Silkroad Online Forums

This is not my guide, this guide was made by RareHunter.
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What is a nuker?

My definition of a nuker, is a player with a high magical balance that uses ranged elemental skills as their primary form of attack. I don’t actually know where the term came from, however my guess is that it stems from the Lv 56 fire skills that resembles a large explosion.

Why make a nuker?

Every person has their own playing style, what some people may like others might not. I personally have chosen to be a nuker because to me it is the most fun to play build. One element that makes it fun is the largest choice of skills to choose from. Nukers can use both weapon skills and element skills and thus gain more variety of play than their Strength build counterparts. Another thing that makes being a nuker fun is the element of danger. Unlike a full str character who can mindlessly run around whacking mobs, a nuker must always be on the look out for dangerous situations, which gives them a certain aspect of stealth. I personally nicknamed nukers the Solid Snake build (it’s a character from a playstation game), because at times thats what playing one feels like. The third and sometimes the most common reason why people make a nuker is the damage. If you want to do the highest avarage damage in the game, and level faster than any other build, than nuking might be for you.

The builds

Basically nukers can be broken up into two categories, offensive nukers and defensive nukers. As the names suggest, the offensive nuker is designed for maximum damage output, while a defensive nuker is designed for survivability. Because of the differences in their design, the two nukers are best suited for different jobs. An offensive nuker mostly functions as a support character in mass pvp battles, while a defensive nuker is good for helping out on trade runs and has far greater potential in 1 vs 1 pvp encounters.

Making a nuker.

First off, regardless of the type of nuker you choose to be, your gonna need a LOT of sp (Skill Points). When and how you get the sp depends on your playing style. The fastest way to get sp is to farm it at Lv 16 at the bandit stronghold (though by fastest, i mean you will still spend a couple months doing it), there are a lot of guides written on the subject already so im not going to get in to it. The second option is to level fast, and then acquire your sp naturally (leveling with 0 gap).

The level cap (the highest level you can reach) will eventally be set at 90, while the highest skill you can get will remain at Lv 69 for some time. This means that for 21 levels all you will be able to do is raise the masterly level and invest the remaining sp into lower level skills. Following this route would meen that your character will be missing certain skills and thus less powerful, however will always be fast at leveling. Both methods have their advantages. At level 16 you will farm sp faster than any time in the game, however as a high level you will make more money, get better equipment, and be able to do a lot more stuff. There is also a third option to farm in the cave at Lv 64 on EarthGhosts (very good spawn rate and fast to kill), or at Lv 69-70 on Yachal/Nachal (very good spawn rate but a lot more crowded). If you choose to farm in the cave i suggest you do it by killing Earthghosts. Because your masteries will be low, i suggest you delevel yourself from Lv 68-70 to Lv 64 in order to increase your attack power and health.

I personally do not have the patience for SP farming, so my preference is on leveling fast and then finishing my build later "same as work ". Who knows, you may find that you do not want to keep playing the game after a while, and at least you have experienced being a high level rather than spend all your time at a farm. Also you may have seen some people suggest playing with a level gap to a high level, never ever do that! Although these people claim this approach to be less boring, the avarage sp you will get will be 1/2 - 1/3 less of what you can make at Lv 16. This means you will need to spend a much longer time sp farming and thus being bored!

When you start a nuker you will need some extra sp to get you by. I suggest you get 7000 sp, but more is better. A good way to do this is to develop a mastery gap at Lv 5, and play like that until Lv 18. That is, you stop leveling your masteries after Lv 5 until you have a 9 level gap at level 14, and then you add one mastery to keep the gap at 9 levels. This will enable you to use imbue and the first weapon skills. I think that will equal around 7000 sp if not more (shouldn’t take more than a week without ticket). Also, I suggest you use a bow for those first 18 levels. After you get the sp, you will level really fast using only the essential skills.

These are the skills you should get as they become available, they apply for both the defensive and offensive nuker.

Heuksal (Spear) Level until 40.

- Soul Spear- Move Lv 1
- Ghost spear Lv 1
- Flying dragon- Flow Lv 1
- Passive Lv 4

Lighning Level until 34.

- Must piercing force Max
- Flow Piercing force Max
- Grass Walk Lv 8
- Ghost Walk Lv1
- Shock lion shout Lv 1
- Wolf’s Thunderbolt Lv 1
- Passive Lv 3

Fire will be your main skill tree, after you get the above skills you will only need to level fire until you get some extra sp.

Fire Mastery level = Character level.

