[Niflheim] A Tanky Guide to RG

[MeonEspeon 9]

Yo guys, call me Meon in game, and i'm here to enlighten the roles that not too many people do coz it's not flashy af:

TANKS! 

But fear not! As a tanky RG, you'll be using a real flashy skill of all:

GENESIS RAY! 

"Waaaait a minute... genesis ray takes your HP, it removes your tankiness instead! You're a sham!"

Not in this case, my dear viewers! now I have a proposal of solution for your worries! a DIVINE GUARD HAT!

Spam your HOLY CROSS, proc GENESIS RAY,  further proc TUNA BELLY and heal you up! EZ Tank!

Okay, enough foolin' around, let's go to main content now 

 

The Royal Guardian: A Tanky Guide to RG

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Stats Distribution

3. Noteworthy Skills

4. Equipment & Cards to Look for

5. TL;DR Playstyle

6. Closing Statements

 

1. Introduction

Soo, while most people likes to play hyper aggresive DPS to clear most game contents by theirselves, there are some contents made specifically for party play, thus making purely DPS-based character get wiped in a split second there. How do we clear those then? The answer is.... The fabled Party Play! Yeah, I know it's just a myth, but it works really well! A party consists of at least a Tank, a Support, and a DPS (Physical or Magical, your call (pun intended) ). I say "at least" coz you may appreciate an extra tank to consider being flanked from the sides. More DPS in party are.. well it's like a battle between who dies first really, the opposing team or your tank, coz the tank's death are often the end of your party's journey. Supports mostly keeps the party alive (especially the tank) by buffing and healing them when needed, but think for a moment: How much of a responsibility it is for a support in a 12-man party? They'll have their hands full, so more of this role are often appreciated by the existing ones.

Enough about party talk, now let's move on to more specific ones. Royal Guard (RG) has a lot of defensive skills that are beneficial to yourself or even to your party. No, i'm not talking about smacking your shield to your enemies, that's a totally different build. This guide specifically will tell my experience about a self sustaining RG that needs like almost no external buffs at all, Dispel doesn't bother you too much about it. As mentioned above, we spam Holy Cross (Crusader/Paladin skill) to proc Genesis Ray (RG skill), to further proc Tuna Belly (Doram skill) that heals you for 30% MAX HP. Crazy, isn't it? But there's a catch to it: If your HP is less than the HP lost on Genesis Ray (i.e. 15% on level 10), you'll die instantly instead. You can actually directly use Genesis Ray to directly proc Tuna Belly, but it'll have the casting bars and it can be interrupted by the enemies. Remember, you want your stats & gears for tanking, not for instacast. Also, you'll want as many HIT as possible, as missing Holy Cross WILL NOT PROC Genesis Ray. Perfect Hits are super welcome here, so Verus Core and Gungnir are a no brainer if available. Also, don't be surprised if you deal like close to no damage at all. Your role is to take damage, not to deal damage.

2. Stats Distribution

120 VIT or more. Srsly who puts less than that on a tank? For the rest of the stats:

This may be not the most optimum one, but here's my opinion:

• VIT gives HP, obviously. 100+ gives immunity to stun.
• AGI gives flee. May not matter much when facing big bois, so we can opt to raise another stats instead. 100 AGI guarantees immunity to sleep & bleeding though.
• INT gives soft MDEF, I mean why not squeeze every reduction we can get. 100 INT also means immunity to Silence.
• DEX gives HIT, self explanatory. Opt to raise this to 120. Also gives a bit of resistance to Strip equipments, irowiki said.
• LUK gives extra HIT for every 3 points of it. Squeeze all the HITs you can have, you'll come to appreciate them later.
• STR gives extra carrying capacity, maybe for extra healing stuffs coz your gears are kinda heavy in the first place. I use 10x Gym Pass, so I can slack on those.

