Latale

[Forte 0]

LaTale is a Korean MMO made by Actoz Soft and developed by Abio Studio. It is much like Maple Story, as it is a side-scrolling platforming based MMO with a real time combat system, and uses heavily stylized 2D sprites on imaginatively expressed backgrounds. The following is a short guide for this game to possibly interest my readers into playing it!

 

-Getting Started-

When you start LaTale, you will be asked to input a character name just like any other RPG you've ever played. You get three character slots and have to buy the fourth one, either from the game's cash shop, or from other players, since the character slot tool is capable of being sold between characters in game. I mention this character naming step because unlike other MMOs, it has an interesting quirk: if you delete your character, the name cannot ever be used again by anyone. Please keep this in mind when using your favorite user name!

 

You can select from one of five (soon to be six) classes for your character to be. These classes all level up into different job paths, which means that even two characters who start off with the same job can be very different things as they continue to play. Let's go over them!

 

-Warrior-

The heavy damage class of LaTale, the Warrior is probably the hardest class to grow accustomed to. Warriors are the only class in the game allowed to use Spears and Two Handed Swords, and attack very slowly, but with extreme power. It is important as a warrior to find a magician friend very quickly, and pal around with them as much as possible. As they keep you healed in battle, you won't have to worry about your low defense doing you in!

 

Warriors can upgrade into either Bladers or Warlords.

 

-Warlord

Warlord functions just like Warrior, and uses Spears and Two Handed swords. As a Warlord, your attacks become slightly faster and retain all of their punch, so you become truly the strongest attacker in the game. In party play, you'll be indespencible, as your hard hits will take huge chunks out of the immense health of boss monsters.

 

-Blader

Bladers switch up from the Warrior's slowness to become quick attacking DPSers who use dual swords. Of course, the trade off here is that they don't do nearly as much potential damage, but their damage per hit is still among the highest in the game, and even against the highest level monsters in the game, a good blader with appropriate buffs can deal 10,000 damage or higher to enemies per hit.

 

Warlord and Blader can be further advanced into Dragoon and Strider respectively. These slightly upgraded classes don't change much, except for random support skills, so the basics still hold true in these. These third jobs can be upgraded into what is called a Sub-Class, and for Warrior, the two possible subclasses are:

 

-Dragoon

- Highlander

Highlander keeps in the spirit of the strong Warrior class and delivers massive damage, using "Spiral Blades" as their primary weapons. For fans of fictional ninja characters, Spiral Blades more accurately resemble giant shuriken, so it's really neat to watch Highlanders fight with these weapons. Of course, since they focus on damage output, Highlanders are the strongest class in the game, hands down, and are positively fierce in combat.

 

-Strider

- Sword Dancer

The sword dancer keeps in the habit of double blades, switching from blades that you hold to two swords that simply float by you and attack on your command. These "Psionic Blades" are very neat to see floating behind a person, and even more neat to see in action. The Strider's high DPS is kept by this class, and Sword Dancers are probably the fastest attacking class in the game.

 

 

-Explorer-

Every game needs an archer, of course! What's different about Explorers, however, is that they function not only as archers, but also as thieves, as their weapons of specialty are Bows, Crossbows, and Knives. The Explorer has low defense and high DPS, and depending on what you do as one, you may just end up getting lots of neat tricks. Explorers level up into two radically different classes:

 

-Gunslinger

Gunslingers have even more DPS than you did as an explorer even if you chose to go down the path of bows, and upgrade right into wielding two guns. While your skill tree is limited, the skills recharge extremely fast and allow for high damage combos. The downside is that all of this damage will attrack enemy aggression towards you, which is awful considering your low defense. Your best pairing is to have a Knight nearby who can defend you from the majority of attacks.

 

-Treasure Hunter

Treasure hunters continue the tradition of Bows, Crossbows, and Daggers, making them the second most diverse class in terms of skill sets, behind Magicians. A treasure hunter's real power comes not from battle skills, but from support skills, which allow themselves and everyone in their party to reap more items from monsters slain, speed themselves up, and even set up cannons and other explosives. The Crossbow is the slowest, but most powerful, while the daggers are the fastest, but shortest ranged.

 

Both of these classes can level up into a third and subsequently sub class as well, Gunslinger to Duelist and Treasure Hunter to Ruin Walker. From this we get:

 

-Duelist

-Blade Slinger

The blade slinger, called "Judgment" in the Korean version of the game, takes a page from the world of Final Fantasy and equips themselves with Gunblades. These gun blades allow for both close range physical and long range physical attacks, making the Blade Slinger a deadly class. On top of your new abilities to perform as a hybrid between a warrior and a gunslinger, you also get impressively quick attacks, making you follow heavily in the same vein as your previous Duelist class.

