Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 266 - 275: Is There Something Wrong with This Boss?

Chapter 266: Chapter 275: Is There Something Wrong with This Boss?

Instructor Ding’s team was quite professional; the Tank Profession went forward immediately to pull the aggro, while the DPS Classes and Healer Professions also started fulfilling their roles.

Although "Shadow World" has discouraged many players, it has produced a not-too-big-not-too-small benefit objectively, that is, those who can persist playing until now have basically been baptized by various high-difficulty five-person dungeons, and are technically solid.

Their coordination was also quite skilled.

Instructor Ding’s team was made up of a 20-person raid, divided into 4 smaller groups. It included 3 Tank Professions, 5 healers, and among the DPS, there were 5 melee and 7 ranged.

In terms of personnel allocation, it was quite reasonable.

Soon, the tanks firmly secured the hate, each pulling a portion of the mobs, and everything appeared normal so far.

This boss’s first phase did not seem to have any particularly difficult mechanics; the spawned adds were various Dragonkin, Dragonbeasts, or hatched corrupted Dragonkin followers. The tall Dragonkin were immune to fire damage and would continuously unleash Flame AOE Damage; the Dragonbeasts were immune to frost damage, which could reduce attack speed and absorb mana, and they would suddenly unleash powerful single-target skills dealing massive damage to tanks.

After the initial chaos, Instructor Ding’s team quickly found a way to cope. They instructed various mage professions to attack the corresponding mobs without immunity, and let the better-equipped tanks take over defense and taunt the Dragonbeasts with higher single-target damage, while rotating their Damage Reduction Skills to withstand the heavy single-target abilities.

In addition, the boss would appear randomly at intervals on the side as an unattackable phantom, but would randomly cast a range of draconic spells, like dragon’s breath, rain of fire, and Shadow Arrow rain, among others.

These spells were not enough to one-shot players but added trouble while clearing the mobs.

If it were a generally more chaotic raid, these sudden situations could easily lead to a wipe, but Instructor Ding’s team, after all, had reasonably solid professionalism and although they nearly wiped several times, they ultimately held on.

"Very good, your performance has earned my recognition. Now, let me seriously join in on the fun!"

All of a sudden, the humanoid creature flew up into the sky and transformed into a huge meteorite, heading towards the arena!

"Damn it!"

Instructor Ding only had time to shout before he saw a blazing fireball explode in the center of the field, with boiling flames spreading in all directions. Every player bathed in the flames had their health rapidly depleted, not even giving the healers a chance to heal.

After a thunderous "boom," there were 17 bodies on the ground.

The three survivors were the three tanks. They had significantly more health than the others and were wearing Fire Resistance Gear, so they still had a small amount of health left.

However, a massive Flame Dragon then emerged from the flames and dust, lifting its huge forepaw, and with one swipe for each tank, turned them into bodies on the ground as well.

After doing all this, the giant Flame Dragon reverted back to human form, swaggering back to its original place, and everything reset to the beginning.

Instructor Ding was silent for a moment, scratching his head in annoyance, "What kind of nonsense is this!"

Honestly, this boss was somewhat dishonorable—with how does it transition into a phase by casting a full-screen ultimate ability? It rendered fighting pointless!

Of course, since the raid was designed this way, there must be a corresponding solution that would not leave players completely unable to get through it.

That’s how Instructor Ding consoled himself.

Only now, it seems there are still some mechanics that everyone hasn’t figured out; otherwise, why did other guilds encounter the corrupted Giant Dragon as the first boss, while the Brotherhood Guild faced a humanoid Giant Dragon that could call down meteors and shapeshift?

The party silently ran back from their corpses to start the second, third, or even the nth challenge.

After all, these were seasoned players hardened by experience; they had strong resilience. While others might give up after wiping once or twice, they counted their wipes by days or even weeks.

After wiping a dozen times in a row, they discussed the mechanics they had summarized so far while repairing their equipment in shifts.

