Class Review: Cleric

Since I can't think of anything to write, I'll just write about something I'm most familiar with - Crusaders. I hope this article will help someone out there eventually. This is a first of a series as I'm planning on writing about all the classes I've tried (currently using Barbarian, while waiting for Dark Avenger to be released).

I could've just recorded arena battles to showcase the skills of this class but I know for sure that written information is more useful than just watching fights. Please read on and comment about what you think of this write-up.

I've been a Cleric for sometime and to be specific, my character used to be a Crusader. I consider this class as balanced since they are very versatile - they can tank, they can fight well in PVP (if you've got skills, I dont) and can do solo runs in PVE (again, with skills). A very well-round class if you ask me, and if Dark Avenger (when it comes out)  fails my expectations, I'm 100% sure I'll be switching back to Crusader.

As a tank:

The Cleric's sub-class Paladin has a skill 'Provoke' which can be used by both advanced classes Crusader and Guardian. If you want to go on full-out tank, you'd go with Guardian but if you want a little bit of damage, you'd want to be a Crusader.

The skill provoke is cast on a very wide, and a bit long, fan-shaped area in front of you. This skill is better than using Swordsman's Giant bomb (or Smith wave, whatever) since you don't really have to aim it directly at the monster like the latter. The taunt lasts for about 10 seconds which is enough to let the skill cool down which is about 9 secs or 7~ if you choose to get an A-grade skill cool down heraldry equipped.

Together with Provoke, Paladins also have group support skills that complement either attack or defense. Other than that, they have self-buffs that increase attack (Crusader) and/or increase defense to 32% (both Crusader and Guardian).

Dodging skills:

After trying out Swordsman and Assassin, I realized that the evasion skill of Paladins is more efficient. And I'm talking about the Dodge + attack button combo. Unlike with the two aforementioned classes, the dodge combo of Paladins extend the invincibility when you hit the attack button about after dodging. For me, this had always been very useful all around. Not to mention Thump which is a 'iframe' skill (that's how others call it) which also has a  minuscule invincibility, also useful in case dodge is cooling down.

In the arena:

The Crusader is well-rounded because they have skills in all ranges. For short-mid range we've got the Lightning shock and Thump; The Holy Cross Ex's range is from mid-long and then there's the Judge Hammer (Ex) whose range is from short (melee) to VERY long. They also have a (what I'd like to call) stance-recovery skill that can be used when you are being hit. On top of that, they have a passive skill that grants 20% chance to block attacks. I'm not going to highlight their aerial recovery skill since all of the classes have those, kind of like dodge - you don't need to mention it.

The only downside of Crusaders is their skill cool down. Even if you have the A-grade cool down skill heraldry for Holy Cross Equipped, it only shaves off 1 sec on it's 10-second cool down and it's not enough (sometimes) to deal a limitless combo, knocking the opponent up or down, voiding them from returning the attacks. In order to compensate for the range, they also have the Charge skill which knocks up the enemy when the last hit lands. It can also be used to evade or move away from the enemy while giving you damage reduction on the duration of the skill.

The Guardian is also a very sturdy opponent in the arena since their skills mostly complement's defense. Too bad their reflect skills is of not much use in PVE, if it was, it'll be fun to see this class rush head-on and take all the nukes the enemies can throw at him.

The Inquisitor and Saint are very tricky to use in the arena. Inquisitor uses long-range skills and summon statues that mostly electrocute the enemies hindering them from attacking or running away. The Saints however, rely on the wards since this class focuses on support. But don't fight them when they are Lvl80 because these guys will have a skill that makes the wards cast lightning in their respective areas(regardless of what ward they are) which means if you are surrounded by their healing wards and/or defense and debuff wards then you'd probably be toast with just one cast of their Lvl80 skill.

Conclusion:

I hope you guys agree with me about what I have written here, I didn't go into much detail because if I do, we might be looking at a 10-page long article.

Happy gaming!

Benefits of Daily Quests

I'm sure a lot of players reach a point where they are scrounging for experience to level up fast in order to enter the Dragon Lairs and farm S-grade materials needed for crafting either Ocean Dragon set or Green Dragon set. Well, that's at least how it was for me.

On this article, I'll try to explain all the benefits of doing your daily quests and how we can maximize achievement with the least expense of dragon coins. 

