Aika Online Dual Gunner Guide
Aika Online Dual Gunner Guide by rq_panic
Index – Use Ctrl+F and the Number/Letter code to find the section:
1A: Introduction
2B: Build Choices
3C: Gear
4D: PVP Types
5E: Small PVP Tactics
6F: Mass PVP Tactics
7G: Siege
8H: PVP Videos
9I: Skill Bible – “True” Descriptions and PVP Analysis
1A: Introduction
Welcome to the in-progress, barebones version of my PVP dual gunner guide. I realize that, like all other games, for every person who loves me and appreciates this guide there will be another that hates me. If you have constructive criticism, please post it in a way that won’t encourage flames. If you don’t, shut up and write your own guide.
So I’m going to assume that if you’ve made it to this point, you’re planning on rolling a DG, or already have. Let’s clear up a few myths to get started.
Myth #1: DG is the best small PVP class.
While this is a highly opinionated statement, as a 50 DG with honor gear I’d have to venture to say it’s completely wrong. RMs, Warlocks and Warriors can all do our job better than us in small PVP.
Myth #2: DG is a damage-based class.
Also untrue – DG’s damage doesn’t compare to warlocks or RMs, and often don’t compare to warriors either. We are a soft CC and hit and run based class. The advantage we have is that we’re semi-ranged and all of our skills are instant.
Myth #3: DG has tons of evasion and dodges everything.
Wrong. In a future patch, +3 evade stones will be released that can be socketed into armor. When this happens, it may be possible to have a high enough evasion to rely on it. But for right now, even with a wind pran’s buff, lv 1 sirrocco, and Quicksilver… we still get hit constantly.
Now that that’s out of the way, please understand that I don’t hate this class. I don’t. I love it. I’ve farmed the hell out of PVP, and I hit 55, and I appreciate the class’s abilities.
DG is a fantastic ganker class, and we are very versatile and able to excel in a variety of situations. With a sleep, the only root in the game, a skill that allows you to autoattack in order to chain stun someone, and a stealth… we’ve got a counter for every situation except warlocks. A DG player should be quick on their feet, have high reaction time, low latency/lag to the server (if you have a high latency you won’t be able to sidestep properly, and if you rolled a caster class you could doublecast, so get away from DG if you’re out of america) and be able to analyze a field quickly and note who you need to sleep and who the first target is.
When evade stones are released, DGs will make good Archons and good use of the archon buff in all cases besides castle siege (more on this later.) However, until then, DGs do not get as much benefit from archon as other classes do (besides paladin, paladin archons are useless.)
With that out of the way, if you still think DG is for you, let’s get onto the topic of builds.
2B: Build Choices
DG builds can be greatly varied but a lot of them are completely ineffective. For this reason, I’ll focus on the three builds that I know can actually work. One of these builds is unfortunately “scout,” which isn’t something I actually recommend because mass PVP doesn’t require a lot of scouting… but it’s often requested as a build and we are technically the best class for it.
If you would like to try a different build and see what I or the other DG vets think of it, do not post it here. It goes in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=28&t;=6599
Build #1: Critical Damage
The most effective way for a DG to deal damage is through critical Full Auto and Crossfire, with Maelstrom on the target. As an Archon (+25% PVP Damage) I regularly twoshot Maelstromed targets my level with FA+CF. Keep in mind that Maelstrom is procced 10 times on both FA and CF and that the terrible rumors that maelstrom doesn’t proc on crits are retarded and inaccurate. Like any build that has a focus on FA and CF, this build is very mana intensive.
The build below is my build exactly.
http://aika-tools.6.ql.bz/skill/en/skil … r=g7ghwnbq
Changes you could make to this build include lowering heartbreaker to 1 and putting the points into black rose or flashbang, or removing Belladonna.
Use a Fire pran for this build.
Level 60 offers a variety of choices. I assume by the time you’ve hit level 60 you’ve stopped using bad builds, and so this is the only level 60 build I will offer.
http://aika-tools.6.ql.bz/skill/en/skil … r=gbf7294f
You have a lot of leeway with this build. You can remove Belladonna or Quicksilver, if you prefer to do so, and can put those points where you like. Don’t like flashbang? Fine, take one level of it and put the rest of the points into Reload. Be creative, the 60 cap offers us much more variation (not in the new, horrible skills, but rather the extra 20 skill points.)
