Ragnarok Online 2 Alter Tsukasa's In-Depth Crecentia Guide

All graphics thanks to Klyde!

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Stats

3. Skills

4. Equipment & Cards

5. Gameplay 

6. Party & Raid Tips

Hello everyone, this is my in-depth look at the Crecentia, one of the Alter's class change options upon reaching level 25. This guide was created to help new players who may have any questions regarding Crecentia, and show how to get the most out of your little scythe swinging demon. This guide will cover just about everything PvE related, but I'll try to add some PvP tips you may find useful. Let's begin like any proper guide should: with the basics. 

Unlike their Soul Maker counterparts, Crecentia's retain their Alter skills. This, in addition to their own skills, makes them a very powerful class capable of long range and area melee damage, courtesy of their area of effect (AoE) attack and debuff skills. With that in mind, Crecentia's primary objectives are:

1) Maximize Attack : Whether from physical or magical attack, AoE or DoT (damage over time), hurt them - a lot.

2) Buff/Debuffs: The Crecentia has a plethora of debuffs that can be used to gain the upper hand on your enemies, from putting them to sleep to decreasing their movement speed. It's also capable of using a buff that not only increases damage and movement speed for the caster, but also provides addition defense of up to 10% to party members (reliant on crit).

________________________________________

While there are numerous ways to build your Crecentia, the main stats you should be using are INT and STR with the option of AGI and VIT. INT is necessary for maximizing your magic attacks whereas STR is a must have for your melee damage skills. Adding VIT is an optional method, but in my opinion only takes away from your max physical/magic damage. Adding AGI is possible, but few skills would benefit from it. Here's a bit more information regarding these stats:

STR:  Adds attack and parry rate. This is necessary for skills like Diem Wind and Tempest. 

INT:  Adds magic attack and defense. Necessary for nearly all of the Crecentia's skills. 

AGI: Adds critical and dodge rate (physical). Viable for physical attacks, but not advised. 

VIT:  Adds health and increases Healing rate from Potions. VIT points increase such a small amount of HP that it's almost a waste to use. Health shouldn't be a major issue without it, most HP will come from your equipment. 

WIS: You do not need this stat. 

Additional statistics:

Parry: Chance to receive half damage. 

Dodge: Chance to dodge attacks. 

Vigor: Decreases cooldown on skills. 

Haste: Decreases casting time. 

Nearly all rare Crecentia equipment (blue, purple) will have vigor/haste so if you want to raise your parry/dodge you can rely on accessories. Unfortunately, accessories cannot be used until you reach base level 40*.

*This is not counting Pandora accessories, which can be equipped regardless of level. More information on Pandora equipment will be discussed in the equipment section. 

The Crecentia has a wide array of skills, many of which are dependent on another to be truly effective. For now I'll just post the facts, later I'll be sure to add important information based on my own experience. 

Diem Wind
  

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 1 sec
• SP Cost: 1/2/3/4/5

• Single target
• Adds Stigma Debuff

• 14/15/17/18/20% Physical Attack Damage
• Adds Stigma debuff to a hostile target with 20/40/60/80/100% probability per hit

• Gives an extra 30% damage if your enemy already has a curse on it

• The fastest Casting time and Cooldown to add Stigma debuffs at 100% probability
• This works best with Stigma Thread should you want to activate and spread your Stigma debuffs to all the enemies around you the quickest way possible.

Illusion Blade

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 5 sec
• SP Cost: 1/2/3/4/5

• Single target
• Adds Stigma Debuff

• 14/16/18/19/21% Physical Attack Damage
• Adds 2 Stigma debuffs to a hostile target with 20/40/60/80/100% probability per hit
• Targets under curse spells receive 30% more damage in addition to the initial damage it had taken

• Affected Skills: Crucio, Evanesco, Furnunculus, Raw Tilt, Blindness

Curse Burst

• Casting time: Instant
• Cooldown: 0 sec
• SP Cost: 3/4/5/6/7

• Single target / AoE
• Uses Stigma Debuff

• 6/7/8/9/10% Magical Attack Damage (if target and surrounding enemies within 5m have Stigma debuff)
• Additional 1/2/3/4/5% Magical Attack Damage for every Stigma debuff present

