Last Chaos Templar Knight Comprehensive Guide

Last Chaos Templar Knight Comprehensive Guide by dragonoa

Contents

Hit Ctrl+F and enter one of the subtitles above (e.g., “V. Passive Skills”) to skip to that section.

I. Foreword

I write this guide to explain, chiefly to those deliberating on dual classes, the templar’s strengths. I’ve partied with even high level players who didn’t know what I could do: a shame though watching someone flee the Damage Link animation never gets old.

I find templars tend to be determined and patient players (though “stubborn” and “long-suffering” may better describe us). I aim to prove royals aren’t superior: we both have our roles. Templars lack royals’ offence but our skills focus on defence and support. Templars have the highest physical and magical defence in the game: a skilled templar is a valuable ally and formidable opponent (and often has a dry sense of humour).

Templars excel at controlling the battlefield to aid allies and outmaneuver enemies. We can provoke and stun enemies and teleport them to us. We can also absorb damage taken by allies and bolster their attack and defence. Templars are the consummate tanks of Last Chaos.

This remains a work in progress and I welcome feedback.

II. Stat Point Distribution

You need 17 DEX, 17 CON and 100 STR to learn all skills. Dual classes earn 3 or 4 stat points per level (alternating) so by the time you reach the required level for most skills, you’ll have plenty. Depending on how you spend them, you may have to wait a few levels for Antimagic (level 38) or Baller (level 44), however. If you prefer soloing, I recommend investing in CON for Antimagic and waiting till level 47 for the STR for Baller.

How you spend the rest of your stat points is your call. According to the character information page (Alt+T), DEX has no effect on hit rate or evasion but increases critical and deadly hit rates. Hence I advise investing in STR; templars have poor critical hit rate and doing higher damage consistently is preferable to hitting a few more criticals. However, if you can afford accessories that improve critical hit rate (available from the monster combo), investing in DEX may be worthwhile. Alternatively, you can invest in CON to increase your HP and MP. However, I don’t recommend it. INT adds to magical attack which is useless for templars.

No stat affects physical or magical defence. Defence can only be improved by armour and certain accessories, bloodseals, buffs and consumables.

Don’t panic if you make a mistake spending stat points. On choosing your dual class, all stat points are pooled for redistribution. Dual classes can also visit Crean, an NPC in Randol, to reallocate stat points at 20k per point.

Stat point bonuses follow:

III. General Skills

Some general skills can be divided into what I term tiers. In the image below, tier one skills are in red, tier two in yellow. Additionally, many skills that exceed level 5—e.g., archers’ Arrow of Silence (levels 6 and 7) and RKs’ Dash (level 6)—are tier two skills.

Tier two skills are more potent and are remedied with more expensive items from the Magical Shopkeeper. A tier one skill fails on a target in PvE or PvP if the target is affected by its tier two counterpart. For example, if a target is stunned with Shield Strike 2, one may use Shield Strike on that target but it will be wasted as the first overrides the second.

Damage Link

• At level 5, half the damage an ally takes is redirected to the templar, e.g., if a linked ally were hit for 200 damage, the ally would take 100 and the templar would take 100.
• Damage Link can only be maintained on one ally at once.
• It’s not possible to chain this skill, i.e., have one templar linking another templar who is linking someone else. The second link would cancel the first.
• Damage sharing is one-way: linked allies will not take half the damage the templar takes.
• The proportion of damage the templar takes through Damage Link is fixed—it’s not changed by the templar’s defence or evasion.
• The damage sharing effect doesn’t extend past radar range.

Tips

• Avoid linking titans as their high HP can get templars killed fast.
• Cast it before a fight if you expect an ally to take heavy damage; this puts less strain on healers.
• Damage Link behaves like a buff so be careful not to cast it, for instance, while an ally is luring dangerous mobs. Particularly if your ally’s target is close to other aggressive/protective mobs, you risk drawing aggro from them as you would were you to cast Protection or Baller with the lurer in radar range.
• Damage Link lasts 2:30 mins so be attentive about recasting.

