Forum

SE Peeps! The last dungeon image's the same as the third. (AKA you missed the correct banner image for the Cracklers!

I am all sorts of hype regarding all these dungeons for my beautiful island nation! Woooo! And I definitely want to see this crazy Pandawa. I bet s/he'll be Earth.

@WingedPolarBear and co.: You don't limit your spell level cap; You just end up eventually suffering from underlevelled spells. Which is bad, since that's what determines your damage and effect %s and everything. Thus, be careful of not levelling your spells alongside your Almanax XP! (Especially with low levelled chars.)

That was the cutest foggernaut ever. lol!

@SharingIsCaring: Each quest that you'll do is "unique" inasmuch as that the exact things you do are different. Therefore, each day will have a unique quest you can do for a token. You need 365 tokens for that mount, and each token you get from any of these quests is the same.

tl;dr, You get a token per quest, and you need 365 tokens for the Mount. Therefore, if you want to get that mount in the shortest amount of time, you need to do a year's worth of quests in a row.

If you miss a day, then you end up with 364 tokens after a year. That'd mean you would need to do one more quest (Any of them) to get that last token. The quests are unique, but the tokens are not. Any of the quests will give you the same token.

@Minimikeh: Oh wow, that was way the heck back at .311. Again, I get confused after all these updates!

@MiniMikeh: Didn't they have that thing where they had a chance to recuperate that WP if they used Unbeacon? I guess that was awhile back. I get confused by just when changes are made now; there's just so many!

So wait. Water Pandawas cannot use their barrels to deal additional damage the way it was intended to work...

Not to mention that Cras lose 1 WP if they don't disengage their beacons by the end of their turn or whatever.

This seems kind of rude, Ankama!

You know, I have enough Kokokos in my home nation. Chafers are too silly, and I visit Bonta too much already! Let's do Toads!

Without a proper design, you don't know what are the pieces you need to make to form the proper system. Without that, you can't start coding. Period. It's like walking in the pitch black night without a single light: You may get to where you want to go, but it's more likely that you'll mess up somehow.

Also, you always need tests. Tests make it so that you know things work and don't crash the game immediately, as well as reduce the number of bug fixes you'll need in the future. (Now, as for how good Ankama's tests are, that's another story.)

People are misreading. The changes that will be made to the Cras, Eniripsas, and Xelors have not been finalized. However, this does not necessarily mean they won't be ready before this new patch. What it says is that the patch notes for these three classes are not ready yet but will be ready before the patch hits.

Actually, the other branches can take a few of the bomb ones to take advantage of some alternate effects. Air can use Magnetic Glove to push opponents away. Earth can take that or any of the other shot spells to add additional damage.

Really, Air is the one that lacks good alternatives. Earth has just enough skills, and Fire has a few too many. :/ Hope they figure that out eventually.

You get plenty of AP with gear and Merry stacks, so it's not necessary to have that +1 AP. HP and Strength are the usual recommendations. Gear can usually cover the rest of your build with the buff in AP due to Merry stacks.

@Venusquake: I'm actually okay with the Earth and Air branches' skills. It's just the cost of the Air skills is a bit silly in terms of WP. Air equipment gives consistent MP bonuses, so the MP costs are offset most of the time. It's the fact that there are two WP skills that limits the Air skills, which is the wrong thing to do with Air skills. Usually, one WP skill per branch is fine, but two limits you in actions.

Also, about Air skills: Honestly, Air is about a lot of things. Keywords to use are, but are not limited to: Ranged, fast, misdirection, deceive, movement, and small. Rogues' Air skills seem to personify Fast, Movement, Small (Except for the WP skill Long Blade and Boomerang Blade), and Deceive, with a little bit of Ranged. These are things that are pretty much constant with most other Air branches, and it's pretty okay. I would like to know the actual purpose for Ribs, because, if it's an Uppercut attack, Rogues do not want it. They'd be better off with a mid-strength melee attack.

As a side note, I'm worried about the Specialties that Air Rogues can take. I only see three, maybe four that they'll be willing to take before having to go for something that probably would benefit Fire or Earth infinitely more. An Active skill for Air would be p. great, or maybe make Trick deal Air damage or add more functionality to Fiddle to mesh well with Air.

