Illusion Doping Zeph Farming Build
This build primarily uses the Genetic skill Illusion Doping to kill Zeph mission mobs fast.
In order for Shadow Chasers to use Illusion Doping, they will need to copy the skill from Genetics using their Reproduce skill. Set your Shadow Chaser and a Genetic into PvP by using @pkmode. Activate Reproduce first, after which, the Genetic must hit your Shadow Chaser using Illusion Doping skill. Once the skill appears in your skill window's Etc. tab, use Reproduce again to save the copied skill.
This build was made primarily for Shadow Chasers, but with some adjustments, it can also be applicable to Genetics.
For efficiency, it's highly recommended to make your own guild and store all the Miscellaneous Items and Cards that you acquire from killing mobs. This is so that you can use those items for your Daily Quests or submitting Scavenger Hunts. First use @aloot clear to set your loot rate to 0. And afterwards, make sure to use @aloottype +3 and @aloottype +6 whenever you're doing Zeph or killing mobs to automatically loot cards and miscellaneous items.
Friendly Reminder: Don't rush or force yourselves to copy exactly what's in here. If you have better alternatives, use them. If you can't afford an item, use an alternative. Like, if you can't get an Abyss Celestial Insignia, you can just use Medal of Honor instead.
For most items, you can use the Item Catalog page to search for some of the items listed here.
Contents
ILLUSION DOPING BUILD
Why Use Illusion Doping?
Pros:
- It has an absurd range and hits everything in your screen, as long as they're in your target's line of sight.
- When your character is built enough, you can 1-hit most Zeph target mobs.
Cons:
- A slightly expensive method of farming, since each cast will consume 1x Alcohol. However, this is offset by the fact that each cast can kill multiple targets at the same time.
- It cannot be used in maps where 3rd job skills are disabled. However, most maps that contains Zeph mission mobs have most skills enabled anyways, so this isn't that much of an issue.
- If you do not invest in equipment and cards, you will have to make do with casting the skill several times before a mob is killed. Alternatively, you can use another skill to kill tough mobs. If you're a Shadow Chaser, you can use Hide and then Raid to easily kill grouped mobs.
- The only Zeph target mobs that you can't 1-hit are the ones in @warp izlu2dun, unless for some reason, you built your character in a specific way that maximizes your damage against certain mob types/elements.
Some Tips
- For increasing efficiency when doing Zeph Missions, use Gray Maps so you can have a better view of the monsters. If you don't use Gray Maps, the usual map terrain will sometimes hinder you. Like, you can't see mobs because they're hidden behind trees.
- Remember that Illusion Doping hits a wider range than Storm Gust and targets everything in its line of sight. This is pretty useful for killing hard to see monsters like Anopheles.
- When using @whereis, just because there are more monsters in one map, it doesn’t mean that it’s more efficient to go there. A good example of this is the Leaf Cat. There are 65 Leaf Cats in ayo_dun01 while there are 35 Leaf Cats in ayo_fild01. In this case, it’s better to go to ayo_fild01. This is because the maze layout of ayo_dun01 severely limits the range of Illusion Doping and Storm Gust.
- While you can use Dark Pinguicula Card instead of Duneyrr Card, using the former will make you loot a lot of poisonous herbs. Use it if you don’t mind getting the herbs.
- Since the damage is high enough, you can kill other normal monsters that aren’t Zeph Mission targets. These monsters may drop items that are required by Daily Quests and Scavenger Hunts. Save those items in a personal Guild Storage that only you or your dedicated guild can access.
- Get familiar with the monsters. If you do, you’ll often recognize that sometimes there are some Zeph Mission monsters that have common spawn map, where two (or even more) targets are located. Sometimes, going to these maps are more efficient in the long run.
- There will be times that your damage is lower when using Oridecon Arrows. In this case, switch to an elemental arrow that will deal more damage to your target.
- For certain monsters that have Ringleader versions, if it can be helped, try to spare the Ringleader and kill only their summons, because they will still count towards completing your Zeph Mission. This is especially helpful if your target monsters have low spawn numbers in a map.
- If you wanna run instances, there are more specialized jobs for that, like Royal Guard and Guillotine Cross. This build isn't really mean for instances.
- Shadow Chasers are sort of like a jack of all trades and master of none (probably aside from their mastery of Stripping items). As such, you’re free to copy and use whatever skill that you can use for a given activity. Don’t have a Dark Lord Mask? Use Reproduce to copy Meteor Storm. Want to use more magic skills like Heal and Fire wall? Copy them or use scrolls and then adjust your build accordingly.
