Hello everybody once again this is AikawaKazu.
Before we start, if you’re new to Dragon Nest PVP, make sure you read everything presented in this guide.
This guide will provide you with the basic and fundamental knowledge that you must know if you want to take Dragon Nest PVP seriously and to the next level.
Here’s a summary of what we will be touching on (it will be plenty, so make sure you grab a cup of coffee etc, and be prepared for a long long read):
- Introduction to Dragon Nest PVP
- Basic Key Mechanisms – Passive Defensive Skills, Hit-States, Super Armour, Invincibility Frames
- Basic Metagame – Bait-Catch-ReCatch Cycle, Playstyles etc.
- Current Area of Frustrations – Latency Issues, Latency Compensation & De-Sync, Overall Balancing, Bugs
To put it simply, imagine Dragon Nest PVP as Street Fighter in 3D. That would probably be the best way to describe it except that it is as complicated if not more complicated than Street Fighter due to the 3D environment.
Dragon Nest is an MO Action Role Playing Game!
What’s the relevance of “action” in this instance? Imagine Devil May Cry action packed combat but now in a PVP Setting.
In Dragon Nest unlike many other generic MMOs, you have a crosshair at the central of your screen.
This means that you need to aim your skills in the general direction of where you want them to land.
That’s not enough, for the most part, you need to continuously aim your successively and chain them together into what we call “combos”.
In the MMO realms, games with a nature of aim in them is called “non-targeting”. There is not tab targeting or click targeting in Dragon Nest.
Rest assured you do not need to possess excellent aim needed in FPS games like COD or CS (though for some classes its arguably required), but a general sense of aim and direction will definitely be required.
However unlike some non-targeting MMOs out there currently, none of them (as far as I known), have that sense of control as close to what Dragon Nest can give you.
Dragon Nest gives you almost full-control of your character most of the time.
Most MMOs currently with non-targeting features have too many animation lock skills. What this means is that you can’t change the direction of where you want a skill to land once you have used it.
Imagine a skill called “triple slash” in other action MMOs where casting the “first” slash will determine where the 2nd and 3rd slash will land i.e animation locked.
In Dragon Nest however, you are able to (for the most part) change the direction of a skill during the process of casting (Move diagonally while leaping forward etc.).
Skill “Triple Slash” where you can change the direction of each individual slash
With the ability to control your character to such a degree also meant that one can be extremely skillful when fighting against another opponent.
As such the game has also given the ability for you to be able to deal with incoming attacks that you will be facing with the control given.
With this we move on to the key mechanisms that is present in Dragon Nest.
These key mechanisms contribute to the reason why Dragon Nest PVP has such a high learning curve and the reason for this guide.
Key Mechanisms
There are 4 Key Mechanisms you must know before you can proudly say that you have understood the basics of Dragon Nest PVP
- Hit-States
- Passive Defensive Skills
- Super Armour – Both Destruction/Break & Defense
- Invincibility Frames (I-frames for short)
There are 7 Basic Hit States in Dragon Nest:
- Light Impact
- Medium Impact
- Flinch/Stagger
- Knock-Back
- Knock Down
- Lift
- Stun
When you are in a Light Impact Status, there’s an extremely short duration (almost insignificant) where you cannot use any skills or attacks. (Your character look like they are paralyzed for a short split second)
Some Passive Defensive Skills (which will talk about later), can be activated while you’re in a light impact status.
There are certain skills in the game that can inflict light impact status repeatedly which will render you unable to cast skills or attacks for the entire duration you are caught in those skills
So one hit of light impact attack is fine but multiple light impact attacks on you cast repeatedly is dangerous as you can be caught by other attacks while you are caught.
Medium Impact
Skill “Eclipse” gives a medium impact hit-state that lasts slightly longer than light impact to connect with “Impact Punch”
Medium Impact lasts slightly longer compared to small impact hit state.
Medium impact hit states are usually used to create openings to chain with skills that give a flinch/stagger or lift hit state.
It is more important to know which skills that your class has that can achieve this hit-state.
Knowing what other classes’ skills that achieve this hit-state is also important so you can avoid getting caught by the follow-up skills that come along.
Because of the danger of follow-up skills that medium impact hit states can be set up with, you can also use such skills to bait passive defensive skills from your opponents in order to catch them later on.
Flinch/Stagger
One of the most important hit-states in Dragon Nest that you must know in order to PVP effectively.
