The Performer's Life By Conga Lyne
Introduction
Hi, I'm Conga Lyne, a performer main, hopefully this guide will help you along your journey playing the performer classes!
Take note, I haven't achieve complete endgame gears as of writing and will update this guide periodically as I progress.
This guide will also focus on magical dps Performer, specifically the skill Metallic Fury, I will be focusing on the skill as it is spammable, has a large AoE, can be any element and has low entry requirements.
If you need any direct help, you can most likely find me in the #archer channel on discord or as "Conga lyne MtF" ingame, I might take a while to respond so sending an RODex may be more convenient for both of us.
With all that said, let's get into it.
Notice:
This guide is currently work in progress, check back soon for a more complete guide!
Leveling
Going from level 0 to 200 is your first major goal, silver arrows will be the most useful throughout most areas of play.
Something that will help you significantly early on is eden group gear, you can attain eden group equipment by first joining the eden group after talking to Secretary Lime Evenor (moc_para01 27, 35), and then talking to the various equipment masters at (moc_para01 107, 79).
Start from the bottom and work your way towards the top, I recommend gathering the items for Louis's free advanced items, but find it easier to spend 10 eden group coins on Labraham's advanced weapon.
You can use the @wd <item name>, and @wi <monster name> commands to find where to locate the required materials.
You can get normal eden group equipment at any level and advanced eden group equipment at level 100.
| Level | Map | Quests | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-10 | Prontera Plains (prt_fild08 340, 215) | None | |
| 10-40 | Ant Hell
(anthell01 35, 262) |
none | Focus on killing the eggs as they won't fight back. |
| 40-70 | Orc Dungeon
(orcsdun01 32, 170) |
None | |
| 70-99 | Glastheim Monastery
(gl_church 156, 7) |
Eden Board level 70-99 board quest (15x Wraith & Evil Druid)
(moc_para01 40, 38) |
|
| 100-130 | Illusion of Moonlight
(pay_d03_i 140, 44) |
100x of any type in Illusion of Moonlight
(pay_d03_i 153, 33) |
|
| 130-160 | Illusion of Vampire
(gef_d01_i 115, 216) |
100x of any type in Illusion of Vampire
(gef_d01_i 124, 237) |
|
| 160-200 | Verus Outskirts
(ver_tunn 13, 35) |
Hunt 50x recon robot
(moc_para01 52, 37) |
If you find someone offering a level 180+ leech and you're level 180 or above, I recommend taking their offer.
When this happens, you want to accept the illusion of underwater board quests in the main office (main_office 123, 36), go to illusion of underwater floor 2 (speak to Jerry in illusion of underwater floor 1), wait until the quest is finished, turn in your quest for exp, and repeat until the leech is finished or you reach your desired level. Remember to change your job at level 200! If they specifically say they're doing einbech 3 instead, then just navigate to einbech 3. (ein_dun02 25, 250) Also at level 180, you can turn in Thanatos fragments for exp at the main office quest board, you won't be able to farm these items yourself but can usually purchase them from other players at a cheap price. |
| 200-240 | Illusion of Underwater Floor 2
(iz_d05_i 142, 188) |
100x of any type in Illusion of Underwater Floor 2
(main_office 123, 36) |
Niflheim Dungeon floor 1 is a much faster place to level up, but you'll want gear that can hit at least 20m dps before trying to tackle it. |
| 240+ | Abyss Lakes Floor 4
(abyss_04 169, 160) |
All Abyss Lakes 4 quests
(main_office 123, 36) Hunt 240x of any type in Abyss floor 4 (moc_para01 52, 37) |
This is also a convenient way to farm eden coins
Once you have proper endgame gear, you can farm Varmundt Depths floor 1 when you're level 250 |
Recommended leveling skills:
- 1st job: Double Strafe, Arrow Shower
- 2nd job: Throw Arrow, Arrow Vulcan
- 3rd job: Reverberation
- 4th job: Metallic Fury
After you have a reliable zeny income, you can make a +10 
Bow [4] (1702) and fill it with 
Bow Guardian Card (4428) to make leveling up future Performers a lot faster.
Gameplay & Skills
For stats, you want to max int, dex and spl
You should get a healthy amount of vit & agi for durability and fast animation speed, and dumb left over points into str, wis and sta for carry weight & additional durability.
There aren't any specific tricks to pay attention to when playing Troubadour or Trouvere, just remember to keep your buffs up.
The songs you choose however, do matter.
Owl's Eye
Vulture's Eye
Improve Concentration
Starting on 1st job and working our way to 4th, we'll max out our passive skills and attention concentrate for as many stat buffs as possible from the archer job, leftover job points can be dumped into the 1st job damage skills.
On 2nd job and onwards our skills will vary depending on the gender.
Poem of Bragi and 
Assassin Cross of Sunset
Fortune's Kiss and 
Service For You
Skillful Professional Musician
Dancing Lesson or 
Musical Lesson
For Male performers, you should get Poem of Bragi and your favourite song of choice (I recommend Assassin Cross of Sunset for GM events)
For Female performers, you should get Fortune's Kiss and Service For You, you won't use Fortune's Kiss outside of party play, but Service For You will be very useful for SP conservation while farming.
Skillful Professional Musician is also a critical skill to get for both classes, as well as reaching max level with Dance Lessons for more passive stat bonuses.
Metallic Sound
Lesson
Swing Dance or 
Echo Song
Frigg's Song
Song of Mana
Unlimited Humming Voice
Reverberation
For 3rd job, you should get Metallic Sound to level 5 as we'll need it for later, additionally, reach max level with Voice Lessons.
Depending on your gender, you'll either be getting Swing Dance or Echo Song.
Make sure to also grab Frigg's Song, Song of Mana and Unlimited Humming Voice.
Song of mana will be very useful for farming dungeons as it can single handedly supply your mana if continuously recast when off cooldown.
Unlimited humming voice will be useful for when we need a large amount of damage, such as when fighting an MVP or powerful group of mobs.
Frigg's Song will likely only be used when fighting enemies who deal a large amount of damage such as Depths mobs and is useful for those circumstances.
Reverberation is also a useful skill to have for GM events.
Metallic Fury
Sound Blend
Stage Manner
Sonata of Kvasir
Mystic Symphony
Serenade of Jawaii
March of Prontera
Finally for 4th job, we mainly care about maxing Metallic Fury, Sound Blend and Stage Manners.
Sound Blend will be critical for killing bosses and strong enemies as it puts a debuff on it's victims which causes them to take increased damage from Metallic Fury.
Also be sure to grab Mystic Symphony and Sonata of Kvasir, afterwards you can grab as many songs as you like.
I recommend assigning Serenade of Jawaii and March of Prontera to max level as well, as they will be your main 4th job buff skills for yourself and your party.
They won't be as significant as most 2nd and 3rd job skills are, but will provide useful benefits and become stronger if a fellow performer is in your party!
Gameplay (Arrows)
As stated in the previous section, there aren't too many tricks to be aware of, just be sure to keep your buffs up and you'll be fine.
The only thing to be weary of is what arrow you currently have equipped as it will determine what element Metallic Fury uses.
Some enemies are immune to certain elements, while others may take 200% damage when using the right element against them.
Every enemy has a unique element you'll need to be conscious of which you can check using @mi <monstername> ingame (for example @mi Moonlight Flower), or by searching them on Divine Pride.
For the most part, holy damage is generally effective against almost all creatures except holy element enemies.
I recommend keeping different arrows on your hotbar to quickly swap between them when needed, as you can easily double your damage by using the right arrow or loose 75% of it by using the wrong one.
Gameplay (Maximizing Damage from Skills)
Metallic fury is our bread and butter for doing damage, however by itself it can only do so much.
Let's say we have a Metallic fury which can hit for 100k damage, ignoring gear completely this is good, but we can do much better.
First we'll cast Sound Brand on our target, this will increase the damage of our Metallic Fury on them from 100k to 120k, this is a fantastic boost against bosses but not so useful against regular mobs as it'll take more time than it's worth to cast sound brand on all of them.
If we need more damage we can use Unlimited Humming Voice to increase our total damage by 40%, turning our 100k damage Metallic Fury into a 140k damage Metallic fury which is effective against all mobs.
Of course, we can combine these for a multiplicative bonus of 168% damage for a 168k damage Metallic Fury, without even taking elemental vulnerabilities into account which will provide us with even more damage.
As always also remember to add on Serenade of Jawaii for extra damage on top!
Stat Goals
Most classes will need to hit certain amounts of fixed cast time or after cast delay before maximizing their damage, but performers only need 20% After Cast Delay (ACD) to get the most out of their main dps skill Metallic Fury.
