Author: Dulfy
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Hey everyone, Shaman is one of the three classes available to C9 Global beta/launch. It plays like your traditional mage classes in other games but it also have the ability to get close and melee! This guide will help orient you with the shaman class for the first level 20s, before you switch into one of the three advanced classes (Taoist, Elementalist, Illusionist)

Customization

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Classes in C9 are currently gender locked, this means that shaman is only available as a female character!

You can customize your character's body shaman, face, hair and even tattoos!

Rather than explaining the various customization options, I will let this video do the job for me!

C9- Shaman character creation options

Armor Progression

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If you are curious what your shaman would look like in the early levels, here are some of the screenshots!

Abilities

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Shaman has mostly magic attacks and as such use Wisdom as its primary stat.

Here is a video showcasing the key shaman abilities!

C9-Shaman abilities overview - HD-1080p - Slowmotion

The table below will list all the shaman abilities you can obtain all the way up to level 20.

Name	Level	Upgrades	Keystrokes
Ice Spear	1	4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19	Hotbar
Ground Vein	1	3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18	F
Mana Pierce	1	2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20	RMB
Elec Swing	2	5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20	Hotbar
Dark Emotion	3	6, 9, 12, 15, 18	Hotbar
Dash	3		LMB + WSAD
Evasive Dash	5		Double tap WSAD or Shift + WSAD
Mana Shot	5	8, 11, 14, 17, 20	S + RMB
Spin Smash	6	9, 12, 15, 18	LMB + S
Rushing Bite	7	12, 17	A/D + LMB
Fireball	8	11, 14, 17, 20	Hotbar
Vera Crasher	10	15, 20	LMB+RMB while spin smash is active
Soul Chaser	12	15, 18	Hotbar
Mana Cipher	14	17, 20	E
Phantom Wall	15	20	Hotbar
Illusion Flame	17	20	S + F
Chain Edge	18		Shift + E
Lighting Bolt	19		Hotbar

If you are interesting in seeing what each abilities do, what they look like and how to effectively use them, please check out my shaman abilities overview guide!

http://c9.mmosite.com/guide/shaman/shaman_abilities_overview.shtml

What abilities to chose?

Everytime you gain a level and when you complete certain quests, you gain spellpoints (SP) you can spend at the trainer to acquire new abilities or to upgrade existing ones.

You won't have enough SP to get all of the abilities available to you so you do have to make a decision in picking the most bang for your buck!

Here are some of the abilities I recommend based on my playing experience.

• Ice spear: Very powerful single target attack, definitely get to max rank
• Dark Emotion + Elec Swing: These two are your close ranged AoE attack and if you chain them together they can rack up quite a lot of combo points. Max rank if possible.
• Spin Smasher: Useful ability but no real need to train to max rank.
• Fireball: Your default ranged attack, definitely train to max rank.
• Illusion Flame: Nice to knockback enemies close to you. Get rank 1 if you can.
• Lightning Bolt: Powerful but hard to control as it is a targeted grounded attack. Train if you think you can manage it.

Some abilities that I don't find particular useful:

• Dash/Evasive Dash/Rushing Bite: Not too useful, usage is very limited to particular boss fights and you don't really need to dash for those fights
• Phantom Wall: I am sure some will find it useful but I never found a good use for it.
• Chain edge: sounds great but its rather limited.
• Vera crasher: it looks awesome but does limited damage, more for show than anything else.

You can reset your skills by purchasing a scroll from Wandering Merchant Piz in the Warehouse area. It costs 25 k gold in beta but may require purchase from cash shop in the live game.

Also, when you change your advanced class at level 20, all of your skill points are reset. I had 235 SP points when I reached level 20.

Generating combos and overall gameplay

The combo system is not well explained in game but based on my experiences combo, at least in the early levels, do not grant you any special attack powers but rather give you a score that is used to evaluate your overall performance at the end of a dungeon to give you additional rewards.

Combos are generated whenever you chain a series of attacks on a single enemy without them hitting back or when you use an AoE ability that hits multiple enemies.

On single target, your basic attack + Ice Spear (when the enemy is standing) + Ground Vein (when the enemy is on the ground) will generate a lot of combo points if used properly.

On multiple mobs, Ice Spear (when facing multiple mobs) + Dark Emotion + Elec Swing will grant you a lot of combo points. Dark Emotion + Elec Swing is probably my favourite abilities to pair together.

