Cloudstar's Warrior and Swordsman Guide

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Hello, this is my guide for Warrior and Sword Master. I personally have nearly NO experience at all and have never wrote a guide before. Note: This guide will continue to grow until I reach max level or forget about this guide. I have been choose for
Close Beta Testing, but never reached level 16. I also played Open Beta, and mage a Swordsman which reached max level. I personally have not much experience myself, so you might think of this more as compilation of what I've learned/know.

# Warriors

Warriors themselves are the brute force. They push what's in their way, and hack their way through anything that won't budge. You find them in almost, if not all, MMORPGs out there, since they are very commonly found, and is a very simple class. As you rank however, you will get more advance, and powerful, which is a good thing.
## Weapons

As a Warriors, you will be allow to choose from Axe, Hammer, and Great Swords. If one choose to wield an Axes, s/he will have a wide range of attack and a decent attack rate. If s/he choose to wield the Hammers, his/her attack rate will be slow, but make up in power. These 2 weapon are intended to be use with the Mercenary class, but my guide is about swordsman, which specializes in **only** Greatswords. Great swords themselves may not do as much damage in general compare to the Hammers or Axes, but instead make up for it with its' higher attack speed. I will not discuss about other weapons, since most skill can only be use with a Greatsword.
## Skills

The warrior have lots of useful skill within their first job, and most of them can be chain as combo! First before most, you must know the skill before you use them! As a warrior, you should be chaining together normal attack along with skill in order to maintain mana or else you'd run out (which is very bad).
Here's a skill tree if you are curious to see without having to change pages:

Edit Table

The earliest skill you get are Impact Punch, Heavy Slash, Tumble, and Elbow Drop.

### Impact Punch

Impact Punch is very basic and fast to cast. I however, suggest you to only leave it at rank 1. It's power lies in the casting speed, and how it cancel out your delay on certain skill/attack. Leveling it further will not increase cooldown, nor significantly increase your damage. The only reason to increase this skill is if you're a Mercenary, but this is a guide about Warriors and Swordsman, not Mercenary. One basic warrior combo is to normal attack till you finish your chain, and then use Sweeping Kick or Impact Punch.
**Recommended LvL:**: 1 (Utility)
### Heavy Slash

Heavy Slash is a basic and strong skill but is not recommended to level. As with most skill, leveling this will not decrease the skill cool down, and only increase damage by a miniscule amount later-games. The skill itself have a notable starting animation, and ending delay. Using another skill will most likely be recommended after this skill, since you will most likely get hit after casting it. It is great to use when there is a bunch of low hp mob, or to do a minor increase in damage boost.
**Recommended LvL:**: 1 (Utility)
### Tumble

Tumble, an important skill that you will regret not using! You should put a point into this skill every time you can, since the 1.2 second cool down reduction is a must have! The skill give you a small invulnerability frame, allowing you to dodge most if not all attack. At max level, it reduce cool down from 6 second, to 2.6 second, a big reduction if you ask me. I rarely use this skill, which is a big mistake, since I get damage all the time because I'm to focus on doing damage. When me and a guildie duo Prayer's Retreat, I died 3 time because I rolled to early, so you gotta time your roll. The invulnerability animation pretty much stop as you get back up on your feet, so be careful.
**Recommended LvL:**: 5(Max)
### Elbow Drop

Neat little ability that help you do some damage to downed enemy. It is capped at level one, and I find it rarely any use unless a monster is down. It does decent damage but is pretty slow in my opinion. You can't chain it in a combo due to it speed, and I don't suggest getting any crest for this. Also, you start off with this ability max, since it cap out at 1.
**Recommended LvL:**: 1(Max)
### Rising Slash

Great skill to use if you can't use Impact Punch, or the enemy is on the floor. It rushes you forward with a multi-hit shoulder tackle, and from what I heard, EACH hit is a separate damage! Ranking it up is optional for PvE, but I suggest you to not go farther than 6 if you're a PvP-er. I tend to use it often when the monster is down, and I need to lift it up higher.
**Recommended LvL(PvE):** 9 or higher(PvE/More Damage)
**Recommended LvL(PvP):** 6(PvP/Spare SP)
### Side Kick

