Handy Guide to AQW Classes

From AQ Worlds Wiki

Jump to: navigation, search

It would be a great help if contributors would post in the discussion of the page first, as to help mitigate the effort of handling the format of the guide. Thank you for all your effort and help, though.

Contents

Foreword

This serves as a strategic guide, and as such focuses on Mage and Warrior, the two classes that are, more or less, strategically superior in many ways. If I find the time, I would like to go into more depth on rotations used by the other classes, but for now the "Other Classes" section can advise the strategic use for any other class.

This guide aims to provide a basis behind group management for tough fights when players are hard to come by. This does, unfortunately show a statistical imbalance between the classes. This will probably all change in time. The release of mp potions alone would break this guide apart. In the end, your stylistic choice is what matters, play the class that you enjoy playing.

Mage

One of the most useful classes against any boss or any content with 2+ players. Infusion alone is an overwhelmingly great skill, and ice shards adds much needed survivability.

Notable Skills

  • Auto Attack: Weaker than the normal warrior based attack. About as weaker than warrior as Berserker is stronger.
  • Ice Shard: Great group skill. A waste during farming or non-boss enemies.
  • Infusion: The bread and butter of the mage class, USE IT!
  • Explosion: Good soloing spell, deals Decisive Strike damage when infusion is on the enemy, all for 2 mana. It also will drain the enemy of 4 mana, and although this is currently of no real significance, it should be handy in the future.

Strategies

  • Single Player: Mage is not the best class when alone. Use infusion whenever it's up in order to manage mana. Use explosion whenever infusion is on the target for one of the best damage/mana ratios among classes. Rely on fireball as efficient damage dealing when infusion is on cooldown.
  • Group: Mage is THE support class. Don't waste your mana by being fancy. You top priority is keeping infusion up. Other than that, refresh ice shards whenever you can to keep everyone alive. Ice shards and infusion are the only two spells you should use in order to conserve mana. Once mp drops towards 8 mana, don't use ice shards. Infusion is more important to be able to cast.
  • Side Notes*

Mage is a very good class, and when it gets passive skills and such, it will be even better! But keep in mind that this class, like Rogue, is a class that relies ENTIRELY on it's skills. Mage's auto attack deals 90% weapon damage, and is as fast as Warrior, meaning it is the weakest in regular damage. Rogue and Ninja deal 75% damage, but are faster(Ninja being the fastest, its auto attack is potentially more dangerous than berserker!*Confirmed by Tomix*), meaning, if you put a rank 1 mage against a rank 1 rogue, same level, the rogue is pretty much guaranteed to win. KEEP THAT IN MIND. If you neglect the skills, Mage sucks. Keep an eye on your MP, and don't be afraid to spam Infusion and Ice Shard. -Saintofdarkness

Warrior

By far the best solo farming class in the game thanks to it's passive skills, DS, and prep strike.

Notable Skills

  • Passives: The best skills in the game besides infusion. At rank 6, you get 5 mp for every crit. At rank 9, you get 1 mp for every hit you take.

Auto Attack: Basic strong and slow attack.

  • Decisive Strike: GREAT skill. Very unappreciated. Deals the damage for 4 mp that many other classes spend 6 or 8 mp on. Is the basis on which all other DPS abilities should be judged.
  • Imbalancing Strike: HORRIBLE skill. Almost never worth the mana investment. Useless until a boss comes out with a telegraphed omega attack of some kind. Not the stun we all knew and loved from beta, stop using it already.
  • Prepared Attack: Great skill, at rank 6, it pretty much says "gain 1 mp," since you are spending 4 mana to be guaranteed to crit and get 5 back. BUG: If you interrupt the "point" animation with DS, the delay gets skipped. This should be fixed eventually, but for now means it says "gain 1 mp, deal an extra 100% on next auto attack."

Strategies

  • Everything: Seriously. Solo farming or boss work, doesn't matter. Your job is sustained DPS. Deal as much damage for as long as possible. For this effect, start attacking, then use prepared attack and DS(Decisive Strike) quick after each other. This should stop the "point" animation of prep with the DS strike and result in a quick prep attack crit without the delay. This deals an extra 250% of an auto attack for 3 mp after rank 6. Wait until both cooldown are over, then repeat. There should only be a fraction of a second between the cooldowns. Getting the timing down is easy, try using 4 and 2 on your keyboard to get it down. This is the best DPS strategy in the game. DON'T use imbalancing or anything else, conserve your mp and make it go towards dealing as much damage as possible. A single imbalancing strike means an extra 500% of an auto attack you could have done with the prep/DS combo. If used correctly, you should almost NEVER run out of mana. This all relies heavily on the rank 6 passive.
  • Prep Trick: On fights that you expect to be particularly hard, use prepared attack before you start, then rest back to full mp and hp. You'll start battle with an instant crit. Just be sure to tell your group what you're doing.