 

-Ruin Walker

-Rogue Master

Rogue Masters are the only other class in the game that are allowed to dual wield, except instead of swords they go completely into dagger territory. Their attacks are quite different from those of the Ruin Walker before them, unless you were already proficient with your dagger and not your bow or crossbow, so it may take some time to get used to your new sub class. Their attacks are remarkably fast, and allow for quick and easy combos on enemies, but since your defense remains relatively low, you should always remember to party up with someone who can protect you.

 

 

-Knight-

Knights are hands down LaTale's wall class, being given from the start more HP and Defense than any other class could even hope for. The trade off here, which is what makes Knights a wall and not a tank, is that their attacks are relatively weak, although they are moderately quick attackers. Knights are given the option to wield either one handed swords, clubs, or knuckles, and their upgraded classes - Templars and Guardians - split that off further. Because of a Knight's near invincibility, this is the easiest class to solo with.

 

-Templar

Like the knights of legend, your entire purpose is to be nothing more than a firm and steady wall between your party members and the legions of enemies that you will all have to face. A templar in LaTale is closest to what any other game would call a Paladin, and you will find that your skill set will allow you to use healing magic, as well as give stat buffs to your party and debuffs to your enemies. Of particular importance is your ability to make yourself truly invincible for a limited time, and the ability to draw enemy aggression to you, meaning that your party members can unload faster and stronger attacks onto enemies that will not hurt them. This comes in especially handy later as a Holy Order, since you replenish your special attack gague by taking damage.

 

-Guardian

If you've ever felt like just up and punching everything in your path, this is the class you'll want to go. Guardians sacrifice some of their defense to be able to attack faster and therefore be stronger than their Templar counterpats. Many of a Guardian's special attacks allow them greater aerial mobility, and thus, they can more easily get to places than others, a feat that sometimes comes in handy. All of your attacks are punches and kicks, so as a Guardian, you lose the ability to wield swords, shields, and clubs.

 

The final classes for Templar and Guardian are Holy Order and Saint respectively, and are further divided into Terror Knight and Psykicker. While I don't know enough about these two classes to provide full information on them, I can tell you that Terror Knights replace swords, sheilds and clubs with "Gauntlets", and Psykickers replace knuckles with "Psychic Hands". Both classes are very similar to Guardian, as they both fight with very close range fighting styles.

 

 

-Magician-

The most diverse class in the game is also the one that consumes the most SP. As a basic Magician, you're given the choice of using a staff, knuckles, or a dagger, all of these in conjunction with your elemental magics, which are Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire. Of these magics, Wind and Fire are considered more for attack, while Water and Earth are more defensively inclined. Water provides magicians with all of their healing spells, while Earth provides you with defense. Wind is a fast casting magic that buffs your movement speed, and Fire has no purpose outside of strong attack power. Most mages prefer to go to the

 

-Bard

A class which specializes in healing by playing on their guitars. Of course, since you specialize in healing, you have lost mostly everything but Water magic, but you also get musical based magic to help you in combat. As a bard, and later as a Minstrel, you will be the most wanted player people can invite to their party, since your job is to heal, and given how fast your healing spells recharge, you will be a master of the trade. Other Magicians choose to go down the path of the

 

-Sorcerer

A class that specializes in everything BUT healing, mostly attacking quickly and strongly to deal as much damage as possible without getting themselves killed. They combo well with their healer counterparts, and serve as good attackers in parties.

 

Like Templar and Guardian, I don't really know enough about the final classes of these two to even go into them.

 

 

-Engineer-

The final class of the game as of right now, Engineers focus on balance, mostly using ranged magic attacks to protect themselves from a distance. Like Engineers in TF2, they are able to place turrets, which will attack continuously for a while, and then destroy themselves. Engineers, unlike the other classes, have one class change path.

 

-Meister-

Meisters take all of the weak aspects of the Engineer and improve upon them, allowing you to pilot an MG (short for Magnug, as is explained in the game), which is basically a mech armor. They gain a lot of HP, but still won't end up on par with the Templar/Guardian classes.

 

Star Seeker is the final class of the Engineer, but I have very little information on this class.

 

 

I will update this guide more as time goes on and I learn even more about the game, so check back often, especially if you're interested in trying out new games!