This guide discuss all of Staff Evie's skills, equipment, enchant scroll options, maneuvers, and everything in between.
This guide is currently up-to-date with episode 10 information.
Feel free to post any comments, criticisms or suggestions about the guide.
Table of contents: Stats and How They Effect Evie
Summary of Active Spells
Skill Level Priority
Transformations and You
Equipment Tips
Enchant Scroll Suggestions
Scroll Drop Locations
Battle Tips
Demo Videos
Credits
Guide History:
Spoiler:
2012
May 26 - Version 8.6; Added episode 10 info
February 2 - Version 8.5; Minor fixes
January 23 - Version 8.4; Minor fixes
January 6 - Version 8.3; Minor fixes
2011
December 24 - Version 8.2; Minor fixes
December 17 - Version 8.1; Updated with episode 9.5 Dragon info
November 18 - Version 8.0; Edited and reformatted Battle Tips section
November 12 - Version 7.0; Changed formatting in Enchant Scroll Suggestions
October 19 - Version 6.1; Minor fixes
October 18 - Version 6; Updated with episode 9 info, major corrections to various sections
October 15 - Version 5.7; Minor fixes
September 21 - Version 5.6; Minor fixes
August 24 - Version 5.5; Minor fixes
August 14 - Version 5.4; Removed min/max subsection, updated scroll section
August 3 - Version 5.3; Minor fixes
July 25 - Version 5.2; Minor fixes
July 17 - Version 5.1; Corrections to the trans section.
July 8 - Version 5.0; Added a min/max subsection to the Equipment Tips section
June 27 - Version 4.3; Added Paladin Conviction video
June 25 - Version 4.2; Minor fixes, corrected Grace: DEF & Revelation: ATT descriptions.
June 24 - Version 4.1; Minor fixes
June 22 - Version 4.0; Added Transformations and You section
June 21 - Version 3.7; Minor fixes
June 8 - Version 3.6; Added Clipped Wings, minor fixes
June 6 - Version 3.5; Added Strength Mastery/Weight Endurance to the Skill Level Priority section, minor fixes
May 29 - Version 3.4; Minor fixes, added another demo vid
May 27 - Version 3.3; Added another subsection to Battle Tips, minor fixes
May 24 - Version 3.2; Reformatted the Battle Tips and Equipment Tips sections, moved the Battle Tips section, minor fixes
May 23 - Version 3.1; Adjusted skill rankings
May 20 - Version 3.0; Added a Demo Videos section
May 18 - Version 2.4; Added Flying Sparrow to the guide, adjusted the rankings of various skills
May 14 - Version 2.3; Summary of Active Spells format change, minor fixes
May 6 -Version 2.2; Changed the Enchant Scroll Suggestions section a bit, minor fixes
May 5 - Version 2.1; Minor fixes
April 29 - Version 2.0; Added a Scroll Drop Locations subsection
April 26 - Version 1.3; Added Force scroll as a scroll suggestion, minor fixes
April 24 - Version 1.2; Added more tips to the Battle Tips section, minor fixes
April 23 - Version 1.1; Added stamina consumption numbers for spells, minor fixes
April 22 - Version 1.0
Stats and How They Effect Evie
Going down the list in the Character Window:
STR: Increases ATT, which is useless for a staff Evie AGI: Increases DEF, the chance of getting a Magical Critical Hit and stamina regeneration. The stamina regeneration is negligible unless you go from a miniscule amount to a huge amount. 2 AGI adds 1 DEF. INT: Increases MATT, Evie's ability to lift objects as well as the strength of Mana Amber and Mana Shield. 1 INT adds 2 MATT. WIL: Increases the chance of Life Flare and Standing Endurance procing, and your HP. 1 WIL adds approximately .6 HP. LUK: Gives you the chance of obtaining a white core. White cores randomly drop off of monsters whenever they drop regular evil cores (including some, if not all, breakoff points). At 100 LUK, you don't have a chance to gain white cores. BAL: The range of how much damage your attacks will deal. For simplicity's sake, a balance of 80 means you will do anywhere from 80% to 100% of your maximum damage with each hit. ATT SPD: Attack speed. For Evie, increases the rate at which you can fire Magic Arrow and decreases the amount of time it takes from one level of Focus to another. Verified by placeboing.
HP: Your hit point amount. When this reaches 0, your character dies. Stamina: Your stamina. As a staff Evie, all attacks consume stamina (aside from hitting something with Focus, or kicking). ATT: Physical attack. Since Staff Evie's attacks all use MATT, this stat is useless. MATT: Magical attack. This is the stat that Staff Evie's attacks will use the most for damage. Effects the amount of HP healed by Healing Corona.
DEF: Your defense. Reduces damage taken when hit. Critical: Your chance to land a critical hit. Crit resist: Decreases the chance of enemies critical hitting you.
To see more in-depth calculations on how these stats are calculated, as well as damage charts, check here.
Summary of Active Spells (for a full listing of skills and their descriptions and AP costs, check VindictusDB)
Focus - This skill is what allows Evie to cast a majority of her spells. While using Focus, Evie does not regenerate stamina.
Activated by hitting the smash key. Holding down the smash key will allow Evie to reach a higher level of Focus. The time it takes to go from one charge level to another while in Focus can be reduced if you quickly release and press the smash button right when you hit a charge level.
Non-Focus spells: Eagle Talon - An attack spell that is performed after running for a certain period of time. You will know when you can activate it since Evie will shout and her hand will start glowing. At r9, you will be able to cast a Magic Fire Mine by holding down the smash key while in her charged running state. Magic Fire Mines are spheres of mana that will detonate after 15 seconds, or when an enemy or object (any object, including secondary weapons and even Mana Amber) hits them. Ranking this skill also decreases the amount of time it takes to go into the charged state.
Stamina cost: 15 (Eagle Talon), 30 (Magic Fire Mine)
Only usable when in the charged running state. To cast, press smash. To cast a Magic Fire Mine, press and hold the smash key until the bar at the bottom of the screen fills up.
Flying Sparrow - A spell that increases Evie's dodging abilities by giving her a second jump to her regular hop by releasing a burst of energy mid-hop, or after using Mana Mine. Flying Sparrow also works as an attack against enemies. When used after Mana Mine, the distance covered by Flying Sparrow is the same distance covered by a hop + Flying Sparrow.
