7 replies to this topic

[Midoof]

Hi.

Joined Dragon Saga with some friends at the start of winter break and chose my favorite class archetype, the supporting priest. Little did I know back then how offensive this class was going to be later on.

As with most other games I play I did my homework (unlike my schoolwork http://forums.warppo...tyle_emoticons/default/happy.gif ) and researched my class extensively and planned far far ahead to the end-game. Now in my mid-50s, thought it was time to recheck my original ideas for my endgame skill builds at 60, 65, and 70; working out the small details (skill forges needed, skills to drop, etc).

This is what I came up with.

There's more slack in the build than at first glance as right now I'm on the fence with certain skills I have questions about. But first I'll make some comments about the notable things in the build and my personal playstyle.

• No Resurrection
• No Chain Lightning
• Perfect Seal Tree empty
• Unmaxed Frog/Instant Heal/Cure

1. Resurrection

Spoiler

As a RO Veteran, it's strange for me not invest in this vital skill (on Ragnarok) at all. Though it has proven useful for me in saving some of my allies' cash on reviving themselves, 40 skill points to invest in a skill unusable in pvp is steep. Also the players I grind with should know how to avoid death (especially with support) at the latter stages of the game... I hope.

2. Chain Lightning

Spoiler

After reading Rim's guide, this skill sounded fantastic and interesting to use, especially in pvp. I'm not sure if this skill was nerfed in the Paris patch, but it did not live up to the hype. Some of it may be due to me not understanding its limitations, but I did not expect them to be so severe. Even in the chaos of Battlesquare I rarely found an effective time to employ this "locking" skill. Truth be told, the locking aspect of this skill is pathetic. Even assuming the opponent has 0 evade and 0 block, they are STILL able to escape this lock in regular battle situations. Then there's the high cost of it, 15 points into useless blessing and then 20 points per level afterwards. Aside from helping me lazily get my LoC medal when I was 48 at chaos windia, did not appreciate this skill and it was easily scrapped.

3. Perfect Seal Tree

Spoiler

The skill that takes 65 points to get level 1. Not that I'd level it any higher regardless. 80 second cooldown (after the duration) is just pitiful for this almost cool skill. The nail in the coffin is the caster's inability to turn off its effect without waiting out the duration. Barrier skills + buff just cost too many points for so little protection. HP restore is nice, but not sure if my teammates need the extra healing between my other 3 heal skills and their own pots, still worth considering it at level 1 though.

4. Miscellaneous

Spoiler

So this is where personal preference and experience have come in, but I'm still wondering about a couple of things.

First, the amusing Frog.The only reason I haven't maxed frog is that the skill description in-game says there is no increased chance of success from level 4 and 5, the only change is to duration (20 -> 25 sec). If I can't freeze them within 20 seconds as a frog (Sentinel frogs ) I never will. Though I would like to increase this if I have the extra skill forges though, but its low priority.
Instant Heal: I've never found the time or need to raise this from 45% to 50%, especially considering I stack health whenever possible. What are other priests' opinions on this? Also another skill I'd like to max when I get enough skill forges.
Cure is at 3 and it's a rare occasion when I wish the cooldown was lower. Another skill I'd like to get max with skill forges later on.

Finally here are my lingering questions in no particular order.

• Does increasing Witch's Curse from 4->5 increase percentage of success? (Just wanna make sure)
• Blink: Interesting skill that seems to have potential to combo well with frog/freeze as well as avoid combos, viable?
• Is there a cap to how many skill forges you can use on one character? And are you still able to do Hunter G dailies at level 70?
• Concerning Awakening skills, since I have no experience with 4th job yet I'm not sure about how the awakening bar fills up aside from the pvp videos I've watched. Do skills like Resurrection and mp transfer fill it up in the current version still? And if so, is this likely to change? (Would force me to change build up quite a bit!)

Any feedback is welcome.

Edited by Midoof, 19 January 2011 - 04:53 AM.

[Rimmy]

Hello!

Before I begin, let me first say that my guide is a little outdated, and I'm still in the process of finishing the updated version (post-PSB patch). But let me try to address your questions from the perspective of my "updated" opinion in at least some depth.

Skill Build
---
Actually, your build is almost identical to my current build except for some minor differences, so IMO you're pretty solid as you are now. My only real suggestion is to bump Cure up to Level 5, b/c I believe the cooldown difference is totally worth it for 20 SP (10 SP per skill level, you don't get much cheaper than that).

