Talisman Soul Ascetic Luxury Sub-Guide by Sophie/Joan: Difference between revisions

Hello I'm Sophie/Joan (Guide Date: 2/Sep/2025). You would not see me that often playing in D1/Biosphere Venom/Biosphere Temple with my Soul Ascetic (SA) char R.ClickToRename254519. I think I will play SA more though because I think my flight hours on this character is lacking (you can expect more sporadic future updates as I discover stuff). Magic build speaking I still play on my EM more but this job definitely offers niches that EM doesn't have namely mobility and harder hitting single target skills. To think again I really should have telling people to play SA instead as starting class whenever someone asks in #global because the barrier of the requirements are easier to fulfill compared say to the likes of EM because SA talisman build doesn't need acd% and therefore doesn't need {{#item:4403}} or the likes (and that managing ASPD is easier).

This guide is merely what I do on my talisman SA and is not optimized (dm me on discord/In-game if you can improve upon it). I just tried to write it out because I think other SA mains guide writers are inactive (retirement/hiatus) while the guide/discussion demands from new players are as high as ever (as of 2/Sep/2025) and I saw many new faces playing SA within the last 1-2 months. Also I have to state that: there's not really different playstyle or skill/stats allocation between Talisman of Blue Dragon Build ('''Single Target Talisman Build''') vs Talisman of White Tiger Build ('''Area Talisman Build''') so you should definitely have both at the same time on your general to go build. The exception might be if you want to maximize Single Target Talisman Build on skills while also grabbing {{#skill:5432}} of which probably you will do in instances like HoL but in situation that there is no other SA available. Between both builds, most of it is simply the matter of gear swapping (most significantly between the weapons), so I would advice you readers to familiarize yourself with gear swapping (even easier now that there's a custom skill created for that very purpose).

= Scope/For Whom this guide is Intended for =

End game luxury of nice to have and fun to do things for those players who have reached end game and have collected most if not all BiS gears or their equivalent (y'all can refer to this guide as the complementary to the more comprehensive guides such as [[Mango%27s_guide_to_leveling_and_farming_with_SA|Mango's guide to leveling and farming with SA]] and [[Choi%27s_Soul_Ascetic_Guide|Choi's Soul Ascetic Guide]]). This guide is very subjective and intuitive as I do not provide exact numbers and optimization, but for that case you can find me to test out or experiment with any gears/luxuries that are listed/mentioned within this guide, unless I specifically stated to not have them. In this guide you are assumed to have already worn BiS (Best in Slot) equipment or incomplete BiS (enchanting in progress) and have reached 100% Vct (Variable cast time) reduction via item bonus (because those 120 Dex better be put elsewhere). Also you are required to like to '''Leap''' (this is a warning).

End game optimization problem is that for some people, some gear/enchant/MVP setups suit them better as it touches the specifics of their playing styles and currently owned assets (e.g. with {{#item:312700}} in your {{#item:400544}} you might want {{#item:310860}}) to in your {{#item:460020}}), so we will not assume a narrow-minded stance on this issue and would tolerate a bit lesser or bigger DPS and whatnots as long as things work well (shout out to get the DPS envy immunity people!).  

# Instant Cast (very important for both builds: you want to DPS hard with single target talisman build and instant-cast leap+skill with area talisman build)

# Survivability, HP pool (mostly for when doing single target talisman build)

* STR - 80-100; Carry weight. (talisman bundles are heavy)

* AGI - 110-120; reaching 185-187 ASPD would still not be that easy. Also some people have utilized builds with even more ASPD but I have yet to fathom their usage.

* VIT -  90-120; Can put minimum amount when in a party with devo.

* DEX - 1 (all remaining points here);

* LUK - 89-110; For Curse Immunity, MATK.

{{#skill:5420}}: More damage from skills with talismans (what we really care) and a bit of S.MATK (we don't really care). Very important because it is 10-20% damage difference when I tested it after maxxing everything (seriously go max it). Still better damage addition than '''Soul of Heaven and Earth''' if you can only pick one.

