Cloud Nine Builds Guide

Cloud Nine Builds Guide by HERO

WARRIOR
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Warriors have two basic build types: AoE DD (Area of Effect Damage Dealer) and Absolute Tank. The former is obviously for Warriors who like to draw in crowds of enemies and slaughter them all at once. The latter is for those who like to take on one enemy at a time, especially Elite and Boss enemies. HYBRIDS ARE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR THIS CLASS!!! However, there may be some skills you wish to collect down the other path, which is up to you.

AoE DDs are almost always two-handed weapon users. Some of the best AoEs available to Warriors are down this path and some of them require a two-handed sword to activate. Also, being a damage dealer, youll want to invest many of your skill points in damage-inflicting or -boosting skills. The stats youll want to focus on are primarily Strength ( 1 ~ 1 damage per point) and Power Blow/Critical Strike. Using Coldheart Bracelets would be beneficial, but Bless/Glory are noticeably better. They increase both PB and CS in one accessory which would be preferred in any build. Bless increases Vitality while Glory increases Mental in addition to the PB/CS boosts, so keep that in mind. Brave Earrings, Necklaces, and Rings would be good for this build, Blessing usually better if you can get ahold of them. Glory gears (including weapons) would be ideal. Race-wise, Koshare Puers optimize your Strength and Attack attributes and are the best choice. Class-wise, you might want to consider picking Mage as your sub-class. Mages offer a big boost to your mains Attack at higher levels, thus would be of keen interest to you. Rogues or Hunters would also be a good choice if youre focusing on Power Blow and Critical Strike respectively, as they offer a good PB or CS passives at those same levels. Rogues also offer a Flexibility passive for players that use Wild gear builds (STR/FLEX).

Tanks, on the other hand, are a lot more stat-intensive. You want to make sure you have as much invested in Vitality and Flexibility as possible. Youll definitely want to invest in the HP Regen passive to boost your durability. Anything down the one-handed path is fair game, but keep in mind that youll want skills that do more than just damage. As well, Charge cannot be used while mounted and this build is particularly well-suited for keeping a mount. Youll also want to be able to pull aggro away from Monks, who have a lot of aggro-inducing moves. Two-handers will have the Yell skill which is an AoE aggro draw, so you may consider investing a few points in the Two-handed tree to get that. Try to improve the Swing Shield skill as the stun will give you a bit more time to regenerate or use a potion if you need to. Racially, Koshare Puellas are the best option with their Lv. 40 racial buff Endure Limit. It increases the PDEF and MDEF by 902 at the first skill level, which is an incredible boost even at the highest levels. With gears, you have quite a bit of freedoms. Glory gears offer the best defense and strength boosts while giving you a chance to do 200% damage via Critical Strike. However, Brave and Justice gears offer the unique Flexibility stat, which reduces incoming damage by a certain chance indicated by the Anti-Hit % in the character screen. Justice offers Vitality while Brave offers Strength. Generally, its wisest to go with the most Vitality given that youre trying to take on the brunt of the damage, but if you solo often, boosting Strength would do you a world of good. With accessories, you could opt for either Brave for Strength or Coldheart for Agility, both of which are good. Agility itself isnt that useful to many Warriors, but if focused on, it can provide a good amount of Evasion, which will negate incoming damage altogether. That considered, focusing on Agility will minimalize your damage altogether and make you a lot more durable in battle. For bracelets, youll definitely want to stick with Braves for their Flexibility bonus. Bless Bracelets would be ideal due to their Vitality boost, as would be Bless accessories in general for the Strength and Agility they offer. Class-wise, Monks offer good MDEF ࿄) and PDEF ࿜) passive boosts while Clerics offer PDEF ࿄) and Vitality ࿜) passives. If youre more focused on PvP, Monks may be more preferable if you would like to focus on socketing your gears with Vitality instead of MDEF, though you can get really good MDEF from socketing as well. Otherwise, Clerics would be the ideal choice due to the broader applications of both PDEF (vs. Warriors, Monks, Rogues, Hunters, and all PvE mobs) and Vitality (massive HP boosts are delicious).

MONK
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Monks (one of my specialties) also have a pair of builds: Glass Cannon and Monstrous Tank. The former build focuses on dealing the most damage before being defeated. These monks have a true love of status effects and serious damage. Monstrous Tanks are for those who love to take on aggro and still pack a wallop. Monks in general have the second-best defense in the game and have extremely good HP – moreso than the Warrior.