Stamina cost: 20 (when used during a hop), 8 (when used after Mana Mine)
Press the smash key during a hop, or after placing a Mana Mine. Pressing a direction will control where you go.
Magic Arrow - Launches a green bolt of mana at a target to deal damage. After ranking it to r9, will have an added effect of two additional, smaller arrows being launched alongside the main arrow.
Activated by pressing the normal attack button. Holding down the button will rapid-fire arrows.
Mana Amber - Evie encases herself in a magical amber that shields her from damage, however, she is unable to perform any action until she releases herself from the amber, or enough damage is dealt to the amber to break it. After a certain amount of time passes, Mana Amber will automatically cancel.
Stamina cost: 50 (rF), 40 (rA)
Activated by pressing dodge/spacebar twice. Holding down the button will keep you in Mana Amber longer.
Level 1 Focus spells: Healing Corona - Evie summons "Healing Motes" that are stationary. Any ally that passes by the motes will have HP restored and recieve a debuff that does not allow them to be healed by Healing Corona for 2 minutes. This spell will not heal anyone with full HP. The healing motes themselves only last 2 minutes before disappearing.
Stamina cost: 20 Cooldown: 180 seconds
Press A or the left key while in Focus 1.
Mana Mine - a simpler version of Magic Fire Mine that only lasts for 5 seconds.
Stamina cost: 12 Cooldown: 1 second
Press S or the down key while in Focus 1.
Level 2 Focus spells: Firebolt - This spell launches a "fire mine," so-to-speak, at a selected target (the lock-on happens when you start casting). After casting, the fire mine moves toward a target (or forward into empty space) until it comes into contact with either any obstacle or enemy, and then explodes. If the fire mine does not come into contact with a target after it travels a certain distance, it will disappear.
Stamina cost: 14 Cooldown: 7 seconds
Press S or the down key while in Focus 2.
Ice Blast - Evie smashes her staff into the ground (the old LLLLR animation) and potentially freezes non-boss enemies who are relatively close by.
Stamina cost: 14 Cooldown: 4 seconds
Press A or the left key while in Focus 2
Level 3 Focus spells: Ice Spear - Evie launches ray of ice that has long range and can freeze any target. Any enemies that are within the path of Ice Spear will be hit. Bosses eventually build a resistance to Ice Spear's freezing status. Specifically, if a boss is hit by an Ice Spear and is frozen, the next time it is frozen by Ice Spear, the freezing status will not last as long as the first freeze. The third time the boss is hit by Ice Spear, the boss will be frozen for a fraction of a second (if at all), and at this point the boss' "freeze timer" will begin. Once that timer is up (around 5 minutes*), the boss will be able to be frozen again for the full duration, and the cycle will repeat.
Stamina cost: 19 Cooldown: 15 seconds
Press S or the down key while in Focus 3.
*needs verification
Level 4 Focus spells: Blind Arrow - Launches a flurry of 9 magic arrows for devastating damage. The magic arrows from this spell will home into a target after a lock-on, even if the enemy runs towards you and ends up behind you, although the arrows launched from this spell follow a sporadic path so not all of them are guaranteed to hit small targets.
Stamina cost: 30 Cooldown: 30 seconds
Press S or the down key while in Focus 4.
Alchemy box spells: Create Golem - Evie summons a mass of energy that will draw in any objects that can be lifted into itself. Once enough objects are absorbed, the Golem will take form and walk on two legs, and will attack enemies and receive damage. The summoner Evie will receive a small amount of damage whenever the golem takes damage.
Press 2 while your alchemy box is open.
Mana Pistol - Evie summons an autonomous gun, which will take damage from enemies and shoot them in retaliation. Monsters that are hit by a Mana Pistol will also receive a debuff that slows them down (similar to the Slow status effect for player characters). Mana Pistols will occasionally retreat from their current position if an enemy sticks close to them for too long. Only one Mana Pistol can be summoned at a time (summoning a second Mana Pistol will kill the first one).
Press 3 while your alchemy box is open.
Mercury Trap - Evie creates a puddle of mercury below her, that traps many enemies and bosses and does not allow them to move out of the mercury puddle. Not all bosses are effected by Mercury Trap.
Press 1 while your alchemy box is open.
SP Spells: Clipped Wings - Evie raises her staff and creates a blast wave that slows down all non-boss enemies within range. Consumes 1 SP Bar.
Switch to the SP: Clipped Wings icon by pressing X in battle, then Z to activate.
Regeneration - Evie casts a buff that affects the entire party and restores HP over time. Consumes 2 SP Bars.
Switch to the SP: Regeneration icon by pressing X in battle, then Z to activate.
Reverse Gravity - Evie lifts up any nearby enemies and liftable objects into the air, suspending them for a second, and then suddenly slams them back down to the ground. Consumes 4 SP Bars
Switch to the SP: Reverse Gravity icon by pressing X in battle, then Z to activate.
Skill Level Priority
This section is broken up into several different levels of priority. High priority overrides medium, which overrides low. However, the other three levels of priority are up to your preference, since once you level the important skills (those in high priority and maybe some in medium), leveling skills becomes a matter of preference, and what exactly you feel you need. With that said, if you find yourself soloing a lot, you might want to get skills under the solo or survival priority before healer priority, or vice versa if you party a lot. I will, however, highly recommend that you max everything in high priority ASAP, since the skills in there are all extremely important. From there, you can choose to move onto a medium priority skill, or one of the preference priorities, depending on what you feel you need. Low priority skills should be ranked last, unless you really really want one of them ranked.
If a skill is not listed, that means it's essentially useless for a Staff Evie (Combat Mastery, Scythe Mastery, etc). Staff Mastery is not listed since you should only rank that skill as you need it to equip higher level staves.
Skills are listed in order of descending priority (with respect to their own tier).
Skills marked with an asterisk (*) are skills that are required as a prerequisite for learning other skills.
Click on skill names to see their in-game description.
Focus is at the highest here, for obvious reasons. Magic and Intelligence Mastery are great skills, since they both increase your MATT, which means all of your offense skills will deal more damage, and some of your defensive skills (namely Mana Amber, Mana Shield and Healing Corona) will become more efficient. Level them in whichever order you prefer. However, once you get Intelligence Mastery to rA, hold off on it for a long time since the AP requirement jump from A to 9 is a huge amount without nearly as much benefit (15 INT for every rank past 9 as opposed to 34 for rE to rA).
