DCZ Art of War

[Kain_the_heartbreaker]

summon friend is an ice mages best skill :/ but 45 light and enough ice for ice comet is best. ice mages are the best support mages a support mage stays behind their tankers and priests casts spells and aoe's until the moment to tp is there tp's are done for a lot of reasons, regrouping, saving lives, killing a frozen enemy :P but the important thing about an ice mage is that they know when to tp. Tp's should be done differently to each class of character. for a warrior you watch their mana when their hp is below half, if their mana is not moving they are not attacking, which means they are running. tp them either just before they die, or early to save their hp potions. mages should never be out of the priests range of heals, unless the priest is tanking orcs to cover the mages escape. Priests are hard to support because their hp and mana jumps around more then any other class. generally you want to stay close to your priest and ask yourself if you would want a tp in his situation :P a good mage never lets anyone die, but if somebody dies its their responsibility to TP them back asap. Rogues generally take care of themselves, expecially in dcz, but the best way to know when to tp a rogue is when they have low hp and low mana, or just low mana that doesnt seem to increase the party bar is innacurate when a sin is minor healing, it jumps more then a priests information will. so supporting a rogue is difficult. when supporting another mage player just watch their hp, but mages shouldnt ever be too far apart in pk. for a support mage expecially in dcz you want a staff that will slow + do decent damage + give bonus's. the staff that fits the bill is oasis or glacier erenion. garps slow nicely but they are a damage whore weapon, which isnt necesarrily bad with today's mages :P. the oasis slows less then a GE will with spells, but will slow more with blade, and has dagger defense. a garp will slow the least with spells, but the most with blade. Ap generally symbolizes damage, in all forms. but it also symbolizes with a mage how well the effect of your element will do when blading. a garp will slow more then a oasis and ge with blade nothing else. there is nothing better then a support ice mage in a party if you play it right[/b]

thnx dave, ill be directly quoting you in the guide but ill also go into more detail about tp usage and advanced tactics involving multiple mages in party.

I have a mini guide (if you call mini to a 9-pages guide) made by myself, which I give when my friends ask me something about sins...it is in spanish, but as soon as I get home I'll translate it and send it to ya to see if you can use it.

I'll also add some tips I think may work for priest, due to the knowledge acquired by playing my DCZ BP and a friend's lvl 75 BP.[/b]

thanks a lot armin, if you can translate it that will be great! Yea if u also have some bp tips, please post them as well. Im sure that anyone who's read the priest section will notice that our bp section is pretty weak. This is mainly because we never actually managed to get the items to switch over and try bps, not to mention sanctis would have kicked us from clan if we did XD

exc elixir +8 will be much better than garp+7.[/b]

exc elixir +8 has 122 ap and 56? elemental, it requires 158 int and 132 mp.

garp +7 has 121 ap 40 glacier 22 int bonus and 32GR, requires 138 int, 138mp

i would say exc elixir would do more damage overall except for maybe blading but the garp will provide better bonuses and the stat requirement allows you to use crystal build as well as crimson where as the elixir will limit you to crimson only. However, the garp+7 can be further upgraded so it beats the elixir in that aspect too.

Personally i would prefer the garp for its GR but more testing is required to differentiate the two staves.

[Kain_the_heartbreaker]

I could tell you a few Warrior Strategies that are missing in your guide and maybe a few things that you can tweak, I know almost everything about a DCZ Warrior even though I have always prefered having some extra AP to enhance the fun aspect in general PK. I am no guide writer so I will only tell you how it works and you can add it however that you like. :P

Very nice guide, I only read the Warrior part but I am pretty sure that the rest is just as good. [/b]

yea talk to us chris. if you have vincent's email address, send him some notes :P

For BP in DCZ imo:
IB>GB>Skely>Kek belt>Belt with resist against mages>Str (sucks)

In dcz your attack skills doesn't take lots of mana like in a cz (Judgment and Helis) so you really don't need that extra mana, and 20ac>50hp since they have the same resist.[/b]

yea you're right, IB does come before GB. Somehow i didnt screen vincent's writing properly and oversaw that part its fixed.

