PvE Guides

Dandadan’s Guide to Destroyer

· 7 min read

Overview

Destroyer is a dark element tank class that can both withstand and deal decent damage.

This class is a physical damage type that maximizes both STR and VIT which also expands the damage of Destroyers.

On top of it all, it also highlights the usage of the damage taken reduction skills which can be useful on withstanding attacks or even ignoring some of the in-game mechanics.

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Destroyer’s capabilities are focused on holding aggro, providing damage and defensive buffs for the whole team while also dealing damage.

Pros

  • Durability
    • One of the best capabilities of Destroyers is its innate tanking capabilities that will allow you to withstand most of the damages in game.
  • Buffs and Survivability
    • Destroyers are both able to produce a wide range of damage buffs and protection buffs to allies.
    • +35% Dark damage ( +20% elemental damage )
    • +8% attack and additional stats
    • -Consistent Barrier to protect raid members.
    • +20% attack and +15% Critical Damage
    • +15% Damage reduction for 10 seconds

Cons

  • Holding the aggro
    • Holding aggro by using taunt/provoke can be both beneficial and crucial for the whole team so make sure that you’re always up and ready.
  • Low APM
    • What would you expect from a person who holds a big hammer eh?

Skill Breakdown

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Since there is no skill allocation cap in this server you can freely use any skills available.

Offensive Skills

  • Circle Break
    • While not considered as huge damage, I still find this skill very important due to chaining Circle Bombs (CM3) which executes the skill instantly. You can also use this skill to dodge or reposition.
  • Taunting Howl
    • Deals minimal damage but provides a -10% defensive stat debuff on the enemy for 30 seconds. No, it's not used to get aggro.
  • Flying Swing
    • One of the merc’s bread and butter skills. Provides 40% damage reduction while charging which helps a lot when withstanding an attack.
  • Punishing Swing
    • Deals huge amounts of damage when EX skill is learned. Also provides a little DoT and reduces targets defense by 10% for 30 seconds. Damage taken is reduced by 35% while casting.
  • Circle Bombs
    • Merc’s cream souffle. Deals a huge explosion and can be used along with Circle Break (CM3). Holding the backwards button makes a front explosion. Damage taken is reduced by 40% while casting
  • Rolling Attack
    • Can be casted 3 times. Deals a huge amount of damage this is one of the core skills of mercs so always use it to your advantage.
  • Gigantic Bomb
    • Merc’s ultimate skill. The Awakened version gives a lot of damage increase.
  • Maelstrom Howl
    • RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Damage taken is reduced by 45% while casting. Provides attack reduction debuff on the target for 20%. Provides heal for 10% of max hp.
  • Assault Crash (Awakening)
    • Perform three smashes that also provide 40% damage reduction to the user while casting. Can be cancelled ONLY by Relieve and Impenetrable.
  • Earthquake (Awakening)
    • Deals multiple heavy damage. The whole animation skill is under iframe so you can use this to avoid taking damage. Also provides a 25% hero skill charge on normal dungeons.

Defensive Skills

  • Courage
    • Class buff that provides +8% attack and additional stats for the whole team.
  • Relieve
    • Warriors self-cure skill. You can also use this skill to cancel any skill animations or even when knocked down.
  • Iron Skin
    • Provides super armor buff for 900 seconds.
  • Highlander
    • Provides 50 Rage. Rage is Merc’s bubble system that can be easily earned by dealing physical damage.
  • Battle Howl
    • UWAAA! Classic howler buff. Imagine yelling and giving 10% attack and 15% critical damage buff to the whole team.
  • Havoc Howl
    • Not much of a damage but this skill will save you a LOT of times. The whole animation is iframe so you can use this to dodge even Mamon’s tail swipe.
  • Howl Charging
    • A babysitting skill. This is one of the core defensive skills that provides a barrier for the whole team (10% of max hp).
  • Final Stand
    • Provides 15% damage reduction to the whole team within its range for 10 seconds
  • Impenetrable
    • Damage Taken is reduced by 55% and heals 6% of user’s max hp upon successful blocked hits. Perfect for cancelling skill animations. Can be used the same as parry skills.
  • Beckoning of Shadows
    • A toggle skill that provides elemental damage and hp (5%) buffs for the whole team. (35% Dark attack and 20% for other elements).
  • Thrill of Battle
    • Self buff that provides +20% Healing received, Damage Reduction 35%, Max hp increase 20% for 20 seconds and Self recovery for 10% of max hp upon casting.
  • Crash Mode
    • Provides 10% attack to the whole party for 1200 seconds.
  • [Harmony] Courage
    • Provides 10% attack speed for 40 seconds. Invincible during casting. Cooldowns are shared with other classes with the same buff.
  • Adrenaline Rush
    • Triggers when hp goes down by 35%. Skill provides 3% hp regen per second, 25% barrier health(based on your max hp) for 20 seconds. Has internal cooldown of 60 seconds.

