Stats & Builds

## Introduction

Unlike other games, where builds are chosen at the start of the game and a lot of equipment is build-locked, in AdventureQuest the process of choosing a build is determined by your choice of stats and equipment, with named builds simply being the more common stat distribution and equipment choices.

Before choosing your stats, we need to therefore make a couple of choices.

• Sub-Type
• Lean
• Weapon Choice
• Stats
• Sample Builds

## Main Class

There are 3 categories that characters fall into:

* **Warrior** - These use Melee weapons like swords and axes, and their trademark is efficiency, doing consistent damage over a long duration. These builds generally run FO armors.
* **Ranger -** These use Ranged weapons like bows defensively or lances, spears, and pole-arms offensively, and offer additional versatility in terms of equipment choice. These builds can run FO or FD armors.
* **Mage** - These use Magic weapons like staves and wands, and spells. Spells over great damage until mana runs out, and magic weapons then offer damage lower than ranged or melee damage to compensate. They can run FD, FO, and Spellcaster lean armors.

It's important to note, that while what described above is the intended result, the actual result is that Warriors and Rangers are more proficient in Wars, while Mages are more proficient in general quests.

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## Sub-Type

Each main class can diverge into one of three sub-types:

##### **Beastmaster**

This build maxes a mainstat of choice, CHA, and LUK. It boasts the highest potential damage output, due to having CHA and LUK. Full CHA allows for damaging pets and guests, or damage boosting pets and guests. LUK gives increased accuracy, and greater average damage with lucky strikes. The weakness of this build is lacking END, missing half the total possible HP at max level.

##### **Tank**

This build maxes a mainstat of choice, END, and LUK. It mixes damage output with durability, and allows players to play more offensively, using their huge HP pool as a cushion. It does lack the benefit of having full power pets and guests, which can be a powerful tool to lose. Many warriors and mages run this statline, as their pets and guests are unlikely to hit without DEX investment, so it's less of a dropoff in power. Rangers who run this build generally run FO armors and 0-Proc weapons, which contrasts significantly with the majority of FD ranger builds, which all use pets and guests.

##### **Tank-Beastmaster**

This build maxes a mainstat of choice, END, and CHA. It forgoes LUK's damage, accuracy, and status impact to gain full durability and pet and guest value. These builds can become exceptionally durable, to the point of almost becoming invincible, even with just basic healing loops and damage reduction strategies. Rangers and Mages benefit most from this build, as Mages have various methods to boost durability even further, and rangers can use pets and guests to full effectiveness with full accuracy.

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## Lean

Armors in AQ have leans. An armor lean affects how much damage you deal with armor attacks as well as how much damage you take, relative to a base point. While a variety of leans are available, it's recommended to choose between two leans, or three for spellcasters:

* **Fully-Offensive** - As the name suggests, this is recommended for offensive builds. You take x1.25 damage, but deal x1.25 damage as well. A Fully-Offensive lean is generally recommended for Pure builds, because pets and guests are not affected by your lean, and therefore deal relatively less damage.
* **Fully-Defensive** - Again, as the name suggests, this is for defensive builds. You take x0.8 damage, but deal x0.8 damage as well. Fully-Defensive armors are generally recommended for Beastmaster builds since pets and guests don't get penalized by the lean.
* **Spellcaster** - As the name suggest, this lean specializes in spellcasting. Weapons deal normal x1.0 damage, and spells deal x1.375 damage, and you take x1.25 damage. These leans are extremely powerful for mages, however there are only 10-15 spellcaster lean armors currently in game.

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## Weapon Choice

Some builds further diverge with weapon choice.

* **0-proc** - Weapons with 0-proc mean they don't have a special. They only perform the armor's built-in attack. These types of weapons are recommended with Fully-Offensive armors, as specials are not affected by the armor lean, and will therefore deal reduced overall damage.
* **100-proc** - Weapons with 100-proc mean they have a "fake" special. The idea is simple. If you're using a bow, it'll be pretty silly to smack your opponent with it, and therefore the weapon has a built-in attack. These types of weapons are recommended for Fully-Defensive builds as they're not affected by armor lean and you'll therefore deal x1 damage while only taking x0.8. Some of these weapons have a "True Special", often as a 20-proc, that acts like a regular weapon special.
* **Tomes** - Mages get some more versatility in their build choices, and can use Tomes as their weapons. Since guests often require a spell to summon them, the Beastmaster Mage is restricted with the amount of offensive spells they can use. Tomes allow you to use your Weapons to cast spells freeing your spell slots for summons.

