[F22-PP] Floor 23 Boss Meeting

[Itzal 0]

Itzal could tell Shield was just being super cautious around Jonathan and..  To be honest Itzal couldn't blame him.  Jonathan had been rather off lately, and even spoke in a rather harsh way about others.  Seeming to only care about...  He shook the thoughts from his head.  Regardless of it, Jonathan was family and he intended to help his friend through this.  For now though, it was a time to discuss the boss.  And get one step closer out of this game.  Suddenly he heard Jenna's voice and turned around to see her.  He smiled, glad to see her again.  He knew the front lines were dangerous, but he also knew that she was strong and enduring.  He walked beside her and whispered to her,  "If you or I are at risk of dying, we teleport out via teleport crystals.  I don't want either of us getting out of here without the other.  Are you cool with that?"  He always brought teleport crystals and tried to get as many buffs as he could in each boss raid, and he would be encouraging her to do the same.  When Hik stepped inside and made his usual dreary comment, Itzal replied with:  "Hope gets us through to the end.  That and a smile on your face.  That's what I've learned that is,"  he said.  He nodded when Shield mentioned waiting for the others.  "I agree.  Who else did you invite by chance?"  Hestia mentioned how she invited pinball and Domarus.  Pinball he believed he had heard about but Domarus he knew he met a few times.  "Domarus reached the frontlines?  That makes another two handed weapon user on our side, meaning more damage.  Sweet."  When he said that, both Stryder and Domarus had stepped into the meeting room, both introducing themselves, though Domarus making himself more known than Stryder.  Itzal nodded to them both.  "Nice to have you again Stryder!  And glad to see you made it here Domarus.  Hopefully this battle goes well for all of us.  Bialas was a challenge in my opinion, especially since one or two players almost died...  As usual I always recommend everyone have a teleport crystal handy, and use as many buffs on yourself as you can."

[Macradon 0]

 

Macradon would smile and go out for a hand shake towards @Hikoru. “Been a while since out last questing session, let’s see if we can find some free time after the raid?” he would ask with a smile before answering his question “Aye, Hirru is on his way to the meeting as we speak.”. Listening to the conversation, Macradon would nod towards @Hestia “Aye, KoB will stand with Hirru and I as per usual.” he would comment. Even though the KoB has had its time before, now was not the case. Only a small handful of players were left, if you could even call it that. Only Hirru and Macradon were active in the guild with Mack and Heathcliff nearly never showing up anymore. Listening to the comment Hikoru made regarding the Tracking mod, Macradon would have to interrupt “I’m sorry to say, but it seems like a hotfix changed this. You cannot track a monster that you haven’t already defeated before, making Tracking futile against floor bosses at the current moment.” he said, being one of the few Tracking users on the frontlines. People were arriving, slowly, but steady, which was nice. Having a good representation from each frontlining guild as well as solo players would be nice for clearing floors with as many strong inputs as possible. “@Baldur, great to see you!” he said as the Gaijin Samurai arrived at the meeting location.

[Hirru 0]

"Indeed, we will be."

A familiar voice could be heard as the door was caught slightly ajar before Baldur could close it fully.  With another grunt, the door was open to the crimson cloak and jade hair that signified that the Jade Hunter was in the building.  It wouldn't be apparent at first, but the hunter was heavily exhausted.  His eyes showed weariness that would attest to days of unrest, and unease.  To what effect that would cause for any that could figure it out, that would be on them to decide. 

"I'm glad to see that I'm not late, or else we would be seated and heavily in discussion."

The hunter glided across the meeting room giving short nods and smiles to everyone that he knew.  There were some that he had not seen, but lately the players have been growing up.  Finally reaching the top of the line.  It would be inevitable to start seeing more than three parties in raids soon.  The complications from that...  He stopped next to his vanguard captain and smiled weakly.

"Thanks for giving me heads up, Mac.  I almost didn't see Shield's invite."

