exomega255's Solo Martial Artist Guide

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Leirosa
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exomega255's Solo Martial Artist Guide

Post by Leirosa »

Original Author: exomega255
Retrieved from Aeria by Angitia.
exomega255 wrote:Martial Artist: a class of independence and freedom.

Alast, I finished my last class to level 40. Cept for commoner, thats now being done at a leisure rate along with questing and eldering. However, that is beyond the point and scope of this letter.

Disclaimer: I don't give a crap about AoE partying comments, nor is this the place to comment for those; this is PURELY for soloing purposes and comments as such, and casual partying as well. Again, this is a SOLO-er experience.

This is the last of my "solo experience" letters in real time. I might go back and redo the older classes that I did or comment on the commmoner's leveling... but only if I am bored...
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Intro:
When I started 30-40 stretch for MA, I started with high hopes, but to be dragged down a little. Why? because I just finished playing Fencer; and with a str build, fencer kills at a much faster rate (before I reach lvl 31 so I can use my lvl 36 ruby). Due to higher attack power of other classes like Shaman, Wiz, Bm, Fencer, I was disappointed that I am not having too much of defense nor evasion (phy gives little, and all other classes had shield + LA combo while I only have LA for this).

However, as I began to play more and more I am glad my hopes and expectations were right. MA is a class that does NOT need good subs to do fairly well (though I DID have good subs). Near the end of my journey as a staff MA to 40, I didn't even have to bother with regen, NOR use any of the MA's buffs. The Base MA was more than sufficient. It is the most independent solo class I have seen. you can dodge, you can hit well, you have tons of hp, you have defense, you have regen.

And I just wanna say, GOD I dodge a lot, like a thief. And if I ever do get hit once in a blue moon, its half damage most likely for block rate, and if its full damage, it would heal in 5 seconds due to obsene regen (100+ hp regened from regen + natural)


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My builds: (btw I am a staff MA)

Always LA eqiup, lvl 30 set I had 20% mp onyx on to compensate for his MP pool. At lvl 35 set, I had 5% physical def onyx on (but that was totally unnecessary for reasons coming up), I had +15 evasion onyx on foot, and +20% hp (it was for other class, but its nice to be at 4.5k hp before level 30 as a staff MA :P).

Stat wise:
24 dex, 2:1 phy agi (a slight alteration of that, to add enough agi to dodge)

Ending stat? around 36 Agi, 24 dex, and 59 Phy at lvl 40

Skill wise:
HP/Def/Regen buff max for the level
Medi max for the level
Swindle/Cloud/coiled max for the level
Dragonguard/staff dance max for the level

remaining skill points? a whole lot, like 25. Maybe I'd put in FFF for PvP in the future.

what does my stats look like near the end? [still have lvl 35 LA set on and lvl 38 staff]

around 350 attack, 150 def, 80 evasion, and 3.3K hp, unbuffed. Not too shabby eh? evasion Onyx are easy to find, if you solo esp. So don't tell me its an "impossible build" I have had like 6-7 evasion onyx 30-40 now. Too bad only one of them is slot 2...

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Skills that I didn't get and why? [only those that are questionable]

I tried Staff whip, I really did. It sucks, its subpar in cast time, its subpar in damage, its subpar in debuff. Actually the bandits would hit me more cuz their uberly weak skills are sealed. Not a wise move for PvE.

I tried knock out, its impractical for everyday use, the CD is always twice as long as the duration of cast, the only use I can think of is when a revenge boss drops on you while you hunt solo. So this is another possible of where I would put my points. At higher levels the CD is very very long.

The others are not worthy to be mentioned at PvE. I don't use gloves.

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Subs and level spot for 30-40?

I always go 30-31 at Crimson globs without pets. I did it with medi and BM sub.
31-38: Grotto bandits, with medi + pet sound and a lvl 36 ruby
39-40: Grotto spiders with the same sub + lvl 41 ruby (or you can do til 40 on bandits, a little slower but easier). I did spiders not with very few class, and I did it with MA because I CAN. Because it doesn't hurt at all, and its faster, they are weaker in def compared to bandits as well. They hit harder, but they can't hit well on my MA due to evasion. If they do hit, its blocked, if its not blocked, its healed, if its not healed... wait.. that never happened even when I had 3-4 of them on me.

