Baldur

Baldur tapped his chin in thought as Shield brought up the subject of support. They did have a limited cast of characters to work with. It was a shame some of them had been retired. Or forcefully retired. Baldur remembered all too tiredly. He rubbed his hands over the laquered wooden table as he listened intently to Shield's words. They were good points, all of them. "I think it would be great if we could pull someone out of retirement to rejoin the front lines, but that can be tricky until we establish a rhythm with them. If we can't put together a full party for the raid, than we'd be resorting to pick up groups to fill in our ranks. It works, but it's not ideal. However, First Aid isn't the only way to run a support type. If a player comes in stocked with healing crystals, they could be a support hybrid. Especially if everyone is stocked with a decent number of party heal crystals. You don't get the single big dump like you would from a dedicated support player, but it works. One or two conscientious people could keep a party up like that, it would just be expensive." Baldur began to run the numbers through his head. If the boss hit hard enough that they needed to heal Shield more than 5 times, they'd begin to run into trouble. Set aside the fact that to have that number of consumables it wouldn't be cheap, they also wouldn't all be of the highest quality. Even if they could plan for each member of the party to carry 5 AoE rare healing crystals, that would require 30 crystals, even with only a 10% failure rate, that would be a tremendous amount of materials. "On the plus side, if the boss isn't as difficult, but you get the rhythm going, you could develop a stockpile of consumables. It may be the best way to go. However, with you being one of the primary tanks of the raid, we will have a healer in our party, the ultimate question becomes who? Who is set to be your healer in the next raid fight against the floor 22 boss? Who was your healer against 21?"

Baldur slowly lowered himself down against a tree, taking a minute to get off his feet and letting out a weary sigh as he relaxed. He listened to the Jade Hunter's story, and was really impressed with memory and his own perspective of the accounting of Aincrad's inglorious history. It brought back memories of friends and... others... lost along the way. He remembered the mobs coming to the gates with torches, ready to burn everything down, and the flurry of player killings that ran rampant throughout the floating castle. It had been a dizzying time. "Hirru has the right of most of it. I spent some time under Lessa, the Guild Master of the Guardians of Aincrad. She wanted to help new players get their feet under them. If the guild was only a transitional home, then she was okay with that. She welcomed people, helped them learn enough not to die, and then sent them on their way, though I think most people would have stayed. The Azure Brigade... well, I would have probably gone to join Azide in Square One, but Tyger... my tank partner at the time." Baldur hesitated for a moment after mentioning her name. It had been a long, long time since he had last said her name aloud. It was the singled biggest weight and guilt Baldur had ever felt in his entire life. He would carry that with him to the end, but it was part of what propelled him forward. She could still be saved. "Well, she wanted to join the front line for the... oh, must have been the 11th floor boss fight. So we joined the Brigade. They were the front line clearer guild. If you were someone in Aincrad, you were a member of the Brigade. We wanted to be clearers, so we joined up... and that was just before things started to get bad. They were power playing. They were going to boycott one of the boss fights, so that they could show who was really in charge. That boss fights were their or I suppose our domain, since I was a member. At that point, Tyger and I got out. We wanted nothing to do with that mess." Baldur picked at a blade of grass and fiddled with it, his steel blue eyes had a thousand mile stare in it as he was silent for a moment. He was elsewhere. "Then we jump ahead to floor 14 boss fight. I decide to rejoin the frontline. Things had been going very easy. Zelrius had dual blades, and had almost one shot a previous boss. This would be easy, everyone said. They had been free riding bosses because of this, so everyone let their guard down. Zel and the Brigade were in charge of raids, so they decided to gamble. They front loaded the dps in the parties to try and alpha strike the bird. They left the other parties completely unprepared, and because of it, we had two player deaths. Azide, among them." Baldur took a deep breath. He hadn't known Azide well, personally, be he had known OF Azide, very well. Their circles almost completely overlapped. "That was the beginning of the end for the Brigade. Azide was a beloved member of the clearers. He was a beloved guildmaster, and a friend, not to mention one of Aincrad's best players and strategists. When he died, there was a major backlash. I almost died myself in that fight... there are nights where I can't sleep, because I wonder if I hadn't gone into that fight under leveled, if he might have been alive. It's not true, it wouldn't have changed the circumstances, but it haunts me." He was, again, silent for a moment as he relived something from long ago. "After that, the repercussions were huge. At the end of the next boss fight, Opal, who was secretly a member of the Laughing Coffin, a PK guild, had influenced and corrupted another top tier front line player. The two of them secretly planned to kill Zelrius, wielder of the Dual Blades unique skill, and Dom, wielder of the Berserker unique skill. Dom was... a horrible person, a PKer himself, and the two of them were the beating heart of the Azure Brigade. Killing them gutted the guild, which collapsed and all its surviving members went into retirement. It also sent a blow throughout the community. Front liners were not invincible. People had thought we were gods up until that point, the two of them especially, but raid buffed as they were, Opal and Oikawa were able to One Shot the two of them, and then teleport out before anyone could react." Baldur thought about Opal. He had liked her at one point. They were going to go to a wedding together. He had been just as fooled as everyone else. He remembered confronting her, becoming enraged, and coming as close as he ever had to PKing someone. He had never in his life been so mad. "It was the next boss fight, or the one after, I can't remember. One of the front line players went mad... with grief, anger, PTSD, the whole cocktail. The wielder of the battojutsu unique skill killed two players, almost three, and then disappeared. She eventually sought forgiveness and redemption, as did Oikawa, for his part in what happened. Opal was later slain by her own PK guild. With all that was going on, another front line player, Beatbox, decided enough was enough, and that orange players needed to know that if you PKed for any reason, you were going to be put down. It was going to be black and white. In time, he was killed as well." Baldur remembered when Calrex had told him about Beat. He had since gone to The Wall to find his name, and several others. "Some have begun to say that unique skills are cursed. The only person to have one and not be... is Calrex. Though Calrex... sought help, as did Teayre. I helped them both the best I could, and they seem to be better now, but let's just say that with the power those uniques grant, the trouble and attention that comes with them has never been welcome." Baldur tossed aside the piece of grass he had been playing with, and after a second or two of silence, his eyes returned to the present. "What about you, Hestia. Were you in the floor 21 boss fight?" @Hestia @Hirru

