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Buccaneer

Minimum Range to finish Ranked Dojo

Hey guys,

Pretty simple thread for you all. So I've massively upgraded my equipments recently; with a little... OK, a lot of help from my friends. I'm currently at 70k as clean as can be and at 100k minimum fully buffed (excluding Hyper, Charged Mode, 4 5 or 6 on Roll of the Dice). I've still got a lot of work to do with some of my auxiliary equipments such as my untraced, un-Star Forced pendant, rings and swapping the lousy boots and gloves I've got for something better. As well as star forcing my CRA set.

In brief, when I'm sorted with all that I should, fingers crossed, be sitting at somewhere around 100k clean, and between 130k and 150k fully buffed. My friend Cam claimed that I'd need a 200k range to solo Dojo, which I could *probably* successfully get with some good potentials on my gear. However, I have a bad feeling that for Buccaneer, a class which hasn't struck me as particularly good in the Dojo (during a few little practices I've done), it's gonna be quite a bit higher.

Dojo is something I'd usually ignore, but in DemethosEMS way less than 50 (most days less than 20) people finish it daily. This meant even an absolute dinosaur of a time could net me those fantastic Mu Gong's Gloves, just as long as I actually complete the damn thing! So roughly how much clean range am I going to need, accounting for the usual few errors during the run on my part?

July 20, 2015

5 Comments • Newest first

Tricks122

I'm pretty sure the Rest stages are potion blocked. I can't remember for sure, but I know at one point you COULD make a party and invite other people within the stages; you just couldn't proceed as a group, but you could buff each other(In particular, Sharp Eyes would be excellent to have if you can still do this). It might be fixed, but it's worth trying just to see. I'm pretty sure you can't use potions in there though, which is why Malady's Stew is a popular choice, as it lasts a fairly long time(I believe 20 or 40 minutes).

Instead of Empress, if you have the Hayato/Kanna classes you could get the set from the Princess No prequests; if I remember correctly, it's a ring, shoulder and one other piece of gear that escapes my mind and forms a set. It's tedious to get, but it's not horrible; the Hayato shoulder piece isn't a bad one by any means as a placeholder until end-game Meister gear would be available. If not, then unfortunately your only options do seem to be Nova and Empress, although you could also try making and fusing some third tier Pirate gear if you have the extra materials for it.

The increase in 4/5/6 Hyper makes me roll a lot less 1's, at least in my experience. Octopunch is already a silly skill to me, so I don't mind grabbing the additional hit; it really does add up in damage, although I suppose since our Armory got nerfed and Second Drill Hall is its equivalent in GMS, Buccaneer Blast Hypers would be more useful in EMS in comparison to GMS. This is also coming from someone who got to 170 or so during the days of Lionheart Castle and party play, and who originally started back when two weeks of play would get you to 30 if you were a Magician with Kerning PQ... so I rarely pick up the 'faster training skills' over better bossing ones.

Some bosses you'll want to watch out for:

Lilinouch(The knight piece Temple of Time boss). It has damage reflect normally, and at one point did/does have it in the Dojo, so in addition to eating up your time, you can screw yourself over pretty easily. Keep a watch out for the animation if you aren't killing it fast enough.

Lyka(Third Temple of Time boss). I can't remember if it has Seduce like it does in Temple of Time, but I find that it buffs its attack and hits for relatively high touch-damage numbers. This is one of the few bosses that I don't tank head on, because it can kill you quickly if you're not paying attention.

Papulatus. More of a time sink than anything else, he loves to spam Dispel and hide, so you'll need disproportionately high damage to get past this guy in comparison to the rest of the mobs, and a lot of your time might be spent re-buffing if you don't have high Status Resistance.

Manon/Griffey. Same vein as Papulatus, although the former uses stun and the later uses Dispel... a lot. Stand on Manon if you can(His stun requires an actual magic attack to hit you, so taking touch damage avoids it), whilst Griffey just has to be smacked down since his Dispel isn't a damage effect, but an area of effect spell around him on cast.

