Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

The Fireling charged to the smallest insectoid. As soon as Aito's arrow was big enough, Flora stormed after him.

Flora used Charge for the first time consciously and thoroughly enjoyed the rush, until she crashed into the target. In the last second, she protected her face, so only her elbows collided with the insect.

Smoothly, Flora came to a halt. Surprised by the gentle deceleration, she stared at the insect. It looked terrifying from this close.

The mantis-like creature had raised its arms in the air and snapped with the scythes at the tank. The triangular head sported glowing feelers and two uncanny, large eyes. It ended in pointy mandibles.

If it were just one monster, Flora wouldn't be as intimidated. But surrounded by five of them, all of them taller than her, and only accompanied by the unfamiliar Fireling, Flora felt unsafe.

Name: Yellow Mantisect Mender

Role: Healer

Level: 1

Rating: D

RGS: 5

Tentatively, she smacked the insect. First, her hits were more pokes than strikes, but when the mantis kept ignoring her, she gained confidence.

<Power Strike>!

Aito's arrow shrank as Flora's strikes intensified.

When the dagger girl suddenly appeared next to her, Flora shrieked. She was a bit startled but knew that her class was a sneaky one, and the Woodling could use stealth.

After a short struggle with herself, Flora designated the Fireling as her tank. It just wasn't in her to let skills lie idle, and the opponents were lined up perfectly for her breath skill.

<Transfere AoE>

<Lightning Breath>!

When the Mender died, the Fireling hit the next insectoid. It was taller than the first by a head, and its scythes doubled in length.

Name: Yellow Mantisect Slicer

Role: Melee DD

Level: 1

Rating: D

RGS: 5

The third melee mantis screeched, and a status effect appeared on Flora's HUD.

Battle Cry: Cowed: - 2 OV Physical and Magical Regeneration; Remaining Time: 10 sec.

'Oh, yeah? So, you call that a Battle Cry?'

"For the Toasters!" Flora screamed. <Battle Cry>

Battle Cry: Emboldened: + 5 OV Physical and Magical Regeneration; Doubled Regenariotion; Remaining Time: 10 sec.

Flora checked that none of the enemies targeted her and returned to smashing the Slicer, although she had to take two steps to reach it.

When Flora heard rustling behind her, her head whipped around. But it was only one of the ranged insects, which was repositioning itself. Flora had stood in its line of sight to the tank.

'Interesting.'

After they had killed the slicer, the Fireling ignored the third melee insect and went to the spike shooting ones.

"Is there a reason for the sequence of his targeting, Aidan?" Flora asked while she ran behind them.

"Yes, Milady. When you encounter groups, you kill them in the order of annoyance, which is usually Controller, Healer, Highest DD to lowest DD."

"Wow, there are a lot more tactics involved than I'd have thought. We'll have to speak about Aggro later. I'm not sure I have understood the topic fully."

<Fade>

The party defeated the rest of the insects and continued to the boss cavern.

"Okay, team. Wait until I've established the hate. Focus on the eggs as soon as they change color. If you are too slow, AoE the hatchlings. Ranged, dodge the webs. Melees, run away from the acid. Ready?" The Fireling said.

"Yes!"

Flora thumped the boss, desperately trying to ignore the snapping maw in front of her. She used Transfer STA and Fade again. When an egg changed its color, she Smote it, because she figured it would be faster than running to it, and she needed her movement-skill cooldowns for escaping the puss explosion−Blink for escaping, Charge for approaching.

After the boss fell, the usual evaluation popup appeared.

"Alright, what's next, Aidan?"

"The opinions differ, whether tank or healer is the most demanding job. For your current stats and available support class, Radiant Practitioner, support might be the most difficult because you accumulate aggro through damage, buffing, and healing."

"I wanted to speak about aggro… Let me explain what I understood so far, and you'll correct and complement." Flora said. She paused to collect her thoughts. "Aggro determines who the opponents attack−the higher the aggro, the higher the chance to get attacked."

"Yes, Milady."

"You generate aggro because of damage. I can understand that. I would get aggressive as well when someone hits me. However, you told me healing generates aggro as well?"

"Yes, Milady."

