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The art of DCZ pvp: (work in progress. 37% completed)
After browsing through the forums I realized that we lack a single definitive guide to general pk strategies. I am pretty sure most of you, if not, all of you already have lots of experiences with PK, whether it might be in DCZ, regular CZ, or LW, but have you ever wondered why your just not quite up there among the best of the best? Of course, a large part of this is due to lack of items since KO is a very item dependent game (let’s face it… dupers/babashoppers are hard to kill). However, not all of the top PKers have the best items on the server, nor will you need the best items in the game; the skill element also plays a major role in pvp. These ‘skills’ include combo, fast reflexes, a fast computer/internet (obviously it helps…an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 overclocked to 3.6 ghz [Core 2 Duo E8400 overclocked to 4 ghz or more would be even better if your just going to be gaming with the PC, since not many applications really use all 4 cores of a quad core as of now], 4 gigs of ram [DDR2 preferably, DDR3 is just plain gay at the moment], and a Nvidia 8800GT 512mb or an ATI Radeon HD3870 X2 wouldn’t be bad for this, if you got a spare grand or two lying around), an analytical mind capable of thinking fast, and more importantly, the exact role(s) you should be playing in your party. My intention for this guide is to become a one-stop pk guide for ALL and also an information bank on tips and tricks you have picked up during your KO career which you can share with everyone. For those ‘1337’ PKers out there, it is in your best intention to train up the ‘noobs to provide more competition.
I, along with NZ_Maverick, a fellow member of Pariah, will write the bulk of this guide using our past experiences but I would also like contribution from the rest of the community.
Note: this guide will not include a step-by-step tutorial on how to combo. There are already some excellent guides out there on how to combo for different classes especially the one written by 0000000. Moreover, we’ve mainly been playing priests and support mages, so there are much better candidates to learn combo from.
Note: This guide will only contain DCZ PK strategies, as the lvl 70 ~ 80 skills changes the entire interface of PK and seeing as how I’ve never actually PKed properly in CZ, I didn’t feel that I was the right person for the task. However, you might find some of the following applicable to CZ PK. Hopefully, this will inspire someone to write a guide for CZ as well.
Contents:
Characters – Class
– Builds
– Roles in the party
General PVP guides, including tips and tricks
WARRIOR: (75% completed, need to write about items)
Warriors by definition are the tanks and damage dealers in KO (no shit). They have high ac, high hp, and can take a lot of punishment.
The most commonly used skills are:
Cleave (lvl 45 attack)
Sword aura (lvl 57 attack)
Gain (lvl 5 passive)
There has been a lot of debate regarding the use of Cleave against Sword Aura. Bear in mind, Cleave will deal more damage if your character has high AP since the extra 50% damage outweighs the extra 100 bonus damage (it isn’t 100 in PVP, in reality being around 1/3 of this, so an additional 33 damage) and the extra 50% also does better when the target is debuffed. However, Cleave DOES FAIL while Sword Aura ‘NEVER FAILS’. So the question is, when to use Cleave and when to use Sword Aura? The general rule of thumb is that one should use Cleave on warriors, Priests and Mages (i.e characters with less dexterity) and Sword Aura on ROGUES (NOT ROUGES YOU FOOLS). However, if one does decide to use both of these skills, and one should, then one would have to make 2 skill bars (or just have both on the same skillbar, which means one will have to be equally as proficient at comboing with either of the two keys assigned to Cleave and Sword Aura respectively) which can/will be a hassle to switch around during big fights where there are lots of rogues and other classes mixed together. The extra button that you press to switch your skill bar could potentially interrupt your pot timing if you do not practice it enough, so just beware of that (however, if the half sec delay means the difference between life and death for you, then the odds were against you before the fight even started). If you’re too lazy, just stick with sword aura; it won’t miss and you’ll still get kills. I do know that the very TOP DCZ warriors such as Yosuka and lSanctisl DO switch their skill bars between SA and Cleave since at the top level of PK, every bit of extra damage counts.
Gain is a nifty little skill that doesn’t cost anything to use and provides a respectable boost of ap. However, at level 59, you only have 100 skill points to spend. 100 – 57 (attack) = 43. If you take a look at the defense skill tree you will notice that the passive resistance buff ‘Immunity’ requires 40 skill points. Therefore, you must decide if you want the extra resistance or have Gain instead (NB: it may be wise to go with Immunity and PK with a Priest who will Strength you instead of you having to put points for Gain). You can’t have both. If you’re rich and tend to use power of lion scrolls, then by all means go ahead and take immunity. Or if you feel that your resistance is good enough, then save yourself some money and take gain so you wont have to hassle your priest after every respawn to strength buff you. Trust me, your priest will HATE it.
