Ragnarok Gameplay tips

[Regdren]

Hi. This thread is for the discussion of gameplay in Ragnarok Online, Lightside server. I figure that the other one is for discussion of the Awesome clan, meetings and such, so maybe this will help to reduce clutter. To start, I'll tell everyone my experience as a Mage, with Wizard as my goal.

First of all, for the Mage/Wizard path, I recommend this FAQ: http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/ragnarok_online_wizard_mage.txt

It's for the official server but the builds and strategies have worked very well for me. What I have to say is going to overlap with this, partially to add my own thoughts on things and partially for those who don't feel like reading a linked FAQ.

Let me clarify this right at the start: If you want to solo enemies on the Mage/Wizard path your first goal should be a level 10 fire wall, followed by a level 10 frost diver. Yes, that is 2/5ths of your total Mage skill points right there. It's worth it. The progression is Level 1 sight/level 4 fire bolt, level 5 fire ball, firewall. The other simply requires level 5 cold bolt. As a Mage you will always be squishy. Your goal is to keep the enemies away while you rain magey death on them. The above two spells will allow you to do that.

Before I explain how this is used, we have to get there. Obviously, you'll want to put as many stat points into INT as possible. Int determines your magic attack. Spells have no base damage, they only modify your Matk by multipliers. Get 9 points at the start, and at least one per level/up. If you don't have enough points to increase your Int by 2, I recommend putting what's left into DEX to make your casting speed faster. Be warned, you won't notice a difference until your DEX is 50 or so. Your strength will never be higher than 1. (note: for the Sage path, there are builds that require points in melee-related stats. Building up for a Sage is different than building up for a Wizard and I recommend finding a Sage-specific FAQ for that)

Getting your first few job levels will be pretty easy, thanks to Lightside's Exp. boost. I recommend first getting level one of all 3 elemental bolts. The bolts are efficient spells which you will be using for a long time. So how much should you level them up?

Fire Bolt can be leveled as much as you want. A lot of monsters are weak against fire and there's no direct upgrade of this spell. As with all bolts, don't cast it at a higher level than you can handle. If an enemy breaks through your Fire wall and hits you before it's finished, tone it down a couple of levels. Fire Ball sounds nice but the damage is actually pretty bad unless there are 4 or 5 enemies bunched together. This doesn't happen often so stick with the Bolt version most of the time.

Cold Bolt shouldn't be leveled past 5. Frost Diver does good damage, casts quickly, and can freeze the enemy in place. Once you have FD at level 10, replace Cold Bolt with it.

Lightning Bolt is fairly useful as a Mage, but when you become a Wizard you get Jupiter Thunder which is a direct upgrade. I recommend only leveling this to 4; that should be all you need. Remember to use this against an enemy frozen with Frost Diver; being frozen changes an enemy's attribute to water.

My advice is to get 1 of each bolt, then progress directly to Fire Wall. This will allow you to handle most enemies. Fire Wall will stop most enemies from being able to reach you and take damage for bumping into it while you pummel it with spells. Be careful with the placement of the wall; it's only 3 tiles. Be warned that at lower levels Fire Wall will not hold off enemies for very long. Also, undead enemies are not stopped by they wall; they take a bunch of hits and are bounced to the other side. Finally, some enemies are immune to fire and can walk right through the wall. Many fire-immune enemies are weak against water. Such a situation calls for Frost Diver, which is your next goal.

As mentioned above, Frost Diver is a very efficient spell at level 10. At low levels it's ineffective, so wait on using it until it's maxed out. You should also level your Lightning bolt to 4 while building up FD, otherwise you won't really be able to damage frozen enemies. Even at 10 FD doesn't always freeze so you'll probably have to cast, run away, then turn and cast again. But you were used to that when you didn't have a decent fire wall so it shouldn't be a problem, right?

Other Spells:
Sight is required for Fire Wall and only needs one point. You might not ever need it but it's not too painful to get.

Napalm Beat IS painful. It's a horrible spell but required for a few others. I only got level 1 for Jupiter Thunder, but some spells like Soul Strike require more.

Stone Curse is also a poor spell and it requires a gem. Fortunately you only need one level in it to qualify for the Wizard's earth-based spells. Get one level and never cast it.

