here. We are going to the boss labyrinth after this, but the others I will have to rely on feel. We are further behind than we want, so we are not going to worry about style and such right now.”
“I got a sword you will like,” Agil said playing with the menu. A blue accented steel blade popped onto the counter. It was a solid 2 handed sword and significantly better than her maxed out Iron Splitter, which Bladescape was still carrying. “It’s the best I got in shop and it just came in yesterday. I’ve not gotten anything better through my shop yet in that category.”
Bladescape felt the weight of it and smiled. She pulled up her menu and made a private purchase and sold Iron Splitter for a small pittance.
They found a better war hammer for Backbreaker. Astro got a new spear. There were no good maces for Diemond. Joltron was able to find a new axe but not a shield. Lessa upgraded her sword by quite a bit and with help from the guild got a new shield too. They did find a new axe for AFCK, a sword for Knightstar, and both Knightstar and Diemond got new shields. Diemond’s shield was significantly bigger than what she currently had, but it was in the direction she need to go as a tank.
With the shopping done, they headed to the Labyrinth. They were stopped on the way by an NPC who was being chased by a pack of wolves. They automatically jumped into action.
There were ten wolves and six of them. Plus they had to protect the NPC. Backbreaker was tasked with personally defending the NPC and the others began to pick them off. The wolves were savage and foaming at the mouth. Lessa got bit and she was soon taking poison damage. She killed the wolf and stumbled over to Backbreaker who had an anti poison crystal ready. It was too close for comfort. Lessa stayed back with Backbreaker as she worked to recover the health she had lost between the bite and the damage over time effect of the poison.
The wolves did not like Astro’s spear. Between her reach and Thunderborne protecting her inside her reach, they killed two in quick succession. Bladescape’s range gave her space, but it was not as much as she wanted.
Joltron killed one with his axe. “I love this new axe!” He declared before charging another wolf.
A wolf tried to outflank him but it stepped in between Bladescape and Joltron. She leaped at the wolf, impaling it and causing it to burst into the colorful polygons that made up everything in this world. A wolf leaped at Bladescape's back, so she activated Back Rush, a two handed sword Sword Skill that countered an attack from behind with a special spin. It hit right at the wolf’s neck, dealing critical damage and knocking off the last of it’s HP.
The reward for the wolves was pathetic. They gave only a handful of Col and next to nothing when it came to XP. The NPC was the real prize.
“Th-th-th-ank y-you,” she stammered. “I th-thought I-I was de-dead.”
“No problem,” Thunderborne said with a cocky grin and her rapier blade on her shoulder.
“We are always happy to help,” Bladescape added.
“I don’t have anything to give you,” she said without stammering. “I only have a little bit of information I can give you.”
“That’s fine,” Bladescape said. “What do you know?”
“The boss who guards the gate to the next Floor, there is a plant here that can be used to create a toxin. He is weak to any poison made from it. It is why he sends out his rabid wolves to hunt any who know about it, or who can make the poison.”
“Can you make this poison?” Bladescape asked.
“No,” she said, shaking her head vigorously.
“Is he weak to any other poisons?” Bladescape asked.
“May...maybe?” She said, shaking her head. She was still scared. "I really don't know anything other than he fears a plant on this floor that can be used to make poison."
“Thank you,” Bladescape smiled. “That is very important information. We will make good use of it in the upcoming battle.”
“Can you escort me home?”
“Of course,” Bladescape said. “We will get you home safe and sound. Let’s go.”
It was early afternoon by the time they got her back to her home in the city. They gave up on the labyrinth for the day and headed to kill Hill Giants with the others. Farming Col was important. It had taken up a decent chunk today, even though most of the equipment purchases were made through personal funds.
Everyone met up in the fields to get their new equipment.
“We need to have a meeting back at headquarters tonight,” Bladescape said. “We got some important intel to discuss, safely. But more importantly right now, new weapons!”
“Wow,” Doombunny said as she looked over her knife. “This is beautiful.”
“I’m glad you like it,” Bladescape replied.
“It is so me,” Doombunny squealed, with a bit of a squeak to the squeal.
“This is a good sword,” Knightstar said. “I like it too.”
“This shield is big,” Diemond said, with a tad bit of a whine. “But I guess I need it as a tank.”
“You got this Die,” Backbreaker assured her. “And these Hill Giants are the perfect creatures to get ourselves familiar with our new weapons.”
“We all have plenty to get used to,” Bladescape said. “So let’s get to it. Tomorrow we can all hit the Labyrinth!”
They all yelled “Go Wondercolts” and charged off to attack the Hill Giants. Their new equipment made an obvious difference as they cut down the giants quicker than before. AFCK stopped trying to help Doombunny and Colorra tackle the giants. Together they were the fastest team.
They switched up parties and Bladescape left Doombunny by herself in a party. She wanted her to reap the full XP benefits, as well as the Col. Doombunny had paid the guild back 80% of the cost of the dagger. It was helpful after the cost of their Headquarters.
