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LordRichard28

[Niflheim] Ultimate Tank & Devotion [Royal Guard] - (Updated: 09/02/2020)

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Tank & Devotion Royal Guard
(Demonstration Video Included)

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So your party said they needed a tanky boi, and here you are, entrusted with the mission of protecting your fellow teammates, but the thing is... How to protect them, if you have no idea where to start with protecting yourself?!

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Follow me, and I will show you the secrets to achieving the "impossible", the ultimate tanky boi build, step by step!

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Build Objectives:

- Neutral/elemental physical & magical resistance: no need to comment on this, right? RIGHT?!

- MaxHP: no matter how much protection you can sport, your enemies allies are always there to take a hit for you... no, wait! <triggered>

- Fixed/variable cast time reduction: instant Devotion cast heaven (Devotion has 1.5s of both VCT and FCT).

- Hard Defense: this will be crucial to reduce part of the leftover damage (elemental melee attacks).

 

So where do we even begin with our build?

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Equipment

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Here I'll be listing out MY PERSONAL PICKS for the end-game possibilities for your build. Keep in mind that this might not be cheap... AT ALL.

Headgears

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Upper

 

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- Palace Guard Hat: This is the best hat for a neutral resistance based build, pretty straight forward. At +20 will grant you with 20% neutral property damage reduction (any attack, melee, ranged or magical) and an extra 20% long ranged damage reduction. (Best in Slot)

 

- Spirit King's Crown: A great switch alternative in case you don't want to invest in the other fixed cast reduction solutions I presented in this guide. Note that you will have it at +15 for 100% reduction and also have to switch it every time you need to cast Devotion, so it might be a hustle to some people.

 

Middle & Lower

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- Feathers & Cloth of Protection: This is, in my opinion, the best middle/lower headgear combo, it will boost your hard DEF MDEF, VIT and MaxHP greatly. (Best in Slot)


Armor

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- Vit Soutane: at +20 this armor is the best option for you, since it will give you an enormous boost in MaxHP and VIT. You will need it with Vit Blessing and preferably with the sum of enchants between 6~16 VIT or 6~10 MaxHP, or even a mix of both, try to get the highest roll you can (for comfort). (Best in Slot)

 

- King's Mail: in case you are not wearing a GTB card (it will nullify buffs and healing skills), this a great alternative in case the soutane is too hard to get, with it you will have MaxHP, increased healing effectiveness from items, self healing skills and incoming healing skills from party members.


Weapon

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- Valkyrie Hammer: best option IMO for this build since it increases MaxHP and VIT and has 4 slots. (Best in Slot)


Shield

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- Immune Shield: this is the best shield for this build, since you will get 13% neutral property damage reduction at +12 (33% so far with the hat) and extra 5% for fire, water, wind and earth elements. (Best in Slot)


Garment

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- Immune Hero Cape: at +18 it will give you a total of 33% neutral property damage reduction (66% in total). (Best in Slot)

 

Important Note: this garment will be fixed in a future update (I have reported it myself), it's supposed to give you 3% every 3 refines, so this will amount an extra 6% neutral property damage reduction, which will result in 39% neutral property damage reduction at +18. (I will update this when it is fixed.)


Shoes

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- Automatic Leg B-type: with Automatic Module (Vital), Automatic Module (Fixed Casting) & Automatic Module (Defense) are the best shoes for this build, as you will have extra MaxHP, a great fixed cast time reduction for Devotion (0.8s out of the skill's 1.5s) and Hard Defense to reduce incoming elemental physical damage. (Best in Slot)


Accessories

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- Imperial Gloves: the main reason to pick this one as a fixed item in your build, is for casting skills, but you can easily switch it to one of the other two options below, based on your needs, if you get enough fixed / variable cast reduction. (Best in Slot 1)

- Glorious Ring: since the build is directed at NEUTRAL property damage reduction, this accessory might come in handy to reduce fire, water, wind and earth elemental damage (15% in total with immune shield). (Best in Slot 2)

- King Schmidt's Rigid Insignia: if you need extra MaxHP, this is the best option for the second accessory slot, and you can try your luck and enchant it with VIT. (Best in Slot 2)

 

Badge

Spoiler

 

 

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- Intelligence Badge: Make sure to pick this one up at the MVP Ladder, since it is essential for Devotion's fixed cast reduction (leaving a total of 1.1s out of the 1.5s). (Best in Slot)

 

 


Cards

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Headgear (Upper)

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- Arc Angeling Card: best card for HP recovery that you can use in this build. (Best in Slot - needs 77 or more base LUK points)

 

- Maya Purple Card: a good option for Bio 5 and Fortessa Pit, since some mobs have invisibility skills.


