Scout Sharing Thread [8th December 2008]

[StarFragment]

Content

1)Updates

2)Foreword

3) Bow Scout
-Skills Built
-Stats Allocation
-Equipments and Misc
-Combat

4)Str Scout
-Skills Built
-Stats Allocation
-Equipments and Misc
-Combat

5)Bow Scout Common Faqs and Insights

6)Common Bugs

7)Related Useful Links

8)Credits

Updates

Creation : 08/12/2008

Addons: Insight of Str Scout (19/12/08)

Foreword

I'm attempting to write a sharing thread for Scouts after numerous players' pm for assistance and also encouragements from peers to do something up so that Scout-to-be and present Scouts can get an insight into the world of Scout.

I wont call it a guide as i feel often that everyone ought to do something they like accordingly to their preferences/style, so i hope to make this into a more general FAQs and hope that fellow Scouts can pour in with their opinions.

PS: You can go with your desired built as always, do some trial and error and reskill if its not to your liking which is always better than just listening to opinions. Cuz most of us have different style and more often than not, a self customised one is always better than the common norm.

[StarFragment]

Bow Scout

Please take note that this entire long post is purely based for Bow Scout.

Skills Built

I know it's easier to do a direct allocation of 90+ SP in all the skills desired but the fact that you are going to start from lvl1 and reaching 99 is not an easy task; means you should put SP allocation in a stage by stage or lvl by lvl ranges basis.

Assuming that you are just going into creation of a totally new HE:

As an Archer, you should look into saving as many SP as possible from 1-50, so that you can max essential skills asap, particularly the Buffs in Scout tree.

Frozen : 5
Psychic Pierce : 1
Long shot : 5
Nimble : 5
Fatal : 5
Piercing Root : 5
Double Strike : 5

This set should be your priority till you reach 50. The others not mentioned from your SP built are mainly pvp-intended and should only be considered when you reach a considerable level imo.

Bow Mastery : 5
Melt : 1
Detect : 1
Alacrity : 5
Drill Shot : 5
Ka'el's Arrow : 5
Multi-shot : 5
Violent Shot :5
Rain Shot : 5
Pouring Shot : 5
All in one :1, 5 later when it get fixed.

I mentioned about saving SP for Scout Tree, it's for maxing of Bow Mastery and Alacrity once they become readily available to adding in your Scout Tree and also for maxing of Drill shot and all your Aoes.

The one hit skills from your Scout Tree are largely disappointing with only exception of Drill Shot which does good damage (2nd highest after Double Shot) and also a partial Aoe. All-in-one is atm bugged and shoot 9 arrows regardless of lvl so leave it at 0-1 for now and max it only when it get fixed in the future. Premium, Rank and Combine shots' damages were really unsignificant...I left Combine untouched and only 1 to Premium and Rank;, definately not worth +5.

You have to max all your 4 aoes. That is without doubt, cuz Aoes makes you a Scout and Aoes are your main arsenal for pvp and pvm.

Ka'El Arrow should be max'ed if 1) you have an EM acct, 2) have maxed all the aoes/buffs/drill shot and 3) very pvp inclined in that order.

Ka El Arrows

Why those 3 considerations from previous post?

1)Even at lvl 6 you can only create 150 arrows each time with long cooldown of about ~10mins.
If you do not have EM account to act as storage, making the very limited quantity Ka El Arrow each time will not sustain you for even a short duration pk which make the whole point of adding/maxing Ka El Arrow redundant.

2)Without your fundamental Aoes and one hit skills maxed, using of Ka El Arrows will also be redundant cuz your damages are compromised from crippled, lower damage % from incomplete skills

3)Even with an EM account, the time used to gather a significant amount of arrows is exhausting and storage of EM inv is limited as well. This means you cant use Ka El Arrows for pvm, only for pvp. So if you are not pvp inclined, there is no point adding Ka El Arrow.

What to do with leftover SP?

Your skills in scout tree are pretty much all there as mentioned for both pvp/pvm. So when you get abundant SP now at 8x+, you may go back to Archer Tree to invest/max Pvp-Intended skills like Fainting Pierce and Brandish Kick. i personally do not feel Feeble, Ensnare or Sprint will help you much..