Build #2: Interference/Debuffer
This build is a little off the beaten path, and I don’t really recommend it. While DGs DO have a fantastic arsenal of debuffs, we can get the most useful ones to an effective level in a damage build. But if you absolutely insist on being different from everyone else, this is the build I reccomend. And music isn’t bad just because it’s on the radio.
http://aika-tools.6.ql.bz/skill/en/skil … r=g7gi7h79
The first thing you’ll probably notice about this build is Full Auto level 1. This is to proc maelstrom 10 times. Full Auto is a major skill point dump and the damage doesn’t scale nearly as well as crossfire – and you will have an easier time catching people to crossfire thanks to a high level ivy and foxglove. 1 level of full auto and max maelstrom will still do a decent amount of damage.
1 level of Black Rose is worthwhile as it’s a free 20 crit, basically. Too good to pass up.
Foxglove’s damage scales better than perhaps any other DoT in the game. Skill attack greatly effects this skill, and so if you’re packing a fire pran, you’ll see good returns on it.
Want more points? Take stealth to 1, or get rid of foxglove. But I honestly don’t see why you want them, unless to max full auto, and if you’re going to do that… just play the critical build.
This build relies highly on shutting people down and avoiding them. Slow and sidestep to avoid warriors (sidestep the charge or you’re dead), sleep warlocks, belladonna + flashbang combo priests, etc. I have not tested this build in battlegrounds and cannot verify it’s potential there.
Build #3: Scout
This third build, Scout, is something I just can’t get behind. I don’t like people taking scout positions in MMOs because 9/10 times it’s a waste of a character. I don’t feel that Aika is any different.
That said, this is the build I get asked for so often… some kind of “scout”… and to stop the PMs from coming I’m posting it here. Again, I don’t support this build at all. All you do is kinda-debuff and look around places, and piss off stragglers. You can’t level at all in this build and will have to reset to it at 50. And I hate it.
http://aika-tools.6.ql.bz/skill/en/skil … r=g7gjea3w
Let’s get one thing straight: YOU WILL KILL NOTHING WITH THIS BUILD. You will blind it, root it, slow it, stun it, and hope to god your team kills it.
This build does VERY LITTLE other than EVADE, GO INVISIBLE AND NOT DIE. That’s basically all you do. You’re fast as hell in stealth (it stacks with haste apparently) and have Quicksilver maxed as a very long, very sizable evasion buff (and movespeed if you get penanced). You should be spamming Sidestep whenever you’re out of stealth (or about to go in it) and I maxed Reload to give you more sidesteps, quicksilvers and stealths. Stealth’s natural cooldown sometimes feels like years, and a maxed reload will do a little to help that. And also give your debuffs a faster cooldown so you can GTFO.
Naturally, this build’s extreme focus on evasion means that you need a wind pran. Period. A fire pran is useless because no matter how much you stack skill attack or attack you’ll never kill anything (except with foxglove… maybe. If they don’t pot.)
Again, as a closing note, I absolutely do not recommend this build and don’t care WTF you decide to edit on it. I personally hate the “scout” requests and will not support you in this type of build at all. And neither will you once you try it.
3C: Gear
DG gear is a surprisingly simple concept. We want movespeed stones in our armor, crit in our accessories (unless you’re lolscout… then just… I don’t know. Use auralar to try and get status resistance) and a good crit, patk or skill mod in our weapons via pure auralar.
For guns, the honor guns are a solid choice. Their patk is high and a crit mod is always nice. But they aren’t the only one.
Update (for Hold Hell, Zant Hell and Abyss Sets):
Alright, a lot of armor sets have come out since I made this guide, and I owe you guys an update on them. So here goes.
Get Zant Hell.
There, wasn’t that easy? Right now, 51-60 is an ungodly amount of grind in which you will hate yourself. As far as I know, there are less than half a dozen DGs who have made it to 53 at this point (this is 3 days after the patch) and all of us hate our lives. Zant Hell set restores mana constantly and makes your life a little less miserable.
At 55 you have an option between the 55 honor and cabin hell sets… neither of which exist yet. When they do, I recommend cabin hell. 55 honor has slightly more attack and defense (very slightly) but I just can’t recommend them over the set bonuses from cabin, no matter how hard I try.
Outdated Info:
For armor, however, the DG honor set is basically the only viable choice. Unless you plan to get a Superior 48 set with good HP/movespeed mods and are going to +5/6/7 it, just stick with the honor set and throw movespeed stones in it. When evade stones are released we’re going to want those in there, too.
For accessories, the Assassin earrings you get from completing lost mines west are fantastic (3 crit, 3 dodge) and the LV 50 Honor bracelet is simply amazing. Put a +3 critical hit stone in the honor bracelet if you are any sort of damage build. As for the necklace and ring, well, you can get insanely good ones from doing the dungeon repeatables and opening the boxes at the end. Crit, dodge and status resistance are what you’re looking for. Supposedly the Hold Hell set of jewelry is great but I don’t know anyone who has a full set and I doubt you ever will.
