Battle Muse Guide V.1.0 Written and researched by SamuraiJakkass86 Edited, Corrected, and Researched by EarthlyMight If you find any errors, or have any questions contact us at: SamuraJakkass86@gmail.com MattAB1984@gmail.com For future reference, this guide covers all target weapons in different sections. hit alt +f and type in the specified code for each different weapon. However it does not (atm) cover ALL weapons. Katar [XXX] Bow [XYX] Duals [XYZ] 1H Weapons [XYY] 2H Weapons [XZZ] Each section will have a summary of the main contributions provided by each different stat. Str = Strength Dex = Dexterity Int = Intelligence Con = Concentration Cha = Charisma Sen = Sensibility I can tell you now that most of your stat builds will not be altered by what you need at the moment, but by what you will expect to have by the time you change class. So don’t be too disappointed if you haven’t started getting any int until lvl 40. The easiest way to sum up a battle muse is to think of it with these 3 words... "Swiss Army Knife" I hope you understood that <.< I shouldn’t have to explain it.... Now that I think of it I probably should ^_^; Function 1: Solo Artist Function 2: Part-Time Supporter/Buffer/Warrior Function 3: Full-Time Warrior You can do many things with a battle muse, you can assist a FS muse in a party to keep other buffed and healed, you can strictly solo with them up until its ineffective (bout lvl 60-ish). Or, as a party member, you can also blend in with the soldiers and hawkers, and act as a mercenary for hire (free =P). Just so you know.. I wrote in a little bit about the skill builds having the "Summon Tree" as optional. There’s a lot of pro's and con's to having a summon pet. Pros: Assistant fighter, not only dependant on your own stats to boost theirs, but you can also buff them to make them even stronger. Believe it or not.. I think that’s about all that’s good about them ^_^; Cons: You're going to get less experience because your pet uselessly steals some. Your going to be at a serious MP disadvantage, already having a somewhat smaller mana pool will screw you over if you try to cast a 200MP summon pet >.< The only summon a cleric can get is phantom swords and elemental; so you'll waste a lots of SP on Magic Arms Mastery.. So just think about this before you get the visions of a summoner/warrior muse. Not only this.. but some of your buffs wont affect them.. Like bless body/armor/mind. Section 1: Katar Muse [XXX] Stat Effects: Str: 40% damage Dex: 60% damage Int: Increases buffing powers (Same for all battle muses/pre-clerics) Con: Increased hit rate Cha: ... Sen: Increased Crit Rate Stat Builds: Its pretty self explanatory for this build. Katar muses will need lots of dex. Dex for power, dex for dodge, dex to hold the weapon in the first place ^_^; Str: Your going to want some of this even if you are doing dex/int. This will give you 40% of your katars damage. Not to mention it’s always nice to have some extra lesser-stats like HP and defense. (Who cares how much weight you can carry? xD) Dex: DEX!!! EAT ME!! Increase your dodge, hold your weapons, and do lots more damage. This is a necessity; this should ALWAYS be your number one stat choice. Int: I don’t know what kind of sped wouldn’t get this. INT will help you buff yourself and sometimes your party mates. It'll help you afford cure. It also combo's nicely with spell mastery. You want to increase the strength of your buff skills just because no one likes the builders appliances you get when you buy a house because they work .. but they suck. Con: Katars don’t need this so much. Maybe put it at 20 (Suggestion). But when you attack so fast, the misses aren’t going to hurt you much. Cha: I think only dealers really need this =P I'll leave it at that. Sen: Probably your 3rd or 4th stat choice. This only serves one real purpose for 90% of us. CRIT!!! Increase how much damage you crit for and WHEN you crit. We want crit, makes us look better since we have no battle skills to speak of ^_^;. This build of muse utilizes the mediocre atk power, and superior atk speed off claw class weapons. As it is my current project, I've found both the pro's and con's to the ever popular Katar Muse. For the skills , I wont be vague or anything to try and cover up my build <.< I'll just be straightforward with exactly what I have ^_^;. Skills: (As Muse) Meditation Tree: Meditation (10) Its obvious that you max this since you'll need it for cleric buffs later on. Plus it increases the "small mana pool" that battle muses are obviously known for >.< Cure (5) Another obvious skill. With bless body you'll increase you max HP, which will mean your going to need your HP at its peak, in comes the usefulness of cure. Bless Body (5) Increases your max HP, just one of the many ways you upgrade a character seemingly 10-20 lvls in a few seconds ^_^ Support (3) I actually put this at 4 <.< My mistake though.. 