Erinn Martial Arts Competition/Notes

< Erinn Martial Arts Competition

For a list of NPCs and their roles see here.

General Information

• You should be well supplied in Phoenix Feathers and Potions of all sorts, regardless of combat style.
  • You should also be well equipped, as well as maintaining your own equipment for repairs when necessary.
• The rounds get exponentially harder as you continue to advance into the next round.
  • There is roughly a 10%-15% increase in stats for the NPCs for each each successive round. (needs testing)
• NPCs can use skills that were previously only usable by players (i.e. Assault Slash, Lance Counter, Lance Charge, Party Healing, Evasion, Crash Shot, Shock).
  • Also capable of rarely used skills such as Chain Casting, Frozen Blast, Final Hit, Mirage Missile, and Life Drain (Monster).
• Unlike monsters, some NPCs can use Lances and their respective skills.
• Most, but not all, NPCs have at least 1 Passive Defense.
• This is considered to be a Theatre Mission, therefore skills such as Barrier Spikes and Campfire are unable to be used inside.
• Puppet's Snare cannot be used on most NPCs.

General Strategies to Consider

• Healers and Mages are the prime objectives to eliminate regardless of situation.
  • Healers are capable of recovering massive amounts of health with Party Healing.
  • Mages utilize powerful magic (i.e. Fireball, Thunder, Ice Spear, Chain Casting) which are likely to knockout players easily.
  • They will generally cast from afar and use other NPCs to tank.
• Rangers can be annoying, often using Crash Shot or Mirage Missile.
  • Some Giants in Elf and Giant Union are capable of Throwing Attack.
  • It is suggested to have pets distract them, while dealing with the Healers and Mages.
  • They will switch to melee when knocked down.
• Rounds with Summoners are the most difficult as their minions can easily overwhelm players.
  • It is not advised to focus on the Summoned, as the Summoner can create replacements.
  • Use methods of distractions on the Summoned instead in order to buy time to eliminate the Summoner.
• Area of Effect pets, especially Ice Dragon's Ice Storm and Bone Dragon's Devil's Dash, is most effective in stalling/avoiding attacks, especially when attacked with Final Hit.
  • It is also a good way to avoid getting cornered, or if things go wrong.
• Poison Attack affects most NPCs, but is ineffective damage wise.
• An Elf with the job of resurrecting dead players and then using Hide can be useful for avoiding a loss.
  • However, this is not effective time wise.
• It is recommended to load all necessary skills (such as Thunder, Fireball, Flame Burst, etc.), before entering each round.
  • Party leaders do not have this option.
• Each round pass has two hours expiration time.
  • Utilize this time to heal, repair, and resupply.
  • On difficult rounds, you may want to wait until 5:50 AM in-game to Transform.
    • This way, you have another chance to transform should you get knocked out, or accidentally cancel the transformation skill.
• It best to eliminate (in order) summoners, then Healers and Mages, Alchemists, other, then finally Warriors and Archers.

Skills to Consider

• A high ranked Mana Shield is highly recommended.
  • This helps reduces damage to some extent and prevents Injury taken in proportion of the Mana Shield rank.
• Flame Burst is an extremely useful skill to keep NPCs at bay.
  • This gives a window of opportunity for other players to strike back.
  • Beware that Flame Burst will render you immobile until the skill is finished or manually canceled.
  • Since many of the NPCs lack Mana Deflector, it is possible to push all the NPCs into a corner for a practical instant win, provided the other players on the team cooperate with the flame burst user(s).
  • Flame Burst still stuns and pushes back NPCs with Mana Deflector so it is possible to continue using Flame Burst and back them into a corner.
• Thunder provides similar features as Flame Burst.
  • The difference is immediate aggro and the time to charge (depending on Wand).
  • This skill provides a stall time similar to Flame Burst, while having the potential to do more damage.
  • If player's Thunder Rank is high enough, it is possible to "juggle" the NPCs with Thunder alone.
• Ice Spear and Blaze are also effective.
  • A high ranked Ice Spear can push NPCs into a specific place. A player can then use blaze on the NPCs, dealing great damage.
• Shock is very effective at higher ranks, capable of stunlocking enemies, though it also uses a large amount of MP.
• Try to have Demigod, as this can be used a tide turner should things go wrong.
  • When used in critical conditions, one may want to use persona right after for protection. This will allow time for demigod regenerate Health, Mana, and Stamina.
  • Shadow Spirit is a useful skill for dealing considerable amounts of damage while stun locking multiple targets.
  • Spear of God will deal a considerable amount of damage. However, the damage output is greatly affected by the Protection rate.
• Summon Golem is useful in many ways:
  • Golems can be used as a distraction and to tank damage due to great Defense, Protection, and Health.
  • Stomp provides instant aggro attention.
  • Golems can be controlled during the animation of Flame Burst.
  • Golems can also use Windmill to deal damage without causing aggro.
  • Smash provides great damage.
  • Snow and Magical Golems can score Critical Hits
• When hit with thunder, a player could cast Lightning Shield to reduce damage taken and prevent knock down and stun time.
• Evasion is effective in dodging archery damage, but does not work against Fireball, Thunder, and Ice Spear.
• Fighter Skills are quite effective when dealing with lone enemies.
• Lullaby is effective in keeping the enemies at bay, but this tactic can only be used once. AVOID USING AREA OF EFFECT ATTACKS TO PREVENT LULLABY FROM BREAKING!
• Puppetry Skills are effective in many ways:
  • Like Summon Golems, Marionettes are useful distractions and are effective tanks.
  • They are extremely powerful in the area of effect aspect. Cycling between Act 4: Rising Action, Act 6: Crisis, and Act 7: Climactic Crash, as well as swapping out Pierrot Marionette and Colossus Marionette, allows one to easily but steadily mow down the enemies.
  • Wire Pull can be used to separate the mobs from one another.

Team Boss

• There are no Healers, Alchemists, or Archers in this team.
• Each boss has vast quantities of Health (possibly over 100,000).
• Each boss has high Defense and Protection.
• It is advised to use skills with high output damage or can ignore Protection.
  • Because of the amount of HP and Defense they have it is difficult to make the time limit.
  • High damage skills such as Spear of God are recommended.
• Use Rain Casting to keep them all at bay before they've spawned, then pick them off one by one carefully.
  • Alternatively, Lullaby can be used after they've spawned.
• Tarlach is advised to be eliminated first.
  • His summoned Angry Bear is the biggest threat because of its Advanced Heavy Stander, though fortunately it is not immune to stun.
  • Use Pets to keep the bear distracted as you work on Tarlach.
• Fleta should be considered next to eliminate.
  • Getting rid of her will also get rid of Rab which will make the battle easier as there will be no more summoned opponents to worry about.
  • It is possible to have one party member occupy her with Magnum Shot, while other members handle the rest.
  • Due to her frequency to use Teleportation, it is advised for someone to Pummel her to lock her in place.
  • Flame burst is less likely to stun her on first hits.
• Price can be easily kept busy with almost any kind of magic, though Firebolt spamming with a speed upgraded Phoenix Fire Wand is recommended until backup is available.
  • He likes to load Final Hit after being knocked down and if you are lagging, you are very likely to be hit by it.
    • His Final Hit also has no cooldown.
  • Try to be wary when fighting him while standing near your teammates, as his Caladbolg's Thunder has a large splash range and does a lot of damage.
• Kristell is easy to distract with either magic spam or Smashmill.