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I. Intro
II. LVL 80 Bicheon
III. LVL 80 Lightning
IV. LVL 80 Fire
V. LVL 80 Cold
VI. Lvl 80 Gear
VII. LVL 90 Intro
VIII.LVL 90 Bicheon
IX. LVL 90 Cold
X. LVL 90 Lightning
XI. LVL 90 Fire
XII. Lvl 90 Alternative
XIII. Lvl 90 Gear
XIV. Stats
XV. How To Use
XVII. SP Recap
XVIII. Lvl 100

I. Intro:
First of all, this is my very first guide. I made this guide basically because there are no current and up to date guides about a s/s hybrid nuker, and as my favorite class, I want to make one. I could choose to hide my build because I love it, but this game isn’t that difficult after you play it for a while, and there are hardly any secrets...
THIS IS MY VERY FIRST GUIDE, AND IM SORRY IF YOU DONT LIKE IT, BUT IF YOUR GOING TO FLAME, ID RATHER YOU JUST DIDNT COME IN.
Please do crticize my guide and give me feedback, good and bad so i can improve and update it, give your opinion and thoughts, but do it all in a civilized manner.

For planning purposes, extra help with balances, sp, farming and just character planning in general, see http://www.nivlam.com

As this is, this entire guide is solely MY INFORMATION. I have not taken anything from anyone else unless otherwise noted. If need be I will add a credits section to give credit to those who help me with my guide, but as of the first post of this topic, it is all from my own head. Scary eh?

So, Why be a hybrid S/S nuker?
Because with the new introduction of snow shield, combined with being a hybrid, you can tank like your on steroids, while dealing out super damage. Good hp, blocking, good def, snow shield, whats not to love?

So, I am a lvl 80 hybrid int s/s nuker, I was originally a spear user, but decided on sword/shield because I want block, extra defense to stay alive…and kd with quadruple stabs at lvl 90

IMO, I have a really good build for lvl 80 and 90, and this guide will be divided into a lvl 80 and a lvl 90 build.I have tried to include sp amounts to make this guide as helpful as possible, there is both a MAX sp count, and more economical version in areas where it can apply.

My current build is:
80bicheon
80lightning
80fire
60ice

this is my suggested build for lvl 80 and below is basically why I chose these things.

II. LVL 80 Bicheon
Bicheon: mastery from 0-80 is going to cost 44,826 sp
Bicheon tree is your main pvp skill with some offset skills to help in grinding. It’s also very fun to use.
I’ll start from top to bottom on a comprehensive discussion for each series.

Smashing Series:


Until lvl 80, it was a useless skill to have. Now that Flying Stone Smash has a chance to cast bleed onto someone, it becomes useful. I will confess, my fully farmed 80 DOES NOT have this series, but I really do wish I did. Bleed will cast damage over time, and also reduces the defense of the opponent slightly, very useful if casted. It can be pilled off with new pills, but they have a 20 sec delay and not everyone will have them. Worth a shot.
Maxing this series will cost you 18,988 sp
Getting only lvl 1 of flying stone smash, so u can just use the status will cost you 10,330 sp

Chain Sword Attack Series:


Useless in pvp until lightning chain, but helpful in grinding because a chain will do more damage than a nuke, its just split up into 4-6 hits instead of one hit. Lightning chain is your goal because of the status effects. It can randomly cast:
-Impotent-reduces the damage dealt by the opponent
-Bleed-does DoT and slightly reduces opponents defense
-Division-greatly reduces opponents defense
(with bleed and division, my +7 sword is capable of 11-13k average on a str glaiver, max ever was 15k on a lvl 80 glaiver. Again, useful for the status effect.
Maxing this series will cost you 40,277 sp
Excluding the chains not needed for lightning chain and lightning chain remaining at lvl 1: 11,863 sp

Shield Technique series:


Castle shield and IronWall shield are VERY USEFUL!!!! GET THEM!!! They basically increase your phy defense for 15 seconds, super useful when your getting hammered by str chars. Mountain shield and Giant shield IMO are a waste of sp, haven’t found much of ANY use for them except eating sp.
SP cost for castle shield and iron wall: 13,685 sp

Blade Force Series:


Agro mobs onto you, fun to pwn noobs with, but no real super use IMO.
Sp cost: 18,182sp recommended:0

Hidden Blade Series:


Your bread and butter, but so much tastier. Its simple really, just use it, and it has a chance to KD people, once they are on the ground you can follow up with stabs.
SP cost: 36,902 sp, no cut backs here.