• Hard MDEF (Equipment MDEF): You can aim for 100 Hard MDEF for Stone/Freeze immunity, though you'll get hit and get cancelled from the debuffs anyway. Also check https://irowiki.org/wiki/MDEF for details on magic damage reduction. If possible though, get this stat a lot. Personally I prefer Perfect Hit from Verus Core.
• Hard DEF (Equipment DEF): Have a lot of this, endgame monsters hit harder than you imagine. https://irowiki.org/wiki/DEF for details.
• Perfect Hit: It's not shown in the Status Window, but you get this from equipment. Get these for those pesky AGI UP monsters who double their FLEE to the roof!
• Anti-Knockback: This thing is also not shown (To be fair, it's not even stats), but often neglected by most players. Sure, you can tank them close to the wall, but you'll risk not being able to move anywhere else while your team got flanked or not being to take aggro on approaching monsters. For me, this is a MUST have for tanks, even if sacrificing some of their "tankiness" early game.

Honorable mention:

• Low ATK and MATK: You deal like thousands of damage, when your DPS deal millions of damage. This is normal, and don't be depressed - Your role is important in keeping the party long lasting!
• Critical: Sadly physical skills (except a few) can't crit to guarantee a hit, so this doesn't matter at all. Seek Perfect Hit instead from equipments.
• Perfect Dodge: You can opt to do perfect dodge tank. I'm not covering it in this guide though, I'm lacking the experience to cover it
• ASPD: Holy Cross has a fixed animation rate, so max ASPD won't let you spam 7 HC in a second. Just leave it as is, or try to minmax the most HC you can do in a period of time. No, I'm not doing that

 

3. Noteworthy Skills

RG has so many utility skills that can be used to survive in battles. I'll just cover the ones that is / seems important to my opinion. Feel free to point out the other skills that i may have neglected/forgotten!

1st Job skills:

• Increase HP Recovery: Get all HP recovery you can get, especially if you still need to spam potions.
• Endure: the MDEF + 10 is nice, but when looking at the number of attacks you receive from endgame monsters, this'll cancel like right away. Personally i don't really utilize it much, maybe for P.Dodge tank it is more viable though.
• Provoke: You can get aggro with this, but... Srsly you wanna take more damage than you receive? Use this ONLY on the magic dealers, unless you got something as OP like physical GTB card. I don't use this too, coz of the risk. (Also too many buttons to press )

2nd Class skill

 

• Faith: I mean.. Extra HP and 50% Holy Res? You're playing the game wrong if you don't MAX this in your final build.
• Auto Guard: Basically 30% of the time you're immune to physical stuffs. Level it up to MAX.
• Defender: This thing is my favorite skill. It slows you down, but gives 80% res to ranged attacks (not to magical, they're different). The slow may look bad, but it paces you and your party to be careful, especially in a higher density areas or an expanding channel, which are prone to ambushes.
• Devotion: While this protects your teammate from taking damage, don't chew more than what you can do. AoE skills from enemy means double the damage to you, or even 6 times if you full YOLO it. Use this accordingly and carefully, and prioritize your supports although they usually stay far back away from the range.
• Holy Cross: The one you'll be spamming your way into, take just the pre-reqs for Grand Cross, which is pre-reqs for Devotion if you wish to utilize that.
• Grand Cross: The pre-reqs for Genesis Ray. If doing higher levels of Genesis Ray, do lv5. Otherwise, just leave it as is.
• Providence: 25% Resistance is sweet, but it can be dispelled. Go for it if party member needs it, too bad it can't be self cast. However, it will take a LOT of your skill points, so think about it carefully.
• Heal: wut r u doing even m8. You got Tuna Belly coming, which is definitely a better healing skill for you.

3rd class skill

• Genesis Ray: The skill to proc Tuna Belly.. But wait! I'd rather not skilling it for tanking build. First, the Divine Guard Helm will proc you a level 1 Genesis Ray when doing Holy Cross. The Tuna Belly proc from it will always be at level 2 regardless of the skill level of Genesis Ray, so it serves as waste of skill points. Second,  the Divine Guard Helm will proc Genesis Ray at the highest level learned, which means it'll proc level 10 Genesis Ray if maxed. Sounds good? NO! The higher level of it takes MORE of your HP to do the skill, so at max level you'll have only 85% effective HP before you die trying to cast the spell via Holy Cross. Leave it, don't level it up EVER for pure tankers.
• Pinpoint Attack: For me, this is like the "get aggro" skill. You leap to your enemies from a distance, and they'll be occupied on you if you're the one attacking first. Be sure to let your party know: You leap first, then they attack! The violation of this sequence may result in your DPS taking aggro instead, killing them instantly and continue to the next closest party member.
• King's Grace: This sweet buff can remove a lot of debuffs from your allies, and give them HP regen! Use this as needed, although if you got only ranged/magical DPS members you may have difficult time getting close to them while getting hit at the same time.
• Inspiration: Removes buff/debuff, but dramatically increases your stats (big amount of MAX HP) for a given duration of time. It has casting time, so unless you opt for phen card / the others, cast it before storming a lot of enemies. Also worth to mention, this buff is not dispellable, making it a great tool to use.
• Reflect Damage: Haven't tested much of it yet, but if it means damage reduction to you then YES. Beware of the SP drain, you'll need items to replenish them.
• Piety: Grants holy element armor to you + party members nearby. Sweet, but dispellable.
• Prestige: This thing will make you hard as rock! It increases your DEF and %avoid magic, until you realize you got dispelled and the cooldown is pretty long. Only use this in non dispel environment, or you'll break your heart more than your shield.
• Vanguard Force: While it's not written in there, it increases your HP pool by 15%. It has cast time though, so be careful on casting those mid-fight.
• Earth Drive: This skill reveals concealed enemies if hit, but the best thing is it removes ground effect. Kill those Safety Walls preventing you from hitting your Holy Cross, but be careful because it removes Land Protector in your small radius too!
• Full Throttle: If you got like no other options, use this skill to regain HP & SP back to full, but only use it on MAX level. The lower levels will drain you more HP than you imagine, it's horrifying. The another option is Yggdrasil seed/berries, which is farmable and not as dangerous as this skill.

4. Equipment and Cards to Look for

There will be times when you're just starting out, and then slowly crawl your way to the top of the meta. I myself have like no idea at all about current meta game (or ever, i play as random as it gets), but basically you'll want to farm the equipments yourself or just save some funds and buy those from cash shop / players. While most of em are to your creativity, only 1 item that is too good to pass on, even for offensive builds: DIVINE GUARD HAT. For killing monster / MVP, quickly switch to this and heal up when things get rough, and switch back to your offensive helm to continue attacking. Here are some options for the gears from top to bottom, and again, feel free to add / comment on your version of the build!

4.1. Headgear

For the top headgear, you can get Divine Guard Hat for 5000 Cash Point (Obtained by donating, rewards or converting in-game 50 Moon Coins, MCs, into cash point) from Cash Shop Expert (the THIKK Cat) to the right of @go office entrance. If you're short on MCs, another option is a highly enchanted Old Guardian Crown, which is gotten from Nightmare Biolabs Old Headgear Quest. Aim for the MDEF or HP% Enchant. But come on, by the time you enchant your Bio5 hat to high levels, you may have realized you could buy enough MCs for Divine Guard Hat from selling your bio5 Fragments  

For mid/lower headgear, aim for those Protection set. They increase my ~82k to ~95k HP, also for those crazy DEF/MDEF bonuses. Note that they cripple your ASPD too, so this set may not be your option for hybrid offensives.

Another option is the Seraphim set, which increase healing you do / received. It feels nice, but it may not help you from getting one-shot due to lack of HP, DEF and MDEF bonuses.

Both of those sets are dropped from World Boss Box, they may be sold expensively by players so feel free to use what you have until you get your hands of a set.

I'm poor at identifying cards, these are the ones i could think of for them. Bungisngis for the obvious HP increase, or Maya Purple to detect those pesky hidden enemies (Kavac Himiya, Fortessa Dungeon 2). At the very least you could warn your party of their presence to turn on Sight/Ruwach, or use a Horong card yourself.

