ふふ。
Samurai.
I've been meaning to make a true solo-type character so I can farm without a party sometimes...
So I decided to make a samurai.
Mainly because I hate ninja but I want a solid solo-type character.
I got inspired from rarariri様の blog whose samurai (and wizard) is pretty terrific.
I'm excited to try out her poison-type samurai once the boss comes out, too.
Regardless, the results are pretty great so far.
Even at only level 180, his damage is almost as good as my minstrel when she is solo...
(And now I can understand why minstrel+samurai combo is not that great for dps... samurai stats are simply not that great for dragonewt damage!)
Using her dual blow equipment as an anchor, I made a new character and equipped him with:
Muramasa Pulis ☆Quick Cool
Ultimi/Schwermer Dorry ☆Evasion
Huge Cherry Blossom/Daiginjo Holiday Raton ☆Autoskill
Accessory ☆Autoskill
Myrica Warrior of Light ☆Quick Cool
Red-Green Lines
▲leviam
▲shelk
▲cerbera
▲larkas
With this set up, my samurai has -2.5 skill delay, decent autoskill and survivability, and pretty decent damage.
Now I understand the allure of having a samurai, despite how costly it is to make one.
It's so much fun!
***edit
My mistake. I've tried minstrel with a dps orientated samurai and the combination was amazing. When my dnewt was 140k hers was 160k (not as good as gladiator but reeeally good damage).
They make a great combo for bosses unless the samurai cannot tank the minstrel.
So English Iruna has been steadily (sprinting, actually) catching up to the JP servers.
We're already at Chapter 4 and our level cap is already at 320.
Both JP and English servers are catching up to all the updated information for i-Mode.. plus they have implemented way more features, skills, and classes than i-Mode.
But...
what does this mean for the future of English Iruna?
There are a couple of trends I've been seeing...
BOWS
Ah.. my favorite weapon of choice.
Bows!!!
Up until Christmas this year, the elemental normal bows available to us on both the English and Japanese servers have been abysmal.
I had predicted that Asobimo would come up with a new Ice Bow because Icicle Bow had the lowest attack of all available elemental normal bows.
And what do you know?
They implement Freesia Bow, which by itself, without 2 slots, easily surpasses a 2s max attack Icicle Bow.
Then I predicted a wind bow would be next.
Why? Storm Bow Sturm sucks. Its max attack and stats are pretty terrible.
Then what do you know?
Rising Ray was implemented.
What's next, then?
Well..
judging by the list of available bows, wind and water are out.
Earth, Light, Dark, Neutral all have pretty strong stats and upgrades.
What's left?
FIRE!!
Here's to hoping ^-^
BALANCE
If you have been following the newly implemented skills, you would have noticed the glaring absence of new skills for:
Assassin
Enchanter
Gladiator
Monk
What do all of these classes have in common?
D.P.S.
All four of these jobs are extremely strong if well equipped, whether solo or not. The DPS of a sniper (prior to the implementation of the new skills) pales in comparison to a fully equipped, well prepared and partied monk or solo assassin.
Gladiators and Enchanters (and claw monks and assassins even) also share the common trait of being very strong and solo-able characters for boss farms.
Now... you may argue that Paladins got a new skill and yet was already very strong because of Knight Oath.
But.. think about it.
Knight Oath is still weak and not helpful for many party situations. In the English servers, the maximum Knight Oath I've seen is a little over 2million.
That's 2 million over 10 seconds.
With a good set up, I alone can do 5 million in 10 seconds.
Which is getting to my point.... Asombimo is striving for greater balance in parties for all characters.
Whether that be extra DPS, extra defense, or whatever is best suited for that particular class.
For example, Bishops received Judgment (slightly altered from the i-Mode version) to increase light/Nemesis damage yet decrease Heal recovery. Bishops from the get-go were not designed to fight bosses (at least, continuously for an effective farm) and thus it only makes sense to increase nemesis damage, rather than give bishops an entirely different damage skill.
Now what does this leave for the rest of the new skills?
(Hopefully Asobimo lets us know by the end of this month as they promised...!)
Beast Knight and Servant
Due to the unpopularity of these classes, I suspect Asobimo will consider giving them some types of OP skills that will help boost people's interest in them.
But, then again, I don't believe this means Servant will get a strong damage skill (if they even get one) because it appears to be Asobimo's intent to keep it a purely support type character.
As for Beast Knight, it's actually not a bad type of class. The hybrid nature of it, however, is likely what turns people off from making them. Perhaps Asobimo will give it some skill that boosts its solo-ability or dps? We'll see what Asobimo thinks up...
Summoner and Necromancer
Unfortunately, there is still no word from Asobimo about these classes.
Not even any leaked information.
But considering that the trend has been towards balancing classes, I would guess that Summoner is similar to Ragnarok Online's sniper class and its use of a wolf/eagle. I'm not quite sure about necromancer, but the general consensus is that it would be given mainly dark magic skills...
Which makes sense, considering that no one magic type class (unless you somehow consider assassin as magical) has a monopoly on dark magic.
Sure, we could all slap on some dajarte and call yourself a dark magic class, but you won't have any inherent skills to boost that damage.
If that's the case, maybe Asobimo will create a new AL crysta for dark magic +10% (only lunange is out on both JP and English and it only gives 5%)...
Samurai-Ninja-Minstrel
The interesting thing about each of the special classes is that they all can dish out quite a bit of damage if built correctly.
Each of them also can hold their own pretty well solo-wise.
So what's left?
Probably not much. Ninja already has a DOC level 2 planned so perhaps that's all they'll get.
Samurais are already pretty overpowered, so perhaps a skill that will help it defend/resist/evade attacks.
Minstrels are pretty overpowered when it comes to DPS parties--perhaps they'll give us...*drum roll*... Dragonewt level 2?!?!?!
Which would be awesome. But probably too overpowered to consider...
Alchemist
Alchemist, however, is different from the rest of the special classes.
