The Great Thief

“Breezy, stack more HP. Do you have the equipment for it?” Lu Li asked.

After being wiped twice because of the Main Tank, anyone could see that Azure Sea Breeze’s current setup wasn’t working. This Boss was completely different from Lu Li’s impression of Karazhan’s Nightbane. Later on, the Main Tank only needed to have 16,000 HP to defeat it at Heroic Difficulty. The amount was similar for Nightmare Difficulty, so this shouldn’t have been an issue.

But now, even though Azure Sea Breeze was stacked with HP buffs at 18,000 HP, he still couldn’t withstand the Boss.

“I don’t think the problem is with me, my equipment is already pretty good.”

As a man, the greatest insult was one aimed towards his competence.

“Let the people from the guild come up with some equipment. The highest HP we can stack should be 20,000. We also can’t lose any of your current defensive stats. If you can’t achieve it, then use gems to boost it further,” Lu Li said as he shamelessly began collecting Warrior Tank equipment from the entire guild.

Everyone naturally contributed what they had despite the fact that 99% of the equipment was not as good as what Azure Sea Breeze already had.

In addition to the equipment, they also collected Constitution gems.

After trying a few different combinations, Azure Sea Breeze finally reached 20,000 HP. The equipment wasn’t that great, so it hurt for him to put the gems into them.

Once a gem was inserted into an equipment, there was no way to remove it. All you could do was replace the gem with another.

The original gem would then be destroyed by the insertion process.

A good Main Tank needed more than high HP. If that was Azure Sea Breeze’s only concern, then he could actually reach 25,000 HP by changing his equipment, inserting gems and enchanting the equipment.

Ruling Sword was collecting equipment on such a large scale that the other clubs soon found out as well.

However, they didn’t understand why they were doing this. Hadn’t they already acquired Karazhan’s First Clear? Why would they be collecting equipment? Was it to fight a Wild Boss?

As such, the major clubs sent out their players to determine if Ruling Sword was really fighting another Wild Boss. If they found them, they had to stop them from taking it. No Wild Boss was allowed to fall into Ruling Sword’s hands.

This was probably how it felt to be public enemy number one.

With so many First Clears and two major championships, Ruling Sword had brought upon themselves the attention of all the large guilds.

“Idiots! I will end your suffering quickly!” Nightbane roared as the battle began once again.

With Azure Sea Breeze at 20,000 HP, they weren’t wiped so easily.

Lu Li had also brought along two Tanky Healers, a Shaman, a Druid and a Priest. It was a potent healer line up.

Because this Boss could be handled by a single tank, Wandering was once again kicked out of the Instance Dungeon, but he didn’t seem to mind. He just returned to his villa in the Black Sea Coast Stronghold to nap.

Nightbane had many skills, but the battle was divided into two stages.

The first stage was when Nightbane was on the ground. Like the Princess of the Black Dragonflight or Nefarian, he also had an area of effect Fear. The cooldown for that skill was 30 seconds and it was always cast when available, so everyone was well and truly familiar with it.

It also had a very powerful cleave attack, which meant that Azure Sea Breeze had to pull the Boss in such a way that the Boss’ back was facing the rest of the players.

This position ensured that only Azure Sea Breeze was affected by the Boss’ skills. Everyone else who was behind the Boss remained unaffected.

Of course, this didn’t mean that standing behind the Boss protected you from all damage. Otherwise, Lu Li wouldn’t have had to insert in five healers in this composition. The Boss’ Scorch skill was aimed at random targets and had a wide range. The players had to protect themselves from this skill.

At this stage, there was also a debuff called Ashes. When hit, the player’s received healing was reduced by 50% and their range was also reduced by 50%. However, this debuff could be dispelled.

The second phase was called the aerial phase. Most dragon creatures fought in these two phases.

At this stage, the Boss’ signature skill was Smoke Breaker – Nightbane’s most lethal skill. It was cast onto the target with the highest aggro, dealing 1850-2150 physical damage per second. There was also a fire damage-over-time ability, which dealt 500 fire damage every 3 seconds for 18 seconds. Only the fire damage-over-time could be dispelled.

As well as this, there was Bone Volley. It was hard to say whether this was a good skill, but it definitely looked the most impressive.

It dealt 352 to 408 physical damage to random targets (including pets) within 6 yards and summoned five Toothgnasher’s Skeletons. These skeletons had approximately 13,500 HP and dealt about 450 melee damage against Plate Armored players and 1300 damage against everyone else.

By all accounts, Nightbane was a very proud Boss.

If anyone was outside his attack range, he would cast a firebomb that would deal 3000-3500 damage to everyone on the field until everyone entered his attack range.

The first stage was actually very easy to deal with. Everyone just had to position themselves properly and dodge the Scorch skill when it came.

After Lu Li and the others were wiped a few more times, they finally understood what they needed to do in the first stage. Although they had been wiped a few times, they had actually saved quite a bit of time by following Lu Li’s positioning.

When the Boss reached 75% HP, it would enter the second stage.

Nightbane was now airborne!

This stage wouldn’t last until the Boss was dead. After about 45 to 60 seconds, the Boss would return to the ground.

When the Boss dropped to 50% and 25% HP, it would go airborne once again.

Once the Boss was in the sky, everyone had to run to the Main Tank. This was to prevent being killed by the Toothgnasher’s Skeletons and also to avoid being hit by the Bone Volley.

Each Paladin would bless the Healers with one revive (which meant that they needed to be revived if killed) and would cast Consecration immediately after. At this time, the other healers wouldn’t have accumulated much aggro, but casting Consecration would guarantee that the Boss’ target was one of the Paladins.

Lu Li asked for Sorrowless”girlfriend’ Darkness to be responsible for that. It was her fault for having the best equipment.

Soon after, the Boss would begin casting Bone Volley on random targets. After the Bone Volleys were cast, everyone had run away, but not too far away. If they exceeded the Boss’ attack range, the firebomb would quickly lead to the destruction of the group.

Lu Li and the others were wiped twice more because of this before Lu Li set another rule for them.

Whoever ran out of the attack range would have their DKP deducted. The mistake that had just occurred instantly resulted in the team being wiped. Lu Li almost ran back through the Instance Dungeon to get the equipment that the instructor gave him.

After the Bone Volleys had been cast, the Warriors had to quickly grab the aggro of the summoned Toothgnasher’s Skeletons to prevent them from attacking the Healers while the damage output players would kill them. During that process, the Paladins would continue to heal and all the players had to make sure that their aggro was below the Paladins.

If all went well, the Boss would cast Smoke Breaker on the Paladin with the highest aggro, Darkness. Since the damage from this skill was very high, once Darkness was hit, all the healers had to pay attention to keep her alive. They also had to make sure to dispel the fire damage to help her survive the attack.

The aerial phase lasted around 45 to 60 seconds, after which Nightbane would return to the ground.

At this time, the aggro was reset, which meant that everyone had to stop moving and wait for the Main Tank to pull the Boss once again. Lu Li chose to let Remnant Dream use Misdirection to help Azure Sea Breeze build aggro.

The first and second stages would then alternate.

Their most recent attempts involved being wiped over and over again. After looking at everyone’s tired eyes, Lu Li couldn’t bear to tell them what it would be like in the Mount Hyjal, Black Temple and Sunwell Instance Dungeons. The number of times they would be wiped would increase tenfold and then a hundredfold.