[Jereble] [Live Broadcast] [1251 viewers]
[Raid Reset at 7 PM – Trial Runs]
[Deren Online]
[Do you think they'll clear it today?]
[If the tanks do their job, it's possible]
[Aren't the tanks already doing well?]
[Nah, they need to do even better. Watched the first-clear video, and they're not on that level]
[Yeah, this is totally a tank problem]
"Guys, our tanks are doing great. Don't say weird stuff," Jereble muttered, glancing at the chat window with an exasperated sigh.
As a streamer, Jereble had formed this raid group with the goal of achieving the first clear of the new raid alongside his viewers. However, just a few days ago, a newly-formed raid team had swooped in and stolen the first clear they had been aiming for.
Even though no one openly said it, Jereble could tell that the morale had dropped. It was evident in their faces, their actions, and their tone.
He wasn't much better himself—his motivation was waning too. But as a streamer, he had to maintain his usual upbeat demeanor, not just for his team, but for his audience, who tuned in to have fun.
"Alright, everyone. Let's give it our best shot today too!"
Jereble's raid team was stable and experienced. They had attempted the raid numerous times, and their coordination had improved significantly.
The group breezed through the intermediate bosses and reached the final boss without much trouble. As usual, they employed their standard tactics during the first trial. But the raid ended in a quick and decisive wipe, and the chat window erupted.
[Maybe it's time to change up the tactics]
[For real, just copy that schoolgirl raid's strategy]
[LOL they are wiped already]
[Bro make the tanks kite the elites]
"Ugh... Do we really have to?" Jereble sighed. "Let's give it a few more tries. If it doesn't work, we'll switch tactics."
Jereble looked around at his raid members. Everyone here was a viewer of his stream. Even without his title as raid leader, most of them trusted and followed his lead.
"Alright, let's keep trying a bit longer and then reassess the tactics."
"That sounds like a good idea."
"Got it."
The raid members agreed and continued with the trials.
Two tries, three tries, four tries… By the time they reached their tenth attempt, Jereble finally paused the raid to revise the strategy.
Though 'revise' was a generous term—it wasn't a complicated adjustment.
"Can you kite 60 elite mobs?"
"With just two healers? That's going to be tough…"
"I'll assign five healers to you. Think you can manage with that?"
"With that many healers, it should be possible…"
If two healers weren't enough, they just had to add more. Luckily, Jereble's raid had a surplus of healers.
The new trial began. The tanks in Jereble's group were skilled, and one of them managed to kite 30 elite orcs without issue.
[Whoa, this might actually work LOL]
[Look at that boss's health dropping!]
[Let's go Jereble!]
But then another wave of 30 elite orcs spawned. The tank already kiting the first 30 quickly moved to draw aggro from the newly spawned wave.
As a mage, Jereble didn't have much to do tactically. His role was simple: plant himself in one spot and deal damage. The only thing he needed to pay attention to was dodging the boss's occasional charge pattern, but even that was predictable enough to avoid with his eyes closed.
"This doesn't feel good…"
Jereble's gaze shifted toward the tank juggling 60 elite orcs. The situation was precarious. The tank's health was fluctuating wildly, dropping from 80% to 50% in a single second.
The healers responded with an overwhelming barrage of healing spells, filling the tank's health bar almost instantly.
But it wasn't efficient. The excessive healing led to overhealing, which wasted mana. Large, powerful heals were necessary to keep up with the damage, but these spells had long casting times. If the tank's health dropped too suddenly, they wouldn't be able to react in time without preemptively casting.
As healing effects poured down on the tank, five of the orcs broke off and charged toward the healers. The healing aggro had pulled them away.
The team scrambled. Jereble, the off-tank, and the healers exchanged frantic glances. The off-tank rushed to grab the stray orcs, but another problem arose: the sudden movement caused the tank to lose proximity with the orcs they were kiting.
The scattered orcs began to spread out, their aggro unstable.
The thought crossed everyone's mind simultaneously: this run was a failure.
Then, another wave of orcs spawned.
Ninety elite orcs.
The DPS players screamed and scattered, the tanks tried to recover, but it was no use. The healers were the first to die, followed by the DPS. It was a total wipe.
When the team revived, Jereble reviewed the situation.
Was this a viable strategy? No. It was impossible to clear the raid with this tactic.
The schoolgirl raid had succeeded thanks to their overwhelming tanking ability and 30 mages pumping out damage. Their group composition was:
3 tanks, 7 healers, 30 DPS
In contrast, Jereble's group had:
5 tanks, 15 healers, 20 DPS.
They simply didn't have enough damage output.
This tactic wasn't something Jereble's group could execute successfully.
[Wow, these tanks suck LOL]
[This isn't a tank issue]
[No, it's definitely the tanks' fault]
[Feels like they just don't have enough DPS]
[Is it a DPS issue?]
Despite the criticism, Jereble continued tweaking the strategy and attempting runs. He was determined to find a way to clear the raid.
Eventually, they found a workaround. With five tanks in the group, he assigned two to handle charge patterns and one to act as the main tank.
The remaining two tanks each kited 30 elite mobs.
However, this raised another problem: healer distribution.
"How many healers do we need for each group of 30 elites?"
"Three or four per group, at least."
The healers were redistributed accordingly. All non-essential healers were assigned to support the kiting tanks.
The next trial run began, and things were much more stable. Splitting the 60 elite orcs into two groups made the situation far more manageable.
But the battle dragged on—too long.
The extended fight drained the healers' mana rapidly. Worse, it gave enough time for a new wave of elite orcs to spawn.
Another 30 orcs appeared.
This time, the off-tanks managed to distribute the new wave between them, bringing their individual totals to 45. It was difficult, but still manageable.
The raid members felt a glimmer of hope. The end was in sight.
Then, disaster struck.
"Main tank down!!!"
A scream echoed from the healer line.
The main tank had died, and the implications were devastating.
"What are the healers doing?!"
"We're out of mana!"
The healers' mana was completely depleted. The prolonged fight had taken its toll.
Once again, the raid ended in failure.
[This is so frustrating hahahahahaha]
[They'll never clear it. The group just doesn't have enough dps]
[They need to brute force it with raw damage]
The raid ended for the day. As Jereble returned to the capital city and closed his stream, someone approached him.
"Iyap?"
[Iyap], the top DPS rogue in Jereble's raid, stood before him.
"I'm leaving the raid."
"What? Why all of a sudden?"
"I've been thinking about this for a while, and I've made up my mind. You know as well as I do—we're never going to clear this."
Jereble fell silent. The ace of his raid had hit him with the truth he'd been avoiding.
"You're… right."
"Thank you for everything."
With that, Iyap left.
It wasn't just Jereble's group. Other top-tier raid teams were also quietly losing members.
And during those few days, Hayeon's phone was flooded with raid application messages.
* * * *
"What the…"
Lying on my bed, I fiddled with my phone.
I had recently posted a recruitment ad, hoping to find a few competent DPS players who could at least meet the bare minimum.
But the response was overwhelming.
The applicants weren't just good—they were top-tier.
Their applications included raid performance videos and DPS charts from their previous groups.
Could this really be happening? Were they leaving their raids because of internal conflicts? If any of them were troublemakers, I wasn't going to accept them.
I carefully checked each applicant's username and cross-referenced them on various sites related to Deren.
No red flags.
They had all left their previous groups quietly and applied to mine.
Still, I wasn't taking any chances. I waited a few more days in case any issues surfaced.
By the day of the raid, no problems had arisen, so I accepted 14 new members into my group.
With them, the DPS lineup became much more diverse. I had to appoint new class leaders and reorganize the groups.
Except for one problem—Hwarang.
He was the only archer in the entire raid.
"Where the hell do I put this guy…?"
Archers were mobile ranged DPS, so I ended up grouping him with the mages.
It was a surprisingly satisfying arrangement.
The exodus of DPS players from top-tier raid teams didn't go unnoticed.
Those paying attention quickly realized where they were all heading.
That day, a new post appeared on the Deren Online forums.
[Deren Online Gallery]
[Upvote if you think the schoolgirl raid leader ninja'd all the top-tier DPS LOL.] [151]
(Image of Yeon's character raising her sword triumphantly)
Terrifying… The Schoolgirl Hokage!!!!
[Comments]
ㄴ[I upvoted so hard, I broke my mouse]
ㄴ [Same, used an alt to upvote 20 more times]
ㄴ[We lost a few DPS players from our raid too]
ㄴ [They were ninja'd by the schoolgirl!]
ㄴ[Wait, did she really ninja them? What about the raid gold?]
ㄴ [She distributed it fairly]
ㄴ [Then why call her a ninja?]
ㄴ [No idea, just call her one LOL]
ㄴ[For real, I've been robbed of something precious…]
ㄴ [What did she steal?]
ㄴ [My heart…]
ㄴ [lol simp]
ㄴ[ Same, my chest hurts…]