Shaiya Defender/Guardian Comprehensive Guide
Shaiya Defender/Guardian Comprehensive Guide by Avyn
Keep in mind that this thread is outdated before you post. I quit Shaiya shortly into Epi4 and haven’t played a Defender at all since Ep3. I will not be updating this guide further. If someone wants to use the information in here for a new and up to date Defender/Guardian guide, I have no problem with any of my images or words being used. Feel free to use them as your own.
Table of Contents
Section I – Denoobification
Definition of Terms
Introduction to Tanking
Brief Guide
Section II – Stats and Builds
Stat Point Values
Standard Builds
Battle Builds
The Dex Build
Going Beyond the Numbers
Section III – Skills and Recommendations
Section IV – Gear and Lapis
Gear List
Lapis Recommendations
Drop Locations
Section V – PvE Technique
Evolution of Technique
Endgame Technique
Section VI – PvP Technique
Tank Build
Battle Build
Section VII – Grind Guide
Important Quests
Map 1
Dungeons
Map 4
New Maps
Section VIII – Useful Links and Acknowledgements
Section I – Denoobification
Welcome to the wonderful world of tanking! Before you start thinking about builds, skills, tactics, or even equipping your armor, your first step is to denoobify yourself. In this first section, I will go over some common terms used both in game and in this guide that couldn’t be described as ‘plain, simple English’. I will also give a quick rundown of what it means to be a tank and your role as a tank. Lastly, I will give you the shortest guide to tanking ever written that will set you on the correct path in tanking in just a few paragraphs. By reading only this first section and ignoring the rest of this guide, you should have a fairly good idea of what to do and be able to learn as you go. If this is your goal, I would recommend to familiarize yourself with this first section and use the rest of this guide for reference only.
Let’s get started.
Definition of Terms
STAT TERMS
Str: Strength. This stat determines the effectiveness of your regular hits and any skills that inflict physical damage.
Rec: Recovery. This stat determines your defense rating and increases your HP pool. It is also a key factor in determining who gets attacked.
Dex: Dexterity. This stat determines your accuracy and evasion from physical attacks. It also increases your SP pool.
Int: Intelligence. This stat determines the effectiveness skills of that inflict magical damage.
Wis: Wisdom. This stat determines your resistance to magical attacks, increases magical attack accuracy, and increases your MP pool.
Luc: Luck. This stat increases your critical hit damage and chances for critical hits. It also offers minor evasion from critical hits.
HP: Hit points. This stat is your life force. If it reaches zero, you die.
MP: Mana Points. This stat is your pool for using magical based skills.
SP: Stamina Points. This stat is your pool for using physical based skills.
Note that many skills use both MP and SP.
SKILL TERMS
AoE: Area of effect. This term is used to describe a skill or party that focuses on hitting multiple enemies at once.
DoT: Damage over time. This term is used to describe a skill that inflicts damage spread out over a set period of time.
DPS: Damage per second. This term is used to describe inflicting the most possible damage in a set time, usually by increasing attack power or attack speed.
Buff: A skill that grants bonuses for a limited time.
Debuff: A skill that puts a negative effect on an opponent.
OTHER TERMS
EM: Easy Mode. Can go up to Lv30. This mode is useless.
NM: Normal Mode. Can go up to Lv60. Once you reach Lv40 NM, you unlock HM.
HM: Hard Mode. Can go up to Lv60. Once you reach Lv40 HM, you unlock UM. HM get more stats, skills, and gear options than NM.
UM: Ultimate Mode. Can go up to Lv60. UM get more stats, skills, and gear options than HM but run the risk of losing your character forever.
PvE: Player versus environment. This term describes gameplay that involves interaction with AI enemies.
PvP: Player versus player. This term describes gameplay that involves interaction with human enemies.
SHAIYA SLANG, JARGON, AND TERMS
Mob: Refers to a regular AI opponent.
Aggro: Refers to getting a mob’s attention. This may include attacking it, debuffing it, or simply running by it and having it chase you.
LFP: Looking for party.
WTS/WTB/WTT: Wanting to sell/buy/trade.
KS: Kill steal. This is when someone attacks something that has already been aggroed to another player. It is considered rude and repeated KSing may result in a ban.
Lapis: A gem that can be augmented into your gear to boost stats or give other bonuses.
Slot: A space in your gear in which you put lapis.
Introduction to Tanking
The Defender/Guardian is the ultimate crowd control class, both in PvE and PvP. No other class has the potential to control and dictate incoming damage. Your role, put simply, is to do everything you can to take all of the damage for your party. Efficient parties and coordinated PvP strikes all rely on other members to do their job uninterrupted, whether it be casters to use their spells or melee types to get in and damage without getting hit. Efficient parties is also about taking on as many enemies as possible at a time without dying. You have, at your disposal, all the tools required to make this happen.
What are your tools as a tank?
- Enormous passive defense. Even without allocating your stats, you have more defense and HP than any other class does. You are capable of taking much more damage and surviving.
- An entire arsenal of debuffs. Everything you need to halt incoming damage from stun skills, skills that drop enemy attack power, skills that prevent casting, slow nets, and almost anything else you can think of.
- Invincibility buffs. This is what makes Defenders/Guardians better at tanking than any other class. You have buffs that make you completely immune to incoming damage and even a couple skills that reflect damage back to your opponent.
- Provocation skills. To bring all of it together, you have a set of skills designed so that with all of your other tools, opponents are attacking you and not your party.
How are you to put these skills to use? As a tank, your job is to be the first one into battle. In PvE, you round up all of the monsters and provoke them so that your party can kill them untouched. In PvP, you run into your opponents head first and immobilize and disable them so that they become easy pickings for your party. Remember, the most important thing as a tank is that you take all of the damage. If you’re doing your job properly, no one else will get hit and everything will run very smoothly leading to great XP in PvE and many kills in PvP.
Brief Guide
Just looking for the quick rundown? Well, listen up.
Defender/Guardian is a party class. If you prefer to solo, you’ll have less headaches as a Fighter/Warrior. That being said, you benefit your party most by putting every single point you get when you level up into Rec. This maximizes your ability to hold mobs on you and your survivability. You won’t need Str or Dex or anything like that. Let your party kill the mobs. You just focus on tanking them.
Party with Mages/Pagans. They are the greatest at dealing damage to multiple enemies at the same time. This is exactly what you’re looking for because your job is to tank as many enemies as possible at a time. Avoid partying Rangers/Assassins and Archers/Hunters. They specialize in taking down targets one at a time and are better off on their own. It is also a good idea to bring a healer for more difficult enemies and for nasty debuffs or poisons.
The absolute must skill to get is Taunt. This is what holds the mobs to you to make sure they don’t attack your party. Also get any skill that grants immunity or raises your defense. Get any skill that puts an abnormal condition on your enemy. The important ones are Panic, Curse Raid, and all skills with the word ‘Blow’ in it. By using these debuffs every pull, you increase your survivability and make your party more efficient.
When you get to a spot with many mobs, round them all up by using ranged debuffs or simply running past them. Once you have them all on you in a nice little bunch, use Taunt and let your party do the rest. Once you get AoE debuffs, use them too. If something goes wrong and a mob leaves you and heads toward a member of your party, use Panic on it to bring it back in. Watch out for respawning mobs near your party. It is important that only you get attacked. Don’t bring your mobs too close to your casters. Some mobs have AoE attacks of their own and being close to your casters puts them at risk of being hit.
For a tank, how many lapis slots you have is more important than the level of the gear. If your lower level gear has more slots, keep it even when there is higher level gear available. Put Safe, Life, Forbid, and Wise lapis into your gear to increase your survivability.
And now you know the basics. You have been officially denoobified. Anything you read after this point would be for additional research. You are now ready to start spamming “LFP” on Trade Chat. If you’re still interested in more, let’s move into a deeper discussion on builds.
Section II – Stats and Builds
In the last section, I told you that you would benefit your party best by putting all of your points into Rec. This is the truth, with a few exceptions. If you’re patient, being a solo type build pays off at later levels. Your budget also plays a major role in deciding your build. There is a point where you have enough Rec and exploring other stats is a good idea to make your tanking more dynamic. This section will go into more detail of standard builds and discuss other options for those with patience or money.
Stat Point Values
Str: 1 Str = 1.3 attack power.
Rec: 1 Rec = 1 defense and 5 HP.
Dex: 1 Dex = 5 SP and minor physical accuracy and evasion.
Int: 1 Int = nothing at all for you.
Wis: 1 Wis = 1 resist, 5 MP, and minor magical accuracy.
Luc: 1 Luc = 0.2% critical hit accuracy and minor critical damage and evasion (see below).
For Wis, Dex, and Luc, the maximum accuracy, evade, and critical hit chance you can have is 95%.
Accepted Critical Hit Damage Formula:
Critical hit damage = (attack x 1.5) + random # between 0 and (Luc x 1.5)
Note that the value on the left is affected by target defense, whereas the number on the right is not.
Luc Discussion
Dex Discussion
Formula Discussion
NM: In NM, you get 5 stat points per level and 1 Rec per level automatically.
HM: In HM, you get 7 stat points per level and 1 Rec per level automatically.
UM: In UM, you get 9 stat points per level and 1 Rec per level automatically.
Standard Builds
There are a few questions you may have about your stats as you reach the end of the game.
- How much defense is enough defense?
The answer is 1,000. If you ever reach 1,000 defense, you will have enough to suit any purpose you have in PvE, from regular grinding to tanking bosses. No AI enemy in the game will ever require you to have more than 1,000 defense. Rather convenient if you ask me, having such a beautiful round number as an optimal amount of defense to shoot for by the end of the game. Keep in mind that Rec is your not your first priority until 1,000 defense. It is your only priority. Add nothing else until you have achieved this. With new additions in Epi4, UMs may want to push for a bit more, such as 1,200. Keep in mind though that most endgame bosses are tanked by casters, not by Defenders/Guardians.
- How much HP is enough HP?
HP is a stat that you can never have too much of. After a certain point, defense is useless because enemies will only hit you for a few damage anyway, but HP will continue to add survivability the higher it gets. Once you have 1,000 defense, feel free to continue to pump up HP by using Life Lapis. As a minimum, you should have no less than 15,000 HP when you reach the end of the game. With the new orange stats that appear on armor in Episode 4, this should be fairly easy. Remember also that UM players get a bonus to their HP, SP, and MP pools and this number will seem low.
- How much resist should I have?
If you use the correct Dual Lapis (explained in Section IV of this guide), you should have optimal resist without having to add Wis. An optimal amount of resist to have would be about 400 and if you’ve lapsed correctly, you should be able to achieve that without Wis. At any rate, putting Wis into your base build will not be necessary for a standard build. Magic damage is less of an issue to tanks and is therefore not a major priority until higher levels when Dual Lapis becomes available.
