Shaiya New Player’s Basic Guide by kikix12

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1, Introducion:

Chapter 2, Basic Mechanics:

• Mode of Play Starting Character Death and Reviving Battle Basics Leveling and Levels

Chapter 3, Characters Properties:

• Mode of Play (Short Reminder) Races/Classess Stat Points Description Suggested (classic) NM build Suggested Lapis and Weapon Stats (from most to least important, classic build) Common HM builds Elements

Chapter 4, Goals of the Game/Quests:

• Boss Killing Character Tuning Quests

Chapter 5, Characters Roles/Basic Strategies:

• Basic Roles Basic Strategies/Tips General Strategies

Chapter 6, Items/Gear:

• Armor/Weapon Groups Gear Types Mounts Lapis Disposable Items Warehouse

Chapter 7, Item Mall:

• In-Game Item Mall Main Site Item Mall

Chapter 8, PvP and Bless:

• Rules Objectives Bless

Chapter 9, Capital City and Economy:

• Exceptional Warriors Manager Opening a Shop Black Market Arena

Chapter 10, In-game Item Mall Items

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Chapter 1, Introduction:

Hi. My name is Cronus. I’m a Admin and Player since end of 2000, although I had many shorter and longer breaks in the meantime.

I think it's time to do a really good guide. But this is Only from my point of view. And a few facts from other sites.. ( why some might not work on SOr but still this is the basic of Shaiya

Chapter 2, Basic Mechanics:

Those of you who began the game already, and played it for at least few hours, won’t have use for majority of this.

First, a little explanation. A mechanic (as far as this guide is concerned) is anything that is shared between all classes or by whole attack type. There are four attack types. Physical melee, physical range, magical and debuffs (which often are given along with damage). Everything that is part of a specific class (like gear available to it) is that classes mechanic, and is explained on the guide for the proper class on it’s own section of gameplay help forum.

So, now, let’s begin.

1) Mode of Play:
When a character is made, the creation window asks to choose a difficulty mode. As this is a MMORPG game (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), changing the monsters strength depending on the character is out of the question. Instead, the mode changes the characters strength. Unlike in most games, higher difficulties give stronger characters compared to lower ones (and compared to monsters), but they level slower or even risk deletion.

In a way there is Normally 4 types. We only use 1

Ultimate Mode (UM):
Stat points/lvl: 9
Skill points/lvl: 5
It’s the highest mode.

2) Starting Character:
One of the first mechanics a player gets into contact with, is rarely noticed. It’s a weapon dependability. Though it is possible to unequip weapon, no action is possible but movement unless one is used. This is true also for buffs, even though they are not attacks. Character should start with a weapon, and if it did not, delete it and make a new one.

Important part of the game are the three bars visible on a small box. They are HP (Health Points, red bar), MP (Mana Points, blue bar) and SP (Stamina Points, yellow bar). Every player have all three. Some NPC’s (Non-Player Character) have HP. Those NPC’s are called mobs. There is no NPC that have MP or SP.
When a character levels, it gets bonus HP/MP/SP points to their total amount. Every armor also gives HP and at least one of MP and SP.

Health Points: When a characters HP goes down to 0, it dies. If that character is NPC, it vanishes, to return after specific time passes (which is called mob spawn). Mobs spawn always in the same place, and the time after they respawn depends on the mob and place.
If the character that dies is a PC (Player Character), it’s body falls on ground and from it a ghost emerges, until the character is resurrected (see next point).
Only characters with Health Points can be attacked.

Mana Points: Mana points are used to power specific skills. Every spell, every buff and great majority of debuffs uses MP. Some other powerful attacks also consume mana. If MP drops to 0, nothing special happens.

Stamina Points: Stamina points are used to power specific skills. Every non-spell, every buff and every debuff uses SP. If stamina drops to 0, nothing special happens.

Restoring HP/MP/SP: Standing or moving character that doesn’t use skills or attack heals 4 of each after each 3 seconds. This isn’t much, but there are ways to heal these faster. The most important of them is a bless (more information on it in next chapter). The more bless a faction have, the larger amounts of HP, MP and SP is healed naturally. Second most important is rest (sitting). A resting character heals larger amount of each after each 3 seconds. Every class have a passive skill called body relax that increases HP/MP/SP healed while resting, and Mage/Pagan have a party buff that increases MP healing rate while resting. All these methods are cumulative with each other.

Unless the bless is high, natural healing is possible only after few seconds of not issuing any non-move command (whether or not the action will succeed or be actually used), but a high bless allows to regenerate MP and SP even during battle (when actions are used). This also takes place each 3 seconds. There is no natural regeneration of HP during battle though. One thing to know though is, that the character being attacked doesn’t affect it’s natural healing. Only whether or not that character attacks does.

Third way of healing restoring these are potions. Under the definition of “potion” hidden is every item that helps to restore either or all of them, or that removes debuffs. These heal various amounts, depending on the particular item. Each have recharge time. Until recharge on item expires, it can’t be used again. Some similar items share recharge with each other (as example can be taken all potions that heal only one of these). Debuff removing potions don’t have recharge.

Last way of healing, is through skills. Priests/Oracles can heal HP of any character which depends on the type of the skill they use, as well as it’s level and the healers wisdom stat. Multiple characters also have other restoring skills, but neither can be used often, with only one of them being able to heal someone other than the user.

3) Death and Reviving:
Character dies when it’s HP reaches 0. Every player and most NPC’s found outside towns have HP bar, and therefore may be killed. Dead mobs respawn (“revive”) automatically after set amount of time depending on the mob in question. No player involvement is needed.

Dead players can be revived 

UM: UM characters don’t have innate resurrection options. If they are not resurrected by some means within the 3 minute limit, they are permanently deleted. There is no way for UM to lose any amount of experience. That said, these are the reviving options UM’s possess:
1) Priests skill, Resurrection, but only lvl2 and lvl3. This means that UM’s can be resurrected only by lvl31+ priests.
2) Resurrection rune. UM’s don’t get the option of resurrecting on spot. They can be resurrected in town with 50% of HP, MP and SP though, which consumes the rune. This is the default resurrection method after 3 minute timer runs out (if rune is available), which saves characters of players that get disconnected or are away from keyboard when dead.
3) Continuous Resurrection Rune. If a UM character uses continuous resurrection rune, as long as that rune works, they can revive in town with 50% of HP/MP/SP any amount of times. (This rune must be activated BEFORE death.)
4) Target resurrection rune. It works like for every other character.

Deleted Character: Deleted characters (whether UM’s without runes not resurrected in time, or simply characters deleted when they were seen as no longer needed) may not be lost. GM’s on occasions offer character revival promotion. In such case, if the account on which the character originally was made have at least one slot open, and the proper information is sent, the character is brought back to life with all items it had at the time of death (and all buffs that didn’t yet run out).

4) Battle Basics:
Battle is the main focus of this game. There are few mechanics that affect it though.
Offensive: Attacks (overall), Physical Melee, Physical Ranged, Magic, Critical Hits, Fixed Damage, Debuffs.
Defensive: Defense, Resistance, Physical Evasion, Magical Evasion, Critical Evasion
Other: Party, Aggro and Mobs Attacks, Loot.

Offensive Mechanics:
Attacks: Attacking is basically any action that have the potential to hinder or harm at least one enemy.
Normal attack (physical, basic attack with held weapon) is used by targeting any opponent (with left mouse button or ~), then clicking on it again, with left mouse button. Alternatively, “Attack” action can be used through the use of hotkeys.
Skill attacks are used by targeting the enemy and then either left-clicking on a skill in the skill-tab, left clicking on the hotkey bar or using the hotkey to which it corresponds.
All attacks have specific range. If the target is outside the range, the character will automatically try to get into the border of range before using the attack.
Normal attack is used continuously until canceled (which is done by moving) or the target is dead. As this is server-based, attack occurs even if the player heavily lags. Skills will be used only once. If the skill is used after the character began attacking normally, it will continue to use basic attacks after the skill is used.

Physical Melee: Physical melee damage is dealt by great majority of weapons. Exceptions to this are bow (archer/hunter), crossbow (archer) and javelin (hunter). As physical damage, it’s accuracy is dexterity-based, and it is affected by Darkness debuff. All Physical Melee attacks are instantaneous (no casting time).
Physical Melee damage is based on Physical Attack Rating (ATK on character tab), which in this case is derived in this manner: Str*1.3 + Dex*0.2 + Weapon Attack. (Also note that there are skills which increase it, but these are hidden values not seen on the character screen.)