They got back to their headquarters well after dark. They had reaped a good amount from the day's work. They immediately began the important meeting. The others sat in the few chairs they had, while Bladescape, Knightstar, and Backbreaker took their seats at the head of the room. Thunderborne and Astro were straddling their chairs so they were resting their arms and chins on the backrest.
“We got some important intel on the boss,” Bladescape stated. “We ran into an NPC being attacked by wolves in the woods. She could only give us information in return for our assistance. She said the boss is weak to a poison found in a plant here on Floor 39.”
“That is helpful,” Knightstar said. “If we can poison our weapons, then we can do some serious damage to the Boss.”
“But none of us have poison skills,” Diemond said. “Why would any of us have such an ugly skill like that?”
“Excuse me,” Doombunny quietly said. No one heard her.
“Besides,” Diemond continued. “Shouldn’t we give everyone this information for the next boss fight?”
“Or we could keep it and give ourselves an edge,” Astro said.
“Excuse me,” Doombunny said again.
“Argo probably has dug that info up,” Knightstar said. “I haven’t gotten a guide yet. I’ve been doing some calculations for her in exchange for the guide.”
“Girls?” Doombunny tried.
“I don’t have an answer,” Bladescape said. “But a good part of me wants to hold onto it and wait. Just wait and see how the Labyrinth plays out.”
“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” Doombunny asked.
“We do need to secure a poison maker,” Bladescape said. “Knightstar, can you get a hold of one through Argo?”
“Oh shoot,” Doombunny sighed, giving up.
“She probably has a few names that could help us,” Knightstar said. “But I am not sure how many players are focusing on poison. That is a concerning skill to have.”
“EEEYAAAAA!” Knightstar screamed as Colorra jumped onto the table in front of her, mouth open but not hissing. Knightstar’s jump sent her tumbling backwards her chair. Bladescape was immediately helping her up from the tumble.
“Doom, is there something you wanted to say?” Bladescape asked. “Colorra doesn’t just leave your side to randomly scare players. Especially us.”
“No,” Doombunny softly said. “Oh, I mean yes. There is. I just hit Level 50 today, and my new skill I chose was Drug Mixing. Colorra and I have been planning it ever since she became my familiar. It only makes sense with her natural poison for me to be ready to use it. I should be able to distill enough to coat our blades for the boss battle.”
“Wow,” Thunderborne said.
“That’s wonderful!” Diemond praised. “That is a great, non nasty reason to train poison skills. It only makes sense.”
“It does,” Bladescape affirmed.
“Can I go cook now?” AFCK asked, whining. “I’m hungry.”
“Go,” Bladescape chuckled. “But for now, the boss info stays sealed behind our lips. And Doombunny having a poison skill needs to stay very private.”
They all agreed and the others left. Backbreaker and Knightstar stayed at the table with Bladescape. It was obvious she had something on her mind.
“You have something on your mind,” Backbreaker said to Bladescape.
“I do,” Bladescape solemnly nodded. “Doombunny needs to be with me and you BB, tomorrow in the Labyrinth. We need to see exactly what she can do. I think she needs to be in this Floor's Boss Battle. If Colorra can bite the Floor Boss with poison, it should be able to do major damage. The only problem is that I am pretty sure the rabid wolves we fought to save the NPC are going to be there.”
“Then it will be you three in a party alone,” Knightstar said. “I think the three of you can handle it. Kiefer can handle leading Astro, Joltron, and Thunderborne. The rest of us can be a third. Evaluate Doombunny and get her confident and ready to be in that battle.”
Bladescape (SS): Lvl 55 – Two-Handed Sword – Search – Weapon Defense – Leather Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Sprint – Acrobatics
Knightstar (TS): Lvl 49 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Equipment Appraisal – Parry – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor
Thunderborne (RBD): Lvl 50 – Rapier – Sprint – Acrobatics – Armor Pierce – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Leather Armor – Weapon Defense
Backbreaker (AJ): Lvl 53 – Heavy Shield – One-Handed War Hammer – Extended Weight Carry – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Fishing – Search
AFCK (PP): Lvl 49 – Two-Handed Axe – Parry – Cooking – Weapon Defense – Martial Arts – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor
Diemond (R): Lvl 50 – Shield – Mace – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Heavy Metal Armor – Tailoring – Light Metal Armor Forging – Heavy Metal Armor Forging
Doombunny (FS): Lvl 50 – One-Handed Dagger – First Aid – Hide – Search – Listening – Battle Regeneration – Fighting Spirit – Familiar Communication (Colorra) – Drug Mixing
Astro (PS): Lvl 50 – Two-Handed Spear - Purchase Negotiation – Armor Pierce – Acrobatics – First Aid – Light Metal Armor – Battle Regeneration – Weapon Defense
Kiefer: Lvl 46 – One-Handed Curved Blade – Parry – Weapon Defense – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Slash Weapon Forging
Lessa: Lvl 46 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Light Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Equipment Repair – Metal Equipment Repairing
Joltron: Lvl 47 – One handed Axe – Shield – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Metal Refining – Blunt Weapon Forging
I admit that is an unorthodox way of making poison utilizing Fluttershy’s Familiar Communication skill. I would have never thought of it myself. But then again it doesn’t seem to be a regular skill so I’m sure it can be used best by her.
