Hawkeye (Freya) guide — Hawkeye

Hawkeye class guide for Lineage 2 Freya: how to get the class, which skills to take, what to wear and where to level.

Contents 1 About the class 2 Stats. Comparing with other archers. Tattoos 3 Tools of the trade 4 Outfit 5 Skills 5.1 Offensive 5.2 Self-buffs etc. 6 The Robin Hood path. Leveling 6.1 General leveling tips 7 Subclasses. What to level to make your main stronger 8 The Olympiad! What it's all about 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Why would I need it? 8.3 So what do I buy? 9 Class gameplay videos

About the class

In the Armenian-Russian localization he was undeservedly named the Shooter ("Strelok"). An extremely plain and unremarkable name compared to poetry like, say, Phantom Wanderer, Abyss Walker or Soul Eater. They could have translated it as Hawkeye, which would sound more interesting and be a more accurate translation. But, as the saying goes, if wishes were horses... Shooter it is. That's not the point. Who is the Hawk? The Hawk (Hawkeye in English) is the choice of any Lineage player who wants to play a normal human character with a ranged attack. The choice is small. Among human fighters only the Hawk and the Gladiator hit properly with ranged skills, and the Gladiator is still a melee class: his ranged blows are pretty decent (they crit), but they can't be used as his main way of fighting. Plus those damn charges, so inconvenient... Then again, Gladiators know best. The Hawk, like any archer, is strictly a party character, which in practice means getting beaten by pretty much everyone who can hold a weapon, unless you have a great buff behind you and a couple of healers. This class is no solo powerhouse, because it gets beaten up by opponents fairly quickly and depends heavily on buffs that solo players simply don't have (BD/SWS, EvE/PoF, the cat). With rare exceptions most solo players get by with a Prophet buff, which is nowhere near enough to dominate. For leveling, though, it's quite enough, you know. We have no self-buffs like M. Def. or P. Atk./Def., so in the Olympiad we're at an obvious disadvantage (especially in M. Def.). Well, in these chronicles archers have nothing to do in the Olympiad, so we'll skip that.

Stats. Comparing with other archers. Tattoos

• Without any genetic engineering or cave paintings, we have the following stats:
  • STR - 40. Affects P. Atk. and the crit chance of skills. In STR we're second only to the Dark Elves (41), but by just 1 point, which makes no difference in practice. The Light Elves, though, with their 36 fall well behind in attack and skill crit chance.
  • CON – 43. A whole lot, relatively; the Elves are left behind again. In practice it gives lots of HP and CP, resistance to stun and poison, and affects weight limit. A high stat lets you get the tattoos you need without sacrificing much survivability.
  • DEX – 30. Here's the catch, guys. We're slowpokes — we run the way Elves walk. But we're not the ones who run away; we're the ones who change shooting position, and for that the speed is enough. We dodge, by the way, about four and a half times a month, so we don't count on it.

Tattoos. Here it would be fitting to cover tattoos, which change these very stats. True Hawkeyes get a MANDATORY tattoo of +5 STR -5 CON. This maxes out our P. Atk. and gives our skills an extra chance to crit, without losing much survivability. Next, at the patient's discretion, a Hawkeye gets +4 DEX -4 CON. The author of the guide put this tattoo on and removed it from his alter ego several times, until he concluded it's, pardon me, total rubbish. You get a tiny bonus to running, critical rate, accuracy, evasion and attack speed, and lose your already weakened survivability and carrying capacity. Plus you become more vulnerable to stun, which is unpleasant. In short, it's not worth it, not to mention that good +4/-4 dyes cost money. As a separate point, I'll report that the STR + (insert what's needed) option is complete nonsense. So that's settled.

In the end we have a self-propelled but not very maneuverable surface-to-enemy missile launcher that hits hard and far and has good survivability. But it depends heavily on its crew, and especially on the driv... crew commander. What more do we need?

Tools of the trade

Bow.