About Initiative: That's the point. Rogues are able to quickly prepare bomb clusters with high Initiative. They are also able to start moving into position and preparing high-damage strikes with Boombot's Ricochet / Extender ability. In fact, having Initiative as a high stat is great for PvM -and- PvP, which is why it's such an excellent way to incentivise another stat apart from AP, MP, Dodge, and HP.

About Cost of Fire Bombs: Fire Bombs are made to be balanced in terms of spamming combos of bombs: Ankama doesn't want Rogues to be quickly spamming bomb walls wherever they need, which they could at 3 AP / Bomb, but they can't at 4 AP / Bomb.

-----------

Now, for some theorycrafting:

An Air Rogue will want to have Air Master, Runaway, Rogue Master, and Magnetic Glove, with the addition of maybe Trick in for additional movement manipulation. Stats will probably favor 1 MP and a combination of Initiative and HP for damage and durability. Equipment will probably go for AP, MP, and Damage/Initiative, but Dodge and HP will also be equally good.

Combos with Air will probably involve:
Boomerang Blade > Cunning > Fast Blade (6AP, 3 MP): Gap Closer
3x Fast Blade > Move back attempt > Cunning: (6 AP, 3 MP) Constant Damage.
Cunning > Long Blade: (6 AP, 2 MP) Position, Hard Hit, and Push Away.

Ribs is a strange skill and will probably be useful in some fashion as additional damage, but I'm not sure of its position yet, mainly since I haven't tried an Air Iop's Uppercut yet.

Fire Rogues want too many skills and, thus, will probably stick with mid-range positioning and damage with bombs. Detonator, Magnetic Glove, Boombot, Trick, Bomber Fan, and Rogue Master all are useful to the Fire Rogue. I'd probably lose Boombot in this case, as I'd rather have Rogue Master. However, this all depends on the 5th Fire skill; if it's a WP-cost skill, I'll lose Boombot. Else, keep Boombot and drop Trick, most likely. Stats will favor 1 AP, if not 2, and... don't know. Dodge? HP? MP? Range? It's tricky, at this point, to say what will be more necessary. HP and Dodge are useful to get around, but Dodge isn't necessary with Magnetic Glove giving you easy pushing for melee enemies. Range is great for additional range on bombs and attacks, but isn't vital. This leaves MP and HP, the former which is great for anyone in order to get where you need to be, and the latter, well... It's HP.

Combos will be nonexistent. You'll want to strive for 12 AP in order to drop 3 Bombs in a row for Chains, but that'll be impossible until MUCH later in the game. Damage is also necessary, but most of your skills deal respectable damage. Combos will revolve around using bombs to deal damage over time while you ready up combos for detonation and more damage. You also need to be extremely careful about party damage, but Magnetic Glove is great for moving people out and in wherever you need them to be.

As a side note, you can dip into some Earth spells using Fiddler, but that's one additional skill you'd be spending points on. Also doesn't seem to be all that great. You can probably get some excellent damage out of Fire percentages, the bonus, and Earth spells, but... for 1 WP? Not stable damage enough.

Earth Rogues seem to want to be using lots of elements and strange AoE / Range increasing mechanics with the Boombot. I'd do the rest of it, but you can see the progression. Boombot, Surprise Shot, Magnetic Glove, Fiddler, maybe even Rogue Master... maybe.

As for Stats and such... eh. I'm not into doing this theory craft, so someone else can pick up where I left on this.

Edit: Oh wow another huge post.

In summary, Rogues seem to be pretty great, but Air might need a better 4th skill and maybe synergy with an additional Specialty. Earth really does feel like it should have a Bomb or something, I don't know, but it's okay; Boombot's Extender seems to be worth messing around with.

Worried about mobs attacking the Boombot randomly. That'll be fun to deal with. Also positioning the Boombot for Extender damage.

It's a positive change, though!


This post has been edited by TaobaSanjuro - April 05, 2012, 04:28:09.

He's probably saying that, if you're in a battle where the point is to kill all the enemies quickly, and you think you can end it fast, keep the barrel and end it fast. Otherwise, manage when you should have your barrel and when you should not. Dropping it at L. 20 Merry is a good idea for when you need to just add some extra effects such as Resist or Lock in a long battle.