It is still quite a wild card, because the premise of the class is based on production, rather than DPS or support as other classes. I suspect Asobimo will play to an alchemist's strengths, either helping alchemists with its DPS (a new skill or upgraded skill perhaps) or increasing its production rate (which is more predictable).
BUT.
BUT...!!
New skills for these special classes will be discussed today on NicoVideo in about three hours.
I will update this entry once it comes out!
**EDIT: NEW SPECIAL JOB SKILLS**
Dun..Dun...DUNNN!!!
So new skills have been announced via livestream for special classes.
And they look interesting!
The announcers suggested they will be available in a week or so.
Let's take a look at the classes they actually showed.
*Sorry in advance. I merely skimmed the video and didn't really watch the whole thing with care like last time. I just skipped to the skills this time.
But if you'll notice, the 4 shortcut slot has been implemented for the left side of the screen...
MINSTREL
Ah, minstrel.
My favorite class.
And yet... they didn't show anything.... ;_;
SAMURAI
修羅道 - Shurrado
1. Must increase shura 100% to activate 
2. lasts until you die
3. high damage (like 16k average issen -> 75k issen)
4. before your gauge reaches 100%, each Issen gains 10% on your gauge
血化粧 - Chigesya
Attack power rises after defeating a mob
画竜点睛 Lvl2 - Finishing Stroke
Cool.. but I'm still sad about the lack of minstrel news.
NINJA
無音一殺 - Silent Single Kill
atk+matk damage, critical if throw equipped
分身乱舞 - DOC 2
Increase number(?) and power of clones + skills
Fire and Wind magic are increased
妖炎 - Youen
1. Cast on yourself, then use skill desired
2. Lasts over 2minutes
This skill looks AWESOME!
It can be used in conjunction with magic skills and DOC.
With fire magic alone, it'll increase 2.5k damage to 10k + 1k
With DOC, it'll increase a 16k DOC to 36k
ALCHEMIST
Like minstrels, the alchemists' new skills were not revealed..
（/TДT)/
But they said the skills will be shown sometime next week..
We'll see if it actually happens next time.
Afterword
The reveal of the new special classes has one major trend...
That is increase of damage.
But both ninja and samurai already do pretty decent damage.
Maybe not assassin/sniper type damage, but still pretty freaking high.
...Perhaps all special classes get a damage boost to rival their normal-job friends' dps??
We will see.
...Until then! ヾ(＠°▽°＠)ﾉ
As many before me have already blogged, pet skills are incredibly helpful.
Especially for minstrel.
Ever since we received the pet skill "Learn" function, I've been feeding my existing pets boss eggs and been able to play around with many of the pet skills...
（‐＾▽＾‐）
Some, however, are more helpful than others.
Here are the skills in order of what I think is helpful for minstrels:
1. Hide Attack Passive
Hide attack is so helpful. It guarantees a critical hit at arguably 0% hate (because apparently it can be procured with more hate but I have never really tested the mechanics of the skill... we'll leave that for another day).
This is absolutely awesome when us DPS minstrels are soloing. It works on dragonewt, vampire blow, the first attack for dual blow, hard hit, etc...
The reasoning is that when you target a mob and your attack fails to be critical, that more or less spells death for the DPS minstrel. And death isn't great.
୧ʕ ⇀ ⌂ ↼ ʔ୨
PROS: it guarantees a critical hit
CONS: it only affects the first hit, it generally does not help magic based classes
2. Vampire Blow Active. Requires MP. Takes -.5 skill delay
I've been waiting for this skill in particular ever since グリ父さま wrote about it in his blog...
And it was well worth the wait.
.+:｡(ﾉ･ω･)ﾉﾞ
Vampire blow is such a useful skill, in solo or in party. It is extremely helpful when you are destroying mobs to procure a mini boss or when solo...
The recent implementation of Song Lore 3 allows minstrels to play 3 songs at once... which is terrific but this also means we have a lot more HP. Even with HP cutting gear, your HP with 3 songs could easily reach 7k.
And it is difficult to heal yourself with such mid-range HP.
Vampire blow helps us recoup that loss of HP. Combined with Hide Attack, vampire blow will always procure a critical hit (which loosely correlates with higher HP gain) for that first hit.
Plus, it is pretty strong. You can increase your damage with ATK and elemental damage. I'm not sure if other stats play a role but I will test it one day....
My vampire blow does about 29k-40k for the first hit, giving me back anywhere from 2k-12k HP.
Even though the received HP can be very temperamental (without hide attack) and although the range for vampire blow is just as short as dual blow... it's still great.
This means fewer deaths for us SDC minstrels! ^-^
PROS: short skill delay (.5 seconds), great heal potential for low to mid-range HP characters
CONS: very close-range skill, requires hide attack to guarantee high return of HP on first hits, generally lower HP return mid-fight
3. All Around
All around is pretty great for any type of class. It helps with elemental defense and even elemental damage.
I personally love using it on my bishop while she is leveling at jacobs, which hit pretty hard. With all-around, there is practically zero chance of dying even if you aren't paying attention..
PROS: increases damage and defense, great in all situations, long duration (5 min), lowish MP Cost
CONS: must be cast individually per party member
4. Quick Turn
Quick turn is very useful, not only for minstrels but for all classes. It is especially helpful for 0 defense and 0 agility types (I'm looking at you, snipers) while walking through maps with aggressive monsters.
Quick turn is a must have if your minstrel is soloing, regardless of whether you have agility or not. With 0 agility and near 0 evasion, my minstrel has over 800 agility when I use quick turn, evasion 1, and warrior song + 2 other songs (even without any stats into Green line).
As an aside, agi-type minstrels could probably use quick turn in lieu of warrior song to increase their damage.
Many new bosses, however, require a minimum of 900+ agility so quick turn will be handy in almost every scenario...
Plus, you can cast it on party members.
