This lovely art is by cattyning!
Hullo~ My IGN is Miki(formerly MikiKohaku) and I play Dragon Nest on North America server! I'm very passionate about Valkyrie and have mained it exclusively since it was released for us in 80 cap. This guide will help me give everyone all the info that they need for Valkyrie and some little personal tips that might not be very obvious. I hope that this guide will help a lot of people that are interested in this class and if there are any questions or feedback that you can give me to improve it please inform me!
Okie poke, so Valkyrie is the magical Lancer branch of Lencea with a light element. If you try her out, she will be very different leveling it up because Valkyrie's skills are very much based on their EX's and how they complement other skills so it will be very different and a bit more troublesome without theirEX's. Once you get to lv70~80, you will start feeling the effects of her EX skills so don't be afraid to take a few Dragoon skills while leveling along the way!
Valkyrie plays at a range, but also up close. She needs to alternate between mid/long-range gameplay and close-quarters to make the most of her skills. This requires a lot of positioning and zoning with careful planning since there are many different setups in the rotations. Instead of a reacting or spamming gameplay, Valkyrie gives a more tactical gameplay where you should think 2-4 steps ahead of enemies to land her very, very big bursts!
I don't recommend this class so much for beginners to the game, because of how complex it can be but with enough practice it will be a quite unique experience for everyone! I think everyone should give Valkyrie atry, because it's a very nice learning experience that you can use to branch out to other classes with a decent knowledge of mechanics.
Let's begin!
Essentials
This is a skeleton build with all the core skills for Valkyrie. It has all of the Magic Spears and Twirl Trance maxed, since they are our money-makers for doing damage and level 1 Forceful Bounce for the debuff. This build should give you about 38 SP to play with for whatever other skills that you prefer. From here, you have the option to put points into Lingering Swing for the awakening spam version. Double Somersault is always a very nice, strong skill to have between afterimages and magic spears. It might be a good idea to max your Flag Salute too since it's our main skill for i-framing. Finally, you have the option to take some Dragoon skills like Spinning Takedown or Twirling Chop for utility(but I don't personally recommend these since they don't benefit from our light element).
Personal Build
Here is my personal build for Valkyrie. I chose to max Double Somersault for the high damage pay-off even though it is harder to control than other options like Lingering Swing. I also went down the Dragoon tree for Twirling Chop because it allows me to i-frame during my close-quarter rotations while maintaining a little bit of dps. The reason why I let it be at lv6 is that I only care about the i-frame and its cooldown- besides that, the damage is not much to pay any mind to. Twirling Chop is a nice little filler to have from time to time for its damage. I left points out of Lingering Swing since my playstyle is not very passive and I try to focus on maximum risk-reward and strong rotations. I can't really suggest this build to everyone since it's for a bit more advanced gameplay, but I thought it would be a good idea to leave my build here for people that might be curious!
Here I will list the relevant skills for Valkyrie!
What do the colors mean?
Orange = Hornet Touch Conditions
Green = I-Frames
Cyan = Light
Violet = Afterimage Bursts
Purple = Piercing Spike Bursts
Forward Pierce
"Charge forward with great force, piercing enemies in your path"
-This is a really nice skill for closing in on enemies during rotations or getting to safe places quickly. It is also really handy for zoning and mobility! I think that Valkyrie benefits a lot from this skill, despite how simple it is!
Criss Cross Cut
"Slash right, then left, as you step forward. Ends with a downward thrust that knocks down enemies"
-Criss Cross Cut is a part of Valkyrie's Class Mastery III. Not to be confused with an actual skill for damage, it should be looked at as a skill for triggering [Enhanced] Twirl Trance. It must be at least level 6 for the effect which I consider mandatory for the massive damage increase that it gives to Twirl Trance!
Headbutt
"Right-click during High Kick to headbutt enemies"
-I think that this might beLencea's signature move since it is the most memorable one! Headbutt is super fun and is a good filler between skills in close-range rotations.
Hornet's Touch
*Pseudo I-Frame/Block
"Immediately take defense stance. While maintaining the stance, the character blocks attacks and dashes forward to launch a counter-attack"
-This is an extremely handy skill that can save your life! It acts like a Warrior's parry or Cleric's block, so you can still be afflicted with status effects if incoming attacks can cause burn/shock/poison/etc even when you successfully pull it off and block the initial damage. Keep in mind, this only works on one single hit, so if an enemy immediately follows up the blocked hit with another, it will break the stance and you will take damage. Every point in it reduces the cooldown by 1 second and at maximum level the cooldown is at 7 seconds rather than 18, so maxing it is a rather high priority for emergency moments. The timing on it can be tricky since the counter time frame only lasts about 0.5 seconds.
