Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story

Vol.7 Ch.21: Shadow Clone

The match between Lars and Nia began. Nia picked Ninja for its OP stealth whereas Lars went for Pirate. Or, at least, it should've been a Pirate...

"Haha! What's with this dude?" Lars laughed at his own character. He was playing on Vincent's account so the Pirate had quite the... interesting design. "Pft, haha! This looks so weird!"

"That's the High Seas Commentator!" Vincent said. "He plunders all the hot moments of the match!"

"Sick, yo!" Lars gave a thumbs up.

The Pirate was wearing a slick suit, like those dudes delivering news on TV. He was holding a microphone instead of a pistol and when he fired basics, he talked into the mic to produce sound notes that flew forward.

When switching to the "cutlass", this newsman attached a stand to his mic and waved it around to attack. Stuff was hilarious. 10/10 skin.

After Lars finished messing around with this silly skin, he focused on the match at hand.

"Ninja, huh," Lars smiled mischievously. "This gonna be interesting. I'mma go invade her blue camp."

"Wait," Kai was quick to object, as always. "No need to be so aggressive. We're here to test her not to beat her up."

"But, ya gotta invade in these situations," Lars said. "I got da range so I gotta use it against her."

"I agree that invading is a strong play here," Kai said. "But, if it works, it'll put her in a terrible position right from the start. Dying in the first minute of the match always feels like shit."

"Haha, true dat," Lars nodded. "Okay, I'mma give her a break and play nice. Don't expect mercy from me on lane, though. That dude can sure fight so I wanna go all out, yo!"

"Just don't overdo it..." Kai's almost sounded pleading. She knew first hand how overwhelming Lars was as an opponent so she prayed this beast won't crush Nia to the point of no recovery.

While Lars was on his way to his Wraith Camp, Nia was also in the middle of making her first big move.

Pirate. What a pain. Nia twisted her lips. Now, it's proven: they're bullying me.

As an assassin, fighting a marksman was either the most fun thing ever or a total disaster. If Nia can get close enough to strike, she'll destroy that guy in a blink of an eye. However, when the marksman was the cautious type who knew how to properly position himself, he'd just stay away and space Nia out. There was very little an assassin could do against marksmen like that. Ban marksmen from Duel pls, ktnx.

What do I build against Pirate? Nia checked her surroundings. Ok, clear.

She stealthily took out her phone and inputted the Ninja vs. Pirate matchup in the Tipmancer app. It gave her a build recommendation and a few tips.

Imperial Spear. I see, the classic. Nia nodded. This was the standard Ninja opening so there was nothing special recommended against a Pirate opponent. That made some sense because Imperial Spear was such a great setup for Izuna Drop, Ninja's ultimate.

There was only one interesting note against marksmen in general. Tipmancer warned against early invasions. That made sense because marksmen had a huge advantage when ambushing assassins. They struck from afar so the assassin couldn't immediately retaliate.

I bet this tip right here is why so many Platinum marksmen have been invading against me recently. They all must be using Tipmancer too. Cheaters.

Interestingly, this tip worked both ways. Assasins also had a great benefit from invading marksmen as long as they could get close undetected. Not all assassins had the tools for it but any assassin with stealth could pull it off. And, Ninja was one such class.