Shaiya has classes on both factions; the Alliance of Light and Union of Fury. Players will choose from among them multiple modes of play. In any case, gamers will have to focus on damage, or defense, and skills. Yes, it's really that primitive. Primal as they are, they have wide implications thus inappropriate use can break or make your characters. Pockets can hurt as a consequence! Each class will join one of two difficulty modes. Basic that gives a total of seven points plus one consecutively with 4 skill points per level. Ultimate that gives nine points plus one consecutively with 5 skill points per level. All toons, as of this writing, start at level one and end at eighty. Basic Mode's characters don't die upon death while Ultimate Mode's do. Check out other tips at the end to learn how to prevent Ultimate Mode's character deletion. In order to help, I'll explain some common information and strategies relating to toon preparation.
Fighters and Warriors boast physical strength, life energy , and natural bulk. They prefer to fight in close to midrange quarters to deal maximum physical damage solo or in raids. With wisdom in strength, they employ extensive weaponry to deliver physical damage in any condition. It shouldn't be a surprise to see rapid bursting blows in combat from them that manage to attain levels of dexterity to multiply their efficiency. Fighters fundamentally use swords and spears while Warriors equip axes and spears. Some use blunt weapons and shields. Their gear of choice are heavy armors. They automatically get one strength point per level.
Guardians and Defenders protect life, capitalize defenses, and reflect damage that can be comparable to many physical strength builds. They rely significantly on close combat with some area techniques. They similarly make use of wide arrays of equipment which require generous levels of wisdom and understanding of materials in combat situations. Defenders specialize in shields and blunt weapons while Guardians equip axe and shields. Occasionally, you'll find defenders with a sword. They wear heavy armors and automatically gain one recovery point per level.
Mages and Pagans wander into mystic arts and versatility. They can make great use of dexterity , but their main focus is to create destructive forces using three of the most potent magical elements. Elements such as fire, wind, and earth. They are skillful in all close quarters, midrange, and area attacks. To them, offensive force is the perfect defense. They maximize their intelligence and power using staffs and contracted cast times. Some take advantage of dexterity using daggers. They are clothed in light gears and automatically generate one intelligence point per level.
Priests and Oracles focus on preserving and restoring life energies. Their main elements of spirit are water and ice. They use these energies to create damage inflicting barriers, resurrect party members, restore life, and cast beneficial buffs that increase all stats for all classes. While Elves and Vail were the Goddesses' chosen, the knowledge of blessing got uncovered only by Priests and Oracles. They take advantages of staffs or daggers. They wear light gears and automatically possess one wisdom point per level.
Rangers and Assassins deal in evasiveness and camouflage. They gain their goddesses' blessings naturally and remedy their styles with heavy dexterity. Their style of play is dominantly solo and spiritual natures lead them to seek balance in all matters. This makes them a difficult mode of play. To overcome these seemingly disadvantages, they utilize speed and critical strikes to boost damage and defensive techniques. Amongst all classes, they are the fastest to traverse landscapes. To achieve quicker strikes, they use claws, blades , or daggers. They're most comfortable wearing medium weight gears. They automatically access one dexterity point per level.
Archers and Hunters are terrifying through methods they implement to increase damage output without relying primarily on physical strength. They target at range and strike devastating critical blows. They achieve evasion through direct focus on accuracy. This is in defiance to Rangers and Assassins. These are brother and sister classes as they are mirror images of each other. Range is their dependent defense and offensive tactics and may face huge disadvantages up-close as a result. They surpass these disadvantages by gaining some wisdom in magic to amplify the elemental nature of their attacks and restore life energy. Their common weaponries are bows and arrows, exclusive access to powerful javelins, and sparsely short swords. They prefer gears in medium weight and automatically access one luck point per level.
From the above, you should realize classes are multi-purpose. Fighters can use shields for more defensive builds. Guards can use two-hand blunt weapons for more aggressive builds etc. The primary rules governing weapon usage are: One-hand weapons boost the speed of attacks, but lowers damage. Two-hand weapons boost maximum damage, but possess lower speeds. Some weapons work better with certain skills, or they won't activate using certain skills for each class. These minor variations further multiplies the diversity concerning character builds. It's similar for clothing sets. Heavy sets increase life energy and physical defenses, but has low resistances. Medium-weight gears give balance outputs, with slight decrease in life and mental points. Light-weight gears amplify resistance and mental points, but sacrifice life points.
