A Beginner's Guide to Battlegrounds
Overview
Hello there! I'm Chisa, a humble BG player.
I see you’re interested in trying out PvP, and more specifically, Battleground in our lovely server. Are you confused as to where to start? What to prepare for? How to play!? Then you’re just in the right place. Welcome to MuhRO Battlegrounds!
Note that this guide will not be talking in-depth about classes, as those require their own pages. I will only be covering the fundamentals and the bare minimum (such as consumables and recommended defensive gears) you need to know to be able to BG comfortably.
DISCLAIMER: This guide is made based off of my experience in PvP. PvP is an ever-changing, living content; thus, this is not meant to be an end-all, be-all guide for Battlegrounds. Feel free to experiment, theory craft, and try things out!
Updates
24/10 - Reflecting the changes from Patch #133.
Before you begin…
BG is available for any 3rd Job Class and Expanded level 200/70. So make sure you get your PvP character ready!
Now you might feel confused as to what class to pick. This is just my personal opinion, but I’d say go for anything you want to play. Any class works – that much I can tell you. But of course, each class has their own natural enemy who can shut them down depending on gameplay, so out on the battlefield, you must act accordingly. No class is strong enough to do everything by themselves!
If you’re still confused, my next recommendation is to play support classes if it’s your first time skin-dipping into BG. You might not be able to kill anyone with a support class, but you will be able to ease yourself into the game as you wont die fast (support classes use full defensive gears), and you will be able to observe other people’s play style better when you don’t have to think about swapping, killing, running, and keeping your 43284093248 DPS buffs up all the time. It also lessens your chance of being frustrated and rage quitting.
| No. | Recommended Classes | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Cursed Circle (CC) Sura | Simple, effective, useful to the team once you get your CC timings right. Might leave you wanting to do "more," as the effectiveness of CC also largely depends on your team being organised (which rarely happens as teams are randomised in BG) |
| 2. | Full Support (FS) Wanderer/Minstrel | Low floor and high skill ceiling class. Easy to get into, but you'll find yourself having a lot of things to do and perfect as you play them. They're very useful buffer and disabler classes that will always be a huge help in the team. |
| 3. | Shadow Chaser | |
| 4. | Sorcerer | Needs a bit more learning to play well because they have a lot of situational skills. You can learn through field practice or mentorship with other players. |
| 5. | Arch Bishop | Similar to Sura - however, a good Arch Bishop could make or break a game too, notably with timely Lauda, Safety Wall, Pneuma, and Lex. |
At the end of the day, you’re the one who’s going to play, so just pick a class you’d enjoy playing!
Readying up for BG
Gears
Before you start, of course you’ll need some gears to play properly, as you do every other content in this game. Now as a hatchling in PvP, you might be confused as to what gears you should use, since you’d think it’s very different from PvM – which, yes, you would be correct, since we can only use gears catering to level 200/70 characters.
Since there’s of course an infinite amount of possibilities in gearing up (and gear itself is very situational), I will only be covering the basic defensive gears, what I think would be the bare minimum for you to enjoy PvP, which is the Medium Set. These gears are usable for almost any class, you just have to adjust the upper head and weapon.
NOTE: The ClickClick MeowMeow GX NPC (bat_room 165, 144) in @go bg does give you free sets of Siege Equipments. You can definitely use these, but I will not be covering them in this guide as I'm not familiar with using them (yet). I might update it in later.
| Gear | Refine | Enchant | Card | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old Headgear | +11 | ⊹  Adamantine Lv3 (29103) ~ as high as possible) ⊹ Any stats |
You can wear  Melted Poring Card (300174) or any elemental resist cards you want, but it largely depends on what enemy is running |
For the stats, here's an easy cheat sheet: for extra Crit Shield/Masq Resist = LUK. For extra ASPD = AGI. For extra mHP = VIT. For extra cast points and Strip Accessory resist = DEX. |
 Thanatos's Odium Mask [1] (436003) |
- | Any utility you need | Same as above. I recommend  Maya Purple Card (4198) if you don’t want to pop Sunlights every 30 seconds |
Slotting Odium Mask needs  Soul Plunger (25041) .
|
 King Schmidt's Suit [1] (15388) |
+11 | ⊹ Any elemental property ⊹ Any stats. |
 Anger Ice Titan Card (27112) |
The element you wear will depend on your play style or what your enemy is playing |
| Einbech Dungeon 3 Weapons | +11 | Any utility you need |  Mutating White Knight Card (27384) or  White Knight Card (4608) , and  Demon's Essence VIT 3 (4919) or  Dancing Marionette Card (31021) |
The refine on this weapon is mostly only for the ACD bonus. |
 Valkyrie Shield [1] (2115)
|
Any | Any utility you need |  Mutating Khalitzburg Card (27385) or  Khalitzburg Knight Card (4609) |
- |
 Automatic Engine Wing Type A [1] (480020) or  Automatic Engine Wing Type B [1] (480021) |
+9 or +11 | ⊹  Modification Orb (Above All) (29542) or  Wolf Orb (Above All) Lv.3 (310581) ⊹ Any |
You can wear any elemental resist cards you want, but it largely depends on what enemy is running | Both Automatic Engine Wing and Gray Wolf Garment have the same Medium% resistance. Use whichever is easier to get for you. |
 Temporal DEX Boots [1] (22008) |
Any or +11 | ⊹  Muscle Fool (4878) , any (for Temporal Dex) ⊹ |
Any mHP +10% cards, or anything else you want to use | - |
 Safety Pendant R [1] (32248) |
- | - |  Anger Snowier Card (27111) and mHP Card,  Alligator Card (4252) , or any utility |
You can choose between R or B accessories. The R one gives 3% resistance to physical damage from medium enemies, while the B one gives 3% resistance to magical damage from medium enemies. |
 Medium Shadow Armor (24073) |
+9 | Any utility you need | - | - |
 Cranial Shadow Shield (24052) |
+9 | Any utility you need | - | - |
 Infinity Shadow Pendant (24151) |
+9 | Any utility you need | - | - |
| Other shadow gear slots depend on the utility you want/need | +9 | Any utility you need | - | Hiding is always good for classes without Hiding skill. Otherwise, take anything you need. |
| Costume Stones also depend on the utility you need | - | - | - | Recommending Recovery skill (important! You can have it as a swap), FCT, ACD, ASPD, mHP, but take anything you need. |
Consumables
Now that you’re done with your gears, we can move on to the Next Big Thing that you just can’t forget to bring to BG: your consumables! Of course, some classes will have their own unique consumables, so I will only list out general things that everyone can use.
An important thing to note for consumables is to make sure to bring just enough items for every time you restock. This will help pressing your weight to the utmost effectiveness (this helps with reducing the chance of you getting Masquerade debuffs from Shadow Chasers). So, I recommend you to buy 
Gym Pass (7776) for your PvP characters . Also, the recommended amount written in the table below should be taken with a grain of salt. It largely depends on your class!
Lastly, don’t forget to create a restock list for your Siege items! You can use @restock siege to restock only Siege items.
NOTE: PvP maps automatically gives you free +30 All Stat foods and extra movement speed.
| Item | Rec. Amount | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Battleground’s  Concentrated Golden Syrup Potion (1100005)
|
600~1000 | Telma (bat_room 160, 148) in Battleground Supplies option. As a general note, everything that you can buy from Telma, you will buy them with  War Badge (7773) that you can get through playing Battlegrounds and WoE.
|
|
Siege's  Concentrated Blue Syrup Potion (1100004)
|
~50 | ||
Siege's  Light Concentration Potion (14509) or  Light Awakening Potion (14510) or  Light Berserk Potion (14511)
|
~2 | ||
Siege's  Box of Sunlight (12033)
|
~15 | Only if you don’t use a Maya Purple Card (4198) .
| |
Siege's  Fireproof Potion (12118)
|
~2 | Use depending on your enemy’s attack elements. Use with caution! | |
Siege's  Coldproof Potion (12119)
|
~2 | ||
Siege's  Earthproof Potion (12120)
|
~2 | ||
Siege's  Thunderproof Potion (12121)
|
~2 | ||
Siege's  HP Increase Potion (Large) (12424)
|
~2 | ||
Siege's  SP Increase Potion (Large) (12427)
|
~2 | ||
Siege's  Enrich Celermine Juice (12437)
|
~2 |
Heirloom
In BG, there’s a system called Heirloom that gives you a free buff of your choice. Talk to the Master of Buffs NPC on @go bg, pick a buff, and then he will give you a Hero’s Heirloom that will allow you to reapply said buff in BG.
The timing to use Heirloom is every time a new round starts. You don’t have to reapply it every time you die, because the Therapist NPC that brings you back to the field will automatically give it to you. Other than that, you can use it when you get dispelled or when the buff duration ends.
Lastly…
Time to join BG!
Now that you already have your gears, consumables, and Heirloom buffs, it’s time to jump into BG! You can join the queue with @go bg. Of course, you need other people to play BG, so you can try being online at these BG Happy Hour times (in Server Time):
| No. | Server Time |
|---|---|
| 1 | 03:00 AM |
| 2 | 07:00 AM |
| 3 | 10:00 AM |
| 4 | 02:00 PM |
| 5 | 03:00 PM |
| 6 | 07:00 PM |
| 7 | 11:00 PM |
Some of these times are more active than the others, but if you want to play, you can always shout “Let’s BG!” or “BG GUYS!” in the #pvp channel in-game, and get people to come… hopefully.
Small Tips
- Pre-pot! Pre-potting means using potions before you even get any damage. In PvP, oftentimes you’d be dead first if you pot after you take damage. That’s why, the safest play is to pot whenever you see enemy players. Don’t feel like you’re wasting it, it’s basically free anyways!
- Small talk! PvP is fun because there's a community. Learn from others, ask for tips, have fun and chat!
- Take it easy. Being a newbie in PvP sucks, I know. You kinda just… die a lot. But that’s exactly why learning is fun – seeing yourself play better with each passing time makes you feel that sense of achievement you just can’t get anywhere else. If you feel overwhelmed and/or annoyed, try to sit back and relax a little, and come back when you feel better. BG will always be there, and your mental health is definitely way more important.
- Join the Battleground Community Discordː Chicklingsǃ Here, you can ask questions, make friends, and just have fun. Check MuhRO Discord for more details.