Table of Contents

1. What is Skill EXP?
2. Adept Gear
3. How to Skill Using Skills
4. Skilling Walkthrough
5. Quoted Tips
6. Conclusion

1. What is Skill EXP?

    Skill exp is accumulated by hitting monsters or dummies (with premium). There are two general categories to gaining skill exp. The first is hitting monsters with skills which gives a set amount of skill EXP per skill and the damage done is absolutely irrelevant. When going for low level and high skill levels, avoid grouping monsters because of the fact that doing only 5 damage in one skill on one monster will return the same amount of skill EXP as mobbing multiple monsters and doing 25 damage total with one skill. It will only give you more level experience, but with the same amount of skill EXP. The second way to skill is to just normal attack. This only works on monsters (not on dummies). Many people punch, however wielding level 1 offensive equipment has become very popular as well. In this method of ‘skilling’ (the term used to describe the action of gaining skill EXP), it is absolutely necessary to gain at least 1 level experience point per hit to gain any skill EXP.

 
    Note about dummies: You must be premium to use them and even with premium, before level 90, you can only train to the 30% mark in a skill rank. For instance, pretend you needed to get to the Apprentice skill rank and you have a character that has such a class that makes his Novice rank be at 0/100, you could only use the training dummies up until you gain 30 points in that skill rank. Now, if your character is above level 90, you could spend all the time skilling on dummies and go all the way to 100/100 and get to the next skill rank, however skill training on dummies is known to be much slower.

    Skill EXP is separated into three categories. The first is the sword category, the second is the magic category, and the third is the upgrade category. Simply put, the upgrade category will have the highest skill rank between sword and magic. Imagine you have the highest level skill rank in sword but the lowest in magic, your upgrade category will have the same skill rank as your sword. Skill ranks will be gone over in the next mini-section. No matter what class you are, you want to reach the highest skill rank in both sword and magic (if you are a wizard, you will want the highest sword rank and highest magic, and same thing goes for blader). The reason for this is because as you heighten your skill ranks, you get many stat bonuses. If using skills to skill (as oppose to the normal attack method), you can only gain sword skill EXP by using sword skills and magic skill EXP by using magic skills. Using the normal attack method will give points toward both skill categories.

Each class allows you to buy skills depending on your skill ranks. As you move up through the different ranks, the instructor in your home town (Green Despair instructor for Force Blader and Force Archer, Desert Scream for Wizard and Blader, Bloody Ice for Force Shielder and Warrior) will allow you to buy new skills depending on your ranks. Keep in mind that even when upgrading your skills, you will need to reach certain skill ranks or even have gained a certain amount of points in the skill rank (indicated by the number in parenthesis, which corresponds to the number of points you need to gain in the skill rank to continue upgrading the skill). To upgrade skills, simply press the + beside the name. The maximum level for skills is 20, however it is important to know that the 9th level generally has the lowest cooldown (which will be discussed later in this guide).

    Along with the bonuses given at each skill rank upgrade, here are all the skill ranks you go through, starting with Novice and ending with Transcender.

2. Adept Gear

    Adept Gear is only craftable or gained from trading with other players (can’t get it from drops). For prices, they obviously fluctuate a lot but here are a few tips. Do not buy adept gear that has any less than +3 skill EXP unless you have a lot of money to spare and do not have the requirements for +3 skill EXP pieces. Around level 40 or so, you should be able to wear all +3 gear, assuming you have done a bit of skilling and have at least reached regular or expert skill rank. Anyway, the +2 pieces cost close to nothing because of the fact that they are mainly just messed up crafts (you could probably by them for less than 50,000 since crafters just want to get something for them). On the other hand, +4 pieces are quite rare and go for around 1,000,000 a piece. Finally, the much more common and pieces you should have a set of (if you don’t have +4 pieces) are the +3 pieces that go for around 200,000. Make sure to buy these pieces as fast as possible and wear them asap.

 
At level 50, you can choose a crafting type and make your own adept gear if you wish, just know that it costs quite a bit.

 When it comes to the rings and amulet, make sure you also keep those gear slots maxed at the highest amount of added skill EXP. Finally, assuming you have yet to reach dual Trans at level 70, you can use braces and earrings that also add to your skill EXP increase. Keep in mind that the maximum amount of bonus to your skill EXP gain is 36.*

    Amulets and Rings

• Lv40 | Amulet +4 skill EXP | Rings +2 skill EXP
• Lv55 | Amulet +6 skill EXP | Rings +3 skill EXP
• To be completed…
  

*: The cap is not certain. Someone please confirm.

