150 Dealing with the Knight Matchup (1/2)
[Going to the frontline sounds like all sorts of trouble, so let's not do that.] Nia nodded to herself. She had no interest in contesting the Knight for a temporary lane advantage; it was useless for her anyway. All that really mattered was scoring a kill on that guy and then push hard for the win.
So, instead of heading to the frontline, she'll wait near her Golem and make the minions come to her. That'll be much less of a pain to deal with.
Nia tossed a smoke bomb on the Knight. The explosion dealt slight damage to him and made his minions seek revenge on Nia. But, unbeknown to the minions, that was exactly what Nia wanted from them.
She retreated to her Golem and lured the minions into its fire range. Once all the enemy swordsmen stepped into the danger zone, Nia booted her Stealth for a moment to erase the minions' aggression.
[Hehe, that's right,] Nia smirked. [Even though you're bots, even you can't detect me.]
Her momentary stealth state confused the minions and made them forget they were targetting Nia just a moment ago. So, instead, they returned to their natural game plan: attacking whichever enemy minion was closest to them.
While all of this was going down, Nia's minions chased after the invaders and caught up to them at the Golem. Since all minions were close to each other right now, the battle broke out right there in the Golem's area. Instead of stepping out of the area to avoid heavy damage, the enemy minions remained in the lion's den while clashing with their opponents. These bots were too dumb to realize they were in a deadly situation.
”So, that's how she's going to do it,” Vincent nodded to himself. ”Beautiful! I like this counter. What do you all think?”
”It's not bad,” Yuel admitted. He used a similar tactic against Knights when he played Top so this was a solid advanced tech.
”But,” Yuel said. ”She took it a bit too far. I understand she wants to clear the minions faster but was it really neccessary to lure them all the way to the Golem? She's losing exp and gold this way.”
”It's fine,” Kai objected. ”Losing some farm early on isn't a big deal in 1v1 if you can make up for it later.”
”Not gonna lie, I'm not a fan of that stuff,” Lars said. ”You gotta take ALL the farm, yo! Last-hit all the things!”
”Not everybody can play by your high standard,” Kai said.
[Hmm.] Yuel frowned. [It's hard to judge this play when the two best Duelists here don't see eye to eye about it.][I suppose it's a passable approach for this Rogue vs. Knight matchup.]
In the end, Nia cleared the enemy swordsmen way faster than they killed her swordsmen, all thanks to Golem rampaging around and tossing boulders. After that, she stayed under tower and let her surviving minions fight on their own. It was a battle of 2 swordsmen and 3 bowmen vs. 3 bowmen.
[I rather not let these swordsmen reach my bowmen.] Vincent was itching to step onto the frontline to block the path of the incoming swordsmen. The bowmen minions were rather squishy, so they'd die fast if the swordsmen get close.
With that said, Vincent couldn't just run ahead and aggro the swordsmen because said swordsmen were closely accompanied by three bowmen behind them. If Vincent steps forward, he'll aggro that entire dangerous gang. The DPS of three bowmen focused on one target was nothing to sneeze at, especially during the earlier parts of the game. Even as a Knight with Mistmail, he didn't want to soak all that damage.
Ultimately, Vincent stepped back and waited for enemy swordsmen to arrive. He had no choice but use his minions as a meat shield in this situation. He was like a Chessmaster and the bowmen were his disposable pawns, muhahaha!
Once all the enemy minions focused their fire on Vincent's bowmen, he charged to the frontline with Shield Bash. He slammed his shield against one of the swordsmen and killed the already-injured warrior on the spot. Meanwhile, his bowmen shot down the other swordsman.
[Phew, safe.] Vincent breathed in relief. None of his bowmen was lost in this exchange so it turned out much better than he expected.
To wrap things up, Vincent followed up with Blade Swing to cut through all three enemy bowmen in one fell swoop. Along with the backup fire from his bowmen, he swiftly finished off all the enemy minions. However, he only had one and a half bowmen remaining after that whole exchange. This tiny group of survivors was far from enough to properly push the enemy Golem.
Nia didn't show any signs of coming out to fight the bowmen, so there was no opening for Vincent to attack. He just let his bowmen venture into enemy territory alone and get bombarded by the Golem. The bowmen merely got two shots on the tower before dying.
With that, the first minion wave was over.