Standing Endurance is tacked onto the end here since it greatly improves survivability, however, this skill only becomes a priority when you hit level 30 and can rank it to r9, since that is when SE will allow you to instantly roll away after getting knocked on the ground (press spacebar/the dodge button to do so).
Firebolt, Ice Blast, Ice Spear and Blind Arrow are your main options for ranged damage when it comes to Focus spells. Firebolt and Ice Blast have the lowest cooldowns with the largest splash range, making them suited for both boss and trash mob slaying. Ice Spear and Blind Arrow both are great skills due to their damage output and range, although they come with the highest cooldowns for offensive spells, so you won't be able to cast them at a high rate.
I would recommend Firebolt and Ice Spear first, because both are powerful spells that you should be able to fit in regularly against a boss, although under different circumstances. Even though both of these spells have greater cooldowns than Iceblast, Firebolt keeps you in less danger since it does not move you forward and can be cancelled at any time, while Ice Spear comes out relatively quick despite being a level 3 Focus spell (if you're doing it the quick charge way), and has great range to it. Also, Firebolt goes all the way up to rank 6, at which point it has a whopping 73% damage increase. Definitely worth the AP, and puts it far beyond the other spells in terms of damage capability.
Ice Blast can reach almost as far as Firebolt can, with the only exception being when you've Transformed, so it's still good for damage against a boss, although you may find yourself using Magic Arrow more since you may find it hard to judge the range of an Iceblast.
Magic Arrow has been moved here from the Solo Priority due to its high rank cap, since it also has a max of rank 6 now. Similarly to Firebolt, at r6, Magic Arrow has a 73% damage increase, and as such it will deal massive amounts of damage quickly, possibly higher than any other spell can because of its lack of cooldown and cast time, although the stamina cost from spamming this will start hurting quickly. However, Magic Arrow will only start shining once it hits r8 or above, so if you're not yet level 40 or higher, don't feel coerced to max this out ASAP, since your Focus spells will offer just as much DPS while costing you less stamina, which is why it's in the middle of this tier.
Magic Critical Hits is a good skill in the sense that it boosts your damage output with any spell, however, the damage is inconsistent and bosses who have higher critical resistance won't be affected as much. You can rank up SP: Reverse Gravity before or after critical hits, the option is yours. Just keep in mind that Reverse Gravity won't see nearly as much use as any of the other offensive spells in this tier, nor will it affect them all like Magic Critical Hits will. And depending on your play style, you might opt to use your SP for Regeneration instead.
Aside from Mana Mine and Flying Sparrow, these are all pretty much luxury skills. Eagle Talon rarely sees any use anymore since Evie now has actual offensive spells. The only uses it has are for low breakoff points (Irukul is sort of an important one, but you don't really need it even then), or for lowering stamina cost while running. Secondary Weapon Proficiency only becomes really useful when you reach Titan, since the breakoff for Titan requires a large amount of damage to his breakoff point (left ankle), and so using Fine Spears over regular spears is a huge advantage. Secondary Weapon Proficiency also lets you use Sticky Bombs at rC, however, there are few worthwhile breakoffs that Sticky Bombs are better than Fine Spears at, so getting the skill that high is more of a luxury than anything. You also don't need to rC to use the in-battle Sticky Bombs from Depths of Ainle and Ahglan.
SP: Clipped Wings is an interesting skill. It consumes 1 SP bar and slows down all enemies within a fairly small radius around the caster for a short duration (4 seconds at rF, 9 at rA). Since it doesn't work on bosses at all, most people think it's trash, but it's far from that. It can has its uses in Hero mode, mostly against the more annoying mobs when they've got a fancy prefix. More importantly though, since the skill still works on mini-bosses, it makes killing the mini-bosses in fights like The Contract much easier when you're on Hero mode. More importantly, Clipped Wings works on the 4 mini-golems in Colru, which makes the fight painfully easy.
Strength Mastery is listed here only as a prerequisite to Weight Endurance. You need rank rD of Strength Mastery for Weight Endurance, and you only really need Weight Endurance when you're 61 and Evie's gear starts to become Light Armor. Even then, unless you're wearing more than 2 Light Armor pieces, you may not need more than rE or rD of Weight Endurance.
Mana Mine and Flying Sparrow are at the top of this list because they provide decent damage output while also providing you with a viable means of escaping an attack. However, using these two in conjunction is tricky, and you may sometimes find yourself either using it too early, resulting in the boss keeping its lock on you and landing its hit, or if you try to dodge left, you may accidentally lay down a Healing Corona since you might press the left or A key entirely too early. If you're not too fond of trying to squeeze in that extra bit of damage with a Mana Sparrow, I wouldn't blame you for looking over them in favor of other low priority skills. If you only use Flying Sparrow through hopping, then don't worry about ranking it, although the boost in damage is nice to have since you may regularly find yourself hitting with Flying Sparrow while evading an attack.
These skills are at their best when you're soloing, except for maybe Mercury Trap. As far as summons go, Mana Pistol is much better than a Golem is, since it can take just about as much damage, is smaller so it doesn't hinder your vision, doesn't require any objects for a proper summoning, has a much shorter summoning time, and you can carry up to 9 with you in battle. Mercury Trap is great since it allows you to keep monsters at bay, allowing you to shoot at them from afar without restriction. It also helps to keep bosses in a single spot or clumped together, which can make killing bosses like the Werewolves in Trampled Plains, or the sentinels in Red Archer a simple task.
Both Mana Pistol and Mercury Trap have their uses in parties, but are not nearly as much of as a necessity in those as they are in solo runs. Golems especially are geared toward soloing, unless you keep Create Golem at Rank F, since increasing ranks in this skill will make the golem larger, making it hard for both you and everyone in your party to see a boss. Melee characters will also find it annoying having to work their attacks around the Golem, since characters with short range (Fionas in particular) can barely, if at all, hit through an rA Golem. However, larger golems are much more useful in other scenarios, so I would rank that first before mastery. In most parties you won't be using your golem for straight-up damage.