Stats can be organize into two groups. Primary and Secondary. The primary are as follows:
Hit Points - HP or Life energy. when depletes to zero, a character dies. It's vital you keep an eye on this stat.
Stamina Points - SP or endurance energy. Physical skills and techniques are allowed if this energy meets their requirements. This is useful to be able to spam certain physical attacks.
Mental Points - MP or mental energy. Magicians are reliant on its use, plus other classes benefit from it ,and certain skills can't be done if your MP doesn't meet their requirements.
Physical Attack - damage measured indirectly by equipment and directly by the strength, dexterity, and sometimes luck stats.
Physical Defense - Physical damage reduction secondarily by equipment and directly by recovery stat.
Magic Attack - Magic damage channel indirectly by equipment and directly by the intelligence and wisdom stats.
Resistance - Magical damage weighed against resist secondarily through equipment and directly through wisdom stat. It reduces two magic damage per point instead of one unlike other defensive stats.
Your secondary stats are as follows:
Strength - directly boosts physical attack by 1 to 1.3 points per point for all class.
Recovery - directly adds 1 defense, 5 HP for each point per class, and slightly increases recovery ability for HP,MP, and SP in a non-combat stance.
Intelligence - directly channels 1.3 to 1.5 magic damage per point and 5 MP per point for each class.
Wisdom - directly gains 1 resistance for each class, slightly increases magic damage, and slightly increases magic damage evasiveness and accuracy. Wisdom boosts the potency for HP healing skills.
Dexterity - directly gains 0.2 to 0.25 physical attack, slightly increases accuracy and evasion for physical attacks per point, and adds 5 SP per point for each class.
Luck - randomly activates 0 to 1.5 critical damage per point, adds .3 physical attack to physical range attacks per point, 5 points achieve 1 percent critical rate, and slightly increases critical hit evasiveness and accuracy.
Accuracy - a hidden unit that determines how often physical and magical hits land on their targets.
Evasion - a hidden unit that determines how often physical and magical hits miss their targets.
Recommendation: Quickly realize these are my estimations and more could be hidden from my purview, as I don't possess direct access to developers' codes. These are my best guesses from my gaming experience. I also suggest focusing on two to three secondary stats category at a time. For example, a Warrior can focus on strength and dexterity, or the Warrior can focus on strength, recovery , and dexterity. You can fill in the blanks later with lapis and orange points. Orange points you see on gears drop from monsters or roll with Recreation Runes.
Orange points give random amounts of some primary and secondary points. When roll , you can expect to roll from one to four primary including secondary stats categories. If monsters drop these equipment, you can expect to drop from one to six categories. I'd be personally glad to drop a decent two to three stat categories. Usually players versus players require a minimum of four stat categories that's easier to attain through Shaiya's Game Master Services. You'll understand what orange stats are when you hunt your first few mobs.
Damage Focus: You want to aim for damage multiplier skills like 3x(three times) physical attack for example. You need accuracy so be considering dexterity and accuracy boosting skills. You want speed obviously. After you've achieve these to your liking, you can fill the blanks with defensive stats like recovery, HP, etc.
Balance Focus: You're in for a world of hurt, but you can make it. You primarily need speed and stunning skills. Anything that slows, stuns, or sleeps your opponents is welcome. You have decent damage and decent defenses , so damage multiplier or critical hits should fill in the blanks.
Defense Focus: You're okay for the long haul, but you won't be defeating anyone easily. You need damage over-time skills to make up for your lack of power offensively. Skills that poison, reduce defense, and disrupt the attacking motion of your opponents are necessary. Notice I said and which means you require them all. You can fill in the gaps with damage or speed as final additions.
Reckless Focus: You... Well, I hope you enjoy the game.
The main purpose for your builds is to be able to say you can defeat monsters 10 levels higher than you. If you can't do that, you're not the best you can be. :( sorry.