The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Cassandra

The rest of the group's dailies came and went as easily as the Safeguard quest had. They were all focused on easier content, so it really wasn't that unusual for them to come and go so easily - it really was about finding ways to entertain yourself while getting them done.

When Cass wasn't playing the game with friends, she often threw videos or something on her second monitor to watch while playing.

On top of the quests themselves being easy, they also just had a good team for the day. Firo and Nyx were a well-balanced DPS combination, with the melee and ranged positions making positioning during boss fights easy. And they even nicely slotted into the selfish, high damage type and the supportive less damage type.

Sylvia was a great tank, too. Despite Cass's initial concerns about a very mobile tank making some of the mechanics more difficult, Syliva seemed to be aware of those potential pain points and actively used skills to mitigate those issues, whether that be by quick repositions or standing in low damage AoEs to make things go easier.

Unfortunately, Cass, Zoe, and apparently Firo had all slacked during the week, so they needed to run through quite literally every possible [Routine Quest] option they had before they had all capped their currency for the week. She felt a little bit better about it when Firo was the one that needed the final two quests and not her or Zoe, though. At least they didn't drag Firo and Sylvia along with no pay out for them.

Once they were finished, Sylvia brought up the potential for some PvP fun before they went their separate ways. "Afterall," he said, "it's a Saturday and I don't have any other plans for the day. Could be fun for a bit."

Cass shrugged. "I'm game for a while. Firo? Nyx?"

"I'm down."

"I need to change some things around for PvP, but yeah. Maybe we can even do a small team battle." Firo said.

"Get your builds together then and we'll meet near the War District." Sylvia said.

Thankfully, Evie was still positioned by her [Soul] trainers. Given the [Routine Quests] were all instance based, the party was able to enter them from anywhere - so Cass had just left Evie parked where she was last needed.

It didn't take her long to make the trot around the [Benefactor Pavilion] where all of the healer trainers were. She beelined right toward [Holy Warden Brume], the trainer for the [Ward] [Dedication] of [Hallow]. Swapping to the class was easy enough, and doing so automatically equipped her last gearset on the [Path] as well, so she was already good to go.

In addition, her last skill loadout was also equipped, which was her PvP focused set. She didn't play [Hallow] much outside of PvP, so for the most part, she left her [Ward] set up for PvP.

Once she was settled, Cass called up Evie's warhorse, which she had named Mongie, and headed toward the [War District]. It was the part of [Falias] that held the main arena where all of the big PvP events were held, as well as a large number of smaller venues around the main arena that hosted private matches and the like.

Since she had left the other party members behind in [Lugh's Courtyard] while they were managing their own skills and loadouts, Cass wandered around the streets for a bit.

The [War District] was a very popular section of the city for a large portion of the player base. Mag Mell didn't currently have all that much in the way of open field PvP. There were some guild versus guild events and the like, but not a lot of options for players that liked the ganking style of something like the Alliance vs Horde dynamic.

Instead, the PvP in Mag Mell was almost situated as its own game. Players could either participate in PvP as a [Freelancer], opting to fight for glory on their own, or they could join a [House]. Each [House] was essentially an in-universe arena team run by various NPCs, with a specific team name, colors, and the like. If a player joined one, they could take part in various arena fights, earn reputation, and climb the ranks.

Additionally, PvP ran in two week seasons, so the leaderboard was always in a state of flux, which was pretty nice. There were a few bonuses to placing high in each season, but it was mostly cosmetic gear and other small bonuses - nothing that gave real numerical bonuses, but certainly bragging rights. Especially when the arena gear was all unique and didn't get reruns. Each piece really stood out.

For players that didn't live and breathe PvP, the rankings and the like did their best to keep matches fairly equal in skill level, but as it would be with any game, it was a mixed bag. Cass thought that whatever system Meg Mell used was on the better side of matchmaking systems, but wasn't anything particularly special. You'd still get a randomly crazy one-sided match occasionally when the skill levels just weren't a good match up.

On the other hand, there were plenty of equalizing factors as well. The numerical stats on gear - as well as your character level - were all equalized. Players were able to enter the fight with any skill alterations they made, as well as any [Invested Effects] they had equipped. That did ultimately give higher level players a noticeable edge, but it wasn't usually the deciding factor in a match.

