9Dragons Online

Author:Amethyst01

Hello, I am Amethyst01, also going by my alternate forum name JadeAngel07. I currently play the nuker character [Amethyst] on Asura server, which is currently Golden Blossoms 4 level. Previous characters that I have played include an EC 6 Warrior on Nirvana, an EC 4 warrior on Asura, and an SM 7 Hybrid on Nirvana (a long time ago)

This guide is a very focused guide, covering only the class of Nukers, and within that class, only covering Player vs Player gameplay. I will give all of the information I know about nukers, and put it in this guide, so that I hope that all players (even the ones I fight in Asura) can know how to build and play a good nuker character. I will include many illustrations and even a video at the end, because, as we all know, too much text gets people bored.

Nuker Basics:

First of all, I would like to say, one should not play a nuker character as their first character. Successful nukers are based very heavily on game knowledge, items obtained, and clean stat building. Mostly items. Having good items is very important for a nuker, much more so than playing any other role. But we all know that Nukers are the strongest class for Player vs Player in the game, and this is how you can become a strong nuker.

Tip: As for starting a nuker, for the maximum advantage, one should either:
- Make a Brotherhood of Thieves Nuker: They have the extra 50 defense buff, which is very useful. However, their shield recast animation is very slow.
- Make a Heavenly Demon Nuker: They recast shields very quickly, a great advantage in PvP.

For white clans, Shaolin is the best, because the Beggar shield recast animation takes almost 1 second, which is too slow in PvP. You can see this in the attached video, during the nuker fight, I casted my shield in half the time that my opponent did.

I personally made a Heavenly Demon (HD) nuker.

The Build:

Here are my base statistics at GB 4:



As you can see, my Strength is at the requirement to use FD relics, as is my Dexterity. I have 15 Constitution, which is more than enough, because I use the item mall Red Phoenix Trigram and Jade. If you do not use those items, then consider putting more points into CON from ESS. I have maxed Wisdom, and have put the rest of my stats into Essence. And I will continue putting 4 points into Essence every level until I max it at 250. A nuker's primary stat is Wisdom, and they must max it first.

Constitution is less useful for nukers than other roles, because it only adds 25 Hitpoints per point of CON, compared to 40 for Warriors. Consider adding Essence, as ESS increases Vital Energy by 35 per point, which is equivalent to 17.5 health using the VE shield. In addition, it improves Chi Kung Defense by 2, and Chi Kung Damage by 4 per point.

Tip: Red Phoenix Trigram and Jade, if you can afford it, are very very useful. It is like adding 52 CON and 24 ESS to a player.

As a nuker, the majority of enemies that you will face will attempt to attack you with Kung Fu (Physical) attacks. This means that the most important statistic a nuker should have is Defense. All warriors will attempt to attack you this way, 80% of the hybrids will attempt to attack you this way, and almost all healers will also. There is only one build, but two vastly different equipment sets for fighting against physical damage (Which I will call an AntiWarrior set), and an AntiNuker set, which is geared to fight against Chi Kung using opponents.

Anti-Warrior Set:
The main focus here is Defense. You must have decent defense to defeat warriors. Of secondary importance is dodge, which will cause warriors to miss.

Tip: Putting points into strength is always a waste. 1 full level for 12 defense, that isn't much. It's not worth it.

Since you shouldn't add strength, the main increases to defense comes from items and elixirs. Some items that are worthwhile to get for a nuker are:
- Wan Daye's Thunder Bracers: These GB WD have a set of very useful bonuses to a PvP nuker, which I will show you later.
- Blood Gold Trinket: Adds 200 Defense, which is big help.
- Various 60 defense and 50 defense Mansion/Wild Tower relics: These are like less superpowered versions of the 200 defense trinket, but still necessary to build defense. If you follow my build above, then the 60 defense +2% VE relics will be slightly better than the 60 defense 2% HP relics, as you will have more than twice as much VE as you have HP.
- Bad Karma Strength Relics: The RC one adds 54 Defense, FD adds 72, and EC adds 90.
- Wan Daye's Blue Jade Seal: Adds 30 defense, 20 Dodge, 15 CK defense, 15 CK Attack Rating, 175 VE and 125 HP. Not much needs to be said about the most essential and widely used relic in the game.
- Lightning Fist epithet: This adds lots of HP/VE, good movement speed, and 50 defense.

Defense Table:

For reference, I will take a max strength warrior with a +9 weapon attacking you with a 2 second smash.

