Skills and spellcasting

You don't have a skill point cap — as long as you can kill things, you can earn additional skill points (SPs) to spend on skills.

Your skill timer only affects the skill you've just used. A good tactic at lower levels, if you don't mind forking over a little extra XP up front, is to acquire two attack skills as early as possible. You can start your attack with one weapon and power hit type, and then switch to another weapon and power hit for the final blow (to get overkill and extra XP). This can help speed up some of the earlier "Go get 50 of these …" quests.

You can't combine soulshots or spiritshots with skills like Powershot or Powerstrike.

When getting skills, go for your high-level attack first (so you can kill stuff). Then, acquire your preferred masteries and other passive skills. Then, expand your horizons with other skills.

In some towns, there are trainers for multiple races, but in other towns, you can't train at all if you're not native to the area. You can find race-friendly trainers in Dion, Floran, Giran and Gludio — but they won't be in the normal training buildings.

If you're playing an Orc or Human, learn Relax as soon as you can. It'll help you regenerate your HP much faster (although it consumes MP). This might not be the best tactic for archers, who need MP for their Power Shot strikes, but for most fighting classes, Relax gives you a big payoff at higher levels — eventually you'll regenerate MP even when you're using Relax!

Before you buy a skill, make sure you're going to get long-term use out of it. Check out the character development paths early on, pick a profession goal, and examine what skills you're going to need down the road.

Many players invest thousands of adena in a particular weapon and skill set (for instance, a sword and its associated skills) — only to discover that their chosen profession is built around a completely different set of skills.

If you have a skill that supports overhit, you'll get more XP when you use it as the killing blow. Overhit occurs when you strike for more damage than a creature's remaining hit points. The excess damage will give you additional experience. So, if you can, use your power attack both first and last!

Blunts are powerful and consistently apply high damage, but fewer critical hits. They also get the benefit of stuns at higher levels. Two-handed swords are slower, but are better at penetrating shield defenses. Polearms have nearly double the critical hit chance and can hit multiple opponents, but are less accurate.

Knight types got a big boost against archers in Chronicle 1. Not only is the Deflect Arrow skill boosted, but shields now block arrows much more often. A character with no shield masteries succeeds in shield defense about 50% of the time. A character with Shield Mastery 2, such as a Level 28+ Paladin, succeeds in shield defense against an archer about 75% of the time. A character with Shield Mastery 4, available at Level 52 for some Fighters, succeeds in shield defense 99% of the time! The catch is that you must be facing the archer who is firing at you, which both adds to realism and gives the archers a bit of a break.

Even if you're a Mystic with good healing power, it never hurts to pick up a Heal Potion or two for emergencies.

Some spells (ones that don't target yourself) can be cancelled by hitting the ESC key.

There's a casting delay before each spell. Start casting your second spell immediately after the first, or you may be toast!

Don't move after you begin casting a spell, or it will be broken. Similarly, if you're attacked while casting, it can be interrupted.

If your spell gets interrupted, immediately switch to your staff, rod or whatever weapon you have to beat the stuffing out of your prey. Or again, you're dead!

Don't brave the dungeons unless you're partying with high-level Fighters. Kiting is difficult in close quarters, and you really need a group to survive.

You may decide to wear armor or other Fighter gear, but note that you only get an MP boost from robes, not other armor.

Damage-over-time (DoT) spells don't hit as often as you want against mobs that con white to you. Green mobs are better. And to get your best DoT effects, use spiritshots with your spells.

As you approach Level 20, examine your career paths. You can summon pets using crystals (good for solo or small group excursions), acquire area-of-effect spells (useful for slow mobs), or root spells and bow skills (best for healers).

Although their magical abilities don't quite match that of other races, Orc Mystics are a nice compromise between a Fighter and Mystic. They can take a few extra hits, so a common tactic is to hit hard with spells until an enemy closes in, then fight with a sword.