General

I definitely use it. At max level it only has a 5 second cool down anyways. I frankly enjoy doing 80k's with it, and it speed up my training much more to begin with.

From what I've seen in videos, Reaper is ridiculously slow, even if it's summoned, it's not going to be attacking monsters every second. It moves around more than it attacks and the delay in its attacks are pretty large. It's just not frequent or predictable enough to be considered efficient in training, let alone a 300% increase to damage. Dark Shock, on the other hand, can be used as Arans use Combo Smash/Fenrir, as a quick finisher and a quick 1HKO on a row of monsters. In the time it takes you to execute ADC/Finisher + Death Blow, you can decimate a platform, and for less MP too.

Anyone who says Dark Shock is useless doesn't know how to properly use it.
It's 1000% dmg with a 5 second cooldown on 6 monsters... All that spams in that picture is "OVERPOWERED"
It'll 1 hit basically anything you train on to 4th job (And even past that)
And 5 seconds.. that's basically waiting on spawn time so it's basically spamable.

Dark Shock is useful in training, it always will be a main move even in 4th.
Anyone who says it's useless don't know how to use it.

I'm thinking that I might max both reaper and dark shock, but leave chain un-maxed. Would that be okay?

I find dark shock useful not for the practicality but rather the more fun value of it. I mean think about it, look deep within yourself, what do you like seeing in MS? Big numbers, thats right mang, big, freaking, critical, numbers. The fact of the matter, all of us get bored of training, and I like to think of dark shock with body boost as a small motivation to keep me going through the grinds. The high numbers satisfy that need to feel so damn pro, which believe me, we all do want in the end, and I feel that small boost along with the added control the extra button adds to BaM's really makes the experience that much more enjoyable. The thing is though, we all just want those numbers to be as high as possible, I mean in the end we all wanna say that "Mine hits higher" as opposed to "Mine hits highger proportionally to your hits due to the lower skill level as a choice of my skill build " Aside from that its not like that by maxing out shock, reapers will be level 1. You will still have that added DPM running around with your highest numbers possible, which I feel, weather we wana admit it or not, is necessary for training

[quote=synchrouno]@aBlueSharpie: what i mean is, additional level isn't worth it because that move is already over powered. best to leave it at 13[/quote]

THIS.

Its replaced by dark gene plus dark chain is used so much more then it

After taking a simple cursory examination of the 3rd job battle mage skills, I'd have to say...I have no idea. They seem even to me, but I'm starting to side with reaper. I dislike slow moves and, even after maxing that distance-y chain move in 2nd job, I barely use it.

why do u ask this?
is not a vallid question...

[quote=RanmaruStyle]The same people that probably don't think Shock is useful are most likely the same people that think Drain is useful at max.[/quote]

Ive didnt say that dark shock wasnt useful its just not used as much in training as reaper is but in bossing it still isnt used alot since it takes time to use and to go away takes like 3secs untill you can do something like another skill but reaper attacks without a command or delay.

The same people that probably don't think Shock is useful are most likely the same people that think Drain is useful at max.

If you to a boss that summons alot like zak it should help since you got to keep in mind that you need to focus on your hp to not die and if you do shock you might forget to heal but with reaper it summons for you without having to put press anything for 60 when you have the buff on

Think of this if you gave 5 reapers helping you kill a boss or monsterif shock is lv.13 it does a great number of damage and at that lv the cd is really low but if you have five reapers you can do damage five times and you dont have to keep doing the skill all you have to do is use shock to kill a monster and summon a helper.

@thelordalden: Then must we really max it? If we don't the damage could be made up (Or more) with a certain level of Dark Gene?
But I must also say, Reaper is pointless... It even looks stupid too.

Its like this to me reaper seems like a little helper like how bowmen have birds, mage have dragons or demon things, thieves have sp and for us this is our little helper he does alot alot of damage and since you can summon multiple helper its really good since you dont need to control them or anything it also helps you ks ksers because as monsters summon all reapers will kill them and summon more reapers then

Does Dark Genesis increase your Dark Shock Damaged passively?

[quote=thelordalden]I agree with that a lot more. But I still find it less beneficial to use Shock overall, it's taking more of a cut than Chains. I use chains a crapload. Shocks usefulness to me is very slight and niche at best.[/quote]

i will say that im not trying to force you to max shock. if you believe that chains and reaper are much better than shock, by all means max those and leave shock at 13. by personal opinion, shock>reaper>chain (in terms of importance), but it is really up to you. do whatever you feel is right

true, but it also lowers your crit chance with it, and raises the cooldown. but even if it is as useless as you say, you shouldnt max reaper with the points from shock. if you plan to max reaper, take points out of advanced chain, so it will still grab 8 mobs (notice i said [b]grab[/b] not [b]damage[/b])

who are these people saying dark shock is not good CRAZY TALK!