LS 4

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: Leave out the dots too.

The moment Dohee sent the whisper, the guy stopped swinging his dagger at the rabbit. Then he just stood there, nearly a full minute passed without a word or movement. Maybe he was looking up how to whisper? Dohee decided to be patient a little longer.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: …No, really, drop the three dots.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: Just type /whisper nickname to send it.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: General chat is visible to everyone on this map.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: I’ve got stuff I want to ask.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: So try whispering, please.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: I’m not trolling you.

About thirty seconds later, an actual whisper finally arrived.

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: Like this?

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: Oh! It worked! ㅎㅅㅎ

…Wow. Incredible.

Dohee nearly typed something sarcastic, but managed to hold his tongue. Right, he might not know. Not everyone knows how to whisper. Sure, it’s not hard, but maybe he just never learned. He’s a newbie. I should be understanding. Of course, I didn’t act like that even when I was a newbie, but still…

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: First, accept the party invite. How many rabbits do you have left?

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: I can do it on my own… ㅠㅡㅠ

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: …I’m not saying you can’t.

Dohee was about to type: If I help, what would take you ten minutes will be done in thirty seconds, but he just sighed and ran a hand down his face. Forget it. If he doesn’t want help, whatever.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: Alright, then finish up the rabbit quest.

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: You said you had something to ask…

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: Later. Just finish your quest first.

Dohee sat his character down on a rock and blankly watched the guy go back to chasing rabbits. He couldn’t help but sigh. If anyone knew Support inside and out, it was him. And that newbie clearly had no idea how to play the class. It was obvious, and it kept bothering him.

Support was, by design, a hybrid class capable of both healing and damage. On paper, that sounded great, “Both DPS and heals? Must be a top-tier class!” But no game company would make it that easy. Its damage was weaker than a DPS, and its healing was weaker than a healer. So then, why does the Support class exist? What’s its role?

The answer was in the name: supporting. It was a class focused on aiding the party, applying buffs, debuffs, and light heals. If timed right and used well, a Support’s buffs could spike the team’s DPS dramatically. The satisfaction of seeing that “DPS high” was part of the appeal.

So then, why did Support have such a poor reputation? Why were there so few users? The answer was simple: it was hard. You had to know other classes well, understand boss patterns and raid gimmicks inside and out. If you didn’t, you couldn’t even pull your own weight. You’d become worse than useless. But on the flip side, if you mastered it, you could be more valuable than anyone.

That used to be true.

Nowadays, in Sword of God, Support was what they called a “chicken rib” class: not worth picking, but just useful enough to be annoying to ignore. Most raids had evolved into pure DPS races that didn’t need supporting at all.

That was exactly why Baek Dohee, who had poured his heart into the class, had ended up abandoning his main, GoingSupport. The good old days of joyful raids with good people had long since passed.

And now, this oddball newbie didn’t even seem to know which of his skills did damage and which healed. It was unclear how many random abilities he was using just to kill one rabbit. Just watching made Dohee nauseous. Even after a drink of cold water, the tightness in his chest didn’t go away.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: Why are you using a heal skill on a rabbit? Are you hurt?

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: Huh? I’m not hurt… 8ㅅ8

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: “Touch of Vaian” is a shield skill to save HP. The blue one.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: Don’t use that. Use “Flame of Lumithien” instead.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: That red one’s best for hunting.

The character stopped, looked around while holding a dagger, the Support’s default weapon, and raised his hand toward the air. A fire spirit emerged in a burst of red light and charged toward the rabbit.

That was exactly the skill Dohee had just told him to use: Flame of Lumithien.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: Good.

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: Whoa… this skill is really good!

…It’s your skill, dude.

Dohee let out a quiet, incredulous laugh. This was going to be a long road. The big, clunky character started hopping up and down in joy. So he did know how to use emotes, apparently.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: So you know how to use emotes.

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: This one???

The character jumped again.

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: It told me in the guide quest ㅎㅅㅎ

Well, that made sense. It had been so long since Dohee did the guide quests that he’d completely forgotten they taught that. He was willing to bet everything in his bank account that this newbie only knew that one emote out of the twenty-plus available.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: You know how to use any others?

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: No… 8ㅅ8 Are there more?

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: lol Just go finish the rabbit quest.

He listened surprisingly well. When told to finish up, he whipped out his dagger again and cast Flame of Lumithien with impressive determination. At least he wasn’t forgetting what he’d just learned.

The Support class worked by summoning elemental spirits, earth, fire, wind, water, lightning, and borrowing their power to use skills. Other spirits had offensive skills too, but this guy was only summoning the fire spirit nonstop. Dohee felt his blood pressure rise again.

He finished picking the last of the Dawn Roses by a nearby rock and checked the newbie’s character.

View Character Info

GOingSupport187

Level 17

Class: Support

Title: Growing

Equipment:

– Robe of Promise (Lv. 5)

– Glasses of Promise (Lv. 5)

– Dagger of Promise (Lv. 5)

– Gloves of Grudge (Lv. 10)

– Shoes of Grudge (Lv. 10)

– Tunic of Promise (Lv. 5)

– Pants of Grudge (Lv. 10)

Dohee burst into laughter again. What was this garbage gear? All mismatched levels and sets, no way he was getting any set bonuses. And why was a level 17 wearing level 5 and 10 gear? At that level, he should have at least level 15 equipment for decent damage. No wonder he couldn’t kill rabbits properly. Dohee wanted to say something, but he didn’t even know where to start. From 1 to 10, this newbie was a total disaster.

And it wasn’t like information wasn’t out there, YouTube had guides, forums had builds. Even just following the tutorial quests should’ve gotten him decent gear. Did he not pick anything up from those?

Dohee’s hand hovered over his keyboard, frozen. Then a whisper popped up and brought him back to life.

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: Um… I finished the rabbit quest… 8ㅅ8

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: Oh, you did?

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: Yep! I was gonna leave now, but… you said you wanted to ask something…

He’d wandered back to the rock where Dohee’s character sat, nervously fidgeting with the edge of his robe. It was just the character’s idle animation, but for some reason, he looked… pitiful.

Dohee had been about to comment on the gear and skills but decided to ask what he really wanted to know instead. The rest, well—if he quit, he quit. Not really Dohee’s business either way.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: Hey.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: I’m not asking to bully you or anything.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: I’m seriously just curious.

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: Why are you trying to play Support?

[Whisper to GOingSupport187]: And also… what’s up with your name? lol You sound like a fake GoingSupport.

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: ???

[Whisper from GOingSupport187]: GoingSupport is a legend, how dare you call him a fake ㅠㅡㅠ… That’s so rude…

…Hi. I’m that GoingSupport, actually.