Revision as of 23:10, 29 September 2014

Every soul is a good soul. But some are better than others at doing their job. This is an attempt at systematically classifying every combat soul, and contains some tips for proper optimization.

Army Magician

Pros:

• Extremely high raw damage output. (4th highest in game at 155% damage dealt)
• Excellent DoT damage
• High, Specialized Affinities
• Strong Skills
• Potent AoE

Cons:

• Poor HP
• Poor access to armor
• Low defenses
• Low accuracy
• Has no natural healing mechanism

Recommended Secondary Souls:

• Ninja (Strong hpbuffer passive)
• Medicine Souls (Allows equipping field medicines)
• Dark Knight (Heavy armor access + Vampiric passive)
• Pet Souls (Machine Priest, Golem Crafter for tanking pets)
• Windrunner (Niche item. Fine Tuned/Heavy/Guided short bow + attack and accuracy passive]]

Avoid:

• Cover souls (Fighter, Crusader)
• Fire souls (Lightning caller!!)

Building souls for Army Magician is very simple. Avoid high fire/air magic overlaps and focus on shoring up the extreme weaknesses of this DPS centric soul. Cover makes you take damage for allies. Avoid!!

Recommended Items:

• Flame of the Creator(Venomous/Creator Inspired/Heaviest = 83 base damage over 4 rounds)

• Parrying blade (Fine Tuned/Heavy/Guided/Large) = Much needed 20 defense + 10 accuracy buff that is cheap and fast! Stronger with Heavier / Heaviest usable with Light weapons affinity)

Recommended Dedications

Optimal:

• Sphinx (Damagebuff + Technical on the Answer)
• Phoenix (Healing + free Revive)
• Elementalist (Tank pet or Healing pet)

Ok:

• Elemental Dragon (Some resists)
• Siren (AoEguard in party to take less damage)
• Cerebrus (DoT attack + some resists)

Avoid:

• Kraken (AoEmod capped at +1 target. -damagebuff hurtful)
• Kirin (Cover)

Bard

Berserker

Cannoneer

Champion of light

Crusader

Dark Knight

Duelist

Pros:

• Great at fighting one or two enemies
• Variety of combat skills make for a versatile base
• High damage and high defenses stat
• Capable of heavy damage bursts
• Good proficiency selection
• Combat soul with some non-combat proficiencies

Cons:

• No inherent AoE attacks
• Defenses may be strong, but are very thin
• Very easy to burst through energy reserves
• Split focus means other souls are better at specializing
• No innate healing capabilities

Recommended Secondary Souls:

• Souls with strong AoE (Army Magician, Street Fighter, Mage Adept)
• Souls with complimentary styles (Samurai increases Defense and uses counter damage, Ninja's Smoke Grenade and Sudden Decoy complement high defenses and the HPBuffer helps compensate for low resist/low HP)
• Army Magician adds two strong AoE attacks and a passive +Damage power, as well as enough Fire and Air magic to allow the use of Thunderbolt, Flame of the Creators, and Guided.
• Monk and Street Fighter both add the Twirling Kick AoE attack, useful passive powers, and allow the use of high quality Moderate Weapons.

Avoid:

• Souls that duplicate proficiency or with conflicting styles.
• Crusader and Fighter rely on toughness and durability without complimenting Duelist's strengths like Samurai or Ninja
• Scholar and Dark Magician have AoE debuffs, but Duelist does not have the base capabilities to fully use them
• Windrunner, Rogue, and Shrouded Assassin all have positive benefits, but their heavy overlap limits their utility.

The Duelist Recommended Items:

• Parying Dagger - Thanks to Avoidance 3, the defense bonus from this item is increased by 45% - easily providing 60 or so defense for the Duelist.
• Swift Sword - Instant attack for high damage, although the bonus penetration from Duelist's combat skills doesn't add much.
• Martial Training - Even without Flurry, the Martial Training is an excellent option for a duelist's 'main' attack.

Recommended Dedications

Optimal:

• Spyguard - Thematically fun and provides a lot of bonuses to RP rolls
• Kraken - Duelist -needs- good equipment, and Kraken's Technical boosts it. Also, AoE Swift Swords.

Ok:

• Phoenix - Fiery Rebirth comes in handy
• 3D Magister - Duelist gets many fast attacks, so can reliably proc the abilities every turn; the energy drain will hurt though.

Avoid:

• Kirin - Damage shifted by cover uses the source's defense, and not yours. This will kill a duelist quickly
• Gryphon - The Duelist's innate attack powers are weak; it relies heavily on equipment.

Fighter

Monk

Priest

Windrunner

Pros:

• Decent damage dealer
• Light Weapons (No energy problems or cooldown issues)
• High Athletics (No energy issues)
• Strong at Repeats (2 attack, high accuracy, has 2 flurry. Has access to Guided)
• Fast cooldowns

Cons:

• Below average base damage potential (127%)
• Poor access to armor
• Low defenses
• Has no natural healing mechanism
• Weak soul powers

Recommended Secondary Souls:

• Ninja (Strong hpbuffer passive)
• Medicine Souls (Allows equipping field medicines)
• Dark Knight (Heavy armor access + Vampiric passive)
• Pet Souls (Machine Priest, Golem Crafter for tanking pets)
• Gunslinger (2 strong passives. Can afford to pay energy for Double Tap and can use quick draw)

Avoid:

• Light weapons classes (Large overlap in proficiencies)
• Cover souls (Crusader, Fighter)

Windrunner is a very specialized class. As a light weapons class, it never runs into cooldown issues. As of such, avoid picking classes that have many active skills to deal damage as they will not fit into a strong light weapons rotation. It has a niche role providing defense debuffs with guided longbow and hand crossbow that no other class can provide.

Recommended Items:

• Short Bow(Venomous/Creator Inspired/Heaviest = 83 base damage over 4 rounds)
• Short Bow(Fine Tuned/Crystal Sheened/Toughened/Heaviest) = Get statusboost, defense, damageresist and apply defensedebuff, energyresistdebuff, damageresist debuff to shred boss defenses!!
• Swift Sword (Guided/Heavier Optimized for Windrunners, it provides a lot of damage and buffing power)
• Guided Longbow (Heaviest/Fine Tuned One of the stronger defense debuffs around)

Recommended Dedications

Optimal:

• Sphinx (Damagebuff + Technical on the Answer)
• Phoenix (Healing + free Revive)
• Elementalist (Tank pet or Healing pet)
• Kraken (Free AoE proc chance + technical)
• 3d Magister (Can sustain heavy energy cost on toggle)
• Spyguard (Very potent repeat attack actually worth using)

Ok:

• Elemental Dragon (Some resists)
• Siren (AoEguard in party to take less damage)
• Cerebrus (some resists)

Avoid:

• Kirin (Cover)
• Basilisk (2 weak actives)

Winter Witch