Killing Heaven Blade Series:


You use this series to stab enemies that you have knocked onto the ground, super effective in pvp, again a skill to love. Starts out one stab, then another single stab, then a double stab. (another double stab at lvl 90) and u can use 2 stab skills while an opponent is on the ground, unless your lagging. >.<
Sp cost: 20,120sp No cut backs here.

Sword dance series:

Just like blade force series but it hits multiple people, Useless for you except to agro mobs over. My recommendation is to get lvl 1 snake sword dance and lvl 1 petal sword dance so you can use them, but not waste sp on them.
Suggested sp: 729 sp

Shield Protection Series (passive)

This is your bicheon passive, it makes you block more, nuff said, max it and never even think of not maxing ANY passive u have mastery lvls of.
SP to max: 5,844 sp no cut backs!

III. LVL 80 Lightning

Lightning: mastery from 0-80 is going to cost 44,826 sp
Lightning is a must for all int based characters, because every skill within it is essential to magical based attacks and characters.

Thunder Force Series: (imbue)

At lvl 80 I use fire imbue instead, but don’t move on so quickly, you will be using this imbue at lvl 90 most likely, so you can up it now or wait. It looks awesome with bicheon skills too . Also, the splash given by the lightning imbue will transfer status effects from your lightning chain bicheon skill. Lightning imbue will shock the enemies, which reduces their parry ratio, therefore they take harder hits, but its almost always pilled off or resisted due to immunity.
Sp to max: 21,769sp

Piercing Force Series:

Increases your magic damage done, what else do you need? MAX IT!!!! NO CHOICES HERE!
Sp cost: 5,892 sp

Wind Walk Series:

This offers both moving speed when you run, but also a ghost walk in which u move super fast, near instantaneously to a distance away. Starting at 10meter and capping at 22meters at lvl 80, it is very usefull. Max grasswalk + ghost walk will be faster than the outdated lvl 60 horse.
Sp to max the whole series: 25,521 sp no cut backs here

Lion Shout series:

Not used much in pvp unless your one shotting a noob…dam you noob killers. But its amazing for grinding because it’s a super quick attack with good power, better than overkilling a mob by 7k damage with a nuke and wasting 3 more secs of casting time. Looped over many mobs, you saved yourself A LOT of time.
Sp to max: 20,082sp No cut backs here either.

Concentration series:

It increases your parry ratio which will help you to take less damage from enemies, who doesn’t wana live longer? GET IT! Although at the higher lvls its increase in parry slows dramatically. Recommended to max it, but not maxing it by 2 lvl will save u some sp and only lose 1 parry, for a total of 30.
Sp to max: 14,058
Economical cut: 9,647 sp (you lose 1 parry but gain 4.5k sp )

Thunderbolt Force Series:

Highly effective nuke, It bounces in a 10m range to hit multiple foes max of 3, great for grinding and group fights. Max this because this will be a huge damage dealer at lvl 80, and your main damage nuke at lvl 90.
Sp to max: 21,725

Hevean’s Force Series (Passive):

Passive that increases your parry ratio..helps you take less damage, and it’s a passive, so its foolish not to max it.
Sp to max: 5,844

IV. LVL 80 Fire

Fire: mastery from 0-80 is going to cost 44,826 sp
At lvl 80, fire is a possible use, but will be likely dropped at 90 . Fire offers you massive damage with the nukes and imbue, and status immunity, and mag defense, plus phy damage buff which will help your damage when u crit/hit with bicheon skils.