Feeble : Face off with a melee char or Guardian; to actually be in that range to cast Feeble on them means you are way too close to them, and you prolly be paralysed/stunned/dead already before you can even press the "Feeble" command.

Ensnare : To reduce a player 30% of his movement for 7 sec upon maxing might work in 1 on 1 situation for a quick getaway/retreat but wont help much in crowded tight situation. And it's not like 30% is a lot when Scout aint a very much mobile class as compared to the rest in the first place

Sprint : 1 time use and a 10mins cooldown.. Prehaps a last resort to get away from a tight situation for survival at max, never a skill to freely use or rely upon during pvp due to long CD. You can consider adding if you have too much of an abdundant but i've seen scouts (w/o sprint) with excellent movement with just kiting, fluently moving to favourable position to hit or evacuate during mass pvp.


Stats Allocation

It would be safe to add a vit per lvl, or around 130-150 base vita. Rest to dex. Some stuffs that can further boost this would be General Talisman(+10 or +30), Costumes, Accessories, Added stats from weapons, Enchantment from Armors, and IM scrolls. A good 10k+ when you are 9x with almighty should suffice you for most pvp situation. For now, just 1 vit per lvl on base stats is ideal.

Equipments

Armor Stats and Enchantment?

High PD/MD is always the best, while most HE primarily focus on Physical Def which is more crucial till prolly 8x range as the main mobs involved with grinding are mainly melee based while lately with the release of R5 and population of a balanced tagged Magical/Melee Mob in there, Md set is something that should be looked upon as back-up set should you wanna grind there.

Hp Enchantment is recommended for all HE.

Misc

Pet?

Scout rely heavily on Crit%. Some pet that would be of use would be Tiger(Crit%), Bear(Hp%), Kahto(Movement Spd), Dragon(Random Dmg base on Owner's lvl).

I tried Hawk before with Attk Spd Option'ed and the effect wasnt fantastic with the lack of crit occurence. Just for reference, argurably, the last best Scout in Silva PeaceOfWorld is using DD Bow with Pet Tiger.

I also tried Dragon with Scout and with Ranger. It's occurence of striking is not dependant on attack speed, just randomised chances but the damage per hit at Pet lvl3 is quite fantastic with 700% based on Owner's lvl during pvp as it ignores defense.

Bow Stats?

I was using Kastro 83 Ancient 40% Ranged/21Dex/19Vita/20agility/24evasion/8%crit before i job-changed.

As i didnt have any really good bow of comparison when i was 6x and below, i seek a few other's opinions in that your 4x bows and below should concentrate on Dex'ed Bows and at 6x-10x on Ranged's Bows. Thats using the total amount of dex built up or accumulated with relative calculations that Ranged% doesnt enhance damage for lower lvl as much as they do to mid-high lvl rangers.

Options Stones to use for Bow?

Crit is really good for option on Scout Bow as our primary source of damage comes from the hastened normal hit crits after each skill. With a good near 8%-11% from Bow, 3% from Tiger and Guardian's toggle, 20%+ can see you almost critical-ing every 1-2 hits.

Other option to consider when you are higher will be Damage Drop. While i have tried Dual Leech and Attack Speed ones, they are not as optimal as Crit or Damage Drop.

Full Attk Speed from Bow option and Pet Hawk will see you only getting 1-1.5 more normal hit in at the max range and far lesser crit occurence. Dual Leech option % prior to your normal hit leeches far too little, usually too little too late.

Combat

i) Self check(esp during PvP)
-Make sure important eq/items that should be crucial, good loots or secondary eq are already placed in Sealed Slot Bag or sent to EM.
-Do not Veng when purple'd. You can drop your equipped items if you get killed by Patrols that way.
-Be equipped with Ka'El Arrows, often players forget.
-Get buffed with Lvl7 Almighty, good int boosted Templar's Mental Barrier and Quickness.
-Be stocked with abundant pots, Mana, HP and Elixir, if possible use Legendary ones for HP.
-Item Mail scrolls; optional, i only use them for TW

ii) Partying

A party with good, balanced can always sustain you longer, most applicable for Scout who does wonder when supported by Party.

iii) Self Check part 2 and In-Combat status

-Awareness; try to cast detect as and when possible. Dark Eye is definately good for cloak'ed party or hide'd Dhan

-Know the environment well, especially of the surrounding obstacles/mobs so that you wont get caught in a situation of getting aggro tagged onto you during a combat(worse if magical mobs) or kite into an obstacle.

