Combat Builds

🇰🇷 한국어 버전 — see the English page

The following is a general description of how you might take advantage of each of the Fighting Mode settings as you create your overall character. You begin the game with 10 Health (HP) and all other skills begin at level 1.

Accuracy

Accuracy (ACC) is a Melee fighting skill. It is compared to a Mobs Defense to determine your chance to hit with a melee weapon. ACC is required to equip 1-handed Weapons.

Fighting Mode: Accurate /wiki item skill accuracy

Strength

Strength (STR) is a Melee combat skill and raising this skill by 5 points adds one to your max damage. STR is required to equip 2-handed Weapons. Many Wings also require STR to equip them and can add to your other fighting skills and Speed.

Fighting Mode: Aggressive /wiki item skill strength

Defense

Defense (DEF) is a Melee combat skill and is compared to a Mobs Accuracy to determine their chance to hit you. It is also required to equip various armors. Helmets, Chest, Shields, Gloves, Pants, Boots and some wings/capes require Def. Equipped items can add to your other fighting skills and Speed.

Fighting Mode: Defensive /wiki item skill defense

Health

Health is a Melee combat skill. The higher it is, the longer you live. It is also required to equip Jewelry and Pets. Health is gained using any of the Fighting Modes at 1 exp per melee damage done. To train Health by itself, Cordial Fighting Mode has been added giving 2 exp per melee damage done.

Fighting Mode: Cordial /wiki item skill health

Magic

Magic is, well, magic. Spell casting adds to your Magic skill and a higher skill lets you equip better gear and equip larger pouches/books. Using magic does not add to the Melee skills directly, but since magic attacks only apply during melee combat, exp from melee damage will still apply.

Fighting Mode: Players Choice /wiki item skill magic

Archery

Archery is a skill by itself and does not add to any of the other combat skills. Archery is also the only ranged attack in the game.

NOTE: Walking past an aggressive mob and being attacked will NOT engage your bow and arrow. Run from battle as soon as you can (three attacks from player or mob) or enable AutoRun in your options.

Fighting Mode: Cordial /wiki item skill archery

NOTE: Archery using Cordial mode does not add directly to Health. Experience rewards from Daily Login, Party Dungeons and Kill Quests do add to Health. Bronze Battle Axe, Enchanted Bronze Battle Axe, Bronze Claymore or Enchanted Bronze Claymore can be equipped to gain Health exp from combat.

All-rounder Build

The all-rounder build trains all combat skills (Archery being optional). It is highly recommended to use this build for your first character as it is essentially one of the builds with highest damage output potential (NB: Defense levels let you equip gear with +power bonus), that lets you switch gear setups depending on the target, thus, provides flexibility. High Combat Level allows all-rounders to be ignored by Aggressive Mobs, so they can more easily reach resource gathering nodes. Despite their relatively poor performance in Party Quests vs Pure and Hybrid builds of the same Combat Level, all-rounders unlock their potential with higher combat skill levels, ultimately becoming one of the best builds to use to clear Party Quests of any difficulty, whereas Pure build characters (Pure Mage being an exception) mainly compete with other low-CL characters in order to maitain their build's efficiency. 

An effecient way to gain melee combat skill experience is to rotate through Aggressive, Defensive and Accurate Fighting Modes (not necessarily all 3/in that order) every few levels to reach new weapon/gear milestones quicker. Some players use Controlled Fighting Mode to get 3 levels at once, it is a personal preference and not recommended if you are trying to maximize your performance. Strength/Defense or Mage Hybrid (see below) builds are good options if you are not sure where to start. You can add other combat skills whenever you see fit.

Hybrid Builds

General Melee Hybrid

The Hybrid Melee build trains Strength, Accuracy, Defense, and Health.  This is a very flexible build with options to use a two-handed weapon, a one-handed weapon and a shield along with all melee armor.

The Hybrid Melee build is useful for those who want to focus on skilling or hunting mobs.  It allows for rapid initial gains in Combat Level allowing for easy traveling and high stats for fighting mobs.

Two-handed Hybrid

The Two-handed Hybrid trains Strength, Defense, and Health, allowing for more durability than a Pure Strength build.

One-handed Hybrid

The One-handed Hybrid trains Accuracy, Defense, and Health, allowing for more durability than a Pure Accuracy build.

Mage Hybrid

The Mage Hybrid trains Magic, Accuracy, and Health.  This can be an excellent first build for new players.  Going the Magic route can be expensive, but this build allows players to focus on Accuracy first, which is much cheaper, and then training up Magic once they've had the time to earn some coins.

