Guild skill discussion

[Old_Rufus]

Hei, im inviting players to post their opinion on how to build guild skills. what to piroritize and different ways to go. It would be a great help for us new players to learn and build effective skills so our chars can maximize

[Curulan]

We usually have these kinds of discussions in the Hall of Answers, which is a public access forum.

I've posted a similar reply in that forum recently, but here's the general consensus of late:
Fighter Guilds: Give +1 Attack/+1 Weapon Level; enable to you stop waking up sick or late. Maximum benefit is around 4 or 5 Guild ranks, and other guilds are more useful, as Berzerk is not a first-round skill.

Trader Guilds: Give +1 Defense/Bonus to running; MOST USEFUL Guild in the game; Backstab is a first-round skill that doubles your attack power and skill, and increases the chances of gaining +1 Guts AND +1 Charm.

Mage Guilds: Give +1 Skill/Enable use of Gems. The number of ranks in this depend on personal preference. Every two ranks enable you to use an additional gem, up to a maximum of 12 ranks. It's usually good to take a handful of them early on, as each Mesmerize increases the chance of gaining +1 Wits, which is often the slowest attribute to increase. In the past, having at least one rank sped up the Ranking process, but I don't remember if this is true anymore.

Samurai Guilds (Ieatsu): Marginally more useful than Fighter, and you should pick up a handful of these. An Ieatsu is a first-round version of Berzerk. Samurai guilds give no stat bonuses.

Sage Guilds: Possibly the least useful Guild. Sage gives no bonuses of its own, and it is a passive skill. It has a chance of being used any time a monster uses one of it's own Guild skills and will replace your attack, effectively wasting the round. You're better off just improving your stats and hoping you don't get a streak of bad luck.

[Cerberus2]

Yeah... Curu's been around a whole lot longer than me, but I feel the need to add a caveat to the Sage Guild part. My first character, level 31, got mesmerized by a panda and a jaguar on successive days (yesterday and today). The panda stole half my gear (including all 14 bottled fairies), and the jag sent me off a cliff (which, because I hadn't yet picked up more fairies, wiped out 40 quests and half of my remaining gear). Oh, and I was running away from the jag when it mesmerized me.

So if you're going to eschew the sage guilds, keep a few things in mind - 1) don't carry more gear than you'll need for the day (or are willing to lose half of), 2) run from pandas (they tend to have ~400 wits, but never chase me), and 3) don't go to Azteca, Hie Brazil, or the Docks without fairies (even when you run, jags & harpies will chase and mesmerize you, and if you attack or try to charm a mermaid in the Docks and fail, they often try to mesmerize you).

The worst feeling in this game is having a character you've built up to the point where you can slug it out with dragons get mesmerized by something you long ago got used to owning, and losing half your hard-earned gear in a second. The problem with having no sage skills is that building stats without them can be tough, since most areas have at least one enemy that will try to mesmerize you. Early on (before I picked up a handful of sage skills), I got mesmerized by Mages, then Elves, then Wyverns with annoying frequency, wiping out much of the equipment I had stocked up, which meant I had to be more conservative in fighting and even in the areas I quested in, which made it harder for me to level up.

So maybe don't put all your money into Sages, but my humble opinion is that picking up a few is a good idea, in that it allows you to be slightly more aggressive in questing without having to worry too much about whether you're going to get robbed or sent off a cliff.