Because balance is overrated.
10 Feb 2024 - XSYS Team
Heroes: Herringway (Arbiter), Rue (Wrathguard), Dragoshi (Decider), Misty (Arcanimist), with late join oakandlinden (Profaner)
This was an exciting one! I offered support from Aeris and her supporter class Wanderer in Red, but the heroes had their hands sufficiently full that nobody remembered to use her skills. That’s mostly because Nael was chucking out meteors fast enough that the heroes had their hands full just staying even, let alone wearing the boss down!
Once oakandlinden joined, the tide started to turn– Dragoshi helped oakandlinden learn the ropes of Profaner. Herringway finally got the system’s first F-Groove limit, and used it to polymerize Cirno and Mary Sue, creating the True Nineball (based on the Nineball Seraph from Armored Core) and swiftly dealing over two hundred damage, thanks to a cross-summon that left Lucina piloting it.
Still, even though the heroes were keeping up the damage, it quickly became a DPS race– they focused the meteors down, but Nael was spitting out serious damage with each turn. Rue properly handled each Zimmerlink by eating it before it could go off on the entire team, but got the first Down of the system, knocked out by protecting their allies. That put so much pressure on the hero team that Herringway got another F-Groove limit! Since the heroes hadn’t used any of Aeris’s support during the early phase, I let her cut in here with a Cura… right as the match went into Overtime.
Nael specifically had a gimmick: after Overtime, she’d go into “enrage,” using a limit each turn. But her limit started with a 15-tick delay before it would land, and the heroes went all-in on racing her to the finish– Misty, the healer, landed the kill with an Arcane Needle!
I’m really happy with how this went: the fight finished much earlier in the evening, it felt intense the whole way through, and the heroes were able to dramatically turn the tables against a powerful foe with smart play. That’s everything I could ask for, really! And this is the smallest list of fixes I’ve had after a fight yet– just a few little tuning details and rough edges to polish.
I awarded 250 pyroxene, 250 tomestones, and 1000 nuyen for the victory. See you later this month for Disc 3!