Protection

• Increases the physical defence of party members in radar range by 50 at level 5 and 90 at level 9.
• Like Divine Shield, the effect persists if allies leave radar range.

Tips

• Like party heal for archers/clerics, there is a chance hostile enemies will attack the templar on casting.
• In temples/dungeons, you can draw aggro from enemies through walls on casting.

Telekinesis

• Teleports one enemy to the templar.
• Chance of success increases with skill level.

Tips

• Useful for moving mobs off awkward spots, e.g., cliffs.
• If the target is close to other protective enemies, they will attack the caster.
• A successful Telekinesis will break passive mobs’ aggro.
• On teleport, aggressive mobs aggro whatever they’re facing: not necessarily the templar.
• If the skill fails, the target will not be teleported but will attack the caster. Nearby aggressive mobs will still attack the caster.
• The templar and anyone who has the target locked will lose lock when the enemy is teleported. In PvP, the target will also lose lock when teleported.
• The target’s status effects/buffs remain when teleported.
• The animation is lengthy and as the templar has to reacquire target after using the skill, it can be difficult to stun an enemy in PvP afterwards.
• Teleporting a target stuck in or behind a tree or other piece of scenery may disconnect the caster.
• Annoyingly, mobs’ HP may reset on teleport.
• There used to be a glitch whereby if teleported while sitting, one couldn’t move or attack, as if one had accepted a party recall while sitting. However, this has been fixed.

Reflection Shield

• Damage reflection. The recharge is lengthy but it seems to reflect about 70% of incoming damage at level 7 (further testing needed); chance of reflection yet to be determined. Also increases physical evasion (formerly 100 at level 7; reduced to 40).

Tips

• Very effective in PvP: goes some way to compensating for TKs’ poor attack and hit rate and the impotence of defence. Aim to stack HP.
• Maintainable but 10 minute cooldown is a headache.
• Ineffective in PvE.

Shield Strike 2

• Tier two.
• Stuns one target. Stunned targets can’t move, attack or use skills.
• Requires a shield and single sword be equipped.
• Shield Strike (level 5) is prerequisite.
• Its success rate is higher than Shield Strike and it lasts longer.

Tips

• As it’s tier two, it can be used on targets affected by Shield Strike but not vice-versa. Thus, for maximum stun length without respite, use Shield Strike then Shield Strike 2 as Shield Strike wears off.
• It can be cured with a superior remedy.

Baller

• Increases physical attack of party members in radar range by 5 points per party member in radar range. Therefore, in a party of eight, party members in range of every other party member gain 40 physical attack.
• If party members move in/out of radar range, the bonus from Baller changes accordingly.
• Party members need not be buffed with Baller to affect the attack of those who are.

Tips

• Unlike Battle Roar, Baller stacks with clerics’ Encourage.
• Baller doesn’t affect magical attack.
• Baller has no effect when solo.
• Like Protection, nearby aggressive/hostile enemies may attack the templar on casting.
• In temples/dungeons, aggressive enemies may attack the templar through walls on casting.

Armour Break 2

• Tier two.
• Armour Break (level 5) is prerequisite.
• Reduces target’s physical defence.

Tips

• Like many templar skills, the animation is drawn out so it’s unwieldy in PvP.
• Damage is low.
• Ineffective in PvP unless your target’s physical defence is low.
• In PvE, the effect is small. However, in a party focussed on one target at a time, e.g., bosses, the damage adds up.

Weapon Break 2

• Tier two.
• Weapon Break (level 5) is prerequisite.
• Reduces target’s physical attack.

Tips

• Like many templar skills, the animation is drawn out; it’s unwieldy in PvP.
• Damage is poor.
• Effect is negligible in PvE and PvP.

Provoke

• Aggros up to six nearby enemies, reducing their physical defence while raising their physical attack.