PROS: increases evasion +10%, makes cool sound and effect that could easily be mistaken with bishop's Quick buff
CONS: buff ends pretty quickly (2 min), somewhat high mp cost
5. Evasion
Evasion from pets is equivalent to hunter's evasion level 1. Which means the agi bonus from evasion is not so high. But it is still helpful, especially for non-agi minstrels!
If I have not placed any stat points into GL in apostolia, my evasion is under 800 even with quick turn and warrior song.
But!
With the combination of 3 songs including warrior, quick turn, and evasion, I can get over 800 evasion which helps me evade most attacks for most of the older bosses.
(≧ڡ≦*)
[If you invest at least 10 points into green line, however, you could attain 800+ evasion without evasion]
PROS: increases evasion and attack (depending on your weapon), easy to get from pet
CONS: not much evasion will increase and negligible attack increase if your weapon increases attack with agility
6. Large Shield
Now... I know what you're thinking.
Large shield sounds kinda bad for minstrels. For most classes, really. For nearly all situations....
But let's think of it this way.
How often will you level your minstrel?
And of course, considering the fact that my minstrel is DPS-orientated, there is only one real type of scenario I'd use this skill for....
That is at...
BAUM WARRIORS!!! ww
If you are like me, actively gathering mobs at baums and refusing to restat just to level, then this skill is for you.
Large shield gives DPS minstrels the defensive power a non-DPS minstrel has. It doesn't increase your defense or magic defense. Instead, it mitigates the damage you receive.
I've already mentioned that a good way to level with hard-hitting, fast mobs like baum warriors when you have a low HP/DEF/MDEF character is using wound transfer + myrica wristlet.
Now.. let's kick it up a notch.
(ﾉﾟοﾟ)ﾉｵゥｰ!
This time, I used these set up:
W.Trance [sauro] ☆HP
Licht Armor Up [sauro] ☆HP
Arubus Shield [sauro] ☆Quick Cool
☆Quick Cool
Myrica ☆Quick Cool
The point of this setup is to decrease your damage as much as possible, regardless of how much your damage suffers.
So...
1. Your bishop doesn't have to worry about your HP as much
2. You can still sing 1 second songs without incurring too much damage (with high dex)
3. You get 15% extra exp
4. You don't have to use life song if not needed
5. You can probably tank low level bosses
The results were great!（￣▽￣）=３
Without any buffs at Baum Warriors (with non-upgraded equipment):
highest regular damage taken: 2176
highest critical damage taken: 3231
With Large Shield:
highest regular damage taken: 1687 (or 22% damage reduced)
highest critical damage taken: 2345 (or 27% damage reduced)
With Large Shield & All Around:
highest regular damage taken: 1619 (or 25% damage reduced)
highest critical damage taken: 1640 (or 49% damage reduced)
It looks like, in general, damage was reduced by a about 20+%.
All in all...
PROS: helps make a tank in a character with 0 defensive capability ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ, lasts quite a while (3 min)
CONS: you must actively cast the buff, your atk/matk decreases significantly, you must wear a shield
7. Assault
Assault is not a boss skill but it is still pretty helpful for barrier bosses.
That being said, you would never really use assault in a boss fight with a party if you are a DPS minstrel to avoid hate....
So for solo barrier boss fights, this works pretty well.
PROS: breaks boss barrier, easy to get from pet
CONS: you have to be extremely close to the boss for the skill to connect
8. Dual Blow Takes -2 second delay to spam
Ah...dual blow.
So many types of characters can benefit from this one skill.
Minstrels can use this skill too, but the effect for a DPS minstrel is not as great. Why? Because the second attack can miss even if you also have Hide Attack.
This one problem could mean death for the unsuspecting minstrel...
But, if a minstrel was a sword type, they could probably use dual blow much like a samurai or even enchanter. Of course, the effect will not be as impressive.
(My alternate character wearing Nasturtirum):
Regardless..
I don't use dual blow on my minstrel anymore.
It scares me...
PROS: can be high damage especially if used with autoskill, for some reason can be pretty hard to get from non-boss pets
CONS: you have to be very close for the attack to connect, skill delay for dual blow can be a problem, there is no guarantee the second attack will connect or be critical
9. Hard Hit
Hard hit is surprisingly strong! It also works with Hide Attack.
For example, if my vampire blow does 36k on a mob, my hard hit will do about 40k on that same mob.
Plus, unlike vampire blow, assault, and dual blow, hard hit's range appears to depend on the weapon you are using. So if you are using bow, your range can be pretty far.
This is pretty helpful when you are quickly collecting items on your minstrel (but not for targeting dragonewt... vampire blow, dual blow, or even assault is better in this respect).
Then again, using a bishop or high wizard would be 1000x more effective.
(」゜ロ゜)」
PROS: surprisingly high damage, low MP cost, instant cast and fast delay, long range
CONS: long range, normal dragonewt is still stronger
10. Protect
Protect is not a boss skill, but it is helpful. Many will argue that the defense it adds is negligible... but if you have 10 defense to begin with.... it helps.
Combine protect with an assortment of defense/mdefense orientated gear and Large Shield, you'll have a pretty tanky minstrel!
PROS: increases defense, low MP Cost, instant cast and low delay, easy to get from pet
CONS: does not increase that much defense, doesn't protect against magic attacks
11. Provoke
Provoke is not a boss skill nor is it very strong. It is equivalent to a warrior class's provoke 1 skill...
So even if you are a tank minstrel, the effect will not be that impressive.
But it's still nice to have...
PROS: looks cool
CONS: doesn't really help with hate as you would think
12. Double Attack
Double attack is interesting. It is an autoskill that cancels out any other autoskills you may have in place. So if you are an auto attack minstrel using WOL, double attack will cancel out WOL's effect. I guess instead of WOL, you can use Beezlenoid for higher damage while retaining double attack from pet skill....
Anyhow, it would be nice if double attack worked on dragonewt.
Double dragonewt!! (๑º﹃º)♡”
But it doesn't.
PROS: great with auto-attack type characters
CONS: not so great with skill spammers
13. High Cycle
ASPD + 100%! Σ(ﾟДﾟ)
Sounds great, right?
