Friday 5 September 2014

- Pre-Renewal - Paladin WoE

  • Small Brief
Paladin are made to be fat. While they're to most fattest class around, that's Lord Knight, with their defensive skills, they're made to resist and eat a lot of damage. In this guide we will cover their most loved and hated builds, devotion.
Being a Devotion Paladin may look easy to some but it's a lot harder to a lot of people. Most of the players that never played it think that it's one of the easiest classes to be played and, while that's true, it's also a big lie.
  • What you should aim
Since we're talking about Devotion, I think that most of the readers know what this is about - HP and DEX - and while they're right, they forgot one thing: ASPD. Focus on those three for this order and you got yourself a win.
  • Build Advice
    • Stats
      • Being a Devotion Paladin is quite easy in terms of gears and stats. Get 99 DEX, 99 VIT, check if there are gym passes in the server and see if you want to use the extra points into STR or AGI.
      • Don't forget that while you must have 150 DEX [this is a personal preference since 149 can be interrupted and screw your spam a lot of time but if you're fine with 149, go with it], you should also try to get 180+ ASPD because spamming Devotion with less kinda sucks if you check the rhythm of spamming.
    • Gears
      • Gears are easy, just get 150 DEX [or whatever number you're fine with] with accessories and headgear and focus the rest on HP.
      • Stuff like Diabolus Armour, Diabolus Shoes and Diabolus Manteau, Bradium Shield are what you should use. Ignore the Proxy Skin and Valkyrie Shield, you don't need reduces, you need HP. If where you play there are even better gears in terms of HP, use them. The higher is your HP, the better, more time the player being devoted can survive.
      • Stuff like Peco Peco Card, Aliot Card, Green Ferus, or Matyr Card, up to what you prefer and the extra stat affect your gameplay, and other HP cards are a must have.
      • For a Devotion Paladin, Marc/Evil Druid cards and Thara/Horn cards aren't a big priority to have since you're supposed to be out of range of anything that can potentially hurt you inside Apple of Idun and Assassin Cross of Sunset songs but it's nice to have them to swap when needed.
  •  Some useful advice
    • Learn to use first aid to counter times where your cast is cut and you end silly and can't cast Devotion again.
    • Always spam Devotion non-stop.
    • Don't forget that while Devotion has an huge range from where you can cast, the last 2 cells are fake and Devotion can be stopped from there making your devoted player die stupidly at times.
    • Always play with 89% weight, full of HP items.
    • Use the friend list to Devote players faster. While the Party menu is fine, it can become a mess so with the friend list only having the needed players to focus, it ends being easier to do it.
    • Never Devote more then 3 players, more than that is overkill and ends killing you.
    • Refuse to Devote bad or poorly geared players. You're supposed to Devote players to be able to kill others, not to waste potions into bad players.
  • Funny Facts
With a Tao Gunka Card and Apples, you can get 60k HP, making your Devotion Paladin pretty much survive everything that is thrown at your devoted chars, even those 30k asuras.

