The Great Thief

Chapter 1770: Kel’Thuzad

In this way, Lu Li swapped out a lot of his equipment. The equipment that he replaced was given to others in the club to use, but Lu Li still selected and kept a few that had relatively useful Special Effects.

At the moment, he could be said to have the highest-level equipment in all of Dawn.

T3 wasn’t considered the best equipment. In the future, the Elite teams of many major guilds would have a set for each of their members, but at the moment, only those who were on the First Clear teams of the very top clubs could afford this luxury. Those who were able to enter into the final Instance Dungeon First Clear team weren’t poor, so even having money wasn’t enough to buy T3 equipment.

There was a small chance of a Wild Boss dropping a part of the T3 set. These sorts of Wild Bosses

were all very powerful, and what was more, they could only be farmed once per week.

It was extremely rare for someone to have four pieces of T3 equipment like Lu Li. Having more than four wasn’t that useful.

When it was nearly time to replace equipment, what mattered in deciding a winner in the arena was still each individual’s technique.

“Who dares invade my sacred territory? I’m warning you – many stupid guys have invaded here before and they’re already dead!”

By the time Lu Li entered the battle, Azure Sea Breeze had already familiarized himself with the Boss.

Kel’Thuzad’s whole battle was divided into three stages.

In the first stage, Kel’Thuzad himself didn’t take part, but in the room, there were seven points that spawned waves of new Elite monsters.

Soldiers of the Frozen Wastes were skeletons with about 2000 HP. As they charged into a group of players, they would self-destruct and release Shadow Impact, dealing about 2000 Shadow damage. Unstoppable Abominations had high HP and an attack that could reduce healing by 10%. This effect could stack and would target players at random. Soul Weavers were monsters that looked like Banshees. They would deal about 5000 damage to the player with the highest aggro, while also knocking them away.

The first stage continued for about 5 minutes. After 4 minutes and 30 seconds, the rate at which new monsters were spawned increased. After 5 minutes, Kel’Thuzad would spring into action, marking the beginning of the second stage.

Sky Moon led everyone into the second stage without much effort.

The first stage was a test. If they couldn’t break through, then they should just give up, since all they needed was to just have enough basic equipment and be able to coordinate together.

Sky Moon’s strategy was to split up and position a ranged player to guard every door that spawned new skeletons. If a Banshee came out, then all the ranged units would focus together and kill it, while dealing with the skeletons at the same time. If things didn’t go well and they ended up being a target for the Banshees or Skeletons, then everyone would have to keep a distance from them. Otherwise, the attacks from them would lead to the whole team being wiped.

Close combat players were responsible for the Unstoppable Abominations. Three or four Warriors were required to create a Taunt chain. As soon as the target turned in the other direction, then apart from defensive Warriors, pretty much no one could attack them at all.

Generally speaking, the ranged players were responsible for the skeletons and Banshees, while the melee players would focus their power on the center area and attack the Abominations. As such, the entire team would focus on a ring around the center of the field.

As time passed, the new monsters would be spawned more rapidly, which required powerful DPS.

As long as their DPS was strong enough, this stage didn’t require any strategy at all. What they needed to be aware of was the ranged players being pulled towards the monsters in the center. Of course, melee players weren’t allowed to exit their circle and attack the monsters they weren’t meant to deal with.

In the second stage, Kel’Thuzad entered the battle.

Sky Moon’s team had entered this stage before, but had struggled here each time.

The state of the battle hinged on their DPS in the first phase. If there were still Banshees and Abominations on the field, they had to remain calm. If the close combat players had sufficient DPS, they could use controlling skills to quickly eliminate the Abominations. Meanwhile, the ranged players and healers would quickly establish their positions, standing 10 feet apart, and continue to fight the Banshees. Usually, after 30 seconds, there wouldn’t be any Elite monsters remaining on the field to distract them.

Sky Moon had believed in a misconception. He wanted to finish off all the Elite monsters in the first stage, and because of this, the number of Main Tanks and healers were reduced.

As soon as Lu Li entered the Dungeon, he made some adjustments. Healers needed to make sure that the team could at least keep surviving, otherwise, the team could perish at any time. If they didn’t leave some fault tolerance in this stage, then in the second phase, they would simply have no way of sustaining a fight.

