Chapter 985: A Tank Beyond Reason
Ethan smiled. He couldn’t really blame the priest for being nervous. Anyone would be. The only thing that stood out was Kiara. She seemed quieter than usual, though he didn’t think much of it. He gave both of them a nod before turning his attention to the two demonic hounds patrolling ahead.
Raising his massive Bear arm, Ethan brought it down in a casual motion.
Swoosh. Swoosh.
Two streaks of light shot through the air and landed directly on the hounds’ heads.
Moonfire. Cast while in Dire Bear form.
’Holy shit... why is his cast speed so fast?’ The thought crossed everyone’s mind at the same time.
Sure, Moonfire was an instant-cast spell, but there was still a global cooldown between casts. Ethan had fired off two spells with almost no delay at all. There was only one explanation.
His Haste stat had reached a ridiculous level.
Haste was the only attribute that reduced global cooldown. For most players, the GCD sat at 1.2 seconds. Even instant spells had to wait. But the gap between Ethan’s casts had looked closer to 0.2 seconds, maybe even less. Everyone already knew how strong Ethan was. This, however, was something else entirely. To push Haste that high, his other stats couldn’t possibly be weak. The more they thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.
Was Divine-tier gear really this powerful?
Eyes drifted toward the prismatic equipment covering Ethan’s body. More than a few people felt a stab of envy, but nobody had time to dwell on it. The pull had already begun.
The two demonic hounds let out furious roars and charged.
Ethan moved immediately. Unlike the usual strategy of planting both tanks in position and waiting for the bosses to arrive, he ran straight toward them. The moment he entered melee range, he made a subtle adjustment, drawing one hound slightly to his left and the other to his right before carefully backing away. When he finally reached his intended position, the two bosses weren’t stacked together. One remained on each side of him, perfectly separated.
Leo watched with silent disbelief. Normally, mobs would naturally bunch together when a tank kited backward. He had spent years tanking and had never seen someone maintain spacing like this while moving such a long distance. Just now, Ethan had only made a few minor adjustments with his body. Nothing flashy. Nothing forced. Yet somehow both bosses stayed perfectly parallel the entire time.
A realization hit Leo like a bolt of lightning. His eyes lit up. He suddenly wanted to grab a pack of monsters and try the technique himself.
Unfortunately, Ethan wasn’t giving him time to admire it.
"Go all out! Burn them down!"
Ethan planted his feet and roared.
The entire raid snapped into action. Several mages immediately dropped into low stances and activated Presence of Mind. Magic circles appeared beneath them as colorful light erupted around their bodies.
Presence of Mind was every mage’s ultimate damage skill. It was also one of the most situational abilities in the game. The moment it activated, the caster became rooted in place. Moving even a single step would cancel the effect. In exchange, all magic damage increased by 200%. In most dungeons and PvP fights, the skill was nearly useless because constant movement was unavoidable. But Ethan had just told them to go all out. What were they waiting for? This was the perfect opportunity.
"Use every cooldown! Paladins, Retribution Aura! Druids, Wild Claws! Shaman, Bloodlust!"
Ethan rattled off raid buffs one after another. The moment he said "Bloodlust," several people froze.
Leo blinked. "Shaman? Bloodlust? Boss, you okay?"
Ethan paused as well. Right. He’d forgotten.
Shaman was originally a Carnage Faction class. In the late game, Survivor Faction players could unlock it through a special class quest line, but those quests hadn’t appeared yet. At the moment, there wasn’t a single Survivor Shaman in existence. Shamans were incredibly rare, and every serious raid wanted one. Ethan simply hadn’t run low-level content in a very long time.
He was getting carried away, partly because he had just realized something.
Divine-tier gear was completely ridiculous. The two level 110 demonic hound bosses barely hurt him. He had over 300,000 health and more than 110,000 armor. He was practically a moving fortress. Against physical damage dealers, he was confident nobody could do more than scratch him. The hounds were only hitting him for three to four thousand damage each attack. Against a 300,000-health tank, that amount was almost laughable.
Leo felt a headache coming on. He was a Grandmaster-class tank with a hidden class of his own. When he tanked a single boss, taking over ten thousand damage per hit was normal. Ethan was tanking two enraged bosses at the same time and only taking three to four thousand. The bosses currently had a 300% attack power increase. That meant if Ethan were fighting just one of them, the damage would probably drop to around a thousand per hit.
It was absurd. There was no other word for it.
As everyone struggled to process what they were seeing, time continued to pass. Ninety seconds later, the stationary damage phase came to an end.
"First wave incoming. Spread out."
Ethan had been watching the timer the entire time and gave the raid a ten-second warning. Everyone immediately became alert. Casts were canceled mid-channel as players scattered to their assigned positions.
ROOOAR!
The two bosses roared at the same time. The debuffs appeared. Colored flames ignited above every player’s head.
Red.
Purple.
"Group by color and stay put. Don’t run around like idiots."
Ethan’s gaze locked onto one particular person. "Skyblade, what the hell are you doing?"
His voice echoed across the battlefield. Everyone else had already found their groups. Only Leo was still running around in confusion.
"Boss, this is my first time getting this mechanic!" Leo sounded genuinely wronged. As a main tank, he had never been targeted by it before.
"Quit complaining and keep fighting. The other tank figured it out. Why can’t you?"
The calm and easygoing Ethan from earlier was nowhere to be found. The moment the fight started, he had completely transformed into a raid leader.
Leo wisely chose not to argue after seeing Ethan’s expression. Internally, though, he felt aggrieved. ’Elnan played DPS before. Of course he knew the mechanic. I’ve been a tank my entire life. How was I supposed to know?’
Still, he swallowed the complaint and quickly found his position. A red flame hovered above his head. That meant he needed to stand behind the Shadow Hound. As melee DPS, Leo stayed tense the entire time. Purple flames constantly erupted beneath his feet, forcing him to dodge at a moment’s notice. He had never dealt with mechanics like this before. Tanking was a completely different world.
Even so, he understood something important. Ethan was leading the raid. Arguing with the raid leader during a boss fight was one of the fastest ways to undermine authority and create chaos. Leo had led enough raids himself to know better.
The fight continued. Aside from Leo’s brief confusion, the first debuff phase passed smoothly without any major mistakes.
Another wave would arrive in ninety seconds. By now, Ethan had accumulated two stacks of each vulnerability debuff. The increased damage pushed incoming hits from roughly three to four thousand up to four to five thousand. The pressure on the healers rose slightly, but not enough to cause concern.
For the moment, only Heaven’s Dawn was actively healing him. The priest’s burst healing was stronger, but it consumed far more mana. They had agreed on the plan beforehand. Kiara would maintain her three stacks of healing-over-time effects on Ethan at all times. Unless his health began dropping rapidly, the priest would conserve mana and stay on standby.