It would be a good idea to level up Mana Pistol before Mercury Trap, since by the time you actually have Mana Pistol, you'll be fighting bosses that can dish out damage quickly, so putting some life into your Mana Pistol will actually make it last longer than 2 seconds.
These skills help prolong your life, and should be ranked when you feel you're too flimsy. Mana Shield is a no-brainer, as is Mana Amber, however, HP Potion Proficiency is one of the best survival skills out there, since a Fine HP Potion will heal 840 HP instead of the 600. Since most characters sit around 3000 HP, that effectively reduces the amount of Fine HP Potions it takes to fully heal you from 5 to just 3~4. However, if you have a high rank Healing Corona, you can pass on HP Potion Proficiency for awhile. Life Flare is fairly low, since its benefits are inconsistent and are not something you should rely on, and Health Mastery is the second lowest since it requires too much AP for the amount of HP you get from ranking it.
You'll need to rank Willpower Mastery to rD as a prerequisite for Life Flare, however, once you reach that rank, you don't need to bother with it for awhile since leveling Life Flare will give you more of a bonus than Willpower will. If you've maxed Life Flare and want some more lasting power, then by all means, go ahead and get some more of it. Willpower will also increase the chance of Standing Endurance going off as well.
Campfire is nice to have maxed, but if there's a Fiona in the party, that person should have campfire maxed. Evie won't get much utility out of campfire early on, since the DEF lost from your gear breaking isn't a huge hit, but later on you can lose close to 1000 DEF if you're in the ~3500 DEF mark. I would suggest getting this skill if you solo a lot, or find yourself partying with other Evies/Lanns frequently.
As for Cloth/Light Armor mastery, I only suggest leveling these when you need them. The DEF boost you get from ranking this skill is negligible, and the increased in-battle durability from this skill does not seem to work.
If you want to heal yourself and your allies, you should rank these skills. Healing Corona is the go-to healing spell. It may not be spammable like the old Heal was, but it makes up for that in potency. In terms of healing power, 1 INT adds .046 more HP recovered by Corona. SP: Regeneration is your secondary heal amidst a battle, although you may decide to not use it that often since it consumes 2 SP bars. Revive is also a good skill for healing in a sense, because an r6 Revive will heal 10% more HP than a Phoenix Feather revive will, and there's also the obvious benefit of being able to revive someone without an item. Alchemy: Transform Erg is more of a luxury heal if anything, since it not only requires a one-handed object to use (which can be scarce depending on the battle), but also for whoever needs a heal to run around and collect the ergs. This is really only useful in Hero mode or harder boats where trash mob fights can get out of hand, so making some ergs can help put off any pot usage until the boss. Or if you just feel like being nice and saving your party members on some money.
Transformations and You
As of June 15, Vindictus now has two stages for transformation and the differences between Paladin and Dark Knight have widened. If you're having trouble deciding which transformation is right for you, then take a look at these key differences between the two.
Click on the skill names to see their in-game description.
Grace: DEF Revelation: ATT
Level 1: +250 DEF +500 ATT/MATT
Level 2: +500 DEF +1000 ATT/MATT, +2 BAL
Level 3: +750 DEF +1500 ATT/MATT, +4 BAL
Revelation: ATT has a hidden BAL bonus that is not listed in-game. I'm not sure if level 1 Revelation: ATT adds BAL or not, however, the numbers for level 2 and 3 are correct.
Revelation: ATT is the winner here, since you won't really be using that 750 DEF all that much as a staff Evie. Staff Evie can nullify most attacks easily, so you should be concentrating on offensive abilities for Evie.
Grasp Steal
Level 1: +5% projectile damage Absorbs 5% HP
Level 2: +10% projectile damage Absorbs 10% HP
Level 3: +15% projectile damage Absorbs 15% HP
Level 4: +20% projectile damage Absorbs 20% HP
Level 5: +25% projectile damage Absorbs 25% HP
Between these two, Steal is the better choice since it can add to your MATT on top of what you normally get, and the damage from both skills isn't significant enough to care about. You won't want to put too many points into this though since even just level 1 can get the job done.
Grace Revelation
Level 1: Generates 1 SP every 3 seconds +30 maximum Stamina
Level 2: Generates 2 SP every 3 seconds +60 maximum Stamina
Level 3: Generates 3 SP every 3 seconds +90 maximum Stamina
Level 4: Generates 4 SP every 3 seconds +120 maximum Stamina
Level 5: Generates 5 SP every 3 seconds +150 maximum Stamina
For the Paladin's Aura, 5 SP every 3 seconds amounts to 200 SP, or just a under 1 bar of SP without taking into account Fatigue and Vigor. For reference, the entire SP gauge is 1,000 SP. With Fatigue and Vigor, you get roughly 190 (first stage) + 280 (second stage), so a total of 470 SP, or almost 1/2 of your bar, which is a pretty decent deal.
As for the Dark Knight Aura, players who recieve the buff from a Dark Knight will have Revelation's stamina boost applied to both their current and maximum stamina. So if a character has 30/173 stamina and recieves a level 5 Revelation buff, they will then be at 180/323 stamina.
So if you want to help out your allies more, it's best to go for Dark Knight here. If you want to be greedy and have a wealth of stamina at your disposal during times when everyone transes, Paladin is actually the better choice.
Petrification will completely immobilize an enemy, while Slowdown will only slow down an enemy. Both skills only work against regular mobs (ie: no bosses or mini-bosses). While the Paladin skill is better than Slowdown, since you're a staff Evie, you don't have much need for Petrification since Ice Blast and Ice Spear can both do the same thing. There's also Clipped Wings which slows enemies down as well if you really feel like it. I wouldn't recommend getting either skill as a staff Evie.
Grace Revelation
Level 1: +250 DEF +500 ATT/MATT, +2 BAL
Level 2: +500 DEF +1000 ATT/MATT, +4 BAL
Level 3: +750 DEF +1500 ATT/MATT, +6 BAL
Dark Knights get a slightly buffed up version of their Revelation: ATT skill, while Paladin's get a carbon copy of their Grace: DEF skill. I'd opt for Revelation: Fury here, since the +6 BAL compacted on to a level 3 Revelation: ATT will add a total of 10 BAL, or essentially +5% total damage.