• The bow. Our weapon of retribution in the name of... who knows, never mind.
  • First, bows (like daggers, by the way) have the highest base critical rate in the game. True, until S grade and its matching Draconic Bow we won't get the Focus SA on a bow ( Shyeed's Bow doesn't count; few people make it because it's hard to craft and not absolutely necessary). But once we get the Draconic Bow with the Focus SA (+88 to critical rate), playing becomes more fun.
  • Second, bows have the highest P. Atk. Albeit with a "slow" or "very slow" attack speed. But I'll tell you, it can be boosted quite well. With good circumstances, archers can reach the maximum cap of 1500 for showering the foe with arrows, which cancels out other weapons' attack speed advantage. But they'll never get our archer P. Atk., and that's a big plus for us. Unless it's Destroyer orcs under their Frenzy, but that's cheating. Or some summoners under certain circumstances... Anyway, all mere mortals lose to bows on attack.
  • So, among bows we pay attention to:

• • Heated arguments about the SA still flare up to this day. Accuracy indirectly increases damage by reducing misses, Cheap Shot saves MP during nonstop leveling, Refresh gives skill reuse and faster shooting. Each future conqueror decides for themselves, but the author prefers Refresh.
• A grade
  • This is where an interesting flame war begins on "Which bow should I take??7111"

True bow masters have tried every option many times over and know that the firing speed of the Carnage Bow (commonly called the "snag") is exactly equal to the firing speed of the Soul Bow (aka the Soul). The only difference is the moment the arrow leaves the bow. If you count the shots per minute from these bows, you get the same number, even though the listed attack speed differs. BUT! If you plan to fight with skills or do a lot of PvP, you'd better take the snag: its skill draw speed is noticeably higher than the Soul's. And one more thing: if you take a normal Soul and put an SA for Recovery in it, it will shoot faster, since the cooldown of a normal shot gets shorter. That won't help with skills, though. There's also the Shyeed's Bow, but making it is a pain worthy of a true hardcore grinder. It's easier to make a Draconic with 150 attribute. Still, if you do get one, at low levels you'll have the Focus SA, which is very handy for killing mobs.

• S grade
  • Draconic Bow (attack 581)! No alternatives. And we don't need any. First of all, be sure to add 150 attribute. In general, note that the maximum attribute on a weapon is 300. Up to 150 use stones, after that crystals all the way. But that's an expensive pleasure, so few people attribute Draconic bows to 300; it's better to invest in the more expensive and more fun in every way Dynasty (S80), Icarus (S80-2), Vesper Thrower (S84), etc.; more on those below.

For leveling you can use any attribute (Holy/Dark is cheapest), but if you want to fight properly 1x1 or in small brawls, use an elemental one and enchant the Double Shot skill to +1, getting +40% of its damage; it helps when fighting those who like dodging shots. The SA is definitely Focus, +88 to critical rate.

• • Recurve Thorne Bow (attack 794). Also from Freya; currently the top bow in the game. The dream item of everyone who reached 84. It needs a level 18 SA, which gives 139 crit. As they say, no comment... The only downside - for now it's a dream; it's impossible to get - it drops only from Antharas, Valakas and, apparently, Extreme Freya. Who are killed only by GMs, if they have nothing better to do.

Some especially crazy... savvy Hawkeyes use it quite productively...

• Dagger.
  • Along with the bow, this pointy thing has the highest base critical rate in the game. Its advantages for us are a much higher attack speed, the ability to use it on mobs with arrow resistance (say, under the GC), and that it doesn't eat MP when hitting! Accordingly, nothing and no one stops us from pulling it out when we have no MP for a shot and keep bonking the enemy on the head with the hilt.

And alsooo.... It has an awesome PvP bonus (11.5k Fame to insert, and a million-plus adena), which cancels the foe (removes their buffs) with a 15% chance on any normal hit! No comment needed. Once we were fooling around with a 80+ Paladin; I took the dagger instead of the bow (he has a crazy resist to bows), and by the end of the duel he had no buffs at all. But I still lost ;) Opinions on whether archers need a dagger differ; it's a matter of taste. But the most interesting thing is that a Hawkeye with a good dagger can play the role of a melee DD quite well while leveling with melee partners, since its P. Atk. is almost like a TH's; the only difference is the lack of skills, which are rarely used while leveling anyway out of laziness to press buttons. And a bit in attack speed - the TH does have evasion hastes and an attack speed passive. Again, whether a dagger is useful is decided individually. So see for yourselves.

