✮Miki's Path to the Valkyrie Guide✮

[miki]

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

[miki]

Dance of Light
*Light Element
"Fire a magic sphere and command all nearby afterimages to attack. The magic sphere explodes on contact and reduces the enemy's elemental resistance, making them the target. It only hits one enemy"
-I'm going to mention this skill sooner so that there is less confusion regarding afterimages. Dance of Light is basically a skill used to trigger a homing effect on a single target with afterimages such as Lingering Swing EX, Twirl Trance EX(or Class Mastery III) and Twirl Trance EXi. After casting any of the 3 afterimage skills, Dance of Light will cause them to follow and explode upon contact with enemies that can cause very decent damage. Even though Dance of Light can only hit a single target, the explosive afterimages have a slight AoE effect. Also, keep in mind that afterimages will explode on contact with any obstacle within their paths. So if you are targeting Enemy A with Dance of Light and Enemy B is in the path of some of the afterimages that are homing toward Enemy A, they will explode on contact and deal damage to Enemy B instead of Enemy A. Dance of Light and afterimages are the Valkyrie's second largest burst and source of damage!



Lingering Swing EX
*Light Element
"Retreats one step back and swings the spear to shoot an afterimage"
-Lingering Swing can either be very weak, or quite strong. It's at its weakest when it is used without Stalwart Spirit. You can fire three afterimage blades with left-click to hit up to ten times on each of the three blades, allowing a total of 30 hits each. It's generally hard to pull off the full hits due to smaller/weird boss hitboxes and they only have a duration of 3 seconds. You can also right-click to fire an afterimage boomerang that returns back to you which is a bit weak. On the other hand, when used with the Stalwart Spirit buff, it can be nonstop spammed which steadily chips quite a bit of damage over time. Stalwart Spirit also transforms the right-click to shoot three boomerangs at once. The left-click blades can interact with Dance of Light. The right-click boomerangs can not.



Twirl Trance EX
*Light Element
"After spinning the spear quickly to accumulate magic on the weapon, the character swings the weapon in a big circle to shoot an afterimage forward"
-Another afterimage that works with Dance of Light! Although this is ranged, it is best used at point-blank because the initial slashes deal a large portion of the skill's total damage. Using it ranged is definitely an option but when you can, close-range is always better. There is also an EX instant version of it that is available through Circle of Spears and then there is the powerful Class Mastery III that should always be used instead of the regular EX whenever you can because the Class Mastery III version increases the damage by a whopping 80% with a third slash! It takes a bit of practice to wield since it has a longer cast but it also has +40% faster cast speed to accomodate that as well! The Class Mastery 3 version packs a punch and should never be ignored!



Circle of Spears
"Hit the ground with the spear to summon 8 magic spears that push nearby enemies away"
-Twirl Trance EXi's(Light Element) triggering skill. Left-clicking after using it causes 8 spears to spread in all directions. It's definitely best used up close, since the EXi will sometimes not trigger if Circle of Spears does not hit a target. I strongly recommend to max this skill since its cooldown dictates Twirl Trance EXi's cooldown. There is also an enhanced version of Circle of Spears that does not share cooldowns with normal Circle of Spears. It is called (Enhanced) Circle of Spears. Instead of a cooldown, it can be used when the Erratic Power counter reaches the maximum of 20. It causes the 8 magic spears to plant themselves in the ground and when you cast Dance of Light, it interacts with the marked target as afterimages and all 8 of them trace to the target just like other afterimages! Keep in mind that when you have 20 counters in Erratic Power you have a buff of 5% movement speed. However, once you cast (Enhanced) Circle of Spears the counter resets and the buff goes away. 5% movement speed doesn't really change anything so I never hesitate to let go of it~



Angelic Spear
"Swings the spear and shoots a giant magic spear with wings made of magic after-images"
-What a very unique skill~ Angelic Spear is a multi-purpose skill that interacts with both afterimages(via Dance of Light) and magic spears(via Flag Shine). There are a lot of ways that you can use this skill because of that, and even though it has a long startup it can actually do very wonderful damage! It has three segments to it as stated: the initial cast which does nonstop ticks at a slow-moving pace forward, the magic afterimage wings can be traced with Dance of Light for bonus damage while the magic spear portion interacts with Flag Shine. It takes some getting used to and it has a long cooldown of 35 seconds, but once you find its sweet spot, you will really grow to appreciate it!
*Hornet's touch cannot be used during this skill!

