Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night - Chapter 211

Chapter 211: Specialization vs Generalization
While Zane still had quite the lead over the other members of his party. They were not far behind. Elena, of course, was not only a mere five levels behind Zane, but was also one of the only people in this world who currently had two skills.

After going through the incredibly painful process of consuming enough blood crystals to level up, Elena found herself at level 21. But there was a caveat to this. Elena like the others in her party had killed enough Tier V Undead over the past two weeks to finish the achievements [Slayer of the Dead – Tier V] and [Corrupted – Tier V]

In addition to this, she and the others received an extra boost of experience for completing the Collections associated with those two Achievements. Giving them all enough experience to gain another two levels in the process.

Because of this, Elena was now level 23, and had gained a total of six attribute points, which she applied to her own stats based upon Zane’s suggestions, and her own abilities.

—

[User: Elena Pryce]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 23]

[HP: 200/200]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 20]

[Dexterity: 20]

[Constitution: 20]

[Intelligence:17]

[Wisdom: 17]

[Charisma: 17]

[Skills]

[Time Reduction – Tier V]

[Temporal Blade – Tier I]

—

Though it would make sense for her to add more strength at this time. Zane was currently their biggest single target damage dealer. His ability to assassinate the undead of all tiers below that of a Horde King was truly remarkable.

Because of this, Elena and the others had adapted a strategy of focusing on getting all of their base stats to 20. Once they did that, their bodies and mind would literally be super human, allowing them a much better chance of surviving against the Horde Kings. Especially when operating together as a group.

Thus, Elena invested all six of her attribute points into raising her other two physical stats to twenty. This meant that as far as physicality was concerned, Elena was now operating at a “superhuman” level.

While at the same time, her mental attributes currently remained within the realm of “peak human.” Because of this, she would have a massive increase in survivability when dealing with the likes of Horde Kings.

When dealing with a Tier I Horde King, other than the likes of Gwen, Elena would be able to effectively coordinate with her party and survive an encounter, assuming she didn’t do something stupid to get herself killed.

That was, after all, how the party system was supposed to work. It would normally require a full party of level 25 Awakened humans, all of which had to be equipped with level 25 gear of at least rare quality to be able to take on, and potentially emerge victorious against a normal Tier I horde king.

Zane, of course, was the exception to this rule. He was unique insofar that he had a powerful, albeit limited, Horde of his own, which allowed him to effectively carry the girls to victory against those Horde Kings that were on Zander and Eliza’s level.

Still, if Elena and the girls truly wanted to take on an ordinary Tier I Horde King without Zane carrying them, they would need to gain an additional two levels, and upgrade their equipment to the same level that Zane’s currently was at. That was something which was an incredibly expensive process due to how much Unholy Essence cost in the store.

And while Eleana had improved her abilities by a significant amount, she was not alone in this regard. After all, the girls in the party had all advanced to level 23, and because of this, they each had their own advantages and disadvantages. Take Olivia, for example. Her character screen was quite impressive considering she had not yet gotten her hands on a Horde King’s blood crystal like Elean and Zane had.

—

[User: Olivia Benett]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 23]

[HP: 170/170]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 17]

[Dexterity: 17]

[Constitution: 17]

[Intelligence: 20]

[Wisdom: 20]

[Charisma: 20]

[Skills]

[Electric Discharge – Tier V]

—

As a mage, Olivia didn’t really require her physical attributes as much as some of the others did. Because of this, she made sure that her mental stats were at the superhuman level first. Although her primary stat was Intelligence, which helped increase the power of her current skill. It was not like Wisdom and Charisma were entirely useless to her.

Wisdom had a lot to do with perception. And increasing it allowed Olivia to more precisely locate threats to the group, and target them with her destructive power before they arrived. The higher the perception, the easier it was for her, and others, to notice things like Stalkers lurking in the background.

But Olivia’s approach to leveling was the total opposite of Madison’s. Not only did Olivia actually have good base stats, starting off with a normal 10 for all stats, with the exception of intelligence which she had a natural +2 modifier to. But she also played the opposite role of what Madison played in their group.