Mu Gong. Seduce is annoying and can lead to a time-out or death, so break it when possible, re-cast any buffs you have that might be reset from Time Leap(Dice in particular, but if you have Angelic Buster, you can also recast their link skill) and then smack Time Leap. Many of my past runs have failed to luck at Mu Gong, although I find he's a lot easier now; also, watch out for the attack that causes statues to fall. I'm not sure if it still is, but it used to be a 1/1, and since you can't heal on command it can be pretty annoying.

Those are the bosses that I find annoying or problematic. Most of the others with any sort of annoying status(Such as Papa Pixie) can be dealt with quickly. The only other thing that might give you trouble is those that have poison clouds(Snowman Yeti and Frankenroid), simply because the poison does deal significant damage depending on your health pool, so you may need to Spiral Assault the boss away from it so you can fight them comfortably.

One last thing is if you find yourself able to, build meter towards the special attack bar. It's one of the reasons I stand on a lot of bosses; if they aren't a threat, you might as well use them to build a bar towards Invincibility or a Bamboo Strike(Which can help you blaze through some bosses faster). If need be, you can milk some bosses with higher touch damage for additional bar, assuming you have the time(I think Snowman Yeti is fairly good, because his ice cloud deals decent damage in comparison to a lot of touch damage, and does it quicker in addition to his normal touch damage); assuming you aren't bleeding any buffs and in danger of losing them(Or you've already lost them), the boost can help a lot. If your buffs are out, the damage one(Power Explosion or something) gives boosted attack speed, but I'm not sure if it breaks the cap. Invincibility is decent, but it doesn't protect from status effects, so if you can milk it a bit so that Perseverance heals you while it's up; finally, Bamboo Strike, assuming it wasn't nerfed, is excellent when you're pressed for time, and need a quick bit of extra damage.

Reply July 21, 2015
Galbatore

I have an absolute ton of the MPE pots - but wait, now you mention it I'm starting to think that I'm unable to use potions in the rest stages... presumably that extends to the buff potions. Argh, that's horrid... it's gonna make the last levels of the run the toughest.

I've been doing Easy Magnus daily - and no, I don't think we got the nerf on him because he's by far the toughest of the bosses I challenge by myself daily, but he's still doable - but he's been a right stingy git when it comes to coughing up the gear. If I can be bothered to do the prequests I might have better luck with Treglow and/or Velderoth. I actually wanted to buy an Empress set in lieu of CRA, but on DemethosEMS it's sort of a non-option. She's generally considered a tougher boss AND with worse drops, so no-one bothers to do her. And without fresh supply into the market, you can't buy it anywhere.

Yeah, I've been seeing that my range has been increasing exponentially as opposed to steadily since I got out of the '45k buffed' area and in and around the 100k mark. It's good news for me, because a cheap temporary upgrade from my lousy Sanf Boar 80 Pirate shoes to some 5% allstat Necro shoes yielded a ~+4k range increase for practically no effort.

And yeah, you noticed, I wasn't that impressed by Octopunch - Extra Strike chiefly because it annoys me that I'm going to be having an Octopunch... which would then be more like a Nintopunch, or something? But it doesn't look like there's much better available, mind, I swear I'm the master of rolling 1s and double 1s with Double Down.

I guess I do see your point on the Buccaneer Blast hypers. They're certainly very useful at Armory 2, where they reduce what would be a 8-hit kill or something to more like a 6-hit kill, but in the Knight Chambers they just turn Buccaneer Blast from overkill to super-overkill. And most of my friends train in those maps... most classes fare better in those maps than the Armories (I think our Drill Hall 2 is nerfed, because the mobs are as strong as those of the Armories and only give a by comparison measly 40k EXP per). I guess I could just reset my hyper skills when I'm done levelling, though.

Okay, so...
- Get to 200k range buffed.
- Get to the 18x level-wise; for Hypers. Maybe reset the Bucc Blast hyper I already got into an Double Down or Octopunch hyper
- Study and do practice runs in order to suss out which enemies I need to be extra careful of.
- Procure a ton of buff potions.
- Get all my skills to level 30 (-_- getting mastery books on EMS is a pain in the tush).