Items: TBA
Builds:
1. Warriors are probably the easiest characters to build in DCZ because; well… they are just simple. Most people of average or above intelligence will realize that AC> AP since survivability > killing power. You can’t kill unless you are alive, simple as that. Hence most people would put 90 in health to wear chitin armor then pump the rest into strength. It is worth noting that one should ALWAYS have 2k+ mana to combo efficiently. This allows you to get the most out of your soul pot, so you don’t waste mana or hp when potting. This is very, very important especially in 1v1 fights since if you’re up against a player of your similar skill and item level, it all comes down on who can land the last hit; in this type of situation, the more mana you have, the longer you can pot HP before using a soul pot, and you will guarantee the full use of the 1920 mana. Hence, if you a little bit short on mana, don’t be afraid to pump in the extra hp point or so to give your mana an extra little boost. Landing in an extra hit will do more damage overall than doing 5 more damage per hit but 1 hit less.
NB: In DCZ, AC>hp+mp >>> AP provided that you have at least 2k+ mana to pot efficiently. For a Warrior, anything above 1400 or 1500 (wee bit generous here) AP is sufficient to get kills at a reasonable rate. In 1v1s, AP is the least important as long as you do enough to take down your opponent, as the aim is to outlast him.
However, you must be aware of the fact that with 90 points into hp, you will NOT be able to wield a raptor+8, the maximum u can wield is a raptor +4 rb. That is why some people like Jinxxter used to use fp +9 pauldron instead so they can use their raptor. Personally I would rather take the extra ac from chitin pauldron than the extra 3 AP going from +4 rb raptor to rap +8.
2. Another interesting skill build that a few like Sanctis have tried out is the controversial 45 Attack, 55 Defense Descent and AC (NB: This build is possible as long as the Warrior’s lvl is high enough for 45 points into Attack, for Cleave, and 50 points into Defense, for Descent) build. This build is interesting as it provides greater versatility in party Vs party fights but it will greatly disadvantage you against Rogues, since Cleave will more often than not, fail. However, if your party nearly always has a couple of ice mages then Cleave might still hold out. It is not recommended if you are the ONLY melee damage dealer in your party. The reason why people have tried to use Descent is because it is such a great skill. It is both an attack skill as well as a very powerful defense skill. If say in a party Vs party fight, you wish to reach the enemy priest ASAP to take him out of the equation, but you have to run through the rest of the party first, you could get a sin from your side to light feet and sneak up to the priest and you descent on the sin. Meanwhile, your duffers should have already duffed the priest and you and your sin partner can then easily harass the priest potentially disabling him from the rest of the fight.
(NB: Best timing would be to synchronise a Malice/Torment+ Spike + Cleave on the Priest, i.e the first Cleave you get off on the Priest after Descenting on the sin is timed with the sin’s spike; this ensures maximum burst damage on the target)
Another example, if your party is retreating from a big mob and there aren’t enough mages in your party to pull off a safe retreat then take the initiative to STAND AND TANK, giving your party the precious extra few seconds to pull back and regroup. A good tactic is to call on your party healer to stand beside you, preferably tanking a few sins as well, cast Massive Restore on you and Full Heals. After your mage pulls back, he/she will only have to tp the priest since u will Descent on either the priest or the mage, this will make sure that u do not get isolated during the tp process and saves you 25nps. When tanking, watch out for mana duffs and styx, you can’t Descent without mana :P
In terms of gear for this build, I would recommend going for Foverins at 1+ higher than Rocs, i.e. Fovs +1 instead of Roc +0 etc. Also could consider WP +1/2 instead of IN +0, and Lugias + 1H Giga/Javana combo. General rule of thumb, base Dex with bonus Dex of around 50 or so should be sufficient to land almost all Cleaves, except against fully Dex’ed out rogues, e.g. rogues with around 200 bonus Dex.
There have also been a few experimental builds people have played with such as using plate armors+9, full strength jewels (+16/3 Strength/Hp earrings for example) and a Scorpion Scythe +8 to take full advantage of its hp regen to compensate for the insanely low ac. Metalkon played around with the idea but I don’t think he ever finished it.
Others have tried to use a Syphioric shield +8 along with a Tota spear +9. Trying to get the highest AP possible from 1 hand while keeping ac at above 1.3k. I did fight against such a warrior and lets just say I couldn’t kill him and he couldn’t kill me. His def was just too high but his ap was also quite pathetic. Then again, I was on a fairly noob geared warrior so maybe others could have beat him more easily than me :S
None of these builds turned out that well and have NEVER become popular but they are worth a laugh. Stick to chitins and hellbreakers :/
Things to remember in party pvp:
• Shield is your friend! Any respectable warrior should have a few shields in their arsenal prepared for different situations (DD for mass sins, Scorp Shield for Mages, Club/Axe/Sword for Warriors/BPs, Spear for Warriors). If things get out of hand and your priest won’t be able to take care of you, slap on a DD shield and laugh at the pathetic 300dmg sin spikes which you won’t even want to waste a 720 pot for. Note, if you use dual wield, you can still attack!!! But switching out of shield requires to physically drag your offhand weapon which can be very annoying :S
• USE WEAPON DEFENSES and don’t yell ‘OMFG WHY DIDN’T YOU HEAL ME?’. You’re not the only person in your party, your healer isn’t obligated to spam you and only you (because if that’s the way you think, you can now go cut yourself), he has a PARTY to take care of and you’re only a small portion of it. If the enemy party has a lot of II/hellbreaker fags, put on that club pauldron, if they have Avedons, stick on your pads. Your aim is NOT to get your healer to spam heal you, but RATHER you should be minimizing his time spent healing you so he can get in the extra duff, allowing you to rape the party quicker. Put it this way, a duffed enemy dies faster than an unduffed enemy EVEN if you have 1 or 2 pieces of wep def armors on. If the situational arises where u can sacrifice yourself to save your priest or mage, by all means do it. That way, they can tp/res u back into the action whereas, if u decided to be a gay fag and got your priest/mage killed, you’re screwed too.
