There were only four 100-man teams to fight this Boss. This was not because Ruling Sword lacked members, but because the Altar could only hold so many people.
After all, this was still a virtual game. The varying attack ranges of the classes all had a limit as well. Furthermore, it was impossible to have 50,000 people all rushing the Boss at once due to unit collision. Lu Li couldn't even imagine a way of holding 50,000 people in this small Altar.
The Main Tank role was obviously delegated to Azure Sea Breeze. However, using the bear-form of a Druid to Tank the boss would be a much better option. Unfortunately, there were no strong Druids in Ruling Sword.
As a Druid in Dawn, the user needed to be accustomed to each transformation. There were vast differences between fighting on four legs and fighting on two legs. Moreover, good equipment for the bear-form of the Druid was also extremely rare.
Lu Li had a few backup Tanks beside him so that he could inflict large amounts of damage during phase two without worrying about aggro. Similar arrangements were also put in place when facing the Boss in the other phases.
Obviously, Lu Li would not reveal what would happen during phase two. He had only mentioned that these members were going to be backup Tanks, otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to explain his foresight.
Vile Priestess Hex didn't look too different to a normal Boss. She was wearing a mask similar to Zul'Farrak's Bad Mojo Mask on her face, and was wielding a rather ordinary-looking staff.
However, this was the Ivy Magic Staff, and could be dropped by the Vile Priestess Hex.
It was a healing-type Legendary weapon known for its special effect that could heal 50% of a target's HP instantly.
"****, this Boss has 3.7 million HP. This is definitely the tankiest Boss I've ever come across," Azure Sea Breeze cursed.
If he knew about the Ivy Magic Staff's properties, he would be rejoicing instead.
The level 50 mini Bosses that stood by Hex's side all had a minimum of three million HP each. Hex also had a multitude of skills at her disposal, as well as an army of reinforcements. Taking everything into consideration, he HP bar was the least of their worries.
This had already been proven to be true, as during phase one, the Boss had already unleashed her enormous strength.
The most important skill to be wary of in this stage of the battle was Hex. This skill was lethal because it could turn groups of players into frogs at the same time.
Was there anything else more terrifying than transforming a whole group of players into frogs?
Of course, this could be compared to the Mage skill that turned people into sheep. However, Hex was instantaneous, while Polymorph could be disrupted by simple physical contact.
Furthermore, if a player were transformed into a sheep, they would be able to regenerate HP.
As a frog under the Vile Priestess Hex's spell, the player wouldn't heal or be transformed back, even when under attack.
This was like a Bug in the game system!
If you didn't have a strategy to deal with Hex, the Vile Priestess became one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult Boss to fight in the level range of 50-60.
The first transformed group of players were thrown towards the West side of the dungeon.. However, one of the Hunters panicked and fired a Distracting Shot, which dragged the Boss' aggro away from the Main Tank.
For the sake of defeating the Boss, Lu Li needed to set down a ridiculous rule.
"DPS, control the aggro. Don't be too greedy when dealing damage. There are no DPS rewards for this Boss. If the top ten DPS members drag the aggro away from the Main Tank, their original scores will be greatly deducted."
It wasn't hard to understand the reason behind it either, as he knew that the top ten DPS players wouldn't make simple mistakes.
However, Lu Li was more afraid of other DPS players being tempted to show off their strength by inflicting as much damage as possible. If aggro was pulled into a group of DPS players, the whole strategy would be ruined.
Using Lu Li's strategy, several groups of Tanks surrounded the Boss from all directions. If a group was turned into frogs, Lu Li would indicate for another group of Tanks from another direction to take aggro.
As such, the Boss' focus would be on the Tanks, rather than the ranged DPS players.
Lu Li wasn't afraid of the potentially lazy and apathetic players either. Although he had mentioned that the top ten would not be rewarded, he had not mentioned that the last ten wouldn't be punished. Furthermore, the DPS rankings would be displayed on the Guild's posts for a period of time for everyone to see.
Lu Li would also participate in the role of DPS, but his position in the fight was different to the others. He usually stood with the Tanks who were responsible for attracting aggro.
This meant that Lu Li would stand behind the Boss at all times, so he would not be affected by Hex. A few of the more sharp-witted players decided to follow suit, upon realising what he was doing.
The highest DPS dealer was Lonesome Flower, while Lu Li could only place 7th. After all, he was a Melee class, and he needed to move frequently to avoid Hex.
He was also the only Melee class in the Top 10 DPS ranking as well.
Moreover, he was also the commander of the battle, so he needed to give instructions while fighting.
When Hex's overall HP neared 80%, she began to use an AOE effect spell which caused players to lose 10% HP every 2 seconds over a 20 second duration. If the affected players could not heal themselves in time, they would die.
This AOE attack was only used on the Altar, and people began to think whether they could all retreat to the level below.
However, to do this would result in a worse situation.
During this stage of the battle, if the players from the Altar retreated to lower levels, they would be recognised as fleeing from the battle. This would lay a curse on them, which would manifest an Infernal when Hex began to dance, and was similar to the Priest's ability to summon a Shadow Demon.
However, the Infernal would continue to chase the player until the player killed it. Furthermore, only the player would be able to damage the Infernal. If a healer was affected by this skill, they would be utterly helpless against it.
The healers without any offensive capabilities would be guaranteed death in this stage of the battle, and without healers, the whole squad would be annihilated.
Lu Li instantly stopped everyone from retreating down to the lower levels. After all, it was not an instantaneous skill. If the healers could accelerate their healing while everyone regenerated HP, this stage would be passable.
The curse would appear every time the Boss' HP was lowered by 20%, for a total of six times.