[RO] Ragnarok Online - now with our own IRC!

[helvetica]

I'm not even playing yet. My new lappy is due tomorrow, though.

I'm just saying, I may go Scholar or High Wiz, haven't totally decided yet.

That said, I'm sure a Sage can be of more use than just Magnetic Earth alone, or else I might be more inclined to go HWiz instead. Hmmmm.

Caster classes kind of get shafted in group play.  Not saying your role isn't desperately needed, just realize you're probably going to be a one trick pony for most encounters.

For HWizzies it's spam proper elemental AoE to kill trash, use Ganbaiten to cancel ground effects, repeat.  Cast Quagmire/Ice Wall here and there to slow stuff down and maybe use Water Ball if Deluge is an option.  For Sages it's sit in the back, cast Magnetic Earth, convert your HP to SP and give it to people who need it like Asura Monks/etc.

If you were looking to be the dude attacking the boss/big stuff you should probably roll some flavor of Assassin Cross or Sniper or LK.  SBK/EDP DD Assassins do the highest DPS in the game, Snipers can do great against low def MVPs and Sharpshooting is fun way to clear mobs, and traps are always useful.  LKs don't do as much damage being a tanker role, but they're crucial in keeping aggro away from the squishies, and Spiral Pierce is fun as hell to spam.  Then there's weirder flavors of DPS classes like Asura Monks or AD Creators or Dex Gypsies.

HWizzie/Scholar is pretty much a support role in group play.  Which is weird to say because their "support" is "kill all the dudes that aren't the boss" lol.

[Matsuri]

Well see, I'm not used to group play at all-- back when I used to play, it was pretty much me soloing everything, or partying with one or two other people. I may make a SinX or LK sometime, I suppose.

Hmm. Scholar would definitely be fun in PvP, though, and as long as I can be useful in groups and solo at least somewhat decently, I'm happy I guess :V

[helvetica]

Be aware PvP builds are generally vastly different than MVP/group play builds, and likely there's not going to be much of PvP play for a good long while.  I got an SBK Sin so that's kind of set.  I dunno if we need more LKs yet, last I checked we got 1 confirmed Spiral Pierce LK and one 2H Parry LK.  Ask Piamette on #shrinemaiden and she can let you know what we desperately need.

[Stuffman]

How do combat smiths stack up against other classes?

[Esifex]

How do combat smiths stack up against other classes?

They will murder you, melt your gear, and sell the pieces for money... if they can get close. Cart Boost makes that easier, but if you have a way to keep a smith away from you, they can't touch you. If they get close though, go ahead and count on a respawn in your near future. Spammerfall! Spammonite! Cart Termination! MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY

[trancehime]

How do combat smiths stack up against other classes?

I don't really like WS in WoE... The main issue is, Combat Smith's main damage output comes from MPT Cart Terminations with Bloody Ice Picks or carded Combat Knives or something. A lot of WS WoEers also favour VIT over AGI in terms of the durability stat, for some reason. While AGI WSes do provide reductions to after-cast delays on CT, they don't really allow you to survive against heavy-hitters like 2HZerk LKs or Sac Pallies that will wreck you on equal-footing. VIT is almost always the preferred WoE stat in this case, as your only real worry is the occasional AD Creo who will toss a bomb at your face and instantly kill you. And he'd most likely be doing it to more threatening targets like LKs and Pallies anyway. A WS' role in WoE is to cause chaos and to cause massive AoE damage w/ Cart Termination, and pretty much serve as a solid line of Emp defense against sneaky emp breakers and other commonly used tools.

Ok, I'm using a skill simulator to see what can I spend my points on. I'll probably go for the Devotion route, but I can get Devotion, Gospel, and Auto-Guard maxed out with 4 points to spare which I'll probably for Defender. Should I focus on 1 of those two builds you mentioned and use the extra points for something else or can I go for both of them?

Impossible to go for both.