This video offers some insight into Fissure's damage. It deals almost one bar of Blood Fist's HP, which is just shy of 6,986 damage (69,863 total HP for him according to VindictusDB). For a comparison, a hammer Fiona with 13,000 ATT will Shield Charge him for just about that much damage (approximately 5200~8700 damage). So basically, just think of Fissure as being a Shield Charge in terms of damage. The drawback to these two skills is that you can only use it once per transformation (aside from when you fight Shakarr since the cooldown is 80 seconds), but keep in mind that it is ranged, and that you can double its damage by maxing out Encroach if you so choose to.
For a staff Evie, Fissure is definitely the better choice. It adds another skill to Evie's arsenal that allows her to stun bosses (Ice Spear and Reverse Gravity being her others), allowing her to offer even better team support, as well as giving her another ranged attack with high damage output. And while a second layer of Mana Shields (ie: Conviction) is nice, since Evie has pathetically low DEF, Conviction won't last more than 2 hits from any boss, even with maxed Discipline (not that you'd want to max Discipline).
Overall, I would recommend Dark Knight for a staff Evie over Paladin. Whether or not Evie dies is usually an issue of mistimed Mana Ambers or not enough stamina to Mana Amber, the latter of which can be partially solved by DK's stamina boost, and the former of which won't be solved by either choice.
Equipment Tips
Do not feel obligated to always keep your gear up to date. Sometimes the bonus from going to one set to another is not significant enough to warrant the cost. I would suggest that you update your gear (both your weapon and armor sets) once every 10 or so levels, unless you have money to spare and/or a better set is fairly cheap.
These suggested progressions all take into consideration the cost of going from one item/set to another. Feel free to upgrade to a new item/set whenever you please if you want to.
Armors
The following is an example armor progression that tries to minimize cost:
Scarlet Witch -> Broken Ash -> Rose Drop -> Southern Winter -> Temptress -> *Vehemence/Temptress -> Wonderland
*In the case of Vehemence, for cost-cutting and higher stat measures, I don't recommend getting the entire set. Getting Temptress Booties + Earrings of Temptation and the rest Vehemence is better. See this post for details.
Midnight Wedding, Broken Feather and Ingkara sets are not strictly significant upgrades to Vehemence/Temptress mix so I did not list them in the progression. The Fallen Angel (episode 9) set is an upgrade from the Vehemence/Temptress mix, however, Wonderland packs more INT. The upside to Fallen Angel is the 25 stamina the full set grants, but at the cost of 88 INT (compared to Wonderland). If you really feel that the extra 25 stamina is worth it, then go for Fallen Angel. Otherwise, Wonderland is the best option, at least for level 61 armors. Check here for an armor comparison. It is also important to note that the gloves of the Fallen Angel set are actually Heavy Armor, so that's one less potential Force enchant.
The Mhara set is strictly better than the Wonderland, but only by 49 INT. In reality I would say Wonderland is better since it will ultimately cost far less to get the full set, and since the gloves, hat and boots of Wonderland are extremely cheap to make, they make for great Force scroll fodder. A single Force scroll gives 132 MATT, which is essentially 66 INT. If you can pass just one Force scroll on a Wonderland piece, your full Wonderland is better than a full Mhara, and is much cheaper to boot. While Mhara obviously does have more INT, I don't think it would be worth it to bother switching over.
Likewise, I would not recommend the Everlasting set over the Wonderland (or Mhara) set. Everlasting boasts the highest DEF of all INT-based armors with a whopping 3052 DEF, however, Evie's DEF would still too low to get any real use out of the DEF increase. Everlasting actually has less INT than even Wonderland, by 16. I would not say it's worth the price tag.
I would not recommend wearing Light, Heavy or Plate armor sets specifically for defense, since Evie has Mana Shields which counteract her low DEF. The amount of INT you lose from not wearing INT-gear is substantial and should not be traded for higher DEF. Midnight Wedding is an exception to this, of course.
Weapons
As for weapons, you should typically seek out the ones with the most MATT. ATT is nigh useless. A good progression could be:
Short Staff -> New Friendship Staff -> Aodhan's Staff -> *Staff of Life -> Blooming Staff/Watchtower: The Witch -> Ivory Staff -> Firework Launcher -> Rakum Rakish/Dreamwalker -> Raider's Staff -> Joyous Crook/Seal Maker
*Watchtower adds ~150 MATT more than Staff of Life, and is also a required item in making Watchtower: The Witch, however, Staff of Life adds 100 HP which no other staff does. So you can switch to Watchtower when you hit 32 if you want the extra MATT since you may need it as a crafting ingredient later anyway.
Dreamwalker is a slight upgrade to Rakum Rakish mostly due to its 6 more Crit and attack speed, so what you have to consider here is really just a personal issue: do you want to spend time farming Rakum pieces (I don't suggest buying one off the Marketplace or buying its ingredients), or do you want to just buy a Thor/Dreamwalker Staff since farming that is unrealistic? The choice is yours and neither are a bad choice between each other.
As for Raider's staff, the MATT and crit increase from Rakum/Dreamwalker to Raider's is a straight DPS upgrade, but only worth it if you absolutely want top damage in your parties. As your MATT gets higher and higher, the bonus from that extra crit becomes much more noticeable, which ends up eclipsing the Raider's low BAL.
The episode 9 staff, Teten Staff, is pretty much a strict downgrade from all the 61 staves with its subpar stats. The Joyous Crook, however, is a complete upgrade to all of the 61 staves. Check here if you want to compare the stats for yourself.
Between Joyous Crook or Seal Maker, the choice is yours, really. Joyous Crook boasts 254 more MATT (Seal Maker has 3 more INT), while the Seal Maker has 4 more Crit and ATT SPD. Either choice is fine.
Accessories and books
For rings, once you get 2 Dawn Rings, you can mostly neglect rings until you can make Thorn Rings, unless you feel that you need more HP, in which case you can get 2 Savage Rings for +105 HP a piece. The reason being that the difference in MATT isn't entirely worth it until you hit Thorn Rings which add 72 INT (144 MATT). The choice of course, is always yours.