4.2. Armor

For starting point, the airship set may be viable to increase your HP pool. The same as Tarlock/Ferlock sets, but they require refines to be the same or superior than the airship ones. The Engraved Armor has that sweet +25 MDEF to back you up against magic (where do we get this thing again? i forgot lol). The Brave Plate is a solid choice for their +10% HP bonus and various stats and a card slot, gotten from Bios/Morse Instance. The last 2 indestructible items, Abyss Dress and Medical Scrubs (a.k.a. Holy Coat), are dropped from Fortessa Pit. The Abyss Dress -while its stats are not inclined for tanking- has the anti-knockback feature which is important as i mentioned earlier. However, it lacks a card slot for customization. On the other hand, Medical Scrubs give like godly amount of defense (350 DEF at +10), +10 MDEF, increased recovery rate of skills dealt and received, and it has a card slot. It doesn't have innate anti-knockback feature though, so you'll need to find it from another source.

Card-wise, you may opt for element armor cards if you don't have an elemental costume garment yet. My (narrow) options are Ominous Solider card which gives a high amount of DEF and %HP, or jump straight to RSX-0806 card for the luxury. I prefer the knockback prevention on this armor slot because, you'll see why later on. Or Tao Gunka, or Infinity Tao Gunka if you have it, but they cripple you and you'll need another source of anti-knockback which I don't want to use anymore on..

4.3. Shields

Ugh, Strong Shield from Bloody Knight. It has the anti-knockback property, but the increase of damage taken hurts quite a bit. But if you got another anti-knockback options or you don't even care about it, the following 3 are infinitely better. The Valkyrja Shield is overall like the best shield for the resistances given, it drops from Valkyrie (not the MVP, don't worry) in Odin Temple 3. The Imperial Guard gives more DEF than Valkyria shield at the cost of resistances, but it drops from easier mobs namely Rake Scaraba Egg. Lastly if you want a safer shield, use Illusion Sacred Mission that is indestructible.

Those are the obvious cards aside from racial/element defense. Alice for boss, Gaster for regular mobs. Make sure not to mix them up, the extra damage will welcome you warmly to your demise. KK Cards are if you're fine with the small fries... Uhh what, GTB? Does that kind of monster exist in this game? Like.. never seen it alive before 

4.4 Weapons

To be honest, you can use any weapons you want for tanking, but there's one that picks my interest:

The perfect hit from Gungnir will theoretically help you survive longer. It's wind elemental, but who does the attacking anyway? We spam Holy element physical skill, luckily physical element won't miss the target immune to the elements as far as i know. The unslotted ones drop from Mistress -The cancerous MVP that teleports all the time and knocks you back with Jupitel Thunder when met, only to keep teleporting again-, while the slotted ones are said to drop from Advanced Weapon Boxes. Go farm Howard, my friends!

Card wise, well.. Phreeoni card is like a no brainer for the extra 100 HIT, and opt to use WK card if you're using KK card on your shield.

4.5. Garment

The Airship/Tarlock set is pretty nice before you get anything else. The Nidhoggur Shadow Garb also helps a lot with the 7% all elemental resistances, this drops from Nidhoggur's Nest MVP. Gigant Snake Skin is super nice, but you may want to farm some Faceworm instances to get the good enchants (VIT mainly) and a slotted one. It also has great HP/SP combo with Temporal Boots. The Old Morroc Shawl helps tanking by dodging if it makes sense, but the +8 refine bonus may help tanks the most: 100% HP/SP when resurrected. While this shares the same ability as Osiris Card (MVP), combining both will give sweet 100% (capped to 80% in this server) resistance to shadow and 50% resistance to fire, so if you have it just smack it into your accesories slot. The Phreeoni Wings give HIT, like A LOT. 200 extra HIT at +10, also if combo-ed with Phreeoni card, it gives 50% P.HIT let's gooo~ Both the Shawl and the Wings are Fortessa Pit drops.

 

Well.. You're playing the game wrong if not using this card for tanking. Maybe opt for Noxious.. But you'll have 80% Ranged resistance anyway, and it's capped in this server.