-Positioning is very crucial; As most scouts would agree upon: the thing you should learn or be well-versed in, is the pre-mid positioning during a pvp and distant yourself from the crowd as much as possible but not being too obvious as a left alone target. It will be good to position yourself either 1) inside group of mobs already aggro to other target or 2) beside priest or beside some group stunnable/melee chars that can provide back up if you were to be targetted.

-Primary targets? Go for Dhan and other HEs. Supporting Member's kill with Root/Brandish Kick. Try to double-bleed targets, but always stay with your group to enhance survival so that you wont be oblivious to melee class esp Human, Dekan and also Dhan.

In summary, Bow Scout is an enduring PvP style as we do not have any burst of combination like Ranger's Siege+SpeedWind or Guardian Crazy Stand+etc+Knight Symbol. Our quick normal hits and esp crit ones, hasten after every skill under Imbue condition are is our main dish with the skills as appetizer.

[StarFragment]

Str Scout

Kindly note that this entire thread is dedicated to Strength/Melee Scout only. It's not uncommon that some Str Scout are also hybrid built in stats/Scout skill tree. Some topics as discussed here are from verbal consultations with exisiting/ex-str scouts and from observation. As i havent play Str/Melee Scout before and prolly never will, existing/current scouts kindly pour in with your opinions, thanks.



Skills Built

I know it's easier to do a direct allocation of 90+ SP in all the skills desired but the fact that you are going to start from lvl1 and reaching 99 is not an easy task; means you should put SP allocation in a stage by stage or lvl by lvl ranges basis.

Assuming that you are just going into creation of a totally new Str HE:

As an Archer, you should look into saving as many SP as possible from 1-50, so that you can max essential skills asap whenever applicable.

Frozen or Darkness : 5
Psychic Pierce : 1
Long shot : 5
Fainting Pierce : 1
Brandish Kick 5
Enchanted Arrow : 1
Nimble : 5
Fatal : 5

This set should be your priority till you reach 50. The others not mentioned from are mainly pvp-intended or optional and should only be considered when you reach a considerable level imo. Some may question here, why Long Shot? Long shot is mainly for str scout to lure should the need for lurer persists or for hybrid built purpose.

Melt : 1
Detect : 1
Alacrity : 5
Sharp Melee : 5

What to do with leftover Skill Points?

By now you would have realised that you will have tons of leftover SP, as Sharp Melee is your only real source of damage increment buff while the rest are mainly to boost crit occurences.

Some skills to consider :

Ensnare : since melee and close ranger combat is your speciality and with you needing to get close to opponent to inflict, Ensnare and all other skills that can hinder opponents mobility are your main components to pvp.

Piercing Root : requires bow yes, so why? In such instances and like most str scouts i encounter, they usually bring a bow 1) for lure and 2) pvp, to strike piercing root to immoblise target then switch back to dagger for the kill. As touched on Ensnare, close combat is your speciality so stun skill like Brandish Kick (also your main and only melee attack skill) and root skill like Piercing Root become very crucial to make sure that opponent dont slip away. Bow could be use to double up for ranged damage for situational cases.

Sprint : as Str Scout are close combat, sprint may be a skill for quick getaway or for chasing/getting close to your opponents to inflict stun and damages.

Scouts 1Hit skill/Aoe : As mentioned, due to abundant leftover SP, some str scout are also hybrid and carry good bow for combat. Although your stats will be primarily in Str, thus making your Dex based damage skill in Bow Scout skills very very much weaker, your leftover sp are at least put to better use. In pvp/zerg, every bits counts.

Stats Allocation

Primarily full str or 3str/1vita, ~130 vita based. Most Str Scouts consulted are full str built. Some stuffs that can further boost this would be General Talisman(+10 or +30), Costumes, Accessories, Added stats from weapons, IM scrolls

Equipments

Dagger Stats?