  • Unfortunately not a very good class in PvP, from what I hear. Ninja, Enforcer, Clawsuit, and even BERSERKER will be much better choices once the new passive skills and such come out.

-Saintofdarkness

Other Classes, Ranked More or Less in Order of Descending Importance

ClawSuit

A very interesting class. Once again, I'm not a member, so this particular evaluation is purely a mix of hearsay and conjecture. However, it's ability to provide ninja level stuns and rogue damage enhancement all while retaining warrior passive skills is quite amazing. This is the first class where I regret not being a member. I would rank it above mage when it comes to team support. Any member that could contribute 1 level mace testing on damage would be very awesome.

Healer

Helpful. Having the ability to shift classes and heal is always nice. Doing the same for newbies low on health is always nice. Level it to rank 4 for Clear Mind, which is a great mp conversion skill. A cool trick is to equip healer, cast clear mind, then re-equip another class in order to have an extra little mp conservation trick.

  • Healing Word: The must have ability from the must have class. Adding Clear mind to it makes you almost immortal. Healing word is just amazing. You heal yourself, thats all there is too it. Get a strong weapon if you want a better result. Non members like me would get a holy hammer of retribution when healing yourself or when someone is healing you.

Rustbucket , Enforcer Class and ProtoSartorium

Has even better burst damage than ninja, with two DS level attacks in the form of Jackhammer and Plasma Bolt. Sadly, it still gets beat by warrior. Warrior's DS is 4 mana, while the robots two DS's cost 6 and 5 mp respectively. Also, prep attack means warrior can deal consistent crits while still adding to their DPS. These two factors mean warriors can pretty much have endless mana pools, which makes them much better for farming and for long boss fights. See the warrior section above on how to achieve this. Overall great classes, and definitely worth leveling for us without Pally class, at least for the coolness factor whenever they get the AOE attack working(Pulsewave). Very useful for quick farming, rather than the sustained long runs warrior can pull. Event Horizon is definitely very nice to have, and quite useful for those otherwise frustrating occasions when you are forced to fight hard hitting, low hp, mini-boss level monsters on your own.

  • Strategies: Feel free to spam Jackhammer and Plasma Bolt as much as you want if MP conservation is not a huge concern. The increased number of hits allows you more chances to crit and restore you MP. However, in any boss situation or for long farming sessions, the use of Jackhammer is not recommended, as you'll get more damage per MP point if you have the time to wait for Plasma Bolt's cooldown. Don't ever use Pulsewave.
  • Event Horizon: Being a rank 10 of this skill set makes Event Horizon much better to use in those long boss fights, supposedly longer than a minute. The reason so is because if you are hit successfully while event horizon is enabled, you take 0 damage yet you regain 1 mp from the warrior passives. Event Horizon takes up 10 mp and lasts for 12 seconds. You can easily regain a little less than half of the mp you spent with this tactic, 11 - 13 mp if you are soloing a boss.
  • Side notes*

Overall probably the best non-mem class for damage dealing. While fighting a boss don't use event horizon till the very end of your health so make sure to save up some energy,Works really well. -Joshman13x

  • Enforcer is also THE best farmer out there because of its insanely fast damage dealing. Your battles will last no more than a few seconds against the average enemy fodder. For any quest where you have to battle through hordes of enemies, go with Enforcer.

-Red Blizzard

  • Hey Red how's it goin? :P I agree with Red Blizzard completely. Enforcer and equivalent classes outclass Warrior. After all, Warrior's Prepared strike and Decisive Strike combo isnt easy to execute when theres a lot of people. Lag makes it almost impossible to work. Enforcer's skills are great as a barrage. Jackhammer, Plasma Bolt, and Pulsewave all together at once are GREAT, and Event Horizon can really change the tide in battle. Enforcer has THREE relatively effective damaging skills, while Warrior only has 2(Imbalancing Strike sucks), AND Enforcer has a much better defensive skill.