4.6. Boots

I can only think of these boots as for now. Airship/Tarlock only if worn as a set. Variant shoes has great HP/SP bonus, but you don't want to refine it ever. It drops from Beelzebub though, form a party to kill him. Temporal VIT is the easy one to get, only need like 6 Temporal Crystal, 285 Coagulated Spell (or 280?) and 100 Contaminated Magic to make and fully enchant it. It has the potential to be slotted too, not like the other boots which has no slot options. For the enchant options do Fighting Spirit for extra HIT or just plain 2%HP. The beneficial special enchant will be either Muscle Fool or Lucky Day, the former being raw survivability while the latter gives a bit of P.Dodge. Don't opt for Speed of Light unless you plan on autoattacking, which is NOT what this guide wants you to.. be guided to  

Card wise, opt for +Max HP%. I personally like Ominous Freezer for the extra Overbrand damage, so i don't have to change boots if switching builds. Boss Egnigem for the loaded/lucky ones I guess, the max SP and recovery rate bonus is always welcome.

4.7. Accesories

The easiest, but also like best solid starters are to farm 2 Black Rosaries from Sweet Nightmare, Illusion of Vampire Dungeon. if you wanna YOLO it up for chance of interrupting bosses spell, Silversmith Bracelet enables lv5 Spell Breaker. Verus Core gives 20% P.Hit, so that'll help much at spamming Holy Cross, but it'll sacrifice some MDEF.

I got like no idea on the accesories card seriously. Just put 2 Alligator cards in case of getting dispelled and nuked without the time for reactivating Defender. Phen card for uninterrupted casting, or Bloody Butterfly as the worse option, but easier to farm. Horong card for sneaky mobs countermeasure. Osiris card -even without combo- is also useful if your party consist of no supports and Yggdrasil Leaves are only the resurrection options.

As for my own Equipments, here are the shots in game:

• Preferably Bungisngis/Maya Purple in Upper Headgear
• RSX-0806 in Armor
• Alice in Shield
• Raydric in Garment
• Ominous Freezer in Boots
• Phen & Alligator in Accessory. Horong Accessory on Inventory.

 

5. TL;DR Playstyle

• DON'T PUT ANY SKILL POINTS INTO GENESIS RAY
• Put 120 into VIT.
• Rack up HP% and Resistances%, then DEF and MDEF.
• Perfect HIT is helpful against AGI UP monsters.
• Gain aggro before your DPS hits the monsters.
• Use 1H Spear to Pinpoint Attack the incoming monster to gain Aggro.
• Spam Holy Cross.
• Opt for Anti-Knockback, as it may leave your party vulnerable when the tank is sent flying.
• Vanguard Force buff increases HP too (beware of cast time).
• Keep Defender on at (almost) all times for party walking pace.
• Keep your eyes on the buff list in case it gets dispelled.
• Spam Holy Cross.
• Stock on Yggdrasil Berries, Seeds, Leaves, and Tokens of Siegfried for emergency cases.
• Watch your SP pool in case it got burnt by some skills.
• Piety for holy element armor if needed.
• Keep your helmet from breaking, ask for gene coating for it, ask for mech repair immediately if broken.
• Earth Drive the Safety Walls protecting enemies, then Spam Holy Cross.
• As a tank, you may not be able to warn your party of the upcoming new mobs mid-fight.
• You know why?
• Because your job is to..
• SPAM THAT HOLY CROSS!.

6. Closing Statement

Whew, it took literal hours to build this guide from scratch. The thing is, I realized that there were so many inefficiencies in my playstyle that made me revise a lot of stuff as the guide is being made. Especially tricky, I'll have to relearn the "new" understanding of these onto the next tanking sessions, those will be quite a journey! Nevertheless, I totally enjoy the process of making this guide, it made me look up so many references as when I worked on my graduation thesis back then  

I also realized that this guide is far, far from perfect. I mean, I'm not even incorporating the shadow gear choices not that i know much of em. If you found anything incorrect, or if you readers have a different opinion, feel free to comment for any suggestion!

 

Signed,

IGN: Meon / MeonEspeon

 

~Special Tanks~

@Reaper Yanku, for giving a lot of gear suggestions

@lisaa, for encouraging the guide to be made

CCT a.k.a Zithro as the final push to make this guide

 

 

Edited March 14, 2019 by MeonEspeon

[moitabr 3]

The best tank I know and the most surprising minstrel, keep at it Meon!

great guide =)

[faisalhwr 0]

can you make for helheim too?

[Warsaw 0]

Hi.. 

Is this still viable for Helheim?

[hermod 0]

where can i get divine guard?