A lot of people would tell you to go Devotion and ditch Gospel entirely always. Under normal circumstances, I'd probably agree with them - Gospel is also pretty situational and it also removes any buffs on the Paladin - this includes the Shield stuff. However, Gospel has some insanely nice effects that will make your team probably fellate you should they come out (that's another issue already brought up - it's not always reliable). I'm not going to tell you to ditch Devo over Gospel, that's just retarded, because Devo is THE one tank skill that makes you desirable in almost all cases. As TSO mentioned, there are only two builds that really matter, at least in PvE or MVP play: Devo/Shield and Gospel/Shield. I'll describe the details as I've played both roles extensively:

Devotion + Shield Skills
This is the stereotypical Paladin tanking skill build. You will be maxing all the shield skills (Shield Reflect, Defender, et. al) as well as Devotion (duh). What you will do in major PvE fights is to Devote yourself to LKs and other key strategic players in the team in order to extend their lifespan. Furthermore, Devotioning yourself to the party will allow you to be the only person a FS Priest has to worry about. If an AoE does enough damage to rape everyone, it only rapes you. In such a situation where the FS Priest has to use 5~8 Blue Gemstones to Resurrect (provided they don't have a Mistress card), they would only have to use one! Furthermore, since most respectable Pallies go for V>everything, you will basically be giving a shitton of eHP (Effective HP) to the team and also increase your team's survivability in a clash. This is probably the skill build we want most of our future Pallies going.

Gospel + Shield Skills
This is not necessarily a Paladin tanking build. Instead, your role will be to sit in the middle of the party and provide wicked buffs to everyone just by standing there and singing a very orchestral tune. Gospel has the effect of providing buffs out of a random selection. However, the said selection is composed of a ridiculous list of buffs which also include doubling your SP count. Instantly, every champion in the party falls in love with you. By Asura Striking the MVP or mob in the face. Seriously. Gospel is pretty much a temporary godmode for your party. Don't listen to people who say this build is completely useless. It isn't. However, it's a LUXURY role and honestly isn't something that everyone's looking for. It is definitely something you run when you're looking for laughs, though (like me). PERSONALLY, if I were to run a Pally, it'd be a Gospel/Shield Paladin.

However, there is an exception to this: The WoE Paladin. The WoE Paladin focuses on using Sacrifice (iRO: Martyr's Reckoning), Pressure (iRO: Gloria Domini) and Devotion to provide minor tanking, tactical debilitation, and damage to important threats in the castle. They have max VIT, obviously, but they also have STR, INT and DEX to some degree. STR is mostly for carrying food and Mastelas and stuff to keep HP up and prime, as you'll be using Sacrifice a lot, and that uses your HP and turns it into damage. So yeah.

Only Trance is maso enough to be willing to tackle the intense mission of 100 RED PLANTS.

Don't remind me. Actually, I changed that to 100 THIEF EGG BUGS. Which I have yet to finish, because lawl, school.

What would you suggest for a Prof/possible High Wizard? =O

Here is the build I made for a High Wizard earlier: click, Mima-sama approved.

Be aware PvP builds are generally vastly different than MVP/group play builds, and likely there's not going to be much of PvP play for a good long while.

Feel free to ask me about WoE builds.

[Dormio Ergo Sum]

STR is mostly for carrying food and Mastelas and stuff

With how easy it is to get Gym Passes, you don't really need that STR.
For Hat Online, anyway.
Also, dat critsin. Good luck getting the equips for that.

[trancehime]

With how easy it is to get Gym Passes, you don't really need that STR.
For Hat Online, anyway.

For Hat Online

Which won't have WoE until like

...

...

i don't know when the fuck

Every time I talk about WoE or PvP, don't assume I'm talking exclusively about Hats Online, because I'm not. >_>

[Solais]

The Veins Siblings quest is the dumbest quest I have ever seen and I never ever want to do it again or go back to the Volcano after the last trip in to finish the quest.