Lastly, DG doesn’t scale as well as some other classes (warrior, paladin, warlock) for cash-shop level +’d up gear. It helps, but it doesn’t make a world of difference like it does for them. Focus on powering up your weapon if you’re going to dump money into your character.
4D: Types of PVP
This section is less a stand alone section and more a partner section to the coming ones – here I explain the different types of PVP and give a basic rundown of our jobs in each.
Ganking:
Ganking is when you’re going around solo or in a group picking off solo people or duos for honor points. Ganking is horribly easy unless you get outnumbered, and with all of our utility/disable, damage, and a stealth to get past guards… we are a fantastic ganking class. We would be #3, behind warlocks and warriors, but many WL/WR players argue that our ability to get through guards so easily puts us at the top. Either way, we’re a fantastic ganking class and really shine be it solo, duo, or playing scout/root for our party. (By scouting I mean being at the head of the group and rooting anyone you see. I don’t mean using useless builds.)
Small PVP:
Small PVP is defined as party vs party, or anything higher than 4v4 basically… all the way up to 12 vs 12. In small PVP we are a very viable, effective class, but situational. It is very important that a DG sticks to the back lines in mass PVP, as catching a Hellfire basically spells certain death. Peak out just long enough to shoot off a Maelstrom FA, or sleep someone, and as soon as your Sidestep gets broken retreat to our back lines and use it again. Then repeat. Your sleep, flashbang, root and belladonna are all very good here.
Mass PVP:
Mass PVP is anything NOT IN CASTLE SIEGE bigger than 2 parties vs 2 parties, so from 18 vs 18 (that’s 3 parties) all the way up to 200 vs 200, you’re in mass PVP. Here we lose almost all of our effectiveness. Sleeps will be broken, roots only guarantee kills on people who probably would have died anyway, and flashbang’s aoe isn’t big enough to effect a decent amount of enemies. Try to play this like small PVP, stick to the back lines and try to pick off people… but you’re going to get hammed as soon as you step past our line to do it, and probably die. You can sit just behind our front line and root people who run through the killzone if you like, that’s helping out I guess or you can make yourself useful, stealth THROUGH the enemy line with your party or your clan’s other DGs, and pick off the people who are reinforcing them. Lastly, you can stealth in with another DG (or 2), hide in the enemy line and coordinate a group crossfire all at once to break the enemy line. This is a suicide mission and you will die from it, but it can often be the line break that your team needs to rush. But if they don’t rush, nothing will happen.
Castle Siege:
Ah, Castle Siege. The once weekly clash of the top clans of a serve to decide who LM is. Castle Siege is a huge mass PVP in an instanced map, where the defending alliance struggles to hold off up to 4 attacking alliances at once. PVPer’s dream.
And you’re USELESS in it.
Because of some weird bugs in the game, crossfire does NOTHING in castle siege. It’s not lag, it’s not delay on damage, you just do nothing. It doesn’t matter if you do it to someone afk and wait around for 5 minutes for the damage to calculate, or sneak into the enemy line and crossfire 20 people, none of them will take damage, you will lose the MP and the skill will go on cooldown. Oh, and then you’ll die.
So the only thing we do in castle siege is root people so other people can kill them, occasionally fire off a FA and hope it deals decent damage, or flashbang someone once every 2 minutes. Woohoo!
The last job a DG can do in castle siege is stealth past the precast with a group of other DGs/RMs, and go sneak attack an Orb and hope the enemy doesn’t respond fast enough. But honestly, that’s it.
I truly recommend, until Crossfire in CS is fixed, that you have an alt to play in castle siege. Because we are quite simply the worst class for it.
4E: Small PVP Tactics
Ah, small PVP. Truly, what DG is all about. Small PVP is your midgame, your endgame, and your farm. Get used to it.
We are the masters of small PVP… well.. of ganking, anyway. But they’re pretty similar.
In small PVP, your job is to be the unexpected, uncatchable pain in the ass. Don’t initiate a fight, let your party do it. Get yourself comfortable in a position that you like while your melees charge up. What’s a comfortable place? Well, you want to be close to a healer, and far from warriors. A place where you can easily tell how the fight is going, keep score, and know what threats have noticed you. Cloaking through them and coming in from the back – opening on their cleric – is a great choice. Positioning isn’t something I can teach you, it’s something you’ll learn with experience.
Our small PVP arsenal is impressive, if not amazing. Our Concussive takes someone out of the fight for 10 seconds if your teammates don’t wake them up – essentially turning a 6v6 into a 5v6, or a 3v3 into a 2v3. Very very effective. Naturally we’ve also got flashbang, and belladonna will distract a cleric into removing it for a moment if nothing else.