[miki]

Spear Reflect
"Right-click when you're being hit to push nearby enemies back"
-Okie lets face it, we all get hit sometimes so we may as well mitigate the damage if we can! Spear reflect may be a more optional skill, but I actually prefer to use it. Spear Reflect helps recover from staggers quicker and if push comes to shove, you can Hornet's Touch during a multi-hit attack during the animation to get away. This skill comes in handy for being aggressive as well since recovery time is reduced and it's a good way to save your power tumble also.



Double Somersault
*Light Element
"Quickly dashes to the front to deal damage on enemies"
-Double Somersault is both a utility and heavy-hitting damaging skill that can be used for all types of situations. It has two segments of the skill: the initial part with two bounces with a coefficient between each hit(two big hits, three small coefficients) and the awakening part that causes you to spin in place for a moment, before wheeling forward quickly. The awakened portion can be activated by holding left-click and the longer you hold it, the more damage per tick it does. The awakening ticks progressively increase in a range of 6%~10% of the initial skill's whole board damage per hit. In total, the skill can hit up to slightly more than three times the damage of the initial part if you successfully land all of the hits. If you cancel it early, you will slowly stop rolling which comes in handy for a bit more control in situations. Double Somersault can also be used in a lot of ways for its utility~ If you hold shift+forward while airborne, it can be initiated evasively(less control with aerial vs on the ground with this though). Double Somersault can chain out of jumps, Flag Salute and Piercing Spikes. It can not chain out of Flag Shine.
*Hornet's Touch can only be used after completing the second bounce and cannot be used during the awakening portion



Piercing Spikes EX
*Light Element
*I-Frame
*Hornet's touch cannot be used during this skill!
"Jumps and summons a magic spear from the air and throws it unto the ground. The magic spear stay stuck in the ground, dealing damage after it explodes in 8 seconds"
-Valkyrie has a lot of skills to use, but this is very easily her most famous skill! When you cast Piercing Spikes, you will jump up in the air and have a very brief moment to aim your spikes(toward the ground). When they are successfully thrown, they stay in a stationary spot for 8 seconds(timer starts after it lands) before they explode, dealing their full board damage. The jumping part of the skill is an i-frame that lasts about 0.2 seconds, so it must be timed almost perfectly(I wouldn't recommend to use it solely as an i-frame or at all if you're new to Valkyrie). The great thing about this skill is that it can be double-casted via CTC for a total of 4 spikes! (Note: What is CTC? Refer to the rotations section for more info!) They can be used separately or together and they both have i-frames at the beginning of casting them(if you jump and cast Piercing Spikes instead of casting from the ground, the i-frame duration is extended, if you follow the first Piercing Spikes with the CTC version. So the ground-casted i-frame is about three times shorter than the aerial-casted animation. I always try to jump before initiating Piercing Spikes). But wait, that's not all! Piercing Spikes can be detonated by three different skills which are Spear of Light EX, Vengeance from Above EX, and Flag Shine. When you detonate the Piercing Spike explosions with Spear of Light or Vengeance from Above, they explode for four times their full board damage- their explosion board damage increases from 100% to 400% each. Flag Shine detonates them for 3.5 times their full board damage, however it gives them a homing effect for moving bosses- their explosion damage is then increased at a slightly lower amount than the other deto's being 100% to 350% each.
Detonation Skills: Spear of Light, Vengeance from Above and Flag Shine
Optimal Detonation Skill: Vengeance from Above(Quicker Cast with Spear of Light)



Spear of Light EX
*Light Element
"Fire a spear of light that explodes when it hits an enemy, dealing damage to all nearby enemies and knocking down the enemy hit. Left-click during the attack to manually activate the explosion"
-This is personally one of my favorite skills! Casting this skill unleashes a little magic spear that can pierce through enemies. Casting the skill shoots a slow-moving missile spear that pierces enemies like a drill and deals multiple hits. Left-clicking, although weaker, also triggers the detonation of Piercing Spikes! It can also be exploded when casted, detonating for double board damage with Vengeance from Above or homed for triple its board damage with Flag Shine!
Detonation Skills: Vengeance from Above and Flag Shine
Optimal detonation skill: Vengeance from Above



