Silkroad Online MMOsite

Hunter Guide

Author: JOHN LUCZKOW

Credit to JOHN LUCZKOW , thanks very much for giving us permission to put this guide on our site.

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1.The build

2.The skills

3.Why these skills

4.When to start hunting

5.The fighting technique

6.General tips to keep in mind


1.The build

Ok, so you want to school all those annoying thieves, or maybe help a friend get some huge dough? If you have one main character, but you want to start another one, here is what you should do:

At the character creation screen, choose whichever face you want, but make it as large as possible. Why? It will be more intimidating (keep in mind that NPCs don't really matter. It's the player thieves you have to knock some sense into).

Then, choose you weapon as a glaive, not spear! Once, go do that little chinese tutorial thing and the hunting 30 mangyangs. This should take maybe half an hour at most, and will get you to lvl 3. Then, do that quest for the blacksmith (Weapon dealer's letter) (I think). Once you've done that, go get the Lost Child quest and the hunting weasels quest. Both of these are over at the east gate. (The village chieftain can be found south of it in a little housing complex). Head out the east gate and keeping going along the road until you come to some hills crawling with old weasels. A bit south of that are some big-eyed ghosts. Just beat the quests. While you do this you should be sp farming, and once you get to lvl five, you should get the weapon skills for lightning and glaive. Then sp farm until you're lvl 20, when you can spend it all. Keep in mind that you must do all the quests. It is well worth it.


2.The skills

The best skills for hunting are cold and lightning. The only masteries you should ever get in cold are:
Cold lvl 12, and
Cold wave arrest lvl 1

However in ---lightning---, there are lots of useful skills for hunting. They are:

---lightning---

Thunderforce series: as high as you can possibly get it.

Piercing force series: as high as you can possibly get it.

Wind walk series: as high as you can possibly get it.

Lion shout: this skill is nothing compared to the thunderbolt series, but you can get it as long as you get rid of it later with skill reallocation potions (available at level 20).

Concentration series: I would get this fairly high, and if you ever have extra skill points, you may as well put them on this.

Thunderbolt series: Here it is. The best offensive skill for hunting that there is. Get this as high as you can possibly get it.

Heaven's Force series: This is good, and since it only has one book, get it as high as possible, since increasing the mastery of a certain book does not affect the total amount of mastery levels you have (Isn't that great!?)

---Heuksal---

Annihilating blade series: maybe a few lvls when you start out, but once you get good it stinks.

Fanning spear series:none. This is possibly the worst skill in the game.

Heuksal Spear series:You should get this pretty high. It's not great for multiple people, but it has a better damage to mana point used than soul departs series.

Soul Departs series: Get this as high as possible.

Ghost Spear series: get this maybe halfway through it's masteries.

Chain Spear Attack series: Get this as high as possible.

Flying Dragon Spear series:Get this as high as possible.

Cheolsam Force: get every single mastery. It is more than worth it.

---Force---

Self heal series: at the maximum get this to the second book. it's good, but you really don't have time for healing on a trade run, and potions are much better.

Force cure series: nothing..

Heal series: get this as high as you can get it without bringing your force level above 30.

Rebirth Art series: only get the first book of this, since that's really all you need.

Everything else in force should not be needed, except the force increasing series, which should be at lvl 3.


3.Why these skills

Why do these skills matter? Well, the cold is extremely important because is slows down you're enemy, although it can be dropped by hunters only going after other players. It is more useful for traders doing one star trades, for use against NPC thieves who will not be able to keep up once frostbitten.

The other question most people ask is: Why not fire instead of lightning? Lightning does not do as much damage over all, but it can do more damage total. What I mean by this is that the second number for lightning's damage is higher than the second number for fire's damage. Even without this, I would go with lightning. For one, lightning has the piercing, concentration and wind walk series, which are far more useful than a few extra defenses. The piercing is useful because it increases your magical damage, which will not be very high because you will be pure or almost pure strength. Concentration increases your parry ratio, which reduces the average amount of damage dealt to you by opponents. And, of course, the wind walk series. This is so amazingly useful I cannot fully express it in words. The second book teleports you instantly to where you want to go, as long as it is within range. This is good for getting at escaping targets. The third and first books increase your movement speed over a long period of time, which is also very useful for catching up with thieves who do not have this. So that's why you have lightning.

But why not higher force heal? As I already said, you won't have any time to waste healing yourself, and potions can be used quicker and easier. As for the ressurection, it doesn't matter as long as they come back. The amount of regain they get shouldn't matter very much, since you'll resurrect them after a fight and not during. As for force cure, universal pills are far, far more useful when you're fighting. The heuksal is fairly self explanatory, since it doesn't have anything that increase how good you are, only attacks. You may notice that you are getting lots of things that increase you MP and magic attacks. This is because you will be going as a strength character, and that means you're physical attack will be high but your magical attack will be low, so you use skills to remedy that.


4.When to start hunting

When do you start hunting? You certainly can't hunt before you have full fifth degree armor. If you do start before this, you will be destroyed by high level thieves. Once you have most of these skills you should start too, which is way you absolutely have to sp farm, or you will never be able to get them all.


5.The fighting technique

Ok, so you're on you're first guarding mission and a human thief attacks, and you realize you have no idea how to use you're skills to maximum effect. First we'll start with the items you should have. You should have at least 100 medium potions, both MP and HP, and about 50 universal pills. You should also have auto potion recovery turned on, so you don't have to waste slots on potions. When the thief first attacks, you should immediately freeze him with cold wave arrest. Then, while he is frostbitten, you should have time to launch a thunderbolt at him. If he is weak, this should kill him, but if he isn't, let him start to come to you, then select the Flying Dragon Spear and Thunderforce, whichever one you have. This will hurt him even more, before he has even gotten to you. Hopefully, the lightning will also have put him in a shocked state, so his dodge is reduced. Then, use the remainder of your time with Thunderforce and combine it with Chain Spear attack. This will hurt him multiple times, and if you have it at its absolute highest, you will hit him 7 times with enormous amounts of damage being done, because of the physical and electrical attack being added together. If he is not dead yet, use another chain spear and thunderforce on him. Continue like this until he is dead. Now, as for who should come with you, make sure it is not someone who is the same as you. All but the very best, as in levels 60 and up, need help on trade runs. I would bring a nuker, an archer with very high cold, someone with very high healing and ressurect, and someone good with Bicheon and fire. This kind of party will generally own everyone who attacks them, as long as they are all above level 45.


6.General tips to keep in mind

If you want to, you can go with your friends and all go as traders, but act as hunters too, so that you all help protect each other and you all get your own individual profit.

Don't be afraid to spend on your items. They mean your life.You can, if you want, buy things from the item mall, which can increase the damage you do and you're defense.

You can get everyone to go in a lower armor than they actually are, then switch when thieves arrive. This is, however a slow tactic. If you do it, be sure to equip you're normal weapon and highest armor first, since they will help the most.


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