- What about Dex? Would evasion help?
Dex is a luxury stat for tanks. It helps, but it is not an alternative to defense. You need Rec to hold aggro and for HP. Feel free to invest in Dex after you have achieved your other optimal stats, but not before. For UM tanks, Dex is a convenient choice to add into your base build because with 9 stats per level, you can afford to have a little diversity.
These are your optimal stats to shoot for in a standard tank build. This is not to say that if you do not reach these, you’re not good enough. These optimal levels are simply the guideline of when to stop adding a certain stat. You can fulfill most purposes in the game with lower stats.
Moving on, now that you know the optimal stats, it’s time to discuss stat distribution per level.
NM: 5 Rec per level. This is the minimum per level in any mode should you ever hope to achieve that 1,000 defense. In NM, you can afford little to no diversity and you need all the Rec you can get to be a good tank. Any Wis you add will only lower your tanking potential and add a negligible amount of resist anyway.
HM: 7 Rec per level. This will ensure that you reach your optimal defense. At later levels, you may have the freedom to roam a little with Wis or Dex, but that would only be an option with a good budget. For the most part, HM should still be dedicated to reaching that optimal defense of 1,000.
UM: 7 Rec 2 Dex per level. 7 Rec per level is enough. By the time you have the financial resources of a UM character, you can afford to reach 1,000 defense easily with that. Add a Dex base to top off your build for added evasion and accuracy at later levels.
Adding Wis in your base build is a common inquiry. The truth of the matter is that adding Wis into your build for grinding just isn’t worth it. The amount of mobs that use magic attacks is relatively small. 1-2 Wis per level will also be very little resist in the end, not enough to make it worth it. For grinding, Wis is simply a wasted stat. All you accomplish by adding Wis is diminishing your ability to tank. For endgame boss farming purposes, Wis is optional for an uber build, but not a standard build. For standard builds, Dual Lapis with resist will be as much as you’ll need for endgame boss farming. In the meantime, the proper counter to the seldom magic damage you receive is HP. Having high HP is cheaper, is needed in your build anyway, and will do just fine until Dual Lapis becomes available.
By using these builds and supplementing yourself with the proper lapis outlined in Section IV, you will have achieved the optimal standard tank build and be useful in almost any corner of the game from PvE to PvP.
Battle Builds
The first thing you should know about a battle build is that it is not a hybrid build. You can not be both a tank and a battle build until higher levels. Even then, you can only tank for yourself. You won’t have the defense to be able to hold mobs against your party. A battle build is a solo build, or party with a healer. If a Mage/Pagan sees you soloing and says “party?”, you say “no thanks, I’m a battle build”. Until you’re UM with a very good budget, you won’t be able to be both a party tank and a solo battle build. Even then, you’ll likely be quite weak for killing bosses unless you focus on one or the other. Being an effective hybrid build would be an extremely expensive build and only an option at endgame for UMs. Remember, nothing is stopping casters from finding a tank with more Rec.
That being said, for a battle build in any mode, you should add no Rec at all. Defenders/Guardians already receive 1 Rec per level automatically and have higher passive HP pools than any other class. To top it off, you have invincibility buffs and status debuffs that will ensure that you will never need to add Rec to protect yourself in a standard battle build.
In addition to that, you won’t need as much Dex as your Fighter/Warrior counterpart at higher levels. For regular grinding, you’ll need just as much, but once your AoE skills are maxed out, they diminish the need of Dex. You should still have the same Dex base as a Warrior/Fighter, but you can get away with lapsing less. For regular grinding, 100-150 is enough, but towards the endgame, you’ll want to push that to about 200. However, that is a matter of preference. If you’re not satisfied with 200 Dex, add some more. For PvP especially, you’ll want more. Many of the Fighters/Warriors you’ll be competing with will have upwards of 450 Dex. You’ll need no less than 400 to compete with that. Yes, that is a lot, but that’s what you bargain for with a damage build tank.
With that in mind, your heavy focus is Str. For UM, your focus should be split between Str and Luc. Having a HM Str/Luc build would be very expensive to make feasible, but if you have the money, you can add Luc to your build in later levels. Luck simply isn’t an option for NM. You do not get the stat points in NM to complement your crits with attack power.
The important thing to know about Luc is that without Str, it is completely useless for a Defender/Guardian. Without attack power to compliment your crits, you’ll have better overall damage just by putting all of your points into Str instead. Luc is also useless unless in large quantities for this same reason. With the skill Bash Lv3, 175 Luc will give you a 50% crit rate. This is the absolute minimum for an effective Luc build. Any less than that and a Str build would result in more damage. Most would prefer to have around 400 Luc. That, with Bash Lv3, is a 95% crit chance. As a personal recommendation, I would stay away from Luc altogether in any mode until you have achieved 600 Str and than shoot for about 300-350 Luc (remember, UM only).
Whichever you end up doing, Str or Str/Luc, the goal is to get as much Str as possible. You need no less than 600 for an effective Str/Luc build, but after that, the sky is the limit. Once you have enough Dex and Luc, dump every remaining point you have into Str. You should reach for at least 600 Str in any mode by endgame. In NM, focus on that Str as a top priority. In HM, you add more Dex into your build. In UM, you can add Luc on top of that. In essence, a successful NM battle build is a heavy Str build, a successful HM is a Str/Dex build, and a successful UM is a Str/Dex/Luc build.
For more discussion on battle builds, refer to Section VI and this post by Aesteria.
On to stat point distributions per level.
NM: 3 Str 2 Dex per level. This is the standard NM physical damage build for any class. It will offer you the best damage. Any more Str and you miss too often. Any more Dex and you’re not hitting hard enough. Shoot for your optimal Str of 600 before worrying about other stats.
HM: 5 Str 2 Dex per level. Since you already had enough accuracy in NM, all you have to do in HM is pump up your Str even higher. You also get more AoE skills that do not rely on Dex, so do not worry about having more Dex than your NM counterpart. 2 per level is enough.
UM: 7 Str 2 Dex or 3 Str 2 Dex 4 Luc per level. You may find that only 3 Str per level is not enough attack power for your liking. 7 Str 2 Dex will make faster grinding, but 3 Str 2 Dex 4 Luc is better in the end when you can afford the proper lapis to complete your build. You may want to choose 7 Str to start and than restat to 3 Str 4 Luc later. Remember not to attempt a Luc build with less than 600 Str.
And that’s the deal with standard battle builds. By achieve the numbers I have displayed, you’ll do quite fine on your own and be a recognizable force in PvP. At lower levels, the sheer damage of Fighters/Warriors will always win out but by the time you get the 1-60 zone, you’ve got so many tricks up your sleeves that no other class is harder to take down, even with no Rec at all.
The Dex Build
After you’ve reached your optimum stats in all categories, you have three choices. First, you can keep building in those stats and be extremely powerful. This is a good idea as it either makes your survivability better for major bosses or makes you unstoppable in PvP. Second, you can do a tank/DPS hybrid build where you can both take it and dish it out. This one is not advised because it is ridiculously expensive and easier to just become much stronger in one field. Lastly, for tank builds, you can try the Dex tank build.
As a tank, you are tough, but not indestructible. There are three things that are an extreme hazard to you because no amount of defense will ever protect you from them.
DoTs: A DoT typically does not take away damage based on your defense. Some DoTs take away a certain percentage of your HP each round, some take away a fixed number per round. In both cases, even a million defense offers no protection from this. If a DoT is designed to take away 50% of your HP in 12 seconds, it will do precisely that.
Fixed damage: A fixed damage skill is a skill that inflicts the abnormal condition dying in a single shot. Think of it like a DoT skill with a duration of zero seconds. At any rate, fixed damage skills are also either based on percentage or a fixed number and will completely bypass your defense. Some fixed damage skills will take away 10% of your total HP in a single shot, some more than that even. Having insane amounts of defense won’t help you any.
Stuns: If you’re stunned, you can’t debuff, you can’t run, you can’t Taunt, and you can’t pull mobs off of your party. Even if you do have enough defense to withstand the damage you take when you’re stunned, your party can’t. Getting stunned and not being dispelled quickly can cause a full party wipeout.
As said, these three things cannot be remedied by defense. They also cannot be remedied by resist. The one thing that can help against these is Dex. With sufficient Dex, you can dodge these nasty effects and come one step closer to being an indestructible tank.
As said before, Dex is a luxury stat and cannot be a replacement for Rec. With that in mind, the Dex build is actually a Rec/Dex hybrid build. You still need the Rec to be able to tank effectively. Once you’ve reached the optimal standard defense, start dumping your points into Dex. By the time you have about 300 Dex, you’ll notice a huge difference. The Dex build also helps with accuracy in using some skills and for regular attacks, which are important for endgame bosses.
Going Beyond the Numbers
For tank builds, I outlined optimal stats. To refresh your memory, I told you to stop at 1,000 defense, to have no less than 10,000 HP, and to shoot for an optimal resist of 400. These stats will make you a good tank, but that doesn’t mean that you should stop there. If you can achieve 1,000 defense and push your HP all the way to 15,000, than you have made yourself more effective for tanking bosses. This same thing goes for your other tank stats. If you’re designing your tank for endgame bosses, you can push past 1,000 defense if you want. 1,000 defense is enough, but 1,200 will allow you to have fewer healers. That applies to resist too. The more you have, the fewer heals you need. If this sounds interesting to you, don’t feel limited by the standard build I gave. Feel free to push your stats to the max and increase your tanking potential.
For battle builds, I outlined actual numbers. The build I gave was simply the standard battle tank build. Although I would recommend to never stray from having between 175 and 400 Luc, your Str and Dex stats may be played around with and tweaked to your liking. 500 Dex? Why not? Or, you can drop your Dex and pump your Str up even higher and utilize your AoE debuffs for damage. It’s really up to you. Use the standard battle build as a guideline and choose for yourself what you want your character to do. As said, the sky is the limit. It’s your character. Don’t let me limit you with my perceptions.
Section III – Skills and Recommendations
Hard Mode skills will have their names in blue and Ultimate Mode skills will have their names in red. Some skills will have a note in italics if the skill is reliant on a stat or does not work under certain conditions. If the range of a skill is not stated in the description, it’s range is 2m, which is slightly more than a regular attack. If there is no recharge time or cast time stated, there is none.
Each skill will also be one of five categories.
Must: This skill will be essential to maximize your potential as a tank.
Optional: A potentially useful skill, but only get it with caution and if you can spare the points.
Useless: This skill will in no way help you at any time.
PvP: Only invest in this skill if you are going to be PvPing.
