Tips For a Musician Main

[iARE1337]

Well I recently started playing Atlantica and made a musician. I'm rather confused about formations and what skills I should be focusing on. I skimmed through the official forums and well, I didn't find much help on the matter.

I'd like to know what merchants would go well with this class and if it's a good idea to just spam all my growth vials on my main.

/clueless.

[boomsticky]

Well, I'm not a musician main, so I can't say what are good formations for you. A balance formation for anyone would be a monk, shaman, three melee type characters (for tanking the frontline), and then either some long range or more melee class mercenaries.

Skill wise, I know that Ravaging Melody is the key skill to max on your main.

As for growth vials, you can use it on any of your characters, including your main. I would either put them all on your main, then feed them to the rest of your mercs., or maybe balance it out.

[Javier]

Well, the most effective way to play a musician would be to get mercenaries with DoT/AoE skills, since the musician's main skill is a powerful DoT.

Artillery: Deep Insight (Def debuff, small DoT).
Cannoneer: Smoke bomb (Accuracy debuff, nice DoT).
Witch: Meteor strike (powerful Aoe).
Beast Trainer: Beast summon (decent Aoe that deteriorates in the higher levels, but she is a great tank overall).

Past 100, you can consider a Dark archer (Multi-arrow) and a Spartan (War cry).

[iARE1337]

So basically the current merchants I currently have will be outdated as a level and acquire better ones?

Also I've gotten different skill books for my musician but I've been apprehensive about using them. Is there a physical limit of points I can add towards skills?

[Javier]

Max level for most skills are 60. You get one skill point per level up, and the current level cap is 120. However, you can unlock an additional 30 skill points if you use secret vials of potential (an item mall item, sells for what, ~2m each? in-game). So technically you have a total of 150 skill points to play with.

Edit: Yup, the idea is to replace the weaker 'D' class mercs with 'C' and 'B' class ones as you progress further into the game. Some mercs, however, will always be useful (e.g. a monk).

[WhatThePho]

At least give all of your merc Growth Vial Mid. until they can't use it anymore.

P.S. Mercenaries, not merchants.

[iARE1337]

Originally Posted by MrClastro

P.S. Mercenaries, not merchants.

I knew that was wrong somehow . Thanks for the correction.

When are the vital levels when I replace my mercenaries and how far along would I get by just questing?

[Dook]

Originally Posted by iARE1337

I knew that was wrong somehow . Thanks for the correction.

When are the vital levels when I replace my mercenaries and how far along would I get by just questing?

Replace mercs when you think their replacements are ready to be an efficient member in the party. e.g. when your Janissary hits 90ish that's pretty good enough to replace your lvl105 gunner.

The moment when you need more than just questing is when you hit lvl 95, cuz that's when the exp needed to lvl up becomes REALLY high. When you hit this stage you'll need to do independent dungeons to help you level up, then guild dungeons as you get stronger.

[Javier]

/seconds Tengkar's post.

The majority of the levelling in this game is done through completing the extensive main storyline quests. However, once you level past 90, you gain access to instanced maps known as 'Individual dungeons'. Each individual dungeon has a number of monster spawns, and a final boss, that have to be defeated within a time limit-- you can party with up to two others. Upon completion, you get a reward. The monsters themselves also drop great loot and give much higher experience than regular monsters. So, these dungeons will be a good exp. source to supplement your levelling, as mentioned.

Also, if you join a guild that is part of a nation, once you're in your late 90s you can join in on nation dungeons, which follow the same basic principle as indiv. dungeons but are basically slightly harder and require some strategy.

Similarly, there are also guild dungeons that can be completed.

Anyhow, are you on Sikyon? If so, come join us in Moogles

[Shirakani]

As a FORMER GEETAR player... I can say with decent experience that GEETARS are pretty much of one build only: DoT. The two required mercs are Artillery and Cannoneer. Your main damage will come from a combination of Ravaging Melody+Deep Insight+Smoke Bomb, all layered on top. This will be your main full formation DoT to kill anything.

In late game, once you have access to a Spartan, you can layer War Cry on top. War Cry has a MASSIVE 12 turn duration at maximum level, and does 1k DoT per turn. Everything pretty much will die very quickly.

Now, weaknesses of a GEETAR in general: The fact that it's a pure DoT class and nothing else means you can have VERY little variation in your formation. You MUST have specific mercs such as artillery and cannoneer. If you don't, you're literally gimping yourself. The other thing about a pure DoT class is that life is great if you're on the offensive and are in control of the match, your 3 main DoT's are layered on and the enemy is dying... Now once you get a sudden add in the fight... Yeah, that's when generally you are immediately on the back foot.

