I'm sure everyone has at one point or another felt, either a little lost or indecisive on which skill point to go into. I know I have felt indecisive and lost at several occasions, e.g. trying to figure out what skills to go into when I first played DragonSaga or when I first changed jobs. The cause of the indecision was simple, I wasn't clear on what the new bizarre and foreign skills. It wasn't because I didn't know how to read, it was because I couldn't visualize what they were saying. I'm sure for many, the short descriptions in the skill menu is quite sufficient, but for me there were small nuances of the definition I didn't understand such as what was the difference between aerial furry and shootdown (or even, what was the use of the former skill?)
Well truth be told I did put my skills in the wrong points and I did reset my skills on several occasions. Not to say that if you read this you will be totally clear about what to go into or will never need to use a reset skill, but I hope, that with this guide you will have an inkling of what the skills do and if you want to go into the skills, or if you want to even start this job line at all. So with all that said let me introduce you to the skills. I will also put my opinion down for those who care. It will be the last paragraph(s) of the skill description and will be headed with Jiahao's Take. Please ignore it if you don't care. This is more heavily PVE based as my PVP experience is minimal, especially against higher level opponents.
Assumptions: You play with default settings and X is your regular arrow shot and Z is your Special Shot (for Archers Z is mapped to Anti Air Shot a.k.a. AAS.) Also, you know that arrows are infinite in quantity and bear no cost.
Note: I realize my skill names may be off. I will change the names to their DragonSaga counterparts a.s.a.p. Also, I will add the Destroyer Skills after I have experienced them for myself.
CLASSES
Archer
Marksman
Specialist
ARCHER
Skill list:
Moonwalk/Backdash
(Moonwalk/Backdash) Shot
Rising Arrow
Anti Air Shot
Shootdown
Double Shot
Multi Shot
Relaunch
Bow Mastery
Rapid Step
Explanations
Moonwalk
Moves your character backwards, i.e. moves your character opposite of the direction your facing, about three or more character widths without changing where your character is facing. e.g. Think of Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk.
One thing to note is that at first your moonwalk will be EXTREMELY slow. This will change if and only if you increase your movement speed (MVSPD). I know of two solid ways to increase MVSPD and they are Items and skills such as Rapid Step (see description). The items will explicitly state that they increase in MVSPD and they increase MVSPD usually in percentages of MVSPD.
EDIT: "You can moonwalk through certain skills such as log, fire symbol, penguin, etc. Though you have to use it at least two times and there's a trick to cancel the animation between the two moonwalk, without cancel animation you'll just die" (Thuy) I'll have to try that Thuy. Thanks for the great tip!
Jiahao's Take:
I like this skill and it's only one level deep. For PVE I can see this being useful when you get a set which pops up your movement speed. Pre PSB patch that would have been the level 27 or level 34 set, but with the new patch I'm not so sure. The new set bonuses or I should say the replacement set bonuses will be different than before. Also keep in mind the values for the bonuses MAY vary from server to server, depending on what is defined in the implementation!
For PVP I am not so sure... never really had enough balls to try it out there. If anyone uses it for PVP successfully, you can add you post.
Moonwalk Shot
Allows you to (cancel moonwalk) and shoot after initiating moonwalk. Originally without this skill, you would have to wait till your entire moonwalk has completed before doing anything. Once this skill is obtained it will enable you to shoot during the moonwalk. I don't know if space bar or some arbitrary action would have canceled the animation of moonwalk without this skill. I'll get back to you on that.
Jiahao's Take:
Only one level deep and allows for the annoying animation to be canceled? Definite yes if you go into Moonwalk right? Maybe not. People who go into moonwalk might have HUGE MVSPD, so the animation may be very short. The only reason I would go into this with a HUGE MVSPD is to catch someone off guard. Even then I would use this lightly. Just my opinion.