Baldur raised a single eyebrow at how Pinball addressed him, but let it slide. He was a kid, and Baldur's pride was not so easily prickled. What followed, however, impressed him. He offered to share some consumables with them. As a cook, there were a myriad of consumables he would love access to, but finding active chefs was difficult at best, and stocked ones were even worse. He glanced over at the young man as he tried not to feel like his boots would come unstuck from his feet tromping through the mud. "I would not want to impose, but if you have spares, I would appreciate anything with accuracy or damage." He followed Hestia's lithe silhouette through the dense vegetation, trying to be aware of holding back branches so they didn't hit Pinball as they followed her. "Tell me about yourself Pinball. What skills do you have? I'm just a basic DPS, as you can see, with a Katana. No fancy bells and whistles yet, but that's a pretty fancy spear you have there. Even drop or something?"

Baldur was touched by their words. Though they were simple and not necessarily grandiose, the gesture was appreciated by the solo player. He had spent most of his time bouncing around between guilds that never really did anything, and running solo, either doing quests and hunting and gathering by himself, or by orchestrating small strike teams to go in and hit the quests or dungeons he needed to on his own. That was how he had made a name for himself, by working with people one on one and building up those bonds, and proving he could take care of himself. But they would never get everyone out of this world working one by one, even if he could survive the boss, he would run out of energy long before the boss ran out of HP. It didn't matter how good you were, you needed to work together. Now if only the guilds could understand that. "Thank you, I appreciate that. I'm looking forward to questing with you both more often. And if I can get my gear upgraded, I'll join you on the next fight." Reaching into his inventory, Baldur pulled out a damage potion. If Hestia was going to burn consumables to help him be successful in this quest, then he could burn some himself. -1 Medium Tier 2 Damage Potion New Stats Below @Hestia @Hirru

