Innocent Sin Online: Forum Post #2

[madimpossibledreamer]

Persona 4 .hack inspired AU

            One of the things I love about this game is that unless you’ve reached the level cap, you’re not truly locked into any path.  What I mean by this is that a lot of other games require you to choose, well, you know what, I’m a “ninja” rogue or a “thief” rogue or something.  You’re stuck in that role.  You don’t get to change your mind. 

            This game involves different skill point groupings, which I’ll talk about later, but none of them are locked out.  Whenever you get a level, you get a certain number of points to spend anywhere.  So if you want to spend most of your points in “thief”, you can do that, but you can also pick up skills called “assassination” and “stealth” once you’ve spent enough points.  And it tracks however many points you’ve spent overall.  Not how many points you spend in a certain path.  It allows for a lot of customization, so you’re probably not going to run into two of the exact same character, even if they’re from a certain class.  When you add in master classes, type, and event-gained powers, you can really have a unique character.  (Unlike other games, you also can’t go around saying “I’m the best rogue” because…well, what type of rogue?  What skills?  Etc.  That might be a turn-off for some people I guess.) 

            If you messed up somewhere, every month for a few days they have a mission available, and if you beat it (not the easiest, not the hardest) you have the option of refunding yourself any number of points.  (Want more specific info on this?  There’s a forum topic for that ;) just look up ‘respec’)  They don’t want to make it easy, so you can’t just respec for every single fight, but they don’t want to make it impossible (what if you end up spending points in something you think would be awesome and then it turns out to suck, or, more likely, just doesn’t fit your playstyle?  It’d suck to be stuck with that for the rest of forever).

            I will use the fanbase and in-game names for specializations where possible, because it’s sometimes hard to keep these straight.  In general, I’ll be using the Tarot for classes, though.  I will mention the class names where known (I didn’t have access to all the Master Classes with my main, for example, and my alt isn’t high enough to be able to look at them again).  If anyone knows the real stuff, tell me so I can update this, thx!  (EDIT: Everyone gets an e-cookie for their hard work, I was able to edit this and future posts and the opening post!)  Also I haven’t played all the classes, so I don’t know the in-game name for all specializations, so that would also help.  BE POLITE OR I’LL IGNORE YOUR CONTRIBUTION, THOUGH.  I’M NOT BEING PAID TO PUT UP WITH YOUR BULLSHIT.

            (EDIT: If this looks really way too complicated, and you want to just play without thinking about it, there are class trainers.  You don’t have to talk to them to train your skills, which is a shame because that’s something I actually miss from games, and I’m probably crazy but I knew that already.  But you can, and they’ll give recommendations for how you could spend your points.  These are also available in a printable version on the main website, and on the forums there’s an entire topic full of recommended skill lists.  I kid you not, some people do the point refunding mission every month just to test out different skill combinations and report on their effectiveness, problems, advantages, playstyles, etc.  I wouldn’t do it, but I’m glad someone’s doing it, because apparently people really like it and if it helps people it’s good, right?)

            I’m starting with the normal classes and working my way from there.  I’ll do three an update because it’ll be an even number of updates that way.  For classes, anyway.

 

(Spellbinder) Magician-Obvious, the mages in the game.  Most of you probably remember Saki-senpai, my friend.  She helped me a lot in the game.  And no, I’m not sure why she’s taking a break from the game, STOP ASKING.  Thx. 

            But basically what she said is if you want to go for flashy, this is it.  Having grouped with her on occasion, I agree.  Explosions galore.  And if you were around for an event mish like she was, you could get a special spell that looked like fireworks.  Really cool.  Fire, wind, etc. 

            You can specialize in element type, unlike most of the other spellcasters in the game, which involves throwing points into the specialization pool into, say, “fire”, while ignoring the other power types.  This will mean you do more fire damage, have a greater fire resistance, have a greater range of fire spells, etc.  Of course, this also means that you’re more vulnerable to spells of the opposing vulnerability (Bufu), and you either need help or won’t be invited to dungeons heavy in fire-resistant demons.  If you throw points into every pool, which is what my friend did, you get a high versatility and are fairly (but not completely) invulnerable to everything.  Either type can be really, really powerful, but you have to know what you’re doing. 

            The same could really be said of any class, but don’t be afraid.  You have time to learn it, when you play, and you don’t have to know your character inside and out to have fun.

Specializations: Aqua (water), Agi (fire), Bufu (ice), Zio (lightning), Garu (wind), Magna (earth), Swordplay

 

(Mender) Priestess-The main healer in the game, so they’re in high demand.  But once they’re higher level, they can get some pretty powerful attack unique to the class.  They don’t have a lot of them, and most of the ones they get are either really weak or REALLY POWERFUL and don’t recharge fast.  Late on when they get the really powerful spells, though, they don’t really need that recharge, because they can generally one-shot.  You do not want to tick one off.

            A word on the Blessings—They’re…well, quirky.  I got to know Ruwan through grouping with her and my Magician friend, and the Priestess said she’d chosen Blessings as a main specialization exactly because it was quirky.  Most have a straightforward HoT (heal over time) effect, but also have a chance to do something else.  She said she’s still running into random side effects to this day, and she’s been playing for a while.  (For example, one of the random side effects shrinks the character it’s cast on to a mini size.  It’s hilarious until it happens to you.  It once granted flight, which was cool but terrifying as no one had any sense when it’d give out.)

            Also, apparently, you can’t only specialize in the attack spells with a Priestess.

Specializations: HoT (Blessings), Agi (fire), Zio (lightning), Garu (wind), Dia (Healing), Buffs (listed by fanbase name, as the names of all the skills are different), Staff Fighting

 

(Herald) Hierophant-The ‘holy’ magic users.  They have a connection to Philemon, and as such, to Order.  Their powers are especially good against Lovecraftian type monsters, making them high in demand for late-game dungeon runs.

            It’s important to note that Hama is Order-aligned.  The Zan family act like elemental spells.  Megido and Frei are unaligned  with Order or Chaos (EDIT: I’m told this should be non-aligned, sorry!).

Specializations: Hama (Order), Zan (force), Megido (Almighty), Nuclear (Frei), Swordplay, Staff Fighting

 

--Your Friendly Neighborhood Kitsune Equilibrium, Koual

Wangling: I've been doing some research, and...well, isn't the reason a lot of people complain about it being complicated isn't that it has a huge amount of Classes as compared to most games?  (Not that I frown on the requirement to think in video games.)