Battle: This skill is for Battle or DPS Tanks.
Each skill will also be followed by a short blurb with a recommendation of the skill.
Passive Skills
BODY TRAINING
Raises defense rating
Level: 1/28/49
Needed Skill Points: 2/3/4
Skill Lv1: Defense increases by 9
Skill Lv2: Defense increases by 18
Skill Lv3: Defense increases by 27
Must: The description of this skill says that it raises attack but this is wrong. It raises defense. This skill is of course a must. It raises your stats and requires you to do nothing to receive the benefit.
SHARPEN WEAPON POWER UP
Increases attack power when equipped with a one-handed sword or axe
Level: 5/16/25
Needed Skill Points: 2/3/4
Skill Lv1: Attack increases by 5
Skill Lv2: Attack increases by 12
Skill Lv3: Attack increases by 20
Useless: A skill that raises attack isn’t needed to tank. Even for battle builds, you should not get this because heavy weapons have a higher attack rating.
HEAVY WEAPON POWER UP
Increases attack power when equipped with a one-handed or two-handed mace
Level: 5/16/25
Needed Skill Points: 2/3/4
Skill Lv1: Attack increases by 5
Skill Lv2: Attack increases by 12
Skill Lv3: Attack increases by 20
Battle: Not needed to tank, but if you’re a battle build, definitely this skill. With your limited selection of damaging skills, you need all the extra attack power you can get.
TWO-HAND WEAPON POWER UP
Increases attack power when equipped with a two-handed sword or axe
Level: 5/16/25
Needed Skill Points: 2/3/4
Skill Lv1: Attack increases by 5
Skill Lv2: Attack increases by 12
Skill Lv3: Attack increases by 20
Useless: Although two handed weapons are quite aesthetically pleasing, you won’t receive the benefit of extra slots, debuff speed, or the shield power up. Skip it.
SHIELD DEFENSE UP
Increases your defense power when equipped with a shield
Level: 5/16/25
Needed Skill Points: 2/3/4
Skill Lv1: Defense increases by 11
Skill Lv2: Defense increases by 24
Skill Lv3: Defense increases by 89
Must: This is an enormous boost to your defense and you should be using a shield anyway! One of the defining advantages of a Defender/Guardian tank. Max it. Keep in mind that Power Up bonuses do not appear in your stat window.
RELAX BODY
Increases HP/MP/SP regeneration rate while resting
Level: 6/15/26
Needed Skill Points: 1/2/2
Skill Lv1: Regenerates 4% HP/MP/SP every 3 seconds
Skill Lv2: Regenerates 6% HP/MP/SP every 3 seconds
Skill Lv3: Regenerates 8% HP/MP/SP every 3 seconds
Must: This skill actually only works when you’re sitting, but any skill that will get you back on your feet and back to fighting quicker is a must.
BACKPACK UPGRADE
Adds an additional backpack slot
Level: 12/26/46
Needed Skill Points: 1/2/2
Skill Lv1: Inventory slots increased to 3
Skill Lv2: Inventory slots increased to 4
Skill Lv3: Inventory slots increased to 5
Must: Maxing this skill leads to more money. You have more room for drops and therefore will make fewer trips back to town.
INTERPRETATION
Interprets enemy language
Level: 13/22/51
Needed Skill Points: 1/2/2
Skill Lv1: Interprets 30% of enemy language
Skill Lv2: Interprets 60% of enemy language
Skill Lv3: Interprets 100% of enemy language
Optional: This skill is really only necessary to talk to the opposite faction in the 1-60 zone. Use it to settle disputes or make friends.
SHARPEN WEAPON MASTERY
Increases attack speed when equipped with a one handed sword or axe
Level: 14/35
Needed Skill Points: 3/5
Skill Lv1: Attack speed increases by 1
Skill Lv2: Attack speed increases by 2
Useless: This skill is useless because using a one handed weapon is not advised. However, if you do for some reason use them, go with this instead of Heavy Weapon Mastery.
HEAVY WEAPON MASTERY
Increases attack speed when equipped with a one-handed or two-handed mace
Level: 14/35
Needed Skill Points: 3/5
Skill Lv1: Attack speed increases by 1
Skill Lv2: Attack speed increases by 2
Must: This skill will help you no matter if you’re a tank or battle build. Tanks can debuff faster, battles builds can attack faster.
TWO-HAND MASTERY
Increases attack speed when equipped with a two-handed sword or axe
Level: 14/35
Needed Skill Points: 3/5
Skill Lv1: Attack speed increases by 1
Skill Lv2: Attack speed increases by 2
Useless: Although two handed weapons are quite aesthetically pleasing, you won’t receive the benefit of extra slots, debuff speed, or the shield power up. Skip it.
Basic Skills
TOWN PORTAL
Teleports you to the nearest town or spawn location
Level: 1/20/40
Needed Skill Points: 0/0/0
Lv1: Has a cast time of 10 seconds
Lv2: Has a cast time of 9 seconds
Lv3: Has a cast time of 8 seconds
Must: Almost seems like I need a new category, as this skill isn’t necessarily a ‘must’, but it’s free and better than /town at Lv2+, so there’s no point in not getting it.
HARD SKIN
Buff that increases physical defense and HP for 5 minutes
Level: 2/10/20
Needed Skill Points: 2/2/3
Skill Lv1: Defense increases by 4 and HP increases by 60
Skill Lv2: Defense increases by 7 and HP increases by 117
Skill Lv3: Defense increases by 13 and HP increases by 244
Optional: With the new Shield Defense Up, this skill has become obsolete. You can skip it without any penalty if you’re short on points.
CONCENTRATION
Buff increases accuracy for 5 minutes
Level: 3/17/30
Needed Skill Points: 2/3/3
Skill Lv1: Accuracy increases by 7%
Skill Lv2: Accuracy increases by 14%
Skill Lv3: Accuracy increases by 21%
Must: While probably not needed until Lv50, this skill is essential for endgame tanking purposes. It’s also a must for battle tanks. Max it when you get a chance, but don’t put priority on it unless you’re a battle build.
BASH
Buff that increases critical hit rating for 5 minutes
Level: 4/18/31
Needed Skill Points: 2/3/3
Skill Lv1: Critical hit rate increases by 5%
Skill Lv2: Critical hit rate increases by 10%
Skill Lv3: Critical hit rate increases by 15%
Battle: Note that this skill raises your crit rate by 15% out of 100. It is not a % based on your current Luc stat. With that much of a boost to your crit rate (equivalent to 75 Luc at Lv3), this buff is essential for battle builds.
TAUNT
Provokes nearby enemies to attack caster
Rec based
Level: 6/32/52
Needed Skill Points: 3/3/3
Recharge: 20sec
Skill Lv1: Provokes enemies within a 3m range
Skill Lv2: Provokes enemies within a 3m range, more effective than Lv1
Skill Lv3: Provokes enemies within a 4m range, more effective than Lv2
Must: This is your absolute essential skill for tanking. If you were to pick one skill and one skill only, this would be the one to take. Make sure to upgrade it as soon as you can.
HEAVY SWAT
Melee DoT skill with multiple indirect uses
Dex based
Level: 9/19/28
Needed Skill Points: 3/3/4
Skill Lv1: Deals 300 damage over 30 seconds
Skill Lv2: Deals 530 damage over 30 seconds
Skill Lv3: Deals 980 damage over 30 seconds
Optional: This is another skill that won’t be useful until endgame. It works on bosses plus it has an agro effect attached to it. It is also useful in PvP for preventing Assassins and Rangers from using Stealth, chipping away at Rec builds, and a few other things.
MAGIC SKIN
Buff that increases magic resistance for 5 minutes
Level: 10/31/52
Needed Skill Points: 2/2/3
Skill Lv1: Increases resist by 8
Skill Lv2: Increases resist by 21
Skill Lv3: Increases resist by 45
Optional: Resist is a secondary tank stat and not essential for your survivability. With so many new skills in Epi4, you may have to be picky. Get this if you can spare points.
SELF DISPEL
Removes abnormal conditions from self
Level: 13/31/52
Needed Skill Points: 3/4/4
Recharge: 90sec
Skill Lv1: Removes Poison, Illness, Delusion, Fear, Doom, Dull, and Bad Luck from self
Skill Lv2: Removes Poison, Illness, Delusion, Fear, Doom, Dull, Bad Luck, Sleep, Darkness, Pause, and Slow from self
Skill Lv3: Removes all abnormal conditions from self with the exceptions of Stun, Silence, and Unconscious.
Must: It has a long cool down timer, but this skill is very useful to take some load off of your healer or for when you aren’t using a healer. It is also essential for PvP.
SELF AID
Instantly restores HP to self
Wis based
Level: 13/31/52
Needed Skill Points: 3/4/4
Recharge: 180sec
Skill Lv1: Heals 291 + Wis to self
Skill Lv2: Heals 702 + Wis to self
Skill Lv3: Heals 1401 + Wis to self
Useless: While this skill looks useful, it will likely cause more damage than it heals. The problem with this skill is that if you’re in such a jam that you need to heal yourself, you probably can’t afford to either stop moving or interrupt your auto regeneration, especially if you’ve got DoTs on you. It would take a considerate amount of Wis to make a heal spell that interrupts your auto healing, stops you from moving, and takes three minutes to recharge effective. The popularity of Rec/Wis hybrid tanks has dropped considerably since dual lapis with resist came into circulation. As a Rec tank, you won’t even notice your HP bar move when you use this.
Combat Skills
PROTECTION CHARGE
Stuns target and deals damage based on HP
Dex based, does not work on mobs with immunities to abnormal conditions
Level: 1/12/23
Needed Skill Points: 2/3/3
Recharge: 30sec
Skill Lv1: Deals 5% of target’s remaining HP and stuns for 2 seconds
Skill Lv2: Deals 7% of target’s remaining HP and stuns for 2 seconds
Skill Lv3: Deals 10% of target’s remaining HP and stuns for 3 seconds
PvP: On a heavy Rec build, 10% HP could be more damage than any other your skills in PvP. The stun is also always helpful and is not able to be dispelled. However, this skill is completely useless for PvE. Don’t get it if you’re not into PvP.
CURSE RAID
Decreases target physical attack power for 20 seconds from a distance of 24m Level: 2/15/36
Needed Skill Points: 3/3/3
Skill Lv1: Enemy attack decreases by 15
Skill Lv2: Enemy attack decreases by 40 within 6m of target
Skill Lv3: Enemy attack decreases by 75 within 16m of target
Must: Once this skill gets AoE range, it is the best tool you have for pulling in mobs and is very useful for reducing the damage you take. At max level, that’s 75 less damage you receive per mob per round.
