MMORPG Corner: A Beginner’s Primer to Vindictus
by Dani
The MMORPG I would like to talk about is a fast pace hack n’ slash game with a story to keep you playing to the endgame levels and more. To top it all off the game is filled with bosses that WILL kick your ass. The game I am talking about is Vindictus. Also known as “Mabinogi: Heroes” in Korea. Made by devcat and run by Nexon this fast paced action-MMORPG is not one you want to miss out on. This game runs on a modified version of the Half-Life 2 game engine so the controls are very similar. WASD keys to move and turn your mouse to aim your attacks and the direction you walk forward. Your left mouse is your normal attacks and your right button is your smashes. Different combinations of the two is what activates most of your Skills. The Characters are gender locked which some people find a turn off, but I think it adds a little extra role-play to the game. It is a Massive Multiplayer Online ROLE PLAYING game after all.
The first person you can choose from that I’ll talk about is Fiona. She is the “take all the hits and dish out even more” type character. She is the only one who has a shield. She is not afraid to get in a boss’s face, all other classes would run from with her ‘Defend’ and ‘heavy slander’ skills, she can block almost any blow and dish out the pain. She is welcome in almost any party and arguably the easiest class to solo with. She wields a Sword or hammer along side her shield and later can wield the Great Shields. She is not afraid to use her shield to bash in a few heads either. Infact her ultimate skill is a huge Dash forward with her shield blowing away all enemies in her way to their doom. It is not very often we find a tank who actually uses her defense as an offense. Her main stats used are Strength and Agility as well as Willpower for extra critical hits. I will talk more about stats later.
Next character is Lann, this fast slashing dual wielding Knight is a popular choice. He uses dual blades and then you may use dual spears in later levels. I personally do not know this character well so I’ll use a quote from the wiki aswell as some personal likes about Lann:
“Twin Swords are quick and versatile, allowing one to slide around enemies and avoid their attacks via Slip Dash. On the other hand, Twin Spears are also quick, has increased attack and critical rate and can recover Stamina quicker due to Fury Infusion. But has a poor dodge mechanism, often causing them to take more hits. Spears also only have one smash enhancement (Moon Splitter) and one additional skill (Fury Infusion). Sword Lann has two smash enhancements (Gust Sting and Pummel Storm), two additional skills (Fanning Slash and Double Crescent) and two dodge enhancements (Slip Dash Proficiency and Nimble Dash).”
One main perk of Spear Lann is his 3960 Hurricane which allows you to spin around the battle field slashing apart everything in your path. So whether it be that you’re dashing and dodging around the map or just Spinning like a guy on a sugar rush Lann is always a fun and good choice.
Next up is Evie our cheerful bouncy and jumpy Mage. Evie has two weapon choices like everyone else. Her first is the Staff, and her second is Scythes. Let’s look at staff Evie first. Staff Evie is a Burst of massive damage with decent AoE, but medium range. I for one enjoy close combat spells that explode right in front of me it feels more epic then watching something explode in the distance like most mages in mmorpgs. Her Ultimate skill is an anti-gravity power house that lifts everything around you and slams it into the ground. This can be used with both her weapons. Among her Fire ball that explodes on impact and her ice spear that freezes everything in its path staff Evie is a force to be reckoned with. If that was not enough, Staff Evie gets a hand full of Healing spells including a resurrection. Scythe Evie is no joke though. Not only does she have devastating close combat abilities to cut apart her enemies she can also create black holes to suck in enemies and then watch them explode. She also gets a cute lil’ wisp. but do not get too attached because she uses it as a bomb to destroy her enemies! (the poor thing)
If that was not enough fun and destruction to win you over Evie has one more perk you should know: at higher level she gets a few alchemy skills to help her fight. These range from making sticky stuff on the floor to trap enemies, to taking the wrecked landscape, pots and trees, even petrified enemies bodies, to make a golem to fight along side you! If that was not enough she also gets Mana Pistols. That is right, a gun that grows out of the ground and shoots your enemies with green gloop. Her Main stat is Int for power and Agility for Sta recovery speed.
Next up is the “muscle for brains” Karok. This guy is the biggest playable character in the game. He also has the highest natural weight limit and HP of all the characters. Karok is a powerhouse who can stand toe-to-toe with most bosses with his Clash skill. This allows him to grab his enemies and have a battle of strength with them. It is quite a sight to see when a Dragon flies down and everyone else running around Karok just stands there as he grabs the dragon right out of the sky and stands toe-to-toe against it. Not only does this make him look like a badass but it also lets his teammates attack the boss while he’s got it in his grasp. Another notable thing is that Karok can grab a larger variety of enemies than the other characters. He also has several moves that absorb Hp from his enemies. He is also a lot harder to knock over, making those moments when you mess up and get smacked less annoying. Karok also has invincibility frames during his special grab skills. But the price for his tremendous strength is Speed and Attack range. Karok has difficulty dodging attacks and he will burn through his Stamina like crazy. Another notable Skill of his is Damage invasion. This move allows Karok to hold his hand out and block an attack. You will still receive initial damage from the hit, but it will replenish. If you take too much damage while using this move you will become incapacitated. Karok’s first weapon is the Battle pillars he will slug around the battle field with him to crush his enemies. At level 24 he can start using the Cestus which is a big metal fist he puts on his to add to his raw power. Whichever your choice of weapon one thing is always a sure thing: your attacks will be Strong and your enemy’s deaths will be slow and painful.