Edited May 20, 2018 by Hirru

[Pinball 1]

Pinball sprinted across the floor, spear in hand, a long, drawn out whine as he pushed past bushes and trees alike. Jesus Christ, I'm so late, he despaired, tripping over an especially gnarly tree root. Pinball slowed to a jog, and then a walk, as he noticed what he believed to be the meeting place. He cautiously made his way up to the door, swiping open his menu and double-checking the message Hestia had sent to him. They're meeting today, right? And this is the place? Pinball's worst fear was that he'd either be greeted by a locked door, walk into an empty room, or, worse yet; that he'd walk into a room of people not filled with frontliners. Pinball grit his teeth, looking side to side to try and see if he'd notice anybody making their way in this direction, but saw nobody. He paced back and forth for a moment, before finally he gathered up enough courage to grip the doorhandle. He could hear his pounding heartbeat as he forced himself to open the door. 

Pinball peeked inside first, his eyes darting from corner to corner, searching restlessly for a familiar face. He spotted a couple, and was immediately relieved. He stepped inside, glancing over to count up the people he recognized. Hikoru, Shield, Hestia, Stryder, Baldur... Pinball pulled his spear close to his chest so he wouldn't knock anything over, hugging the walls of the room. "Hello," he said softly, gravitating to the side of the room his guildmates occupied. 

[Shield 0]

The room was filling quite nicely, with many veterans now joining in as well as a few floor boss rookies. It was both worrisome and encouraging at the same time to see the new faces. The front lines needed motivated players, but at the same time, there were always risks, and experience was one way to help balance them.

There are a lot of X factors on the field... Let's see how this plays out.

Beat had not yet joined them, nor had Teion and some prominent members of other guilds, but there was much to discuss. Shield stood and raised his hand to request that the conversations wind down. He waited until those gathered had noticed before speaking.

"I realize that not everyone is here yet," he began, gesturing towards the still open chairs so that whoever had not yet found one could do so if they desired. "However, there is much to discuss, perhaps more than usual, so I feel we should call the meeting to order." He opened his prepared document and his dark eyes lowered to the display window to skim its contents as he spoke.

"The aesthetics of the boss room, though potentially inconsequential, are striking for a number of reasons. It's typical for boss rooms to be dark and silent before entering, but even the outside door itself is so ominously dark that the torches around it did not illuminate the surface. Furthermore, the silence we heard was preceded first by unintelligible whispering that ceased as we drew near, and it seemed that there were multiple whisperers. It is also worth noting that the field bosses seemed to be some manner of official guard and made mention of a council, the idea of which was supported by the round table inside of the boss room itself. There were five chairs, and on the table five objects which I will get to in a moment. Also within the room was a garish, crowned skeleton of some queenly figure, accompanied by a carven message in the stone wall behind her, 'Long Live the Queen.' I think most of you will agree, this is already an intimidating set of circumstances." His tone was steady as he relayed the details of the boss room, but there was a weight to his words. Many players present had been in many boss fights. He did not want them dismissing this fight as old hat. "It is unclear if 'the Queen' sat in one of those seats, but given her separation from the table and that she was chained to the wall, it seems more likely that the council overthrew her.

"Now. To the items," he continued, scrolling down on his notes. "There were three rolls of parchment, a pair of dice, a glowing shield trinket, a handful of potions, and a crystal ball." He paused to let the others process the new information before proceeding.

"Five types of items, five seats. If I had to make guesses, the council is likely meant to parallel raid parties and their different roles," he continued. "The shield trinket likely belongs to a tank, which may either intercept hits or punish players who attack other targets. I would assume the potions likely belong to a healer. The dice weilder likely has a wide array of either attacks or battlefield effects. The scrolls likely belongs to some wizardly being, which could mean anything from high damage to battlefield control to status effect dealing, or perhaps a different scroll for each."

Again, Shield paused to allow the information to set in before finishing his thoughts on what they had seen. "The crystal ball... I must admit I am at a loss over. Predicting the future seems impossible in such a setting, though I suppose it is possible for Cardinal to read attacks and actions in real time and then cancel them as a trigger. A cancel caster could be devastating in crucial moments, but that's pure speculation.