Physical Ranged: Physical ranged damage is dealt only by bow (archer/hunter), crossbow (archer) and javelin (hunter). As physical damage, it’s accuracy is dexterity-based, and it is affected by Darkness debuff. Also, it is given a penalty. In melee, the damage dealt by ranged weapons is halved. Most Physical Ranged attacks are instantaneous (no casting time). Exception to this is Nuke Shot.
Physical Melee damage is based on Physical Attack Rating (ATK on character tab), which in this case is derived in this manner: Str*1 + Dex*0.2 + Luc*0.3 + Weapon Attack. (Also note that there are skills which increase it, but these are hidden values not seen on the character screen.)

Magic: All magic attacks are exactly the same (there’s no melee or ranged), mechanic-wise. Only mages/pagans and priests/oracles can use magic. As magical damage, it’s accuracy is wisdom-based, and it’s affected by Silence debuff. Many spells have casting times. When a caster uses a spell, a specific amount of time must pass before the spell is finished and have effect. In this time, any movement or successful attack on the caster will cancel it (if you did move, you can’t start casting another spell until the canceled spells cast time is finished, even granted that the cast time bar is no longer active). After spell is casted, weapons speed still limits the time before next attack.
Magical damage is based on Magical Attack Rating (Magic on character tab), which is derived in this manner: Int*1.3 + Wis*0.2 + Weapon Attack. (Also note that there are skills which increase weapon attack, that also increase magical damage. Also, each spell adds it’s own bonus to attack rating.)

Critical Damage: Critical damage is a special, two-part bonus that can take place for any non-fixed damage dealing attack. Note that all the information here is to the best knowledge of community, but it still may not be proper.
When attack hits (through normal means) it have a chance of „critting” (higher luck stat increases the chance). Then a hit did crit, there are two things happening. First, the attack rating of the attack is multiplied by 1.5. This part of the critical hit is affected by the proper defensive stat. After that, to the damage dealt, added is a random value derived from this formula: Luck*(random # between 0 and 1.5). This part of damage is fixed. The whole formula is as follows:
Attack Rating*Elemental Factor – Defensive Stat (depending on attack type) + Luck*(random # between 0 and 1.5)

Fixed Damage: Fixed damage skills are explained separately, because they have their own rules.
Fixed damage is not reduced or increased by anything (including defense and resistance). It’s always the same. That means that after the skill takes full effect, it always takes the same amount of HP (either in specific number, or %). For some attacks, damage is instant, while for others, it’s dealt over time.
Fixed damage can’t crit. If attack deals normal damage + fixed damage, the normal damage part may crit, but the fixed damage will not be affected.
Many of the fixed damage skills are in form of debuffs, as their power would be unbalancing against bosses. Debuffs that fit this category are…Poison, Venom (Venom is not typed), Burn (Burn is not typed), Dying and Death. Other than HP damage, they may also deal MP/SP damage, which are taken by Disease and Sickness debuffs.

Debuffs: Debuff is a type of attacks that can be separated in two ways, each into two categories. First way is: Instant debuffs or debuffs over time. Second way is, typed or not typed debuffs.
Debuff is a general term for effects that hinder character over course of some time, in any way (with exceptions that have full effect instantly). Bosses are always immune to at least some debuffs. Greater bosses are immune to all debuffs. Wyverns are immune to all debuffs, while many other mobs have usually one or two immunities.
Debuffs either have fixed chance of hitting (varying from debuff to debuff, example are majority of defenders/guardians debuffs), are brought on along with attack, but only if that attack doesn’t miss (majority of ranger/assassin debuffs), or have a chance of being brought on from an attack, and only if that attack didn’t miss (Debuff Lapis).
First Categorization
Instant Debuffs: Those are fixed damage dealing debuffs. Majority, if not all of them, are either Death or Dying debuffs. Instant debuffs can’t be dispelled by any level of dispel or any type of pots.
Debuffs Over Time: Everything that have it’s effect for a specific amount of time fits into this category. All of them can be dispelled, though many only by level 3 Dispel.
Second Categorization
Typed Debuffs: Those are debuffs that are given a type from a list. Lvl1 and 2 Dispel, as well as pots (with exception of Venom Cure), can remove some of those. Examples include Unconsciousness, Poison, Sickness, Slow, Dying or Death. All typed debuffs have the name of the debuff type they belong to in their description (“Condition” line).
Un-typed Debuffs: Those are debuffs that (assuming they are not instant) can only be dispelled by lvl3 Dispel. There is one exception (possibly a bug, maybe was fixed) called Venom. Many (if not all) poisonous attacks of mobs, are actually venom debuffs, and they can be cured by Venom Cure pot and Dispel lvl3, but not by anything else (even if it would cure poison). Most of the un-typed debuffs are uniquely used by special mobs (like Dark Sigil), are fighter/warrior debuffs or are fire’s DoT damage (Damage over Time), which I’d call Burn. Un-typed debuffs have no type name in their description.

Defensive Mechanics:
Defense: Defense is a stat derived from rec (1 rec = 1 defense) and armors. Some lapis also add bonus to defense. Each point of defense lowers physical damage by 1.

Resistance: Resistance is a stat derived from wis (1 wis = 2 resistance) and armors. Some lapis also add large bonuses to resistance. Each point of resistance lowers magical damage by 2.

Physical Evasion: Physical evasion is % chance of attack negating all effects of physical attack, including both damage and debuffs that would be brought in by the attack. The chance of evading an attack depends on dexterity of both the defending and the attacking character and on the skills that give bonus evasion (defending character) or bonus hit rate (attacking character. It seems that the latter take priority over dexterity effect, aka. no matter your how much dexterity the opponent have, that dexterity can’t negate bonus evasion. Physical evasion helps at least partially in evading critical hits (attack that can’t hit, can’t crit).
There is NO formula to count evasion rate, which was proved through testing to work correctly.

Magical Evasion: It have the same effect as physical evasion, but towards spells. Instead of dex, wis is used, and there are no skills that would give bonus magical evasion or magical hit rate.

Critical Evasion: If attack hits, it may become critical. Critical evasion have the same effect as the two above, but miss means the attack is normal, while hit means the attack is critical. Currently the only effect additional to damage crits have, is lowering the endurance the weapon with which crit was dealt, and the armors of the person which was critically hit. It’s affected by luc of the attacker and defender.

Other Mechanics:
Party: I’ll update it at some point when I’ll be able to take screenshots, most likely at end of may.

Aggro: Aggro is term used to describe aggression of mobs. Basically, if a mob does anything other than move, it’s aggroed.
Most mobs aggro on proximity, aka. they start attacking themselves when a player gets close to them. Various mobs, have different ranges of vision in which they aggro. Some mobs (mostly the lowest levels mobs meant for beginning players) don’t aggro on proximity.
Any action taken against a mob builds up aggro, as long as it hits. Misses don’t affect aggro. Actions not affecting mobs directly, like using buffs, does not generate aggro. There is some kind of aggro system for heals, but it’s not as clear on how it works (there are two major versions for that).
Strength of aggro depends on characters defense rating. Each action towards mobs seems to build up some aggro rating, which is stronger the higher the defense character have. Various attacks have various aggro bonuses. Mobs attack the player that generated the highest aggro.
Mobs lose all aggro, and return to their original spot if the person who have the highest aggro goes outside specific range from their starting point. This makes it impossible to aggro or attack the mob until it reaches that spot, at which point it becomes fully healed.

Mobs Attacks: All mobs use either physical melee attack (most common) or physical ranged attack (uncommon). Some mobs have one or two skills that may deal magical damage and/or debuff character. Special mobs and bosses may have more skills.
Mobs have no MP or SP ratings. That means that their skills are not limited in resources, so skills that deplete MP or SP have no effect on use of them. All mob skills have recharge, even if they emulate class skill without one.
Mobs skills seem to have far greater accuracy than their normal attacks. Whether this is a feature or a bug, I don’t know, but it’s the only explanation on how a mob which always misses with normal attacks (mob 40 levels lower, on a 200dex ranger), almost always hits with physical damage skills (like the various Wood Spirits using Slasher).

Loot: Currently there are two loot systems, depending on whether the player is in party or solo.
When solo player kills a mob, that mob may drop loot in either gold or items. The loot stays on ground for limited time, and only the player that killed the mob can pick it up. After some time have passed, any player can pick up the loot. Moment later, the loot is permanently lost. Those rules also apply to items dropped by the player on ground.
When player in a party kills a mob, the loot does not drop on ground. Instead, items are given one-by-one to the party members, in the order from the oldest member (person on the top of party member tabs) to the newest member (the person on the bottom of the party tabs) after which it cycles. Gold instead is shared equally among party members.
EP4 brings master looter system, that can be changed by party leader. When it is turned on, all items (with exception of low quality or quest items) are given to party leader instead, as long as he/she have space in the backpack. Not sure, but I think it also brings random system as well.