Crucio

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 5 sec
• SP Cost: 1/2/3/4/5

• Single target
• DoT
• Curse

• 19/21/23/25/28% Magical Attack Damage
• 9/10/12/13/14% DoT for 10 sec

• Second highest DoT damage

Furnunculus

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 10 sec
• SP Cost: 3/4/5/6/7

• Single target
• DoT

• Duration: 30 sec

• 10/11/13/14/15% Magical Attack Damage every 2 sec for 30 sec
• Increase by 4% every 5 sec

• Highest DoT damage

Tempest

• Casting time: 3 sec
• Cooldown: 60 sec
• SP Cost: 4/6/8/10/12

• Single target
• Uses Stigma Debuff

• 68/76/84/92/100% Physical Attack Damage
• Additional 1/2/3/4/5% Physical Attack Damage per 1 Stigma debuff that is already on your target
• 3 sec Stun

• Highest attack damage skill

Contingency

• Casting time: 2 sec
• Cooldown: 20 sec
• SP Cost: 2/4/6/8/10

• Single target
• DoT

• 16/18/20/22/24% Physical Attack Damage
• Decrease defense by 1% per curse spell (stacks up to 5 times) + 1/2/3/4/5% Physical Attack Damage DoT for 30 sec

Bram Gush

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 1 sec
• SP Cost: 1/3/5/7/9

• AoE
• Adds Stigma Debuff

• Front damage (you only hit those standing in front of you)
• 7/8/8/9/10% Magical Attack Damage
• Max of 10 concurrent enemies
• Adds 1 Stigma debuff to a hostile target with 6/12/18/24/30% probability per hit

• Instant constant AoE damage

Earth Worm

• Casting time: 2 sec
• Cooldown: 15 sec
• SP Cost: 3/5/7/9/11

• AoE

• 16/17/19/21/23% Magical Attack Damage
• Decrease movement speed by 70% for 2/4/6/8/10 sec
• “Jumps” to inflict a max of 5 enemies within 10m of the target that you’ve aimed at

Death Grip

• You need Awake: Darkness in order to use Death Grip.

• Casting time: 2 sec
• Cooldown: 10 sec
• SP Cost: 5/7/9

• AoE damage

• 77/91/105% Magical Attack Damage
• Additional 10% damage per party member (stacks up to 5 members)

Land of Darkness

• Casting time: 2 sec
• Cooldown: 10 sec
• SP Cost: 3/5/7/9/11

• AoE
• Uses Stigma Debuff

• 6/7/8/9/10% Magical Attack Damage
• Up to 10 enemies
• Damage increased by 1/2/3/4/5% for any target under Stigma debuff

Levicorpus

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 60 sec
• SP Cost: 1/3/5/7/9

• Sleep
• AoE

• Radius: 5m
• Up to 10 enemies
• 20/40/60/80/100% probability of sending a ShockWave
• Decrease damage taken by 10/20/30/40/50%
• Target will wake up upon being hit

Imperio

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 120 sec
• SP Cost: 2/4/6/8/10

• Slows movement
• AoE

• Duration: 30 sec
• Radius: 5m
• Decrease acceleration of enemies by 20/40/60/80/100%

Ignition

• Passive
• Doubles the physical/magical attack damage that is increased by Strength and Intelligence

Evanesco

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 10 sec
• SP Cost: 2/3/4/5/6

• Single target
• Curse

• Duration: 30 sec

• 2/4/6/8/10% of damage given by enemy will be reflected back

Raw Tilt

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 10 sec
• SP Cost: 2/3/4

• Single target

• Duration: 30 sec
• Cannot be used concurrently with Blindness

• Increase the damage the enemy received by 5/10/15%

Blindness

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 10 sec
• SP Cost: 3/4/5

• Single target

• Duration: 30 sec

• Cannot be used concurrently with Raw Tilt
• Decreases physical/magical attack damage by 5/10/15%

Stigma Thread

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 10 sec
• SP Cost: 0

• AoE
• Uses Stigma debuff

• Spreads Sigma debuff to other targets around you that already has debuffs on them
• Stacks up to 5 times.

