Today is a rather quiet day. Kids are celebrating Halloween and knocking on my door asking for candy. Life is good. There's also not much to say that wouldn't take an entire article... for now.
The planned itinerary for next week is as follows:
Mercenary Analysis: Spearman
Mercenary Analysis: Witch
Rant: Is The Clock Too Fast?
Rant: The Weekly Championship Rewards
Build Garage
Assorted Videos
What's Build Garage you're probably asking? Submit a build of your design here, along with skill selection for your mercenaries and I'll give you my opinion on how you could fix it. You of course have to tell me the original intent of your build and also tell me what you'd like to actually make it (maybe a stunning build, or an AoE build, etc.).
To submit your build to me, send me an e-mail to nothingxs@gmail.com and I'll get into contact with you about it. I will choose the two builds that either need the most help or are the most interesting, and tell you my thoughts and feelings and what I think you can do to fix them.
I'm also adding a new category called "Rants." It's as it reads: my opinions and thoughts on certain aspects of the game that likely need changing. I will be touching up first on the fact that the match clock seems to be much too short in Free League, and then I'll be moving on to putting up my two cents on the Weekly Championship and its incomprehensibly lopsided rewards. If you've followed the blog at all, you'll know I brought up the question to Xargrr in an interview, and we both agreed that something needs to change. I'll touch up more on the subject when I get around to writing the article.
(This is an old Mercenary Analysis article. There is a current, revised version of it available here.) An axe-toting mercenary that can summon beasts to attack the entire opposing formation.
Rank: C
Basic: Beast Trainer Stats: Str 280, Dex 170, Def 800, Int 160, Vit 290, M.Def 175
Upgrade 1: Beast Tamer Stats: Str 350, Dex 180, Def 900, Int 180, Vit 320, M.Def 175
Upgrade 2: Beast Master Stats: Str 380, Dex 190, Def 1000, Int 210, Vit 350, M.Def 175
Upgrade 3: Zhu Rong Stats: Str 400, Dex 210, Def 1000+, Int 230, Vit 370, M.Def 175
Upgrade 4: Hero Zhu Rong Stats: Str 428, Dex 224, Def 1000+, Int 246, Vit 395, M.Def 175
Historical / Legendary Source: Zhu Rong is the Chinese god of fire and ruler of the southern hemisphere from pre-Qin mythology. He is depicted as a proud man clad in armor wielding a sword and riding on a large tiger. He was one of the gods that helped separate Heaven and Earth and set up Universal Order.
He is most famous for battling his own son Gong Gong, who was a water demon responsible for causing floods. When Zhu Rong heard that his son was attempting to seize the throne of Heaven, he went to stop him. The two of them battled for days across Heaven until both plummeted down to Earth. Finally Gong Gong was defeated and sulked away in shame while Zhu Rong returned to Heaven triumphant, after having won a great battle.
Very high defense rating at very low upgrade stages.
Giant Crystals are the cheapest of the Rank C crystals to obtain.
Axes do high damage and hit a complete row.
Beast Summon hits every person in an enemy formation for decent damage.
The previous two points combined mean that a Beast Master can do damage over a widespread variety of targets.
Decent magic defense compared to other melee mercenaries, and much better than the other axe mercenary, the Viking.
AP regeneration increases slightly as mercenary is upgraded.
Cons:
No way of reaching back rows except with Beast Summon.
Has only a single skill, the skill itself merely average.
Obnoxiously weak to Flame Sword, making it a sketchy choice for a front line mercenary.
Despite decent defense, cannot wear a shield and is defeated handily by a large amount of melee mercenaries in actual melee.
Giant Crystals better spent on upgrading an Exorcist.
Despite upgrading AP regeneration, AP still regains slower than most other melee mercenaries (save for the Viking).
No actual way of dealing high concentrated damage.
Abilities:
Beast Summon: AoE, skill-based damage to enemy; requires special equipment to use. 150 AP cost. (7/10)
Breakdown:
The Beast Master is a very difficult mercenary to rate. It has its uses, and there are in fact builds that all but require a Beast Master to be effective. However, a complete lack of versatility means that this mecenary is not for everyone.
The Beast Master's main strength is its AoE damage ability. Because of this, it stands to reason that the build best suited to a Beast Master is one that does a good amount of AoE damage and has many different ways of doing this AoE damage. Since the Beast Master uses an axe, it has one point largely in its favor: melee damage. Axes do some of the highest melee damage in the game along with spears, with the major difference being that an axe can hit three mercenaries while a spear can at most hit two without magical assistance. Since the axe can hit everyone in a row, that means that if you drop someone on a front line, you can effectively hit the entire middle line with your axe. This is good if your AoE build also has the capability to stun your opponents, since it adds more stun combo threats to your enemies.
All in all, however, the Beast Master is hurt mainly by its lack of versatility. A Beast Master simply cannot be successful in just about any build; it is a very situational mercenary with a single, average ability. Besides its obvious applications in an AoE build there is no real reason to consider using a Beast Master except in an attempt to work her into a gimmick build. Lack of a reliable method of dealing concentrated high damage is another huge problem with the Beast Master that she will likely never be able to compensate for until very, very high levels with extraordinarily rigged equipment -- where she will still be outshone by better mercenary picks. Keep her in your AoE builds, use her quest for crystals for your Exorcist otherwise.
Example Build:
Refer to the first Build Analysis article, the AoE Damage Spread / Stun Hybrid build. The Beast Master has its home there as one of its actual, major strengths -- one of the few builds where the Beast Master will actually pull her weight and do it very well. It's in this build that the Beast Master earns her third score at the bottom (and will likely be the only mercenary to need such a distinction).
Total Grade: Early Game: 7/10 Late Game: 6/10 However, when used in specific builds can be as good as: 8/10
It took some snooping around, but the blog finally has open comments enabled. Anyone is now free to leave a comment on the blog! Pretty much, avoid excessive profanity and flame wars in the comments and we should be alright.
This build has a main major goal, and that's to deal a large amount of damage over time to every single mercenary on an enemy's formation. It accomplishes this through the use of Meteor Strike, Beast Summon, Deep Insight, Smoke Bomb and Chaos Wind, all of which deal a really good amount of damage either on impact, or over time. It also uses Mana Seal and its 3 ranged units to focus-fire away on the initial counter presented by monks, and even uses the Viking's Freezing Axe to put a good amount of pressure and keeping an enemy formation from attacking.
The secondary goal of this build is control. With an Archer, Exorcist and two cannon-toting mercenaries, there's the potential for opening up the front or middle line early in the fight and then keeping any enemy Monks and healer mercenaries from acting -- ever again. Silence / Mana Seal loops allow for Combo counts to go unchecked, which adds up in the favor of the two cannon users in this formation. Add to that a large amount of spread out damage over time, as well as Freezing Axe, and you have a team that can switch to complete enemy formation control when the time is right. And to top that all off, cannons spread out damage in a cross shape quite nicely as well. The real goal of this build, in the end, is to successfully balance these two play styles; to control the battlefield as well as rain heavy amounts of damage constantly throughout the fight.
Pros
Large amount of damage to a large amount of mercenaries gives a good, quantifiable numerical advantage.
The presence of Freezing Axe along with Mana Seal can deny an enemy a good chance at an offensive.
A large amount of AoE damage puts enemies at a psychological disadvantage, mainly creating a situation where the enemy may feel that his main character has "nowhere safe to stand" in their formation due to the damage affecting the entire enemy's formation.
Two cannon users can put enough pressure to possibly stun a large amount of the enemy's formation, as well as spreading out good damage among many enemies -- particularly once you've reached in and silenced the back rows down.
Beastmaster, Viking, Cannoneer and Artilleryman all hit more than one target when using their physical attacks, which spreads the damage around even more.
Difficult to use scrolls against this team, since three ranged units tend to be more than enough to keep scrolls from going off -- which means Holy Guard is the only alternative to Purification, which in and of itself won't ever have an easy time firing in battle against ranged onslaught.