"Hmm. Okay, let's imagine someone slaps me." Unwillingly, the image of Hub's mother, Birgit, came to Flora's mind. The hand of the red-haired woman collided with Flora's face, her floral scarf trailing the movement. Flora slapped back, but just when she was about to hit, a shimmering shield protected the chubby woman. Hub's grinning face appeared in the background of the fantasy scene. "Okay, let's kill the healer."

"Milady?"

"Nevermind, I have understood why healers are annoying. Let's switch to tanks. How do they attract the hate of the opponents? They can't out-damage the specialists, right?"

"Mainly by preventing damage, Milady−either actively through defensive skills or abilities like dodging or blocking or passively through armor. Every point of damage you prevent counts double towards your aggro score."

Flora imagined Birgit blocking her slap with her knitting needles while spotting the cocky grin all Steins seemed to be born with. Annoyance rose in Flora. "I get it… Tell me more about how aggro gets quantified."

"1 damage = 1 aggro,

1 healed = 1 aggro,

1 mana, stamina or concentration added = 1 aggro,

1 temporary pool points added = 1 aggro,

1 damage prevented = 2 aggro,

1 damage reflected = 2 aggro,

1 OV debuffed = 5 aggro,

1 OV buffed during combat = 1 aggro,

1 debuff cleared = aggro of the debuff,

Interrupting = aggro of the interrupted skill or ability,

Crowd control = variable amount of aggro.

Additionally, there are skills for aggro-management."

"If I use Fortification of Faith on the tank, will the aggro it generates go to me or the tank?"

"To you, Milady."

"Even if there is no sign that I cast it? I can do it silently and not wave my scepter around." Flora demonstrated her inconspicuous casting ability. Afterward, she was happy that nobody but her AIs witnessed it. Jake Heavenstormer had been a bad influence.

"Even then. If the combat log attributes the skill to you, then it assigns the corresponding aggro to you."

Flora breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't have to act sneaky.

"Okay, we'll try out tank next. I want to see how much hate I can collect when I go all out."

The boards in the antechamber offered two classes, Shield-Master, and Tank Expert. The latter was for Batticle Drivers.

Flora still felt claustrophobic when she remembered the cabin of Mia's Batticle. The three machines the test provided for her didn't look any roomier. Of course, that didn't hinder her from crawling all over them. She even tried to open the access slots to the motors, but the mean test didn't let her. Although their innards tempted her to torch them open, she refrained because of the time restrictions. Instead, she told Aidan to write acquiring toys on her general todo-list.

>>> 

Temporary class: Shield Master

Branch: Warrior

Passive: + 1 Training efficiency modifier for ability blocking and shield

Active: Bonus to all shield skills

STS: Shield Bash

AOE: Shield Cyclone

DEF: Shield Wall

MOV: Battering Ram

SIG: Physical Defense Boost.

Taught by the Warroom in Fortend and its branch in Talpica

Touch the board to receive the class temporarily for undertaking the test. Activate the skills by saying the name or mentally pressing the corresponding button in your HUD.

<<< 

Although Shield Bash had a long cooldown with 25sec, it had a chance to interrupt the casting of skills, which made it remarkable in Flora's opinion. Shieldwall was literally a wall of shields, Battering Ram a version of Charge, and the Defense Boost self-explanatory.

Shield Cyclone stood out to Flora.

Name: Shield Cyclone

Description: Creates shields between every enemy and every group member.

Cooldown: none.

Range: Self

Duration: channeled

Cost: 5 mana/sec

Area: Spherical with the caster in the center. Diameter: OV of OV Blocking in meter, max 30 meters. Currently: 14m.

Attribute: Power

Ability: Blocking

Effect: Blocks (OV Power + OV Skill) Percent of the damage, but only up to (OV Power + OV Skill)/3 damage. Currently: Blocks 23%-33% but only up to 11 damage.

"Okay, sounds great. But why isn't it specified whether its Magical or Physical Power, and why is there no affinity mentioned?"

"It draws on the highest power attribute. Hence the skill is useful for physical and magical classes. Many of the warrior, trick, crafting, technological, and survival skills use Ability instead of Affinity in the formulas. As a rule of thumb, you can distinguish them by whether they have a secondary effect or not."

"Does the gibberish under Effect mean that when a giant toaster falls on my head, let's say for 1000 damage and I have this skill active, only 11 damage would be blocked and not 270-330 damage? Where does the divider 3 come from?"