Saturday 30 August 2014

- Pre-Renewal - Gypsy WoE

  • Small Brief
Gypsies is the transcendent class of Dancer. The class, in a nutshell, is usually considered a total junk due to the poor skills given when compared to the ones that a Clown has and the stats from job level bonus looking like the wrong ones that people would want until you actually play one and see that is already quite good and probably even overpowered if you don't use some specific gear. The Gypsy, as the Clown, also can get skills from the opposite gender by being buffed with their correspondent Soul Link.
  • What you should aim
That actually depends a bit on what you want to focus but it should always be around, at least, VIT and DEX. A stat to take into consideration is AGI but that, as I told before, depends on what you want to do.
  • Build Advice
Gypsy WoEs are usually seen only doing two jobs:
    • Stun by using Scream and/ or uses Tarot into incoming people.
    • Debuffing players by doing rushes into the enemy group and using skills like Bragi Level 1 to debuff the Level 10 of the enemy, Assassin Cross of Sunset Level 1 to debuff the Level 10 of the enemy, Apple of Idun Leven 1 to debuff the Level 10 of the enemy and Slow Grace 10 to make the spam be slower since it lowers the enemy ASPD by a lot due to debuff a couple of ASPD buffs.
    • Stats
While a Scream Gypsy can be used for both things, it's not that amazing when compared to a pure Debuffer so we will cover each one separated.
      • Scream Gypsy
        •  There are two ways to be a "Screamer"
          • The easy way is achieved by putting your stats should mainly focused into AGI and VIT. VIT should be 97 [unless you want the anti-curse and better Apple of Idun Level 10 with Soul Link from the 100 total VIT] and it's just to evade the stun since the enemy should have one Gypsy doing the same job as you. AGI is to be able to achieve 190 ASPD to spam Scream [yes, it's possible to achieve 190 ASPD with 150 AGI and 1 base DEX at a Gypsy since the DEX bonus are high if you use foods and buffs with a dagger equipped].
          • The "I'm also OK being a debuffer/buffer if needed and also uses Tarot Card of Fate". In this case, you should focus on AGI/VIT/DEX, by this order.
            • VIT should be 97 [anti-stun but not-anti-curse and to give a bit not so good apples to the enemy NOTE: You can also go 100 VIT, still possible but you're limiting your already not so good stats so this is a bit to try to help with the balancing but you can go that route if you want to buff your team when the clown isn't around].
            • It's possible to achieve 190 ASPD with this build too, with a dagger, but the true power of a debuffer/buffer won't be achieved since you've AGI that increased the Assassin Cross Power which may not look like a lot but won't be strong as a pure debuffer and you won't have any decent stats to buff the party aside Apple of Idun because the other stats are just in an OK state.
            • If you're doing a lot of Tarot Card of Fate, achieve those 190 ASPD with 149 DEX to spam it fast instead of having a slow cast. This also helps with the Assassin Cross of Sunset Level 1 at the enemy and you may even consider this a pure Tarot Card of Fate Gypsy build but just spamming that won't get you far since the card that appears is random and sometimes luck sucks.
            • This build isn't that amazing as a Debuffer Gypsy but has some cool positive points like being able to spam Tarot or Scream according situations always at max ASPD as soon as you're inside a good bragi and a good Assassin Cross of Sunset.
      • Debuffer Gypsy
        • There is only one way to do this:
          • 100 total VIT
          • Highest DEX possible in 10s
          • There is no way to get wrong with this. Either get 170 or 160 DEX, your choice, but get it. This is a char made to annoy people with Slow Grace Level 10 and nothing else. The high DEX is used to buff Slow Grace effect that debuffs the enemy ASPD since with Poem of Bragi, after having 149/150 DEX [preference of the players even if 149 DEX is better because you can cancel the animation of any skill], only ASPD matters to use a skill faster. While the skill also affects players with points put into AGI, we're buffing our Assassin Cross of Sunset Cross.
    •  Gear
      • Both builds use the same gears aside a small change in shield or accessories to be easier to achieve the 190 ASPD in the screamer [like Thorn Shield+Horn of the Buffalo].
        • BG SET - it gives +3 dex in total and you can still enchant it aside all those buffs that are amazing.
        • Matyr Card, Noxious Card, Horn Card, Smokie Card should always be on! We're using a BG set that gives -10% ranged damage so let's make use of his amazing power and the Smokie Card is a must to have one due to the songs ending putting your char in a lots of wrong spots that you can't, sometimes fast enough, identify and die.
        • Combat Knife or any dagger[4] with a Golem Card[to not break] and 3 cards that help you with your build.
        • 2 Instruments with a Golem Card[to not break] and 2 other cards to help with your build[yes, Fabre Cards are fine but check first if Drop Card or Female Thief Bug are more helpful and yes, they should be the same to not getting a chance of stats with them] to spam songs faster since swapping weapons cancel the song being used. Try to master this to be able to do songs really fast, like one per 0.5 seconds: song->swap instrument->other song->swap instrument->repeat.
          NOTE - in official servers, just get one and swap between the Instrument and the Dagger since swapping Instruments won't cancel the active song.
        • If your server has the Yellow Bandana or Yellow Ribbon, get it, it's amazingly good since it reduces ranged damage even further and, do to the way stacking works, it's better than a Feather Beret.
        • The rest is a personal choice, you've some freedom on that depending on what you want to do with your char.
  • Some useful advice
    • Learn to master your hiding with Smokie, you will need it a lot, specially from Asura Champions [yes, it's possible to hide from 149/150 DEX Champions but it also asks for some pray and luck and it's already quite hard from 140 DEX ones]
    • Priority Slow Grace over the other songs, you want first the enemy debuffed, the rest is more of to annoy.
    • Never use Tarot Card of Fate at a Debuffer Gypsy unless you've nothing to do, the skill may be spammable but won't be that fast as a proper 190 ASPD 149 DEX one.
    • Don't be spam Tarot Card of Fate all the time, even at a proper build for it, the skill sometimes fail and the enemy may notice your spam and swap gears to kill someone and end screwing your team.
    • Use Throw Arrow to finish Coma Cards, do not use Arrow Vulcan. Not only the Arrow Vulcan animation is big but it can't be reduced either by anything, unless your server changed it to work with reducible after-cast gear/skills.
  • Funny Facts
Everybody thinks that they suck until they play one or play against one.

Friday 29 August 2014

- Renewal - Sorcerer WoE/PvP

  • Small brief
Sorcerer is the third class of Scholar/Professor, depending on where you're playing. They're still amazing supporters in the battle but now they can kill like nobody and have cute little friends around to help them with their jobs. The use of one at WoE is the same at PvP - Disable, disable, disable but since you've now more points to use at stats and new cool skills, you can also kill, kill, kill without having the need to go either full offensive or full support in terms of builds.
  • What you should aim
Since this guide is about WoE/PvP and Sorcerer, you're probably thinking that you want VIT, DEX as main stats like Professors were in the past but let me tell you this, you're wrong. You want mainly DEX and INT and items [gears and consumables] that complement it. You also need the little friend of the picture. Yep, you're right, Ventus! Why? Keep reading to know why.
  • Build Advice
    • Stats
As we said before, a Sorcerer is now a Godly character with everything, if you've the right skills to complement that, of course. The reason of why we said to focus mainly on DEX and INT is just one - to be able to use Ventus at max potential. If you can't still see why, I will give you a clue and then explain why.
    • Wild Storm, passive skill from Ventus:
      • Boosts ASPD by 5 and shorts Fixed Cast Time by 1 second
      • Enables autocast of Lightening Bolt when physically attacking.
      • Grant a 50% chance of not consuming a Wind of Verdure or Yellow Gemstone when using Endow Tornado or Whirlwind.
I think that's easy to see where it's going right? If you can't, I will tell you. It's because of the -1 second Fixed Cast Time!
If you loose sometime checking all the skills of Sorcerer, you will noticed that pretty much all have Variable Cast+1 Second Fixed Cast. Since we've Ventus out in passive mode, we only have Variable Cast! Since the cast is cut by INT and DEX. Due to how the cast calculation is made, you just need to have DEX*2+INT=530 which may look hard but it isn't that much since 180 DEX/170 INT is quite easy to get with Zerom Cards and +20 food and Blessing, specially now that the max level of the characters is 175.

Quick Note - Just in case that you still think that this will make your character squishy, you still have enough points to get over 100 VIT just by using +30 Stat Foods[+10 Stat Food and +20 Stat Food together for INT and DEX boosts] at level 150 so yes, there is enough ways to do your build and get instant cast with a bunch of skills.