9972775
Well, the ingredients have to come from something, and Colorra's venom is more than something.
She can make poison now. ...yeah, I can somehow see FlutterGamer using skills that make her a hidden badass.
9972857
She still is on the front lines. 39 Floors in, and she only just unlocked this? Flutters is fun. She might be my favorite character. Either her or Bladescape. Both are fun. Lots of fun. Flutters has to think and outsmart targets. She doesn't even have a defensive combat skill. Bladescape carries a bit sword and leads the group for a reason (Also, I love Sunset Shimmer).
......I'm in support of BladeBunny if it somehow led that way.
But what I'm saying is that Fluttershy is probably one of the strategists when it comes to MMO's or regular RPG's in general.
??? My memory is pretty bad: Isn't the pilot episode of SAO the episode where the main character sits back watching a couple dozen people die before stepping in and oneshotting everything?
9972891
Support is more what she does. Strategy falls to Knightstar. She is more of a support who acts where needed, assuming she can. Not much but survival goes on in her head. I've got "a day in the life of..." episodes planned.
I have no plan for romance, but I also would support BladeBunny. But, I have been looking, but I really don't want to ship any of the main 7 together. The story still isn't finished being written. No guarantees.
9972906
No. That doesn't happen. There is a video you can watch that helps jumpstart things, it is embedded. But that isn't any of the three seasons of Sword Art Online. So, wrong Anime.
Hmm...alright... Guess what I'm trying to say is that she's a gamer who gets deep into how best to play, perhaps to survive and advance in her games.
I also support - going with real names - FlutterDash. And I see...should be interesting.
Sunset cosplaying as Mordred… I never knew I needed this in my life until now
I don't know if this is intentional, but the date between this chapter and the last one are off.
9972938
I see what you are saying. And certainly she has to. She is a lot more focused on combat that Dash actually is, or AFCK.
9972949
I had no idea who Mordred was until I posted this fic. It was the only good image of Sunset, or any of the M7 with a weapon, that I could get a hold of. I just saw Sunset with a big sword. lol
9973009
Whoops! Thanks for the assist! I fixed it. It is supposed to be October 13. I had to fix the next few chapters as well.
9973024
Your welcome!
9972927
I jumped around the video in your first chapter and yeah. I remember now. Wrong episode, right season, right show.
I read the light novel like a decade ago and this is the story where the main character literally stands back and watches dozen of people die because he doesn't want to reveal the fact that he has a literal-one-of-a-kind class that turns out to be the literal-one-and-only class that can defeat the final boss's own literal-one-of-a-kind class.
9973075
Ah, you are probably referring to the Boss 74 fight, Gleam Eyes, where Kirito, Asuna, and Klein charge in to save the Aincrad Liberation Soldiers who foolishly attacked the Floor Boss without the right gear, preparation, or numbers. The Boss Chamber was an anti-crystal zone, not allowing players to teleport out. They hesitated to jump in because the three of them were not going to be able to beat the Floor Boss. Kirito does use his skill, but Klein and Asuna had to keep the boss off him so he could change gear. It was a big risk, and really stupid, what they did to save the idiots. Kirito wasn't trying to win anything, or let people die. They went in because they chose to not let them die for their mistake. They went in unprepared to save them, which they did. Corvats and 4 died, leaving 20 ALS players alive because of it. Kirito just happened to finish the boss in his fight for survival. They hadn't been able to evacuate the players from the room.
9973013
Not direct combat of course, not with her class.
I'd say if we were talking about what sort of games Fluttershy might play outside of SAO, nothing that's inherently violent like an FPS......least not ones like Call of Duty or Battlefield. RPG's would definitely be in her wheelhouse...probably especially JRPG's. But that's just me being partially influenced by some fanworks......and that one time in the show where we had references to anime in her home.
9973096
That’s eerily detailed for something you didn’t remember a few hours ago.
9973183
Oh haha. That is what you meant. I'm thinking of it from a different angle. Lol. Yes, she would be strategy gamer. I don't remember her having an anime reference in her house. EQG or mlp? Do you have more info so I can check?
9973203
It is because that isn't how I would have described the scene at all. Off of your initial info, it took me a bit to connect with the scene. After that, easy. I have a done a lot of deeper research to do this fanfic. The basis for it always goes back to the light novels first, then the anime.m, as it originally was designed.
9973495
It happened during the "Scare Master" episode of MLP; Fluttershy tried hosting a scary tea party as a way to take part in Nightmare Night.
https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_allusions/Season_five#Scare_Master
9973830
That is absolutely awesome! I never knew that! I just watched the scene, and it was amazing! I love all those Easter eggs in the show.
And the wiki states two more cool inserts: "Two ponies are seen dressed up as Sailor Moon and Jem from the 1980s series Jem and the Holograms."