500 Defense: 1500 damage
1000 Defense: 1200 damage
1500 Defense: 700 damage
2000 Defense: 400 damage
2500 Defense: 150 damage

A nuker should aim for at least 1000 defense in PvP gear. A better goal to aim for would be 1500 defense, though.

Without further ado, here is the set that I use to fight warriors in battle, with full buffs:



Here is the statistics that it will provide:



In this fully buffed and ready for battle example, my Strength has been boosted up to 127 from it's normal base of 12, helping me attain 1650+ defense, which is equal to that of some warriors. My dodge is over 600, so you can reasonably expect warriors to miss me about 1/3rd of the time, and that really helps. My WIS and ESS are high enough so that I don't miss warriors and non-Wisdom build hybrids, and that my damage is still high. My total health is about 4300+8600/2+600, which is 9200 total Life with shields. Of course, at Elemental Crown level, you would switch the RC relics with EC relics. I should also get another 60 def relic and switch out the RC Strength. (Thanks to rapbboy07)

My gear/statistics are just an example, you don't need to follow it completely, but this is a set that has proven to work in PvP against Floral Crown warriors, or multiple warriors.

Fighting against Warriors: If you are fighting against a warrior who is attacking you, maximum effectiveness is achieved through use of the 0.5 second cast nuke (Which you learn at Raising Light 10, and which I will call the "fast nuke" from now on".) If the warrior is attacking someone else, and nobody is attacking you, use the FD 1 2.0 second cast nuke (Which I will call the "Big nuke" or the "Bleed nuke".)

Anti-Nuker Set:

The main focus here is CK attack rating, with secondary focuses being the CK dodge and the CK defense. An increase in CK damage is useful, as well. Defense and Dodge are useless here. Only use this set when you are 100% sure that you will be fighting nukers, because if a warrior attacks you, this set will be defenseless against that. Otherwise, see the Balanced Set and General PvP gear below. Same format as the Anti Warrior Set:





With this set, I switched to Killer of Shen Mo epithet, to greatly increase CK attack rating, which increases the chance to hit other nukers. I also switched out the majority of my defense and strength relics for Essence and Wisdom ones, to increase CK defense, and CK attack rating and dodge. I used two characters to get the Gold Seal of Fire and Water at the same time as the Blue Jade Seal. I also had the Plate of Spiritual Rain relic, which adds +60 Chi Kung Attack Rating, but that is better used for hybrids, who have a harder time building CK AR, so I lent it to my friend.

If you look at my defense, you'll notice that this set is very vulnerable to physical attackers.

Balanced Set and General Player vs Player Situations:

In many PvP situations, there will be plenty of warriors around, but also one or two hard-hitting nukers or Wisdom-built hybrids that you don't want to be weak against. So you can balance out your build, but only adding the most effective of Anti-Warrior relics, and the most effective Anti Nuker Relics:





If you look here, my various CK ratings are more than sufficient to deal with Chi Kung users, while my Defense is still a respectable 1500 or so.

Note: About buffs, in most PvP situations, try to get them. Buffs, especially maxed buffs will help a nuker a lot in PvP, much more than it would help a similarly leveled warrior, because of the huge defense increase, and also the Health and VE increase.

The Nukes:

There are several useful nukes for PvP, and a pro nuker must know when and how to use each of them:

Bleed nuke - This is the highest damage nuke, with everything maxed, it should do around 1600 damage on a normal hit in PvP, so 2400 on a critical. It is very powerful, but also takes very long to cast. This long cast time can cause many problems; it can be disrupted, or warriors can land as many as 3 smashes before you can complete it and run away. Use this nuke when you aren't being attacked to output the highest damage per amount of time. Also, use this nuke against anyone using Chi Kung attacks against you. You can also use it when you are sure you can beat a player with it anyway, for humiliation points. Getting tanked by a nuker is fairly embarassing.

Fast nuke - This is a fast casting (half a second), but also powerful, nuke. It can do 1000 damage when maxed with max wisdom. This is the nuke of choice to use against someone who is attacking you, as it lets you trade attacks one for one. This is the most important nuke in PvP, and should be the most frequently used.

Trade Attacks - It means shooting a fast nuke, and while you are casting, your opponent can hit you once. Then you run a bit and shoot it again, letting the warrior hit you again. You hit the warrior with a nuke, and the warrior hits you once. If your nuke does 1000 damage, and the warrior only does 500 to you, and you have similar health, you will win the encounter. And nukers usually have more total health than a warrior of the same level.

Slow Nuke - This nuke slows down the opponent. It's not very useful, because of the low damage, and the time it takes to cast. It does around 600 damage to a player with everything maxed. Slow nuke, para nuke, and instant nuke do roughly the same around of damage.

