++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Update May 21, 2015 : Added wanderer info
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Let's make a guide for bio4 parties!
Maybe we will have fewer inexperienced party members if we have a guide for them!
Im not native English speaker so dont harsh my English
And I play AB only, so all are from an AB's perspective.
::General::
1. Player:
Preparation: It's better join bio4 after lv150 or more, having hp at least 30k, and use wind armor.
Low level, low hp and no wind armor will make you die badly.
(ignore the above statement if you have tao or gtb or u dont care dying)
In bio4: Bring enough pots and supplies
Ask for FCP if you think its important to you
Don't step on fire on the ground if your party don't have ME sorcercer
Prepare to be killed in each gwing
2.Party: A typical bio4 party usually have the following - by main task:
1) Main killers : RK
2) Additional killers especially to kill randel: rangers, gene, gx, mech,wl,sc,sura,rg
3) String: maestro
4) General support: AB
3) FCP support: gene (i joined some parties without fcp, it works, but it's better to have)
4) SP regen: sorc or wanderer (it's so difficult to find sorc usually, a wanderer can be a substitution)
5) Tank : sura for pull, RG for sacr (not necessary,but a good tank helps killing faster)
6) Mob control: WL/SC with jack frost (not necessary)
A good party example will be 2 RK,2rangers, 2AB, 1string, 1sorc,1sura, 1 gene and 2 free slots, assuming all the players are properly build and geared and know how to play their class. (by good party i mean the party can finish celia TI within 30min without much death)
However, the classes can vary quite a lot depending on how well the players are playing.
Variation:
1 RK party is acceptable when you have enough dps, say, well played RK, rangers and gx. 0 RK party is also possible, but I personally prefer to have at least one good RK in the party.
If dont have rangers, should have some other killers(gx,rg,gene,etc) to take care of randels. Or have someone to get them change element. (im not sure about this, can pure RK party kill randels efficiently?)
Having warlock and jack frost shadow chaser also helps to control the mob.
If dont have string, try to get one. Though we can do without string as long as killers are good enough or dex build, string helps speedup the process.
If dont have AB, screw it. One AB is possible, but it requires that the party and AB are both strong enough.
If dont have gene, it's fine. But tanks and killers may have to log out and repair sometimes.
If dont have sorc or wandy, just bring enough sp recovery items and kill celia asap.
3. General Consumables
HP restore items, SP restore items. Bring more than enough if you have weight.
Life Insurance for those who don't want to lose exp since you'll probably die many times.
Ygg leaf just in case all AB's went down.
::Class Specific Suggestion::(i only know how to play AB, fill out the rest for me plz, thx guys)
Arch Bishop
Spoiler
It's pretty easy to play an AB in bio4 party, though i have seen some AB doing so badly.
You should get at least silentium or Sacrament if you are full support. It's not required, but if both AB in your party don't have these, it will be a bit harder for killers.
Use silentium when possible, especially each time you gwing. Celia has the highest priority for your silentum. If you are still in low level like 150 - 165, better to stay in the center of the party just buff and heal. If you are strong enough, you can follow the tank and silentium all mob around him. ( you can also tank a few mob if u are skillful haha)
Make sure you don't die easily, so wear unfrozen wind armor or holy armor(not used before, does it work?)
Bring some pots and sp recovery item, sorc may not be able to help in time when u ran out of sp.
Take care of those low sp killers, ress them asap and rebuff
Unfroze those frozen members asap
Remember those guys asking for sacra, and give them constantly
Give party heal time to time when there are some members not full hp(lol not required and cause more sp)
Sit down to save sp when you think it is safe.
Taking 120 straw will be enough for each turn-in.
If you are in a team without sorc, then you can use Epiclesis to recover sp for your killers.
Ranger
Spoiler
Info 1 - by mic9010
They die so easily so don't rush into the front !!!
