From what the simulators are showing us (tos.guru, for instance), Mergen’s skills can now be used with crossbows. If any of the kTest players can show it to us, it would be nice :).
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I’m still a bit confused about Hackas…
If you don’t want to weapon switch, your only options with Hacka are Pelta, Rodel and Templar. Templar is out of question unless you’re building a guild/PvP oriented char, so we’re left with Pelta and Rodel, which puts Hacka in a clear competition against Murmillos (since both tank-oriented builds would be picking Rodel + Pelta).
Also it looks nearly impossible to build a dps-focused Hacka without weapon flipping. Just taking Pelta already seriously gimps your damage (due to lack of STR) and classes like Barbarian or Highlander, which could be interesting for Hacka, can’t have half their skills used while on mount.
If we consider weapon flipping, Hoplite, Dragoon, Cata and Lancer are all very valid choices. Hoplite gets nice buffs for improving crit chance and crit damage, which contributes nicely with Hacka’s innately high DEX modifier. Cata has the highest STR modifier and Acrobatic Mount which would buff Hacka’s skills dmg. Dragoon & Lancer both also have high STR modifiers as well and interesting skills.
But of course we all know weapon flipping sucks, because you need to invest twice as much money just to keep two good weapons going for your specific build.
One thing really bothering me about Hackas is their high DEX, Hackapelle buff giving attack speed, but the lack of actual attack speed based skills in the class itself (or rather, the whole swordman tree). Having such high DEX without something like a Nak Muay (aspd skills with short cooldown) or Hoplite (crit buffs) in the build feels like a waste.
The skill simulator shows that you can use most skills on mount for Highlander. Barb and Doppel provide buffs.
I mentioned that in another thread where somebody else asked the same and I said Hacka, Highlander, Rodel as you get mounted skills and can even use a good shield to do damage with your Rodel skills if you want to. The image is kinda like a traditional knight on his stead with a shield.
Highlander includes Crown, Mullinet. Skyliner and the first skill. Looks pretty good, you only loose the Cross Guard (only 2-hand anyway), a Cartar Stroke (has casttime anyway) and Cross Cut. Mullinet and Skyliner both have “Atk speed based” so can be used fast if you got the speed. Also no skillpoint seems to be wasted as you can use all you max all while the skills are cheap for their damage.
Well Barb provies War Cry which buffs damage and reduces defense with 10 targets and Frenzy.
Rodel gives you defensive shield skills for a mount.
In the end I am glad you don’t get perfect laser focused builds anymore and will have to take a bit of penalty if you want something specific.
I at least will try to try the combination I mentioned above as the image and flavor looks good. =)
Being on a mount with the defensive combinations could be great for PvP in my opinion as “pure con” stacking will be gone and speed with some defense can be important.
Feels very wasteful to pick Highlander or Barb and not be able to use their best skills because they aren’t available while mounted.
Seism is a great skill for Barbarians, with more skill factor and AoE atk ratio than most Hacka skills, it also has a pretty decent AoE size. Cleave deals an incredibly high amount of dmg at max level if enemy is stunned (1322% factor), and it also increases further damage against that target by 20%. Sure Warcry and Frenzy are pretty interesting now, but imo it’s not worth it losing half your good skills just because you want to throw in a mounted class in your build.
The same goes for Highlander. Cartar stroke has 916% skill factor at max lvl, dealing extra dmg to knocked enemies and has an insane AoE atk ratio of +16. Losing crosscut, means you lose the +70% damage modifier from bleeding on Skyliner. That’s a huge loss, Skyliner deals 440% without bleeding and 748% with it at max lv. You can try to compensate the bleeding with Rajapearl cards, but it’s not the same thing as Crosscut bleed chance is 100%.
Sure you can pick these classes, but your build would be much better by giving up Hacka and picking something non-mounted…
I try to work with the things we have available. If you are dead set on playing Hacka then these are some of the best options. The options would be bigger if they open up some skills or classes to mounted combat.
For the things we currently can pick I would surely pick Highlander for skills and stats and then probably Rodel, even if it is not optimal or “Best in Slot” it looks interestingly enough.
In general Hacka is a weird class to begin with. As said in the other thread, moving it to the Scout tree would help it but then you need to find a different class to move somewhere else or create a new class. Maybe they are gonna do that, there certainly are enough inspirations.
Another problem is Hacka using a shield while most other mounted classes in Sword are 2-hand spear or 1-hand spear, which makes them useless for Hacka’s Sword + Shield combat and skills. =/
While I get it, I hope we get away from this optimizing and looking down on builds that aren’t perfect. Not that you are doing this, but if everything is not optimal anymore then it hopefully gets closer together a bit.
In the end I just try to make it work somehow even if not most efficient (at least it has flavor). Dx
Could you say that you exchange the mounted combat and defense for some damage in this case?
You can’t use the skills in the optimal way and some are not available but you are fast and durable on your mount.
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Rodel doesn’t look bad to go together with Hacka. You can use all of the skills except Targe Smash. Shield Push looks rebuilt to now decrease enemy’s defenses as well.
For me I’m probably picking Pelta -> Rodel -> Hacka… Loses a lot of dmg by picking Pelta, but at least gives me really nice survivability. It’s really a tanker build, not a dps tho. I’m not making a dps build with hacka cause I feel the lack of class synergy would gimp the dps too much and be quite non-optimized.
The thing bothering me the most is that Pelta -> Rodel -> Murmi can completely depend on shield only, by using the attribute to exhange your wep dmg with shield damage, while picking a Hacka instead of Murmi means i’ll need both a great weapon and a great shield…
I can see Corsair - any Gun Scout being a nice combo, with the Flag’s missile buff now.
Cor-BM-Outlaw maybe.
While they were at it, they should have made the flag usable while mounted, alongside Pistol Shot so Reiter can use them both too.
Does DWA buff gun autos further, or does it require you to alternate main-offhand to get the DWA aa damage boost?
I’m looking forward to trying Bokor-Necro- FF or Shadow. Can’t decide between the two…
Will be posting my “new” builds aka old builds but on ktest version 
Male Cleric: Cleric>Kaba>Priest>Oracle nothing changes other than some skills been added and others removed…
Female Cleric: Cleric> Sadhu > Zealot > Diev Only change is Plague Doctor been replaced by Zealot… I think Zealot could match my character better…
Since Quick Cast was moved to Chrono, does that mean that Elementalists/Onmyoji would need Chronomancer for Quick Cast since they still have charging skills?
If you absolutely have to cast fast. Though with cooldowns generally being more spaced out and having other class options that don’t have cast times I don’t think Quick Cast will be too important.
I’m under the impression that they want chrono to be a pvp class, which kind of explains the new skill and the removal of haste.
The Rod Passive of Wizard (base class) was changed to 30% reduced cast-time (was 10% at start of test). Its less than QC but it makes Elementalist usable (didnt try Onmy after that patch, could be enough)
What’s the point of using a Staff as a Wizard now if the Rod gives 30% reduced casting time and the Shield gives you an insane amount of PDEF? Can someone confirm that you still get a large amount of extra MATK when using a staff?
Note: my r10 cryo/ele was wiz2 at r9 and I was able to play perfectly fine without Quick Cast, so it’s probably just for comfort than rally required to play Ele. And I’m sure the new items will come with casting time reduction effect…
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Velcoffer Rod +0 T10 8,736 matk
Velcoffer Staff +0 T10 10,482 matk
With full lv8 blue gems (including sub), you’d have around 1.2-1.4k difference in matk.
I would go for Highlander because I like the class and Rodelero, even if it is not optimal and I am missing something.
Rodel, Pelta and Murmillo are for a tank in my opinion.
@WhiteDwarf
Isn’t the different bigger in the end as Staff has more sockets? I am not sure if Shield sockets still give Matk or if it was defense. =x
That sounds good I guess. I feel that it would be such a waste to go for Chrono just for 1 skill. This is because I’m thinking of going Wiz-Ele-Rune-Onmy as a full elemental class. Not sure if it would have too many skills to cast but then again most skills lost their overheat so hopefully it is viable. Also, maybe Rune and Onmyo can benefit from the elementalist buff
I read somewhere that we can switch trans weapons or swap them with something else? If thats the case then I suppose the loss in MATK could be well compensated by increase in cast speed and also increase in def from shield
Blue Gems on sub will give matk
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Squire is a Scout class now so your Swordman is a no go.
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so was shinobi 
most of my characters build will change and some might lose their identity like my male swordsman…
Yes and that is nice.
Rod 3 Gems + Shield 3 Gems
Staff 5 Gems
The irony that so many are now wanting to run Rod and Shield, when before so many ran staff. =D
If they now only make Rod more viable for summons… . =x