Chapter 3, Characters Properties:

In this chapter, I will talk about the characters, and what is relevant towards them.
NOTICE: Mode of play, HP/MP/SP bars and levels are originally described in “Chapter 1, Basic Mechanics” above. They may be mentioned in here as well, where applicable.

1) Mode of Play:

In Shaiya there are four modes of play, each with it’s own characteristics.

The four modes differ in few ways, from Easy Mode being the lowest, while Ultimate mode is the highest, as far as this guide is concerned.

The higher modes have more stat points and skill points than the lower ones. Exception is Easy Mode which have the same values as Normal Mode.
The higher the mode, the more skills, quests and mode-specific items are available.
Easy and Normal modes can wear items up to Dread. Hard Mode can wear items up to Legend. Ultimate mode can use all items in game.
The higher the mode, the more experience is needed to level. After EP4 releases soon, this is the case for all modes. Currently, Hard Mode have the same experience table as Ultimate Mode.
The higher the mode, the more bonus stat points are available from high PvP rank. Currently, until EP4, only UM mode can obtain status points from every rank.
All but Ultimate Mode risk losing experience (and if killed by player in PvP/GvG items) if killed. Ultimate Mode is permanently deleted if not resurrected in time. They still risk losing items in PvP and GvG situations.

All our is UM. we don't have Easy,Normal;HM what ever you choose you getUM

2) Races/Classess:
EP4 brings racial skills, shared by all classess under the race. Other than those, race itself have no mechanical effect.
Alliance of Light, Races:
Human- Humans are the typical “knights”. They have both, the highest melee damager and the tank of the light side. To spice it up a bit, they were given healer, quite making humans the “templars” of Shaiya. Generally human classess are party classess. All of them have their role in parties. Fighters deal AoE (Area of Effect) damage, defenders take all the beating from others (usually mages and priests) to them (and withstands it usually) while priests buff and heal the tank, so he can deal even more beating.

Elfs- Elfs are fast dying, but also fast killing classess. They are terror on the battlefield. From the mage, wiping out whole hoards (if first tanked, that is) at once, through fast-hitting rangers to far-shooting archers. Except for mage though, elves are loners in PvE (Player VS Environement), but all are fearsome enemies on the PvP (Player VS Player) battlegrounds (called borderlands).

Union of Fury, Races:
Deatheaters- Those are the narrow, near-mindless brutes. All their classess are pretty straigthforward, and all are physically exceptional. They have no magic class, nor are they agile enough to have assassins. They have both melee and range offense (warrior and hunter respectively) and the tank of fury (guardian). Unlike humans, deatheaters have one of the highly soloing class, and unlike humans, they are vail-dependable for healer.

Vail- The casters of fury, with addition of assassins as the only physical class. They have the lowest defense, but are essential for long-surviving parties thanks to their healer and the best AoE damage dealers. All those classess are harder to use due to low defense and mechanical problems (spell interruption or skill chains).

Classess:
UoF – AoL
Warrior (Nordein) = Fighter (Human)
Guardian (Nordein) = Defender (Human)
Oracle (Vail) = Priest (Human)
Assassin (Vail) = Ranger (Elf)
Pagan (Vail) = Mage (Elf)
Hunter (Nordein) = Archer (Elf)

Every class have one bonus stat point, which each level is added to that classess base stat. Those are as follows:
Fighter/Warrior —> Str
Defender/Guardian —> Rec
Priest/Oracle —> Wis
Ranger/Assassin —> Dex
Mage/Pagan —> Int
Archer/Hunter —> Luc

Various Classess also have different HP/MP/SP growth. Classess are listed from the one with highest base growth, to the one with lowest base growth, to the best of my knowledge. Higher modes have higher growths as well.
HP Growth: Defender/Guardian > Fighter/Warrior > Ranger/Assassin > Archer/Hunter > Priest/Oracle > Mage/Pagan
MP Growth: Priest/Oracle > Mage/Pagan > Ranger/Assassin and Archer/Hunter > Defender/Guardian and Fighter/Warrior
SP Growth: Ranger/Assassin > Archer/Hunter > Defender/Guardian and Fighter/Warrior > Priest/Oracle and Mage/Pagan

Further, not wanting to write both factions classess, I will use their basic “job”. That’s attacker (fighter/warrior), tank (defender/guardian), healer (priest/oracle), nuker (mage/pagan), killer (ranger/assassin) and ranged attacker (archer/hunter).

The basic characteristics are as follows:

Attacker: Strong on the offense, medium on defense. Very narrow minded (all non-buffs are damage skills, usually weapon specific). Easy to play with appropriate build, and can make good duo with priest. HM and UM fighters have good while NM fighters have small AoE potential.

Tank: Very bad on offence, the best on defense. Very party centered character. Have almost only debuffs, some with added damage potential. Is supposed to take groups of mobs on himself to allow other characters freely and safely AoE them to death.

Healer: Either very bad or very good on offense. Bad on defense (good magical resistance). The only character who can heal. Mostly very party oriented. Have the best buffs in the game. Have the second best AoE potential (unless built for being the healer).

Nuker: Have the highest damage in the game, but as those are spells, they need some planning and time to cast. Very low on defense. Narrow (all non-buff skills are damaging or damaging with debuff). Highest AoE potential in game.

Killer: Have the fastest attack in game, but the lowest base damage of all the physically oriented classess. Good evasion, great accurancy and universal, with debuffs. Solo character that have very hard time finding parties. Hard to play due to chain limitation on skills. Absolutely no AoE potential.

Ranged Attacker: High damage and quite low defense. Only character with non-spell long-range attacks. Have debuffs and damage skills. Is soloing class, and have hard time finding parties. Is, along with ranger, very hard to play, at least at the beginnings. Not advised for NM.

Each of those classess is build around a specific theme. Granted that, they have usually very limited builds that can draw their full potential. As modes go up, more builds become useful. Below are advised builds for NM and advised status bonuses from weapons and lapis (on which I will talk later).

3) Stat Points Description:
Those are based on the community best knowledge.

STR – Strength
– increases base physical melee damage, 1str = 1.3 attack
– increases base physical ranged damage, 1str = 1 attack

REC – Reaction or Recovery
– increases physical defense, 1rec = 1 defense
– increases Hit Points, 1rec = 5HP

INT – Intelligence
– increases magic damage, 1int = 1.3 magic attack

WIS – Wisdom
– increases magical attack accuracy
– increases magic damage, 5wis = 1 magic attack
– increases magic defense, 1wis = 1 resistance
– increases Mana Points, 1wis = 5MP
– increases HP healed by wis-dependant healing spells, 1wis= +2HP healed

DEX – Dexterity
– increases physical attack accuracy
– increases physical attack evasion chance
– increases Stamina Points, 1dex = 5SP
– increases base physical damage, 5dex = 1 attack

LUC – Luck
– increases critical hit chance, 5luc = 1%
– increases critical hit max attack, 1luc = 1.5 max damage on critical
– increases critical hit evasion
– increases base shooting damage, 3luc = 1 attack

4) Common HM/UM builds:
Some builds that I think are common and working on HM. Builds with “!” at the end, are the most suggested.
Not that there is no archer build with “!”. That is because, there simply is no all-purpose static build for that class in HM. Many archers use str/dex build, then restat to high luck builds at higher levels. If you want more information on this class, it is highly suggested to visit this guide for the build information.

Attacker: 5str and 2dex! or 4str, 1rec and 2dex or 3str, 2rec and 2dex.
Tank: 7rec!
Healer: 7wis! or 5wis and 2 rec
Killer: 5str and 2dex! or 4str and 3dex or 2str, 2dex and 3luc or 3str, 2dex and 2luc
Nuker: 7int! or 5int and 2wis or 4int and 3rec
Ranged Attacker: 5str and 2dex or 7luc or 6luc and 1dex or 5luc and 2dex

5) Elements:
There are four elements in this game. Fire, water, earth and wind. Each element have one weakness and one strong point. Every mob that is of any of those elements is target of that element. It seems that all mobs attacks (unless magic) are non-elemental though. Players are non-elemental targets, and their attacks are non-elemental. There are lapis to change that state (chapter X).
A pretty recent post did change the general opinion on those. Data from it is posted here.

Fire attacks deal 40% more damage to wind targets, 20% more to non-elemental targets and normal damage to fire and earth targets. It deals 50% less damage on water targets.
Fire is dealt 50% less damage by wind attacks, 20% less damage from non-elemental attacks and normal damage from fire and earth attacks. It is dealt 40% more damage by water attacks.

