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Seth Hydra -> RE: The Training Academy: Ultimate Hybrid Guide (12/4/2014 10:05:40)
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[UHG006] ARMOURS
General Information:
Armours provide you with the bulk of your protection from monster attacks and the amount of damage you take, as well as deal depends on the lean of the armour.
There are three basic leans, defensive, standard and offensive. Defensive armors have a focus on defense as a result of which they take in less damage compared to standard or neutral armors, and consequently they also deal less damage. Neutral or Standard armors are focused neither on defence nor offence, so it can be said that they are the mid-point when it comes to armors. The last lean is Offensive, which focus on offense and as a result take increased damage.
In this guide, I will try to recommend Offensive armors, preferably Fully Offensive armors. The reasons being for one they can take down monsters much more quickly, not to mention the armors are readily available to cover most elements unlike the other leans.
Class Armours [UHG302]
[UHG301]
Class armours are different from normal armours in that they offer 10 abilities, ranging from powerful attacks, paralyzing and freezing (and more), increased defence, healing HP and MP and even lowering your opponent’s stats! In order to unlock these abilities, though, you need to train in the class and this involves going on a mini quest. You have to fight several monsters and pass a stat roll at the end of it and if you’re succeed then your class level goes up by one level. It should be noted that adventurers can train up to Lv10 in a class but can only use the first 5 abilities.
Tier one classes
These are the base classes. They are your introduction into classes and are available to everyone, intended for use between level 0 and level 40. As a Hybrid, you can use all these Base Classes with equal effectiveness. Regardless of using them, they are all required in order to train Tier 2 or Tier 3 Classes.
Mage: Mage Robes
The main two Metamagics here are Empower and Focus Spell. These two Metamagics will be the most often used. Empower Spell to your damage directly, increasing your farming speed as a result at the cost of efficiency. Focus Spell is particularly useful against hard-to-hit monsters such as Sneaks and Am-Bushes. With Focus, your spells gain an automatic +15% BtH, which is a significant increase in your accuracy. Wild and Stable Spell are useful Metamagics, but they have to be used properly in order to see their full effect and of course the +10 Intellect boost which can still be useful. For more information on Wild and Stable Spell, refer to the aforementioned Guide in the Mage section.
Fighter: Fighter Armour
Fighter Class offers great damage supplements at rather cheap SP cost. Simply toggle on its Passive abilities and pull off its Active Abilities to slam straight through your enemies. It's rather straightforward to use and needs to be trained anyway.
Rogue: Rogue Outfit
It offers basic ranged attacks and some interesting abilities. Hide in Shadows gives you greater defence in exchange for doing less damage, but it has a chance of attacking for slightly greater damage. This class is more defensively minded, and just isn't as good as Fighter for damage purposes. Regardless, Jinx the Black Cat is a Guest that decreases enemy Bonus to Hit (BtH) by 10%. That will last you into the 100s because at higher levels, it's better to avoid damage entirely rather than "Give and take".
Scholar: Explorer's Outfit
Scholar offers a single useful ability, being Zard Prism. With this, you can convert any attack into an element of your choice. It's pretty much only useful for covering Elements that you haven't got weapons for. This is nowhere on your priority list, but should be trained regardless.
Tier 2 classes
Tier 2 Classes all require a Level 1 Class in order to be trained. Most classes here are capable of being trained at level 40, but it'll be slightly tough at that level. Please do NOT ignore your General Armours simply because you think you have Class Armours which can last up till level 70. Very few of these armours can actually make it to level 70, and you'll probably find that at level 60 or so, the use of these tier 2 Classes will plummet.
Beastmaster: Feral Garb, Primal Garb
Hybrids might want the bonus damage from Guests. (Guardians will love Dual Summon). Beyond that, its other abilities are not particularly useful. For Beastmaster Hybrids, Dual Summon in addition to Wild Force is reason enough to carry this armour around. Beast Lore will Element Seek, but by level 40, you'd definitely have one weapon of each element by then. Adventurers might want to skip this, because Dual Summon is closed to them.
