A Guide to Asura Grounds (with suggested skill sets)

#1

03:27 10/02/2016

Rosyna

Threads: 14

Posts: 51

Asura Game Mechanics

    - the event lasts for 15 minutes, starting at 12:00 pm server time
    - your character will be locked into auto-fight while in Asura Grounds
    - MP pots (and only MP) can be used, despite what the event description says
    - your character will target the nearest player/NPC, even if your current target isn't dead yet
    - avatar skills go into cooldown upon entering
    - you cannot change your skills or client settings (ie. resolution, whether to display other characters and their skills or not, etc.) once you enter
    - you can still change auto fight (AFK) settings
    - pets are enabled
    - if you die, you will automatically revive shortly afterwards with full HP and MP, but will not be invincible
    - there are low-level NPCs added in
    - you can enter and exit as many times as you want while the event is running (your kill and death counts will be saved), but may be placed in a different room if the one you were in is too full upon reentering
    - ranking is server-wide (not just the room you were in) and is based on your kill count and death count; the more you die, the higher you'll rank
    - Enhance Jewels (based on kill rank) and Enchant Jewels (based on death rank) are rewarded at the end of the event, as well as EXP based on your two scores.


Tips and tricks
    - for new players and players who have to contend with cashers: you can still get a high kill rank off the Asura NPCs alone
    - valor is your best friend - just make sure you know how the skill works
        - berserker is your backup best friend
    - always bring your class' multi-target lightning skill (q for mage and priest, e for warrior)
    - always bring a pet (preferably one that can 1-shot the NPCs)
    - for priests: unless there's a huge power gap between you and the others in Asura, put your gorilla on manual cast (refer to final point in this section), because that thing will feed HP to players who can 1-shot it
    - dragon mounts should be your top priority, followed by avians, and finally equines
    - avatar skills can be used before entering Asura
    - don't hesitate to exit if you find certain skill sets aren't working out for you. It's better lose 20 seconds to better equip yourself than to waste the remainder of the event using skills that are getting you nowhere
    - don't be that person who leaves whenever they're almost dead and then reenters a few seconds later at full HP.
    - bring multi-target or AoE skills instead of single-target skills since you'll have no control over where your character moves or who it'll target and players can respawn anywhere around the arena
    - avoid bringing skills that take a long time to cast and hit - everyone will be getting skill-spammed from all directions, so you'll either have your skill interrupted or whoever it was you were targeting will die before your skill hits
    - don't bring all non-target skills (skills that can be used even if there are no targets in range) - I've lost track of how many times I've seen my mage waste an e-fire by using it while the nearest target was halfway across the map.
    - if your AoEs are on cooldown but you notice an NPC spawn close to you/a player with low health runs by you, pressing tab will manually make your character target them (assuming they're the closest target to you)
        - these skills are: all w skills for all classes, e-fire and ice for mages and warriors, q-ice for warriors, and all e skills for priests
    - despite not being able to control who your character targets or where your character moves, you can still choose which and when skills are used. Open up the auto fight settings (the small circular button labelled says "AFK" that pops up whenever you have auto fight turned on) and move the skills to manual cast. You can also manually use the skills if they're in the auto cast section if you want the AI to do most of the work, but still want to have some control


Suggested Skill Sets
Everyone has their own play style and preference in skills; it's entirely up to you what skills you want to bring into Asura. However, given how some skills require correct positioning to be effective and since you have very limited control over your character in Asura, some skills will be more useful in there than others. The below skill sets were made with the purpose of getting the greatest number of kills in the shortest amount of time.

Mage:
Q - Lightning: You don't even need to consider the other 2 elements in this case. Q-lightning has the lowest cooldown of the mage's 3 elemental q skills, can hit multiples enemies (1 initial target + up to 3 more), can stun, its chaining can allow you to hit an enemy up to 1/3rd of the asura map away with proper positioning, and each chain will trigger magic drain from dragon mounts. The reason why you don't want to use fire or ice element for q is because q-fire is a single-target skill that has a long casting animation and that delay between the first and second shot gives other players a chance to kill steal your target if they survived the first shot, q-ice splash radius is pitiful compared to the chaining range of lightning bolt, and their secondary effects are useless (burn damage is negligible and slowing them down is pointless when an NPC or player could respawn right beside them).

W - Lightning: Large fixed-radius AoE, can be used while moving since it has no casting animation (also makes it difficult interrupt), and is anti-situational. The only drawback is that it's only 1 hit compared to the other 2 elements. The problem with the other 2 elements is that both w-fire and w-ice are extremely situational due to their small AoE radius and the strengths of both skills lie in map control and playing mind games, which is useless when you can't even control where your own character moves or who it targets.

E - Lightning or Fire/Ice: This one is more personal preference. 
    - E-lightning gives you some control over moving your character and gives invincibility, which you can use to fire off an avatar skill without fear of being interrupted. However, e-lightning (aka derp blink) can screw with your character's position on your screen (ie. even though it looks like you're 1 normal attacks-length south of your opponent after using the skill, the server will register you as standing right next to him). The other issue with the skill is that the invincibility kicks in only towards the end of the skill (when your character retreats backwards) only if you did damage to something.
    - E-fire and e-ice are similar skills: they both do a small AoE around your character. Compared to its ice counterpart, e-fire does 20% more damage (100% vs 80%), has a shorter cooldown, and is the only skill mages have that interrupts targets (cancels their skill animation and, if done early enough, the skill itself) 100% of the time. The issue is the range of both AoEs. Since both skills can be used without having a target nearby, if your character targets someone outside of your e-fire/ice's range but within your normal attack range, then your character will continue to waste time and mp using a skill that will never hit while the target stays within that range (assuming you have the skill set to auto cast).




Warrior:

Q - Lightning or Ice:
    - The range of q-lightning is deceptively far, hits everyone in range, and will also interrupt other players by pushing them away from you. It can be used to make other players switch targets if you can push them closer to someone else. The only downside is that, as a warrior with limited medium-ranged skills, you'll have to run after the target if they survived the hit or you'll target someone else that's closer to you, which can be annoying if your initial target was almost dead.
    - Alternatively, q-ice can be used if you don't like the thought of possibly losing your kill since it makes your character home in on the target, damaging and possibly freezing anyone else nearby. There are a few issues with q-ice as well though. Q-ice is mainly a 1v1 skill since the AoE radius on q-ice is about half the radius of warrior's w-fire. The skill also doesn't require a target to be used, so using the skill while nothing is within targeting range (not attack range) will waste it. The main issue with q-ice is that if you get interrupted while homing in on the target, the skill will cancel without doing damage. This means using q-ice from its max homing distance makes it easier to get interrupted since may end up running into someone's multi-hit/AoE skill.

W - Fire or Ice: Whether you go with fire or ice is personal preference.
    - W-fire is a small AoE that pulls in anything nearby, interrupting their animations in the process. This makes w-fire a good skill to help set up for other skills that require targets to be close together like q-ice and e-lightning. The downside is that the skill is only useful when there are enemies in range. Otherwise, if you have it set on auto cast and the target is out of range, you'll waste time and mp casting a skill that won't hit.
    - W-ice makes you invincible for a short duration before dealing damage in a small AoE around you. It can be used to give you a chance to use a skill without getting interrupted and to take about 2 seconds off of someone's valor (assuming the two of you are targeting each other), which is definitely helpful. However, as nice as being invincible is, the skill takes a while to actually do damage, which isn't exactly ideal given how you want to kill things as quickly as possible in Asura.

If you still can't decide between the two, then base it off what you selected as your q-skill
    - If you're bringing q-lightning, then go with w-ice since there's poor synergy between q-lightning and w-fire (you can combo w-fire into q-lightning, but not the other way around generally) and assuming you're still targeting them after pushing them away with q-lightning, the invincibility on w-ice lasts long enough for you to run up to them safely and hit them with its AoE, even if you used q-ice before pushing them away.
    - If you went with q-ice, go with w-fire since the order you use q-ice and w-fire doesn't really matter as long as the target is within range of w-fire. With q and w-ice however, it only really makes sense to combo w-ice into q-ice since it ensures you won't get interrupted while homing, while it's pointless to make yourself invincible while they're frozen unless they have valor active or you now have multiple players targeting you because you recklessly charged in there

E - Lightning: Warrior's chaining skill, which is definitely needed considering warriors focus mainly on close to medium-ranged skills that have small (if any) AoEs. There's no need to consider fire or ice in this case, since both skills aren't very reliable. The only noticeable difference between e-fire and e-ice is that e-fire can interrupt others while e-ice only slows. Both skills are AoEs that can be used at any time, which means you'll waste the skill if there are no targets. Both skills also suffer from the same issue that plagues q-ice: your skill won't do any damage if you get interrupted before the homing (leaping) animation ends, while it's easier to interrupt e-fire/ice since the duration of the leaping animation is the same no matter how close you are to the target. To make matters worse, the hitbox on both of these skills are...strange to say the least; there's a chance for you to miss with the skill completely, despite the target being well within range.




Priest:

Q - Lightning: This is priest's chaining and mobbing skill. As with the other 2 classes' chaining skill, this skill has medium range and hits up to 4 targets in total. Fire and ice can be ignored since both of those skills are more for 1v1 situations or when enemies are clustered close together (something that rarely happens in Asura) and q-fire requires you to run up to a target to use it.

W - Fire or Ice: Priest's w-skill is the only skill where you're focusing more on how your character performs (survives) against other characters rather than how quickly it lets you kill NPCs, which means you might enter Asura with w-fire today and w-ice tomorrow (you may even exit to switch during the event).
    - Play to your character's strengths while covering for its weaknesses; w-ice should only be considered if you've invested in frost passives and if you feel that it heals a decent % of your HP. However, w-fire can still be semi-useful without prior investment.
    - Otherwise, it depends on your mounts and overall performance in Asura; if your magic and/or physical leech from your mounts are high enough to heal at least 20% of your hp with a single hit against NPCs, then you can safely ignore w-ice since you should be focusing more on attacking (and therefore leeching, which w-fire would increase the efficiency of) anyways. In the same sense, if most of the players in the event are able to kill you in under 5 seconds despite you leeching HP off NPCs, then w-ice isn't going make you last any longer.
    - Assuming you've invested in frost passives and w-ice heals a decent amount: if you aren't leeching that much per hit, you keep missing against players, or if it takes you over 15 seconds to kill most players in there, then go with w-ice.

E - Lightning or Ice: Gorillas can be a double-edged sword; they can sweep the field of NPCs quickly, but can potentially feed massive amounts of HP to another player. Lightning gorilla is preferred since it has multi-target moves and can tank other lightning skills since it has high lightning resistance, while ice gorilla can freeze/slow the players who can 1-shot you, buying you a few extra seconds to kill NPCs. Just pick your moments to summon it wisely and keep in mind that your gorilla won't be sticking around for very long in most cases.


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