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Level 30 Nuker Guide
By: Drew Benton

1. Intro
Why am I writing this? Well, first reason is because I finally got my character to level 30 - that means I could learn nukes and just blow stuff up! That and what else is there to do when you can't login to SRO in the afternoon.

2. Purpose
The goal of this guide is to provide a means to build a Level 30 pure int nuker. The reason it is for level 30 is because it is more "reasonable" than any levels higher. With a little patience and diligence, anyone can get to L30, without using anything from the Item Mart (as I did). In addition, if you don't have any fancy SoX weapons that is fine too, since you just have to get to 30.

Let me emphaise that this is not a guide on a full dual nuker build. It is only a guide on a level 3X dual nuker build. Once you get to level 32, you will have a new weapon to use and new decisions to make on where to go which is not covered here. I was only level 31 when I wrote this guide, so I am not going to "guess" what's best for levels I have not been.

One last note is that a real nuker build takes a lot more SP than talked about here. If you think you want to really get to the level cap, then you really should take this guide with a grain of salt! Don't limit yourself to just one resource, read them all! This one is to get to L30 as quickly as possible and have both lit and fire nukes avaliable. A real nuker would definitly use the Cold tree for the extra buffs, to which I have used non.

3. Overview
We first will look at the stats of this build.

Build Stats


All stat points go into Intelligence No questions asked! You're a nuker, not a hybrid or a tank, all stat points have to go into Int. Once you get to L30, you can do whatever you want afterwards, but for now, that's the thing to do.

The reason for this is because if you ever do decide to do a full int nuker build, you will already be used to the HP you will be having. If you were o try and do hybrid on this guide, it would defeat the purpose of the build. No STR since you won't be using any for any future nuker build!

Skills






If a skill has a 0 by it, that means you do not use it! The order that you choose the skills should be very logical when you are making your character. For example, if you have to choose between leveling the fire imbue or leveling concentration, choose which will help you the most (fire imbue). On that note, take damage increasing buffs over every other buff. The only exception is that of Level 1 Grasswalk, it's a must as soon as you can.

I choose to use the physical buffs just because in the event that nukes are blocked or 2 just aren't enough to finish off a mob, you will want to be able to just imbue hit/ use a skill once and be done with. A little extra SP spent that’s well worth it. In addition, these buffers are to help you get to 30 since all you will be using is phys skills for the most part.

If you are planning to do a full L60 nuker build, then make sure to consult other guides first! These buffers do you no good past L30, so a lot of people don't spend the SP on it. It's your choice though.

4. Build Strategy
I choose to use the Heusksal skill tab to help me do more damage. As you progress, having that tree is essential at higher levels for the HP bonus, so there is no sense in doing sword/bow and then have to delevel. Yes, with lower hp, you are at a disadvantage, but as long as you carry plenty of pots and play smart, you will be fine. Avoid being surrounded at all costs.

Attacks
The typical attack sequence will go (as you level and get more skills):

"Fire Imbue + Wolf Bite + Regular Attack"

"Fire Imbue + Dancing Demo + Wolf Bite + Regular Attack"

"Fire Imbue + Soul Spear + Wolf Bite + Regular Attack"

"Fire Imbue + Soul Spear + Ghost Petal + Regular Attack" (for non-aggressive)

"Fire Imbue + Shock Lion Shout + Soul Spear(optional) + Ghost Petal" (for aggressive)

And than any combination for giants/champs. Note that for "Regular Attack" you can substitute in Shock Lion Shout. I did not have the chain series attacks for my build since I had masteries at 23, but you can throw those in for a greater chance to cause "Burn" (much like multi-arrow and cold for bows).

You have to choose the best sequence for the mobs you are on. For example, when I had a great weapon, I could Fire Imbue + Shout + Petal horses and not get hit once. When I no longer had that (same level char though), I had to use Imbue + Soul + Petal and maybe a Shout if the damage was low.

Experiment and learn the chains to minimize damage done to you!

When you do finally hit 30, your main attack sequence will be:

"Fire Imbue + Flame Wave + Wolf's ThunderBolt + Shock Lion Shout "

And for weaker mobs around your level:

"Fire Imbue + Wolf's ThunderBolt + Shock Lion Shout "

And you will repeat as needed. The Heusksal moves are still there if you need to finish off something that a nuke would waste mp for. One important thing is if you are attacking a stationary target, you will fire the Flame Wave from a pretty nice distance, but then end up having to move closer for the Thunderbolt. Something to keep in mind before firing away.

Note that the transfer range of the lit nuke is 10m, which is about 4-5 inch on screen. Do not lit nuke to finish off any enemy if you are just going to attract 3 more! Play it smart, you can actually do some nice attack chaning this way though. For example, if you are fighting a champion and a non-aggro is near. You cast lit nuke to finish off the chamption. You should know the non-aggro will attack next, so you should already have selected it and either shout or fire nuke it, depending on how you are doing damaga wise.

Leveling
I'm not going to put a whole lot here because everyone plays different. Depending on your gear, you might want to fight tougher mobs, or you may have to work on weaker ones. There is no "one size fits all" strategy to this, so I'm not going to make up one.

The only thing you do need to know is that you need to join full Exp Dist parties. All the time, if you do not know how, hit "E" for party match, then simply click auto-join. If you are the leader and someone leaves, hit E again and "Form Party" then Ok to fill it up again. Full Exp Dist parties are crucial to leveling faster!

SP
How you want to do it is up to you. The goal is to have 7,579 SP earned by Level 30. I did end up doing quite a bit of farming in the beginning just so I could easily maintain all the trees as I went along. This is all up to you, use this page to calculate how you want to do things.

If you happen upon a very nice weapon for a later level, you will probably want to end up "farming" a bit at that level. If you don't, then you won't. Since this is a nuker build, you can cut quite a few skills when leveling to conserve SP. The most important are the fire imbue, shock lion shout, must-piercing, and L1 weapon skills. The extra buffs you can pass on (anything for parry in the lit tree or phys dmg in the fire tree)

I ended up leaving spear at 23 just so I could get to 30 faster and have nukes. The decision is yours. When I did hit 32, I got the spear to 30 for the HP passive, but that's where it's going to stay for a bit.

Equipment
For this build I choose to use Protector all the way. Having done garmet in past builds, I wanted to give it a try. From what I've seen, it was quite a bit better than garmet. At one time, around White Tiger hunting levels, I was mobbed by 2 White Tiger giants and a champion. Without berserk, I managed to kill them both off without dying. Of course I had a pretty good weapon, but the point is protector kept me alive whereas I'd be willing to bet I would have died with garmets.

Ok, maybe the difference is not *that* big, but it's up to you. I love protector now for Int characters. Of course as you get higher up, you will definitly need to go to armor, but from 1-30, protector seemed perfect.

The next thing that really makes a difference is your accessories. I'd opt to try and get the best rings/necklaces/earrings possible for the damage absorb. I think it makes a big difference, but I hae not yet tried it out. As soon as I can get back on, I will get hit once by a rock monster w/ gear on and then off and see the differences of the damage done.

For weapon, you will definitly want to use the best spear/glaive you can find. If you can get a nice glaive that is + 3 or more, but only can find a spear that is white and + 0, go for the glaive. The goal is to get to 30, not try to be the most "politically correct" with a weapon . One thing to keep in mind though is that you really need to have a weapon that is at least the level you are. If you are Level 18-20, you do not want to be stuck using a level 16 weapon. It will slow you down. I know it's not easy getting a devent weapon, but shop around when possible or hope something drops.

5. Conclusion
After all is said and done, you should have a L30 nuker that can deal out some good damage. Ever with average gear, which is what I mostly had during this character, you should be able to stay alive and competitive without any problems. Only times I died was from high level NPC thieves one-shotting me out of nowhere.

I am always open to any feedback, criticism, comments, and or suggestions with any of my work. I do a lot of this stuff so don't worry about it, I won't beat you up ^^.

Thanks for reading!

6. Bonus Video
Hope you like it I have pretty average gear on, L24-L29 regular protector set. Weapon is a L29 + 1 spear, no mods.

I can fire + lit nuke Hyeongcheon, Fire/Lit nuke + shout the guards, taoists, and gunpowders, fire + lit nuke Scorpions and Flowers 99% of the time. I have to shout once to finish the other 1%. Finally, Yeohas take 2 fire nukes and 2 lit nukes.

I can't wait to get a better weapon!

http://www.drewbenton.net/SRO/FireForce1.avi (4.5MB Requires DivX)

[edit1] - Spelling, Forgot Equipment Section
[edit2] - Additional content added based on feedback of methods

great guid this will help out with my new character
thank you

nice =D
im goin toO be a S&S nuker but i aint goin toO use any weapon skills =D

Nice

But let me give u an advice. Flame Devil Force
and Flame Body are completly useless for a nuker.
As a nuker u do almost only magical damage and this
2 skills only helps to increase ur physical damage. Theyr
skills for STR chars, not for INTs.

Agreed, but let me explain my reasoning

Depending on the circumstance, you will undoubtly have to use a physical attack during gameplay. For example, I can fire nuke + shout magicians 99% of the time. The other 1% has just enough hp left that I could lit nuke, but that would waste MP, to which I coulda just used that in the first place, or I could regular attack. At this time, fire imbue is pretty much out, and I need 2-3 regular attacks to finish off the monster.

My strategy is to use the 3-attack chain, which is a damage building up skill to finish them off. I have a regular +1 weapon w/ 13 crit, so I usually crit once, and sometimes twice during that chain, which when I don't have imbue on, I can rack up a little of 300 damage, which is more than enough to finish off the monster.

Now the way I see it, I'm leveling the fire tree regardless, and the extra SP spent adds to the "every little bit helps". Sure I may not see *that* much of a difference since I am pure int, but I'm going to go with the underlying assumption that ever little bit helps (For example how pure str fire glaives learn the piercing series for that little magic bonus). WHen I get masteries to 31, I will add in the Flying dragon-Flow skill to replace the 3 chain so I can use that at a range.

I understand what you're saying though, since I'm only L30, every little bit helps up to now, but further on, it probabally won't "add anything", but I will not develop those skills past L30 though. Thanks for the feedback though! I'll made an addition about what you have said.

Very well-written guide and structured too. Good work! Even though I currently play an Int hybrid (2:1) I got a few ideas from reading your guide. Since I am a SRO newbie (currently at level 22) your guide also was very helpful for the newbies like myself.

Keep up the good work, and I am looking forward to reading your updates and perhaps new guides?

Thanks for the nice comments! I'm still a SRO noob myself this is the highest I've ever been), so I know I've got lots to learn for 30+ I will be writing quite a bit more so I'll post stuff for you guys to read when I cna't get on SRO

Sry, I am going to have to disagree with you on this one. The physical attack increase buffs are completely useless, especially if you are going pure INT. Your mistake when training is that you are fighting mobs you can 1-nuke, shout THEN hit. If you have to use any other skills after your shout you are training on the wrong mobs.

Pure INT nukers should train on mobs they can kill with one nuke or a nuke and a lion shout. That is what makes them level so quickly, if you are doing rangeed attacks then have to run in for a final blow you are wasting your time.

Also, you should'nt plot out your build for level 30, you should go to either 60 or 70 that way people will know what to expect. Assume people are going to make it too the cap, if they arnt hardcore they can tone it down themselves. Now, I personally only have 10 points in Heuksal mastery to allow 1 level of the passive and the first level of Dancing Demon, that got me from 1-30. If you are going to be a duel nuker (Light and Fire) you will be using a LOT of SP and thus should probably not get Heuksal unless you plan on farming a LOT of SP as nukers are one of the most sp hungry builds.

Now, for equiptment you should wear garment at first. Then around 6th degree you should switch too armor, unless you are having trouble. If you are dying a lot you can switch too armor around 5th degree although most high level nukers have a set of Armor and Garment depending on what you want too do. Especially if you are going to train in the caves, ARMOR IS A MUST.

Hey antix! Thanks for taking the time to read and reply. Now a few comments:



I agree with what you're saying, but when you do hit 30 and can get nukes, chances are you still have a L29 weapon. That means when you are fighting taoists, ghosts, and powders, a nuke + shout might not kill them right away. Casting another nuke would waste both MP and HP since the enemy is already attacking you. At this time, fire imbue should still be active, so that's where a weapon skill is useful.

Of course 99% of the time you are not going to have to use it, but when it does occur, it's nice to have. A common example that happened to me: I fire nuked + shout'ed a taoist and killed it. I can quicky start lit nuke on the next mob, but an earth ghost and/or more powders would spawn around me and try to swarm.

For the most part, they were already close enough in range for the lit nuke transfaer, so a petal easily finished them off. Examples like those when you are low 30s and are getting mobbed is more "ideal" to using the weapon skills. I do not want to fire nuke + shout then run up on anything. Most of the time, it's for when they run up on you Once you do hit 32 though and can get the next level weapon, then it is as easy a you say it is, 1 nulke + shout or nuke alone.

With my 32 + 3 spear, I can fire nuke hyeng guards, nuke + shout the bigger ones, fire nuke powders, taoists, and ghosts easily. Of course there's that 1% chance it low hits so shout is there to finish it off.



Valid point, but I think you misunderstood my goal in this guide. This guide is *literally* for people that just want to give the nuker build a try, which as wel know is level 30. At most, they could prob play to mid-30s, hit 32 for the new weapon. and that's it. There is no continuing on, or "now that you're 30 its time to...."

People reading this may be wondeing, well what's the point of 30. Here's my reasoning:
* Getting to 30 is a challenge, but a doable challenge.
* Physchological factor - looking at a guide that talks about getting to 30 when you are level 20 is a heck of a lot nicer than looking at a guide that talks about getting to 60.
* This guide is for people to give the dual nuker build a try, it is build around a mostly solid idea (aside from difference on phys dmg skills, to which are there to help get to 30 in the first place )
* When a person does get to 3X, they will be able to evaluate if they like the build or not. Nukes are fun, but a lot of people might not like all the SP it takes, or the really low HP, etc...

Now, I may have sounded a bit "in the future" at parts, but the overall goal was mid-3X. I know I will be playing around with this character some more, but that's about it. I don't see this character being "great" just due to what level you need to be to actually succede as a pure int nuker.

Now, if a person wants to build a full fledge pure int nuker, get to the level cap, then yes, this guide is not for them. I only address the stuff up to 30, because that's all of where I've been. I'm not going to BS any higher, simply because I haven't been there yet.



Great info to know, thanks! However in relation to the guide, as was last said, all the SP needed for this specific build is that 7k figure. Once you get that then you're done, since the plan is the level 30.

Now, I know I should have probabally waited for 32 so I could talk about phantom and the throwing spear skill, but from what I heard, phantom is no good until level 5ish, so I decided to only go to 30 for that matter.The HP passive at 30 is nice jump too.



I'll definitly take your word on that I, however, just fell in love with Prot in Jang area and ended up liking it better than Garmet. Plus, protector looks nicer on the female characters

Thanks again for replying. I'll add in some more warnings as to what the guide is for, specifically, so it's not misread. Any adiditonal comments on what was just said, I'm all ears

nice guide but i think a build that has only 7k sp will not work out too well i assume the 7k is only up til 30 cause a nuker is gonna need a lot more than that

Ah yes, see my previous reply I updated the guide itself too to reflect that.

Great guide! Thanks! However, i still have 1 question. is it worth putting some SP in to cold due to Nuker's low hp? btw, i decided to go with a 4 gap all the way.

if your not planning on maxing ice - don't get it

ok i guess i won't, thanks!

I guess I need to do a reupdate to this. Since I moved to Alps, I am doing things a little differently - such as keeping Lit at 17 (just for mustpierece 3, grass l1, and l1 shout), then keeping fire at (level - 1) for imbue. I'll see how that goes and update.

nice guide

Okay, thats a guide for the first week at most. Now what?

This is a really decent guide for low levels.

Some people take more than a week to get to 30, so calm down chaud.

My only comments would be:

You only need soul spear, ghost and the passive, none of the other spear skills. I also wouldn't put any points into the fire passive but would get level 1 book one of the buff.

If you aren't worrying about the cold buffs why worry about the fire ones? Although you are wearing protector so the taoists and gunpowder hurt. Personally I think that the cold buffs are necessary for a high level nuker (planning ahead is important).

I wouldn't worry too much about getting skillls that will be useless later, the curst heart quest will delevel them easily, I just wouldn't go crazy getting too many as its a waste of money.

When I was sub 30 on my nuker I found that Soul spear + imbue + (and later shout) killed pretty much everything (I didn't use an SOS, but did have a +3 weapon and did have +2-3 int on every piece of gear). On occasion I would use ghost to hit multiple enemies and maximize the use of my imbue.

now im a hybrid int build but i check out nuker builds and stuff but just checking
lvl 19 now
since i most likely wont kill with both nukes and shock shout and have to regular attack that would mean that getting phsyical attack bonus would be good right?

and its said that if ur not planning to max ice dont bother but i keep debating over the buffs and stuff. are they that good and worth it?

EDIT: also since the flying-dragon spear move lvl 31 and ur mastery is only lvl 30 would u get it or not?

Í'm making my first nuker now, after a pure fire str blader. But i don't know anything about nukers so. It does not say anything about what skills to choose in what specific way. This nuker will be pure int, no matter how long i need to farm. (even a year)

lvl 6 (wearing prot)

Heuksal 5 (spear)
Ice 5
Fire 4
Lighting 4

Haven't chosen any skills.

i can say only 1 thing>i disagree with ppls who are sayinr that nuker is doind almost 1 nke ,or sometimes nuke +shout>
i have lvl 32+5 long halbert>my skills are lvl 30>and fire imbue lvl 25th
am full int char and my mag balance is 104 %>have good acc_s>
so, am killing lvl 32 scarpions with fire umbue+fire+lio shout
but sometimes >1:5>they are not dyind after 2 hit>and am getting very angry of this,and i think that ppls who have a lvl 32 +0 spear !how they are killing them,
on lvl 30 when i had lvl 29+3 spear,i have gone on scorpions,and was killing them with cold umbue(extra freezing)+fire >+cold
and
it seems even my spear lvl 32+5 for 2kk is only a 50/50 weapon,sometimes good thing sometimes not,

"Full Exp Dist parties"
what does that mean, that you join a party but dont get exp if anyone in you party kills a beast/monster?? that you onely join because they will help you out, protect your back?

It's done very well, and I've gotta tell you, you know your stuff for a lv 30.
You cover everything, even how to grind!

The only thing I don't agree with you on is how you only have lv 1 physical skills... I mean, it's not THAT necessary yet, but you wanna level 'em later to get new books of physical attacks.
But I'm gonna be making a new char soon, and I'm gonna use this guide
I like it because actually, by not leveling physical skills, you save alot of sp.

Doubt he's here anymore seeing as the post is from a year ago.

no no no, in exp distribution parties you get a % increase in exp and sp gained, but you don't split the exp and sp between the members if they are close to you. so basically you get a bit of free exp and sp.

Lol, I didn't even notice

very nice guilde!

no i will not play FlyFF with you rofl