37 Strategy Pt. 1 (1/2)
”So what you're saying is, you want to try playing faster than the Tokyo Boars?” Kimi asked in exasperation, ”Do you even know how hard it is to run the Tokyo Boar's strategy? It takes so much synergy and coordination just to pull off their strategy. Just one of them missing their part can lead to their strategy being smashed apart.”
”Not only that, their strategy requires a very specific set of classes.” Conflux added, ”Don't you think that it would be too difficult to match our classes to theirs?”
”I don't think so.” Li Ming concluded, ”After thinking about it a bit, its fully possible to have both Collisio and Lasks fit into this strategy without changing too much.”
”In fact, we wouldn't have to change their roles at all, just how they think about their roles or perform them.” Chie continued on for Li Ming.
After finishing their hot chocolate at St*rb*cks, they headed to the Team Offices to speak with Coach Kimi and Conflux about the idea that they had concocted.
”I had this image while I was thinking about the strategy,” Li Ming explained as he grabbed one of the styluses to illustrate his idea on the holographic display that was projected from the oakwood table. ”Basically, Collisio and Lasks will act as a modern military strike unit, similar to an actual tank. While that's going on, Conflux can act as the brains of the operation while closely guarding their rear.”
Picking up a stylus of her own, Chie began to draw on top of Li Ming's previous drawing while she explained the latter portion, ”Meanwhile, The Dawn and MeiChie will handle the spotting and vanguard positions. But instead of handling the spotting the unit and relaying the message, we will also execute the duty of a vanguard that will hold the enemies in place for our artillery unit to execute them.”
”If that's the case,” Conflux rebutted, ”I don't see why we don't just play it slower than the Tokyo Boars? It seems like a rather slow strategy to me.”
”That's not so!” Li Ming continued his explanation, ”In this strategy, we take fights back to front instead of front to back. We'll let the enemy frontline take on Collisio and possibly you, Conflux, while we hold their backline in place so that Lasks can focus on casting bigger spells to eliminate them.”
”If we use this strategy, The Dawn and MeiChie will be creating a snowball effect on the pressure of the map. If their frontline cant de-aggro from Collisio's Guardian Knight's taunts, then their backline will become sitting ducks for us to execute!” Chie exclaimed.
”Yes, but what if they try the same strategy against us? Or worse yet, what if we get flanked?” Coach Kimi asked warily, ”That strategy would work in a headon battle with little to no set up, but we won't be able to pull it off unless the enemy willingly fights us head on, you know?”
”We actually don't need them to! The Dawn carries 6 long range spell trinkets, and MeiChie uses mainly ranged weapons as well. We can use those at the start of the fight to force the enemy to raise their defense while we charge them.” Li Ming went further into detail, ”As soon as Collisio gets within range of their frontline, Chie and I will use our gap closing abilities, in this case [Shunpo] and her trinket [Short Range Teleportation], to instantly engage their backline while Collisio chain taunts them. At this point, Conflux's Heavy Knight can choose whether he wants to defend Lasks' mage or if he wants to help Collisio defend.”
”... It takes Lasks about 8 seconds per spell cast” Conflux sat in deep thought, ”But those spells won't be enough to take out their back line on their own.”
”Actually, combined with either of our possible damage output, it would be perfectly possible to take out the enemy backline if Lasks changes over to Heavy Artillery spells instead of his normal Artillery spells.” Chie explained, ”Li Ming's Spellblade and my Gunner are just about equal in terms of damage output, after all.”
”Heavy artillery? You mean changing his regular spells like [Icicle Shower], [Lightning Storm], and [Volcanic Ballista]? What would you want to change them to?” Coach Kimi asked curiously.
”Well, for one, we theoretically won't need much crowd control abilities to interrupt their movements, so we can just use pure offensive abilities, even if they had longer chant times.” Li Ming gave off a few examples, ”For example, [Meteor Barrage], [Blinding Lightning Spear], or even [Wind Guillotine]. For his ultimate, he can keep [Heaven's Whisper - Spell Triplet]. I think that would be enough to take out the enemy's backline easily if they're suppressed.”
”But that's the caveat, isn't it?” Coach Kimi lamented. ”Spells with such long cast times like the ones you gave examples of would need targets that already can't move. How do you plan on suppressing a target with your two builds?”
””We can suppress them through pressuring them through damage!”” both Chie and Li Ming answered in unison.
”Well, why don't we ask them then.” Conflux, tired from the debate, decided to consult with Collisio and Lasks themselves as he sent them a message to get into a private custom lobby on Legends Rise.
***
”Wow!” Li Ming exclaimed as he saw Collisio's character in its full glory dawning the team's costume in the custom lobby. Compared to his memory of Collisio's Guardian Knight playing on the former world champions 3 years ago on the Hamburg Hornets and their glossy black, green, and silver team costumes. Compared to that, the current Collisio in the red, white and gold Osaka Phoenixes looked extremely dominant, like a Gargoyle atop a mansion.