For other equipment slots, you'll be fine if you just get whatever adds the most INT/MATT. The other stats aren't nearly as important, and items for these slots are scarce. If you're interested in the Ghost Witch Set, wearing a Thorn Ring instead of the Ghost Witch Ring will net you 7 more INT at the cost of 3 AGI if you have the other 2 Ghost Witch pieces equipped, and a Thorn Ring is probably cheaper to make than a Ghost Witch Ring. It's also important to note that a 3* Thorn Ring will typically run you a smaller bill than even just a 2* Ghost Witch Ring, yet the Thorn Ring will add more INT (including a possible Ghost Witch set bonus).
As for the Ivory Set, even if you're past using the Ivory Staff, the Tough Irukul Leather Belt and Rocheste Magician Guild Seal are still great accessories to keep equipped. These two items are even almost on par with the Ghostly Ring and Solid Thor Leather Belt in terms of stats (including set bonuses). So once you get both of these items you will be set for a long time to come.
If you want absolutely maximum INT though, you'll either have to use 2 4* Thorn Rings and a Rainbow Belt, or 2 5* Ghostly Rings and a 5* Thor Belt. For various accessory mixes, check here. Remember to highlight the various icons to check the Quality (*) level.
Listed in this section are good enchants that you should consider putting on your gear. You don't need to have absolutely all of your enchant slots filled up, but if you're looking to add more power to your character without spending millions of gold on obtaining a staff with a high enhance level, enchantments are the way to go.
Scrolls with names in navy blue font are r9 scrolls. When enchanting with an r9 scroll, if you fail, there is a chance that the item you are enchanting will break and you will lose it forever (without getting any of its ingredients back). Exceptions to this are Dominance and Berserker, no idea why but they have a 60% success chance and do not break gear (they still bind your equipment though). Otherwise, I would suggest using these scrolls on non-enhanced/enchanted gears to reduce the financial blow in case you fail and the item breaks. Also, upon success, the enchanted item will be bound to you with a level 5 bind, and 3 unbind counts.
Scrolls with names in dark red font are r8 scrolls that have a chance of breaking your items. There are some r8 scrolls that do not break your items at all, and these are Strong, Healthy, Significant and Passion. These 4 scrolls can have up to a 100% success rate (1 BR = 1% success rate when enchanting) and will appear in a dark green font. Other r8 scrolls work more like r9 scrolls, and have an even smaller chance of success.
Weapon: Prefix:
Gallant (+180 ATT, +150 MATT, +1 BAL with Kobold Beater title)
Shoes: Suffix: Zeal (regenerates stamina at a rate of 1 per second and is always active, including times when you wouldn't normally be able to regenerate stamina)
Book: Prefix: Sage's (+21 INT, -6 AGI) Suffix: Chaos (has a chance of increasing MATT by 150 for 30 seconds when attacking)
Any armor piece: Prefix: Disciple (+6 INT, -5 AGI, additional +5 INT with Magic Mastery rD)
Any non-accessory/spell-book equipment: Suffix: Illusion (+40 MATT)
Any Cloth Armor or Light Armor equipment: Prefix: Well-Balanced (+2 ATT SPD, +1 BAL, +1% CRIT, -1% CRIT resistance) Suffix: Force (+2 BAL, +140 ATT, +132 M. ATT, -28 DEF)
Any Heavy or Plate Armor equipment: Prefix: Tutelary (+112 DEF, +50 HP) Suffix: Sentinel (-15 ATT, +118 DEF, +2% CRIT resistance and an additional +106 DEF with Willpower Mastery rA)
Any Heavy equipment: Suffix: Armadillo (+336 DEF, +5 STA, -100 HP)
Accessories: Prefix:
Warlord (+6 STR, +6 INT, and +130 DEF when level 65 or above)
Strong (+9 STR, +9 INT, +2 STA when level 66 or above
Significant (+15 ATT, +15 MATT, +1 ATT SPD when level 68 or above)
Suffix:
Berserker (+30 ATT, +30 MATT and 2 stamina regained every second when level 70)
Passion (+200 DEF, +2 STA)
Scroll Drop Locations
Here are the locations of some of the various scrolls I mentioned in the previous section. Some scrolls drop from a specific boss that will appear in multiple quests, which is why some locations have two quest names and a boss name in parentheses.
Only quests with at least somewhat common drops are listed. Battles like The Fleeing Gnoll King (drops Force) are not listed, due to how rare of a drop the scroll is, and thus is not an advised farming mission.
You can assume that you must do the battle quest on Hero mode, unless otherwise noted. Battle quests marked with a * are those that can be completed on Hard for the scroll.
Armadillo - Strong Drink Berserker - Weeping Queen Bloodlust - Regrets... Too Late Chaos - Fomorian Order Decisive - Proof of Courage Disciple - Hoarfrost Hollow Divine Punishment - Colru the Golem* Enduring - Ruins of Sanctity Force - Windgun, The Contract, Avatar of Destruction* Gallant - Ruins of Sanctity Hateful - Hoarfrost Hollow in Flames, Yeti King Healthy - Level 67 Quest reward Illusion - Kobold Chief, Prepare for Counterattack (Sturdy Emuloch) Master - Rocktune's Cabin Nimble - Source of the Rumor, Pursuit Oblivion - Regrets... Too Late Passion - Level 69 Quest reward Sage - Madness, Hoarfrost Hollow in Flames Scholar - Gnoll King, Ruler of the Ruins Sentinel -The Contract Significant - Level 68 Quest reward Stone - Blood Prince Strong - Level 66 Quest reward Tutelary - The Evil One* Valor - Fruitful, Trampled Plains Warlord - Irukul Well-Balanced - The Evil One* Zeal - Decisive Battle
Credit to many of the drop locations listed here belong to heroes.inven.co.kr
Battle Tips
Controlling Evie
The time it takes to go from one charge level to another while in Focus can be reduced if you quickly release and press the smash button right when you hit a charge level.
Hitting the ALT key will show all your spell cooldowns.
Hitting ESC while your alchemy box is open will close the box and bring you back to your regular quickslot bar, however, this will put you into mouse mode so you'll have to hit ESC a second time to properly move.
If your character is ever bugged and won't actually turn, and you see a really light Focus wheel, try using Focus quickly and dropping it. The bug should be fixed after this.
Manipulating spells
Focus can actually hit enemies if they're close enough, making them flinch. You can use this to buy you some more time to cast.
Launching Ice Spear or Ice Blast at a frozen boss will cancel the freeze status on the boss.
