The Great Thief

The Karazhan Bosses were all unruly like this. They had to be killed within a set time, otherwise, they would finish the team off.

The stages of this Boss weren’t obvious as there were two that kept on alternating. There were three skills that would be cast throughout these stages, one of which was Nether Burn. In theory, it could be avoided with the line of vision being cut off, and it could be resisted against too.

If you were in a favorable position you could not only avoid it, but even counterattack.

Because the skill could be resisted, Lu Li had March Rain provide everyone Shadow resistance. Nether Burn appeared like a fire skill, but it actually dealt Shadow damage.

There was also Void Zone. A target would be chosen at random, and at the Boss’ feet, a Void Zone circle would be released, persisting for 15 seconds. Anyone within the zone would receive 1000 Shadow damage every 2 seconds.

This damage had to be avoided, or else they would keep losing people.

Lastly, there was Strengthening, which would increase the Boss’ own damage by 100%. This buff could not be Dispersed, and it tended to be cast within the first few seconds of the Nether gate stage.

To prevail against this Boss, you had to be focused.

The Nether gate stage continued for about 60 seconds. On the left and right of the room’s entrance, as well as on the opposite side, there was a Nether gate point. Every time they entered into this stage, these three points would each spawn new, different-colored Nether gates. Ten seconds later, the three gates would emit three matching streams of light that shot at the Boss.

What they had to be careful of was that although the position of the three gates didn’t change, the colors would, and there was only a ten second window to react in.

When the three different-colored lights shot at the Boss and players, they would produce different buffs. However, when they were focused at the same point, the buff would multiply every second. In theory, the upper limit was a 99-fold increase. When players escaped from the paths of light and the buff disappeared, the players would be afflicted with a debuff called ‘Mental Fatigue’. Over the next 90 seconds, they would absorb the rays of light of that color, but wouldn’t be influenced by the other colors.

Of the three different colors of light, one was red and was called Resolute. After it shone on the Boss, every multiple reduced the damage it incurred by 1%. If it hit the players, that player would become the Boss’ aggro target, and every multiple would reduce their own damage by 1%, whiile increasing their defense by 5 points.

This had to be blocked, or else, the Boss would eventually become invincible.

There was another green light, called Tranquility. If this shone upon the Boss, he would receive 4000 HP per stack. The effect on the players was a 5% increase in healing and reduction in skill consumption by 1% (Mana, Rage and Energy consumption).

The last light was blue, and was called Mind Control. If it hit the Boss, it would increase his magic damage by 1%. If it hit the players, their magic damage would be increased by 5%, healing reduced by 1% and susceptibility to magic damage increased by 8%.

After 60 seconds, they would enter into the Banish stage, which would continue for about 30 seconds.

In this stage, the portal would disappear, and Netherspite would remain in a Banished state, unable to move. However, the players could still incur physical damage. In this stage, Netherspite could also be attacked.

The only skill that was cast in this stage was Netherbreath. A target would be chosen at random, and the Boss would spit at them in a cone-shaped attack. To players in the area, 4100 – 4800 damage would be dealt, and they would be pushed back 30 feet as well.

In every stage, this would happen four times. This skill was limited by line of sight.

After 30 seconds, the Banish stage would end and the Boss would return to the Nether gate stage. At this point, aggro would reset, and healers and DPS players would have to be careful of drawing aggro until the red light shone out again. Strictly speaking, this stage didn’t continue for exactly 30 seconds. If time was almost up and the Boss just happened to use Netherbreath, the duration would be slightly longer.

Because of the differences between the buffs, different roles would be responsible for each light.

Generally speaking, tanks were responsible for the red lights, since the red lights increased aggro, reduced damage and increased defense. Any other role would be one-shot.

Healers were responsible for the green lights, while ranged units and DPS players were responsible for the green.

However, it was impossible for the players to single-handedly absorb the buffs. From the 31st stack, the red light would decrease the player’s highest possible HP to lower than it was originally, and after the blue light had shone for 30 seconds, it would increase the extra damage taken by 240%. Apart from some specific professions, most players found it hard to keep up.

Because of this, alternating between players became a relatively standard way to solve this problem.

Lu Li had an alternative proposal in his heart, but the problem was that he had to reasonably ‘research’ and formulate it.

If he didn’t act, the only problem to figuring out the plan was time.

Simply put, after they first entered, the three points would spawn new Nether gates at the same time. This meant that after 10 seconds, the lights would flash. They needed to take their positions during this period of time. The DPS players didn’t need to attack yet; they could just let Azure Sea Breeze aggro the Boss. Remnant Dream would use Misdirection to help stabilize aggro, and the three players responsible for taking the light would begin to adjust their own positions. This would guarantee that when the light was emitted, it could shine on them, and not the Boss.

Ten seconds after the battle started, the Main Tank received the first ray of red light, and after holding it for about 25 seconds, it was taken by a healer, who continued to hold it for 25 seconds.

Lu Li pulled Darkness in. This way, there were two healers and two Main Tanks blocking the red light together. As a plan B, if the person blocking the red light died, it could still be acceptable for a Hunter to keep it up.

This way, they persisted until the first Nether gate stage finished. In the second Nether gate stage, since the Netherbreath debuff on these two people was still present, the secondary tank would go on up to take the red light. 25 seconds later, another healer would take over for the same amount of time. This way, by the third Nether gate stage, the Main Tank’s debuff would have just ended, finishing a cycle.

During this stage, had to adjust their aggro, and they had to do this while the red light hadn’t been emitted yet. Because of this, they needed to be careful of drawing aggro, but as soon as the red light shone, they had to attack with all their might.

If the players responsible for receiving the current light just happened to have the Boss fire Void Zone at them, they had to keep in mind that they couldn’t move to the left or right. They could only move forwards and backwards. They could never allow the light to shine on the Boss.

Those players who were being shone on by the green light needed to take note of their Mana at that

moment. When their mana was at 0, the green light would simply ignore them, and at this time, if no one took over, it would be shone directly at the Boss. This would prove to be fatal.

No matter what, they had to make sure the green light didn’t touch the Boss. When the three healers were taking over, they had to execute their task perfectly. If things went haywire, the Thieves, Warriors and other DPS players could also take over.

Netherspite’s difficulty was very high for a First Clear team.

Any team who had practiced this a few times could casually defeat this Boss with their eyes closed.

Once the Boss was dead, some players received Skill Points, which was the charm of the First Clear. If it

wasn’t a First Clear, one Skill Point being rewarded from the three Bosses would already be a fantastic result. If they weren’t lucky, they wouldn’t receive a Skill Point from their entire Instance Dungeon journey.

As for the Strengthening Stones that were dropped, there was one called Mirror Image healing.

This could bind a teammate as the player’s own mirror image, and every time they were healed, the mirror-imaged player would have a chance to be instantly restored.

This was an exquisite special effect stone and would not be wasted on ordinary equipment.