Hopefully if I do those 5 things and take note of all your tricks (heh heh) I'll have at least half a chance, thanks! ^^

Reply July 21, 2015
Tricks122

I personally don't bother with the Buccaneer Blast Hypers. They aren't bad, but I rarely train and I don't find they make that much of a difference for me; they might considering our server difference(Hence your Armory 2 to my Drill Hall 2), but I primarily do bosses when I play, so I roll with maxed out Octopunch Hypers and the Dice Hypers(Specifically, higher chances for a 4/5/6 and the chance to re-roll if it's not a Double Down; the 7 isn't worth it). The extra hit to Octopunch is still a pretty decent damage increase, especially over time; even a 10% boost adds up when you're fighting things for that long, and since my math is horrid I won't do any, but the additional hit is over 10% damage over time. I mean... I guess you might need to retreat to Buccaneer Blast sometimes if your health drops low, but I just don't see a use for Buccaneer Blast Hypers, at least on a personal level.

With that amount of health, you won't be able to tank through the later bosses safely. I think I have around 40k or so Health and I stand on most of them with a combination of decent Pirate's Revenge activation to mitigate some damage and Perseverance to heal through the rest, and I sometimes need to stop because Pirate's Revenge doesn't cooperate. Try and tank selectively if you can; bosses that don't deal much physical damage are prime candidates, as well as some bosses that have certain attacks which stun/seal on hit.

Energy charges pretty fast at bosses. The only time you really need to 'manage' it is if you're doing Dojo for time(And to be fair, your first mistake is trying to rank high on a Buccaneer); otherwise, you just hit things when you can, charge Power Unity up to its maximum stacks and then recast it when the buff is about to expire. If you're going to use tons of various potions(The Green Monster Park Extreme ones, for example, which I do NOT use), then it's probably best to rush instead of wait for Hypers, assuming the potions would expire mid-way through your run.

I'd mainly recommend saving Time Leap for Mu Gong. If you see it's going to take too long and you'd have a chance to let it reset, you can use it to reset a fudged Dice roll, but I prefer saving it for Hero's Will. I'd offer gear advice, but I personally don't use Nova gear; I'm an old Buccaneer, so I actually had an Empress set before my current Chaos Root Abyss one. As a result, I'm using Empress gear for my Shoes, Cape, Shoulder and Glove, although some of them are Epic with Strength, so I skipped Nova gear. I think Nova gear drops from Easy Magnus, and if EMS got the nerf that made him... well, actually easy, you can farm him on a daily basis without too much trouble(It takes me less than three minutes to solo him, and most of that is being knocked back).

One thing about range is that the more you increase it, the easier it is to increase in the future because the attack formula multiplies. This means that as you get more Attack, the bonus for your current and future Strength grows, and vice versa; expect to see somewhat higher returns as you upgrade your gear because of that, although it's still a slow process.

Reply July 21, 2015
Galbatore

Thank you so much for all the help and advice!

I mean, okay, it is true that that serves basically as a 'Dojo for Dummies' guide - but honestly, I don't think I'm far off that!

I hadn't really considered using Spiral Vortex to slay the weaker starting bosses, but it really should be obvious considering that that's almost always the optimal method of training if it's a one or even a two-shot, just because you can retain momentum while training. It's true that time savings are irrelevant though, I'm pretty sure I'll come dead last - and that's okay! Aside from that, I do know the basic formula to Dojo properly, but the main point of that is to save crucial seconds... not to make my overall time better, but to ensure I finish the most difficult bosses in time. Just about.

The most important thing you kept coming back to with level - yeah, that is an issue. After I first upgraded my equipments and started trying my hand at every boss this way and that, my friends had a real laugh over how I've put up with utterly tutt equips for over a month, and now I've actually got something good - I want more, more! Haha, I guess I'm just an impatient kind of guy. My Buccaneer is 162 with about 24k HP atm and I must admit that this is the highest level I've ever been with a character. I was a little skeptical about Hyper Skills looking from the outside in, but Stimulating Conversation and the Buccaneer Blast +1 hit have both been massive increases to my mob and boss DPS. I gather that learning to manage energy in conjunction with Power Unity is one of the biggest aspects of playing Buccaneer properly, so 170 will be the bare minimum for an attempt... but could be as high as 189 if I want to get Octopunch at top efficiency*.

