Silkroad Online Forums

Updated! skills updated July 12, 2006

Originally posted: April 21, 2006

DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to be copied. It's my belief that by copying you learn nothing and don't have as much fun. Instead, I'm trying to present the skills as well as I can, so you can at least have an idea of which ones you want to try out or use. I urge anyone who looks at this and wants to copy to think about what YOU want, not what I have done. Besides, with all the different skills, this build takes A LOT of work. I started it before 3rd beta and I'm not even 60 yet. I was in the 30s and 40s for weeks while I watched people fly past me in level, but I stuck with it. Now I'm am leveling fast and gonna farm at the level cap (assuming I get there of course With that said, enjoy the guide. Feel free to ask questions or add comments.




Stats


Pure Strength is generally the way to go if you want to use blade as your weapon.

Good hp to tanks lots of things at once, but mp is a little lacking (more on that later)

The idea of blade is to sacrifice damage for more defense. So in essence, you don't hit as hard as a glavie, but you can take more or more correctly, you take less damage overall because of the extra defense and the almighty block from your shield.

First, I'll talk about equipment, then I'll discuss skills.

Equipment
The most important pieces of equipment are the Shield and Blade.
You live and die by these two things so it's important to invest in good equipment.

Shield
This is what sets blade users apart from glavies. A good shield is one that has a block ratio of at least 15 or more. 17 and higher will cost you a large amount, but it's worth it.
A shield without any + that has good block ratio is better than spending money on a +3 low block ratio. Shield elixers come cheap since only blade and sword users need them.

The shield I'm using right now has block ratio of 15, str 1 increase and +5.

Blade
Damage is lower on blades than a similar glavie so you want to find a decent one. Critical of 7 or higher is generally considered very good. However, blue str increases will help as well. Attack rating is also important. Since blade has lower damage, you want to be able to do your max damage as much as possible.

The blade I'm currently using +3 Critical 6

Armor/Protector/Garmet

Armor
Great for leveling and hunting monsters that do physical damage. Your defense is pretty much godly with armor+shield, but magic attacks will hit you very hard.

Protector (Recommended)
Good balance of physical and magical defense, but doesn't shine in either category unless you have lots of high + or Seal items.

This is what I'm currently using. One piece is a 47 SOS +5 chestpiece which greatly helps. I was planning on switching to garmet before I found this. Currently I have a full 7th degree SOS protector set and all I can say is WOW! I can tank just about anything near my level. Yetis barely scratch me and I can tank multiple 52+ without dying.

Garmet (Recommended)
This is what most people recommend for blade users. Great magical defense to survive in PVP against nukers, but physical defense is much lower than protector or armor. The low physical defense doesn't come into play very much because a majority of glavies and blade users (STR builds in general) use garmet so they have the magical defense to survive against nukers in PVP

Accessories
Get the best your can. Higher absorbtion means less damage. Also, if you can find high level frost reduce, you're lucky and can become immune to ice with enough % reduction. Low level jewelry with frost is useless because you'll take much more damage, so it's better to get frozen but not take as much damage and just call a friend to help kill the person. Also you can't get frozen when they're knocked down.


Skills

Bicheon


Smashing Series
Many people say this skill is useless, but I wouldn't agree with that. It's a relatively low mp cost skill that does good damage in one quick hit. It is very useful to link the chains for a burst of damage in between.

Chain Sword Attack Series
This is the bread and butter of PVE for bladers. Chains do good damage and the two chains (or one later on) can pretty much kill a monster in PVE. The 4-Combo attack is not very useful for PVP except for inflicting status effect like ice. The 5-Combo attack is a bit more useful in PVP since the last hit is a large hit which followed by a smashing series attack and knockdown attack can give a big chunk of damage in a short amount of time.

Shield Technique
You are immobilized while using this attack. It abosrbs damage, but for now I don't see much use for these skills. Might be good at higher levels to avoid big attacks if used properly. (Once I level up more I'll up this skill and play around with it).

Blade Force Series
Good for luring monsters since it is one of the two ranged attacks a blade has (see sword dance for more info). Soul cut blade is kind of low in damage, but evil cut blade has good range and damage. Very useful as an opening attack in PVE

Hidden Blade Series
Also called Knockdown. This is great for giants and PVP. When you knock it down only sword and blade can attack it so this is good if a glavie or nuker is trying to ks you.

Killing Heaven Blade Series
This is the attack that stabs the target while it's knocked down. Once you get book 2 you can stab twice (or 3 times when you have book 3) because you can use two skills while the target is laying down (when the servers aren't too laggy).

Sword Dance Series
Good for mass killing blue mobs since it is one of 2 AOE attacks in the bicheon skill tree. Book two only requires level 1 of the first book so no need to level it up unless you use it a lot in PVE. I am leveling both books of this in order to sp farm at 64. I figure these attacks, along with my AOE knockdown and I can kill pretty quickly on the bugs in the cave’s first room.

Shield Protection Series
Passive which increases blocking ratio. A MUST. If I have to explain, reread the section on shields.

Cold


Cold Force Series
Cold Imbue, the most annoying imbue EVER in PVP. Freezing will totally stop any skill in progress and frostbite will slow down any skill in progress even after pilled until the skill is finished. Damage is low though.

Frost Guard Series
Physical defense boost. Unless you plan on maxing it out, there is no point in getting this because the increase is pretty low. The fourth book of this skill is very good however. A 55 defense boost. Combined with the Cold Armor series, this can increase defense A LOT.

Cold Wave Series
Good at low levels for PVE. At one point I was able to hunt Hyungo Ghosts and use 2 hp pots for 200 mp pots since they hit me once before they died. Once you get the Frost Nova Series though it becomes pretty useless for PVP and PVE.

Frost Wall Series
I don't use this skill because my opponent only needs to back off and I can't hit em enough to kill him. You can't move while this skill is activated, but you take no damage until the wall has been destroyed. Not recommended because you already have tons of hp to tank. Absorbs physical damage well.

Frost Nova Series
Good for freezing and frostbiting to slow down enemies so you can catch up or get away. Book 2 is AOE getting everything around you. Can be very useful

Snow Storm Series
The Cold Nuke. Useless for strength.

Cold Armor Series
Permanently increases physical defense. Maxed out it gives a 27 defense increase. Combined with Frost Guard gives a good increase in defense.

Lightning

Thunder Force Series
Lightning imbue. Upside is splash damage and lowers parry ratio when target is shocked. More damage than ice, but without freezing. Less damage than fire.

Piercing Force Series
Magical balance and attack is already low, but it increases your imbue damage. At later levels it increases by more than 10% is a decent increase even though magical balance is low. Combined with Flame Body Series and you get max damage.

Wind Walk Series
Books 1, and 3 if you can get it, gives great walk speed increase. Speeds up grinding since you can move from mob to mob faster. Necessary for PVP if you want to be able to catch and kill people (or run when their higher than you). Book 2 is teleport/flash step good for catching up or getting away. It teleports in the direction your mouse is pointing.

Lion Shout Series
Pure magic attack so this is useless for strength builds.

Concentration Series
Increases parry ratio. Using this will help you take minimum damage.

Thunderbolt Force Series
Lightning nuke. Useless. See also Lion Shout, Flame Wave, Snow Storm.

Heaven's Force Series
Increases parry ratio permanently. Take less damage.

Fire


Fire Force Series
Fire imbue. Most damage of all the imbues plus burn gives target damage over time (DOT). Speeds up PVE compared to ice, but you take more damage because there is nothing to slow down or stop the target from hitting you.

Fire Shield Series
Reduces status effects by a certain amount. Saves some money later on because you can use smaller pills. Without this buff, I need High Grade Pills, with I need Large. Also, combined with freeze/frost reduce you can be immune to ice later on.

Flame Body Series
Increases physical damage by a certain amount. Must get for strength since it will greatly increase your damage.

Fire Protection Series
Increases magical defense. Very good to get to be able to withstand nukers better.

Fire Wall Series
Works the same way as Ice Wall. It does absorb magical attacks better though.

Flame Wave Series
Fire Nuke. Once again: useless. I only have level 1 to play with and kill noobs in PVP.

Flame Devil Force Series
Permanently increases physical damage. Great for strength, just like the Flame Body Series buff.

SP Farming
I farmed about 5k sp at level 16 before I got bored and closed the gap up a bit. I farmed another 5 or 6k in the 20s. After that I've been going with a gap for awhile. I got to about 13k sp in the 40s and since that I've been going with a 5 level gap. If you want, you can farm a ton in the beginning and go with a 0-2 level gap. You can farm some (still a lot) and go with a 2-3 level gap. Or you can farm a litte or not at all and go with a 5-6 level gap. All up to you. Also, I encourage you to decide for yourself what skills to get. Get the one you like, but I also recommend you try as many skills as possible to see how well they work.


STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS...

I'll be updating it from time to time.

I'm level 64 with a 3 level gap and am planning 80 Bicheon/80 Fire/80 Cold/60 Lightning (pure strength) for after the level cap, which brings me to 300/300 Masteries.

Pretty easy here. Guard of ice maxed and the passive maxed for huge physical defense boost. All of the other skills are either nukes (useless as pure strength), walls (useless), or give frostbite or freezing status. Frostbite and freezing are neat, but any decent high level player is going to be immune to ice. See fire section for reasons why. Use your SP for other things.