Rising Arrow
Shoots a powerful (loaded) arrow that will launch enemies to a considerable height (usually reaching the towards the top of the window). Arrow will shoot quickly with minimal animation delay (i.e. you can move or act almost immediately after) toward the closest (group of) standing monster(s), i.e. don't expect the monsters, character to launch if they're on the floor. Heavier monsters or monsters deemed awkward to launch will only be launched less than half the full height. Usually used in conjunction with Anti Air Shot (AAS) (see description).
Rising arrow will increase in number of monsters able to be launched at once and amount of damage per launch before defense calculations with successive upgrades. Note that this does NOT increase area of which monsters are included in the able to be launched category, e.g. let the default area for monsters able to be launched be two character widths wide, every monster in that area will be launched on impact of rising arrow. Now say if you maxed rising arrow, the area for the monsters able to be launched will REMAIN two character width wide. So the increase of monsters able to be launched is only with in that two characters width.
Jiahao's Take:
With all of that said rising arrow in my opinion is still one of the most reliable launches you will use. Like what Sheol said in another Specialist guide, which I find very interesting for higher level peoples, it's a very quick very easy to depend on launch. No slight lag as you load a rocket onto your shoulder, or anything. Just pop a quick one and boom you got AAS kill opportunity in front of you.
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Anti Air Shot
For LAUNCHED airborne targets, monsters, and characters, Anti Air Shot (AAS) will fire an arrow for every Z pressed. Holding down the Z button maximizes (if there are no input filters or bottlenecks of the Z button signal) the number of AAS arrows shot. Successive upgrades increases number of airborne monsters included in damage and damage per AAS shot.
What characterizes the monster, target, character as launched is that they have been actively, i.e. some character monster or other agent used an attack or skill, displaced from the standing or grounded positions. Most boss class monsters will not be able to be launched. Some skills which launch are skills such as Rising Arrow, RPG-7 at level 3 or higher, the Hunter's Wolf Rush at some high level, the Warrior's Air Combo Launch, et cetera.
Many people will notice that there is sometimes a drastic difference between the AAS of one person and the AAS of another person. There is a reason for this. My explanation is that the person who is AAS faster than anyone else has achieved the optimal AAS speed, i.e. the speed at which AAS arrows will output if there is nothing withholding (through a bottleneck somewhere) the speed for the signal to travel from your keyboard to the server and back to your monitor. Everyone else, who cannot obtain that speed is shooting below optimal due to the reason stated above.
The reason for bottlenecks are for me categorized by and not limited to the following: actual (as opposed to rated for those who overclock) computer processing speed (and sometimes cumulative graphics processing speed), internet bandwidth and distance from the server. Server side configurations are unchangeable by the client (us) so should be held constant or regarded lightly. So, to say that someone has no bottlenecks, or has reached the optimal AAS speed for me means that he has a really expensive fast processor with a good motherboard with no BUS bottlenecks, has usually a decent grade graphics processor, has a good grade internet bandwidth (DSL at the least), and lives close to the server. Anyone else has any combination of these qualities at lesser grades.
EDIT: Recently after successfully overclocking my computer and learning about some basic computer architecture, and changing video cards, I can more confidently conclude that the rate of AAS signals outputted will be heavily reliant on a stable but fast CPU and RAM. I conclude the previous because of the following: I had a decent set of GFX (2 x BFGTECH GeForce 260 GTX) cards SLI on my GIGABYTE U3DR (or w/e... the new one that people have been hyping about) with a stock i7 930 rated and clocked at 2.800 GHz and tri-channel (DDR3) DIMMS running stock settings and I had decent but not phenomenal AAS speed. Then, after changing to a similar grade (slightly better) GFX card setup (2 x Visiontek HD Radeon 5850), and then, while setting all speedstep and speed modification settings off, setting my UNCORE to 2:1 to DIMM and setting DIMMs 2:6 (CPU:DIMM), I was able to overclock my i7 930 rated at 2.800 GHz to 4.200GHz 5 min Stable on Prime95, and was able to achieve a eye opening increase in AAS output. The arrows were flying so fast (on LOW graphics settings of course) that my eyes could barely count them.