9974128
As I said, I haven't actually watched SAO, but am familiar with the premise so I can follow the general story without going all fenboi whenever one of the SAO main characters shows up, without actually knowing what any of them actually do outside of frame without them actually interacting with the Wonderbolts at all. I also pointed out that one of the "Best" Case scenarios was if he sold the extra loot he gets to one of the "Fair" PC shops. I still think it would be more sporting of him to allow others to try to get that last attack bonus, or at least give the other Raiders first pick of what he knows he won't use, considering that Raid Loot tends to be REALLY hard to replace until you've massively out-leveled the Raid you got it in, and the other Front Line Raid Members/guilds could probably benefit from the gear sooner than anyone would be able to once that gear would Actually be considered "Mid Tier" compared to the players on the front line push. Beyond that though, I don't even remotely approve of his presence in the raids for other reasons...
To explain that statement, I'll have to give some background. I am what I would classify as a "Serious Casual" gamer, and I've played a couple MMO's over the years, most notibly WoW. This means that while I play games for fun and only take things "Seriously" when I know I need to, such as in Raids, I still make sure that I understand WTF I'm doing and play to the best of my roles to the best of my abilities, even if I do end up tainting raid chat with the occasional dirty joke or tell off "That Guy" for being TOO serious when we're only on our first wipe and there are inexperienced players in the Raid. I even occasionally dabble in Game Meta if I think it will allow me to improve my performance without costing more time and effort than I'm willing to sink into a given game. I have found myself in both the roles of the Guild Member and the Lone Wolf, and I've been fortunate enough to find myself in Raids both Guild Organized and PUGs.
I have -Never- heard of any "World First" Raid Clear going through flawless, so the fact that they do in SAO, consistently, is a bit of an anomaly, but I'm willing to overlook it for the sake of narrative convenience and keeping the body count down. Final Fantasy XIV is the first MMO I've heard of where you can shove a bunch of Total Randos together with no prior organization or even experience in the Raid, and Probably come through with only a couple Wipes before downing the last boss, so maybe SAO has a similar Raid design philosophy to that compared to other MMO's. Whatever...
What really bugs me about Kirito being in the Raids is his constant Lone Wolfe persona. It may be portrayed differently in the Anime/Manga, but from what I've seen in your story it makes it seem like he keeps it up even in the Raids to a degree. Through my own experience as a Lone Wolf and understanding their typical behaviors, on top of my other experiences later on after I got into more organized Raids, even One Lone Wolf in a Raid (even in the games with the "Easier" Raid Philosophies such as FFXIV) that isn't willing to drop their usual behaviors in favor of working with the rest of the raid parties will more often than not end up in a wipe faster than you can say Leeroy Jenkins. If I were one of the players in SAO, and I was (un)fortunate enough to find myself on the Front Line in one of the Level Boss Raids, and I saw Anyone going Lone Wolf, once we downed the boss I would round on their A in front of Everyone There and read them the Fing Riot Act for endangering the lives of Everyone there for their reckless behavior, and make D sure that they knew that if I either caught them doing it again in another Raid fight, or even Heard about it if I wasn't there, that I would make D sure they got Blacklisted from all future Level Clears from that point onward (at least for a few levels, and only then if I caught wind that they had managed to pull the Lone Wolf Stick out of their A in the interim).
Heroes:
Yeah, I get that the Rainbooms are the "Heroes" of this particular story, but unless you diverge significantly from the SAO Canon later on, which I see no indication of you having any intention of from what I've read so far, Kirito is still (one of) the "Overall" hero(es) of SAO as a whole, and thus has plot armour.
9974443
Yeah, he has his "Plot armor." And he leads raids or is one of the main strategist. I'm also not sure how much MMORPG game experience Reki Kawahara has. I don't have WoW experience, but I have others. Team is always preferred. And it does bite Kirito in the butt. Not that I will show too much of that. But, he gets better. Asuna helps a lot. Women always help. And he is great with Silica and Lis.
Also, really detailed and awesome explanation. I got all of what you meant. Casual Gamer is kind of my style too. Just not WoW or FF. So I do hope I don't mess up too badly in the boss battle and combat descriptions. You have experience with the real deal.
9974554
Haven't actually played WoW in years, but I was fortunate enough to get into a couple Raids before the level cap increases became too frequent and too high for my "Filthy Casual" ways to keep up with and I just gave up and left. I've considered getting back now that WoW:Classic is available, and remaking my character, but I have more of a life now than I did when I was in highschool, and I don't want to give it up to that black hole again. I haven't played FFXIV at all either, but I've known people who do/did, and overall it sounds much more casual friendly than a lot of MMO's out there, especially in the Endgame. Recently most of my personal "MMO" experience has been with games like Destiny 1/2 and The Division 2, where you can either solo or party up as much as you want... Unless you want to get into the Raids... Raid parties are MUCH smaller than in the big Fantasy MMO's, but sometimes feel like they require the coordination of an experienced Competitive Dance team to clear, and you more or less have to play with people you know and play with regularly to get the teamwork down enough to get through quickly, and especially if you're going for Flawless (No Deaths) runs. It's possible to PUG, but be prepared for a LOT of wipes as everyone figures everything out...
