Aika Online Rifleman Guide

Aika Online Rifleman Guide by mythics

This is a basic guide on how I thought skills were for both PvE and PvP. Also, a little bit on how to be a decent Rifleman so you can rack up a few kills.

The rifleman is a long ranged class that has one of the higher defense rating, and hp amounts. This lets you take more damage than average, and lets you get out of some sticky situations. It also has remarkable range which is useful since it gets you outside AOE range for bosses, and lets you attack from farther range in PvP. The damage is also very respectable in single target fights. Personally I have not lost a single one on one fight as long as I kept my head on straight. The one time I did lose I tried to be cute and let a warrior in to close while at half health. That said your only real enemies are warriors. Everything else is a free kill one on one. Just get the first attack in on a warrior and you will always win.

Countdown: absolutely useless, don’t’ even waste a point on it. The damage does not scale well, and you have to wait 3 seconds for the full effect after a 1 second cast time. Rating: useless

Rupture: mediocre skill. I’m sure it can have some use, but just doesn’t work out that well. It will increase your damage to a target by about 25%. It can have its uses, but the mana cost to damage and debuff is just not worth it. Avoid it unless you have some surefire way to be useful. For those thinking about pure PvE having to recast it every 6 seconds eats though your mana real fast. Rating: 2 stars.

Hollow Point: Best skill for the rifleman.max it and make it your primary skill In PvE and PvP this skill is awesome. Capable of laying down some massive damage, and a relatively short cast time with no animation lag makes this an absolutely amazing skill. The only con to it is it is slightly expensive in mana, but not that much. Rating 4 stars.

Leg Shot: Great skill, but can really eat up some mana. The damage is okay, but puts a wonderful 12 second debuff. For the mana cost I would have hoped that the skill would have scaled in damage better, and have more of a slow effect than it really does. However all skills can’t be amazing so whatever. For both PvE this skill is a great opener if you have the mana for it since it will often let you kill mobs, in combination with other skills, before they reach you. For PvP it lets you chase down your targets, or run away, while doing a noticeable amount of damage. Works well as a desperate bit of burst damage. Rating: 3 stars.
Hiding: Highly recommend getting at least level 1 of this skill. Needed for ambush which is your only stun, so you are pretty much locked into getting it. Has some major drawbacks though like massive slow unless you invest into it, and a huge cooldown. Rating: 2 stars.

Damage buff (forgot name): Must get. If you don’t get this you will not be able to put out enough damage for anything. Your kills will not happen, and you will not be able to do enough damage to help your party in PvE. Rating: must have no matter what.

Crimson bullet: Great skill in PvE, and mediocre in PvP. This will effectively double your dps, and if you’re in PvP will help keep our target’s health from jumping when they heal due to the half heal recovery effect. A 6 second cast makes this a time and mana hog though, so as useful as it is not the best skill in the arsenal though useful. Rating: 3 stars.
Precision: increases chance to crit. Noble buff, but 1 minute buff for 2 min cooldown means its not that great. Also it will eat up much needed skill points which could be put other places. If you really want to crit people more just make some +3 crit gear. Rating: 2 stars.

Concentrate: Passive skill, awesome. Increases hit rate and reduces chance of interruption. Very handy if you go with the rifleman’s only real damage skill. It being passive means you don’t have to worry about it falling off for any reason. Rating: 4 stars.

Crit Power: Um, must get…the main damage skill relies on crits for it to really hurt, and guess where the crit damage increase comes from. Also all the wonderful things about passives apply here too. However, if you find some reason for not wanting higher damage, or need to scrounge up a spare point or two here is where to do it. Rating: 3 stars.
Devastation (aoe skill): Our only aoe skill, and okay damage at that. Has an added bonus of causing silence in an area, but requires you to select an area, has a long animation time, long cool down, and makes you lose your selected target. However it is a silence which can save you if you are about to get attacked by something (warrior stun, warlock, mage keeps healing), so it does have its uses. Rating: 3 stars.

Ambush: A near requirement, because this is a stun and stuns are godly. The long cooldown due to hiding makes it a pain to use, but with this you can easily take down everything but the most hardened target in the 5 second stun with a proper build. Rating: 3 stars.

My recommended skills:

Avoid countdown and rupture at all costs. These skills do not scale well, and eat up mana for no real effect.
Must haves are hollow point, concentrate, and level 1 hiding. Max out Hollow point. This skill is the staple of your damage in anything you do. Get your damage buff maxed too since this is something you need to be able to solo, kill, and party well. Concentrate is a must since it increases hit rate, and every missed hit is lost damage. Not to mention it reduces interruption which is great for hollow point. At least 1 point in hiding. Without this skill you are a sitting duck. This lets you get past guards to raid, escape ganks and getting mobbed.

Optional skills are crimson bullet, devastation, precision, and ambush. Ambush because it requires having hiding, and no matter how good the skill is only being able to use it once every two minutes is not fun at all. Precision could be good when combined with hollow point, but it is a skill point hog, so if you really want it get it, but be prepared to make sacrifices to get it to a good level. Crimson bullet has some serious uses, but to keep its damage at a constant rate you need to keep this skill maxed. It is possible to have it at level 1 for the debuff, but then you are losing out on a lot of potential DPS. It’s either completely invest in here, or don’t and have some free skill points to upgrade hiding or some other skill you like (precision).
Recommended skill is crit power. Increasing crit damage is nice, and it being passive is also cool. However you could survive without it, but 15% or so increase to crits does really add up. Keep in mind double is a crit too (perfect crit). Leg shot is very handy in anything you do. Slowing something down prevents damage from reaching you, and especially with the long range that makes the rifleman deadly. Making something take twice to three times longer to reach you gives you much more time to dish the hurt out, and lets you keep the option to run away open. Did I mention it does a fair bit of damage too?

How to play as a rifleman.

In parties you won’t be able to AOE things down, so instead find the softest targets and take those down as fast as you can to give your healers an easier time. Your relatively high defense also enables you to take a bit of a pounding, so parties may use you as an off-tank if things get desperate enough especially since a rifleman can out damage any other class on a single target, so holding agro on that one mob will not be a problem. For PvP avoid the front lines and instead watch the outsides. The strength of a rifleman comes from its solo ability, so look for individuals that you can pick off rather than being in the middle of the crowd where AOE’s fly like crazy.