Opening the fight with a bella+flash combo on a cleric is a great choice, as this will usually send them into a panic and take them out of the fight, without you having to waste any more skills cooldowns on them.
Great targets to Concussive are good riflemen, any warrior, and prime hard to kill targets like archons and LMs. Their +%hp modifier won’t help them if their whole party is dead before they wake up, and taking a warrior out of the fight gives your other squishies a lot more breathing room, which is great.
Crossfire, as always, is a fantastic damage skill but it’s even better if you learn to “feel” it’s range, and position yourself so you hit two people when you do pop it. It’s hard, and often not worth it (more stuff I can’t teach you – gauge the risks of running into melee range based on who is alive and what skills they’ve used and which ones “should be” cooling down), but when it is it can be devastating. It’s important to maximize your crossfire because the cooldown is so long that small PVP is often over before it cools.
That said, you’ll get a reload off sometime in PVP. Remember to have used Crossfire and Flashbang before you reload. These skills cooldowns are too long to justify reloading before you’re locked out of them, unless melee range is absolutely too hot for you to crossfire. Don’t hesitate to reload in small PVP, it ends so fast that reload becomes kind of a “use it or lose it” utility.
Don’t focus too much on killing clerics, especially if they already have a warrior on them. Killing them fully is often completely unnecessary. If they’re already focusing on keeping themselves alive, they’re already forced out of doing their job for the fight. So pick off someone else, who will be expecting heals and not getting them, while your paladins/warriors piss off clerics. Naturally if the cleric is left free, you should try to kill them, however.
Warriors… are tricky business. I prefer to put them aside with Concussive than to kill them, but if you have to, maelstrom may do the trick. However, I feel pretty strongly that using skills on a warrior is a waste of cooldowns, try to just disable them until the fight’s over instead, and then kill them with your team.
Paladins are a pain, but alltogether pretty useless in small PVP. Ignore them to the best of your ability.
Riflemen feed you if they get into range and are targetting someone else. Lock onto them and drop them. Killing them takes a lot of your enemy’s damage out of the fight which is great, so feel free to drop all FA, Maelstrom and Crossfire on one to get them out.
Warlocks are also tricky, because they’re so destructive. They’re hard to kill, though. And for that reason they sort of fall under warrior rules. Try to disable them and shut them up, communicate with your team (please tell me you use ventrilo if you’re PVPing) and try to work out a solution. Good solutions include “Silence him” or “Paladin, go make yourself useful. Piss off that warlock.” You can kill them if you absolutely have to, but prepare to fail and be locked out of your skills for as long as the cooldowns are as a response. Heartbreaker + Autoattack is a good choice on a warlock if you have a feeling that your team will win if you take both yourself and the warlock out of the fight (this is often the case.)
Other DGs are solid, easy kills and should be dropped quickly. Remember to shoot a normal shot first so they’re not sidestepping your crap.
5F: Mass PVP Tactics
COMING SOONZ.
6G: Siege Tactics
Okay, the best advice I can give you for castle sieging on a DG… is not to.
No, seriously. Our range sucks, we’ll never survive running through precasted purple rains, and to make matters worse, there’s a huge lag delay making skillful sidestepping hopeless.
Oh, and crossfire DOESN’T WORK… And I don’t mean that it isn’t effective – I mean it doesn’t work. At all. No matter how many people are around you they won’t take damage from it.
So roll a warlock or a warrior or a RM or anything really, and don’t play your DG.
Yeah, yeah. I realize that this isn’t a guide. Fine.
If you INSIST on going to CS as a DG, your job is to be a root machine and a ranged harasser. You are good for taking down orbs, but that’s about it, really. So fight as though it was mass pvp – try to stay on the outskirts of the fight, run as well as you can with turbodelay, and keep sidestep up often. Your bread and butter skills are FA and Flashbang, and these should be used at the obvious times. Lastly, you’re a decent assassin… well… kind-of. But remember that you don’t have Crossfire to deal damage.
In a defensive fight, we’re a bit more useful. We can stand on the walls above ramps and fire down into them… Not that you’re going to do much damage. However, your wizards (your guild DID bring wizards, right?) should be channeling shadowfall onto the ramp waiting for people to walk through. This is where you shine. Wait until they’re about to go through and root them – capturing them in the meatgrinder that is your clan’s shadowfalls. This can be tricky sometimes with skill delay but you should be able to pull it off after a while. Other than that just drop lots of Full Auto onto squishy targets and toss flashbangs like nobody’s business.
7H: PVP Videos
I have released a pair of PVP videos – one of castle siege, one of small PVP in a pre-50 environment (though it doesn’t change much at 50 at all, I promise). Both of these can be streamed here:
http://www.RQClan.com/vids/stream/RQTheatre.html
They are not available on youtube because youtube decided that music is a horrible thing even if I say to support the artists and buy the CDs.
They are also available for download, links coming soon.
9I. The Skill Bible (OUTDATED AS OF ASHES OF BETRAYAL)
Unlike many bibles, this section is full of excellent information, and will help you a lot if you take the time to read through it. Alternatively, this section can be used as a reference when you’re building your skills. I have tested most DG skills – but not all – and I will note the few skills I haven’t tested when we get there.
I will not be including a “skill score”, like some guides do (“WTF FLASHBANG GETS 6 STARS OUT OF 5 BECAUSE I LIKED IT IN COUNTER STRIKE ******”) because I feel that my written opinion is more effective than a grading system. If you decide you can make use of the skill, then nuts to what I say about it, go for it.
All of the descriptions here are re-written by myself to be more accurate, though the numbers are taken from the game. The game’s descriptions are horrible and should not be trusted.
Where it says “levels possible” I am referring to the max level possible with the current level 50 cap.
I currently lack a bit of info in the charts – exact MP usage, cast time, cooldown… I will add these at a later date when I feel motivated to do so. For now these topics will covered in a very general sense in the Notes sections of each, if I consider them worth noting.
Here is the template, and the description of the parts of it.
PICTURE Skill Name
Levels Possible: The amount of levels achievable at maximum with the level 50 cap.
Description: My description of the skill’s effects.
Damage Range: The amount of tooltip damage displayed in the skill description, from level 1 to max. I don’t know exactly how Skill Damage is added to your attacks, you will do a great deal more than the damage displayed here in most cases for every skill except maelstrom, which will ALWAYS deal EXACTLY the amount of damage that your skill description says, ignoring anything from defense to manashield to LM buff.
Other Effects: Anything else the skill does besides damage, or any special/hidden effects the skill has such as causing maelstrom to damage the target more times than normal.
Notes: My actual review of the skill, how I feel about it, any uses it might have, situations to use it in… anything like that, basically. This section may contain anything I feel like throwing into it. Probably the most important section imo.
Without futher to-do, let’s begin.
Tier 1 Skills
Corrosive Round
Levels Possible: 13
Description: Deals X damage, then Y additional damage after a delay of 3 seconds.
Damage Range: (Raises with Level – X+Y) 10+49 to 115+573
Other Effects: None
Notes: This skill has a cast time, which is turboannoying. The damage progression is meh, and while relatively cheap in mana, it’s not really worth using due to the delay. By the time the damage resolves, the mobs are usually dead. I haven’t tested this skill at high levels in PVP, because of it’s ineffectiveness in PVE, but I really don’t see it accomplishing anything. It is possible that the skill scales well with skill damage due to there being two procs of damage in it, but I truly have no idea. I recommend the 1 required point of this skill – simply because it is just that, required.
Poison Ivy
Levels Possible: 12
Description: Roots the target for X seconds and deals Y damage.
Damage Range: (Y – Scales with Level) 18-171
Other Effects: (X Duration “Root” – Target cannot move) 3 seconds from levels 1 to 4, 4 seconds from 5 to 8, 5 seconds from 9 to 12.
Notes: FANTASTIC skill, considering you get a 3 second root (the only root in the game as far as I know) for 1 point. This skill casts instantly and has a very reasonable cooldown. This is your best skill in castle sieges (root someone on a ramp and they’re dead) and is fantastic at everything else, great for keeping someone who has overextended in the killzone… Just a great skill for 1 point… but more than that, I don’t favor in anything but a pure debuffing build. The max level you should take this to is level 9, for the 5th second. The damage is negligible.
Quicksilver
Levels Possible: 10
Description: Increases your runspeed by 10 (does not stack with haste) and adds X evasion for Y seconds.
Damage Range: N/A
Other Effects: X = 6+ (Skill level*2), Y = 18 + (Skill level*2)
For non-nerds, that’s 8 evasion to 26, and 20 seconds to 40.
Notes: A nice skill as an evasion selfbuff, and a quick boost to movespeed when you need it (and don’t have haste, which happens a lot if you go out ganking). For the movespeed boost, since it doesn’t scale, I’d just get 1 level of it and use it as an OH SHI- button. It is possible to slide while casting this skill (hold W) which nearly removes to pause in your running to cast it. Saved my life many times, but I don’t reccomend more than 1 level for anything but a pure scout build. Cooldown is quite long.
Hot Shot
Levels Possible: 11
Description: Increases your damage by X, but causes your durability to drop at a much faster rate.
Damage Range: 10 to 59 additional damage (selfbuff) – REPORTED NOT TO STACK WITH BLESS. I have not tested this myself, verification would be GREATLY appreciated.
Other Effects: Makes your durability degenerate as noted above.
Notes: Hot Shot is a selfbuff that has an annoying cast time of a couple seconds, and rapes your durability quite effectively. Lategame you will not want this skill, as the damage bonus is mediocre for the amount of points you have to put into it, and it apparently doesn’t stack with bless. And repairs get very expensive. I do not reccomend this skill for any DG, except perhaps for leveling early.
Stealth
Levels Possible: 10
Description: Makes you invisable for X seconds, and decreases your movement speed by Y.
Damage Range: N/A
Other Effects: You’re invisable. Details on that in Notes. It slows you down by -5 per level for the first 5 skill levels (level 1 is -20 movement speed, level 5 does not slow you down at all), levels past 5 increase your movement speed by 2 per skill level (up to 10). Stealth duration starts at 30 seconds, and gains 3 seconds per level, up until the last level which adds 6.
Notes: This skill makes you invisible to just about everything… from mobs, to guards, to players. The very few things that can see you are special elite mobs, and are very rare. I personally take 1 level of this skill, you can use it to get past guards, to reset a fight (by hiding and spamming pots the whole time you’re hidden, you can bring yourself back up to full HP and try the fight over again) or for anything else your heart desires right up to hiding into enemy Regensheins and flirting with their gunner trainers. Some players swear by level 5… to each his own, I find 1 level is more than enough to do everything I want it to do. You can quicksilver before hiding, and you will move faster, but you will leave a blue streak behind you as you run and people can track you this way. People can also track you by your pran, if she is in child/teenager mode she will follow you and be visable. Put her into fairy mode or unequip her when you stealth if you don’t want to catch AoEs. Oh, that brings me to my last note. AoEs still hit you and can/will kill you, so get away from players as soon as you cloak.
Full Auto
Levels Possible: 10
Description: Deals damage in 10 shots, in very quick succession.
Damage Range: (Scales with level) 174-972
Other Effects: Causes Maelstrom’s damage effect to activate 10 times if the target has Maelstrom on them. All damage (maelstrom and skill) are dealt at once as if it were one skill dealing damage all at once. Likewise any skills that block a certain number of effects (like Divine Ward) will only have 1 charge consumed by this skill.
Notes: The bread and butter skill of DGs, FA is what you will owe most of your kills to in small PVP. FA does great damage when it crits and causes your maelstrom to process 10 times, which makes it great for killing anything with damage reduction, like paladins, warlocks or Archons/LMs. It is possible to both animation cancel this skill, and slidecast it. To animation cancel it, hit W (default forward button) just as she levels her guns and then press your attack hotkey (1 by default). If you do it right, she will level her guns to shoot and the damage will appear, but she will immediately start shooting your target normally, her guns firing repeatedly as if she was still in FA. This will take a great amount of practice but is worth every second, as it is very important for a DG to keep moving, which full auto hinders horribly. I reccomend max level of this skill for the damage, or if you are a support build, get 1 level of the skill to cause maelstrom 10 times, and then max maelstrom. This keeps the HUGE manacost of this skill down, but honestly, for any build with a crit focus it’s worth the MP. But is not a great skill for grinding because of the MP consumption, unless you have endless amounts of money. Good to use in panic situations to get a mob dead fast, though.
Tier 2 Skills
Foxglove
Levels Possible: 9
Description: Poisons the target, dealing X damage and slowing their movement speed by Y for 8 seconds.
Damage Range: (X, scales with level) 41 to 178 – skill deals damage 6 times, not 4, as it procs when it hits and again when it finishes.
Other Effects: Slows movement speed by 15 to 31, starting at 15 and gaining 2 per level.
Notes: The slow of this skill at level 1 is… well, it’s there, but there’s honestly not much to it. And because you have to stop to cast this skill, you’re not going to gain on a runner much with it. Poison Ivy is a better skill to capture and finish a runner. The slow of this skill is considerable at max level, however, and with an 8 second duration and a 12 second cooldown it can be a major pain in the ass for your enemy if you take it to level 9. The damage scales very well with skill attack, by the way. However, because it is so situational (nigh useless against warriors thanks to charge :/) I can’t recommend you pick it up unless you’re pure-debuff/scout. It just takes too many points.
Maelstrom
Levels Possible: 8
Description: Places a debuff on the target for 10 seconds that causes it to take X additonal damage every time they are hit. This damage ignores everything from defense to reduction skills, it will always deal exactly the amount of damage it says.
Damage Range: (X – Scales with level) 26-86
Other Effects: Did I mention it ignores everything when it deals damage? Oh, and Full Auto and Crossfire activate it 10 times each. Everyone who hits the target causes this skill’s effect to activate, making it great for bosses (which it lands on, by the way…) and temple stones.
