A Guardian's Stronghold: Misc Class Information and QA

[Vahrheit]

THIS is the skill build I'll be running for awakening (it's the build I use on Taiwan) since so far it has worked the best for me. To be honest I think paladins will be forcibly reset since our skill tree is completely changed (new SP requirements, skills in different places with different prerequisites, new max levels) and usually whenever that happens we get forcibly reset. I can't see any good way for them to migrate the skillbuild data without breaking everything so they'd be forced to reset it.

As for a build for pre-awakening that won't require reset, uhhhh... I mean you can go without the crus tree if you want but... not having smite is a pretty big hit (iframe and damage). The benefits from a more optimal awakening build outweigh the downsides of not having smite but without awakening it's kinda pointless.

Plus reset scrolls are 420g with Golden Goose discount. Selling some equipment and grinding an hour for a few days is enough to get you that, so save it up now and set it aside in your budget.

[Skiptrace]

Why do we get Conviction Aura if we have Dash now? Why not put that SP into Sliding Knee Kick for an extra hit option after a Dash? And why get Para Bolt when you could get 6 into Divine Combo to make it slightly better?

[SHENRON]

is passing shield charge awakening, aerial block, and conviction aura for sacred hammering, smite, crus ulti a bad idea? how does the awakening dps rotation work now?

[Vahrheit]

Answering both in one post cuz ez

Why do we get Conviction Aura if we have Dash now?

is passing ... conviction aura

Conviction aura is up to preference although I highly recommend it. For dungeons, most of your time is spent running from place to place (assuming you have sufficient damage). In raid, if you're focusing on tanking more than doing damage, the movement speed makes it considerably easier. Dash works well if you need to cover distance for a moderate or long period of time but won't help you reposition quickly in shorter ranges. Conviction aura extends the distance (not the duration) of your sliding step in all directions which makes dodging mechanics and repositioning considerably easier. You can also simply just walk out of many mechanics with conviction aura. For speedrunning raids, you can run to the next zone and drag your entire party there in a heartbeat. It's also useful for RDN boss 1 barmech.

Plus, it's just insanely fun going super fast. SANIC SPEED.

Why not put that SP into Sliding Knee Kick for an extra hit option after a Dash?

Because you'll only ever need shinbreaker which is shorter CD, an iframe, higher damage, and generates threat (which helps with aggro management).

And why get Para Bolt when you could get 6 into Divine Combo to make it slightly better?

Unless you're PvPing or an Awakened Crusader, Divine Combo is useless.
The reason why I take Para Bolt is for its utility at certain raid mechanics, such as Jasmine's barmech (the bombs can be parabolted) and Ice Dragon Phase 1 Punisher. Even though the duration is short, at 1 second, that's usually enough for you yourself or a party member to take over and take care of it. As a support you should be doing everything in your power to help the party succeed.

Is passing shield charge awakening, aerial block, ... for sacred hammering, smite, crus ulti a bad idea?

Shield charge awakening shortens and slows down shield charge to something similar to pre-93 shield charge, which brings back its pushing and dragging capabilities. If you've noticed the current shield charge tends to not drag/push things the whole way (which is really annoying at RDN boss 3). Damagewise its an ok increase, but I wouldn't use it for its DPS.

Aerial block is useful for when you mess up, that's about it. Almost all stomps are blockable which includes aerial block, so if you mistime and are too low (but still in the air) for a stomp, that's a 36% chance to save your butt.

Sacred hammering eats 10 SP and the damage has been roughly doubled but you shouldn't have the time or reason to be using it seeing as how the Guardian awakening DPS rotation is essentially seamless.

Smite makes a difficult pitch. If it weren't for the 16 SP sink required to just make it available, it'd be amazing to keep.

Crusader ulti lost its full duration iframe and now only iframes for 1.3 seconds at the start, although it gains a 50% damage reduction during the skill. The damage is pretty bad, the only reason why it was useful before was because it was an instant cast ~5 second iframe that dealt moderate ranged damage (about half a JC).

[ceruulean]

Imo If you're a pleb like me who only uses 1 tree for everything this is what I suggest:
https://dnskillsim.herokuapp.com/kdn...-0-00-----0--0

Compromises made to pvp: DA 6 to help with dungeon clearing and Provoke needs 4 minimum, 5 for convenience (can use duration increase plate) but as a result parabolt is only level 1. I don't mind because most people avoid parabolt like the plague and it's more for mind games but if lvl 16 hits the hold duration will give you a very good advantage

Compromises to pve: DA and DV won't do much dmg and your mana passives barely have any points. However a support guard uses bubbles for their teammates first instead on dps skills so I don't mind the loss in dps, and sliding step mp recovery plate will help. Lvl 1 ulti because you don't need the health boost anymore when u can self-heal and new class passives increase hp

overall compromises: no toughness which is useful for both game modes, conviction aura is debatable but I never used it except to tailtank or run with SoF. SoF becomes an active skill instead of a buff like it is now and with dash, speed isn't an issue anymore

[Vahrheit]

SEA has released the Cleric and Tink Awakening Patch Notes

My own notes are inline in bold

Guardian awakening skills

• Thrust Force (Active) : Binds enemies far away and can charge immediately. (Your main gapcloser now. Bind here is misleading, you toss a chain of light forward, and if it hits, you'll pull yourself to the target. There's no CC involved)
• Overwhelm (Active) : Pulls nearby enemies and deals damage. You can use additional attack based on the number (Consume 3 by left clicking) of Guardian Bubbles you have.
• [Awakened Passive] Guardian Force : Inflicts high paralysis and deals additional damage to nearby enemies. (AoE now inflicts high para, also throws 7 or so shards forward in a random pattern)
• [Awakened Passive] Armour Break : Enhanced to main skill and can be followed up with another attack. (Left click (if I recall correctly) during armor break to backhand afterwards)
• [Awakened Passive] Shield Charge : Movement speed is changed to suit melee battle and is enhanced to main skill. (Returns shield charge kinda back to pre-IDN speed and distance)
• [Awakened Passive] Stance of Faith : When opponent’s attack is parried accurately, own HP is recovered.