So, as you can see, your character is quite good for most of the situations [yes, I know that AGI is good at Renewal but let's face it, having Instant Cast is amazing at a Sorcerer, specially now that they've amazing offensive skills].
  • Skills
      • Well, the base is still the same, LP, AoE elemental buffs, Dispell, etc, the usual Professor support skills but now with some offensive additions and no, not talking about bolts. The following ones are the must get.
        • All the Endows maxed.
        • Psychic Wave - neutral magical damage. It's good because Marc/Evil Druid Cards aren't a must and some people prefer to default other cards like Pasana so you're actually using your good MATK to kill people!
        • Vacuum Extreme - Stops people from moving, an amazing new AoE Spider Web!
        • Diamond Dust - I know that it gives Water Damage but it also haves a chance of Freezing which makes everybody slow in cast and walk besides reducing their defences!
        • Warmer - AoE Anti-Freezing, Anti-Cystalization and Anti-Frozen  in a skill. All I can say is WOW.
        • Earth Grave - Bigger Heaven's Drive? That's cool, specially with Wind Insignia for 150% more damage which you should get since you're getting Ventus.
    • Gear
      • I already told you about them, focus on DEX and INT. There a bunch of new gear in Renewal so you should check what you can get and what you want to use and if you want to make your character more defensive or offensive depending on your game style. If you want to go extreme with +30 Stats from foods, I can already tell you that you've enough freedom to choose from Headgear, Armour, Garment, Shield, Weapon.
  • Some useful advice
Playing a Sorcerer isn't easy, it's actually quite difficult. You can't just spam a skill because you want, you need to see the field and think first before doing it. If you fail at the begin, keep trying, after a while you will get the hang of it. Here is some basic advice:
    • You should always use Warmer when needed to prevent "disasters".
    • Vaccum people that are potential dangers to Dispell and/or kill them.
    • Earth Grave when you have the feeling that someone is coming cloaked/hidden and if you want, use it even for kills while revealing by having Wind Insignia activated.
    • Use Dispell as soon as you see someone, you don't want someone around doing damage full buffed.
    • If there is space for kills, make use of your Earth Grave/Diamond Dust and Psychic Wave for that along the AoE Land buffers [Deluge, Whirlwind or Volcano] once at a time since you can only have one active at a time.
    • Blinding Mist is overpowered, remember to dominate the usage of it. It prevents pretty much everything to hit you and using it on top of Deluge with a Swordfish or Water Elemental Armour[1] gives you +%HP as a bonus.
    • Safety Wall is good vs physical damage, don't underestimate it.
    • Soul Exchange and Soul Burn are both amazing but don't forget that Health Conversion isn't also bad to have, specially when you've access to Energy Coat.
    • If you're doing WoE, you still need Blue Potions, specially when you fail a Soul Burn.
    • Don't forget that Land Protector is still quite good to use even if nowadays not that much as before because of skills as Warmer.
  • Funny Facts
To be honest, this time I don't have any. I already covered their capacity to get Instant Cast with Ventus that was pretty much the only Funny Fact that I had to post. If you want, I can tell you that they're probably the best character to use at PVP with this Instant Cast.

