Leveling Up

Constant gunfire filled the ears of Smile's party. They watched silently as the mannequins were blasted to splinters. This constant grinding of simple enemies proved fruitful to Nimin, and it wasn't just experience points he was gaining. As he continued to play his familiarity with the class grew. His aiming was growing smoother and less jagged. Usually Nimin would pause his weapon from moving before firing, but now he was regaining his ability to fire while still moving the gun.

If he relied solely on his youth, his charge to champion would stop short! In these two years Nimin planned not only to build up his account, but also his skill utilizing it!

Strange Smile spoke, "I can't get used to watching this. Usually we would have trouble right about now. . ."

Critical Shot: You guys need a dedicated DPS.

Yeah, of course this expert can still chat! Strange Smile stopped himself from sighing and answered, "We do. . . or did. He hasn't been on in a while."

Critical Shot: No backups?

"We're just a bunch of friends playing for fun."

The gunfire stopped for just a few frames. Usually any Pro would be able to spot this, and even take advantage of the situation if this was a match. However the current party wasn't Pros, so no one really noticed.

Nimin finished shooting the rest of the standard mannequins, leaving the Elites to the rest of the party. Thinking upon Strange Smile's comment he couldn't help but think. When was the last time he played for fun? After his debut as a Pro, he was faced with constant loss. Each time he was forced to figure out what went wrong. Always reflecting, always improving.

A sound violently tore him from his thoughts. He had finally leveled up! Immediately opening his character information page he looked at his stats.

Despite it's incredible complexity of playing, Fractured Worlds actually had a simple stat system. If you had to study not only the vast possibilities of playing, but also take a college course on proper stat distribution, the game wouldn't be as popular as it was now.

First, the stats that increased damage. Fractured World worked on a type damage system. There were three types of damage: Physical, Elemental, and Technical. Each shortened to PHY, ELM, and TECH.

The damage type you used was decided by your choice of weapon. Fantasy based weapons dealt heavy ELM damage, more standard non magical weapons did PHY, and high tech futuristic weapons dealt TECH.

For instance, the Techmancer despite dealing magic spells, actually dealt TECH damage if using their staff. A Gunner would deal PHY damage with their guns. A Manifest would deal ELM damage with their special manifestations. Now there are some outliers, certain weapons would deal other types of damage instead. Additionally, with the proper materials, you could alter the damage type a weapon dealt.

These damage types mattered because some types were weaker to others. TECH was more effective against the PHY type. PHY was more effective against the ELM type. ELM was more effective against the TECH type. If you reversed this then you would have what they were weak against.

This had two purposes. First, a lot of enemies usually had a standard type. Thus certain builds would work better at dealing with them. The mannequins were considered PHY type, so the Techmancer was a very excellent choice to deal heavy damage to them.

The second purpose was attack clashing. Attacks with the superior type in battle would win the clash, and the same type would cancel each other out. Thus it was very important to have a balanced ratio of types in a team.

Stats had their play in how much damage each type did specifically. The Affinity stat would increase your ELM damage, the Knowledge stat would increase TECH damage, and the Reflex stat would increase PHY damage.

Additionally the other stats are: Toughness for HP, Dexterity for Stamina and Stamina regen, and Special for SP and its regen.

A finally note of complexity was that each stat had something called 'Effective Stat'. Certain classes designed around a specific build would have certain Effective Stat ratios. For instance the Manifest class has an Effective Stat for Toughness at (1:1.5).

This meant that for every stat point put into Toughness, they would receive an extra 50% HP. So a Manifest with 30 points into Toughness, would have the HP of 45 points into toughness. Those with higher ratios usually come at a cost. Some ratios have a debuff to certain types. The Manifest class only has Effective Stat ratios of (1:1) to ELM damage, and the other types are actually set to (1:0.5). So the Manifest class was designed to not deal any other damage type besides Elemental, preventing flexibility. Yet allowing it to tank more damage.

The Gunner class had similar ratios, except usually only in the 20% range. Additionally the Gunner class only had benefits when it came to PHY damage. The other damage types having standard (1:1) ratios. Thus Nimin didn't bother putting any stat points into Affinity or Knowledge. Instead he went pure PHY damage with reflex stats.

Additionally Nimin had already calculated his endgame stats. Thanks to the document he worked on, he just needed to follow the path he laid out. Since the Gunner had lower HP ratios compared to the other classes, Nimin decided on a more flexible build. Oddly enough the Gunner had a decent Effective Stat ratio when it came towards SP. Despite it's very low Skill count. Perhaps it was designed this way when the Gunners had more options in the future. Regardless this was perfect for Nimin.

He would rely on high damage from his weapons to make up for the excessive amount of stat points he was planning on putting towards Stamina and SP. In order to play chaotically he needed a lot of resources to his disposal.

"Uhh Shot?! We're in some trouble could you help?"

Nimin stopped adjusting his document and returned to the game. Somehow the remaining Elites had split up the team. Without a proper consistent DPS they couldn't handle the Elites quickly. Thus leading them to their current situation. Nimin was about to give them a lecture but stopped himself. He wasn't leading a professional team, these guys were just playing for fun. Besides a mistake like this wasn't beyond repair!

Critical Shot threw two grenades. Aiming a pair of handguns Nimin swiftly did some mental calculations. Firing both guns at the same time the two bullets whizzed through the air. Hitting the edges of the grenades the explosives were redirected to two different Elites. Nimin moved both the handguns and fired again. This time hitting the center of the grenade, exploding them in the faces of the Elites.

The visual glitch appeared as Critical Shot moved to the assault rifle and began to fire madly. Swiftly the remaining HP of the Elites was wiped clean through the flurry of bullets. Critical Shot reloaded the assault rifle as a message appeared in the chat.

Critical Shot: You should be more careful.

"Sorry! I was responding to someone's message. The fault lies with me.", Simon quickly apologized.

Critical Shot: Urgent?

"Somewhat. . . Smile check your messages."

"Hm? What's going on?", Strange Smile swiftly opened his inbox and frowned, "Oh. . ."

Critical Shot: We can quit early, it's no big deal.

"Well uh, actually. We might need to do that. Just. . . can you come with us?"

Critical Shot: What for?

"So you remember when I said we had a dedicated damage dealer?", Strange Smile had his hands hover over the keys.

Simon continued, "Well he came back, and I was telling him about you. Apparently he's not too keen upon finding out he's been replaced."

Critical Shot: Replaced?

"In his words not mine. He's demanding a match."

Nimin leaned back in his chair and considered it all. He really shouldn't get involved. Drama with various groups was often, dealing with grudges would slow his progress. If he had to watch his back every time he logged on that would be very annoying!

Simon added, "He mentioned he had just come back from a Pro training camp."

Wham-!

Slapping his desk in frustration Nimin wanted to bash his head next. Training camps!! Piercing Light had a training camp! He just never bothered himself with it too much since he was always focusing on improving! These camps were a sure way to get noticed by a Pro player!

Swiftly typing up a response Nimin completely changed his outlook on the situation.

Critical Shot: I can do the match. In return if I win I want him to answer my questions about the camp.

"Let me relay this. . . oh he said deal.", Simon was moderately surprised at the near instant response.

Critical Shot: Then let's not linger.

Nimin's eyes began to glow. If he can catch the eyes of Pros this quickly then most of his troubles would be solved early!