Marineking
03-15-2008, 09:40 PM
Okay, this is going here in Free MMORPG until we finally get a Mabinogi section up and running, then I'll move it. I intend this to be the pretty much ultimate beginner help thread, and so collaboration between everyone here is going to be essential. I am far from an expert, and so if I miss anything or you just have someone cool to add, please post here or PM me. PM's are likely to be seen sooner.
And before we begin, just for reference, by "help" I mean the tips and tricks of game strategy, not basic commands; thats stuff you can check out Mabi Wiki (http://mabinogiworld.com/wiki/index.php?title=Wiki_Home) or the main site for.
And so, we shall start off with the most important stuff.
Solo Combat
First off, watch these. (http://projectelite.freeforums.org/sen-s-mabinogi-technique-videos-t18.html) (Credit for the videos goes, obviously, to the Mari server Elite guild, Darksen in particular.) They're awesome video's and perfect to get you going on some of the battle techniques you will no doubt see people referring to a lot around here, such as N+1 and Magic Counter. If you need more specific descriptions, scroll on.
Combat in Mabinogi is very skill based; i.e., it is impossible to play this game without adhering to skill system and becoming very good at it. If you want to play a game that is just point and click, please leave now, because you will only bring stress on yourself. You also need to develop good finger-reflexes, as sometimes you have merely a second or two (Often less) to hit that button. You will find that monsters often speedhack in this game, and there is nothing you can do about it.
This (http://www.onrpg.com/boards/84487.html) is another thing you should read before you get into any hard fights. Whether or not sharp-mind is really worth it is a matter of [obvious] debate, but the tips in the opening post are very good, and can help you read your opponents.
Another key I would like to mention before we get into technical stuff is the Ctrl key; it allows you to pick a target, and then as long as you have it held down you can click anywhere on the screen to attack (Warning: You cannot use skills while this button is pressed, so get used to turning it on and off throughout a battle). Seeing as how it's damn near impossible to click anything in this game regularly, this key is as essential for battle as the Alt key is for items. And now the text-explanations for specific techniques (This section is likely to not be anywhere near complete until later versions of this guide, so please bear with me for the moment).
N+1 [2+1]: (This refers to the ability to get one extra shot in a combo with a weapon that normally only is able to do two. Watch the video above first, then read on if you need more help) - - First, get your Ctrl button ready. When your ready to attack and there is no danger of any other monsters interrupting, attack. After the first strike, wait about a half-second (With a 2hander sword, just watch the forward foot placement; as it returns to it's beginning position, click), then click to do your regular combo. This requires good timing, but is very useful once you master it. (For the Bastard Sword and others like it, instead of watching your character's foot, wait until he begins flailing his sword after the first strike, then go in for your combo).
N+1 [3+1]: (This is the same as above, only for the three-strike weapons like short swords and Eiry. Make sure you watch the video above first) - - Okay, get Ctrl ready, etc, and strike. Wait until the sword is almost done with it's after-flail, and then strike again, but don't combo yet. Wait until it does it's after-flail again and, on the third strike, do your combo. Trust me, the second delay is crucial; if you try to do this like the 2h one, then it will fail.
Strike+Smash: (Basically, this is just a trick to allow you to not only begin a battle with smash, but get in a regular strike as well. Needs precision timing, laggers beware) - - Move in and strike. As your sword is hitting the target, press the smash button, and click the enemy again. This will allow Smash to charge up and your character will auto attack the target, sending him flying.
Strike+Windmill: - - Just like Strike+Smash above, only with Windmill. Needs fast clicking/pressing, lag is death. Watch video.
Magic Counter - Ice Bolt: (These counters are widely used, yet not easily understood. They require precise timing, but if you do them right, you'll never get hit. And the best part is that you don't have to worry about your enemy sneaking a smash in like you do with Defense. Watch videos, then read) - - First ready two Ice-Bolts (Sidenote: I ready three, but only throw two. The reason is that my character has an unhealthy habit of running towards the enemy after the last shot; effectively negating the perfect timing needed to bring up my counter. So I have one extra shot ready, but don't use it; this prevents her from running toward the target. Update: I've since figured out why this happened to me. Basically, whenever I launched my bolt, I'd click multiple times to make sure she fired it, and the game was registering those second and third clicks as commands to move in and attack. So, yeah, only click once when firing) and throw them. Immediately, bring up counter (press the button while the second bolt is still being thrown). After they are thrown back, charge and throw again. He will be stunned for a very small moment, so bring up counter fast. Keep charging, throwing and countering until he's dead. Works every time (As long as you don't lag, if you do, forget all of this).