If you cancel out any of the casting animations for a Focus spell, you will still have to wait for the spell's cooldown to wear off to use it again.
For bosses that have their "central" hitbox way above your character's head (ie: Titan and Ahglan), it would be best to not use Firebolt unless at close (and safe) ranges, because Firebolt will drift upwards to try and hit the boss in its chest. This can lead to many Firebolts missing, so using a faster or more direct spell like Ice Blast may be a better choice.
Eagle Talon/Magic Fire Mine is a great tool for getting break-offs against certain bosses, most notably Irukul and Titan, although the way you use them is different each fight. Against Irukul is simple; when he is not around the center, you can lay Magic Fire Mines in the center and Irukul will more than likely charge into them. Since Irukul's breakpoint is close to the ground and he runs head first, mines have a good chance of hitting the break.
As for Titan, the same tactic will not work. Magic Fire Mine is easily one of the best moves for breaking Titan's ankle guard off among all of the characters since it's easy to control where it hits and is surprisingly strong. The goal here is to simply chase Titan from behind when he's attacking someone else, and charge up your Magic Fire Mine so that when it finishes you're at least within hopping distance of the ankle. Remember, you can hop while charging a Magic Fire Mine and still be able to cast the mine afterwards, so you don't have to time this perfectly since you can use the hop to buffer any distance that you need to gain at the last second. An easy time to spot when you can get a good Magic Fire Mine in is when he's doing his 3-punch combo against someone else. After the third hit, his ankle stays relatively still, enough to hop in and take a swing at.
You can use Flying Sparrow to shoot off a ledge by standing as close to the edge as possible, casting Mana Mine, and then directing yourself towards your destination. Check this video for a demonstration.
Golem tricks
Raised golem = golem that is visible but has not taken form (ie: not enough objects absorbed yet)
Summoned golem = a golem that is able to fight
During the first segment of Irukul (the chase scene), you can use a raised golem to block Irukul from progressing forward. This is useful for holding off Irukul until your party can break the ice walls. However, if your Alchemy: Create Golem skill is a low level, or if you take too long to exit the tunnel, Irukul may actually manage to kill your golem, so beware.
For bosses like Klaus and Ingkara, who launch projectiles, you can use a raised golem as a shield of sorts to take the projectile hits for you. This also works against Colru's ball storm, although a max ranked Golem will only survive 2 storms. Maybe 3 if you're lucky.
If you're soloing a hard boss, you can use the Irukul tactic to make it easier for you. If you find a choke point and raise your golem, then lure the boss to the point, you can effectively wall the boss off and freely shoot it. This works great against bosses like Rockjaw, where there is a fairly small hall that can be blocked off fairly well by an rA golem, and can help you to solo Rockjaw even on Hero mode.
Although golems in parties are generally frowned upon, if the majority of your party is full of Evies, then an army of summoned golems can make fights much easier (at least in non-raids) since a group of golems will eventually corner a boss and make it unable to escape.
Summoned golems (and Mana Pistols) receive debuffs, like Klaus' Dark Sacrifice, just like player characters can. As such, using summons against bosses like Klaus is typically only a hindrance, although Dark Sacrifice is an ability completely unique to Klaus.
In the raids "The Giant" and "Avatar of Destruction," golems are useful for gathering up the spears at one area and bringing them to the ballista. Simply raise the golem at the spear dump and bring it over to the ballista, then make it disappear.
Teamwork
Calling out something, or signaling to your allies that you put up a Healing Corona is a good idea and lets them know that they don't need to wait for a safe time to use a potion. Remember that if you're at full HP, the corona won't heal you, so feel free to use it when you're full.
Corona Placement is vital to actually having a useful Corona. Placing them far off into corners isn't ideal since people may not see them, or they may be too hard to find. Putting them somewhere where the boss is constantly being drawn to is not really a good idea either as people may accidentally get a Corona and end up wasting it because it only healed 100 HP.
Ice Spear's freezing ability against bosses is best used when the boss is stunned (Palalas, knockdown, tired animation, etc). When you freeze it when it's stunned, that makes it infinitely safer for people to attack the boss, since a boss that's frozen in an attacking animation will be continue its attack once its unfrozen. A boss will resume its stun animation after unfreezing.
Demo Videos
This section will list a few videos which you may find useful for learning some tricks that Evie has up her sleeve.
Videos in this section won't be embedded into the forum post, just so that the post doesn't become exceedingly long.
Firebolt should probably be clarified in that it doesn't lock on to targets after the initial "aiming" period and moves very slowly, so it'll whiff on a lot if it isn't planned out properly.
The freezing period works for two freezes, and then I believe the reset is two minutes. I could be wrong though, I just remember reading that somewhere and it seems about right.
Thanks for the guide by the way. I'm still levelling up my Evie so this'll help me out a lot.
EDIT: Oh, and by the way, you should add in next to the focus skill that letting go of right click and holding it down again after a bar fills up significantly lowers charge time. Most of the Evies I played with have only known how to charge the long way.
EDIT2: I find Magic Arrow vastly overrated in this revamp. Meh, maybe some people disagree, I just find myself almost never using it on bosses and very rarely on trash mobs. Compared to other spells, it either does around the same damage or just slightly more, at an overall much higher stamina cost.
Ice Spear priorirty>>>Magic Arrow priority imo.
Last edited by RebeccaBlack; 04-22-2011 at 05:27 PM.
Btw, have you tested what is affected by the attack speed? Because I check the charging time, (without doing quick charging) it's the same. The only thing that becomes faster are the magic arrow spam.
Not sure about the time it takes to shoot fire bolt/ice spear etc though.
Oh, attack speed affects magic arrow but nothing else? Well they'd be on cooldown anyway, so it doesn't matter a whole lot.
In that case, magic arrow might actually deserve all of the praise it gets.
EDIT2: I find Magic Arrow vastly overrated in this revamp. Meh, maybe some people disagree, I just find myself almost never using it on bosses and very rarely on trash mobs. Compared to other spells, it either does around the same damage or just slightly more, at an overall much higher stamina cost.
Ice Spear priorirty>>>Magic Arrow priority imo.