Outfit

• C grade
  • Here we need the Plated Leather set (+4 STR -1 CON). It gives us higher damage, and we don't need anything else from C grade. And if the set is also +6, you can skip other gear all the way to A grade, as long as you have good party support and the mobs don't reach you.
• B grade
  • There are as many as 4 B-grade sets, but none of them deserves attention, since at these levels we'll be running in a C-grade set — the good old Plated Leather.
• A grade
  • 3 kinds of sets are worth considering:

• • The other sets (Apella, Nightmare) are dreary junk and not worthy of our royal attention.
• S grade, also known as S, also known as the set made of dragon hide (c) -
  • A very good set, you know. DEX+1, STR+1, CON-2, Atk. Spd./P. Atk. +4%, Max MP +289, weight limit without penalty +5759. A PvP bonus as well. But the tastiest part is the ability to put attribute resistances into the body and the extremities.

A lyrical digression. Starting from S grade, we can attribute each part of the set for elemental resistance by inserting stones. The stones give a defense attribute opposite to the element we insert. I.e. insert holy - get dark resistance, insert wind - get earth resistance, etc. One item can get at most 120 resistance to the chosen element; up to 60 we insert stones, then crystals up to 120. Starting from Freya, we can put 3 attribute types into each set item - one from each pair: wind-earth, water-fire, holy-dark. Naturally, in a Draconic set this makes sense only if it's rare and +6, otherwise it's too expensive.

• • Put this set on when you reach 76+; it's fairly easy to collect and inexpensive. The ideal leveling set. Damage like in TMH, attack speed, and it's light with all the passives (evasion and PvP bonus). Well, for PvP attribute all the set parts for the needed resists; otherwise better take MJ with anti-stun.

Lately, though, top archers like to have a fully rare Draconic set, with every piece enchanted to +6 or higher. In that case the Dino set (more on it below) simply loses. But, again, it's hard to get.

• The S80 set, aka Dino -
  • Everyone who was careless enough to become a level 80 human wears this set. They're not expensive; you can really collect it before reaching 80, then slowly enchant it on the way to 80, occasionally taking it out of the WH and running around town with a penalty. Its advantage over the Draconic set is that it consists of 5 items, so we can put more stones into the fifth item and be better protected. As a rule, an all-purpose set gets 4 elements + dark. If you put 900 attributes into the set, then 3 items get the 3 most needed attributes (180 defense against each), and the remaining 2 items get the other 3 attributes, defense against which matters less to us (or can be boosted by a buff) - 120 defense against each. To be fair, if it weren't for the 5 items (i.e. more resists) and higher P. Def., you could skip the Dynasty set and wear the good old Draconic.
  • On its own it has the following stats: -1 CON, +1 DEX, +1.72 Accuracy, +1.72 Evasion, +418 HP, +6 Dark Defense. But it's a rare Jedi who wears the Dynasty set as is; everyone upgrades it, tuning it to their class - for us that's the archer version. You can upgrade the set by inserting a special essence AT NIGHT (whoa, mysticism!) at the HB. It comes in levels 1 and 2. After such an upgrade we get a set that ONLY an archer can wear; others will have to take the essence out and insert their own to wear it. Or not insert one at all.
    • After inserting a level 1 Essence we get -2 CON, +2 DEX, +4.3 Accuracy, +321 MP, +8 Dark defense, + (I don't know the numbers, but not much) to attack speed and MP regeneration.
    • If you insert a level 2 Essence, you get -2 CON, +2 DEX, +5.3 Accuracy, +321 MP, +8 Dark Defense, +3.24% Atk. Spd. and +6.6% MP regen. Right now, with Essence prices having dropped sharply, it makes sense to insert the second one right away and get decent stats from the set.
• The S80-2 set, aka Moirai -

S80 gear that appeared in Freya as an alternative to Dynasty. No hassle with shoulder pads, no splitting into Berserker/Gladiator/archer versions. It gives the following stats: DEX +2, CON -2; when equipped, P. Atk. +4.26%, Atk. Spd. +4%, Speed +3%, hold resistance +50%, Fire/Water/Wind/Earth defense +3. Put this set on as soon as you can; it's more fun than both Draconic and Dynasty in terms of boosting DPS. And root resistance comes in very handy for an archer.