Instant Nuke - This is actually pretty useful. This nuke casts...well, instantly. So, use it on a player who is running to instantly hit them for 600 damage, or 900 on a critical. Also, you can use it when you sense a player is near death to kill them instantly, without wasting the casting time of another nuke.

Para Nuke - This nuke is useless for most situations as the paralyze lasts for...less than a second. One potential use of this nuke, is to use it on someone who you see as started their finishing attack. It will disrupt their finishing attack, and prevent them from running up to you. Instead, it will stop them where they started, giving you the upper hand. It can be used to chase someone just like the instant nuke, except the range is shorter, and the casting time is slightly longer; the enemy will receive your damage instantly, but you take some time to recover from using the attack before you can walk again.

Speed:

This is a major topic among Nukers, and a very important topic to discuss in my guide, because I have a differing viewpoint than the majority of other nukers out there.

From experience, I believe that speed is not very important for a nuker. In fact, it is about as important for a nuker as it is for a warrior. Why? Because a good nuker will only use speed to run away, or to chase players. This is my general use PvP set:



My speed here is: 10 hat +10 wristband +10 relics +20 boots +5 epithet +2 Advanced Steps+ 20 Bracers.
That adds up to 77% movement speed. Using Wild Tower 4 pockets. Using 8 pockets like this makes a nuker much more durable and more powerful than one who uses only 6 pockets. And the strategy of "trading attacks" works about as well on 100% speed as with a nuker with 50% speed. It would take very low speed for a warrior to be able to hit you twice in a row, and a very very high speed to be able to kite a warrior without them touching you at all (I've tried with long distance and over 110% speed, it does not work). With around 70% speed, you should be able to outrun fighters that use up to 100% speed easily, provided you budget your HP well enough to run. They will only catch up with you once every 10 seconds or so after hitting you, and you will make it to wherever you're trying to run to, most of the time. However, if you are planning to fight enemies who you think will run, such as fighting low levels training, feel free to put on 3 pocket speed clothing.

So, the summary is that a good nuker should not attempt to go after "max speed", because it is really not all as useful as you might think.

Other Nuker Abilities in PvP:

Defense buff: Very useful, you must max this out before you intend to PvP.
Wisdom Buff: Useful and easy to max, it gives a good bonus in combat situations.
First Shield: This can absorb up to 600 damage, so, try to max this out also.
VE Shield: Very hard to train because it's instant recast, but it is the most useful shield in a nuker's arsenal, as it effectively converts VE to HP. Mine is only cheng 7, because I try to stay with legal methods to level it. (Advanced x4 manuals cost a lot)

Tip: Some things you should know about the VE shield, and shields in general. If the VE shield suffers hits but is not depleted, then recasting it will only reset the timer, not reset the damage absorbed. To reset the VE shield completely, it must be completely depleted. Also, all shields do not carry over into different areas, unlike buffs. This is confusing because the icons are still in the bufflist. For example, if you zone from BP to CC, and you have shields casted before zoning, the icons will be there, but the first hit that you take will go directly to your HP. The shields won't work.
GB 7 Shield: Just extra HP, pretty easy to keep maxed according to level. Good bonus HP for fighting.
1.0 Range nuke: Just for fun. I can beat some SM and GB warriors using that.
Damage Reflect buff: Useless in PvP.
12-15-18-21 Second Invincibility: This is fairly useful in some situations, but it only lasts for a 5th of the advertised time when you cast it in combat mode. IT lasts for the full duration if you cast it outside of combat mode, but then someone attacks you. Use this to negate a warrior's strongest smashes, or run from a group chasing you until you are out of combat mode, and then cast this. They will all proceed to attack you while your allies attack them. You cannot move or turn the camera while using this skill. It's good to buy time. If you see a warrior running towards you, use this before they get to you. They will waste a lot of time attacking you.

Weapons:

Well, bracers, obviously. What's different from warrior weapons is that Nukers must have Wan Daye weapons for PvP. It is essential that a good nuker use at least a SM WD bracer, or possibly a GB WD bracer if they have enough money. Refining is less useful on bracers than other weapons, because of the bracer's lower minimum damage, and also because of the small percentage of damage increase in comparison to the total nuke damage (up to 10000). However, if you want to eke out that little extra performance, go ahead.

