23-7-2009 Game News : Jade Dynasty Develop Journal

Jade Dynasty, the highly anticipated martial arts MMORPG and third title from Perfect World Entertainment, is now open to the public!
Steeped in ancient Chinese and martial arts lore, Jade Dynasty takes players on a quest to uncover the secret of immortality. Players will have to choose between five different Factions, each that has its own play style, story and outlook on the world.



Every Faction has a unique style of play and their own set of skills. And within each Faction, a player has several choices of the exact skill build they’d like. But before that, each player will get a taste of skills and the skill trees as an Initiate.



All players will begin as an Initiate as they explore the starting area- Sunstream City. All Initiates begin with the skill Heavy Blow, which will deal increased damage. The other Initiate skills are Courage (increases attack power), Vigilance (a passive skill that increases resistances) and Heal Wounds. These skills are a great introduction to the skill types players will encounter with all the Factions—attack, passive, buffs and healing.

A player will receive a skill point to distribute for every level. So by the time they are able to choose a Faction, they should have 14 points to test out.



In the picture below, by Pressing 'R' in-game you will be presented with these pop ups. The skills dialog is your entire set of skills and on the right side is your current Tier of skills. This picture shows the Initiate skill Tier.

Each Faction has five tiers of skills—the higher the tier, the more powerful the skills. Within each tier, there are three different skill branches. Each branch has a different style of skills—one branch may be passive and buff skills, while another is pure attack. Each branch does not build upon the previous tier, so customization possibilities are endless!

In the picture below we show you the 5 Tiers of skills for each faction. The factions are horizontally placed and the Tiers are vertically placed.

Tip: The Initiate Tier only needs 8 points allocated to it before you can put points into your Faction’s Tier 1. Each Tier after the Initiate Tier requires 24 points before the next Tier becomes active.

With these different options, a player can create the perfect build for their play style. When choosing a path, each Faction will always inherently have some advantages and disadvantages.

The Vim has the highest defense and a high individual short range attack, however they lack abilities in ranged and multi-target attacks. With this in mind, a Vim should be careful not to be overwhelmed when entering battle alone—a worthwhile thing to consider when creating your character.

The Lupin are the high damage dealers, with the highest critical strikes and a variety of attacking skills. However, they have a relatively low defense, and should be wary of engaging in any direct, prolonged combat.

The Jadeon are the ranged damage dealers, and carry a high attack power as well as many multi-target skills. However, the Jadeon has at best an average level of defense, so should take care when engaged in direct melee combat.

The Skysong are the only Faction to specialize in healing spells. They also have powerful group attack skills, however, their individual damage dealing is lower than the other Factions.

The Modo are the wild cards of Jade Dynasty, able to shapeshift into other beings as well as drain their enemies of their health. However, a Modo powers his spells and skills with his own health, so it takes a delicate touch to balance power with life.

By picking the class with the base skills you know you want to possess, a player can then customize their character to suit any and every play style.

By mmosite