The Glass Cannon is all about how much damage you can do before being torn asunder by the enemies. This build is meant to be a suicidal dive into the opponent, and as such, should strive for the best damage possible by focusing on three specific stats: Strength, Power Blow, and Critical Strike. No other stat really matters. When possible, sacrifice some strength for PB or CS. Doing 50% or 100% more damage is vastly preferable to getting higher basic damage. Theres nothing much scarier than a Crit Monk – players in PvP should fall easily to a full-Crit Monk, especially when affected by the Infamous Hsien status effect which reduces the PDEF of all opponents in an 8m range. For gears, you want to focus on Wild sets while getting Glory when you can. Wild boosts Strength and Power Blow, which is more preferable to the all-Strength Brave alternative. Glory weapons have Crit as well as Strength, so definitely go for them when theyre available, though Bless will generally do the job as well, offering Power Blow and a lower Strength boost. Coldheart bracelets will do for the budget Monk while Bless bracelets are the way to go for the extra Vitality it offers in addition to the massive PB/CS boost. Brave and Bless accessories will do the most for these builds. For skills, focus on your Knuckle skill tree. These have the most damaging skills available to a Monk. At Lv. 40, youll get the quintessential sacrificial skill, Concentrated Blow. Youll sacrifice some precious HP, but in return youll deal well over the amount of damage most classes can do. When it comes to sub-classes, Glass Cannons have much the same option as AoEDD Warriors – Rogues for Power Blow, Hunters for Critical Strike, or Warriors or Mages for base damage. Many will probably opt for Rogues or Hunters because theyre cooler and more fun, but dont disregard the Warrior or Mage as a viable option as well. Youll probably have a pretty good PB/CS rating by following this guide and may be consistently doing raised damage. If thats the case, youll want to raise your base damage by subbing a Warrior or Mage. The primary difference between the two is that while the Warrior raises purely PATK very well, it offers an MDEF passive at 36 whereas the Mage offers a slightly lower general attack increase while boosting PDEF at 36. Race-wise, youll want a Koshare Puer, a Seneka Nena, or a Matsuka Chica. Strength boosts AND Attack boosts make the Puer and Nena races an absolute nightmare to deal with. Chicas offer Attack and Power Blow passives in addition to access to another HP recovery skill at Lv. 40. Puer Monks have the Curse of the Corshare skill, which will reduce the ability of the enemy to recover from attacks as well as offer an attack and attack speed racial buff, so they may be preferable over the Nena and Chica in most cases.

Monstrous Tanks are an alternative to the Absolute Tank Warrior. While theyre definitely more fragile defensively, theyre still the second-best defensive class in the game and have great HP/MP Regen and some great defensive skills while doing loads more damage. Since Monstrous Tanks try to deal a lot of damage at the same time as tanking, theyre sometimes more preferable in situations where damage is a must, but not at the cost of a good tank (ie. Boss fights or Temple runs). Being that youre going to be taking a lot of damage, youll want to boost your HP as much as possible. To this end, prioritize Vitality as a stat to boost, along with Strength to bolster damage output. Dont focus skill points on damage-only skills like Elastic Knuckle. Dump points into skills like Warn and Meditate to get effects alongside your damage and buffs to improve your durability. For gears, keep with the Glory stuff when possible, but Justice gears will suffice for the budget player. It builds Vitality and Strength, both important to this build. Some might say try for Brave bracelets and the Flexibility they give, but what the bracelets offer just isnt enough for the Monk class and would be better replaced by Coldhearts for the power boosts or Justice if youd prefer a nice Vitality bonus. Bless will be optimal for this build. As usual, Brave or Bless earrings, necklaces, and rings would be ideal as well. Class-wise, Clerics are absolutely cream of the crop when it comes to this build. Since the two real stats youre focusing on are HP and Defense, Cleric is the other half that completes it. And to be honest, how scary is a tanking Monk with a Cleric Bubble? To top it off, every race offers decent PDEF boosts. However, Koshare Puellas again have the Endure Limit skill to improve tanking abilities, making them the ideal match for this build.