Wear wind armor please! Even you can one-shot all mob, you will die when we gwing to a mobby place. Ask RG to sacr or use camo when possible.
Don't come here with hp <30k. Even you have wind armor, you will die badly. By wind armor I mean WWS with dokebi card, if you cannot have a +9 one, at least get it to +7.
Your major task is to kill Randel Lawrence if your party have 2+RKs (especially 2+ Tao RKs), so bring neutral and shadow arrows. If your team has a warlock, bring some additional wind arrows if you have weight
Stay Away from AOEs from Celia, bring enough pots. The other good option might be using life insurance all the time if you have plenty of eden badges
Pay attention to your damage, if your damage suddenly dropped a lot, then your armors might be broken.
Info 2 - by fuyukikun
arrow storm: randell killer
element changer traps: essential to change randell and celia element, suggested to change to either fire or earth so RK can DB them
electric shocker: mob control, if the mob is too much, trap them, since it ia aoe ankle snare, they will tele if attacked. makes the party safe.
fire trap could be useful also to sap damage to randell since each burning damage do 12k damage
either you use bow or knife i suggest not using WW set, use unfro wind armor, immune FAW ea10, temporal dex boots (hawkeye or lucky day enchant), glorious rings. why i said so, survivability is better than DPS, you are not main killer there, so dont be a glass cannon or youu will be just a burden to party.
Info 3 - by AvalonEir
Your survival mainly relies on Camouflage, Hiding, positioning and knowing when/where to move. You have a few seconds of immunity after Gwinging, during which the Sorc should already have setup an ME. Don't stand with the rest of the crowd so you're not constantlyl hit by Fire Balls.
Arrows of choice are Shadow, Earth, Wind and Holy. Immaterial is good too but Celia should die to RKs quick.
Switch to an Anti-Medium shield when you're getting hit, especially by Chen or Gertie because they can see through Hiding.
Use Elemental proof potions (you can ignore Earthproof). Use gears and cards thar increase reduction instead of those that just add like 1-2 Dex or Atk (Hanky/Peace Pipe > Pencils/GScarf/PDagger).
You can pull in two ways, either mental or just snapping everywhere, take this as a kind of practice, but, if you use your mental strength ….. that does not mean that you will not bring your OWN hp regen item, don’t depend too much of the ab, and when I said too much I try to mean DON’T DO THAT.
If you have a good cast time you can regen your sp yourself if not just ask for sacra if you are using the snap way to pull mob. So you don’t need to bring sp regen item due the facts we have our own way to do it.
Im not a pro sura and I don’t use mental to pull mobs, because that in my personal opinion using mental strength if you don’t have eddga card will make the pt go slow… that’s why I prefer use snap.
Lets think that you don’t like to use the bapho costume I personally use the bapho JUST for healing, but as everyone knows we have carrots, and pumpkins so I don’t think I need to say something about it. But if you have the bapho or Rudolf as the way of healing you could use human and demi human reduction gears, but between Rudolf and bapho I would prefer bapho due the fact it’s a costume, so I can wear my CEB and my hankie in mouth.
Bring yggdrassil seeds why ? lets say you are snapping and your pt its kinda like 20 or 25 cells away from you and your CC are in a cooldown and you couldn’t use windmill in time, but you are dying and your pt are like 10 cells more from you, just use the yggdrassil and snap fast if you can.
About equipment…as I said before demi human damage reduction gears… you could 2 two types of shield… cranial or homdrelim or whatever it types… why? Not ALL the mob in bio4 are demi human but all are middle size.
And last one thing….. please… for god sake DON’T USE GF AGAINST MOB that is just a waste of time for the pt and probably if you gfist a randel and he use reflect damage… you probably gonna lost exp……. I said this because xD I saw it and heard about a sura do it lol.