Who could forget about our friendly rapid fire Bowman Kai. Kai is a fast paced high DPS ranged character who is always on the move. Kai starts out with Bows that can switch modes from compound to longbow with the click of a button. Longbow mode is your long range snipe if you need to take out something from afar. Compound mode is your fast damage dealing and quick mobility mode for those quick and fast fights. Kai has a variety of charged shots for bursts of massive damage. Like the Magnum shot that penetrates enemy’s bodies for linear AOE. Huntsman’s barrage is a charge shot that shoots multiple arrows in a fan hitting multiple enemies in a wider area. This is helpful if the enemy group has spread out to surround you. Do not think Kai is all about staying away from the enemy and shooting from afar because he is useless up close. Because that is far from the truth he has a lot of close up moves like Gale kick which is a brutal kick that produces a wind force to smash your targets. Another close combat move is his Prey Drive, this move is really useful for bosses who end up stunned or knocked down because Kai climbs on the boss and shoots them rapidly in their weak points. Kai has the one of the best evasion skills as well, called dodge grapple. Kai shoots a metal pole into the ground and at any time can be pulled back to that point to avoid an enemy’s attack. Do not venture too far from your grapple though as there is a distance limit. Once you’re safe again you can continue dealing out that high DPS.
Crossguns are Kai’s second weapon, these just came out in NA last week and I do not know much about them yet so I’ll just talk about a couple key features. The Crossguns are rapid fire guns that require reloading after so many shots, but lack in long range. They have a bunch of explosive attacks as well. Crossgun’s Ultimate is known as the nuke. It’s a massive firey explosion that deals massive damage. In conclusion Kai’s cross guns are rapid fire Bursts of high damage per second output with a short reload time in between. Regardless of your choice of longer range or massive damage both Kai’s are high DPS and have a bunch of choices for Area of effect damage.
The Last character is the always sexy Vella. Vella is a Twin blade user who has a lot of counter attacks as well as some powerful smashes. Vella’s Cross cut will be her main damage dealer vs most bosses. Cross cut is a move that when done right, has you slash forward through the enemy right before its attack hits you. Later you will get the skill Double cross which is a follow up for Cross cut that lets you use a 2nd Cross cut right after without having to be exposed to an enemy swing. You may aim this towards a different enemy if you want to distance yourself from the boss or just smash at the boss again in the back. Vella’s other counter is her backslash that reflects projectiles back at enemies. This is very useful for ranged bosses as well as dodging normal attacks since you deal melee damage to enemies near you. Cross Stance is prep skill used to trigger Cross cut and Backslash. You will be using these three skills a lot but that is not all she can do. Vella also has a lot of strong smashes, her Thunderous squall is a powerful wide slash that can be used twice, this is a follow up after you execute all her normal attack stages. Deadly storm can be used right after Thunderous squall for zero stamina cost, to do another wide high damaging slash.
Tumult blade is another of her smashes which can be uses after her 2 hit normal attack, 1 hit smash or after her Storm step dodge. She will flip through the air slamming her blade down onto the ground causing a shockwave to do damage in a fan-like AOE that will damage enemies in front of her. This is great for taking out groups of enemies like spiders and stuff that usually spawn in swarms. Typhoon slash is her first SP skill that pulls enemies around you close to you and spins around cutting them apart. The distance of the pull increases at higher ranks.
Her Ultimate skill is an anti-boss skill that has Vella dashing forward and rapidly slashing at the target. She is invincible during the animation and the targets cannot move.
This is a great time for your team to dish out some massive damage or even unleash their own Ultimate skills. Vella does not have her 2nd weapons yet in NA but they will be twin crescent blades on chains. It’ll be interesting to see how these turn out.
Vindictus is easily the best looking free to play mmorpg out there with gorgeous textures and even reflect metal armor and stuff. The customization is also well done but I cannot say it’s the ‘best.’ I highly suggest you do not skip the tutorial since the game is all about the story and the epic boss fights it leads up to. After you get to level 22 you can pick an ‘expertise’ as well as the cooking ‘expertise.’ These consist of Armorsmithing, goldsmithing, tailoring, weaponsmithing, and everyone gets some type of dismantling and Element stones expertise.
I will wrap things up here but look forward to my future rants and stuff, and here’s a short list of games I’m looking forward to in 2013:
Dragon’s Prophet
Phantasy Star online 2
Blade and Soul
The Elder Scrolls online
Neverwinter
ArcheAge
Wild Star
Black Desert
Well that is all for me, your Friendly legendary nopon hero. Heropon Riki~ (Dani)