PANIC
Decreases target defense from a distance of 24m
Level: 7/27/38
Needed Skill Points: 3/3/3
Skill Lv1: Enemy defense decreases by 11 for 30 seconds
Skill Lv2: Enemy defense decreases by 45 for 60 seconds
Skill Lv3: Enemy defense decreases by 75 for 60 seconds
Must: This is the most reliable ranged skill you have for pulling back aggro when you lose a mob. On bosses and in Deep Desert, melee attacks will be needed, but for everything else, this works wonders. Max it.
SACRIFICE
Restores target HP/MP/SP by spending your remaining pools
Level: 8/18/33
Needed Skill Points: 3/3/4
Cast Time: 2sec
Recharge: 600/600/1500sec
Skill Lv1: Spend all of your SP to completely restore target SP
Skill Lv2: Spend all of your SP and MP to completely restore target SP and MP
Skill Lv3: Spend all of your SP and MP to completely restore target HP (can target self)
Optional: This skill is next to impossible to use without Untouchable and is only useful at Skill Lv3. It also eats your entire SP and MP pools. Use with extreme caution.
AROUSE BLOW
Melee attack that deals regular damage and provokes target into attacking
Dex and Rec based
Level: 8/27/48
Needed Skill Points: 3/3/4
Skill Lv1: Deals regular damage and provokes target into attacking
Skill Lv2: Deals regular damage and provokes target into attacking, more effective than Lv1
Skill Lv3: Deals regular damage and provokes target into attacking, more effective than Lv2
Optional: This skill is the ultimate agro skill. If this doesn’t get a mob’s attention, nothing will. It may be an overkill if your Rec is very high, which is why I‘ve labeled it as optional. It’s useful to spam in emergencies on bosses or lost agro in Deep Desert.
GROUND BOOM
Deals regular damage and causes Slow
Dex based
Level: 9/29/39
Needed Skill Points: 3/3/4
Recharge: 60sec
Skill Lv1: Causes Slow for 5 seconds within 6m of target
Skill Lv2: Causes Slow for 7 seconds within 10m of target with an added 36 attack power
Skill Lv3: Causes Slow for 9 seconds within 16m of target with an added 70 attack power
Battle: This skill is very useful for tanks at lower levels but becomes obsolete once your Blow skills get AoE range. It also requires Dex to succeed whereas the Blow skills do not. I would suggest to skip it or leave it at Lv2 unless you’re a battle build. Note that this does more damage and has a stronger Slow effect than Slow Rage, making it more desirable for battle builds.
ENERGY CONTROL
Buff that increases total SP for 30 minutes
Level: 11/21/40
Needed Skill Points: 4/5/5
Skill Lv1: SP increases by 500
Skill Lv2: SP increases by 600
Skill Lv3: SP increases by 800
Optional: The more points you put into this skill, the less you get out of it for its skill point cost. I would suggest to leave it at Lv1 if you get it, as 500 SP is plenty and your points are better spent elsewhere.
DARKNESS BLOW
Deals regular damage and causes Darkness with given accuracy of 75%
Level: 19/37/55
Needed Skill Points: 5/6/7
Recharge: 30sec
Skill Lv1: Causes Darkness for 6 seconds
Skill Lv2: Causes Darkness for 9 seconds within 6m of target
Skill Lv3: Causes Darkness for 12 seconds within 16m of target
Must: Once this skill gets AoE range, nothing will be more reliable in reducing the damage you take. Upgrade it as soon as possible and use it in every pull. If you’re low on points, consider leaving this at Lv2.
STOP BLOW
Deals regular damage and causes Stop with a given accuracy of 75%
Level: 20/30/41
Needed Skill Points: 5/6/7
Recharge: 30sec
Skill Lv1: Causes Stop for 6 seconds
Skill Lv2: Causes Stop for 9 seconds within 6m of target
Skill Lv3: Causes Stop for 12 seconds within 16m of target
Must: Used by an expert, this can be just as useful in reducing your incoming damage as Darkness Blow. It is also effective in putting mobs right where you want them. Upgrade it as soon as possible. If you’re low on points, consider leaving this at Lv2.
SILENCE BLOW
Deals regular damage and causes Silence with a given accuracy of 75%
Level: 24/34/45
Needed Skill Points: 5/6/7
Recharge: 30sec
Skill Lv1: Causes Silence for 6 seconds
Skill Lv2: Causes Silence for 9 seconds within 6m of target
Skill Lv3: Causes Silence for 12 seconds within 16m of target
Must: This skill won’t be as effective in lower levels, but once you get higher up, it has so many wonderful effects. It’ll stop casters from hurting you and healers from healing. If you’re low on points, consider leaving this at Lv2.
PROVOKE
Provokes target into attacking you from a range of 3m with 80% accuracy
Level: 28/42/56
Needed Skill Points: 2/3/4
Recharge: 120sec/60sec/45sec
Skill Lv1: Provokes target for 2 seconds
Skill Lv2: Provokes target for 3 seconds
Skill Lv3: Provokes target for 4 seconds
PvP: This is basically is a PvP version of Arouse Blow. Great for interrupting assaults on your party.
SLOW RAGE
Deals regular damage and causes Slow with 100% accuracy
Level: 33/43/53
Needed Skill Points: 4/4/5
Recharge: 48sec
Skill Lv1: Causes Slow for 9 seconds within 6m of target
Skill Lv2: Causes Slow for 12 seconds within 8m of target
Skill Lv3: Causes Slow for 15 seconds within 10m of target
Must: This has the same abnormal effect as Ground Boom (but not as powerful), lasts longer and works with 100% accuracy. I would suggest to skip this skill for battle builds and get Ground Boom instead, but max it for tank builds. However, also note that it stacks with Ground Boom for extra slowness.
ARACHNE RAGE
Deals regular damage and decreases evasion by 15% with 100% accuracy
Level: 34/44/57
Needed Skill Points: 4/4/5
Recharge: 48sec
Skill Lv1: Decreases evasion for 15 seconds within 6m of target
Skill Lv2: Decreases evasion for 20 seconds within 8m of target
Skill Lv3: Decreases evasion for 30 seconds within 10m of target
Must: This debuff does not have an abnormal condition attached to it. That means that it works on bosses. This skill is also great for battle builds for hitting their targets with greater accuracy.
MAGIC RANGE
Deals regular damage and decreases magic resist of all targets in range with 100% accuracy
Level: 36/47/58
Need Skill Points: 4/4/5
Recharge: 48sec
Skill Lv1: Reduces resist of targets by 21 for 15 seconds within a 3m range
Skill Lv2: Reduces resist of targets by 45 for 20 seconds within a 4m range
Skill Lv3: Reduces resist of targets by 98 for 30 seconds within a 5m range
Battle: Another AoE skill that will help in both PvP and PvE. It allows your party to deal more magic damage to opponents. Also makes solo grinding for battle builds easier.
BEHEMOTH RANGE
Deals regular damage plus additional damage to all targets within range with 100% accuracy and reduces target HP/MP/SP regeneration
Level: 39/48/57
Needed Skill Points: 4/4/5
Recharge: 48sec
Skill Lv1: Adds 186 damage against all targets within 3m and decreases regeneration for 30 seconds
Skill Lv2: Adds 294 damage against all targets within 4m and decreases regeneration for 45 seconds
Skill Lv3: Adds 741 damage against all targets within 5m and decreases regeneration for 60 seconds
Battle: This will be your hardest hitting skill as a battle build and is AoE. Essential for grinding and for PvP.
PROVOKE RANGE
Provokes all targets within range into attacking you from a range of 3m with 80% accuracy
Level: 40/52/59
Needed Skill Points: 3/3/3
Recharge: 600sec/480sec/300sec
Skill Lv1: Provokes all targets within 2m for 2 seconds
Skill Lv2: Provokes all targets within 3m for 3 seconds
Skill Lv3: Provokes all targets within 4m for 4 seconds
PvP: Consider this skill the PvP Taunt, although keep in mind that it requires a target to use. Great for interrupting assaults on your party.
Special Skills
BERSERKER
Buff that increases accuracy of all melee, shooting, and magical attacks
Level: 1/20/40
Needed Skill Points: 0/0/0
Recharge: 180sec
Alliance of Light only
Skill Lv1: Raises accuracy of all attacks by 3% for 90 seconds
Skill Lv2: Raises accuracy of all attacks by 5% for 120 seconds
Skill Lv3: Raises accuracy of all attacks by 8% for 180 seconds
Must: This skill is free and is useful for any kind of build. Get it as soon as possible and use it as often as possible.
BATTLE CRY
Buff that increases HP recovery rate
Level: 1/20/40
Needed Skill Points: 0/0/0
Recharge: 180sec
Union of Fury only
Skill Lv1: Raises HP recovery by 2% for 90 seconds
Skill Lv2: Raises HP recovery by 3% for 120 seconds
Skill Lv3: Raises HP recovery by 5% for 180 seconds
Must: HP recovery is useful for anyone, both PvE and PvP, both tank and battle builds. It’s free, so max it and use it as often as possible.
TACTICAL FORMATION
Buff that increases defense for all party members within 100m for 10 minutes
Level: 7/24/51
Needed Skill Points: 2/3/4
Skill Lv1: Defense increase by 14
Skill Lv2: Defense increase by 26
Skill Lv3: Defense increase by 42
Must: This buff, put into context, is equivalent to having Curse Raid permanently cast on all enemies. It protects you more than any spammable buff and your party will love you.
POTENTIAL AVOID
Automatic buff that increases physical evasion at critical HP
Level: 17/29/50
Needed Skill Points: 1/2/3
Recharge: 180sec
Skill Lv1: Evasion automatically increases by 50% for 30 seconds when HP drop below 10%
Skill Lv2: Evasion automatically increases by 60% for 30 seconds when HP drop below 15%
Skill Lv3: Evasion automatically increases by 70% for 30 seconds when HP drop below 20%
Optional: This skill makes very little difference unless your Dex is quite high. If you have spare points, you may as well get it because it requires you to do nothing, but don’t get it otherwise.
UNTOUCHABLE
Buff that grants immunity to all types of attacks
Level: 22/42/54
Needed Skill Points: 3/4/5
Recharge: 300sec
Skill Lv1: Immunity to everything for 9 seconds
Skill Lv2: Immunity to everything for 13 seconds
Skill Lv3: Immunity to everything for 17 seconds
Must: This skill is one of the major reasons why no other class will ever have the tanking potential that you have. This causes every direct hit to miss you (some skills that hit indirectly, like Fire Wall, will still hit you). Max it and use it.
