Wakfu Sram Water/Air Build Guide

Wakfu Sram Water/Air (Corsair) PvP-PvE Build Guide by Aranfalc

I’m not sure how far this guide is going to get, since the Damocles nerf-sword is hanging over our heads (or should I say skulls?) but I guess I wanted to share anyway and hopefully the gameplay will stay similar enough for this to have value.

So why am I making a guide? Well, some background: I’ve been studying the Sram in detail since it came out. I rolled about 15 srams that I leveled until at least level 12, in order to test all support and attack skills and figure out their ups and downs. With that information, I rolled two “main” srams which I got a bit further, and then I decided to settle for what I thought was the “perfect” build and that is now my current Sram of choice.

The build I chose has turned out to be extremely powerful, almost unbeatable by any other Srams in PvP (and of course unbeatable by any non-sram, but that’s a given considering how overpowered the Srams are).

I’m not saying this is the way to go, but for newcomer Srams that want to have a strong build with emphasis in PvP and are completely lost about which skills to take, I recommend giving the Corsair a go. You’ll not be dissapointed.

The corsair is a Water/air hybrid focused on mobility and damage. It doesn’t use invisibility, and instead develops those skills that make him able to manipulate the enemy’s characteristics in order to create “blind spots” to prevent counterattack.

A well played Corsair wins without losing much HP, because he can prevent the opponent from using his/her main combat mechanics. For instance, the Corsair has the tools to completely prevent the Xelor from laying down a Dial, for pinning down another Sram to the ground and preventing him to cast mobile doubles, to completely outmaneuvering a Sacrier.

This adaptative strategy is achieved thanks to the water tree, aided by the mobility offered by Air. Last, I would like to point out that to use the Corsair effectively it’s essential to understand what Double-Shaping is and how to exploit it properly. Here is my guide on the subject:
Click here

Attributes:

• 2 AP
• Rest to critical

This distribution is essential, and must be done in that order. AP is crucial for the corsair, since longer combos are necessary to create the aforementioned blind spots, as well as creating good doubles through the Double Shaping techniques. Do not get HP for your corsair. Even if you are tempted you improve the explosion damage, you’ll still get more sustained explosion damage and a much higher burst through an AP build thanks to being able to explode up to two doubles a turn (it can be done) and therefore exploit the extra damage you get from being close to full health.

Critical is equally important since the water branch is extremely empowered by crits.

Supports:

1. Scram (level 6)
2. Master Stabber (level 10)
3. Scram (level 9)
4. Double (level 9)
5. Master Stabber (level 20)
6. Shadow Trap (level 9)
7. Look Around You (level 20)
8. Rest to Sram to the Bone

I listed them in order of convenience to level up, altough the order can be changed to fit your needs. Even though the choices may not seem optimal, they’re well researched and every support has its place. Let me explain why each one:

• Scram: Scram is hands down the best spell in the Corsair’s support repertoire. Trading 1 WP for 3 MP is always good, but it becomes invaluable in PvP where positioning and mobility are key. In encounters in which you want to kite, you generally aim for kiting without the aid of Scram, but it’s necessary to “spike” your mobility in certain situations to get to your comfort zone. Remember that thanks to double-shaping, you can create Doubles that will reach up to 13 MP! (read my other guide for that), which coupled with Fourberie gives you tremendous damage.
• Master Stabber: No explanation needed. A Water sram will be attacking from behind, and this gives you an insane damage boost, as well as helping with Double Shaping.
• Double: Even though we have low HP, higher damage from Double will come handy, and thanks to our extra AP we can achieve spectacular spikes. But most importantly, having it cost 4 AP is priceless for comboing and double-shaping.
• Shadow Trap: Many srams think this is a bad ability. On the contrary: it’s exceptionally useful, and if they fix it so it starts actually removing MP, it will win entire PvP encounters on its own. Here are some things you can do with a fully leveled ST:
  • Lay them down as our main, then make our more mobile double get to the enemy and fear them into the traps.
  • Use them for Double-Shaping, to create anti-invisibility doubles (read my other guide).
  • Detonate your own Doubles after they use their attack routine (priceless against very mobile classes).
  • Square denying/blocking to prevent certain class mechanics, such as the Xelor dial.
• Look around you: This support is maxed to deal with a very specific problem: Enemies who keep their back against a corner. In that case there is no other way to turn them, so Look Around You solves this problem easily.The rest should go in Sram to the Bone to get an extra mechanics for utility. The rest of the supports are of little use to the Corsair. Sram Reflex is counter productive since sometimes you’ll want to lock the enemy hard, and this will give them an escape route. Invisibility and Shadow Master are irrelevant.

The Corsair must level up a very specific set of spells, in order of importance:

1. Petty Theft
2. Fourberie
3. Sramshackle
4. Fear
5. Your choice between Bloody Ripoff and Forceful Blow.
6. Swindlesram

It’s important for these 6 skills to be at max level, since they will be the ones shared by your Double. All of them fill a very specific role which I’ll explain:

• Petty Theft: Considering the AP theft this is one of the highest DPAP attacks in the game, and without a doubt the highest damaging non-wakfu attack during a critical strike. This will be your main source of damage, which will also mess with the opponent’s strategy by reducing their AP. Remember that the 1 per turn restriction doesn’t apply between you and your double, so both can use it once a turn for a max of 4 ap theft if both crit.
• Fourberie: A must for any sram, more so for the Corsair. Not only it’s an incredible mobility skill, thanks to our investment in Scram and double-shaping, it’s possible to use it a great amount if times in a turn. Through scram + scram on a Roadrunner double, it’s possible to use up to 8 fourberies in a same turn, 10 thanks to Sramshackle.
• Sramshackle: This is another key spell for PvP. Not only it’s quite damaging, MP theft is a much more effective way of pinning down an enemy than lock. Many characters can get out of lock zone thanks to mobility skills, but being reduced to 1 or 0 MP barely ever leaves an escape route. Thanks to this spell we can kill Srams, Sacriers and Iops without being touched.
• Fear: Fear is a fantastic skill that helps with everything, from positioning to control, through escaping, enemy clone detonation, pushing into traps, exposing the enemy’s back…
• Bloody Ripoff or Forceful Blow: They serve similar purposes so I leave them as a personal choice. Their function is to be a secondary damage spell, for when you can’t use Petty Theft. Their differences are as follows:
  • Bloody Ripoff: If you choose BR, you will have more damage in the Water branch and less in Air, which will make you a more focused but less versatile attacker. Besides, BR will give you some extra survivability in PvP because life drain ends up adding up. The only downside is that Double doesn’t benefit from lifesteal. Personally, my Corsair uses this option.
  • Forceful Blow: Forceful Blow will give your Air branch more power, which helps against water resistant enemies. Aside from that, the buff you get when casting FB may come handy, altough it’s quite awkward to use (it’s generally not a good idea to start a combo with F, and you miss the HP recovery. Another good point is that it helps with Double-Shaping. Remember: FB doesn’t deal more damage from behind, it simply buffs you so your next attacks do.
• Swindlesram: This is very effective against certain classes, specially when you use Double-Shaping to create a Double with high amounts of lock, then stick it to the enemy, steal more lock, and doom them to blow it up if they want to get away (great strategy against a Cra for instance).

The Corsair is extremely effective against other Srams. There is no single Sram build that will give us trouble, aside from other Water Srams that know what they are doing. Before getting into specific builds, here are some generic strategic principles to consider:

• Always fear the enemy Sram into his/her Double if you have the opportunity. If he/she screws up to the point his/her double is at reach, make him/her regret by exploding it against him/herself
• Protect your back. This will commonly be hard but make use of the terrain. High spots are useful, so are trees and other environmental objects.

Vs Air Sram (invis):

Air srams are extremely easy. If you see a Sram entering invis, you can breathe and relax, the fight is won. There are two ways to accomplish this.

1. If you are high level enough, create an Eyeball double (read my other guide for that). Thanks to your Double, the enemy sram will constantly be detected, unless he’s using an Eyeball too, in which case you are against a good air sram and you must put this strategy together with the second one.
2. Get your back on a secluded corner on the map. Summon your double, and use Shadow Trap (yours and your double’s) so that all access to your area is blocked. Use common sense for this: Space the traps so there is no way an enemy double may get adjacent to you without blowing up. Even with 1 mechanic only its easy to distribute your Double and your two traps so that it will be impossible for the enemy Sram to get close to you without blowing up his cover. Then all you have to do is wait. If he tries to kill your clone with his (even though this can be avoided if you have higher Mechanics), don’t worry, the turn order will make sure you can recast everything before his main Sram gets to play again.

After they realize it’s impossible to get the jump on you, they’ll try something suboptimal, after what you’ll slaughter them as you would with a fire sram.

Vs Fire Sram:

Fire srams are a cakewalk if they don’t have Scram, and a bit trickier (but not much) if they do. The way to kill them is extremely simple. Get a roadrunner double as soon as you can (instructions in my other guide) and constantly use Sramshackle. Between Fourberie, Shramsackle and Fear you should have no trouble leaving the fire sram at 1 MP (0 if you have a lot of AP or crit), and then moving away diagonally to prevent retaliation.

There are two ways a fire sram may react to this. The wrong, and the right one. Wrong would be saying “okay, I cannot move so let’s cast a double”. That’s an extremely stupid idea since they’re summoning a double who ALSO has its movement impaired! Then you’ll be able to easily fear the Sram into his own double for more damage.

The right answer would be to cast Scram and somehow overextend to get close to you again. Anyway, there is a limited number of times they can do this, and you can easily endure them, or even avoid them reaching you completely if you’ve been kiting well.

Vs Explodouble Sram:

Explo builds are dealt with in a similar manner than Fire builds. Of course, the difference is that this time you have to fear the doubles more than the original Sram. Either way, it becomes easy once you get his/her MP to 1 and doubles become useless.

An Explodouble Sram can also use Scram to try and get their mobility back up, but it hurts them even more because it will reduce the amont of doubles they can cast. If you want to prevent this, don’t fear using Scram for kiting during the first part of the battle so that they waste their opportunities. Using traps to prevent their double walking up to you is also a good idea.

Vs Water Sram:

The mirror match is our only concern, only because they also have access to Sramshackle. This fight takes form of a cat and mouse chase in which Scram is used to turn the tables. If you want to have a good chance to win, make sure you’re the first to land the Sramshackles and start the kiting sequence. This way, even though he may use his own Scram to get back on top of you, his doubles will always be less mobile than yours and will be under your control.

Generally, this fight is decided on the first strike, so be very careful with your positioning when you join the battle. Good luck!
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All this has been a first introduction to the Corsair. If you enjoyed the guide I will post tutorials on how to pilot it on PvP and PvE, as well as (maybe) videos. Most of that work will come after the release patch though, provided the upcoming Sram nerf does not render the build completely obsolete.

Thanks for reading.