• S84 sets — there are loads of them, as many as 3.
  • 'Vesper light set - ' Stats: STR+1, CON-2, DEX+1, Attack/Atk. Spd./MP +5,57 recovery speed %, Max MP +347,4.

In plain words, it's the same Draconic, but as if with a second essence: attack and attack speed are one and a half percent higher, P. Def. is higher, and the rest is the same, except for increased weight. Oh yes, if you stick Noble Enhancement Stones in, you get the "Noble" addition (heh, Innova's own translation of the word "noble") to your Vesper set. It becomes nobler, and you can wear S84 cloaks with it. Right now the Vesper Noble set gives no stat boost, BUT! The High Five update is around the corner, and there they'll change the set's stats and add an extra boost for Noble sets. Archers are affected quite well overall, and after the update comes out I'll be busy editing the guide - but for now we wait. :)

Now this is cool, guys. It adds the sometimes much-needed P. Def., and +speed is nice too. And the most fun part is paralysis resistance. In today's conditions, when every group has a 83+ SLH chicken with its cheesy mass paralysis, this set is just the thing for staying mobile (well, at least trying) in mass brawls.

The top set at the moment, nothing more to say. The +3/-2 stats alone are worth it. Good attack speed, a good bonus to attack; it's a pity it's DEX +2 and not STR — P. Atk. matters more to us. Oh well, you won't be able to collect it anyway

• • • Also, starting from S80 sets, you can wear a CLOOOOAK with them, which gives nothing but bragging rights and 20 P. Def. It's made after reaching level 80 via the quest Path to Glory (hold on, Glory!); a pain because it takes long: the point is to rack up kills over 4 Territory Wars, 8 weeks in total. Then it's unsealed at an NPC and worn ONLY with an S80 set.

Skills

Here are the best, most useful skills. If you didn't find something here, the skill is junk, rarely used, or I simply haven't leveled to it yet. Or I forgot or didn't get to it. It happens. So, here we go.

Offensive

Why is +1 enough? Because when enchanting a skill beyond +1, we add not damage but the skill's attribute. That lets us increase the difference between the weapon's attribute and the enemy's defense attribute (too big a topic; read the attribute guides). In normal PvP or killing mobs you won't notice the difference between a +1 and a +10 skill. The Duel enchant (power in PvP) is also interesting, but there's no data on it anywhere. Maybe they don't want to give away the secret? Overhit.

Self-buffs etc.

• Rapid Shot. Increases bow attack speed by 12%. It should always be in your buff bar.

The Robin Hood path. Leveling

General leveling tips

1. Level by finishing mobs off with an overhit. When a mob has little left before it kicks the bucket, use what? Right, the stun. The cheapest overhit in MP. You get about a quarter more XP from the mob than usual, provided the stun's damage exceeded the mob's remaining HP by a lot. I.e. the less HP was left, the better. Don't listen to those who say OH is rubbish. In reality it boosts leveling quite a lot, as long as you have MP for overhits. Like in that joke - five old ladies already make a ruble.
2. Level yourself a Prophet to level 56. It's fast, levels like a mage, and it's the ideal dual-box for an archer, since it has blessings, WW, Berserker. And Holy Weapon, after all, if you're hitting undead. The resistances are sometimes very useful too.

Innova allowed us to use multiple windows, and it would be silly not to take sneaky advantage of that. So, on to leveling spots.

1. For those who don't mind leveling a twink for a second window, there's another fun option: level yourself (or borrow from a friend's account) a Bladedancer to level 58+. In 3 windows, with a Prophet and a BD, we'll have such DPS that mobs die from a single (well... almost) crit.