Water attacks deal 40% more damage to fire targets, 20% more to non-elemental targets and normal damage to water and wind targets. It deals 50% less damage on earth targets.
Water is dealt 50% less damage by fire attacks, 20% less damage from non-elemental attacks and normal damage from water and wind attacks. It is dealt 40% more damage by earth attacks.

Earth attacks deal 40% more damage to water targets and 20% more to non-elemental targets and normal damage to earth and fire targets. It deals 50% less damage on wind targets.
Earth is dealt 50% less damage by water attacks, 20% less damage from non-elemental attacks and normal damage from earth and fire attacks. It is dealt 40% more damage by wind attacks.

Wind attacks deal 40% more damage to earth targets and 20% more to non-elemental targets and normal damage to wind and water targets. It deals 50% less damage on fire targets.
Wind is dealt 50% less damage by earth attacks, 20% less damage from non-elemental attacks and normal damage from wind and water attacks. It is dealt 40% more damage by fire attacks.

Non-elemental attacks deal 20% less damage to elemental targets and normal damage to non-elemental targets.
Non-elemental is dealt 20% more damage by elemental attacks and normal damage from non-elemental attacks.

Or, in (crappy) image form (the pairs that are not shown, deals 100%, or normal, damage).

Chapter 4, Goals of the Game/Quests: 

Credit for helping to rewrite this chapter goes to Anadyne.

There are two general goals in this game. Being one of the best (aka. getting to lvl60 UM) and quests. As being “the best” is pretty straightforward, in it’s place, I’ll write about what to look for in the end-game.

Boss Killing:
There are many end-game bossess. Many of them need large, coordinated groups and possibly hours before they fall.

Chapter 5, Characters Roles/Basic Strategies:

One thing will always be true for all discussions about roles and strategies. They are personal opinions. All that I’ll write about in here is from my point of view. Some may agree, some may not, thus it’s important for you to take your time in NM to build your own opinions and strategies, fitting you. Those are just guideliness to start with, or…food for though, if you so will.

This chapter uses the basic roles classess fit. That said, these instead of meaning a specific class, show a specific role that more than one class can fill, with correct build. For all these roles, take their names representative as the best example.
Keep in mind that of these, only “Tank”, “Nuker” and “Healer” are used. “Attacker”, “Killer” and “Ranged Attackers” are not needed in parties, so no one looks for them. There was no reason for making them then, thus it’s possible you’ll only see them here. That said, I seen them as important enough to mention them.

1) Basic Roles:
Attacker: Aggressive role that attacks in melee multiple targets as often as possible. This role can’t be filled except by fighters/warriors and defenders/guardians, which are the only classess with melee AoE attacks.

Tank: He is to gather couple of mobs using whatever means he deems necessary, They aren’t counted on for damage, so it’s better for them to NOT attack, just focus on keeping aggro. This job is very well filled also by fighters/warriors and mages/pagans which keep aggro while at the same time deal worthwile damage. A priest/oracle can also fill this role, with some success but they lack spammable AoE attack.

Healer: This role can be filled only by priest/oracle. They are not to attack at all, but keep everyone healed and clean of debuffs.

Killer: Another aggressive role that though, unlike attacker, focuses on as quickly killing single target, with skills that enhance damage if possible. That said, they must possess some way to defend themselves. All classess may fill this role, but archers/hunters and casters have near to none skills to help in it, therefore they are not worthwile killers.

Nuker: Magical version of attackers, spamming AoE attacks. Can be filled by mage/pagan and priest/oracle only.

Ranged Attacker: Killer’s ranged version. Attacks mobs one by one, until kills them. The major difference is that they usually have lesser need for defence or evasion, prefering to not getting into opponents range at all. Mages/pagans and priests/oracles can fulfill this role. That said, they have limited single-target attacks.

2) Basic Strategies/Tips:

Solo:
First strategy is for the specialised class (the one best fit, by the developers opinion). Further I’ll mention others as well.

Fighter and Warrior:
As Killer: Rising Crush > Deadly Strike (If dual/spear, if 2-hander skip) > Double Damage > normal attacks, repeat.
This saves resources. In no way this is the fastest killing “chain”, but allows to kill more mobs without rest, which I found more effective, myself. Most use though:

Rising Crush > Deadly Strike (If dual/spear, if 2-hander skip) > Windspin > Double Damage > normal attacks, repeat.
Don’t ever use Enhanced Windspin or Wild Wild Dance agains’t only one mob.

If that mob hit’s hard though, I found effective using Ground Shock as the first move in a battle. Watch out though. It seems to never hit the mob if while running to it, you use it “on the run” before going through target, as if he was out of range. That said, either stop before using it, attack normally (or with Rising Crash) or go right through him first and then use it. Prolly just effect of lag, not all may see.

As Attacker: This should look around (after gathering mobs)…
Ground Shock > Wild Wild Dance > Wind Spin > Enhanced Wind Spin > , attack till the first skill recharges, repeat.
I obviously don’t suggest this for NM’s.
Also, if you lack only a bit to kill all the mobs after whole chain, you may try using Ground Shock after Wild Wild Dance. It will give you a bit of damage more, but you’ll sustain more as well.

Defender and Guardian:
As Killer: Panic > Curse Raid > Heavy Swat > Attack. Possibly use other debuffs, if they won’t hit other mobs as well (or if you’re willing to change the role ya fit mid-fight).

As Attacker: This class is not very effective for attacker builds in NM. First, it have too little stat points to successfully attack many and survive. Second, it’ll end with little skills.
In HM, there are few ways to keep it.
Before getting the proper AoE skills, you can use Heavy Swat on multiple targets one by the other, using Ground Boom, then choosing one and debuffing it (using Panic) and keep attacking it until it’s dead, Heavy Swat ends on others, or Ground Boom is no longer on recharge.

After you get all the AoE skills, the chain would best look something like this:
Panic on all mobs you want to take (in long range to reduce damage to you, will increase all damage to them) > Ground Boom (increases survival rate + cheap AoE damage) > Darkness Blow (to remove all physical attacks + AoE damage) > Arachne Range or Silence Blow (Depending on enemies) > Any other AoE that are not on recharge. Rinse and repeat until mobs die, or you will lack SP/MP. There is no way of saving either with battle-tanks in AoE attacks.

If you have bless, and lack pots, SP and MP, it’s better to not do anything and wait for them to refill, instead of using normal attacks.

Priest and Oracle:
As Ranged Attacker: From maximum possible range use Ice Ball to slow the opponent down, then start spamming Magic Spot. When opponent get’s closer, if you have Ice Ball lvl1 just run around casting Magic Spot, or healing yourself. If you have at least lvl2, shortly before it get’s to you, use it again, move quite some range, use it again, spam Magic Spot, rinse and repeat.
Now, why the difference? Slow effect of lvl1 is too short for you to run distance large enough to explain the casting time. 3 seconds is just the casting of the both (right before move, and right after it), so you technically end at the same range to your opponent whether or not you cast it.
With lvl2 you have bonus 2sec, which allow you to gain some distance. Lvl3 gives you 4 such seconds.

Alternatively, if the opponent is weak, you can just cast Ice Ball first and then spam Magic Spot not worrying about opponent closing in.

As Killer: Don’t, Really. As killer just attack with normal hits and heal when necessery or use Health Assistant , possibly hypnotising opponent to heal and recharge Instant Heal. Evolution also increases physical damage and hit rate.

As Nuker: Impossible until lvl21 when you first get spammable AoE. There’s not much choice either. It’s casting time is too large to successfully solo with a nuker. Fastest spammable AoE spell priest/oracle have (Elemental Shock) is at lvl28 and still is hard to use.

Ranger and Assassin
Ranger/Assassin can successfully fill only a role of a killer.
These two classess are chain-dependant. As they use many debuffs, strategy changes from mob to mob. Levels of Fatal Hit and Stun Crush also change the strategy. Let’s assume now that you have lvl2 Fatal Hit and lvl1 Stun Crash.

If mob have no immunities, but is strong physically:
Fatal Hit —> Halt Kick —> Stun Crash —> Tetanus —> Normal Attack or Aggravation —> Halt Kick —> Stun Crash —> Fatal Hit, repeat.

If mob is immune to Stun Crash and is strong, don’t fight him. Stun Crash is very important for survival in such battles, as it’s hard to survive long with low defense, even with quite high evasion. Such mobs are too risky to be worth it.

Weak mob with no immunities:
Fatal Hit —> Halt Kick —> Stun Crash —> Tetanus —> Aggravation —> Normal attacks all the way.