3's good to get hitting support, its not really useful unless your impatient like me and want to run real fast all the time :3 Power Support (5) Who wouldn’t want this? xD Come on, uber atk power ownage here. It all starts with a mouse click. Hitting Support (3) This is useful, mostly because you save lots of stat points that you might waste in con <.< Lol, I'm serious when I say waste. Bless Mind (2) This is a rather useless skill =P It might not be if it gave you all the MP it enlarges your pool by <.< But it don’t. You just need it for evasion aura. Summon Tree: (Optional) Spell Mastery Tree: Spell Mastery (5) Reduces MP costs.. Who couldn’t use that? Combo's well to make up for your "small mana pool" You can and will most likely put this at higher lvls, but I didn’t because I want to save SP for when I change to cleric ^_^ Want to get a high lvl battle support and evasion aura. Firering (1) One of the most underrated skills on the tree =P This skill will pwn so much for any class that doesn’t do much damage other then in fast hits ^_^ Magic Arms Mastery Tree: (Optional) Skills: (As Cleric) Meditation Tree: This is when you get to the fun stuff. If you did it right you should have saved up all your SP for a long time and have plenty to spend on those skills you've been waiting for forever =D As a katar cleric, you have lots of new skills your just itching to try. Lets get started shall we =D Battle Support: One of the most popular, with this skill you'll increase your atk speed by great amounts. If you pumped any int (like you should have) you'll get even more then you thought you would! *Zoom Zoom Zoom* Damage Support: Not everyone’s first priority, because of its high requirements, but for anyone who enjoys their fast hits, they know they'll enjoy it even more with higher damage. Starts with 14% increased damage and works its way up. Every % counts with this. Sharpening Support: If there was a dream you couldn’t catch, and you eventually got it anyways. This would be it. If you have enough sen right now to see a consistent crit rate, wait until you've upped it by 40+. Imagine 90+?! Once more though high requirements are in store for you x_x. Evasion Aura: Another skill we all plan on getting, some sooner or later then others. I'm personally going to combo this with battle support the second I change. Starts with a +20 dodge, but you get 5 per level, so why not ^_^ Just another way to reassure us high dodge chars that we'll be well protected in the future. Resurrection: Purely my opinion here, but I want this skill not only because it'll help me multi-task in a party, but because I have friends I party with who are also raising battle muses. Just another way we can look out for each other. I realize you get respawned like 5 feet from where you die <.< But that’s why at higher lvls you can at least take some of that XP back >=3 Puri: I'm a little in the dark about this one. It has a good chance to cure you of bad status changes. I'm not sure about its uses at higher lvls other then the higher success rate. But hey, if it stops those nasty lowered atk power/dodge rate curses, by all means get it ^_^ Summon Tree: (Optional) Spell Mastery Tree: Nothing new here to get, unless you have to finish mastering spell mastery or something =P Maybe silence if you bothered to get mild lvl 5 or something. Magic Arms Mastery Tree: (Optional) Section 2: Bow Muse [XYX] Stat Effects: Str: ... Dex: 100% Damage Int: Increases buffing powers (Same for all battle muses/pre-clerics) Con: Increased hit rate Cha: ... Sen: Increased Crit Rate Stat Builds: Who needs str? Your all 100% bow-age-ed-ness =P. Pump your dex and you'll take care of most of your stats. Gives you some room for more int and/or sen. Str: Str bow <.<... *hits you on head* NO! GO LAY DOWN!! Dex: You don’t want this >.> After all it only makes you stronger and more agile.. what were you thinking = =. Anyways, pump this, pump pump pump *blows up bike tire*. PUMP!!!! Int: You can get a lot more of this in your early levels now that you don’t have str to tie you down. So feel free to get lots and lots of it to increase those pathetic deflated muscles you call buffs!!! Con: Ya.. arrows are pricey.. and strong.. you want to hit a lot :3 So don’t get just hitting support. Increase con to hit more. Cha: ... Sen: Same as katars. You might want this if you want your bow hits to get even stronger o_o. Bows are faster then guns/launchers after all. Unlike its half dex counterpart; the katar muse. The bow muse is at 2 specific advantages over claws. One, it doesn’t need to invest its stat points into 2 different categories to get 100% damage. Its all dex, which can mean a higher dodge rate. At the same time (two) it also increases damage at greater rates. With 100 dex for instance, you can have a 180 atk power with katars, OR you can have a 280 atk power with a bow (use good arrows - ^). Your atk speed will take a hit in comparison, but you'll have greatly increased damage AND range to boot. Skills: (As Muse) Meditation Tree: Before I go into depth with this, I can tell you that it resembles EXACTLY.. that of the katar muse skill tree. So just read that. Summon Tree: (Optional) Spell Mastery Tree: Same as the med tree here <.