SECURE GUARD
Buff that increases defense but decreases damage by 500
Level: 23/32/43
Needed Skill Points: 4/5/6
Recharge: 300sec
Skill Lv1: Defense increases by 200 for 30 seconds
Skill Lv2: Defense increases by 350 for 35 seconds
Skill Lv3: Defense increases by 500 for 40 seconds
Optional: This offers a huge boost to defense, but as a tank, your greatest threat isn’t from regular attacks. This skill is more useful for battle builds. Get it if you can spare the points.
HEALTH DRAIN
Melee attack that drains HP from target with given accuracy of 75%
Level: 27/37/47
Needed Skill Points: 6/7/8
Recharge: 600sec
Skill Lv1: Drains 377 HP from target
Skill Lv2: Drains 470 HP from target
Skill Lv3: Drains 693 HP from target
Useless: This skill heals very little HP, takes very long to recharge, and only works some of the time. It will do more damage than good. Were this skill AoE, it would be decently effective. However, it’s not and it’s horrible.
DEMON HUSHING
Deals additional physical damage to target from a range of 5m
Dex based
Level: 36/46/56
Needed Skill Points: 5/6/7
Skill Lv1: Adds 101 to regular attack power
Skill Lv2: Adds 168 to regular attack power
Skill Lv3: Adds 280 to regular attack power
Battle: This is the lifeblood of a battle build. It is your only spammable damage skill. By debuffing your target and than hammering on them with this, you can take down even the strongest targets easily. This is also a useful aid for tank builds to regain aggro, so consider getting Lv1 even if you’re not a battle build.
MELEE REFLECTOR
Reflects all melee physical melee physical damage received
Does not work on mobs with immunities to abnormal conditions
Level: 38/48/58
Needed Skill Points: 7/8/9
Recharge: 900sec
Skill Lv1: Reflects all melee physical damage back to enemy for 8 seconds
Skill Lv2: Reflects all melee physical damage back to enemy for 10 seconds
Skill Lv3: Reflects all melee physical damage back to enemy for 15 seconds
Optional: This skill is extremely useful and is essentially another Untouchable-type skill, but the skill point cost is extremely high. Make sure you can afford it before you spend points on it.
POWER OF GUARD
Buff that grants immunity to all types of attacks for all party members within 20m
Level: 49/59
Needed Skill Points: 8/9
Recharge: 900sec
Skill Lv1: Immunity to all attacks for 10 seconds
Skill Lv2: Immunity to all attacks for 20 seconds
Must: This is the ultimate bad situation buff. When everything gets far out of control and your entire party’s untimely destruction is imminent, this skill can get you out of a tight spot or at least buy you some time.
DAYFLY SHIELD LV1 and DAYFLY SHIELD LV2
Reflects all damage received back to enemy for all party members
Does not work on mobs with immunities to abnormal conditions
Level: 60/60
Needed Skill Points: 8/1
Recharge: 720sec/480sec
Skill Lv1: Reflect all damage back to enemy for 4 seconds for all party members within 8m
Skill Lv2: Reflect all damage back to enemy for 40 seconds for all party members within 15m
Must: Honestly, if you got all the way to Lv60 and saw some reason not to get this skill, than I don’t know what you’ve been doing for the last 59 levels. This is a definite must. Note that HM can only get Lv1 and may consider skipping it.
Credit to koktelici and ming20008 compiling all of the new skills and Lux.Munimen for help with descriptions and testing.
Section IV – Gear and Lapis
This section will deal with all the gear you get as a Defender/Guardian, where to get it, and how to properly fill it with shiny gems. When using this section, there are a few links that will be very useful in your research. I will give them to you in each heading of this section.
First and foremost, use the Lapis Compilation Thread. It is the best compilation thread out there and written by n3cr0m33p5. If you ever use it, make sure to give him karma.
Gear List
This section is still under heavy construction. I decided that I wanted to include data on Guardians as well as Defenders, so this section is on hold until I get some grinding done on my Guardian 
Until I can organize my data, WheresLupers’ Fighter Guide gives an account of what all of the armor looks like and where to get it (for AoL anyway).
For UoF, here is a complete chart of all gear that is currently available to us.
Steel
Lvl: 2-5
Equippable by: NM / HM / UM
Available in: Unslotted / Noble
Chain-Steel
Lvl: 8-11
Equippable by: NM / HM / UM
Available in: Unslotted / Noble / Worship
Scale
Lvl: 15-18
Equippable by: NM / HM / UM
Available in: Unslotted / Noble / Worship / Heroic / Dread
Axo
Lvl: 22-25
Equippable by: NM / HM / UM
Available in: Unslotted / Noble / Worship / Heroic / Dread
Anga
Lvl: 29-32
Equippable by: NM / HM / UM
Available in: Unslotted / Worship / Heroic / Dread
Legion
Lvl: 36-39
Equippable by: NM / HM / UM
Available in: Unslotted / Heroic / Dread
Suitroom
Lvl: 40
Equippable by: NM / HM / UM
Available in: Worship
Mithril
Lvl: 43-46
Equippable by: NM / HM / UM
Available in: Unslotted / Heroic / Dread
Legendary Mithril
Lvl: 43-46
Equippable by: HM / UM
Number of Slots: 5
Goddess Mithril
Lvl: 43-46
Equippable by: UM
Number of Slots: 6
Adamas
Lvl: 50-53
Equippable by: NM / HM / UM
Available in: Unslotted / Heroic / Dread
Legendary Adamas
Lvl: 50-53
Equippable by: HM / UM
Number of Slots: 5
Goddess Adamas
Lvl: 50-53
Equippable by: UM
Number of Slots: 6
Ohgerton
Lvl: 55-58
Available in: Noble / Dread / Legendary
Equippable by: NM / HM / UM *5-slot can only be equipped in HM / UM
Screen shots of Guardian gear taken from this original thread by father_blade.
NPC Gear: This gear contains no lapis slots. It is worth nothing in resale and you’re better off not buying it either. If you find it in a drop off of a mob, sell it at your nearest vendor when you get the chance.
Noble Gear: This gear contains one lapis slot. This is the best quality for lower level gear normally available. It is most used in Lv1-15 PvP. This again, though there is a demand for it in PvP, is worth very little gold. The quests to acquire the PvP Noble gear are easy to do.
Worship Gear: This gear contains two lapis slots. This gear is available for mid low level gear. It is not the best gear you can find for Lv20-30 PvP, but it is a cheaper alternative. Worship PvP armor has a fairly decent market, but worship weapons will be worth nothing in resale. The weapon you receive in the Lv25 Epic quest is better.
Heroic Gear: This gear contains three lapis slots. Heroic gear is the most common gear in the game. It drops in most dungeons and is available for mid level gear. This is the best quality you can normally find for Lv20-30 gear, so both weapons and armor of this quality are worth very much gold.
Dread Gear: This gear contains four lapis slots. It is the highest quality of gear available to NM players. It is an option for most mid high level gear. Depending on the piece of gear, Dread gear is either very rare or very common. Use the Drop Locations heading for more information on this.
Legendary Gear: This contains five lapis slots. It is usable by HM and UM only. All legendary gear is quite rare and holds a very good market. If you find any, you should hold onto it or only sell it when you have a very good feel for the game economy.
Goddess Gear: This gear contains six lapis slots. It is for UM only. Goddess gear is the rarest of the rare. If you are ever lucky enough to see it in the market, you will probably not be able to afford it. Normally, they drop only from the strongest of endgame bosses and are kept by whoever finds them.
If you need a guide to accessories, refer to the Accessory Guide. This guide includes complete information for AoL, as well as a lot of useful information for UoF.
Build Planning
When you’re planning a build, whether it be for PvP or for endgame PvE, you should have your numbers worked out beforehand. Always adjust your base stats to your lapis. Do not adjust your lapis to work with your base stats. Your lapis options are limited. You can rearrange your base stats however you need to.
What I like to do is pull out my word processor and calculator and start crunching numbers. I start with outlining my target stats. From there, I start with Lv1 base stats and from there I add in automatic level up stats, passive stats on gear, lapis, and than base stats, in that specific order. After I have everything written out, I include at the end what is still needed to achieve my target stats.
To illustrate what I mean, here is a plan I wrote up for my tank build for my Lv56 HM Defender. This build includes Sonic, Armor Element, Lv5, and Dual Lapis with Legend Mithril top and bottom, Legend Daynorth boots and gloves, a set of Lv55 accessories, and a Lv54 HM cape.
Lv56 HM Defender – Tank Build Target stats: 300 Dex Base stats (including Body Training and Shield Power Up): Primary stats: Secondary stats: Pool stats: Passive gear bonuses: Primary stats: Secondary stats: Pool stats: Total stats at Lv56 with no stats added and no lapis: Primary stats: Secondary stats: Pool stats: Total stats gained through lapis: Primary stats: Secondary stats: Pool stats: Total stats at Lv56 without adding stat points: Primary stats: Secondary stats: Pool stats: Base stats to add to achieve minimum HP and defense: 264 Rec Total stats, all inclusive, at Lv56 Primary stats: Secondary stats: Pool stats: Total HP through orange Epi4 stats: Areas of improvement:
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This method is very effective in setting out a build goal and spotting areas in which you need to develop.
Section V – PvE Technique
Evolution of Technique
This section will deal with progressing with your technique as a party tank. I will not talk about progressing with your battle build specifically, but in essence, you will run through your skills in much the same way, only with a battle build, your purpose is to kill the mobs. With a battle build, I would recommend not to AoE until Lv37, when you have all three Blow skills as AoE.
Two things that should be constantly on your mind as a tank are how vulnerable you are and your survival. Every three seconds, so long as there is some bless, you automatically recover HP. Using a skill or attacking resets this cycle, making the three seconds start over, so once mobs are aggroed and subdued, you should only use skills when necessary to ensure that your HP is always regenerating and to lower your vulnerability. Also, when dealing with mobs like in Skulleron, Lanhaar, and the new maps, you will be taking a substantial amount of damage, making you want to keep moving to avoid some hits. Be cautious though, mobs that use magic attacks tend to use them more often if you are not within melee range, creating a hazard for you. If you find that survival is too easy, move to harder mobs. Tanking should always be challenging to ensure the most possible XP for your party. Always pressing and challenging yourself also prepares you for endgame tanking purposes.