STATS
Shadow Chaser
- STR: 200~300 (for increased weight capacity)
- AGI: (just enough to reach 195 ASPD)
- VIT: (not really necessary)
- INT: 200~300 (to increase magic damage; I tend to copy/use Storm Gust for Goblin Invasions)
- DEX: 500 (primary damage stat)
- LUK: 350
Genetic
- STR: 500 (primary damage stat)
- AGI: (just enough for 195 ASPD)
- VIT: (not really necessary)
- INT: 350~?? (if you wish for your Cart Cannon skill to have a bit more damage)
- DEX: 300~400
- LUK: (put any remaining stat point here)
ITEMS TO BRING
Shadow Chaser
- All Element Arrows that have 30~50 ATK
- Use the correct elemental arrow in order to deal the maximum damage to a monster.
- Once you have high damage, using Oridecon Arrow (neutral element) will kill almost all mobs. For ghost element monsters, you will have to switch to an elemental arrow.
Genetic
- All Cannon Ball Elements
- Elemental Scrolls for Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth
- Use the correct elemental cannon ball or elemental scroll in order to deal the maximum damage to a monster.
For Both
- Alcohol: Your bread and butter item. Never set to do a Zeph mission without at least 300~500 of these. You can purchase them from the Alchemist Tool Shop (@go 48)
- Panacea - for when you've been afflicted with status effects
- Lv 10 Agi Scroll - can be bought from Tool Dealers. Use it for when you get afflicted with Decrease Agi.
- Lv 10 Blessing Scroll - can be bought from Tool Dealers
- Aloe Vera - not really a required item to bring. It simply casts level 1 Provoke on your character to slightly increase your damage.
- Plasma Card - not really a necessity, but you can use up one accessory slot to equip this card. It will grant you a small chance of getting 1 random elemental resist potion when killing mobs.
Pet
You might want to bring a pet that gives ATK +100, All Stats +15. Choosing one that gives All Stats +20~30 or at least to DEX and INT is also a good alternative. Use the following to check and see which pets you could go for and where you might be able to find them:
SUGGESTED SKILLS
Shadow Chaser
- Illusion Doping
- Storm Gust
- Preserve
- Hide and Raid
Genetic
- Illusion Doping
- Cart Cannon
GEARS
Newbie Gear
Nothing much to say here. Most low difficulty Zeph Mobs die rather easily. You probably only need your Returner's Armor Set, and a decent weapon from the Zeny Mall (@go 48) that has the highest base ATK that you can find. You can also use a Death Balista (Shadow Chaser), Death Heart Breaker (Genetic), or Death Tsurugi (Genetic) by exchanging your Death Weapon Coupon (for new characters).
Common Gear
Note: If you have a hard time getting an enchanted version of the equipment below, don't stress about it too much. You can simply use the normal/non-enchanted version or whatever you have for the meantime. Your true goal, while building up zeny and resources, is to go for the items in the High End section.
- UPPER HEADGEAR
- ITEM: Wolfman Hat, Halloween Hunter Cap, or any headgear that gives 15~20% Long Range Damage
- CARD: Dark Pinguicula or Duneyrr
- MIDDLE HEADGEAR
- ITEM: Anything that gives at least 22% Long Range Damage or Physical Damage
- CARD: Dark Pinguicula or Duneyrr
- LOWER HEADGEAR
- ITEM: Sage Ring
- CARD: Dark Pinguicula or Duneryrr
- ARMOR
- ITEM: Any Armor
- CARD: Byorgue for Shadow Chasers
- CARD: Egnigem Cenia for Genetic
- CARD: Amdarais for both
- WEAPON
- ITEM: Death Ballista for Shadow Chasers
- ITEM: Death Heart Breaker, Death Tsurugi, Exploda, or Shamshir for Genetics
- CARD: Atroce, Atroce or Fused Atroce, Turtle General, and Incantation Samurai
- SHIELD
- ITEM: Any Shield
- CARD: Any Card
- GARMENT
- ITEM: Nidhoggur's Shadow Garb (with %ATK, STR, or DEX enchant)
- CARD: Menblatt
- FOOT GEAR
- ITEM: Sleipnir (with ATK% enchant)
- CARD: Fused Eddga
- ACCESSORY (LEFT)
- ITEM: Medal of Honor
- CARD: Gold Scaraba
- ACCESSORY (RIGHT)
- ITEM: Medal of Honor
- CARD: Gold Scaraba, Dark Faceworm (for Shadow Chasers), or Gem of Carting (for Shadow Chasers)
High End Gear
These are the items that you should aim for. I'm not saying that you should get all of them (like Nightshade Armor, King Schmidth suit, etc), but simply get the one that you can afford for the meantime. For example, even I don't have the Nightshade Armor at the moment as I feel that the King Schmidth suit that I'm using is more than enough to kill most Zeph mobs. Another example is Menblatt Card and Venenum Card. I'm still using Menblatt Card since I'm too broke right now. However, it's damage is not that far off from Venenum Card.