With that said, RAM speed is also important (over clock at your own risk!!!) because any operations which depend on DIMMs or RAM access, will be bottlenecked by the distance traveled to the RAM and the RAM speed itself. I believe 2:6 at 200 Bclock would give you 1200 DDR3 (idk the DDR3 conversion factor for that :[, so it may be greater...) So that would mean essentially you're Bottlenecked at 1.2 GHz ish speed if your QPI is overclocked right. When the operations don't require RAM usage though, you will run off the Registers in the CPU and essentially run at 4.200 GHz speed.
Anyways, just thought I'd share. (End of EDIT--1:43A 11/11/10)
As a topic of interest, there is a phenomenon where if there are enough archer types using AAS, then the monster character able to be launched may be pushed upwards instead of falling or staying the same airborne level.
Jiahao's Take:
Oh come on? Really? Bread and butter here babes. Bread and butter. AAS is like the basic kill everything skill for PVE and PVP alike. Just my opinion (although strong one). In some PVP's though they may limit your AAS with a honor system. I would respect that but still doesn't mean you can't pop a couple of kills with it here and there.
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Shootdown
This skill shoots three arrows downward that launches the enemy very slightly. Launching is more apt to happen if all three arrows hit the same monster, or character. The character which is shooting shootdown must be airborne, but not launched and the player must press down or hold down when or while attacking in mid air. Arrow shot will hit enemies at any level, i.e. the arrows will hit grounded, standing or airborne targets. Arrows will fly in the direction that the character is facing. (Yes I know that's obvious.)
Character that is shooting shootdown is usually is not phased by attacks. (But I am not sure about the Hunter's air traps. Perhaps the character may be affected by traps prior to and not during the shootdown animation. --needs to be verified--)
Jiahao's Take:
Another good skill to get. (Bread and butter). Most of the time you'll lag and won't get the pop...if you're popping high. If you pop lower (faster) you'll get, according to a friend of mine, at least half the height of rising arrow. Takes practice but you can use it for PVE and PVP. And hey not getting hit by anything helps too right?
Double Shot
This skill quickly shoots two arrows, stunning slightly the monster (and character â??needs to be verified-- ). Double has a small delay and a short cool down. Double shot has a good range.
Jiahao's Take:
I use this skill a lot, maybe too much. Its actually not that useful, but with that said, it has its uses. I uses mainly to stun monsters before popping them up in PVE and a filler skill when you don't know what to do. Does a decent amount of damage and with low cool down its almost spammable.
Multi Shot
This skill shoots multiple arrows (starting at three arrows) that spread outwards as they progress forward. If a monster is hit by multiple arrows he takes all the damage given by those arrows. There is a medium delay in animation and the shot is not instant. The cool down for the multi shot is slightly longer than Double Shot.
I use this for bosses mainly. The skill reminds me of a shotgun being fired.
Jiahao's Take:
Great for early game, not so great for late game. Cons are its too slow to do any good. Its only use for me is killing that last monster when you in cool down for other skills or shotgunning the back of bosses since 7*attack power > attack power right? In my opinion, drop this skill later.
Relaunch
Character somersaults and launches grounded enemies that are in front of you. Starts by launching 1 enemy and increases to 5 enemies. The area for monsters to be categorized as able to be launched is extremely small, in my opinion. This skill has a short animation that can be canceled. The cool down is decent.
Jiahao's Take:
I am neither for nor against this skill. During my early dragonsaga (dragonica) gaming I relied heavily on this in the lower levels. I mean it has its uses when you don't have that RPG-7 in PVE. I mean just dash attack (which knocks monsters down) and then relaunch. Simple. It also has it uses in PVP for those who can actually see the downed opponent that DOESN'T roll, if you can find one that is.
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Bow Mastery
Slightly increases character attack power when equipping any bow. Maximum benefit is 90 attack points. Use with discretion.
Jiahao's Take:
My friend once told me that this skill is good in the front and not so good at the end. After reasoning it out and having a class in Big-Oh notation I actually understand why. Mathematically speaking for small N where n is the attack, n + 90 is quite significant but what if it was 3n +90 not so significant any more huh? n_squared + 90 i.e. n*n+90? Nope it isn't. So point? Don't go into it if you don't want to reset.