This is also why I prefer to use chitin armors since they come with an economical set of defense armors.
Remember, Warriors are menial labour in party pk. You are nothing without your support players. This goes for all other classes.
General tips and tricks:
• Bear in mind that Legcut is NOT spammable so don’t waste it. Use it to prevent targets from running away, priests so their spells also slow a bit, and in the case of rogues, try time it so that the Legcut lands immediately after the rogue refreshes his lightfeet. If successful, the rogue will be unable to re-lightfeet until he cures himself, and even then, his lightfeet should still be in cooldown.
• When you are in a 1v1 fight and you don’t have enough mana left for a sword aura or cleave and your hp pot only just kicked in, stick in a legcut, that will create time to allow your soulpot to become active and also you won’t waste a hit or break your rhythm! If your enemy is in a party with a tp-trigger-happy mage who knows that the warrior is in a 1v1 fight, the mage tp him away since the legcut will cause his hp bar to change to green and the mage might have thought that the warrior was getting ganked. If this happens, mail the warrior and call him a noob and abuse him to your heart’s content. This happened to me once. I was the mage T.T
• Remember resistance potions. Just remember them.
• Potting strategies help. If for example, both you and your opponent are at low hp, and you are running low on mana, you might consider potting soul instead of hp in order to top up mana so you can take your opponent out before he takes you out. This is very situational of course, and your judgment will improve with time.
PRIESTS: (90% completed, need some more stuff on bps)
Sooooo much… to…write… damn… it…
Skill builds:
1. 57 debuff, 43 heal. Has torment and 960 heal, good for parties with lots of melees but sucks for keeping party alive. Just make sure your melees are good enough to kill the enemy before they have a chance to attack you. This build works really well as a support priest if your party already has a party healer.
2. 57 heal, 43 debuff. Has 960 party heal but not parasite. Instead you have to stick with reverse life which is about as good as parasite only if the enemy is on buffs. I prefer to use 960-mana drain instead of reverse life. This is the standard party support priest build.
3. 54 heal, 45 debuff. Has parasite and complete heal but no party heal. More healing capability than the 1st build but also less offensive capabilities. However, now u can spam duffs and I guess complete heal is quite useful too. This build is good for duo pk or small parties since you won’t be able to fully utilize the 960 party heal in those situations anyway. This build is kind of a jack-of-all-trades.
4. 57 buff, 36 heal, 3 debuff. 1.5k buff, 960 heal, malice. Standard build for buff parties. Weak sauce, sux. Buffs are just so inferior…(N.B: This build is gay as Undy in most cases, provided that the target is reasonably geared, should outbuff 1.5k anyway)
5. 54 buff, 45 heal. This is the PRO buffer build. Screw 1.5k, hail Undy + 1.2k!!! Darc_lotus was (I’m sure) the first and only priest to use this build, and we found it to be much more effective than build number 4 simply because we could heal our party better and keep them alive for longer. Twice the healing power than 960 is certainly going to be better than the extra 300hp you get from a better buff. Besides, most warriors and priests have over 2.5k hp so they should use undy anyway. Rule of thumb, if the character has over 2k hp, they should take undy buff over 1.2k. 60% x 2000 = 1200. (N.B: Keep a hp set to switch for Undy, e.g. HP helm, HP shield, high hp jewels if your regular jewels don’t suffice)
Note: both buffer builds have the 200 AC buff.
Chitin build:
This is the standard build that the average int priest should be going.
Items:
Armours: Pretty standard, Plate/FP DD 25 or at least Chitin DD +7/15 (more recent servers). +8/15 Hp Pauldron/Pads/Gloves/Boots. Can also consider, if applicable, to switch out Chitin boots and gloves for +9/19 Hp FP Gloves/Boots as the extra HP is worth the minimal AC loss. (N.B: Keep a +8/15 hp helm, any grade, in inventory for Undy if you’re a buffer, or plan to PK on buffs). Also try and collect a set of upgradeable Chitin weapon defenses at +7 or higher.
(N.B: Can also consider going Chitin Goblin Pauldron/Pads, and stat for lower strength and lower int to put more points into hp. This is advised if and only if you have a Dread Shield +7/8 and at least a GB/IB, preferably with IN as well.)