Harmonize
"Increase your own and your allies' attack and movement speeds"
-A free skill! It costs 0 points and is one of theLencea's greatest selling points in parties. It permanently increases everyone's attack and movement speeds by +15% in fields and instances. Make sure that you get this no matter what.
Erratic Power
"Maximizes battle abilities by pushing oneself to the limit."
This is a really incredible skill and very, very essential! It gives a +20% Final Damage buff and +10% movement/action speed that stacks on top of Harmonize for a grand total of +25%! The waythis skill works is pretty simple. Whenever a Piercer/Valkyrie tree skill is used(not base Lencea skills and excluding Martial/Stalwart Spirit/Flag Salute/Circle of Spears/Rushing Strike/Spear Reflect) you accumulate a Bubble Counter. It counts from 1 all the way up to 20 and when it reaches 20, you will go into a "Focus" state that increases movement speed by 5%. Also, when you reach 20 Bubble Counters, Circle of Spears will light up and it becomes [Enhanced] Circle of Spears which is an afterimage that interacts with Dance of Light. Once you use [Enhanced] Circle of Spears, you will lose Focus status and the 5% Movement Speed with it and the counter will reset to 0. The 5% movement speed from Focus status may sound nice, but really we will be using Circle of Spears off cooldown, so it's kind of redundant.
Martial Spirit
"Place a red circle on the field to increase your attack power"
-This is one of the three "circle buffs" that increases your attack by 10%. It doesn't seem like a lot but over time it really shows results in your DPS, especially with your burst setups. It shares cooldowns with Stalwart Spirit and only one of the two circle buffs can exist on the field at once. The circle lasts on the field for 10 seconds and the buff from it lasts 5 seconds(the buff can overall last 15 seconds with one cast).
Stalwart Spirit
"Blue circle is created recover your hp, reset fatigue and reduce damage taken"
-This is the second and most crucial circle buff for Valkyrie. This buff has four wonderful features. It gives 30% reduction to all incoming damage and 1% hp recovery/sec. The awakened version amplifies damage of Lingering Swing and Twirl Trance by 20%(10% more damage than with Martial Spirit) and also transforms Lingering Swing into a spammable version with a three boomerang right-click instead of just one. It really brings a lot to the table as a circle buff so it plays a big part in our rotations! As a tip, all the features from this circle buff comes from the buff itself except for the healing. In order to get healed, you have to be standing in the circle.
Flag Salute
*I-Frame
"Evades enemy attacks by climbing on top of the weapon"
-Flag Salute is a really neat skill! It can be placed on your skill bar or it can be casted by pressing spacebar during dash or after tumbling. It's an i-frame with 3 different variations with how it can be used. The first variation is simply casting the skill alone, which grants a small i-frame that last for about 0.3 seconds. The second variation is performing a left-click after casting it, which lets you slam down your spear for a quick attack(but be careful, this extension is not an i-frame!). The third and most common variation is the right-click after activation, which extends the i-frame by about another 0.3 seconds and flings you forward for mobility as well. The right-click's flinging distance can be controlled with your forward and backward keys.
*Hornet's Touch can only be used on the left-click when you slam the ground
Forceful Bounce
"Strike enemies in front, bouncing them into the air, then strike again for another bounce"
-A must for any Lencea. It increases all damage on the afflicted target(s) by +20%. Putting points in it is probably not a great idea since we only need it for the debuff and points are better spent elsewhere for sure.
*Hornet's Touch can only be used after completing the second bounce
Twirling Chop(aka Lolipop Chop!)
*I-Frame
"Spins and jumps in a high speed to slash enemies as the character advances forward and hits the ground to create shockwaves that launch enemies into the air."
-This is such a really cool skill that I personally love and have nostalgia for. It's not really necessary to have but it does have okay damage as a filler during downtime between bursts as well as a handy i-frame to come with it during the immediate start of the animation for about 0.3 seconds. If you put point in this skill, it reduces the cooldown by 0.5 seconds per level up.
*Hornet's Touch can only be used after completing the final hit
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