Dragon Nest Mercenary Skill Build

Dragon Nest Mercenary Skill Build







I
have been eaten up by this Dragon Nest craze that I chose to try it
out. I didn't think it would gobble me up like this. Dragon Nest's
gameplay, controls, and maps are so engaging that it has turned into a
new bonding activity for me and Princess Cow.

This guide will be using a Level 40 Axe Hybrid Mercenary Skill Build. I
chose this because just like it's author, I am a fan of Cabal Online and
this build draws inspiration from that game, particularly its Warrior
class. Aside from that, I myself am playing an Axe Mercenary because of
it's high damage and my fondness for dungeon runs.

A point to note is that Mercenaries have no magic or physical build
difference. All their skills are based on physical attack. And this is
also a good class for both PvP and PvE. However, there are really many
skills for Mercenaries so you have to give and take. You may want to
shift some SP from attack skills to defensive skills for higher
survivability.
Advantages:

• High Spammability – You will many skills to spam most of the
  time. This feels more exciting compared to the situation if you need to
  wait long time for your skills to cool down.
  
• Able to learn many useful skills including the various howls which
  benefit either yourself or the whole party member within the vicinity.
  

Disadvantages:

• Low Mana – The reason is the same as physical Swordmasters.
  Since your equipment will be based on the Bear stats and not Wisdom,
  your mana pool will be low. Hence, you may need heraldry plate for MP
  or a MP regen item to cover this issue.
  
• One of the Discriminated Class – Despite the usefulness of a
  Mercenary, many people still favour the other classes more, like
  Paladins, Clerics, Force User and Bowmaster. You may find yourself
  having some difficulties getting into harder nests. However, you don’t
  have to worry much if you have a group of friends with you or you’re in a
  helpful guild.
  

Take note that the English names of the skills are taken reference from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], hence the names may contradict what we have in Dragon Nest SEA.

If you need to use the simulator to come up with your own build, you may find it [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


Warrior Skills

• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Impact Punch and [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Heavy Slash
  – 2 very low damage skills. Leave them at pre-requisite will do. They
  can be used as filler skills while you spam other high damage skills
  due to their fast casting time. They are extremely useful in PvP as
  well to keep your enemy in the air.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Tumble – Max it for faster cool down time so that you can avoid mobs better.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Rising Slash
  – Put this at lv 6 at least for execution of 2 hits. Very useful in
  both PvP (air combo) and PvE. In PvE, you can chain Rising Slash with
  Aerial Combo. I increased this skill to high level due to excess of SP
  and wanting to use up all SP just for the sake of it =D. You can save
  them for 2nd advancement if you want.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Drop Kick – Very important skill in PvP for air combo as well. Not really useful in PvE.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Sweeping Kick
  – Up to you if you want it or not. Basically, its just a front AOE
  normal physical sweeping kick to enemies in front but the damage is
  low. Not used often.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Soccer Kick – Lv 1. Not worth adding this high.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Dash – Max it for higher movement speed.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Impact Wave
  – There’s no need to add because it is a magic type skill. Being a
  hybrid, you can spam skills. You won’t have much chances to use this as
  well.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Circle Break – Physical type attack which can break enemy’s defense. Lv 1 if you want this skill. If not, you can ignore it.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Highlander
  – A skill which requires no skill point to learn and yet VERY
  IMPORTANT. When used, you will get a buff which prevents you from dying.
  It works like this. With the buff on, even if the boss will KO you,
  your HP will still be left with 1.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Relieve
  – Added till lv 2 to remove 2 negative buffs on yourself. Some people
  prefer to add till lv 4 for lower cooldown. Normally, we rarely get
  debuffed from 3 skills or more so some people prefer lv 2. Personal
  preference.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Aerial Evasion
  – In this case, it is maxed at lv 3. You can choose to lower it if you
  find you can survive with longer cooldown for this skill.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Wake-up Attack – A must-learn skill. Used when you are knockdown-ed. Use it at the correct time to recover.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Physical Mastery – Personal preference whether you want to add or not.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Mental Mastery
  - Skill that increases your Mana pool. Even though the % is not a lot,
  I still maxed this because Mercenaries have low MP and also due to
  excess SP.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Mental Training – Maxed for regen purposes even though the % is not a lot. Same reason as Mental Mastery.
  

