There are many guides of all jobs out there: Thief/assassin,
mage/wizard, acolyte/priest, etc. But there's one class missing: perma-
novice (permanent novice), orr most people refers them as super novice.
There isn't many perma-novices around. Each perma-novice got his or her
own reason to be one, whether it is for fame, challenge, boredom, etc.
My own reason is to be different from everyone. And there are others
who wants to try one but isn't sure on how to do it. Therefore, i bring
my experience as the oldest novice in iRO to help you make a good one.
I hope you will enjoy reading this.
So you want to make a novice and plan to stay that way? Are you sure?
Be mentally prepared to this very hard road. One quality you need to
have above all... is patience. Because novice will always remain the
weakest class of all.
ABOUT MYSELF
I'm Soujiro and this is my first time writing a guide, so please excuse
my non-professional writing on this guide. I started to play Ragnarok
Online Alpha in september 2001. Then, it was in mid-january 2002 during
beta1 that i started to play as novice only. And since then, i've
always played novice only. I also MVPed golden thief bug and orc hero
many times as novice in beta1 stage. I always played on iRO only, so i
dunno anything about the other language servers. I do not consider
myself a super novice, i would rather call myself a dumb novice, or
nowadays, a kinky novice. I used to write an RO diary about my RO
adventures as novice on my website http://novice.cjb.net The website is
still up, but i stopped updating it a long time ago. I still play RO as
novice now and i've also created a guild of novice only called November
Ice (Nov Ice for short), but i've disbanded the guild because members
were inactive and i was sick of being alone. Anyways, I will always
enjoy RO as novice forever.
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02. Important Facts about novice
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• Novice got the lowest HP of all jobs. A novice level 99 with vit 1
has exactly 535 HP, while a novice level 99 with vit 99 has exactly
1054 HP. And the highest HP a novice can have is 1529 HP. That's by
having novice lv 99, VIT 99, pecopeco card (+150 max HP), matyr card (+
12% max HP) and penomena card (+15% max HP).
• Novice's weapons and equipments are very restricted. All equipments
are the lowest defense and novice cannot wear useful accessories (more
on that later)
" Novice got no bonus stats
• Novice got no skills (well duh!) and that also means no weapon
mastery at all. The only skills a novice can have by an effect of a
weapon or card are bash level 5, ice bolt level 1, fire bolt level 1,
cloaking level 1.
" Novice got the slowest ASPD of all jobs except mage/wizard.
" Novice do not have to worry about SP.
• Since novice cannot use skills, he/she has to heavily rely on red
potions. And since they do not use SP at all, being 50% overweight
(because of red potions) isn't a problem at all as long as it does not
reach 90%
• Relying on red potions all the time, novice is a bum, he/she cannot
make decent zeny unless finding rare drops.
• There's only one strategy as novice: ctrl-click on the monster, and
hit on the hotkeyed red potions when needed.
• Novice is always weaker than any other job. Therefore, you train on
different monsters even if you got the same base level as another job.
For example, you can't constantly hunt sohee as novice level 60 while
you could do so very easily as another job with same base level 60.
" Novice respawns with half HP filled.
• The degree of difficulty for playing novice depends on how rich you
are. Deep down, everything about novice is about zeny!
STR - Since novice doesn't have any weapon mastery, like swordmastery,
they need something to compensate for it, and that would be STR. STR
increases the power of your hits. Also, STR are needed to carry more
red potions.
Pros - The more STR you got, the faster you kill the monster
Cons- There isn't really much of a bad thing about having a lot of
STR, except that your other stats might suffer from it.
AGI - AGI does the same thing for a novice as it would for any other
jobs, in other words, it increase the chance of dodging hits and
increase the attack speed.
Pros - It's really good when novice doesn't take many hits, it helps
for not wasting red potions too fast.
Cons - AGI doesn't work good unless you have a very high amount of AGI,
which is hard to raise AGI in the beginning.