Fire Ball is fairly quick to cast but the damage it deals compared to Fire Bolt is sad. I recommend only leveling it to 5 for Fire Wall.

Soul Strike is a spell I never got. It casts very quickly and is strong vs. Undead but has an aftercast delay of a little over 2 seconds, requires level 5 Napalm Beat, and doesn't lead to better spells. As a Mage you never have enough skill points; I recommend that you skip this.

Energy Coat requires a simple quest and Job Level 35. It's very useful, allowing you to use SP to dampen physical attacks. It lasts for 5 minutes per cast and as a Mage you should have MP to spare. Plus it gives you afterimage, how cool is that?

Edit: SP regeneration sounds great but really isn't. You have to stand still for a full 10 seconds for it to trigger, and your SP regen will be high anyway due to your Int. I don't recommend putting more than one point into this.

Time for a break. In my next post I'll discuss some more specific levelling strategies and the test to become a Wizard.

[Regdren]

Starting out is the toughest part of being a mage. You have no fire wall, no frost diver, before your first job level you have no spells at all! You're going to be stuck stabbing Porings with your starting knife until you get your first job level, but after that things will be a little easier. Buy a wand as soon as you can. After that, save up for an Arc Wand. Practice your cast-and-run. That is, use a fast spell, get some distance, and cast on the monster again without getting hit. You'll need this skill a lot, especially early on.

Once you stop getting anything significant from monsters just outside of town, there are two basic options. You can try fighting Zombies and Skeletons in Payon Cave, or get a couple of levels in Lightning Bolt and go to Bayalon Dungeon. You'll have to cast-and-run either way. Payalon monsters can give you early levels very fast, but Familiars will give you trouble. They're aggressive and move as fast as you. You'll have to level 1 lightning bolt them between hits and hope that you don't die first.

Bayalon takes longer to level in but is a fair deal safer due to the lack of aggressives in the first couple of floors. I recommend starting with Plankton and moving up from there. there are some good sources of experience on level 3 once you get Fire Wall, but look out for the mermaids (Obeaunes). The walk right through fire wall, are immune to frost diver, have good magic defense, and can cast silence on you. I recommend running away from them while leveling. You'll eventually be able to fight them, but not until near the end of the mage path.

While you're leveling, use your cash to pick up basic armor. Once you're done with that, your expenses are pretty much nil for a very long time. Enjoy the cash flow. Help out your friends. Whatever.

Eventually the early dungeons will start to be less helpful for gaining levels. You'll want to progress in job levels more than experience levels, because base level tends to increase faster. The place for that is just outside the labyrinth dungeon. The leaf cats give excellent job experience, are not aggressive, and can be stopped by Fire Wall. The jungle warriors are immune to fire but are weak against Frost Diver. You can beat them fairly easily if you're good at cast-and-run and there isn't too much lag. This place is good for the last few mage

Once you've reached job level 50 it's time to take the test to become a wizard. You can take the test earlier than that but you'll need all the skill points you can get to make things easier later on.

The first part of the test will be skipped if you're Job level 50 (you should be). The second part is a quiz on various magic and monster properties. I highly recommend using the linked guide to help you out. You can miss one question and still pass. Following this is the hardest test: a combat gauntlet. Bring at least a couple of green potions and ten or so yellow potions for this.

There are 3 floors to the combat test: water, earth, and fire. All of them are small rooms filled with monsters of the appropriate enemies. First is water.

The worst enemy here by far is the Obeaune. Your Int should be high enough to deal damage by now, but you'll have to run-cast and will probably get hit a couple of times. If you can complete a level 4 Lighting bolt but get hit afterwards do it anyway; at this point time is a much worse enemy than health. Nothing else here is immune to Fire Wall and you automatically get healed between floors. Use a potion or two to stay alive if you have to.
The guardians of this floor are a cluster of Hydras with a Marine Sphere in the middle. You can out range all of them. Don't kill the Sphere last, because it likes to self-destruct. Leave a hydra for the final kill and you should have no problems advancing.

The Earth floor is pretty easy. Only two enemies are aggressive and none of them can deal with Fire Walls. There is a magic-resistant enemy who will try to waste time by surviving multiple spells, but the others quickly fry to your magic. Apparently one of them can cast fire bolt on you, but your magic defense makes it a joke. The guardians don't move and are bunched together, so you can finally dig out that dusty Fire Ball spell and kill them all with 3 shots or so.

Fire Room: The last, and hardest room. Fire Wall is very unreliable and many foes are aggressive. You'll have to run and cast Frost Diver. Don't bother hitting the frozen ones until you're not being chased anymore. Fortunately most enemies here are not durable. The guardians are an immobile Great General and two little Horongs. The Horongs are slow but hit hard, so kill them first. Do not get one tile closer to the General than your maximum spell casting range, or it'll hit you and probably wipe you out. Even at max range it can cast spells at you but your magic defense is better than the gatekeeper's. Use potions to keep yourself alive and pile the Frost Divers on until you win and pass the test.

At this point you're not a mage anymore so the guide is finished. I'll be back with a Wizard guide when I finish that path, which won't be for a good long time. Hope this was helpful.

[Regdren]

My next set of tips is for the Acolyte. Specifically, I will talk about how to be a full support acolyte, heading towards full support priest. This will not be as long as my guide to playing a mage because it's just a lot less complicated. I should mention that I don't consider this to be the end-all support aco guide. Rather, like the mage, I promotes a character with a decent builds and this is about how I did it. I hope this is useful.

So you're an aco. Kill the usual novice fodder until you have a skill point or two and put it into heal. Put most of your status points into Intelligence. I split my points between Int and Vit but you can go dex or agility if you can handle the lack of durability. By the way, I don't mean an even slpit. Your aco will have chronic SP problems so lean heavily towards Int. Increasing it, then waiting a level to combine the leftover points for more Int points might not be a bad idea every now and then.

Some important skills to take note of when building your priest.

Heal:
You are a failure as an acolyte if you don't have this skill. As a full support Aco you should max this. Use careful management of this when heal-bombing. Only use a higher level when it means it will take fewer uses of this to kill; your SP are very limited especially early on.

Divine Protection:
Since your goal is not to become a monk, get only enough to quality for Angelus. Ignore the rest of the anti-undead skill tree; Heal will do fine.

Blessing: It increases Str, Dex, and Vit by up to 10 points. Every job class and build can benefit from this, including yours. You will want to eventually max this out no matter what. Beware, the SP cost for this skill is very high.

Angelus, Increase Agility:
Get a few points in both of these. You'll need at least 2 points in Angelus to qualify for later skills, and increased walking speed is insanely useful. Chances are you'll only be able to max one, so go for the one you like best. I went for Angelus because I have a lot of points in Vit, but either of them can be a good skill to max.

Cure:
It's only one point, but chances are you'll never need to use this. To my knowledge it doesn't actually lead to any other skills.

Ruwatch:
There aren't too many monsters that hide in this game, but it opens up a series of useful skills. Fron what I've heard this skill is actually rather useful in PvP.

Teleportation:
With this skill, you will never need fly wings or butterfly wings again. It also makes for a nice flashy exit in front of friends. This is the second skill on the Ruwatch tree.

Warp Portal:
Useful to reach dungeons that you can't teleport too; this is apparently a decent way to make money. The Blue Gem requirement means that this spell shouldn't be used too trivially. Also, you cannot Warp into dungeons. This is the third skill on the Ruwatch tree. You only really need two levels to make this effective, but since you're this far along the tree already you might as well max it for pneuma.

Pneuma:
The final skill on the Ruwatch tree. A handy spell that makes you (or friends) immune to non-magical ranged attacks. Obviuously useful against certain annoying monsters such as archers. Also, this spell apparently drives Hunters insane in PvP.

Aqua Benedicta:
This is a one point skill that's actually worth it, even though you'll never need to use it as an acolyte. It leads to a useful priest skill, Asperio.

Holy Light:
It doesn't cost any skill points so you might as well get it. However, this is a really horrible offensive spell. You could use this on slow non-undead enemies, or when you have nothing better to do when you're in a party battle.

Payon Cave will be the source of most of your early levels. Heal-bomb until you're out of SP, warp back to a town with a Shaman, restore SP, repeat. When the first floor stops giving good experience, move to the second floor and do the same thing. The Orc Dungeon might not be bad for some variety. I highly recommend using the /noshift command to make the heal-bombing easier.

When Payon level 2 really starts to drag, you should be around job level 42 or 43 and base level 57 or so. Then things get a little tricky. My next post will be about getting through those last painful job levels.

[Regdren]

Obviously the leveling fodder of choice for promotion to an advanced class will be Leaf Cats. However, you can't do anything to them. Does that mean you're stuck with the heal-bombing grind?

Not a chance.

You see, by now your skills should be high enough that you can provide some really good support. Leaf Cats are not easy foes in melee, and often cause thier victims considerable financial loss due to potion use. Nonetheless, the leaf cat map is a very popular place to level.

I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.

Sit down near the warpmaster and open a chat room at a busy time of day. Give your chat room the title "Will join party for Exp." or something similar. Pretty soon you'll have a melee character asking for your level to make sure you can set the party to Even Share. Let him have all the dropped items if he asks about it; it's worth it to get through those job levels. You can usually get him to give you any Lemons for the SP boost to keep up the pace. But, you may ask, why would they be so eager to have your help if the experience is split? The answer is that with your help they'll get kills at least twice as fast due to better stats (from your buffs) and no need for rest to recover HP. There will be plenty of takers, don't worry. Don't be surprised if you get some people who join your friends list this way either.

If you haven't had a chance to use your skills in a party this will be good practice. Earn your Exp. by keeping your buffs on your partner at all times. Never let him die. Warn him if your SP is getting low so that you don't run out at a bad time. In general, be a good support acolyte. If you do this, you'll be able to reach Job 50 without too much of a problem.

The test is not really that hard. You should be able to handle zombies, and the questions that are asked of you are easy to figure out. The only tricky part is the room with the mummies; the secret is that you don't have to kill them. Just make it to the exit and you should be fine. After the trials are done, congratulations! You have a Priest.

And that's the end of this guide. Any questions or comments are always welcomed.

[JG]

Money Money Money


Supposedly, everyone needs money up until about base level 30, becuase every dime you make will go to upgrading your weapon and armor.  I managed to pull this off at level 22 and still afford the heaviest weapon and armors available for standard purchase.

My secret? The red mushroom grove in the Payon forest.  One map west of Alberta, in the northwest part of the area is a crumbling stone shrine.  In that area a cluster of six red mushrooms grows - no where else do more than two appear together.  While terrible for experience, they frequently drop red bloods that are worth a small fortune early on, and the spores they always drop are worth a decent amount, too.  Wiping out the mushrooms and then killing the starter enemies on this map between the six minutes it takes for the mushrooms to respawn is an productive method to earn a fair amount of zeny and experience early on.

[ROMate]

Tell me how to make a Crusader!

[ROMate]

More info. I want my Crusader to specialize in Grand Cross (I hear it's an effective way to play it). Any advice?

[Hyperguy]

Should we post here, or is this Regdren's thread? =O

[ROMate]

It's his thread, but I don't see any harm in asking his help. If he wants the posts gone though, any mod can delete them.

[Regdren]

This was intended to be a thread for anyone to post gameplay tips and questions. It's true that I made rather heavy use of it early on, but if someone else wants to offer advice that's fine by me.

The general idea of building a Grand Cross Crusader is to raise Str, Dex and Vit just high enough to make it through the Swordsman class, then raise Int to max or near-max. A stat reset might be handy if you have the cash for it. The balance of the first three stats is the subject for a lot of debate but INT should always end up at 98 or 99. Vit is also important due to the backlash of GC and the hits you're likely to take. Learning Heal will help you a lot. If you can get a spell sword (the kind that casts elemental bolts every once in a while) you can level your Int sooner...though those swords tend to be expensive.

For more information try these links:

http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/ragnarok_online_gc_crusader.txt

http://forums.roempire.com/showthread.php?t=19714

Unfortunately I couldn't find much info on the swordsman part of the build. Does anyone else know about raising a GC Crusader from scratch?