"Finally, there is the matter of the number of opponents," he said, his tone indicating that he was nearly finished and would be opening the floor to discussion shortly. "It's unclear if the Queen will be involved in the fight at all, and even if she's not, there's no saying for sure if we would face targets individually or all at once. However... seeing as councils are not councils without being gathered together at the same time, I would suspect that we will be fighting at least five targets at once, if not a sixth. That exceeds the cap of AoE sword art targets, not even considering the possibility that attacking the others while the tank still stands could carry real consequences. We may be forced to whittle the council down individually while still taking fire from multiple targets. No matter what, this will not be a typical fight." He sighed, reducing the size of his notes to bring his attention back to the assembly. "If you have thoughts on what we may be facing, please share them. We can decide how to arrange parties and prepare resources once we have our guesses on the table." With that, he sat, relinquishing the floor and becoming just another member of the gathering.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Shield

[Zandra 0]

Zandra was sitting in a couch in one of the rooms in the estate. She sighed. "I guess I should be going now. It wont be good if I miss this meeting since there probably wont be anyone to rely the inform the information to me." she rose gave her girlfriend a kiss before leaving the huge building to head to the guild hall where the meeting would be held. To not need to use the teleportation plaza felt good. After ten minutes of walk she stood infront on a building that was half tree, half house. She let out a giggle. "Hehe, its smaller then my and Avilons house."
Aftee that she wemt up tye stairs and inside the bulding. There she unequipped her armor and changed to casual clothes. Black t-shirt, a red skirt and a red hood with a scarf attached to it. I entered the room just in time. Shield had just started to tell everyone about tye boss room and Zandra listened from the back of the room.

[Morgenstern 1]

The meeting seemed to begin as enough players seemed to arrive at the meeting. There were three new faces  that he counted that he hadn't seen before. Shield gave what he saw and gave time for players to interpret was he was possbily meaning. "Five bosses. I don't believe this is something we have ever seen out of a floor boss. If they are going to mirror players roles, then we are going to see a tank, DPS, Healer, and Status inflicter and possibly even a stealth type build. What I am thinking for the Tank, is it is going to force us to attack it instead of the others through some method, or it will increase the mitigation of the other bosses. From what I think, it is going to most likely take option two. This leads me to believe that the bosses are just one well oiled machine working together to increase effectiveness. Meaning, if we could focus on just one at a time we could seriously begin to break them down" 

He would think to the last boss for a second before mentioning something else. "We also need to make sure we are bringing spare weapons to boss fights. It seems to me that the bosses are beginning to stop status effects, or use status effects to our advantage. It might be good to just start carrying normal damage weapons, even if you have a damage familiar" 

[Jomei 0]

The Irishman stood up from his couch with a heavy sigh, the floating message box still open in front of him. "Another boss meeting? Already?" The man turned to look back down at the blonde he was sitting next to, a sad smile on his face. "Guess I'm going to go check it out and see what this next boss fight is going to be like.. I can fill you in when I get back if you feel like going with me or not." He leaned back down over her, planting a kiss on her forehead, before retreating to their bedroom to change into his Duelist's coat. "I shouldn't be long." Jomei said with a smile to his fiance, Telrenya, before summoning Adere to his shoulder and heading out the door.

The meeting was being held on Floor 22, where the prior boss fight had been held. The man had yet to explore the floor that awaited above, but that was merely because of everything that had been on Jomei's mind with the wedding lately. He even considered skipping out on this fight.. but know from last time that they could use his damage output. The man finally arrived at a large cabin-like building that served as the Celestial Ascendant's base of operations, and today's meeting place. Jomei stepped inside of the door just as Shield was going over what they found in the boss room. The ginger simply found a free spot on the wall next to the door and listened silently. 

