Aura Kingdom Duelist/Ravager Comprehensive Guide

Aura Kingdom Duelist/Ravager Comprehensive Guide by shankles.css

Section: 1

-Introduction- 

Welcome to my Comprehensive Guide to Duelist/Ravager! I’m sure you probably have immediate questions such as, why should I choose this spec combination over another, or “Wow I had Faye in my run once and she did more damage than the Wizard! How is that possible?”. Well I’m here to tell you! Let’s hop right into it.

-Pros/Cons- 

Pros:
-Insane DPS (Sustained & Burst)
-Versatile
-Stylin’ on Nerds
-Obligatory Kirito

Cons:
-Low Survivability (PvE)
-Difficult to Play (Much Concentration)
-Dynamic Skill Rotation
-Highly Gear Dependant
-People hate you most of the time

Section: 2

-Playstyle- 

While playing Duelist/Ravager, your main goals are to put out the best DPS possible, and live as long as possible. Both of these are achieved ideally when you can stand in a safe place and wail on your target without fear of being hit by line nukes (Unicorn’s Bum Rush), or AoE Stuns (Beirut from Otherworld: Skandia). Knowing your limitations is important, and especially when filling a melee role, your priority should be awareness.

You must be aware of your surroundings at all times. Know where all enemies are, where they will attack you from, how far you are from your bard and tank, and keeping out of redzones.

–Keybinds–

Keybinds are a huge factor in games and can make your break you. You want to find binds that allow comfortable positions and ease of access for strange combinations. I myself am content with the default (Regular) – (Ctrl) – (Alt) layout, but by all means please adjust it if necessary. It can greatly improve timing in your skill rotations. When I did Arena’s and Battlegrounds at a high tier in WoW, I consonantly used key’s like F, X, C, V, B, T, R, and ~.

-Stat Allocation-

First main topic I want to address relative to your character is stat points. We’re going to discuss what they mean, and how they can directly affect our DPS and Survivability.

In order of importance, we have our three primary offensive stats:
1) CRIT DMG
2) CRIT
3) DMG

And our primary defensive stats:
1)DEF
2)EVA
3)HP

As you can see in the image above, I highly advise you put every single offensive point into CRIT. You can’t directly affect your CRIT DMG with skill points, so we go with the second best option. CRIT directly affects how often our auto attacks, and skills critically strike an enemy.

I’m sure many of you are already shouting at your screens “WHY DIDN’T YOU DO EVA N00B?” Well I mean let’s be real. From a pure PvE standpoint, EVA will not help us dodge a bosses’ attacks. Many boss abilities are based on the Red Zone mechanic meaning we should avoid these “no-no” spots. Is it possible to dodge a Red Zone ability? Yes. Do we want to chance that? No.

We stack DEF because many PvE abilities are unavoidable. If you’ve ever faced an Eidolon you will know they have extremely large AoE abilities that are unable to be escaped in the cast time given while in combat, the range is so large many ranged DPS classes cannot avoid this. Why risk trying to dodge when we can make life easier on our healers and reduce as much of the incoming damage as possible?

You’ll notice I put 5 points into HP, this was mostly for a minute bit more of HP only because I was lacking some around my earlier 50s. Needless to say I could respec but at this point it wouldn’t matter much either way. My advice is to go all out in DEF.

-Masteries-

Overview:

General Skills – Cracking Slash
Attack Spec – Zeal
Advanced Skills – Lightning Strike
Defense Spec – Courage
Tactical Spec – Break Defense
Special Skills – The Best Defense

Breakdown:

–General Skills – Cracking Slash
=Description: You might have given me a scratch, but I’ll payback tenfold, just you wait!
*Fortify “Slash Cut”
*COntinuous DPS of 1883 per tick. (@Level 56)
*Duration = 10 Seconds

Cracking Slash is pretty much your best option in the General Skills tier. The Ravager abilities don’t offer much unfortunately, atleast for what we’re trying to do. Basically Cracking Slash is going to give us an additional DoT which will 18,830 Damage ontop of the initial strike.