Depending on your strength, honestly, you may skip the whole Halt Kick/Stun Crash, and just use Tetanus. It saves SP, and on HM I use up SP before my HP falls, just using this one skill on yellows.

After falling low on HP/SP, for resting, you don’t have (unlike other classess) look for a safe spot, as you have one everywhere. Before sitting, cast Stealth that will last long enough for you to fully heal and get into a good position to continue grinding (dropping stealth while sitting will make you instantly stand).

Never use Venom Strike or Gruesome Attack on normal field mobs, unless you fight with them for a long time. They have so low HP, that normal attacks are faster dealing with them, while both skills use quite a bit of SP.

Mage and Pagan:
As Ranged Attacker:
At low level (below 20) – If mobs are far from each other, from max rangeuse one of the spammable AoE earth spells to stop their moving (giving you technically a free hit) > Sustain Doom (lvl19) > One or two Magic Missiles (Or Storm’s if nothing other will be hit) > Ensnare Roots (stopping them on the way) > Magic Missile (or Storm again…) until they get close to you > Sonic Bolt (when they already are attacking you). I do not advice using Fireball, personally.

The largest mistake I see from newer players at low levels, is casting Sonic Bolt at long range as opening move. Some of you may ask “But why. It’s got good damage.” Yes, it does. “But it’s instant. I don’t lose anything!” It doesn’t have cast time, that’s right. “So why!” Because it have recharge. At this levels, not even NM will be killing a green or yellow mob 30 seconds, so you have only one cast of it in battle. It’s almost sure on the other hand that the mob will reach you. Isn’t it better to cast non-instant spells when they won’t stop you from casting it, and finishing the mob with attack that they won’t stop through interruption? For me, it personally saved lot’s of HP when something got bad.

At 20+ – If mobs are far from each other, from max range use one of the spammable AoE earth spells to stop their moving (giving you technically a free hit) > Sonic Bolt > Sustain Doom > Hellfire (if you’re high enough) > Ensnare Roots (stopping them on the way) > Magic Missile until they get close to you (or you may try to get in Hellfire, Storm/Meteor Rain or Lightning instead of one of them). Recast Sustain Doom if needed.

Now, why is it at the beginning?! Magic Missile is instant cast since 20, so that part doesn’t matter. Sonic Bolt is dealing more damage, and it’s better to deal as much damage as possible, maybe killing them before they get to you.
Also, generally Storm or Lightning are the only AoE spells that are worthwile, unless agains’t fire mobs, which best skip alltogether.

If you are low on defense, start every battle at max range using earth spell to pause mob giving you a bit of time. After that, use spells with opposite element. When mob is close to you, you can either use Magic Missile, or the instantly casted wind spells. Never use them before mob is in melee to you, as it’s a waste of them.

If you are high on defense, players usually drag a bunch of mobs, uses Fire Bush and while kiting, casts spells with low casting times.

If mobs are close to you, and they attack all at once, you can cast every spell with cast time not longer than 1sec without interruption. You can do this by starting to push the spell at the moment the mobs attack you. To make all mobs attack at once, after gathering them, move a bit so that they have to go after you. That should work.

As Nuker:
Pretty advanced style of play, I’d say, to self-tank with a mage. You must kite the mobs. Fire Thorns will aid as small, but free damage. Other than that, all you should do is use AoE wind magic, while outside the range of mobs, far enough for Storm to end being casted. Don’t use fire, as it’s far more risky (although used well, Fire Bush helps a lot). Don’t use earth. It’s simply (or nearly) impossible (all AoE earth spells take too much time, so you have to go so far that some mobs may simply run).
Don’t stay in place hoping that spell will go through. Many spellcasters die because of this.

Archer and Hunter:
Ranged Attacker: Always try to start the battle at max range (unless you’re sure shorter one will bring no issues whatsoever, which is a case at high levels).
Piercing Shot > Rapid Shot > Attack (Either normal to save MP/SP or a skill to speed up the killing) > Slow (If you have it ready) > Attack till end. Normal mobs won’t survive until any of the skills will be ready again, unless at low levels when missing is not uncommon.

As Killer: You’re archer/hunter for a reason. If something forces you into using sword…don’t fight that. You have only Sleepers Ban in melee, so if you really want to, just attack…

Party:
I will not talk about any role that is ineffective in party, thus I’ll wholly skip the “killer” and “ranged attacker” one for all but ranger/assassin which have no access to any other. Archer/hunter have few AoE skills, thus they’ll get a mix.
Remember though. Those are the BASIC guidelines. There’s no such guide that’ll be better than experience and cooperation within the party.

Fighter and Warrior:
Fighter/warrior in party usually take role of attacker, along with the chain written above. This class is really straight-forward, so the only thing that may matter is whether you need to intercept a mob running loose, or not.

If you are main (or only) damage dealer and there is a tank, leave the mob that runs wild to the tank. If you are more of a support in the damage department, or are self-tank (like in duos with healer) your priority should depend on the skills of the tank. If he’s doing his job well, he’ll regain the aggro, most likely before the mob get’s to casters. If he’s not as skillful, or didn’t notice one running stray, you need to take care of the mobs that go after the weaker casters.

Defender and Guardian:
There are fine guides on the advanced tanking techniques for tanks. You can find them here and here.

As Tank: Gather all the mobs you need, and wait in a spot for a moment (you may use Curse Raid) for mobs to gather. When they do, move a step or two back if they aren’t all tightly together. After they are as close to each other as possible, run in between them and Taunt. Remember that the spot you Taunt at should always be the same. After that use Curse Raid two times (it will fail for some surely the first time) and cast other debuffs as needed (like Darkness Blow and Silence Blow). This is the most basic, and is not so much a strategy as simply spamming AoE. There is a thing called kiting though, which is very important for strong mobs. Kiting means staying on the move after Taunt, which forces mobs to walk here and there behind you, wasting time they would attack in. If mobs don’t have AoE attacks, and the room is free, you can do large circles, stopping only rarely for using debuffs to keep the aggro. In this case, mages may be in the middle of the circle to always have mobs in range. If mobs have AoE, KEEP THEM AWAY from other party members. Running in line back and forth is less effective than in circles, but allows mages to be at the max range all the time, making it safe for them, while still giving a bit of kiting advantages. Stop Blow is used to stop the mobs while tank goes out of their range safely for the time.

As Attacker: It’s most likely impossible for a Battle-Tank to outdamage either fighter/warrior or any offensively built caster during normal grinding. That said, your role would be to support the main tank (if there is one) or just act like while soloing (if you’re self-tank as well).
Unlike fighter/warrior, you have both the skills and defense to draw mobs that run stray onto yourself (and probably even if the main tank dies, to keep all the mobs until they are finished). If a mob runs, use stop blow if you have it, to give time to the main tank for recovering aggro.
If the bunch is mixed (some caster mobs), and you have a tank, your duo can really make mobs worthless. When the tank uses Darkness Blow, you may use Silence Blow, blocking all the mobs from attacking in one go, and keeping them so when you change the order. At lvl55 with both Silence Blow and Darkness Blow at lvl3, this really shines.

Priest and Oracle:
As Healer: The most basic strategy is to always keep tank in as high healt as you can. To do so, you should cast healing (or healing prayer at higher levels) whenever the tank get’s some more serious damage. When he is close to dying even with normal heals (which may be the case when mobs deal more damage than you heal) use instant healing. Whenever you see a debuff that deals continuous damage, if your tank can stand for a bit agains’t the mobs without healing, dispell it at the first opportunity. One of them is practically like a bunch of yellows or orange mobs to a defender in itself.

When you see that mob comes after you, don’t panic unless he actually starts hitting you. It’s tanks job to take it off from you. If he doesn’t see it, other party members should take note of that, and at worst, even mage should take the mob from you. You MUST heal as much as possible, as long as your tank does get any more serious damage. If he doesn’t, why are you even there?
If you can’t cast the heal because the mobs hit’s you, move a bit and cast Heal, basically kiting the mob. Don’t EVER use Healing Prayer while under attack. Don’t EVER use Recovery on yourself. Even if you have a choice of Recovery and potion, use potion. If you have a choice of Recovery or dying…flee. There’s no way you could cast a spell but you couldn’t flee. On the other note, if you flee and the mob leaves you alone, you may return and probably will have to use Recovery on the tank.

Don’t spam healing like mad, unless you don’t have anything better to do. When mobs are yellow to tank, usually you can afford to waste mana in that way, but agains’t orange/red mobs (depending on your heals and tanks defense, aka. on modes and builds), you must get the most of every point you have. Also, use dagger, not staff. That means faster heals through less casting time in-between spells.

When tank gathers mobs, if bless is high, try to not use heals at all.