< Just read the claw muse one ^_^; Magic Arms Mastery Tree: (Optional) Skills: (As Cleric) Meditation Tree: JUST LIKE KATAR USER =P MWAHAHAHAHAH Summon Tree: (Optional) Spell Mastery Tree: Eeheeheeeheeheheheh.. <.<.. Read what I put for meditation tree. Magic Arms Mastery Tree: (Optional) Section 3: Dual Muse [XYZ] Stat Effects: Str: 56% Damage Dex: 44% Damage Int: Increases buffing powers (Same for all battle muses/pre-clerics) Con: Increased hit rate Cha: ... Sen: Increased Crit Rate Stat Builds: Its plenty explained below... Str: Most of your dual damage right here. Your going to want this not just because of the damage increase, but also because your going to be multi-tasking 2 defensive powers. Str increases defense too, and the HP goes nice with it and bless body =D Dex: Still a key stat. Probably taking some of the thunder out of you getting high sen or something because you need both to hurt. You want this stuff to hold your duals. You also want it to combo your defensive strategy and also because this makes your duals stronger. Int: Just like any knowledgeable muse, you'll need this to increase your buff power and mana pool. AND you can use this to increase the 3rd corner of the defensive pyramid, "Magic Defense". Con: You actually want a little bit of this. Duals are slow, so it really sucks when you miss =P whereas most muses would put this at like 20.. You might feel safer with about 50 or so. Cha: ... Sen: You might not have room for this.. so don’t depend too much on crit (leaves you some SP openings since you wont get crit support) Calling upon both spectrums of the damage tree, the Dual muse ensures not only high amounts of damage for a mere slow attack speed, but also both sides of the defensive spectrum. Dex is used not only to hold the weapons, but also does a good % of the damage. It also increases the players dodge rate. Str is used to increase the damage of dual weapons at large rates, as well as the defense of the character. Mix this with evasion aura and defensive aura, and you have quite a powerful dual-defensive combo. Skills: (As Muse) Meditation Tree: Guess what! There’s actually a difference here!! Its the defensive part of the dual spectrum =D Blessing Armor (5) Defense is key!!! You increase your defense greater then that of the soldier (thanks to int) AND you don’t have to worry about any negative effects =P Unfortunately it still doesn’t last long ^_^;; But you'll need it if you want to get defensive aura later on. Summon Tree: (Optional) Spell Mastery Tree: Wow.. changes here too! This ones just an alteration however ^_^ Firering (4)Regarding this.. Just know that since you'll be more damage dependant then speed.. Every hit WILL COUNT. So make it! Its preferred that you'll get this up to a higher lvl then with a fast attacker so get it as high as you can. Magic Arms Mastery Tree: (Optional) Skills: (As Cleric) Meditation Tree: More defensive skills for you to get now. In addiction to what the katar muse gets (read above) you can also get defensive aura (maybe if you want to be nice to your party) and Magical Aura. Defensive Aura: Not a big increase in your defense like bless armor. But this lasts a lot longer. Its also good if you want to help your party’s defense. Only +25 defense at lvl 1 though. Magical Aura: Increases magic defense, maybe you'll want this as a high defensive strategy character and it combo's nicely with all the other defensive powers. Summon Tree: (Optional) Spell Mastery Tree: Well.. if you didn’t increase firering when you were a muse, now’s the chance. And just out of pure speculation of what I wrote for 1H swords, maybe you'll want to get mild here too. After all, you will have great defense, more wouldn’t hurt any ^_^. Magic Arms Mastery Tree: (Optional) Section 4: 1H muse [XYY] (Swords, maces) Stat Effects: Str: 100% Damage Dex: ... Int: Increases buffing powers (Same for all battle muses/pre-clerics) Con: Increased hit rate Cha: ... Sen: Increased Crit Rate Stat Builds: Kind of like the duals muse.. kind of not. Str: All your damage comes from this. 1H's aren’t notorious for being strong. But for letting you use a shield that gives you combo defense/dodge Dex: Well.. you don’t need much of this. You still need it though IF YOU PLAN on doing dodge. Just a secondary strategy though. Keep it in mind. Int: you got lots of room for in o_o. Feel free to pump this up really high as to assure yourself some good stats. Con: Lots of defense on you <.< You can stand to miss/take a few hits. Don’t worry much about this. Cha: ... Sen: Well.. with this much excess stats.. you can do this right? Maybe just a little bit for a good balance? <.