Melee builds may have a relatively easy time dealing with your front line, but the lack of magic defense means that the amount of damage tacked on will very, very quickly add up to become rather devastating.
Meteor Shower is one of the few abilities in the game that can simply wipe the floor with an enemy formation when used at the right time.
A random Mana Piercing scroll works extraordinarily well in your favor. Regardless of who casts it.
Cons
Very, very sketchy front line that will only fully come into its own at very high levels. Winning at low levels will be difficult because of the speed at which Vikings and Beast Masters tend to drop.
Very weak and hard to play in your early levels due to not having your Cannoneer yet. You will also run into the problem of needing to replace an Artilleryman that you've probably leveled up very highly with your new Cannoneer.
Expensive build to maintain. You pretty much need top of the line equipment at all times to keep your mercenaries simply from dying prematurely.
This build has no realistic way of preventing damage. It has to deal almost entirely with an Oracle 'fixing' the damage for it, meaning that a strong initial offensive can push this build around.
Viking! Pathetic magic defense means you might have to sacrifice straightforward damage for more enemy mercenary control in the form of trying to land stuns, Freezing Axes and Mana Seals, nevermind that a Swordsman front line hard-counters any front line Viking... ever. An alternative might be to run with a forward Exorcist and putting the Viking behind the Witch (since the Witch has higher magic defense and the Viking isn't too bad in the HP and defense department, it can deal with melee while the Witch deals with magic).
Many of the heavy AoE damage skills and spells use a lot of AP, and some of these mercenaries aren't very good at regenerating it.
Difficult matchups may exist against Spearmen stack (AP denial), 2 monk teams (uncommon but not unheard of) and smart-played Archer stacks (kiss your artillery goodbye).
Ideas and Variants
Cannon Main Variant: Using a Cannon instead of an Archer main allows you to use Chaos Wind and ramp it up to 60. It is less versatile, because you no longer have access to Silence, which means you cannot keep a Monk quiet forever, and you no longer have the bonus Bow damage that you normally deal to ranged mercenaries. However, having access to a third cannon is a lot more spread out damage that you can put forward.
No Oracle Variant: In this Variant you are essentially gambling that your offense will be better than your opponent's ability to take you out. This is very risky because you do not have a large amount of what could be considered sturdy mercenaries, so you're going to have to try and overcome this deficiency with your additional damage boost. I would recommend a third Cannon or a Prophet in this position (the Prophet mainly for its weapon debuffs that might keep your mercenaries alive for just a little longer -- which might be more than enough -- and its ranged attack).
Questions? Comments? Suggestions and ideas? Please leave your comments on this post as to what you think about this build, and your suggested variations!
If you play on Mycenae, chances are pretty good that you've seen the name.
Very, very often.
First place in the hall of fame as of the time of this writing, with 1068 points, 95% wins and 606 matches played since Open Beta started, Xargrr is pretty much THE authority on Mycenae when it comes to PvP combat. We pick his brain about why he likes Atlantica's combat system, his choice of mercenaries, scrolls, and what people aren't doing enough of in PvP.
When did you start playing Atlantica Online? Xargrr: Started first closed beta, on day one. Adrean: How'd you hear about it? Xargrr: From old friends. Adrean: What made you so interested in playing, originally? Xargrr: Yes -- I thought using strategy in PvP was a great idea, instead of only pushing buttons 1 to 5.
It seems to many that you always seem to be playing. Just how much do you play a day? Xargrr: It's very random. When I have school, about 2-4 hours. When I'm free, much more. Adrean: When you say school, do you mean you're in high school, or in college? Xargrr: High School. Adrean: So you're under 18, huh? Xargrr: Nope, I'm 21 years old. Adrean: Wait, if you're 21 don't you go to the University? Xargrr: In Poland, the school system is a bit different. High school is the same as University. So 15 to 18 year olds are in college, then 19 year olds and above go to high school, or University. Adrean: That's kind of confusing, but thanks for clearing it up! Xargrr: No problem!