Mechanics
Spoiler
(Provided by schia)
if strings: insta cast arm cannon spam and put everyone else to shame with your dps with the appropriate cannon ball elements. Really only viable if you have a wanderer as well, sp usage isn't sustainable otherwise and sorcs would get really annoyed at the constant need to sp you every minute. Ice blast is also helpful for damage mitigation.
if no strings: stealth field, ask for assumptio, ask for angelus, stack resists, stack DEF, stack HP, elemental shift to wind, fireproof or thunderproof potion, and spam /gg. You would funnel majority of the damage towards you to keep everyone else alive due to AOE camouflage effect for your party. Mechanics have extremely high base DEF due to mainframe upgrade so assumptio would actually make a huge difference in damage mitigation.
Non mado build: unfortunately not very viable for bio4 unless you're just spamming hammerfall and maybe blacksmith buffs if you have a gene doing fcp.
Wanderer
Spoiler
( Provided by schia)
Gypsy's kiss. Everyone loves gypsy's kiss. If you're partied with a maestro, probably dance with wargs as well, but thats not really needed. All you're there for is gypsy's kiss, and slow grace if the AB is spamming silentium. If the mob is silenced, doing slow grace will further lessen the damage taken by lowering their attack speed by like 30ish%. Thats practically another cranial for the tank and party.
Gypsy's kiss is ludicrously powerful in combination with strings. There is almost no way for your party to ever run out of SP if you gypsy's kiss them unless they are over weight and a fatty this means that your party would be saving millions of zeny per hour on sp recovery items, and extremely lessen the strain on sorcs(who already have a pretty stressful job in bio4 anyway). I'm not even sure why this needs to be stated, but wanderers gets no love at all in bio4 (i love wanderers in bio4 though, party should recruit wandies!)
Royal Guard
Spoiler
Sacrifice, probably rangers but it really depends. (The life of RG!)
Sometimes use Overbrand to knock back mobs when the team just gwing to a very mobby place.
Be prepared to die every gwing if the ranger you are sacrificing loves to rush out and gets killed by some unknown aoes or fire balls.
Being a GX will ask you to have a KvM Weapom (GBR and Flamberge for me) at highly refinement and a Dokebi or better a Angeling Card for tanking.
And it will be a good idea not to walk without Aspersio, coz its impossible to not kill yourself while hitting Randels.
Genetics
Spoiler
FCP killers and tanks.
Kill Randel and celia when possible.
use crazy vines - (provided by DarkAsuna); Try not to use it near where your main party is, because if the Sorc casts ME, it will be shredded by your Vines. Use it far from where your main party is standing. (AvalonEir)
Sorcecer
Spoiler
Sorcercer is so rare to find nowadays.
Giving sp to killers is more important than spaming ME. I suggest not wait for killers to ask for sp, but give them when you think it's the right time.
Dispell Randel when they are in defending arua if possible.
Aside from Spell Breaker, a Sorcerer can use Magic Rod if he/she does draw aggro from casting ME after a GWing and is single targetted by a Celia. (provided by Bobania)
Shadow Chaser
Spoiler
(provided by AvalonEir)
Your skills of choice are Frost Nova, Storm Gust and Jack Frost.Frost Nova works against Water property targets (Chen) so it may be preferrable over Storm Gust and Jack Frost.
You can choose to have only one reproduced skill, or one with Intimdate and another with Reproduce. You should make your reproduced skill your main skill, because Celias can dispel your Preserved skill away and there's a good chance you'd lose it. Stay away from Celias and their Sight so you don't get dispelled. Use Feint Bomb (if you arent standing on ME) and use Preserve asap if Dispelled. You can also just Hide, but you have to be fast.
More information Needed:
Rune Knight
I dont know about RKs, they just spam DB. But, RK should use both water and fire DB, especially water DB wont kill Chen Liu.
Maestro
In addition to keep string most of the time, constantly sing friggs and apple to help increase party's hp. (provided by DarkAsuna)
Warlock
Based on my past experience, warlock and shadow chaser use jack frost for mob control. Very nice to have and reduces party deaths. They use other skills too, but i'm not familiar with them.