Class Masteries

Skill Crest

You can still explore whichever skill crests may fit to your play style. But ideally, I choose Damage crest for Flying Swing and Circle Bombs while Cooldown crest for Maelstrom Howl and Rolling Attack.

For Skill up crest, you can use Rolling Attack to compensate for choosing cooldown crest. Circle Bombs orFlying Swing for increased damage.

Equipment Set Selection

Choosing equipment for your character may affect your playstyle as a tank.
The good thing here is, you can choose between the two sets of equipment you want to use.
The latest equipment sets we have are Rune Dragon Berserker and Rune Dragon Unyielding.

Rune Dragon Berserker is commonly used by dps classes due to its offensive capabilities, while
Rune Dragon Unyielding is used by tanks or healer classes due to its survivability stats.

Dragon Jades are also categorized the same. This is a red pill / blue pill moment for you. Crafting materials are limited in the beginning so you need to choose wisely.

Skill Rotation

This class is pretty straight forward and is not strict on skill rotations. I can confidently say that playing this class for a week or two will give you a good grasp of how this class works.

You will only need to work on being aggressive or playing safe while maintaining the aggro and casting buffs for the whole team if needed.

But just in case, Let me give you an example:

Keep in mind that the most basic repetitive combination would be:

Circle Break ► Circle Bombs ► Flying Swing Instant ► LMB(Trophy Hunting) ► Flying Swing.

You can deal pretty decent damage with this basic skill rotation and also utilize the usage of Flying Swing.

Casting Flying Swing Instant reduces 1 second cooldown of designated skills: (CM2) Flying Swing, Circle Bombs, Rolling Attack and Maelstrom Howl.

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I highly suggest casting debuff skills first to maximize damage.

Skill input feels a little slow? Let me help you.

Using Impenetrable after skills reduces the end skill animation delay thus removing the “sluggish” feeling for some skills.

It may seem at times that destro can input skills faster than usual.

Using Tumble after Rolling attack normally has a split second delay.

Adding Impenetrable ► Tumble after Rolling Attack eliminates the delay and allows you to move much easier and faster.

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I personally use Impenetrable and Relieve mostly to cancel animations. But don’t stray away too much on the main purpose of those skills.

Using these skills may be crucial depending on the situation.
Impenetrable in the middle of wake attack.
Using Relieve when knocked down.

You can still freely explore other rotations that you may discover along the way. It may not have a bunch of combinations but, I can confidently say that you’ll still enjoy this class the more you play it.

Content Relevance of Tank Classes in-game.

With the release of v7+ content, many people may argue that playing with tank classes is not a priority anymore. Sure, it may seem true that people prefer to fill the slots with DPS but in reality, tank classes are still relevant in the current version.

Tanks are still highly needed for perfect team composition. It will also put confidence in your team knowing that they can focus on dps with no hesitation. Perfect team composition still provides much better results in raids.

However, running solo in dungeons may cause a little difficulty especially when you aim for fast clear.

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Remember, your purpose as a tank is to protect and amp up your whole team.

Things to know / consider

  • Playing as a Tank is very efficient in both Dragon Raids and Nests.
  • Doing solo content may give a little struggle especially on time oriented content such as STG (Sunset Training Ground).
  • The main goal of the tank classes is to provide support and protection for the whole team.
  • Your team will heavily rely on your buffs while holding the aggro. Your obligation as a tank is to be consistent so your whole team will benefit and deal damage smoothly. And please, don’t wait for someone to chat “rebuff pls”.
  • Tanks cannot deal the top damage during raids and nests. Is this a bad thing? No. Your team relied on you to stay alive, take pride in that.

Author’s Afterword

Hey! still here? Thanks for stopping by and reading my guide! I’m pretty sure you will be a much better tank than me in no time. IDN has been a nice place for me to unwind and chill and you guys made it possible.

I hope we'll have a chance to chill in-game and do awesome things together in the future!

If you guys have any questions, feel free to reach out in-game or in Discord. Again, thank you and may the Gods be with you~

-Dandadan/Shinkō-Psalm