VIT - VIT gives a better defense, raises max HP, and heals much more
when using red potions.
Pros - It's great when getting mobbed by lots of easy monsters.
Cons - In term of defense, there will be a point when VIT won't help
you much anymore, like fighting monsters that normally deals about 200
per hit.
INT - Novice has currently no use for SP since he/she doesn't have any
skills. But if he/she happens to have bash level 5, lightning bolt
level 1, ice bolt level 1, fire bolt level 1 or cloaking level 1, INT
would increase more max SP and increase the power of the bolt.
Pros - None.
Cons - Totally useless in most cases.
DEX - DEX does the same thing for a novice as it would for any other
jobs, in other words, it increases the minimum damage and the accuracy
of your hits.
Pros - With decent dex at lower level, you'll be able to fight monster
with high flee, such as whispers. And you won't suffer from doing low
damage like 1s.
Cons - In term of accuracy, having too much dex would be a waste, as
the hit rate is dex + level. So... you could just let your level take
care of accuracy.
LUK - LUK does the same thing for a novice as it would for any other
jobs, in other words, it raises the chance of doing a critical hit, a
perfect dodge, and critical hits does more damage.
Pros - Critical hits ignores defense and never misses. So it lowers the
chance of you missing a hit.
Cons - As novice, it's very hard to treat LUK as the main stat,
especially in the beginning. But when LUK is very high, it's very
useful.
" SO WHAT'S A GOOD BUILD FOR NOVICE? HOW SHOULD A NOVICE RAISES STATS?
For of all, you should determine your goal as novice, and then, based
on it, you should build you stats that fits your goal. I seperated the
goals in different 6 types of novice, and here it is:
For each type of goal, here's my proposed stats from my experience as
the oldest novice in iRO, tested and proven, as i think it is the best
road for novice. However, not everyone agrees with meh, so it's up to
you whether to follow my way or not.
Recommended for:
Tanking
Show-offs
Those who just wants to try out a perma-novice for fun
Those who got no financial support
Beginning stats should be STR 9, VIT 9, INT 1, DEX 1. And it's up to
you about LUK and AGI.
The desired final stats should be focused on VIT. Do not give any
points to AGI. Do not give any points to INT unless you want to
increase your SP for Bash level 5 or Cloaking level 1. And the rest,
STR, DEX, and LUK are up to you.
Just start with pure VIT and raise it to 40. The sooner you get VIT 40,
the sooner you can start taking on pecopecos. Then you raise any of
STR/DEX/LUK until the desired amount of those stats. After that, just
continue to raise VIT.
That was just one of many ways to raise this type of novice. Do it
however you want, just as long as VIT is your main stats. The more VIT
you got, the better your tanking skill is, the more impressive you are
;P
Recommended for:
Those who wants to reach level 50 fast
Those who loves to deal high damages
Beginning stats should be STR 9, VIT 9, INT 1, DEX 1. And it's up to
you about LUK and AGI.
The desired final stats should be focused on STR and have decent VIT.
Do not give any points to AGI. Do not give any points to INT unless you
want to increase your SP for Bash level 5 or Cloaking level 1. And the
rest, DEX and LUK are up to you.
Just start with pure VIT and raise it to 40. The sooner you get VIT 40,
the sooner you can start taking on pecopecos. Then you raise any of
DEX/LUK until the desired amount of those stats. After that, just
continue to raise STR all the way, and some of DEX when you start to
miss on some harder monster.
By having more STR, you kill monsters faster, and therefore gaining EXP
faster.
Recommended for:
Those who got financial support for the usage of red potions
Those who just wants to get high level, like above level 70
Those who wants to wear elven ears.
Beginning stats should be STR 9, AGI 9, VIT 1, INT 1, DEX 9, LUK 1.
The desired final stats should be focused on AGI and have decent STR.
Do not give any points to VIT. Do not give any points to INT unless you
want to increase your SP for Bash level 5 or Cloaking level 1. And the
rest, DEX and LUK are up to you.