Tell me about your mercenary selection: what made you initially choose a spear frontline over a sword or mixed frontline? Xargrr: I don't have any spears in my front line! Adrean: Originally you used to, what made you change your front line? What do you use now? Xargrr: Spears aren't good tankers with their low defense and magic defense, so now they're in the middle line. In my first line I have my Exorcist, my main and a Witch. Since spears are my main attack power, they can't die so quickly. Adrean: You're using an Axe main too, aren't you? Why put your main up front? Xargrr: Because he's invincible with my prophet and monk in the back line. With 19k HP, 17k defense and 920 magic defense, you can't kill him even with 5 deadly strikes at Level 60. Adrean: That's amazing. How'd you get the defense so high? Really high level over-enchanted equipment? Xargrr: Yes, Conquerer's +2/+4 gear. Now I'm waiting for Level 100 because I have already a full heavy melee set waiting, so my defense will be even higher. Adrean: Why use an Axe main in the first place? Rumor has it that Korean players have said that Freezing Axe isn't so good at higher levels, so it doesn't see as much use. What do you think? Xargrr: For me, it's very useful in both PvP and PvE; Korean players are newbies. Axe main is the best choice, IMO. Having a Viking in a team is a waste of a slot since Viking AP regenerates very slowly and his magic defense is a joke. That's why I use an axe.
What kind of builds did you initially have trouble against as you climbed up the ranks of the Free League? Did you even have any trouble with any builds? How about in Closed Beta? Xargrr: In CB everything changed way too fast. Once, Archers were overpowered, and then they raised HP in PvP. In Open Beta I had trouble with stun builds up until level 50, but now it's okay. I mainly hate fighting AoE DoT (damage over time) builds, but I've found a tactic against them, too. Craft purification scrolls.
Well, that leads into my next questions. What do you think of random scrolls in PvP? Xargrr: It's a good idea. It makes PvP more fun. You make a choice: you either kill an enemy mercenary or hit a scroll. It's another good strategy aspect.
What do you think of crafted scrolls in PvP? Do you use them? Xargrr: You can only craft dispel, purification and awakening scrolls. And yes, I use them sometimes, particularly against AoE DoT builds. Adrean: Do you like being able to craft and use scrolls in PvP? Xargrr: Yes, but only these scrolls. Crafting and using Confusion or Judgement scrolls in PvP would be really bad. Adrean: Which do you think is the most useful? Xargrr: Purification, since it removes all debuffs from your team.
What do you think of the latest patch? Did it affect you at all? If so, how much? Xargrr: A bit. My spearmen hit for 15-20% less damage, which is why I changed one of them for a witch. Adrean: How'd you feel when you realized your Spearmen didn't hit as hard? Xargrr: I tried PvP. I was still winning 100% of my matches, so I was like, "Whatever."
What do you think needs changing in the game? What's too strong (or too weak)? Xargrr: Archers are too weak and the Swordsman's Flame Sword is too strong. That's all. Adrean: So the game's almost perfect as it is? Xargrr: Hmm... yes.
What do you think of the Weekly Championship rewards? Right now, only the winner really wins anything -- a Heavenly Horse and about 65 million gold in Atlantis Coins. Do you think more players should be rewarded for performing well? Maybe top 16 should receive some gold for their efforts? Xargrr: Yes, I thought about this already. Tthere should be rewards for the top 8 players. First gets 65 million, second gets 20, third and fourth get 10, fifth through eighth get three. Right now it only rewards the first player. Adrean: What if ninth through sixteenth got a million, too? Xargrr: It's a good idea. More people will have more gold. More gold means better equipment. Better equipment means better PvP.