Vengeance from Above EX
*Light Element
"Summons a heavenly spear to drill into the ground in front of you, drawing in nearby enemies. Release the summon spear to launch enemies"
-One of our strongest individual skills~ but its main purpose is to detonate Piercing Spikes. Vengeance from Above(or VfA) is a skill that I would never recommend casting outside of Piercing Spikes unless it's an assured finishing blow. It has a nice suction effect to draw in and clear large crowds of enemies also. VfA also has the ability to detonate Spear of Light(along with Piercing Spikes) and can be detonated with Flag Shine. The first and last ticks of the skill do the most damage, so it's ideal to be able to use the entire skill before you detonate it with Flag Shine.
Detonation Skills: Flag Shine

[miki]

Flag Shine
*Light Element
"Summon a family flag in front that deals damage and summon all nearby magic spears to fly to the flag's location to explode. The flag also explodes after some time and deals damage"
-This is our deto-everything skill. Also, it is Miki's favorite skill! :3 Flag Shine interacts with all four magic spears: Piercing Spike, Spear of Light, Vengeance from Above and Angelic Spear. When you use this skill, it will have a brief delay before a flag falls down on a location and causes all active magic spears to home in on an enemy that gets touched with the flag. Flag Shine can be used on both the ground and in the air. After using Piercing Spikes, you can immediately chain Flag Shine while you are airborne to detonate. You can also move in a direction while performing an aerial cast~
*Hornet's touch cannot be used during this skill!



Champagne
*Light Element
"Spins the spear in a high speed to deal a continuous damage on nearby enemies and accumulate magic energy on the spear. Afterwards, the accumulated energy is released to the front with an explosion and creates a magic wall around oneself that increases light attack and critical rate"
-Valkyrie's one and only ultimate skill. It's the last of the three "circle buffs" that can exist on the field alongside either of the others. It does very decent damage as a skill and increases your light damage by +25% and caps your critical rate for a short time period. The buff lasts 2 seconds outside of the circle and the circle lasts 15 seconds(can last up to 17 seconds). I would only advise using this with Piercing Spikes detonations to make the most out of your damage.



Class Mastery I
"Increases your magic damage by +30% for 2 seconds when a magic attack successfully hits"



Class Mastery II
"Causes Circle of Spears to trigger Twirl Trance EXi, Damage+5%"




Class Mastery III
"After using Criss Cross Cut, use Twirl Trance to increase the attack area, action speed and damage of wielding the spear and one more afterimage can be used again"
-This increases Criss Cross Cut's damage by 300% and the regular Twirl Trance's damage increase by 80%. It makes Twirl Trance a very strong skill!

[miki]

The best skill plate options for beginners:

Piercing Spike(Damage)
Spear of Light(Damage)
Twirl Trance(Damage)
Vengeance From Above(Cooldown)

The best skill plate options for aggressive/seasoned players:

Piercing Spike(Cooldown)
Spear of Light(Cooldown)
Twirl Trance(Cooldown)
Vengeance From Above(Cooldown)

Note: Plating VfA is currently bugged and the plates have no effect! Plates are subject to change once bugs are dealt with!

The more optional skill plates are:

Double Somersault(Damage)
Lingering Swing(Damage)
Circle of Spears(Cooldown)

The reason why I recommend CD plates for Piercing Spikes and Spear of Light is because VfA is doomed to a 20 second cooldown due to plate bugs, so we can make do with this by reducing PS/SoL cooldowns to 11 seconds, since they can interact with Flag Shine by themselves, and then line up well with VfA's CD every other magic spear detonation. I recommend a damage plate for Twirl Trance currently as it will benefit both EXi and CM3 Twirl Trance which is a really nice boost at the moment. Other options like Double Somersault or Lingering Swing for damage always feel good depending on your playstyle and Circle of Spears cooldown plate allows us to reset EXi more frequently, altho it may be a bit lackluster lately due to many other options. But it all comes down to preference for it anyway!

Light Elemental Class


Valkyrie starts off with a nice light passive of +25% from her Class Mastery II passive, so you will have a free 25% light to work with right away.

State Scaling

1 STR = 0.8 Physical ATK
1 INT = 1.0 Magical ATK
1 AGI = 0.25 Physical ATK

(+50% Int Passive = 1 INT = 1.5 Magical ATK)

1 Vit = 0.6 Physical Defence
1 Int = 0.2 Magical Defence

1 Agi = 6.5 Critical Chance
1 Int = 3.0 Critical Damage
1 Str = 3.0 Critical Damage


As you can see, Valkyrie is in the top bracket for stat scaling vs other classes. So you will see a larger growth in your dps through gear progression compared to most classes.