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Skill analysis: (all skill damage are done via lvl 33 staff upgraded once (lvl 38) and performed on bandit bow-wow without any other buffs) Sorry I forgot the names for the buffs, and I don't wanna risk error and am too lazy to look up.

Coiled Serp Staff: Ah... this skill has brougth me quite far! It is most common staff skill spam I use. Its damage is subpar to the other 2 'single target' skills but its the fastest CD and cast time, and lowest on MP usage. I use it to deal a little damage to keep the aggro on me so my ruby doesn't get hurt. Its great, the extra hits don't miss a lot, it does around 1400-1600 + 120 x 3. Recommended for spammable.
good accuracy.

Swindle: Godly amount of damage. Even though my MA does not have the same attack power as a str fencer or BM, this skill's damage is on par with Maniac attack/berserker USED BY THOSE classes. The down part is MP usage (not too bad actually if you don't spam), and the relatively lower accuracy, but it hits maybe 60-70% of the time I cast it, its longer cast time. Doing around 3300 + 150-160 x 3-4 Very potent, and you feel joyful when it hits, its kinda like "thats right, you just pwned with Swindle". Recommended for the damage potential.

Cloudshaker: the far ranged skill. in the middle in terms of damage, mp and CD of the 3 first tier staff skill. Another great, second spammable skill next to coiled and HIGHLY recommended. Damage is nice, hit rate is pretty nice, and for some reason it seems to hit combo 5-6 times afterwards. Hits for about 2000 + 130-140 x 5-6.

HP buff: You know, when you play each class, there are goals you wanna reach, like for BM, you want to be like OMG I just pulled that huge attack power, or a wiz, having those insane numbers, a thief, with awesome dodge, a merc with superb defense (or maybe these are just how I motivate myself to see when I grind each of them solo), and for MA it is definitely the HP. true that I won't have the HP of a glove MA, but hey, in soloing when you get ganked, you have time to take care of everything before you sit and heal up (and it takes no time due to med). I have tons of extra skill points, so why not ^_~. This buff also capitalize MA's idea of independence, having your own prolong, cept better in the sense that because of your normally large HP pool, its better than Prolong. (just for MA, even if you are staff) You can sustain this indefinitely starting at level 1, as you can cast again before it runs out.

Def buff: It's great, if the mobs ever manage to hit me. I used it in the early levels, but at later levels against bandits its of no use, since they rarely hit, etc etc. But its nice def. buff, great for facing harder mobs, I calculated at one point what it took to cast indefinitely, but I forgot. Its possible. highly recommended. Another reason why MA is a solo class, it's got its own frogfield :P

Regen buff: Yea, the growth on this one sucks, its only by 5 hp inc per tick. Whereas REgen reaches 68 hp per tick at lvl 40, at lvl 10 of the skill you only get 80 hp per tick.. but I guess you cannot have the MA completely replace Doc no? :P the CD is always longer than duration, even with 103 agi you will come close but you can't cast indefinitely (iirc). But its good enough as a regen, as you have tons of regen from natural phy anyways. Recommended. Of the 3 buffs this is one I used least since I needed MP regen so I took Medi.

Staff Dance: average damage for a physical AoE; not incredibly strong, in fact its weaker than Cross Chop. At level 40. Worth? I don't know. But its there so I took it. it does around 1300-1400 damage unbuffed. its a nice "get the aggro" type of move, the accuracy is pretty nice. Recommended. Its not really used much I will say that. Only to "grab aggro" from ruby and other players that neeeded help.

Dragon Guard: VERY underrated. Its NOT an AoE skill for any purpose. If you consider it as such you are using the skill wrong. Its just an "added bonus" if it actually hits other mobs aside from the one you want. The damage is stronger than both coiled and cloud. I like the animation, this skill has been debated for ages, its NOT an AoE skill, I use it as a single target skill. It would be on par with Swindle if its at the same skill level. A nice skill. Recommended. (give it a try you have so much points anyways) At level 2, this skill does 2k + 140 x 4-5 times.

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On a side note, with Great Hero on, I was doing quite the numbers on rats (1k attack power), with cloud shaker I was able to do 6-7k + 800 x 5-6 times on the rats. I wanted to test Swindle but it missed and Hero buffed ended before I could cast again. (btw, I also had 9k Hp during great hero as an MA lvl 40 muhahhahahaha)
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