Just start with pure STR and raise it to 30. Then you raise any of
DEX/LUK until the desired amount of those stats. After that, start
focusing on AGI, and sometimes, if you want, raise some STR. But do not
go beyond STR 40 until you reach AGI 70.
This type of novice is hard to start with. You definately need lots of
red potions. Once you reach level 60, it should be a lot easier to
raise level as your FLEE rate should be great.
Recommended for:
Those who got NO financial support and are determined to stay novice
forever.
Those who wants to try the challenge of fighting very hard monster.
Those who wants MVP the legit way.
Beginning stats should be STR 9, VIT 9, INT 1, DEX 1. And it's up to
you about LUK and AGI.
The desired final stats should be focused on AGI first and have decent
VIT. In other words, a novice should be at least a hybrid AGI/VIT. Do
not give any points to INT unless you want to increase your SP for Bash
level 5 or Cloaking level 1. And the rest, STR, DEX, and LUK are up to
you.
VIT is the most important stats for this type of novice. You will need
it from the beginning to the end. Because you really need VIT to fight
low leveled monsters in the beginning, and later, when fighting high
leveled monsters, you need a lot of extra max HP and good red potions
heals.
However, too much VIT can be a waste when fighting high leveled
monsters. Like for example, suppose a monster does a 300 damage on a
non-VIT novice, it would do a 230 damage on a VIT 70 novice. But the
monster does not just do one hit, it will always do many 230 damages.
That's when you need AGI to come kicking in to replace VIT as defensive
stats. Getting hit once or twice with 300 damage is much better than
getting many 230 damages. But do not forget, VIT is still needed for
red potions AND having extra max HP because there is no point in having
pure AGI when only one hit would kill you because you do not have
enough HP.
Which is why a hybrid VIT/AGI build is the best for owning very hard
monsters.
Then you ask why start "VIT and then AGI" instead of "AGI and then
VIT" nor "AGI+VIT altogether"?
Well, because if you start as AGI, it's hard as the FLEE rate doesn't
kick in right away. It's much easier to start as VIT type.
So, you start with pure VIT and raise until VIT 40. The sooner you get
VIT 40, the sooner you can start taking on pecopecos. Then you raise
any of STR/DEX/LUK until the desired amount of those stats. Then you're
all ready for AGI, the hardest part of raising this type of stats. Just
raise AGI AGI AGI, and occasionally raise something else if needed.
Recommended for:
EXTREMELY rich players ONLY.
Those who got LOTS of determination and patience.
Those who wants to prove that novice CAN own knights and assassins.
Beginning stats should be STR 9, AGI 1, VIT 1, INT 1, DEX 9, LUK 9.
The desired final stats should be focused mainly on LUK, and secondly
on STR. The rest of the stats you should never raise them, which is a
suicidal road because you have no defense at all, and which is why you
need to be extremely rich as you rely on pots more than any other type
of novice.
Why is a critical novice would be good in PvP? Well because based on my
experience, i learned that a STR/VIT type of novice, and an AGI type
doesn't do really good against knights(especially the AGI type) and
assassins.
First off, as a VIT type, novice still gets hurt a lot, and as AGI
type, some people still hurt a lot due to their high dex or high crits.
So... defense doesn't help much. So might as well focus on being all-
out attack. After all, some says, offense is the best defense. The only
drawback about not having any defense is... punching duels. I think
it's better to have insane VIT than any other type of novice in this
case.
Secondly, knights and assassins with insane flee are extremely hard to
hit for a novice. Especially when knights have HP recovery too. There
is only two ways to hit them, either lots of successful hits with DEX,
or lots of CRITS.
"Then why not being a DEX novice instead of critical novice?" you
asked? Well, it's true that constant successful hits is good. But i
think critical is better, especially on knights. Knights got very good
defense. Which is why crits are great: it ignores defense!
