Class Roles and Situation Descriptions

This guide will focus on the typical (and some non-conventional) roles for each class in Twilight Temple, the non-damage-dealing skills which can be useful, as well as provide a general idea for actions and situations such as: luring, rushing, typical mob fights, and typical boss fights. Twilight temple, if you do not know about it yet, is a series of dungeons starting at level 60. This article assumes you have some base knowledge of your own class (and perhaps a bit about other classes), and understand terms such as aggro, mobs, buff, debuff.

This guide is intended for those who are new to Twilight Temple, and those veterans who are interested in discussing their roles in TT (Twilight Temple).

The text below goes through each class and will be sorted alphabetically. The notable skills listed are mostly mentioned for their effects and not their damage dealing output.

Archer: The Heavy Physical Artillery

 * With the ability to deal high damage, archers are most commonly used for DD (Damage Dealing). The role of an archer is arguably simple: to provide physical damage.  They do have a few stunning and sealing skills at their disposal, which are useful for monsters that run away from you (which you generally want to prevent since they may run into a giant group of monsters).  As an archer, you must also be careful about dealing too much damage on normal monsters and bosses.  Generally, you do not want to pull aggro (Unless you are saving a cleric from certain death).  More often than not, this means you will need to hold back on your damage.  A lot of this will be dependent on your experience and judgment.

Notable Skills:
 * Sharpened Tooth Arrow: This is a skill used on TT bosses. When maxed at level 85, it will reduce the boss's maximum HP by 16% for 30 seconds.  After the time has passed, the said boss will return to its original maximum health.  However, since it will have lost the 16% due to this skill's effect.  This of course means the boss will have 16% less health for you to deal with.


 * Wings of Protection: This is your only squad buff. The increase in speed may help the slower classes in rushes, and the extra evasion is always nice.


 * Stunning Arrow: As mentioned before, this will help prevent certain mobs from running away, and thus saving the team a lot of grief from having to deal with the crowd that the mob has run into.


 * Aim Low: As a freezing skill, this is a great alternative to catch the mob after a lure has occurred (if you do not understand this bit, please refer to the section on actions and situations). Typically an archer does not want to be the one that catches a lured mob.  But if everyone else has failed to catch a very fast monster, and the monster is closely approaching your venomancer lurer, then using this skill isn't a bad idea.  As a general rule of thumb, you might as well use it to allow the catcher more time.

Assassin: The Speedy Killer

 * Usually, they are the main damage dealer in TT. With high APS build and high damage, combined with the blademaster's Heaven's Flame and Demon Spark, they would inflict a lot of damage.

Notable Skills:
 * Subsea Strike: Not only it inflicts damage, it also increases the damage your target will get by 30% for the next 8 seconds. Allowing ALL of your party members to inflict more damage.


 * Bloodpaint: A buff. YOU MUST to give this buff to your party. It will make your teammates recover HP by 2% of their own physical attacks (Sage version makes it 3%), (It doesn't work on archers, wizards, clerics, venomancers, psychics, and mystics)


 * Rib Strike: Another debuff. It decreases your target's attack speed. (Sage version makes them reduce HP too, while Demon version decreases the speed more).

Barbarian: The Undisputed Tank

 * Along with a cleric, this is perhaps one of the classes that is most well known for their typical roles. A barbarian's typical role is to be a tank.  The responsibilities of a tank is to hold down aggro on monsters and bosses.  This is achieved using Flesh Ream.  A tank is also typically responsible for pushing certain running mobs towards the party and away from danger.  An example can be drawn from the archers in TT Chapter 1.  The general idea is to run behind the monster, and hit it.  This will cause the monster to run away from you.  If you have positioned yourself correctly, this will then push the monster towards your patiently waiting party.  Another typical role (but perhaps more advanced) for a barbarian is to rush (I will go into more detail in the later section).

Notable Skills:
 * Flesh Ream: This is an important skill which will help you hold aggro. You want to be spamming this skill (if you are the tank) on the boss and/or mobs.