- River Fire Max
- Extreme Fire Max
- Poison Fire Max
- Soul Fire Max

- Flame wave- Arrow Max
- Flame wave- Burning Max
- Flame wave- Wide Max

Leveling

When you level, you want to wear garment and a spear. I suggest you get yourself a +3 spear, they are fairly cheap and are easy to resell. Until you get your nukes, use soulspear+ghost spear combo, after you get the nukes, use Flame wave-Arrow followed by ghost spear, if you get good at it, you can kill mobs 2-3 levels higher than yourself without ever getting hit. If you get mobbed, use Ghost walk to teleport away. Try to avoid fighting giants, and maintain your vigilance. I often hear of people complaining about nukers dying to easily to mobs. To me, this usually only happens as a result of lag which prevents auto-pot from working. It's not much of a problem, because the lost XP can be regained easily.

Weapon Skills.

One of the things people often ask is the point of a nuker using weapon skills. Weapon skills add physical attack and can inflict criticals (powerful blows that multiply physical damage). Logically they are not suited for a magic using character, however that is not necessarily the case. Weapon skills have a couple properties that make them useful to a nuker. First off, weapon skills multiply weapon damage as indicated by their % value. When a nuker activates imbue, the damage calculated will be magical, which in the case of all weapons is higher than physical. Secondly, the attack power of imbue is usually greater than the attack power of the weapon skill, thus although the physical attack does not have much influence, the attack power of the imbue will make up for it. Lastly, weapon skills are fast and can inflict status ailments. This is helpful in close range combat when you want to incapacity the enemy and do fast damage.

Builds.

Ok, you have enough SP and are ready to finish your build. (Blueprints for a finished nuker)

Offensive nuker. This nuker would be best equipped with a spear and amour/ protector however can also get away with a sword+shield at the cost of damage. They can probably take a few blows, however they do their best in the back row as a support character.

Heuksal (Spear) Level until 63.

- Soul Spear- Move Max
- Soul Spear- Truth Max
- Soul Spear- Soul Lv 1
- Ghost spear- Petal Lv 9
- Ghost spear- Prince Lv 9
- Ghost spear-Mars Lv 1
- Flying dragon- Flow Lv 9
- Flying dragon- Fly Lv 1
- Passive Max

Lighning Level until 68.

- Must- piercing force Max
- Flow- Piercing force Max
- Speed- Piercing force Max
- Force- Piercing force Max
- Grass Walk- Flow Max
- Ghost Walk Max
- Grass Walk- Speed Max
- Shock lion shout Max
- Heaven lion shout Max
- Earth lion shout Max
- Concentration 1,2,3 Max
- Wolf’s Thunderbolt Max
- Tiger’s Thunderbolt Max
- Passive Max

Fire Level 70+

- River Fire Max
- Extreme Fire Max
- Poison Fire Max
- Soul Fire Max
- Fire Shields - Level as required
- Basic fire protection - Max
- Devine fire protection - Max
- Hard fire protection - Max
- Flame wave- Arrow Max
- Flame wave- Burning Max
- Flame wave- Wide Max

Cold Force level until 68 (Optional-1 for more Defense )

- Weak guard of ice Max
- Soft guard of ice Max
- Power guard of ice Max
- Might guard of ice Max
- Nukes Max if you want (Low damage though)
- Ice walls Max if you want
- Passive Max

Pacheon Bowmanship level until 54 (Optional-2 for more attack power)

- Blue hawk summon Lv1
- Passive Max

Defensive nuker. Quiet Possibly the best trader build (everyone would love to have you go on trade runs with them), and would have the best survival rate when fighting 1 vs 1. This build is equipped with armour and sword+shield, however nothing is stopping you from alternating between weapons in mid-combat for more damage.

Heuksal (Spear) Level until 60.

- Passive Max

Lighning Level until 68.

- Must- piercing force Max
- Flow- Piercing force Max
- Speed- Piercing force Max
- Force- Piercing force Max
- Grass Walk- Flow Max
- Ghost Walk Max
- Grass Walk- Speed Max
- Concentration 1,2,3 Max
- Wolf’s Thunderbolt Max
- Tiger’s Thunderbolt Max
- Passive Max

Fire Level 70+

- River Fire Max
- Extreme Fire Max
- Poison Fire Max
- Soul Fire Max
- Fire Shields - Level as required
- Basic fire protection - Max
- Devine fire protection - Max
- Hard fire protection - Max
- Flame wave- Arrow Max
- Flame wave- Burning Max
- Flame wave- Wide Max

Bicheon (Sword) Level until 69

- Soul cut blade Max
- Evil cut blade Max
- Devil cut blade Lv 1
- Blood blade force Max
- Soul blade force Max
- Demon blade force Max
- Flower bloom blade Max
- Flower bud blade Max
- Dragon sore blade Max
- Snake sword dance Lv 1
- Petal sword dance Lv 1
- Passive Max

As you can see, this build would have the most powerful defensive skill in the game, the knockdown. Combined with the killing heaven series and the powerful fire nukes, this would be a formidable opponent 1 vs 1 in the right hands. This build also has the snake sword skills, which are a faster and longer range version of lightning, great for clearing out masses of mobs on traderuns. A word of caution on knockdown though, the effectiveness of this skill will reduce after the level cap is removed, just something to keep in mind. Also, new skills might be added and would require some changes made to this build to keep it up to date. Also, you may have noticed that the Lion Shout is not present in this build. This build uses the Blade Force Series instead which does more damage.

Equipment.

Although in this game, equipment can make or break any character, this rule applies the most to nukers. Where strength builds can fall back on their massive health to get out of tight situations, a nuker’s equipment is the only thing that will keep them alive. As such, unless you can afford the best, my suggestion don’t even bother to pvp anyone your own level as you will simply get owned. Thanks to the new alchemy system, nukers now have a far greater potential when it comes to pvp. If you have enough time/money you can put together a suit that adds 1200 HP, and also 60 STR (which would add another 1500 or so hp to your character). Combined with the spear passive a nuker can now have as much as 8000HP at lv 70. Some other useful things you can add to your equipment is the critical parry on your shield, this will reduce the chance of getting hit by a critical and thus makes you even harder to kill. You can also add attack rating to your weapon, and when combined with a lot of INT on your other equipment can significantly increase damage.

I hope you found this useful, happy nuking.

I'm going to try this....

But at least farm some on red eyes (they drop wind II) ^^

was this guide anygood?

I just started to level my old nuker. I had a pure int, but it died a lot....so I stopped leveling it.

But, it had around 14K of sp saved up, more than enough according to this guide.

So, I've started to level it from 33 to 36 now in just a few days....especially iwth all those quests. Since I'm pure int AND spear....everything dies wiht a single nuke....which means SUPER fast leveling. Since my fireball is also maxed (to level) along with imbue....even more damage. Although, the one thing I find is that you need to find something good to grind on that doesn't aggro too much. Right now, I found a perfect place on scrops and death flowers.

Next, I'll move to those bandit archers (the 37-ish ones). Since we both have range, it sould work out.

Blah...<--- needs a monkey...it would go EVEn faster.......

So...currently 0-gapping to 72...levleing only one tree....

However, unlike the guide, I'm leveling light to 37 so that I have two shock shouts. Pure magic attacks will be more powerful than a weapon just wtih imbue. In addition, I DO kill giants and champs....

I just leveled ice to 23 for that freeze teh ground ice punch thingy....

^^

It works...

Im at school atm notime to read it but atleast u put some efford in it ill read when i get home

Im at school atm notime to read it but atleast u put some efford in it ill read when i get home

i whish someone would read it

Sweet guide, though it wasn't any use to me at all. I think it's very usefull to other people (Especially newbs.)

Bump, come on ppl feedback

Looks nice. Btw: deffensive nukers can be just as deadly as offensive nukers. A pure INT spearman dies quickly: it's prolly the most vulnerable build in the game. Bicheon nukers deal decent damage but can also take a few hits.

Thanks alot, i just started recently and plan on making a nuker

I am wondering is it really helpful to use melee combat when i should only nuke from far away?

I have read some other posts and they said to only lv sword and spear mastery to lv 20. Just wondering if i should lv it to 69 as you have said.

This guide is really helpful to me, now I know which skills to add ^^

i got the lvl 30 skill like my friend sayed to do but i dont make huge meteors fall from the sky like his does and he has the lvl 30. whats wrong?

the reason why is because you only have book 1, the skill your freind has is book 3 which u cant get till lvl 56

You don't get that at level thirty. The skill your talking about is the third book of fire nukes that you get at I think level 56.

+1
should be added to the char builds sticky
easy to understand
good job

oh btw, you should get the maker to add some pics of nukes
in the intro, that woulda helped me A LOT when i first started out...
i was so confused about nukes.

Nice Guide

This point is very valid..... as a NUKER we need to make sure our BUILD has more parry for not getting CRITTED OUT

At 43, when i was nukin on Mujigi's .. they used to hella CRIT a lot and i used to die many a times so added more parry .. wOOt my build works awesomly in killin Mujigi's

All te best bein a NUKER & have fun Nukin around

So, I've been following this build pretty much. However, I find that you need to level ice too, it should be around 10 levels beind you, but only for the ice defenseive and ice freeze ground move. It's useful for giants only since everything will be one hit.

I've leveled from 28 to 40 with this build and it's awesome. I don't think it will take too long to get to relatively high level. HOwever, I'd suggest farming 10K at 42, and 20K at 52, which is what I plan to do. The 10K is to bring light nad ice up, and the 20K is to bring them up again at the differnt levels.

I would STRONLGY suggest this build to anyone who gets tired of leveling and seeing bots outlevel them. This is NOT a build that a bot could follow since it's a very situational one. You DO need to avoid some giants, run away from mobs if you're being ganged, etc.

Furthermore, if you feel you're going to start botting cuz you're tired of seeing everyone outlevel you, either try that or try this. I'd say this since you'll enjoy the game much more. I <3 this build.

Anyweay, if you have any questions, since I do have this build now, pm me.

I forgot to add two important things.

1) You can EASILY farm on reds with this build if you have ice....I mean red being +8-10 levels higher.

2) You DON"T need an sos though if you want, you can get one. It'd be much better to simply get a +3 spear at each level (or make one).

Thanks for the feedback

ty

GoldenGoku:
Cool break down of how to balance all 5 masteries lvl with the current cap. I have the exact type of build at lvl 36 only with a mastery at 30. The character is s/s with spear & light passive and ice buff all at 30. I'm also wearing armor. Still I have serious issue with defence 'cause my hp is only at a bit less than 1600. At this lvl, Robbers can deal over 400 damage on me. What else can I do to improve defence? The only thing I read that you have and I don't is the parry ratio light buff. Is that worth getting? I'm sp poor, so I want to conserve on the skills that really matters for a nuker; that's also why I am playing with a large gap and plan on farming some more at 42. Also, the fire protection buff for magic defence, is that necessary, since the character is pure int? I also read elsewhere to not go pure and add some str, but seriously, how much would that help?

ok are you ready i'm gonna give you some.. cause i've seen a lot of links to this guide all around this forum and ..well..it got some flaws...

first off the start is nice.. very nice.. but then you get to the skills..

i mean

flying dragon spear serries
blade cut series...very big huh wtf why??:?
pacheon tree for the hawk...ok this i understand almost took it too.. but it s.ucks

and some sword combo's??:? drop all that...you are never gonna use it...

i'll explain why.. dragon series.. no good.. if you are at a distance use a nuke, lion shout or what ever.. i've seen nukers use this.. and it doesn't work for this build.

same for blade cut serie..completly useless and i really mean completely useless....just use a lion shout.. just as fast, if not faster and does way more dmg.

pacheon tree.. not worth the masterie you lose and you don't need more dmg you need more def/hp so drop pacheon.


so basicly what you got left is
Heuksal

• soulspear series - maxed
• ghospear series - maxed
• passive - maxed

and leave the rest of spear alone.. you can have some fun with the 3,4 and 5 combo but all else is useless...

ok as for bicheon

• kd - maxed
• stab - maxed
• passive - maxed
• shield technique - max first and last book.. second one is optional.

well as for the force you pretty much got that right...but since i'm going anyway..

• fire - max all except the firewall..well i've seen ppl use this skill but well i like my nuker mobile.. but maybe this works.. dunno really haven't tried it and haven't looked into it to be honest.
• light - max all except the imbue (first skill serie)

as for cold.. wel i personaly don't like it.. Cause from my head it was like 400extra def.. well that ain't much.. i rather have some extra hp...besides you can get that extra def with the +str on your gear.. but you can take it...if you like.

So this build at the current 80 cap it would be.

• fire 80
• light 80
• heuksal 70
• bicheon 70

and ow this build is for a dual weapon fire/light s/s/spear nuker like i am.

So the other 2 options are pure int defensive nuker
for that you leave the heuksal skills (except the passive ofcourse) <= my favorite after the dual weapon build, had this then got the heuksal skills and became dual weapon.

Or leave the bicheon tree and go for cold if you want to be a offensive nuker.

ow if you go for the cold tree i would get it till lvl 70

• frost gaurd series - max
• frost nova series - max (very handy for slowing the enemy down)
  asuming that they are not immune.. as you can be now. But theories go that they will fix this.
• nuke optional cause fire and light do more dmg.
• passive - max

frost wall series - i wouldn't get cause again..I like my nuker mobile but if you wanna stand still and tank then get this.

but again.. your opening is nice.. only you got some weird skills for a nuker at the end.. imo..


ps. yes this post prob has a crap load of spelling, grammar and sentences that don't run so smooth..(prob 3 in this line alone ) but i typed this in like 3min and i wasn't in the mood to read it over. I'll correct it tomorrow... maybe

That's entirely false. Lion shout is actually pretty useless; the blade cut series does more damage and uses much less mp; and you don't have to waste sp to level it up until you want the next book. Lion shout is more useful for spear than s/s.

Also, the idea is to get both spear passive and cold for added defence. Not either one; it's easy to balance 4 masteries, but much more difficult to balance 5 (fire, light, ice, heuksal, bicheon).

I personally like all the 'projectile' skills for the nuker, like the blade cut, sword dance, flying dragon, because it's an easy and mp efficient way to finish off the mob after launching the nuke. You don't even have to move from your spot and the mob is dead before it gets to you. If it does come close enough, KD + stab.

Combos for s/s:
White mob: imbue + fire nuke + blade cut
White to orange: imbue + fire nuke + blade cut + sword dance
Orange: imbue + fire nuke + blade cut/sword dance + KD (when up close) + Stab (if necessary)

Did you level shock lion up past level 1? It does way more than blade cut series. And if it's taking you 3-4 hits to kill an orange monster, you're doing something wrong. Am I the only one on this entire forum that 1-shots orange mobs?

blade cut doesn't do more..(just read the stats) the imbue makes it do more dmg.. but if you use that with lion shout so does that...so lion shout does more. Wich makes soul cut blade useless, it's a pure str skill.

and when you say more dificult to balance 5 you mean weaker right.. 4 is pushing it.. 5 is not knowing when to stop. It's like hybrid.. get a little of all.. that's where most ppl make the mistake.. pick a few and make that strong.. don't go half on many, cause you'll end up a weak ass hybrid but then on skills.

Projectiles for nukers come on.. well ok you can like it.. it's personal and i can't say anything about it.. and for mobs it really don't matter.. but for pvp.. all that skills are useless.. maybe you and i have diffent goals.. cause i see grinding as the means to a goal wich is PvP. But some ppl see PvE as a goal on his own. I really can't understand that.. but if you are like that.. get all the projectile skills, 5 trees. Hey why stop there take 6 take pacheon too.. and then only grind green mobs.. np...and you'll have a great build for your goals. But when you job and get owned by somebody 10lvl's below you.. well you'll know why...cause you'll remember this topic

And mp save as a reason to get certain skills ...lol....and not moving is eliminated because nukes do the same.. so you only got mp save...lol again..sorry..i'll stop now.. won't even say anything about it.. cause it speaks for itself..

So I personally want to kick some ass.. so I want a build that's strong and effective, right until the cap.
and that combo's of yours.. might work on mobs but try it on a pure str.. then see how hard he laughs.. maybe he'll laugh's himself to dead, cause that's the only way he's gonna die.

If you don't believe me.. check out youTube.... type in "sro pvp pure int" and watch some.. see if you can find one that owns and uses your skills...cause everytime i see a pure int get owned he uses those Projectiles skills you love so much. Well better love dying too then.. cause you'll be doing a lot of it..

flexo , three finger +1

lionshout wif imbue = high dmg mininuke, fast cd
if u can kill white/orange wif imbue, nuke (+ shout if necessary), u are on the right track

but sometimes if i cannot fin mob in nuke + shout, i will nuke + KD (imbue KD has quite high dmg ), no stab should be needed

good job it is useful

+1 no you are not the only one.. if you ain't as a pure int than you should take a good look at your build.. and skills



yeah i agree kd is a good skill, i did the same if i needed that little extra dmg^^
good to see somebody that agree's with me

***EDIT**btw i'm posting a new topic on this blade cut serie vs lion shout.. to clear this up once and for all.. wich has the most dmg.

Flexo,

I don't see why you have to twist my words. I mentioned nothing about how to pvp or anything about using the blade cut series and sword dance to pvp. You obviously don't do that since you're up in someone's face in pvp. Also, it's a given that you imbue before you blade cut or for that matter, it's obvious for any pure int that you imbue before you use any weapon skills. As for having 5 masteries, that doesn't make you a hybrid; it made sense for added defence purpose to have both ice and spear passive, some light for speed, fire for nukes, and sword because you're s/s. That's how come you have 5 masteries. You could go ahead with less; than what are you sacrificing?

About 1 shot orange from an s/s. Now, that's a LOL. Impossible unless you have some super awesome gear. Prove it with a video!