Weapons: Lycaon Hammer > Lobo Hammer > Lupus Hammer (= Holy Animor). Keeping in mind the role(s) of an int priest, which is to heal/tank, one’s weapon should therefore provide as much defensive capabilities as possible. In this case, the Lycaon Hammer stands out from the rest as it provides an unparalleled source of resistances, which is of utmost importance for survival (being slowed/stunned/nuked to hell by thorns and pillars is detrimental to your rate of survival, therefore the Lycaon Hammer’s triple resistances are a god-send). A Lobo Hammer is a nice alternative if a Lycaon is not available, but it is not as ideal as it lacks FR (fire mages are hitting harder and harder these days) and more importantly, GR (slowed = death in some cases. Never, ever, stayed slowed unless you are 100% sure that you are out of harm’s way). The only redeeming feature of the Lobo Hammer is the extra hp it provides. Finally, Lupus Hammer and Holy Animor, in my opinion, are equally as good (or bad, depending on what you compare them with) as each other. Picking one of the two over the other is highly situational, i.e. if you use dual Roms, you should then use Holy Animor as you would have sufficient GR from Roms, and the extra AC from the Holy Animor is nice.
Shield: +5/40 DD Large Kite or at least +4/32 DD Large Kite (older servers; can be Kite shields if your preference is for extra hp. I tend to go for 108 str for the DD +5/40 Large Kite as I believe the extra AC I get is worth the small hp loss). I am however, not a big fan of the Dread Shield as I believe that it provides insufficient DD to be worth using over a standard DD shield in DCZ. However, there are exceptions; at +7, a Dread Shield CAN be considered, as although spikes will still do more damage to you than when you use a DD +4/32, other forms of damage on average will be much lower. As for other shields, I won’t really bother mentioning them as they are pretty useless (only consider a Defender of the Lord if you can’t get any of the better DD shields mentioned previously. Scorpian Shield deserves a mention for 1) being a very situational shield, to be used when the mages presentare more of a threat than the melees, and 2) best shield for Undy). (N.B: Always carry a set of other weapon defense shields around, such as Spear def +6/48, Club/Axe/Sword def +4/32 or +5/40.)
Jewels:
Rings: Ring of Life > Ring of Magic > Foverin > or = Ring of Courage > Shio Tear/Imir Ring > Flame Ring > Mercenary Ring (quest ring). This is due to Rol having the highest AC/Hp of the rings available to any rings useable by a DCZ char. Rom is 2nd due to it having the 2nd highest AC, and that its GR is more useful than Roc’s FR or Foverin’s small resists. Foverin ranks above Roc due to the higher AC and more evenly distributed resists, but this is situational/preferential. Shio and Imir ranks above Flame Ring due to GR and LR being more useful than FR. Finally, the Quest ring itself is not bad if you cannot afford any of the better rings as it provides a decent chunk of hp and some resistances to boot. Ideally, use the top rings in identical pairs if possible to maximize bonuses, but for Shio/Imir/Flame, mix and match them to cater for the resistances you need the most.
Earrings: Earrings offer more room to mix and match. My opinion is that Warrior Earring > Cleric Earring > or = Secret Silver Earring > White Silver Earring> Platinum Earring > Agate Earring > Bronze Earring. WE top the list for its resists and high hp. At lvl 59, the hp multiplier is not yet high enough for the SSE to outstrip the WE’s bonuses as 1 SSE would provide roughly around 101 hp, which is 21 higher than a WE, but without the 10 to primary resists and the extra strength for pots. CE is a lesser version of WE as it has less hp and AC, but the extra mana can be helpful. As this is the case, the use of CE and SSE is also situational/preferential (i.e. if you have high hp but low resists, or if you are fighting lots of mages, go with CE. When against lots of melees or when you have high resists, go with SSE). WSE should be used over PE, as PE is not as practical for an int priest (both in terms of costs and that extra mana is probably better than extra str for maybe 1 or 2 pots). AE is a cheap option which provides some hp but no other benefits; BE is not really considered due to the low AC.
When paired, my preferences would be WE x2 > WE/SSE > CE/SSE > CE x2 > SSE x2.
Pendant/Belt:
Glass Belt > Iron Belt > Skele > Kekuri Belt > or = Light Belt of Life > Quest belt. The top 2 is obvious, due to their weapon defenses. I personally rank GB ahead of IB due to the extra HP and mana being more useful in DCZ than the 20 extra AC, but this again is personal preference. Kek belt is a decent option due to its 30 AC/FR, which are both useful, and the dodge rate is just a nifty little bonus for dodging skill-canceling R hits. Light Belt of Life is an ok belt as it provides a large chunk of hp and decent resists, even though it does not have AC (can consider using for Undy). Bronze belt isn’t very practical, as the 5 weapon defenses don’t really do much.
Elemental Pendant +2 = Iron Necklace > Elemental Pendant +1 > Warrior Pendant +1 > Elemental Pendant > Warrior Pendant > Lycaon Pendant. EP +2 provides an insane amount of hp and mana which is unrivaled by any other item. Iron Necklace can be a substitute if you prefer to have more weapon defense instead. Warrior Pendant is a decent choice if you would rather have a bit more resists on top of your already respectable amount of resistances. Lycaon Pendant is a cheap option that provides decent AC and resists. Otherwise, Quest Pendant will suffice, but I strongly recommend getting at least a Lycaon Pendant, which is not hard to do at all.