Fire-bolt Counter: - - This is pretty much the same thing as ice-bolt, only with fire. Start out by charging up five times (The reason for this is, unlike ice-bolt, fire-bolt launches all five at once, giving you a nice beginning to the fight), and then launching them. After then it's counter, bolt, counter, bolt, etc until dead. As always, needs very good timing. One small tip though, and this applies to ice-bolt as well; when charging your bolt, click your target before it finishes. This will have your character auto-fire the second it's done charging, allowing you to pay attention to countering on time.
Lightning-bolt Counter: (Yeah... it's going to be a while, if ever, before I get lightning-bolt to test this. If anyone wants to write up a small bit for this, I'd thank you profusely and pretend to kiss your feet.)
Alright, thats all for now. It's not nearly done, not even the combat section, but I've run out of time for now so go ahead and post your tips/techniques relevant to a noob guide and I'll add them to the finished product as soon as I can.
Other Stuff
Hunger
Since the game has no real description of how hunger works, I'll put one in here.
By now you should know that the yellow bar next to your health is stamina (Also referred to as SP), and is reduced for every single action you take. Also, over time it will start turning black from the right to left, and will continue to until you eat something. This is called hunger, but don't get too excited yet, it's really not a huge problem. If you get hungry with a full stamina bar, then the "hungry stamina" will turn orange until you use it, after which the area will turn black. And, despite what everyone tells you, you CAN recover stamina past this point, just very, very slowly. It's best to keep a cheese or two around to fend hunger off, especially when stamina is so important, but it's not crucial to the game. Another effect of hunger is that it changes your weight; if you are hungry all the time, chances are you will lose weight, and if you eat too much, then you will get fat.
What food you eat also effects your weight; for instance, fruit and milk will help you lose weight, or at least make sure you never gain it. Cheese, bread and potatoes, on the other hand, give you pounds like there is no tomorrow. And remember, weight effects your appearance in the game, so if you want to look nice in that Core's Healing Dress... I suggest you go with the milk.
Repairing
Over time, your equipped items will lose durability, and will eventually brake, making them unusable. So you must repair them often at blacksmith NPC's, for a small (Sometimes...) fee. If you are not careful though, the blacksmith could screw up and actually brake you're item, decreasing its max durability points (BAD THING!). To avoid this, there are several things you can do. And because it looks nifty, I'll use bullet points to explain them.
* Never use Ferghus. He is the shittiest repairer in the game, and no matter how high his success rate is, he will almost always make you lose at least one max durability point, no matter how hard you try. This is okay for cheap, replaceable secondary weapons, but for your expensive, enchanted, upgraded and high proficiency main weapon, go to some other town, and pay the big bucks to get it repaired. The more money you spend, the better. It will pay off in the long run.
* Never settle for anything less then 98% success rates. If it's lower, give them the finger and go pay more money to someone else; the cheap bastards.
* Never repair in rain. I don't actually know if this does anything, but several of my associates swear that the better the weather, the better the results, so I guess it's worth doing anyway. Just in case, if for no other reason.
* BLESS ALWAYS! EVERY CHANCE YOU GET! Blessing water is easy as hell to get, and costs not a cent. Stock up 10 or 20 of these things, and keep your stuff blessed at all time. Not only does it make it stay repaired for longer, but it also makes the repairer screw up less, and blessed items never fall off of you when you die. As far as I'm concerned, there is no excuse for ignoring this vital rule. If you end up losing or screwing up one of your items, and didn't follow this rule, you deserve to pay huge dollars to get it back.