Tips

• Its range is short but be wary: the skinwalker behind that demon you’re provoking has a big sword.
• Aggro can be broken by allied healers, other damage sources, etc.
• It only raises enemies’ physical attack so is effective against magic users in PvE and PvP.
• Given the physical defence cap in PvP, it’s risky to use on physical classes.
• In PK mode, one can “buff” allies with Provoke though it is often impractical—partymates/guildmates would be unaffected.

A digression for low to mid level TKs: I advise training/buying a level 38 horse mount. The mount skill, “Crying“, draws aggro and is an invaluable substitute for/supplement to Provoke. While not vital to good tanking before level 70, anything that makes your job easier is worth pursuing.

Mana Break 2

• Tier two.
• Deals high damage to one target.
• Decreases target’s magical defence.

Tips

• Its animation is drawn out but the damage compensates.
• Its effect is negligible.

Soul of Temple Knight

• Summons an ethereal shield that boosts party members’ physical defence by 15% and magical defence by 5% when in range.
• The buff is brief (3 minutes of game time) but continually reapplied for the skill’s duration, encouraging party members to remain near (the shield’s position is fixed on summon).
• The summon has constant health degeneration but cannot be damaged, healed, buffed or debuffed by players/NPCs. It fades when its health is depleted (after 360 seconds) or its caster killed.

Shield Chop

• Deals high damage to one target.
• Requires a skill book to learn. The book is consumed on learning the first level of the skill tree; books are not required for later levels. Should you reset your skills, you will need another book to relearn Shield Chop.

Tips

• Its only disadvantage is its long recharge.

Defence Posture

• Increases physical defence but decreases movement speed.
• The movement speed decrease is the same at each level.

Tips

• Maintainable.
• The ratio of base defence to boosted defence is variable. The higher one’s defence, the more one benefits proportionally from the skill.

Aura of Defence

• Increases physical defence of party members in radar range for 30 minutes.
• 2-5 Stones of Wise needed to cast. They are consumed on casting.

Tips

• Perhaps the developers forgot a zero.

Taunt

• Causes one enemy to attack the templar.

Tips

• It’s unclear what other effect, if any, the skill has.

Kick

• Deals high damage to one target.

Tips

• Long recharge.

IV. Passive Skills

Wall of Belief

• Increases physical defence.
• Contrary to its description, a shield needn’t be equipped to benefit from it.

Tips

• 155 physical defence is a boon at level 32. The later levels of this skill are expensive but worth learning.

Candid Fence 2

• Increases physical defence by 120. A no-brainer.

Knighthood

• Increases attack with a single sword equipped.

Antimagic

• Increases magical defence: max it.

Weapon Perfection

• Increases physical attack.
• Contrary to its description, you do not need a single sword equipped to benefit from it.

Tips

• 120 physical attack at level 50 is a boon: max it.

Temple Offence

• Increases physical attack permanently.

Tips

• While physical attack is invaluable, maxing Temple Offence is not a priority.

Improved Resist 2

• Increases magical resistance (evasion).
• Improved Resist (level 5) is prerequisite.

Constitution of Knight

• Increases CON by 10.

Critical Mastery

• Increases critical hit rate by 100.

Deadly Mastery

• Increases deadly hit rate by 100.

V. PvP

In March 2009, Xarathos and Zero13 devised and ran tests investigating the relationship between damage and defence in PvP. They found that physical defence was capped at 2,000. Similarly, they estimated magical defence was capped around 200 [1].

In a similar experiment in July 2010, jaretlafoudre found that while values of physical defence over 2,000 do reduce damage, its effect is negligible [2].

I repeated last year’s experiment with Xarathos and the results suggest an exponential relationship between damage and defence, i.e., defence gives diminishing returns [3]. This could explain the perceived cap.

If the original experiment were valid, there was an unannounced change to damage calculation in the interim (but it changed little). If so, it’s unclear how long the cap c. March 2009 had been in place. It may have been longstanding, becoming more noticeable with new weapons and skills. It may have been implemented with the 2nd July 2008 patch which rescaled evasion and hit rate and eased PvE. With limited/unreliable developer patch notes, there’s little evidence either way.