Up until Lv15, you have use of Taunt and Ground Boom to tank. Technique at this point is very simple. Run through the mobs and gather them up. If there are mobs slightly out of reach, you can use Panic or Curse Raid to draw them in. Once you have enough of them, turn and face your mob. Use Ground Boom first. It reduces damage you take subsequently and it gathers them all into a nice tight little bunch. Move into the centre of the mobs and use Taunt. If there seems to be a problem with the mobs gathering nice and closely, walk backwards to lead them a few meters away. This will move the ones in the back and off to the sides into the middle. Run back into the middle of them once they‘re all in a neat pile. Once you get used to this, it should only take about half a second to both Ground Boom and Taunt. Than, just stand there and let the Mage/Pagan kill them. Use Panic, not Curse Raid, on enemies that run astray. Curse Raid doesn’t have a very strong aggro effect. It is important not to attack the mobs yourself. You don’t do damage and it just interrupts your automatic regeneration. Ground Boom and Taunt can be used interchangeably. By using Taunt first and Ground Boom second, there will be no recordable difference. Do whichever is more comfortable to you.
At Lv15, you get Curse Raid 2, making it now an AoE debuff. It is also useful for drawing multiple out-of-range enemies at a time. Your new technique is slightly different, but it is important to master it because it will be your technique until Lv37. Same as before, run and gather, and than turn and face your mob. Now, while walking backwards to gather them up closely, use Curse Raid on them. You may want to use it twice to make sure that you hit all of them with it, but that is preference. By doing this, you reduce the damage you take at your most vulnerable time. After this, run through them to the other side of them, bringing the ones in the back and to the sides into the middle, than double back and Ground Boom and Taunt. By now Ground Boom and Taunt should be a near perfected move that takes half a second. Every ten seconds or so, feel free to use Curse Raid again as it has no cooldown time.
Between Lv30 and Lv37, there will be a few changes to your arsenal. For HM/UM tanks, you get Slow and Arachne Rage. Slow Rage is your replacement to Ground Boom. It essentially does the same thing, but the difference is that Slow Rage has a longer duration and requires no Dex to hit. However, battle builds will prefer Ground Boom as it does more damage and has a stronger debuff. Battle builds will also want to get Arachne Rage as it makes hitting your targets easier. The second change is that your Blow skills become AoE. This will make them handy in many situations and you should put all three on your skill bar and use them according to situation. Some mobs have nasty AoE or hit you hard with Magic Spot. Use Silence Blow on these. Some have a tendency to break aggro and either reset or go after casters. Use Stop Blow on these. Darkness Blow can be used in every situation and once it is AoE.
At Lv37, when Darkness Blow becomes AoE, you will have a new injection into your technique. By now, Ground Boom has become obsolete. For NM tanks, just remove it from your skill bar altogether and don‘t put any more skill points on it. For HM and UM tanks, replace it with Slow Rage. Without Ground Boom, your technique would be Gather à Curse Raid à Taunt. Now, use Darkness Blow when you first run back into your gathered mob. Your new technique is gather, Curse Raid, Darkness Blow, Taunt. For HM and UM tanks, use Slow Rage after Taunt. If you are tanking in Cloron/Fantasma Lair, you may also want to use Silence Blow regularly to prevent being spam killed by Magic Spot.
With everything you have learned up to this point, reaching the final few maps in the game for grinding changes everything. Survivability becomes more about being able to run like heII and less about using your skills well. Once you get to Deep Desert, your final grind stage, debuffs don’t work at all with the exception of Taunt and Arachne Rage. With that, we move into discussion about endgame technique.
Endgame Technique
This will be in reference to Skulleron (Pando), Lanhaar, Stable Erde (Jungle), Deep Desert, and general bosses. To start things off, use the Ultimate Kiting Guide for reference. Kiting is a huge part of endgame grinding. However, kiting bosses is quite silly. Don’t do it.
Tanking on Map4
The first thing you may notice about Skulleron or Lanhaar is the enormous frequency of critical hits. It is much safer to assume that the mobs will crit you. They may even hit you regularly for over 1,000 damage until you can get some hard numbers into your build. For that reason, it is a good idea to bring a healer, at least until you have some decent gear.
That being said, here are some pointers for grinding in Map4:
- Curse Raid is useless for reducing the damage you take. Mobs will hit you hard regardless. As relatively few mobs use magic attacks, you’re much better off just running. If they can’t get close to you, they can’t hit you.
- If you’re still using it, forget about Ground Boom completely. Map4 requires much more accuracy to hit than previous maps and you’ll more than likely just miss.
- At this point, Panic will still work well for retrieving lost aggro.
- Silence Blow has lost most of it’s use here. Not many mobs use magic attacks. Keep it on your skill bar, but you probably won’t use it often.
- Stop Blow is the new Darkness Blow. As you gather and the mobs approach you, use Stop Blow on the one in front. This will cause the ones in the back to stay where they are and not reach you.
- For NM Defenders/Guardians, you may use Darkness Blow and than run in for the Taunt and quickly get out again. For HM or UM tanks, just use Darkness and Slow Rage and start kiting. Slow Rage hits with 100% accuracy and therefore can replace Taunt at this stage (note that you’ll still need Taunt later).
The key in Map4 is to kite and reduce your action time (time spent using skills). You want your HP to be regenerating and you want to be outside of melee range from your mobs. Remember to use the Ultimate Kiting Guide as reference.
Tanking in the Jungle
Evolving a little further, you move away from Map4 and into Stable Erde. Mobs here are very similar to Map4, but there are a few new things to look out for:
Stuns and dying are a very common theme here. They are a hazard for you even with tons of defense. For this reason, it is recommended to bring a healer until you gain a few levels. After you’ve spent a couple of levels here though, you should be able to get by without a healer by bringing plenty of Stun Scrolls.
Another new thing is something I like to call “fake aggro”. Some mobs, namely the Crocodiles and Trolls, will automatically go for your Mages/Pagans as soon as they cast. It is important that you do not panic here. You’ll dramatically reduce your survivability in a vain attempt to bring them back. What happens is, the mobs walk to the point where the casting came from and than walk back. They do not attack the casters. It’s just an annoying trick. To prevent this, you can use Stop Blow in every pull. It isn’t 100% fail proof, as Stop Blow only has a 75% accuracy, but it helps keep most of your mobs together. If you’re in the Jungle with casters who are unaware of this “fake aggro”, make sure you inform them. Also note that if your caster is too far away from the mobs, the mobs will not be able to walk there and back and will just reset, making the pull extremely messy. The best move is to instruct your caster to move up close to you and warn the healer to be mindful of the AoE. Your Mages/Pagans may get hit with AoE, but the pull will go much more smoothly regardless because the mobs will stay within a smaller boundary, even when they do fake aggro.
Other than that, Stable Erde grinding is the same as Map4 grinding.
Tanking in the Desert
Deep Desert Lv1 is probably the trickiest place to grind. Mobs have immunities to virtually all abnormal conditions. That being said, a few of your debuffs do not have an abnormal condition. Taunt, Arouse Blow, and Arachne Rage all work as they debuff without adding a condition.
This next part is very important, so I’m giving it it’s own paragraph.
Due to these immunities, for the first time in the entire game for grinding, DEBUFFS DO NOT WORK TO REGAIN AGGRO. That’s right. Look closely at your skills. Any skill that has “abnormal condition” in the information window will not work at all. It will simply miss.
Here is a list of skills that do not work:
- Protection Charge
- Panic
- Curse Raid
- Ground Boom
- Darkness Blow
- Stop Blow
- Silence Blow
- Slow Rage
These skills still work:
- Regular hits
- Heavy Swat
- Arouse Blow
- Taunt
- Arachne Rage
- Demon Hushing
I recommend Demon Hushing for single mobs and Arachne Rage for multiple mobs. These skills have the best range and are therefore more effective.
The Desert is also home to more lovely things. The DoTs are vicious, the mob sight is enormous, and they are very sensitive to both healing and Mages/Pagans with Rec in their builds. To counter heals, try not to target any mobs before your Taunt. As pointed out in the Ultimate Kiting Guide, this is what causes mobs to attack your healer. The best technique is to gather, but not target, and than Taunt them. Save Arachne Rage for when things go very wrong. For NM Defenders/Guardians, just use Demon Hushing independently on each mob.
Other than that, Deep Desert technique is the same as Map4 and Stable Erde.
Tanking Endgame Bosses
The last form of technique is that against bosses. At this point, Taunt is a very weak aggro holder, almost to the point where it does not work at all. However, Taunt and Arachne Rage will hold the surrounding mobs in place as long as your casters aren’t using AoE spells. If for some reason the caster is unaware of this, make sure to tell them. Do not AoE.
The boss itself will require regular hits, Arouse Blow, or Demon Hushing. Demon Hushing is not recommended as it takes MP. Save Demon Hushing for emergencies. Hit the boss with regular hits or Arouse Blow repeatedly. You do not have to attack constantly on lesser bosses, but for dragons and such, you should just attack constantly to avoid any mishaps. On lesser bosses, you can get away with attacking half on and half off. In other words, hit them for 20 seconds and than rest for 20 seconds (or something similar).
Use Untouchable when you need to give the healers a short breather and a chance to top your HP up easily.
Use Secure Guard as often as it recharges. Since you don’t need to inflict any damage to aggro, there’s no point in not doing this. It helps your survivability.
Melee Reflector helps too. Nasty debuffs and AoE will still get through to you and no damage will actually be reflected on greater bosses, but the damage you take from physical attacks is still reduce to zero. Treat it as a second timer for Secure Guard.
Save Power of Guard for messy situations. As NM Defenders/Guardians can tank almost any boss in the game, it goes to show that Power of Guard is not essential. However, it is nice to use it on Fighters or Warriors to give them a chance to attack the boss for some time without worrying about the AoE.
For any boss, bring a few hundred potions and a sufficient number of healers.
Section VI – PvP Technique
This next section will give you a run down of your role in PvP. The role of a Defender/Guardian is split into two categories. The first is support, the second is damage. With a tank build, your ability to do support greatly increases. As a battle build, your main function is to deal damage. However, with a battle build, you still have support duties to your party. Support is what makes you a Defender or Guardian and not a Fighter or Warrior. Different zones have different needs, so I will discuss each one independently.
1-15: Proelium Frontier
This is your worst zone to be in. With a good party, you can still get plenty of kills. Using nostrums and a good build, you can still hold your own. However, know that in 1-15, Defenders/Guardians are probably the most underpowered class.
Proelium success lies heavily on your ability to keep range between you and your opponent. Due to the higher volume of nostrums, very little face to face action takes place. Battles are spontaneous and over just as fast as they start.
Defenders do not have the ability to overcome the range barrier. You are strictly a melee class. Also, your skills are highly undeveloped at this point. You don’t have any good debuffs, you don’t have any of your invincibility skills, and you don’t have any of your DPS skills. Everything you do can be done better by a different class. This is a great barrier to overcome as a Defender/Guardian in 1-15.
Here are your roles as a support class. It will be your position to take on these responsibilities no matter what build you choose.