Mercenary

• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Stomp
  – Fast cast skill. If you’re advancing as a Barbarian, you will need
  to raise this skill to high lv. I don’t think the slow effect from this
  skill affect bosses so it is not really worth raising this high.
  Damage increment is not significant.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Flying Swing –
  Pre-requisite will do. Raising to higher level for Destroyer. This
  skill has quite a long cast time so it is susceptible to interruption.
  However, the good point is you get damaged 70% lesser during the
  casting and you can throw mobs/players in the air but not on bosses.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Taunting Howl
  – Increasing your threat and reducing the mob attacking abilities.
  Some people raise this high for better debuff. However, I chose to
  leave it at pre-requisite because I do not want to steal aggro from
  Paladins since they are the main tank. Even though Mercenaries have Iron
  Skin, undeniably Paladins are still the wanted tanks because of their
  lv 40 defensive ultimate skill and some other defensive skills as well.
  Furthermore, they can taunt and have high threat-generating skills as
  well. (I have intentions of raising it because of Mr K’s Barbarian
  build which utilizes Taunting Howl + Devastating Howl to reduce
  monsters damage by 100%)
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Demolition Fist – Pre-requisite.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Punishing Swing – Pre-requisite.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Battle Howl
  – Pre-requisite as well. Buff teammates physical attack, critical and
  fainting values. Personally, I left it at pre-requisite because not all
  teammates benefit from physical attack buff though the
  critical+fainting values are useful. IMO, SP is used better elsewhere.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Circle Swing – Wide AOE skill which knockbacks mobs. Pre-requisite.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Circle Bomber – Throws enemies a distance away from you into the air. Pre-requisite.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Disenchanting Howl –
  Removing your enemies’ beneficial buffs and silencing them. Silence
  doesn’t work on nest bosses (Im not sure about this. Seems that it
  works on Sea Dragon Boss that’s why Mercenaries are wanted in Sea
  Dragon Nest?). Pre-requisite here though.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Iron Skin – 16 seconds buff which reduces 40% damage received. One of the best skills for Mercenaries. Maxed.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Whirlwind – Undeniably, one of the best damage skills. Maxed. Or you may want to transfer to Rolling Attack if you want.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Rolling Attack
  – One of the best DPS skill if all your hits manage to hit the enemy.
  You need to position yourself properly. On smaller mobs, a larger
  portion of the hits for this skill tend to miss. So Whirlwind tend to
  be more efficient. In this build, I made it lower so that I can add
  Crisis Howl.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Panic Howl – Teammates receive superarmor and higher physical defense. Damage received is reduced as well. Pre-requisite.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Dash Upper – Throws enemy into the air. Activated by left clicking after dashing. Quite useful in PvP. Lv 1.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Crisis Howl – Must-learn skill. When you are being attacked and not movable, this skill will help you gain back mobility. Lv 1.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Soccer Kick Combo – A useful skill to chain your combo count. Lv 1.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Toughness – Maxed for higher physical defense.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Whirl Typhoon
  – Insane version of Whirlwind with invulnerable status. However, this
  skill is not amazing in terms of damage. It is more for crowd control.
  Useful in both PvE and PvP.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Gigantic Bomber – Not invulnerable status. Damage is quite good.
  
• [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Devastating Howl
  – No longer a lv 40 ultimate skill but it is still a very good one. Lv
  1 will do. One point to take note is that if you see this skill having
  around 5 second duration on videos, it is the old version. Since it is
  no longer an ultimate skill, the duration is reduced to around 2 or 3
  seconds.