Advice picking a new skillset

• Oensong wrote on 2015-04-02 22:32
  Personally, with all the stats and theories aside, I figure Mabinogi should be subjective in what race you want to play. Just that if you want Archery, you have to be Elf or Human.
  
  But people get really into the stats, and tend to gravitate towards that.
• Darkboy132 wrote on 2015-04-02 22:33

  Quote from Oensong;1269861:

  Darkboy;
  
  I think I made mention of the fact FH cant be force cancelled anymore. I think Nui implied it? Anyways, just thought I'd bring awareness that it was mentioned. Page 3, my reply made mention of it.

  
  
  Meh I just skimmed through the whole thing.
  
  

  Quote from Nui;1269467:

  FH speed

  
  
  Actually, that never left the test server. 200% speed was dropped in favor for 400% damage.
• rinaek wrote on 2015-04-03 14:17
  Woah, a bunch of things happened in this thread and I didn't even notice.
  
  

  Quote from Osayidan;1269155:

  I'm personally going mage+fighter+bard, using merlin knuckles. I think it's the best combo usable with a single weapon for people that are primarily mage. As long as your current gear is not heavy armor your only up front investment would be merlin knuckles, though for ranking up fighter you can just use disposable shop knuckles.
  
  
  -- sent via mobile

  
  
  Sounds interesting, and I do happen to have the free mana knuckles from when Merlin came out.
  I'm kind of wondering how exactly the two skillsets synergize though. Is there actually enough time to do int. magic in between fighter combos, or are you mainly using the mana knuckles to throw out the occasional Blaze/Fusion Bolt?
• Oensong wrote on 2015-04-03 15:32
  rinaek,
  
  There is time to pop out some Int Magic between the combos. Definitely not for the latency burdened, but its capable of being done. Obviously when we are discussing what is able to be done, its Ice Spear and Thunder, right? =)
  
  But I am sure there is a lot of snapcast involved, and the use of spell walk will also be highly useful when Rank 1.
  
  The three skill sets mentioned in the quote you provided work even better, because of mob control provided with Lullaby and Dischord, and either damage increase for knuckles, or Cast speed increase for magic. Which only pushes its versatility even further.
• rinaek wrote on 2015-04-03 16:09

  Quote from Oensong;1269928:

  rinaek,
  
  There is time to pop out some Int Magic between the combos. Definitely not for the latency burdened, but its capable of being done. Obviously when we are discussing what is able to be done, its Ice Spear and Thunder, right? =)
  
  But I am sure there is a lot of snapcast involved, and the use of spell walk will also be highly useful when Rank 1.
  
  The three skill sets mentioned in the quote you provided work even better, because of mob control provided with Lullaby and Dischord, and either damage increase for knuckles, or Cast speed increase for magic. Which only pushes its versatility even further.

  
  
  Sounds good to me. In that case, what do we try to spec for, gear-wise? Min/max damage? Crit? Mix and match will & int?
• Oensong wrote on 2015-04-03 16:42
  If you are going mage, go INT. Always push for INT. Its going to be a Max damage push on the Knuckles. Enchants I am unsure of.
• Darkboy132 wrote on 2015-04-03 20:47

  Quote from rinaek;1269914:

  Woah, a bunch of things happened in this thread and I didn't even notice.
  
  
  
  Sounds interesting, and I do happen to have the free mana knuckles from when Merlin came out.
  I'm kind of wondering how exactly the two skillsets synergize though. Is there actually enough time to do int. magic in between fighter combos, or are you mainly using the mana knuckles to throw out the occasional Blaze/Fusion Bolt?

  
  
  Actually, magic and fighter have extremely terrible synergy. This is mainly due to Respite punishing 1/4th of your health, mana, and stamina for just using magic after within three minutes. Furthermore, loading any other skill while in the midst of a fight combo chain will interrupt it.
  
  Merlin/mana knuckles aren't exactly great since it doesn't provide a huge boost to fighter or magic, compared to their standalone weapons.
• Syliara wrote on 2015-04-03 21:15

  Quote from Darkboy132;1269943:

  Actually, magic and fighter have extremely terrible synergy. This is mainly due to Respite punishing 1/4th of your health, mana, and stamina for just using magic after within three minutes. Furthermore, loading any other skill while in the midst of a fight combo chain will interrupt it.
  
  Merlin/mana knuckles aren't exactly great since it doesn't provide a huge boost to fighter or magic, compared to their standalone weapons.

  
  
  Who the fk uses respite? Its a really bad skill and isnt even worth it to rank up for stats. Also u can use int magic after a chain 3 skill like pummel or drop kick since it gives u some nice distance between u and the target. This is assuming ofc that the target doesnt have adv heavy stander.
• Rydian wrote on 2015-04-03 22:40
  I agree that mentioning Respite as a downside is kind of grasping at straws because it assumes that people that are informed enough to have int magic would use it. :P
• Oensong wrote on 2015-04-03 23:11
  If you are a mage, and are using Mana/Merlin Knuckles. You do not use Respite at all. Period. Respite even as a pure Fighter isn't even at all practical.
• Osayidan wrote on 2015-04-03 23:32

  Quote from Darkboy132;1269943:

  Actually, magic and fighter have extremely terrible synergy. This is mainly due to Respite punishing 1/4th of your health, mana, and stamina for just using magic after within three minutes. Furthermore, loading any other skill while in the midst of a fight combo chain will interrupt it.
  