Strategies:
• Before a large fight, try and put the highest level restore you have on as many party members as time allows you to. If possible, during the fight, whenever you’re not healing/curing/debuffing, try and refresh any restores that have run out of time.
• Cure-potting. Whenever you cure yourself while getting attacked, or if you cure while your hp is more than 720 away from being full, hp pot at the same time. When done properly, this is the fastest way for you to get back in the fight as it refreshes your character. Alternatively, soul pot while curing if you’re not hurt.
• Try and distribute enemy fire. As the Chitin Priest has high AC and resists, the most party friendly way to take advantage of this is for you to stand in front of some weaker party members and divert enemy fire away from this. This prevents individual members from being ganked, and allows your party-heal to be more effective as it is suited for healing multiple targets who have taken moderate damage, not one or two targets who took heavy damage. This also helps when your party is trying to get away, as you’re the one person who can best take care of themselves; you will buy time for the rest of your party to get away, and once save, be tp’ed to safety by your mage.
• Utilise mana-draining skills. Although the priest’s mana drainers are not as powerful as styx, they can nevertheless be annoying if used properly. N.B the 960-mana drain skill should always be used over reverse life UNLESS the enemy is on buffs. The mana pool of your average sin will only be ~2k and when they are minor healing at full pace while running away, a mana drain combo is lethal. This is best if the drain hits right after the target’s soul pot kicked in.
• Learn to prioritise. This applies for the order you heal your party in, and the order that you cast your skills in. Generally this is most important for healing/curing. This should be learnt through experience and practice.
• Cure Disease is a skill. Use it.
• If you can cast Parasite…seriously, don’t Reverse Life the person you just parasited.
• Parasite is a damage dealing ability. It does on average 1900 damage to the enemy if they are on full health AND it prevents them from gaining the full benefit of a 1920/complete heal. Not to mention it will generally force the enemy priest to use a cure.
• DO NOT use parasite on a fleeing enemy with less than 50% hp. Once you parasite him, the chances are it will bring his hp up to more than 50% of his unbuffed max hp, allowing him to town. Instead, use a malice or mana drain.
• Know when to res a party member, and be quick about it. Obviously don’t try to res when there are lots of enemies around the body, or if others in the party require more urgent attention. If there is multiple casualties in the party, knowing who to res first is also important, i.e res the tank first so that he can buy you more time to res the dead mage in the party. Sometimes, when a party member is doomed to die and there is no way in hell you can cast a heal to save their ass, it might be wiser to switch skill bar and press res instead of trying to heal. This will minimize downtime.
• And if need be, help attack when the party doesn’t require healing. Those extra R hits you throw might just cancel the enemy priest’s heals. Also, its damn nice to see your name show up when you successfully ks your party (not THAT hard to do if you got the right timing and rhythm).
Full plate build:
This build is suited for int priests who prefer extra hp at the cost of AC, resists, and mana. I suggest that if you are on an old server, try and get as complete a set of rare FP weapon defense armours as you can. Weapon defenses are a must for this build. For this build, IN > EP +2 (due to the increased need for weapon defense), and IB > GB (due to the increased need for AC as FP build has lower AC).
Weapon defenses, as previously mentioned, are vital for this build. As such, knowing when to change wep defs, and what kind of wep defs to change to, is a skill that any FP priest should attempt to master. In my opinion, in order to fully take advantage of FP wep def armours, one should stat for the minimum str/int required by the armours/shield, and forgo the use of +8/15 FP pauldron/pads; instead, use fp goblin pauldron/pads to make up for the lower resists.
For more information, see the section on Chitin Priests.
Int battle priest:
Basically either a Chitin or FP priest that is skilled towards offense rather than defense (preferably go with Chitin goblin pauldron/pads for a Chitin build; if FP build, go with just enough int for +8/15 FP boots and wear FP goblin pauldron/pads). This means any extra stat points after allocating for item requirements should go into strength in order to maximize AP. A Smite Hammer is usually the weapon of choice for this build, but a Dragon Tooth Hammer can be used as a substitute due to it having fairly high AP (for a Priest weapon that is), and GR, which is very useful. This build is likely to be better suited for a Torment build, or alternatively, Complete Heal/Parasite (N.B: It may still be in the party’s interest though if one stayed as a party healer for this build IF there are no other priests. My recommendation is that only play this build if there is another priest in the party, this way the party will not be as dependent on you, leaving you more room/time to attack). Strength jewels are highly recommended, as you will want at least 600+ AP with Prayer of God’s Power. This is mostly going to affect the rings you use, as it involves switching Rol/Rom for Roc, and maybe EP for WP (use IN if possible); as for earrings and belt, stick with Warrior Earrings and GB/IB if possible.
To the extent of my knowledge, there has only been one int battle priest party ever in DCZ (on Diez at least), which consisted of Exima, darc_lotus, babasmurf, miss_cleric and deph. Our weapons were dth +5, smite +3, dth+7, priest bone crasher +7 and smite +6. Getting kills were completely possible, but too many rogues ran from us since our party had no slow/stun capabilities. But course, no one could touch us, let alone kill us.
