Aetheo

Our first look at a meta diver! Mostly my own creation, with a little bit of input from Zany.

The diver was already close to the worm by the time he got there.

That wasn’t terribly surprising. Even he knew that the Starstike set was one of the fastest meta-diver builds out there.

It was also one of the biggest problems for him. Not that Emma would have had an easier time of it. Of their team, only Jessica or Nathaniel was really set up in ways that could deal with him easily.

Neither was available, so instead it fell to Jeremy.

He threw his spear downward from the bridge he was on, aiming close to the entrance of the Worm lair, and possessed it.

The diver must have already had Enhance Ability (Fire) up, because the Meteor Step at the spear came out before it even hit the ground, throwing the diver forwards at high speed in a burst of flame.

Popping out of it to the absolute side and yanking it towards him was enough to get out of the way, causing the diver to crash into the tree behind instead with the sound of an explosion behind, but that wasn’t nearly enough.

Another Meteor Step. He hadn’t even really positioned, but he didn’t need to. His elevated position and the fact that Jeremy was now on the ground meant that the explosion it generated on contact with a surface was enough.

Repeat one.

His shields were nearly taken out by that hit alone. They weren’t incredibly invested, but it was still a moment of surprise before he remembered who he was up against. A moment long enough for the diver to cast Time Sink, followed by Curse of the Beacon, then another Meteor Step.

Repeat two.

His shields were gone, and the force of the contact explosion from the diver throwing his shields into the remnant’s of Jeremy’s was enough to throw him back a fairly significant distance.

But Jeremy had Rush nanites, this game.

Even with Time Sink’s slow (it felt like he was moving at a bit less than half the speed he should be, but could reasonably be closer to forty percent) Jeremy still managed to get his feet under him, the spear into alignment, and abilities activated as the Meteor Step crashed into him again.

Repeat three. Probably working off the primary cooldown now.

Meteor Step was fast, granted its user damage reduction while in flight, and caused damage in a fairly decent area when it hit a surface depending on the user’s speed on impact. Time Sink sped up its user based on how much it slowed enemies down. Curse of the Beacon meant that damage dealt to anyone hitting Jeremy would receive the damage they dealt as healing.

Jeremy had a really long spear and strong arms.

The spear won.

Not enough to get him a kill, obviously, because even with the excess speed it wasn’t enough to completely overcome Meteor Step’s damage reduction. But it was enough that the diver dropped to the twenty-percent range, and Jeremy’s Rallying Strike brought his own shields back to almost half.

He brought the spear back, then swung it back down into the shields in its extended grip, knocking the shields completely out even as the diver landed from his stopping point in midair.

He seemed to think better of keeping up the fight, Meteor Step-ing up towards the bridges.

Jeremy noticed that he didn’t take the direct route, instead speeding past them and then landing, ungainly, on the bridge.

“Starstrike is shields down.”

Some time in that mess, Emma had died and Jessica had ended up with a double kill.

Nathaniel laughed over the team chat. “Damn, you’re good at this. Worm health?”

Jeremy let a bit of smile creep onto his face as he walked into the Worm’s lair and triggered its follow ability. “Untouched.”

Jade was the next to speak. “Bring it mid. We should be able to get first base off that. Any idea on how the Starstrike player’s going to do this?”

He had to think for a moment, but the last Meteor Step and landing actually did.

“I think he’s pretty defensive on it. Didn’t push it after I stopped him once, and wasn’t willing to take the hit when he ran, either.”

“Still gotta look out for that,” Quince said, “But it’s better than it could be. We don’t really have much to deal with him.”

“Not directly, no,” Jade said. “Emma, Nathan, or Jer’ can stalemate him, but can’t really chase or stop him. Jessica can dodge him, but it would probably eat all her attention for a bit.”

“I fucking hate rocket tag, though.”

Jade sighed. “Sorry. If I could control the enemies so you didn’t have to do it I would.”

He reached the midlane from the center, with the enemy laner already retreating northwards, away from both him and Jade. Nathaniel and Jessica were on the way, and with the Worm’s arrival, the enemy minions began sinking slightly into the ground, making them take a bit more damage and move slower.

As they pushed in towards the first base, a combination of Nathaniel’s Void Strikes (which healed for some reason? He still hadn’t really figured out his allies builds beyond the generalities, and was slightly afraid to just ask them to hand him their ability sheets) and his own Rallying Strikes topped them off on health and kept the Worm in decent shape even through the beating it took from the base turrets.

Protector’s Rage, his passive, was a particular help there. Normally, he wouldn’t stand a chance at actually cutting through the metal and concrete until he had way more in the way of nanite boosts, but with so much damage done to allies it was almost easy.

Still, he knew it was temporary. The midlaner had come back quickly, dropping wide area grenades to severely weaken the minions and lightly damage everyone else.

Finally, the second midlane base nearly down and the threat of a five versus five looming ever closer, Jade had called off the push.

Not a second too early, because he saw Looming Shade chain off the minions before he teleported back to the base, killing them all with damage to spare.

Aetheo

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Sometimes all you need to do to beat someone's DPS is to just.... not get hit.

 

There are ways around Jeremy's skill and speed for him, but it's not the kind of thing hat he would realize he needs to do without prompting. It's just what he did with that second Meteor Step- the particular trick Jeremy pulled here only works for attempts at direct or near-direct hits, so you just use the AoE instead.

That said, that also loses some damage, so it isn't thought #1.