[Araidnee]

Sigrogana is a rather intimidating game to get into with a lot of numbers being thrown around with little explanation to go with them. This guide is not written to make you top dog at the arena for PvP, nor is it written to demonstrate hyper optimized characters that clear the hardest content with ease. This is here to help new players get a grasp on what all this nonsense means, so you can come up with a fun character of your own to jump around dungeons and fight monsters with friends.

(Note: This is written soon after the 2.49 update, which made a lot of changes to stats, scaling, combat, and a number of skills. Some specifics in this are likely to undergo big changes.)
Edit: There's another guide on the forums written by user InsainArcainBirdbrain that goes into a bit more detail on some of the specifics of building, Go check it out!

The Basics

Ahi Maguro, our example character here, is a Theno race, using Aquamancer to support her allies and attack with a variety of Water element field manipulating effects. She also uses Tactician skills to boost the damage of herself and her allies, along with a few damage spells of other elements from the class to keep her from being too stuck in one role. She prefers to keep enemies at bay with push effects like Jet Stream, but has enough HP that she doesn't mind having to take a hit if she needs to. Her damage is mostly reliant on Water Attack, so she invests highly into Vitality and Will, while using a weapon that takes advantage of her high Strength and Vitality.




By the maximum level of 60, you'll have 240 total stat points to distribute in your stats menu. Sigrogana uses a Soft Cap and a Hard Cap on stats. The Hard Cap for any stat is 80, and any points invested past that are wasted. The Soft Cap for a stat is your base stat (Mostly from your Race) +40. Any points invested past this point start to be worth less than 1 point each, until eventually being worth .1 or less the closer you get to 80. In the above stats, the yellow numbers are the Scaled Stats, which the numbers on the left are the real stats. We can see that the higher Will and Vitality stats are being harshly reduced by scaling, but the lower Strength stat is barely reduced, and Skill is too low to be touched by the soft cap at all. Despite having 9 more points, the scaled Vitality is only 2 points higher than Will in Scaled Stats.




While it's possible to make just about any stupid idea you can dream of work, it's also very possible and very easy to make a character than cannot function at all. To make an effective character, you should ask yourself three questions:



Can I deal damage?


Can I take a hit and keep going?

Can I land a hit on enemies?



Regardless of your role in a party, you should be able to confidently answer yes to all three of these questions. Obviously, there are enemies with high resistance to damage, enemies strong enough that no one should be taking hits from, and enemies that everyone is going to be struggling to land a hit on, but in your day-to-day dungeoneering, you should have all three of these covered to some extent. Even the biggest buff slinging, enemy repositioning, field controlling character should be able to directly contribute to damage, and the most accurate mage in the world flinging high power spells left and right should be able to take a little bit of punishment. But how do we go about improving each of these?





How to Deal Damage


(Aquamancer's Jet Stream skill)






The vast majority of offensive skills in the game scale at least partially off of Scaled Weapon Attack. In this case, Jet Stream adds your Water Attack with a small boost to your Scaled Weapon Attack (SWA) to determine your damage. If we want to use a skill like this as a primary damage option, we need to make sure our Water Attack and SWA are up to the task. You can view what exactly a weapon scales off of by double clicking the weapon to examine it. Let's take a look at a weapon's statblock.









Here, we have a (renamed) Swordfish Sword. We can see that its weapon scaling is 70 percent of your STR stat, and 40 percent of your VIT. This weapon has a total of 110 percent scaling, and it accounts for your Strength more than it cares about your Vitality. The weapon's Power is then added on to those values to determine Scaled Weapon Attack, which your basic attacks and the vast majority of offense skills in the game use to calculate your damage. If you feel that your damage is lacking, try looking for a weapon with Scaling that fits your stats better. Otherwise, you can improve a weapon's Power for a bit of murai at a smithy for a small boost.








When it comes to Elemental Attack, most of the final Elemental Attack comes from the raw associated stat and the boost provided by your Will stat. Accessories that improve stats such as Rabbit Ears (Raises Celerity stat) or that boost elements directly like Tornado Pendant (Raises Wind ATK) can help raise these higher if you're struggling to raise your Elemental Attack. Every element (Except Acid) also has a related Talent from the Talent Menu that raises the associated attack by 5.




How to Take a Hit











Generally, every character should have some investment into DEF, RES, Evasion, or have enough HP to just not care. Best case scenario you have multiple of these going for you, but you don't always have enough stat points to make that happen. This character, for example, has mediocre Defense, awful Magic Defense, barely any Evade, but gets away with it through a combination of the range and skills to keep enemies at bay, and an HP pool high enough to not really care. Defense lets you take physical hits better, Resistance does the same for magic, Celerity gives you a chance at reducing the damage from any hits via Evasion, and Vitality raises your max HP so you can take a hit and keep going. Your equipment has a big influence on your survivability as well.








Outside of enchantments and any effects the equipment itself may have, all armor provides some amount of Armor, Magic Armor, and a bonus to Evasion. Armor and Magic Armor are flat reductions to physical and magic damage taken after percentile reductions have been applied, and the Evasion bonus is added to your character's total Evasion from Celerity. The Material of an armor can also provide a slight bonus to armor or elemental resistance. In this case, Chainmail grants an extra point of Armor and reduces Slash damage by a few percent. In general, Heavier armors provide more Armor and have more weight, but provide less Evade and Magic Armor.