For example, in a legit run of Black Crow, I would advise against actually holding your barrel the entire battle. Instead, leave it around you, warp back and forth to stay safe, and pick it up when necessary. Otherwise, you're just going to end up killing yourself.

Because it's supposed to be a combination. However, you're not supposed to deal the bulk of your damage with Water. You're supposed to actually use one (1) water spell a turn, if that, and the rest Fire. As in, 1x Milky Breath, 2x Light My Fire.

I'm pretty sure that, eventually, the damage off Fire actually surpasses Water, but it takes awhile to do so. You'll probably get to those levels of damage during soloing. Partying with one other player makes soloing a bit funner, though, allowing you to not have to spend turns repositioning enemies that much.

Pretty much what's above. You really can't deal all that much damage as a solo Fire panda, since all of your skills have the Dizzy bonus factored into their overall damage.

However, I can tell you which skills you should be looking for as a Fire panda.

[First, I'll note that Fire skills' additional effects are based on Dizzy's stacks. In other words, if your target has Dizzy level 100, it'll have a 100% chance of activating.]

[Second, I'll note that Incandescent Milk only requires 1 stack of Dizzy to work, although more allows you to stack the levels much quicker.]

1. Incandescent Milk: Put 1 point early to take advantage of the effect, and max it later on, after Karchamrak. Important because it's the key to the Fire thing, as well as helping your overall damage.

2. Karchamrak: Bread and butter of any Panda, save maybe some Earth Builds. Karchamrak is what is usually referred to as the Carry/Toss skill. Use it once in melee to pick up a target, use it again to toss the target in a line. Useful to get out of Lock/Dodge range when maxed, since it only costs 1 AP per Carry or Toss (2 AP for a Carry and then a Toss), as well as positioning targets into the Incandescent Milk damage.

Those are pretty much the two necessary skills, period. With these, you can stack on a lot of damage, given a few other things later on. Other support skills that you should consider:

3. Bamboozle: Since Fire requires Dizzy for its additional effects, whichever way you look at it, this is a pretty awesome skill! First, Bamboozle gives you (and allies around you) L.20 Merry, which gives a +20% damage increase. Furthermore, Enemies within range get L.10 Dizzy, getting a 10% Resist reduction. Biggest problem lies in that Bamboozle costs 1 AP 1 WP. The former, the 1 AP, isn't a problem at all, but the latter, 1 WP, is. You can only use this skill 6 times if you don't use any other WP skill, so think about your plan beforehand!

4. Barrelhop: The other WP-using skill you'll probably consider. Allows you to teleport from massive distances when you target your barrel. Great for getting close or getting out. Also gives L.10 Merry, giving a +10% damage increase. Useful, but you need to be careful with being so close in those cases.

5. Master of Merriment: Useful for the Dodge bonus (+50 Dodge at level 20) and the light regeneration of HP when Merry at certain tiers! Probably should max it eventually, but not for any reason other than the Dodge.

6. Ether: And this is the last WP skill. I'd really suggest it if it didn't cost 1 WP; it really makes this not as useful for pretty much any Panda, since Barrelhops and Bamboozles use so much of it. Stabilizes the target, forcing them out of pretty much every single escape mechanism other than moving out manually. Also reduces Lock and, most importantly for you, removes LoS problems from that target. If it didn't have the WP cost, I'd recommend it to you SO FAST, but the WP cost makes it a problem for all of us. Also reduces Worn Out.

7. Barrel: Don't need it unless you're using Barrelhop. (Don't remember if it's needed for Bamboozle; might be.) Gives additional Quarts / uses of the Barrel you can summon from at level 0. At level 9, it allows you to summon Barrels at 2 AP instead of 3 AP. Not really useful at all for you.

8. Milky Instincts: The only reason why you should be levelling Barrel as well, if at all. Allows you to negate some damage dealt to you when the attacker is Dizzied. At levels 16 - 20, makes the Barrel Flaming, something that was useful for the previous iteration of Fire Panda, but not this one. Not really that useful for Fire pandas; you can probably skip it easily.