- Always keep your party buffed with Tactical Formation.
- During enemy advances, make sure your party is formed up and ready.
- Carry a lot of Summon and Movement Runes. These are excellent tools for your party to be exactly where you need it to be at a moment’s notice.
- Do frequent experience checks. Nothing will take out your party faster than your star player hitting Lv16. Every few minutes, just remind everyone to take a look at their XP bar.
Remind everyone of their roles:
- Archers/Hunters and casters stay behind your line and only move up when they see an opening. Their role is heavy assault to the enemy front line. If a gap opens up in your enemy’s line, ranged units move forward and strike in that opening.
- Fighters/Warriors are in front, but remind them never to abandon their support classes. Leaving a direct route open between your enemy and your support can mean a full party wipe out. Remind them to always check the position of support and enemy and be sure that they are always between the two.
- Rangers/Assassins are not full head on brawlers. When defending a position, their role is to protect the support. When taking a position, their role is to attack from the sides and the back.
- A healer’s top priority is ALWAYS the one with nostrums running. Focus on no one else if the nosser moves forward. If there are no nostrums running, than everyone is equal.
There is no need to discuss taking the relic in 1-15. It is extremely easy and can be done alone by a single Fighter/Warrior. The guards don’t hit hard and the relic debuff is weak. If you want, you can get the guards out of the way or assist in attacking it. Either way, the only trouble you’ll have in taking the altar is when the enemy is there.
Tank Build
This is where your ability to lead a party will really show. With little things that you can do in the way of combat, your role is to make sure that everyone can do theirs properly. Refer back to the list of your duties as a support role. This is your main function as a battle build. Any experienced PvPer can appreciate the presence of an experienced party leader.
When your party is functioning optimally, you move onto your other job. Your job is to be a caster’s biggest annoyance ever. Curse Raid and Panic are ranged debuffs and interrupt spells. This is excellent for preventing Mages/Pagans from using AoE skills and healers from healing. This generally paints a huge target on you, drawing out many opponents to attack you. At this time, your party moves in and kills your enemy while you’re drawing all the attention and interrupting the casters. Make sure to use Ground Boom on all of the Fighters/Warriors that run out to attack you.
During gate camping, guards are a large obstacle for your party. Stay away from the ones with gray names and stay away from the NPC guards, but you can round up and tank the regular spawning guards outside of the castle gate. Get them out of the way and make a clean field for your party.
Lastly, you can serve as crowd control. New or inexperienced players just can’t resist beating on a tank. 1-15 is home to many inexperienced players. You can control this ‘zerg population’ by luring them out into the open for easy pickings by your party.
The best build that I can recommend for you is to do a full Rec build and lapis with Dual Safe Lv3. This will give you tons of survivability, enough to survive the onslaught of being a professional decoy. You may also consider putting a Lv6 Debuff Lapis into your weapon so that you can spam Curse Raid and put a nasty additional condition on them as well. Paint Lapis is an excellent choice.
Battle Build
Look over the duties of a Defender/Guardian. This will be your job still, but at the same time, you can hurt people. To compensate for your disadvantages from other classes, it is recommended to use nostrums with a battle build. Without them, your damage will be lower than other offensive builds, on top of lacking the ability to close distance, and your support capabilities will be lower than any defensive build.
Arouse Blow is a skill that will help you greatly. Why is that? No, aggroing other players doesn’t work with Arouse Blow. However, it is a spammable skill with greater range than melee attacks. Due to lag, an ‘insufficient range’ error may be common, even though it seems that you’re right on top of your opponent. The extra range of Arouse Blow helps this.
Protection Charge is a useful tool against fleeing targets. The 2 second stun isn’t long and you probably won’t get an extra attack in, but it may be enough for a party member to either use Roots or Stinger on him and halt him for longer.
Ground Boom is a great first strike skill. When charging a line, use Ground Boom on the first large collection of enemies to swarm you. Due to the relatively long cooldown, it is difficult to use it much more effectively than that.
The best build that I can recommend is 2 Dex and the rest Str and use Dual Craft Lv2 and Dual Shrewd Lv1 in your gear. Your Dex is important, you need at least 60 to hit targets well. The added defense in the dual lapis allows you to perform your support duties better. If you don’t have a slotted helm, use a Dual Safe Lv3 in one slot for casters. If you do have one, a Wit Lv4 or Lv5 is even better.
20-30: Cantabilian Borderland
UNDER CONSTRUCTION 
1-60: D-Water
The following is directly quoted from a PM that I received concerning 1-60 PvP. I’m currently editing it for format, but here is the content of this section in full. I’m posting it as it is now to prevent what happened last time, where I accidentally closed my browser without saving when I was almost finished my edits.
Parts outside of quotations are finished being edited, but come from the same source.
Taking Relics
One of the most common uses for Defenders/Guardians in D-Water is the assistance with taking relics. An ideal tank will have a full Rec or heavy Rec build, be able kite or tank the relic guards without dispel or heals from a Priest/Oracle.
An ideal relic tank will have armor, shield, and weapon, lapised with Rec. Battle builds may still kite guards if they are a high enough level, but you may still want an extra set of armor lapised with Rec. If possible, use Elemental Armor Lapis. Water ideal, as relics have a nasty fire AoE. Fire and earth also work, but wind is bad. The fire AoE will eat you alive. Sonics are a major advantage if you need to kite the guards instead of tanking them. It is advised to be Lvl 54+ for neutral relics and Lvl 57+ for relics controlled by opposite faction. Make sure to bring Healing Potions, Super Potions, Stop/Stun Cure Potions, and Darkness Cure Potions. Make sure to have Untouchable, Power of Guard, Melee Reflector, Self-Dispel, Curse Raid or Panic, and Taunt at the max available level. Lastly, prepare yourself by bringing plenty of Party Member Summon Runes.
Lux.Munimen wrote: |
Attracting Guards. – Start from the “Water Altar Pole” side of the relic If Opposite Faction Attacks – If you are able to, get close to the DPS’ers and use Power of Guard to give your party time to finish taking the relic. Taking a relic with POG. This method is ideal for taking a heavily guarded relic. – LVL 59 with POG lvl 2 is a must. LVL 60 with Dayfly Shield is helpful, but not required. PVPing in the Open REC Defender/Guard Battle Defender/Guard Skills |
Section VII – Grind Guide
This section will be colour coded. All information relevant to Guardians only will be coloured red and all information relevant to Defenders only will be coloured blue. Anything that applies to both sides will be coloured in the usual black text.
As a Defender/Guardian, you are the party leader. You decide how much XP your party gets and you decide who is in the party, and how many are in the party. Being a good Defender/Guardian isn’t just about who can tank the most mobs, it’s also about who is best able to dictate how much XP the party is getting, deciding the most effective party and balancing the mobs that are killed quickly against mobs that give more XP per kill. Basically, the difference between good XP and bad XP is your call. The more you grind, the more this will make sense and the easier it will get.
There are two things you should know before setting out. The first is know your mobs. This includes finding elemental advantage, familiarizing yourself with all of the debuffs that your mobs use, and bringing the correct scrolls or potions to dispel yourself in the case of not having a healer. Here is the elemental chain:
Fire -> Wind -> Earth -> Water -> Fire
This chain means that Fire beats Wind, Wind beats Earth, and so on and so forth. Elements that are strong against another element gain a 40% damage bonus. Elements that are weak against another element receive a 50% damage penalty. Neutral elements gain no damage penalty or bonus. All elements receive a 20% damage bonus over non elemental and non elemental receives a 20% damage penalty against all elements. It is important to know this, even though you do not get any elemental skills of your own, so that you can find the best mobs for your party.
The second thing you should know is your party.
Mages/Pagans are very proficient in Wind, still quite proficient in Earth, but only get one AoE Fire spell. Therefore, the absolute best mobs you can find for your Mage or Pagan are Earth. Water is still good and Wind can be overcome. However, it is advised that you steer clear of Fire mobs because Mages/Pagans do not get any Water spells and their strongest spells, Wind, are weak against Fire. At Lv43, however, Mages/Pagans get a spell called Attribute Remove Lv2, which removes elements from mobs, making them non elemental. At this point, you can grind on Fire mobs decently.
Battle build Priest/Oracles get Water and non elemental AoE spells. However, keep in mind that the first AoE spell that they get with no cool down is at Lv21. At Lv28, they get a non elemental AoE spell. For this reason, it is advised to not party with a battle build Priest or Oracle until at least Lv21, but preferably Lv28. At endgame, battle Priests/Oracles are potentially better to party with because they can buff, dispel, and resurrect you as well as nuke your mobs.
Fighters and Warriors only gain two AoE skills in NM, each with a 10 second timer. In HM, they receive two more useful ones with 15 second timers, but normally grind better by themselves. However, in the event that your damage class is a Fighter or Warrior, they have no elemental skills, meaning they have a slight damage penalty against all elemental mobs. Unlike Priests/Oracles and Mages/Pagans, Fighters/Warriors must be within the mob AoE range to attack. If you party with Fighters/Warriors, try to avoid mobs that use AoE attacks.
Try not to party Rangers/Assassins and Archers/Hunters. Rangers/Assassins receive no AoE attacks at all. They receive good party support buffs, however, the efficiency gained by their buffs does not usually make up for the XP lost by partying them. Rangers/Assassins specialize in taking down mobs one on one and you should let them do that. Archers/Hunters do receive a few basic AoE skills, but it is still not advisable to party with them. The recharge is too long and they require the Archer/Hunter to switch weapons, often meaning that they don’t have all of the AoE skills anyway. Archers/Hunters are also better on their own.
Always respect your healer. Keep a few things in mind before you blast your healer when you die. Most of their healing spells have cast times. If you have a debuff on you that isn’t dispelled immediately, don’t freak out. Also note that not all debuffs can be dispelled. Before the Taunt, heals can potentially attract aggro, so many healers will not begin the healing phase until after you Taunt. Always be patient. However, debuffs will kill you faster than regular hits. Make sure your healer knows this.
As a party leader, you may want to briefly familiarize yourself with other classes. You don’t need to be an expert on everything, but it helps to know the basics of each class. I recommend giving these threads a quick skim:
Mage/Pagan Guide
Priest/Oracle Guide
Fighter/Warrior Guide
Lastly, keep in mind that all spells and skills take MP or SP. Usually, automatic regeneration will top up your party’s pools while you’re in your gather phase, but remember to allow your party time to rest when there is little or no bless.
Important Quests
As a party class, quests will normally only slow you down. However, there are a number of quests that should be done anyway because they give either your epic equipment or PvP equipment. Here are threads containing all of the important quests. Note that some information may be outdated, but they still contain the relevant information.