How do I stop missing enemies?









In a word? Skill. In a lot more words, each weapon has a base accuracy, and these can vary wildly from weapon to weapon. Some weapons have 70 percent or lower accuracy due to traits like Rebelling or just by having very low accuracy in the first place. Investment in the Skill stat directly improves your accuracy, and many Class Skills provide a passive or a one time boost to the hit rate of an attack. Some even ignore evasion entirely, allowing you to pin down especially evasive enemies. If you're reliant on critical hits for your damage, you'll also have to contest against an enemy's Critical Evasion, which lowers your rates beyond what's listed on the status menu.









Back to our trusty weapon stat block, We can see how our weapon ties into this. This tome, for instance, adds 90 to our hit rate provided by Skill for any attacks or spells cast using this tome. We can also see that it adds an extra 5 to our critical hit rate, and deals 110 percent of our damage when we do land a critical hit. A weapon's accuracy and critical hit rate can both be slightly improved at a smithy.

A Quick Overview on Stats and Sub-stats






The Stats

STR


Strength is tied to Fire Attack, grants extra HP, increases your Battle Weight (How heavy your equips can be before it causes problems), and Encumbrance (How much you can carry in your inventory).


Most physical weapons in the game scale at least partially off of strength, so if your weapon demands it, you can't really go wrong with strength.


heh


WIL


Will raises max FP, the number of skills you can equip at once, and the attack of all other elements (Stacks, but less value than investing in the element's main stat). Also increases status infliction rates.


Many tomes and magic weapons scale at least partially off of Will, and it can be used to increase an element attack beyond the normal limits of the tied stat. WIL is a good choice for mages, and anyone hurting for FP. Most characters tend to have at least partial investment.


Side note: Luminary Element


The trait "Luminary Element" removes the bonus that WIL grants to all elements and the raw stat tie of a given elemental attack to increase a chosen elemental attack by your raw WIL (not scaled). Using this, you can reach up to 80 of an element through investing in WIL alone, but you will likely have some new struggles from not using the stat the element in normally tied to. Use at your own risk. Acid and Sound cannot be selected for Luminary Element's boost.






SKI


Skill raises Ice Attack, Accuracy, Critical Hit rates, and the number of skills you can equip at once. Also increases status infliction rates.


In the state of the game as of this writing, at least some Skill is a mandatory investment. Being the only stat with a direct effect on hit rates, Skill is going to determine whether or not you hit an enemy. Many guns and a variety of other weapons use SKI for damage scaling.






CEL

Celerity raises Wind Attack, Evasion, and is used to decide who goes first in a fight.


Evasion gives you a chance to reduce the damage from incoming hits or negate the damage entirely. CEL is an optional investment for any characters who don't plan on investing in evasion. Few weapons scale off CEL.







DEF


Defense increases Earth Attack, and reduces incoming physical damage taken by a percentage.


Defense is one of your few sources of direct, scaling damage reduction. It doesn't do much at low investment, but the impact gets more significant the higher it goes. While not mandatory, you're going to feel it if you neglect this stat. Many ranged characters can get away with low investment for standard PvE content if they have a way to keep themselves distanced or have party members to take the front lines. Few weapons scale off DEF.







RES


Resistance increases Dark Attack, and reduces incoming magical damage taken by a percentage.


Resistance is your other source of direct, scaling damage reduction. It doesn't do much at low investment, but the impact gets more significant the higher it goes. While not mandatory, you're going to feel it if you neglect this stat. Some characters can get away with low investment for standard PvE content if they have a way to remove magic threats from encounters quickly, or party members to help take out fragile back line threats. Few weapons scale off RES.







VIT


Vitality raises max HP by a LOT, Water Attack, and Encumbrance (How much you can carry in your inventory).


If you're not invested into STR, you should have some VIT. If you're invested into STR, you should probably also have some VIT. VIT does a lot of work to keep you alive, and everyone should probably have at least a little of it if they aren't supplemented by equipment. Roughly 600 max HP should be your minimum for a level 60 character, and more will almost never hurt. Few weapons scale off VIT.








FAI


Faith raises max FP, Light Attack, and reduces the chance of you taking critical hits. Also increases resistance to status effects, and increases the maximum number of Youkai you can contract with Summoner.


Faith is an optional investment for most PvE characters, but some classes like Priest and Grand Summoner absolutely require it. The FP it provides can keep your character fueled for many fights in a row, and the Critical Evasion makes it a more defensive choice than WIL. Some weapons scale off FAI, and many that do also tie themselves to Light Attack.





LCK


Luck increases Lightning Attack, Critical Hit rates, reduces the chance of you taking Critical Hits, and slightly increases item drop rates.


An absolutely mandatory investment for characters reliant on critical hits, and optional for everyone else. This stat used to have an effect on hit rates and evasion, but has been changed to no longer have an influence on those derived stats. Few weapons scale with LUC.