But the monologues when you get a dung or when you got all of them are soooo satisfying!

Also I always played a Spear/AGI Paladin (with a few holy skills), I never liked the shield ones. Though I rarely ever played RO non-solo. (Also, when hitting 3rd job, the spear build suddenly becomes a viable choice due to all the new skills) :V

Also, I don't think that the 3rd jobs are THAT imbalanced or strong, they are a completely new tier of classes, of course they are that much stronger than the usual old stuff.

[trancehime]

i present to you

the depressing SNIPER guide

a lot of people like to use "falcon"

it's a pretty powerful weapon, the falcon. using that blitz beat and falcon assault to great levels.

but i'm going to take it one step further... and make falcon assault as awesome as it can be.

here's the stats you'll be needing, at base as usual:

LV99/70

STR - 1
AGI - 1
VIT - 33
INT - 99
DEX - 96
LUK - 2

see, falcon assault and blitz beat's damage are greatly influenced by INT and slightly influenced by DEX.

however, you'll need high DEX in order to give falcon assault a near instant-cast time. this is easily achievable with the tools a Sniper has at his/her disposal and gear.

speaking of gear, here's what you'll be needing!

weapon: +10 Main Gauche w/ 4 Drops
upper headgear: +9 Tiara w/ Kiel D-01
mid headgear: glasses or sunglasses w/ Kiel D-01
lower headgear: whatever you want
shield: +9 Guard w/ Andre Egg
armor: +9 Sniping Suit w/ Desert Wolf Baby
garment: +9 Wool Scarf w/ Aliot
footgear: +9 Tidal Shoes w/ General Egnigem Cenia (MVP)
accessory 1: Earring w/ Beelzebub
accessory 2: Glove w/ Zerom

This gear boosts your HP by obscene levels, increasing the sniper's piddly base 6k w/ 33 vit to a astonishing 10k with the same amount of vit... that's a lot.
Justifying the two Kiel D-01 cards which you will probably never get in your life time reduces your after cast delay by 30% and 30%
Sniping Suit reduces your after cast delay by 23%, the desert wolf baby adds +1 INT
Aliot increases your INT by 2 and your SP count by 5%
The General Egnigem Cenia also boosts your HP and SP, as well as regen
The Beelzebub Card ensures your autocast.

the aim of the game is to maximize your FA damage while at the same time reducing delay and making it come out as fast as possible.

your after-cast delay is reduced by a net amount of around 78%, which is a damn lot

using the sniper buffs, along with the Beelzebub card, ensures that you will be autocasting FA often

you will always do 7k damage with falcon assault per cast, and your dps will be slightly above 7k (7400~ish).

since you are a long-range fighter offering quick FA support, you won't be as damaging as a bunch.

but this is pretty much the only way i see an INT sniper working.

as an added bonus, you can use ankle snares and landmines due to your obscenely ridiculously high INT

[helvetica]

How do combat smiths stack up against other classes?

Amazingly awesome in PvP and ruins everyone's day.  Utility in group play is kind of limited though.  You can do a gimmick with HSCR and the Overthrust stuff I suppose for group play but a Creator would be more useful for that.  Hammerfall would be the one nice thing you could spam but in higher level dungeons things tend to be stun immune/resistant (lol Thor's).

But the monologues when you get a dung or when you got all of them are soooo satisfying!

Also I always played a Spear/AGI Paladin (with a few holy skills), I never liked the shield ones. Though I rarely ever played RO non-solo. (Also, when hitting 3rd job, the spear build suddenly becomes a viable choice due to all the new skills) :V

Errrr, AGI spear is probably the worst build possible for Paladin, period.  You're absolutely useless in a group setting.  It's not even a good solo leveller, Emo/GC sader is a thousand times more effective at levelling.

Also, I don't think that the 3rd jobs are THAT imbalanced or strong, they are a completely new tier of classes, of course they are that much stronger than the usual old stuff.