- UPPER HEADGEAR
- ITEM: +10 Fox Ear Ribbon
- CARD: Duneyrr
- MIDDLE HEADGEAR
- ITEM: Any Variant Rare Headgear (with 25% Long Range Physical Damage and 2% Long Range Damage enchants)
- ITEM: Black Eagle Wings (or any same effect headgear or vanilla headgear with Union Enchant); or
- CARD: Duneyrr
- LOWER HEADGEAR
- ITEM: Nian Blue Fairies (or any same effect headgear or vanilla headgear with Dragonia Enchant)
- ITEM: Icicle Ring (use Twilight Boots with this item cause Icicle Ring doesn't have Movement Speed bonus, so you'll walk slow)
- CARD: Duneryrr
- ARMOR
- ITEM: Nightshade Armor, King Schmidth Suit, or Executioner's Armor
- CARD: Realized Amdarais
- WEAPON
- ITEM: +10 Beheader for Shadow Chasers
- ITEM: +10 Hauteclere for Genetics
- CARD: Schulang, White Knight, White Knight, and Fused Incantation Samurai (or Incantation Samurai). If you lack White Knight Cards, you can replace them with Tyrant Cecil, or Turtle General.
- ALTERNATE WEAPON:
- ITEM: If you have a +10 Shapeless Bow or Axe/Cleaver, and luckily enchanted it with Ignores 90%+ Armor of Normal Monster you can try using it as well if you don't have the elite weapons. +10 Hailstorm (Bow) or +10 Cold Depths Axe are also good alternatives (these two are Christmas weapons and are tradable).
- CARD: Tyrant Cecil, Schulang, White Knight, White Knight
- SHIELD
- ITEM: Shield of Evalach (Preferably enchanted); or
- ITEM: Shield of Aeneas (Preferably enchanted);
- CARD: Khalitzburg Knight
- GARMENT
- ITEM: Kingsmen Backup Blades (Level 10)
- CARD: Venenum
- FOOT GEAR
- ITEM: Twilight Boots (preferably enchanted); or
- ITEM: Modified Temporal Boots of Dexterity (preferably enchanted)
- CARD: Fused Eddga
- ACCESSORY (RIGHT)
- ITEM: Abyss Celestial Insignia
- CARD: Fused Ifrit, Gold Scaraba, Fortuna Card (for when hunting cards)
- ACCESSORY (LEFT)
- ITEM: Deadeye Sigil (Unstackable), Abyss Celestial Insignia
- CARD: Fused Ifrit, Gold Scaraba, Dark Faceworm (for Shadow Chasers who like to farm using Storm Gust), Gem of Carting (for Shadow Chasers)
- Note: Even at 0 BG Participation, Deadeye Sigil already grants +10% long range physical damage. It grants +20% at 500 BG Participation.
CASPEN DUNGEON BUILD
So, I decided to add an extra section to this guide, in case some fellow Shadow Chasers might be interested. With the recent revamp (March 2024) of DM Point acquisition, Caspen Dungeon is slowly becoming a DM farming site. Quite a few are complaining that Warlocks have a huge advantage because they can really ramp up the damage of one of their AoE skills, Storm Gust.
But don't fret. While we can't exactly match them in terms of damage output, we can at least farm comfortably with the use our innate skill Reproduce to copy Storm Gust, and utilizing headgears that grant the use of Meteor Storm. The headgears below are ones that grant you the Meteor Storm skill.
- Dark Lord Mask (ID: 21871) (Seasonal/Tradable/Upper Headgear)
- Charcoal Stove Head (ID: 23225) (Seasonal/Account Bound/Upper Headgear)
- Paracelsus (only for Genetic, Elite Genetic Weapon)
- Shadow of Nydhoggur Card (only for Sage Classes/Armor Card)
For Shadow Chasers, for this build, you will have to save the Storm Gust skill using Reproduce. This will replace the Illusion Doping skill that's currently saved (if you have it). This is because if you simply reply on Preserve, you will eventually get Dispelled inside Caspen Dungeon, thus your Storm Gust skill will get replaced by the skill cast by the mobs inside.
