Combining Basic Class Builds

I'm trying to look into what builds are optimal and if/how they can be combined with each other while being an optimal build. For example, it looks like a TEC build can be a Refiner, Statter, Synthesist, and Tamer all at the same time without sacrificing the ability of one of the classes. Can someone correct my assumptions about various classes and builds?

LUK Mage - Farming and Refining to S
TEC - Refining to around C I believe, Statting, Synthesizing, and Taming, these are all optimal yeah?
Tank/Defender - Shield is necessary right? Sword or Staff seem to be the two choices, is one better? is Bowgun useful?

1 Handed Sword, 2 Handed Sword, Armor, Bow, Bowgun, Dual Sword, Halberd, Katana, Knuckles, Magic Device, and Staff Blacksmiths
- I believe 1 Handed Sword, Bow, and Dual Swords can all be one blacksmith correct? Can any other weapons be made optimally by a single blacksmith?

(I didn't mean to ask can you make one blacksmith that can make all weapons and armor, what I meant was can any of the blacksmiths be combined at all or do you really need 11 create blacksmiths to make the best possible weapons and armors? Or can you combine a few and get down to like 8 blacksmiths that can still make the best equipment.)

and standard Attacker builds
1 Handed Sword + Shield, 2 Handed Sword, Bow + Arrow, Bowgun + Arrow, Dual Sword, Halberd, Katana, Knuckles, Magic Device, Staff + Shield
- is 1 Handed Sword + Shield less viable as an Attacker than other classes to the point that it's not worth it?
- Can Bows and Bowguns be swapped on the same character, or are the stats/skills different that you should make dedicated characters?
- Can Magic Device and Staff be swapped on the same character too? or is Magic Device just farming and Attacker Mage should just stick to Staff?

Thanks

 

Yea you can combine TEC character with Refining, Statting, Synthesizing, and Taming. But you need to sacrifice one of those because you will lack dps skills when leveling your character or if you rich just buy stargem or leveling through quests that you dont need any dps skills at all.

Luk mage can be both for farming and refining to S, just lvl 1 refine skill is enough.

Tank/Defender depending on the boss you would tank it, if your level is capped you can be both 1h or bowgun or anything else at the same time because you have many sp left, also depending on your weapon if you have diver bowgun as its only available at summer event.

Any weapons craft need different stats to create the potentials, you can't create anything from just one character, example; staff need int, 2h need str, bowgun need dex, armor need vit, etc. You can't maximize it all if only with one characters.

1h shield may have less attacker power rank from other dps classes but it have more survivability than other dps classes that you can solo any boss alone wihout dying.

Yes you can swap bow/bowgun whenever you want, they dont have many different aspect from stats point, just bonus and penalty from the skills that you would use from shot skill tree.

Md and staff are depend on your choices, good staff dps are using int, dex, or vit on their character while md user need int>agi to maximize it. Well it isnt common for people using md at current meta, most people only use it for farming using Luk character.

 

At max level though you could have a TEC character that does refining, statting, synthesizing and taming yes?

For Tank/Defender is there a common weapon that most people use?

I didn't mean to ask can you make one blacksmith that can make all weapons and armor, what I meant was can any of the blacksmiths be combined at all or do you really need 11 create blacksmiths to make the best possible weapons and armors? Or can you combine a few and get down to like 8 blacksmiths that can still make the best equipment.

 

I'd rather not make assumptions about how to make builds, but there are some things that have been very defined in the game.

For weapon blacksmiths, you'd technically need to make new characters for each weapon since to optimize the pot from all of them you'd need a very different set of stats. Though you are correct, you can put 1h, Bow, Bowgun, and Katana on the same blacksmith since they all use DEX for pot, just remember that it will be a much lower amount of pot compared to a full-time Bow smith.

1hShield is very good as an attacker, since if you put VIT into your character and refine your shield you can do a lot of damage with Shield Cannon and have the STR to get the crit damage. But, for constant DPS pretty much everything else would be better. A good thing about 1hShield is that if you're a tank you can use Rage Sword instead of Impact for halving MP.

You can switch between Bow and Bowgun freely as long as you dont use hybrid builds, switching between Bow+Katana and Bowgun+shield would be much harder to do, but if it is Bow+Arrow and Bowgun+Arrow then you'll be fine.

MD and Staff are also the same in this case, except that MD cant have any sub weapon so it's purely magic. MD is typically only used for farming, and Staff as attacker mage, but I personally like using them both interchangeably. MD is much better with Burst, Staff is better with Finale. With enough work both of them can do lots of damage. I personally like Burst better since I have less of a chance of dying.

 

Yes, you can have all those in one character, just know that you'll need to level that thing up to level 200+

Tanks have been really diverse with weapon choices: Sword + Shield, Bowgun+ Shield, Staff + Shield, Knuckles + Shield, Bow + Katana, Katana, 2h, Bare hand.
You really cant go too wrong with any of these, since they all have something different that they can do.

Last question, see my first response.

 

Much appreciated Rydalis Darx. One last question to bug you with.
Is there a best build for attacker mercenaries, and for defender mercenaries?
I've read a few places that 2 handed swords make the best attacker mercenaries.

 

Since mercenaries do not use skills and most passives and buffs dont work on them, it's all up to raw power and equipment to do the work.
People say 2h because its the best weapon to get the most attack power with, and I would say I agree to that, but also know that Halb is not a bad option, same with Bow/Bowgun. Bows will have a range attack for anti meele bosses, and halbers would (in my opinion) do more damage than 2h for the time being. All in all, 2h will have the most attack and really high hp so they can live.
Defenders are essentially the same thing, but instead of ATK we focus on HP and more importantly aggro. 2h is good because it only needs STR and VIT and you fill both Attacker and Defender meerc with it. You'd be best getting a very high HP character with high MTL and +Aggro equips to make sure it does its job. Almost any weapon can work,but Sword and Knuckles may be the best.

 

I'm pretty sure 2h gets another boost if it's an attacker merc, which makes it better than halb.

I don't think ailment resistance or aggro+ works for mercenaries? I've never heard someone say that before.

 

The 2h thing is true, I just like halb mercs better personally since I've had better results with it.

And the aggro+ and ailment res+ thing, I feel that if you're making a tank merc you'll probably also use it as your main tank, in which case why not stack those as well, unless you're making a tank only for merc then you'd skip the crit rate, ailment resist, and aggro entirely.

 

You might been using merc 2h build that's relying on buff (potion/berserk/quick aura) for aspd. The lack in aspd makes those bad. Also, it's not hard to change equip just to register merc. So u can use the equip that help with merc stat instead of the one you are using regularly. Another point is for defender merc especially, hit stat is important. So it's best to either use Triple Ice Cream or just go barehanded.