  Merlin/mana knuckles aren't exactly great since it doesn't provide a huge boost to fighter or magic, compared to their standalone weapons.

  
  
  Someone posted a very nice video of a KR player doing a shadow mission with merlin's. I can't find it though because I have no idea in what context it was posted, and it's probably in korean.
  
  Edit:
  Managed to find it on my youtube favorites.
  [video=youtube;tLhPgk2DS7o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLhPgk2DS7o[/video]
  
  Lots of fighter + mage, and switching to melee weapon for higher damage/range on windmill and other skills.
  So with 2 weapons available to switch around with, you're unlocking: mage, fighter, bard (instrumentless sing buffs or lullaby), and close combat.
  
  It's especially more awesome after renovation for being able to hit mobs in ice spear, and that new lightning skill that can quickly burst out high damages. It requires mastering several skill sets, having the right equipment, and practicing like crazy to master using them all at the same time in different situations, but isn't that where the fun of the game is?
• Lukshad wrote on 2015-04-07 01:23

  Quote from Darkboy132;1269943:

  Actually, magic and fighter have extremely terrible synergy. This is mainly due to Respite punishing 1/4th of your health, mana, and stamina for just using magic after within three minutes. Furthermore, loading any other skill while in the midst of a fight combo chain will interrupt it.
  
  Merlin/mana knuckles aren't exactly great since it doesn't provide a huge boost to fighter or magic, compared to their standalone weapons.

  
  
  I'd have to object with you; I've been using Merlin's as my primary weapon for awhile now and I've developed some pretty fun combos. Sure, using magic in the middle of a fighter combo will prevent the next step, but that's actually not a big deal. Something I'll start off with is either Charging Strike or Focused Fist (MA), then go to Spinning Uppercut, reposition myself for an ideal Drop Kick, Assault Slash, Tumble, Snapcast, Thunder/Fireball. By the time that this sequence is finished, my Stage 1 and 2 Fighter skills' cooldowns are counting down a few seconds, and I've done two strong aoe attacks and the singular enemy that I used my first two attacks on has received moderate-high damage.
  
  Some players use bolts occasionally simply to interrupt their enemy; a Merlin's user can do this and do 4-5k via spell fusion which isn't too bad as far as damage goes.
  
  WM might not have the greatest aoe, but it still functions as a viable counter, and even if you don't want to use WM you can always cast Shockwave.
  
  As for your argument regarding Respite, I won't even go there xD
  
  And just like others have mentioned before, you're giving yourself another free skillset to play around with. I'm still fickle with what skillset I want to use as my secondary, but sometimes I'll use guns. Wouldn't be able to do that if I had plain knuckles in one setup and a staff in the other.
• Kaeporo wrote on 2015-04-07 03:03

  Quote from Lukshad;1270295:

  I'd have to object with you; I've been using Merlin's as my primary weapon for awhile now and I've developed some pretty fun combos. Sure, using magic in the middle of a fighter combo will prevent the next step, but that's actually not a big deal. Something I'll start off with is either Charging Strike or Focused Fist (MA), then go to Spinning Uppercut, reposition myself for an ideal Drop Kick, Assault Slash, Tumble, Snapcast, Thunder/Fireball. By the time that this sequence is finished, my Stage 1 and 2 Fighter skills' cooldowns are counting down a few seconds, and I've done two strong aoe attacks and the singular enemy that I used my first two attacks on has received moderate-high damage.
  
  Some players use bolts occasionally simply to interrupt their enemy; a Merlin's user can do this and do 4-5k via spell fusion which isn't too bad as far as damage goes.
  
  WM might not have the greatest aoe, but it still functions as a viable counter, and even if you don't want to use WM you can always cast Shockwave.
  
  As for your argument regarding Respite, I won't even go there xD
  
  And just like others have mentioned before, you're giving yourself another free skillset to play around with. I'm still fickle with what skillset I want to use as my secondary, but sometimes I'll use guns. Wouldn't be able to do that if I had plain knuckles in one setup and a staff in the other.

  
  
  The big argument against merlin knuckles is quite simply a matter of damage.
  
  ---
  
  Wands are best suited for bolt magic and blaze; the damage/casting speed difference is never made up by the added utility. Merlins are automatically out of the picture for those.
  
  Merlin Knuckles are still disadvantaged when it comes to intermediate spells but the utility is justified.
  
  Unfortunately, advanced spells have huge magic attack coefficients with highly variable damage output. Merlins won't cut it for these either. Hail Storm is the least impacted and even it would suffer heavily. Merlin-based Lightning Rod and Meteor Strike are almost entirely obsolete compared to alternative options, especially Lightning Rod with its S/R break-point of 616.
• Crhymez wrote on 2015-04-16 14:48
  Ok, so after testing a Giant and a Human for a week... i decide im a giant.
  The look alone is worth it, but i also like that i stand out since there are few giants
• Daniel1235 wrote on 2015-04-20 12:51
  Since you go for a giant, a piec of advise for you if i may...
  
  You should start working on aquiring cp clothing. These Reccommanded for giants:
  Pirate Captain Suit
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/b9mjHHc.png]

  
  Pirate Crewmen Uniform
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/cKF91yn.png]

  
  Pirate Woodworker Wear
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/MpGmhVS.png]

  
  
  All are unristricted magical clothing (the ones you can see on elves and humans are gender locked and age locked) so these will be the perfect cp clothing for giants.