Capítulo 5: Hateful Support
The match against the Pirate and Cleric duo began. Yuel played Paladin and his partner, Lars, played Trickshooter. As much as he hated it, Yuel had lots of experience playing Paladin, so it was a familiar pick for him. Nonetheless, once his character spawned on the map, he needed a few seconds to adjust to it.
[This almost feels like playing a whole new character.] Instead of a manly knight clad in white armor, he was controlling a woman in a frilly dress. All classes in the game supported both genders and, since he was using Julia's tablet right now, his Paladin was forced to be a female.
However, that alone didn't explain the frilly dress. Unlike in many video games out there, Classmancers' female counterparts were usually well dressed. Just like the male Paladin, the female version wore a thick metal armor that covered her whole body. At least, that's how it was supposed to be.
For the better or the worse, the player could customize the appearance of their characters by purchasing skins. If he recalled correctly, this princess skin was released last week as part of the Fairytale Bundle. Yuel didn't care for any of that in the slightest, but this knowledge was literally beaten into him via the countless in-game ads.
[Learn to play the game before you spend money on cosmetics, seriously. This isn't a dress up game. ]Yuel sighed. At least this Paladin's shield was as big as that of the male counterpart, meaning the character models had roughly the same width. This might had sounded irrelevant to most people, but for him it was an important consideration during class selection.
The first step toward countering the enemy was denying last hits. Scoring a last hit on a minion rewarded the player with bonus exp and gold. On top of that, the Pirate's passive, Plunder, granted the Pirate even more gold upon scoring a last hit. More gold meant the Pirate would build his items faster, allowing him to outpower the Trickshooter.
To prevent that, Yuel positioned himself on the frontline. Whenever the Pirate was about to last hit a minion, Yuel stepped in and blocked the bullet with his body. Thanks to the Paladin's relatively wide character model, this was an easy task even for somebody with poor reaction time.
On top of denying last hits, Yuel's body blocking also made the blue minions attack the Pirate. Unable to endure such a harsh punishment at Lv.1, the Pirate was forced to temporarily retreat and miss even more last hits in the process.
Only a tanky Support could use this strategy at Lv.1 without getting destroyed by the Pirate's attacks, though tankiness alone wasn't enough. The player also had to specifically build Mistmail first for maximum effective health and to buy HP potions. Otherwise, an adept foe could easily shoot down the Paladin with a few more basic attacks.
Of course, Yuel knew exactly what to build for this scenario. He knew everything about playing Paladin, he knew everything about playing Support. That's how much he hated this role.
As Lars pointed out, Paladin had to compensate for his tankiness by being a melee character, thus hurting the team's wave clearing efficiency. But that's fine, because Trickshooter balanced things out. On top of gaining damage boost from bounces, Trickshot was a line shot ability that pierced through units and had decent base power.
In other words, firing Trickshot in a straight line hit most of the minion wave for lots of damage. As such, during the early game, Trickshot was on par with the wave clearing abilities possessed by mages. Once the red minions started running low on HP, Lars positioned himself in front the wave in order to pierce it with a straight Trickshot... or so it should had went???
"Wha-!?" Yuel was aghast. Instead of standing in front of the minion wave, Lars approached the wave from the side and aimed his pistol diagonally. What? Why!? That kind of shot would only hit the swordsmen on the front! It won't even graze the enemy bowmen!
"You should-" Yuel's words were cut short, he was too late. Lars fired his Trickshot from that weird angle without batting an eye. As expected, the bullet hit all the red swordsmen on the frontline and scored a last hit on them, but that's all. The bowmen at the back were untouch-
[You're kidding..]. Yuel was wrong, completely wrong. Once the bullet passed through the swordsmen, it bounced off a wall and hit the bowmen as well, dealing increased damage and securing last hits. Amazing, absolutely amazing. It was a play which didn't even cross Yuel's mind.