1-15 PvP Gear Quests
1-15 PvP Gear Quests
Lv25 Epic Quest
Lv25 Epic Quest
Lv29-32 Dread Quests
Lv29-32 Dread Quests
Lv35 Epic Quest – Look at quests 3 through 8 on this page
Lv35 Epic Quest – Note that this contains every quest from Lv1-45
Lv43 Epic Quest
Lv43 Epic Quest
Lv52 Epic Quest
Lv60 Epic Quest
Note: You must complete the Lv25, 35, and 43 quests in order. The next one will not open until you have completed the previous one. The Lv52 and 60 quests do not have prerequisites.
Note: NM Players may do the Lv52 and Lv60 epic quests, but they may not equip the items.
Map1 Grinding
The first ten or so levels may be rough if you’re building a party tank. However, I recommend to not try to add Str to increase your ability to solo. I guarantee that it is easier to solo with a complete Rec build now than it will be to party with an incomplete Rec build later.
To make it easier for yourself, do all of your quests. They give you enough XP to make it worth it, makes solo grinding less dull, and also give you some starting equipment and gold to buy potions. Your quests are the yellow markers on your map. They are pretty self explanatory. When you get to Lv6, you get Taunt, your essential party tank skill, but keep in mind that Fighters/Warriors will not have their two AoE skills until Lv9, Mages/Pagans get their first AoE skills at Lv8, and Priests/Oracles don’t get a spammable AoE skill until Lv21. At Lv6, though, you can start looking for a Lv8+ Mage/Pagan or a Lv9+ Fighter/Warrior.
Mages/Pagans are your best option to grind with and they do not get a useful Fire spell at Lv8. It is recommended to stick to Earth or Water mobs at this point so that they can utilize the two elements they have – Wind and Earth.
The dwarves that can be found in various places are all Earth. On Map1, there are two Dwarf camps west of Botane Farm. They will be suitable up until Lv10. After that, there is another Dward camp in Keiroter Mine in the far northwest corner of the map. This will be good XP until Lv12. Next, on the beaches the stretch on both the east and west side of Keolloseu contain an enormous legions of Sealakels. These are Water element and will be good XP until Lv15-16. Finally, the last place you need to visit on Map1 are the Cloron Ogres outside of Cloron Dungeon on the southeast corner of the map. These will be good XP up until Lv18.
The first useful mobs to AoE on are the Ghouls and Zombies that can be found near Artium Mine at the south of the map. UoF have a lack of Earth mobs on Map1, but these are non elemental, which is also good. They are also in huge quantities and respawn very fast. As good UoF AoE spots are sparse on Map1, you can stay here until about Lv12. At Lv12, look around in Crow Swamp. These are Water mobs, so your Pagan can still use his or her Earth AoE. These will be good until Lv14. After this, head to the Mutated Arachne mobs north of Escaton Ruin. These will eventually be poor XP, but due to the number and respawn rate of them, they will be your best option up until Lv18.
Keep in mind, there is a portal in Keolloseu/Gliter that leads to the Lv1-15 PvP zone. This is a fun way to take a break from grinding. Keep in mind that you’re not going to be a machine and kill everything in sight though. PvP is ruled by wealthy and experienced players who have put in countless hours into PvE before going into PvP. Until you do the same, you have to approach PvP casually with the expectation to die. However, you can still have some fun in PvP. Once you reach Lv16, you have to leave. It is illegal to stay after you have passed the level cap.
Dungeons
This next section will be a rundown of all of the dungeons, which are your best place to grind as a party class. You can easily get all the way to Lv56 without ever grinding outside of a dungeon. I will outline the level range for each dungeon, the element of the mobs, and which scrolls to bring.
Map1: Cornwell’s Seal – This dungeon will be ideal once you get to Lv18. All of the mobs in it (yes, all) are non elemental, so you can have a field day. Grind in any room without worrying about your casters. The Zombies use Doom, which lowers attack power, and Dying, which is a DoT. If you’re a battle build, bring Doom Scrolls or just stay away from the Zombies. If you’re a tank build, you don’t have to bring any scrolls. This dungeon will be your best spot to grind until Lv23.
Map1: Argilla Ruins – This dungeon will be ideal once you get to Lv18. The mobs in here are mostly Wind and non elemental, but the Witches are Water. Your casters won’t have any disadvantage here, but will be neutral to many mobs. The Witches and Goblins use Slow and the Zombies use Doom and Dying. If you want, you can bring Slow Scrolls. Battle builds should also bring Doom Scrolls. This dungeon is your best option until Lv23.
Map2: Temple of Pharos – This dungeon is located in the 20-30 PvP zone which can be reached through a portal in Arktuis Village. Don’t worry, the dungeon itself is not a PvP zone and you can grind safely. You can grind here as soon as you’re done in Cornwell. Mobs here are generally non elemental, but the Vampires are Water. There are many debuffs here. The Scorpions and Spiders use Poison, the Vampires use Dying, and the Trinetons use Stun. There are also a couple of other DoTs used by Trinetons that do not have an abnormal condition. If you are grinding without a healer, it is recommended to bring Poison and Stun scrolls. This dungeon is suitable all the way up to Lv30.
Map2: Maze of Rapiouru – This dungeon is located in the 20-30 PvP zone which can be reached through the portal in Starfumos Village. Don’t worry, the dungeon itself is not a PvP zone and you can grind safely. You can grind here as soon as you’re done in Argilla. The mobs here are mostly non elemental, but the Vampires are Water. In this dungeon, you have many debuffs to worry about. The Spiders use Poison, the Wolves use Misfortune, the Vampires use Dying, and the Blessians use Stun and Slow. There are also a few other DoTs in the deepest part of the dungeon that do not have an abnormal condition. If you don’t have a healer, you should bring Poison and Stun Scrolls, and Slow Scrolls are optional. This dungeon is suitable all the way up to Lv30.
Map2: Senechio Cave – This dungeon is commonly called Fedion Dungeon, due to being in the Fedion region at the north end of the map. This dungeon is suitable starting at Lv28. This dungeon is home to some tricky mobs, partially due to the mix of elements. Rooms will be Earth/Water, Earth/Wind, Wind/Water, Water/Fire, and Fire/non element. The rooms with Fire will be tricky, but since they share with Water or non element, your casters can use Earth well. In this dungeon, you have to worry about Pause (and a later version which is AoE), Dying, Slow, Poison, and a Fire DoT. Many of these are AoE, so make sure you’re not too close to your casters. If without a healer, bring Pause and Poison Scrolls and Slow if you want. This dungeon is suitable all the way up to Lv36.
Map2: Kamulus’s House – This dungeon is located in the center of Map2 and a bit south, found from taking the southern exit from Starfumos Village. The mobs in here have a wide array of elements and debuffs, so be sure to come prepared. The first rooms are Water and Earth and eventually becomes Fire and Water. As the rooms are often small, be sure to keep an eye on your casters, as they will be vulnerable to respawns and AoE. The elemental groupings will never make Water spells necessary, so Storm and Earth spells will work fine throughout the entire dungeon. Bring Pause and Poison scrolls and you may want to bring Slow as well. You can grind well here all the way up until Lv36.
Map2: Maitreyan – I don’t particularly like this dungeon. It’s about the same level as the next one, only the mobs often have bad elements and debuffs. It is located in the middle of Map2. The initial rooms are all Earth and use two different types of poison. The rooms after that are Water and non element and use… two more types of poison. Rooms continue to use heavy poisons, often multiples. You also have to worry about Fire and Wind mobs, which are a Mage’s least favorite. Make sure to bring plenty of poison potions, even if you have a healer. You may grind all the way to about Lv43 here, but there is little point in doing that when you can go to Cloron’s Lair instead. The good thing about this dungeon is that it is usually less busy than Cloron.
Map2: Aidion Neckria – This dungeon is home to some of the meanest debuffs and greatest variance of mob elements in the game. If you choose to grind here, it is highly recommended to bring a healer for the debuffs. The rooms are also small and the hallways are often filled with mobs, so keep a very close eye on your casters. The Kobalts also use AoE, so watch that as well. Bring all kinds of scrolls if you want to be safe in here. The good thing about this dungeon is that it is basically deserted all the time due to the nasty debuffs and elements. If other places are crowded, you can almost always be guaranteed a grind spot here. Mobs will give decent XP up until Lv43.
D-Water: Tragos Cavum – Commonly called “D1”, this is the first dungeon that contains open PvP. However, with risk comes reward. This dungeon contains enormous quantities of non elemental mobs with few debuffs (none that require the use of scrolls on your part). It also drops Lv3 lapis, which are a good way for you to make money at this level. At Lv38, this dungeon becomes a great place to grind for fast XP and a good opportunity for profit. Remember again though that the opposing faction can and likely will attack you. Granted that your grind is uninterrupted, you can quite easily go to Lv43 in this dungeon. If you are met with opposition, try calling for help from your faction on trade chat or guild chat.
Map1: Cloron’s Lair – This dungeon has three levels to it and is the longest in terms of how many levels you can spend here. For the first time since Cornwell, you’ll have to worry about heavy magic attacks. This shouldn’t be a problem if you were able to get some resist into your dread set, but those who didn’t may want to bring a healer. On the first floor, mobs are all non elemental. The only debuffs to worry about are the zombies with Doom and Dying. The second floor introduces Earth and Water mobs (though never together, so Wind and Earth spells will still work fine) and a few more debuffs. The Dwarf Captains use an AoE debuff, so have your casters be careful. Mutants and Vampires also use Poison and Dying, so bring cure potions to counter those effects. On the third level, you’ll find non elemental, Earth, and Water mobs again and it is highly recommended to bring Pause Scrolls to counter the Roots used by the spiders. The Vampires also use Dying on this floor. Lv1 should be good for Lv36 – 41, Lv2 for Lv40 – 46, and Lv3 for Lv45 – 50.
Map1: Fantasma’s Lair – This dungeon has three levels to it and is the longest in terms of how many levels you can spend here. For the first time since Argilla, you’ll have to worry about heavy magic attacks. This shouldn’t be a problem if you were able to get some resist into your dread set, but those who didn’t may want to bring a healer. On the first floor, mobs are all non elemental. The only debuffs to worry about are the zombies with Doom and Dying. The second floor introduces Fire and Water mobs and a few more debuffs. Kobalts, Mutants and Vampires use Poison and Dying, so bring cure potions to counter those effects. On the third level, you’ll find non elemental, Earth, and Water mobs and it is highly recommended to bring Pause Scrolls to counter the Roots used by the spiders. The Vampires also use Dying on this floor. Lv1 should be good for Lv36 – 41, Lv2 for Lv40 – 46, and Lv3 for Lv45 – 50.
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