EDIT: Okay, I know I haven't touched this in a while. Sadly, I probably won't be able to for a while yet. But be assured, it will happen some day. Instead of simply updating it little by little as I go along, I am going to wait until I have a significant contribution, and then post it all at once. So for now, you'll just have to deal with it as it is. Sorry.
And before we begin, just for reference, by "help" I mean the tips and tricks of game strategy, not basic commands; thats stuff you can check out Mabi Wiki (http://mabinogiworld.com/wiki/index.php?title=Wiki_Home) or the main site for.
And so, we shall start off with the most important stuff.
Solo Combat
First off, watch these. (http://projectelite.freeforums.org/sen-s-mabinogi-technique-videos-t18.html) (Credit for the videos goes, obviously, to the Mari server Elite guild, Darksen in particular.) They're awesome video's and perfect to get you going on some of the battle techniques you will no doubt see people referring to a lot around here, such as N+1 and Magic Counter. If you need more specific descriptions, scroll on.
Combat in Mabinogi is very skill based; i.e., it is impossible to play this game without adhering to skill system and becoming very good at it. If you want to play a game that is just point and click, please leave now, because you will only bring stress on yourself. You also need to develop good finger-reflexes, as sometimes you have merely a second or two (Often less) to hit that button. You will find that monsters often speedhack in this game, and there is nothing you can do about it.
This (http://www.onrpg.com/boards/84487.html) is another thing you should read before you get into any hard fights. Whether or not sharp-mind is really worth it is a matter of [obvious] debate, but the tips in the opening post are very good, and can help you read your opponents.
Another key I would like to mention before we get into technical stuff is the Ctrl key; it allows you to pick a target, and then as long as you have it held down you can click anywhere on the screen to attack (Warning: You cannot use skills while this button is pressed, so get used to turning it on and off throughout a battle). Seeing as how it's damn near impossible to click anything in this game regularly, this key is as essential for battle as the Alt key is for items. And now the text-explanations for specific techniques (This section is likely to not be anywhere near complete until later versions of this guide, so please bear with me for the moment).
N+1 [2+1]: (This refers to the ability to get one extra shot in a combo with a weapon that normally only is able to do two. Watch the video above first, then read on if you need more help) - - First, get your Ctrl button ready. When your ready to attack and there is no danger of any other monsters interrupting, attack. After the first strike, wait about a half-second (With a 2hander sword, just watch the forward foot placement; as it returns to it's beginning position, click), then click to do your regular combo. This requires good timing, but is very useful once you master it. (For the Bastard Sword and others like it, instead of watching your character's foot, wait until he begins flailing his sword after the first strike, then go in for your combo).
N+1 [3+1]: (This is the same as above, only for the three-strike weapons like short swords and Eiry. Make sure you watch the video above first) - - Okay, get Ctrl ready, etc, and strike. Wait until the sword is almost done with it's after-flail, and then strike again, but don't combo yet. Wait until it does it's after-flail again and, on the third strike, do your combo. Trust me, the second delay is crucial; if you try to do this like the 2h one, then it will fail.
Strike+Smash: (Basically, this is just a trick to allow you to not only begin a battle with smash, but get in a regular strike as well. Needs precision timing, laggers beware) - - Move in and strike. As your sword is hitting the target, press the smash button, and click the enemy again. This will allow Smash to charge up and your character will auto attack the target, sending him flying.
Strike+Windmill: - - Just like Strike+Smash above, only with Windmill. Needs fast clicking/pressing, lag is death. Watch video.
Magic Counter - Ice Bolt: (These counters are widely used, yet not easily understood. They require precise timing, but if you do them right, you'll never get hit. And the best part is that you don't have to worry about your enemy sneaking a smash in like you do with Defense. Watch videos, then read) - - First ready two Ice-Bolts (Sidenote: I ready three, but only throw two. The reason is that my character has an unhealthy habit of running towards the enemy after the last shot; effectively negating the perfect timing needed to bring up my counter. So I have one extra shot ready, but don't use it; this prevents her from running toward the target. Update: I've since figured out why this happened to me. Basically, whenever I launched my bolt, I'd click multiple times to make sure she fired it, and the game was registering those second and third clicks as commands to move in and attack. So, yeah, only click once when firing) and throw them. Immediately, bring up counter (press the button while the second bolt is still being thrown). After they are thrown back, charge and throw again. He will be stunned for a very small moment, so bring up counter fast. Keep charging, throwing and countering until he's dead. Works every time (As long as you don't lag, if you do, forget all of this).
