Maniac Class Advice

Hi,

I'm lvl 87 myself.

I'd say max chainsaw blade since the beginning, it'll help you lvl fast and will still be useful in the higher lvls.
It's an good AoE I'd say.

My advice would be to max storm blast too (after that). Since it has become a passive skill, it's great, the DoT is ok and it has a mini-war cry effect, reducing the combo rate. And it procs often, and even more often as your lvl increases.

If you like guard dispel, take 10 lvls in it. I have it but I never use it since I think it's wasting a good 3-target attack, even if storm blast won't proc.

I prefer second row, for safety, although I don't think first row would be a problem at all, since he has high HP and defense, mdef is quite good too.
I think a sword main can beat him in pure def, but only at high lvls (90-100+). You can always do the math with the item stats tables.

Mine has never missed that much, and with the prophet adding accuracy, choose other rings, they will better serve you.

oh, this is a nice and complete answer, so i think i will follow your advice, maximize chainsaw blade then storm blast. and wich rings are good then for maniac? strenght and vitae?

I always stick with 2 spearmaster rings +1 (I actually transferred them from my sword main).

The +1 isn't much, I know, but the +s don't improve the mdef bonus anyway, and that's mostly why I chose them : that's 2x +150 mdef, which is kinda pretty good in my book =)

If you wanna go for more damage, maybe take 1 spearmaster and 1 swordmaster.

Anyway, whether take them from your previous main if he was melee too or go and do and redo that Necro quest line !

Have fun.

Maniac = Front row tank. If a maniac can't survive it, then only a Sword main in full gear/mount/everything else can.

Skills:

Max CS Blade
Max SBlast
1 GDispel
Rest into lvl 100 skill.

Ring = Dual Spearmasters or Dual Master Gunners. Do NOT mix and match them.

thnx really to both

You'll probably find that around Sunken or Shogun you want to pull your main off the front line. I don't remember which one, but I know I needed to. Before that it's all gravy, I don't remember dying even once on front line up through VoK. Volcano is easy frontline for the most part, but ygg and beyond can be painful. I ran mediocre eq though, so you might have different results.

I totally agree with Wraith on the skills and rings.

Why wouldn't you want to mix and match Rings?

About the front line part, I tend to agree with Mauser cos my gear isn't that good either. I've frontlined until Shogun, but it was touch ang go there, so I prefer to be on the safe side.

I'm keeping my 2 spearmasters, but I'm also curious like Metahuman : why not having one ring of each ?

The 'No mix and Match' is really just my own personal preference. There is some math behind it, though. MDef and Vit both scale up to certain points. MDef has a hard cap and the cap can only be reached w/ Spearmasters, so that's why Dual weild them. Might as well make a strong point stronger, right?

As for Gunners, well both Gunners and Swordmasters can work equally well. It's just to max damage output.

The Vit stat scales exponentially, so more Vit = better optimization. So basically, my comment was about maximizing strengths while letting natural stats cover weaknesses. Doing hybrid is inefficient because the sum of the parts are not greater than a whole of one or the otehr.

Ok, I see, thanks !

Oh, and what's the max mdef then ?

Ah, I mean my Musician rocks double Spearmaster as is, but that does make sense.

MDef Max effectiveness in PVP before MAJOR diminishing returns hit is 1.1k MDef. However:

PVE MDef =/= PVP MDef

PVP MDef = 1/2 PVE MDef

That's why the Dual Spears. Staffs and Musi might be the only ones who can get away w/o the Dual Spears and still hit cap, but every other range needs at least one and melees need 2.

Im using a spearmaster + master cannoneer i swapped from my previous main and not having any issues frontlining in const/frozen and even wanted board.

Cannoneer has just a little less mag def than spearmaster (100 vs 150) but some higher other bonuses which is why I dont mind using it.

And I would skip the 1 skill point in guard dispel. It doesnt hit jack-crap with only 1 point. You're better off hitting them while they are HG and cant heal with a maniac in my opinion. But thats also from a pve standpoint, not a heavy pvp player :)