Never start of with Instant Heal or Recovery (HM and UM skill for great heal). It may be tempting, esp. with the second one, but if you do use them at wrong time (the first heal of battle for example), you won’t have them for emergency. If you need to use them at the start of battle, then you shouldn’t even try to take so many of those mobs in the first place unless your nukers/attackers are taking the mobs in first few seconds. The best time to use Recovery is when tank is at around 50-70%. If he dies fast, then it’s higher end of that. If he dies not much faster than you heal, then keep it until around half. I use Instant Heal when tank is at around 20-25% whatever the mobs, when Recovery is recharging.

If for some reason your attack will be slowed, dispel it whatever the cost. Your attack being slowed, means that you heal slower as well, which would be like making the mobs stronger. Even with strong mobs, you will be better off with wasting the time for Dispel than healing while slowed. If you will need to use Instant Heal or Recovery if you have it right AFTER the dispell.

As Tank: Unfortunately, I actually never even saw a tanking priest in the process. My best guess is simply using Stamina Leakage/Magic Missile/Magic Spot to gather the mobs while generating some aggro and Hail Storm’ing them when they get close. That’s the only instant-cast AoE aggro-generating skill priests/oracles have.

As Nuker: First of, make sure that the party chooses the right mobs for the job. Never even try to fight earth mobs if there is any single other element mob out there. Mages love earth, but Battle-Priests right the opposite.
Second, you have pretty much no AoE potential till you get Blizzard at lvl21. Remember that over the course it will be your main means of dealing damage that you can use safely at all mobs.
Third, Elemental Storm will deal lesser damage than Blizzard on all but earth mobs, until you give it element, when it’s larger base will outdamage the latter. That said, it’s cast time is shorter, so with battle taking long enough, it may outdamage water spells on non-fire mobs eventually.
Fourth, Frozen Ice deals the largest AoE damage of all the spells a priest have. It’s not without serious flaws though. You have to be close to the tank to use it, which means you’ll be within any AoE skills mobs have. This greatly limits it’s usefulness. Also, it’s long cast time means that the stronger the mobs, the less worthwile it becomes. Not only it’ll eat your MP faster but the quickly casted Elemental Storm and Blizzard Storm will outdamage it eventually (the sooner the more damage you have from stats in comparison to spells base). Two Elemental Storms with added element will deal far more damage far quicker than Frozen Ice will be able to ever hope, because at slightly slower rate (additional weapon recharge) you’ll deal damage equal to 2X (base magic attack + Elemental Shock base) compared to 1X (base magic attack + Frozen Ice base). There’s a gain to it though. It stops mobs from moving, which with cooperation from the battle-priest and defender may help the latter in surviving.

Regardless of the spell you’ll spam to deal damage, always cast Hail Storm as first spell. It’s lack of casting time will always boost the damage per second you deal.

Mage and Pagan:
As Nuker: Depends on the mobs you fight. If you are fighting earth mobs, use only wind. If you are fighting wind mobs use only fire (+ wind instant-casts). If you are fighting water mobs…you must check what will be more effective. Long cast time of earth spells but with bonus damage and stunning/pausing, or fast cast of Storm. It may vary at different levels, with different builds. Regardless of the mob you kill, if you have the MP to do so, always start the battle with your instant-cast AoE wind spells. Unless on fire mobs, it’s a very fast, and very large damage to start with. On fire mobs, those are more of a MP waste though. For fire mobs, use Meteor Storm.

As nuker, NEVER use Aura of Thorns! Absolutely NEVER!

As Tank: Here, ALWAYS use Aura of Thorns. Why the difference?! Aura of Thorns generates enormous aggro. Not only that, but it’s cheap, free and always active. Also one that damages the mobs. What drawback is there?! None, really. It works on every single mob in game, unlike taunt, you don’t have to stop to use skill on the non-aggressive mobs, no one will start casting spells before you cast “Taunt”, and even the damage is fixed. You don’t need to cast it in battle either. What that have to do?! It doesn’t stop bless from healing you.

Fire Bush is a very good skill for tanking mages as well. Why?! It’s another source of good damage. It also deals fixed damage which is important for no-int (or low-int) spellcaster. Obviously, it won’t deal anything serious, but it will keep generating even more aggro. Use it after getting the “attention” of all the mobs you want to tank, but before they get to you.

When the mobs get close to you, use Lightning and Turbulence. More damage, and more aggro?! Why not?! Unlike nuker, don’t worry about mobs element. Ideally the mob should be earth for these (or at least shouldn’t be fire), but they are more for generating aggro than damage, which is a nice bonus though.

When they are on recharge, what to do?! Nothing. All that will most likely keep the aggro for far more than needed, and if you have bless, standing still will heal your HP and MP.

So…exactly why Defenders/Guardians are better tanks?! They are neither better, nor worse. They are different.
Mages/pagans can survive far less than Defender/Guardian ever could. Less HP, no bonus rec, no shield, lesser armors defense, only one defensive skill. On the other hand, not even dedicated defender/guardian will take aggro off a dedicated mage/pagan tank, esp. aggro from a debuff-immune mobs like bossess.

Ranger and Assassin:
There are only two ways ranger/assassin can be useful currently. First is guarding the casters, which is especially important for mobs that love running lose. Unlike fighter/warrior your job is less of killing them off, more of giving time to the tank.
Fatal Hit > Halt Kick > Stun Crash > Single Hit > Fantom Assault
This chain will give you maximum stun time, and prevent caster mobs from using the spells later on.

Second is lessening a bit the damage done to tank by silencing and stunning the mobs. You may use ~ to choose a new target instead of mouse, which will simplify this. You can also use backspace to cycle between two mobs.

For melee parties, the strategy doesn’t change. Two rangers may cooperate, for one to use stun chain, and for the other to use attack chain, but that’s the extent of change worth the note.

For party with archer/hunter, it’s possible for it to attack a far off mob dealing some damage to it, and when it’s near dead, the ranger/assassin finishes the mob off, while archer/hunter starts attacking next one. This will allow melee character to stay in place without having to run after the mob losing time and attacks. This works for all melee/ranged attack combinations.

Archer and Hunter:
Technically, the only real worth noted is in party with melee characters, or other ranged attackers. Note the above ranger/assassin strategy for parties with melee. Other than that, fight exactly as you would solo.

In other parties though, you take the role of some extra damage. Remember that as you aren’t going to spam AoE skills, your priority will ALWAYS be to kill the mobs that go wild on casters. To be as much helpful as you can, you need all four AoE skills this class have. There are few issues here though. First, half of them is for bows, while other half is for crossbows/javelins. Each weapon have one skill with 20sec recharge and one with 600sec recharge. That’s not a lot of AoE, and to really use them, you need to lapis at least two weapons of different types. As far as this is viable, probably no party will really care about it.

Also, it seems that crits generate more aggro (which is only a probability). This means that party may not want you to attack the mobs other than your AoE attacks, or mobs running loose.

3) General Strategies:

In party, try to grind on yellow or orange field mobs, or on yellow dungeon mobs. Green mobs give too low exp compared to yellows, while red mobs (or oranges in dungeons) have so much damage bonus, and take so much less damage that it’s usually not worth the effort.

Solo, if you’re NM, never attack orange field mobs or yellow dungeon mobs. If you’re HM, try to grind only on yellows, with rare oranges (non-elemental oranges takes rougly the same damage as elemental yellow mobs).

Never grind on blue field mobs, whatever your mode. Probably you shouldn’t attack blue dungeon ones either. They have serious penalty to exp given, while they are NOT so much weaker.

Remember that even though ranger can kill much stronger mobs with less risk than other classess (although only if both Tetanus and Stun Crash works on them, and Gruesome Attack and Venom Strike helps too), that’s not worth the time spend to do so. Never try grinding on red mobs.

Try not to grind on mobs with continuous damage attacks, like orcs with Double Strike or Spiders with Venom, whatever class you are. Those skills always take at least 15% of your max HP, going up to even 40% from the skeletons generals in Ankykuls room for example. All mobs have their unique skills. For example, all highly armoured orcs have Pain Excruciator. Learn those skills and avoid those that have something that is too dangerous. With levels, the skills may be stronger (like whether two or three attacks from Pain Excruciator), and some mobs from map 1 get a new skill at higher levels. This doesn’t include bossess, which may differ from their normal counterparts.

Never grind on bossess. They give only slightly more exp, but are far stronger.

Watch out for bless. Unless it is full (flashing and going down) don’t try mobs that you can’t kill usually. Bless can go away right after you start fighting, and if that mob with no bless is too dangerous, you will risk dying. It’s better to wipe out safer mobs faster and with less rest.

Watch out for opponents element. If you have a choice of fighting elemental mob and non-elemental one, choose the non-elemental one. They always are dealt more damage. This is not true only if you can use element which is stronger than mobs.

Chapter 6, Items/Gear:

1) Armor/Weapon Groups:

There are three major armor groups for each side, each usable by two classess.

Armor:
Heavy Armor: Usable by tanks and attackers. This armor have the highest defense and life bonus, but low resistance bonus and no mana bonus.
Medium Armor: Usable by killer and ranged attacker. This armor have both defense and resistance that is the average of those of both other types. For example if heavy armor of one level have 16defense and 4 resistance, and robes have 4 defense and 16 resistance, medium armor have around 10 defense and resistance. This have also mediocre bonus to HP, MP and SP.
Robes: Usable by nuker and healer. This armor is the opposite of heavy armor, in that it’s defense is low and resistance is high. It have low HP, high MP and no SP boost.

AoL and UoF have all their own armor.

Weapons:
Each weapon except for dagger and staff have exactly one class with mastery in it. I will say which class have it by saying that weapon is such and such classess weapon.
1-handers- Tanks weapon. Normal attack speed, mediocre damage. Often bonuses are to str and dex. Can be used by tanks, ranged attackers and attackers. Those weapons are swords on light side, axes on fury side.
2-handers- Attackers weapon. A bit slow attack speed, high damage. Usually have high dex bonus, and low str or luc bonus. Can be used only by attackers. Those weapons are swords on light side, axes on fury side.
Duals- Attackers weapon. Normal speed, mediocre damage. Usually have str and rec or dex bonus. Can be used only by attackers. Those weapons are dual swords on light side, dual axes on fury side.
Longshaft- Attackers weapon. Very slow attack speed, very high damage. Often bonuses are to str and luc. Can be used only by attackers. Those weapons are spears on light side, sickles on fury side.
One Handed Heavy- Tanks weapon. Normal attack speed, high damage. Usually have dex and str bonuses. Can be used only by tanks. Those weapons are hammers on light side, but I don’t know what on fury side.
Two Handed Heavy- Tanks weapon. Slow attack speed, highest damage (along with thrown weapons). Usually have rec and wis bonuses. Can be used only by tanks. Those weapons are various looking, large things on both sides.
Bows- Ranged attackers weapon. Normal attack speed, mediocre damage. Usually have luc, dex and str bonuses. Can be used only by ranged attackers. Those weapons are always bows.
Thrown- Ranged attackers weapon. Slow attack speed, highest damage damage (along with two handed heavy, have lower average damage),. Usually have luc bonuses. Can be used only by ranged attackers. Those weapons are crossbows on light side, and javelins on fury side.
Daggers- No mastery. Fast attack speed, low damage. Usually have str, luc and dex bonuses. Can be used by all casters and killers. Both sides uses the same daggers.
Staffs- No mastery. Fast attack speed, mediocre damage. Usually have int and wis bonuses. Can be used by all casters. Both sides have their unique staffs.
Rogue- Killers weapon. A bit fast attack speed. Low damage. There are two rogue weapons. Claws and reverse swords. Claws usually have rec and str bonuses, while reverse swords usually have dex and luc bonuses. Both sides uses the same rogue weapons.

2) Mounts:
Mounts are separate for each mode. They are gear that upon click casts a spell after which your character is mounted. If you are mounted, you can’t use any skill and you can’t attack. If you are hit by any attack, you are instantly dismounted. Missess does not dismount you, but skills that does no miss (even if they can fail) does always. You can’t use mounts in dungeons, black market and arena. Normal mounts (those bought in apulune) can’t be dropped or traded by any means, but can be sold to NPC and stored in warehouse to trade between characters on the same account.

NM mounts: They can be used by all modes. They can be used from 40 level, have very fast movement speed and have no additional spot for passenger. Normal version costs 11mil in apulune. There is one rare version.
HM mounts: They can be used by HM and UM. They can be used from 50 level, have extremally fast movement speed and have additional spot for passenger. Normal version costs 75mil in apulune. There are two rare versions.
UM mounts: They can be used only by UM. They can be used from 58 level. They are extremally fast and have additional spot for passenger. There are no normal versions. There is one uber version.
Christmas Reindeer: Usable by all modes from lvl28, have very fast movement speed and no spot for passenger, as far as I know. Limited in quantity, as was dropped only by a mob that is no longer in-game (was only for limited time).

3) Lapis and Linking:
For thread wholly made about lapis, including list of the lapis available, look here.

Lapis are gems that can be added to items with slots. They grant their bonuses to those items. Lapises have item requirements. Not every lapis can be added to every type of gear. They can be linked into those items at blacksmith. You do not need linking hammers to link lapis to gear.

Linking is the action to add lapises to a gear with slots. It can be done at any blacksmith, and needs one item with at least one free slot and at one lapis that can be linked into that particular gear (lapis limits what type of gear it can be linked into, as well as there can’t be two exact same lapis in the same piece of gear).
The link may fail, in which case lapis is lost. Few lapis also destroy gear on failure (like sonic and flash lapises).

There are few types of lapis.
Stat Lapis- Those are common lapis with levels from lvl1+. Lvl1-5 don’t break gear on failure, while lvl6+ always breaks gear on failure.
Dual Lapis- Those are new but already quite common lapis. They have are named like the common ones, and always give +9 to stat appropriate to the name, and have one of four secondary bonuses. They have linking chance of lvl4 lapis, don’t break items.
Accessory Lapis- Those give +7 to one stat, and +6 to second one. They always break item upon failure and have very poor chance of linking.
Elemental Lapis- They are either for weapons or for armors. They add element to that item and have good chance of linking with no chance of breaking item. They are very rare (there’s only one boss that drops them, always one for armor and one for weapon, respawning each 12h) and costly.
AP Lapis: Have two stats, +6 (I think) to each, never break items and have 50% chance of linking. They are bought with AP.
Special lvl6 lapis- They have special skills (like a chance of inducing sleep on attack). They can be obtained from a high level and mode non-repeatable quest or Cloron/Fantasma Dragon.
Special Lapis- There are various lapis that are obtained (at least currently) only through events. They have various effects, linking rates and break chances. They vary from sonic (granting higher speed, 1% chance to link and always break upon failure), through perfect (+X to all stats, depending on level, +7 for lvl3, don’t break gear and I heard have 50% link chance) to flash (boosts attack speed by one, but that’s all I know).

4) Disposable Items:
There are various types of disposable items. Some are made for crafting, some are one-time use healing items.

Potions:
They come as Mini-potions, Potions, Grain Potions and special potions. They heal 33%, 50% and 75% respectively. Those % are counted without adding any bonuses (from gear and buffs).

There are few types of potions-
Health- They heal HP instantly by the amount depending on their size.
Mana- They heal MP instantly by the amount depending on their size.
Stamina- They heal SP instantly by the amount depending on their size.
Super- They heal HP/SP/MP instantly by the amount depending on their size.
Those potions (or their description) is bugged. They heal fixed amount.
Super heals all three by one amount, which seems to be higher than any amount healed by the same size potions of other types.

Status Healing- There are two types. Common which heal one debuff (max stack of five) and strong that heals a couple of debuffs at once (max stack of three). Venom potion cures more poisons than the one that removes multiple debuffs with poison as well.
Arkain- Special potion which heals fully all HP/SP/MP. It have no level restriction and can’t be bought, but is given from quest and some events that was recently.
Special Potions- They are obtained either from events or from takng altars and heal by a fixed amount.

Scrolls:
Each scroll heals one, specific debuff. All (I know of) can be bougth.

6) Warehouse:
Every account have one warehouse shared by all characters on that account. Each warehouse have three “free” tabs, and three locked tabs that can be temporarily unlocked by AP items. Each tab have 40 slots for items, for a total of 120 free slots and 120 locked slots.
You can’t put gold in warehouse, or anywhere else for that matter.
Taking items out of warehouse costs money. It’s supposed to be 5% of that items value, but that amount is bugged. It always take minimal amounts, which is more closer to 0.5%. Funny is that it works fine for lapis.

Chapter 7, Item Mall:

Item mall is the thing that keeps this game (and quite a lot of other free games) going. You buy things in it by using Donation Points (DP for short), which must first be bougth for real life money, or won in few events/contests that are held.

1) In-Game Item Mall:
In game there are a couple of icons on the bottom right side of the screen, just above bless bar. The first of those icons (from left) looking like a bunch of coins opens a window showing this:

Simply click on what you want to buy to highlight it and push the purchase button (probably double-clicking works as well). As this involves real life money, I assume you have to agree to the transaction in a popup window that will appear.
After the purchase, the item will be put into your inventory.