Rapid Step
Increases movement speed of character. Helps with dodging attacks, traversing, and making moonwalk useful. Can be stacked with item's movement speed modifications unless specified otherwise.
Jiahao's Take:
I max this skill. Just my personal preference. I dont really see a good reason for it besides like like running faster than everybody. PVE, get to the monster faster, do more damage get more exp. PVP, run (away) faster.
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MARKSMAN
Skill list:
Crux Shot
Homing Missile
Aerial Fury
Random Shot
Two Action Shot
Accelerator Tuning
RPG-7
Gatling Rush
H.E. Grenade
Auto Shot System
C4/Composite
Explanations
Crux Shot
Character hands and feet start emanating light. Character's next physical attack or damaging skill will hit up to 20% more damage less the defense. The skill's benefit will not stack with multiple casts. Only one attack after the last cast will be affected. Skill has little animation delay and very low cool down.
Jiahao's Take:
I'm actually learning the value of this now. 20% more damage is quite good. I mean its not the critical damage you get from going into 100+ AGI points, but it does something. 1000 attack = 200 damage, 2000 = 400, 5000 = 1000 damage or if you use max C4 with HE Grenade at level 5, 7000*3 = 4100 damage extra with no crit.
Homing Missile
This skill shoots a missile at launched airborne targets. Successive upgrades increase damage. I am unsure whether or not at level three the missile will push the monster up higher or not. It has been my experience that there is no change in push height. Accelerator Tuning will further increase damage of this skill (see description). Homing missile has about the same animation time as double shot and the same cool down as double shot.
Jiahao's Take:
Good for continuing AAS chains, if it hits. Also if you max accelerator tuning and this it does quite a bit of damage. Its no ASS but its faster and lower cool down. Plus they can't run in the air if under launched status (they have to aerial recover first).
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Random Shot
Enables or disables Random Shot. When enabled, Random Shot shoots two arrows instead of one for the X button. Character movement during the shot is disabled. MP is consumed to compensate for the extra arrow.
Jiahao's Take:
Fun to use early on, not really practical in my opinion if you get Adrenaline maxed and learn how to x spam like that Japanese dood or doodette on SeikenDragonica's video.
Two Action Shot
Enables or disables Two Action Shot. The effect of two action shot when enabled is that the x button shoots an arrow which has piercing ability but lower range. At a higher level, the pierced arrow splinters and spreads as the arrow progresses forward piercing more targets. The latter effect looks similar to the effect of Multi Shot. MP is consumed with each arrow for the added effect.
Jiahao's Take:
I'm experimenting with this recently. It might be great for PVE, but I'm not sure, because I forgot if you can move to cancel animation with it, which I doubt. Experiment with it if you don't care about resetting or if you don't care for insane x spam ownage with adrenaline.
Accelerator Tuning
Increases rocket based attacks up to 13% of attack power of rocket and an additional 400 attack power. It is my experience that Accelerator Tuning affects both Homing Missile AND RPG-7 attacks.
Jiahao's take:
Pretty good if you got the points and you use rockets. If not then save it for ASS, Carpet bomb or something useful. I use it.
Aerial Fury
Shoots arrows downward (at the same angle as shootdown) towards grounded or standing targets (I'm not sure about airborne for this case.). Character is not phased by attacks while shooting. (--needs to be verified--) To shoot Aerial Fury the player must hold forward in either direction, while attacking in mid air, i.e. the character must be airborne and moving slightly forward. Player must keep pressing X in order to fire successive Aerial Furies. Arrows will fly in the direction that the player is facing.
Jiahao's Take:
I usually go 2 to 3 into this. Gives me more mobility around bosses and in PVP allows for me to pop like two to three hits if he's grounded. Max it if you want, or don't even bother. Its just a playing style.
