27. Ahead of Schedule

"Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress." — Alfred A. Montapert

After Corvus and finishing the Mirrorstone Keep dungeon, the DPS sheet was similar to the previous time, except Lazarus was not as far ahead.

While leaving, Paul felt nostalgic; Corvus was one of the most challenging base game dungeon bosses in undaunted mode. 

The way dungeon levels worked in Harbinger's Call was that players unlocked the ability to do the next dungeon every five levels until level 50. Once there, every dungeon got a hard mode that scaled the dungeon up to level 50. While inside the dungeon, you could activate undaunted difficulty, which significantly increased the health of enemies, the damage they did, and the frequency of mechanics.

With this increase in difficulty, everything became much more complex, and strict optimizations were required to clear; with that in mind, Corvus was a very annoying boss because he floated during the fight high enough above the ground that most abilities that did something to the ground did not damage him, something like Searing Expanse did not do anything to him. This makes killing him take longer since many classes' damage rotations included at least one of those kinds of abilities, not to mention that because he floated around, sometimes single-targeted ability targeting would encounter errors and simply miss for no reason.

He was not looking forward to running Corvus undaunted anytime soon.

While walking towards the next dungeon, they planned to challenge Off. Botton struck up a conversation with him.

"Is there a reason you use duel to wield a short sword and dagger? Most Templars I have seen use staves, and most melee DPS use a greatsword or two of the same one-handed weapons. Could I increase my DPS by swapping to duel wield?"

Paul briefly looked over at the woman at level 28, Nightwalker, before answering.

"Perhaps they both have pros and cons, for duel wield pairs well with Arcane Reaver, and duel wields passives are powerful down the line. Every weapon similarly has strong active and passive abilities; it all depends on what you use and how you use it. With that in mind, mathematically, without using any weapon skill line active abilities, duel wield has the highest DPS in the game."

"I see... if I can get dropped a pair of one-handed melee weapons in a set, I will try them."

Hearing that, Eagle's Light decided to chime in.

"That is true; however, two-handed weapons seem to have much better active skills from what I have heard; while not necessarily optimal DPS, it has a heal and a dash to close space, not to mention a spammable, which does good damage and stuns. On the other hand, duel wield essentially only has an AOE execute, which is also good but is only practical sometimes. At least in PvP, I think staying with a greatsword would probably be better."

Hearing her counterpoint, Paul stayed silent. She was not wrong, and he was not planning on getting into the details of why he chose the weapons he did or trying to convince someone else to follow his lead.

To the side, Claire was silent, preferring to be a listener, enjoying the conversation but not adding anything to it. 

From her point of view, Lazarus and Eagle's Light are both very knowledgeable and intelligent. She had spent a long time in the slaughterhouse reading up on active and passive abilities to gain a better understanding of the game. However, despite doing that, it was very difficult for her to judge how good an ability would be just by reading it. Sure, some seemed useless, but many seemed like they had the potential to be very strong; however, she could not tell which were truly strong and which were not. 

After some more small talk, they arrived before the third dungeon they would do, Faeleaf Crypt.

With what they had estimated, the group was ahead of schedule. Paul and Claire had farmed levels for 2 hours, and the first two dungeons took a little under 2 hours more with traveling, leaving slightly over 4 hours to complete the two dungeons, which were very close to each other.

After entering the dungeon, they were met by an elven man who appeared much more opulent than any other NPCs they had interacted with.

"Welcome, brave souls. You stand at the brink of a grave peril unknown to most. Dark energies stir within the Faeleaf Crypt, threatening to spill forth and corrupt the very essence of our realm. Will you heed the call to venture into the depths, face ancient guardians, and secure the Luminous Mantle before it falls into shadow? Your path is fraught with danger, but your courage could restore peace to our lands."

Claire was startled by hearing the man's introduction; the previous quest givers had not been very eloquent or professional. 

Seeing her face, Paul spoke to her quietly.

"He is an elder of a small group of elves living in this forest who believe in more traditional elven customs; as a more educated and older person, he has fancier dialogue."

On the other hand, Eagle's Light led the way.

"Sir Eldrin, we are happy to help you; please lead the way."

"Since you stand within the embrace of the Verdant Forest, the crypt lies not far from here. Journey northward, where the moss grows thickest, and the air fills with the scent of ancient pine. There, the land whispers secrets older than time, and you will find a clearing marked by a circle of stone sentinels."

As the five of them made their way through the forest, they were met by a few groups of tree monsters and monsters that were swiftly dealt with. Although level 20 enemies had noticeably more health and dealt more damage, their team was over-leveled and skillful.

It did not take long to reach the clearing with stone sentinels; this was the first real encounter of the dungeon.

"Alright, for this fight, the twelve stone sentinels are all mini-bosses that will awaken throughout the fight. We have to kill them all to clear, and the main problem is the DPS check; if we cannot kill them quickly enough, they will stack up until they become too much for the tank and healer. For us, it should not be difficult."

Hearing Eagle's Light explain the situation, everyone nodded, and Bob added his two cents.

"I can hold up to four sentinels; if it gets more than that, I cannot promise anything."

Paul decided not to say anything, knowing that nobody would agree to his strategy; having the four of them hide in a corner while the tank cited them until all 12 were on the field and then burning them down would definitely not be a popular strategy. 

"Alright, I will pull now."