Plate build:
If you’re thinking of being a party healer and a full tank, then this build is NOT recommended at all. Crap ac, and crap resists/mana. Only good thing might be the high hp but ur ac will just be too shit. I mean come on, +8 plate pauldron requires 138 int. You might as well put in 6 more int to use full plate goblins instead. This is a stupid build for a pure tank priest. Heck, you wouldn’t be considered a tank priest at all.
HOWEVER, the plate build does have one VERY interesting possibility – the plate bp. At level 59, you will have enough int to hold a +6 smite hammer and enough str to hold a hellbreaker +7 (also a +4 rebirthed hell breaker if you have one :/). Kalais and Jinxxter have tried this build and it is one I would have opted for if I had the str jewelry. You can get about 1.2k ap which is more than enough to get kills with debuffs. Your ac and resists will be much better than your average G1/G2 bp, ur mana pool would not cause any problems even allowing you to play as a party healer. Your hp would of course take a big hit so you might opt for an ep+1 over a warrior pendant just for that extra health boost. Also remember to wear any old talia if you have spares and wep def pieces for different situations. The beauty with this build is that you have the option to switch to tank when the situation demands it and you can be a fairly good tank as well since G3 armor ac isn’t that much worse than a gob fp build. It is especially helpful if you have a wep def belt and IN so you may utilize a dread shield’s high ac, while still retaining about 50dd, which should be more than enough for sins since the shileld will boost your ac up to ~1200. Also, if you get into trouble, the lycoan hammer is also available for you to use. So to summarise, this build is good for killing with both 2 handed and 1 handed stances and can also instantly change to a good support priest. Beware of the likes of bravenew and chillaxin, hard hitting mages are your worst enemy since your hp isn’t godly.
Note: If you prefer fighting with a shield on most of the time, you may wish to exchange 2 str points for 2 int points and use a smite +7 and a hellbreaker +6 instead. Hell breaker +6 still works fine.
G2 bp:
A G2 bp just means that the priest has 102 int points and the rest are put into str. The reason why people use this build is because of the grade-2 DD helmet, which is far more commonly found and much cheaper than the G1 DD helm. This build is pretty much the same concept as the G1 build except you will lose about 24 str pts worth of AP but your ac will slightly increase and a HUGE increase in your mana pool. A g2 bp shouldn’t have a problem with mana at all (I had around 2.8k mana, with a Hellbreaker +7, EP +1, Foverin/Quest ring, kek belt, and dual Quest earrings), and can use the 45 debuff, 54 heal build much better than a G1. Personally, I think that all bps should use a talia (any talia) always, since the ac gain is just too massive to ignore. With 102 int, you have a choice to either use +8/+9 G1 pauldron/pads or you can use G2 goblin pauldron/pads. The G1 has more ac, but the goblins will provide 32 resists and extra 10 str to boost your pathetic resistance and slightly lower AP.
G1 bp:
Personally I am not a big fan of this build. Far too low AC and resists, low mana, all of which is bad for survival. The low AC means a good sin or warrior will tear you up, while the low resists is likely to mean perma-stun/slow from any respectable lightning or ice mage. Because of this, it is very rare to see a tough G1 bp in DCZ, and the ones that do hang around tend to have top end gear such as +9/19 armours, IN, IN/IB, Roc +1s, WE+1s etc (cough Cari cough).
If you do opt for this build then I HIGHLY recommend that you have a dd/dread shield in your inventory and at least and impact +7. Don’t be like every other mediocre G1 bp out there who die every time someone pinches him. Slap on that shield and TANK. What made Cari the best bp was his quick reaction times and his ability to switch from II+8 to impact +8 with shield. Not only did he get more kills than other top sins/warriors but I personally found him about as hard to kill as the best int priests on orc side. Ok I admit he has insane gear but come on, I’m not saying that you all need to be able to tank full parties, I just expect you to be able to put up a fight.
Items for BPs:
Rings: Roc > Rol > or = Foverin > Rom > Diamond Ring (Diamond Ring is at the bottom of the list due to it having low AC and no hp)
Earrings: WE > PE > CE > or = SSE > WSE > OE > AE > BE (PE rises up the ranks due to its str bonus)
Pendant: IN > WP +1 = EP +2 > EP +1 > WP
Belt: IB > GB > skele > Kek belt > Rest (IB because bps need all the ac they can get)
Pvp guide:
Int priest:
Bp:
Tips and tricks:
ROGUES (20% completed)
I really, really detest this class mainly because it is the only class I’ve never played. I hate them because I can never catch up to them, I hate them because they can cure themselves, but I also love them because they can’t do much to me seeing as how a spike from even the strongest sins will not exceed 400 on Darc_Lotus’ 65dd (25 + 40). I usually pot against 2-3 sins, I refuse to waste 320 mana on myself.
Sin: Incomplete, seeking writer.
Archer: (temporarily quoting aligator)
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 biggrin.gif 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)
Items:
Pvp guide:
Sin: Don’t go attacking the priest stacked to the brim with DD…. That’s just a waste of time UNLESS you have insane animation cancelling combo. In that case, STICK on the priest NO MATTER WHAT!!! So what if you do jack all damage? You’re canceling his heals! Each cancelled heal is equivalent of you dealing 1920 damage to their party. That, my friend, is by far the strongest attack anyone can do in dcz. (if you cancel a party heal, that’s a even bigger bonus. 8 x 960 = 7680 damage!!!!).