RPG-7
Shoots a rocket toward standing opponents (and later grounded opponents as well) and knocks them down. At level three or higher the opponents hit will be launched, instead of being knocked down, a good height into the air (comparable with that of Rising Arrow). Animation delay is longer than rising arrow and takes longer to fire, but area for monsters/characters able to be launched is greater. The skill's cool down is longer than rising arrow's and homing missile's cool down. Usually used in conjunction with AAS.
Jiahao's Take:
I think this skill is a must for PVE Marksman. It allows for you to have a secondary launch, so you can keep AASing till your blue in the face. In PVP, I agree with Sheol's Guide. Use with caution. Its slow-er. I only use if I think I can trick them into going into it or I know they're going to get hit by it (like those people who don't rollâ??sheesh if only they'd do that more often--).
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H.E Grenade
Throws a damage dealing grenade two to three character widths forward. The area of effect is very small, so small that it usually only hits one character/enemy. (I believe this range, by definition, should be larger!) After level three, number of grenades thrown and damage per grenade is increased. The grenades spread out so the longer the grenades are airborne the smaller chances of hitting the same enemy, if that is your goal. Also these grenades CAN be thrown while character is airborne.
Jiahao's Take:
Expensive, especially if u max it and get C4 maxed, BUT, it allows for grounded and airborne units as well as standing units to be hit. In my opinion, better for PVP than PVE. I mean in PVE you'll just steam roll monsters with Gatling and AAS. In pvp however it could be a a good damage doer for grounded non rolling units and a good decoy for those who get antsy around explosions.
C4/Composite
Adds up to 22% of grenade's attack power to each grenade thrown plus an additional 180 attack power.
Affects H.E. Grenade only.
Jiahao's Take:
It raises your previous 5700 demolition to about a 6700-7000 per grenade hit. Times three thats almost 6000 damage extra total. It's expensive though. You might not be able to go into other skills as much if you go into this.
Gatling Rush
Shoots a Gatling gun (a large machine gun) which fires forward (I believe) 12 times consecutively in rapid succession. The Gatling gun has a large range that hits even airborne units, although the bulk of the damage will be for targets close to the muzzles of the gun. Character cannot move until Gatling rush finishes firing and animation cannot be canceled. At higher levels even grounded enemies will be hit.
Jiahao's Take:
Makes monsters go poof early on. Late game it still does a boatload of damage. 12 successive hits is 12*n, more if you upgrade. Pretty good in my opinion. In PVP, if you catch some one off guard you can end up getting a point or scaring the pants off of him. Hits air units too so you can follow up with a rising arrow and pop them good. But Sheol brings a good point... don't get too trigger happy for the reasons she brings up and also if you're too predictable, you're a sitting duck.
Auto Shot System
Will drop a tank at the characters location that has a 360 degree shooting range of about three to four character widths deep and wide which has a slow firing rate. Auto Shot System will not hit airborne units and units farther than the marked range (about three and four character widths deep and long). Fully upgraded the tank does 350% or 3 and half times more damage than the character's normal attack. The tank does not move and has only a limited time of play before it disappears.
Jiahao's Take:
Good for bosses, because they don't really do any dodging and because when you upgrade it, it does some massive damage. Good for PVP because people dodge it. In my experience it either saves your butt for something that cloaks or you can use it tactically and force an action flight or hide.
TOP
SPECIALIST
Focus
ASS Upgrade
Flashbang
Caused Bomber
Fire Grenade
Vulcan 300
Camouflage
Adrenaline
Atropine
Carpet Bombing
Additional Bombing
Explanations
Focus
Adds 3.0% (or maybe more in Paris Strikes Back patch â??needs to be verifiedâ??) to critical attacks only.
Jiahao's Take:
I use it only because I'm a Critical Damage Freak. That may change soon though. It's actually really cruddy in my opinion. I believe it should give use more damage, for incentive to use it, other wise its just a waste of points.
ASS Upgrade
Adds an additional 110% on top what the Auto shot system originally attacks. Also successive upgrades increase rate of fire or how many tank bullets shot in an arbitrary amount of time.
Jiahao's Take:
Makes the ASS shoot faster and stronger. Good for PVE Bossing builds. Not so sure about PVP.