Umm they completely trivialize a lot of the old content to the point it's not even a challenge.  I think that counts as OP.

[Solais]

Errrr, AGI spear is probably the worst build possible for Paladin, period.  You're absolutely useless in a group setting.  It's not even a good solo leveller, Emo/GC sader is a thousand times more effective at levelling.

I know, but I like it better.

Umm they completely trivialize a lot of the old content to the point it's not even a challenge.  I think that counts as OP.

A completely new tier of classes should be OP for the old content. Because it's a completely new tier. It's like, it's not challenge to kill those mobs what murdered you as a 1st job class, as a 2nd job class.

[trancehime]

Umm they completely trivialize a lot of the old content to the point it's not even a challenge.  I think that counts as OP.

The main issue here is that 3rd jobs weren't made with old content in mind.

3rd jobs were made with New World content in mind, this means: Manuk, Brasilia, Splendide, etc. A lot of the mobs, you'll find, have obscene stats and HP that trans jobs would have an insanely hard time with solo or even in a small group. 3rd Job was introduced with these in mind. In an official server setting, you would normally be a 3rd job character at this point in time. HOWEVER, since Private Servers are pretty much wanting to shoehorn 3rd job classes into servers where:

a) The 3rd job classes themselves are buggy
b) The New World content is unstable
c) Many of these servers are PvP oriented

It makes many people's view and opinions on the 3rd job classes skewed. Yes, one can easily argue that they are overpowered to some degree. I agree with this to some extent, however, due to kRO's developing nature and the New World content being absolutely stupid without the Lv100 cap removed, it was necessary. But people just can't seem to understand that 3rd Jobs should be for NEW WORLD, and not used to completely smash old content to bits.

That's not what 3rd job was for. So people need to put things into perspective >_>

[helvetica]

I understand this completely.  Believe me, I'm not stupid :O  I know third classes were built for content that isn't exactly "out" yet (outside of kRO).

The problem is it fractures the game.  You have a massive gulf in content that becomes cakewalk or completely undoable depending on which side of the gulf you're on.  This is more because RO2 falling apart and Gravytee being forced to shoehorn a bunch of content into RO.  I understand the situation but they did it without any regards to current game balance just to leech a few more months out.  Basically in my opinion it was just a poor decision overall.

The new world and the third jobs might as well be considered a different game at this point.  It'd be like if you took WoW classes and shoved them into UO.

I know, but I like it better.

I'm not so anal that playing a class suboptimally bothers the hell out of me, but to take a class and shove it into a role it was never intended to does bother me.  If you wanted to be click-click-click look ma I can make da purdy numbers come out real fast, you should have been an assassin or a rogue.  It's great you did it and all but it's those kinds of builds that end up on iROwiki and get used unironically and end up just breeding bad players and bad paradigms.

Last thing the world needs is a bunch of tanks who like to pretend they're DPS.  Especially since Paladin is such a specific role in RO.

A completely new tier of classes should be OP for the old content. Because it's a completely new tier. It's like, it's not challenge to kill those mobs what murdered you as a 1st job class, as a 2nd job class.

Except there's over 5-6 years worth of "old" content and only a few months of "new" content.  And a lot of the "old" content was still setup in a way where maybe at most a tenth of a typical server population actually completed it.  Satan Morroc?  Ifrit?  Even with perfect gear and level cap characters it requires a lot of work and understanding of game mechanics.  The transition from second job to rebirth was far smoother, it made the original content easier but it didn't make it completely trivial, and the classes merely added more specializations rather than "here's a shitton of abilities that completely supplant all your old shit, lol".

It was just a hackjob, RO was slated to be EOLed this year but thanks to having to go back to the drawing board with RO2 they were forced to shove in a new tier just to get people to grind a bit longer.  Stop trying to praise it as good game design to suddenly make the last 6 years of your game ez mode.