Honestly, while I do think the other spells are much better in a sense in comparison to Magic Arrow, even though I have all the offense spells maxed, I still like having a fall back to Magic Arrow for consistent, almost guaranteed damage. For some bosses (mostly Hero mode), even the Firebolt casting time is too long if the boss is anywhere near you. Maybe I'm a bit biased since I also solo a lot, and I find myself spamming Magic Arrows a lot when I don't Mercury Traps down, or if the boss is just too resistant to them.
And I have a bad habit of not using Ice Spear unless I want to freeze something. =p
Added the rest of your commentary into the guide.
EDIT: I'll move Magic Arrow to the solo priority.
Originally Posted by xJac
Nice guide.
Btw, have you tested what is affected by the attack speed? Because I check the charging time, (without doing quick charging) it's the same. The only thing that becomes faster are the magic arrow spam.
Not sure about the time it takes to shoot fire bolt/ice spear etc though.
I haven't actually gotten the chance to do that. Empowered stones are expensive on East so I haven't gotten my Rakum to +6~7 yet (yeah I'm a cheapskate) and I don't have a Fury enchant for my Evie so I can't really stack much attack speed on my Evie.
I've heard attack speed affects the rate at which your concentration bar fills up. I'd like to check that out but I need to get some attack speed buffs before I can really find out (namely a Nimble).
Most people say attack speed does decrease charging time, so that's what I've been going with that assumption. I guess not though?
Last edited by foreignreign; 04-22-2011 at 06:49 PM.
Yes, attack speed does affect focus. This is a simple thing to test, just record a video and see the difference.
Here is what I recorded. The top 2 videos are using my +28 speed staff. The bottom 2 videos are using my +0 staff. This is only the time to get from Focus 3 to Focus 4.
I can clearly feel the difference in-game too. However, it mainly just comes into play for Focus 3 and 4... Focus 2 is super-fast no matter what att speed you have.
But having really fast magic arrow spam is nice, and being able to pull off Ice Spear / Blind Arrow in tighter situations is nice.
Last edited by placeboing; 04-22-2011 at 08:24 PM.
View Profile
View Forum Posts
Private Message
View Articles
Focus - This skill is what allows Evie to cast a majority of her spells. While using Focus, Evie does not regenerate stamina.
Eagle Talon - An attack spell that is performed after running for a certain period of time. You will know when you can activate it since Evie will shout and her hand will start glowing. At r9, you will be able to cast a Magic Fire Mine by holding down the smash key while in her charged running state. Magic Fire Mines are spheres of mana that will detonate after 15 seconds, or when an enemy or object (any object, including secondary weapons and even Mana Amber) hits them. Ranking this skill also decreases the amount of time it takes to go into the charged state.
Flying Sparrow - A spell that increases Evie's dodging abilities by giving her a second jump to her regular hop by releasing a burst of energy mid-hop, or after using Mana Mine. Flying Sparrow also works as an attack against enemies. When used after Mana Mine, the distance covered by Flying Sparrow is the same distance covered by a hop + Flying Sparrow.
Magic Arrow - Launches a green bolt of mana at a target to deal damage. After ranking it to r9, will have an added effect of two additional, smaller arrows being launched alongside the main arrow.
Mana Amber - Evie encases herself in a magical amber that shields her from damage, however, she is unable to perform any action until she releases herself from the amber, or enough damage is dealt to the amber to break it. After a certain amount of time passes, Mana Amber will automatically cancel.
Healing Corona - Evie summons "Healing Motes" that are stationary. Any ally that passes by the motes will have HP restored and recieve a debuff that does not allow them to be healed by Healing Corona for 2 minutes. This spell will not heal anyone with full HP. The healing motes themselves only last 2 minutes before disappearing.
Mana Mine - a simpler version of Magic Fire Mine that only lasts for 5 seconds.
Firebolt - This spell launches a "fire mine," so-to-speak, at a selected target (the lock-on happens when you start casting). After casting, the fire mine moves toward a target (or forward into empty space) until it comes into contact with either any obstacle or enemy, and then explodes. If the fire mine does not come into contact with a target after it travels a certain distance, it will disappear.
Ice Blast - Evie smashes her staff into the ground (the old LLLLR animation) and potentially freezes non-boss enemies who are relatively close by.
Ice Spear - Evie launches ray of ice that has long range and can freeze any target. Any enemies that are within the path of Ice Spear will be hit. Bosses eventually build a resistance to Ice Spear's freezing status. Specifically, if a boss is hit by an Ice Spear and is frozen, the next time it is frozen by Ice Spear, the freezing status will not last as long as the first freeze. The third time the boss is hit by Ice Spear, the boss will be frozen for a fraction of a second (if at all), and at this point the boss' "freeze timer" will begin. Once that timer is up (around 5 minutes*), the boss will be able to be frozen again for the full duration, and the cycle will repeat.
Blind Arrow - Launches a flurry of 9 magic arrows for devastating damage. The magic arrows from this spell will home into a target after a lock-on, even if the enemy runs towards you and ends up behind you, although the arrows launched from this spell follow a sporadic path so not all of them are guaranteed to hit small targets.
Create Golem - Evie summons a mass of energy that will draw in any objects that can be lifted into itself. Once enough objects are absorbed, the Golem will take form and walk on two legs, and will attack enemies and receive damage. The summoner Evie will receive a small amount of damage whenever the golem takes damage.
Mana Pistol - Evie summons an autonomous gun, which will take damage from enemies and shoot them in retaliation. Monsters that are hit by a Mana Pistol will also receive a debuff that slows them down (similar to the Slow status effect for player characters). Mana Pistols will occasionally retreat from their current position if an enemy sticks close to them for too long. Only one Mana Pistol can be summoned at a time (summoning a second Mana Pistol will kill the first one).
Mercury Trap - Evie creates a puddle of mercury below her, that traps many enemies and bosses and does not allow them to move out of the mercury puddle. Not all bosses are effected by Mercury Trap.
Clipped Wings - Evie raises her staff and creates a blast wave that slows down all non-boss enemies within range. Consumes 1 SP Bar.
Regeneration - Evie casts a buff that affects the entire party and restores HP over time. Consumes 2 SP Bars.
Reverse Gravity - Evie lifts up any nearby enemies and liftable objects into the air, suspending them for a second, and then suddenly slams them back down to the ground. Consumes 4 SP Bars
Reply With Quote
Visit Homepage
Originally Posted by xJac
Bookmarks