Paladin skill changes

• Sacred Hammering: Attack power ratio increased (PVE, PVP)
• Stance of Faith: Cooldown is changed to 30 seconds (PVE, PVP) (Stance of Faith EX drops this to 5 seconds. This is a pretty hard nerf to leveling up guards though)
• Stance of Faith: Skill specifications are changed (PVE, PVP)
• Stance of Faith: (Changed) Creates 1 Guardian Bubble when the skill is used and parries enemy’s attacks for a while. When parry is successful, you will attain an additional Guardian Bubble and holy power will be activated automatically to deal damage on nearby enemies.
  -Physical ATK 100% (PVE)
• Stance of Faith: (Changed) Creates 1 Guardian Bubble when the skill is used and parries enemy’s attacks for a while. When parry is successful, you will attain an additional Guardian Bubble and holy power will be activated automatically to deal damage on nearby enemies.
  -Physical ATK 10% (PVP)
• Stance of Faith: (Changed) Attain 2 extra Guardian Bubbles for successful parry at the right timing and attack area and attack power of automatically activated holy power will increase (This basically means if you stance right before you get hit (~0.5s window before EX), you'll gain extra bubbles and the damage it deals on hit is increased significantly)
  -Physical ATK 500% (PVE)
• Stance of Faith: (Changed) Attain 2 extra Guardian Bubbles for successful parry at the right timing and attack area and attack power of automatically activated holy power will increase
  -Physical ATK 50% (PVP)
• Stance of Faith: (Changed) After using the skill, additionally enter [Jump Key] to take [Defence Stance]. You cannot move during [Defence Stance] but you can block enemy’s attacks for a long time. However, 1 Guardian Bubble is used every n seconds and the stance is cancelled automatically when all the bubbles are used up. Parry an enemy’s attack or press [Jump Key] during [Defence Stance] to cancel the stance. (PVE, PVP)
• Aerial Block: Skill slot location is changed (PVE, PVP)
• Aerial Block: Pre-requisite skill is changed (PVE, PVP)
• Aerial Block: Pre-requisite Cleric SP points is changed (PVE, PVP)
• Aerial Block: Required character level is changed (PVE, PVP)
• Divine Ascension: Changed to Light Attribute type (PVE, PVP)
• Divine Ascension: Attack power increases (PVE)
• Armour Break: (Addition) Skill effect is added (PVE, PVP)
• Armour Break: Increases damage received by the target that has been hit.
• For 7 seconds, Physical/Magical Damage increases by 20% (PVE) (Worded badly, the debuffed target takes 20% more damage)
• Armour Break: Increases damage received by the target that has been hit.
• For 7 seconds, Physical/Magical Damage increases by 10% (PVP) (Worded badly, the debuffed target takes 10% more damage)
• Divine Vengeance: Changed to active skill (PVE, PVP) (Also loses its iframe if I recall correctly)
• Divine Vengeance: (Removed) Guardian Bubble condition for using the skill (PVE, PVP)
• Divine Vengeance: Changed to Light Attribute type (PVE, PVP)
• Divine Vengeance: (Addition) Slight delay is added at the beginning of the skill action (PVE, PVP)
• Divine Vengeance: Attack power is reduced (PVE)
• Divine Vengeance: Cooldown is increased to 15 seconds (PVE)
• Divine Vengeance: Cooldown is increased to 20 seconds (PVP)
• Iron Will: Skill slot location is changed (PVE, PVP)
• Iron Will: Pre-requisite skill is changed (PVE, PVP)
• Iron Will: Pre-requisite Cleric SP points is changed (PVE, PVP)
• Iron Will: Required character level is changed (PVE, PVP)
• Lightning Zap: Pre-requisite skill is changed (PVE, PVP)
• Divine Punishment: Cooldown is increased to 60 seconds (PVE, PVP)
• Divine Punishment: Buff duration is increased to 40 seconds (PVE)
• Divine Punishment: Buff duration is increased to 15 seconds (PVP)
• Shield Charge: Pushes targets away harder while charging (PVE, PVP)

Guardian skill changes

• Auto Block EX: Skill specifications are changed (PVE, PVP)
• Auto Block EX: Strength increases by 5% per Guardian Bubble (Up from 2%/bubble)
• Guardian Force: Guardian Bubble consumed when the skill is used is increased to 3 (PVE, PVP)
• Guardian Force: Attack power increases (PVE)
• Guardian Force: (Removed) Increase in Super Armour Defence (PVE, PVP)
• Stance of Faith EX: Skill specifications are changed (PVE, PVP)
• Stance of Faith EX: (Changed) Skill cooldown is changed to 5 seconds and duration for accurate defence increases. You can get 2 extra Guardian Bubbles for accurate defence and holy power deals damage 1 additional time. (250% Physical ATK)
• After using the skill, enter [Normal Attack] to use [Divine Ascension]. (PVE) (DA will only fire AFTER the parry duration ends. You cannot Stance and immediately DA)
• Stance of Faith EX: (Changed) Skill cooldown is changed to 5 seconds and duration for accurate defence increases. You can get 2 extra Guardian Bubbles for accurate defence and holy power deals damage 1 additional time. (25% Physical ATK)
• After using the skill, enter [Normal Attack] to use [Divine Ascension]. (PVP)
• Class Mastery: Pre-requisite skill is changed (PVE, PVP)
• Class Mastery: Skill specifications are changed (PVE, PVP)
• Class Mastery: (Changed) Attain 1 Guardian Bubble when [Divine Vengeance] hits enemies accurately. [Light Attribute] attack power increases by 15% and when [Divine Punishment] is active, max HP increases based on own VIT. Max HP increases by 50 for each VIT. (PVE) (Awkwardly worded. Passively gain 15% light attack at all times (even in town). CMI changes your HP/VIT scaling from 30 to 50, so add 20 HP for every VIT. This buff is unwipable - even if Divine Punishment gets wiped, the HP buff will not be).
• Class Mastery: (Changed) Attain 1 Guardian Bubble when [Divine Vengeance] hits enemies accurately. [Light Attribute] attack power increases by 10%. (PVP)
• Class Mastery II: Skill specifications are changed (PVE, PVP)
• Class Mastery II: (Changed) When [Divine Vengeance] attack is successful, [Justice Crash]’s cooldown is recovered by 3 seconds.
  -Own movement speed increases by 10%
• -Damage received decreases by 10% (PVE)
• Class Mastery II: (Changed) When [Divine Vengeance] attack is successful, [Justice Crash]’s cooldown is recovered by 3 seconds.
  -Own movement speed increases by 5%
  -Damage received decreases by 5% (PVP)

Also worth noting is that all bubbles in the game (guardian, destroyer, and machina) no longer grant super armor.

[Slabador]

I'm looking for a little insight on gearing a dps oriented guardian after the awakening. Decided to pick up my old guardian once the awakening come. What should I do for accessories (i currently have access to 3 piece rdn L acc but since i probably won't be funding rdn Ls on this char what would be a better alternative?)

For armors i assume IDN L armors with extra str would be the go-to for now, what about weapons/dragon gem set up/skill plates etc. Any and all insight would be appreciated.

Also if anyone already has an awakened skill build they'd like to share i'd appreciate it that too.

edit: just noticed vahr posted his skill build for awakening

[Vahrheit]

Accessories wise, the ideal set would be full set Genesis, but assuming you can't do that soon or don't already have them and are operating on a budget, I would start with a JC phys damage light attack tech ring and keep the 3 set RDNL accs. You could use IDNL accs too but the jump isn't too big. I'm a little confused as to how RDNL equipment has anything to do with the accs since they are different set bonuses.

For equipment, end goal is full set IDNL. If you currently have RDNLs, then you may need to hold off on actually using the IDNLs until you have enough pieces sufficiently enhanced to break even. If you don't, then you can probably slap them right on.

Defensive dragon gems are all +15 STR w/ VIT gems - I should note here that after awakening, guardian bubble scales off of the caster's HP. You'll have plenty of critdamage anyways with the buff to Autoblock EX. L-grade light gems everywhere else possible (both weaps + both rings).

For skill plates, I'll have to do testing after awakening, but probably at minimum JC cooldown and DA damage. We'll see if we still need the mana recovery plate and the 4th slot is up in the air.

I have a slightly tweaked skill build that I'm considering to get max HoG, since that's 90% VIT -> 110% VIT, which can be a fairly considerable HP increase under HoG so we can have even stronger god bubbles, for only sacrificing some damage off of DV which isn't really a DPS skill anyways (its used to generate a bubble as well as reduce the CD on JC).

[Slabador]

My statement about RDN L armors were due to me not having much FD making the FD from the RDN L accs. not as useful. Thanks for the speedy reply though!

[Vahrheit]

[Awakened] Bubble Testing Results

Me being me I rushed ahead, awakened, set up my build, adjusted my gear, and started testing to answer our biggest two questions:

Q: Does bubble still retain the SA effect?
A: YES, but only after awakening. Regular bubble does not.

Q: Whose HP does the bubble scale off of?
A: The caster/Guardian's

I don't have any videos right now (on laptop on vacation) but these phenomena are simple enough to test.

(Many thanks to Zerk for being my meatbag for these tests)

And there you have it. We received the same unintentional SA with awakened bubble that SEA did. It'll get bugfixed later on (its been fixed in the Asian servers that got the bug for a while now).

I'll be updating the first few posts in the thread as I go along to reflect awakenings.

EDIT: Just for funsies did a battle training thing, this is after killing the golem. I don't quite have my rotation down yet (I dropped it a few times, there were times when I JC->OW'd without the armor break debuff on (whoops) and there was also one time I thrust forced myself across the map somehow)


And yes! This update seems to have fixed our DPS meters. NO MORE SACRED HAMMERING/STANCE OF FAITH/REG/SP ATK TAKING ALL THE CREDIT

[Slabador]

would it be worth plating armor break for damage?

[ceruulean]

is it just me or is divine vengeance slower

[Vahrheit]

Yes, it is.

[Vahrheit]

Quoting this since this is fairly big. I've calculated out Guardian skill coefficients and posted the results in the third post of the thread. Armor Break is a pain but also surprising, with a whopping 9.3x board damage.

Skill Coefficients


A few notes:

• Hitcode just assigns a hit group (letter) and a hit number within that group. The hit group changes if some action is necessary for it to trigger (such as Overwhelm's left click) or are fundamentally different from the base skill (Divine Barrier's flying shards).
• Armor Break was tested with the debuff already applied (AB, step into CD refresh thingy, AB again). Armor Break is weird though, hence the highlighted 3.2% error for the 2-grace B1 hit. I can't for the life of me figure out why that is, and I've repeated it with the same results every time. It doesn't happen at 10 graces though!
• Armor Break's tooltip is such a lie. 9.3x board damage is not 3x 2x damage!
• Overwhelm calculates the left click damage after consuming the grace. Divine Ascension consumes the grace and then calculates damage.
• I can't be bothered sitting there for 40 seconds to count the number of ticks Divine Punishment does, but it seems to be 2 ticks per second so 80-82 ticks probably, so 6720% or 80.000 coefficient if you just stand on the target for all 40 seconds, which I'm pretty sure is the highest coefficient in the game but that's still less than one Armor Break.
• No skill plates were used in these tests. All skills are max level except for Divine Vengeance (level 6) and Justice Crash (level 12/+1 tech), which is fairly standard.

[Threshield]

I am pretty new to Guardian, wanted a non-DPS class. I wanted to know what the most efficient way to get the large health pool off of DP?

[Vahrheit]

Stacking large amounts of VIT and % HP will get you the biggest jump in HP under DP.

[Threshield]

Are there any buffs outside of HoG that give vitality, I have seen some inconsistencies with my hp increase but could never pat down why.

[Vahrheit]

There's Redemption Aura, which is a base cleric buff that increases your max HP. But the thing you're probably noticing is the order of casting: the DP/CM1 buff doesn't recalculate the amount it gives you after it is cast, so it will use the VIT you had when you cast it. Therefore, the order that you cast DP and HoG in matters - if you cast DP then HoG, you won't receive bonus HP for the VIT that HoG gives you, but if you cast HoG then DP, it'll use the VIT you have under HoG.

tl;dr cast DP after HoG if you want the maximum HP boost. I'll stick this info into the first post as well.

[Vahrheit]

Minor bump but also a question for people, what would you like to see added to this thread? I'm considering making a (nearly exhaustive) list of everything you can and can't block in nests/raids for one, but if there's anything else that people want to see added, do let me know.

[Vahrheit]

Hmmm. I like that idea. When I develop the tech for it (which may happen) I'll do that

[Vahrheit]

As of today's (3/16) Kali Awakening patch, Bubble has lost its SA effect. Rejoice!

[Psyt]

Is it safe to assume that you use light gems for the damage oriented gems and strength/vit gems for the armor gems? Rings, are you going for as much vit or str as possible, or going for phys rings?

[Vahrheit]

Light attack on all attack gems, STR/VIT on all defense gems. Generally speaking for rings its up to you - if you want to be super tanky then try to get rings that provide VIT/HP. If you want damage, run light attack techs (preferable) or STR/PDMG rings.

[Psyt]

Thanks for the quick reply!