[trancehime]

I understand this completely.  Believe me, I'm not stupid :O  I know third classes were built for content that isn't exactly "out" yet (outside of kRO).

The problem is it fractures the game.  You have a massive gulf in content that becomes cakewalk or completely undoable depending on which side of the gulf you're on.  This is more endemic RO2 falling apart and Gravytee being forced to shoehorn a bunch of content into RO without any regards to current game balance just to keep it afloat.  Basically in my opinion it was just a poor decision overall.

I am well aware of the repercussions introducing such content brings. My post was not trying to question the design decisions Gravity made. My post was instead trying to address the mass amounts of QQing over 3rd jobs and how this QQing is mostly annoying to me and I feel people need to be more considerate about what they're QQing about. Well, naturally, 3rd jobs going to trivialize a lot of old content. However, it's still very easy to fuck up as 3rd job against dangerous MVP like Ktulla, Ifrit and Satan Morroc. Also, I don't think Solais was trying to call it good game design, I think he was merely trying to justify their OP-ness. Which is actually not the same thing, but it's easy to misconstrue it as such. And believe me, I wouldn't JUSTIFY them being OP, I was merely trying to rationalize the decision in doing so. Again, all I was really going at with my response is "Jesus Christ, it's there, stop bitching about it, it won't change to be balanced because this is Gravity we're talking about here."

Except there's over 5-6 years worth of "old" content and only a few months of "new" content.  And a lot of the "old" content was still setup in a way where maybe at most a tenth of a typical server population actually completed it.  Satan Morroc?  Ifrit?  Even with perfect gear and level cap characters it requires a lot of work and understanding of game mechanics.  The transition from second job to rebirth was far smoother, it made the original content easier but it didn't make it completely trivial, and the classes merely added more specializations rather than "here's a shitton of abilities that completely supplant all your old shit, lol".

High rate servers and super high rate servers with arbitrarily high stat and level caps would like to have a word with you.

[Solais]

Well, I do agree on the New World content being severely lacking, it's like they only add two new maps a year and that's it folks. (Though I dunno about Renewal, I thought that was made so the 3rd jobs can take on the old content.)

As Trance-e said, I never said it's a good design choice, hell it's an incredibly poor one, they should build the content first fully, then release the classes. Or doing them all in once, after all, as I heard, different departments work on the classes and another one on the actual content. This is just very lazy.

(I mean really, random people can do better content nowadays with the mods and map editors, and a lot faster than Gravity.)

[helvetica]

I am well aware of the repercussions introducing such content brings. My post was not trying to question the design decisions Gravity made. My post was instead trying to address the mass amounts of QQing over 3rd jobs and how this QQing is mostly annoying to me and I feel people need to be more considerate about what they're QQing about. Well, naturally, 3rd jobs going to trivialize a lot of old content. However, it's still very easy to fuck up as 3rd job against dangerous MVP like Ktulla, Ifrit and Satan Morroc. Also, I don't think Solais was trying to call it good game design, I think he was merely trying to justify their OP-ness. Which is actually not the same thing, but it's easy to misconstrue it as such. And believe me, I wouldn't JUSTIFY them being OP, I was merely trying to rationalize the decision in doing so. Again, all I was really going at with my response is "Jesus Christ, it's there, stop bitching about it, it won't change to be balanced because this is Gravity we're talking about here."

I know Gravytee won't rebalance it and I'm not bitching about it, I'm just simply refusing to enable it until a point in time where it becomes a necessity for the content we're at :b  I simply stated third jobs are broken (both in the sense they're incomplete and sort of buggy and that they're OP) and will not be enabled for the forseeable future.  I'm not the one who keeps on bringing it up in some vain attempt to get me to rethink my decision :|

Do I eventually want to play with them?  Sure.  Do I want to do it now?  Hell naw.  We don't have new world enabled to begin with, and even then I'd like to try the new world stuff up until the point third jobs become a requirement to proceed.  But then again I'm the kind of person who sees something supertough and then tries the worst possible build to do it.  I min/max in the sense I like seeing how close to the razor's edge of doable I can get it to, relying on skill/mechanic understandings to overcome gear/level/build shortcomings.