For those who don't know, daily quests are a list of tasks that give you 'points' once completed. They unlock various rewards or chests. In a day, a total of 5 chests can be obtained and these chests contain different rewards and experience points. Not only that, the daily points you collect are accumulated for the whole week which converts to a 500-point chest and a 1000-point chest. The best part, the 1000-point chest gives you a chance to get a permanent Wing through a raffle ticket! (I haven't won this yet, but maybe) For the list of rewards, see them below:

Daily

30 points

60 points

90 points

120 points

150 points

Weekly Rewards

500 points

1000 points

The tasks give the same number of points everyday except for the special task which is highlighted in yellow (see below). The special task is different everyday and it gives you 50 points once completed. Some of the special tasks, if I'm not missing anything, are the following: completing the adventure stage in the dice game, completing an abyss or a nest stage with at least one guild mate, killing 4 bosses in boss rush or gaining 2 succeeding Wins in the ladder.

You can gain a at least 185 points without spending a single dragon coin daily. Every task is achievable without spending dragon coins or real money except for the following tasks:

Buy gold 2 times - we have 1 free purchase of gold every day but to complete this task you'll need to spend 10 dragon coins and purchase a random amount of gold.

Buy stamina 2 times - stamina can be purchased using gold in the 'benefits' menu but you can only do so if you have unclaimed stamina (stamina that accumulated because your stamina is maxed out). Otherwise, you'll need to spend dragon coins.

Daily Package & Palace Noble Privilege - these can only be completed if you have purchased the premium privileges. (no, I'm not gonna discuss how to purchase this here).

Purchase any 1 item from the market - this can be completed by purchasing a Heraldry upgrade stone worth 3 dragon coins. This is all up to you if you want to complete this or not.


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I hope you learned a lot just by reading through this article. I would highly suggest that you finish all the tasks at least until you get the 5th daily chest. Do it every day and surely you will get the 1000-point chest every week.

Introduction to Dragon Nest Mobile

Hello!

I see that you are interested in Dragon Nest Mobile. Well, let me show you the ropes.

For those who are not familiar with Dragon Nest, it started as an action-based MMORPG for desktops. For me, it introduced fast-paced third-person action into the MMORPG realm. It was the first game (that I remember) that somehow depended on the skills of the gamer itself - reaction time, timing, dodging skills and combos. After years of success, the developer SiamGame created a mobile adaption which is named as Dragon Nest M. Now, there is another game in the PlayStore named as Dragon Nest: Saint Haven created by Mobile Embedded Technology CO.,Ltd. This is different so please make sure you have the Dragon Nest M -SEA game installed (refer to the logo below). If you want to know more about the PC version, please Google to get more information.

Back to the main topic! First off, Character Classes.

Classes
The game has a diverse selection of classes. Each class can be specialized to two different classes when you reach a certain level. Not to mention that all have 2nd specializations, emphasizing your chosen skills. All in all, there are 28 classes in the game. You will learn more from them as you progress through the game or when you encounter them in the arena.

You get to choose your character from 7 different base classes:

• Warrior
• Cleric
• Sorceress
• Archer
• Academic
• Assassin
• Kali

Here are a few information on the main classes:

Warrior - melee physical attacks. Can be specialized to be tank (Mercenary) or with ranged sword skills (Sword Master).

Cleric - mid-range magical attacks. Can be categorized as tank (Paladin)  or support (Priest)

Sorceress - long-range magical attacks. I'd like to categorize these as elementals (Elementalist) and semi-support (Mystic) . Because their skills are either flame/ice based or time-stops with dark matter skills. The elemental skills cause either slow or dps while the latter are more on holds (stops movements of enemy). 

Archer - unconventionally, you'll be surprised that archers in this game has a melee sub-class. The main class have long-range magical attacks (Sharpshooter) while the other has melee DPS attacks (Acrobat). Can be categorized as DPS or semi-support.

Academic - the most hated class in PVP arena (in my opinion). can be categorized as a summoner (Engineer) or semi-support (Alchemist). You want to know why I find it the most hated class in the arena? Check Youtube.

Assassin - DPS class. The only diversity I see on this class is its focus on DPS or survival. Can also be categorized as mid-range summoners (Bringer) or melee DPS (Chaser).

Kali - boobies. They are categorized as mid or long range attackers. Their sub classes are Dancers (mid) or Screamers (long range).

To know more in-depth information about the classes, please use Google. I don't have an article about them yet but if I do, I'll be sure to link it here.

Game play

As I have mentioned above, the game is fast-paced action-based third-party combo-grinding MMO. 

So instead of point-click-kill type of game, you should be quick with your reflexes and focus on the enemies attacks, anticipation is the key. Dodging plays a huge role not only for the tanks but to all, in order to survive the lairs and dungeons.

The game also has Battle Points (BP) just like other mobile games. But, not all the time this affects how strong your character is. For example, in the arena - BP has no influence on the damage that you make or take. This means there are times that you will see a Lvl40+ on the top ranks, raking in 2k++ honor points compared to you who is Lvl60 with a BP of 700K (Sorry, can't avoid to compare my own situation in this). Also, there are dungeons that totally disregard BP, making the monsters a bit harder to kill and would force the players to rely on their skills to finish it. Here's a little list of the dungeon types and whether BP affects game play or not:

Fair mode (non-BP related):

Dragon's Lair Grand master levels

Ladder Tournament (Arena)

Arena Nest

Sky Arena (team PvP)

Battle of Heroes (MOBA-like 4-man PvP)

Tournament of Blessing (Cross-server 4-man PvP)

Territory war (guild battle, 5-man)

BP-related dungeons:

Story levels

Abyss dungeons

Boss Rush

Dragon expedition

Dragon's Lair Hell

Nest dungeons

World Boss

Guild Boss

A lot of people would say that the game is pay-to-play. But I say not really. I've been playing the game for about 5 months now (3 months on my current server, as of posting) and I have a decent amount of BP (700k+). I only topped-up 10php to get the free wings as a first top-up reward (The wings are not that fancy - it's small, just so I could say I've got wings). And I don't have any S-rated 3-piece set nor an S-rated fairy. My battle points is nothing compared to other players who also are at the same level as me, also with no S-rated items, yet their BP is about 100k more than mine (I play casually, and that's my excuse). But to put it simply, one can reach high BPs even if you don't purchase anything from the gacha nor the Diamond market. Item sets can be farmed or purchased from the auction using Dragon Coins. Dragon coins are like the main currency in the game aside from gold. (We'll talk about this in a bit). And the developers offer a lot of ways to get what you want, only in a manner where you'll need to either login everyday, participate in certain events or even play hard to get enough items to exchange for that sweet S-rated item you want! So, is it pay to play? For me, no. As long as you can play - and win - against those who have high BPs in the arena, then the game is fair. It's just a matter of discipline and determination to become strong.

Currency/Market

The main currency in this game is Dragon coins (DC). There are a lot of ways to get this, even maintenance breaks gives you these as a reward. There is also gold in the game but it is the least of your concern since you can directly exchange your DCs into gold with the 'Benefits' menu or just click on the '+' sign beside the gold indicator.

Premium currency is Diamonds. Topping-up also gives you 'top-up' points equal to the number of diamonds you purchase, which is needed to purchase certain premiums together with the required diamonds as it's price. For example, one type of premium costs 380 dias but it also needs 380 top-up points before you could purchase it. Makes no sense at first, right? The reason behind it is because the game has a bounty system wherein someone who has diamonds can use them as a bounty reward to those who will help him finish a certain dungeon. The top-up point requirement on the premiums is like a guarantee that the service will only be available to those who truly support the game by purchasing in-game currency (diamonds). If you're curious what are the services offered on the premiums, these are somewhat beneficial in someways, but they don't exactly affect your game play. Some of the premium services are as follows (in no order or bundle):

100 DC everyday

x2 login rewards every other day

free attempts on nest and/or abyss dungeons

free refreshes on boss rush

2 extra dice on the card albums

etc.

I can't really discuss all the premiums and their bundles on this article, because (1) I don't purchase premiums and (2) you can check them in-game.

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There's a lot more topics that we can discuss about the game but I'll leave it at here for now. I'll update this article if I can add more topics or create a whole nw article for more specific details. You can also ask questions on the comments below so that I'd know what to write next. For now, I hope you learned a lot about the game just by reading my article.