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 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
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. |
|
|
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 |
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 |
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 |
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. |
|
|
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)
|
Garment @go bg |
Noxious | |
 Siege Greaves [1] (2483)
|
Shoes @go bg |
Infinite Vocal
Green Ferus | |
 Royal Guardian Ring [1] (28483)
|
Accessories (Right) |
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) |
+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)
|
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 |
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.
On offensive scenario the same rule applies:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 |
|
|
| Tanks |
|
|
| DPS |
|
|
| Support |
|
|
| Ground Control |
|
|
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.