Chapter 983: One Shot
[Ding... Slashblade has used a Summoning Stone to summon you. Do you accept? Accept to be teleported / Decline to cancel this summon!]
"Accept."
Ethan answered without hesitation.
His body dissolved into particles of light. A flash of white engulfed him, and he disappeared from where he had been standing.
The next moment, he found himself in a completely different location.
"Oh? You guys are running the Burning Throne. Let me guess, you’re stuck on the second boss?"
Ethan recognized the dungeon the instant he saw the terrain around him. What surprised him wasn’t the dungeon itself, but the fact that Victor’s group had decided to challenge a level 110 dungeon already.
He glanced through the party roster.
Most of them were around level 103. The highest level belonged to that brat Leo, who had already reached level 105 with his Grandmaster class. Ethan had to admit the guy had talent. The second tank was someone he didn’t recognize, sitting at level 103.
Just from the party composition alone, Ethan already knew exactly where they were stuck.
The second boss encounter consisted of two demonic hounds. One possessed the Fire attribute, while the other wielded Shadow. Two tanks were required to keep the bosses separated while leading them around the outer edge of the arena in a large circular pattern. Both tanks had to maintain a steady pace, neither too fast nor too slow.
If they moved too quickly, the bosses would litter the arena with targeted ground attacks until there was nowhere left to stand. If they moved too slowly, the tanks would eventually step into the damaging pools the bosses continuously left behind.
That alone would have been manageable. The real problem was the debuff mechanic.
The Fire Hound applied a stacking Fire Vulnerability debuff to its target, while the Shadow Hound applied Shadow Vulnerability. The debuffs never expired on their own.
The only way to remove one was to be struck by the opposite element.
That meant the tanks had to swap bosses periodically.
And that was where most groups fell apart.
To complete the swap, the two tanks had to cross paths. As they moved toward each other, the hounds naturally followed. The moment the two bosses came within range of one another, both entered an enraged state.
The enrage disappeared once the tanks separated them again, but that brief period was incredibly dangerous. Both tanks needed to time their defensive skills perfectly while healers reacted immediately. A single mistake, a delayed cooldown, or even a slight hesitation while pulling the newly assigned boss away could easily result in instant death.
Looking at the party’s levels, Ethan was certain they didn’t have the damage output to burn the bosses down quickly.
They would need to perform at least ten tank swaps before the fight ended. And every single swap was another chance to wipe.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t even the encounter’s most dangerous mechanic.
At fixed intervals, both hounds would simultaneously apply debuffs to every non-tank player in the raid. The assignments were evenly distributed by the system. One debuff was Fire, the other Shadow.
Once the debuffs appeared, players had only one second to react.
If a player carrying Fire stood next to someone carrying Shadow, both would trigger an explosion.
The blast radius covered the entire raid. The damage was fatal. One slow reaction from a single player was enough to wipe everyone.
The debuffs created another problem as well. Players affected by Fire couldn’t damage the Fire Hound, while those carrying Shadow couldn’t damage the Shadow Hound.
As a result, positioning had to be adjusted instantly.
Players with Shadow debuffs had to move to the Fire Hound. Players with Fire debuffs had to attack the Shadow Hound. At the same time, everyone needed to remain behind the bosses while following them around the arena.
For casters, it was a nightmare. The moment movement became necessary, they had to cancel whatever spell they were casting and reposition immediately.
The healers had an even harder job.
Because the tanks’ vulnerability stacks continued increasing throughout the fight, incoming damage steadily grew more dangerous. Keeping the tanks alive required powerful healing spells, but those spells usually came with long cast times.
Most groups solved the problem by bringing additional healers.
That, however, created a completely different issue. More healers meant fewer DPS players, and fewer DPS meant the bosses lived longer.
Longer fights required more tank swaps. More tank swaps meant more opportunities to wipe. The encounter created its own vicious cycle.
The melee players weren’t having an easy time either. Since both hounds constantly dropped damaging pools beneath themselves while the tanks kept them moving, melee fighters had to pay close attention to every step. One careless movement could place them directly inside a fresh puddle.
Victor’s group consisted of the best players currently available in Ethereal. They were the undisputed core force of the game’s top players.
Even so, challenging the Burning Throne while still underleveled felt overly ambitious.
The first boss barely counted as an obstacle. It was little more than a gear check. Avoid the obvious mechanics and deal enough damage.
The second boss was the real gatekeeper. Without defeating the Twin Hounds, players could never reach the teleporter beyond them.
There was no shortcut.
The most important damage window occurred during the first minute and twenty seconds of the encounter. During that period, the bosses only applied tank debuffs and none of the raid-wide mechanics had begun yet. Every damage dealer needed to unleash everything they had and shave off at least twenty percent of the bosses’ health before the fight truly started.
Then there was one final twist; the two hounds had to die almost simultaneously.
If one boss died and the other survived for more than thirty seconds, the dead hound would immediately resurrect at full health.
That meant the raid constantly had to balance damage between the two targets. Whenever one side pulled ahead, players were forced to slow down and wait for the other group to catch up.
Honestly, Ethan had no idea why Victor and the others had chosen today to challenge the Burning Throne.
Still, since he was already here, he wasn’t about to complain.
He was wearing a complete set of Divine-tier equipment and significantly out-leveled the encounter. As far as he was concerned, they only needed to kill the bosses and move on.
"Boss, got any special tactics?" Leo asked as he jogged over, resting his iron staff on his shoulder.
Back in the early days of Ethereal, Ethan had released countless dungeon guides. After he stopped selling them publicly, nearly all of his strategies became exclusive assets of the Renegade Alliance.
That advantage had helped the Alliance secure a large number of first-clear achievements throughout the Northern Frontier Region, along with all the rewards and bonuses that came with them.
Leo couldn’t help wondering whether Ethan had discovered another shortcut for this dungeon as well.
"Tactics?" Ethan tilted his head. "What’s your best attempt so far?"
"Eighty-nine percent. We wiped during a tank swap. The timing got messed up."
"Eighty-nine percent, huh?" Ethan nodded. "So you’ve already pushed them down to eleven percent. That’s actually pretty decent."
He thought for a few seconds before turning toward the tanks.
"You two. Can you switch to DPS builds?"
Both tanks froze.
"Both of us?" Leo asked, blinking.
After spending so many attempts learning the encounter, they were absolutely certain of one thing.
The fight required two tanks. Not one, two.
"Yeah. Both of you switch to DPS. As for the healers, leave only two. Everyone else switches to damage dealers too."
The raid stared at him. Having the tanks switch to DPS already sounded ridiculous, now he wanted most of the healers to switch as well?
Keeping only two healers for a fight designed around escalating tank damage sounded completely insane.
"You sure about this?" Victor asked quietly.
He wasn’t questioning Ethan’s ability. He was trying to give him a chance to reconsider without embarrassing him in front of the entire raid.
Ethan understood exactly what he meant.
Instead of lowering his voice, he grinned and answered loudly enough for everyone present to hear.
"Relax. One shot."