”It turned out pretty equal,” Vincent summarized.
”Not quite,” Yuel objected. ”She missed a lot of farm with this approach.”
The game punished players who farmed while hugging their tower. All exp and gold earned from minions inside the Golem's range were reduced by 30%. So, even if the player scored last-hits on these minions to benefit from x1.2 earnings, that still put them at around 85% of the normal earnings. In other words, by luring the minions to her Golem, Nia threw away over 15% of the farm she could've easily gotten.
”Geh, I think I fried my brain with all them numbers,” Lars rubbed his temples. ”In short, she missed a lot of farm, right?”
”Yes.”
”Well,” Kai crossed her arms. ”If you finished showing off your math skills, let me just say that optimizing farming is not something you'd expect from a freshman.”
”I suppose you're right,” Yuel agreed. ”I just had to mention it because it might become an issue for her going forward. It's alrighty to trade some farm for extra safety, but she'll have to mount a counter at some point if she wants to win. Otherwise, Vincent will eventually outlevel her and destroy her Golem.”
”Yeah, I'm quite aware,” Kai made a face. ”Thanks for explaining it to me like I'm a Bronze tier from kindergarten.”
”So,” Vincent got everybody's attention. ”Do you guys want me to test anything specific? Or, do I just let her maintain this routine to see if it goes anywhere?”
”Sure, why not,” Yuel said. ”So far, the situation is in your favor in terms of farm. As long as she keeps using that tactic, you'll win by default.”
”Fair enough,” Vincent nodded. ”Alrighty, I'll keep doing my thing and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
During the next minion wave, Nia repeated the same routine. She dropped a smoke bomb on Vincent to lure the enemy minions to her Golem. Once they invaded deep enough into the danger zone, she entered Stealth to make them forget all about their aggression.
Everything played out exactly like last time. Yet again, only one and half of Vincent's bowmen survived. They got a couple of hits on the enemy Golem before perishing. What brave soldiers they were.
Even after just two waves, the gap in their farm was already becoming apparent. Vincent leveled up to Lv.7 in the middle of that exchange while Nia only hit Lv.7 at the very end. In a couple of waves, Vincent will outright beat her by one level. If Nia had any counter tactic in mind, she better execute it sooner than later.
Alas, the outcome of the next minion wave was exactly the same. Yet again, Vincent let Nia do her thing and carefully observed her moves. But, she did nothing new.
[He's not biting.] Nia pursed her lips. Most opponents got irritated by such a defensive tactic and invaded at this point. However, this Knight patiently observed her without overextending. He was like a predator eying his prey. Scary.
[Is he judging my every move? Along with everybody else over there?] Nia felt cold sweat on her forehead. These examiners monitored every single move, every twitch, she made. They judged everything and will fail her for the smallest of mistakes. They might even fail her for just breathing. Or, even worse, they might forget to grade her at all...
[I-I'll show them!] Nia clenched her controller. If all that Knight gonna do is stand there and laugh at her, she had an idea of her own. The Knight was already down to 80% from her repeated smoke bombs, so he'll be within kill range after just another one bomb. That's when she'll make her move. The hunted will become the hunter! She'll overtake the bully!
When the next wave came, Nia executed her routine per usual. She threw a smoke bomb on the Knight, lured the minions to her Golem, and finished them off. Then, instead of waiting in the safe zone, she retreated deeper into her lane and went around the corner.
”Oh, she's gone,” Vincent glanced at the mini-map. ”It appears she's planning to use this time to farm the Wraiths. They're right about to respawn.”
”Man, talk about disrespect,” Luke shook his head. ”She's practically handing you the lane for free.”
”What do I do?” Vincent asked everybody. ”Do I go ambush her at the Wraiths?”
”I don't think you need to go that far,” Kai was quick to object. ”It's just an exam.”
”But, a mistake is a mistake,” Vincent argued. ”I can't just let her get away with it, right?”
”Shouldn't you just push?” Luke suggested.
”Yeah,” Lars said. ”I'd totally use this time to push hard. Gotta make them regret leaving the lane behind like that. She should've stayed and fought till the bitter end like a true duelist.”
”That works,” Vincent nodded. ”I can feel the Golem begging me to invade.”
”To be fair,” Kai said. ”I'd probably push too. If my opponent is the type to neglect the lane for some side farm, I'll capitalize on it every single time.”