< Here is an interesting muse build for you. It has a finite amount of options to it, whilst at the same time boosting and contradicting its own capabilities. 1H weapons give you the option of using a shield. Not only are the 1H weapons fast, but they also slow you down the second you put on a shield xD Yet at the same time, not being dependant on dual stats for its damage, you can pump 100% str to increase the damage greatly. The 1H weapons themselves don’t wield any extraordinary damage, but when you consider the possibility of a shield, you’re once more left with the option for dual defense. Another benefit to this is that now shields can have slots in them. Giving you another gem slot to increase desired stats (if the economy lets you ^_^;) Skills: (As Muse) Meditation Tree: Alright, I may get some diverse opinions here but w/e =P 1H muses like I've said are 100% str based, but at the same time they let you have 2 different kind of defenses. You can wear a shield, which provides BOTH a defense increase, AND a dodge increase ^_^. So like your probably guessing I'll say next, EVEN as a cleric, you'll have skills to help out your defensive capabilities. At the same time though, for the time being, you'll have the same skill tree as dual muses =P. You wont c much of a differance until your a cleric ^_^ Summon Tree: (Optional) Spell Mastery Tree: As a 1H user, you'll notice 2 available opportunities to cash in some damage spells. First there’s firering, which I've previously told you about, that makes the enemy take more damage. But that’s because you want all YOUR hits to count. Now.. Being a defensive character, you'll also want to TAKE as little damage as possible. ...and... voila! Mild: Put as many lvl into this as you want. At lvl 1 it reduces enemies atk power by 13%. This'll mean a lot when your facing monsters other then yellow names that will automatically do more damage since their level superiority decreases the value of your defensive capabilities. It combo's nicely with a good defense and an offense + firering. AND at higher lvls (6+) you can par down your enemies atk speed to the same as yours.. or more Magic Arms Mastery Tree: (Optional) Skills: (As Cleric) Meditation Tree: Hi, my names Mr. 1H muse (I hate my name T.T) I think that when I finally hit cleric, the only difference between me and a dual cleric will be our weapon choice. I'm going to copy exactly what they have and use it as my own. I love my brother so much :3 Summon Tree: (Optional) Spell Mastery Tree: *doesn’t change* Magic Arms Mastery Tree: (Optional) Section 5: 2H muse [XZZ] (Axes, swords, spears) Stat Effects: Str: 100% Damage Dex: ... Int: Increases buffing powers (Same for all battle muses/pre-clerics) Con: Increased hit rate Cha: ... Sen: Increased Crit Rate Stat Builds: Wow <.< Kind of like the 1H lol.. Tweak it if you feel it necessary. Str: All damage once more. Dex: Don’t even need this =P Who thinks they can jump out of the way when hauling around a 100 lb axe? xD Int: Just like 1H. Plenty of room for lots of this stuff =P. Con: Kind of like duals.. your slow = = Don’t miss.. get some of it ^_^ Cha: ...!!!! Sen: Under the same circumstances as con.. if you miss it sucks <.< You can make up for it with crit though. Much like a mix between a bow or 1H muse. This build provides you with 100% damage from a single stat (Str). Your weapons will lack attack speed, but will make up for it in power. Their also cheaper to maintain then its high damaged brethren; the bow. Unlike the 1H or duals however, your defensive strategy will be limited to the same as any soldier. Defense is key! Remember to pump that str, and you'll be helping out all your defensive needs (except M-Def but who cares =P no one even know how it works yet xD). Skills: (As Muse) Meditation Tree: Hey... your a str/defense character now. No time for the trivial dodge that you wont be upgrading because its all dex will do for you =P. So you can drop blessing mind. Summon Tree: (Optional) Spell Mastery Tree: Just like 1H weapons. Read that. You lazy bum = = Magic Arms Mastery Tree: (Optional) Skills: (As Cleric) Meditation Tree: You might go for damage support first in this case. After all that’s what you do <.< If you went for defense, you wouldn’t be helping yourself out much since the good defense skill has been available this WHOLE TIME. Battle Support isn’t going to help you out much... Lets face it.. your slow = =. And crit support will be good eventually, but at this point in time it'll be best to start off with only ONE high requirement skill. Crit is better for the faster attackers in the first place =P You can wait. Summon Tree: (Optional) Spell Mastery Tree: guess what... ya.. that’s what I was thinking too <.< *does..not..* *..not unchanged* Magic Arms Mastery Tree: (Optional) Disclaimer I give permission to anyone to use this guide on their own site or in their own FAQ as long as they give both SamuraiJakkass86 and EarthlyMight credit. Copyright 2005 SamuraiJakkass86 and EarthlyMight, All Rights Reserved.