Fire Force Series:

The highest damage imbue with a status effect of burn, that does DoT, but can be pilled off. I Almost always use this imbue at lvl 80 because of its sheer power. Max it.
Sp to max: 21,769

Fire Shield Series:

Reduces the effect lvl of status’ like burn and electric shock, and most importantly, freeze. Max this and combined with good blues on jewelry, you will be immune to everything. I have not used a single pill in like 5 months because my jewelry always keeps me immune.
Sp to max: 6,817

Flame Body Series:

Increases your physical attack. Useless to help your nukes, but you’re a hybrid, and in pvp or against mobs your going to use bicheons skills, so physical damage increase DOES HELP, especially when you crit.
Sp to max: 5,033
Lvl 1 of the third book in this series (only 7% increase): 7,286 (not recommended but available)

Fire Protection Series.

Increases your magical defense. Every Chinese character does a large amount of magical attack, even pure strs. So this is extremely useful, especially against those dam nukers.
Sp to max: 20,082 sp

Fire Wall Series:

Make a wall of fire that will absorb magical damage. IMO, totally useless and a waste of sp
Sp cost: 0

Addition: Some noob wizard thinks hes a hot shot cuz he can use invisible and is too afraid for a little 1 on 1? Pop a fire wall and his first hit is worthless. Enough time hopefully to kill him before he kills you.

Flame Wave Series:

The fire nukes, extremely powerful and deadly. You need to max the first book to get the fourth book, and the second book is the most powerful nuke until lvl 77+ when the 3rd book, Flame Wave Wide, if your strongest nuke by far. Flame Wave bomb, the new and fourth book in this series, is a bit of a weaker nuke, but its cast time is super fast, making it useful for a quick kill on a lower lvl, a horse running by, or a good finisher on a mob.
Sp to max: 58,728 sp

Fire Combustion series:

Reveals invisible and stealth players, such as the rouge and wizard. Or you can just use the potions from the NPC in town. I do not have this skill because my sp was better suited elsewhere.
Sp to max: 11,564
Alternative: 0 sp

Flame Devil Force Series: (passive)

Increases your physical damage. Helpful in pvp when your using bicheon skills and especially when you crit.
Sp to max: 5,844

V. LVL 80 Cold

Although it says lvl 80 Cold, your mastery is only going to be 60 when you are lvl 80, hence, lvl 80 cold.

Cold: mastery from 0-60 is going to cost 12,764 sp
I leave cold at lvl 60 because IMO the more damage from fire at 80 is better. Lvl 60 cold is its biggest boost so far in stats, so ice from lvl 1-59 is out of the picture, its a waste of sp and mastery skills to have it anything below. Lvl 60 allows a nice def buff from the passive and cold armor, and the ice shield will do a 40% absorbtion, which is more than enough atm.

Cold Force Series:

Don’t use this imbue, fire or lightning outshine this imbue any time. People like it for grinding, but mobs are weak and theres no need to freeze them since you’re a nuker and should kill them off exceptionally fast.
Sp: 0

Frost Guard Series:

Buff that increases your physical defense. Relatively low and weak until lvl 60 where it will get a big increase.
Sp to lvl 60: 6,422

Cold Wave Attack series:

Adds cold effect to targets. Usless or just a little fun for now, but potential at higher lvls where immunity to effects will become harder and harder since fire shield stop getting lvls.
Recommended Sp for now: 0

Frost Wall Series

Puts up a wall of ice that absorbs physical damage, IMO its useless, just like Fire Wall is, so i suggest no points be added.
Sp: 0

Addition: With euros out, fire wall and Ice wall are no longer totally useless. Some noob rouge running around thinking hes a hot shot in invis? Pop up any ice wall and his first attack is useless against you. Enough time to locate him, phantom and kill hopefully.

Frost Nova Series:

Fun to use because if someone isn’t immune, they can get frozen before pilling it off and it will interrupt them. Useful later on as immunity to ice will become harder to get.
Recommended now: lvl 1 of each book: 416 sp

Snow Storm Series:

Your ice nukes, at lvl 60 they are extremely weak since your lvl 80, and have no use until lvl 90 when ice will become a maxed mastery.
Sp for now: 0
or get lvl 1 of each book: 612 sp

Snow Shield Series:

Absorbs damage and reduces mana instead. At lvl 60 it will offer you a 40% absorbtion. Plenty until lvl 90 comes.
Sp to max to 60: 4,061

Cold Armor Series: (passive)

Passive that increases your physical defense, very useful especially when a str glaiver crits you.
Sp to max to 60: 1,680