GUI


Guile increases Acid Attack, increases hit rates from the side or behind enemies, increases the damage of critical hits, and raises the number of skills you can equip at once.


An optional investment for most characters. Acid spells are few and far between, and the critical damage is only beneficial for characters who rely on critical hits. Most guns and daggers scale off GUI.






SAN


Sanctity raises max HP, max FP, and Sound Attack, along with slowly increasing all elemental resistances. Also increases resistance to status effects.


Sanctity is representative of the purity of non-human blood, more or less. It has a strong influence on racial abilities. Generally, non-human races use this to enhance their racial gimmick, and Corrupted races want to keep this low to improve their racial abilities. The boost to elemental resistances doesn't come from any other stat, and can help supplement RES. Sound spells are few and far between, and some weapons scale off SAN.





APT


Aptitude increases all other stats by 1 per 6 points invested.


Some people say you should never have less than 32 of this, and others say you don't need any. Generally, more focused characters want less of this in favor of direct investment in the stats they care about, and less specific characters want this to be a little more efficient with their points. A good rule of thumb is to check how many stats you care about investing in: if you know more than 6 are going to be invested in, APT is probably worth it. Be sure to keep (Scaled!) aptitude at a multiple of 6. No weapons scale off APT.

Derived Stats

SWA (DMG)


Scaled Weapon Attack is used in determining the damage of most skills and spells. It's calculated from the scaling of a weapon added to the Power of the weapon, in addition to any relevant modifiers. More of this means you deal more damage.


HIT


How likely your attacks are to hit an enemy. Your accuracy percentage for an attack is your HIT minus their Evasion. Derived primarily from a weapon's Accuracy and the unit's SKI.


Crit


The percentage chance that you will land a critical hit with an attack that can crit. This is subtracted by the target's Critical Evasion to determine the percentage chance you land a critical hit. This is derived from a weapon's Crit percentage, and the unit's SKI and LUC.





Phys Percent


Percent physical damage reduction. How much any physical attacks you receive are reduced by before other reductions like Armor are applied. The more of this you have, the less damage you take from physical attacks. Mostly derived from unit's DEF.


Mag. Def Percent


Percent magical damage reduction. How much any magical attacks you receive are reduced before other reductions like Magic Armor are applied. The more of this you have, the less damage you take from magical attacks. Mostly derived from unit's RES.




Evade


The percent chance you have of evading an attack. This is subtracted from the aggressor's HIT to determine the chance that an attack will deal damage. The more of this you have, the less often you'll get hit. Derived from an armor's Evade and unit's CEL.



Status (Infliction)


The percent chance of you applying a status effect to an enemy. Positive status effects will always land on allies. This is subtracted by the target's Status Resistance to determine the chance that a status effect will land. If it is at least 100 higher, the status will always land. Derived from SKI and WIL.


Status (Resistance)


The percent chance of you not being inflicted with a status effect. This is subtracted from the aggressor's Status Infliction to determine if a status effect lands. Derived from SAN and FAI.




Flanking


A flat bonus added to HIT when attacking from the side or behind a target. The bonus is reduced when attacking from the sideOnly derived from GUI.



Crit Dmg

The amount of extra damage added when the character inflicts a critical hit. Weapons also have individual values for this stat that are not reflected on the status menu. Generally, daggers and lighter weapons get higher bonuses to critical damage. Derived from GUI.




Skill Pool


The number of skills you are allowed to have equipped at the same time. This does not limit the number of skills you're allowed to learn, but does restrict how many you're allowed to have in combat. Passive skills frequently have traits to not be counted for this number. Derived from WIL, SKI, and GUI.







Battle Weight


The total combined weight of all items currently equipped. If this is above your maximum Battle Weight, you incur penalties to HIT, Evasion, and Movement ranges based on how much you are above your maximum. This is derived from STR, and can be raised with Talents as well.

Encumbrance

The total weight of items you can carry in your inventory. Most items like weapons and armor count for 1, most ingredients count as 0, and some items like Gold Bars weigh much more. Being over your maximum encumbrance lowers your walking speed outside of combat, and lowers your momentum during combat.

I don't wanna read! Summarize all that!

You want a stat (or sometimes two!) to be your primary damage stat from either weapon scaling, elemental attack, or both. You also want SKI to raise Hit so you can land attacks, and some DEF, RES, or both to keep yourself alive. Overall, you should probably aim for at minimum, 160 HIT, 600 HP, and 250 FP and 100 SWA by level 60. Many classes can function with less in some of these stats, but these are good target minimums to aim for to keep yourself from running into problems. Most characters are going to end up with significantly more in one or all of these stats.




If you want Critical Hits, SKI and LUC raise your critical hit rates, and GUI lets you get more out of each critical hit.




Mages want to focus on the stat tied to their element and WIL, and everyone is generally going to invest in DEF, RES, or CEL to have a form of damage reduction. If you need more than 6 different stats, raise APT, if not you may not need it.




Sound and Acid damage focused characters have a rough time outside of very limited sets of classes and skills.

(Apologies for the W I D E spacing everywhere)