Being a DoT class means you have NO MEANS of instantly killing off any adds. All you can really do is throw a DoT on them and hope it kills them before the adds kill you. Being DoT means you must have good equipment, and be able to SURVIVE. Pure DoT types rely on survivability and outlasting so you'd better be well geared to survive.

Pros: Arguably the strongest PvE class in game, still good in PvP after nerfs. For now, still a 'unique' class that cannot be shut down/sealed. Has all benefits of Bow class, able to hit anywhere in a formation. Have an excuse to play bad music and get away with it.

Cons: Very specialized, means you must cater to one build, or be deliberately gimping yourself. You don't HAVE to play a DoT build, but then you may as well play another class. Endgame gets dull as hell when you find yourself doing the same thing over and over again, with no variety and no versatility. Generally low melee attack power and very highly reliant on DoTs to do damage. If your survivability is low, then you're most likely going to die before your enemy does. At endgame where enemies are pretty resiliant... yeah, not good.

My formation that i ran, before i gave DarkRayne my geetar and went back to swinging a stick, lvl100 geetar:

LK/main/BT
arty/jani/can
oracle/monk/<interchangeable spot, usually prophet or witch>

Battle order vs anything that doesn't die by turn 3:
Turn 1: do nothing
Turn 2: Ravaging Melody+Deep Insight+Smoke Bomb gets layered, Monk HG's if needed.
Turn 3: Monk awakens if needed, BT throws beast summon.
Turn 4: Jani stances, pass him, artillery and cannon a turn, oracle seth's midline.
Turn 5+: Re-layer Ravaging Melody while seth'd line bombs the hell out of whatever it is you're fighting.
~~~~
Turn 8: Arty and Cannon re-layers DI+SB, Jani re-stances.
Turn 9: Seth midline again...

You get the idea... It gets really, really dull after a while. No versatility. But that's pretty much ALL YOU CAN DO as a pure DoT class.

Disclaimer: Frontlining your main is only doable if you have very good gear. Do NOT do it otherwise, put 3 melee in front as a frontline and stand at the back instead.

[Javier]

Can't you deal with adds by using AoEs? You layer your DoTs on the main mob; when the add comes, bombard aoes- meteor, beast summon..and maybe in future chainsaw blade..?

[badna0]

Originally Posted by Javier

Can't you deal with adds by using AoEs? You layer your DoTs on the main mob; when the add comes, bombard aoes- meteor, beast summon..and maybe in future chainsaw blade..?

yeah the problem that I foresee with that though is that you have to wait 3-4 turns before your DoT's start knocking out the add monsters... and that's if the monsters join on turn 4, when your CD counters have accumulated and you can recast your DoTs. In the meantime, you can't seth until after turn 4, and the damage you take is pretty high. If you leave a mob for 3-4 turns, you're potentially eating 15 extra activations (5/turn * 3 turns), which is a lot of ouchies.

And if you get 2 adds...

[Shirakani]

Originally Posted by Javier

Can't you deal with adds by using AoEs? You layer your DoTs on the main mob; when the add comes, bombard aoes- meteor, beast summon..and maybe in future chainsaw blade..?

Assuming you haven't used them up on the main mob, sure. But most ppl at endgame don't run with a witch, and if an add comes in on turn 2 or 3, that's still an extra turn where you've basically unloaded your biggest moves and are not even GUARDING... If it's a mob that gets full 5 man movement on turn, well, you're screwed.

Then once you do get your turn, you're healing or res scrolling your frontline, and you need to drop the adds ASAP if you're not very well geared. Beast summon is too weaksauce and never ohko's, you probably don't have a witch by this point, and your only other option is Ravaging, which hits for 980 on hit... You get the idea.

Musics arguably tho are the strongest PvE class, having a very strong and spammable turn 2 AoE DoT is very, very good. It's only real downside is when you run into an add that you need to drop RIGHT NOW, then you wish for a high power direct damage nuke like Flame Blow or what not.

Of course, if you're very well geared, this doesn't apply to you... you can easily outlast any mob and just wait for them to die. Which brings us back to the overall point of it; Survival. You almost need to be very well geared to outlast anything that comes your way.

[iARE1337]

I appreciate the help from those of you who posted.

Originally Posted by Javier

Anyhow, are you on Sikyon? If so, come join us in Moogles

I'm not, I started in Argos .