Good skill. It may not do much damage, nor does it have a sweeping AoE. I use it after I normal attack to cancel out my delay so I can keep doing constant DPS. This skill is more important once you get sweeping kick, as it let you menu ever through the fog of battle while constantly doing damage. Just leave it at one since it's free and it's your mastery level!
**Recommended LvL:**: 1(Max)
### Surprise Attack

A skill that can protect you from further damage! It knock back everything within sword range, and get you up on your foot, ready for combat, immediately. It cap at level 1 so might as well just get it. I use it when I'm down, and there's a couple monsters near me or the boss is near me. It does a pretty powerful attack that take off a chunk of super armor from the boss.
**Recommended LvL:**: 1(Max)
### Impact Wave

A short range AoE skill that hit in a line. It's best use against enemy that are downed. If you use this skill very often, I suggest you rank it to 10. If not, leave it at rank 4, the prerequisite for Moonlight Splitter. Increasing it to 10 will give you a 3m bonus to range, totaling you to 7m.
**Recommended LvL(PvE):**: 4 or 10(Base on play style)
**Recommended LvL(PvP):**: 4(Point can be spent elsewhere)
### Drop Kick

Drop Kick is an excellent skill that can knock back most monster, if not all. It does a decent amount of damage, and is great to use when you need to push a monster back. It can be chain together with combo, although it will be quite difficult. There are few, if not one, gladiator that could bounce you against the wall and continue juggling you with it (YangYang of China Dragon Nest). I use it when my dash slash is under cooldown or when I am changing my target. Also note that it maxes at one, and is require for sweeping kick.
**Recommended LvL:**: 1(Max)
### Soccer Kick

Soccer Kick is a skill that provide utility but I find no use of it. It does moderate damage, but is hard to combo with, specifically in PvP. The skill itself let you kick an enemy up into the air like one can do with a soccer ball, hence the name "Soccer Kick". I find no use of it personally, but it all comes down onto preference.
**Recommended LvL:**: 0, or 1. (Utility)
### Destructive Swing

Destructive swing is a powerful ability that have a wide range of attack, but is slow due to casting speed. The ability itself is completely optional, but if you're going PvP, I recommend you to skip it entirely for the mere fact that it's slow to cast, which usually mean you'll be interrupted. From personally experience, I don't think it give any sort of super armor at all, if it does not even give minor amount. While in PvP, I find it useless since it spreads mob all over the place, but it help greatly taking down shielded monsters. Again, it all comes down to preference.
**Recommended LvL(PvE):**: 1(Does it job of breaking shields)
**Recommended LvL(PvP):**: 0(too slow)
### Dash

An exclusive warrior skill, strangely. It allow you to run faster and take lower damage, if you were attacked while running. It gives a steady boost of speed but is known to drain mana fairly quickly when over used. It allow you to escape and/or chase down all opponent (unless they are ranged, assuming if they could hit you). I myself use it to get around fairly quickly , however I also tend to run out of MP myself. The can become your enemy, or it could be your friend, depending on how you use it. I don't recommend that you charge ahead of your group since they can't back you up if you're 20 meter away.
**Recommended LvL:**: 5 (Max)
### Sweeping Kick

One of my most favorite ability. Sweeping Kick can be use to give you more mobility and allow you to fight while moving through the battlefield. It have a wide range which is penalize by the small damage. The skill however allow you to escape more easily or when you need that small space to hit an opponent. When you cast it, it launch you a notable distance of two to four meter.
**Recommended LvL:**: 1 (Utility)
### Dash Kick

Dash Kick is a unique ability, even if it doesn't do much damage, it can create some space between you and your ally, or give an opening so your team can attack. Having the skill at level 1 or 0 is good enough for me since it tend to lean towards utility in my book. It is, however, very easily replaced by Dash Combo.
**Recommended LvL:**: 0 or 1 (Utility)
### Aerial Evasion

Aerial Evasion, a great skill to have and max. Each rank would decrease cooldown by a couple seconds which can be reduce to about 18 seconds at max. The skill is very necessary in high level dungeon when monster tend to do multi hit juggles. One example where you'll like it is when you fight against Sword Wind, the Valley of Mourning's boss. The skill itself allow you to dodge whilst airborne and gives you a chance to escape. A must have, whether you're PvP-ing or PvE-ing.
**Recommended LvL:**: 5 (Max)