Poem of Bragi can provide 30% for free, but is only accessible to male performers.
If you are pursuing the path of being a Trouvere rather than a Troubadour, you will need to find a way to achieve 20% ACD through equipment alone.
New Wave Sunglasses are very useful for giving 10% ACD and an illusion Silver Guard can provide an additional 5% if refined to +10 using Illusion Refinement Boxes.
The remaining after cast delay reduction can be achieve through dim glacier weapons, but can prove to be very expensive to obtain early on.
A cheaper option to consider might be the Sinful accessories as their set bonus provides 5% ACD reduction and do not need to be enchanted to provide this effect.
Combining New Wave Sun Glasses, Sinful Accessories and a +10 Illusion Silver Guard, you can achieve 20% ACD as a trouvere without Poem of Bragi.
When you have more endgame equipment, a Grade 5 magical spell Dim Glacier instrument along with any source of 5% ACD reduction (Mad Bunny-LT enchanting, shadow gear enchanting, etc), you should confidently be able to reach 20% without the need for specialized equipment
After achieving 20% After Cast Delay reduction you're free to pump damage as high as you can, which is exactly what we'll be doing.
Gear Progression
Based off Celery's Gear Progression Table
For female performers, remember you only need to reach 20% ACD with your equipment, pick whichever combination is most convenient for you to hit 20%!
Card Progression
Based off Celery's Gear Progression Table
| Gear Slots | Normal | MVP | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headgear |  Weakened Fenrir Card (4557) ,  Uzhas Card (27159) ,
|
 [MVP] Ultra Limacina Card (300377)
|
|
| Armor |  Bathory Card (4119) ,  Evil Druid Card (4141) ,  Two Eyes Dollocaris Card (300376) or  Meyer Lugenburg Card (300308)
|
 [MVP] Clown Alphoccio Card (4560) ,  [MVP] Nightmare Amon Ra Card (4652)
|
Two-Eye Dollocaris should only be used on +12 armor, as it will provide curses instead of boons otherwise. Exercise caution when using the Meyer Lugenberg card, as it can cause SP consumption to be higher than what is sustainable with Song of Mana, which can be troublesome if farming without a |
| Weapon |  Mutating White Knight Card (27384)
|
||
| Shield |  Mutating Khalitzburg Card (27385) or  Modified Senior Rgan Card (300379)
|
Modified Senior Rgan should only be used on a +12 shield, as it will provide curses instead of boons otherwise. You will also be sacrificing a very small amount of damage using Senior Rgan by breaking the white knight/khalitzburg combo, but will gain a significant boost to your survivability in return. | |
| Garment |  Napeo Card (300260) ,  Friedrich S. Heine Card (300424) or  One Eye Dollocaris Card (300375)
|
Any 100% elemental boost card, best being Himmelmez | One Eye Dollocaris should only be used on a +12 garment, as it will provide curses instead of boons otherwise. One Eye Dollocaris, if put on the appropriate garment, will likely be the best card to use for boosting damage output as it provides a 33% boost to selected elements over Friedrich's 24% boost on a +12 garment. |
| Footgear |  Nightmare Verit Card (4658) ,  Green Ferus Card (4381) ,  Green Cenere Card (27014) or  Extra Joker Card (300292)
|
 [MVP] Falling Bishop Card (4441)
|
|
| Accessory |  Dispol Card (300448) ,  Elvira Card (4577) ,  Headless Mule Card (27125) or  Creamy Card (4040)
|
The creamy card can teleport faster than flywings as the skill has no use delay when cast, but consumes an accessory slot which could be used to improve damage. As an alternative, teleport shadow gear can also provide the skill without taking up an accessory slot, however, you will likely ultimately prefer the extra shadow gear slot with endgame equipment. |
Dungeon/Instance Progression
As you gain more powerful equipment you'll be able to take on more powerful dungeons and instances.
It can be confusing to know where to start however, but here's my general recommendation for when it's a good idea to start farming a certain dungeon.
The following list does not take elemental bonuses into account, so you'll need to think about that yourself before tackling a certain dungeon if you feel you're ready for it.
