Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story

Vol.3 Ch.11: The Beast That Transcends Common Sense

After Yuel returned to base, he purchased an Lv.1 Windmail. An unconventional move, since it was usually better to upgrade items to Lv.3 before buying new ones. He already had an Lv.1 Repelling Amulet, which he bought to combat the enemy's magical comp, but he chose to not upgrade it at this time.

Repelling Amulet granted him HP and magical defense, but no physical defense. That's what Windmail came to fix. While magical defense was valuable against the basics and spells of Pyromancer and Lumimancer, physical defense was necessary for tanking minion attacks.

In addition, Windmail had an aura effect which increased the movement speed of all nearby allies, similar to how Repelling Amulet had an aura which increased the magical defense of nearby allies. Both auras were weak while the items were at Lv.1, but just having auras was huge for a Paladin. His passive, Holy Aura, granted him defense and HP regeneration for each aura item he built, regardless of the item's level. Therefore, stacking two aura items early on gave him more "effective health" overall for the upcoming operation.

As soon as his Paladin fully recovered, he dashed out of the base. According to his estimation, he and Breaker were going to reach the lane at about the same time. She had a head start, but he had the small speed buff from Windmail, which became increasingly more impactful when traveling across a long distance. She might outrun him if she built boots, but knowing her - she probably went for damage. And, even if she did build boots and gets to lane first, Lars would know to stay back and avoid picking fights when he's running low on HP, right? Right? I better hurry.

Fortunately, no disaster occurred. Breaker got to lane a little before him, but Lars stayed in the back and farmed near the Turret like a good boy.

As soon as she returned, Breaker pushed harder than before, no doubt trying to capitalize on Lars's low HP. Insisting to stay on lane with such low HP was a rather unusual scenario on high levels of play. It's normally considered blatant overextension, the kind you'd only expect to see from greedy newbies.

So, how well did Breaker practice such unusual scenarios? How well with her "orthodox defense" deal with this peculiar situation?

As expected, she forsook defense and became the aggressor. She was probably led to this decision by some combination of the following factors: her limited experience with such silly overextension situations, the salt from her the previous failed attempt to kill Lars and the fact she was almost killed by Lars's Trickshot back then. Perhaps there were even more reasons, but these were the ones Yuel accounted for. Thus, he could tell with certainty she'd go on the offensive here, just like he wanted.

That's the first mistake Breaker made. Even though Lars stayed in the back and played "defensively", he was like a starved beast. He consistently sought an opportunity to leap on Breaker and tear her apart. The term "playing defensively" didn't really exist in that goof's vocabulary, he was like a hungry wolf Yuel kept on a leash right now. But, Breaker didn't see the leash, so she thought Lars was a well-behaved doggy. So, she approached the doggy and poked it, only to be bitten by a wolf.

Her HP fell all the way to 70% after they exchanged blows, whereas Lars stayed at 10%. Breaker's side still held an undeniable advantage, but she must have begun realizing she was doing this wrong. So, after her failed attempt to scare Lars away, she and Night retreated back to the center of the lane, inviting Lars to leave the Turret and get wrecked in a fight.

It's unfortunate, her retreat came much faster than Yuel expected. He hoped to bring Breaker's HP down to 50% first, but she noticed the pitfall in her aggressive approach too quickly. Regardless, his plan was still very much feasible.

The two ranged enemies were now back in the middle of the lane, so Yuel gained more freedom to move around as a melee player. He positioned himself on the frontline and body-blocked the shots of enemy bowmen, who were the hard-hitting minions in the wave. In exchange for his own HP, he reduced the total damage their minion wave received and gave them a push advantage.