Optionally, a player may also choose to add Defense to their Mage Hybrid build, increasing their character's durablility.

Strength-Archer Hybrid

The Strength-Archer Hybrid trains Archery, Strength, and Health.  Strength for 2 handed weapons/wings + Archery for other gear. It's best to use bow during 2x events to double the exp gained per arrow used. One other advantage for the strength archer is the ability to use Towers to level Archery. Nearly killing a mob in each room and then finishing them off with a few arrows grants the room bonus to the kill shot, i.e. Archery skill. Room bonus ranges from 400 in Nature Tower, 750 to 2000 in Ice Tower and 1000 to 3500 in Fire Tower.

Pure Build

A Pure Build character is one who specializes in only one of the main fighting skills with some slight variance in adding a limited number of skill points to one other skill. Pure Builds rely on the stat boosts from equipped items to bolster the stats that aren't being trained. For example, a "Strength" Pure gets almost all of their Accuracy and Defense from their equipment's Aim and Armor bonuses instead of from their base Accuracy and Defense stats.

Because Pure Builds are played using player-chosen restrictions Pure Builds are primarily for experienced players.  Since RPG MO allows each player to have up to five accounts, it is recommended that players create an All-Rounder/Hybrid build for their first character, learn more about the game, and learn what play style they prefer before attempting to create a Pure Build.

With the exception of pure Magic builds, teleportation scrolls cannot be used due to the magic XP that these give when used. A player will need to pursue more alternative teleportation items (Memory potions or teleportation books) which can be more expensive.

Pure Build - Strength

A pure strength build only levels Strength and Health by setting Fighting Mode to Aggressive.  Most strength pure characters also accept 5 Defense as a requirement for Agility Boots or Enchanted Agility Boots.

A game update in mid-October 2016 made all two-handed weapons use strength as their base requirement to equip increasing the options and viability of a Pure Strength build.

A variation of this build is called the Berserker, or zerk/zerker for short. The zerk version uses 20 Defense to equip Iron Berserker Platemail which gives +10 power and +30 armor or Enchanted Iron Berserker Platemail which gives +25 power and +37 armor. Twenty defense also allows equipping Iron Gloves and this pair of items raises your max damage by +3. At early levels this can be a valuable increase in damage and experience.

Pure Build - Defense/Health

A pure defense/health build avoids leveling Accuracy or Strength by setting Fighting Mode to Defensive or Cordial. It is virtually useless as there are no weapons which can be equipped with just defense or health as a fighting skill other than basic or enchanted Bronze weapons. The only caveat is that a health pure build will have the lowest possible CL while equipping endgame jewelry, which can be extremely powerful in some cases.

Pure Build - Accuracy

A pure accuracy build only levels Accuracy and Health setting Fighting Mode to Accurate. You can equip 1 handed melee weapons. Most accuracy pure characters also accept 5 Defense as a requirement for Agility Boots or Enchanted Agility Boots.

A variation of this build is called the Berserker, or zerk/zerker for short. This version uses 20 Defense to equip Iron Berserker Platemail which gives +10 power or Enchanted Iron Berserker Platemail which gives +25 power. Twenty defense also allows equipping Iron Gloves and this pair of items raises your max damage by +3. At early levels this can be a non-negligible increase in damage and experience.

Pure Build - Mage

A pure Mage build only levels Magic and Health, setting Fighting Mode to Cordial. Magic gear provides the needed defense. Wands, staves and orbs provide bonuses to melee damage. Books provide extra cooldown as well as being enchantable but the magic skill required to equip a one-slot book allows you to equip a two-slot pouch. Players can choose which to use.

The introduction of the Wizardry skill in an update in September of 2017 removed crafting from the Magic skill. The use of teleport scrolls does add exp to the Magic skill.

Pure Build - Archer

A pure Archer build only levels Archery and Health, setting Fighting Mode to Cordial. Archery gear, most of which can be crafted at the anvil, provides the needed defense.  Bows and arrows provide the damage. Better quivers hold more arrows. Arrows are crafted at a Fletching Table-- either the public table in Moche II, Forest Master Guild or at a Fletching Table placed on your Island.  You cannot use a Fletching Table on another player's island but you can purchase a Fletching Table on the player Market and place it on your own island regardless of your Carpentry level.  Rather than buying outright, you may wish to ask around on the Forum or in the Trade channel as some players will craft a Fletching Table for free so long as you provide all the materials for one.