With that said, here's my general recommendation for progression:
| Location | Damage Output | Notable Drops | Zeny Gained |
|---|---|---|---|
| GM Events | 0 dps | Muh Coins | Varies depending on market price. As of writing, Muh Coins are valued at 80,000 zeny each. |
| Geffenia | 100k damage per Metallic Fury | Almost everything | Every item earned here is NPC vendable, it is recommended to have a fully leveled haggler pass or have a merchant character you can move your items to before selling for 24% extra zeny per item. With basic drop rate gear and bubble gum, it should be possible to achieve 50m per hour, however, your zeny/hr depends solely on how fast you can kill monsters. You may want to start with metallic fury until you feel confident you can One Hit kill mobs with Reverberation, at which point continue using reverberation from there. Here is a useful @nolootid list by Teragram, to be used with @autoloot 100 for Geffenia: Remember to have an empty inventory aside from the bare essentials before starting as you will frequently be moving items between inventories while depositing farming loot. |
| Dungeon of Oz Floor 2 | 5m damage per Metallic Fury |  Amethyst Fragment (1000405) ,  Shadowdecon (25729) ,  Zelunium (25731)
|
Varies depending on market price. As of writing, 1400 fragments can be consistently gained per hour with Bubble Gum & Guyak Pudding. |
| Challenge Old Glast Heim | 100m dps |  Temporal Spell (25866) },  Temporal Fragment (25867)
|
Varies depending on market price. As of writing, 21 fragments can be consistently gained per run at Challenge 10. |
| Niflheim Dungeon Floor 2 | 100m dps |  Bloody Branch (12103) , Shadowdecon (25729) , Zelunium (25731) ,  Etel Dust (1000322)
|
Varies depending on market price. As of writing, 20 branches can be gained on average per hour with Bubble Gum & Guyak Pudding. |
| Varmundt Death Sphere | 100m dps | All Biosphere unique item drops For example: |
Varies depending on market price. Most of the items dropped here won't immediately be for zeny gain, but rather for materials to work towards crafting and enchanting a |
| Any Varmundt BioSphere | 150m dps | All Biosphere unique item drops For example: |
Varies depending on market price. As of writing, 23m raw zeny can be earnt per hour, combined with an average of 50 essences (at 300k ea), 200 runes (at 29k ea) and 10m from NPC vending Engraved Orlean/Varmundt Rune equipment drops, it shouldn't be unreasonable to make at least 53m per hour with an undergeared setup. Be sure to check which biosphere items sell best on the market before farming. |
| Thanatos Tower Floor 12 | 7m damage per Metallic Fury | Shadowdecon (25729) , Zelunium (25731) and raw zeny
|
70m raw zeny per hour from NPC selling items 200 Zelunium per hour, assuming they're sold at 82,000 zeny each, gives 16.4m zeny To enter this area, you'll need to do a Short Quest. |
Miscellaneous Advice
This section is dedicated to other pieces of useful information which doesn't quite fit anywhere else.
Let's get started
- Free Bubble Gum & Buff Potions
- You can earn free bubble gum, battle manuals and buff potions by completing eden board quests and trading your eden coins in at the Eden Vending Machine (moc_para01 51, 31).
- My preferred way to farm eden coins is in Abyss 4, by taking the Abyss 4 eden board quest (moc_para01 52, 37) and the main office Abyss Lakes 4 quests (main_office 123, 36) as you can farm
Eden Coin (25223) and 
Forgotten Heirloom (50001) simultaneously. - However, the fastest place to farm solely eden coins is Varmundt Power Plant 2 due to the significantly higher monster density.
- Casual MVP farming
- Field MVPs can be fun to hunt, but remember use a bubblegum when you go to hunt them, BBG is nearly free thanks to Eden Board farming and a 0.08% MVP card drop rate is a lot better than 0.04%.
- Further on this note, if used with guyak pudding, a single bubble gum is enough to clear all of Endless Tower or Endless Cellar.
- MVPs also frequently drop
Shadow Crate (50034) , Shadowdecon (25729) and Zelunium (25731) which are useful materials. - Random MVP drops such as
Heroic Emblem (968) and 
Knot Letter (25629) are also useful for shadow gears, so shouldn't be abandoned.
- Bloody Branch Popping
- Are you rich and want to gamble for an MVP card?
- If you have a large amount of bloody branches, you can pop a HE Bubble Gum and spam bloody branches for a chance at an MVP card.
- On average, you'll usually want about 1,000 branches for 1 MVP card using this method, since while you'll have a 0.12% chance to drop a card on each MVP, not all MVPs spawned from the branch drop an MVP card.