But... "if there's no defense, one hit from a big skill such as Bowling
Bash would instantly kill in one hit." you say. I agree, but then
again, as AGI type or VIT type, you can still die in one hit anyways.
So... it is VERY important that you get yourself a cranial guard (thara
frog card) which reduce 50% damage from demi-humans, like players.
So, just raise STR and LUK altogether equally until both of them
reaches 40. And then raise LUK only.
When you reach level 50, your stats should be: STR 40, AGI 1, VIT 1,
INT 1, DEX 9, LUK 60. Your critical should be 21 which is almost 1/5
chance of making critical. It's not much, i know, that's why you need a
3-slotted saber (or if you can't find/buy one, get either a 3-slotted
gladius or 3-slotted ring pommel saber) with three soldier skeleton
cards. With that, your critical should be 48, which is almost 1/2
chance of making crit.
Due to the fact that a critical novice is only effective with 3 soldier
skeleton cards, dun bother trying to make critical novice unless you're
rich enough to afford these cards. I also recommend baph jr. card for
this type of build.
Recommended for:
Those who owns Eddga's MVP prize rare weapon named Firebrand which
gives the wielder the ability to cast Fire Bolt level 1.
Basically, there's really no need for meh to explain it. If you happen
to own the firebrand, obviously, you're an experienced player and you
would already know what kind of stats you would need for a spellcasting
novice. But, here goes my proposed stats anyways.
Beginning stats should be STR 1, AGI 9, VIT 1, INT 9, DEX 9, LUK 1.
The desired final stats should be focused on INT only. Just be a pure
INT novice, which would be the hardest stats of all novices. Do it
until you reach base level 40, and finally, you would be able to cast
Fire Bolt level 1.
So, in december 3rd 2002, i started STR 9, AGI 1, VIT 5, INT 1, DEX 5,
LUK 9. I immediately got STR 11 and LUK 11. Then i raised VIT and DEX
equally until both are 21. Then just VIT until 41. After that i raised
STR only until 41. Now the stats should be STR 41, AGI 1, VIT 41, INT
1, DEX 21, LUK 11. Then i was planning to raise agi only until 70, i
reached around 23.
But then, in free beta, because of the stat reset, as level around 51,
i had my stats changed to STR 31, AGI 70, VIT 1, INT 1, DEX 1, LUK 1.
Then, i'm raising VIT to reach 40, along the way, i raised a bit of LUK
until 12.
So right now, i'm STR 31, AGI 70, VIT 25~30, INT 1, DEX 1, LUK 12.
When my VIT reach 40, i plan to raise LUK to 42, and then STR to 50.
And finally, AGI 80 and VIT 80.
My final stats as level 99 should be: STR 50, AGI 80, VIT 80, INT 1,
DEX 1, LUK 42.
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04. Where to hunt? ***OUTDATED***
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The following is from the guide version 1.0:
As a pure VIT-type in the beginning, you should hunt rockers, spores or
hornets until your VIT reach 41. By then your level should be around 25
~30. You can start hunting pecopecos which are very good experience for
lv 25~40 because with your current VIT, they do about 1~9 HP per hits
only, they're extremely easy and you won't have to rest much.
As level 40, it's time to start spending a LOT of zeny for using reds.
You could hunt smokies/martins in payon cave lv 2. Or cocos and horns
in Mt. Mjolnir.
Or if you're rich, buy yourself some kind of weapon or equipment that
gives you advantage over a certain monster.
For example, a cranial guard (thara frog card) to hunt orc warriors. Or
wind blade to fight marinas. Or iceblade to fight elder willows.
But continue to raise AGI and eventually, you will dodge more and that
means you use less red potions and that means you survive longer in a
hunt. And then you can take on harder monsters(like mummies or sohee)
without using 200 reds on a single monster.
Deep down, it all depends on how rich you are. The richer you are, the
harder the monster you should take on.
• Headgears - any DEF 3 for upper and phantom opera mask DEF 2 for mid-
lower.