Testing has yet to be repeated since the 2010/12/21 update; according to the patch notes, the “defence cap” has been lifted. As the July 2010 study shows there was no detectable physical defence cap in the months before this update and there is no obvious change to PvP damage since, this claim is dubious.

Whether the impotence of defence is intended is important; more important is how it disadvantages STR based characters like templars and how to compensate. The key factors separating players in PvP are evasion, hit rate, attack and level. DEX based characters with higher evasion and hit rate (rogues and archers) have an advantage.

Unable to rely on our defence, TKs must adapt to opponents and situations (arena, PvP, guild battle, MCS or DCS). In general:

• Hit rate is vital. Accessories that improve physical hit rate, e.g., Tears of Knight and monster combo necklaces are desirable, particularly for TKs whose hit rate and DPS are low.
• TKs rely on keeping opponents stunned while dealing low to medium DPS.
• Telekinesis is versatile. It can thwart pet hiders and, with practice, kiters. While you lose lock upon teleporting a target, so does that target: take advantage.
• It’s usually unwise to Provoke physical attackers (all characters except night shadows, clerics, sorcerors—even while in Earthsea [knight] form—and mages). It boosts their attack while the defence drop matters little in PvP.

VI. Equipment

Weapons have a shield of corresponding level (until the 95 shield and 97 sword: thence, levels differ as below). To avoid penalties, shields can be worn no more than five levels below the shield’s level and weapons can be equipped four levels below, eg., the Corail shield (69) can be worn at level 64 and the Eglain sword (69) can be used at 65. 73+ gear can’t be worn by characters below the gear’s level. Also, all active and some passive skills require a sword and/or shield be equipped. For more information on 73+ weapons, see here. A spreadsheet of 73+ armour and weapon seals can be found here.

73-137 shields only come with defence seals. A B5 (blue five-sealed) shield has the maximum defence for its level and the optimal seals:

Shields may have one of two sixth seals. Like other B6 items, they are rare. The first seal, “error option” (formerly prefixed “Magestick”; now “Immortal”), allows the shield to be equipped ten levels early:

The second seal is unique to 73+ shields (formerly prefixed “Powerblock”; now “Defender”). Its property is unclear but its name implies it affects skill resistance (it doesn’t affect evasion or defence):

As you upgrade arms and armour, the attack/defence gained is related to its base stats. See here for information on the upgrade equation.

Unlike swords, shields don’t have a visual upgrade effect. However, +15 shields give the same bonus as other armours (+100 physical defence and +50 magical defence):

Shields don’t give the +6/+8/+10/+12 bonuses that other armours do (extra weight capacity, physical/magical defence and evasion).

Upgrade bonuses follow:

N.B. The +8 bonus was +3% close range physical hit rate but hasn’t been changed to the new hit rate system and should be higher.

Drake

Dragon Flame Sword

Knightmare

Defender Shield

Event weapon (level 21)

Light of Odin (83 attack)

Level 37

Holy Spiritual Sword (102 attack)
Celestial Shield (132 defence)

Level 41

Siegfried Sword (112 attack)
Domilian Shield (144 defence)

Level 45

Saber (130 attack)
Spirit Shield (156 defence)

Level 49

Partinail Sword (150 attack)
Punailers Shield (168 defence)

Level 53

Ponaitruns Sword [formerly went by the more awesome Scott’s Painful Reminder] (170 attack)
Divent Shield (180 defence)

Level 57

Proud Sword (189 attack)
Jaguil Shield (192 defence)

Level 61

Zentian Sword (208 attack)
Academian Shield (204 defence)

Level 65

Sientals Sword (232 attack)
Valiant Shield [formerly Fontils Shield] (216 defence)

Level 69

Eglain Sword (256 attack)
Corail Shield (228 defence)