9974596
A lot of great info. Most of my experience comes from the competition of WoW, Runescape. Lol. With Old School being released last year on mobile, I afk it when I can, which hasn't been much recently. Raid parties are unofficial, small, most of the game is being solo. Or all doing the same thing with friends.
9974611
That's generally my preferred play-style too. Solo or with a small group of tight friends. For roles, I prefer to play a support DPS role that's strong enough where I can do solo stuff on my own but lets me be a force multiplier for the rest of my party when I'm in a group, but I've dabbled in off-tanking in a couple games. Big Raids like in WoW:Classic (60 Players), can be fun, but they're chaotic as ALL HECK, and everyone needs to make sure they're doing what they need to be doing When they need to be doing it because Com. chatter needs to be kept to a minimum so that the raid leaders can effectively communicate stage-changes and role-switches when they need to happen without 60 people talking over eachother. Healers need to be on point. Tanks need to make D sure they've got aggro and know when and how to switch out with the Off-Tanks when they need to, and DPS need to know how to DPS Without drawing AGGRO off of the Tanks and Off-Tanks. Because of the larger Raid sizes compared to games like Destiny or The Division, Big Raid games tend to be somewhat more forgiving on the margin of error if someone screws up, but when you do you have to realize it immediately and work to make up the difference without compromising yourself or the raid, or else you get a cascade failure that ends in a wipe because the others performing the same role as you may not notice that you've screwed up and won't know immediately to pick up the slack. Tanks are the one exception. There are generally at most two tanks and two off-tanks depending on the encounter, and if the tank or off tank loose aggro their partner has to be in there Immediately to grab it back up or else the boss will stomp all over the healers and DPS and it's all downhill from there.
That doesn't mean that I haven't heard a couple Awesome stories where a raid nearly wiped with one guy left who managed to pull EVERYTHING out of their A at the last moment and barely down the boss before they went down themselves. These are the very, very, Very rare exception, though, not the rule. In fact, the point I made earlier about someone getting blacklisted by my brother's WoW guild was actually following one such instance. A Warlock in the guild managed to down the boss they were fighting after a near-wipe and it just so happened to drop a piece of set equipment the Warlock had been after for almost a Year. Guild leadership said "Ok, Widger pulled our Aes out of the fire on that one. He gets this. No Arguing.", but "That Guy" gear-sniped the roll. Almost immediate ejection from the guild and about a year long blacklist for raiding server wide because they were one of the major Raiding Guilds on the server and had the rep to put the word out.
So far, you've done a pretty good job of conveying the chaos of the big raids, though maybe a bit more yelling back and fourth calling switch-outs, especially if the Rainbooms are teamed with a party from a separate group/guild, and a bit less downtime chatter where the only one who seems to be focused on fighting is the active tank while everyone else is in the middle of an impromptu pep-talk.
P.S. to clarify roles, since you say your experience is with Runescape (I haven't played that since Gradeschool when it was just a Java browser-MMO), you say parties tend to be smaller, and I don't know if these roles exist as-such in what you've played.
The potential difference between a Tank and an Off-Tank is in their build.
Main Tanks, or just Tanks for shorthand, are pretty much exclusively built around the idea of being the immovable object that pisses off the boss by their shear stubbornness to Just. Not. Die! Sword and Board is the way to go, since the shield is the thing keeping you alive most of the time, but your focus on defense tends to detract from your damage output, so you need to find other ways to supplement your AGGRO generation. Warriors in WoW tend to have a dedicated taunt and a handful of other abilities that generate high aggro, but have long cooldowns that they chain together when their AGGRO starts to dip. Protection-Tree Paladins have the best passive aggro generation from their indomitable "F you, you're trying to Kill me? Here, you can have a debuff/DoT. Try harder with the next attack. If you put your back into it I might actually feel it next time." factor and buffing auras. They have a couple minor abilities that generate more aggro, but most of it is generated passively once the encounter starts. My Brother MT'd as a Prot. Pally for his guild for a while, and he's explained to me how he did it a couple times.
The Rainbooms' Main Tank is Hands Down Applejack. No arguments.
An Off-Tank, on the other hand, is someone with a build that can "technically" Tank, but they've branched out to have a few more support abilities than a Main Tank, and aren't quite as optimized for the role as a full Main Tank. Their role in a Raid is usually to pick up the AGGRO slack when the Main Tanks are between aggro generation chains. Sword and Board is still the necessary setup, and they usually can't take as many hits as a MT before they start hurting, but they tend to have a bit more side-utility and DPS potential behind them than a Main Tank.
Twilight is a good example as an Off-Tank. She can take the hits if she need to, but she's a Much better strategist and coordinator if she can step back once in a while to see how the battle is progressing overall. The fact that Twilight has Parry actually makes her a better candidate for either role than all three of the remaining shield users in their guild because it's a combination offense/defense ability, increasing her defense overall despite her preference for light metal armor while giving her more combat utility in creating openings in enemy defenses than the pure shield defense players.