–Attack Spec – Zeal
=Description: Strength isn’t everything – your image speaks for you even before your weapon.
*10% chance to cause extra 50% Damage while attacking.

Some duelists may favor Callousness over Zeal. I’d say it really is preference, but with how I gear I already have a ridiculous amount of CRIT DMG so it doesn’t make a ton of difference. I might looking into making the switch after I unlock the Tier 2 of Callousness.

– Advanced Skills – Lightning Strike
=Description: A hit to an enemy’s ungarded spots pays more for your effort than a strike that might be easier to land.
*Fortify “Deadly Wink”
*Continuous DPS inflicted +20%

Lightning Strike adds a 20% DoT Damage increase on all mobs under the effect of the ability. Lightning Strike can stack 3 times, and the duration is 10 seconds. While using this I highly reccomend upgrading it to the Green version from the vendor in Navea. This will increase the percentage to +30%.

–Defense Spec – Courage
=Description: We’re born with two hands, and with those hands, we hold on tightly to the things we cherish.
*Max HP +3%, Damage taken -2%

Nothing extremely special here. An overall pretty good skill, just need to be a bit more tanky so we’re not being 1 shotted by bosses if we accidentally pull aggro.

–Tactical Spec – Break Defense
=Description: I’ll launch those who block my way into the air without a second thought!
*25% chance to decrease target’s DEF by 10% while attacking
*Duration = 8 Seconds

Invaluable for your whole group. It’s a debuff applied onto a mob which everyone benefits from. Just coordinate with your party to make sure more than one of you don’t have it active. As far as I know, it can only be applied by one party member at a time. The next best thing if someone else is already using this would be Organized Sabotage probably, although it depends on the fight. Feel free to use your discretion.

–Special Skills – The Best Defense
=Description: The best attack is one that deters your opponent from attacking, allowing you to control the flow of the fight.
*1% of DMG added to DEF

Once again nothing to special, some more beef never hurt. This too should be a priority to upgrade, also available from a vendor in Navea (Specifically the Guild Shop)

-Envoy Path-

The Number Scheme is Read Top to Bottom, Left to Right. (Missed 18 because I thought I had it greyed out)

The Breakdown:

1* Duelist Training 3 – Crit Rate +3% When Equipped with Dual Blades
2* Duelist Studies 3 – Crit Damage +15% When Equipped with Dual Blades
3* Duelist Training 2 – Crit Rate +2% When Equipped with Dual Blades
4* Weak Point Analysis 3 – CRIT +3.2%
5* Weak Point Analysis 3 – CRIT +3.2%
6* Duelist Studies 2 – Crit Damage +10% When Equipped with Dual Blades
7* Duelist Studies 1 – Crit Rate +1% When Equipped with Dual Blades
8* Weak Point Analysis 2 – CRIT +1.6%
9* Weak Point Analysis 1 – CRIT +0.8%
10* Duelist Studies 1 – Crit Damage +5% When Equipped with Dual Blades
11* Duelist Mastery 1 – Damage +2% When Equipped with Dual Blades
12* Battle Tactics 1 – DMG +1%
13* Duelist Mastery 3 – Damage +6% When Equipped with Dual Blades
14* Duelist Mastery 2 – Damage +4% When Equipped with Dual Blades
15* Battle Tactics 3 – DMG +4%
16* Battle Tactics 2 – DMG +2%
17* Bat Fang – Absorb 3% of Damage Dealt to restore your own HP
18* Frenzy – Attacks have a 25% chance to deal addition damage over time.

Cumulative Bonuses:

Crit Rate (Equipped Dual Blades) +6%
Damage (Equipped Dual Blades) +12%
Crit Damage (Equipped Dual Blades) +30%
CRIT +8.8%
DMG +7%

Passives:

3% Of Damage dealt returned as HP
~Every 4th Swing your attacks will apply a DoT Effect