It's one thing to pull such a stunt on an undisturbed lane in practice mode, but here minions moved all over the place due to Yuel's body blocking. Getting hit by the Pirate's shot triggered the blue minions and made them chase after the Pirate, which in turn made the red minions chase after the blue minions. Frankly, the lane was a mess. Even so, Lars found the perfect position and timing to fire that kind of bouncing shot. It was a godly play that Yuel could never dream of executing.
"Man, I missed!" Lars complained.
"Missed...?" Yuel couldn't believe it. Lars's shot definitely failed to hit one of the red bowmen after the bounce, but was that enough to call it a "miss"? The damage increase from the bounce made the shot secure more last hits than a straight Trickshot ever could. Yet, Lars wasn't satisfied. Did he seriously intend to hit the whole wave with that complex shot? Insane! Absurd!
[He's... He's insanely good. Once I shut down the Pirate and Cleric, I'm sure he can finish the job. ]Yuel's heart pounded. What was this feeling? Had he ever felt this way while playing Support online? Something about cooperating with Lars excited him.
The enemies maintained their distance and avoided team fights until they reached Lv.5. That's to be expected, as both Pirate and Cleric were classes which relied on their ultimates. Lars had been poking them as hard as he could until that point, but the Cleric's heals made all that damage void.
Ultimately, both sides stood on even ground as they headed into the first team fight. Unbeknown to others, this was the moment for which Yuel picked Paladin. Everything would be decided there.
"When the team fight starts, focus on the Pirate first." Yuel instructed.
"Isn't that kinda bad, though?" Lars asked. "Cleric just gonna revive him."
"I'll deal with that part. It's best to remove the enemy's damage first. Also, make sure to stay within my ult's range for when the Kraken comes around."
"Okay, let's see how it plays out." Lars grinned and began exchanging blows with the Pirate. Same as before, Lars showcased superior mechanical skill and combat sense.
He rolled aside to dodge a shot, then fired back at the Pirate without wasting any time on aiming. He also used Trickslide, a skill which allowed to quickly slide across the ground while retaining the ability to shoot. It was difficult to aim during the sudden burst of speed, yet Lars somehow nailed it every time. Sometimes he even fired a Trickshot while sliding and made it bounce off a wall before hitting. It was as if his Trickshooter had no restrains. He could move however he wanted, whenever he wanted.
Alas, he couldn't simply 1v1 the Pirate. The enemy Cleric body blocked some of Lars's shots by walking in front of the Pirate, like expected of a proper Support. The Cleric also fired some basic attacks at him, forcing him to dodge even more shots than he already was.
That's where Yuel came into the picture. He couldn't contribute much in term of damage due to being melee, but he body blocked the Pirate's and Cleric's shots and pressured them by charging at them. His main priority was to chase away the Cleric and allow Lars to 1v1 the Pirate as much as possible. With Lars's godlike mechanical skill, he'd stomp the Pirate for sure.
"Khaha! You done goofed, bro!" The Pirate grinned as Lars slid toward him with Trickslide. Getting this close to the Pirate was a fatal mistake!
Pirate cast his ultimate ability: Release the Kraken. The legendary sea monster erupted from the ground and smashed everything in range with its giant tentacles. It was a devastating AoE attack with a knockdown CC. From this range, even if Lars used his ult, he wouldn't be able to dodge the attack. He was doomed.
Yet, the Kraken didn't faze Lars in the slightest. He fearlessly shot the Pirate, without making any attempts to escape. And he really didn't need to, for he was within the range of Aegis, Paladin's ult. Yuel activated it right as the Kraken was about to strike, granting Lars invincibility against damage and immunity to CC. The gigantic Kraken didn't even tickle Lars.
"Bah! My Kraken went down the toilet!" The Pirate hung his head. Not only did he waste his Kraken, but he also allowed Lars to barrage him while he was casting the ult. Defeat was imminent, the Pirate's only option was to flee.
