The warrior class had plenty of skills that forcibly "moved" a target. Coupled with warriors' naturally high Strength, even their basic attacks could easily produce effects such as knockback, knockdown, and launch.
Many people had once believed that watching One Leaf Windwalk execute a combo was a genuine pleasure.
This often happened to tank warriors with sky-high Defense and enormous health pools... those "walking steel walls" who gave everyone else headaches would helplessly find themselves launched into the air within a few moves, then trapped in a combo that kept them airborne forever, before finally being comboed to death with tears streaming down their faces.
"I ain't ever dueling this walking bug again! I demand the system nerf him! Delete his account! Ban him! Never let him into the game again!" Those words truly voiced the feelings of countless players.
Combos worked just as well in Chronicles of the Sky! As a closed-beta player, Ye Fengxing knew that perfectly well. After all, this was part of the game's basic mechanics. However capable those people were, however much they could change the game's content, they would never touch those fundamentals, or the game would lose its original identity.
Sure, Ye Fengxing was a mage now, but mages had physical Attack too. It might be a little low, but a little still counted for something. In an expert's hands, how did that saying go... anything was possible!
These monsters in their teens did not attack particularly fast. With Ye Fengxing's current stats and his skill, he could easily kill them without losing any health. Still, watching him turn a perfectly good mage into a warrior was rather painful.
If he could put all his points into Intelligence, it would have reached 90 by now, giving him 180 Spell Power. One Magic Missile would hit a monster for at least 120-130, or 180-200 on a critical hit! With a little luck, he could kill one in just three or four shots, all while standing comfortably in place, without anything like his current exertion.
There was no helping it. Since he had chosen the mage class, he had to stick with it. Whether this playstyle was right or not, he would try it before deciding. That was Ye Fengxing's thinking now.
Getting started was always the hardest part. Who didn't have a "rough patch" now and then?
Killing monsters along the way, Ye Fengxing gradually reached the coordinates Eske had given him. When he got a clear look at the situation there, he could not help breaking into a sheepish sweat.
Damn it! There was a whole swarm of level-40 Ironclad Mantises here! Eske was only level 25. No wonder that bastard hadn't dared come himself!
Ye Fengxing swaggered over. He had already tested this: as long as he did not attack a monster first, it would never attack him, and would even instinctively keep its distance. Ashavante's Protection... what an awesome buff!
What did it mean to have someone watching your back? Clearly, this big shot Eshavante had that covered!
As though someone had sprayed them with extra-strength insecticide, the Ironclad Mantises scattered with a buzzing whir as he approached... without another word, Ye Fengxing pulled out his hoe and swung it into the ground!
Naturally, a quest meant for players in their teens was not particularly hard. After just a few digs, Ye Fengxing unearthed a filthy black roll of tattered cloth. A closer look revealed that its name was indeed Esk's Lost Scroll.
It was still early. Might as well kill a few more monsters. With that thought, he began chanting. One advantage of Ashavante's Protection was that even if a whole swarm surrounded you, attacking one monster would not make the others rush in to gang up on you. It was practically a god-tier buff for solo grinding!
He could not handle the level-40 Ironclad Mantises. Their Defense was high and their attacks were fast, making them difficult to dodge with his current Agility. Most importantly... they were level 40! With a full thirty-one-level gap, Ye Fengxing could not even break through their Defense.
0, Magic Missile.
-1, Magic Missile.
The moment Ye Fengxing saw those two numbers, he turned and ran without another word. Goddamn it! How the hell was he supposed to fight this?
After he ran a little farther, the enormous mantis, as bulky as a calf, finally turned back. Ye Fengxing caught his breath and started looking for lower-level targets, such as... the level-14 Mutant Dung Beetle before him.
These monsters were just like their real-world counterparts, giving off an absolutely revolting stench. They even had a ranged attack-hurling dung balls like cannon shells, which exploded with a bang upon striking something solid.
After killing two, Ye Fengxing wanted nothing more to do with them. Although he had undergone special training and could endure things most people could not, that did not mean he enjoyed degrading himself... this was a game. Deliberately seeking out this kind of misery would be downright deranged! Masochistic!
I'll move somewhere else after killing this one, Ye Fengxing silently told himself.
Perhaps heaven was playing a joke on him. Before its unfortunate "demise," the third Mutant Dung Beetle used every last ounce of strength to hurl a dung ball of rather "impressive" proportions! Ye Fengxing dodged it, but who would have thought the damn thing... would explode...
His current Movement Speed was only 6.5, nowhere near that of his old monster of a character. The blast did not splatter his face, but it did leave several colorful "decorations" on his clothes.
"Fuck you and your whole damn family!" Now he was thoroughly furious! Oddly enough, a faint smile appeared on his face... but his friends knew that whenever he wore this sort of "friendly" smile, a bloodbath was sure to follow!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions rang out one after another. These Mutant Dung Beetles had truly drawn the short straw, provoking a menace like him... at this rate, their kind would soon vanish from this patch of land, until the next swarm respawned.