Remedies: There is remedy for each of HP, SP and MP. They have various levels, but at the mall, there are currently sold only of lvl1. Lvl1 remedies gives 500 to the max amount of stat they are made for (at least for HP, as I am not sure whether SP and MP remedies give the same amount).

Sprint Nos: Working for 1h nos that upps the movement speed by one (to fast).

“Tools”:
Various items that do not affect players stats in any way. They may give random items (various Boxes), fixed amounts and types of items (Packages), speed up exp gain (Experience Stones), affect linking/extracting rate (Linking/Extraction Hammers) and do other, mostly one-time effect. Here are a couple a bit closer:

Small Expierience Stone: The greatest HM modes characters friend, that grants a 50% bonus everytime you get exp for killing a monster for 7 days. It does not affect exp gained from quests. It also doesn’t stack with any exp stone, even one with longer/shorter duration.

Linking Hammer: Optional item for linking lapis that grants a % bonus to linking chance. It’s a percentage of the chance you have, not added % to rate (aka. if your normal chance to link is 24%, a +100% linking hammer will make that 48%, not 124%). In no case you can have more than 50% chance to link.

Extraction Hammer: The opposite of the above. It helps extract one lapis from the items. There are two of those. Big and small. Small have fixed 50% chance of extracting, while large have 80%.

Small Resurrection/Continuous Resurrection Runes: Runes used by UM mode characters (although the first one can be used by all modes as far as I know). Small Resurrection Rune is activated after death, and resurrects in town with 50% of max HP/SP/MP with no exp loss. Continuous Resurrection Rune is buff-like item that works for 3h. In those three hours, whenever you die, you are resurrected in town as per the first rune. This can be used only by UM’s.
Help the UM’s in this game and resell the runes. Both are used at various situations, so both are sold.

Chapter 8, PvP and Bless: 

I’m not actively visiting PvP maps, so I would appreciate help from the more experienced players to fix the possible errors and add information I missed.

PvP (Player VS Player) is the general name of both, fight between two players/factions, and is used for maps on which it have place.
Fights between factions (UoF VS AoL) take place on maps specifically made for those, called borderlands. There is a total of six such maps.

Proelium Frontier: Borderland for levels 1 to 15. At level 16 you have no further right (nor a way) to get into this map. If you level to 16, if you won’t leave this map at the first opportunity to do so, you are breaking the rules. Portal to this is in Keolloseu near the Gate Keeper and Blacksmith. Only lapis of first level drop in this map, and there is one relic here.

( Not in used yet )

Cantabilian: Borderland for levels 20-30. You can’t use portal to this map before obtaining 20 level, nor after getting 31 level. Portal is in the middle of Arktuis Vill on map 2. Mobs here drop lapis of second level, there is one relic here, and one dungeon for each side.

( Not in used yet )
D-Water Borderlands: Borderland for all levels (1-60) but that shouldn’t be visited before lvl40. Portal is at the bottom right part of map 3, but much more efficient is using gatekeeper from Presnya Manor or Apulune (Gatekeepers send to Karis Castle). Lapis of second, third and fourth level drop here (mostly three). There are two dungeons on this map, both can be visited by both factions, with each faction having their own entrace (which still can be used by all, as far as I know). There are five relics on this map.

( Not in used yet )
Stable Arde: One of the new PvP maps unlocked by possessing right combination of relics in D-Water, always including the center one called Medius. This map is a jungle with dinosaurs. It’s advised to not go there as a NM, as it’s very hard, for great exp. It’s map for 54+ lvl’s. Portal to it is in Karis/Raigo castle.

( Not in used yet )
Desert 1 and Desert 2: Two new maps, similar to Stable Arde. To get to Desert 2, you must go through Desert 1 or take the portal. It’s generally the same as Stable Arde when comparing their advised level/mode, as far as I know. Portal to it is in AH.

1) Rules:
Currently, the rules in place state that person that spawn from dungeon portal or at spawn point in castle can’t be attacked until gives sign of fully loading (using buff, talking, moving), no one can be attacked while using NPC, and players can’t hinder someone who tries to leave the map.
All general rules (ToS) does still hold true, so exploits can’t be used, for example. There is no kill stealing from other player on player kills, and there is no kill stealing from other faction.

If you seek more information, please read this thread.

2) Objectives:
The first, major objective (which, surprisingly, a lot of people forget about) is to have fun. The secondary ones are: attacking and killing players from opposite faction and taking down relics to boost bless of your own faction (which I will explain in a bit).

Player VS Player Battle: In this battle you still have penalty for attacking players of higher level, like agains’t mobs. Players are susceptible to any and all attacks of all classess. There is (currently) no immunity for players. As I’m not much of a PvP’er, this is the basic and the best explanation I can give.

Taking Relics: Relics are guarded by mobs (if neutral) or by owners guards. At the time of destruction of a relic, all it’s current guardians die. Relics respawn each 10min, it seems (at the time they are destroyed, obviously they can’t be taken by other side).
The Proelium and Cantabilian mobs/guards are very weak, and the relics can be easily destroyed by a single player. As far as D-Water goes, both the mobs and guards are very strong, and high level is advised, although a good party of lower leveled players can take it with proper gear and tactics. That said, the relics themselves are hard to damage because of high defense and resistance stats.
With each relic owned by a faction, that factions bless rises. When the bar is full, a goddess blessing takes place and all relics are destroyed, to reappear as neutral 10min later (which means no side have any bless until a relic is taken).

D-Water relics have elemental Poles that defend them. Fire pole, uses damage-dealing AoE attack. Earth pole and wind pole use debuff-inducing AoE attacks. Water pole heals all the poles and relic.

3) Bless:
Bless is a state affected by the amount of relics controled by the faction, and is shown by a bar on the bottom right side of the screen.

Bless gives various bonuses, depending on how much the faction possessess of it. At the time the bar is fully filled up, goddess blessing takes place. All effects given by it are shown on the picture:

The blessing have some specyfic characteristics. When one faction have full blessing, the other have none, and for 10min cannot obtain any. After 10min of the blessing, all relics are reseted as neutral (with exception of two faction relics in D-Water which are of their own side).

There is one bless for whole faction.

PS: If you want to have a longer talk with a member of other faction, DON’T DO IT IN PvP MAP! GO TO ARENA!

Chapter 9, Capital City and Economy:

There is one capital city for each faction. For AoL it’s Apulune, while for UoF it’s Iris. You can get there from almost any gatekeeper in the game. In addition to that, in Keolloseu and Gliter (AoL and UoF towns respectively) there is free portal to it for characters up to 20lvl. Don’t know for UoF, but there is one free portal for all levels on map 2 in Arktuis Vill’s docks.

The capital city have one major characteristic. It’s the only place you can set up your indyvidual shop (which I will tell about a bit later in this chapter) and buy from other persons shops. On the streets of capital there are various NPC merchants as well. They sell pretty much every piece of gear that can be bought in the game (there are few exceptions, like the accessories from new PvP maps).

There are quests in it as well, but the only one worth noting is the lvl50 quest helmet that as a reward gives helmet for 51lvl character. The other quest is a multi-part repeatable quest that involves getting a total of 3125 Earth Alchemy Powders which can be exchanged for 1000 etin coin.

1) Exceptional Warriors Manager:
This is an NPC that can be found it capitals. After getting 16 level, here, you can exchange your PvP kills for bonus stat points. You can also get (pathetic amount of) gold depending on how many times you were killed by the other faction.

2) Opening a Shop:
To open your own shop, push “B” on your keyboard (or open sub-skills menu using the icon on bottom right) and choose Indyvidual Shop action. A shop window will open along will inventory.

When you drop an item from inventory into the shops window, the price inputting window will open. You must input price of single item, even if you input a stack. The price shown on the window will multiply the price of single item by the amount of items in stack (like on the screen, with the price of that potion being 200, there are three in that stack, so it shows 600).
After inputting all the items you want and adding the name of shop, choose the option “Open Shop”. To close it, either stand up or use the button “Cancel”.
Shop can be opened only in capital city and black market.

3) Black Market:
Black market can be reached from a gatekeeper that is in merchant part of the capital. Both factions can meet in black market and sell items to the other side.

UoF

Selling in black market involves 5% fee.

4) Arena:
The same gatekeeper that sends you to black market takes you also to arena. It’s the only place where AoL and UoF can meet safely. All battles there must be initialized by “Duel” option. This does not bring kill/death points, but does win/lose from duels. If you want to talk with your friend from other faction, go to arena. In black market you make it harder to buy/sell, and in PvP no one have a reason to not attack you because you chose to make a picnic.