Instructor Ding, transforming into a detective, analyzed carefully.

"From what we can tell, the first phase of this boss is relatively straightforward; as long as we manage these mobs properly and pay a little attention, we should be able to get through it.

"However, once we enter the second phase, the boss will transform into a meteor and fall from the sky, causing tremendous AOE damage to the whole field. But there’s a way to counter this. If everyone moves to the four pillars scattered around the arena before the boss transitions, they can avoid the damage.

"Still, the tanks need to stay in the center to withstand the attack head-on, or we can’t control the boss’s landing point. After activating their skills to absorb the damage, they’d still retain half their health, and upon dissipation of the flames, healers need to heal them immediately.

"Besides, there are also group fears, AOE damage, and the summoning of minions and other skills. Although these are more complex compared to other boss mechanisms, they are admittedly still within the realm of acceptability.

"But the crux of the problem is... doesn’t this boss have way too much health? Why does it have over 8 million hit points?!

"When I see other guilds fight bosses, aren’t their health usually only between 3 to 4 million?!"

Instructor Ding was extremely frustrated because, from these health points, defeating this boss seemed nearly impossible.

At present, the highest single-target damage per second (DPS) that their team could achieve was only about 3000.

And this 3000 was just training dummy damage, with no interruptions. If you factor in movement, being interrupted by fear, and potential combat losses, the average DPS for the team would be decent at 1500.

That is to say, assuming the team’s total DPS is 20000 per second, if the boss has 3 million health, then the battle would last over 150 seconds, which is over two minutes. Considering the time taken for phase transitions and other moments when damage cannot be dealt, under the best circumstances, they could potentially resolve the fight within three to five minutes.

This would still be considered a normal value.

Because, currently, the mana pool for Healer Professions and spellcasters isn’t very large—they aren’t perpetual motion machines. Under the pressure of intense healing, most Healer Professions would be out of mana within three minutes.

Defeating it within three to five minutes was the extreme limit of what was possible.

But now, with the boss’s health jumping to 8 million, it meant that the battle duration would double, stretching to 8 or even 10 minutes.

During this time, countless unforeseen circumstances would arise, and each incident could potentially lead to a wipe.

In other words, from a numerical standpoint, this boss was not on the same level as the first few bosses other guilds encountered!

Instructor Ding’s team was still in the process of adjusting, and even for the second phase, whose mechanics they knew and had solutions for, they had not yet dealt with them in a 100% reliable manner. Tackling the massive health pool pressure and a potential third phase was simply unthinkable.

Forget about today, it seemed unlikely they would defeat this boss within the week...

In fact, Instructor Ding suspected that, given the current figures, this boss was essentially unbeatable.

Was this some kind of joke by the game developers?

...

Soon, the clock struck midnight.

Instructor Ding, imprisoned the whole night, could only helplessly declare they would fight again tomorrow.

"Alright brothers, everyone’s worked hard today. Tomorrow at 8 PM we continue the raid on this boss.

"Those who need to repair their equipment, go do it. If you’re short on money, borrow some from the guild. If possible, go gather some herbs to make potions, or grind for some Fire Resistance Gear, any improvement is good.

"I will also ask the leaders of other guilds to see if they have encountered this situation."

After dismissing his team, which might as well have been sitting in a cell, Instructor Ding was increasingly aggravated.

What in the world is this mess?!

He had thought optimistically that today they might clear the first three bosses in a streak, but instead, they were wiped out right at the first one. Adding insult to injury, they didn’t even manage to get the boss to half health, and they had no idea whether there was a third phase or not.

Although it was already midnight, Instructor Ding did not end the stream just yet. Instead, he reached out to other guild leaders to inquire about the situation.

He felt there must be some problem with the game, but relying solely on his own thoughts was insufficient; it required a joint effort.

Instructor Ding was in trouble, and support came from all quarters.

Soon, the news spread, and several guild leaders were invited to join Instructor Ding’s voice channel to share their experience of adventuring through the Lava Mouth.