Joultron, Lessa and Rarity could conceivably fall into either role in a secondary capacity given that all three have the basic sword and board setup, with Joultron probably being a better MT and Lessa being a better OT simply because of their armor-type preferences. Rarity probably falls somewhere in the middle because she prefers the lighter metal armor, but the weight of her IRL experience with shields makes up a bit of the difference in her "Too Fing Hard for Bosses to Kill" factor, and edging her up to being close to or at Twilight's level of "Tankieness".
9973940
Show's good for references, ain't it.
9974705
Thanks for the input! I try to keep chatter down. May raid for SAO is 8 squads of 6 members, or 48ish players. They have main rolls: Tanks, Forward, Damage Dealer.
Tanks are exactly as you described them. I movable, draw aggro, take damage, lots of HP. Forwards are often the very front. Your shield users and lances, the who can deal damage, but also throw up a solid defense when needed. The Damage dealers are the ones who wait for the right timing between the tanks, forwards, and the boss' attack patters and strike hard and fast. Usually it's things like spears and two handed weapons, or speed builds for rapiers.
For the Wondercolts, Tanks are Backbreaker, Diemond, and Joltron. Forwards are Knightstar, Lessa, with Damage DeLers being Thunderborne, Astro, and Doombunny. Because of defenskve sword skills like Weapon Defense and Parry, Bladescape, Kiefer, and AFCK kind of float between Forward and Damage Dealer, depending on the battle and enemies they are facing
9974729
Absolutely amazing at what they reference without being too obvious most of the time. Certain ones are, others like that are not!
Just finished reading what is of this story, and it's interesting. The lack of The characters taking about the miriad of life problems and troubles does ruin the suspension of disbelief a little though.
I mean, they're stuck for almost a year on what's effectively a fantastic medieval world fighting for their continued existence, yes... But death is barely touched. They've been confided to beds for almost an entire year and neither AJ nor RD has made a single comment on how that might make life harder on the farm or how her sporting career is pretty much over before it even began. They didn't talk about their families even once.
Sure, it's and adventure story, but without the elements that make SAO' situation different from any other virtual reality mmo it becomes quite empty. Hell, people trying to live a life and how that was different from simply playing the game was an important part of the manga, if I remember well. Are you going to breach that or keep completely away from the drama? A lot of the things that did happen would likely skirt the limits of the T rating and tags, but it'd be quite interesting to see the girls dealing with the stress of an entire year of being soldiers almost the entire time.
Hell, that's definitively one thing that's buggering me. Sunset acts not like a person stuck in a violent world, but as someone casually playing a game. All girls have something they do for fun or to relax, but all she does is fight. For a couple months that might be understandable, but an entire year? No one is that resilient or single minded without some serious psychological issues. Either there's a HUGE problem brewing there or she's been doing quite a lot of visiting to the red light district part of the game during her downtime.
Even Kirito and Asuna did take time to have a life. Sunset's damn terrifying in get singlemindlesness, as it stands now.
Anyway, I'll follow this one. I hope it becomes more than "EQG in SAO-light", but it's entertaining even if it doesn't.
9976715
I really appreciate the feedback! More drama and life stuff is to come. I thought I had more of it in the beginning, but I guess I could use more. There is a whole segment of episodes, "A day in the life of..." to come. I do want real life, and the real consequences to be in it to a degree. Not to a mature rating, but I have flexibility in T to do plenty. I could always throw the drama tag on too. Its basis is adventure, but adventure has consequences. I'll look through to see if I should add more in the right places. And check that it is there.
9976908
Indeed, the drama of consequences and dealing with the rather extremely stressful situation if SAO is rather crucial. Good to know it's in your plans, I'll await anxiously for it
9977154
I've been reading over the next few chapters to be released and you won't be disappointed. I knew it was in there!
Ok, this story and another over on FF finally got me interested in watching the SAO anime as more than a curiosity pursuit.
I'm feeling a bit more... charitable... towards Kirito than I was when I made my first comment, given the string of betrayals and failures he suffered in the first year of the game, and am more... understanding of his Lone Wolf persona.
That said, I still stand by my previously stated reasons for not wanting him anywhere Near the Raids. Front Lines as a clearer and quest scout and such is fine, but not in the Raids... At least not until after Asuna manages to excavate the stick from his A and beats him over the head with it until most of the stupid has bled out...
9977375
On Floor 56, briefly mentioned at the start of like episode 4 but largely skipped over for the entire scene, they are trying to deal with a field boss. Asuna wants to lure it to the village so while it goes for the villagers, they can attack it. Previous attempts had failed. Kirito stands against it, stating NPCs are different than tres and other obstacles. They end up dueling for it, and Asuna loses.
