ArcheAge Darkrunner Basics Guide

ArcheAge Darkrunner Basics Guide by endah

o/ sup. im endah, and ive had many many requests to create a guide for this class (my class) – and so here it is.
Understand that some aspects of this will change with the coming patch, so i am going to cover some general aspects, to
make room for the coming change. Ill be creating a video guide soon enough, prob when my summer semester is over (tomorrow). And as always, you can come watch the best in the west @ twitch.tv/endahlol. Ask ask ask, i love helping out DRs/other classes alike – and i love learning from those with different perspectives. So, shall i begin?

note: you will hear complaining about the amount of DRs on the server. let it fuel your desire to become better than all of them. This class is like rogue from wow in that regard, a lot of rogues keyturning around in elwynn forest, but year after year it was (is) the lowest populated class above 2200. So you will find a good amount of darkrunners, fortunately you will run circles around their inability to do damage effectively, and react to control correctly.

CLASS: DarkRunner/Politician = shadow+fight+willsafe to say you already knew that
DESCRIPTION: Highly mobile, melee burst dmg ganker. Little to no sustained survivability, Little to no sustained dmg output (considering the former). MORE OR LESS -> high risk, high reward.

The Basics

You will need to have an understanding of basic melee play in any mmo obvi before beginning to play risky. Oh, this class is all about being risky. That means, try to focus on the following :

1. Stop keyturning. Learn to move fluidly, like you would in an fps with either QWE or AWD.
2. Notice i left out the ‘s’ in WASD? Unbind it. Back pedaling is slow and an ineffective method of retreating/kiting. S is also an incredible hotkey.
3. Understand buff watching. You need to have a good understanding of buff icons/meanings in this game to succeed at higher levels of play. IE: know when an occu bad pops dmg reflect so you can dip out and dip back and complete your quadkill.
4. Up your awareness. You need to begin watching 2+ 3+ 4+ players around you at all times. When engaging a killtarget, you need to be aware of the (now) slightly moistened neckbeard ramming his forehead into his arclightning key. Pop shield while engaging your killtarget, and he’ll think you have(,Ó,)sharingan(,Ó,).
5. Prepare to lose. You cant be afraid to duel classes that are designed to stomp you 1v1 JUST to understand them more effectively. AND to flex a little bit, stretch your muscles. or in my case noodles Try some new things, get creative– if you fall 4 times you get up 5. So play with/agaisnt good players, bad players, and anything in between. experience is key.

Pre-game

Gear
1-49 : Plate. level as plate. The majority of mobs will be pumping out physical damage, which means you can soak up more dmg and level quicker.
Fresh 50 : Auroria greens (dont worry about equip effects). Your goal here is to simply amass a large HP pool with cheap auroria plate, until you can afford your 44 arcane/heroic set. –Ekolb
Post auroria : Try nabbing/crafting the 44 DESERT leather set, arcane and above. Ideally heroic, but if youre like me, and have 13g and loose change, fk that we’re on AA welfare.

Weapon
1-49 : I would recommend dual wield leveling. Simply because youre aiming at higher sustain, as you wont have all of the tools necessary for serious control/burst until a bit later on.
fresh 50 : At this point, if you’ve collected all of your 0/200 honorpoint kill quests, you should have enough to afford the honor 4500 Axe, which will give you a nice cushion before moving on to crafted weapons.
Post honoraxe : At this point you have 2 options: dual wield or no-dachi. At the moment, i would recommend no-dachi — as the crux of this class is ONDEMAND no tv doe burst. But with the upcoming changes, and with high grade weapons (even now) — dual wield can, and DOES work very effectively. Play around, and if you find youre successful, let me know.

Also, if youre dual wielding – mainhand sword/offhand katana no questions. Sword attribute = parry chance (for TS/charge/PS resets) and katana = crit chance (for… >_> crit dmg)

…So now youre ready for combat. You understand the basics of mmo group play, you’re working on your gearset, and youre getting moist at the thought of globalling that full heroic reaper. Onto the intricacies of DR building, damage output, and survivability…

Build

Endah’s current (1.2) build: http://www.archebox.ru/build-kr#!BzntWXTAX

-SO- i just spent about 40 minutes typing, what (was) more or less a novel, and realized there is no way i could summarize any of it into this guide. So for now, i will leave this segment open, and i encourage anyone interested to contact me in anyway you see fit. You can check out the stream, whisper me ingame, mail me ingame, i dont care, im always willing to take time to help out someone trying to improve.