Level 73

Perion Sword

Tempest Shield

Level 85

Blue Dawn Sword

Blue Dawn Shield

Level 95

Muramasas Iron Hold

Level 97

Grave Sword

Level 105

Rowen Shield

Level 109

Garfner Sword

Level 115

Hunos Shield

Level 121

Roydue Sword

Level 125

Rojend Shield

Level 133

Ellier Sword (up to 710 attack, depending on colour)

Level 135

Rubeid Shield

Level 145

Menton Sword (+/- 742 attack, depending on colour)
Rombe Shield (+/- 468 defence, depending on colour)

Level 149

Rombe Sword

Level 154

Nuan Shield

Level 157

Nuan Sword

Level 163

Arzhtan Shield

Level 165

Arzhtan Sword

VII. Credits

• Zero13: for his help number-crunching.
• Katran: for proofreading.
• jaretlafoudre: for skill information on Taunt (levels 2 and 3), Kick (level 2), Constitution of Knight, Critical Mastery and Deadly Mastery.
• b1ank: for skill information on Soul of Temple Knight.

VIII. Glossary

• activation time: also cast time; skill animation length.
• aggressive: NPCs that attack on proximity.
• aggro: also hate or threat; one “has aggro” when one is being attacked by an NPC.
• AoE: area of effect; refers to skills that affect characters within a certain radius of the caster, e.g., Provoke, Chaos Nova, etc.
• attack: divided into physical and magical attack; refers to the type of damage dealt by characters.
• behaviour: see aggressive, passive (behaviour) and protective.
• blind: blind characters’ visual fields are obscured.
• buff: skills that give temporary benefits, e.g., Devotion, Protection, etc.
• caster: short for spellcaster; term for magic users (witches, wizards, clerics, elementalists, specialists and night shadows).
• cast time: see activation time.
• consumable: an item that gives temporary benefits, e.g., physical attack minerals, platinum blessed irises, etc.
• cooldown: the delay between using a skill and being able to use it again.
• debuff: skills with harmful effects, e.g., health degeneration, snare, etc.
• defence: divided into physical and magical defence; mitigates damage.
• DPS: damage per second.
• dual class: specialised class chosen at level 31, e.g., templar knight, cleric, etc.
• evasion: divided into close range physical, long range physical and magical evasion (resistance). Evasion lowers chance of incoming attacks landing; the higher an opponent’s hit rate, the harder to evade.
• hit rate: divided into close range physical, long range physical and magical hit rate; hit rate raises chance of landing a hit; targets’ evasion lowers this chance.
• HP: hit/health points; characters die when their HP is zero.
• hostile: NPC engaged in battle.
• HUD: heads up display, i.e., the game interface (comprised of HP/MP bars, skill bars, etc.).
• mana: also MP or energy for special attacks.
• melee: refers to close range physical damage/characters (royal knights, templar knights, highlanders, warmasters and assassins).
• mob: NPCs that can be killed for XP and SP.
• NPC: non-player character.
• passive (behaviour): NPCs that only engage when attacked.
• passive (skill): skills that are always active or active when a condition is met, e.g., holding a certain kind of weapon.
• PC: player character, i.e., one controlled by a human.
• protective: NPCs that attack when other nearby NPCs are attacked.
• PK: player killing.
• PvE: player versus environment.
• PvP: player versus player.
• snare: in PvP, snared characters can’t move but can attack and use skills; snared NPCs can’t move, attack or use skills.
• SP: skill points; 10,000 skill experience = 1 skill point.
• recharge: see cooldown.
• refresh: see cooldown.
• stat: refers to STR, DEX, CON and INT.
• status effect: see debuff.
• stone: stoned characters are stripped of their buffs and can’t move, attack or use skills.
• stun: stunned characters can’t move, attack or use skills.
• tier: tier two skills, e.g., Mana Break 2, Weapon Break 2, Shield Strike 2, etc., have more potent effects than their corresponding tier one skills.
• XP: experience points.