What do you feel people don't do enough of in PvP? Mercenary movement? Scroll use? Debuffs? Holy Guard? Xargrr: Mercenary movement for sure. When I lower their mercs to 10%, they don't change it for some merc from the middle or back line. And when a mercenary in their front line dies, their chance to win decreases to 50%. Also, they use Holy Guard way too often. It's a really useless spell in PvP. Casting it on your front line is a big mistake. Adrean: I agree with that, purification seems a lot more useful. But then how do you deal with Spartans and Cannoneers? Xargrr: Cannoneers are useless against me. Their smoke bomb decreases accuracy by 19%, while my prophet increases it by 29%! And I haven't fought with a Spartan yet so I don't know about it. However, my first line has a very high magic defense, so he wouldn't do well against me, I think. Adrean: People are saying Smoke Bomb lowers accuracy a lot more than 19% later on in the game. Spartan's War Cry lowers melee damage by 50%. Maybe people just haven't raised Smoke Bomb to a high enough level? Xargrr: Yes, only on the front line, and I don't attack with my front line. Anyway, when they use smoke bomb, I can use purification scrolls, so it doesn't matter. Adrean: Isn't Spartan's War Cry a cross-shaped debuff? Xargrr: Nope, it hits only one line and it decreases combo probability, not attack power. Adrean: Oh, it's the second hero upgrade that does it in a cross. Oops. Not quite so dangerous, then! Xargrr: Nope!
This is a bit of a serious question... There've been allegations of botting and even hacking made against you, with your name actually being found on a couple of websites connected with game cheats. What do you have to say about this? Xargrr: It's just someone who is using my nick on those sites. I was popular in few games... maybe that's why.
Final question. Range or melee and why? Xargrr: For me, melee. More HP and defense as well as better skills, like AP drain, freezing axe... it's better suited to my tactics.
Alright then, thanks for taking your time to answer all these questions. Anything you'd like to say to anyone reading? Xargrr: Yes, RAWR! Hamster power :P
Hamster power, indeed! Here's a video of Xargrr in the 4:00PM EST Free League, for those of you unfamiliar with his build and tactics.
The following video features me against LinhYue in a Free League fight in the middle of the night. The main goal of the video is to demonstrate the kind of play necessary if you'd rather pull off your wins by time and points rather than by killing your enemy. It's not a surefire strategy, but some builds can definitely force the clock into their advantage if played the right way.
Another goal of the video is to demonstrate how to use scrolls for reasons other than their principal purpose. I use purification scrolls mostly as red herrings along with mercenary replacement to keep LinhYue from stunning me, instead of actually using my Awakenings on time.
One of the many features of this blog will be that just about every blog post will feature some sort of video. Hopefully it will be a video of a formation I am reviewing, or simply a related video to a topic at hand. Sometimes I will just make a post with a batch of videos with a number of matches.
However, I may or may not need more than one person to help me to record many different matches at the same time! Near the finals in weekly championships, there tend to be a large amount of high level players with a good amount of skill that probably should be recorded.
If you are able to help me with this, please drop me a line. For now, the following is a match between Lucario and HmooBPridE on Mycenae. The players are not particularly relevant, so this post is mainly showcasing the video formatting and YouTube channel. I will be trying to use music from relatively unknown artists that I particularly enjoy and adding the credits to the music at the end of each video, just as an added bonus.
A mercenary for people who like to give their team a strong defensive line, affording them variety in their back lines.
Rank: D
Basic: Swordsman Stats: Str 340, Dex 240, Def 400, Int 130, Vit 250, M.Def 125
Upgrade 1: Sword Fighter Stats: Str 380, Dex 260, Def 700, Int 150, Vit 280, M.Def 125
Upgrade 2: Sword Warrior Stats: Str 420, Dex 260, Def 850, Int 170, Vit 320, M.Def 125
Upgrade 3: Gyebaek Stats: Str 450, Dex 280, Def 1000, Int 210, Vit 340, M.Def 125
Upgrade 4: Hero Gyebaek Stats: Str 481, Dex 299, Def 1000+, Int 224, Vit 363, M.Def 125
Historical / Legendary Source: Gyebaekwas a general in the ancient Korean kingdom of Baekje during the early to mid 7th century. Little else is known of his personal life—including the year and location of his birth.
In 655, Baekje and Goguryeo joined forces to attack Silla, although they were eventually driven back when Silla received aid from Tang Dynasty China. In 660, when a huge united army of Silla and the Chinese invaded Baekje, General Gyebaek organized 5,000 soldiers of the highest morale and courage to meet them in battle. He knew before he set out that his army was outnumbered and that his efforts would be futile, but he did not hesitate to try to defend his country, reportedly stating "I would rather die than be a slave of the enemy." He then killed his wife and family to prevent them from falling into the hands of opposing forces, and to prevent the thought of them to influence his actions or cause him to falter in battle.