[MMX]

Is there a way to build a Crusader/Paladin based on Vit, with decent Str for shield skills, but also with enough Int for magic defense and a high SP max? (possibly also for Heal, but not sure)

Basically I'm torn between shield and sword + shield skills, or spear + spear quicken + bash or something simple

with ~80 Vit, very little Agi, but with a decent amount of Int.
By the way, how do swordsmen class people feel about Luk?  Is it worth it for the crit rate and lucky dodge?  I mean I nkow most people will say no but I like to create odd builds here =)

[R-9]

Is there a way to build a Crusader/Paladin based on Vit, with decent Str for shield skills, but also with enough Int for magic defense and a high SP max? (possibly also for Heal, but not sure)

Basically I'm torn between shield and sword + shield skills, or spear + spear quicken + bash or something simple

with ~80 Vit, very little Agi, but with a decent amount of Int.
By the way, how do swordsmen class people feel about Luk?  Is it worth it for the crit rate and lucky dodge?  I mean I nkow most people will say no but I like to create odd builds here =)

Well, some folks like crit builds for Assassins, since they can throw out so many attack, but I haven't tried it on a swordie.

[Regdren]

Crit builds are more about equipment and cards than luck (the stat); most crit builds have luck in the 50s or 60s. There is such thing as a quicken crit-knight and I've seen guides for Battle Priest/Sage builds involving crits as well. Sins are the most popular for it, possibly because of the +30 (20?) crit weapons they can use. If it's just for experimentation then got for it, but if you want something really effective I recommend having a few million zeny stored up for the +crit cards/equipment you'll need.

As for the crusader, the way stats work is that you can either max out two stats and have a little left over for one more, or you can max out one and have enough left for around 50 in three others. If you want, you can max Strength and go halves on Vit, Dex and Int. I don't recommend maxing Vit at the expense of Str. Unless you put substantial points into Strength you won't be able to solo with physical attacks, or at least not with any reasonable speed. Low-ish Vit will make you take some nasty hits but if you manage Heal without compromising your shield skills it shouldn't be a problem. Here's a build I dug up on RO Empire:

Int/Vit Shield/Healer Hybrid:

Str 93 + 7
Agi 6 + 2
Vit 53 + 7
Int 66 + 6
Dex 47 + 3
Luk 1 + 5

Sader Skills:
Faith 10 (hope you're getting the idea on this skill)
Divine Protection 3
Demon Bane 5
Heal 10
Cure 1
Guard 5
Smite 5
Shield Boomerang 5
Shield Reflect 5

This build can easily hunt without potions and survive since he has heal, with the current stats, his heal is 1848. Beyond that, he has a very large pool for boomerang/bash.

Equipment will be HP/Str and other Defense gears. Of course a nice reduction shield collection will help you with adventuring.

This is assuming that you're going Shield 'sader. If you're going to use Spear Quicken you might as well use an Agi build and go nuts with the attack speed. In that case you shouldn't put points in Int; Agi, Str and Dex will be what you need.

[Mediocrity]

Rogues are fun. They're also a good item-farming class since if Snatcher is at level 10, chances are you'll steal at least one item per enemy unless you kill it really quickly. Any equipment you steal will show up identified, too.

When I actually gave a fuck about playing this game (my interest in MMORPGs is not unlike a sine curve), I'd run around this kobold/golem map with my Rogue, just farming steel and coal and shit all day. Good times.

The sine curve for my interest is sort of stuck in the apathy position. I've got all these console games I need to play. That's pretty much what sparks my re-interest in RO or Lineage or whatever insipid crappy Korean MMORPG that's out there for a month or two. When I don't have much, if anything, to put into my PS2, I just play RO or whatever.

[ragnabot]

Didn't know you guys played at clownophobia. Must have missed this part of the forums. Anyway, I'm retired from MMOs because they are time sinks / vortex disguised as addictive fun and also money sink if you're on a monthly subscription.

Here's a helpful tip about making money. I make around 800k / per trip in this place. I bet everyone know where Seals are right? Right of that map is filled with Sea Otters in the beach part. There's your goldmine.

Sea Otters, IIRC, drop 3 or 4 variants of those npc birthstones that sell around 3k zenny a piece, not overcharged. So, there's really no trick there but the obvious class for farming there is the Whitesmith. WS have the best damage / time  with or without using your skills, the extra 8k weight from your cart, and what makes your farming easier is the npc skill Greed (auto-loot). All you need is a Wind Two-Handed Axe an empty cart. Stat-wise, I'd go 130 STR (99 STR, 2pcs Ring of Muscles, Tigermask, Loud Exclamation) and 80 AGI and the rest on VIT.