Translations:Miyu's Imperial Guard Devotion and Tank Guide/21/en

Pros and Cons

A Soldier's Weakness and Strength.

Pros ✅

  • Exceptional Survivability: Royal Guards boast one of the highest HP pools in the game, combined with strong defensive skills like Prestige, Defender, and Auto-Guard, making them nearly unkillable in the right conditions.
  • Devotion Support: Their signature skill Devotion allows them to protect key party members (e.g., DPS and healers) by redirecting damage to themselves, making them invaluable in both PvP and PvM content.
  • High Damage Mitigation: With access to Defender, Shield Fortress, and equipment focused on reducing physical and magical damage, Royal Guards excel at absorbing enemy attacks.
  • Versatile Playstyle: They can adapt to various roles, from tanking and supporting with Inspiration to dealing respectable AoE damage with Overbrand and Earth Drive.
  • Strong Crowd Control: Royal Guards possess effective crowd control skills like Trample and Earth Drive, which can disrupt enemy formations and keep mobs under control.
  • Reflect Damage: The Reflect Damage skill punishes attackers, making it a great tool for handling high DPS opponents or mob-heavy situations.
  • Party Utility: Skills like Guardian Shield, Providence, and Ultimate Sacrifice provide significant buffs to themselves and their allies, enhancing survivability and damage output.
  • Immunity to Magic: With skills like Prestige, Royal Guards can hold their ground and maintain positioning, even in scenarios where Massive magic aoe's are in your screen.
  • Durability in PvP: Their ability to absorb and redirect damage, combined with their crowd control and reflect skills, makes them a dominant force in PvP environments.

Cons 🅾️

  • SP Intensive: Royal Guards rely heavily on their SP pool for maintaining key skills like Devotion and Inspiration, making SP management a constant challenge.
  • Gear Dependent: Optimal performance requires heavy investment in specialized gear for tanking, devotion, and reflect builds, which can be costly and time-consuming to acquire.
  • Limited Mobility: Royal Guards lack inherent mobility skills, making them slower compared to other classes and reliant on mounts or external buffs to improve movement speed.
  • Lower Damage Output: While capable of dealing damage, their primary focus on defense and support means their DPS is generally lower compared to dedicated damage-dealing classes.
  • Skill Cooldowns: Many of their key abilities, like Inspiration and Shield Fortress, have long cooldowns, limiting their uptime in extended fights.
  • Positioning Reliance: Skills like Devotion require careful positioning to ensure the right targets are protected, making them challenging to play effectively in chaotic scenarios.
  • Vulnerability to Dispells: Despite their strong physical and magic defenses, Royal Guards can struggle against monsters that can dispell your defensive skills
  • Complex Gameplay: Balancing their various roles (tank, support, and dps) can be challenging, requiring significant game knowledge and situational awareness.
  • High Cost of Maintenance: Maintaining mounts, gear, and consumables for SP and HP recovery and buffs adds to the expense of playing this class effectively.