Baldur smiled at Pinball's shyness. It was charming from Baldur's point of view. He had once been a shy youth himself, though that was a long time ago. He had no such luxuries here. He had become who he needed to be to survive this game, not just mechanically, but mentally. Turning to Hestia as she gave them the marching orders, he nodded to her. "I'm ready to go when you are" Gripping the sword on his left him with his left hand, Baldur looked out over the beautiful lake. What was this mob they were going to fish up? He assumed it would be something like the Loch Ness monster. Not that the Loch Ness monster was real. It always looked more like someone swimming than anything that might be a creature. Not that the creature in this game wasn't real. Well, it wasn't real, but in the context of this game is was as real as anything else. Well, it was more real than the real Loch Ness... Baldur shook his thoughts away from that dizzying train of thoughts. "Lead the way. I'll be curious to see what we can fish up." Baldur said with a smile. @Hestia@Pinball

Baldur smiled as he was joined by Calrex and Hestia. He would definitely be safe on this quest with the two of them, now he just had to carry his weight. It wasn't often he was much lower than the people he ran with outside of raids, but it had been a while. Not since he ran with Spectrum. But then, Baldur was used to fighting outside of his weight-class. Turning his blue eyes on them both, he gave them each a respectful nod of his head. "Thank you for coming. I think you guys know each other, but Cal, this is Hestia. Hestia, this is Calrex." He gestured from one to the other, and let them give their own greetings. "Hopefully this quest will help me get a little more prepared for the next boss fight." His left hand unconsciously fidgeted with the kashira on his sword, as he looked around the dark cave. It reminded him of time spent on one of the lower floors. He had almost taken night vision because of it, but he never felt like he had the spare skill point investment for that. He needed to max out his damage now. "Supposedly we just have to make this trek to find the village. I don't suppose either of you have done this quest before? Anyways, the main enemies on this floor for this quest are bats. They've got a fairly large HP pool and hit hard enough to give Hestia and pause in trying to duo it. We figured Calrex -" Baldur clasped his kouhei on the shoulder "-the might ultramarine knight, could take and give a beating, minimizing the need for team size. Hestia here can tank well enough, but she can also heal. So Cal, I'd like you on point, Hestia will back you up on heals, and I'll bring as much damage as I can. Would you rather try to AoE them down, or go single target?" @Calrex @Hestia

Baldur watched as Hestia and Hirru fought through the last of the wolves, leaving only one behind for Baldur to mop, which he did with ease as his sword cut the final slash through the wolf's mesh form, and watched an explosion of iridescent polygons. Whipping his sword around, he sheathed it in a smooth motion and then rested his hand casually on the handle, as if freeing himself from the excitement and adrenaline rush of battle. "Well, I'm glad that's over. Too many more wolves and I would have had to start using consumables." His eyes flickered up and to the side where the health bars were located. "How are you holding up Hestia? You took quite a beating in there. I'm sorry that did not go according to plan at all." If he and Hirru had hit, they would have gone through the wolves a lot more, but they always seemed to miss at least one, and Baldur's bleed damage was not procing often, but he would need to change certain aspects of his build up further before they happen more often. He was certainly relearning the timing of combat. It was amazing to him how quickly he could lose his sense of something after being outside of combat for only a little while. "And thank you, both, for helping me with this quest. I appreciate it."

Baldur stared at the blank spaces in front of him. He understand that Shield had no even really decided to pull the trigger on his new guild, since the old one had not yet perished, even if there were internal politics that were dragging it down, still, Baldur had hoped Shield would have a better understanding of the factions within an who might follow him along. Shield was a master at all that he set his mind to, both on and off the battlefield, but they would need more than the three of them to form a Frontline guild. At the very least, to be taken seriously, they would need a full party. He raised a good point though. Beat and Shield would rarely disagree, they were already so used to working together, so if Baldur took a position upon the triumvirate, it would be as the outside voice. His vote should have to sway Shield or Beat from their chosen path, but it would be more effective in that forum than just as a rank soldier, even if he was one to whom special consideration was given. Baldur stared off behind Shield with a thousand yard stare as he ran through his thoughts. He enjoyed having visibility and the option to toss in his two cents into decisions, so perhaps this would be a good fit for him. "I think you're right, I'd enjoy the role of being an advisor or vote caster, even if you and Beat are on the same page most of the time." He left unspoken the idea that Baldur's voice would add legitimacy. It may be true, since Shield and Beat and many of the Ascedants were still relative newcomers to the front line. "But here's my condition. I have seen too many ideas, and not enough actions before. So before I throw my name in, or sign my name to it, as it were, I want to get the core group together and run them through a dungeon or something of the like. I want to see how everyone works together. And if it's a good group of people I can get behind, then we'll do this thing." Baldur gave a nod after his statement, as if to reassure himself of what he had just said. Shield's idea was a great one, but it needed people to be successful. The right people.