In practice, though, I've only found this useful for low level alternate characters soloing main quest.
With samurai, I must mention that because High Cycle only increases 100% ASPD, if you are using muramasa, your ASPD will still be -100% (plus High Cycle drains your low MP like crazy). So forget about auto-attack with muramasa.
PROS: increases ASPD
CONS: high MP cost, very low duration (60 seconds)
14. Spell Boost
Spell boost is a must-have for all magic-type characters. It is absolutely great. Although you could easily use the spell boost crysta instead...seriously, no one wants to change equipment just to use one skill, especially when the effect is so short.
PROS: increases MATK, corrects lowered MATK in boss fights
CONS: short effect time (30 seconds), costs a lot of MP
12. Homing
This skill...sucks. Unless you have real accuracy problems (levels 100 and under), then this is not a good skill to keep... for any type of character.
PROS: increases accuracy
CONS: everything.
13. Mana wave, Dark blast, Sonic Boom
These skills are so incredibly weak. Unless you're making some kind of jack-of-all-trades adventurer (which would still be incredibly weak and susceptible to attack), these skills should not be skills you'd aim for.
PROS: does a low level skill without an equipped crysta or job skill
CONS: damage is low
14. Life Charge
I wished this was better. (ಥ﹏ಥ)
The 10 second delay cannot be shortened by skill delay equipment (I've tested it, others have tested it) AND you can't move during the duration of the delay.
PROS: it heals you, at least
CONS: everything.
15. Self-Healing
I'm a bit torn about this one. On the one hand, sometimes I feel wasteful just using HP/MP pots when I could just sit for a bit and let it naturally regenerate. Self healing is great for that aspect. But on the other hand, it's much faster and practical to use pots.
PROS: great for players low on spina and can't afford too many pots, very fast regeneration
CONS: you can't regenerate faster while fighting, you can just use an item
16. Escape
This skill does not move you back a map, as many have guessed. It literally just takes you to the last town you were at. Just use an item.
PROS: No need to use a TP for that city you last visited
CONS: seriously, you can just use an item
♡～٩( ˃́▿˂̀ )۶～♡
How do you spam dragonewt while Passionate Song is on?
Spamming dragonewt is the best way to get the highest damage per second with minstrel, whether you are in a party or not.
Actually...
Right now, for the English servers, dragonewt spam is probably one of the highest (if not the highest) potential damage per second of all classes.
Imagine...
My dragonewt is usually 100-160k
My friend's gladiator usually does 150k-200k+ dragonewt
Bishops usually do about 5k-15k dragonewt
This party alone gives each dragonewt attack 255k-375k PER SECOND.
With a full party, buffs + elemental drinks... this easily surpasses 600k per second.
...
ヤヴァイすぎます。 (*'﹃ `*)
But spamming becomes difficult when you are the tanker or if you are soloing monsters that you cannot get rid of in 1 hit.
Minstrel's dragonewt, however, is different from other types of skills. 
You can use a "back attack!"
No, not an assassin's back stab.
Rather, after you first get hate from the mob (whether by targeting/physically attacking/buffing), you turn your back to the mob and then spam dragonewt.
You will see that if you let go, your character will just stand there, rather than continue attacking the mob like normal. If you feel the mob's hate start to pull your character back to it, just tap outside of the mob, towards the other direction.
This way, you can use Passionate Song and still spam Dragonewt.
Alternatively, you could use -ASPD equipment like moonlight bow, muramasa, carib horn, etc to decrease your aspd.. but these equipment are usually better suited for other classes (as with the "back attack technique" ASPD doesn't really bother a minstrel's spam.
What happens when you normally use passion+spam:
What happens when you use the "back attack" technique:
Easy! 
Extra:
허니통통...
세상에서 제일 맛있는 과자...
드디어!! 미국에 왔읍니당~♡
Many new bosses have been coming out lately..
So many that it's hard to decide which to farm first! 
But seeing that EninaII came out, I decided this was the first boss I should try to farm.
Two great things about EninaII:
1. She drops ☆quick cool on special equipment.
2. Her al crysta is great, especially for bishops!
Her AL crysta has the following stats:
This was such a hard drop!
Took me over 800 runs to get it ;-;
But it was worth it....
My nemesis damage before using Enina (bish buffs only):
My damage after (bish buffs only):
Some tips for parties who want to take on EninaII:
1. Right when you enter, she does this aoe critical hit that hurts very badly... so if you have less than 20k hp you will die.
2. Past 50% hp, she casts dark&poison twice (the second time you will notice a "boom"). Both of these status ailments cannot be cleared with vaccines pre-battle... you need to use an item/skill when the ailment is casted... for both poison and darkness....for both times she casts them..
Plus, she drains your HP/MP.. Plus you attack is lowered.
3. There are these purple spots that open up right under you:
They will kill most people if you just stand there. It takes about 3-4 seconds for it to activate though, so you have plenty of time to move away.
4. For DPS minstrels:
With an inexperienced bishop, you will die a lot. To try to tone down all the potential deaths, I suggest standing near enough your bishop for bright heal and far enough from the boss so you have just enough hate to spam Dragonewt (but not so close or else your hate will increase like crazy).
In the picture above, I was in a party with gladiator, high wizard, and bishop.
A. To ensure the safety of my friends, I used dream+passion+warrior before I entered the boss field. This way, my tanker can begin damaging the boss even if we were not all yet inside + the members going in could possibly evade the critical aoe while going in (occurs about half the time with warrior on)
C. Once inside, i recast passion+dream then spam dragonewt
D. Once the second status ailments are cast at the boom, cast Sweet Home only immediately
E. (At this point i equip jar of greed instead for increased drop rate) Dragonewt til the end!
5. For bishops:
This is one of those bosses you shouldn't just keep spamming resurrection for. Especially if you are in a party with classes that require HP to keep attacking (like gladiators spamming tempest or dps minstrels spamming dragonewt).