High rate servers and super high rate servers with arbitrarily high stat and level caps would like to have a word with you.

Let's all play on 250 ASPD servers with 10x movement rate and only 6 dex required for instacast. \o/  With a vendor dispensing Doppel/Phreeoni cards.

[Edible]

Believe me, I'm not stupid :O

WAIT A MINUTE

THEN WHO ARE YOU >:(

In other news, if any of the HatRO players want to check out new world/third job stuff, it's been enabled on EssenceRO (where the other half of us play, see the OP of this thread).  Please note that not all of the skills work properly for third classes no matter where you play (even kRO).

[trancehime]

I know Gravytee won't rebalance it and I'm not bitching about it, I'm just simply refusing to enable it until a point in time where it becomes a necessity for the content we're at :b  I simply stated third jobs are broken (both in the sense they're incomplete and sort of buggy and that they're OP) and will not be enabled for the forseeable future.  I'm not the one who keeps on bringing it up in some vain attempt to get me to rethink my decision :|

Do I eventually want to play with them?  Sure.  Do I want to do it now?  Hell naw.  We don't have new world enabled to begin with, and even then I'd like to try the new world stuff up until the point third jobs become a requirement to proceed.  But then again I'm the kind of person who sees something supertough and then tries the worst possible build to do it.  I min/max in the sense I like seeing how close to the razor's edge of doable I can get it to, relying on skill/mechanic understandings to overcome gear/level/build shortcomings.

I wasn't the one telling you to rethink your decision though I never criticized your decision to disable 3rd jobs, I merely just made my statement as a general "shut up" statement to those who keep bitching about how 3rd jobs are sooo overpowered (which they are but it's for good reason).

for the most part though a lot of the new world content does require third jobs. if you check the mob tables for some of the initial new world maps, monsters like luciola vespa and cornus have like 25k~32k HP each and have ATK of 10000 to 13000 Cornus has Reflect Shield even i don't see any amount of skill/mechanic understanding apart from "hope EDP breaks through the HP and you don't get instagibbed" being able to break through a visible statistical limit that is only broken w/ the introduction of 3rd jobs.

[Solais]

for the most part though a lot of the new world content does require third jobs. if you check the mob tables for some of the initial new world maps, monsters like luciola vespa and cornus have like 25k~32k HP each and have ATK of 10000 to 13000 Cornus has Reflect Shield even i don't see any amount of skill/mechanic understanding apart from "hope EDP breaks through the HP and you don't get instagibbed" being able to break through a visible statistical limit that is only broken w/ the introduction of 3rd jobs.

Cornus has Reflect Shield even

Cornus

THOSE FUCKING UNICORNS AND THEIR REFLECT SHIELD I HATE THEM I HATE THEM I HATE THEM  I HAAAAAAAAAAAATE!!
(I know, they aren't aggressive but I needed to kill 10 of them for a quest.)

[helvetica]

I wasn't the one telling you to rethink your decision though I never criticized your decision to disable 3rd jobs, I merely just made my statement as a general "shut up" statement to those who keep bitching about how 3rd jobs are sooo overpowered (which they are but it's for good reason).

I never said you did

for the most part though a lot of the new world content does require third jobs. if you check the mob tables for some of the initial new world maps, monsters like luciola vespa and cornus have like 25k~32k HP each and have ATK of 10000 to 13000 Cornus has Reflect Shield even i don't see any amount of skill/mechanic understanding apart from "hope EDP breaks through the HP and you don't get instagibbed" being able to break through a visible statistical limit that is only broken w/ the introduction of 3rd jobs.

See I'm maso enough to attempt this because lol I love having a challenge.

