Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story - Part 3

Vol.15 Ch.18: An Elf With a Rifle

In the same way Kai obtained a power buff to dominate her lane, Lars also got himself the red buff at game start.

It was unusual for a Carry to possess this buff early on, as it was universally agreed that mages put it to better use. Nonetheless, a marksman benefitted greatly from this buff as well.

ZAP! Headshot! Lars sniped a bowman straight in the forehead from his laser rifle.

Yes, he had a rifle, not a bow. It fired laser beams instead of arrows and it made a totally different sound. It was a sick skin that allowed Lars to ditch the basic bow in favor of this slick sci-fi rifle!

But, not everybody thought as highly of this skin.

"I'm amazed that this skin is tournament-legal," Yuel commented. "Not only does it look totally different, but it also has different animations and sound effects."

"Yep, they sure put a lot of work into this one!" Lars grinned. "That's why I coughed up that cash to get it. Ya know how I usually don't buy the stuff they shove into our faces on banners, but this was one skin I totally had to get, yo!"

"It looks nice, I agree. But, I feel like these laser beams sound a little louder than the arrows. Doesn't that put you at disadvantage in fights?"

"Hmm. Maybe?" Lars shrugged. "I guess it might be a little easier to react to."

"What do you mean 'a little easier'?" Kai interjected. "This loud sound cue helps a ton. Usually, you can barely hear the Elf releasing his arrows, but this rifle makes so much more noise in comparison."

"Really?" Lars cocked his head. "I can't say I feel that much difference."

"Indeed, indeed!" Vincent made noise. "It is only the Rhythm Reader who can sense such delicate differences!"

"'Delicate' my ass," Kai said. "This thing literally goes ZAAAP with every shot. It's like a whole different weapon."

"Yes, it truly is." Vincent nodded. "However, I read the designers exercised utmost caution when making this skin. They were aware of the glaring differences between this skin and the default, so they worked extra hard to ensure the skin felt as close as possible to the original on a mechanical level. They desired for it to be tournament legal, no compromises."

"Well, then they sure messed up in the sound department."

"Hmm. Perhaps that holds true when we consider players with acute hearing such as yours," Vincent conceded. "Nonetheless! On all other fronts, the rifle should indeed feel very much like the bow!"

"Yep, it's true, ya know?" Lars attested. "I remember taking the gun to training mode, thinking it gonna shoot faster than the bow and stuff. That was some hopium, haha."

"I told you it won't possibly happen," Yuel said. "If the rifle really fired faster than the bow, then it would have been a pay-to-win skin."

"Meh, they could've balanced that out by making the shots hit harder to hit or something. Or better yet, they could turn this into a real shooter and add limited ammo!"

"Now you're completely changing the class's kit."

"It'd be so cool, tho!"

The rifle was both cool and a little disappointing at the same time. It looked and sounded totally different from the default bow, yet functionally, it was exactly the same in terms of speed of power.

The animation of nocking an arrow took exactly as long as pressing the trigger on the rifle, as unrealistic as that sounded. Naturally, pulling the trigger in real life was much faster than nocking an arrow, but the devs stretched out the animation in order to make the two motions match.