No Heretics Needed
Honestly, priests and paladins fumbling around in Tagirion raids was just the worst.
As I passed through the Garden of Starvation and reached the Chamber of Pain, Tagirion appeared. He spread his massive wings wide behind him and delivered his entrance line in a booming voice.
[Corrupt, you insignificant creatures!]
The first pattern that signaled the start of the raid thundered out. A massive boom shook the area as a cloud of sand exploded upward. When the dust settled, two knights stood revealed. Both were clad in pitch-black armor and held greatswords in a ready stance.
The two sub-tanks immediately positioned themselves in front of the knights while the main tank took his place before Tagirion. The opening move of the fight came from the mage in the back line.
“Haa!”
A bolt of lightning ripped from the end of his staff and slammed into Tagirion’s shoulder with a deafening crack. The demon let out a piercing, ear-splitting cackle and swung his arm. The black knights brought their greatswords down in the same instant.
“Hup!”
The tanks in front of them braced with a sharp shout and absorbed the blows. Then someone in the mid-line yelled, “Let’s go!” and the damage dealers sprang into action.
The first pattern of a Tagirion raid involves the demon summoning two black knights so the three of them can attack together. That’s why the main tank stands in front of Tagirion while the two sub-tanks block the knights. Once those roles are set, the pattern becomes surprisingly simple.
Yet when I glanced at the chat, the viewers were still radiating anxiety. The tanks had only lost a little over twenty percent of their health. I couldn’t figure out what the big problem was. Swallowing my thoughts, I quietly stepped forward.
Right as the main tank secured Tagirion’s full attention, I circled behind the demon and brought my weapon down hard on his head. Because I struck a critical weak point, his HP bar plummeted.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
A startled shout rang out from the mid-line. It was the guy who had complained to me earlier—Triatu, the lost little lamb.
The chat exploded with accusations of trolling and every kind of slander against me.
“Everyone.”
“Never mind. Just watch.”
There was no need to bother answering Triatu. The chat kept spamming.
I let out a long sigh. This was exactly why people kept saying heretics were necessary for the raid. Hadn’t I said it clearly from the start? If everyone just did their own job, we could clear it easily. So wasn’t it obvious that I was simply doing what I was supposed to do? Why couldn’t they understand?
Feeling a little bitter, I continued my work. Tagirion’s aggro had shifted from the main tank—the martial artist—to me. Naturally, his attacks came flying my way. While I dodged them, the martial artist, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, unloaded every attack he had onto the demon.
“Wait, what… what are you…?”
“Triatu! Stop staring and do your damage!”
“No, I mean look over there!”
“I said do your damage!”
The spearwoman, Seia, cut off Triatu’s hollow voice. In the end he gritted his teeth and started attacking the black knight in front of him. I’d have to thank him properly later.
We kept trading aggro with the martial artist and pouring damage into Tagirion. Before long both black knights reached zero health. With a sound like scattering wind, their bodies collapsed.
Tagirion roared the line that announced his second pattern. Or, to be precise, his third pattern.
I’d wanted to skip straight to this point, so it was a little disappointing. If only that mage and the chat hadn’t kept interfering. I’d have to remember that mage—he could become a heretic at any time.
★
“Thank you for today, everyone. Great work.”
Inquisitor: Goodbye.
Inquisitor: And thank you for earlier.
“Huh? …Oh. If you’re talking about Triatu, there’s no need to thank me. If anything, I’m grateful I could run the raid so comfortably.”
Inquisitor: Anyway, thank you. Goodbye.
“Okay~.”
After the raid ended, we finished the item auction and the party disbanded. The chat, meanwhile, had gone completely wild.
They were praising me to the skies.
“See? I told you heretics aren’t necessary…”
“Uh… well…”
This was the turning point. In my PVP broadcasts and review streams, every explanation I’d given had been burned into the viewers’ minds in the worst possible way. I had tried my best, but their reactions left me feeling a bit down. This was my chance to wipe that bad image away with a perfect explanation.
“So… it’s about managing Tagirion’s aggro. When I hit him, the aggro comes to me, right? Then when the tank hits him again, it goes back. You just use that to shave off his HP… But it doesn’t work with heretics. With them, even if you go pang! it doesn’t go pat!”
It looked like I’d failed again. It was such a simple concept if you just thought about it for a second. The developers of New Dimension valued “freedom” above everything else. So the idea that you absolutely needed certain classes to clear a raid made no sense. Why couldn’t people see that?
“Anyway, you all agree now, right? That heretics aren’t needed…”
Isn’t the average clear time for Tagirion around 30 minutes? How the hell did this party finish in 15?
The reason you normally have to kill the knights first in the first pattern is because if the damage dealers pull aggro on Tagirion the formation collapses. Conversely, if the formation doesn’t break, it doesn’t matter how much you hit the boss.
So what this player is doing is making everyone else focus the knights while she and the main tank swap aggro back and forth to deal damage. When the knights die, it looks like the next pattern gets skipped based on remaining HP. After that they just keep swapping aggro with the main tank and dealing damage the same way.
Our leader saw this and immediately said let’s try it too, so we did. We wiped on the first pattern lmao. Managing aggro perfectly while dodging every attack is actually insanely hard. For real, how the hell did that inquisitor do it?