.hack QUARANTINE - Macha

( Warning: SPOILERS! ) Phase 6: Macha, the Temptress Party: Kite, Balmung, Wiseman (all lv. 91) Hi, I'm a slacker. Seems someone else picked up the scragglers in my absence, but hopefully you'll find my sass and wit amusing all the same. :P That said... who saw THIS coming? Really, and even MORESO if you've watched .hack//SIGN, this whole "hi, I'm a Phase!" thing was bound to happen at some point. Poor Elk. :( Also of note: this is the ONLY Phase battle that doesn't force BlackRose on you. So I hauled in my favorite killing pair: Balmung and Wiseman! Macha ties with Skeith on my annoy-o-meter, since both are the only ones so far who could realistically threaten a party wipe if you're not careful. Two Words: Suspicious Seduction. Even if you have capped status resistances (easily doable for Kite), the charm affect is auto-hit, and in most cases you're stuck with issuing a global First Aid order and hoping the survivors don't faceplant before it all wears off. x.x BUT, as you'll see, I encountered a rather amusing pathfinding glitch that worked to my advantage: on two instances, Balmung and Kite ended up running into each other until the charm wore off. Lucky me! On a final note... Macha's carrying a Fragment. One has to wonder if Mia knew she was holding one of those, or thought it was just Aromatic Grass? Then again, she WAS a no-show in all the other instances that Aura summoned you to cough up her Fragments... :P