Even if you aren't, it's still not smart to just use ressurection. For example, if you have a sniper as the main damager in your party, you shouldn't just cast ressurection on them when the status ailments come. Stay close to them and cast bright heal on them when you can!
If you expect your damager to use vaccines/skills to get rid of the ailments, realize that is making your farm shorter. Much shorter.
For example, one bishop in my party made sure I was not blinded. Another bishop just spammed ressurection and occasionally healed me. The difference between these farms was massive... the former took 10-17 seconds per run, with hardly any deaths. The latter took 23+ seconds, with many many many deaths (usually at least one person died per run).
Goes to show how knowing each class and using that knowledge to make a good strategy really will help your farm sessions!
One main tip for bishops:
Every run cast Ressurection before the run, right when you get inside, and right after the fight. This is to ensure no deaths due to the beginning critical aoe and the poison towards the end of the fight. (The poison can be incredibly painful... sometimes it did about 8000 damage to me).10-17
6. The shorter your farm is, the easier it is for everyone. A short farm session means less deaths, no poison problem (thus no need to ress right before the fight ends), no recasting of buffs in the middle of the fight, no need to move from the purple spots, and no hate problem.
For example, with a party with gladiator+assassin+bishop, my minstrel can always equip jar of greed, use only dream+joy&sorrow+nost/sweet home and still finish the fight pretty quickly before poison is cast:
EninaII is so much fun
How is the "regular" dragonewt damage calculated?
How is the "critical" dragonewt damage calculated?
How is the "critical" rate of dragonewt calculated?
How much atk does Passionate Song boost?
How much crt does Nostalgia Song boost?
Let's do a test to figure out the answers to these questions...
≧(´▽｀)≦
(Sorry for the long post!)
Applicable Formulas
These formulas are used throughout this post and can be found at Wiki.
Test!
Here are some constants (at the time of the test):
my level: 316
guild level: 73 (3 extra stats per stat)
Wearing: Daig[18] + raton, illusion[225] + 2 ganei, acc QC4, ad. Arrow + noid, ira[20] +dorry, valtia, mamo, zazel, str+2, *ATK5, STR4, CRT1, DEX2
Stats: 406 str, 380 dex, 384 crt
resting atk 4381, eva 357, aspd 66
with dream: 4462 atk, 369 eva, 88 aspd
with dream/pass: atk 5253, eva 381, aspd 220
with dream/nost: atk 4542, aspd 110, eva 381
with dream/pass/nost: atk 5335, aspd 264, eva 393
with pass: atk 5171, eva 369, aspd 176
with nost: 4462, eva 369, aspd 88
Extra stats: 10 stat per song, 3 stat from guild, 160 atk from apost, 255 physical power from apost
Monster:
ノムマール Lv247: 0 Defense
Damage (Non-critical or non-"critical" hits are underlined):
[Advisory: Due to time constraints, I cannot practically spend all day trying out how many times a regular dragonewt would occur. This test cannot be 100% accurate because of how few times I was actually able to produce a "critical" or non"critical" hit. I have since sold many of these equipment so I can no longer replicate this test...]
With Dream+Passion+Nostalgia
Normal Attacks:
34107
34111
34176
33984
34238
34071
34078
34169
34002
34118
(33rd try: 7048)
Dragonewt:
108698
108388
108515
108651
108572
108594
108960
108537
108572
109156
109017
(22nd try: 23201)
With Dream
Regular Attack:
26423
26343
5155
26348
26409
26209
26423
26423
26300
26269
26300
Dragonewt:
19630
86416
86040
85983
86040
19513
86514
86173
86359
86691
86416
With Dream+Nostalgia
Regular Attack:
28944
6239
28983
6222
29012
29126
29037
28980
29037
29001
Dragonewt:
92118
19902
92153
92061
92051
91780
92320
91995
92377
91837
With Dream+Passion
Regular Attack:
31198
31023
31098
31098
31198
31055
31066
31155
31177
31209
5941
Dragonewt:
102268
102404
102505
102122
22828
102043
102043
102144
102628
102201
22911
Results!
Originally, I heard from a fellow minstrel on English Iruna that dragonewt damage is approximately 3x normal damage (dependent on regular formulaic issues like level, barrier, defense, physical power, etc). As you can see from the test, this is not exactly true...
Let's try to figure out a more accurate way to determine minstrel damage.
How is the "regular" dragonewt damage calculated?
Obviously, the damage from dragonewt is different from normal regular white damage. The assumption is there is a constant multiplier for dragonewt damage that is applied to regular damage. Let's see if multiplying 3 to the regular attack damage is true...
Basic value white damage of physical attack power = {ATK + weapon ATK value + own Lv- enemy Lv- enemy DEF + (random numerical value)} × (1+ attribute coefficient) + (physical power)
random numerical value = (Range between 0 and Weapon ATK - 1) ÷ 5
Physical power from 6 yellow lines: 70+59+48+37+26+15 = 255
With Dream/Pass/Nost
regular white damage = (5335 + 225 + 316 - 247 - 0 + [0 to 44.8]) x (1 + 0) + (255+300)
= (5629 + [0 to 44.8]) x 1 + 555
= maximum 6228.8
Calculated damage for regular attacks: 6228.8
Calculated damage for dragonewt: 18686.4 (or 3x regular calculated damage)
Actual damage for regular attacks: 7048
Actual damage for dragonewt: 23201 (or 3.29x regular actual damage)
With Dream/Nost
regular white damage = (4542 + 225 + 316 - 247 - 0 + [0 to 44.8]) x (1 + 0) + (555)
= maximum 5435.8
Calculated damage for regular attacks: 5435.8
Calculated damage for dragonewt: 16307.4 (or 3x regular calculated damage)
Actual damage for regular attacks: 6230.5
Actual damage for dragonewt: 19902 (or 3.19x regular actual damage)
With Dream/Pass
regular white damage = (5253 + 225 + 316 - 247 - 0 + [0 to 44.8]) x (1 + 0) + (555)
= maximum 6146.8
Calculated damage for regular attacks: 6146.8
Calculated damage for dragonewt: 18440.4 (or 3x regular calculated damage)
Actual damage for regular attacks: 5941
Actual damage for dragonewt: 22869.5 (or 3.85x regular actual damage)
With Dream
regular white damage = (4462 + 225 + 316 - 247 - 0 + [0 to 44.8]) x (1 + 0) + (555)
= maximum 5355.8
Calculated damage for regular attacks: 5355.8
Calculated damage for dragonewt: 16067.4 (or 3x regular calculated damage)
Actual damage for regular attacks: 5155
Actual damage for dragonewt: 19571.5 (or 3.80x regular actual damage)
Minstrel is such a mystery...