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## Stats

After making all these choices, we need to figure out how to distribute our stats. While the following recommendations are by no means restricting, and allow for some alteration, it's a good idea to use them as a base point.

The maximum available points at level 150 are 750, and they can be distributed among the various stats in multiples of 5, with no more than 250 points allocated to one stat.

**STR** - Shorthand for Strength. This increases the damage and accuracy you deal with Melee weapons, and Melee users should max this as soon as possible.

**DEX** - Shorthand for Dexterity. This increases the damage and accuracy of Ranged weapons, and the accuracy of pets and guests. Previously, it gave accuracy to melee and magic attacks as well, however it does not anymore. This can cause confusion for returning players, who may remember DEX being a "required" stat.

**INT** - Shorthand for Intelligence. This increases the damage and accuracy of Magic weapons and spells, and Magic users should max this as soon as possible.

**END** - Shorthand for Endurance. This increases the amount of health the player has, doubling the HP pool at max level at 250 points. If you want to be tanky, choose END as one of your secondary stats.

**CHA** - Shorthand for Charisma. This increases the damage and accuracy of your pets and guests, and should be maxed for anyone interested in beastmaster gameplay.

**LUK** - Shorthand for Luck. This increases your damage in the form of "LUKy Strikes", meaning 10% of your attacks deal additional damage based on the amount of LUK you have. LUK also increases your accuracy and blocking a tiny bit, is worth twice as much as the mainstats for determining who goes first in battle, and slightly helps you in inflicting status effects. Pure builds generally use this as their 3rd stat to max.

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## Sample Builds

For the people who don't really want to figure out what choices to make, and what stats to use, below are a couple of sample builds that are accepted as good. Stats marked with an 'x' are personal preference.

### Warrior Builds (at level 150)

Progression by level for all variations:

After level 100, max STR, and pick your sub stats by personal preference.

### Mage Builds (at level 150)

Progression by level for all variations:

After level 100, max INT, and pick your sub stats by personal preference.

### Ranger Builds (at level 150)

Progression by level for all variations:

After level 100, max DEX, and pick your sub stats by personal preference.

##### **Adventurer**

Adventurers have less versatility in build choices and are recommended to use the "general purpose" type of build.

### **Hybrid Builds**

Hybrids allow you to leverage the power of Melee weapons and Magic spells at the same time, sacrificing always having a support stat for extra Mainstat versatility.

#### Traditional Hybrid

This was the standard Hybrid build before Werepyre was updated. This build is able to use all of the strongest tools in the arsenal - the strongest MP spells, the strongest SP armour nukes, and the strongest weapons, since Melee weapons do more damage than Magic weapons. Due to not having LUK, it isn't *quite* as good as a Pure Mage, a Pure Warrior or a Pure Ranger would be at doing one of those types of damage, but its versatility allows it to switch between any of the three.

#### Werepyre Hybrid

This is the default Hybrid build since Werepyre subrace was updated. Werepyre armours use STR and INT to for accuracy, not DEX. This allows you to skip any DEX investment, and max LUK instead, for high damage. The main draw of this build is that Werepyre's level 10 skill, Beast Form, does higher damage than either Werewolf or Vampire's level 10 skills, making Werepyre the best subrace for nuking. The main drawback of this build is that its lack of DEX prevents it from being accurate in non-Werepyre armours, such as Wizard Robes or Bloodmage for spellcasting, or Bloodzerker or other SP nuke armours.

#### Ranger Werepyre

This modification to the Werepyre Hybrid build switches out Melee weapons for Ranged ones since the Werepyre subrace excludes Ranged damage from its Hybrid Stats passive, allowing you to run Ranged weapons if you prefer.

#### Adventurer

Adventurers do not get significant value out of Werepyre subrace because they can't access the lvl 10 Beast Form skill that defines the Werepyre build. This is therefore a stripped-down version of Guardian B.

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