Once Shield had finished his speech, the Irishman took a few steps forward towards the table to join the meeting. "Sounds like you're right about the number of opponents we would be fighting. A council of five, probably not six if you were counting the skeletal remains of 'the queen.' Probably just a placeholder to intimidate the players. I don't have too much else to say from what you already mentioned, aside from that we need to be incredibly cautious with this fight. Despite the number we may be fighting going one over the AoE amount for certain Sword Arts, area attacks will be key for taking down this 'council.' So we could use as many of those as we got. We also need to make sure our tanks are fully equipped with extra mitigation and Overhealth, especially if they will be taking attacks from five enemies at a time. Another thing we should take into account, the possibility of one or more of these council members being able to bypass the tanks and attack other players."

[Hestia 0]

I look between Shield and the other players and nods my head as i listen to what they say as i try to think of something meaningful to add to the conversation as i look towards Morg. Well if there is a tank i would think it would be more so focused on trying to get us to attack it in some manner rather then somehow buffing its allies with mitigations. That seems like such a thing would be more befitting of a support type of play build if anything really. If we're thinking in terms of support i think the items we should look out for then is the ones with the potions. Potions could be linked with something like crafting, so it is entirely possible such a boss could be giving buffs in that manner. With such buffs out on the field it could also be providing overhealth or even something like increased damage or mitigations or even unique buffs if it so deems to try and do against us. I say as i think on the other items that have been layed out supposedly on the council's table. When it comes to the crystal ball that thing is still something that is weird for all i know if we're going with the idea it could predict movements maybe it could do something equivalent to Parry's or allow for multiple or chain attacks somehow like using multiple abilities at once against a singular player? I say as i rub the back of my head trying to rack my brain around the others. The shield trinket is obviously a tank, then their is the dice and pieces of paper.  The dice could mean a rogue like build something akin to Hikoru possibly, and then the pieces of paper could be the DPS somehow by having varying abilities that could do attacks that bypass our mitigations. I say trying to fit a roll to each of the items as i look around.

If we're going for a strategy though. I think we're all of the like mind of focus one and then move onto the next. The question is then important to ask. Who are we targeting first based on the information we have now? Obviously we will need to switch tactics of who we are targeting as we're facing the actual five bosses depending if we assumed incorrectly. I say towards the gathered players.

[Baldur 0]

Baldur listened to everyone begin to speak about their ideas on how the boss would work, and several of them had very good ideas that began to licit sparks of memory in the aged Samurai's past. Once it seemed everyone had finished speaking, he stepped forward from where he had been leaning on the wall so that he could address everyone gathered there,

"I think you've all raised good points, and I think there are a couple distinct possibilities we need to consider. The most likely one, I think is what we had all expected - that there are 5 council members, each with a distinct function in a group battle. That works one of two ways.

The first and most likely is that they buff each other. Each council member gives the others an ability. For example as Hestia raised, the potions or support council member, could heal the others, or give bonus effects to the others as long as they are alive. The Shield council member could be a tank, but they could also function to buff the mitigation of all of the other bosses. I think the more likely of the conditions is that they buff each other, rather than fulfilling roles. Forcing players to target a specific target generally doesn't work. It removes agency, and we don't operate by a threat mechanic, so it tends to not work well. However, by having each of the councilmembers buff the others, it incentives us to prioritize. "

He paused for a moment, since he had just spouted out a lot of confusing jargon.

"To summarize, I think we have 3 possible scenarios."

He held up a finger for each.

"One: There are 5 bosses. Each having a role in a party, just like us.

Two: There are 5 bosses, each buffing all of the others in the party. As we eliminate them, we remove that 'bonus' from the others.

Third: That giant skeleton is the boss, and the 5 councilmen are buffing it."

He let his hand fall to the side.

"Regardless, we need to plan for all three scenarios. Everyone needs to make sure that they have a spare safeguard potion, and a teleport crystal on hand. If things get back, you activate the teleport crystal and the potion and you should be able to get out okay. Everyone should also pick up some evasion food. It should be cheap to get some rare quality plus 2 evasion food. If there are multiple attackers, or lots of AoE attacks, Evasion is going to be your friend more than mitigation, tanks excluded. Also, if you plan to AoE, you should pick up accuracy food."