 * Alacrity of the Beast: Another important skill. More often than not, even if you are not the Tank of the party, you will be asked to cancel.  This spell cancels spells.  Which means it includes boss AoE or single target spells.  Almost every boss has the same timing on their spell-casting, so it is up to experience to learn this timing and cancel.  Do note that some bosses casts AoE spells very often, so it is not completely possible to cancel this on your own.  But it could be achieved with another barbarian or fist Blademaster.


 * Roar: This will draw aggro to monsters within 12 meters of you. This is an obvious skill for a tank.  It isn't often that you will want to do this unless you are significantly higher level than the TT you are attempting (or have several good clerics).  This can also be used in tight situations to save your cleric (i.e. someone else has drawn aggro and just died).


 * Invoke the Spirit: Reduce damage taken by 90% but reduce movement speed by 50% for 20 seconds. This is an important skill to use in the tight situation described above.  You will want to use this right after Roar.  Also in a rush, you will want to use Invoke the Spirit towards the end while you wait for slower squad members.

Blademaster: The Stunning Addition

 * A very typical role expected of a Blademaster is to stun and deal damage. Generally most blademasters are axe wielders, but other classes may achieve the same thing by buying the 1 spark stun skill (Drake Bash) and carry around an axe (that you can equip).  Of course, if you have enough spirit and coins to do it, get the Heaven's Flame skill as well.

Notable Skills: There are different weapon routes which are described below.
 * All class skills:
 * Roar of the Pride: This is an AoE stun skill useful in various situations. It can be used immediately after a lure to assist in catching.  Do note that the monsters in TT can run very fast, so cast time will have to be adjusted accordingly.  If the monster runs out of range, then it will failed to be stunned.  It can be used in combinations with a Barbarian's Roar in a tight situation.  Remember that it is most important to keep your clerics alive.  Selflessness plays a big role in a squad/team situation.
 * Smack: This skill seals the monster for 2-3 seconds. This is, again, useful for catching monsters, and also stopping running mobs in their tracks.


 * Axe Skills:
 * Drake Bash: This is another stun skill you may have at your disposal. Its uses are similar to what was described above concerning Smack.
 * Heaven's Flame: At level 86, this will amplify damage dealt to the target by 100% for 6 seconds after casting. This is useful for bosses, and helps the team deal significantly more damage to the boss in the time frame at which its affected.


 * Fist Skills:
 * Shadowless Kick: Cancels spell casting. It has a longer cooldown than the barbarian's canceling spell.  Nonetheless it is a useful way to cancel boss spells.


 * Spear Skills:
 * Glacial Spike: Maxed out at level 86. reducing enemy physical defense and magical defense by 50% for 10 seconds.  Similar to Heaven's Flame, in that it helps the team deal more damage to the boss.


 * Sword Skills:
 * Myriad Sword Stance: Maxed out at level 86. Reduces enemy's physical and magical attack by 50% for 15 seconds.  Very useful when a class other than a barbarian is tanking a boss and its skill cannot be canceled due to Shadowless Kick being in cooldown (or you not having it). If used when a boss starts casting its skill, will significantly reduce the damage of its special skill and possibly save your tank.

Cleric: To Serve and Protect

 * A typical role for a cleric is to keep up the buffs on all your members, heal, and debuff.  With the new update, it is easier to see what buffs has fallen off, so consequently easier to keep buffs on your members.  Healing is an important role for a cleric.  You will want to be healing the tank of your party (which could potentially be any class, depending on your setup).  It is important to remember not to heal a member, unless that member has already hit the monster.  Otherwise you as a healer will draw aggro and this may lead to your death.  Debuffs such as Elemental Seal and Dimensional Seal are both important to keep using on monsters/bosses if you are not healing your tank.  This will speed things up significantly (by 30%, more or less).  Note that you may not need to use Dimensional Seal if you have a Venomancer that knows what he/she is doing (i.e. spamming Ironwood Scarab)

Notable Skills:


 * Elemental Seal: Maxed at level 64. Reduces enemy magical defense by 30% for 20 seconds.  As mentioned before, keep this debuff on monsters when you have the time to spare.