Baldur gave a warm, friendly smile that encompassed them both. He nodded his head to Pinball as Hestia introduced them, and then gave Hestia a deeper bow of his head in greeting. He had worked with her before, but he had never seen Pinball before. He appeared quite young, and his shyness spoke that he was probably lower level. Baldur would not complain. They should have enough for this quest, and as long as the boss wasn't a big AoE danger, than having a tank meant it was safer to carry a low level player with them. This was Hestia's quest anyways, and it was therefore not his place to question his or anyone else's involvement. "Hajimemashite, Pinball-kun." Turning back to Hestia, Baldur gave a bit of playful smile. "Yes, I was a member of the Frontline until it seems Hestia joined. We have yet to overlap, but I am hoping to rejoin the next floor fight, since I missed the last two." Resting his hand casually on the handle of his katana, Baldur constantly moved and adjusted the position of the saya that extended out behind him to avoid hitting people, or people hitting it. "I'm afraid I don't have the fishing skill, but hopefully I can still help out with this. I also brought a bleed weapon since you mentioned mitigation might be an issue."

Baldur had heard of a hidden village on the 21st floor that could only be found by completing a quest, and that meant that Baldur had to complete the quest. He was one of those people who had to fill in their map. He didn't need every nook and cranny like many other people did, but he couldn't leave an entire settlement missing from his map. What if he needed it in the future? What if there was a clue there? The rewards weren't great, but right now he could use the experience more than anything, and it was a Tier 3 floor, so maybe he could... He shook his head. The one thing he had learned from his last quest was that he wasn't ready to go solo yet. Definitely not before he got his new armor. He felt naked without the mitigation. Monsters up here stepped it up. He had heard about the boss fight while he was with Lessa. He should have been there, he could have helped. But the work that he and Lessa were doing was valuable too. Those kids need someone. The thought brought a smile to his face as he got ready to send the messages out. Turning back to face the teleport platform, Baldur rested his left forearm on the handle of his katana, while his right hand played with the emerald matagama that hung around his neck. Teayre had made it, along with several others, for him. Hopefully she was doing okay. When he had offered to train her had not expected so much... crying. But it was good, and in the end, he had forgiven her. He should never have doubted his kouhei. Calrex knew she had a good heart, he never would have married her otherwise. Pulling out one of his breads, Baldur sat down and pulled off several chunks to eat. The mobs on this quest were supposed to be nasty, and so he needed to bring in help until he reset his gauge. Stats: @Calrex @Hestia [-1 Yui's Grace]

Baldur was on the top of Mt Olympus when he suddenly got the message from Hestia. Tearing his steel blue eyes off from the horizon, he dropped the handful of dirt he was holding. He was lost in his own memories. A thousand different places at once. A hundred different lives he had lived. Wait for me, Olympus, my old friend. Tearing his mind away from his old mentor, Baldur looked around him as if he needed to remember where he was. The last time he had stood on this peak, he had been surrounded by the gods of the front line. They had built the greatest alliance the game would have ever seen, and yet it never became anything. Too many disparate people, with different motivations, and no one with the iron will to bind them together, to push them forward. "There's still a chance, my friend." Baldur buried his hand into the fur of Gram, his wolf familiar as it stood and leaned against him, the wolf's shoulder hitting Baldur right at the knee so that he almost toppled sideways. "But it seems we have work to do. Hestia has a quest, and I owe her one." With a swipe of his hand, he opened the UI and found her message. Quickly typing up the response that he would be there shortly. "Come my friend. Let's fine you something to eat, and then we're going fishing." And hour later, Baldur and Gram appeared at the teleport plaza. He was dressed as he always was, blue and white coat, sunset colored armor, and his katana. If it was mitigation they were fighting, than his bleeding sword would be the best. "Konichiwa, Hestia." Stats:

My two biggest things where I think things need to improve are: 1) Familiars - I know I spoke with you at length about this, but they're basically equipment you spend SP in. Now I don't necessarily have a problem with players spending SP to gain another equipment slot, but I do have a problem with familiars. Right now, -everyone- has them, and if you don't, it's cause you don't have the SP, or you haven't finished the quest yet. It is a MUST HAVE and anything like that, especially something as immersion breaking as everyone having semi-sentient pets follow them around is really counter to the setting and feel of SAO. As I mentioned before, I think this would be a GREAT place to put the support skills. First Aid, Sharpen, Energize, these would all be great actions to tie into the familiar system, so that rather than being equipment, they would take an action to do one of these other actions, and it fits within the theme of the show, and gets rid of the whole thing where players are playing badminton with balls of light to heal/energize people. 2) Dungeons and Labyrinths - These are two areas where I think the site is missing out on a huge opportunity.Dungeons are a stable of MMOs, and the Labyrinths are a key piece of what frontline players do in the show and light novels, yet here, Dungeons are something completely generic and random, and labyrinths are basically skipped all together. You could keep the mechanic of finding the dungeons, and the rewards for completing one the same, but give each floor a unique (or two) dungeon to be discovered. Just going for a thematic change, maybe giving it a small bit of storyline to explore, would go a long way towards giving each floor a personality. The labyrinths are much the same. The frontliners spend so much time exploring the labyrinth. It is such a huge part of the show, but we completely skip it here. Or we leave it up with the players to gloss over it. This is a chance to challenge the front line, both as us players behind the keyboard, and as characters in universe. Each labyrinth could have its own unique challenges to over-come. There could be special mobs inside of it, that have mechanics that maybe teach or help prepare you for the boss fight. Exploring it could be fun and interesting, rather than just a formality. It could also bring in players who aren't necessarily interested in, or ready yet, for the "big" boss fight. 3) Story - I know a lot of people have mentioned having story as something we want to SAO, but focusing everything on just going from boss fight to boss fight from event boss, to event boss is not how you get story, nor how you keep players who are interested in the story. There is a natural mystery baked into the tower of SAO. A supremely powerful wizard went out into the world, then cut out 10KM radius disks from the world, and then floated them above one another. Each floor isn't it's own dimension, but a section of the same world. They lost contact with one another, kingdoms collapsed, only the elves have a way to communicate between floors without the players activating the stairs and the teleporters. Each floor has become it's own thriving ecosystem since it was cut off. There are so many great story nuggets to mine in SAO that get glossed over because it isn't getting the best new sword, or a consumable for the floor boss fight. I think we should take a step back, put a level cap on, and let players have fun exploring the floors. Give each floor a character. The time between boss fights will be longer, yes, but if we fill that time in with fun things to do, then it won't matter. RPing will become richer.

As Baldur skidded to a stop, his eyes flashed up to the upper corner of his vision. Hestia was getting close to the yellow. It looks far smaller than it should have, but that was probably because of her massive health pool. Still, he didn't like seeing anyone get into the yellow. It had been a long time since anyone had been that hurt on his watch. It was a good plan to bring a tank on this fight. Snapping his eyes to the wolf with the most health, Baldur focused his vision on it, causing the targeting marker to appear and the wolf's HP to show. It was mostly full, or at least the most full, so Baldur crouched down, focusing his <<charge>> but not losing focus of his surrounding this time. As the wolves darted about, Baldur got a clear shot, and released his <<San Ge>>. As the sword art took over his body, he flew across the fight with a streak of blue and orange light, his black and red sword exploding with the brilliant azure of the sword art as slash upon slash rained down on the wolf in only the space of a single breath, far faster than any swordsman could expect in the real world. And when his attack was done, the wolf was in the read. Finally! @Hestia