*The debuff we just got could be a problem,* Garath projected, but thought of a solution just as he communicated the problem. Just like a Raid boss he’d fought online dozens of times, each member of the Raid Group would have to break line of sight with the Thunderbird at regular intervals to let the debuff time elapse before rejoining the fight. *At five stacks we die. When you get up to three stacks, hide behind one of the ribs and wait for the debuff to lapse. We won’t be able to pump out as much damage like this, so whenever it’s safe for you to attack, make it count.*
Athios continued to redirect as much of the forking lightning as she could away from the others, but released the lightning into the cave walls instead of back at the boss after that first one. Try though they might, Auto, Obawon, Atlas, and Athios couldn’t stop, absorb, or redirect every bolt of lightning pouring down from above, and the static net between them passed through nearly everything in the gallery. Every member of the Raid was occasionally hit with a stray bolt, keeping Maimon and Sharon busy as they tried desperately to refill the Healthbars of their Party.
Within a minute, Garath and Handsome were both running low on Mana from the Creeping Death spamming. The cost got prohibitively expensive from subsequent casts, but it was easily the best option the Necrologist had for single target damage. Garath smiled to himself at the numbers displayed in rolling text on his combat log. With the whole Raid Group’s numbers scrolling by and a pissed off Thunderbird hurling lightning everywhere, he didn’t have the time to fully appreciate the amount of damage they were doing, but it gave him a decent snapshot.
Within that same minute though, Garath had acquired three stacks of Static charge. A glance told him that Athios, Obawon, and Daisy had too. Even Handsome, Bill and the Dreadreaver had three or four stacks of the debuff, so Garath dismissed Handsome and Bill with a thought. He left the Dreadreaver to its fate, not wanting to spare the one-second cast time it would take to dismiss the Golem.
*Athios, can you ally transfer us to the other side of one of those pillars?*
Athios nodded then pulled Daisy close to her body and beckoned to Garath and Obawon to get within range. As soon as they were close enough, Athios did her thing and a second later the three of them were behind a pillar. Bolts of lightning and an occasional static field hit the rib, but didn’t pass through. They each swallowed a gulp from their Health and Mana Potions while they waited for the debuff to elapse.
“When you’re clear, portal yourself over to the others then bring them here. Just keep that up. If you see someone with too many stacks, get them out of there,” Garath told Athios. “I’ll keep an eye on Daisy for you.”
Garath pulled Bill back into existence and was relieved to see that his previous dismissal had freed the Cambionic Fel Hound of his three stacks. He issued Bill a mental command to hover near the little Elementalist and take the proverbial bullet for her whenever possible.
“This isn’t working, Garath. We’re burning through the healer’s Mana too fast and we aren’t doing enough damage,” Athios told him.
With only two seconds until they could get back in the fight, Garath looked at Maimon and Sharon’s Mana bars, then nodded. “You’re right. Go get the others and bring them here. I’ll come up with something.”
Garath and Daisy followed Obawon back within the Thunderbird’s line of sight and got to work. Athios was right—the Thunderbird’s HP was only down by about 10%. But it was running low on Mana too—only about 30% remained. Regardless, the Party wouldn’t do enough damage at this rate to kill the thing before the healers ran out of Mana and were no longer able to keep everyone alive. Garath saw Athios appear out of a silver disk next to the healers, Auto, and Atlas before they all did a group hug and disappeared out of sight. He needed to get the melee fighters in on the action, causing damage to the bird instead of just getting hit. With Auto, Obawon, Atlas, along with Bug Eyes and Bill all bringing the pain, they may have a chance. The problem was getting the melee fighters in range without them getting fried.
*You need to ground the source,* came Alice’s dull tones over the Raid communication channel.
Garath thought about that. Yes. That’s exactly what they needed to do. And they had the perfect person to make it happen in Athios. Garath cast a Felfire Bolt as he relayed the plan to his Raid Group and, when Auto’s group was free of the Static Charge debuff, it went into action.
The Party carried out preparations in short order. Garath willed Handsome back into existence and summoned a new Dreadreaver to replace the one that had died upon reaching five stacks of Static Charge. Auto shifted forms into a terrifying combination of a Puma and a Grizzly Bear to increase his damage output capacity. Athios placed two dimensional enhancements around the Raid Group. The first increased their attack and casting speed by 10% and the second increased the base damage of the group’s Skills and Abilities by 10%. Obawon granted the Raid Group a blessing called Divine Right, adding 50 Holy damage to each attack for the next 30 seconds. Garath paid the Health and Mana necessary to activate Boiling Blood and pooled Mana into unleashing his swarm of Hellflies. Preparation done, Garath gave Athios the go-ahead.
She sent a silver disk to appear below the Thunderbird, and it fell through. A second later, another disk appeared right in front of a waiting Auto, and the bird