"Yes, Milady. All AoE effects usually have a divider. It depends on the area of the AoE and the effect. Of your current skills, Bless and Condemn is off the worst with 5 because it affects enemies and allies while the damage of Bouncing Element only gets divided by 2 because it affects enemies in a straight line."

"I kind of suspected that. My intuition told me not to use AoE when there is only one target." Flora grinned. "And sorry for the unrealistic example. No toaster would ever dare to fall on my head."

Flora called Hub for the Shield Master Class. Although she received all the skills, the class didn't form because she had to do a quest for it. As payment, she promised Hub to help him prank the whole clan. Flora felt like she had sold her soul. 'What I do for skills…'

Next, Flora opened her skill tab to look for suitable tanking skills.

"I'll charge in with Battering Ram. Then I'll channel Lightning Storm with one hand and cast Bless and Condemn with the other while swinging my wrench around and trying to block as much as possible. Of course, I'll wear a mech-suit and a shield. Should I boost myself as well? What do you think?"

"That would work, Milady. However, it's not a tanking approach. You can only pull it off because of your stats. Your HP will fluctuate a lot at the beginning and make the healer nervous. So, I advise you to cast a defensive skill before you charge. Additionally, it's not sustainable. The mana expenditure is too high because of Bless and Condemn. You could mix in Righteous Strike for mana. The skill generates hate in the whole group because of the gained mana. Using boosts is the standard practice for tanks."

"What kind of boost? Isn't the Def boost too low leveled to be effective? What would be the usual approach for someone with my skills?"

"I agree, at the moment, the Strength Boost would be better. Armor (Mech-Suit) -> Battering Ram -> Retribution -> Channeling Shield Cyclone."

"Retribution reflects blocked damage, and the Shield Cyclone blocks damage. I like the synergy. However, with only 11 damage blocked, how much damage would retribution do? Probably just a fraction of it." Flora went to the armors. The test had provided a mech-suit.

"You have four layers of defense in total: the Cyclone, your shield, the mech-suit, and your Defense Stat + the Defense of the armor. The latter is negligible, but the mech suit alone reduces half the damage without any cap. I estimate that you could reflect around 6 damage per weapon attack with retribution, around 10 when they use skills."

"And Lightning Storm and Bless and Condemn?" Flora said while equipping the mech-suit. It was bulky and unwieldy. She figured it had better defensive stats than her Messenger, but she disliked the movement restrictions.

"Around 41 damage and 27 damage, respectively."

"That sounds superior to me. However, I concede the point you made about my stats to you, and of course, I don't want a panicky healer. What about the marking thing the Fireling did? Should I use Mark or Tag for it?" On the next rack, Flora found padded under-armor, sporting +8 OV Physical Vigor and + 1 OV Mech-Suits. She put it on, and exchanged the tanky mech-suit with the Messenger Mech-Suit.

"The tank class has a high aggro skill which automatically sets the mark, but you can assign marks over the interface. I can do it for you."

"Great. Armor (Mech-Suit) -> Battering Ram -> Retribution -> Channel Shield Wall with the left hand, Channel Lightning Storm with the right hand. Oh no, better, channel Hail with the right hand. Because of the cold effect, the enemies will be slowed, which might be less confusing for me than standing in a lightning storm and make it easier to block their attacks."

<Strength-Boost>

"Wonderful idea, Milady. Please beware, your mana will be empty within 20 seconds."

"When my mana-pool is at 30%, notify me, I'll do a Battle Cry then and switch to Righteous Strike." Flora fiddled with her nocks.

"Why 30%, Milady? Battle Cry and your Mana Regeneration isn't high enough to profit from the Third Wind Milestone."

"But they will someday, so I'll train for the future." Flora was still plugging jacks in and out of her nocks. She was used to wearing Mana-Reg Clothing. With 10 Mana-Reg missing, she wasn't sure where to short.

With regret, she dismissed Bliz and Aidan's Octopussy. Because the turrets were cheap with only 1 MR/min, she kept the two damaging turrets out and added a repairing turret. The healer should be able to repair, because of the mech-suit and batticle the test provided, but Flora wanted to have a fall-back.

Grabbing a shield, Flora took a deep breath. "Let's be hateful!"