[trancehime]

See I'm maso enough to attempt this because lol I love having a challenge.

that's not a challenge, that's impossible >_o well probably not, but you'd need ridiculous amounts of gear, far more than i probably have any patience for considering i'm not very high priority when sharing rare mvp loot

[helvetica]

:b

I'm wondering if instacast HWizzie is worth it or not.  Even with instacast there's a 5sec cooldown on AoEs (only reduced to server-imposed limit of 4.5 with bragi).  The gear to get it isn't impossible, it's mostly luck rolling +3 DEX hidden enchantment armors. (or a Dame of Sentinel card :colonveeplusalpha:)  Still, it'd be pimpin as fuck, even if I'm sacrificing some damage.

Current HWiz plans:
Stats/Gear: an absurdly long URL
Skills: http://irowiki.org/~himeyasha/skill4/hwz.html?10qxGAoUeKGQaffNaXbncAax

I only got Storm Gust 10 for my big AoE but I have a lot of flexibility.  I got Thunderstorm 10 because for the most part LoV is useless, TS10 would be a better combo to chain off of SG.  I got Stone Curse 10 for sweet SC/FBolt chaining, along with Frost Diver 10 for FD/JT chaining.  I could honestly drop one of those combos and get Meteor Storm or whatever else is needed.

[Matsuri]

I'm thinking about dropping Sage for now and playing LK or Soul Linker.

I have no idea how to set up a Soul Linker though, stat or skill-wise. Help please :<

[helvetica]

Soul Linker is stupid easy.  There's two builds, Support SL and Esma SL.  Esma SL gets the highest single-target spell in the game via Esma, this amazing skill that hits 11x your MATK.  Combined with Warm Wind, you can choose any element in the game (excluding poison/undead), including 1 that isn't obtainable via magic otherwise (shadow).  This gives you ridiculous flexibility in terms of killing targets.  And you get a MASSIVE SP pool.

The other build is support SL.  Soul Linker's defining characteristic is being able to cast a unique type of support buff that unlocks special abilities and powers depending on which class you're "linking" with.  For example, Assassin Soul Link doubles Sonic Blow damage, soul linking with a Sage allows their autospell to cast level 10 bolts rather than just level 3s (if they know them), and soul linking a Star Gladiator allows them to go into Union, which is ridiculous.  Soul linking a Dancer allows them to use Bard songs and visa-versa, allowing Dancers to cast bragi.

Esma SL skill build: http://irowiki.org/~himeyasha/skill4/slk.html?10GA3ffEHqndodndA3yAahznaX
Stats: 99 INT 70-80 DEX rest VIT

Don't really have room for anything on Esma builds, so as far as things go you're purely damage.  You could get a couple of points in Bard/Dancer Spirit or Assassin spirit to have some utility outside of damage.  The SP costs aren't really that big of a deal at the lower levels anyhows as you're basically a walking SP tank and a Scholar can always Soul Exchange you.  It's really the low skill durations that hurt, although at level 1 it's still 100 seconds.

Support SL skill build: http://irowiki.org/~himeyasha/skill4/slk.html?10GA3ffEHqseBdndFbn1yA1dnak
Stats 99 INT 84/94 VIT rest DEX

You got 9 skill points left.  The only MUST HAVE links are Assassin (double sonic blow damage) and Bard/Dancer (allow Bards and Dancers to use opposite gender songs).  Star Gladiator is also a must have as it enables the class-defining ability, Union.  I have Alchemist spirit on there as Twilight Pharmacy makes crafting things like bottle grenades and acid bottles and white potions much much much quicker (it lets you craft 100 at a time with equivalent chances to normal crafting).  I recommend either maxing out Wizard (no gems required for Wizard spells) or Knight SL (1H Quicken for Knights with 2H Quicken 10).