• Attention, multi-window fans!
  • In the settings, under "Audio/System", in the lower left corner there's a "reduce background quality" checkbox. Be sure to uncheck it. This increases CPU load (if you have 2 or more cores, you won't notice), but the windows won't lag — switching takes a fraction of a second, with no crashes if they're bound to you.

• On to leveling spots.
  • 40-48

(we level with a knife, in the Plated Leather set)

• • • Dragon Valley (undead, good XP, but no herbs).
    • The areas around the Ivory Tower with Fomors and Ogres (herbs and XP).
    • Alligator Island (haven't tried it myself, but they say it's great).
  • 48-55

(still with a knife, in the Plated Leather set)

• • • Dragon Valley – on the passive undead 52+, I don't remember their names.
    • Bandit Stronghold forest with Basilisks and Gargoyles (leveling is still good, same herbs)
    • The Cemetery, on undead – decent leveling, but no herbs drop.
  • 55-62

(Buy a plain Bow of Peril, keep the Plated Leather) No other options, heh.

• • • Run to the Forgotten Plains and look for Tigers and orcs there. Leave the archers and gargoyles alone — they're somehow sturdy. Kill the shamans and tigers. The key target is the shamans, who have only 3 icons on their HP bar plate. When hit they turn into tigers, and you kill those. Loads of XP, money and drops from them.

Achtung! The tigers have high evasion, so be sure to use the self buff for +10 accuracy. It does lower P. Def., but they shouldn't reach us, right? And if they do, they use a stun that lands well, after which you may not recover, so be careful. There are tons of people there, and melee players whose mobs we steal will often treat us to their swearing in chat. You'll rack up some PvP too. So, you can and should stay there until the tigers turn blue. After that it's pointless.

• • 62-68

(buy a plain Soul Bow, wear the Dark Crystal light or Tallum heavy set)

• • • The Forbidden Gateway. There are Knights of Doom there that we hit hard, especially with the Prophet's Holy buff. We hit them until level 68. And we don't neglect the other mobs either, that would be rude. A particularly sweet spot if your clan has a clan hall in Aden: buff yourself with Resist Stun and the like, and jump to the spot.

The downside of the spot: no herbs. And the Knights stun, then hit you hard.

• • • Blazing Swamp, on the birds, orcs, orbs and worms. There are herbs, and they say decent Dark Crystal gloves drop there.
  • 68-74

(Soul Bow, Tallum heavy (preferably)/Dark Crystal light sets)

• • • Forest of the Dead. A good spot is by the bridge to the Swamp of Screams, along the cliff. The mobs give good XP (they're mages, so wear at least the Phoenix necklace), go down fine, and there are herbs. As you grow, move deeper into the forest, to the clearings with vampires. Buff poison resistance if you're not in Tallum, or they'll get you.
    • Blazing Swamp. Orc shamans, overlords, and the undead that hang out next to them. You can take the reagents quest; there are herbs and decent XP.
  • 74-78

(Draconic Bow with 150 attribute (with a penalty rune), Tallum heavy/Dark Crystal light sets)

• • • The Hot Springs. Hit only the aggressive mobs! The rest of the fauna has nasty arrow resistance, and I don't advise picking at them with a dagger - because of their thick skin and stuns. A very tasty spot (I haven't seen better solo XP), good drops, herbs, lots of mobs. The downside is that the 3 class quest is done there, so lots of people roam around (and lots of their enemies). Well, you'll do the quest yourself too; we need the class too, don't we?
    • Varka/Ketra (depends on which alliance you choose for the class quest). Leveling there is poor compared to the Hot Springs; the mobs die just as easily, the drops aren't great, but there are herbs. There we need alliance level 2 for the class quest, which means killing 300 mobs, you know the drill. Two birds with one stone — leveling and the class quest.

After that there are no good solo grinding options, except staying in the same HS (Hot Springs) until 80. Or, as an option, raise the alliance with Ketra/Varka to the coveted level 5 and sit on the generals (around the village) as long as you like, farming quest items (manes) for S armor recipes. The generals go down no worse than the soldiers, and in some ways even easier. But I'd advise you to find (or gather your own) static party and continue leveling in meatier places. Besides, a 78+ Hawkeye with decent gear finds a party more easily than at earlier levels. The only downside - archer parties are dying out now, because of how the game favors other parties over archer parties. It's very hard to fight boosts when you've been nerfed yourself. BUT! Some guys are trying, and not without success. Go for it.