Here is how I would prioritize gearing:

1. First, gather a bit of magic damage by enhancing your gear a bit and getting accessories with int/mdmg. Wise Dragon Gems with Int/HP are highly recommended starting out vs the Int/Critical ones since you will need some HP while you get the hang of things! Make sure to tidy up your talismans and crests as well with your offensive ones being Mystical/Wise.

2. Find ways to improve your light damage percent. This can be done in several ways- you can get light gems with roughly 8% elemental each in your weapons and rings. You can also obtain titles from the lv90 ABN/Manticore nests(check your Achievements tab for more info!) for an easy 5% more. Finally, you can also get 2.5% light from two Shiny Star Fragment Rings for another quick 5% elemental damage. These quick, free methods should already put you at 67% light damage before you have to even start trying!

3. Increase your critical rate. Increasing your critical rate can be hard because it often conflicts with HP increases. Champagne helps a lot with this critical rate for our bursts every once in a while, but outside of that, it will be a big goal to stay consistent! Since HP is the main obstacle, you will have to find a balance for yourself with your Int/Hp and Int/Crit gems. Ask yourself questions like, "what kind of content and I attempting?" "should I have more HP for this content or am I comfortable enough to drop some HP for Crit?". Having higher critical rate will come naturally through gear progression, but survival always comes first. As the ancient saying goes: "dead dps is no dps!"

4. Gear up for the endgame content! Gearing is always a long journey, so knowing what to build along the way is very important so you don't slow down your progression by going back and replacing something. Usually, you want to get Int wherever you can including 2nd Int talismans. The only area that you would want to take Mdmg over Int is for your 3rd line crests. Mdmg will give a slightly larger gain but on the other hand, you will miss out on critical damage so if you are lower on critical damage and don't have a means to get some of the more expensive EC gear like hero costumes, then it might be better to go for Int instead to dual stack int and crit damage. Lastly, make sure to get as much Final Damage as you can! :^)

[miki]

This will probably be the most important section to follow if you want to play Valkyrie. Her rotations are very bursty with rather strict timing. A lot of mistakes can be made since there are lots of risky moments, but the rewards make it very worth it! Valkyrie's rotations include 3 very important parts: The Debuff Combo, Afterimages and Magic Spears.


The Debuff Combo is rather straightforward and never really changes. It's basically a smaller Afterimage combo with extra perks. It's only four skills but it is a very convenient combo with both the necessary debuffs while doing a bit of damage between. You will have to use it at point-blank for Circle of Spears to proc Twirl Trance EXi(but don't use it until after Forceful Bounce) then immediately use Forceful Bounce but cancel it early after the first hit applies the damage amp debuff with Twirl Trance EXi and finally follow it up with Dance of Light. Forceful Bounce cannot be canceled early by any other method so this trick really comes in handy for squeezing in DPS and debuffs faster! This combo is very staple and doesn't have any variations due to how Forceful Bounce works, but it can(and should) be included in bigger combos with Afterimages and Magic Spears.
Note: Since this rotation by itself is mostly used before magic spears, it is better to use it under Martial Spirit.




Afterimage Rotations

In the afterimage rotations you will see lots of Twirl Trance. This is because I consider Twirl Trance the strongest afterimage and should always be considered in every afterimage rotation. What you will not see is Lingering Swing. This is because Lingering Swing doesn't really fall under any real rotation besides using it with Angelic Spear, but Twirl Trance will always be a better option with anything than Lingering Swing, so I will not cover that as a recommended afterimage rotation but feel free to use Lingering Swing with Angelic Spear if you like~ Please be sure to go through each one so that you know the pros and cons for each one and which ones are for you!
Note: When Awakened Stalwart Spirit damage amp bug is fixed, you will want to use Option A or B with Stalwart Spirit, but Option C will still be better with Martial Spirit.




Option A: This is the most standard way to use Twirl Trance to its fullest potential. It emphasizes on maximizing its damage by using the debuff combo before anything and having an easy time to catch afterimages efficiently with a separate Dance of Light for each one. Since you are using Dance of Light for each afterimage, this option is a bit more flexible than the others, making it a bit more beginner-friendly. The tradeoff for this rotation is that you are sacrificing a bit of time for a slight bit of damage and safety since its a more passive way to use Twirl Trance than Option B or C. If you are a beginner or a more passive player, then I recommend this build the most. This option should be mostly comparable against Option B.