As you can see, nothing seems to fit! Regular damage, even not song damage, does not fit the regular formula for damage!!
It's so frustrating....
(*´Д｀)=з
Every calculation was completely off-mark.
As you can see, the 3x multiplier theory was also completely wrong for regular dragonewt damage.
Weirdly, the actual regular damage was more than the calculate regular damage for only Dream/Nost/Pass and Dream/Nost...
The actual regular damage was less than the calculated regular damage for Dream and Dream/Pass...
And the hypothetical multiplier (assuming dragonewt = regular damage x multiplier) was much less (about 3.2x versus 3.8x) for Dream/Nost/Pass and Dream/Nost...
What does this mean?
These results suggest that regular damage for minstrels is increased more if Nostalgia is used, whereas regular dragonewt damage for minstrels is increased more if Passion Song is used...
Interesting!
(*^ー^);;....
How is the "critical" rate of dragonewt calculated?
From the test above, it appears that the critical rate increased by nostalgia song was able to counteract some of the -70% crt rate daiginjo gives. This means that "critical" dragonewt attacks are indeed, critical attacks!
That would mean that the usual critical rate formula should apply to dragonewt as well!
[Crit]
Ignore the evasion rate ※ critical ratio verification example (1% + every three)
CRT1(5%) CRT30(15%) CRT60(25%) CRT90(35%) CRT120(45%) CRT150(55%) CRT180(65%) CRT210(75%) CRT240(85%) CRT256(90%)
95% limit of the critical rate? (To also be stable at 95% before and after raising in the equipment, etc.)
※ example those Critical rate + ○% by equipment and Christa multiplied by the ○% + in the current critical rate: The current critical rate of 50 ◇ Aero (Critical rate + 5%) if the critical rate of 52, ◇ Himmel (critical It rate +10) if critical ratio of 60
CRT1 10%
CRT30 13%
CRT60 17%
CRT90 20%
CRT120 24%
CRT150 27%
CRT180 31%
CRT210 34%
CRT240 38%
CRT256 40%
From this formula, we can surmise the following:
With a total of 388 CRT regardless of whether a song is on, the base critical rate should be 90%. But then we subtract 40% (155.2) from that (due to daiginjo -70%, ira +20%, and mamonea +10%). The leftover CRT would be 232.8 so about 75% CRT rate.
With 1 song, CRT would be 242 so critical rate would be 85%
With 2 songs, CRT would be 252 so critical rate would be 85%%
With 3 songs, CRT would be 262 so critical rate would be 90%-95%
Now let's see what the actual critical rate was...
With Dream/Pass/Nost
For regular attacks: 32/33 = 96%
For dragonewt: 21/22 = 95%
With Dream/Nost
For regular attacks: 8/10 = 80%
For dragonewt: 9/10 = 90%
With Dream/Pass
For regular attacks: 9/11 = 81.8%
For dragonewt: 8/11 = 72.7%
With Dream
For regular attacks: 9/11 = 81.8%
For dragonewt: 8/11 = 72.7%
As you can see, the only real boost in critical rate appears to show when 3 songs are played. This makes sense, considering the critical rate theoretically jumps 5%. In actuality, it appears to have jumped at least 10% for both regular attacks and dragonewt! Maybe this is the effect of nostalgia song...?
Now, we know that nostalgia song is suppose to increase your critical rate a little. But from the results (which are limited), it's hard to tell how much it affects your critical rate if you already have a ton of CRT to begin with... maybe in the future I will enlist someone's help to better pinpoint how much nostalgia song affects your critical rate...
So for now...
Dragonewt and critical regular attacks both appear to be affected by the same CRT rate formula!
How is the "critical" dragonewt damage calculated?
We already know that critical damage + % increases your "critical" dragonewt damage. And because the usual formula for critical rate appears to apply to dragonewt, let's try to use the critical damage formula as well.
Critical damage = white damage × (1.5 + CRT ÷ 200) × (1+ skills + Christa + Equipment correction) + (not ride correction to the physical power = white useless worth both)
Let's use the results with Dream Song again.
The average regular white damage was 5155 and the regular "normal" dragonewt damage was 19571.5. The average "critical" dragonewt damage was 86292.44.
Let's try the formula with regular white damage.
5155 x (1.5 + 398 ÷ 200) x (1 + .22+.14+.14+.05) + (555) = 28,440.97
Next, let's try the formula with dragonewt "normal" damage.
19571.5 x (1.5 + 398 ÷ 200) x (1 + .22+.14+.14+.05) + (555) = 137164.06
Neither appears correct. Let's revert back to the old assumption that dragonewt is based on a multiplier of your other damage.
Let's see which multiplier (times regular white, regular dragonewt, or regular critical damage) is the most stable:
With Dream/Pass/Nost
102262/5941 = 17.21x
102262/31128 = 3.285x
102262/22869.5 = 4.472x
With Dream/Nost
92076.89/6230.5 = 14.78x
92076.89/29015 = 3.173x
92076.89/19902 = 4.626x
With Dream/Pass
108696.4/7048 = 15.42x
108696.4/34101 = 3.187x
108696.4/23201 = 4.684x
With Dream
86292.44/5155 = 16.73x
86292.44/26345 = 3.275x
86292.44/19571 = 4.409x
It appears from the results that even though there is some consistency in the theory that dragonewt is simply multiplied damage, this is unclear. The lowest standard deviation among the multipliers is .112 from multiplying regular critical attack by an average 3.23 times to get a near estimate of your "critical" dragonewt attack...