Berserker: Berserker Hides
The recurring theme here is "The less HP you have, the harder you hit." Needless to say, Characters with high Endurance do very well in this armour. Hybrids won't have much of health, but you DO have a decent amount of Strength to back it up. Ticking Clock and Roar of Courage are support abilities that give you a boost in your damage when health is low. Most of its abilities are rather straightforward, but be careful when using Berserk or Ancestor Spirits. Since it auto-attacks for the next five turns. Nightmare Visage is a situational useful ability, but do note that when you're below 25% Health, especially for a Hybrid, I figure that you'll be worrying about surviving than decreasing your opponent's stats.
Dracomancer: Dracomancer Armour
A pre-sweep Class Armour, it does have some uses. Dragon Wings is a very powerful wind spell early on, dealing decent Wind damage along with a cheap Mana cost. Great Dragon works only 60% of the time, but by virtue of it being one of your few Void spells to use against Terrorzards or Zeels, this should definitely stay in your inventory until Archmage Research is obtained. Half Dragon Shapeshift has great power along with fantastic accuracy. It does cost 150 Mana per cast, but that's isn't really too much for a Hybrid to use. Overall, it's quite a useful Class.
Dragonslayer: Dragonslayer, Elite Dragonslayer, Golden Dragonslayer, Golden Dragonslayer Eclipse
A specialised class that is VERY effective against dragons and dragon-type enemies. Golden versions of the armour get damage bonuses and effects against undead and lycan/vampiric enemies as well, however, it does slightly less damage against normal Dragons. However, this requires Lv10 Vampireslayer to unlock the last three class abilities. Being a Hybrid, you can use almost all its skills to great effect. Dragon Strike allows you to strike with greatly increased damage at a huge cost of SP. Dragon's Breath is a powerful element-seeking spell against dragons, and at lower levels, it may even beat some of the standard spells. It's quite costly on the mana if you're at level 50-60, though. If you're in for a long fight, Cripple is an unbelievably powerful effect to have, decreasing enemy Strength and Dexterity. Besides Cripple, Poison is also an incredibly useful ability to be used in long fights. Dragon's Blood isn't particularly useful for its SP cost, however, it's still a nice option to have. Daze Dragon is currently not useful since very few Dragons use their MP or SP to attack, but when Dragons DO use them, this will definitely come in handy. With a 120% Trigger on all Base, Random and Stat damage from ANY damage that comes from Dragonslayer against Dragons (This includes Spells!), this Armour is a must-have when faced against Dragons. Definitely a Class Armour worth using. Its raw damage holds at a 198% damage against non-dragons. It's definitely viable against non-Dragons at lower levels.
Knight: Knight Armour
The knight class was revamped from scratch, and is by far the most developed of classes this far. Starting your training as a squire, before branching out to become a Knight of one Lore's four major kingdoms: Rennd, Granemor, Deren and Stormfall. The armors start off as Mid-Defensive, but have a skill that turns them into Fully Defensive armors and each kingdom has a particular theme and objective, such as Pria Knights focusing on slaying Demons, Emoran Knights being the most defensive and and focusing on dark magic, Frogzard Knights having a strategic approach to battles and Demon Knights being the most offense-oriented of all. This is a class you will definitely want to train, not just for the great abilities, but also for its great storyline. While these armors scale from level 50-70, advanced non-scaling versions are also accessible at Level 90.
Ninja: Shinobi Shozoku
Shinobi Shozoku is a very powerful class armour between level 30-60. It has incredible base damage running at 130% per hit. All of Ninja's abilities are also centered around raw damage, and surviving long enough to deal that damage. Dragon Double provides Evasion, which synergises with Merciless. Smoke Bomb, Viper Strike and Ninja Death Strike are a chain-combination that will quite the amount of damage if you happen to be lucky. That being said, the SP cost may not be too worth it. Don't overlook Swift Slash, Ninja Stars and Sacred Duality. All three are incredible attacks, but they do have high SP and MP costs.