VI. Lvl 80 Gear


Almost forgot, what are you going to wear?! Can’t go out naked now can you. Obviously your going to be using a sword and a shield. At least +5’ed when your capped. Crit IS important on your sword, because crits on kds hurt and could make you win that much faster. Accessories and weapons should go without saying, its mainly the body you need to be concerned with. At lower lvl grinding, garments more than suffice, at 60+ grinding, armor comes in handy, then in the 8th degree use a combo of armor and protector, finishing your tier off with full protector set. You can get by with 8th degree garms, but it is still extremely tough against str players. However, I will admit I DO wear garms…..i sold all my sosun protector >.<. I always thought a str glaiver would pwn me in my +4 garms, but I have yet to find a glaiver up to the challenge.

These are pics of my sword and shield. All hand crafted by me, and my stones.



VII. LVL 90 Intro

At 90, I suggest, for now:
90bicheon
90light
90ice
30fire/heuk/pacheon

Above in the lvl 80 guide, I have already explained the use of the skills, so here, unless there is something new, I will just give you the sp cost for lvl 80-90 or 60-90 for cold.

VIII.LVL 90 Bicheon

Bicheon: sp for lvl 80-90: 29,680
Bicheon will become even better at lvl 90, there is a new kd and a new stab, and you can now do a QUINTUPLE STAB!!! (5 stabs).

Smashing series: From maxed (lvl 5) to maxed lvl 90 (lvl 10) costs 15,104 sp

Lightning chain from lvl 80-90 costs 15,104 sp

Iron Wall: costs 8,746 sp

Blade Force Series: 15,629sp

Hidden blade series (both the 3rd and 4th books): 24,798

Killing Heaven Blade Series (both the 3rd and 4th stabs): 9167

Shield Protection Series (Passive): 3,547

IX. LVL 90 Cold

Cold:lvl 60-90 costs 61,742 sp
Huge boost in buffs from lvl 60 to 90, but this tree is gona be expensive because it’s a 30 lvl increase instead of only 10.

Frost Guard Series:31,556 sp

At lvl 80, we left Cold Wave Attack and Frost Nova Series empty or releatively empty. However, now at lvl 90, the fire shield buff is still only lvl 69, and therefore ice immunity, or any immunity becomes harder. Granted it can be pilled off, if they have pills, but freezing an opponent will interrupt them, even if for only a second, and could potentially save your life. Plus who knows, could come in handy for grinding.

Cold Wave Attack Series: 25,712sp

Frost Nova Series: 47,514 sp

Snow Storm Series:
Now that you no longer have fire nukes, your going to need these nukes for grinding.
Sp cost: 66,462 (0->90)

Snow Shield Series: 19,671 sp

Cold Armor Series (Passive): 6,985 sp

X. LVL 90 Lightning

Lightning: 29,680 sp to go from lvl 80-90

Thunder Force Series:
Lvl 0-90: 36,873
Lvl 80-90: 15,104

Piercing Force Series: 3,336

Wind Walk Series: 12,188

Lion Shout Series: 15,104

Concentration Series: 9378 sp

Thunderbolt Force Series: 12,293sp

Heavens Force Series (Passive): 3,547 sp

XI. LVL 90 Fire

Even though it says lvl 90 fire, your going to have lvl 0 fire, but this is the plan in this guide for your fire tree at lvl 90.

Now here is the rather annoying part about this build, deleveling fire. Your gona miss it, I know, but I gotta get rid of it. Luckily, this is extra sp for you. And don’t worry, it wont cost too much gold…I hope 

Fire, as it is now, pimped in skills up to lvl 80, costs 163,106 sp. Using skill potions from the item mall will get you that much sp, however, using curst hearts will give you 80% of that sp. I highly sugest, if its possible, to use item mall potions for the high lvls of fire, then finish it with curst hearts. I plan on using item mall potions for lvl 80->70 and then curst hearts the rest of the way.

Many lvl 80s are stuck with this problem...no mastery room for lvl 90, so if you are going to make a new char, decide if you want lvl 80 fire now, or just wait until lvl 90 since it is most likely Christmas time, as the best estimates go. Its up to you.