Monk spirit is fairly useless, and while Rogue spirit is nice, I have the only Rogue on the server and they're not useful for MVP/PvE.  Blacksmith skill is ok, although I don't think we have any Battlesmiths.  Crusader is decent too (double cast rate and damage of Shield Boomerang).  Hunter link is useless as the skill it enables, Beast Strafing, is based off of DEX and STR.  Same with Advanced 1st, Super Novice, and Priest links, they're useless for what they provide.  Soul Linker link is actually really good but you obviously need to have another linker around to take advantage of it (it lets you cast your K-type buffs on anyone, including the autores one)..

You could honestly go with less INT and max VIT if you want, it's really only for SP as you do not have enough skillpoints to get anything valuable in attack spells.  You could get skills like Eswoo (reduce monster walk speed to 1/5) or Estin (knockback small-sized monsters) or Estun (stun medium-sized monsters) and be able to do some minor damage/monster debuffing.

[Esifex]

... Estin (knockback small-sized monsters) or Estun (stun medium-sized monsters) and be able to do some minor damage.

You need those both maxed to learn Esma, though.


.... on second inspection, DOOOIIIII you put that in the support build, not the Esma build. NUR HUR

Another thing you can do with a soullinker is the Bastard Child PVP build - load up on a fair amount of luck, str, and get a Kitchen Knife or Fortune Sword and irritate the fuck out of people in PVP with your critspam, magic reflection, perfect dodge via Kaupe, auto- heal, and auto-res. This build really has no utility to it at all, aside from being your own personal link-slave, because it won't have the stats necessary to link multiple people without blue pot-spam or a Scholar nearby.

I beg to differ on Priest link, though. A soullinked Priest can solo the Sniper mobs in Biolabs. Coupled with Pnuema and Teleport, they can afford to hop around the stage until they find one on its own, or nearly alone, and murder it to death before hopping away again. Not a very reliable method of leveling, but the exp is amazing for a solo Priest. Of course, being able to reliable kill Anubis would be faster exp, there's always people who insist on spending twenty seconds killing one monster for 10% exp than they would spend twenty seconds killing three monsters for 5% apiece.

[helvetica]

Yeah but how many people are going to have a LV95 priest that needs slaved in Bio3?  It's just such a tiny edge case I don't really see it worth getting beyond the 1 point required for Kaizel.

[Matsuri]

Oooh, that Esma build looks pretty sweet.

Leveling a TK to that point without anything in STR and AGI seems like a pain, though. Hmm.

I'll figure something out.

[helvetica]

Oooh, that Esma build looks pretty sweet.

Leveling a TK to that point without anything in STR and AGI seems like a pain, though. Hmm.

I'll figure something out.

That's the difficulty.  Surviving the TK stage.  If you gotta get STR to not go insane, do it.  It's just a few points of VIT or DEX sacrificed.  Once you're a Linker you become awesome.

Solo Odins3?  No big deal :smug:

[Esifex]

Leveling a TK to that point without anything in STR and AGI seems like a pain, though. Hmm.

Lesser known fact, but LOL no one EVER makes use of this.

The SP Break skill, when it triggers, depending on the level, you have a chance to NOT consume Earth Spike scrolls upon use. That's right, you can go level of Sky Petits or Harpys or Hill Winds as a Taekwon by gathering up a metric ton of Earth Spike scrolls, hoping to find another Taekwon with the SP Break skill for you to trigger, and go nuts.

The HP/SP breaks work like a Supernovice spamming /doridori with the HP/SP Improved Regen skills; sit down next to another Taekwon with the same skills (which hopefully they'll all have at least level 5 of) and once the first regen tick procs, the effect kicks in and you can keep the improved regen rates for a half-hour (or so). When that's triggered, you have a (89+s.lvl%) chance to keep an Earth Spike scroll. That means, level one SP break, you have a 90% chance to keep the scroll (10% chance to lose it). At level ten, a 99% chance to keep the scroll, 1% chance to lose it.

This only works when you actually activate the Happy and Peaceful Breaks, not by simply having the skill.