{{#skill:5417}}: Up to +10 Spl not bad but not that good either. Just put points here if you can't reach {{#skill:5432}} with your remaining skill points.

{{#skill:2597}}Shadow Soul: We care about the ASPD bonus.

{{#skill:2599}}Fairy Soul: We care about the Vct% reduction bonus.

{{#skill:425}}: Changing element of your talisman skills (Earth/Wind/Water/Fire/Ghost/Shadow/Holy).

{{#skill:462}}: You buff with this and type @die when you want to reset soul/mild wind to neutral again.  

{{#skill:5423}}: More Enemy_Element% damage modifier against water, wind, earth, fire, and neutral element mobs (very strong so always use it).

{{#skill:5432}}: A party buff that provides a large damage modifiers: Physical melee% and ranged%, and Magical Ele%. Used to be more godly now is kinda meh for solo play because Ele% saturates fast after the CoL Autumn gives a lot of Ele%. (Refer to the next part if you're confused about the meh Ele% vs the precious Enemy_Element%)

{{#skill:426}}: Best mobility skill after Monk's snap. I'd say go play EM or AM if you don't like leaping mechanism (not everyone does).

{{#skill:5426}}: Main Single Target DPS skill. auto-casts Red Phoenix (TD combo).

{{#skill:5427}}: Main Area skill. auto-casts Black Tortoise (TD combo).

The general aim of the min-maxing process (as of Date: 2/Sep/2025) is to equalize these damage modifiers while maximizing their overall multiplicative result. You should be aware of diminishing returns as you adds up a single damage modifier. The contextual reason of the importance on this matter is because of the aforementioned '''DPS''' and '''One Hit''' (OH) Objectives, that we want each hit of our talisman skills damage to be as high as possible (the DPS for '''blue dragon''' and the single burst instance of skill for '''white tiger''').

* '''Skill%:''' Quite hard to get as the source is only from TDRC and Dimensions/Time Gap Weapons for Talismans skill and is already mandatory. You will have around 70%-130%. Haven't tested yet for Yorscalp headgear + {{#item:300600}} combo (the red phoenix and talisman of four bearing god skill).

* '''Enemy_Race%:''' kinda rare for magical racial modifier. You will have 50%-130%. Main Sources:{{#item:4441}}-like MVP cards on shoes, HoL accessories and enchantments, various equipments.

* '''Ele%''': You will easily have around 300-500% or more. Main Sources: {{#item:27362}}-like MVP cards on garment, various equipments, Used to be less on previous meta (around 100-250% top) that is why additional damage boost from {{#item:27362}}-like MVP cards on garment was felt bigger because the 100% ele is of bigger ratio.

*You can use {{#item:312718}} but it means you will find other ways to enhance your ASPD (while there's easier options for Vct% problem)

**Vct% reduction +8-10% (only if you still have Vct% problem, see here there's no ASPD/reduce delay after attack option)

**MaxHP +8-10% (Experimental), the reason is sometimes additional HP is simply better when you already have saturated every other damage source modifiers.

*{{#item:300522}}(Combo with '''Yoscopus Conjurator Card''' on body)

*MoC is still very strong with its +Spl bonus

**There are some crazy fringe item like {{#item:310716}} and {{#item:310716}} but you should just avoid them if you haven't got your double {{#item:310711}} first (it's fun tho).  

**Magical Spell Shadow Shield+Shadow Weapon combo with Full Spell Armor-Shoes Combo: very strong if not BiS,

**Needing full tempest acc combo for 100% magic penetration.

*Currently not-haves list: {{#item:300145}}, {{#item:300262}},{{#item:300377}}.

*Credit to '''Aintz''' for personally contacting me and showing a viable very strong option of {{#item:300495}} and {{#item:300497}} cards on weapon.