The first change he made was to bring in four Main Tanks.

They would stand in the center area at 90 degrees angles and with the Boss closest to them. Then, moving from the inside out, there would be melee DPS, healers, ranged DPS, then ranged healers. Their placement wasn’t meant to be perfect but that was the general guide. After everyone took their positions, making sure to keep adequate distance from each other, apart from avoiding Shadow Clink, they basically didn’t have to do any repositioning.

In the second stage, Kel’Thuzad would frequently use his six skills.

The most threatening one of the all was probably Frost Impact. It was difficult to survive it before, but after using Lu Li’s strategy, it was very rare for two ranged units to be hit at the same time. Even if that happened, they just had to heal them in time and the ones who were affected wouldn’t be in any danger. However, they needed to have healers. If they didn’t have healers, then there was no doubt that they would definitely die from Frost Impact.

When Sky Moon reduced the number of healers and Main Tanks, people died the most in this stage.

Lu Li would remind the melee players at the right time. When they heard the command, they would promptly disperse. In this way, Frost Impact was completely dealt with.

The difficulty with Kel’Thuzad’s Chain was that it could simultaneously control three Main Tanks, and those who were controlled would have some of their aggro cleared. If all four Main Tanks had been controlled after two rounds, then it was really easy aggro to be lost. As soon this happened, then three Frost Arrows would be unleashed, which was enough to kill all of them in one shot.

That was why those Tanks who had been controlled needed to build up as much aggro as they could. If aggro was lost, then the target should quickly move towards the center, while the other players cut off Kel’Thuzad’s magic as quickly as they could. In this way, they could greatly reduce the casualties.

Frost Arrow had a 6 second cooldown, dealing 8000-9000 Frost damage to the player with the most aggro. If the target wasn’t in close-combat range, then it would be shot out every three seconds, which was devastating. Having four tanks would prevent this from occurring over the course of the battle.

Considering Shieldstrike’s cooldown, two Tanks would group together and take turns to get rid of it.

If the Main Tank had to change up the Boss’ position, they had to remember that they needed to wait for Frost Arrow before moving.

Mana Detonation would continue for 5 seconds, dealing natural damage to everyone within 10 yards. The damage done was related to the mana level. If there were enough Tanks and they were positioned well, then they could simply ignore this skill.

Area-of-effect Frost Arrows weren’t very threatening, but they put constant pressure on the healers. They would deal 3000 damage to the team every 15 seconds, but could also frequently be resisted.

It was very obvious when Shadow Clink was cast, and if there was enough time to avoid it, there was no hidden danger of the team dying.

However, all of this was easier said than done. Most commanders were worried about there being enough output. The faster they were able to kill the Boss, the higher the chance of success. If they took too long, the variables would fall further out of their control.

With Lu Li commanding, it took two weeks to get through the second stage, until they finally worked together to enter the third stage.

When Kel’Thuzad had 40% HP remaining, he would ask for help from the Lich King. Upon entering the third stage, the doors around them would send out five Guardians of Icecrown.

Guardians of Icecrown could be locked by Priests, could have their speed reduced and could be Rooted, but they had a lot of HP, so much so that it looked like it was impossible to kill them. What was more, they changed their targets each time and received a Blood Tap buff which could stack, increasing their own attack by 15%.

Kel’Thuzad’s own skills didn’t change. If they could hold up against the Guardians of Icecrown and kill off Kel’Thuzad, then they would win.

Battle tactics weren’t too important here. If they arranged well for people to be controlling something then that would be enough. Of course, if the number of Warriors allowed for it, the best thing was to have them go first to draw aggro.

The main thing in this stage was to control the five Guardians of Icecrown and increase their damage output, but the melee players still had to pay attention to the Frost Arrows.

It was clear that the Cooldown time for the Boss’ skills was longer, so they didn’t need to worry about the Main Tank being frequently controlled. In this stage, they could even have a Main Tank who had just been controlled to go aggro the Guardians of Icecrown.

All in all, the third stage was generally easier than P2.

The main factor in determining their victory was the number of players remaining upon entering this phase.