Sunday 17 August 2014

- Pre Renewal - Champion PVM

  • Small Brief
Champion is probably the cheapest character to play at PVM as soon as you've good gears for it. With Asura Strike, they can put down anything. The way to use it is pretty easy - full SP->Dangerous Soul Collect->Critical Explosion->Dangerous Soul Collect->Asura Strike! - but do you know how to maximise their damage? This guide will focus on that.
  • What you should aim
As a champion, you probably already know that Asura Strike already does damage based on ATK and SP so that's on what we will focus.
  • Build Advice
 INT should be your top priority, after that focus on STR and DEX, by this order, but not too much, we don't want to die before cast so we need a good chunk of DEX.
    • Stats
      • As we already said, you should focus on INT, the formula of Asura. This main focus on INT is because each point put there increases your potential damage due to also increase SP. Considering that your Champion is a lv99 char, before applying modifiers and gears, each point put on INT is the same as increasing your damage by ~5%. Since we're focusing on three main stats and this is our main one, we should try to focus on 100 to 110 total, more is overkill since it will already ask you too many points for each INT added and we still need some more at other stats.
      • STR should be similar to DEX but in this case we don't really want it balanced, we want it adapted to our play style. First find your ideal value of DEX, it should be around 60 to 85 base [as with every other thing, more is overkill and anything with a cast time of over 0.6 seconds - use a calculator for this - is too slow], after that, try to get around 100 to 120 STR. While more STR means more ATK that can be directly translated into damage because each 10 STR means an extra 10% damage, sometimes is nicer to be able to cast faster to be sure that you can deal the damage and win a MVP. Also, gears to boost SP are easier to get, so don't be pumped right away to boost it to max!
      • If after all this you still have some leftover points, add them to LUK for the extra +1 ATK. You may think that +1 ATK does nothing but due to the way Asura Strike works, +1 ATK can mean something like 1000-2000 extra damage, the missing damage to one shot that nasty MVP!
    • Skills
      • Well, I don't really think that we need to cover this, right? Full buffed, full SP, Dangerous Soul Collect->Critical Explosion->Dangerous Soul Collect->Asura Strike BAM!
      • If you want to increase the damage, grab a priest with Lex Aeterna to double the damage.
      • If you still see that Lex Aeterna isn't enough, grab a Dancer/Gypsy with the maximum INT possible in multiples of 10s to increase your SP even more.
      • If, after all this, you still think that the damage isn't enough, get a Paladin with Gospel and wait for the +SP, +ATK and +STATS buffs.
    • Gear
      • Well, after all this, I think that any can identify what we all want from our gears is SP and that's not possible, we want ATK so we should focus on stuff as Diabolus Rings, Diabolus Robe with Stat Enchant, High Refine Niddghour's Proxy Skin, Variant Shoes, etc.
      • Don't forget that, while INT enchant would be cool and stuff on Diabolus Robe, you may want a STR one to give you more points to spent on INT!
      • Porcellio Card is also better than a Roda Frog Card to use at an armour. Porcellio gives a bonus ATK similar to one from 130 STR which is like 30% extra damage compared to the SP given that is like 25% from 5 extra points added to INT.
      • Ignore reduce cards at the Shield Slot, if you can [some MVPs can't be done this way, the slaves kill you easy before you drop an Asura], use the ones that give +% dmg like Tatacho, Aqua Elemental, etc.
      • Don't be shy to use a Phen Card or even an Orlean's Uniform. While the Uniform drops your damage by quite a bit, the Phen just asks for a swap of an accessory. Cheap or expensive solution, what to do...
      • Let's not also forget the weapon, a Luna Kaligo[3]. A cheap weapon also used to farm food that can be used at your character to make your build more efficient! The ideal would be using 2 Abysmal Knight Cards plus one Elemental Card, like Santa Poring Card or Drainliar Card, but if you can't go that route, try to grab 3. As a cheap solution, you can play with Santa Poring Cards and/or Minorous Cards since most of the MVPs that you want to see going down are either shadow or large. Note: Santa Poring Cards are cheap since they come from Gift Boxs.
      • As a cheap solution for gears, you can also start with a Morpheu's Set [Hood, Shawl and both accessories] and a Barrage Fist[4] with the suggested cards above.
  • Some useful advice
Don't be afraid to use a Phen Card or to put more DEX in your build, if it's your style to make thinks go down, just do it!
Having some Blue Potions, or any other SP item, always with you is cool. Since you loose some SP after using Dangerous Soul Collect, you may want to put your SP to full with one.
Don't use Teleport to search for a MVP, use a Priest/High Priest or Fly Wings. Using SP is a waste of time and you need all you can to kill the MVP.
If Speed Potions are easy to get, try to get some and use right away when you cast Asura. While it may look like it does nothing, your char still has to walk to the MVP to use the skill and sometimes you die because of the walking time instead of the casting time. Just remember to check the rules of where you play because some servers have rules against the use of them at PVM.
  • Funny Facts
The way Asura Strike is coded doesn't let you use more than 6000 SP. Even if you've 9999 SP, the damage will only take into consideration the 6000.

