The Great Thief

The Shadow Hunter class was not available for the players to play. They were similar to Shamans in terms of the playstyle and background lore.

The Shadow Hunters were masters of voodoo and black magic, using spiritual powers to both heal and curse. They walked in the line of dark and light in the hope of saving and securing the future of Trollkind.

Lu Li only knew so much about Shadow Hunters because he researched them in Scarlet Library.

Knowing the background information helped them to better understand Shadow Hunter Vosh’gaijin. Lu Li informed his teammates of the relevant information about the Boss so that everyone could help brainstorm some strategies. Lu Li needed teammates that pulled their own weight; he expected them to be able to analyze and come up with their own strategies.

Four Trolls surrounded Shadow Hunter Vosh’Gaijin and appeared to be performing some sort of a ritual. The ground beneath them was glowing eerily green and they could almost hear the screaming voices in the distance.

“We probably have to fight all of them at once,” Azure Sea Breeze said as he downed a potion. Others also took some potions that added to their desired stats.

“Let’s try it.”

Lu Li knew that killing the Trolls was useless because they could only be killed once the Boss was defeated. There was actually no need to fight them at all because they would continue with the ritual and not bother attacking the players.

Azure Sea Breeze grabbed aggro of the Boss while the secondary tank Wandering taunted the smaller mobs.

The small mobs ignored the Taunt and even when skills landed on them, they only dealt 1-2 points of damage.

“I don’t think it’s working. Focus on the boss,” Lu Li said.

“I feel uneasy with so many monsters surrounding us.”

Wandering switched his focus onto the Boss but he still kept his eyes on the Trolls since it would usually be his responsibility to deal with them.

“What else can we do? We can’t even damage them.”

Lu Li was focused on attacking the Boss and was ranked second on the DPS chart.

Wandering shurgged, knowing that there was no point of worrying about that.

The HP of the four Trolls could never drop lower than Vosh’Gaijin’s HP, meaning that unless you focused the Boss first, the four Trolls could never be touched.

Therefore, the strategy was to completely focus on the Boss.

“How come Lonesome Flower is doing so much damage?” Nuo Yu asked in surprise. He was doing quite a lot of damage but was still trailing behind Lonesome Flower.

“Mechanic,.” Lonesome Flower said proudly.

“Uhh… Tell me please, old brother Flower,” Nuoyu asked politely as he walked over to stand next to Lonesome Flower.

“Okay, but this was something that I’ve worked on for a while. Don’t tell anyone else.”

Since Nuo Yu asked so nicely, Lonesome Flower decided to be nice as well and began explaining his skill combos, macros and mechanics. The other Mage players also listened carefully.

Lonesome Flower didn’t like PVP, but he had never stopped researching about how he could improve his DPS. He’s also been hanging out with Lu Li ever since the start of the game and the two would often discuss and share different mechanical advantages that they found.

Fat Monkey was more of a PVP player, but he still learnt a lot from Lonesome Flower’s explanation.

“Careful, the ritual is changing,” Lu Li reminded.

The ground beneath the Trolls was now glowing bright red.

“I’m just getting started!” Shadow Hunter Vosh’Gaijin roared with an evil laugh and summoned a swarm of insects.

Summoning insects wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for one of the most intelligent species in Azeroth. More than 16,000 years ago, the Trolls split into the Gurubashi and Amani kingdom. They ruled over the majority of the land of Kalimdor, and during that time, their biggest enemy was the Aqir Empire

The Aqir Kingdom was formed of an intelligent Insectoid species. They were one of the most ancient species along with the Zandalari Trolls, even existing before the times of Ancient Gods. The Insectoids ruled over the West of Kalimdor, but desperately wanted to expand their territory. They were also very evil, willing to take out their own kind in order to grow in power.

Amani and Kurubashi Trolls fought against them for over thousands of years, but could never gain the advantage against the Aqir Kingdom.

In the end, through the persistence of the Trolls, the Aqir Kingdom was split into two, forming the Azjol-Nerub of the North and Ahn’Qiraj.

Lu Li’s team underestimated the Insectoids, which eventually led to their downfall and the first raid-wide wipe at Shadow Hunter Vosh’Gaijin.

Lu Li never expected them to defeat her in the first try since she was a powerful Lv58 Boss.

Highlord Omokk was already quite challenging for them, but Shadow Hunter Vosh’Gaijin was even more difficult.

After the wipe, Sesame Rice Ball and a few other players had to make their way back all the way from the starting point. Lu Li was one of the few that managed to survive along with Moonlight. Moonlight was very sneaky and as soon as he realized they were about to be wiped, he hid in the corner and tried his best to stay alive.

On their second attempt, they were a lot more careful about the Insectoids.

Their damage wasn’t particularly high, but their attack speed was insane, to the point where it appeared as if there was no delay between each attack. They were wiped because they were stampeded by a swarm of Insectoids.

“Flower, when the bugs come out later, freeze the first wave. When I shout out two, Big Brother, you freeze the second wave and Nuo Yu, you freeze the third,” Lu Li instructed.

“The Insectoids are so squishy. Why do we need three waves of freeze?” Wandering was confused.

From his perspective, if they hadn’t underestimated the Insectoids, they could have easily killed the entire swarm since they only had a couple hundred HP each. There was no need for three Mages to freeze them at all.

“Shadow Hunter…” Lu Li began explaining the Boss’ class and Wandering immediately understood. Most Shadow Hunters seemed to have a common skill called Healing Wave that healed friendly units once per second.

Even if they damaged the Insectoids, they would be healed back up to full HP immediately.

Lonesome Flower casted freeze as soon as Lu Li gave the order, which was why Lu Li had decided that he go first. The long-built teamwork and trust in one another had solidified over time. Nuo Yu might have decided to save the skill instead of using it because he saw that the Insects were on low HP.

There were three waves of healing and the insects were healed three times.

If it wasn’t for their third Mage, they probably would have had to kite the swarm of bugs in order to get as far away from them as possible.

After the third wave of Healing, Vosh’Gaijin stopped and they were able to defeat the swarm of insects. This also signaled the second stage of the Boss.

Stage two required two Main Tanks. Lu Li decided not to tell Wandering because he trusted in his ability to adapt.

Vosh’Gaijin’s eyes began glowing brightly and Azure Sea Breeze became stunned. His whole world was changed completely and everything appeared abnormally large and unrealistic.

“Wow, so cute!”

Hachi Chan was excited when she saw that Azure Sea Breeze had been turned into a little frog.

Remnant Dream was stupid enough to attempt to tame the little frog. She was really determined to finally have a pet frog.