Don't worry if you don't see your class guide here. I'm not good at most classes in bio4 so help me fill them out if you have any thoughts.
ps. All class guides are in random order, dont worry too much haha
So enjoy your bio4 journey
Edited by VModCinnamon, 20 October 2015 - 04:16 PM. Added server tag to title.
nice guide!! but i would rather prefer 2 suras than RG, why? because mostly i just gwinger (im a sura) but i can pull and CC or stun the mob and the other sura can do the same, so my parties can kill the mob really fast, have a string its a plus for the Rks... BUUUUUUUT if the rks have a good cast time they dont need it (im talking about 168+ or so ...)...
Sorc... well... sorc...well... hehehe xD n_nUu actually i got like 3 or 4 pts without sorc, everyone just bring their own sp regen thingy, would be great a sorc but in my personal opinion i would rather prefer recruit wanderer than sorc. thats just my opinion o.o so dont be harsh with me D:>
As for Rangers, do you mean white wing suit with Dokebi card? Really, there is a reason why they can't easily use wind armor cos some armor cards are more useful for them... Also if anyone have silversmith bracelet, DO WEAR IT... Spell breaker can save entire party and you can card it as well. I choose Smokie because you can have two skills in one acc by default...
nice guide!! but i would rather prefer 2 suras than RG, why? because mostly i just gwinger (im a sura) but i can pull and CC or stun the mob and the other sura can do the same, so my parties can kill the mob really fast, have a string its a plus for the Rks... BUUUUUUUT if the rks have a good cast time they dont need it (im talking about 168+ or so ...)...
Sorc... well... sorc...well... hehehe xD n_nUu actually i got like 3 or 4 pts without sorc, everyone just bring their own sp regen thingy, would be great a sorc but in my personal opinion i would rather prefer recruit wanderer than sorc. thats just my opinion o.o so dont be harsh with me D:>
I have been in many parties without a sorc. Actually, having a wandy is much better than a sorc in terms of sp from an AB's persepective.
(Especially nowadays so many stupid sorc asking for zeny to join party)
String is still necessary. He's not only helpful for DB but also helpful for AB's healing and rebuff. The party can kill faster and recover faster with string.
Lol i didnt know about any sorc that ask for zeny, thats its kinda...hmmm i dont know the words but actually in bio i got pts with superfail sorcs that have like 4×4 cells ME ....really sucks thats why i prefer a wandy than sorc. Actually they doing their jobs better than sorcs.
ranger:
arrow storm: randell killer
element changer traps: essential to change randell and celia element, suggested to change to either fire or earth so RK can DB them
electric shocker: mob control, if the mob is too much, trap them, since it ia aoe ankle snare, they will tele if attacked. makes the party safe.
spell breaker: spell break celia, chen's fist and flamel acid bomb
fire trap could be useful also to sap damage to randell since each burning damage do 12k damage
either you use bow or knife i suggest not using WW set, use unfro wind armor, immune FAW ea10, temporal dex boots (hawkeye or lucky day enchant), glorious rings. why i said so, survivability is better than DPS, you are not main killer there, so dont be a glass cannon or youu will be just a burden to party.
warlock usually in pt just for mob control, same as the shadow chaser if they got storm gust or jack frost. Guillotine cross actually are really good killers for randells, if they got good amount of criticals that works to kill randell fast, so thats a plus and helpull for rangers due the fact that rangers are the randell killers o.o .... Mecha.......i just know that them just gwings lol
warlock usually in pt just for mob control, same as the shadow chaser if they got storm gust or jack frost. Guillotine cross actually are really good killers for randells, if they got good amount of criticals that works to kill randell fast, so thats a plus and helpull for rangers due the fact that rangers are the randell killers o.o .... Mecha.......i just know that them just gwings lol
i have partied with a wl who's a pretty good killer, but im not the skill he used. never played warlock
A good Warlock and Sorcerer should be FCP'd in a GWing party. Reason being that either one of them may begin casting (Jack Frost or Magnetic Earth, respectively) first than the tank or killer moves, drawing aggro.