SM WD bracers' only useful bonus is the speed increase by 25%. However, the 5 times as expensive GB WD has an array of bonuses, all indispensable tools in the trade of a top Nuker player. This is the weapon that I use for PvP, a GB WD refined to +6:



You can see the bonuses here. If you play a nuker character, look at how useful each individual bonus would be to you...And then add them all together on one weapon. But it's heck of expensive, going upwards of 80 million on Asura server for the requisite items.

Skill Bar/QuickSlot Setup:

Here are my 3 quickslots. The first one is the active one I use for PvP, the other two are supporting ones.



1. Bleed Nuke
2. Fast Nuke
3. Instant Nuke
4. Lightfoot
5. Para Nuke
6. Basic 600 Shield
7. VE Shield
8. Slow Nuke
9. Optional Item
10. Invincibility Buff



1. Bleed Nuke
2. Slow Nuke
3. Instant Nuke
4. Lightfoot
5. Basic Shield
6. VE Shield
7. Defense Buff
8. Wisdom Buff
9. Paralyze Nuke
10. External Wound Medicine



1. Meditation
2. Steps
3. Revealing Hand
4. OC 1 Nuke
5. 1.0 Range Nuke
6. Basic Demon Saber
7. Reflect Buff
8. VE Shield
9. VE Shield again
10. CC herbs

This is the random bar for having fun.

Fighting Situations:

In this section, I'll be talking about the various sticky situations that a nuker can get him/herself in, and...how to get out of them:

Against Paranuking Hybrid:

If a hybrid breaks away from the traditional physical combat and uses paralyze nuke against you, you have to make an evaluation. Is this person really a very high wisdom build? Or just a newbie? If there are no enemy warriors around, you can duel the wisdom build hybrid. If you know the hybrid does not put wisdom, you can either kill them for fun, and to prevent the 1/50th chance that you'll be paralyzed while fighting, or you can ignore them, and shoot other targets that are actually doing something.

Against Nuker and Warrior:

Aside from a very high wisdom build hybrid and warrior combinations, this one is the one hardest to fight as a nuker. I recommend using a balanced set. Since you will be getting hit from both people, choose to kill the one that you believe is faster to kill (In most cases, this is the warrior, unless the warrior has over 10000 HP) and then run away and meditate if you need to before fighting the other one. Nukers can do very high damage to other nukers, so it is not recommended to let a nuker shoot at you for too long.

Here's a list of what enemies you should attack, in order:

1. Strength build (normal) hybrids - You will kill these quickly, they have less HP than warriors, and are more effective to the other team.
2. Wisdom Build hybrids - These players are harder to kill for you, as you may miss a few shots, and also, you can let the warriors on your side handle these.
3. SM-GB Warriors - Kill these first, because the most common difference between these and EC-FC warriors is their lower HP. You can kill these fast.
4. EC-FC Warriors - Harder to kill, and do slightly more damage than the SM-GB ones. The only reason you kill warriors, is for your own protection. Warriors can only hurt nukers, not hybrids or other warriors.
5. Nukers - These take time to kill, around 10 shots to kill another nuker, at least. Usually let your warriors take care of these, but if this nuker is heavy defense built and devastating warriors, this target becomes priority number 1.

Dueling: (Updated 2/17/2008)

Dueling is the process that includes both opponents standing face to face, and completely ready to fight. It is always with the consent of both parties. Here are some techniques for winning duels:

Against a warrior: The best technique is to use fast nuke, run only until the cooldown is finished (about 5 to 10 feet), and then repeat. For optimal performance, you should never use any other nukes in such a duel, except for the paralyze nuke when you are anticipating that they will use their finishing. It disrupts a warrior's finishing attack and does not let them run up to you quickly. Put on your defense gear

Against a hybrid: Usually just like a warrior, but weaker. Same technique should be used as for warriors. If the hybrid is using paranuke on you, and is a Wisdom build hybrid, use the bleed nuke instead, continuously.

Against another nuker: Put on your anti nuker set to maximize Wisdom/Essence, and simply cast the bleed nuke repeatedly until it is over. Pay close attention to recasting shields, as letting another nuker do one hit to break your shield, and another one to your HP could kill you.