Fire-bolt Counter: - - This is pretty much the same thing as ice-bolt, only with fire. Start out by charging up five times (The reason for this is, unlike ice-bolt, fire-bolt launches all five at once, giving you a nice beginning to the fight), and then launching them. After then it's counter, bolt, counter, bolt, etc until dead. As always, needs very good timing. One small tip though, and this applies to ice-bolt as well; when charging your bolt, click your target before it finishes. This will have your character auto-fire the second it's done charging, allowing you to pay attention to countering on time.
Lightning-bolt Counter: (Yeah... it's going to be a while, if ever, before I get lightning-bolt to test this. If anyone wants to write up a small bit for this, I'd thank you profusely and pretend to kiss your feet.)
Alright, thats all for now. It's not nearly done, not even the combat section, but I've run out of time for now so go ahead and post your tips/techniques relevant to a noob guide and I'll add them to the finished product as soon as I can.
Other Stuff
Hunger
Since the game has no real description of how hunger works, I'll put one in here.
By now you should know that the yellow bar next to your health is stamina (Also referred to as SP), and is reduced for every single action you take. Also, over time it will start turning black from the right to left, and will continue to until you eat something. This is called hunger, but don't get too excited yet, it's really not a huge problem. If you get hungry with a full stamina bar, then the "hungry stamina" will turn orange until you use it, after which the area will turn black. And, despite what everyone tells you, you CAN recover stamina past this point, just very, very slowly. It's best to keep a cheese or two around to fend hunger off, especially when stamina is so important, but it's not crucial to the game. Another effect of hunger is that it changes your weight; if you are hungry all the time, chances are you will lose weight, and if you eat too much, then you will get fat.
What food you eat also effects your weight; for instance, fruit and milk will help you lose weight, or at least make sure you never gain it. Cheese, bread and potatoes, on the other hand, give you pounds like there is no tomorrow. And remember, weight effects your appearance in the game, so if you want to look nice in that Core's Healing Dress... I suggest you go with the milk.
Repairing
Over time, your equipped items will lose durability, and will eventually brake, making them unusable. So you must repair them often at blacksmith NPC's, for a small (Sometimes...) fee. If you are not careful though, the blacksmith could screw up and actually brake you're item, decreasing its max durability points (BAD THING!). To avoid this, there are several things you can do. And because it looks nifty, I'll use bullet points to explain them.
* Never use Ferghus. He is the shittiest repairer in the game, and no matter how high his success rate is, he will almost always make you lose at least one max durability point, no matter how hard you try. This is okay for cheap, replaceable secondary weapons, but for your expensive, enchanted, upgraded and high proficiency main weapon, go to some other town, and pay the big bucks to get it repaired. The more money you spend, the better. It will pay off in the long run.
* Never settle for anything less then 98% success rates. If it's lower, give them the finger and go pay more money to someone else; the cheap bastards.
* Never repair in rain. I don't actually know if this does anything, but several of my associates swear that the better the weather, the better the results, so I guess it's worth doing anyway. Just in case, if for no other reason.
* BLESS ALWAYS! EVERY CHANCE YOU GET! Blessing water is easy as hell to get, and costs not a cent. Stock up 10 or 20 of these things, and keep your stuff blessed at all time. Not only does it make it stay repaired for longer, but it also makes the repairer screw up less, and blessed items never fall off of you when you die. As far as I'm concerned, there is no excuse for ignoring this vital rule. If you end up losing or screwing up one of your items, and didn't follow this rule, you deserve to pay huge dollars to get it back.
EDIT: Okay, I know I haven't touched this in a while. Sadly, I probably won't be able to for a while yet. But be assured, it will happen some day. Instead of simply updating it little by little as I go along, I am going to wait until I have a significant contribution, and then post it all at once. So for now, you'll just have to deal with it as it is. Sorry.