War Mage 95 PvE Guide for Dragon Nest

Shockwave transformed. A new setup for Laser Cutter.

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Contents

• 1 About
• 2 Skill Build
• 3 Skill Crests
• 4 Gearing
• 5 Information and Techniques
  • 5.1 Utility and Debuffs
  • 5.2 Laser Mechanics
• 6 Skill Rotations

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1) About the War Mage

One of the subclasses of the Mystic Sorceress. The War Mage discipline focuses upon mastery over ranged laser skills and control over time itself.

Strengths:

• Projectile attacks from mid-range.
• Main attacks are on medium cooldown.
• Fast Forward is a useful buff.

Weaknesses:

• Can be vulnerable while attacking. Needs good spacing to compensate.
• Damage process for “big” Lasers can be long and drawn out.

Other:

• Lasers are fun. Keep away style, 360 kaleidoscopes, and more.
• Fancy costumes. The pantsu princess.

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2) Skill Build for Level 95

To follow the laser tree would be the way to go.

Recommended Base

Details:

1. Laser skills will be used to help generate laser charges. May as well do some damage. Take as much utility as you need.
2. Decide how to spend your leftover points.
   • More attack skills: (Summon Comet, Triple Orbs, Black Hole, etc.)
   • More utility skills: (Mana Surge, Time Stop, Time Dodge, Gravity Trap)

Resources:

1. DN Skill Sim by spacem

 

With Mana SURGE

Thoughts: Shockwave 16 / Comet 15 works too.

WITHOUT MANA SURGE

Thoughts: More points into damage skills and Time Stop.

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3) Skill Crests

Boost damage for attack skills. Or increase effectiveness of utility skills.

 

Standard Crests: Most likely.

Arcane Overdrive damage applied+

Empowers buff by +20%. Overall, it becomes +36% total magic damage increase.

Fast Forward cooldown-

Reduces downtime of a very useful buff.

 

Optional Crests: Fairly solid.

Laser Cutter damage+

To boost the damage for each hit. Especially for the explosion hit.

Linear Ray cooldown-  Nine Tail Lasers cooldown-

Have trouble aiming? Don’t worry these got you covered.

Spectrum Ray damage+

For better wave clear.

Teleport cooldown-

To save 2 seconds per use for more escapes.

 

Iffy Crests: It depends.

Beam Tempest cooldown-

For Laser Ray extension combos on bosses.

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4) Gearing

Please refer to the in-game growth guide and your fellow Smashers in the dragon nest community.

 

Main stats

1. Intellect and Magic damage are the main ones.
2. To build on Critical chance% helps for consistency.
3. Some life points are necessary for survival.
4. Critical damage will naturally accumulate from stacking Intellect.
5. Element Conversion is still a thing for party play.
6. Final damage is nice to have. A tricky balance as usual.

 

Stat Crests

• [Wise] [Mystical] [Fierce] [Life-Giving] [Health] are the normal ones.
• [Sturdy] [Adorned] are for defense.
• [Windswept] [Ultimate] [Limit] [Focus] [Offensive] for more critical chance and final damage.
• [Increasing] [Offensive] [Striking] [Chaos] [Source] to fill out the rest.
  

 

Accessories and other Equipment

Whatever gives high intellect and magic damage with some scaling stats.

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5) Skill Information

From utility to damage. Good to know. 

 

> 5.1 Utility Skills

Overview of utility skills centered on power-ups, debuffs, and mobility.

Power-Ups

Arcane Overdrive

Increase damage stat by +16%. But requires +10% increase to mana cost.

Class Mastery I

Cooldown reduces by 10% for EX and Awakened skills.

+50% increase to Intellect.

Force Shield

10% chance to activate barrier when taking damage.

Reduces both physical and magical damage taken by -50%.

Health points heal periodically over 10 seconds.

Mana Flow

Reduces mana cost by 20%. Lowers cooldown of all skills by 10%.

Mana Surge

30% chance to regain back 90% mana cost of skill.

Debuffs

Force Mirror

Summons a giant shield which increases damage output by +20%.

Summon: 12 seconds. Debuff: 12~24 seconds.

Gravity Trap

Lays down a field which applies -60% action speed. Larger radius at level 6.

Nine-Tail Laser

Applies -20% critical resist to targets.

Time Dodge

Lets you dodge an attack and immobilize enemies up to 5 seconds.

Also works as a safety recovery.

Time Stop

Immobilizes things around you for up to 14 seconds.

Mobility

Blink

A standard dodge with blink animation

Dash

Allows us to run. Probably the best way to cover distance.

Teleport

Summons dimensional vortex and teleport a fair distance away.