Miscellaneous Additional Tips:

- In a war situation, attack the hybrids first, to free up the warriors on your side. Enemy hybrids are just as easy to kill as enemy warriors, but pose a much greater threat to your team as a whole (Warriors pose a greater threat to you personally). Do not waste time attacking nukers during a war situation, let warriors handle it, unless that nuker is very strong against warriors.
- In a war situation, you will usually be attacked first, sometimes by multiple enemies, being a nuker. In that situation, simply run until the warriors give up chasing you and return to the fight. Then attack them while they are fighting others.
- Warriors can heal all of their life with Korean Ginseng, but you need a KG and an Ethereal Mushroom to do the same. It's harder to press two buttons in the middle of combat than just one.
- Before fighting, look at your total VE. Make sure that after how many times you intend to cast the VE shield, that you have at least 500 VE left for nuking and using the 600 damage basic shield. Getting hit out of VE during a fight is a newbie mistake, and will most times prove fatal. It is almost guaranteed to take you out of the fight for a while.
- Get into a habit of always keeping the shields on, to prevent being surprised. I personally think my bufflist feels empty without the two shield icons there during combat.
- A warrior's first two hits will be their hardest, because those are usually the big smashes. So don't panic yet, the rest of the hits will tickle compared to those two.
- Warriors who use SM WD weapons, especially FC warriors, are weak. You can easily beat them, as SM WD damage doesn't come close to that of a +9 FC weapon. The total damage done comes out to be about 2/3rds of the damage of a +9 FC, on a Wu-Tang.
- Sometimes nukes don't show damage, due to a bug in the display system. So after you nuke someone and it doesn't display anything, to find out your damage, just punch them afterwards.
- When a warrior uses a finishing attack, or a nuker charges up a bleed nuke at you, you can run in the opposite direction to get out of their range, which is entirely possible with 77% speed. It causes them to waste their attack.
- You should not the be first person to show up in a big fight. Let the warriors run ahead of you, so that they get attacked first. They can take the damage, you can't.
- A nuker should not attempt to actively PvP before FD level. Get the RL 10 and FD 1 nuke first, and if you want to participate in PvP early, just hope that warriors don't target you, because a FD warrior can easily kill an FD nuker.

A Quick Section on Training:

PvE isn't the main focus of this guide, but a quick section on the best places to train a nuker can't hurt.

Black Side:

OC - RC 1: Train at the Bears in Shi Zhang
RC to RC 7: Train at Twin Brutes in Shi Zhang
RC 7 to RL 2: Train at Iron Flowers in Shi Zhang
RL 2 - FD 1: Train at Toad Demons in Datong
FD 1 - SM 1: Train at the bridge south of Flying Letter Tower
SM 1 to GB 1: Train at Zombies
GB 1 to GB 12: Train at Deva Kings
GB 12 to EC 7: Go to NC and train at Silver Mansion

White Side:
OC 1 to FD 1: Same as black side
FD 1 to GB 1: Train at Zombies
GB 1 to EC 7: Train at Silver Mansion

Conqueror's Cave Alternates:
SM 1 to SM 12: Train at the Heavy Infantry Hallway. The first place you encounter them.
SM 12 to GB 6: Train at Shaolin pole safe spot.
EC and Beyond: Train at Bodyguards of General Wei.


Video:

This is a pretty good PvP video that I made a while ago. I was SM 11 at the time. It's a normal fight in BP, involving a lot of kills, with me dying near the end also. It is about 3 minutes long, and a bit fuzzy due to the severe compression that I used (600MB Fraps down to 30 MB):

http://files.filefront.com/NineDragons+2008+02+02+143mpg/;9634145;/fileinfo.html

It involves me killing one BoT warrior 3 times (he kept coming back), a WT warrior, and a Beggar Nuker who died from my bleed. In the end, I died to a combination of 3 Warriors, 1 Hybrid, and 1 Wis Build hybrid (-_-CTK-_-) who paralyzed me near the end.

Summary:

As the majority of the players you will be fighting will use physical attacks on you, Defense is the most important goal of a nuker. Not only the majority of players will be using physical attacks, the ones that do will be focusing on you, and targeting you first. One should change their gear according with the balance of the CK users to physical users that they expect to face.

About Me:

[Amethyst], GB 4 Nuker in Asura. You'll find me mostly in Bloody Plains fighting, I rarely fight in CC and the normal maps, because it's usually people training there. I've been playing this game for over a year now, in total. I have dueled almost every warrior in this server 1 on 1 before, and I can say that no FC or CS warriors have ever beaten me as a SM/GB nuker. The only people who I can't beat 1 on 1 are FC nukers, and -_-CTK-_-. Following my anti nuker set well, I can beat most EC nukers in Asura. Combat Record is as follows:



Also, for a fun thing, this is the maximum amount of wisdom I can get: (369)



Well, thank you for reading my guide, and I hope you'll learn something from it. I don't think it's complete yet, I'll update it when I have more time; there are lots of things that I want to say, but can't think of right at the moment. I'll also try to update it when/if I get to Elemental Crown. Feel free to leave comments that I could add here later.

[Source] Official Fourm