9. Bottomless Barrel: Increases Barrel Quarts and Lock on Pandawa. Not on your life unless you need the Lock for some ridiculous reason. Nope.

10. Aggressive Barrel: Reflects some damage the barrel receives, and dizzies the target. Requires the Barrel out and it hit. All but useless unless you have Milky Instincts, and even then it's pretty bad. If the Dizzy were something that were easier to apply, or if monsters hit the barrel more than they do even now, this would be a pretty great way for you to level. However, neither is true, so don't think about it. Nope. Never.

As far as Attributes goes, you're going to want AP. Why? Assuming you use a Water skill every turn, you lose about 2-4 AP per turn, depending on which skill you use. (Remember that its level does not ever matter; the Dizzy stacks will always be the same.) Therefore, you're going to want to be able to use at least 4 more AP for Explosive Flask and Dairy Springer, and maybe a bit more for Milking It. Assuming the 4 AP water skill is used every turn, that leaves you using Light My Fire (2 AP) every turn at 6 AP total. Therefore, a good goal to have is 8 AP, but I'd try to go for 9 just to be safe and be able to throw in a Milking It sometimes, or a Karchamrak use if needed.

So, 1 AP is pretty good, unless you want to hold out for a 1 AP weapon, a 1 AP Fire set, and / or, later on, a 1 AP ring. Either way, you're going to want to consider two more things: Range, and Intelligence. The former, Range, is useful to reach targets with some of your other skills. The latter, Intelligence, gives Fire Damage, which is your goal. If you can deal with your basic Range, dump the rest of the points in Intelligence. Else, grab a piece of armor that gives + Range or spend points on a + Range, and then go for Intelligence.

As previously mentioned, you want AP, Intelligence / Fire Damage, and Range. MP is always a great thing to also have, but not vital. Your gear should focus on these stats. I'm not the best Fire gear person, so someone else can fill in that blank, or you can search through Wakfu-Elements' database of items, armor, and sets for that.

Finally, skills. Since the Fire branch requires a lot of skills to synergize, be prepared for relatively low skill levels. As you get additional AP, that'll allow you to focus on one or two Fire skills, while keeping only one Water skill in relatively constant use.

Well, actually, that's not the only thing. Of note, remember that the state Incandescent Milk deals damage in a 1-radius cross of the afflicted target. This damage is done to anything in the adjacent squares, whether ally, enemy, or barrel, so be wary of where you use that. This is pretty much the reason why I do suggest getting some amount of MP or Range; it allows you to position Fire Skills on the appropriate targets.

Good luck and enjoy!

I am likewise intrigued. However, it was mentioned on the French forums that Rogues have a surprising amount of skills that use WP. In the Air branch alone, you have two WP skills, and the Earth Branch has 1, although Fiddler can be consider to be another.

We'll see, but I'm definitely interested!

So you mean that fighting is more important than having the items in your bag disappear or being able to get to certain places without having the game completely crash on you?

Nope, sorry. I'm okay with seeing classes be kinda unbalanced as long as things are being fixed. And they are being fixed, just not at the rate of all of the things / day.

Edit: Might as well also mention this, but when Ankama says that they "Prioritize bug-fixing", they actually mean that they put bugs on a scale based on how important it is for the game to work AS WELL AS how simple it is to fix versus cost in time.

Probably, the item fix took more time than other things, and they released that with the other fixes while other people are handling where the errant problems with Precision, Beacons, and other such skills lie.


This post has been edited by TaobaSanjuro - April 03, 2012, 17:45:10.

Pretty much the person above me.

It's an MMO, and one centered on us doing things that cause other actions to happen. Build up a guild and screw up the world in Politics, and see how everyone else either falls or bands to combat your tyranny. Be a bit more creative.

Also, I'm pretty sure the hint was made that you're supposed to hide behind certain things to avoid certain attacks. Might want a Pandawa with high Initiative to be on the ready to toss people to safety, and an Eni to revive people. Probably an Osa to summon a few mobs to take hits in case something wrong happens.

It's equally amusing to see how blind and uncreative most people are.


This post has been edited by TaobaSanjuro - April 02, 2012, 07:31:12.