[Kain_the_heartbreaker]

great post.

i've tried archer a bit. my opinion. in a party vs party situation an archer can save own/destroy the other.

the key is styx.
because i can't explain it without an example, here it goes:
i've been a lv 55-56 archer once and on poor gear back in jpko and one day we had a funny pk party with like 7-8 ppls, 1 buffer, (none duffer xD), 2 warriors, 1 mage, 2 sins and me and maybe another random, can't remember
we had a fight against 2 partys of humans. they had 1 full duffer, torment. we had only malice.
our priest maliced the duffer, the duffer started with the animation of torment..huh? wtf. oops, styxed out of nowhere our sins came up and spiked the duffer. it was an above average geared guy. but it was funny to see that the duffer could only pot hp to keep himself alive, which made him useless.. and few seconds later he died.
the rest of the group died in few seconds to our mage, warriors. in the time of cooldown of my styx (which was a bit more than a pot) i used to help my teammates with cures (dang.. another heavy item beside of styx) and mh's

stats:
if you got a party all the time, really all the time, you can go for the hp build with low dmg^^
get a unique bow, whatever you prefer.
and stat like 174 dex (+8 chit pauldron) and 140 hp.
an incredible high manapool lots of hp and additional 40 defense
warning: you wont do acceptable dmg, so don't blame me. its support/styx build.

if you are more a solo person u'll have to be an dex whore since archers don't do lots of dmg:
hp:
90 for chitins
82 for fps
(imo don't go for fp's unless you have a set of +9/19)
full dex

items:
dex whores
fp's +9/19 or +8/15 chitins
kekuri rings/elf rings +1-3 tho i'd take kek rings over elf ring for the resistances
SE's
PP+1-3
BoD or something
Iron Bow +8-9

the real archer build how its more useful:
chitins +8/15
rol's (highest possible +)
IB/EB (depends how leet your dcz in your server is imo)
WP+2-3 (go for the IB if you take a wp)
about earrings im not sure i think dual RE should be better than dual eme for dcz and they are cheaper
so dual RE +1 > eme's +0 for dcz
IB+8-9 or a unique
(these items are used for the styx build rogue also)[/b]

i share the same thoughts as you in terms of the hp build . However, instead of having such high hp, you could pump in a bit more strength to wear a dd shield ( same concept as the shield mage), and meanwhile, continuing healing/curing your party. the extra str also lets you hold a lot more styx. but damn, 140hp will mean a shit load of mana for you to burn

[NZ_Maverick]

omg I cant believe you wasted your time writing all that shit, lolz.[/b]

First week of semester, i.e no assignments or whatever, so free time. You rather have us go surf porn instead of trying to help people?

SHIT I FORGOT TO WRITE ABOUT SKELE BELT.

*runs off and dies*

N.B: Even though I forgot to write about the Skeleton Belt, it's importance and how it compares with other unique belts should be fairly obvious.

For warriors:

IB > Skele (resists are nice, and increased accuracy for legcut and cleave which is very useful) > GB (The int bonus is redundant, thus I rank it below Skele) > Kek etc

For priests and mages:

IB > or = GB > Skele > Kek etc

For rogues:

Skele (Increased accuracy and GR, so less skill misses and less chance of being slowed) > or = IB (If you don't care about either of Skele's bonuses) > GB > Kek etc

[Metalkon]

IB > Skele (resists are nice, and increased accuracy for legcut which is very useful) > GB (The int bonus is redundant, thus I rank it below Skele) > Kek etc[/b]

You forgot about Cleave, half of the time you may be attacking with it.

A little dex and a Skele belt makes Cleave nearly one hundred percent except for Rogues.

[NZ_Maverick]

You forgot about Cleave, half of the time you may be attacking with it.

A little dex and a Skele belt makes Cleave nearly one hundred percent except for Rogues. [/b]

A.q -.-

[NZ_Maverick]

CS'es are not really mentioned in this guide as it is out of the leagues of most players. CS by nature is not suited for DCZ anyway due to the high proportion of Sins.