Resurrection
---
Not worth it at all currently, mostly b/c players never die frequently enough for it to prove useful (and when they do, almost EVERYONE has feathers, so it's still kinda pointless). In the future, if monsters' attacks continue to become more devastating, it might prove useful eventually. But for now, no need.

Chain Lightning
---
The info in my guide was based off of experience from the THQ*ICE days, when evade stackers were a bit more rare (only 2 classes, ninjas and PFs, bothered with it much back then). It also assumed more stable and reliable servers. Unfortunately, evade stackers are now the norm in high-level PvP and show up in nearly every class bracket. Moreover, CL depends heavily on lag-free gameplay (otherwise it's pretty worthless, as you have described), and unfortunately the Gravity server tends to hiccup occasionally -- especially in BSQ -- so CL isn't nearly as useful as it could be. Oh, and worse yet, most players now realize they can just create a lag hiccup themselves to escape by messing with their modems. Ultimately, CL is more or less a waste of SP now.

HOWEVER, I personally take Level 1 CL for the sole purpose of using it as a quick interrupt or pinning move. Yes, players can escape for various reasons, but it can still prove useful at times.

For example, if a WM is trying to continue a freeze lock on a teammate, you can usually count on CL to hold them long enough for your teammate to escape. Furthermore, it usually holds certain classes (WMs, especially) long enough that it can prevent them from escaping the path of an incoming penguin, a blizzard, etc. It's true we have other skills (Spark Rock, magnet, RoF, Witch's Curse, Barbarian) that can also interrupt reliably, but each of these skills either has a considerable cooldown or has a high chance of not working at all, compared to the instant cast and instant cooldown of CL, which recasts automatically each second and will almost always work with either the first or second tick.

Merely a personal opinion, but I still think it's important enough to keep at least Level 1 for emergencies.

Perfect Seal Tree
---
It used to be pretty useful in PvE for tanking stuff, and occasionally in PvP, but since you'll be running short on SP w/o a large number of SFs in the later stages of the game, definitely not worth the investment right now IMO.

Miscellaneous
---
Frog-->I only have it at Level 4, for the reasons you described. Not 100% sure if Level 5 still increases the success rate to 90% (doubt it), but even if it did give you an extra 5% chance of success, that 5% doesn't really make enough of a difference to merit spending 20 extra SP. Frog rarely works, mostly b/c of the plethora of evade stackers and the fact that it doesn't take full Aim Rate into account. Same goes for Barbarian, although I keep that at Level 5 b/c somehow it actually seems to work quite a bit more often than Witch's Curse, which makes no sense looking at the numbers.
Instant Heal-->Yeah, I keep it at Level 4, myself. Handy, but in most matches you'll either be asked not to use it or you'll feel cheap for doing so. Mostly keep it for BSQ and PvE nowadays. Even in PvP, if you Slow Heal effectively and your teammates aren't total paper, you'll rarely need it.
Cure-->Addressed this above.

1. Addressed this above.
2. Mostly used for escape purposes. Netbind, Blizzard AoE, tail end of a pally lock, etc.
3. No cap on extra SP through SFs, as far as we know. And AFAIK, you can still do Hunter Gs at 70 (only 68 myself, but I have 70 guildies and I haven't heard any of them say differently).
4. Res is very useful for filling up the Awakening Gauge, but I still don't think it's worth taking Res just for that. Just spam CL and you get more or less the same effect. Also, reports from other versions indicate a future patch changes the way the gauge fills up -- instead of just using skills to fill it up, there will supposedly be a charge skill that lets you sacrifice a certain amount of MP to fill up a certain amount of the gauge.

I think that covers everything, but if you have more questions, I will try to help as best I can.

[SharpEye]

3. No cap on extra SP through SFs, as far as we know. And AFAIK, you can still do Hunter Gs at 70 (only 68 myself, but I have 70 guildies and I haven't heard any of them say differently).

You can do Hunter quests at 70; I just hit 100% today :|

[invazn]

Never noticed the insignificant difference between level 4 & 5 frog (naturally assumed success rate increases) Might consider redoing my build then.. thanks!

As for some of my own input, I invested some SP into CL for utility in group PVP's or as an interruption. Though it may not be used often, it definitely comes in handy when it is needed. As for blink, like you, I was a bit hesitant at first. However, I thought I'd give it a shot and to this day, I still have it and in fact, I use it quite often in PVP. Like Rim said, it is especially useful when you are caught in something or just want a quick escape to distance yourself.

