Logging into the game, James was faces with a new character option, after clicking it, pictures of the eight classes appeared before him. With the knowledge from the guide still fresh in his mind, he remembered how it had described the gameplay and the strengths and weaknesses of each class. The guide had also explained how every class had a rage meter that could be filled by landing or receiving attacks, when that rage meter was filled, each class could use an ultimate rage skill, but unfortunately James would need to level up a bit before unlocking his rage skills.
[Mage] – Uses various magical attacks to excel in all ranges of combat. The Mage's strengths lie in their large area of effect attacks that can be executed from afar allowing them to excel in PvE and large scale combat. Mages also contain a variety of AOE buffing and debuffing skills making them a popular and sought after class for many PvP guilds. Mage's have low mobility and their stronger skills have long cooldowns making them easier to kite and pick off when they are alone. Mages are the primary targets in combat.
Main Weapon: Staff
Difficulty: *
Strength: *****
Rage Skill: Meteor Fall – Forms and drops meteors from the sky in a 360° radius around the player. Regenerates 50% MP
[Blader] – Uses a Long Katana to hack and slash at opponents. The Blader's strength is their use of their high mobility to get close to and dash around opponents. While their damage is low, their ability to conserve and efficiently use their Mana coupled with their short cooldowns allow them to keep fighting and stack up damage and debuffs on opponents. While Bladers can be really annoying to deal with, their offensive skills are mostly unprotected leaving them with large openings. Bladers do well in both PvP and PvE content.
Main Weapon: Katana
Difficulty: ****
Strength: ***
Rage Skill: Blood Wreckage – Sends a flurry of slashes dealing massive damage in a straight line in front of the player. Increases Critical Rate to 100% for 7 seconds
[Fighter] – The fighter is a close combat type class that uses a variety of punches, kicks and grabs to deal damage. Their strength lies in their multiple skills that apply the grab crowd control effect which allows them to instantly CC any opponent, regardless of their protections. Fighters excel in 1 vs 1 situations as they can rip through their opponents while keeping them in check, making sure that their opponents are unable to fight back. Their strength falls off in larger scale battles as they require to be right next to their opponents to deal any damage and lack the ability to deal AOE damage. The Fighter is a bit slow in PvE compared to other classes.
Main weapon: Gauntlet
Difficulty: **
Strength: ****
Rage Skill: Furious Fisting - Punches the ground several times in quick succession dealing AOE damage while pulling in surrounding players or mobs.
[Reaper] Reapers make use of life essence and their own health bar to fight instead of Mana. Reapers begin in a weak state and must use various combos to charge life essence shards (stats of which are determined by their offhand). Most of their normal skills have some form of life steal to sustain them in battle prior to entering their Death Reaper Form. Life Essence Shards can be consumed by Reapers to enter their Death Reaper form. Wielding a massive ethereal scythe, Reapers in their Death Reaper form boast almost invincible defensive capabilities as well as boosted offensive and movement abilities depending on the amount of life essence shards consumed. Reapers can be easily dealt with by eliminating them before they enter their Death Form as they are extremely weak while in that state. Otherwise, players can kite and wait out the duration of a Reapers Death form before proceeding to kill them. Reapers can become a deadly class if played correctly, making them one of the strongest classes for PvP and PvE.
Main Weapon: Magic Talisman
Offhand: Essence Coins
Difficulty: *****
Strength: *****
Rage Skill: Dark Oblivion - Summons a black hole in front of the player, sucking in all other mobs and players. Charges 30% of max Life Essence Shards. Can only be used outside of Death Reaper Form.
[Assassin] Assassins make use of their stealth and positioning to deal lethal damage. Their damage mostly comes from a passive skill which greatly boosts their damage when attacking from behind. Their ability to stealth allows them to position themselves easily to deal massive damage to their opponents. Without stealth, assassins can make use of a few mobility skills to get behind opponents before attacking. While their main hand weapons make use of daggers, assassins can also use their offhand weapon (Hidden Crossbow) to attack opponents at both mid and close range. Assassins have long animations and long cool downs which make them vulnerable when attacking. Assasins can be dealt with by turning around and focusing on them as their damage is significantly reduced while not attacking from behind. Assassins are one of the slowest classes in PvE due to their longer animations but their ability in PvP more than makes up for that.