Notes: This skill is completely incredible…. probably the best skill we get. I’m sure I’ve said that about a couple skills by now, but seriously, it’s amazing. It deals the damage it says it does for every hit, no matter what, and 10 times for Full Auto and Crossfire. This skill is spectacular for killing warriors and paladins as a counter for their high defense, and warlocks for getting through manashield, and any LM/Archon as a counter for their PVP damage reduction. It is the only reason that you will be taken into dungeons and the only thing you really do at raids, so max it, I don’t care what build you are. Just max it. It is the skill that Full Auto and Crossfire are based around. It is what makes us a DG.
Tiger Eye
Levels Possible: 8
Description: Adds 1 crit and 3% critical damage per level.
Damage Range: N/A
Other Effects: This skill is passive – it is in effect at all times.
Notes: Very simple skill, it adds a decent amount of crit rate and a great amount of critical damage. If you’re a crit build, do what you can to max this, if not, don’t. The damage bonus does not effect Doubles/Perfect Crits.
Sirocco
Levels Possible: 7
Description: Adds a passive bonus to evasion, starting at 3 at level 1, and gaining an additional point every level.
Damage Range: N/A
Other Effects: N/A
Notes: The first level of this skill is by far the best, granting you 3 evasion. Every level past that is 1 evasion… 1 skill point for 1 evasion is a very expensive trade. Unless you’re going crazy about evasion, take 1 level or none at all. Evasion is a very powerful stat later – after gPotato implements +3 dodge stones into our version – but for now it’s pretty poor as the maximum amount of evasion you can get isn’t all that high.
Black Rose
Levels Possible: 7
Description: Selfbuff, adding 20 crit at level 1 and 3 additonal crit every level thereafter for 120 seconds.
Damage Range: N/A
Other Effects: N/A
Notes: Very simple skill, this skill’s duration is half of it’s cooldown and so you can have it on half the time. The 120 second duration is incredibly generous as most fights do not last a full 2 minutes, and keep in mind that this skill can be Reloaded. Basically a fantastic skill at level 1 (20 crit half the time for one skill point? You’d have to be insane not to take that) and very good for every level after that. Crit builds should do their best to max this skill, though if it comes down to skill points it’s on you if you should get more points into Black Rose or Tiger Eye.
Hemlock
Levels Possible: 6
Description: Places a debuff on the target, effectively a “MP poison”, that decreases it’s MP by X every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. I assume this works like Foxglove and deals it’s effect at the beginning and end once as well (verification needed)
Damage Range: (X – Damage is dealt to MP – Scales with level) 112-270
Other Effects: N/A
Notes: I haven’t tested Hemlock, because honestly, it doesn’t work with our class at all. It’s an oddball skill that doesn’t really fit in. Anyway, Hemlock is easily countered by mana potions, I’d imagine, and is useless against the “caster” classes… since warlocks take HP damage to MP anyway (mana shield) and clerics will just purify it off. If you stop to cast this on a warrior, you’re probably dead. So uh, I guess this skill might piss off a paladin if you’re lucky, and maybe other DGs since we’re pretty MP-intensive. I suppose you could throw this onto a target, foxglove them, stealth, wait 10 seconds, reload out of stealth, repeat… if you want to be really annoying… but that’s about the only use I can really see for this skill. I have to admit again, I have no experience with it directly and can’t verify anything about it.
Tier 3 Skills
This section to be finished when I feel like it.
Crossfire
Levels Possible: 5
Description: Causes X damage in a 10 meter diameter with your character at the center, and also causes maelstrom to process 10 times (like Full Auto).
Damage Range: (X, Scales with level) 538-1091
Other Effects: Causes Maelstrom’s effect to activate 10 times. Like Full Auto, the skill’s damage and maelstrom’s damage is dealt all at once, in one blow.
Notes: This is our highest damage skill and should be maxed in basically any build… it cause maelstrom to process 10 times in the same way that FA does, and as such, is fantastic against all targets. It tears squishy targets apart with it’s base damage when it crits, and it chews through heavy reduction targets with maelstrom the same way full auto does. The main downside to this skill is that we have to be so close to the target, but honestly, it’s not enough to make this skill ny less than amazing. This skill can be used as a finishing nuke, as a “drive-by” skill (you don’t have to stop moving at all while casting this), to kill cloaked players if you know where they are, or by cloaking into the enemy’s line in mass pvp and opening out of cloak with this skill. It is probably one of our very best skills and should be maxed.
Concussive Shock
Levels Possible: 5
Description: Puts the target to sleep for Y seconds, then when the target is woken up, deals X additional damage.