Again he paused for a moment to separate his thoughts.

"The final and most important thing is going to be to have a shot caller. This person's sole and most important role will be to designate targets for all of the raid parties. Either to get everyone to attack the same target, or to disperse parties to attack seperate ones. It is imperative everyone follow the shot caller. That's the only way you're gonna manage the chaos of a complex scenario like this. The information that we learn during the boss fight will change, and the raid as a whole needs to be able to respond in a timely manner. So if the shot caller learns some new information, and tells our party to change targets, even though its almost dead, we need to change targets."

He surveyed the room, trying to gauge if he had everyone's attention or not.

"As risky as it may sound, the best way to tank this beast may be to stack a party or two. Designated high risk and low risk parties. Draw the bosses to the high risk parties, where we have the tougher players, and the focus of the tanks and the healers, and then the lower risk parties, that wouldn't pull aggro and just focus on assault, to not draw the attention of the bosses. That way we can focus healing where it's needed, and avoid damage against those who can't take it as well."

[Beat 0]

Beat stepped out of the shower of the guild hall and smiled as he heard the commotion of people entering for the boss meeting. He felt no need to hasten his preparations as he opened his menu and donned his typical gear. Horus, the hayabusa falcon and Beat's familiar, clicked his beak impatiently as he quickly flew to his preferred perch which also happened to be the young player's left shoulder. Horus continued his pestering as Beat continued to procrastinate. 

"Alright, I'm going. You know I'm always late for these things." Beat said with a chuckle as he made his way to the meeting room. He had never been one to participate much in these meetings and he found the process to be somewhat unnecessary. Other than planning party assignments, it was rare that anything of note came of these meetings. Speculation about the boss was all well and good, but many people rarely bothered to prepare sufficiently, clearly making light of a life or death situation. 

Their lives are their own to lose I suppose....

He pushed the meeting door open and slipped in, Horus peering around the around, resting his gaze catching sight on @Calrex's own falcon familiar. Beat either failed to notice or paid it no mind as he took the closest available seat next to @Shield giving him a casual salute before nodding to the room as a whole, "Sorry for being late. Cleanliness before timeliness."

Edited May 21, 2018 by Beat

[Ruby 0]

Ruby moaned and groaned as she had tossed and turned in her bed, she had been mostly been lazy nowadays, especially after nearly dying in the last boss. She had felt like she had deserved to be a little lazy, however today she didn't expect the meeting to happen so soon. Opening her eyes after waking up, she had got a little worried and immediately got out of bed "Ah sh*t. I am late... although its a bit sudden, I really need to stop sleeping in this late..." she had thought to herself as she had equipped her clothing and getting her together and presentable. After a moment she had called for her familiar and she was out to the location in question, even though she was going to arrive late. It took her a while to find exactly where she was going however she got on track and found herself to the location opening the doors exclaiming out "Sorry I am fashionably late... you should give warning before meetings happen..."

[Stryder 0]

Sky couldn't help but let a bit of sweat drip off his face as a slight panic slowly set in. This floor boss, his FIRST floor boss, was already turning out to be PURE hell. There was goign to be FIVE DIFFERENT BOSSES! That was ridiculous... He knew this was not goign to be easy, but now, he was thinking this was going to be near impossible. He listened to each of them, though primarily payed attention to what Baulder said as he shortened there options into three lines. He didn't like them, though he understood them. 

In any game, bosses were always hard opponents. Until you knew the game, and its patterns in and out, it was a uphill struggle. He knew this, and he knew that with this game, he didn't have the chance to learn through trial and error... He had to do his best to learn quickly, in his first battle, otherwise, he was done. And he was NOT about to leave his guild behind... He had no real ideas about anyway to help at this point, instead choosing to look around, seeing anyone who he could maybe get a safeguard crystal off. He needed two of them it seemed.

Turning to Pinball and Hydra, he asked "Seems this is going to be harder than i thought..."

 

[Hikoru 0]

Hikoru listened quietly, jotting down notes and hearing many people talking about his build. He waited for a few moments and thought about the dice. Could that really mean something like his build? It didn't add up to him. Dice meant luck yes, luck of the dice, that was always a saying that he said when he played online games. But to mean stealth, or crits of some sorts, it didn't seem true... He thought for a moment and scratched his chin.

"I don't think the dice are what we think they are.." he said aloud, then looked up. "What if it means multiple, different abilities? or scenarios?" He said. "Like at the start of a full round, they roll the dice. Whatever it lands on is what ability comes into play, or what room effect happens? It's a long shot, but maybe this could be the first time we've ever come across a luck-based boss.." He looked around. "I don't think the dice are anywhere related to crits, or stealth. While yes the shield and such could mean tank, that could also mean many things, like this boss can give safeguards. They could be for classes, or for certain abilities each has." He thought, scribbling down more and more notes with the more ideas

"Also, about the queen... It's not out of the realm of possibility that we could be fighting it." He said. "It could be one of those 'scenarios' I mentioned earlier, that it comes to life and we have to fight her." He scratched his chin again. "But from the past bosses we've fought. None of them have really seemed 'undead' So maybe it's not going to fight, it could also be for cosmetics, to set the tone of the fight..." He chuckled. "Or it could be the boss that kills someone again, like Rohk..." He said under his breath. He looked around. "Any more thoughts?"

[Shield 0]

Shield paid little mind to Beat, focusing rather on the substance of the discussion. Beat knew him well enough by now to know how he would feel about his attitude on the meeting, so him saying anything would only derail things. His eyes followed the speakers, and he nodded, leaning forward on his elbows with his mouth resting on his hands. There were a lot of things to go over, and the discussion was already divided on opinions, which was not surprising. A lot of people tended to bring a lot of different perspectives to the table. However, there was one thing that he definitely agreed with so far. "I think Baldur is on the right track," he began, inclining his head slightly towards him. "Whatever we think the most likely situations are, we prepare as best we can for all of them at once. I have my suggestions for how to arrange parties based off of that principle, but there's probably still a lot to discuss before we get there. In general though, just because there are so many possible sources of status effects, in addition to a piece of backup equipment and a TP crystal, everyone needs to have Antidotes at the ready. If people are short on inventory slots, I will remind them that merchants do sell Dimensional Backpacks to give you a sixth slot."

Leaning back in his chair, he took a deep breath. "In any case, there is another option, though I do not know how likely it might be. It is possible that The Council are not treated as separate entities; each round, one of the members could either be proc'ed by player actions or else trigger randomly, perhaps by way of the dice weirder. In that scenario, it is very much possible that we will fight all 'six' at once, where The Queen is actively fighting as a main boss and the The Council serves as a single support. Whichever situation we think is the case, it will dramatically change the roles and how they function." He ran his fingernails through his stubble, trying to figure out if there was some sort of clue that might indicate whether any of their theories held more water than the others. Unfortunately, the only option he had was to meta-game.

"I suppose we just have to weigh possibilities of which trend we think is most likely to be violated," he said. He extended a finger, beginning to count the possibilities aloud. "There is the trend of exceeding target limits. We have already seen this violated even as recently as the Freylise fight. If we want to use that as a precedent, Freylise's crows were only minions. It is very much possible that a similar relationship exists, where Queen is main and Council are adds with low HP and weaker attacks." He held up another finger. "There is the tendency of number of actions, where generally there are only one or two main things that seem to be happening at once. I think it unlikely that this principle will be violated. Even Bialas, who was one of the most complex bosses to date as far as I know, only had battlefield effects and then attacks, so I think it most likely that their actions will be limited." He put up a third and final finger. "Then there is the tendency of a single entity counting as a single target. If the council were to act as one, with a single action among all of them and a single hit point pool, then that would violate the trend. There isn't a precedent for this being violated in prior fights to my knowledge, so likely the only way to gauge this is how likely we think the others are to be violated."