• Armor - slotted adventurer suit DEF 3. Pantie has DEF 4 but it is
non-slotted.
" Garment - slotted hood DEF 1.
• Shoes - slotted sandals DEF 1. Ball'n'Chain has DEF 3 but it is non-
slotted and it weights 300 which is too much.
" Shield - slotted guard DEF 2.
" Accessories - none.
Well, theorically, no accessories at all is better than having a
useless one because the weight of the useless one could be replaced by
one red potion. But a red potion isn't much so might as well wear
useless accessories for fun.
If you wonder what i mean by "useless", well, silver ring, gold ring,
flower ring, skull ring and diamond ring can be worn by novice. But
they do absolutely nothing in terms of stats. They do not give DEF 1,
nor give any bonus stats like LUK+3 for example. They're only taking
some weight and they're just decorative accessories.
As for useful accessories such as slotted clip or non-slotted rosaries,
novice cannot wear them.
Best Weapon level 1: Blade ATK 53 Req.LV 2
Best Weapon level 2: Ring Pommel Saber ATK 100 Req.LV 14
Best Weapon level 3: Tsurugi ATK 130 Req.LV 27 or Swordmace ATK 130
Req.LV 27
Best 1-slotted: 1-slotted Tsurugi ATK 130 Req.LV 27 or rare 1-slotted
Swordmace ATK 130 Req.LV 27
Best 2-slotted: rare 2-slotted Tsurugi ATK 130 Req.LV 27
Best 3-slotted: rare 3-slotted Saber ATK 115 Req.LV 27
Best 4-slotted: not-so-rare 4-slotted Blade ATK 53 Req.LV 2
List of Weapon level 4(rare) that novice can use. Note that most of
those weapons are in the database but cannot obtain in iRO yet. Also,
some of the infos may be inaccurate.
-Sword class-
Byeollungum ATK 150 Req.LV 40 - Give Double Damage on Boss Monster
Caesar's Sword ATK 140 Req.LV 40 - Pierce Defence of the Veggie Monster
Cutlus ATK 150 Req.LV 40 - Enchanted with Bash Level 5 skill
Edge ATK 115 Req.LV 40 - Gives a Sudden Death
Excalibur ATK 150 Req.LV 40 - Adds INT+5, Immuned to Darkness
Firebrand ATK 100 Req.LV 40 - Enchanted with Fire Bolt Level 5 skill
Ice Falchion ATK 100 Req.LV 40 - Enchanted with Cold Bolt Level 5 skill
Immaterial Sword ATK 140 Req.LV 40 -
Mysteltain ATK 160 Req.LV 40 - Immuned to Righteous
Nagan ATK 120 Req.LV 40
Orcish Sword ATK 90 Req.LV 40
Solar Sword ATK 70 Req.LV 40 - Regain HP, Accuracy Rate-30%
Talefing ATK 185 Req.LV 40 - Makes LUK = 0
-=- +6 Ring Pommel Saber VS +0 Tsurugi -=-
A lot of people asked which is better between an upgraded +6 RPS or a
normal Tsurugi as total cost of each of them are aroudn the same. Well,
a +6 RPS is better against high DEF monster, while a Tsurugi is better
for criticals. Also, it depends on your STR and DEX.
STR 40 or less = +6 Ring Pommel Saber
STR 41 or more = Tsurugi
And i'm not experienced enough to know how much DEX is better for which
weapon.
-=- +6 3-slotted Ring Pommel Saber VS +0 33-slotted Saber -=-
If you intend to put three same cards of additionnal damage, like for
example three hydras card to inflict 60% more damage on demi-humans
monsters, i think you should choose +6 3-slotted RPS over a normal 3-
slotted Saber. Those upgrades really helps with the 60% more.
However, in both Tsurugi and Saber cases, if you're really rich, you a
+5 upgrade is much better than +6 RPS, tho it would cost a lot.
Here are the cards that i recommend that a novice should get. I put
them in order of importance from up to down in each equipment type. Of
course, some cards are extremely hard to get, I'm just saying that it's
good for a novice to have, but it doesn't mean it is necessary to
obtain it.
HEADGEARS
Orc hero card - Never be stunned, VIT + 3
ARMOR
Pecopeco card - Max HP + 150 - THE MOST IMPORTANT CARD FOR NOVICE! MUST
GET THIS CARD NO MATTER WHAT!.
That card is so important that i'm not recommending any other card for
armor.
GARMENT
Whisper card - Dodge + 20%, 5% Additional Damage taken by the Ghost
Frilldora card - enable to use cloaking lv 1 - Novice with skill!
Bapho Jr. card - AGI +3 Critical + 3% (Best Garment card for PvPer)
Condor card - dodge +5
SHOES
Matyr card - Max HP + 12%, AGI + 1 - More HP!
Moonlight Flower Card
Male Thief Bug Card - Agi + 2
Chon Chon Card - Agi + 1
SHIELD
All the 50% damage resistance are all equal importance. And they're all
extremely useful for novice. Should collect them all. Some monsters
aren't in iRO yet tho, but they are indeed in the database.
Anubis Card - Reduce 50% of Damage taken from the Angel Monsters
Bigfoot Card - Reduce 50% of Damage taken by the Insect
Flying Petite Card - Reduce 50% of Damage taken by the Dragon
Khalitzburg Card - Reduce 50% of Damage taken from the Demon
Orc Warrior Card - Reduce 50% of damages from Brute
Rafflesia Card - Reduce 50% of Damage taken by the Fish
Soldier Andre Card - Reduce 50% of damages taken by the Plant
Thara Frog Card - Reduce 50% of damages from Demi-Human
Ambernite Card - DEF + 2
Andre Egg Card - Max HP +5% - More HP!
Thief Bug Egg Card - Max HP + 30 - More HP!
WEAPON
All cards for weapon are useful. But this card would look special on
novice:
Sidewinder card - 5% chance of doing a Double Attack - Thief's double
slash Passive skill!
And i suggest getting 3 slotted Ring Pommel Saber(or if you're really
rich, get a 3-slotted saber) with 3 of the same cards for maximum
effect. For example, triple bloody RPS (3 hydra cards) which does
additional 60% damage on demi-humans like orc warrior.
ACCESSORIES
Novice cannot wear slotted accessories, therefore cannot use cards.
Oyo? Wha? a skill section? "But i thought novice doesn't have any
skills" If you thought that, well, you're wrong, novice CAN have
skills, but would need the special equipments for it.
Bash level 5 - equip the sword Cutlus which is supposely Drake's MVP
prize, but I've never seen anyone who got it that way. The other way to
get it is by opening an old blue box. Bash is most likely to be the
most useful skill that novice can use.
Cold bolt level 1 - equip the rare sword Ice falchion (the sword named
Ice falchion, not a blacksmith's forged ice falchion). The sword is in
the database, but there is no way to get it currently.
Fire bolt level 1 - equip the sword Firebrand which is Eddga's MVP
prize
Cloaking level 1 - equip Guard hood (frilldora card inserted in slotted
hood)
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09. Special Thanks
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Thanks to you for reading this dumb guide.
Thanks to Gravity for developping Ragnarok Online.
Thanks to Yui-chan for inspiring meh to make this guide.
Thanks to WhiteQueen for helping meh test out many theories.
Thanks to the stats calculator maintained by Dashiva for calculating
stats.
http://129.241.151.35/ragnarok/calc/calc.html
Thanks to nitro7 site for their easy-to-browse database.
http://ro.nitro7.com
This guide is free for anyone to use, whether partially or entirely,
and you do not have to ask me for permission to use it anywhere, as
long as you give meh credit by mentioning my name and my website
(www.novice.cjb.net).
Also, if you do plan to use it somewhere, i would appreciate you
letting meh know, but it is NOT necessary.