Hybrids for Monk are certainly plausible, but not recommended. They can do better with a hybrid than a Warrior, however, so some may choose to tread this difficult path. A good hybrid will generally take the one-handed route while focusing on Strength, Power Blow, and Critical Strike. They wont be able to tank near as much due to their reduced HP, but theyll have a bit more versatility in party play due to their good defense and great damage. To this end, stick with the gear suggestions for Glass Cannon and take the skill suggestions for Monstrous Tank. Class-wise, itd be a good idea to take up Cleric for the Bubble and HP boosts, Rogue for the Power Blow boost, or Hunter for the Critical Strike boost. Ideally, though, Clerics will be the best option as the Priests Shield sub-skill will throw enemies for a loop. They can still deal great amounts of damage, can tank a lot better, and can absorb quite a bit with the bubble alone, especially with the second best defense in the game. Either way, its a great way to enter party play as a Monk without being the “half-as.sed version” of Warrior. Race-wise, its up to you to choose between the damage-optimized Puer, Nena, or Chica or the tank-optimized Puella.

CLERIC
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Clerics are my other specialty. They excel in supporting others and making sure the party can move along swiftly without having to pause for cool-downs and saving on HP pots. It goes without saying the Clerics are the most party-oriented class in the game and are necessary in nearly every large group. There are a wide variety of builds for them to show such party-oriented versatility: Full Support-Buff, Full Support-Heal, Support Hybrid, Offensive, Offensive Support Hybrid, Offensive Hybrid-Buff, and Offensive Hybrid-Heal. As one can see, theres a LOT of options for Clerics.

Clerics are a bit weird when taking gears into consideration. First, they need to determine whether theyre more of a solo Cleric or a party Cleric. After thats decided, they need to look at their gear options – Brave offers Intelligence and Vitality (armors) and Intelligence and Power Blow (weapons), Coldheart offers Intelligence and Hit Rating (both armors and weapons), Justice offers Mental and Vitality (armors) and Mental (weapons), Wild offers Intelligence and Mental (armors) and Mental and Critical Strike (weapons), Bless offers Mental, Vital, and Hit Rating (armors) and Intelligence, Hit Rating, and Power Blow (weapons), and Glory offers Intelligence, Hit Rating, and Critical Strike (armors) and Mental, Hit Rating, and Critical Strike (weapons). Generally, solo Clerics will want to optimize their Intelligence with Brave or Wild budget gears or Glory armors and Bless weapons for rares while party Clerics will want to optimize their Mental with Justice or Wild budget gears or Bless armors and Glory weapons. After you get all that figured out for your Cleric, then its on to the actual builds because ironically enough, only in a few builds does it really matter which way you choose.

Starting off with Full Support-style builds, which many players who make Clerics will likely become, we turn to Buffers. Theyre extremely party-oriented and player-friendly, allowing you to randomly go out and support various players out in the field. Buff Supporters are great for giving you a wide array of useful stat boosts, including MP Regen, Vitality, Defense, and more. Buffs can make a party much more powerful and capable of taking on enemies it normally wouldnt be able to. However, the downside to a Buff Supporter is that its heals wont be so great. As well, your buffs are spread over four skill trees. Of course, it goes without saying that the one-handed staff branch has all the buffing skills. Its VERY difficult to level a FS-B Cleric due to the fact that you really have to spend points wisely and more often than not save points for the next tier of skills. Its a very complicated build thats hard to successfully pull off, but can be amazing when its done right. When selecting a sub-class, its important to consider what you generally do. PvP, PvE, Party, and Solo Clerics will all have to take different things into consideration. PvP FS-B Clerics may wish to take up Monk for the two defensive passives at 36 and 60. PvE FS-B Clerics might want to sub a Mage for not only the PDEF passive at 36, but also for the versatility of turning into a damage-dealing class when the situations call for it. Party Clerics will likely want a Monk as instead since you generally wont be taking damage outside of PvP, which is where youre the most common target. Solo Clerics will want to consider picking up Mage, Rogue, or Hunter for the attack skills that reduce enemies Melee Attack at 36. When considering races, youll also want to keep defense in mind. Puellas again lend their Endure Limit skill which will help in tight situations or in PvP. However, Matsuka Tigris have Nature Force which can be helpful in situations where casting Mercy isnt feasible or enough to cover your consumption vs. recovery ratio. Senekas – both Tata and Nena – also have the Shove skill which does damage-based MP recovery, but considering your focus is most likely not going to be on damage, this may not be the best option. On the flipside, though, Tatas and Tigris both offer Intelligence passives and Nenas offer an MATK passive and both the Seneka races offer PDEF passives. There are certainly many options for this build, so to summarize: Koshare Puellas lend to PDEF and MDEF through their Endure Limit skill, Matsuka Tigris offer an Intelligence passive and Nature Force – an MP healing skill, Seneka Tatas offer MATK, PDEF and Intelligence through passives and have Shove – an MP recovery skill based on damage, Seneka Nenas have MATK and PDEF passives while offering the same Shove skill that Tatas do.