Pirate: Swashbuckler's Raiment, Sea Scourge
Ninja and Pirates have always been set against each other, and even in their Class Abilities, it is no exception. Where Ninja offers offence, Pirate offers defence. Where Ninja offers direct damage, Pirate offers a variety of support abilities that are meant to overload your opponent with Negative Status conditions. Taunt, Afraid, Burn and Entanglement represent the complete repertoire of Pirate's negative Statuses. Petey is an amazing guest with abnormally high BtH (70%) and is a sustainable Guest when in one of the Pirate Class Armours.
Wizard: Wizard Robes
Mage gave a preview to what spellcasters can do, empowering their spells with Metamagics, Wizard takes this to a new level, empowering spells passively at no extra mana cost! The Generalists get a lower boost to their Power and Efficiency (138% damage and 95% mana cost), however, it applies to all spells that they cast, the Specialists (Wizards who specialise in ONE element.) get a larger boost (172% damage and 90% Mana cost) to their own Element. Take this into consideration when you pick your Robes. You can, of course get more than one. The two passive abilities alone are reason enough for any Hybrid to use, especially when it comes to farming. All characers can summon Elementals, this is the new Beastmaster! Heh. Amplification allows you to expend a tiny bit of mana per turn to store as charges (That's what the Efficiency helps you to do, XD. That extra mana goes into powering another powerful spell.) and then release these charges as a powerful spell. This Release is given a huge boost by Lore, which applies special calculations to it. Lore, in itself gives spells a huge boost to damage.
Lore is awesome, by being in Wizard's robes, you already get a boost to damage, by activating this, while you reduce your efficiency (being in Wizard's robes) If you treat this like casting in a normal armour, you're effectively doubling your damage output while using 190% mana cost (Generalist). It's still a good deal. Specialists get a better deal out here, you deal a total of 220+% damage, at only 166% mana cost. REALLY AWESOME for farming. Gybbi's Fist is interesting, to say the least. It deals damage based on the opponent's health. Dharna is the MP regeneration spell, using SP to heal MP. Apparently, the Generalist's SP cost is cheaper because there aren't as many good times to use it as compared to the Specialists since the Generalist defences are all-rounded (Equally as lousy) compared to the Specialists (One element is much better than the rest). At level 9, Generalists gain Elemental Explosion, a really powerful spell when your enemy has average resistances all across the board. Specialists gain the ability to summon their Element from their own Plane for really powerful hits.
The final ability is nothing short of amazing. Specialists hit with their own Element, but this spell adds a Status infliction to it. Great damage AND a status infliction? Awesome.
ShadowSlayer/NightHunter: It takes a 90% downtrigger on normal attacks, however, when up against creatures of the Night, it does damage ranging from 105% to 120% damage.
- NightHunter: The focus of NightHunter is to use a predator's abilities as your own. Bloodsucker's Strike allows you to heal HP while dealing damage. The passive Slayer's Secrets makes you take less damage from attacks. You can call on four different Essences to have different effects on Werecreatures, Vampires, Zombies/Skeletons, or Humans. In addition to that, you can call on a Raptor and Dragon's Essence for direct damage. The Huntragon, your hunting companion can element seek to all 8 elements. With your Cloak of Darkness, you can counter any incoming damage with a blow of your own, and when used with Embrace the Shadows, you have incredible power and reliable SP regeneration at the cost of Health per turn.
- ShadowSlayer: With ShadowSlayer, you use a wide variety of weapons and orthodox magic to maximum effect. Healing Light heals yourself with SP. Slayer's Secrets increases your damage to 9/8 damage. Similarly to the NightHunters, your Throw Weapon is able to inflict different status effects on Werecreatures, Vampires, Zombies/Skeletons and Humans. Your most powerful weapons are the Silver Bullets in your gun, and the Hallowed Hand Grenade which you can throw. Your Huntragon element seeks between Fire and Light, the banes of Werewolves and Vampires. The Mantle of Light allows you to counter incoming blows, and when used with Turn Shadow, allows paralysis on trigger monsters, and a chance to instantly kill weak enemies.