Use Dagger for better inbuilt attack speed. Dagger are cheaper in general than sword and also esier to make last dagger with more daggers on sale than sword(which guardian will prolly be in contention to buy). Melee% from 6x weapon above, +Str weapon for 2x-4x weapon

Options Stones to use for Dagger?

Crit or Damage Drop stones. Most consulted use Damage Drop.

Armor Stats and Enchantment?

High PD/MD is always the best, while most HE primarily focus on Physical Def which is more crucial till prolly 8x range as the main mobs involved with grinding are mainly melee based while lately with the release of R5 and population of a balanced tagged Magical/Melee Mob in there, Md set is something that should be looked upon as back-up set should you wanna grind there.

Hp Enchantment is recommended for all HE.

MISC

Pet?

Some pet that would be of use would be Tiger(Crit% and also Crit Damage Drop), Bear(Hp%), Kahto(Movement Spd), Dragon(Random Dmg base on Owner's lvl).


Combat

i) Self check(esp during PvP)
-Make sure important eq/items that should be crucial, good loots or secondary eq(Bow) are already placed in Sealed Slot Bag or sent to EM.
-Do not Veng when purple'd. You can drop your equipped items if you get killed by Patrols that way.
-Get buffed with Lvl7 Almighty, good int boosted Templar's Mental Barrier and Quickness, and Guardian/Defender Str Buffs.
-Be stocked with abundant pots, Mana, HP and Elixir, if possible use Legendary ones for HP.
-Item Mail scrolls; optional, i only use them for TW

ii) Partying

A party with good, balanced can always sustain you longer, most applicable for Scout who does wonder when supported by Party, especially Healing in this case.

iii) Self Check part 2 and In-Combat status

-Awareness; try to cast detect as and when possible. Dark Eye is definately good for cloak'ed party or hide'd Dhan

-Know the environment well, especially of the surrounding obstacles/mobs so that you wont get caught in a situation of getting aggro tagged onto you during a combat(worse if magical mobs) or kite into an obstacle.

-Some samples of combat observed are

1) Given no Sprint - Root, hit, Brandish Kick, hit, Root (hit Brandish)if the opponent is still not dead or stun failed, then continue the cycle. Always brandish kick whenever possible to try to achieve a chain stun effect.

2) Given with Sprint and Root - Sprint, Brandish Kick, hit, (Root if the person attempt to run), repeat.

3) Given no Sprint and no Root - Brandish Kick, Hit Hit Hit..(Brandish Kick again when cd is gone)

Basically, it's a melee thing like guardian and all other melee classes just that Str Scout lacks a certain chain combination unlike others which make it slightly predictable and less variable in combat style. Targets to go for will be Dhan/Mages and to support kill with Brandish Kick(also stunning).

Overall, HE class is more squishy as compared to other melee class and though melee scout has really good damage with good melee weapon, their lack of self buff on defense aspect, lower hp and lack of any lethal combination apart from brandish kick make them somehow at a disadvantage as compared to other melee like Dekan, Guardian, Dhan who each has a good chain of combination and almost sure to 1chain/combination kill.

In summary, Str Scout is a class to go for initiative, immediate/instant kill. it has lethal damage, really painful brandish kick+stun, given proper melee. Like all other melee class, your disadvantage is a lack of range and mobility tho as a str scout hybrid, you can incorporate Bow Scout skills with the leftover sp to do ranged.

[StarFragment]

Bow Scout Common FAQ and Insights

How to make and faciliate your EM account and storage in creating Ka'el Arrows/Bolts:

The trick to storing unlimited arsenal of Ka'El Arrow is the use of EM storage. Let go through the process : Make 1 set of Ka El Arrows, appears in your inventory. Drag the set to be sent to EM, then unseal it from EM so that it goes to your EM storage. In that way, you can store 30sets+ of up to 250 Ka El Arrows. The key here is, even if you have just 1 Ka El Arrow in your character ingame inv, you can not create a new seteven if the skill is free from CD.


Double Shot?


It's your best 1 hit skill atm....even if skills like all-in-one get fixed, it still remains as your top 2-3 1 hit skills, no reason not to max since typically a scout/ranger need at least 5-6 good and functional hitting skills to play around in the midst of waiting for recovery of cd. And given that your aoes has exceptional cd, the skills with quality and short cd would be your Double Shot, Drill shot and Psychic Pierce.