• • 78+
    • At 78+, with good window buffs (at least BD+SwS), you can go grind in the solo leveling spot made specially for archers in Freya - the Lizardmen Valley near Oren. Everyone once did their second class quests there, so you know where to fly. The mobs there are 82+, in light gear. Mages, archers, melee. XP comes in quite well, the mobs die normally, and there's a stone quest from 82+. They apply a poison that takes a little HP per tick (very little, by feel), but gives +20% to critical rate and power, which is good.

Subclasses. What to level to make your main stronger

We can take skills from subclasses at levels 65, 70 and 75. At levels 65 and 70 the skills are passive and minor. You can choose between M./P. Atk., M./P. Def. and some other nonsense. So. From all 3 subclasses at levels 65 and 70 we take M. Def. Because the rest is junk. And you can never have too much M. Def., especially these days. As soon as we level another powerful (or not so powerful) subclass to 75, we get to choose a more interesting skill. I won't list all the silly stuff available; I'll only mention what can be really useful to us. Let me point out right away: don't take more than one chance-based skill (trigger) from subclasses, so you don't cancel yourself - if they all decide to trigger at once, they'll knock your buffs right off. Keep room in your buff slots for the bow's PvP bonus and for the triggers you've learned. It's not always fun to trade some combo buff or Bless HP for a 15-second boost to attack speed. OK, let's go on.

So, for one of the subclasses we take a Dagger.

Alternatively, from the same dagger class you can take the evasion passive +4, but do we need it? As I said above, mages don't care about your evasion, and physical classes (the ones we should fear) hit with skills, so they don't care much either.

• For the next subclass it's good to take a Destroyer, Gladiator, Warlord (for trains) or Tyrant.
  • A trigger that increases attack speed when, well, we attack. The chance is small, the duration is 15 seconds, and the effect is +30% to attack speed. Totally great.

Alternatively, from the same classes you can take the Boost CP passive (rarely taken, actually... usually by mages etc.), which gives us an extra +738 CP, so we'll heal up with potions more productively.

• Next. If we already have one chance skill and the rest are junk, what do we take from the other two subclasses? Right, the normal passives. They're given by any subclass on reaching level 75, and only once each. There are just two:

Super magic defense (O_o). Gives a permanent 50 M. Def. bonus! You can never have too much. Critical chance. Gives a permanent 30 bonus to critical rate. Very good for solo leveling and/or the Olympiad.

The Olympiad! What it's all about

Introduction

So, my friend, you've leveled up to 76, earned Noblesse status at the cost of superhuman effort in the Territory Wars, and even got (mandatory!) your third class! And now you crave blood and Olympiad battles, where half the server will watch your feats while the other half levels up. Where you'll bask in glory, and young elf girls will consider it an honor to warm your bed between fights. Not a chance. The Korean devs arranged things so that we Hawks have practically nothing to do in the Olympiad, since every circumstance is against us. All the glory slowly passes us by, which is sad. If we're a ranged class whose damage depends on distance, then of course they make a 4x4 meter arena where you have to run in circles, and the opponent can easily catch us by cutting the corner. And when we lose distance, we lose attack power and generally die pretty fast. More examples could be given, but enough whining, back to the topic. So, you can read plenty about the Olympiad in lots of guides and articles; I'll tell you the minimum every player should know. The Olympiad has 3 types - party (3x3), class (Hawk vs Hawk) and open (anyone vs anyone). Because the first two types are so specific, everyone goes to open fights, so that's what we'll talk about.

Why would I need it?