He put his fingers down and looked around at those gathered. "The way I see it, one of those is going to be violated regardless. With five council members, we can't have all three maintained. So which do we think is most likely?"

Edited May 22, 2018 by Shield

[Calrex 0]

The bluenette as the discussion began, giving a nod to those he acknowledged from previous gatherings, as well as his mentor Baldur as the Western samurai made his appearance.

" While multiple bosses are certainly something uncommon, it's not unusual to have mid or field level enemies appear aside from mobs in the past. Plus there was the Spartan battle in the past which actually gave us a massive battle that required special fight-only buffs. However, everything that's been said and accounted for so far seems sound."

With that Calrex remained silent, open and observant. For the most part the people here were taking this upcoming fight with some sense of seriousness. It seemed Bialas might have been more than enough of an eye-opener to those that may have become a bit complacent. The boss fights were changing, and in order to survive their strategies needed to evolve as well.

[Hydra 0]

Hydra remained silent, trying to process all the information that was been given out. "So this is how they work." The spearman mumbled to himself, staying close to one of the walls, tapping his foot anxiously against the ground. Much like Stryder he felt very unsettled, they would potentially be facing a whole council, as opposed to just a single target. Though Hydra hadn't been on the frontlines before, it seemed this scenario was a little different to the previous ones. Truth be told by from what they were saying, it reminded him of Dungeons and Dragons. Different classes, items, a potential end boss. When one of the players bought up the concept of luck he couldn't help but find himself swayed by what they were saying a little. It all just seemed to tie together. Still it would be better if you stay quiet. These players are professionals, follow there guidance and don't distract from the discussion. The thought stung but Hydra was trying to be honest with himself. The spearman found himself briefly gazing at his guildmates, wondering how they felt. "Whatever you decide to do, I support your decision." He said quietly to Stryder. 

[Hestia 0]

I nod my head towards Shield as i glance around the room seeing some sticking close to the table while others are just observing from the back. I give a smile towards my guild leader, and fellow healer Ruby as they enter the room and a small wave before i focus back on the meeting since that is the most important thing. In my opinion i believe multiple targets is what we might face the most likely of when it comes to this fight. From what we have been able to observe that might be the case. The only thing i could say in regards to the queen coming back alive is if that crystal ball user could somehow ressurect the dead, or if the floor's comparison to the underdark might have lots of lore of necromancy if the source material has that as a common thing for it. I say with a glance towards @Shield when mentioning the underdark comparison of the floor. Remembering he made that initial claim when we had went out exploring the floor for the boss room, and thus might have the knowledge to make a go to catch for a yes or no that idea. I then glance back towards the rest. So personally i stand with the idea of mainly five with a potential sixth opponent stepping in with the five being the main opponent with the sixth queen corpse potentially being a bit weaker then the council. Though if each council does provide a buff and fulfill a role within the fight who do we target first i will ask? Damage, defense, healing, buffs/debuffs, or the luck based boss if the dice is meant to represent just probabilities for something to happen based on chance. I don't think we could go for all unless a user is primarily focused in AOE, so choosing a enemy to target might be beneficial by just choosing a role/buff. That way we can try to play it by ear when we get to see this council. I say stating my piece as i look around the room to see what people will say.

[Baldur 0]

Baldur nodded as more good suggestions began to come in from the players gathered in the room. He was proud to see how the front line had transformed in his absence. They had once been a bickering, jockeying-for-position mess, but they seemed to finally be coming together to acknowledge the threat that these bosses represented, not just to them, but to everyone that resided in the tower. They really only had one shot at this. They could retreat and regroup, but most people chose to gamble their lives instead of take a tactical retreat. For some reason people would rather die, than be known as the first to run.

"It sounds like we're on a consensus about our options."

He looked around at the faces which had gathered for the meeting.