But again, this is unclear. There must be some variable that affects dragonewt that I am not yet aware of....
・°・(ノД｀)・°・
For now, we can broadly guess that your "critical" dragonewt attack is about 3.23 times your regular critical attack.
SIDENOTE
It's interesting how little nostalgia song appears to add (6k) compared to passionate song (15k).
Nostalgia Song
スルビニアに伝わる古い歌。パーティ全体のクリティカル率を増加させ、物理威力、クリティカルダメージを少し高める。
SLv1 MP200 HP10% スルビニアの楽譜使用(物理貫通20% 効果時間30秒)
(Basically, critical rate, physical power, and critical damage goes up a little.)
Passionate Song
ミスルナに伝わる古い歌。パーティ全体の攻撃速度を増加させ、攻撃力を少し高める。
SLv1 MP200 HP10% ミスルナの楽譜使用(ASPD+100% 効果時間30秒)
(Basically, aspd increases to 100% and attack power increases a little.)
Both song descriptions describe the increase in critical damage or attack as 少し, so I wonder if the increase in percentage is the same?
But we already established that crt damage % > same amount of atk %...and from what I know, aspd and crt rate won't affect 1 dragonewt's damage...
Which brings me to the final part of my test results...! (￣▽+￣*)
How much crt does Nostalgia Song boost and how much atk does Passionate Song boost??
Because we already know that the crt damage % increased by nostalgia song is not the same as the atk % boosted by passionate song, the assumption is that the crt damage % from nostalgia is less than the atk% from passionate song.
「攻撃力」and「物理威力」... what's the difference?
The tricky part about nostalgia song is that it also increases "physical power" (物理威力), whereas passionate song increases "attack power" (攻撃力).
But we've seen this difference made before! (*゜▽゜ノノ゛☆
物理威力 refers to the added damage in the white damage formula! (this can be increased via apostolia yellow lines and through various equipment and crysta)
We've also seen 攻撃力 before, which refers to the attack you also add to the white damage formula (in the part where you add your equipment atk and your atk from your ATK abilities).
That means Nostalgia Song adds here:
Basic value white damage of physical attack power = {ATK + weapon ATK value + own Lv- enemy Lv- enemy DEF + (random numerical value)} × (1+ attribute coefficient) + (physical power)
This would definitely help explain why Nostalgia Song boosts more damage for regular attacks!
Plus, "critical damage" is used in the description, but "ATK %" is not included in the description for passionate song.
This is an important distinction!
This means that passionate song does not simply add "ATK %" which is this part of your atk status correction:
[Calculation of status correction]
(Basic value + fixed value correction) × ratio correction example) ATK500, ◇ boss, ◇ Kaiser × 2, Schwarz, Aura, when the red and black of
(500 + 12 + 10 + 15 + 50) × (1 + 0.05 + 0.05 + 0.06) = 587 × 1.16 = 680.92
Instead, passionate song adds attack here:
[ATK]
Basic value white damage of physical attack power = {ATK + weapon ATK value + own Lv- enemy Lv- enemy DEF + (random numerical value)} × (1+ attribute coefficient) + (physical power)
which is also a part of:
[Calculation of status correction]
(Basic value + fixed value correction) × ratio correction example) ATK500, ◇ boss, ◇ Kaiser × 2, Schwarz, Aura, when the red and black of
(500 + 12 + 10 + 15 + 50) × (1 + 0.05 + 0.05 + 0.06) = 587 × 1.16 = 680.92
This is completely different.
This may also help explain the interesting results concerning the effect of Passion versus Nostalgia on regular damage...!
But..
But...
I still don't know how much is actually boosted from either of these songs..
I wonder if someone else knows......
(´・ω・`)
攻撃力... is only physical attack power, or...?
It's weird. Passionate song's description doesn't state if it only increases physical attack power. Could it also increase 魔法攻撃力?
But when you play passionate song, your MATK does not increase like your ATK. Instead, your MATK increases as much as if you played dream song instead (so we can infer that the MATK boost from passionate song is actually a byproduct of Song Lore). So we can safely assume that regardless of the description, it appears to affect only physical attack power....
So.. how much critical damage and how much attack power is increased?
[Critical Damage]
Critical damage = white damage × (1.5 + CRT ÷ 200) × (1+ skills + Christa + Equipment correction) + (no correction to the physical power = white damage correction)
Conclusion
From today's test, we learned...:
1. Regular dragonewt damage is calculated differently from normal white damage, both of which do not fit into regular damage formulas..
2. Regular damage is increased more by Nostalgia Song than Passionate Song
3. Dragonewt damage, both critical and regular, is increased more by Passionate Song than Nostalgia Song
4. "Critical" dragonewt damage is affected by critical rate + %
5. "Critical" dragonewt damage is not calculated by the normal critical damage formula and is likely affected by some variable we are not aware of. Generally, it appears to be around 3.23 times your critical damage.
6. Passionate song boosts an unknown amount of ATK, not ATK%. How much? Who knows..
7. Nostalgia song boosts an unknown amount of critical rate that is near-undetectable if you already have a lot of CRT. Nostalgia song also boosts some critical damage, but it's not as high as we'd all hope...
So...
Asobimo has been busy.
New skills for third tier positions (except beast knight, servant, and alchemist) are out on jp except bandit snatch.
**edits:
Basically, we won't know the actual potential of rising ray until banditsnatch is out.
Sniper new skills, however, look amazing. In particular, ambush and overclock work in conjunction with pet skill hide attack, making a snipers dps back on par with high dps classes like assassin.
Almost makes me want to make an assassin or sniper ....
As many jp bloggers have suggested, I too, think this will re-increase the prices for thimble and adamantite arrow.