When you are caught in a flinch/stagger hit-state, you will be unable to cast any active skills (except for some special ones like “Relieve”) during the entire duration.
The duration where you are rendered vulnerable is significantly longer compared to light or medium impact hit states.
There are certain passive defensive skills in Dragon Nest that can only be used in a light/medium/stagger/flinch hit state but not all classes possess such passive defensive skills.
Similarly, if you are able to land a skill that achieves a stagger/flinch hit-state on your opponent, it will create the opening for you to connect other skills and chain them into a combo.
This is especially important after you have exhausted all the passive defensive skills of your opponent as they would be helpless once they are caught in a flinch/stagger hit-state.
Knock-Back
Knock-back hit state is one of the most unique hit-state in Dragon Nest.
The reason behind it is because you are not able to use some skills (both active and passive defensive skills) when you are in a knock-back hit state. (Skills like Relieve, Fake-Log, Power Blink can still work but most passive defensive skills like urgency trick will not be able to work)
The duration in which you are vulnerable is slightly longer than a flinch/stagger hit-state which allows various classes to set up for certain attack combination plays with knock-back hit-state skills.
Used both offensively and defensively, Knock-back hit state is extremely useful in PVP.
It is also important to note that using a knock-back skill on a target relatively close to the wall can also achieve a wall-bounce which re-lifts the target for you to continue your combos.
Note that some casting animation for skills are longer than the knock-back hit state duration which is why classes that possess skills that can further slow their opponents down are usually the classes that can make use of knock-back hit state.
When a target is slowed down, the knock-back hit-state is lengthened (animation is longer with slowed character) allowing you to connect them with skills that have longer casting animations (usually high damage).
Knock Down
There’s 2 ways to achieve a knock-down hit state.
One of which is a build up from flinch/stagger into knockdown.
The other is the hit-state of a target after it has landed fully on the ground
Not all skills can hit knocked down targets.
However, there’s a split second before a target has fully landed to the ground to achieve a knockdown status.
Skills can still connect in that split second.
Lift
Lift hit-state is one of the most if not most important hit-state in Dragon Nest PVP.
It is fundamental for the connecting of skills and prolonging combos to increase damage done to your opponent.
Every class has limited lifting skills so make sure you use them wisely.
Most lifting skills can hit knocked down targets while some cannot.
Even though the lifting skill can hit the knocked down target, it doesn’t mean that the target will lift.
“Impact punch fails to lift a fully knocked down target”
In such situations where a target is fully knocked down, targets can be induced to a pre-knocked down status (bounce) where a lifting skill will then be able to successfully lift it.
Stun
Stun hit-state is usually achieved via specific skills from classes that can induce a stun effect.
There are skills that have 100% stun rate however a stun hit-state can only be achieved on targets that have their super armour broken.
More information about super armour will be mentioned later in the guide, but just take note that you cannot stun targets whose super armour you didn’t break with the stun hit state inducing skill.
You can also achieve a stun hit state at random from skills which is an extremely rare occurrence but may still happen.
Take note that a knocked down target can be stunned as well. When this happens the knocked down target will be “forced” to stand up and be in a stun hit-state.
Targets will stay in a stunned state for exactly 3 seconds before they fall to the ground.
Once their super-armor is broken, their stun state will be removed immediately.
This is why you see veteran players “poke” 2-3 normal attacks on a stun hit-state target before they use another skill to maximize the damage done during the stun hit state duration.
With that we move on to the next segment of the guide but before that …
Understanding hit-states are extremely important due to the next section as certain passive defensive skills can only be used when you are in a hit-state mentioned here.
Passive Defensive Skills
Passive skills are skills that are yellow based in your skill tree while Active Skills are blue based in your skill tree.
Passive defensive skills refer to passive skills that can mostly be used in unique circumstances or situations aside from the basic dodging passive skill that all classes possess.
The most important thing about Passive Defensive skills is that they grant you a momentary “invincible state” where you can’t be hit or receive damage which is why you can actually “dodge” skills and attacks in Dragon Nest.
This is known as “Invincibility Frames” or I-frames in short which we will also touch on in-depth further in this guide.
Currently there are 7 Basic Class (Total of 28 2nd Specialization Classes) in Dragon Nest.
Every basic class has a basic dodging skill though some might differ visually from others.
Tumble/Blink/Dodge are passive defensive skills that all classes possess which can activated in 2 ways – Double tap of a specific movement key or Shift + Directional Key.
In PVP using Shift + Directional Key is recommended as the time taken to double tap a key will be slightly slower and you have greater control with Shift + Directional Key instead of double tapping.
A timely dodge is crucial to avoid skills and attacks from your opponent and that split second will make all the difference.
Another Passive defensive skill that is common across all classes is called “Aerial Evasion” or AE in short.
This skill can only be used when your character is in a lift hit state via the “space-bar”
Press “Space-Bar” to initiate “Aerial Evasion” shown by the green bubble which allows you recover from a lift hit-state
Aside from these 2 common Passive Defensive Skills, every class will have at least one more Passive defensive skill that can only be activated in unique situations.
These passive defensive skills can only be used when you are in a specific “Hit-State” though mostly in Lift or Light/Medium/Flinch/Stagger Hit States.
“Power Blink” a Passive Defensive Skill from Sorceress class that allows you an additional blink aside from your basic dodge (blink)
“Flash Grenade” a Passive Defensive Skill from Engineer Class that allows you to have a chance to stun your opponent when under flinch/stagger hit-state
Make sure you find out which passive skill behaves in this manner for the class that you play!
Passive Defensive skills are commonly used when you are caught in sticky situations where you want to avoid getting caught in a “combo” by your opponent.
They are mostly used in situations where you want to avoid taking significant damage from your opponent.
For example, you want to save your Aerial Evasion for skills that hit you hard at the right moment instead of wasting it by using it when you are caught by basic attacks that deal low damage.
Most Passive Defensive skills aside from your basic dodging skill also have relatively long cooldown which means you cannot use them as and when you want.
In advanced levels of PVP, there are key timings for when you use Passive Defensive Skills for certain skills to avoid the main damage from those skills which you can learn progressively via watching videos.
In summary all classes have 2 Basic Passive Defensive Skills that have I-frames (Aerial Evasion and Dodge), and some will have one if not 2 or more passive defensive skills that can only be activated in specific hit-states.
Find out the all the passive defensive skills (aside from the basic 2) that the class you play possess and know when to use them for maximum effectiveness will bring about the mastery of of PVP-ing for the class that you are using.
Super Armour
To it simply, all skills in Dragon Nest possess 2 types of Super Armour Values.
- Super Armour Defense or SA in short
- Super Armour Break/Destruction
Imagine in a game where even your ultimate skills can be cancelled by a basic attack ; that would suck wouldn’t it?
It would also suck if the skills with the highest damage cannot be cancelled or disrupted in any way possible because that will be over-powered and wouldn’t add on to the competitiveness or skill required to play the game.
This is where Super Armour comes in.
Super Armour Defense basically refers to a value which determines much a skill can withstand attacks before they are cancelled.
Super Armour Break/Destruction refers to a value which results in their chance to disrupt a skill.
A skill is disrupted if another skill that is equal to their super armour defense has successfully been executed upon.
Depending on the hit-state that that skill usually results in, when a super armour defense is broken, the skill’s resultant hit-state will apply.
Here’s a link to a spreadsheet compiled by a passionate PVP player known as “Radeys” for most of the skills in the game that you can refer to for SA and SA Break values.
More often that not, skills that have long casting animations have high Super Armour Defense and High Super Armour Break values.
“Maelstrom Howl” a Destroyer Class skill that has insanely high super armour defense.
Note that SA is negated on targets that are caught under debuffs such as “Freeze/Frozen”, “Time-Stopped” or “Shock” due electrocution.
Some skills that have fast casting animations have high SA break values but low Super Armour defense.
The importance of knowing the values of Super Armour Defense and Super Armour Break values of your own and other classes skills is of paramount importance in Dragon Nest PVP.
Knowing those values will thus provide you the needed knowledge to counter your opponent SA break skills with higher SA defense skills, preventing yourself from resulting in a flinch/stagger or Lift hit-state.
As you can see in the 2 GIFs above, the first showed a Mercenary class caught by a flinching hit-state skill from a Sorceress class.
You can prevent the flinching hit-state from resulting with a counter skill that has Higher Super Armour Defense Value than the Super Armour Break of Frost Wind to prevent a flinch/stagger and set up a counter attack opportunity as well.
It is also important to know that there are skills that ignore Super Armour Defense
These skills usually ignores skills with defensive mechanisms such as Block or invincibility frames (eg. Hurricane Dance from Tempest Class)
Basically for Super Armour, for starters, known all the SA values of your class skills and progressively find out the SA values of other class skills during practice.
You will at least know if other class skills have higher or lower SA values for their skills if you observe if your class skills are broken/disrupted by their skills or not.
Since you already know the SA values of your own class skills, you can then gauge the range in which other class skills SA values are.
Probably due to the design of Dragon Nest classes, classes that feels heavy or rely on “strength” usually have more skills that have high SA defense values (like Mercenary Class).
On the other hand, classes (usually female based classes) that are meant to be mobile and light usually have skills that have low SA defense values but more passive defensive skills.
Since we mentioned that Passive Defensive skills possess a quality/mechanism known as “Invincibility Frames” a.k.a I-frames, this helps to balance out to a certain extent where they lack on skills that have high SA defense values.
Invincibility Frames
Invincibility Frames refer to usually “a short period of time”, where a specific period/segment of the casting animation of a skill will render the player “invincible” to almost all forms of attacks.
I-frames is the reason why dodging skills and passive defensive skills can work naturally in Dragon Nest PVP.
All passive defensive skills inherently have I-frames though they are short and last for a fixed period of time.
Similar to how Super Armour Defense works, I-frames allows the smooth casting of skills without the fear of them getting disrupted prematurely.
They also add another layer of complexity to the game including providing the impression of control over your character both graphically and in your head.
In many other MMOs, when you have skills that have a inherent “dodging” perspective in their skill names like for example “Evasion Slash”, they don’t actually dodge and you will still get hit by attacks during the “dodging” animation.
This is due to the lack of I-frames in the evading portion of those skill casting animations.
In Dragon Nest however, most skills that have inherent “dodging” perspective implied in their skill names do actually perform the way they are named.
“Evasion Slash” dodging Ping Pong with Invincibility Frames of the skill
Evasion Slash is a skill from the Gladiator Class (2nd Specialization of the Sword Master Class, from Warrior Basic Class).
The evading portion of the skill, which is the back-slashing animation do indeed have I-frames.
With that you can actually “evade” / dodge skills with Evasion slash in Dragon Nest PVP.
Skills with Invincibility frames are known as I-Frame skills and most if not all classes will have at least 1 Active Skill that has I-frames.
Those that do not have Active I-frame skills usually are compensated with an additional Passive Defensive Skill compared to classes that have Active I-frame Skills.
To have more visual and further basic information regarding I-frame skills, you can watch the video that I’ve done in the past below that showcases some important points about Invincibility Frames.
If you didn’t watch the video, take note that I-frame skills has a weakness as well though in unique situations.
When your character is caught in an electrocution status, you will receive a “shock” every 4 seconds.
If the I-frame of your skill is caught within that “shock”, it will be cancelled.
Electrocution “Shock” also ignores super armour defense and will cancel skills that grants you invincibility frames for extended duration. (Divine Avatar of Paladin Class)
Remember earlier on we mentioned that Super Armour Defense skills can be used as a counter against skills that have hit-state inducing effects?
I-frame skills thus add the same if not further layer of complexity to Dragon Nest PVP as they can be used in a similar fashion.
When PVP-ing, you now need to consider their Passive Defensive Skills, SA Value of their Skills as well as skills that have I-frames which will negate the attacks of your own skills.
Similar to Super Armour, make sure you know all the I-frame skills of your own class!
Now that you have been introduced with the 4 Core Key Mechanisms of Dragon Nest PVP, we can now talk about the Basic Meta of Dragon Nest PVP
Dragon Nest PVP Meta – The Basics
If you have read the guide all the way until this segment, give yourself a pat on the back.
This is where it gets even more complicated that it already is.
Let’s first talk about the elements and mechanisms that we have introduced so Far.
Hit States -> Passive Defensive Skills -> Super Armour -> Invincibility Frames.
In Dragon Nest PVP, you essentially will be trying to achieve this following cycle:
- Bait/Exhaust Passive Defensive Skills via successfully connecting skills that induce flinch/stagger & Lift hit States (Force opponents to use their dodge and Aerial Evasion)
- Re-Catch Opponent after they use their Passive Defensive Skills to connect damage dealing skills
- Rinse and Repeat until Opponent’s Death
To achieve these hit-states you must break the Super Armour of your Opponent -“when a super armour defense is broken, the skill’s resultant hit-state will apply“
At the same time you will need to bear in mind the I-frame skills (aside from the passive defensive ones), that your opponent could use to avoid your attacks.
After achieving the baiting/exhaustion of passive defensive skills, you will then need to catch your opponent again with hit-state inducing skills.
Repeat the cycle until you successfully finish off your opponent.
As easy as it may sound, the hardest part about Dragon Nest PVP is the re-catching portion.
Passive Defensive Skills are designed to allow players a “second-chance” whenever they are caught. The I-frames in these passive defensive skills give them time to avoid an incoming attack.
However, once you know the exact duration or how the I-frame skills behave, you can time your follow-up attack accordingly to catch your opponent.
Some skills in the game that has fast casting animation are also designed for the purpose of re-catching.
The reasoning behind the importance of re-catching is that you are only able to unleash your full DPS Rotations when your opponents’ passive defensive skills are on cooldown as they will be unable to escape at all.
So after understanding the Core Key Mechanisms of Dragon Nest PVP, you will now need to understand your own class to figure out the skills that are useful for re-catching opponents.
One of the ways to go about this is to understand the passive defensive skills and active defensive skills of other classes and know their vulnerabilities.
In the example above, an Active Defensive Skill known as “Relieve” is used.
“Relieve” has a relatively long casting animation where the player is prone to counter attacks.
Once you have understood this, a passive defensive skill when used is thus an opening created for you instead.
However, you can only react fast enough if you understand when a player will use that specific defensive skill.
This comes with experience over time since you will need to to a certain extent anticipate the use of those specific skills or even come to forcing your opponents to use them so that you will be able to reach in time.
With this we come to next part of the meta where it comes to the classes that you may play or may be facing.
Certain classes depend heavily on those passive defensive skills to set-up with other skills so re-catching them straight after the use of the passive defensive skills are paramount to defeating them.
Such classes are usually defensive in general in terms of the skills that they possess.
One such examples are the Priests class which seeks more often than not to outlast you in a 1v1 PVP Match.
This is referring to the Kill-or-Fall (KOF) Mode where there’s a 5 minute round time.
As the mechanics of PVP is such that if both opponents do not fall, the player with the higher HP value at the end of round time will win.
Possessing skills that can recover their HP, Priests (Saints & Inquisitors) usually seek to deal burst damage and at the same time stay alive.
The nature of their skills allows them to pull it off but also forces them to play a more defensive playstyle which we will talk about now.
Importance of Understanding Playstyles
In Dragon Nest PVP, depending on the class that you play, most players will take on the following play styles:
- Passive / Defensive
- Offensive / Aggressive
- Combination of Both – Knowing when to defensive/passive and when to be offensive/aggressive.
This can only come with experience and is ideally the level that all Top Dragon Nest PVP Players will strive to achieve.
Some players go for a passive/defensive playstyle because it allows them to counter effectively.
They will sit-back and be extremely aware/observant of what their opponents are going to cast, and will counter accordingly with I-frame or SA skills in the way that we have shown above with some of the GIFs. (Circle Swing counter on Frost Wind)
This is usually the playstyle used in Mirror Matches (Matches that consist of a class fighting the same class).
This style is recommended only if you have good understanding of what the opponent class skills (SA and I-frame) are so that you can anticipate them.
Certain counters only work if you can react fast enough and there are some skills that are extremely hard to counter even if you are taking a passive/defensive playstyle.
To put it simply, a passive/defensive playstyle is one where you let your opponent make the mistakes and go about to exploit them.
Just like the cause & effect analogy, a player who is going up against a passive/defensive player is thus considered to be the one playing offensively.
A player that plays an offensive/aggressive playstyle is subjected to making mistakes/errors since they have to forced to making decisions on the fly.
At the same time, an offensive/aggressive playstyle player can force a defensive/passive playstyle player to make certain decisions that will result in their loss.
Imagine now that 2 classes with the same number of Passive Defensive Skills, SA Skills & I-frame skills were to clash.
The offensive/aggressive player will force the passive/defensive player to use their Passive Defensive Skills, SA Skills & I-frame skills first.
And because they are forced to use them first, they will also run out of them first.
In a heated exchange during a clash, the offensive/aggressive player will thus come out on top against a defensive player as they will run out of options first.
However as mentioned above, if the offensive/aggressive player is to make a mistake which for example can be the failure to connect hit-state inducing skills during the clash, the defensive/passive player can thus turn around the fight to their favour and momentum.
However due to the nature of how some classes are, you are sometimes forced into playing a certain playstyle.
This is why the choice of the class you decide to play will eventually be extremely important for Dragon Nest PVP, especially if you want to enjoy it.
Ideally you should play the class which conforms as naturally with the playstyle that you prefer though some classes have the ability for all 3 forms of playstyle.
Here is a list of playstyles for the respective classes that I believe personally are natural with them:
- Swordmaster (Warrior) – Moonlord/Gladiator -> Offensive/Defensive/Combination of Both
- Mercenary (Warrior) – Barbarian/Destroyer -> Offensive/Defensive/Combination of Both
- Bowmaster (Archer) – Artillery/Sniper -> Mostly Defensive (Except against Priest Classes), Combination of Both
- Acrobat (Archer) – Tempest/Windwalker -> Mostly Offensive / Combination of Both
- Paladin (Cleric) – Guardian/Crusader -> Offensive/Defensive/Combination of Both
- Priest (Cleric) – Saint/Inquisitor -> Defensive
- Elemental Lord (Sorceress) – Elestra/Saleana -> Offensive/Defensive/Combination of Both
- Force User (Sorceress) – Majesty/Smasher -> Offensive/Defensive/Combination of Both
- Engineers (Academic) – Gear Master/Shooting Star -> Defensive/Combination of Both
- Alchemist (Academic) – Physician/Adept -> Offensive/Defensive/Combination of Both
- Dancers (Kali) – Blade Dancer/Spirit Dancer -> Offensive/Defensive/Combination of Both
- Screamers (Kali) – Dark Summoner/Soul Eaters -> Offensive/Defensive/Combination of Both
- Chasers (Assassin) – Raven/Ripper -> Offensive/Defensive/Combination of Both
- Bringers (Assassin) – Abyss Walker/Light Fury -> Offensive/Defensive/Combination of Both
This doesn’t mean that Priests cannot play an offensive style but due to the class design, it is extremely risky to do so and is extremely tough to pull off.
The reason behind this is because in general, Dragon Nest PVP is not balanced such that every class is able to defeat all other classes with the same difficulty.
i.e the game is not designed or balanced for 1v1 PVP but more for 3v3/4v4/5v5 Team PVP in KOF
That is the hard truth behind Dragon Nest PVP that some might not be able to accept as they experience the game which I’ll put forth frankly here.
Certain classes are simply better to tackle specific classes due to the nature of their skill sets.
As shown above, skills with High SA defense usually have long casting animations.
Classes that have those skills are thus easily subjected to counters or slow/time-stop debuffs from the Sorceress class.
Here’s a list of my personal opinion regarding the classes where specific classes don’t do so well or will usually result in tough matches: (will be excluding Assassins since they are not introduced into official PVP Tournaments for now)
Note that the list is a resultant from observation as a shoutcaster for plenty of official tournaments so far, and taking into consideration the latest PVP Balancing since 3rd September 2014
- Swordmaster (Warrior) – Moonlord/Gladiator tough time against Elestra / Dancer / Screamer
- Mercenary (Warrior) – Barbarian/Destroyer tough time against Elestra
- Bowmaster (Archer) – Artillery/Sniper tough time against Priests / Paladin
- Acrobat (Archer) – Tempest/Windwalker tough time against Dancer / Tempest / Windwalker
- Paladin (Cleric) – Guardian/Crusader tough time against Tempest / Windwalker / Dancer
- Priest (Cleric) – Saint/Inquisitor tough time against All Classes who are well practiced to fight Priests except Bowmasters
- Elemental Lord (Sorceress) – Elestra/Saleana tough time against Tempest / Windwalker / Paladin / Dancer (Good Elestras however usually can fight all classes)
- Force User (Sorceress) – Majesty/Smasher tough time against Elestra/Saleana
- Engineers (Academic) – Gear Master/Shooting Star tough time againstDestroyer / Barbarian / Tempest / Windwalker / Dancer
- Alchemist (Academic) – Physician/Adept tough time against Destroyer / Barbarian / Tempest / Windwalker / Dancer
- Dancers (Kali) – Blade Dancer/Spirit Dancer tough time against Destroyer / Barbarian
- Screamers (Kali) – Dark Summoner/Soul Eaters tough time against Destroyer / Barbarian
Priests have an edge over Bowmasters as they can summon relics that simply block the trajectory of Bowmasters’ skills.
Design wise it is just simply extremely hard for a Bowmaster to defeat a well practiced Priest due to the above.
Similarly, all classes other than Bowmasters can defeat Priests as seen from the list but not until they have practiced and force the Priests to make mistakes in their passive defensive skill rotations etc.
In order words, a good Priest is in general is very hard to be taken down by the average PVP player and even when facing a seasoned player, the odds are still mostly 50/50 depending on the class.
Again I will need to emphasize that this is my personal opinion/observation with regards to the current PVP scene and it shouldn’t deter yourself from believing that you can do well against the classes that is mentioned here.
Dragon Nest PVP satisfaction comes from the fact that you are able to overcome the odds and barriers that many players have self-imposed upon them.
There have been plenty of players who have overcome these barriers and odds imposed upon them via the game design and proved to players that it isn’t impossible.
Such players are usually legends among the PVP scene and are still continuing to participate in tournaments etc. paving and showing the way for other people that play those classes.
With that we move on to the last part of Dragon Nest PVP which is the area of frustrations that you will probably face.
Area of Frustrations
If you have read the guide until now, you would have anticipated some of the area of frustrations in Dragon Nest PVP.
Here is a General list of them:
- Latency “LAG”
- Latency Compensation / De-sync
- Overall Balancing
- Bugs
- Self-Ban & KOF PVP
In Action Online games, latency will always be an issue but in Dragon Nest it is of much more significance.
If you don’t already know, Korean Games are designed to have no latency issues in mind ; This is why they have so many action related MMOs which require smooth internet.
When it comes to an action game which has combat mechanics that is supposed to give you a sense of control to your character, any “lag” will result in frustration.
For players that have high ping of above 150ms, they have to somewhat pre-use their dodge or passive defensive skill for them to function properly.
Because of this, while Dragon Nest have plenty of services around the world (China, Korea, North America, Japan, Europe, South-East Asia, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan etc.), some players will not have the ideal and smooth ping for playing this game and might be frustrated over it.
Always play the dragon nest service that is closest to you geographically to avoid this area of frustration.
This brings us to the next point which is latency compensation and de-sync.
Latency Compensation and De-Sync
Developers of Dragon Nest probably anticipated the latency issue when they designed the game so they have a latency compensation mechanic present in the game.
Unfortunately, it is not perfect as the game usually favours the “laggier” guy, i.e the guy with the higher ping because he needs to be compensated more compared to a player with smooth ping.
You will face instances where you should have caught your opponent in a certain hit-state only to see that they have “magically” recovered from it somehow due to the latency compensation.
This will cause an area of frustration as the player that has supposed to have caught the other player would have used certain skills to do so.
However those skills hit-state inducing effects have been negated due to latency compensation which means that the player is now having a few important skills on cool down which he cannot use for a significant duration.
The “laggier” player on the other hand, who had a free-pass (didn’t need to use any passive defensive skill), have those important skills off cool down which he/she can now use to catch his opponent.
This brings many PVP fights that frustrates you due to situations where you would have won if your opponent didn’t “lag” and managed to escape out of an opportunity that you have painstakingly created.
This is the most popular if not the main reason why many PVP players have left the PVP scene.
Overall Balancing
Many feel that plenty can be done for the balancing for PVP in Dragon Nest.
Some classes have one if not 2 more I-frame skills compared to others which allows them to be an all-in-1 class that allows a player to be able to defeat all classes once they have mastered them.
While the latest PVP Skill balancing in Korea which have been brought over to Dragon Nest SEA looked promising overall, many of the skill balancing and changes have not gone through any communication with the general PVP community.
As a PVP player, you probably have zero to no say to the current meta-game of Dragon Nest PVP and are forced to accept all changes made by the developers regardless if they are considered fair or not.
This has brought about many players who have their classes nerf-ed to be extremely frustrated when they have practiced alot (some for years) to feel that the changes are overly done or unwarranted.
So if you’re going to embark in the realms of competitive Dragon Nest PVP, be ready to face this area of frustration.
Be sure to check out the latest skill balancing information regarding all the classes before deciding the class that you will decide to play if you’re a new player.
Bugs
Currently there are couple of bugs that are plaguing Dragon Nest PVP.
One of the passive defensive skills (which isn’t mentioned in this written guide by in the video for I-frames) called “wake attack” is currently behaving erratically.
What this means is that it isn’t performing what its intended to do consistently and can sometimes glitch out on players during PVP.
There are some other bugs that affects specific classes that isn’t fixed in any Dragon Nest service as of writing this as well.
While most game-breaking bugs are fixed eventually, some bugs have been around and are left questioned by the community on whether they are allowed to be used or not.
This creates a atmosphere of uncertainty as some players who do not know the mechanics behind those bugs to sometimes use them mistakenly.
With the toxic community present in most MMOs nowadays, some players may not be friendly enough to realize that you are a new player and might just blast vulgarities at you in the form of text which might startle you when you accidentally use those bugs.
It is also bad for the competitive PVP Scene in generally as sometimes it is difficult to judge of bugs were used purposefully or by mistake.
Bugs related to passive defensive skills such as Wake Attack have been present for a significant period of time (since last year) and have not been fixed as of now.
So bear this area of frustration in mind too!
Self-Ban & KOF PVP
This isn’t exactly the basics to Dragon Nest PVP but I felt that it should be included in this guide.
Once you have started to PVP proper in Dragon Nest, you will run into rooms or players who request for “SB” mode.
SB refers to “soft-ban” or to some services known as “black-list”.
I’ll explain the history behind “soft-ban” or “black-list” PVP.
When Dragon Nest first started, there wasn’t a PVP Server/Mode known as the Dragon Nest World Championship (DWC) Server.
Before serious PVP skill balancing came into play, players have taken it upon themselves to come up with a list of skills that certain classes shouldn’t use in 1v1 PVP.
These skills are usually skills that give Super Armour Increase Buff (making it hard for skills to be cancelled), any form of healing skills or even skills that had significant damage.
More often than not, any skill that was deemed “broken” by the community was also “soft-banned” or “blacklisted”, where using it in PVP will be regarded as bad-mannered and try-hard.
However as these “broken” skills had been balanced along the way, the mindset of players did not change alongside those PVP Skill balancing and many still regarded those skills to be “broken” and should be banned from use in 1v1 PVP.
Currently there isn’t any skill that is down-right broken in the game in DWC Servers (Lv60 PVP) which means a good time to PVP for you if you’re new to the game.
However, as mentioned some players still have the “SB” concept which you might face while facing random PVP players.
“SB” currently now to me personally refers to “Self-Ban” no longer “Black-list” or “Soft-ban”.
Basically it is literally what it says ; It is your own choice to ban the skills that you don’t want to use. No one is forcing you to do so, you do it for your own reasons. Some have reasons to increase the difficulty of their PVP, to hone the mastery of the usage of basic and core skills etc. Whichever is your reason for not using a skill, do it because you understand why and do so because you decide yourself.
Don’t not use a skill just because someone else believe it shouldn’t be so.
However if you want to avoid these “SB” rooms, it is best to participate in Kill-or-Fall (KOF) mode rooms as it is known in the community that KOF means all skills can be used.
Most importantly, there are no such thing as “Self-Ban”, “Soft-ban” & “BlackList” rules in Official Tournaments.
However note that in general, Good PVP Players are able to play “Self-Ban”, “Soft-ban” & “BlackList” forms of PVP because most PVP players have came from those roots.
What “Self-Ban” PVP does is that since you have restricted yourself from using certain skills (usually the most damaging or advantageous skill that you have), you have to reply on the mastery of your basic and core skills of your class.
This allows you to ultimately master your class which is why plenty of Strong and good PVP players are able and good at “Self-Ban” PVP too.
With that we come to the end of this Guide!
I will most likely be revising this guide pretty heavily after posting it as I might be adding more information progressively from the feedback that you guys/girls give!
If you’re a veteran/seasoned player of PVP that wants to introduce Dragon Nest PVP to your friends but do not know how to, I hope this guide was of help with that!
If you want to watch some Dragon Nest Live Stream you can always tune in to: http://www.hitbox.tv/aikawakazu (We are LIVE 6/7 Days per week usually at 7PM GMT+8)
Show your support for me and TEGaming by…
Subscribing to our awesome YouTube Channel (Click here) (It really means alot to me 
)
)
You will need a gmail account to create a YouTube account, so please take 1-2minutes to do so if you don’t have a gmail account.
Going to our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/kazudragonhaven and give us a thumbs up!
Follow us on Twitter to be informed of the latest updates here: https://twitter.com/tegaming
Cheers,
AikawaKazu
TEGaming
Source http://www.dneternity.com/2014/09/16/dnpvpbasicsnfundamentals/
No comments:
Post a Comment