Yes, lone wolf isn't good. But the death game aspect makes it really easy to get past being a lone wolf. In the Anime and Light Novel, the threw strongest/beat players are Heathcliff, Kirito, and Asuna. And it's anybody's guess who would win. Plus, the majority of the raiders are single players from other guilds. Most guilds don't field full parties of 6 in a raid. That way, more of the loot is shared. The KOB does its best to be fair.
9977634
I actually binge-watched through 3/4 of the first season, through the Fairy Dance, arc last night (and stayed up WAY too late in the process... ;_; ). I did say she beat "Most" of the stupid out of him, implying that some of it had already been dealt with, as well that she couldn't get ALL of it out (As Forrest Gump would say, "stupid is as stupid does."). Just the majority of it.
As for the later clearing raids, I can understand why they would have no more than one or two people from any given guild or organization, but as I said before, that isn't the biggest problem I have with Kirito. It's the Lone Wolf thing: AKA his reluctance to work with D near anyone else. Teaming him up with Klein, Agil or Asuna is really the only "Safe" option since they're really the only ones he's even reluctantly willing to work with, especially after the deaths of the Moonlight Black Cats and before Asuna finally manages to get through to him. The former event just meant he had hangups with getting close to anyone, since there was the very real danger that they could die and he wouldn't be able to protect them, while the latter is when someone finally got through to him that it was more important to cherish the time they had together.
9978084
Kirito is a complex, but fun character. But, if you took away him being a lone wolf, he would make a very boring character. If he had joined up with Klein at the start, he would be very boring. And probably would have left because of Klein's goofiness. lol
9978129
Oh, I agree it would make for a boring story. I'm just trying to look at it from the perspective of "If I were stuck in this world, how would I react" standpoint. From an objective standpoint knowing more of what he's been through, I'm willing to be more charitable, but if I were in the game and didn't know any of that other than his reputation and what I may have personally seen of his SOP, I probably wouldn't want anything to do with him.
9978173
Most players don't want anything to do with Kirito. lol. Even the Assault Team tends to avoid him. They never see his good/soft side. But... the Wondercolts are not "normal" players. lol
9978084
I feel like you're misunderstanding something, Kirito isn't incapable of working with others he just prefers to play solo due to various reasons that are explained in the show. Even if he wanted to play with others his reputation as a beater has made him a pariah, anyone who knows who he is wants nothing to do with him, the only exception being boss kills because as one of the strongest players in the game they can't afford to exclude him.
When most players hate your guts it makes it rather hard to trust other people not to stab you in the back. Not to mention he doesn't want other players to ruin their reputations by associating with him.
9978181
9978359
Oh, no. I get that, but Trust is also a two way street. In a "Hindsight is 20/20" sort of way one of his major flaws before Asuna finally got through to him was that he rarely ever made the Effort to even Try to break the stigma that surrounded him, starting right at the beginning when he was first christened a "Beater". He was able to do it a few times, for a few select individuals, but for those few it was usually the other person bullying or badgering him to open up more, including Asuna, and on the whole he rarely ever opened up on his own after Floor 1 after he was christened a "Beater" and embraced the persona rather than working to overcome it. As Mindrop said before, taking away a lot of his flaws would make for a less interesting story, and his flaws are actually a humanizing factor for him so I wouldn't want to take them away either. As outside observers, it's easy to step back and say "Mistakes were Made" and evaluate how they could have been avoided, but empathizing with the situation as a whole also means mentally stepping into both the roles of Kirito and understanding Why he acted as he did, as well as the role of someone else trapped in the game, and how They might have seen the situation from a less removed perspective.
9978486
The thing is he became a beater intentionally, he chose to play the bad guy because he believed it would stop everyone from going after the other beta testers. It wasn't a matter of overcoming a stigma he chose to sacrifice himself because he felt it would be better for everyone in the long run if he was the only player people saw as an enemy. Of course in time the whole beater thing did blow over but by then he was used to playing solo and old habits die hard.
9978510
I got more the impression that "Beta's" had been separated into two categories thanks to the actions of Him and Diavel: "Betas", which were the beta-testers who were willing to share their information, and "Beaters", who were the beta-testers who hoarded their information and abilities to their own benefit.
The whole "beater" debacle started because Illfang the Kobold Lord, the First Floor Floor-Boss, had a Nodachi instead of a Talwar like he did in the Beta. It was a change NONE of the Beta testers had anticipated, and caught both Kirito and Diavel, who also happened to be a Beta Tester, completely off guard and killed the latter when the boss attacked faster than anticipated and landed a Nasty bleed effect in the process. The whole "Beater" thing started when one of the other Raid members, not knowing Diavel had ALSO been a Beta Tester and would have known the bosses expected equipment and attack patterns through experience, called Kirito out on being a Beta-Tester because he had tried to warn Diavel about the Nodachi, the effects of which Diavel hadn't known about, but Kirito did, because Kirito had gotten to a higher floor than most of the other beta testers.
The truth of the issue is more likely that Kirito hadn't expected to see an advanced weapon like a Nodachi on the freaking First Floor, and especially didn't expect the Floor Boss to have one, and thus hadn't seen the need to contribute his knowledge about them to the Field Guide yet.