If you are planning on getting one of these.... probably sooner than later is better!
Judgment for bishop also seems great. Nemesis damage is increased by 25%, but bright heal is decreased by 25%. (Light magic in general is increased, if I recall correctly)
I haven't seen much talk on grand crusade, but.. I'm very interested in it!
Anyhow...
On the English version,our max level cap was raised to 315. Perhaps Asobimo is trying to get the new skills to us sooner than we expect...?
Interestingly, Iruna now allows its beginning players many new things I hadn't realized was now available:
1. You are now forced to do some main quest until level 15
2. You can choose from a great array of hair colors and styles now
3. If you have a new account, you may purchase beginner boxes and items exclusive to new players for a limited time of 3 days.
4. You receive 2 new special equipment: copper ring which is slotted and tilia ring which is not slotted.
I don't have a screenshot, but there are custom equipment and buffs you can get for a cheap price from the coin shop. Plus, you can buy avatar boxes for old avatar (including adventurer garb) for very cheap-800 coins for 10 boxes!
A new update for Iruna came!
And it's a big one.
NEW SKILLS!!!! (to be implemented on JP next week's maintenance)
Paladin
Job Mastery (passive)
Grand Crusade (active) -increases Devotion incidence and prevents attacks that hindered devotion before
Gladiator
Job Mastery
Sniper
Job Mastery
Ambush (passive)
Cut Arrow (passive) - new passive skills supposed to act like a kind of hide attack in combination with ambush??
Over Clock (active)
Assassin
Job Mastery
High Wizard
Job Mastery
Bandit Snatch (active) - basically changes distance between u and enemy with damage. Supposed to work in combination with zero ray
Zero Ray (active) - a close range attack that is instant cast. Changes mp consumption and with distance between u and monster
Enchanter
Job Mastery
Bishop
Job Mastery
Judgment (passive)
Monk
Job Mastery
Other skills scheduled for next week are:
Bishop: faith4, resurrection 3, risparismo2, sanctuary3, quick2
Monk: boost hp3, healing2, chakra4, brionac2, rush4, Geo breaker3
Sniper: survival4, sense3, sniping2
Assassin: throw mastery3, invisible3, evasion5, invisible4, deathblow3, shadow walk3
High wizard: spell burst 3&4, rod mastery4, mana stock2
Enchanter: absorb4, enchant3, magic barrier4, stone skin3, magic blade2, qadal2
Paladin: rage force2, resist3, shield mastery2, heal boost2, fortis3
Gladiator: relax4, double attack6, counter3, regenerate2, penetrate3, astute4
New skills for minstrel, ninja, and samurai to come in March for JP.
Servant and BK will have to wait til April, along with the introduction of new classes Necromancer and Summoner.
These iruna updates were talked about in the livestream on YouTube..
They also talked about the implementation of houses on your island (max of 3) that you can decorate and save the format of..
They also discussed the implementation of new emoticons like blow air kiss which, if directed to another character will heal that other character. The animation is pretty cute... hearts actually come out. 笑 The male commentators we're quick to mention it would be kinda creepy if guys did it......ww
Possible other emoticons are being developed, including dash and dash+action, which may also give in game support like blow air kiss.
Aside from that, the new updates are:
- Update Details -
Valentine's Day Event has started!
From: After the scheduled maintenance on February 9th
Until: February 29th at 6:59 am (PST/GMT-8)
Rokoko City celebrates Valentine's Day!
You can go to the event venue by talking to "Neints" in Rokoko City.
Complete "Romantic Trouble 2" (event quest in 2015) and you can accept the new quests from NPC "Michal" at the event venue.
Complete "The Ogre of Jealousy" (event quest in 2016) and you can exchange items with NPC "Douin" at "Mt. Oni".
Some event quests cannot be accepted repeatedly.
*You can go to the event map implemented in the past.
*Currently, Valentine's Day isle objects cannot be put at the same place.
- Side Story Quest: "☆Spiritual Lives in Danger" has been added.
You can accpet the quest at "Mocus Jungle" after you complete Mission: "The End and a New Beginning".
- Field Map has been added.
- Dungeon Map has been added.
- Setsubun event has ended.
- Improvement -
- Improved Tutorial and the beginning of Mission.
- Adjusted Minstrel's skill effects.
If you've done the 2015 quest, you'll have to talk to Michal, go to rowell, gather materials for rita...
Cacao - from choco kijimu
Pointed leaf from abete (trees) spargas
Fish scale from fish near hydra
Solo some random weak guy back at rowell
Then meet the new boss...
.... It is Arick transformed!
He drops al crysta (on both normal and hard).rowell
Other drops from the event include:
Pole al: range mitigation+15%
Douin al: matk+2%, magic power+2%, heal+5%
**edit: I misread magic power for melee resistance @-@/
Rising Ray (normal bow thunder element skill delay -.5, crt damage +4%, atk+10, wind magic +10%, ailment -50%)
Onimaru (additional: spell burst +5%, autoskill +4%)
Dojigiri (additional: critical damage +6%, counter on evasion +8%)
Douin's Tailsman (special: Eva+10% Melee Pierce+3% Melee Pierce up by DEX)
Pole's Tailsman (special: Mp Cost-10% Magic Pierce+3% Magic Pierce up by DEX)
New avatar from new exchange that looks like a Tarzan bikini...
Plus, minstrels buffs now have new animations ^-^... so colorful now:
Pretty...
Today no one was really on so I upgraded some weapons and tried soloing a couple bosses...
Needless to say, some bosses are still ムリムリ
But.. at least I had fun beating up ganei, eldas, and mezzaluna.
Mezzaluna required the right timing and was a little scary...
Eldas was very easy even though I don't have the proper bow for him..
And ganei was also not too bad even though my bow was not upgraded...
Too bad not all bosses are as easy solo.. ww
ww
Edit:
I'll just keep adding my solos in this blog entry
Obligaus solo
Cerberus
Botanian•daemon
Arick normal