Be on the lookout for your party’s hp bars and never hesitate to give up a kill in order to save a party member. If your priest is getting gangbanged and debuffed, minor him/cure him. Keeping your priest/mage alive should be your top priority. Of course, you have to use your own judgment in different situations. If the enemy priest/mage is 1 hit away from dying, finish him off but always remember to communicate with your teammates. Effectively the 1 thing that differentiated top sins such as babashopper, dongbo, chabo, wicked_clown, dr4ko, destr0 (funny how they were all in pariah once) was their ability to play as a sin AND as a priest AT THE SAME TIME. A sin who can keep his party alive is much more preferred than a sin who only knows how to spike thrust/get nps.
When to cure a party member:
When there are no priests in your party. Duh! (OR when the priest is too busy curing/healing others, so you are there to help ease his load).
The worst thing that can happen is double curing (both you and your priest cure the same person). This is especially bad when the person that needs healing is actually your priest. If your priest is getting hurt bad, minor him as much as possible and let him cure himself since it will be hard for him to stop and heal himself up. Remember, cures can’t be cancelled but heals can.
If someone in your party is slowed/being gangbanged and your priest is frantically spamming heals on him/her just barely keeping him/her alive, you have 3 choices:
1. Run in there and take some of the heat off him/her.
2. Minor heal him/her and hopefully, get his/her hp up a bit so ur priest can sneak in a cure.
3. Better still, just cure his/her goddam ass and get it done and over with.
However, remember, DON’T DOUBLE CURE because that will be a guaranteed death for your teammate. Communication is everything.
MAGE: (30% completed)
omfg, so complicated. Just remember one thing: ALWAYS PUT IN 1 STAT POINT INTO STR SO U CAN USE A +0 SS OR A +0 CS OR A +6 REDUCED SMALL SHIELD. JUST DO IT!
Skill builds:
Fire mage:
Realistically, nowadays, paper mages are a thing of the past since the release of these new uber staves such as scorching and hellblood. You still see a few around but their ac is just too low to survive in the real world. However, there have been a few very GG paper fire mages such as silverblade. The most classic build is 57 fire and rest in either ice or lightning. This build gives you fire impact, which is a VERY powerful dot damage spell and either ice blade + frostbite for slow or light blade for the situational stuns.
Personally I prefer to have 54 fire and 45 ice, the new fire mage build which has only been used quite recently by malicious and now Bravenew. The reason for this is because the lvl 57 impact spell is PROJECTILE, i.e they can be intercepted and/or outran by rogues. Also because lvl 45 ice aoe just pwns the shit out of every single mage spell there is. It’s basically like a torment, it forces the priests to cure EVERYONE who gets hit by it, how awesome is that? There used to be a time where pariah didn’t use debuffs (I don’t think we ever had a full time tormentor), we just whored out on dual aoe mages that spammed ice aoes everywhere. It was BEYOND effective since that was the sole reason how we managed to pull off those 7 Vs 20 fights. Retreat, 4 x timed ice aoes, rape, retreat, rinse and repeat.
Ice Mage:
Ice mages are by far the most popular build in dcz right now since with the update, ice blade slows. All ice mages should either be statted for crystal build or crimson build, anything lower than that is plain retarded. Ice mages will pick the garp for high blade damage but personally, I feel that the oasis staff is the best for any ice mage. The damage on the oasis staff is not much worse than the garp but more importantly, it has dd, hp and low stat requirements making it the PERFECT staff for a support mage who wants to get a few quick kills with decent blade damage. The glacier erenion is also a fantastic staff especially for PURE support ice mages. Glacier erenion has the best slow rate with spells (excl blade) out of the 3 unique staves but the blade damage makes you want to cry out in anguish. It does have the lowest mp requirement out of all the staves hence, allowing your mage to have an extra hp boost. It is not that hard to get over 4k hp with a glacier erenion build making you a very formidable tank, but unless you have 2x shio +2s or something, don’t expect too many kills.
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 ohmy.gif a support mage stays behind their tankers and priests casts spells and aoe's until the moment to tp is there ohmy.gif tp's are done for a lot of reasons, regrouping, saving lives, killing a frozen enemy tongue.gif 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 tongue.gif 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 ohmy.gif 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 tongue.gif. 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 ohmy.gif nothing else. there is nothing better then a support ice mage in a party ohmy.gif if you play it right
Shield mage: ‘’KILL THE FUKIN MAGE!!!’’ ‘’WAT MAGE??!!! A.Q’’ ‘’THE FUKIN MAGE THAT LOOKS LIKE A PRIEST!!!!’’ ‘’HOLY SHIT THAT’S A MAGE??!!!’’