[SilverBlade]

exc elixir +8 has 122 ap and 56? elemental, it requires 158 int and 132 mp.

garp +7 has 121 ap 40 glacier 22 int bonus and 32GR, requires 138 int, 138mp

i would say exc elixir would do more damage overall except for maybe blading but the garp will provide better bonuses and the stat requirement allows you to use crystal build as well as crimson where as the elixir will limit you to crimson only. However, the garp+7 can be further upgraded so it beats the elixir in that aspect too.

Personally i would prefer the garp for its GR but more testing is required to differentiate the two staves.[/b]

Stats say that ee should do more dm with everything, but uniques dont always work like that, so garp might do more dmg with blade, although it shouldn't. Unfortunately I cant test the staffs for dmg because I dont have a +8 exc elixir. But I will test a simple elixir +8 against a garp+7 when I have time; it should give us an indication.

However, consider also the following:

-> Elixir can be reskilled, garp is only ice. In a 45/45 build that means you can switch from ice to light at whim.
-> If you are support ice, the elixir will allow you to shift 6 points from MP to HP.
-> 22 INT bonus is useful but not crucial if you already have 160 INT.
-> The gr is indeed a bonus but it is only a consideration if you are crimson. If you are crystal adding the 22 INT you will need for crimson will also give you 11 res to all, effectively matching/redistributing the 32 GR of the garp.
-> The only case I see the garp being more useful is if you are going +9 crystal. However, in a new server as queried, the crystal build is not as effective as you cannot wear the crimson upgradeable armours - you would have to go for g1 upgradeable which are expensive and lose you too much ac.


PS: You make a good point on the cs for priests - a cs can be replaced by a combination of other more affordable shields. But from a mage's point of view the cs is a marvel. Yes, it has no DD but it is the only shield together with ss that can be carried by a sin or mage with only 1 str point and it gives much more ac than the ss. I think 150 (?) ac which in itself is a lot in dcz, and it also takes care of all melees except sins.

[Kain_the_heartbreaker]

Stats say that ee should do more dm with everything, but uniques dont always work like that, so garp might do more dmg with blade, although it shouldn't. Unfortunately I cant test the staffs for dmg because I dont have a +8 exc elixir. But I will test a simple elixir +8 against a garp+7 when I have time; it should give us an indication.

However, consider also the following:

-> Elixir can be reskilled, garp is only ice. In a 45/45 build that means you can switch from ice to light at whim.
-> If you are support ice, the elixir will allow you to shift 6 points from MP to HP.
-> 22 INT bonus is useful but not crucial if you already have 160 INT.
-> The gr is indeed a bonus but it is only a consideration if you are crimson. If you are crystal adding the 22 INT you will need for crimson will also give you 11 res to all, effectively matching/redistributing the 32 GR of the garp.
-> The only case I see the garp being more useful is if you are going +9 crystal. However, in a new server as queried, the crystal build is not as effective as you cannot wear the crimson upgradeable armours - you would have to go for g1 upgradeable which are expensive and lose you too much ac.


PS: You make a good point on the cs for priests - a cs can be replaced by a combination of other more affordable shields. But from a mage's point of view the cs is a marvel. Yes, it has no DD but it is the only shield together with ss that can be carried by a sin or mage with only 1 str point and it gives much more ac than the ss. I think 150 (?) ac which in itself is a lot in dcz, and it also takes care of all melees except sins.[/b]

you do make a very good point about the crimson wep defense armors on new servers which will effectively limit all mages to 160 int thus, making the stat requirements for the garp less useful than the ee's requirements. The 22 int bonus doesn't really make that much of a difference but the bonus gr from the garp is still great when comparing crimson build to crimson build. Effectively, the trade off is between 32 gr + 22 int for 6 points into hp. Again, this will depend on the character itself and see what it lacks.

i suppose switching the element on the ee is easier than selling garp and rebuying an elysium or something but I dont really see how it helps with teh 45/45 build since you cant switch it without the anvil (or can you?! )

thnx a lot silver, this is exactly the type of extra pedantic detail im after for this guide :P



Also, the CS is of course, by default, the best shield to use for a mage or a sin. Nevertheless we wont spend that much time on it since it's hard enough getting it on the old servers let alone the 0% drop rate on new ones ^^
ill either be directly quoting you or rewording it into the guide some time soon.

