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Help deciding a talent :(

AndromedyAndromedy
Mabinogi Rep: 410
Posts: 5
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in General Chat
Hello,

I'm not really sure if this is the correct section to post this topic in, and i'm sure there are a butt load of these posts but I could use some help with deciding what to play.

I very much like the bard buffs in this game, so I am looking for something to go well with bard. At the moment I have close combat ranked pretty well, Rank 1 smash, 9 windmill, and a few scattered things like sword mastery. I've only recently started playing, about a week ago. While close combat is useful and pretty strong its leaving me with a lot to be desired. Simple and effective, but... well... boring.

I was looking around at talents, and I am interested in a few.

Magic: I love the magic in this game (specifically ice spear) but it's always been such an AP dump, and i've never been able to successful obtain the spell I want. And im unsure of the synergy with bard.

Puppetry: If not just for the "soul star" talent which is a dope name, it does look rather interesting. Though i've read multiple things stating it falls off late pretty hard.

Battle Alchemy: something i've never played with, but is what im most interested in. Messing around with it in the "practice area" was pretty enjoyable, but im unsure of its actual uses in the real portions of the game.

Chains: Seem to be pretty cool, but I read theres a LOT of higher level quests you need to do.

If anyone could give me some advice on how to proceed. I'm still very new so resetting skill points and such is no biggy. I do have rank 5 song already for my buffs. :)

Comments

  • DragoolfireDragoolfire
    Mabinogi Rep: 3,590
    Posts: 486
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    make sure you get Defense ranked... very important for low level characters. I love all the skills, so I cant chose... I have almost everything at rank 1. however i have been maining chains since i came back 2 or so years ago and its very nice even without all the fancy gear. IMO if your going to do bard, then you should add to that the Holy Arts stuff... good luck
  • CrimsọnCrimsọn
    Mabinogi Rep: 65,255
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    Eventually you're going to want to master all the talents because each skill ranked adds to your stats. So is your question actually about what play style you should go for? Meta weapons? Because right now it's chains. I would recommend doing all the skills that require combat power training. Skills like windmill and fireball for example. The higher your combat power goes to more difficult it is to train especially if you don't have access to -cp gear. So keep that in mind.
    Andromedy
  • MegasoulMegasoul
    Mabinogi Rep: 1,735
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    The most powerful skill under a bards toolkit in the meta(tm) right now is Battlefield Overture, which increases a player's maximum damage.

    That said, going anything that doesn't benefit from this will put you at a major disadvantage late game. As bards build their music buffs up, you'll only be hurting your damage if you go something like Magic. Magic Attack does not get buffed by Battlefield, and Vivace only buffs the speed (arguably less so than a reforged weapon anyways).

    Puppetry is difficult to use, and the puppet cannot really get enough stats to live for longer than a second in most late game dungeons. Unlike pets, which can be buffed by Divine Link in many ways, puppets lack the ability to be revived through normal means and their potion poisoning cannot be healed except at repair stations outside of dungeons. The talent's benefits are also bugged, meaning the cool-down that skills should receive from Control Marionette are not properly applied.

    Battle Alchemy has the same problem that Magic Attack has.

    Chain is viable, but it rewards late game players more because it depends on two stats.

    Honestly for the time being Close Combat is probably the best option.
    Andromedypawcalypse
  • HoldHold
    Mabinogi Rep: 1,690
    Posts: 48
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    You're going to end up trying out each and every talent anyways so you might as well try to get them all to expert for a nice free 230 AP. This way you get a good feel of the game and you're going to need to do this too because a good number of skills from different talents are needed to help train other skills from different talents. This game encourages you to mix and match different skills from different talents so it can be hard to be purely 1 job or talent sometimes. Also don't let training skills reflect how bad a skill or talent is, training skills can be the worse aspect of this game but the payoff is worth it once you get a skill to rank 1.
    Andromedypawcalypse
  • HelsaHelsa
    Mabinogi Rep: 23,530
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    The talent that has the best chance to see you through a situation where you are utterly and completely outclassed by the monsters is Construct Alchemy, also called Transmutation. The downside is that it is the opposite of flashy and visually impressive and is very slow to act so therefore it is really REALLY boring.
  • asnscorpioasnscorpio
    Mabinogi Rep: 2,500
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    From what I'm aware of...each generation has certain talent tree's it caters to. Much like G9 is alchemy based, G20ish where chainblades are introduced is that talent mostly, etc etc. Doesn't mean you need to use that talent...it just helps.

    In the tutorial it mentions battle flow. The point in the tutorial and training is to find your own flow of skils that work across the many talents available. Everyone has their own. Best of luck finding what works for you...but close combat is mostly the staple for everyone.
    Andromedy
  • DanievictriaDanievictria
    Mabinogi Rep: 3,695
    Posts: 313
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    edited August 27, 2019
    The initial Chain Slash skills you get are actually very useful for the content that you can do early on in the game. I suggest putting a little time into things like Commerce Mastery, Gold Strike, Puppetry, Archery, Harvest Song, and Weaving to boost your Luck and Dexterity to beef those skills up early on. Save up some gold, train up your combat skills, then do Spinning Slasher's quest first. Buy the First Dorcha Crystal (because bump trying to get a pass for the dungeon and then possibly not even getting your reward), stalk Ancient monsters for the Second, fish for the Third, Fleta sells the Fourth for 50k in her shop, run Rabbie and Math for the Fifth (it spawns in chests that appear in dead end areas), and beat up Polar Hornets for the Sixth. Really, the First is the worst because of the expense and trouble of getting it. The others, by comparison, are easy as pie to get because all they take is a little time and not hunting around for a rare dungeon pass.

    Really, I say just get your close combat skills all to r1, then just go with the flow. Lacking in this or that stat? Check the Stats and Skills page on the wiki and see what skills give what stats so you know what to target to get stronger. Need better self healing? Time to grind some healing magic (personally, I recommend getting your character up to current level 200, getting slapped around until nearly dead, then escaping and using Party Healing on yourself to quickly get some good recovery under your belt without bothering with expensive support puppets or trying to buddy up with other players). Unless you really want to be an uber-meta endgamer, you really don't have to get everything to r1. If you're content being able to solo most Normal mode dungeons and Hard shadow missions, you can leave some skills at, like, r5 once they get too annoying or grindy to train (especially if it's a really boring skill to use or one you find yourself never using in normal gameplay anyway) and just do you.

    If you want to survive against powerful raid bosses and solo all the generations with few problems and run Peaca Abyss like a boss, though...Yeah, you'll have to get r1 everything and Dan ranks in all the ones with Dan ranks and just relentlessly grind skills you don't even like until your soul shatters...Me, I ain't got no time for that.
    AndromedySherripawcalypse
  • SherriSherri
    Mabinogi Rep: 18,715
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    edited August 27, 2019
    Well.. I'm not the best at explaining things but here we go..;
    I've heard from many that close combat is what should be mastered first... Well, maybe not mastered, but decently ranked. It's a good fallback if things get tough, though I've only really played with shield based combat. Can't really say the same with dual swords.

    It also seems to depend on what race you've chosen. Elves can't use lance.. or dual wield.. and Str isn't really their thing but are better with dex/int based talents (and they can run fastest! Gotta go fast!), giants cant use archery but they make up for it in close combat.. (2nd fastest walking speed too) And well, humans are pretty well rounded. A jack of all trades. But they're so slow.. well, guess it doesn't matter once you get used to it. ^_^
    So naturally, you'd want to rank classes that benefit your character, if not right away, then on the side or later down the road.

    Bacially, bard is definitely a good thing to work on but I'd recommend sticking with close combat too, to get that Defense up so it'll be easier to survive when training other things.
    Again, I'm sorry if I just made you more confused. I'm not good at explaining things at all. My mind is a big jumbled up mess and therefore all I seem to type/write is unorganized info, but I really tried! D:

    But anyway, if you got through all that, I gotta say thanks for being able to withstand me LOL and welcome to the game! It may have a lot of flaws, but it definitely is a fun game to play! :)

    OH also P.S: I love your forum name (and possibly IGN?) :O
    Andromedy
  • AndromedyAndromedy
    Mabinogi Rep: 410
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    Thank you all for the wonderful insight! This is so helpful. I'll keep it in mind ^_^!
    Sherri
  • MiliardoMiliardo
    Mabinogi Rep: 1,470
    Posts: 74
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    edited August 29, 2019
    Helsa wrote: »
    The talent that has the best chance to see you through a situation where you are utterly and completely outclassed by the monsters is Construct Alchemy, also called Transmutation. The downside is that it is the opposite of flashy and visually impressive and is very slow to act so therefore it is really REALLY boring.

    what are you talking about? Construct alchemy (Transmutation) is a non-combat talent, it's a production type talent. I'm guessing you mean Battle Alchemy.
  • HelsaHelsa
    Mabinogi Rep: 23,530
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    Miliardo wrote: »
    Helsa wrote: »
    The talent that has the best chance to see you through a situation where you are utterly and completely outclassed by the monsters is Construct Alchemy, also called Transmutation. The downside is that it is the opposite of flashy and visually impressive and is very slow to act so therefore it is really REALLY boring.

    what are you talking about? Construct alchemy (Transmutation) is a non-combat talent, it's a production type talent. I'm guessing you mean Battle Alchemy.

    Nope, construct alchemy. It has combat and crafting components. Raincloud, for example, is useful for crafting but also in battle as it inhibits multi-agro. Hydra is the only poison attack that can actually kill. Very few monsters are immune to it. Since it is a construction, like barrier shields, and not an attack, you do not automatically get agroed for deploying it. This is why elves can plunk down a hydra and then hide right away. I'm not an elf but a giant so I can't do this but what I can do is Hydra/Crisis Escape/Shadow Cloak/Run away beyond agro range repeat. Golems are construct alchemy. If you stand behind a barrier you can send the golem around. If it dies, you make another.
    pawcalypse
  • BobbioBobbio
    Mabinogi Rep: 750
    Posts: 62
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    Well speaking from experience from doing all of the talents, chain is probably the easiest to get to end game with. Duel guns can be fun but you need strength and intelligence before hand to do any damage with it, alchemy is a bit iffy I personally feel its only good if you have enough gold to make it beefy along with getting the right enchants whereas you'd be much faster just going chains. The damage at the start may not be much if you haven't invested into dex/luck related talents such as archery and mercantile which is a great talent for luck. Archery can be painful to do depending on how many skill exp boosting things you have, with the events going on though it doesn't look like it'd be to do bad.

    though one major thing i can't emphasize enough is do bard, bard bard bard, bfo is a must, or vivace if you go magic.

    sorry for the rant though.