Madison was a tank type archetype. Her job was to lead the shield wall and focus the effort of the enemy upon herself. Where she would take the brunt of the Horde King’s damage, and be healed at the same time by Angelica. Creating what was hopefully a distraction that would allow Zane and the others to finish the job.

Her stats naturally reflected this role that she played.

—

[User: Madison Harrison]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 23]

[HP: 200/200]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 20]

[Dexterity: 18]

[Constitution: 20]

[Intelligence:15]

[Wisdom: 15]

[Charisma: 15]

[Skills]

[Force-Field Generation – Tier V]

—

Madison was the only party member in Zane’s group that had poor base stats. This was due to the fact that she had been raised as a spoiled socialite. The only stat she had that was any good was Charisma, and this was useless for her skills and tactics.

Because of this unfortunate reality, she would always play catch up to the others. Perhaps there was some way in this unknown wasteland for her to raise her base stats to a level that was similar to everyone else. But if there was, that was a mere fantasy at this point in time, because nobody had ever heard of such a thing.

And while her stays were lower than everyone else because of this, Madison had focused her efforts on at the very least maintaining two stats that were on par with everyone else in the party. Those were her primary and secondary stats.

By focusing on Constitution and Strength Madison could perform her role as the group’s target dummy. Meanwhile, Angelica would use her own rare abilities to heal Madison, keeping her in the fight long enough for the others to finish the job.

It was a tried and true, tested strategy in MMORPGs, and though they had yet to actually pull off such a tactic, Zane was quite certain that it was an ideal setup. Especially when he had his own minions to focus on the attention of the enemy horde.

Angelica was a healer, through and through. There was no other job she really provided. She had no offensive capabilities, nor did she even desire such a thing. She was a kind and pure soul, one who wished no harm to anyone.

But violence was the law of this world, especially now that it had become so hideously twisted. And if she wanted her friends to survive, then she would need to take a support role. And that was as the party’s healer. Because of this, her stats naturally reflected this.

—

[User: Angelica Morrison]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 23]

[HP: 160/160]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 17]

[Dexterity: 17]

[Constitution: 17]

[Intelligence:20]

[Wisdom: 23]

[Charisma: 17]

[Skills]

[Infuse Health – Tier V]

—

Angelica was a bit different from the others. To put is simply, she had a very specialized role to play in the party. And because of this, there wasn’t a glaring need to become superhuman as quickly as possible.

As a healer she should really be focusing on increasing her primary stat, that being wisdom, in order to multiply the effects of her healing skill. As a result, Angelica went the route of specialization. Where she spent the six attribute points that she had gained from these three-level ups in two specific stats.

That being Wisdom and Intelligence. Both of which were crucial to her role as a healer. Angelica, however, was not the only one to do this in the group. Like Angelica, Lily was not the same as Eleana and Madison, who had adopted for a more even spread of their attribute points.

She had personally witnessed the difference in speed between her, Zane, and Gwen. And because of this she put a hard emphasis on Dexterity. While sacrificing Constitution. Sure, it would take her longer to get a full 20 base stats, and truly become superhuman.

But at the same time, she had seen just how effective dexterity was in the field. And as a ranger like archetype. Dexterity was super important to her. Because of this she dumped an additional three Attribute points into Dexterity, and surprisingly used the other three on Wisdom.

—

[User: Lily Arbor]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 23]

[HP:170/170]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 17]

[Dexterity: 23]

[Constitution: 17]

[Intelligence: 17]

[Wisdom: 20]

[Charisma: 17]

[Skills]

[Green Thumb – Tier V]

—

There were two reasons why Lily had adopted this strategy of investing into Dexterity and Wisdom. As previously mentioned, wisdom helped with perception. And as the Party’s foremost scout, she needed to be on the lookout for dangers hidden around every corner. Without a high wisdom, she would fail to perceive these things.

Second, her skill, Green Thumb, just so happened to require wisdom in order for it to become more powerful. Thus, it worked out nicely. Yes, she would require more levels to reach a point where her attributes were all at a superhuman level.

But Lily cared more about specialization than general excellence. In fact, she was greatly anticipating the day that she could get her hands on a set of level 25 Epic Gear like Zane had. Because if she did, she might actually have a higher Dexterity stat than Zane, making her quite a capable ally.