Full-Support Healers are virtually the same as Buffers, but have a much easier time placing points in skills since they dont need such a wide variety of skills to get what they need. Primarily, you should focus on Souls Way, Healing, Recovery, Holy Spirit Recovery, and Instant Heal, along with the Soul Shield skill to protect them. Optionally, you can invest in the two status healing skills to make them AoE instead of single-target, which is very useful in Party Matches and Nation War, as well as in Lights Protection to shield your party. You might want to consider improving the Lv. 40 AoE sleep skill since thats EXTREMELY useful, but not required unless you intend to get higher-damage spells, which is not recommended for this build. Class-wise, you can opt to take Mage instead of Monk for their Mages Shield skill. An extra bubble skill should be able to suffice for protection in the event you draw aggro (which is actually very likely with this build). Monks are also a good choice since they boost both MDEF and PDEF through passives, which is good to have in PvP situations, and you should have enough healing power to manage. Race-wise, Koshare Puellas are another solid choice due to their Vitality and PDEF passives as well as the Endure Limit skill, making sure youre well-protected from incoming damage and able to take a hefty beating. Matsuka Tigri are also a good choice due to their PDEF passive and Nature Force, which will be extremely useful since healing is the most MP-intensive spellcasting in the game. The other races dont seem nearly as well-suited for this build, but can still offer some benefits in case Cleric is your sub-class.

Support Hybrids are a combination of the two previous builds. Some points will be dedicated to healing skills and others will be dedicated to Buffs. This is about as difficult as the Buff Support build because you have to spread out your skill points as well, but youll have a much more difficult time deliberating over placing that last skill point in healing or buffing. Logically, though, this is the most balanced of the three builds because you fill both roles well enough that it gets the job done. Your sub-class could be aligned with either of the two focused builds, depending upon your preference. Koshare Puella and Matsuka Tigri are recommended for this build since youll want something compatible with both support types and those two are the only ones really suited for healers.

Offensive Support Clerics are a bit more common than other offensive types. They get the attack skills of a two-handed weapon while sticking points in healing skills such as Recovery or Instant Heal. Their primary focus is going to be damage, of course, so theyll want to spend points mostly in their attack skills. DoTs would be the best skills to invest in since it is the Clerics best weapon – lock an opponent down with DoTs, spam heals, and watch its HP whittle away fast. That said, this build will probably be the fastest to level out of all the different builds Cleric has. With this build, your best choice for sub-class is going to be Mage. They offer the Attack passive youll want at the levels it becomes available at and the PDEF passive thatll hold you until you get there. For race, Seneka Tata is hands-down going to be your best choice. The Magic Attack, Attack, and Intelligence passives, combined with the Shove skill make the Seneka Tata a natural offensive spellcaster, which is your primary goal. Matsuka Tigri would be a decent alternative that has the Attack and Intelligence passives along with Nature Force.

Offensive Hybrids are interesting builds because instead of focusing on support or offense, they focus on both – a challenge even greater than a Full Support Hybrid. Generally, youll want to focus on attacks primarily and your support secondary. Do not stray from the Two-Handed skill branch for this build. Doing so will cause you to waste precious points that you could spend more wisely elsewhere. Instead, forego the skills on the other branch and focus on what is most important to you – damage and heals. Class-wise, youre much better off sticking to a Monk or Hunter. Depending on where you want to focus your role, Monks can provide a defensive boost to those focusing on support more than offense and Hunters can provide a power boost for those focusing on offense more than support. Mages might be a decent option too, but keep in mind that your Mental stat isnt going to be as supportive of their Bubble skill emulate as a Full Support build would be and their offensive passive isnt as good as having a really high crit bonus from Hunter.