Dark Wave

To activate Class Mastery 2 Spectrum Instant.

Can be used during blink, dash, or teleport.

Energy Blast (NOW: only requires cooldown)

A quick point blank attack and teleports backwards to create distance.

NEW: Able to immediately connect with full-charge Linear Ray.

 

>5.2 Laser Skills Mechanics

After many years of training, War Mages were able to develop these unique laser attacks.

Laser Charge Skills

These skills are greyed out without enough Laser charges.

Laser Ray requires 30 Lasers. Depletes from 30 down to 0.

A long-range rapid-fire channeling laser beam!

NEW: Hold left-click to activate the quicker and more powerful hyper version.

Laser Charge Generation

Only certain laser skills can charge up resources.

Linear Ray grants 8~10 Lasers at full charge.

Relatively safe when used from afar.

Nine Tail Laser grants 25~27 Lasers. 2 stock.

The main way to quickly generate Laser Charges.

Spectrum Ray grants 7 Lasers.

 Can be used on multiple targets to quickly gain charges.

Beam Tempest grants 18 Lasers.

Can be set up to gain delayed charges over time.

Other Notable Damage Options

Laser Cutter (NOW: only requires cooldown)

A slow moving satellite beam. Explosion hit at the end of first laser.

Stationary option via Class Mastery 3 Shockwave.

Shockwave with Class Mastery 3 bonuses.

10 seconds cooldown, 2904% (23).

Mystic dark orb skills.

Triple Orbs, Black Hole, Summon Comet, etc.

Laser Techniques

Class Mastery 2: Dark Wave Spectrum Ray Spectrum Instant

Use of Dark Wave unlocks the instant version of Spectrum Ray.

Regular Spectrum Ray reduces cooldown by 25 seconds. Which allows another use of Spectrum Instant.

Class Mastery 3: Shockwave-Laser Cutter

Shockwave transforms into a frontal attack with increased range. Cooldown has been reduced to 10 seconds.

Connect with stationary version of Laser Cutter. Explosion hits at the very start and very end. New smoother animation.

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6) Skill Rotations

Charge those Lasers. And zap them away!

 

Normal Time

Your everyday thing.

Main Combos:

Nine-Tails (25-27) + Linear Ray (8~10) = 30+ Laser Charges

Nine-Tails x2 (30) = quicker 30+ Laser Charges but with more overfill.

Dodge + Spectrum x2 = 14+ Laser Charges

Follow up with any variation of these:

⤷ Long-Range: Laser Ray (-30)

⤷ Extension: Beam Tempest Laser Ray (-30)

Beam Tempest can increase Laser Ray’s duration by up to +65%.

⤷ Mid-range: Laser Cutter Laser Ray (-30)

For Laser Cutter in the background to amplify Laser Ray damage.

⤷ Back-Off 1: Energy Blast Linear Ray (+10)

⤷ Back-Off 2: Shock Cutter Energy Blast Linear Ray (+10)

Quick escapes with damage.

⤷ All-In-One: Shock Cutter Beam Tempest  Energy Blast Linear Ray (+10) Laser Ray (-30)

To use simple or complex attack layers is up to you.

 

Time Acceleration

Amplify Laser Ray damage with Laser Cutter and Beam Tempest (if possible).

Setup:

Debuffs Fast Forward

Main Loop:

Shock Cutter Nine-Tail (+25)

Classic Fast Forward rotation with Nine Tails and Laser Cutter.

Unlimited supply of Nine-Tail Laser opens up our options.

Follow up with Laser Ray:

⤷  Laser Ray (-30)

⤷  Beam Tempest Laser Ray (-30)

⤷ Energy Blast Linear Ray (+10) Laser Ray (-30)

Laser Ray can really be used at any time.

 

Mob Control

Good area coverage for wave-clear.

Triple Spectrum Rays

Dodge with: [Blink / Dash / Teleport]

⤷  Dark Spec Instant (+7) Spectrum Ray (+7) Spectrum Instant (+7)

To dodge and counter with Triple Spectrum Rays grants 21 Laser Charges.

Spectrum Escape

⤷ Spectrum Ray (7) Spectrum-Instant (7) Energy Blast Linear Ray (+10)

⤷ Spectrum Ray (7) Spectrum-Instant (7) Teleport

Spectrum Ray is a close-up move. So Energy Blast or Teleport can help escape.

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Closing Thoughts

I hope this guide was helpful and easy to understand. Thanks for reading. May those 360-kaleidoscopes come with relative ease.

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Change Log

2018/02/27: Look! A brand new guide appears.

2018/10/05: Updated for September 2018 Patch.