And just to reinforce again, don't bother with perfect seal or resurrection. Complete waste of SP.

Edited by invazn, 19 January 2011 - 02:52 PM.

[Midoof]

You can do Hunter quests at 70; I just hit 100% today :|

Congrats dude, hopefully I'll be there before too long.

Epic reply

Thanks for detailed follow-up! Glad to know my build's in the right place. Got a few more questions if you don't mind. Didn't wanna clog up OP too much, haha.

1. How many SFs have you personally accumulated at your level?
2. How often do you use Meteor fall/Air combo? (Both pvp/pve)
3. Wouldn't spamming MP Transfer instead of CL be faster in filling up Awakening?
4. Though never heard of, an instant cast Point Buster with CA (whut, that scrubby mage skill?) seems to me like an interesting maneuver to interrupt as well, at least in theory. Thoughts?
5. Have you invested heavily in Staff Mastery?

Now I gotta find a way to squeeze in CL 1.

Edit:
@ invazn:
Yeah, blink seems pretty dope. Also how many SFs have you collected?

Edited by Midoof, 19 January 2011 - 03:21 PM.

[Rimmy]

1. Hmm, not entirely sure. It's prolly somewhere in the 30-40 range. But I rarely do dailies, and I have horrible luck when it comes to getting SFs, so I'm not really a good example. If you're really in a hurry to accumulate SF as quickly as possible, you can either buy capsules off of the market or make lots of alts and run dailies on all of them everyday -- I don't have the funds/patience for those methods.

2. I use Meteor Fall a lot in PvP, but I've found that I don't use Air Combo much at all anymore, not even to help archers keep a launch going (it's rarely needed nowadays).

I keep Meteor Fall at Level 3 so it launches, making it another nice interrupt skill -- although since it takes a couple of seconds to register a hit, it's not always the best choice. It's a useful skill for staying airborne for a few extra seconds to avoid some attacks, as well (same goes for AC). I've recently lowered Air Combo to Level 1 and found that it really makes no difference since I use it so rarely -- and that means 30 extra SP to throw around.

I rarely use either skill in PvE. It used to be nice to use the combo in VC pre-PSB patch, but nowadays we have much better skills for crowd control.

3. Yes, it would be faster, but spamming MP Transfer to fill the gauge is a bad idea, IMO. It consumes a minimum 10% MP, so if you spam it a few times to fill up your gauge in PvP, you're going to be taking a gamble on whether or not you can kill your opponents before you run out of MP -- and since you're filling up your gauge, I'm assuming a lot of 4th job skill use, all of which consume large amounts of MP. Now it might not be so bad in BSQ or PvE since you can just use pots, but in a regular PvP match you're crippling yourself by doing that -- and it's completely unnecessary, since spamming CL costs much less and will achieve the same effect. Ultimately, it won't matter once we get the charge skill, anyways.

4. I've considered this tactic in the past and found that it's really not all that useful. For one thing, the animation cannot be canceled for the first couple of seconds, which leaves you vulnerable. Also, it's slow to fire even with CA on, so w/o expert timing it's hard to use it effectively as an interrupt. CL has more or less the same prep time, the animation can be canceled at any time, and once you get it going it can fire faster than PB for repeat attempts. Oh, and PB launches, so in some situations that might actually give your opponent an advantage (they can reposition, or counterattack from above), whereas most of our other interrupts prevent immediate counterattacks or escape (when they hit).

5. Staff Mastery is actually pretty decent IF you're stacking tons of Intelligence, b/c the INT increases your base MATK, which in turn increases the boost gained from SM. Of course, there are multiple other stats that take priority (Aim Rate, Health, Agility, perhaps even Evade Rate) so unless you have near-flawless stat bonuses on all of your (artifact or legendary) gear, it's not worth it. SPs better spent elsewhere.

Hope that helps!

Edited by Rimmy, 19 January 2011 - 06:29 PM.

[strider179]

your skill simulator link comes up blank X_x

[Midoof]

your skill simulator link comes up blank X_x

Yeah, I believe they updated and patched a few things (added in awakening charge) and that link is to an older version. I also don't remember the build I posted back then, as my opinion on many skills have changed.

http://irowiki.org/~...000000000000000

Here's a good one now, you can even increase the level to 75.

This build is a general all-purpose build with plenty of space to add in things you like.