Martial Artist Class Skill Preview

16th Birthday Class Skills

We're kicking (and punching) off AQW's 16th Birthday Event with the release of the new Martial Artist class! Martial Artist is a late game single target dodge class that utilizes three fighting stances based on some of our most iconic monsters, the Frogzard, Gorillaphant, and Dragon. The stance you take changes the effect of your other skills, meaning there is more than one way to play the class!

How to Unlock the Class

There are two ways to unlock Martial Artist:

• Seek out The Master in /hakuvillage, who will only pass on his techniques if you defeat enough Frogzards, Gorillaphants, and Dragons. How many? That will be up to The Master to decide.
• Talk to Quibble Coinbiter. The rare, color-customizable Master Martial Artist will be available in his Birthday Rares Shop and collection chest.

Important Details:

• You need to be at least level 65 to begin the quests to unlock. 
• Playing around 3 hours a week, it would take a level 65 Hero roughly 4 weeks to unlock the class.
  (Or about 20 days if you do every day's daily quest.)

Your trainer is a very old, very wise, very... overzealous old Master. What he wants you to do maaaaaaaaaaaaaaay not be the most *cough* practical. Do what he asks to begin with, and see where the quests take you. There are many ways a clever hero can achieve their goal and while still adhering to the letter of The Master's requests.

Martial Artist Class Updates (October 18th)

Many of you took to different social media sites this past week to express your disappointment regarding the newly released Martial Artist class. We hear you loud and clear, and are making some much needed changes based on your feedback.

• The Good News: We just released this year's birthday class; Martial Artist, which uses a (mostly) unique Auto Attack function!
• The Not So Good News: Martial Artist's Auto Attack function is heavily reliant on server connectivity, meaning players with higher server response times are seeing noticeably poorer performance than those with lower response times. Additionally, many of you feel that the class requires way too many skill inputs. 

In order to keep a level playing field between players in different regions while also reducing the amount of times buttons need to be pressed, we shifted Martial Artist from its connection-based, manual Auto Attack, to a standard Auto Attack. This means that the way the class plays has been significantly changed, but its overall performance levels remain roughly the same, while still keeping a higher skill ceiling than most classes.

Read more details on the Class Changes in the Balance Patch Notes here. Once again, a big thank you to all who left their feedback on Martial Artist. We hope you have a much more enjoyable experience with the new version of the class! 

Martial Artist Details

Description: Recommended enhancement - Lucky
Stat Model: Dodge Melee
Mana Regen: All skills (except Pummel) regain 100 mana when used (affected by Mana Consumption).

Combat Skills

Pummel

Rank needed: 1 / Default Attack
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 1
Type: 105% Physical
Range: Melee
Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 0.5 seconds

Strike your target with a powerful punch. Applies different effects based on your current Stance. Can't miss. Must be pressed in order to use.

A non-automatic auto attack! This skill won't fire off unless you manually press it. Your punches apply different effects based on the Stance you're in, but you can only punch TWO times max before needing to swap Stances (unless a certain aura is active). This is also the only skill on Martial Artist that deals damage to your target, so be sure to keep using it or else you won't get anywhere!

Frogzard's Crushing Jaw

Rank needed: 1
Target: Self
Max Targets: 1
Range: Melee
Mana Cost: -100
Cooldown: 4 seconds

Assume a Frogzard Stance, causing Pummel to reduce your target's Damage Resistance by 5%, stacks to 6. Frogzard based Stances also heal you over time while active. If you already have another non mixed Stance active, it's consumed and the applied effect changes:

• Gorillaphant: 8% outgoing damage, stacks to 6
• Dragon: -10% Hit Chance and Crit Chance, stacks to 2

Effects last 20 seconds.

The Frogzard Stance is all about reducing your target's defenses. While in a Frogzard based Stance, you'll passively heal and your Pummel will reduce one of your target's defensive stats. If you already have another Stance active, instead of entering Frogzard Stance, you'll enter a Mixed-Stance, which causes Pummel to apply an effect based on that Stance instead. Any active Mixed-Stances are overtaken when a Stance skill is used, so you can easily alternate between Stances whenever you want.

Gorillaphant Beatdown

Rank needed: 2
Target: Self
Max Target: 1
Range: Melee
Mana Cost: -100
Cooldown: 4 seconds

Assume a Gorillaphant Stance, causing your Punches to increase your Crit Damage by 15%, stacks to 6. Gorillaphant based Stances also increase your Crit Chance by 50% while active. If you already have another non mixed Stance active, it's consumed and the applied effect changes:

• Frogzard: -5% Physical Resistance, stacks to 6
• Dragon: -15% outgoing damage and Haste, stacks to 2

Effects last 20 seconds.

The Gorillaphant Stance is all about dealing damage. While in a Gorillaphant based Stance, you'll have an increased chance to crit and your Pummel will increase your damage based stats.

Soaring Dragon

Rank needed: 3
Target: Self
Max Targets: 1
Range: Melee
Mana Cost: -100
Cooldown: 10 seconds

Assume a Dragon Stance, causing your Punches to apply Spinning Dragon to your target, reducing their next hit to 0. Dragon based Stances also increase your Damage Resistance by 30% while active. If you already have another non mixed Stance active, it's consumed and the applied effect changes:

• Frogzard: -5% DoT Resist and DoT, stacks to 6
• Gorillaphant: 8% physical damage, stacks to 6

Effects last 20 seconds.

The Dragon Stance is all about mitigating your target's damage. While in a Dragon based Stance, your Damage Resistance is increased and your Pummel will reduce one of your target's offensive based stats, with the most notable debuffs being Spinning Dragon, which reduces the next hit your target deals to 0, and you can apply it twice in a row if you delay your punches! 

Concentration

Rank needed: 5
Target: Self
Max Targets: 1
Type: -250% Physical
Range: Melee
Mana Cost: -100
Cooldown: 40 seconds

Concentrate, healing yourself and applying Fully Focused for 7 seconds. While active, Fully Focused reduces Mana Costs by 100%, but each strike from Pummel increases your Mana Costs by 10%.

It has a long cooldown, but it's worth it. After receiving what should be a full heal, you can use Pummel (almost) as much as you want, allowing you to quickly stack your Stances' Pummel effects while also just dishing out a whole bunch of damage. 

Passive Skills

Swift Strikes

Rank needed: 4
Type: Passive
Haste increased by 30%.

Evasive Instincts

Rank needed: 4
Type: Passive
Dodge increased by 30%.

Endurance Training

Rank needed: 10
Type: Passive
END increased by 20%.

Conclusion

Martial Artist is a rather complex, but rewarding class that requires a constant swapping of Stances in order to apply a wide variety of effects and deal large amounts of damage. Each stance has its own use, but when combined, the full potential of Martial Artist can be brought out. Generally, starting a fight with Dragon Stance allows you to set up by first debuffing your target's offensive power, which allows for an easier application of either Frogzard or Gorillaphant based Stances, but if you're feeling dangerous, you can always start with a damage oriented Stance instead. 

As this class requires some strategy and more button inputs than the average class, especially due to its manual auto attack, we want the class' performance to reflect the effort and difficulty it takes to use, so it might perform a bit better than other classes in its category once perfected. 

Can you master the Martial Artist? Hard training pays off, and it's no different in this case.