-Saintofdarkness

DragonSlayer

The third of the non-member classes to receive warrior passives. Of course, this immediately makes it relevant. However, Impale hurts the class in that it has no chance to crit, and DS is left with even less crit potential than Warrior or the robots. Scorching steel is your standard Decisive Strike clone, and is as awesome as that implies. And the final skill, at the current damage scaling, is almost entirely useless. However, Bane of scales is the first tanking talent implemented, and allows clever strategies whenever your opponent is of the scaly and fire-breathing variety. Definitely worth leveling to rank 9 if you have the extra time.

  • Scorching Steel: Not as good as it may seem, this move. It does 150% your weapons damage, but the class itself does 120% your weapons damage. It does 30% more damage but it takes up the same mp the warrior's DS takes up. The warriors is basically a 40% boost. All in all, the warrior's DS and the Dragon slayer's has the same result but the Dragon Slayer's is less useful to its class. But at least Scorched Steel has element to it, which won't matter until stats come in.

Paladin

Paladin class is currently marked by it's ability to both heal and deal respective damage. However, it is unable to preform either of these tasks to the level of a healer or warrior, respectively. Abolish hits for 80% of the damage that s Warrior's Decisive Strike would do, yet costs 2 more MP. On the matter of healing, Empower causes a target to heal for 25% of their total DPS over 5 attacks, which currently scales much worse than a Healer's "Healing Word" except in the most insignificant of situations (Low level healer, Super high leveled heal target).

Paladin is saved from it's otherwise mediocre skill set, however, by it's final skill Eternal Light. This skill gives the paladin an effective MP restoration skill. Of course, it is not as powerful an MP manipulater as the Warrior's passive skills and does not yet benefit your party like Infusion(this is the skills NYI part). However, it still has it's merit.

Paladin, although underpowered in almost every skill in relation to some other class, is the only class that allows a solo player to actively control their HP and MP levels inside of combat, an ability many find attractive.

It is very important to realize that once the staff fixes it's (Not Yet Implemented) skills and balances out the combat of the game, Paladin should eventually be a good class which combines healing with attacks, as well as perhaps the best party supporting class in the game because of Eternal Light alone.

  • Strategies: For the most part, spam Abolish and Eternal Light whenever possible. Never use Blinding Light. When you feel the need to activate Empower and save yourself try to wait until Abolish is off cooldown so you can try to get as many Abolish's in during Empower's duration. The more Abolish's that you can fit in one Empower, the higher your healing will be.
  • Side Notes*
  • Paladin isn't a good class at the moment, and maybe only marginally better than Dragonslayer, but once it gets passive skills(Paladin's passive skills are similar to Warriors I think), it will be a threat in PvP, and also a threat to many bosses! But for now, it's a crappy class and not worth using as a support OR farming class. Just rank it up now, and don't use it outside of PTR until the passive skills are released, and the skills are implemented, 'cuz then you will be all set to put Pally to good work!

-Saintofdarkness

  • Paladin also gives you +30HP for those with rank above 6. It's not a lot but it's better than nothing, right? Oh, and Paladin in PTR is sooo much better! Eternal Light was deleted but now Paladins can get mana everytime they attack or are attacked. Also Empower, now the last skill, heals you every attack (lot more than before) AND raises the amount of mana you receive when struck or on strike. And finally, the skill that took place of Empower as 2nd, is a little bit weaker (I don't really remember if it's weaker... gotta check) version of Healer's healing skill. Paladin is one of the best "last-long" classes in PTR.

-Z

Rogue , Pirate , Vampire and Others

Very nice when group reaches 4+ members for puncture. Otherwise, sadly, it looses to warrior because it can't manage mp.

  • Vipers Kiss: I was going to comment on Puncture but it was already commented on in the description so here it is. Vipers Kiss, Implale and Fireball do their respective damage over time but Vipers Kiss is really something. 350% of you weapons damage! Level 8 enhancement on a weapon is usually 72-88 damage, so just 2 vipers kisses are like adding a new player to your party/group. I suggest to never use this when farming but use this when you are fighting a monster of 3000+ hp. Great move, people never really like rouge but they forget to respect the unappreciated Vipers kiss.
  • Side Notes*
  • Rogue is actually much better than you think! It is just about as good of a support class as Mage, if used correctly! And when Footwork is implemented, it would be much more threatening. Concealed Blade is a useless skill... But Viper's Kiss, Puncture, and Footwork(when it's implemented) can make a Rogue a formidable foe! Oh, and the Rogue will soon have a powerful passive skill, where it regains mana every time Viper's Kiss saps enemy hp!