 * Dimensional Seal: Maxed at level 74. Reduces enemy physical defense by 30% for 20 seconds.  Same as above, unless a good Venomancer is present


 * All buff skills: Buff the party in the beginning, and then again whenever it falls off. Before an anticipated long boss battle, you should also rebuff the party.


 * Ironheart Blessing: Due to the fact that this can be stacked, it is a common heal being spammed on tanks.


 * Stream of Rejuvenation: This is a more potent version of Ironheart. Heals more, costs more, takes more time.  May want to use this within a few Ironheart Blessings if it seems to be necessary (i.e. the tank's HP dipping too low).


 * Regeneration Aura: otherwise known as BB ("Blue Bubble"). It is an AoE heal which also decreases damage taken by the party.  Pets of venomancers are not affected by this effect.  It is extremely important to have this for certain bosses.  This does drain your mana constantly.  Either have an MP charm ready, or several apothecary/normal pots ready.


 * Heaven's Wrath: Known as RB ("Red Bubble"). This will allow your team to attack faster and deal more damage.  This can be used if you are not the main healer, or if you don't need to heal at all.


 * Chromatic Seal: Puts enemy to sleep. Effective at level 1. It's a good skill for many tight situations. Or in the absence of a good catcher (to catch the lures), it's a great way to stop the monster from killing the person who is luring.


 * Wings of Protection: Cast a shield on the target, absorbs incoming damage that equals to 20% of target's maximum HP. The shield disappears after 30 seconds, or the damage it absorbs reach its capacity. This can be used in a tight situation when your tank is about to keel over. This is an instant cast, so is very useful and is up to an experienced player to use it quickly.

Venomancer: The Time Saver

 * Typically in a TT, they are used as damage dealers, and pullers. (This is not considering venomancers with Hercules as a typical role.  This will be discussed in the next section.)  Pets deal full damage to bosses in TT.  Therefore, they are extremely useful in shaving down time needed to run any TT.  A venomancer is also used for their ability to pulling a single enemy (this is explained below under "Luring").

Notable Skills:
 * Amplify Damage: Maxed at level 68. Makes target take 20% more damage for 20 seconds.  (Sage version allows enemy to take 30% more damage, Demon version allows enemy to take 25% more damage and has extended duration to 26 seconds.)  This can only be cast in fox form, and so a good venomancer should be switching between forms if they can.


 * Soul Degeneration: The only reason this is mentioned is because of its sage skill possibility – Reduce max HP by 20%.


 * Bramble Guard: Cast this reflect buff on your designated Tanks. This will include both the typical and non-conventional ones.


 * Ironwood Scarab: Reduces enemy's physical defense by 30% for 10 seconds. As mentioned in the cleric's section.  A good venomancer should be trying to keep this debuff on the bosses at all times.  Its cooldown allows for you to achieve this.


 * Feral Concentration: Immunize the caster of all incoming damage at the cost of being unable to move for 10 seconds. Did you draw aggro? Use this skill if you don't have the HP to hold aggro, and you don't have 2 sparks for Bramble Hood. Bramble Hood is preferred, of course, for its fast cast. Feral Concentration has a really slow cast time, and an undesirable effect of freezing yourself for 10 second. Having said that, it is still useful in some situations.


 * Bramble Hood: If you pull aggro, use this skill as soon as you can, and run away until a tank grabs the aggro back. Unless, of course, you are the tank.


 * Purge: in 2-2 and 2-3 the Ape Boss will self buff. You will want to purge him as often as you can. With 1 or 2 other venomancers, you can keep him debuffed at all times which will make the job for your tank significantly easier.


 * Lending Hand: Passing a spark to someone who needs it more. This is useful for a cleric that needs spark for BB, or any other situations where people require sparks but don't have it.