Martial Artist: White Gi
With 4 different schools to train in to chose from, this is the biggest class released yet. The good thing is you do not need to train in all five schools to be able to use all the abilities. Your class level carries over from armour to armour so you only need to do it once. Now that you know that, lets look over the different choices.
Serpent Fang Gi is the most defensive of all the Martial Artist Classes. Counterattack combined with raw defensive power of a Sneak gives you incredible damage-stack up over time. This Class is definitely worth training up. This tops the low level armours in terms of Combat Defences.
Swift Talon Gi is all about offensive power. Pure Builds will use this Class best, since LUK and DEX will make up for the lack of defence. A Hybrid such as you should stick to the other three Schools.
Mountain Cudgel Gi has incredible attack power. However, its skills are far more situational than the Ancient Spirit or the Serpent Fang. However, Dazing (-10% BtH) and Stunning have incredible strategical use that cannot be denied.
Ancient Spirit Gi offers a more balanced approach like the Serpent Fang Gi but the bonuses for its attacks come from INT rather than STR so it’s an attacking class that Mage-Leaning Hybrids can use. Its defences are also to be credited, beating Serpent Fang in terms of Elemental Modifiers, but losing in terms of Combat Defences.
Tier 3
Tier 3 classes are the most powerful, intended for use between Lv90 and Lv130. Unfortunately there are only three at the moment but more are being planned for the future so keep your eyes peeled!
Paladin: Holy Armour, Golden Holy Armour
A very powerful armour against any undead enemy you come across, and decently powerful against everything else. Bless Weapon is a basic skill that offers slightly increased damage but a huge increase in accuracy. Summon Steed is a decent powerful attack for relatively little MP. Lay on Hands requires a long charge time but it can be kept and used at any time to restore your HP and MP to full during battle. Holy Light and Holy Might are the really damaging abilities, doing great light damage against normal enemies and amazing light damage against Undead enemies. Holy Might, in particularly, deals the highest damage among all the Builds, due to its stat bonus being taken from Strength AND Intelligence. Hybrids really get the best of both worlds here! However, keep in mind that these armors are going to be revamped to meet the recent change in standards which means a fair no. of the skills will be changed accordingly.
Necromancer: Necromancer Cloak, Obsidian Cloak
Necromancer has a number of particularly damaging abilities. Undead Giant deals 5 times normal damage for a measly 30 MP. Undead Mutant, though much more costly in terms of MP, has an incredible 10x multiplier. Other useful abilities include Fear (Decreasing opponent's Combat Defences) and Skull Swarm (Great Darkness damage at low MP cost.) Similar to Paladin, this class will also be updated to reflect the change in standards, meaning some of these abilities won't be the same.
Assassin: Whispering Raiment
Assassin is one of the most popular classes being used...since it is the newest and having many useful abilities. First is its Dual Wield ability which can be devastating when your class level is maxed providing you with bonus damage with a cheap SP Cost. Yajuu Dageki allows you to free up your void spell since it deals Harm damage, paired with Dual Wield it can be devastating although it is successful only 40% of the time. Death From Above requires charging up bolts, but it's incredibly powerful, particularly the Rain of Disaster which can inflict Prismatic Burn to the opponent, which deals enormous amounts of passive damage.
Zetsubou Dageki which can also deal Harm damage this is more sure shot than Yajuu Dageki although the SP Cost is high, and you have to wait three turns. However, once you inflict the status, you just have to survive those three turns to inflict a powerful Harm hit! The Finishing Blow has four abilities, and they're all fun to use, however, you'll find the most use in Stalwart Solitude and Assassin's Creed. Stalwart Solitude is a buffed up Dragon's Double, providing an amazing counterattack. Assassin's Creed is usually used for a gamble or a quick and easy kill. It's success rate is pretty low, depending on the monster, but it's a good skill for quick farming.
No-Drop Armours [UHG303]
Guardians: There are a total of three sets of Guardian no-drop Armours. There's the Armour of Awe, the Guardian Armours, and the UltraGuardian Armours. As mentioned above, your Weapons of Awe take their element based on which Specialisation your Armour is. So, your armour defence determines what weapons to buy or not to buy.
Armour of Awe
Depending on how quickly you can get the Blade of Awe, you can quickly grab the Armour of Awe. If you have the Shield, Armour and your Weapon of Awe equipped, you automatically make an attempt every turn to make it Afraid. If it's specialised, the chance of your opponent not acting is 23.8%, compared to a 16.7% otherwise. Their elemental defences are all exactly the same (Within the same specialisation.) with the only difference being combat defences, which isn't a big difference either. Their main difference comes in the ability that each one has. However the fact that these armours have a Mid-defensive lean and the fact that neither armor benefits Hybrids as much, I'll be refraining from recommending either of the three armors.
[UHG303b] Guardian Armours
The Guardian Armours have completely no lean. They're balanced both defensively and offensively. You need to have the Guardian Shield, any of the below armours, and any of the Guardian weapons to activate their FSB. Considering that they have no special abilities outside of their full Set bonuses, the standard Guardian Items are not really recommended and you should try to get the UltraGuardian armours as soon as possible.
Guardian Plate: A completely standard armour. With the FSB, your Melee attacks gain an incredible +8 BtH. Use with the Guardian Blade, or Dagger. Guardian Leathers: A accurate leaning armour. As with the same logic as Hybrids favouring accurate weapons, a Hybrid would also favour accurate Armours. It's FSB is to buff Ranged attacks to 110%. Of course, use with Guardian Spear.
[UHG303c] UltraGuardian Armours
All the UltraGuardian armours are Mid-offensive. They take in slightly more damage to deal more damage in return. Furthermore, all the Mastercraft bonuses that they get are all offensive in one way or another.
Mighty UltraGuardian: Choose the Mighty UltraGuardian if the weapon that opposes your specialisation is a Melee weapon. (For example, if your specialisation is Ice, and your Fire weapon is the Nova Knight Falchion, use the Mighty UltraGuardian because most of the time, Ice monsters, which you should be using this armour, are weak to Fire.) 80% of the time, you deal 93.75% of damage. The other 20% of the time, you're dealing 175% damage, as long as you're using a Melee weapon. Overall, with a Melee weapon, you deal 110% of a normal attack. This is should be your top choice.
Deft UltraGuardian: It has an accurate lean of +3 BtH. However, you should only choose the Deft UltraGuardian if the weapon that opposes your specialisation is a Ranged Weapon. As long as you're using a Ranged Weapon, 20% of the time, when the rare attack occurs, you attempt to paralyse your enemy. The roll is mainly against your DEX. The Deft UltraGuardian is for Hybrids who want some special ability over the raw damage of the Mighty version.
Adventurers:
Unlike Guardians, Adventurers cannot alter the elemental affinity of their no-drops and instead have to be content with flat resistant armors.
Steel Plate: A standard flat resistance armor, it has a FSB that grants it a 6 BtH boost on all melee attacks.
Cloth Robes: This armor possess a natural 25% chance to heal mana when you cast a spell. When equipped with the adventurer shield and wooden staff, the FSB grants it a 6 BtH boost to spells and a 7% damage boost to magic weapon attacks.
Recommended Armours by Element [UHG304]
In this section, we will have a look at the armours that you will use as you gradually progress through the game. Along with your No-Drop armour, these armours will have to be constituted in such a way that you can accommodate all the elements in the available slots.
FIRE
Supreme Overlord's Dynasty
This Fully-Offensive armour is the revamped version of the Reign Set. Keeping alive the offensive theme of the original armor, it has a Four hit attack with a slightly inaccurate lean along with a mastercraft bonus that gives it Celerity which essentially allows it an extra turn of attack. Great aesthetics and the pure offensive power make this a very good choice for a Fire armour.
WATER
ZettaSnide Transformation
This is a great Fully-Offensive armour and is the only viable choice for Water in the game. Unlike other armours, this one can only be accessed if you have the <>Snide Formula Misc, so it takes up a Misc item slot rather an armour slot and hence opens up the possibility of having Utility armours in your active inventory. However, do keep in mind that this armour cannot be equipped before the battle, since miscs items cannot be activated with the pre-battle inventory ready option.