Sprint?

I didnt think adding/maxing sprint will help. It's your choice and freedom to add/max it for pvp purpose but the massive cd(idk about lvl7 but i doubt it be a great reduction) is really a turnoff, making it more of a last resort for survival than using for pvp. Some scouts i seen who added to it never use it at all for pvp; it's only when things get really messy, they got aimed upon, or hp getting really low under pots cd that they use it to keep safe distance, build some buffer time or try to getaway; often in vain.

Why i said it wont really work..cuz if things get really messy, you are already (most commonly) paralysed and rooted, prolly slow and by now all debuffed if your opponents were more proficient. And when you get this up-close and personal with semi-decent melee class like guardian/templar/dekan, you already a goner. And let not forget that HE are the most sought after in-term of being targetted cuz we are most squishy, even so in the case of Scout who dont have a much boosted mobiliity. Even if you manage to survive through or break through the first series of stun/root, you prolly be swamped again by 2nd series of stuns which if you do not have a priest, you should be dead by now. In other words, Sprint might be workable in 1 on 1 with the exception of Ranger, not so, in groups.

Agility?

I had approached dhans with 1xxx evasion and currently the ratio of evasion to avoiding to dex/accuracy isnt done up at all or i would say bugged. In pvp, skills/combination to them does not miss as it should be, given the case of high evasion versus low dex/accuracy.

As the moment, the most we get is "xxx resisted xxxxx", and that is primarily based on lvl gaps.

Thus, agility has no use for HE atm (at least when Dhans get it, they get damage increment). It's best to do a general Dex/Vita built till the statistic or specific formula for agility:evasion:dex/accuracy ratio is out and then we can get some reviewing on how optimal a agility built can be for HE.


Common Bugs

Skills

- All-in-1 : Regardless of Lv1-5, shoots 9 Arrows.
- Psychic Pierce : Lv1 dealing Lv5 damage.
- Character stop shooting after awhile or after a skill

No Bolt/Arrow Bug(With Credits to LORDJoe)

Either do a relog, go to character selection or attempt to trouble shoot with the following method :Open your inventory, select target you want to kill, keep clicking on your bolts to equip (spam this), and at the same time, press which hotkey skill you want to use, you won't be able to shoot normally, only use skills because once you equip the bolt for 1-2 seconds, you can spam your skill and keep repeating this until the bug is gone (normally lasts for about 1-5 minutes).


Related Useful Links for Reference
Enchanted Arrows Damage Chart and Discussion (With Credits to Kylegarra)
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=37104


Credits to :
PeaceOfWorld : for skills, eq and fighting technique.
MoonoOMoon, Leo and ChaosX : for observing their in-combat habits.
AntoniaDaresa: for str scout guidance, explaination and observation of combat
LORDJoe and alot others : for encouraging me to initiate this Scout sharing thread.

Lastly, hope this has at least benefited some who are stuck at one point or another in the crossroad of race/class job selection.

Warmest Regards
StarFragment/LunaCrescens
2008/12/19

[dinosorejr]

Wow fantastic post. Well thought out and quite informative. I'd really like to see more scouts. They are incredibly underrated. Of course i can think of no one on Ahkma who plays the class well.... But if i ever get some crazy idea and decide to change jobs, i'll be looking at this thread for guidance Also i got the first non StarFragment post here... i'm famous now.

[lamazing]

Remember that one time? In the other thread. Even if you don't have an EM account, you can still seal and unseal your ka'el arrows.

[Kylegarra]

Remember that one time? In the other thread. Even if you don't have an EM account, you can still seal and unseal your ka'el arrows.

yup, this is true. Also, Enchanted arrow is especially useful for scouts, as all AoE's add +%dmg (which combines with Enchanted Arrow)

[StarFragment]

hmm needed more info on the EM part...i only had an EM account very late in game when i had ka'el arrows thus why i always relate that to Ka'El as i was taught that way too. If it's safe to post it here, if not then keep it first

[StarFragment]

Damn..i realised i didnt do str scout built ._.

[xInsanityXx]

wow nice job luna kudos for all that amount of info....went a bit crazy looking and reading thru all of that but u got everything down to the last details ... u make me wanna stay a scout sometimes