Option B: For more seasoned players, they might find this way to rotate Twirl Trance a bit more effective. Option B allows you to unify CMIII Twirl Trance and EXi Twirl Trance together in one Dance of Light. Since you are casting CMIII before using the debuff combo, you will sacrifice a little bit of damage on the casting part of it so that you can Dance of Light everything together and save a bit of time for more aggressive rotations. This option is a bit more risky since you only have one chance to Dance of Light everything! For aggressive players, I recommend using Option B instead of Option A, but Option C will be your main priority.

Option C: This is my favorite afterimage rotation... and the strongest! I like to start things off with this rotation because it does rather massive damage and applies both debuffs at the same time~ This is basically just the debuff combo, but with Angelic Spear in the mix~ You will start by casting Angelic Spear, follow it up with the debuff combo and cast Flag Shine immediately after- but please keep in mind that Angelic Spear has a long cast time and can't be canceled so you always want to be sure about things(especially stomps with Angelic Spear!!) before you use this combo. This is a very strict setup since the Angelic Spear tracing with Flag Shine is a big chunk of the damage, so using Flag Shine after everything as soon as possible is a really big deal! Angelic Spear has 35-second cooldown which is a rather long time, so after it goes on its cooldown and during the downtime between magic spear rotations, you will want to use either Option A or B, depending on what you prefer for yourself.





Magic Spear Rotations

Everything in magic spear rotations is centered around Spear of Light and Piercing Spikes. These 2 skills are our main initiators and the core of a lot of Valkyrie's damage. Since Valkyrie currently has bugs with Vengeance from Above, I will show some rotations for future reference after it is fixed or maybe if you still took awakened VfA for the fun of it, it will also help a bit!
Note: It will always be important to make sure to have used the Debuff Combo in one of the way above before you use any magic spear rotations! Magic Spears should always be used with Martial Spirit when you can.



Option A: This will be the main magic spear burst combo! You will gain the most bonus damage from detonating Piercing Spike and Spear of Light with Vengeance from Above.
Awakening notes: After that, you will want to use Flag Shine to detonate Vengeance from Above for its lovely detonation damage~ Another thing to note- since Awakened VfA has the option to detonate Spear of Light/Piercing Spike by holding forward(w) key, it can also not detonate them by not holding forward key. Having that option is actually a really important note, since bosses like to move a lot and sometimes it is just unpredictable. If the boss moves out of the way, cast Vengeance from Above without detonating the other magic spears instead so that you can save the detonation of everything with Flag Shine and still score the most possible damage whenever you lose your opportunity to detonate them in place for the most damage.

Option B: Angelic Spear plays a very important role in this rotation and this setup requires perfection. It is pretty much required to have a Shard of Will handy to make this work so I will assume you have one as I explain this. This option is actually very situational since it is very easy to mess up with a lot of very strict windows to detonate everything perfectly. Even though there is a great risk of getting hit, you can always recover your damage with a nicely timed and positioned Flag Shine by not detonating with VfA. If you want to use this combination for a DPS check or just want to be really aggressive in general, it is really important to use Angelic Spear immediately after Piercing Spike. Piercing Spike has a 1-second recovery and lasts 7 seconds once it plants in the ground. Angelic Spear takes about 2 seconds to cast and lasts 6 seconds after releasing it. This gives you roughly 4 seconds to cast Spear of Light and detonate everything with VfA. Immediately after that, you will detonate again with Flag Shine for Angelic Spear + VfA explosions. Immediately after Flag Shine, Dance of Light may be possible if Angelic Spear didn't hit a wall at that last possible second. Once again, I would like to say that this is the strongest burst that Valkyrie has, but it should be used with discretion since you can easily get hit and easily lose more damage than any other rotation if you get interrupted.

Option C: Sometimes, you might need a quicker finishing move or maybe VfA is on cooldown for some reason. Option C is your next best bet for magic spears if Option A & B aren't available for the moment.

Option D: This is a quick cast that is nice for instantly detoing things that are out of range of Flag Shine and you want to do damage very quickly. It requires a good aim with Piercing Spikes, but it is our fastest long-range attack.

Option E: This is a more classic way to detonate Piercing Spike. It's not really the best way to go about Magic Spears, but if you are being super aggressive and Spear of Light and Flag Shine are on cooldown, this is a viable option.

Option F: "F" for Fabulous! :3 This is a really fancy way to detonate Piercing Spike, because you can use Flag Shine immediately after casting them in the air for defensive measures! You can also move in different directions if you hold a direction as you cast Flag Shine. Moving during air casts can be nice for zoning or evasive maneuvering. This is especially handy if you are using Piercing Spikes and you see that the enemy will do a stomp, you can save yourself from doom by staying aerial a bit longer! This is also the fastest possible way to detonate Piercing Spike. Oh, and I guess you can use Flag Shine to detonate Piercing Spikes on the ground too. :^)

Option G: This option is kind of like the equal opposite of Option E. You don't normally really use Spear of Light and Flag Shine together like this, but it is another way to detonate magic spears if Piercing Spike and VfA are down for some reason in the moment.