Players could enter the PvP arena at level 15, once they had unlocked their [Dedication]. That was the only requirement to enter, which basically meant you could, in theory, finish the introduction island, arrive at [Falias], pick up your [Dedication], and immediately go all in on PvP. Notably, characters that were low level and hadn't unlocked all of their skills yet were actually given access to their entire base skill set during PvP - the main restriction was that they could only alter skills they had unlocked and 'learned'.

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Of course, that same restriction led to plenty of streamers taking it as a challenge, and focusing on PvP with only the basic loadouts at level 15. Cass had even watched one such streamer place in the top 100 players during one of the seasons, which was pretty cool. It made a solid case for player skill carrying you further than levels, skill alterations, and [Invested Effects] could.

Of course, that same streamer placed in the top ten the following season on a max level, fully kitted out character, so no one was arguing that it made no difference, just, perhaps, a smaller one than it seemed at first glance.

"Alright, anyone got a favorite spot?" Sylvia asked as the others made it to the [War District].

"I do, actually, if we're just hitting duels for the moment." Firo said.

"Lead the way, then!" Zoe said.

As Firo led the way to what was apparently his favored dueling arena, Cass looked over their party. Firo had swapped from [Invoker] to [Rune], the melee-focused [Dedication] for [Mage]. Sylvia was still running [Blade], but was now wearing a different armor set than before. And Zoe had swapped Nyx to her [Athame] set. Cass smiled at the familiar revealing outfit that Nyx wore as an [Athame], accented with an absurdly large witch hat.

The building that Firo took the group to was a slightly larger than average building for the private arenas. Many of those buildings had the air of a training gym inside, complete with a few roped off areas to fight in, that had a similar vibe to a boxing ring, just with a dirt floor and actual rough thread ropes.

The place Firo took them to, however, had an entirely different vibe. It looked more like a space designed for magical duels and their combatants. The building was large with bookshelves all around the large, open room. There were plenty of desks and tables set up for studying and reading, like what would be expected in a school library.

However, in the middle of the room were four dueling rings that dominated the space. Each one was quite a bit larger than the more 'standard' dueling rings, and the 'ropes' around them were made of pulsing magic.

"Of course you'd prefer a magic arena." Sylvia chuckled.

"Well, yeah. I like to be able to make some space, and a lot of the more generic arenas are too small for mages." Firo said. "Besides, I really like this place, too. I would totally hang out here if it wasn't so far off the beaten path."

"I kinda like it, too, honestly. It's got a nice, clean vibe. Especially compared to the musty gym-like ones that would probably smell awful." Zoe added.

Cass chuckled. "You're totally right. I bet this place would smell like parchment and books. Maybe a bit of charring too, with the magic duels."

"Okay, if it smelled like burned hair in here, I'm out." Zoe said flatly as the group moved toward one of the open arenas. Only one of them was currently occupied, with a player facing off against an NPC for practice. They were clearly trying to get a [Blink] focused build working, as they were teleporting around the arena, but it wasn't quite working out. Even fully built for it, there simply weren't enough [Blink] effects in a [Mage's] kit to build around, even with all of the cooldown reduction they could manage. After the initial charges of the skill that the player had banked, there'd be at least five seconds of downtime between each teleport, which was more than enough time to be locked down by the opponent.

"So, Evie vs Sylvia first, as discussed?" Firo asked.

"Yep." Cass said as she made Evie jump over the 'ropes' to stand in the pale white sand. It wasn't the same warm yellowish-brown color of the sand in most fighting rings, but something about the white sand worked much better in the library-like space than the normal sand would have.

Sylvia also jumped into the ring and Cass got the challenge pop up on her screen.

[Duel Challenge]

[Sylvia Fairwinds {AWOM}]

[Accept?]

[Yes] [No]

Cass held off on clicking accept until she and Sylvia were on opposite sides of the field. Once they were across the field from one another and facing inward, she clicked [Yes].

The ten second countdown popped up, which gave them each time to prepare.

"You're goin' down, Evie."

"We'll see." Cass said, casting a few quick prep spells. [Hallows] were designed around placing long-lasting AoEs on the field that would buff or debuff people standing in them, with many of the skills essentially 'consecrating' ground, which is where the [Hallow] name came from.

With her PvP build, though, Cass had altered a lot of the spells. Almost all of her buffs were made single target, so she could cast them on herself without giving the buffs to her opponent as well.