XII. Lvl 90 alternative

At lvl 90 you have 30 left over masteries with 3 maxed masteries. You can choose fire,heuksal, pacheon, or force.

No matter what you choose, its not going to be outstanding because it is only lvl 30. Fire will give you some mag def, phy dmg, and fire shield. Heuksal will give you extra hp. Pacheon will give you attack rating, and force will give you…well…nothing. The choice is yours, and it can be easily changed. Don’t expect much from this lvl 30 mastery, I will likely choose heuksal for the HP. -Update- The issue of status immunity has been brought up numerous times by people and friends, and even in this topic, so i started thinking about it. Ice could be your worse enemy with no fire. Perhaps lvl 30 just for fire shield doesn't look so bad after all.

XIII. Lvl 90 Gear

At lvl 90, your going to ditch your 8th degree protector for 9th degree garms. Now that you have cold lvl 90 and all that bonus physical defense, you can wear garms to compensate for the loss of the magic defense buff in the fire tree. Garms also have 20% moving speed and 20% mana reduction, both of these help. First you will be super fast, not to run, but to hunt down your cowardly foes as they flee from your unstoppable rampage!!!!!:). The mana reduction also helps a lot because mana is very important when you have snow shield on and your getting hit a lot, nukes are mana heavy and you really don’t want to run out of mana. In every way possible, at lvl 90, garments compliment your character.


XIV. Stats
Your still a nuker, so your still mostly int. I suggest keeping your magic balance between 85%and 90% WHEN YOUR NAKED!!!. Always determine your balances naked, never with any bonus + to stats. Decide what you want, more magic attack, and magic defense and mp, or more physical attack, phy defense, and hp, and then adjust your balance between 85% and 90% accordingly. If your magic balance goes too much above 90%, you become a weak hybrid and too much like pure int, more like a confused hybrid.

At lvl 90, as brought up by [AoW]ForLife, dropping fire is a significant loss of damage, and as a result I would like to add that for lvl 90, there should be a bigger focus for a higher magic balance. The extra int will help your damage. I was thinking of possibly 10-15lvls of str at lvl 90 is gona be adequate enough hybrid without losing too much damage from int.

XV. How To Use

I can not tell you how to use your character, instead I will just give advice and tell what I do, hopefully you will read it and use some of it to make your own style. Its very hard to screw up using skills while grinding or pvp.

GRINDING:
In grinding, you should be using nukes MOST OF THE TIME. Against a single monster, use a nuke, and depending on how much damage you do is gona decide your next move. If your nuke does most of their hp, use one or 2 lion shouts. If you find 2 lion shouts is not enough damage, then I suggest using 2 nukes, and if 2 nukes are overkill, use one powerful nuke and a flame wave bomb nuke (fast but weaker) If you do not have flame wave bomb, and 2 nukes seems over kill but 2 lion shouts leaves some alive, I suggest different mobs. Ideally, as a nuker you can be fighting high orange / red mobs. Grinding is all about grinding EFFICIENCY, without grinding efficiency, you will lvl much slower. Killing with 2 nukes is ideal, its still a fast kill, and the mobs should be a good deal higher, so u get good exp. An occasional lion shout after 2 nukes is fine, but you don’t want to be 3 or 4 nuking regular mobs. When you see a rather tight group of mobs, use a ghost walk into the crowd, and use petal sword dance, this will agro at least 3 mobs to you and probably more because mobs close to the agroed mobs now come. Then follow up with lightning nukes for radius damage, and flame wave wide/burning (your fire nukes that hit multiple people) or with your ice storms. You should quickly kill multiple enemies with splash damage and roll in the exp. Nukers are great at crowd control and with a shield, you shouldn’t have problems with mobs at higher lvls. When it comes to party monsters and giants, use KDs and chains because they have the largest source of damage, more than nukes (but nukes start from a range, so using kd on every mob wastes time running up to them to kd). The reason they do more damage is because kds hit fast, and when the target is on the ground, you can follow up with stabs which are really fast and powerful attacks. At lvl 80, spamming kd and stabs on a giant kills it much faster than spamming nukes. HOWEVER, use nukes on giants if other mobs are around, because area damage will kill those mobs and you get basic free kills from your radius damage while pounding a giant. Also, use lightning chain on giants, casting division or bleed can be very helpful in taking it down quickly.

PVP:
PvP is your own style, do what you feel comfortable with, but KD’s in pvp are the best. Use nukes sparingly. And don’t forget to use your ice shield if you need to stay alive. Ignore the noobs who complain about it, they just can’t stand not being able to kill a nuker in pvp.

XVI. SP Recap

Here I will compile all the sp amounts for you, so you can get the big picture without scrolling through my overstuffed guide. The counts are only approximate depending on if you want to follow some of the economic alternatives to sp or not. Give or take some sp depending on what you choose.

Lvl 80 cap:

Bicheon: 164,159

Lightning: 137,948

Fire: 163,106

Cold: 25,343

Total: 490,556

Lvl 90 Cap: from 0-90

Bicheon: 271,034

Cold: 285,295

Lightning: 260,347

Total: 816,676

BUT subtract the sp you get from fire, which is a minimum of 130,485sp if you use curst hearts for the whole thing.


Hope you liked the guide, yes its long…sorry, but hopefully someone can come in here, read it, and leave knowing exactly how to make a hybrid, hopefully they don’t copy me 100%, uniqueness is what will excel your character over everyone else’s. Most importantly, have fun with your character.

XVIII. Lvl 100
HaHa, maybe some other time But dam thye are smexy!

Lvl 100 gear

This is excellent!

thank you, it took an unbelievable amount of time to do this all. Wanted it to look good and give good info at the same time.

P.S. Adding pictures of my sword and shield now.

WooooooW
why would someone flame u
this is Extremely Excellent
great job
i'll start a hypird int s/s
hoping to reach lvl 80

Great guide ^^

+infinite

Good guide but I think it belongs in the guides section

Just one question, what would be a good reason to go hybrid instead of the oh so popular pure int s/s? One of my friends who was lvl 80 with very good gear said it couldn't kill anything but he never told me his balance.

good job...u put a lot of ur time into this....hope some nuker learn a thing or two from it...

pure ints, even with snow shield, die easily to a str glaiver. Even as a hybrid they hurt me, although i have the adequate hp to survive, a 100%pure int, would both lack that extra hp, and physical defense. A few well placed hits and a crit or two, and idc who you are, unless your full sosun, your going down fast. Especially with SSE +SSS, nukers tend to need a lot more hp than they have if they are pure int.

I would also like to add that when lvl 70-80 skills were close to coming out, I thought my hybrid was doomed because now pure ints had snow shield, however that quickly changed. I watched as my friend got rid of all of his sosun prot set, sun+5 shield and sun+7 blade because a glaive pwned him so easily! Even a pure int with sun+7 sword, sun+5 shield, and full sun+5/+6 armor got rid of his char. Pure ints, as my guess goes, until lvl 150, will always be the easiest class to kill, which is why i fell in love with my hybrid.

A hybrids kds and stabs are far more effective than a pure ints, which is what counts in pvp. Certainly, in a job war IF NO ONE ATTACKS THEM, a pure int would be better suited than a hybrid because they can just straight nuke with very powerful attacks, but they better have their running boots on, because people know to target the nukers first.

Thanks for the detailed response. Few more questions though as I might possibly be switching to this build:

First, whats your mag. balance without gear and how much do you normally nuke str chars that don't have sun parts.

How much does a +5 glavier crit on you with mars?

HP?

Right now my mag. balance without gear is 91%, should I keep it at 90 or will 85% still do good damage?

Um, I don't know about other status effects, but lightning imbue does not transfer KD. I've been using the 1st KD book on Hyeongcheong w/ lightning imbue and the nearby enemy (who gets hit with the transfer) has never gotten KD'ed before.

Good questions, hard answers, because there a lot of variables. My naked mag balance is 86%.

Hard to tell who has sun and who doesnt, but my average nuke on someone i would say has no sun is about 9k. with division, anywhere from 11-13k(including known sun users)

A +5 glaiver, well tbh idk this one, most of alps is sun and or +7/+9. +7 glaives can hit me about 6k crit, 6.5k. A +5 glaiver (its been a while) is prolly more around 5.5k.

My HP as of right now is 10.5k, my gear still needs +str, i could cap at probably 11k-11.2 with fully pimped gear.

Phy def in all +4 garms (except my boots, i recently lost those after murdering a mouthy noob, they are now +3 white boots) is 872 unbuffed. And my magic defense is 2007 unbuffed.

TBH, you should not die to a +5 glaiver unless they have some really nice phy% and crit, and are fully farmed. Even then they would need to land a few nice crits, because with a good br, they wont be hittinging you every shot. (I LOVE to block SSE and mars all in a row, they get so pissed! )



I'm almost sure about this, ill look into it farther, i swear ive done it before

i love this guide as it is detailed and comes with good reasoning... keep it up dude... anyway, im also playing with a s/s hybrid character... its fun to go with nukes, kds and chains... esp when you are grinding. IMO i would always go for full protector set!! once again.. good job

Great!!!!
Poining out a little mistake though: I don't think thunder imbue transfers KnockDown. It transfers all of the abnormal statusses, but not KD.

That is a fantastic guide dude.

Shame this forum doesn't have a +rep or +karma system.

Ya, i could have sworn it transfered my kds a few times, stupid me i must have not bee uing demob blade, but used soul blade (whice does multiple kd's on its own).

I tested this last night, just forgot to fix it before going to bed, fixed now.

BTW, love all the positive feed back

Wow, great guide. I'll definately be using this as a reference when I build my own hybrid

One minor nit though.
The yellow headings are rather hard to read, they could do with a different colour. (I told you it was minor )

WOW... i LOOOOOVE THIS GUIDE!

i been working on a hybrid s/s in my spare time... its only lvl 25 now but soon to be up there^^

so far naked i got 83mage and 67 phy balance... that pretty ok phy balance?

my masteryies tho will be a little different then those you said.

80 light
80 sword
80 force
60 cold

is snow sheild worth it? cause i am 4gapping now so i can get by without farming but if i get cold now( cold is at 0 i was ganna up it when i got llv 80) id need to farm.

i plan on going force for self heal(can be usfull for saving pots during down times), harmony theropy(kinda self explanitory), and the vital spots. i seen this guy at lvl 80 using vital spots. he was doing some awsome damage cause one of em i think reduces your opponents mage defence by 300 or soemthing. anyone know if vital spots can be pilled of?

Interesting..force. Unfortunately i cant give you much feedback because i dont have force, and dont know anyone currently with 80 force to experiment with.

Vital spot can NOT be pilled off, but it acts as buff, and they can click it with their mouse to cancel it. If you get it on someone and have the oppurtunity to use, it will be totally pwnage.

Snow shield is 100% worth it, although i got to 80 perfectly fine without it. But since its there, its nice to have. Not needed until you do more higher lvl things in pvp and jobbing. I have never needed to use it in grinding except for tanking LY because theres only 3 people on him >.<

great guild grats
I have almost same build but i still dunno about fire and light with cap 90 cus its true that now lighitning third book deal more dmg but 4th book of fire is only continue of first nuke, when will be released the continue of 2nd book of fire, fire will be back the nuke that deals for dmg most of times as with cap 70. Mana shield is a great help but i dunno if its that worth for lose fire dmg, mostly i gonna do 90 bicheon 90 light 90 fire 30 cold but still wondering

30 cold is exceptionally weak. Your snow shield absorbtion will only be 23%, and your phy defense will be extremely low with lvl 30 buffs. IMO, ice has to be AT LEAST lvl 60, thats where it gets the first big boost in buffs and the absorb is good enough to take plenty of hits.

Wow this is really quite excellent. I'd rank it better than my INT's guide tbh... way better. Out of curiousity---for this build, you must be putting a ton of INT to justify 0 fire, correct? What about against other nukers who have also trained ice imbue along with mana shield? That combined with a lot of sword combos can really hurt you with 0 fire imo. And have you considered force for INT's with the healing series and mag defense decreasing vital spots? Not that I disagree with your allotment of stats, just wondering if you consider these valid options.