One enormous beetle heaved a black ball overhead and crouched down. Its intentions could not have been more obvious.
Unfortunately, his spell was a step faster. Anticipating the throw, he began chanting early and fired a Magic Missile just as the dung ball left the beetle's grasp, successfully intercepting it!
A muted golden gleam suddenly flashed...
Ye Fengxing's pupils contracted. He immediately charged forward, dispatched the Mutant Dung Beetle in a few quick moves, and swept the golden gleam into his possession.
It was a skill book!
Mighty Throw (Level 1): Grab any nearby object you can lift and hurl it forcefully at the target, dealing 37-43 physical damage and restricting the target's movement based on the location struck. Instant cast. Throwing range: 30 meters. Cooldown: 8 seconds.
Oh, this skill was pretty good! His face lit up as he read its description.
Life without crowd-control skills was truly miserable... whatever else might be said, this was his first control skill, and with such a short cooldown, its practical value was very, very high.
Excited, Ye Fengxing found a target, cast a Magic Missile, then picked up a stone and threw it. But this was no casual toss. He used a named move from the art of hidden weapons-"Two Birds with One Stone."
The stone flew out and struck one of a Mutant Dung Beetle's legs with a crack, then ricocheted into another! The beetle shrieked and dropped motionless to the ground...
System notification: Your skill struck the current target's legs in succession, strengthening its movement-restricting effect to a root lasting 2 seconds.
Were two seconds a long time? No. Were two seconds a short time? Not really-at the very least, they were enough to cast a Magic Missile.
He leisurely chanted another Magic Missile. The white ball of magic slammed into the enormous beetle with a boom, stripping away another chunk of health.
-84, Magic Missile.
The root did not stop the slowing effect from taking effect as usual. Once the unfortunate beetle could move again, it began crawling slowly toward Ye Fengxing. Four seconds remained on the six-second slow, and despite all its crawling, it still failed to reach him.
Ye Fengxing cast two more Magic Missiles, then turned, picked up another stone, and hurled it again.
This time, Ye Fengxing really brought out his best. The stone traced a bizarre curve, bouncing repeatedly off the Mutant Dung Beetle's head and actually striking the eyes on both sides! With a screech, the beetle began scrambling aimlessly in place instead of charging toward him.
System notification: Your skill struck all of the current target's eyes simultaneously, inflicting blindness for 2 seconds.
Blindness was a nasty effect, and tremendously useful in PvP. A blinded player could no longer lock onto an attack or healing target, and could only fire off AoE skills at random, praying they hit an enemy or healed a teammate. Of course, that was hardly reliable... (AoE: Area of effect, a skill that takes effect within a specified area and can affect multiple targets.)
Huh, another effect? Looks like my guess was right.
Ye Fengxing nodded inwardly. This skill definitely had the potential to become god-tier!
Crowd-control skills were crucial in PvP! High damage was impressive, sure, but actually landing it was another matter. As mentioned earlier, a mage who relied on god-tier gear to one-shot everyone was only good for stomping weaklings. What if the opponent had equally amazing gear? What happened when they could not one-shot someone?
That was why the true essence of PvP lay in building precise control chains, effectively restricting an opponent's damage output while letting yourself deal damage comfortably!
"If a PvP player only chases powerful gear, he's already taken the inferior path." Hearing that from Lan Xi was a rare event indeed! Usually, it was hard to get two serious sentences out of him, but this particular statement... Ye Fengxing liked it very much.
The two often fought each other, and both had polished their combo techniques to perfection. Ye Fengxing could keep a tank warrior in full god-tier gear airborne with an infinite combo until he died, but that was not solely thanks to active crowd-control skills... however amazing he was, he could not learn extra hard-control skills. Other warriors knew all the skills he did, so why couldn't they pull off infinite aerial combos?
Basic attacks were extremely important! Every expert understood that.
It was through their varied basic attacks that Ye Fengxing and Lan Xi could rack up extremely high combo counts, keeping their opponents staggered for most of the fight and making retaliation difficult. Naturally, that made victory a sure thing.
Unless their opponent was also a top expert who knew how to break combos, an ordinary player facing freaks at their level could only get beaten to death.
Combos were not easy to pull off. Sometimes, striking even a fraction off target could break the chain. After all, basic attacks only had "a chance to stagger the target depending on the location and timing of the strike." Skills, however, were different...
It did not matter where they struck. As long as they hit you, their effects would trigger. Unless you activated certain special defensive skills, you had no choice but to take the crowd control.
Thus, the secret of combos was actually this: weaving active crowd-control skills and basic attacks together properly.
As for what counted as properly... well, that was a rather profound question, one only the masters of each class could answer.
In Ye Fengxing's experience, active crowd-control skills with short cooldowns were essential to achieving high-hit combos!
Mighty Throw, a seemingly unremarkable little level-one skill, actually had so many hidden control effects, and a cooldown of just eight seconds! Hmm... it had potential. The potential to become a god-tier skill!
Before you continue