Help, don't know what to rank next

• Nishina wrote on 2014-10-01 15:14
  I'm new to the forum so: greetings to the Mabination community :3. :hi:
  
  I hope you can help me with my problem. I apologize for my English, because I'm not a native speaker.:bow:
  
  So, right now my first character, who is an elf has a cumulative level of 990 and is Master Archer with 490 DEX.
  These are my Archer skills:
  Magnum Shot R1
  Crash Shot R1
  Bow Mastery R1
  Elf Ranged Attack R1
  Mirage Missile R1
  Support Shot R1
  Final Shot R8
  Spider Shot RF
  
  
  And now I'm at a stage, where I don't know which skill to invest next. Mabinogi has so much freedom it's confusing to know what to do next :cry:
  Archery should be my main talent, which combat talent are good to support it? I only ask about combat talents, because I have a rough idea in which life talents I'm investing :whistle:
  
  So my questions listed below:
  
  1. should I rank spider shot, if yes to which rank?
  2. should I rank Final Shot higher?
  3. should I rank bard next to boost my DEX?
  4. is alchemy good as a subclass, especially as an elf, other than the barrier spike skill?
  5. is puppetry as an Elf viable? if yes which path should I take?
  
  I hope I didn't violate any forum rules and thank you for your help. :blush:
• aznman08 wrote on 2014-10-01 15:35
  I'm going to answer with what I know.
  
  Puppets are a good way to go next since it gives you melee capability, and unlike regular melee skills there is no drawback in damage. It also gets a damage boost from dex (and str).
  
  If you have trouble handling aggro then work on Song to r5+ and Lullaby.
• Kelvas wrote on 2014-10-01 16:08
  I'd recommend to rank life skills that give dex, such as refine, weaving, tailoring, sheep sheering, handicraft, ect. Your dex needs to be higher if you plan on maining archery. And for your questions on skills, rank till you get every dex you can get.
  Rank song to at least 5 for bfo and lullaby without an instrument. Puppetry is likely the best option as a next talent, but I would focus on life skills first.
• Nishina wrote on 2014-10-01 16:15
  Thank you for your answers :D
  
  I'll rank life skills first then, afterwards Song, BFO and Lullaby to 5 and after that I'll concentrate on Puppetry.
• ironwoman wrote on 2014-10-01 17:37
  As a main archer here, I'll give answers with what I know/have experienced.
  
  I'm gonna start by answering your questions first.
  
  1. Yes, you should rank it, and to rank 1. You do want as much dex as possible right? Then there is no reason to not rank it. However, this will not be your priority as it eats up a lot of AP without giving 30+ dex. Just rank it later, I only recently got it to rank 1.
  2. Of course. Skill that can be useful at times, as well as big dex from the skill. No reason to not rank it.
  3. Partially for dex, yes, but more for your combat ability. Battlefield Overture will give a significant boost to your damage, and many of the current meta enchants require that you have rank 1 of certain bard skills.
  4. I'd have to say no to this one. It's not bad, but it's not good. The only one that is useful is Hydra Transmutation, where you can basically clear a whole high HP mob room with just that skill + crash shot + lullaby. Barrier spike isn't good because you'll have things killed before they can get to your wall. Others are pretty meaningless as they would require a separate set of enchants for those skills to be effective.
  5. Puppetry is viable on any race. Elves actually have the middle damage in puppets, giants being the worst. The first two skills that you want to get to rank 1 are Climactic Crash and Crisis. After that, I'd say control marionette, pierrot/colossus marionette, then the rest of the act skills.
  
  For other skills you should rank... there is refining, handicraft, weaving, sheep shearing, etc. There are still other combat skills to consider, like combat mastery (dex + hp + str), windmill (pretty much necessary for anyone), critical hit (necessary for any class), counterattack (dex + viscount enchant), sword mastery (dex), blunt mastery (str + ambush enchant), crossbow mastery (sniper title), etc.
• Darkboy132 wrote on 2014-10-01 18:05
  I thought Spider Shot was pretty bad since there's other 'trapping' skills that do a better job, and Final Shot is outdated?
  
  Anyway, as long as you have the strength and dex to back up puppet you should be fine.
  -You should actively focus on Act 7, Act 6, and Act 4 because they're puppet's bread n' butter.
  -Control Marionette and both Pierrot and Colossus Marionette are important and should be passively ranked because that's what strengthens them; you need both marionettes because you're going to frequently switch between the two, Colossus has higher priority though due to one skill being slow on Pierrot's part.
  -Act 2 and 1 are powerful but not so vital due to being 1:1.
  -Wire Pull and Puppet's Snare are good, but comes nowhere near Act skills, however Puppet's Snare is helpful in restraining mobs like Blinkers.
  -Act 9... Is completely useless and the last thing you'd want to direct your attention to. All it does is give a very small damage boost and a stupid AI that's weak because you're not controlling the marionette, not to mention the fact that it goes away really fast because you're frequently switching between marionettes.
  
  --- Merged Double Post ---
  
  I thought Spider Shot was pretty bad since there's other 'trapping' skills that do a better job, and Final Shot is outdated?
  
  Anyway, as long as you have the strength and dex to back up puppet you should be fine.
  -You should actively focus on Act 7, Act 6, and Act 4 because they're puppet's bread n' butter.
  -Control Marionette and both Pierrot and Colossus Marionette are important and should be passively ranked because that's what strengthens them; you need both marionettes because you're going to frequently switch between the two, Colossus has higher priority though due to one skill being slow on Pierrot's part.
  -Act 2 and 1 are powerful but not so vital due to being 1:1.
  -Wire Pull and Puppet's Snare are good, but comes nowhere near Act skills, however Puppet's Snare is helpful in restraining mobs like Blinkers.
  -Act 9... Is completely useless and the last thing you'd want to direct your attention to. All it does is give a very small damage boost and a stupid AI that's weak because you're not controlling the marionette, not to mention the fact that it goes away really fast because you're frequently switching between marionettes.
• ironwoman wrote on 2014-10-01 20:20

  Quote from Darkboy132;1249527:

  I thought Spider Shot was pretty bad since there's other 'trapping' skills that do a better job, and Final Shot is outdated?
  

  
  
  It is bad. I'm telling the OP to rank it just for the stats, but it's clearly not a priority skill to rank because of the skill doesn't even give 30+ dex. For Final Shot, it's pretty outdated, but not completely. You also can't ignore the dex the skill gives. Final Shot still has its uses, like in boss rooms, it still can be used in place of WoTG. In fact, it'll do more dps with final shot magnum than WoTG.
• ironwoman wrote on 2014-10-01 20:20

  Quote from Darkboy132;1249527:

  I thought Spider Shot was pretty bad since there's other 'trapping' skills that do a better job, and Final Shot is outdated?
  

  
  
  It is bad. I'm telling the OP to rank it just for the stats, but it's clearly not a priority skill to rank because of the skill doesn't even give 30+ dex. For Final Shot, it's pretty outdated, but not completely. You also can't ignore the dex the skill gives. Final Shot still has its uses, like in boss rooms, it still can be used in place of WoTG. In fact, it'll do more dps with final shot magnum than WoTG.
• Nishina wrote on 2014-10-02 07:26
  Ahh, so much informations :skip:
  
  Thank you very much :bow: