Shaiya Caster PVP Guide

Shaiya Caster PVP Guide by hypnos34

Survivability

I am often asked about questions with in regards to PvP builds. While my knowledge of 1-60 PvP is limited, I do know quite a bit about 1-15 and 20-30 PvP. I want to help educate those wanting to PvP or aspire to get to the point where they can PvP and have fun doing it.

Over the course of the next several weeks I will put together some PvP guides. There will be four general guides focusing on survivability for caster and melee within the 1-15 and 20-30 PvP zones. I will specifically gear these general guides on character building and lapising of gear for damage mitigation. If you can build your char to be very resilient you will become more survivable and in turn work more effectively in groups. Why not PvP and have fun while doing it? The best part of these guides is that they will be designed for those who are on a budget. The majority of PvPers don’t have the real $$$ or in game resources to deck yourself out with elemental lapis, sonics, or slotted helms. No more will you “get pwnd” in two hits by a noss’d enemy. I’m not saying what I will tell you here is going to make you Superman, but I can give you a little Shaiya Kryptonite to water down Superman’s game.

1. The environment:
Lets take a look at what threats are in the 1-15 PvP environment that you will probably have to face. Nos… probably the single largest factor to impact the tide of battle. A nobody can become a somebody for 1k AP and a backup healer. We have all been on the receiving end of Nos users in 1-15 and it does suck. Second, range rules! If you can be 20+ meters away for an enemy and hit them for 300+… your doing something right. Casters and Archer/Hunters are the bread and butter of this school of thought.

…so what should i consider when building a caster for 1-15 PvP?
Nos
Casters
Archers/Hunters (range)
Melee types

2. Caster Stats with respect to 1-15 PvP

Str – um… pass
Dex – um… same as above
Rec – 1Rec = 5HP… not much help, but 1Rec = 1Def which will be very important to our efforts.
Int – 1Int = 1.3 Magic Atk Pwr… this is important for offensive based casters. DPS 4 the win!
Wis – 1Wis = 5MP… big deal, but 1Wis = 1 magic resistance. This will play a factor, but a minor one in our big picture.
Luc – i wish it had more of an impact in 1-15, but you just can’t obtain enough to make it worthwhile for 1-15 PvP

3. Gear

Very important! If someone told you I don’t need gear to PvP in 1-15 it was because they didn’t want to use more than two shots to kill you while adding to their kills. If you are still unsure how to obtain the noble gear you need for pvp…

Shaiya Fury Noble Gear Quests Guide
Shaiya Light Noble Gear Quests Guide

Now that you have the noble gear, what exactly should you put in them?

This is always one of the tough parts to plan. It will depend on your particular build, but I will generalize between offensive and defensive caster builds. I am a big proponent of Dual lapis. Here are a couple of guides on Dual lapis: Shaiya Dual Lapis Guide

sfossil has a complete listing with information on obtaining and good notes. Mr.Apulune’s has a comparison between Duals and normal lapis. Duals can go into just about any piece of gear, while normal lapis are more restricted as to slotted gear. There is also a price guide attached to help put a perspective on costs and linking of duals.

4. Caster lapis
keep in mind were shooting for survivability~

Offensive caster builds – “the best defense is a good offense”. I subscribe to this theory in part, but add a survivability factor to it. Dual Mystic 3 add +9Int+8Rec and runs 4mil-ish on lailah Aol. It has the same 16% link chance as a normal level 4, but adds +17 to stats which are very valuable to an offensive caster. If you were to lapis your gear, weapon included, with Dual Mystic 3 you would be adding a total of 45 Int and 40 Rec. This translates to 60 magic atk pwr, 200hp, and 40 defense. This would compliment a nice 4Int/3Rec or 5Int/4Rec offensive caster. Either of those builds would give you over 100 Def self buffed at level 15.

Defensive caster builds – “the best offense is a good defense”. I favor these builds a lot as they can be made to stand in the fire of Nossers and multiple opponents and make them expend resources. This time we will examine Dual Wis 3 which adds 9Wis and +12Def and sells for 3.5mil on lailah Aol. Adding it to all five pieces of 1-15 gear, weapon included, you would end up with 45 Wis and 60 Def. This translates into 225MP, 45 magic resist, and 60 Def. This would compliment traditional 4Wis/3Rec and 5Wis/4Rec priest builds and allow them to still provide nice heals. These builds can easily reach 100+ Def and Magic Resistance at lvl 15.

I know that to lapis a set of gear with duals can be expensive, but the value is worth it should you spend some time in 1-15 as a caster. If these Duals seem too far from your reach, normal level 4’s can be found for 1.5 -2mil. You can buy one of the above duals for the same as buying two normals so consider your options based on your gold flow.

5. In Closing
This is just to get people familiar with the process of preparing for 1-15 PvP from a caster perspective. I am sure I didn’t hit on everything as this was not my intent. I believe in keeping things simple and presenting them in a manner which makes sense to the reader. I would be glad to help answer questions or talk more in depth on any of the above subject matter. Just post below and i will do my best to shed some light on issues faced when building a character for 1-15 PvP or group dynamics on the field.