Flashbang
Skill decreases affected target's aim rate and evasion by up to 27% and temporarily makes target player's screen white. Affects only ONE opponent at this point. (Hopefully there will be an algorithm for hitting more players in successive patches).
Jiahao's Take:
Good for PVP, when it works i.e. you can actually see the enemy being flashed. Why bother with PVE? Plus as it stands it only hits ONE person. So in a multiple enemy situation, it does more scare than bite.
Caused Bomber
Throws a grenade same distance as HE Grenade and Flashbang that decreases ALL status points by up to 10%. (Basically casts an arbitrary level curse on the enemies. I'll have to use this grenade more often to see the area of effect and animation delay.) I believe this grenade throws as fast at flashbang and HE grenade.
Jiahao's Take:
I re-read the stats. It sounds like its built for PVP, BUT, and here's the point, why use it if you can chuck it on the fly? As it stands you can't move while throwing it. So it makes you pretty defenseless. I believe that's too big of a penalty for the benefit AND its only good five levels deep.
Fire Grenade
Throws one grenade that takes a bit of time to throw. Grenade has a high chance of causing the Burn malady. Burn works like poison but decreases the enemies max HP and MP. (I have to use this grenade more often too.)
Jiahao's Take:
This skill needs to lose the 0.5 second cast time and be able to be chucked on the fly too. I don't like it too much. You'll have to be pretty crafty to use this grenade.
Vulcan 300
(I need to use this skill. I'm not sure how it works at this point. There was supposedly some change to its functionality. The gun use to be stationary and shot a missile in a line with a very limited range. I'll have to see how it work after Phase II starts.)
Jiahao's Take:
I've heard people using this machine. It perks my interest. Pre-PSB people have always said it was broken and don't use it, etc. But recently I've seen posts of people recommending it. I'll have to try this in Phase II.
Camouflage
Character becomes invisible to enemies and takes no damage as long as the character does not move. Skill is fast casting and has very low cool down. MP is compensated for the indefinite invisibility/indestructibility time. Skill ends shortly after moving, i.e. you can move a short distance without being seen.
EDIT: "camo has a 10 sec duration and a 20 sec CD now. It can't be toggled on and off like before (NOW how will I go afk)" (Manx)
Jiahao's Take:
If you PVP, its pretty useful: hide from enemy, surprise your enemy, deceive your enemy. It also has potential in PVE, e.g. hiding from bosses while your tank does the work, or giving you time to throw that fire grenade, etc, or use it if you're going to be AFK for a bit while PQing.
Adrenaline
This increases rate of fire by up to 35%. I believe this affects skills and attacks that can be repeated quickly such as X and Z attacks. Also very useful for doing the 'rapid fire' X spam attack.
Jiahao's Take:
Use this if you want to master that crazy x spam attack. Otherwise if you got an i7 processor, and good video cards running SLI/CFX and good internet connection...why bother? Just my opinion.
Atropine
Supposedly this skill removes all maladies but I'm not sure as to what side effects are implemented at the moment. I'll have to see after the Phase II starts.
Jiahao's Take:
Cool skill if it works while your frogged or frozen or Poisoned or Debuffed, etc... Not so sure because they're supposedly some side effects. I'll test this out in PVP and PVE, and get back to you on that.
Carpet Bombing
This skill calls an air strike which bombs all enemies from left to right about six to 10 character widths wide. Skill does significant damage and launches. Character cannot move while radioing in. Takes very little time to cast but has a large cool down.
Jiahao's Take:
Makes for good fireworks in PVP, and in PVE actually hits everything on map. Seriously though, in PVP, you can probably get away with it if you use Camouflage, or if you use it when they run toward from a distance. In PVE, it pops everything it hits up. If you get this skill get Additional Lining.
Additional Bombing
Skill upgrade adds one more row to the carpet bombing with a total of 2 rows for bombing, increasing the area of effect. Bombing starts from left and ends at the right.
Jiahao's Take:
Get this if your planning to use Carpet Bomb. Increases range.
Edited by Jiahao, 10 November 2010 - 09:44 PM.