His forces won four small initial battles, but then he was forced to move his forces to block the advance of General Kim Yu-shin on the Baekje capital, Buyeo. The two generals met on the plains of Hwangsan field, in present day Hanyang, near Chiri Mountain. Gyebaek's forces fought bravely but they were outnumbered ten to one and, in the end, he and his men were annihilated.
Reaches a high defense rating very early on, making it an excellent tank and suitable for the front line.
One of the very few mercenaries that has access to using shields which boost already incredible defense even higher.
Decent strength means that it deals good damage to a single target, making multiple, focused sword attacks on a single target very deadly.
Melee mercenary, which plays very well with the Prophet and its Concentrate ability, adding to its Attack Power, Accuracy and healing it every turn.
Deadly Strike allows a dying Swordsman to put out a large amount of damage to a single target before going out.
Ridiculously high health when in PvP (~10-11K at level 75, up from 4.8k in PvE).
Cheap to upgrade with Ashen Crystals and Jewels.
Cons:
No way of reaching back rows except with Dark Seed, which is a low-powered skill.
Dark Seed only useful when a Shaman is in the party, meaning that replacing one with an Oracle practically means wasted points.
Rendered almost entirely obsolete by the Lady Knight and the Spartan, the former an essentially stronger Swordsman with an attack skill that hits two targets in a line, and the latter a shield-using spearman with comparable defense at the Hero levels.
Somewhat low magical defense.
Abilities:
Flame Sword: Single-target, sword skill-based damage to enemy. 120 AP cost. (8/10)
Deadly Strike: High powered, single-target, generic skill-based damage to enemy. 600 AP cost. (7/10)
Dark Seed: Two targets in a line, magic skill-based damage over time to enemy. Comboable with Hex of Darkness (Hell Flame). 125 AP Cost. (3/10)
Main-Only Abilities:
Guard Dispel: Remove Holy Guard from an enemy row. 150 AP Cost. (9/10)
Break Down: Area of Effect, generic skill-based damage to enemy. 150 AP Cost. (5/10)
Breakdown:
The Swordsman has the highest defense available early on in the game, making it a great choice for players who plan on making either a melee-oriented build or who would like to create a ranged build with a powerful front line, making access to the weaker ranged characters more difficult. It boasts fairly impressive attack power, although it technically has the weakest attack power of the melee mercenaries, being heavily overshadowed by its much more aggressive counterpart, the Spearman. Despite having the weakest straight attack power (and not being very prone to multi-attack combos over 2), its Flame Sword skill is excellent against Vikings, Beast Masters, Spearmen and Spartans, while being relatively weak against Lady Knights and other Swordsmen.
Many builds focus on starting with 3 Swordsmen, and in these builds, two of them will eventually be replaced by a Lady Knight and a Spartan; but their startlingly high defense and adequate attack power mean that they will last a very long time in your main build, should you choose to use them. Being high defense builds, these mercenaries favor players with a higher focus on defensive play. They are, however, countered almost explicitly by Spearmen, who do much larger amounts of damage and have higher combo rates than them; three focused spear attacks from well-outfitted Spearmen spell almost certain doom for any Swordsman.
Example Build:
Level 80 Front Swordsman / Swordsman / Swordsman Middle Spearman / Spearman / Spearman Back Monk / Prophet / Oracle
The Prophet increases all melee characters' attack power, accuracy and heals them every turn. Your main can either be a Swordsman or a Spearman, having access to Guard Break. This formation relies on keeping almost all of the melee characters alive for a large amount of time with the Oracle and Prophet, while using the Monk to keep your mercenaries from being stunned and holy guarded. Scrolls of Awakening and Scrolls of Purification can help to deal with your Spearman line becoming silenced or your casters becoming Mana Sealed by an Exorcist. The line of Spearmen can also effectively deny one (or even two) entire columns of an enemy formation's AP, keeping them from acting and allowing you to pile up damage.