Armor

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- Contaminated Raydric Card: since we are focusing this build primarily on neutral property damage reduction, this will be your best option for an extra 10% (76% reduction in total). (Best in Slot - Tank role)


- Tao Gunka Card: the second best armor card for this build, will help you tank more hits coming from party members under the protection of Devotion, but you will only have 90% neutral reduction with it, works best if you are not the main tank of the party. (Best in Slot - Devotion role)


Weapon

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- Darklord Essence Vitality 3: four of those will be your best option as far as HP (VIT), DEF and MDEF goes. (Best in Slot)


Shield

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- Golden Thiefbug Card: this card is your best option in end-game content maps, since those rely heavily on magical damage. (Best in Slot - vs Heavy Magic Damage Mobs)


- Alice Card: the best option if you need resistance against boss damage, usually from end-game content maps, in case you lack GTB, or they don't use strong magical spells. (Best in Slot - vs Heavy Boss Damage)


- Khalitzburg Knight Card: a very decent option for farming normal monsters and instances - if there's no heavy boss/magical damage to worry about.


Garment

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- Raydric Card: Since we are opting for the Hero Cape, Raydric is the best option for neutral property damage reduction (Deviling will not work there, and in this case you will have more neutral reduction and no elemental damage damage increase) totaling 96% (102% when the garment is fixed). (Best in Slot)


Shoes

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- Firelock Soldier Card: this is my personal pick, not much to comment on it, just a nice MaxHP boost, feel free to use anything else that pleases you instead. (Best in Slot)


Accessories

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- Broken Guard Beta Card: you are going for this card for the MaxHP and VIT only. (Best in Slot - 1 and 2)

 


Shadow Set

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Hard Champion & Athena Shadow Set

The complete skill set, at +10 will:

- Increase MaxHP/SP by 7%

- Increase Hard DEF by 250

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Perfect Size Shadow Armor

For the shadow armor, I picked the Perfect Size Shadow Armor, which will give you a boost in your defensive stats.

 

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Hasty Shadow Weapon

This one is optional, I choose it for the increased movement speed factor, which will help quite a bit, but feel free to pick something else instead.

 

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Athena Shadow Set / Almighty Shadow Set

The Athena Shadow Earring and Resist Spell Power Shadow Pendant combo will give you 2% neutral property damage reduction, making it a total of 98% so far (note that after the Hero Cape is fixed, those will no longer be needed).

The +20 stat boost from the Almighy Shadow set will boost your MaxHP with VIT and also help with variable cast reduction, so it's a nice option, in case you already have 100% neutral damage reduction or in case you don't mind sacrificing those 2% in return for more stats.

 

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Enchants

The best option here is to get 2% MaxHP on each piece that can be enchanted.

 

 

Costumes

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As for the costumes, there is no secret, just use the Royal Guard II (Garment) + Paladin Stones II (Top/Upper) for the fixed cast time reduction (completing a total of -1.6s of the 1.5s of Devotion's fixed cast), MaxHP enchants on the top costume, and any other stone that gives you MaxHP.

 

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For the garment, you should go with Holy and Shadow Elements, if possible (shadow is the best one for Fortessa Pit 1) and Poison garment for Fortessa Ruins.

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Pet

Spoiler

 

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- Hard Rice Cake Pet: And for last but not least, the last 2% of the full 100% neutral property damage reduction. This pet when Loyal will grant you the final bonus to reach 100%. Note that after the Hero Cape is fixed, this will also be optional.

 

Consumables

Spoiler

 

 

The list of consumables that you can use is extensive, and might get expensive in the long run, so make sure to pick them depending on your needs, my recommendation is to always bring:

- Healing items such as Superb Fishes or Slim White Potions;

- Yggdrasil Leaves to resurrect party members if needed;

- Siegfried Tokens, as many as you can, specially if you don't trust your party members all that much :kek:;

- HP regenerating potions to decrease your chances of dying and saving you healing supplies;

- Almighty, sticks and other stats boosting consumables for instant variable cast and extra Vit.