Main Weapon: Dagger
Offhand: Hidden Crossbow
Difficulty: *
Strength: ****
Rage Skill: Shadow Jump - Instantly teleport behind targeted player and enters stealth for 10 seconds, gains 100% increased Critical Damage while stealth. Next skill will not remove stealth. If no player is targeted then enters stealth on the spot
[Ranger] Using their bows, Rangers can deal consistent damage at all ranges. They have a variety of utility skills to keep themselves at a distance from opponents while outputting consistent damage. Rangers ability to deal damage while moving allows them to keep distance while attacking. Rangers must be smart with their play style as most of their skills use up a lot of Mana. Rangers also have a low HP pool making them easy to kill when enemies get close. Rangers, like Knights, set the standard for PvE and PvP content, they both are able to clear PvE content efficiently while not falling far behind other classes in PvP.
Main Weapon: Longbow
Difficulty: ***
Strength: ***
Rage Skill: Dragons Arrow - Charges up to release a high range, high damage shot. Amount of time spent charging increases range and damage. Increases Attack Points by 20 for 10 seconds
[Knight] Knights make use of their sword and shield combination to fight an all round battle. They have two stances, being the offence and defense stance and their skills will change depending on their active stance while primarily using their sword for offence and their shield for defense. Knights will combo while switching stances making them unpredictable and difficult to catch off guard. Due to their low mobility, knights are susceptible to grabs and AOE skills. Knights, like Rangers, set the standard for PvE and PvP content, they both are able to clear PvE content efficiently while not falling far behind other classes in PvP. However the Knight, does generally perform better than Rangers in PvP.
Main weapon: sword
Offhand: Shield
Difficulty: ***
Strength: ****
Rage Skill: Judgement Charge - Charges forward with shield, knocking back all opponents while dealing damage. Increases Defense Power by 50 for 15 seconds
[Beast Spiritualist] Beast Spiritualists channel the power of ancient beasts to fuel their skills. They can collect the spirits of ancient beasts by killing beasts throughout the land. Each Beast that can be channeled will come with its own set of skills primarily focusing on one attribute from offence, defence, or speed and support. Beast Spiritualists are a special class which can equip up to 4 beast tokens, allowing them to mix and match different sets of skills and channel different beasts during a fight to catch opponents by surprise. Spiritualists have a long cooldown before being able to channel again, allowing opponents the opportunity to exploit the fact that the spiritualists skills will be skewed in a predetermined direction. Spiritualists are generally the worst class at PvP, however their damage and prowess in PvE are at the top of all the classes.
Main Weapon: Beast token x4 slots
Difficulty: *****
Strength: ***
Rage Skill: Spirit Overdose - Reduces Channeling cooldown by 95% for 1 minute. Depletes mana by 100% at end of buff.
As James hovered over each class, an option had appeared to select a gender, having already decided on a class, he proceeded to select the male option for the mage class and was faced with the model of an elderly male. Dragon River Online had an immersive character creation system that allowed players to shape and model their characters in hundreds of different ways. This was the reason that the game didn't have a race system, because anyone could create their own race!!! A frown had manifested on James face, he had not expected the default setting for the male mage to be an old man. He made adjustments to the character in front of him and made him look much younger. The characters hair became shorter and his skin became smoother. James adjusted his height and gave the character a tall and slightly muscly figure. As his sculpting skills weren't the best, he had decided to keep the human style for his character. Editing options for the face were actually very limited for basic players, but with the power of James' wallet, he used the cash shop to unlock a crimson hue for his eyes. After messing around with a few options he became satisfied with his character and typed in the name for his character before clicking confirm. James had entered the same name he had for his old RPG character:
[Octane]
LvL: 1
Class: Mage
Attack Points: 15
Defence Points: 20
Octane appeared on screen stumbling. There was a health bar that displayed his HP as a percentage underneath his character along with a mana bar that displayed his mana out of 20. There was also a chat box in the bottom corner with a gray, sectioned bar split into 10 segments along the bottom of the screen. At the top, Octanes level was displayed as well as a minimap and under it, a quest log, but it was empty at the moment. James moved the camera around and saw that he had spawned in the middle of a small town, NPC's were bustling about their daily business as they ran around him pushing carts full of rocks or vegetables. There were a few houses made from wood and a shabby wooden fence, ran around the perimeter of the town the town. Farmers were herding cattle on the side while a little child ran around being chased by a chicken. Golden text appeared at the top of the screen that wrote:
KINGDOM OF GARCIA: STONE BACK VILLAGE