[miki]

Valkyrie Awakening is here!! If you're late to the party he is a reminder of all the changes~












Here is my test gameplay of fully awakened Valkyrie from TDN before we got it here NA(with a little bit of lag):

--- 02/10/18 Update: Guide 93 Cap -> 95 Cap/Awakening ---
-Updated: Introduction, Skill Builds, SkillDescriptions, Crests, Gearing Sections & Guide Designs

---02/14/18 Awakening Bug Notice---

- Awakened VfA doesn't work with plates(no CD plate is big dps loss)
-Awakened VfAdetos for like 1/3 of what it should(may as well take VfA unawakened for now)
- Flag shine tends to bug sometimes(especially aerial)
- Spear of light bugs frequently
- Damage amp on stalwart spirit doesn't work, but still allows spammable lingering swing
- Erratic power counter doesn't work with awakened skills
- Double somersault doesn't proc class mastery 1 (+30%mdmg passive)

I have updated the skill builds in light of the bugs! :3
I'm sorry for any confusion or troubles this caused anyone...

Also added: Hornet's Touch Conditions key throughout skill descriptions!



---02/27/18 Rotations Section Update---

-Rotations section is fully updated with combos and explanations
-Updated crests to reflect beginners and seasoned players
-Replaced obnoxious new skill icons like Angelic Spear, Flag Shine & CMIII with better ones
-Updated skill build explanations a bit

[Hanakarasu]

A lovely guide, thx!

[miki]

A lovely guide, thx!

Thanks! I will scale the images better and include the rest when i have more time.

[Azunyan]

Can u post a screen shot of your skill build?

[miki]

My build is in the skill build section of the guide. Its the last one.

[miki]

pew pew !!

[Lamian]

Now I'm itching to play Valkyrie again...
A couple points:
I don't think Lingering Swing EX is that weak. It still does up to ~4.8k% with DoL (I think, though my tests are old so they could be wrong). Even if you don't go for any of the afterimage hits it still hits for ~2.3k%. By comparison Twirl Trance EX is 6k% with DoL on a much longer CD. It's slow, but so are a lot of Valkyrie skills. Even ignoring the damage it deals, when I was still a Valk I was using it to proc CM1 for that delicious 30% damage boost while I used Piercing Spikes.

Spear of Light's point-blank +100% bonus isn't from the EX. You can do 200% damage with the nonEX. The EX just adds another 30% of board damage, bumping it to 230%.

[miki]

Now I'm itching to play Valkyrie again...
A couple points:
I don't think Lingering Swing EX is that weak. It still does up to ~4.8k% with DoL (I think, though my tests are old so they could be wrong). Even if you don't go for any of the afterimage hits it still hits for ~2.3k%. By comparison Twirl Trance EX is 6k% with DoL on a much longer CD. It's slow, but so are a lot of Valkyrie skills. Even ignoring the damage it deals, when I was still a Valk I was using it to proc CM1 for that delicious 30% damage boost while I used Piercing Spikes.

Spear of Light's point-blank +100% bonus isn't from the EX. You can do 200% damage with the nonEX. The EX just adds another 30% of board damage, bumping it to 230%.

Hi lamian c: Yea after testing, I need to change some stuff in skill explanations, since some skills changed mechanically after revamp like spear of light. It used to give +100% bonus damage at point-blank before it became a detonator. This is why my guide is not finished, I wana be 100% certain on things. The reason why I say lingering swing is weak is because of how long it takes to cast and how clunky it is. If you see my gameplay, it doesn't really fit well in rotations to begin with. Since valkyrie is much better at close range, lingering is... awkward to use. Sp investments are much better in other skills that are more reliable and comfy and less clunky

Also, afterimages last very little time now and since I can not include lingering swing with twirl+exi anymore its even more not worth the sp, at least imo.

[milktoast22]

is it expensive to max crit on valkyrie?

[miki]

is it expensive to max crit on valkyrie?

Not atm, crit is pretty easy to get at least 70% for lencea, but once more 93 cap content comes out, we will have to focus more on crit or else our dmg will suffer greatly since it all happens at once. S: