Battleground Symphony: Decoding the Battlefield by Meer

About the Author

Previously known as BlackIntels, I'm the author of this page, trying to unravel the really complex topic of PvP scene in Ragnarok Online (3rd Job WoE). On my last server (N***RO) I used to be really active in the WoE/PvP scene. During the 1 year I was being active on that server, I played around 80+ WoEs/Draft WoEs and 10.000+ Battleground Rounds mainly as Guillotine Cross. I later then started to play other MMORPG, like FINAL FANTASY XIV, PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2, and other competitive games like Valorant, Dota2, Counter Strike, but I can safely say that no other competitive games nor MMORPG's PvP contents, managed to get my attention as hard as Ragnarok Online. During my era on my old server, I was a WoE Commissioner. Being a representative of my guild of 24 members, I was able to have the exclusive chat with the admin of the server. There we discuss what changes would be the best changes for the PvP Scene. I saw directly how the staff communicate to one another, and how that Commissioner chat felt really rigid and it feels like a really formal discord channel where people only talk seriously. I learnt quite a lot of stuffs during that short period I was a WoE Commissioner, as well as a lot of problems and what could've been done better.

Overview

This guide is meant to be knowledge that I would like to pass to those who really want to know how the PvP scene (3rd Job) in Ragnarok Online works, simple gearing tips, and some basic ideas. The title of the guide is made by ChatGPT HAHAHAHAHHA

Defensive Gears

Defensive Gears are the core ideas of how Renewal 3rd Job PvP works. Most classes have to wear Defensive Gears if they don't want to get one shot by enemy's DPS. The downside is just this build will most likely not allow you to deal any DPS at all. So the core mechanic of playing Renewal WoE is to swap between the full DPS gears and the defensive gears.

Most tank players would probably already know the idea. How defensive gears work in Ragnarok Online is always about stacking the same modifiers. Demi-Human Reduction is currently the most cheapest and yet effective build. There is also another build which is Medium Resist, but that build is meant to be the advanced one. I will only tackle the basic defensive gears on this section.

Equipment Name	Position How to Get	Cards / Enhancements	Note
Combat Knife (1228)	Weapon Loot from Sniper Shecil (MVP)	MDEF MDEF Spell5 Spell5	+10% Demi-Human Resist. Not every class can wear this weapon, but this is definitely best in slot for Demi-Human Resist% in this weapon slot. This can also be enchanted in Malangdo to get various kind of enhancements.
Valkyrie Shield [1] (2115)	Shield Loot from Valkyrie (MVP)	Thara Frog Card	The classic shield for PvP Scene. It gives quite nice elemental resist and extra MDEF. Definitely helps to get 100 MDEF's Freeze and Stone Cursed immunity. Paired with Thara Frog Card giving +30% Demi-Human Resist.
Judge Hat [1] (18572)	Head Equipment Crafting	Melted Poring Card Elemental Resist Cards:	At +7 it gives +12% Demi-Human Resist and couple ASPD%. This headgear is the current best in slot as well for Demi-Human Resist%. The extra ASPD% will allow you to have nice ASPD even on full reduction gears = It really helps to break Emperium. Melted Poring Card giving a whopping 10% HP is really good, but if you don't need another HP% you can opt for elemental resist based cards.
Rainbow Star (18894)	Head Equipment Crafting	Melted Poring Card Elemental Resist Cards:	Giving +5% Demi-Human Resist, this item is actually the current best in slot in terms of Demi-Human Resist.
Handkerchief in Mouth (18670)	Head Equipment Crafting	Melted Poring Card Elemental Resist Cards:	Giving 3% Demi-Human Resist, this item is the current best in slot for Lower Headgear in terms of Demi-Human Resist.
Siege Plate [1] (15046) Siege Suit [1] (15047) Siege Robe [1] (15048)	Armor @go bg	Anger Ice Titan Toxious	Depending on the class you are playing these gears are really great defensive set. This is called the "WoE Set" or "Siege Set". The only problem with this set is it occupy the armor, garment and shoes slot. The armor part also requires you to have it on +9 to fully utilize its effect. Anger Ice Titan combo with Anger Snowier (Accessory) will gives 20% Medium Resist. It gives a basic resistance against most build, but sadly putting you into Neutral Element. If someone is running Damage to Neutral% you gonna get hit like a truck. Toxious and Noxious (Garment) combo is really useful if you know the enemy team's running a lot of Ranged Damage. As this Ranged% will stack together with the combo bonus of Siege Robe / Siege Suit. But even this will get you into Neutral element as well. Infinite Vocal Card gives TONS of MDEF but only if you have it refined to +9. If you are missing some MDEF to get 100MDEF then this would be a great recommendation. Green Ferus would be a better choice for extra HP/SP if you don't need extra MDEF.
Siege Manteau [1] (2586) Siege Muffler [1] (2587)	Garment @go bg	Noxious
Siege Greaves [1] (2483) Siege Boots [1] (2484) Siege Shoes [1] (2485)	Shoes @go bg	Infinite Vocal Green Ferus
Royal Guardian Ring [1] (28483)	Accessories (Right) Friday	Anger Snowier +10% HP Based Cards from 17.2	Really easy to farm and gives nice HP bonus and enchantable. Anger Snowier isn't really useful by itself, so only use this card if you wear it together with Anger Ice Titan Card (Armor).
Physical Enhancer Ring [1] (2963)	Accessories (Left) Geffen Magic Tournament	+10% HP Based Cards from 17.2	One of the classic accessory cause it gives up to 6% Resistance to All Elements. Might be really hard to farm cause you have to do GMT to enchant it.
Medium Shadow Armor (24073) Cranial Shadow Shield (24052) Infinity Shadow Pendant (24151)	Shadow Gear Shadow Gear	Whatever enchants you think is useful in PvP scenario	The three most common shadow gears to be brought into PvP scene. The armor giving 5% Medium Resist and the pendant giving 3% Medium Resist will be a great combo with Anger Ice Titan x Anger Snowier combo. The 3% Demi-Human Resist from the Shield might seems "small" but if you are stacking on top of another 79% Demi-Human Resist, this extra 3% will be really good. Remember defensive gears in Ragnarok Online is about stacking SAME modifiers as high as possible to the cap of the server (90%).

Getting all those gears up above (Siege Set) will make you really tanky. There shouldn't be any build that one shots this build up above. If there is, it is most likely you are being countered by certain build. For example using Playing Pere / Singing Pere's +20 Damage to Neutral Element, that is somewhat common for most AoE DPS, as they normally use it together with Jitterbug Card (+100% Damage to Neutral during Transformation). Another problem that you gonna be running into would be the "Ground Control (Role)" players in the "Backline" or "Dodge" zones. The really deadly builds normally resides in this zone. But what exactly are those zones? What is Ground Control (Role)? I guess time to dive to the next topic.

Core Ideas of WoE Scene

This is the really complex topic regarding WoE scene. This is the first and foremost basic knowledge that will really gatekeep most of the newbies. To this day there is no one that ever wrote this concept online. Or at least to my knowledge there is still no article properly adressing this topic. So here you go!

Positioning

Depending on where you are currently in relative to the guild you can separate the "Zones" into three different zones. This is just really simplified version, cause in the real scenario it is way more complicated that this.

Zone	Position	Typical Attributes	Tasks	Typical Clases
Frontline	In front of anyone in the guild	Taking tons of damage have access to enemy team	Soaking as much damage as possible Gain the enemy's attention DPS's "Attacking Spot"	Rune Knight Sorcerer
Backline	Behind the "Frontline"	Taking low to almost no damage no access to enemy team	DPS's "Hiding Spot" Supporting the guild with buffs	Any suppport classes DPS classes have to switch between Backline and Frontline depending on situation
Dodge	Behind the "Backline"	Taking no damage no access to enemy team	Cleaning up "Backline" from enemies BL (Backline) Sorcerer typically also stays to not get Cursed Circle from Enemy Sura	Guillotine Cross Sura BL Sorcerer

Example of Andlangr's Defensive Positioning including colored boxes for Frontline, Backline and Dodge

Dodge is random name I just invented, cause I just can't find the proper way to call it. But the core idea is enemy's sura normally dives into the team's AoE DPS. By standing on this "Dodge" Zone, classes like Guillotine Cross can safely kill the enemy's Sura or Backline Sorcerer can dispell enemy's Sura Cursed Circle, etc. This zone is meant to be the safest place.

Example of Mardol 6-2 Offensive Positioning with more details.

On offensive scenario the same rule applies:

1. The tanks as frontline will be the first to move and approach the enemy team. In this picture the tanks would be on the first six cells from the left.
2. Support and DPS as backline would be around the light green / pink colored to be perfectly safe. As for the DPS they have to move back and forth between Frontline and Backline cause they want to have access to enemy's team.
3. Ground Control and BL Sorcerer staying all the way back. This would be the "Dodge" zone I was talking about earlier.

Role Assignment in WoE

This is one of the biggest problem of Ragnarok Online in general. Every server has their own "gameplay". The meta severely differs from one to another. So my knowledge here is solely focused on the meta back then when I was really active on my old server. My old server was one of the biggest PvP scene I saw so far. There was draft WoE that had 100+ players on it. The meta on that server can be broken down into down below:

Role	Tasks	Typical Classes
Diver	Debuffing enemy Disrupting enemy's defensive AoE skills (e.g. Land Protector, Wall of Fog)	Shadow Chaser FS (Full Support) Genetic CC (Cursed Circle) Sura
Tanks	Dealing "Pressure" damage Soaking most of the damage Distracting the enemy from your DPS	DB (Dragon Breath) RK FL (Frontline) Sorcerer
DPS	Dealing Damage	Warlock Genetic Ranger Mechanic Summoner
Support	Supportive buffs for the whole guild Debuffing enemy diver Dispelling enemy's Cursed Circle Using Land Protector to cancel enemy's AoE debuff (e.g. Shadow Chaser's Blood Lust)	Arch Bishop Wanderer / Minstrel Royal Guard BL (Backline) Sorcerer
Ground Control	Killing enemy diver Chasing Ecaller during defense	GC (Ground Control) Sura Guillotine Cross Star Emperor

Obviously not every class is listed here. But the core ideas is still somewhat similar to the Frontline, Backline, and Dodge. Tanky classes go to the front, DPS classes behind them, followed by supports, followed by Ground Control. One of the really big mistakes I see, especially the newbie guilds are, people are not properly positioning themself. These are some examples:

• Arch Bishop (Support) walking all the way in front of everyone, when their task as Support is to make sure that every DPS has their needed buff, and removing debuff from their teammate.
• Dragon Breath Rune Knight (Tanks - Frontline) standing beside Warlock, when their wasks as Tanks are supposed to be the Vanguard and soak enemy's incoming damage.

Understanding the Meta

The most common problem that I mainly encounter when playing PvP especially with the newbies are, they don't understand the meta and they try to force something that doesn't fit this scenario. This is also one of the biggest problem in Ragnarok Meta in general. The gameplay of Pre-Renewal and Renewal is vastly different from one another, and the gameplay of 175/60 Renewal is also a completely different meta from the 200/70. This is mainly because on each updates that was made by the kRO, the balance of the game changes. But here are the most common have to be known "meta" in our 200/70 WoE Second Edition:

Item	Impacted Classes	How to Get	Notes
Illusion Long Mace	Sura Arch Bishop	Illusion of Moonlight Equipment	This item is one of the most essential main hand for Arch Bishop and Sura, because at +10 it gives 25% Long Range Reduction, something that no other class can achieve on the same slot. This item will insanely increase the survivability of Arch Bishop and Sura. This is why it is not recommended to run Ranged Attack against Sura Ecaller.
Defense Stone (Top, Mid, Low) and Resist Defense Stone (Garment)	All Defensive Build	Costume Enchants (Fashion Points)	A typical costume enchant build for defensive build, allowing you to have super high DEF/MDEF with low effort, and achieve the needed 100MDEF for Frozen and Stone Curse Immunity. This item will make most Frozen and Stone Curse build useless in MuhRO cause of how high MDEF it gives.
Penetration and Tempest Shadow Gear (White/Red)	All DPS	Shadow Gear	It is possible to achieve 80% DEF and 80% MDEF Penetration in MuhRO with only this shadow gear set. But this full set will occupy every slot of your shadow gears. This set is shadow gear is MANDATORY in our meta. There is really high chance that players will have 500DEF+ and 200MDEF on their defensive build. You will be most likely griefing your guildmate if you are not using this + Expiatio to gain 100% DEF/MDEF Penetration.
Medium Defensive Set	All Defensive Build	Secret Build	Sadly this has to be one of the secret that I will not reveal, just to make everyone curious in general how to achieve this build. But the core idea is still the same. On most build it is possible to achieve 78% Resist to Medium Size. The great part of this build is the freedom it gives to the Headgear and Shoes Slot, allowing the players to stack Fixed Cast Time Reduction, and increase their HP pool by insane amount thanks to the [CENSORED] enchant. This build tends to have ultra high [CENSORED] and [CENSORED], that's why it's mandatory to use the [CENSORED CENSORED] up above to counter this build. This build might not be the best for classes that have access to the Combat Knife and able to achieve 83% Demi Human Resist, but this build is definitely an upgrade for AB and Sura.
Glorious Weapon	Some DPS Classes	@go bg	A lot of people are saying that Glorious Weapon is busted, absolutely broken, etc etc. Chances are this is not entirely correct anymore. Glorious Weapon might be useful for several classes, but thanks to the 80% DEF and 80% MDEF bypass from the shadow gears above, the chance that the latest weapon being better than Glorious Weapon is actually higher. This is mainly cause Glorious Weapon has really low base weaponATK, compared to stuff from the latest episode easily hit 200 or even 300 wATK, and not to say that there is EDDA Weapon that also combo with headgear. My recommendation about weapon in MuhRO is as follow: Adulter Weapons (DO NOT UPGRADE TO VIVATUS) Patent Weapons (DO NOT UPGRADE TO LT VERSION) Edda Weapons and its Headgear Combo Glorious Weapons Safety Weapons (DO NOT UPGRADE TO FLUSH)