For Olympiad fights you get Olympiad Tokens, which we'll use to buy goodies! So the more tokens we earn, the better the goodies (or the more of them). How do you earn them? It's simple! To start, you just have to play 9 matches (exactly 9, no fewer) - and then, my friend, even if you lost every single fight, at the end of the month (when the heroes are updated) you'll get a whole 20k tokens in your trembling hands! Then it gets more interesting. During the month you'll be given 3 Olympiad points 4 times. So your minimum goal is to play your fights on the first day of the Olympiad so that you have at least some points left, i.e. win two or three fights. Considering there are tons of noobs there, it's doable. After that you just forget about the Olympiad and wait for the end of the month while points are added gradually. If you have 15 points by the end of the month - congratulations, you'll get not 20k tokens but a full 35k! Naturally, we'll be glad. And so on. The more points you take away from the Olympiad by the end of the month, the more goodies you get at the end of the Olympiad period. To raise your chance of winning a bit, you need to buy 2 more weapons.

We also need a dagger. Preferably a good one, at least an AS. Why? To cruelly trick the opponent. How? Let me explain. Jump into the Olympiad and do all the buffing tricks with the dagger in hand. If the enemy doesn't know you, or nobody told him, he'll see a TH in front of him. Which means he won't run right up to us after seeing a bow in our hand, but will stand there, timidly pressing his back to the wall so as not to die from one backstab. And we, having turned on Snipe with the bow beforehand, get a couple of seconds to shoot from long range until the confused opponent realizes he's been tricked. Sometimes it's too late. Even seasoned Olympiad wolves fall for the trick, and even knowing about it, they're afraid to take the risk. What if it really is a TH? Then bye-bye to lovingly grinded points.

So what do I buy?

Armenian Radio answers: skill enchant books - 5.5k symbols each (Giant's Codex), if you need to improve your gear. Each such book costs around 3-4kk, and you can make a bit of money once a month. And if you've already made it - then enchant your skills, where again it's better to burn your own books than ones bought from dealers, right? But there's something more interesting than books. Bring on the Chinese epics!

• Ring of the Olympiad Hero (22k tokens)
  • An A-grade ring, an analog of the QA ring (which is B grade, though). Given for a month. It's a very valuable item from the Olympiad both for noobs (GUYS I GOT QA!!!) and for normal players - because the effects of the Chinese epics and the real ones STACK. I.e. if you have a real QA but no Baium, take the Chinese QA at the Olympiad and voila - you have a powerful +30% crit in total. Profit!
• Earring of the Olympiad Hero (33k tokens)
  • And this is the A-grade analog of the earring of simple Somali lad Zaken (the original is S grade, even though it drops from a level 60 RB). We're interested only in the +20% to stun chance and +20% to stun resistance. It costs more than 30k symbols, so you have to choose between the QA ring and this. As a rule people take the ring, but this option also has a right to exist. And if you take both - even better! Again, if you also have a real Zaken earring, the effects stack - you get 40% to stun chance and stun resistance each. Sweet!

The most interesting thing is that this trinket gives 20% resistance to all sorts of nonsense like physical silence (skill block) and similar beauties. Which can't but please.

• Necklace of the Olympiad Hero (44k tokens)
  • Also A grade, an analog of Frintezza's Necklace. Frintezza is a guy who plays the organ so badly that demons crawl out of hell. The necklace increases defense against sleep by 15% (no Trance for you), paralysis by 15%, stun by 15%, and gives the same to the chances. Reduces skill reuse time, gives a damage reflection effect and increases dark resistance. Oh, what a nice thing. The original is also A grade, but for obvious reasons you can't wear two at once. Though rappers in real life pull off stranger things.

You can see the full list of consumer goods yourself at the Olympiad Head Manager.

That closes the subclass topic. Although you could argue about it forever, since everyone picks for themselves. Still, the bonus from these skills is the most sensible, no need to overthink.

Actually, forget about all this and level whoever you like and find really interesting. Because after leveling a necessary but uninteresting sub, swearing and going crazy from the dull leveling, you simply won't enjoy those extra 800 CP on your main and other little things. It's nice, of course, but it won't make you carry (or carry because of it); it's no more than a useful bonus (a BONUS, not a GOAL) of leveling a sub. But, as in that song, "think for yourselves, decide for yourselves...".

Class gameplay videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnFlvetPASs