The dungeon is full of Ice Giants. Make that Ice Giants and Giant White Wolves. According to the experienced adventurers it changes every week when it opens, so you never know what it is until someone returns.

The bosses are always the same though. Ice Giant, Wendingo, Demon and Dragon. What changes is which bosses followers fill the dungeon.

Cixelcid and Red Beard each pull a Giant to the side and the damage dealers start going at it. Poison Arrow proves very effective in this dungeon. Even if it’s reduced, it’s still a lot. Looking around, the only other poison he sees is Stubbs, possibly the other rogue too, but it didn’t look like it. Poison isn’t one of their class abilities, it’s a skill Stubbs got from a book.

The two giants are almost down when a patrol of wolves stumbles upon them. Cain turns the Golems at them, grabbing their attention and slowing them down. One the first of the giants drops, Cixelcid moves to tank the wolves, freeing up the Greater Golems to go all out on damage.

“They take way less damage than I expected” One of the clerics says.

“Maybe it’s the healing totem making it feel like they’re taking less? But it didn’t seem to be much different than what the tanks take.” the other cleric wonders.

The second Giant falls and Red Beard moves to help with the wolves. Cixelcid is no longer trying to actively grab them all, and two fall back on the Golems.

“Don’t worry about it, they pull monsters very well and don’t take too much damage, just let them be.” Cain suggests and Cixelcid lets them fight it out with the wolves.

Alternating targets and using multi shot with Poisoned Arrow proves to be the best tactic. It gets poison attacks up everywhere and the targets drop more evenly, so area attacks from their other damage dealers aren’t wasted.

The tanks said they’d call when a target needed to die first and everyone is trusting their judgement. Cain is going through much more mana than usual, thanks to the multi shot, but the way monsters are dying, so is everyone. They take a quick break after the wolves to get a bit of mana back before moving on, grabbing a pack of three and letting the Greater Golems take the third.

The melee attackers are fighting from behind them, and Cain is worried that they’ll simply turn around and squish someone, but they seem quite intent on killing the targets in front of them. Red Beard has used his Designated Aggressor skill on the 4 of them, the tanks and Golems, to increase their chance of being targeted.

[Cain Has Received Epic Item]

[Ice Giant Ring] has dropped

It’s not a ring at all, but a bracelet that adds Cold damage to all attacks and creations attacks. Good stuff for him.

The notification is faded, as Cixelcid has set loot to private. It prevents jealousy from derailing the run before it finishes and lets players keep important items secret.

A few pulls later, they’re at the first boss. The Ice Giant King. He throws ice spears, casts Blizzard, Stomps around and just basically makes a mess of any group formation.

For the Blizzard, which can’t be interrupted, they all agree to gather at the shaman, so the clerics can cast area heals and everyone will be in totem range. Normally one tank stays out and just eats damage to keep the boss away from the group, but today the Golems will do that and Cain will just Summon them back if they die. He switches them to their shield bearer mode and starts the pull on Cixelcid’s signal.

They charge and one immediate stomps, interrupting his first set of Ice spikes.

“They can interrupt? Have I ever told you how much I love you?” Red Beard jokes and the healers all laugh. The Paladin has an interrupt in the form of shield slam, but it only works once every minute. Not nearly often enough for a casting intensive boss like this.

The rotation is set. the Golems, then Red Beard then Cixelcid will interrupt casting, and hopefully get everything that can be interrupted. Mythryll forgets to mention that her Treant can too, but but it’s fine, she will use it if they come up short.

They’ve just gotten settled into a rhythm when the Ice Giant King blinds everyone with a Blizzard and they run towards the sound of the Shaman’s voice. The area heals are having no trouble keeping them all alive, and Misha’s enhanced Heal over Time effects coupled with buffs from her gear are keeping the Greater Golems alive. Not in great shape, but in no immediate danger of dying.

The Blizzard clears and Cixelcid returns to taking control of the boss with a taunt while Cain casts a fresh set of Golems, his small ones having stayed at the boss and been destroyed by the Blizzard. They’re back in action in seconds and a couple Poisoned Arrow Multi Shots get the debuff stacked back up on the boss.

He’s down to half now, quicker than Cain expected, when a set of Ice Spikes resists being stopped, slipping through their interrupts and causes wide spread damage. Nobody is in danger of dying, but Cain thinks of all the groups that tried to do this with one Healer. What sort of torture must that be?

They’ve got three, creating area healing spells, for ranged and melee fighters, and it’s just comfortable when coupled with the healing totem. The shaman is a Caster type, preferring to use Chained Lightning attacks to defeat enemies instead of going in to melee and enchanting her weapon. It’s visually stunning, the flashing lights and all, and effective, leaving huge scorch marks on her targets.

Soon after, the boss drops just as he begins another Blizzard.

[Level Up]

“Good job everyone. Take a few minutes to catch your breath before we move on.” Red Beard congratulates them.

“That experience is incredible! I leveled up already.” Someone shouts and Cixelcid smiles at Cain.

[We’re at what, 600 percent bonus?] he sends in friends chat.

[About that, yeah. There’s a few extra summons along with mine] Cain sends back.