The most trouble this build will have is in dealing with a build that can make quick work of the Prophet, but with such a large amount of melee attack power, this build should be able to overpower any front line and break through into the back of an enemy's formation. It also has no realistic way of dealing with things in back rows early on, but by level 80 your Lightning Spear should reach all the way into the back, at least giving you a method to deal damage to the back row.
The Oracle can be replaced by another Monk with Shield of Protection if you're a firm believer of healing being useless in PvP and instead being more interested in additional Holy Guard and Awakening ability, as well as giving your main another source of constant, drip-feed healing to keep it alive much longer than the rest of your party.
A relatively new MMORPG published by nDoors for North America, Atlantica Online does things rather differently than other MMOs. First, the setting that is used as a backdrop for the game's storyline is going to be immediately familiar to some: it is a combination of different civilizations through different eras of time. The feudal Japanese, the vikings from Northern Europe, the colonizing and expansionist times of Southern Europe; all of these are represented in Atlantica's world. But what is really, truly interesting about it over its setting is its combat system.
Using a turn-based combat system that focuses on creating a party consisting of your main character and up to eight additional hired mercenaries, combat depends on a combination of party selection, use of the in-game abilities and your formation's layout.
The game features a large number of mercenaries divided into categories depending exclusively on each mercenary's weapon of choice. They are also divided by rank, denoting the relative 'strength' and rarity of each mercenary. While a player can have any amount of the same D-Rank mercenary, they can only have up to one of each higher class of mercenary. Each mercenary also has five upgrade levels, where their power and ability's strengths increase dramatically.
The seven weapon classes are divided as such: sword, staff, axe, spear, gun, bow and cannon. Each one has advantages and disadvantages, and each weapon has at least two different mercenary types in it. What's more, the mercenaries in each weapon class can be wildly different from each other. Take the sword category, which has four different kinds of mercenaries. The Swordsman (Gyebaek) is a tank, the only class that can use a shield early on in the game, having a very good defensive rating and having access to swords that deal a good amount of melee damage. In contrast is the Exorcist (Michael), a melee class that is more characterized by its ability to seal enemy magic casters, burn away enemy mana and buff your own party's casters instead. And in even further contrast is the newly-announced Sailor (Anne Bonny), a dual-wielding light, highly undefended mercenary whose speciality is dealing large amounts of damage to a single target with its two swords and using its poison ability to burn away AP from its target, denying it the ability to act the next turn.
Of course, with all these options there is the focus of building different parties and pitting them against each other in Player vs Player combat. What is the best build possible? What builds defeat other builds? What advantages do certain classes have over others? What will a certain mercenary do for your party, and will it do the job better than another mercenary? What do the top players of the game think in all these instances? What is the Atlantica metagame like?
And that's what this blog aims to accomplish: I plan to bring all these topics forward to the table, asking these questions and analyzing the mercenaries and their abilities as well as their viability in different kinds of builds. I will be interviewing winners of Weekly Championships and the leaders of the Free League Hall of Fame (mainly, for now, from the Mycenae server). I plan to examine the metagame in different servers -- what seems to be more favored in one server over another? Does the presence of a very high level user of a certain build on server A cause the metagame to revolve around countering it, and therefore make that server very different from server B?
All of those questions will be asked -- and hopefully answered! -- in this blog.
These are the following topics for next week's blog postings:
- Mercenary Analysis: Swordsman (Rank D) - Mercenary Analysis: Beast Master (Rank C) - Player Interview and Analysis: Zekkai (10/25/2008 1:00PM Weekly Champion) - Player Interview and Analysis: Xargrr (#1 in Mycenae Free League rankings)
It's my goal and hope that you all stick around and read this blog and comment on what you think. It's also my hope that you all send me your suggestions for Analysis, your comments on the discussion and particularly your thoughts on what is discussed.
Welcome to Division Zero. I aim to bring you articles, discussion, analysis, videos and more related to Atlantica Online, with an almost exclusive focus on the PvP aspect of the game.
I'm interested in hearing from you! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for articles, analysis -- you name it -- contact me!
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