Spin Smasher is also a good ability to generate combos, especially when surrounded by multiple mobs.

The following video will show you the techniques I described above for generating combos when faced with multiple enemies.

C9-Shaman AoE attack combo generation - HD-1080p

Outside of combos and in the realm of general gameplay, I like to use Fireball when faced with multiple incoming mobs that are out of range for my Dark Emotion + Elec Swing combo. This will knock the mobs back, giving you time to gap the distance and perform your melee abilities.

Mana pierce is also nice to push enemies back and unlike Fireball it has no cast time so it is good to use when you are on the run.

If the mobs are too close to your comfort zone, Illusion Flame will push them away and knock them down!

Class quests!

Starting at level 10 and every 2 levels, you will be given a class quest that you must complete to enable you to change your advanced class at level 20. These quests test your basic shaman skills and are generally not too difficult with some exceptions. I will give you a brief walkthrough and some videos below.

Remember in the arena where the class quest takes place, there is a merchant that sells all the potions etc!

Each test usually have 3 stages, with each stage last usually 1 minute.

Level 10 - Combat skills - test your skills when faced with multiple enemies

Basically see how fast you can kill groups of mobs. There is usually one of two tougher enemies in the pack. See pointers above for multiple enemies if you need help. Fairly easy. Difficulty 1/5.

Level 12 - Agility - see if you can move from bad stuff on the ground!

This one is actually pretty tough. You have to move away from the white circles on the ground (dash works really well here - double tap your movement keys or use shift + movement key) and at the same time kill the enemies under 1 minute.

If you don't move away from the white circles fast enough, you will be knocked down on the ground, losing valuable seconds that you need to finish complete the test.

Prioritize your single target attack, use Ice Spear whenever possible and make sure it is max ranked for your level. Use Mana Pierce if the enemy s out of range. Fireball is also very good DPS if you can manage to get a cast off. Evasive Dash might have some use here to allow you escape the white circles.

The enemy on round 3 hits hard so make sure to have health pots to top yourself off.

You get 1 minute for first round, 50 seconds for 2nd and 45 seconds for 3rd round to defeat your enemies. It might take a couple tries!

Difficulty - 5/5

C9 - Level 12 Shaman class test - Agility

Level 14 - Duel - Duel against your trainers

Pretty easy quest. First trainer is a warrior, 2nd one is a shaman and the 3rd one is a rangerish trainer and jumps around a lot.

Diffculty 1/5

Level 16 - Speed - Use your combo generating skills!

What this test comes down to is your combo generating skills. These enemies will regen health unless you chain your attacks on them such that they don't have a chance to get up and heal. Essentially this is like generating combo points.

Use the pointers above for generating combo points if you need help!

Diffculty 3/5

C9 - Level 16 Shaman class test- Speed

Level 18 - Survival - Don't get below 70% hp (don't get in melee range)

This class quest might be difficult if you insists on meleeing. However, if you stay at ranged and just kite the mobs and throw your ranged attacks like Fireball/Mana Shot/Pierce at them it is a fairly trivial quest. Make sure to LOS (Line of Sight) the arrow shooting mobs and melee them down if they are alone.

The boss fight use the same strategy - don't get in melee and throw your ranged spells at him - there is no time limit.

Difficulty level : 2/5

C9- Level 18 Shaman class quest - Final boss- HD1080p

Level 20- spam A/D buttons!

The level 20 class quest is a series of pointless quests that have you run around the town. The final quest in the series make you go to Temple of the Dead, a level 20 dungeon.

The final boss fight (not a fight as you can't damage him) is really just about spamming you're A/D buttons when you get choked – if you see the slider at the bottom moves to the right, you are doing it right! Other than that just keep running away from the boss!

Diffculty: 3/5

C9-level 20 shaman class quest

Advancement past level 20

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After you complete your class quest, you are given the option to choose between three advanced classes - Taoist, Illusionist and Elementalist.

Choosing your advanced class will grant you new abilities, as you can see I decided to pick Elementalist for a bit more mage like gameplay. Taoist is the melee version of shaman.

Oh if you havn't already, its time to pick a crafting profession. I do recommend Alchemy as you are a mana user and will be consuming a lot of mana, especially as an elementalist.