Aside from Spell Breaker, a Sorcerer can use Magic Rod if he/she does draw aggro from casting ME after a GWing and is single targetted by a Celia.
Genetic could use crazy vines, also its a plus for a sura if we got frigg song and apple song usually besides i pull the mob i can kill some of them if the stringer constantly sing friggs and apple, why? my hp increase to 123k so i can help kill mob too due the fact that i am a pure FC/TC sura. Also, thats would be great for RK due the fact that the DB damage its affecting by some vit too (i guess correct me if im wrong)
Genetic could use crazy vines, also its a plus for a sura if we got frigg song and apple song usually besides i pull the mob i can kill some of them if the stringer constantly sing friggs and apple, why? my hp increase to 123k so i can help kill mob too due the fact that i am a pure FC/TC sura. Also, thats would be great for RK due the fact that the DB damage its affecting by some vit too (i guess correct me if im wrong)
The damage is affected by HP. A good Maestro should use the HP increase skills and Magic Strings; however, many of them, from my experience, won't.
Yeah, my wife has a Maestro and switches between the skills for Bio 4. The problem she faces is that to keep all the effects up, she constantly has to switch, and in a GWing party she will pull aggro if she was switching mid GWing (happens a lot). This'll tend to happen also to the AB, which is why when I play Sorcerer I will try to ME as soon as possible, disregarding if the tank has moved first to not only prevent Celia's AoE, but another character to pull aggro by accident first than the tank or killer has reacted to the GWing.
You can pull in two ways, either mental or just snapping everywhere, take this as a kind of practice, but, if you use your mental strength ….. that does not mean that you will not bring your OWN hp regen item, don’t depend too much of the ab, and when I said too much I try to mean DON’T DO THAT.
If you have a good cast time you can regen your sp yourself if not just ask for sacra if you are using the snap way to pull mob. So you don’t need to bring sp regen item due the facts we have our own way to do it.
Im not a pro sura and I don’t use mental to pull mobs, because that in my personal opinion using mental strength if you don’t have eddga card will make the pt go slow… that’s why I prefer use snap.
Lets think that you don’t like to use the bapho costume I personally use the bapho JUST for healing, but as everyone knows we have carrots, and pumpkins so I don’t think I need to say something about it. But if you have the bapho or Rudolf as the way of healing you could use human and demi human reduction gears, but between Rudolf and bapho I would prefer bapho due the fact it’s a costume, so I can wear my CEB and my hankie in mouth.
Bring yggdrassil seeds why ? lets say you are snapping and your pt its kinda like 20 or 25 cells away from you and your CC are in a cooldown and you couldn’t use windmill in time, but you are dying and your pt are like 10 cells more from you, just use the yggdrassil and snap fast if you can.
About equipment…as I said before demi human damage reduction gears… you could 2 two types of shield… cranial or homdrelim or whatever it types… why? Not ALL the mob in bio4 are demi human but all are middle size.
And last one thing….. please… for god sake DON’T USE GF AGAINST MOB that is just a waste of time for the pt and probably if you gfist a randel and he use reflect damage… you probably gonna lost exp……. I said this because xD I saw it and heard about a sura do it lol.
And….. I think that’s all I know D: sorry if was too looooooooong >.< if im wrong in something just say it ^^ this is about sura btw xD
Instead of hodre i strongly suggest anti-medium. even over cranial. 25% reduc to all is better than losing the 30 for the 2 demons and better than the 15 that hodre gives you. as you said, all are medium.
This is awesome. By the way, shadow arrows for Randels, immaterial is for Ceila.
em.. shadow arrows can deal damage to Celia too. Sometimes you don't have time to switch arrows even if you put them in the shortcuts when it is so mobby...