-Saintofdarkness

Ninja

One of the best burst damage in the game. However, no mp management and costly mp for abilities that you can get cheaper on Warrior makes it useless in the current game. While you're sitting there auto-attacking, a warrior is Preping and DS'ing. It does, however, have the only useful stun that's available to non-members... but that stun takes a total of 12 mana. Useful for when you really, really need those 10 seconds (or 15 seconds for those level 16+ viewers out there) of stun for any given enemy. Not so much so on any fight of significant length and/or ease.

  • Crosscut: If cross cut were ever to be implanted, it would have its ups and downs.. The classes that carry the warrior passives have a DS that is 150% damage weapons damage. Cross cut is simply attacking twice and ninja already has 20% decrease on its damage. Its basically a little stronger than the usual DS because it would be 40% weaker than 200% weapon damage. Plus it has a chance to do critical damage twice! All though it has no warrior passives and it takes up 8 mp yet it can miss twice. Lets stick with ninjas good for their stuns, not their damage.
  • Side Notes*
  • Ninja WILL have a passive skill soon, however, it is awkward. Actually, 2 passive skills! One where, if you use shadowburn without using shadowblade, you gain a bit of mp. WHICH IS GREAT! The second one gains a lot of mp, but in order to do it, you need to attack an enemy while not auto attacking or some weird thing like that. Hard to explain, which makes it hard to understand. On another note, Ninja is actually one of the best classes out there in PvP! Just 5 seconds of stun on a Warrior, and that Warrior is DOOMED. With 10 seconds, forget it. That Warrior doesn't stand much of a chance.

-Saintofdarkness

Berserker and Beta Berserker

An out-dated class. Breaker was once its stand out ability, but has since been limited to apply to only 2 enemy swings, making breaker only marginally better than a disable(in that they both reduce enemy damage by 100% total, but breaker still allows procs from infusion). As such, the armor is left with a collection of sub-par, expensive, or Not Yet Implemented abilities. It's other defining trait, enhanced auto-attack damage, is put to better use by the superior Dragonslayer class. However most players like the idea of hitting 120 instead of 90 with the enhanced auto-attack.

  • side notes*
  • Yah, Berserker totally sucks, and is rated the worst class in the entire game. HOWEVER< I heard that is can be somewhat of a threat in PP, moreso than Warrior, since it also has passive skills now! (The new passive skills for the classes will not be implemented for non-members until PvP is fully released)

-Saintofdarkness

Leprechaun

A rare class that everyone loves to show they farmed for. It is, contrary to popular belief, a rogue equivalent, if that. Despite what the tool tip suggests, irish blessing hits for the same damage as viper's kiss, just spaced differently. From there, the third skills feature mostly minute differences. Finally, if tool tips are to be believed(Which *ahem* they aren't) the final skill of Leprechaun is actually shorter than a rogue's. However, unlike a rogue's final skill, Lep's skill actually works in the current game. Casting Patrick's Secret after Needle Point skill will help you get the most damage per mana for both the skills, and can boost your auto attacks to Decisive Strike levels.

  • Side note* Trust me, in my opinion, Lep sucks. It's a cheap rip off of rouge. Just get either rouge or pirate if you don't have the money. Same to Barber. What a USELESS class.

-vsx2000goton

  • Leprechaun is just a fancy show-of class

-FriZco

  • Leprechaun sucks as a class same with rogue and pirate but it does work well as a cool suit!

-Joshman13x

  • A Few Confirmations: Leprechaun's final skill DOES do the same skill as Rogue's last skill in a much shorter amount of time. In addition, its first skill and second skill are EQUAL to Rogue's first two skills. Finally, its third skill is INFERIOR to Rogue's third skill as it increases the amount of damage you take but does not increase your dodging in any way, while the Rogue's skill barely increases dodging. But why get any Rogue-based class to begin with? They have no mana regen.

- Red Blizzard

All Upgraded Classes:

The same in every way to the base classes, except thier look

Notes

  • Please feel free to leave comments, suggestions, any missed tips or tricks, or otherwise testable and valuable information in the discussion section of this page. Please refrain from editing unless your edit can be validated and supported by the wider community. The whole point of a guide such as this is to avoid rumors, myths and widespread misunderstandings. That being said, thank you to anyone with the time to support this.
  • Damage comparisons were preformed with a level 1 enhanced Skeleton Hand, to avoid random damage in assessment. Any mace works though.
  • In response to a rather strange (now deleted) edit to berserker, yes I do have Beta Berz, that is where I draw my testing and ratings of the class.

Work in Progress

  • Clawsuit needs info

Contributors Sign Here

Retrieved from "http://aqworldswiki.com/index.php/Handy_Guide_to_AQW_Classes"
Personal tools