"Our strategy should revolve around which outcome we encounter. To that end, I think Calrex should be the shot caller for the raid, for several reasons. First: He has more experience in boss fights than anyone in this room. Second: He has the highest survivability, while also having the most adaptability. He more than anyone else can maintain threat, and still fill in whatever role needs to be filled. Tank, single, or AoE damage. That would make him and his group, the best at adjusting to whatever is thrown at us. Since he has both Howl and Focused how, he could pull in a single, or group of targets to manage whatever is thrown at us."

"Another key factor in regard to strategy would be load out. I highly recommend everyone come to the fight fully loaded for buffs, but if that isn't possible, please ask for help. At a minimum, you should have a spare safeguard and teleport crystal to use in concert if you need to retreat. Next would be to include an antidote of the highest quality, or multiple rare quality if you can afford it. As this is likely to be a multi-target or AoE heavy fight, I would recommend evasion for any non-tank out there next. Mitigation as well if you can afford it. Accuracy,  and damage last, as if you're new, you should prioritize staying alive and getting experience. Anyone who has the ability to, should seek out an alchemist and purchase AoE healing crystals. These won't take any time to use, but when used between multiple members of a party, can save your entire group, or one person without sacrificing efficiency.

To reiterate, after you have finished buffing yourself for the raid, you should have in your inventory (1) Safeguard, (1) Teleport Crystal, and as many AoE Healing Crystals as possible. After that, whatever best suits your build, or whatever buffs or debuffs we can fit into your kit."

He looked over to Itzal and and Hestia, nodding to the musicians. At least, I think Itzal was a musician. Hopefully I'm not mis-remembering or going off of old info. Those debuff songs could be very useful.

"When it comes to scenarios to fight the boss, we're going to have to prepare for all of them.

The most likely scenario is Five Targets, who in some way or another buff one another. Unfortunately, we can't even know if that difference will be immediately obvious, or if it's something we'll have to discover. To that end, we will have to leave it up to the shot caller to determine if we need to all attack the same target, or different targets at first strike. THe benefit to attacking all of them, would be to discover their identities as quickly as possible. If they're obvious and known, than we could benefit from a strong alpha strike against one target, but since their abilities are a mystery, I doubt this option is best for the first round.

The second scenario of them all being a different role within a 'boss party' unfortunately has the same benefit and risk as the previous example, and therefore will have to follow the shot caller directions.

The third scenario, that the skeleton of the old queen comes alive and the council buffs her, would follow a slightly different path. One team, the lowest damage team, would tank skeleton, while the other teams assault the adds one at a time until we all gang up on the Queen. However, this all depends on the strength of the buff or bonus that they give the queen or each other.

If the shield Council member gives them all bonus MIT, then it might behoove us to kill him first, since it will make killing the others go faster. However, if their DPS is so high that we can't last, we may kill that one first in order to give us time to finish off the others. There are too many variables without seeing which one is right.

However, player preparation should not change much. All that remains is to see how many people are planning to show up to the fight, and to assign teams."

[Hestia 0]

I nod my head towards @Baldur and also for @Shield as the two seem to be the more tactical of the people present, or at the very least the more vocal and having the most ability to state possibilities to prepare for the worst in these scenarios of a boss fight. I then glance towards the rest of the group. It seems that at the very least i think we have a general plan really, and the next big thing that should be talked about is who is going to be in what group, and how many groups we will be forming in order to attack the council. If i may suggest though that Zandra has @Calrex in her group alongside just tier two players in general. The reason being is that with Calrex's unique skill he can take a lot of hits that would put most tanks to shame, and then their is @Zandra who can heal a lot of damage that players could take if they have something like Bialas that ignores tanks via room affects or some other method. That is my suggestion for one team at the very minimum. I'm fine with whatever decision ends up being chosen beyond that. I say towards the gathered players as i glance towards people like @Stryder, @Hydra, and @Domarus. Knowing they are most likely strong in their own right, but having that extra protection for their safety is the best the frontliens could offer to make sure they can all get to make it out with their lives. I just nod my head having said my peace for now as i wait to see how my suggestion will go over.