The Distant Objective Observer with 20/20 glasses can rationalize that Kirito could have explained that Diavel had been a Beta tester too, that the Boss had had a different weapon than had been in the Beta, that he hadn't contributed any information about Nodachi to the planning because he hadn't known they would be facing one on such a low floor, and that what all of this meant was that the encounters of the game were changing and while the Beta's foreknowledge would be useful, it was not perfect. It wouldn't have been perfect, but it could have diffused a Lot of the tension of the situation and would have gone a long way to dismiss much of the bad feelings towards the betas by bringing the perspective of their skills and knowledge closer to the same level as the rest of the players.
Taking things from Kirito's perspective we know that he's young, and was already a bit of a loner, but had been willing to help and work with others before, but the stress of the fight, having Diavel die in his arms, and then being blamed for it right after pretty much maxed out his "I've had enough of this S" meter, and he snapped. The only ones who didn't immediately jump on him were Asuna and Agil, the former of whom was in his party and whom he had been kind to by sharing his food with the previous evening, and who had helped him finish off the boss, and the latter of whom is just generally non-judgemental.
The perspective of the other players is they were hopped up on post-fight adrenaline and their emotions were running high, the player who had inspired them to take the chance they just had was dead, one of their number had apparently known more about the weapon that had killed him than anyone "should" have, and that when he was called out on it and blamed for Diavel's death, he started laughing and called the other Beta's amateurs and that they shouldn't categorize them with him. The "Beta-Cheater" was an easy scapegoat in the aftermath, and they took their anger and grief out on him.
Yes, it more or less became a matter of reputation after the sixth floor or so, which was about as high as Kirito had managed to get in the beta, but the damage had been done but might not have been irreparable for so long if Kirito hadn't embraced his pariah status so thoroughly for so long. But again, that was one of his humanizing flaws, and taking it away would have made for a more boring story.
9978590
There was a growing stigma against all beta testers on the first floor due to a belief that beta testers were keeping important information to themselves in order to gain an unfair advantage. The mess with the first boss introduced the danger of a witch hunt being started to turn regular players against the beta testers. In order to prevent this Kirito claimed that he was using beta knowledge to cheat and that none of the other testers were anywhere near the same level as him which lead to the creation of the term beater. Not sure if anyone else was ever labelled a beater but the point was Kirito took on all the hate himself so that harassment of the other beta testers would be kept to a minimum.
Maybe there was a better way to handle things but considering how high tensions were at the time Kirito's plan of becoming the bad guy made the most sense. Later on, it stopped being as much of an issue but by then he was committed to the role.
9978598
A lot of that stigma had actually already been dispelled by Diavel actually, the day/evening before they went after the boss. The matter of Beta's "Hording" information and training grounds was brought up during the boss planing meeting, and Diavel brought out the field guide and pointed out that it was actually being compiled by many of the Beta's (though in truth mostly just Argo snooping around) pooling their knowledge together, before reading off the entry explaining the floor boss, its expected tactics, and that when its health dropped into the Red it would switch weapons to a Talwar.
I still stand by my impression that while there was indeed a "Better" way to handle the situation, Kirito had reached his BS threshold and did something dumb in the heat of the moment, and that rather than going back and trying to make up for it later he ran with it.
9978612
Yes it had been dispelled but after Diavel's death Kibaou started to stir things up again which was what lead Kirito to step in. If he hadn't Kibaou might have succeeded in turning people against the beta testers.
9978621
And as I've pointed out, he could have built on what Diavel had already set the groundwork for. It would have been simple for Kirito to explain the discontinuity between the expectations of the Betas and the reality of what had happened in that fight when the nature of the encounter changed with the change in the Bosses red-phase weapon.
Kirito was being blamed for Diavel's death because Kirito had identified the weapon used by the boss while Diavel hadn't. Diavel was a Beta. Diavel had beaten the Boss in in the Beta. Kirito knew Diavel was a Beta and Both of them had previously beaten the boss, and neither of them had known about the changed Red-stage weapon beforehand. Kirito was only able to identify it after the fact because he had gotten to a higher floor than most of the other betas, where an advanced weapon like that was expected to be seen. Kirito could have easily spelled all of this out for them and thus dispelled much of the illusion surrounding the Betas that Kibaou was trying to build up because Kibaou wanted Something to blame.
But he didn't. He reached his limit and instead of thinking his plan and its ramifications through he accepted all the blame onto himself and thus bolstered the expectations of the betas instead of deflating them. It was dumb, it was reckless, and it was so very much a "Kirito" thing to do.
9978640
9978621
And that is why I like the original written editions. The Anime puts some of the side stories in the proper spots, but you get all that explained a lot better. The only thing the Anime has that none of the stories from Aincrad have - unless it is in the progressive novels which I haven't read - is the second episode which is the Floor 1 Boss Raid. But it all gets explained well in its original format.
They also, as stated in the Pilot Episode, take precedence over the Anime in this fan fiction.