Personally, I don’t like blading that much so currently I’ve skilled my mage to 144 int, 114mp and 92 str (too lazy to exp, so only lvl 58). This build allows me to wear crystal armors, oasis staff +7 and a +4 octagon dd shield. I do lose a few hundred hp but the ability for me to switch to an extra 32 dd has proven invaluable in some battles since my damage intake is greatly reduced and I can outpot 1-2 sins. I will then require less attention from my priest, freeing up more of his heals and still manage to slow targets with the main lvl 45 aoe spell. I can also throw on a lycoan hammer for extra tanking power and effectively, I become the anchor in my party. Carry around an arsenal of shields or you can just opt for the dread shield with 90 str requirement. Ideally, you would have a small +4 dd shield and a cs any +, that way, you only have to have 71 pts in str, allowing you enough to either boost your hp or go for crimson armors. This concept is by no means original since moogle used to permanently run around with a cs and lobo hammer spamming fire manes at people. He couldn’t be killed (mainly cuz of the cs :P).
Items:
FULL party Vs party pvp guide (0% completed. Lets finish the individual characters first shall we?)
Advanced pvp guides:
Foreword:
Ko has one of the best pvp systems out there. This is evident due to the fact that the game is flawed in so many ways yet we still stick around because of the pvp.
Essentially, pking is about 3 things:
Damage intake – the amount of damage you receive from the opposing side.
Damage output – the amount of damage you deliver to your opponents.
Regeneration rate – the amount of hp/mp you can recover per round of damage exchange.
A party that can regenerate all the damage taken can, theoretically, never be killed.
Basically, for a party to win a fight, it must have higher damage output than the enemy’s regen rate, and its damage intake must be at a sustainable level for its regen rate.
Damage intake:
The amount of damage you receive is influenced by your enemy’s attack power and your defense power. Your hp determines the maximum amount of damage intake you can handle. Your defense power is a combination of your weapon defenses and your ac/resists. So the general rule is wep def > ac > or = to resists. This is not to say that grade 1 wep defense armors are better than chitin +8 pauldrons. Your character must be balanced and you should aim to reach the minimal recommended standards.
Of course, everything is based on the situation at the time so learn to analyze the situation and use your judgment. For example, when in a fight against a group of melees, a HA +7’s 22 ac will be much more useful than a lycoan hammer +7. But normally, you would always equip the lycoan hammer +7 simply because it boosts your resists a lot. This is a choice you have to make based on different situations.
Damage output:
The amount of damage you deal to your enemies depends on your attack power and their damage intake factors and regen rate. For you to successfully kill the enemy, your damage output must be greater than their regen rate. After pking for a while you will soon realize that all the melee characters will more or less deal the same amount of damage per hit (roughly same ap) with the exception of a few outliers. Therefore, a significant factor in damage output is one’s combo ability. A fast comboer can get an extra hit in before a slow comboer can. This results in a greater difference in damage output ability. A general rule of thumb for combo speed is to aim consistently for 3 skill attacks during the time it takes to use one potion (aka POT TIME). This is a very realistic goal and the reason why this should be your aim will be explained in the 1v1 guide section.
The damage output of warriors and rogues are based on their ap and are countered by weapon defenses and ac. For warriors, you have the option to switch your weapons depending on what weapon defenses your opponent is wearing. As for sins… well…. If your enemy is whored out on dd… you’re fucked (shame mutherfuckers!!!!).
Mage’s damage output depends on the spells they are using, what staff they are holding and how expensive their bifrost rings are. Mage damage is only affected by the enemy’s resistance but the damage is only slightly reduced even if there is a relatively large increase in resistance. (e.g, bravenew blades 440-500 consistently ranging from int priests with high res to rogues with no fr with the exception of talia) This means that the new generation of dual elemental rings +3 blade mages are the HIGHEST damage dealers in all of dcz. Oh sure, a warrior can spam up to 1k on tormented targets but torment can be cured and then they go back to spamming 300-400s. These mages spam 450s PERIOD, regardless of debuffs. A mage also has DOT spells which will deal damage on the target even when they are casting other spells. DOT spells are great at increasing damage output. A mage’s stuns/slows will allow more hits to land on the target and reduce their regen rate, hence increasing the raw damage output.
Problem: manes hit harder than blades, so why blade? The reason why you blade instead of using manes is simply because you can blade combo, increasing total damage output per POT TIME as opposed to maximizing damage per spell. Also, the ‘r’ damage and the staff damage add up when blading. The average r damage is 20+ and the average staff damage is also 20+. If the mage can combo 3 hits per pot time then the r damage and staff damage alone adds up to 3 x (25+25) = 150 which is good enough to beat regen rate even if your elemental blade damage is only 200. 720 – (3x200 + 150) = -30. You can kill them… it will just take you a long long time.
N/B Manes should only be used by paper fire mages and on bosses.
Credits:
This guide is written by Kain_the_Heartbreaker and NZ_Maverick. Kain is responsible for the parts of the writing which has a more lolz style to it, whereas NZ_Maverick contributed to the more academic writing.
We would also like to thank anyone who has contributed ideas during the writing of this guide.
P.S Kain merely tried to put it into words that Ko4life members are more familiar with and wishes to remind NZ_Maverick that his (Kain) English exam results were higher than his (Maverick).
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h34r:
Things like which skill to use, str vs hp armor set, etc.
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