Stigma Mastery

• Casting time: Instant
• Cooldown: 0 sec
• SP Cost: 0

• Passive
• Uses Stigma debuff

• 1/3/5% chance of obtaining a critical hit on a target with a Stigma debuff

Awake: Darkness

• You need Awake: Darkness in order to use Death Grip.

• Casting time: 1 sec
• Cooldown: 600 sec
• SP Cost: 4/6/8

• Multiple targets

• Duration: 2 mins

• Increase movement speed of the caster by 10/20/35%
• Increase physical / magical attack damage of the caster by 10/20/35%
• Decrease damage taken by 5/10/15%
• Increase the defense of all your party member within 10m by 1% every time the caster achieves a critical hit

Curse Reinforce

• Casting time: Instant
• Cooldown: 0 sec
• SP Cost: 0

• Passive

• Increase damage of curse spells by 5/10/15%

• Affected Skills: Crucio, Furnunculus and Land of Darkness

Mayhem

• Casting time: Instant
• Cooldown: 0 sec
• SP Cost: 0

• Passive

• Duration: 5 sec

• 10/20/30% probability of Silence debuff when Imperio succeeds

All credit goes to Icesabel for creating this skill tree, personal opinions removed to avoid confusion. Her guide can be found here. 

As far as cards go, your obvious choice is use a set that supports the stats/build you've chosen. It's also wise to take what you are feasibly capable of obtaining into consideration, don't immediately plan to equip 5 Maya Purple [Rare+] cards the second you reach level 50 (unless you can actually pull that off, fat chance). 

If you're looking for a quick, simple, and viable card choice look no further than Road of Blessed, [currently] the final map in the game. Here are a few relatively easy cards to obtain that may work well depending on your build choice. Keep in mind that these choices are based on end game stats and a level 50 character level. 

Scratch Thief Card:    +6 STR | +6 INT | +6 AGI | +6 AGI | +17 VIT

The go-to card for any new level 50 player. Easy to obtain, either by farming or buying, and with the exceptional VIT boost you'll be one step closer to being ready for those end-game dungeons and raids. 

 Damian Card:   +6 STR | +9 INT | +9 AGI | +3 WIS | +9 VIT  

This card is a bit more difficult to farm as Damian has 15,500 HP and is a unique field monster. That being said, he respawns relatively quickly and with decent gear shouldn't be a problem. Strong INT, AGI, and VIT, and a decent STR boost for your physical attacks. 

Flash Geylog or Dostoev:   (F.G:) +14 STR | +14 INT | +11 AGI | +5 WIS | +16 VIT 

The only differences between these cards is the STR and AGI (Flash has +14 STR/+11 AGI and Dostoev has +11 STR/+14 AGI) so really it's all based on your build. These cards can be fairly time consuming to attain, or put a sizable dent in your zeny wallet, but they are going to be one of your best options outside of cards found/synthasized in raid dungeons. 

As far as equipment goes, it's basically the same as any other class. Upon reaching level 50 you can obtain decent gear from monster drops in Road of Blessed in the "Resignation" set. Upgrading your gear is necessary to progressing in end-game dungeon raids, so make sure you begin this process as soon as possible.

As far as a weapon goes, your best bet is to farm Goblin Leader (Field Boss in Road of Blessed) for a , or craft/purchase the

Desperate Apostle Scythe from a Blacksmith with the proper design/from the Auction House. 

While the Crecentia is capable of dealing plenty of melee damage, it's true prowess lies in it's debuffs and DoTs. In my experience, it was incredible to see bosses that had taken considerable time to take down before the Alter release drop like flies with the Crecentia backing up the party. I suppose it's completely based on preference, but I view the Crec as a powerhouse Support/DoT class as opposed to the more common DPS perception. While it can easily be used for purely DPS related party slots, I would recommend utilizing your Crecentias in place of one of the Sorcerers in your raids; while you may lose an additional Healer I believe this is the most efficient choice for complete party functionality. 

While the Crecentia is wonderful on it's own as a melee/ranged damage dealer, it is infinitely more pragmatic to use it's skills to amplify your party's overall advantage by utilizing it's supportive capabilities to bring down tough mobs in half the time.

Coming Soon (Lazy)