Saturday 9 August 2014

- Pre-Renewal - Hunter PvP



  • Small Brief
Hunter is the second job of Archer. With their "evolution" comes a bunch of new cool skills that help them do justice to their job name. Yes, I'm talking about traps. Many just know the typical Ankle Snare and that's all, they ignore the power of the rest of the mighty arsenal that a Hunter has available and how good they're in terms of supporting and how much one can destroy with a partner. In this guide, we will cover the way an hunter should be played during PvP and how much they're amazing when played by someone that knows what to do.
  • What you should aim
As you may already have noticed, we're going to focus on trap skills and as many already know, there really isn't any specific build to be a PvP Trapper, another commonly used name for this type of build, so many just go with the same as WoE or PVM. While a part of that is right, it's also wrong. You can actually kill people with this char using this build if you know how to do things right and without any of those crappy builds made just for a side of the game. Welcome to the world of PvP.
  • Build Advice
DEX and AGI should be your priority followed by VIT. You also need to know that you've to master the usage of pretty much all your skills or you will look dumb trying to use them. Here are some things to know before make a char like this.
    • Stats
      • You should focus on 80+ base DEX, 50+ base AGI and 20+ VIT.
      • DEX is your main damage, AGI is to get higher ASPD to use Double Strafe faster since the delay is based on it and VIT to give you more HP to survive more and to get less time stunned or/and cursed in case it happens.
      • Optionally, you can always trade some AGI and VIT for immunity to sleep or get more VIT but that's all about your play style. The reason for the immunity it's because of the Sandman Skill, more info in the next item about skills.
      • Make sure that your build has, at least, 83 total AGI to ensure minimum Ankle Snare time just in case you get into them.
      • If you see that you can't hold traps, arrows and the rest of the gear, grab some STR, 20 is a good number to start and it's normal to have it at this type of chars when you don't have Gym Passes - NOTE: Gym Pass is an item used to boost your character's weight by 200. Until a max of 10 can be used to achieve more 2000. This is usually a donation item/kafra item in every server. - to boost it.
    • Skills
      • Double Strafe it's your killing skill so make sure to have a good bow with three Hydra Cards plus a Skeleton Worker Card in a +10 Composite Bow
      • An Hunter isn't an Hunter without his Status Bow. Make sure to have a four slotted one with the cards that you wish to give status with them. Some people prefer four of the same card to be sure that they give the right one, some others prefer variety just in case the enemy is immune to the one trying to be given, preferences, play with them and see what fits your style.
      • Sandman Skill is cool, specially since you can activate yourself. Just remember that the trap can trigger Sleep on you so it's advised to have immunity to sleep before doing it. The common ways to do it are:
        • Equip a Nightmare Card into an headgear
        • Have 97/100 INT [the values depend on the server configurations]
        • Having a Nightmare Terror Pet
      • Spring Trap is amazing to disable/clean traps fast. Just make sure to have the falcon with you and you're at four or more cells away from them. You will be amazed by how good is this ignored skill.
      • Anke Snare is amazing at all levels so just don't use five, remember that less levels means less time snared but more space for an higher number of traps.
      • Arrow Repel is cool to use if you're being surrounded by players and you don't have time to drop traps.
      • Blast and Claymore can "show" you some of the aspects of what you're facing.
        • Their damage is ignorable until Renewal or unless you're playing some super old episodes but you can still use them to your advantage.
        • Know which elemental arrow to use! Blast is Wind and Claymore is Fire, less damage from one of them means that the enemy has elemental reductions to that element and there is an high chance to that be an armour card giving you the chance to give more damage with the opposite one.
        • See if the enemy has high DEF and high fire reduction! Claymore traps don't ignore DEF so you can also predict if the char being faced has high DEF and VIT or not. While this doesn't help you a lot, it may help your team knowing which should be their targets like high DEF means less MDEF, more power to wizards!
      • Freezing and Land Mine can be used for status. We know that they already give them by default [freeze and stun] but you can also use gears that activate them to activate them with this skills. While a Status Bow is common on an Hunter because of their Arrow Repel Skill that let's them activate them in a decent area, having a knife with Status Cards let's you tank damage while using traps since you can use a shield.
      • Shockwave is amazing since it steals SP from players. It's amazing to use when you see an Asura coming to make sure that you survive the hit.
      • Detecting works like Sight but has a big delay due to the high animation, make sure to not be caught on it. If you're not sure on where your enemy is, trap first, detect later.
    • Gear
      • There isn't much to choose from aside the usual stuff that any non-trans class use aside maybe Tights[1] that may be good to use because of the +1 DEX. Just make sure that your gear complements your build like Glove[1] with Zerom to achieve the next ATK bonus of DEX or grab a Poo Poo Hat to survive more since you're more of going into the middle of the mess to put a Sandman and activate it right away.
  • Some other useful advice
    • There isn't any to be honest, everything was already told at the Skill part this time.
  • Funny Facts
    • Hunter and Prist make a perfect team since they complement each other. The somewhat fragile side of an Hunter can be completed with a Priest by their side while also making their damage be twice deadly.