I have, and its a good thing to point out, at lvl 90, and even 80, there are many variables to consider with a character. Certainly lvl 80 force is powerful because of the vital spot,. but someone can click it off, like a buff, and is it really worth 80, or even 90 masteries? Then, the cold issue you bring up, a pure int with cold imbue, thats my dilemma. Lvl 30 fire shield, or a different option such as heuksal..... Then again, if someone uses ice imbue against you, which is considerably weaker, are they going to be able to kill you? Them freezing you may just result in a pot war. Lvl 90 becomes very tricky because now theres more things you can do differently. At lvl 60 or 70, everyone had the same build because it seemed u had infinite masteries.

About the int...its important to understand that this is a hybrid build, but you are right, dropping fire loses you considerable damage. Its in this part i feel my guide is incomplete because i do not know exactly what to do. Certainly more int is going to help your damage, and magic defense. At lvl 90, im looking more towards a 90% base, so i may end up going pure int from lvl 80-90, it depends.

Good questions, defiantly making me think more critically about lvl 90 and other options.

Yes, I'm just bringing up some of my worries for hybrids and hybrid sword in particular. As for the force thing, I would NOT give it over 60 masteries lol, but if you're raising mana shield to 90 I believe lvl 30 force may be a good supplement to the build (mana increase, minor heals, vital spot muscle lvl 1), though 30 fire would be just as or more useful probably. I switched to euro in the end, for cleric buffs, but when I was still hybrid int I had a huge dilemma, like you, in planning the future of my character. It was to be hybrid sword or spear, but I was leaning towards sword.

In the end, I personally decided for a 90 heuskal-90 fire- 90 or 8x light- 30 or 3x ice INT hybrid spear build, but with a lot of added STR, so I'd have a mag balance quite a bit below 85%. This way the fire would be a huge bonus for me, giving me a lot of phys atk, and the weakness I create for myself with weaker mag defense is bridged with the fire buff.

About the ice imbue INT, I think you should keep in mind that you'd have to delvl the fire mag defense buff too, which could end up being a problem, particularly against a dual-imbue INT. Also ice-archers with good crit could be a pain. I personally know a pure int spear with ice imbue (6x though) who is actually rather good for his level, and manages to (still) do incredible damage with so-so blues on his equips, because of his farmed skills.
I really feel your dilemma. Call me a coward if you will for switching to euro, but whatever. In the long run, you can choose a ton of different combinations of masteries and it will all come down to whether you have a cleric buffing you or not

*eyes get big* The title does not lie that is a big post...lol

nicely written guide.

the sp demands will be a major turn-off for someone starting out. but for those who are are already light/fire/weapon ... it offers an alternative when cap is raised to 90. raising fire to 80 and then dropping to 0 is very time consuming to get there and very costly to drop.

Any lvl 90 fully farmed is going to cost TONS of sp sadly, whcih really sucks since i want to make a seond char so i have two to play with.

Agreed, lvling fire to 80 then dropping it is annoying, especially now so late in the game. For me, since i capped at 70, then 80, then got 80 skills, i used fire for a VERY long time, however someone starting now would want to consider not even getting fire because lvl 90 is relatively close considering the time it takes to build a character....Which is why i mentioned not doing fire at all. It would be pointless to make a character and lvl up fire, just to delevel it at 80, when 90 is either already here, or coming very close.

wow lets hope i find someone who doesnt know that info about jsut clicking it off.

and @ who ever said it(cant find where i seen this)

lvl 30 force with vital spot muscle would be useless and not what i am looking for. muscle only reduces parry, which yes would be nice for letting me do max damage..... but, im looking forword to the vital spot mind. that one decreases magical defence... perfect pair for nukers, especialy hybrid whos nukes would do less damage normaly. with this skill i might be able to outnuke a pure int

Great guide especially giving the amount of sp needed for the whole build

And for those who ask why s/s on an hybrid, you really can tank on anything your lvl. Was doing it at lvl 60 on devil yeti and i was making xp and sp like crazy. This is the exact build im making at the moment. Im currently lvl 65 hybrid int 6:1; Full protector set with + and tons of blues and im farming on devil eye and karram or at the cave on strong earth ghost or worriors depending on how crowded the spots are.

Naked balance
Phys 60%
Magik 85%

All stuffed up
Phys 72%
Mag 107%

great guide again. Added to my favorite

thanks

and thats why i love hybrid s/s too, super tank with super damage weeeee