3. How to skill using skills

    Basically, you want to use the weakest skills that you can chain into combos over and over again. You could either have three very weak sword skills, three very weak magic skills (preferably arrows), a mix of the two, or use Change Force upgrade skill (from the Port Lux instructor at Expert skill rank) to gain sword skill EXP with three magic skills in a combo and vice versa.

    Skills that are known to be good to chain together change depending on the class, simply use Regular and below skills with low cast times for sword and just use Magic Arrow and two other arrows for magic.

 
    Finally, find a mob (will be discussed further below) that is not aggressive, take him aside and combo him over and over. Try to at least skill using this strategy on monsters that require at least a combo of 11.

4. Skilling walkthrough

 
    The are multiple skilling methods that people take that depend on their patience, experience playing the game, and ideas of fun. Anyway, the first method is the one that people take if they want to reach the highest possible skill ranks at the lowest level so that they can challenge people their level and obliterate them with skills that only people with 50 levels higher have.

 
    To try to get the lowest possible level with the best skill ranks, follow the link posted at the end of the guide (simply because that’s not what this guide is really about).

Otherwise, here is a general walkthrough to skilling.

 
    Get to about level 25 and then start comboing like mad. As soon as you can get to the Ape+ in Bloody, just camp at his location while staying away from those stupid zombie pantherthorns. This is really where diplomacy will come into play as there are many other people who fight for the one and only Ape+.

 
    After you have spent enough time at the Ape+, you will probably be around Expert or A.Expert rank, you can try to simply level up to 50 and get to Port Lux where your skilling life will become much faster. You can start by spending time at the Crag Crabs right out of the town close to the beach after the Crag Turtles, these guys have a decent amount of hp, are not aggressive, but will hit you pretty hard.

 
    When you get bored of them, go down to the Bug shark+ or the Peleton+ which both have more than 2700 hitpoints which will allow you to hit them for a long time, simply beware of the damage they give you.

 
    Do not forget that at this point in the game, having Expert skill rank, you can buy the Upgrade skills of either Change Force (Magic) or (Sword) from the Port Lux instructor.

 
    Finally, you can finish of your skilling easily by going to the Rock Golems (when you feel courageous enough). If you go far enough into the map, close to wear the Dark Bladers start to appear; you can lead one Rock Golem so that you can fight them one at a time. I would recommened the normal attack skilling method at this point, it will be much more effective taking the Rock Golems out slowly but giving you about 75% of a skill bar per (depending on the rank).

5. Quoted Tips

    SKILL COMBO

Originally posted by birdyork

For magic, I do rank 9 freezing arrow->rank 9 aqua arrow-> rank 9 fire arrow.
For sword, I do rank 9 shield charge [substitute other class-specific sword skill] -> rank 9 impact stab-> rank 9 flash draw.

Originally posted by TheMorpheus

As an FA, I was able to combo with only 2 skills; i.e. flash draw and double rising both at level 9 or aqua arrow and freezing arrow both at level 9 as well. Easy to catch a rythm and hit longer combos.

GEAR

Originally posted by birdyork

Lastly, I would like to say: invest in a adept set as early as possible, go for +4 skill EXP bonus on each piece of gear if you can. Speaking from personal experience, I used my adept set all the way to level 75 skilling/questing/doing dungeons. It wasn’t until I started doing Lake in Dust, that I had to switch from shadowsteel to Osm(I never wore any bluestin/tit/stit). I believe that was a good move on my part, because I saved alot of alz and time not trying to look for adept bluestin/tit.

Originally posted by TheMorpheus

It is possible to find or upgrade a slotted item with +4 Skill Exp. I seen a lot of the Osm variety in game, but I only seen screenshots of level 2 gear with the random level 2 upgrade. Probably the best item to have when starting out a new character. 

Originally posted by TheMorpheus

You can no longer skill approximately 30% on dummies when you reach transcender unless you are level 90+. This applies to sword and magic uniquely.
   
IMPORTANT SKILL EXP BOARD

Originally posted by AegisOfImmortal

Found some useful information from a post made by a Thai Admin that one of my mates from Thailand showed me awhile back. Don’t know if it coincides with the American version or not.

Points need to Rank Up

Credit to Thai Cabal Online Team

http://cabal.asiasoft.co.th/PreviewContent.aspx?contID=6447

6. Conclusion

 
    I would like to thank OGPlanet for this fun game and Phobia for being an amazing guild, and all the people who read and reply on this thread. Keep in mind this is version 1 of my first guide, so there will be changes to come and I hope it gets better. Cheers!

Credits go to Anke.