 

 

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Important Note: All of the HP regenerating potions can be stacked, even though they are not displayed on the buff bar, this was thoroughly tested out, so do not worry.

 

 

Skill Tree

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This is my skill tree variation, aside from the essential skills, which I'll be listing below, you will end up with many skill points to distribute as you see fit, so go on ahead and try new variations.

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Must have:

- Devotion at level 5: you can protect up to 5 players at once.

- Auto Guard at level 10: 30% chance to block incoming physical attacks.

- Defender at level 5: extremely useful, specially for Fortessa Pit & Ruins Sharp Shooting and Severe Rainstorm will tear your party members and YOU, as a consequence, apart.

- Vanguard Force at level 5: extra MaxHP to tank Devotion damage.

- Inspiration at level 5: the MaxHP boost will help.

- Shield Spell at level 1: the health regeneration will come in handy when using Devotion.

- Prestige at level 5: Hard DEF + chance to avoid magic spells is always helpful, specially if you don't have a GTB card.

Recommended:

- Cavalry Mastery at level 5: bonus weight capacity and move speed.

- Trample at level 3: useful in Fortessa Pit, since creatures lay down traps in there.

- Banding at level 5: some extra Hard DEF based on how many party members you have around you.

 

Anything else that is not a prerequisite, feel free to play around with.

 

 

STATS and how my set looks like at the moment:

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Str for carrying more consumables/loot, Int and Dex for the instant variable cast, since Devotion has 1.5s and Luk for the Arc Angeling Card.

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Demonstration Video:

 

Final considerations:

With the 100% neutral damage reduction, you will be able to tank all NEUTRAL melee, ranged and magical damage from Fortessa Dungeons, Pit and Ruins (Severe Rainstorm, Cross Impact (if not poison enchanted), Ignition Break & Comet), Bio 5 (except for elemental melee & spells/traps) and anything else you attempt, such as end game instances and extreme farming.

The partial elemental resistance as well as your Hard Defense will also benefit you greatly, since some creatures have elemental based melee attacks, which will bypass your neutral strategy.

The extremely high HP will also help you tank damage from your DEAR TEAMMATES THAT YOU LOVE SO DEARLY!!

The rest of it is up to you (player skill) of course, so practice endlessly until you get the feel of the build and are comfortable with the support skills and consumables.

 

Enjoy, and if you have any questions or suggestions, whatsoever, ask away.

 

 

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and by the way, have you heard about my pie friend?

 

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Edited by LordRichard28
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2 hours ago, ForeverLestat said:

Can you share some battle stats?

I'm interested in your MDEF, DEF, HP, and other resists in general.

I'll update it with extra info soon

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Mmm. Just for reference, and I mean, purely for reference, mid headgear, Noble Mask reduces Devo VCT by 2s (it has 1.5s VCT). Oh, and MHP +2%.

Pretty neat, if hilariously expensive guide overall. My in-game wallet cries equally in joy for another RG build, and in despair at the cost.

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12 hours ago, 11099941 said:

Mmm. Just for reference, and I mean, purely for reference, mid headgear, Noble Mask reduces Devo VCT by 2s (it has 1.5s VCT). Oh, and MHP +2%.

Pretty neat, if hilariously expensive guide overall. My in-game wallet cries equally in joy for another RG build, and in despair at the cost.

I'm not a big fan of the Noble Mask, since you are left with so many stat points and there it's so easy to achieve VCT reduction, those are only my top picks. Same way as you could include Save the King as your weapon, unless you use GTB, which is my case.

It's pretty expensive, but fun to mess around with xD

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11 hours ago, ForeverLestat said:

Awesome. And any screenshots showing what your taking "per hit" from popular things you tank. if you can swing it.

I had some material planned, with videos and everything but I lost it, unfortunately, I might log in to record again in the upcoming days.

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I'm looking for a class that can reliably stay alive and farm at least in Fortessa Dungeon 1. Can this do damage? Or is it 100% for party play?

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On 24/02/2021 at 10:52 AM, Null said:

I'm looking for a class that can reliably stay alive and farm at least in Fortessa Dungeon 1. Can this do damage? Or is it 100% for party play?

100% party play, 0 damage. You could try mixing it with the Genesis Ray build, but it's just a guess.

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