Pirate activated Backfire Cannon, summoning a cannon in front of him. Normally it was a damaging ability, but here it was used as an escape tool. After firing from the cannon, the Pirate was pushed backwards by the recoil. He was now outside the reach of Lars's basic attacks, so he should be able to-
"Keep dreaming, dude!" Lars fired Trickshot at a nearby wall. The bullet bounced and gained increased flight distance, reaching all the way to the fleeing Pirate.
It landed perfectly. Just as Pirate was pushed all the way by Backfire Cannon, the Trickshot hit him. He didn't even have chance to try dodging it.
『An enemy has been killed!』
[Unbelievable. he instantly found the perfect angle for that shot. The push from Backfire Cannon is pretty fast, but he hit the Pirate without batting an eye. I... I don't even... ]Yuel's world was turned upside down. He thought he knew Classmancers like the back of his hand by now, but Lars completely destroyed that belief with this impossible feat. Classmancers was way deeper and way more complex than Yuel imagined! He almost fell in love with it all over again!
But he didn't have time to be awestruck, the most important part came next. Cleric was about to cast Arise to revive the Pirate.
Yuel activated Justice Strike to shut down that play. A large magical sword formed above the Cleric's head, then crashed down on him. This was the Paladin's one and only ranged attack.
Justice Strike both slowed and silenced the Cleric, making him unable cast Arise for three seconds. It was a rather soft crowd control effect compared to others in the game, but with this precise timing it proved fatal for the enemy team.
Arise could only be used on a fallen ally before their dead body vanished, which was a time frame of two seconds from the moment they dropped to 0 HP. By being silenced for three seconds, the Cleric was forced to miss said time frame. The Pirate's body vanished without a trace, he was dead for good.
"Now, attack the... heh." Yuel realized he was late. Lars was already on the job, drilling bullets at the fleeing Cleric. Thanks to Justice Strike's slowdown, Cleric had trouble escaping. Nonetheless, he reached all the way to his team's Golem.
"Dive in, I'll tank"
"Okay, let's go let's go!"
Yuel approached the edge of the Golem's area, drawing the Golem's attention to himself. Right after, Lars slid into the area and finished off the Cleric.
"Woohoo! We did it!" Lars grabbed Yuel's shoulder and shook him. "You're awesome Support, dude!"
"I-Is that so..." Yuel trembled. Why? What was this weird feeling swirling inside him? His heart pounded, his body shook and his eyes turned moist.
[Oh, so that's how it is. ]He finally realized why he hated Support so much. It's because he... he loved it. He really loved this demanding and complex role. It was the weakest, yet it could orchestrate the strongest team plays.
When Yuel played soccer, he was a weak player and had to compensate for that with brainwork. The Support role in Classmancers was the same, except it was [designed] to be that way for the sake of game balance. Support was weaker than other roles, but it wasn't inferior to them by any means. In fact, it arguably had the most important role in the team
Even though the team needed a Carry to take down objectives, it also needed a Support who'd keep that Carry safe. Perhaps the Support didn't get to secure objectives or to score impressive kills, but it was the backbone of the team that enabled teammates to achieve all these feats. Truly, Support was exactly the kind of role Yuel had been striving to play from the beginning!
"You okay, dude?" Lars asked.
"Ah, yes... I'm fine." Yuel rubbed his eyes. "This match is so easy I started falling asleep."
"Haha, we sure owned them! Let's push Golem while we have the chance!"
"No. It's too early for that." Yuel objected. "Let's take the power buff instead."
"Sounds good! Let's go!" Lads dashed into the jungle.
[Heh, he's so hyper. ]Yuel sighed with a smile. A cooperative and skilled Carry was a blessing for any Support. Lars was a bit reckless and inexperienced, but he was always quick on the uptake and listened to Yuel's advice. If they play some more together, they'd definitely become a powerful Bot Lane duo.
Even though the match had barely started, Yuel was already thinking ahead. He wanted to play more like this, to play more with Lars. Above anything else, he wanted to play more Support.
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