I'm hoping I can sort this out in one great, glorious run. I can supply the MPE Red, Greens and Gold (if you can use all 3 of them at once!), use So Gong's buffs, and my friends might be able to help me out with Echo and/or a few Alchemy potions. No matter how long it takes: I'll wait in every standby phase until Time Leap comes off cooldown if really necessary! Turns out So Gong's are for 11-50 rather than 21-50 which stinks for me, but even getting So's gloves should let me complete it in future without expending so much effort.

200k buffed is a bit of relief, as it looks like it won't be quite as hard to reach as I first thought. I just did some basic Star Force upgrading today and that got me up to about 125k buffed, so I'm guessing if I can Star Force the rest and most of all get a decent shoulder, boots, glove and cape I'll be golden. Sounds a lot like I need to deal with the horrible grind for Nova gear in Heliseum (Tyrants are 400m ea roughly in DemethosEMS, which is a gargantuan amount of money for this server).

*Edit:
Just wanted to add that my planned Hyper build was gonna be
Octopunch - Reinforce and Boss Rush
Buccaneer Blast - Extra Strike and Reinforce

But I have no idea what to pick for the 5th! Is it Octopunch - Extra Strike, or is it something as left-field as Double Down - Saving Grace? I know I'm saying a ton of things, but an answer for that'd be greatly appreciated!

Reply July 21, 2015 - edited
Tricks122

I think I have around 200k buffed without using any sort of outside, long-lasting potions(Witch's Stew or Malady's Stew or whatever it's called, for example) and I can scrape by in 40 minutes or so(Take note, I lag a lot, which does hurt me while rebuffing). At some point I do burn time on Attack buffs from So Gong; if you're not going for a top time it's definitely a huge time saver for those that aren't funded and will be wasting a bit of time taking down the bosses(I'm not sure if they stack with other buff potions, so if it doesn't, don't use them if you bring better buffs). You can also, to my knowledge, use various Event buffs, boss buffs(Such as the one for defeating Horntail) and some party-buffs(For example, someone else's Echo of the Hero if you aren't 200) before you enter.

A few tips that you're probably already aware of:

Spiral Assault the lower level bosses if possible. Be as mobile as you can when doing so, although if you just want to finish, this isn't a huge help.

Remember to make sure you fight the bosses on the side with the portal! This saves a lot of time, especially if you just need to manually knock them back to the right; make sure you stand on the portal as well, since if you're cutting close on time, every second you get is vital.

Get some Status Resistance. This is great to resist dispels, which will eat up a lot of your time when you need to buff again; this is huge against certain bosses, who love to spam dispel. It also helps a lot to avoid Seduce at Mu Gong, which can unfortunately end a run if you get unlucky(Don't be afraid to Time Leap your Hero's Will if you happen to use it!).

Stand on bosses when you can! If you're not in danger of dying, just try to trigger Pirate's Revenge as much as possible; depending on your level and health, you may need to avoid doing this at the harder hitting bosses, but it definitely helps cut down your time if you can afford doing it. With enough health, Perseverance can make standing on bosses safer than exposing yourself to their attacks(Some of which also drain your time by stunning you).

Save your Hypers for a while, but don't be afraid to use them often. You can rest at certain stages to wait for them to cool-down; if you happen to be charged, you can cast Power Unity every so often to avoid losing the stacks. I wouldn't recommend waiting for Stimulating Conversion if you aren't able to maintain Power Unity with your current Energy level, but if you can, then it's not a bad thing to do if you need to squeeze out a bit more efficiency for a hard boss. Likewise, remember that if you aren't pressed for time and just want to complete the Dojo, you can save Stimulating Conversion for a boss that gives you trouble and needs to be dealt with quickly.

Lastly, if all else fails, try to level a bit more to get further Hypers, in particular those which buff your Octopunch. The boosts to them can be rather significant and make the difference in time that you need, as well as naturally increasing your range; improving your gear helps, but having more Hypers at your disposal, or more passive buffs to Octopunch, can be an absolute life-saver when you're just barely failing.

In any case, best of luck on your attempts!

Reply July 20, 2015 - edited