Mystic: Whatever You Need

 * A mystic can fill many roles. They can pull/lure using either their summon or the Punishing Sting plant. They have several healing abilities and debuffing plants, and have wood and physical based (Absorb Soul) damage skills. However, since pets deal full damage to enemies inside the TT, the mystic has a leg up with the Storm Mistress summon, which deals heavy metal damage at the cost of a lot of mana. A mystic in the DD role is better off to use the Storm and frequently transfer mana to it, and let it do the damage instead of doing it themselves. That frees up your own spellcasting for using fast healing abilities to patch up the odd other DDer getting hit, and using your debuff plants in combination with Lysing can speed things up as well.

Notable Skills:
 * Natures Revenge/Absorb Soul: The long channel time for Absorb Soul causes it to not draw aggro onto yourself as much. Make sure you're not inside any enemy AoE to prevent it from being interrupted. In terms of damage-for-mana, the Storm Mistress' attacks are more effective.


 * Storm Mistress ("I need more Chi!"): The damage dealing summon for the mystic. Set it to auto-cast its primary attack and it'll zap targets with several thousand metal damage each second. Use Transference regularly to replenish it's mana. Against groups of mobs you can use its secondary attack, but this will often draw aggro onto the Storm Mistress itself and cause it to die quickly.


 * Resurrection: Cast this on your party's cleric to ensure that if the cleric goes down, it can get up quickly with as little EXP loss as possible.


 * Befuddling Creeper/Spidervine: Debuff plants that can be used to assist your party. Befuddling Creeper is best used offensively as it can increase the damage your party members (and summon) does. Spidervine is more defensive, it can reduce the amount of damage enemies do, and slows them down. Both these plants will draw aggro onto themselves, but if the plant dies, this aggro does not transfer to the Mystic (unless you've Lysed the plant).


 * Punishing Sting: Can be used as a cheap luring tool. As it deals physical damage, it draws aggro onto itself. Once it dies, only the targets that were damaged by it will come running to the mystic. Don't Lyse it if you're using it to lure.


 * Bramble Tornado: If you somehow do draw aggro, this one can be a lifesaver by physically pushing the enemy away from you. For optimal effect, push it towards your tank.


 * Break in the Clouds: An expensive healing skill, but its very fast cast time and nonexistent cooldown allows you to spam it. Can be helpful if you need to keep your cleric alive if he/she drew aggro.


 * Cragglord: Considering that summons deal full damage, the Cragglord is a more effective use of sparks then firing off Thicket, even against a group of mobs. Don't bother healing it unless you go up against a boss with it - it should survive for those 20 seconds. Make sure to make full use of it's abilities. For full effect, let your Storm Mistress run dry, Energy Drain it for an extra attack boost, then launch the Cragglord while that buff is active. Recast the Storm Mistress as the Cragglord times out.

Wizard: The Heavy Magic Artillery

 * The typical role for a wizard is to deal damage. Lots and lots of damage.  Just like the archer, you have to be careful of drawing aggro.  Refer to the archer descriptions if you are curious.  A wizard also has 1 skill which heals.  It takes a lot of time to cast, but can be useful in a tight situation.

Notable Skills:
 * Morning Dew: The previously mentioned healing skill. Beware its long cast time.


 * Force of Will: Interrupts channeling, silences, and making it unable to attack. It's a great support spell to be considering, when you don't need to be dealing damage.


 * Soporific Whisper: Sleeps target for 4 seconds. It has an instant cast time so if you see no one is catching the lured mob, cast this on it to buy some time for your tank to grab it.


 * Undine Strike: Reduces water, fire, earth resistances by 60% for 12 seconds. This is useful for yourself and any other wizards or psychics in the party, allowing you to do more damage.

Non-Conventional Roles for Classes
Archer:
 * What could you be doing besides dealing damage? You could tank.  If you have a high enough refinement level, a good healer, you can achieve this.  It may not be for TTs your own level, but ones lower level than you.  The people who are in your squad would have to be more careful with their damage dealing if you are the same level as they are.

Barbarian:
 * What could you be doing besides tanking? You could deal damage.  Quite the opposite of archers, but this one will be more common.  If there is another, better-suited, tank available, then turn into humanoid form (unless you are a demon barbarian) and deal as much damage as you can.

Blademaster:
 * Again, an alternative role for a blademaster, instead of damage dealing, is to tank. Again, the squad members have to be more careful about pulling aggro.

Cleric:
 * A cleric could also potentially tank. But this is pretty rare as far as non-conventional roles go.  You would, of course, need good gear and another healer assisting you.  You would have to be dealing damage (more than anyone in your party), so it is unlikely that you can be healing yourself the entire time.

Venomancer:
 * A Venomancer can tank with her pet. This is the most common non-conventional role.  With a Hercules, a venomancer can tank a large variety of bosses, and thus opening up different roles for other classes to play.  The pet deals full damage to bosses in Twilight Temple, as mentioned earlier, so it is harder to steal aggro from the Hercules, with an exception of a Flesh Ream from a higher level barbarian.
 * A venomancer can also be a tank themselves.

Wizard:
 * Tank. Typically a light armored wizard with high refinement can more or less tank a boss.  Of course, you will require a cleric helping.

Mystic:
 * Guardian/Pure support. Generally best done in large parties with lots of DDers. A Mystic focusing purely on healing with both healing plants, and using the Salvation to reduce damage to the party. The Salvation's first shield prevents a good bit of damage and should be cast on party members who might occasionally take damage or draw aggro. The second shield can be used to reduce damage on a tank, but will require heaps of mana to be transferred into Salvation. A Mystic which isn't doing damage does not enter combat state (much like a cleric not doing anything offensive) so you can take full advantage of items like Focus Powder to increase your mana replenish rate to make up for these mana-expensive skills.

Actions and Situations
Rush:
 * The tank of the group can lead a group quickly through some parts of the dungeon by grabbing aggro. The rest of the squad follows closely, and then at the end jump off to an area that mobs will not follow to.  This can be achieved in Chapters 1, 2 and 3.  If you are the barb leading the rush, then you will want to use Invoke the spirit towards the end as was suggested earlier.  If you are not a barbarian, you should have several apothecary pots at your disposal.

Luring:
 * A Venomancer sends pet. When the pet hits the enemy once, unsummon the pet.  Now the venomancer will have aggro, so should be running back towards the tank, or whoever is grabbing aggro.  Not only should you be running towards the tank, you should also run past them.  Far past them in some situations.  Remember to have the skill Summer Sprint on, so you can run faster.  The ones catching should be standing in the predicted path of the monster.  Some monsters will run in a curve towards the venomancer, so beware of that.  Generally, if the Venomancer is running fast enough right after a lure, the monster will run in a relative straight line towards them.  The key here is to stand in the middle of their path, and hit them as soon as they come to you.  Stuns, seals, and freezes will all be useful in catching.  For monsters that run away, you will want to catch them in a way that pushes them toward the Venomancer.  This may sounds strange, but is actually very logical.  The venomancer was running towards a safe spot, presumably, and thus you will want to push this monster towards that area and not back into the group which he/she lured from. Note: if only for the purpose of catching, a ranged attack is also good if you have the hp to withstand 1 or 2 hits before the tank retakes aggro.  This means any ranged moves of any class would be beneficial in this situation.
 * The Mystic can also lure using any summon, or the Punishing Sting. The Sting has the advantage of being immobile, so you can run away safely and not have to worry about a group chasing you, and is also quite cheap. Using the Mystic's summon for luring will usually mean sending it on a kamikaze run - the Mystic cannot unsummon his/her pet.

General monsters battle:
 * Those with high spike damages should be careful of dealing damage. The general idea is pretty simple: Kill them.  For monsters that run away, it is important for the person holding aggro to be pushing them towards somewhere relatively safe.

Boss Battles:
 * Debuffs should consistently placed on the boss for quickness. For any in-depth guides on bosses please use the guides for the relevant dungeons.