[NZ_Maverick]

Learn to paraphrase nubzor!

Might work on further details for playing a Priest, and maybe Mage strategies as well. Probably going to do this tomorrow if I actually bother to get out of bed. Possibly looking to write a bit about hp build rogues.

My CS reference was for a Priest, since thats what I'm best at, but I do know and appreciate that its low requirements, decent AC, and the 50 weapon defenses (even though there is no DD), is a godsend for low strength classes/builds. On old servers, a +3/24 DD small shield is also a fun item to have if you're a mage or rogue, as it gives you 24DD for relatively low investment into strength.

[SilverBlade]

Effectively, the trade off is between 32 gr + 22 int for 6 points into hp and better damage (added)[/b]

lets not forget the dmg. Even if you are support, dmg does matter.

i suppose switching the element on the ee is easier than selling garp and rebuying an elysium or something but I dont really see how it helps with teh 45/45 build since you cant switch it without the anvil (or can you?! )[/b]

It woudl be lovely if you could reskill the staff without the anvil actually
But in any case it cots less than a mil to do it I think so it can be done pretty often at the anvil - even depending on the party you have on a specific day.
Also, elysium is more expensive - a straight trade is not really possible. Having said this, one should also look at the comparison of ee+8 to the elysium+7 and for this I think we need to check the dmg and more importantly stun rate with blade.

My general opinion on the new staffs is that yes they can be very useful - my main staff is an oasis +8 - but often ppl prefer them just because they are in fashion
For example I reskilled to fire recently (xp mode *sigh*) and I carry an elixir +8. I wont stay fire so I wont be bothered to get a hellblood or scorching. Clannies reaction to it was "get a hellblood - elixir is so 2 years ago"

[NZ_Maverick]

My general opinion on the new staffs is that yes they can be very useful - my main staff is an oasis +8 - but often ppl prefer them just because they are in fashion
For example I reskilled to fire recently (xp mode *sigh*) and I carry an elixir +8. I wont stay fire so I wont be bothered to get a hellblood or scorching. Clannies reaction to it was "get a hellblood - elixir is so 2 years ago" [/b]

Why pay extra for something your not gonna use :P

I don't like Garps, never have, never will. Oasis's health and DD are much more important in my opinion, since ice mage is all about survivability. As for the comparison between Ex Elixir +8 and Elysium +7, the damage should be very, very close, as I remember blading roughly 15 more when I switched from a regular Elixir +8 to an Elysium +7. Could attempt to use this piece of info to try extrapolate an answer if an Ex Elixir +8 can't be sourced, but most likely the damage will be very similiar. As for the stun rate, I have a feeling that the Ex Elixir might be better due to its higher AP and elemental.

[sexy Owa]

Why pay extra for something your not gonna use :P

I don't like Garps, never have, never will. Oasis's health and DD are much more important in my opinion, since ice mage is all about survivability. As for the comparison between Ex Elixir +8 and Elysium +7, the damage should be very, very close, as I remember blading roughly 15 more when I switched from a regular Elixir +8 to an Elysium +7. Could attempt to use this piece of info to try extrapolate an answer if an Ex Elixir +8 can't be sourced, but most likely the damage will be very similiar. As for the stun rate, I have a feeling that the Ex Elixir might be better due to its higher AP and elemental.[/b]

agree'd with everything said not only do oasis help you in surviving, but the slowing rate is much higher then that of a garp. and exc elixer +8 should be about equal to an elysium +7

[Kain_the_heartbreaker]

agree'd with everything said not only do oasis help you in surviving, but the slowing rate is much higher then that of a garp. and exc elixer +8 should be about equal to an elysium +7 [/b]

lol this has become the kain, silverblade, owa, darc thread.

vincent, feel like writing up the mage item section?

[maxi3max]

I've started a dcz mage and i have read all ur post about mages it helped me a lot , Nice job to the whole guide!