For other classes, you can still make do with the use of Meteor Storm.
For the stats, simply maximize your INT. If you're like me who likes to simply switch out gears for doing Zeph instead of resetting stats every time, you can have 450 to your INT and 450+ to your DEX. Make sure that your ASPD is at 195. Make sure that your After Cast Delay Reduction is high enough that you can comfortably spam Meteor Storm and Storm Gust.
For this build, I'll be making this as a general build that will use Dark Lord Mask or Charcoal Stove Head. Of course, if you have gears that have better or additional effects, like the Emperium Card and Spica Card, feel free to use them. Take note that this isn't perfect and the items based here are simply the things that I currently use. As this is basically like a general build, most classes can make use of this build, especially if you're doing the Kill 3,000 Mobs in Caspen Dungeon part of the Elite Quest.
RECOMMENDED STATS
- Strength (STR) - 200~
- Agility (AGI) - Enough for 195 Attack Speed (ASPD)
- Vitality (VIT) - 300~
- Intelligence (INT) - 450~
- Dexterity (DEX) - 300 (You can go above 300 if you're a Shadow Chaser that's doing a hybrid build like me)
- Luck (LUK) - put the rest of your stats here
ITEMS TO BRING:
- Yggdrasil Berry - You cannot use Mastela Fruit inside Caspen Dungeon. Use @aloot item 607 to loot these from Cucools.
- Panacea - This helps you remove the Deadly Poison debuff. Use @aloot item panacea to loot these from Stone Soldiers.
ITEMS LOOT:
- Amblem of Sun God - This drops from Soul Taker. @aloot item 7086
- Bloody Branch - This drops from Soul Taker. @aloot item 12103
- Gold Ore - This drops from Cucool. This is an important item as this is used in creating your Division Glove and/or completing the Fishing Quest. @aloot item 7231
You have to make sure that you have 100% After Cast Delay Reduction (aka After Skill Delay Reduction) so you can comfortably spam Meteor Storm (and Storm Gust if you're a Shadow Chaser).
Please take note that you don't have to refine your equipment to +10 if you don't have the zeny or patience for it. If don't have a lot of Zeny, you can just go for the items that you can afford
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GOBLIN INVASION BUILD
For this automated event, I usually just switch out my Zeph Hunting headgears and weapon with the items below. Of course, to effectively kill those goblins, you will need to use Storm Gust (preferably Level 10) against them. Keep Storm Gust on you at all times, and never forget to keep using Preserve skill when you're going out to do Zeph, cause you don't want to randomly lose your Storm Gust skill. Also, make sure that you have 95% or more After Cast (After Skill) Delay Reduction to avoid long delays when casting Storm Gust.
- UPPER HEADGEAR: Any Headgear that gives at least MATK +15% (better if MATK +20%)
- CARD: Kiel D-01
- MIDDLE HEADGEAR: Any Headgear that gives Skill Delay Reduction, and MATK +%
- CARD: Kiel D-01
- LOWER HEADGEAR: Any Headgear that gives movement speed bonus and Skill Delay Reduction. If yours also grants +% damage to all race or medium size, then go for it.
- Card: High Wizard Card
- WEAPON: Shapeless Magic Dagger enchanted with Magic Damage Against Medium Size, Ignore MDEF of Normal Class, or Increase Magic Damage Against Normal Class.
- WEAPON: If you don't have Shapeless Magic Dagger, you can use a +10 Old Parasol
- CARD: Celine Kimi/Ice Queen, Entweihen Crothen/Lil Moonlight. Alternatively, you can use 4x Draco Egg Cards (Increases magic damage against Dragon monsters by 10%)
If you can't 1-hit the goblins by using the above gear, you can add the following items to increase your damage:
- SHOES: Any boots.
- CARD: Determined Kathryn
- GARMENT: Any +8~10 Garment
- CARD: Faceworm Larva
TREASURE BOX BUILD
Nothing much to say here, except you might want to get as much range as you can to hit those boxes from afar. Of course, additional range is made somewhat irrelevant if the treasure boxes will spawn in a map that's full of buildings and walls. Regardless, here are some items that you might want to get:
- Gastraphetes - A Rank B Hero Weapon. If you're Shadow Chaser, you can choose this one during your Rank B Weapon Quest. It gives +9 range.
- Nightvision Goggles - A lower headgear. Gives +4 range, and movement speed. Quite a few seasonal headgears also grant the same effect as this one. Not really necessary to get since you can already hit things from afar by just using Gastraphetes.