*Personally, I'd advise you to attune your No-Drop element to Water seeing as how it possess the least viable option among all the elements in the game. While there exist other options such as the Pirate Garbs which cover Wind and Water, the fact that they have one hit locked into dealing Earth damage hinders their overall use and damage especially when you consider Water monsters with negative resistances.
WIND
Horde's Ire
Currently the best option for Wind armours in the game, with a pseudo compression to Earth as well. It is a One hit armour with a mastercraft bonus allowing it to trigger on monsters that classify as "Truphma". When triggered, this armour has a 20% chance of dealing 150% damage on a rare attack, which doesn't occur otherwise.
ICE
Horo-Show Void Vigilante
The AQ 10th anniversary celebration gave us an amazing option for Ice, and it maintains as the best non-rare, non-package Ice armour currently available in the game. There are two versions, the non-MC version which is a standard fully offensive ice armour, and the MC'd version which has the same stats with the sole exception that it comes with a strong Ice armour skill.
EARTH
Morningstar series
Based on the popular game Castlevania, this is the best option for earth armours all the way up to level 135. A fully offensive armour with a mastercraft bonus giving it a 6% damage boost on each successive hit connected.
Ep-Pig series
A mid offensive earth armour that can serve as a decent replacement when you are in between tiers, as well as the best option for guardians in the Level 145-150 range. With a MC bonus giving it a damage increase depending on your HP.
Rust Raider
A nice little Fully Offensive mecha armor which aside from offering great resistance to Earth also provides decent coverage to Darkness and Energy attacks is your best option for an end-game earth armor. The armor also has a mastercraft bonus which allows it to deal more damage to Monsters that wear Armor or are metal.
ENERGY
Taladosian series
Plain and simple, its the best offensive energy armour if you can get over its erratic attack pattern. It also comes with a great energy skill that's great for burst damage.
LIGHT
Ultimon's Armour
The reward at the end of the Ultimon saga, this armour ticks all the right boxes. It's fully offensive, compresses Light and Dark elements, taking care of all your shadow slaying needs and comes with a great skill, that seeks between Light and Darkness.
Elahi Waqaya of Osiris
The armour from the 2015 yearly mastercraft set did not disappoint. Great Light defence, fully offensive and an interesting backlash ability makes it the best pure light armour in the game. While I would still recommend you pick up Ultimon, if you do possess one of the myriad of rare darkness armours out there, then this is something definitely worth looking into.
DARKNESS
Ultimon's Armour
Without a doubt, the top pick when it comes to darkness armours. The fact that you will be able to cover both Light and darkness elements in one slot with this armour opens a slot for utility armours which will be discussed in the next sections.
[UHG305] Utility Armours
Asgardian Steeds: This armour starts off as a standard Neutral armor, decent blocking but not much going for it aside from its energy resistances, which might beg the question, "What's so great about it?". Well this armor's attack is locked into dealing energy damage, regardless of which weapon you use. As a result, it gets a massive 1.56* multiplier to its damage, coupled with the fact that it's second attack can stun the opponent for multiple turns makes this an absolute beast(!) against monsters who are weak to energy attacks and those with flat resistances.
Algern's Carapace: Similar to the above, this is a neutral armor with all attacks locked into dealing Darkness damage. Being the first of such armours, it receives a massive boost of about 1.9* to its damage, coupled with its skill which can heal you based on the damage dealt makes it a very potent armour against monsters weak to darkness, especially those which attack with Energy or Fire.
Generalist Robes: Running a low leveled class armour such as this can be fatal at times, but that doesn't take away from its utility when it comes to farming or casting spells such as Gandolphin in crunch battles. Elemental spells cast while having this armour equipped deal 138% damage, while you can multiply your damage even more by using the Imbue with Lore option, albeit with a massive MP cost.
Whispering Raiment: While you may not use the skills very often, the initiative bonus that this armour provides can be very helpful when running armours like Snide or Shapeshifter in your inventory or generally starting first in a battle.
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