[Holy Ground], [Surging Life], [Font of Vitality], and [Fortification] were all up before the timer hit zero, giving Evie massive defensive boosts. [Holy Ground] and [Fortification] were both big mitigation skills, focused on magical and physical damage respectively. [Surging Life] and [Font of Vitality] were both regen spells, which would probably give Evie more healing per second than the damage Sylvia could do to her with only basic attacks.

The on-going effects would cost Evie MP over time, but she had enough MP regen to handle multiple effects draining her MP on [Hallow].

Sylvia crossed the gap between them with a single skill when the countdown hit zero, and immediately began pummeling Evie with various attacks. Each time, Sylvia would hit Evie with either one or two attack skills before using a repositioning skill, which would make it difficult for Cass to keep her attacks aimed correctly.

Unfortunately for Sylvia, Cass wasn't really focused on aiming attacks at her opponent. She was busy laying down ground-targeted AoEs around her instead. It was her standard procedure for duels against melee fighters. [Hallow] had so much self-sustain that she was almost functionally a rock during duels.

Evie dropped four large circular AoEs around her. [Dread Mire], [Creeping Horror], [Blunt the Edges], and [Karmic Balance] each appeared around her. The large circular AoEs were placed perfectly so that they each overlapped with its neighbors by quite a bit, leaving only a tiny little bit of space in the middle untouched - right where Evie stood.

While Sylvia could position to be sure that only one of the detrimental effects took effect at any given time, it severely limited her options, and required her to stand in one of the AoEs to reach Evie with melee skills. All while Evie stood amidst the effects, untouched in her tiny little square of safety.

Even better, Cass knew exactly which of the four effects most players preferred to stand in - [Blunt the Edges]. It was a damage reduction debuff, but most people took the flat damage reduction on their attacks instead of the slow cooldowns, movement, and other annoyances caused by [Dread Mire] and [Creeping Horror]. And no one would ever stand in [Karmic Balance], which made everyone in the effect take a percentage of the damage they dealt as damage to themselves.

Sylvia took a moment to prowl around the outside of the AoEs, looking over the effects. "Oh, that's dirty. I hate it."

Zoe snickered. "Yeah, her Hallow is really obnoxious in duels. But you better move quick before she finishes setting up."

"There's more set up?" Firo laughed.

"Sure is." Cass said, as she used her [Dedication Skill], [Consecrate] on her next spell. [Consecrate] would triple the AoE size of the following spell, while also tripling the MP cost. She dropped her [Thin the Veil] spell dead center on her, but the area expanded out well past the other effects she had generated, covering most of their little arena. [Thin the Veil] was a damage over time effect that damaged everyone standing on it as any DoT would, so long as they were standing in the area.

Then she hit [Consecrate] again before placing [Gravity Well] on her. Once again, the area was massive, but the only effect was that it would draw in anyone in the area toward the center. The effect wasn't too strong, just requiring a character in it to walk away from the center to avoid the pull. If they moved at full speed or [Sprinted], they could run right out of the circle.

But that would be hard for melee people who wanted to move in and out for attacks.

There was a noticeable drain on Evie's MP at that point. She hit [Open Conduit], her MP regen skill. It could be channeled indefinitely, and would fight off the MP drain from her placed AoEs, until Sylvia came to attack her.

"Oh, wow, I hate this. So much." Sylvia complained again. Which was fair - Cass wouldn't enjoy fighting her [Hallow] build either. Even if she knew its major weaknesses.

"What's the move, Sylvia?" Cass taunted, watching her opponent move back and forth on the edges of the arena, just beyond her AoE's reach. "We're just in a stalemate until you move. I can sit in Conduit indefinitely unless you interrupt me."

Firo laughed while watching Sylvia slink around the battlefield. "Sylvia, you swapped out of your ranged attack again, didn't you?"

"...maybe."

The whole group laughed at that. Most melee [Paths] had access to a singular ranged attack, just a simple option to keep up DPS when they had to leave their normal range during a fight. It was usually weak, and definitely a filler ability, but they could be altered into a fairly decent melee attack for most [Paths]. And that was a common move for PvP loadouts.

"Come on, Sylvia." Cass taunted again, this time in a sing-song tone. "I suppose we do have all day, but neither of us will win at this rate."

"Ugh, fuck it." Sylvia said, and closed the distance with a quick dash in.