Damage Range: (X, scales with level) 230-460
Other Effects: Sleeps the target for 10 seconds at level 1, and an additional 2 seconds for every level after it. A slept target is completely disabled, but cured of the disable next time they are attacked.
Notes: A great skill in all aspects, concussive allows us to take on several enemies at once by disabling one at the beginning…. or two with reload. Work with your party to make sure that disabled targets aren’t woken up. At level 1, this skill lasts for 10 seconds, which is more often than not half of the fight or more. I don’t reccomend more than 1 level of the skill, while the sleep scales well it is simply unnecessary. A fantastic skill in battlegrounds given that your team knows not to wake the target.
Flashbang
Levels Possible: 4
Description: Deals X damage to the target, and makes their screen completely blocked by gray for Y seconds. (UI included.) The skill is ranged and has a 6 meter diameter with the target at the center.
Damage Range: (X, scales by level) 244-409
Other Effects: Blinds all effected players, making their entire window gray for 3 seconds at first level and an additional second every level thereafter.
Notes: A great skill that often causes players to panic, and can actually deal pretty decent damage when it crits. 1 level of flashbang is something every DG should pick up, and I’d really reccomend leveling it up too, because it scales very well (1 additional second per level.) The AoE is sadly very small. The cooldown is quite long, so only expect to be able to use it once per fight (twice if you reload.)
Belladonna
Levels Possible: 4
Description: Places a debuff on the target, causing it to take damage equal to X% of the next heal it would recieve. Lasts for 3 heals or Y seconds.
Damage Range: (X, scale with level) 200%-230%
Other Effects: Lasts 10 seconds at first level and gains 5 seconds of duration every level.
Notes: Long story short – a player with this debuff takes as much damage as they would have been healed instead of being healed. It’s a great skill on paper, but very situational in reality. It’s nice in battlegrounds, but a focused healer will immediately notice it (and ANY healer will notice it after it gets their teammate killed) and purify it off. It’s good to cast on someone who’s escaping back into the enemy line, as there’s a chance a healer is already about to heal him and it will net you the kill… kind-of. Kills achieved with belladonna don’t actually count as kills, mob kills won’t give quest credit, and you won’t get a point in battlegrounds. Great skill to use on clerics right after you flashbang them, 9/10 times they panic and heal themselves. This skill scales HORRIBLY and if you get more than 1 level of it I will slap you.
Reload
Levels Possible: 3
Description: Resets all current cooldowns, and causes all skills used within the next X seconds to have Y% reduced cooldown time.
Damage Range: N/A
Other Effects: Duration is 30 at first level and an additional 10 seconds every level after that. Effect starts at 25% and gains an additional 5% per skill level for a max of 35%.
Notes: DotA fans rejoice – Tinker is back. This skill cause all cooldowns to immediately be reset, allowing you to cast anything again. This skill’s potential is insane, almost limitless, it can be used for anything from cloaking again, to sleeping two people with concussive, to cloaking into an enemy line, flashbanging, crossfiring, reloading, crossfiring, flashbanging and cloaking back out. Get creative, the potential is seriously insane. Unfortunately the main use of this skill isn’t the buff, it’s the rearm, so more than 1 level is ineffective in most builds.
Heartbreaker
Levels Possible: 3
Description: Deals X damage and places a debuff on the target for 10 seconds, causing it to be stunned for 3 seconds every time it receives critical damage.
Damage Range: (X, scales by level) 613-853.
Other Effects: Places a debuff on the target, causing it to be stunned for 3 seconds every time it receives critical damage. This skill works on almost all non-boss mobs, and the critical stun effect can happen from anyone’s hits, which means if anyone in your party hits it, it gets stunned. This can happen repeatedly for as long as the debuff lasts. If Heartbreaker’s damage crits, the stun is not applied, it must be from the following attacks.
Notes: A very high damage, very fast skill. It would be one of our bread and butter damage skills, unfortunately it’s plagued by a long cooldown and is only 1 shot, proccing maelstrom only once. Nonetheless it is the fastest animation of your damage skills and is great for finishing people off, and is a basic win button for 1v1. Lead with heartbreaker, auto attack for the next 10 seconds (assuming you have black rose on) and they will be permastunned and probably die. Nice in dungeons, works on the non-boss mobs of the 2 party raid dungeon Lost Mines West. The damage scales pretty well, but the main use is the debuff. Get at least 1 level, if you are a damage build I recommend going the full 3, because it does quite a bit of damage when it crits.
Wow thanks for putting the time in for making this awesome guide!
cool
This guide was crazy helpful. For a while I was a B1 and B2. It wasted lots of bullets and I had to keep resting after two or three fights. GJ on guide and thx.