Dragonfable | Guardian - Blades and Bones

A tanky shield-spammer with extremely low DPT vs one of the most threatening debuff-spam fights. Who would prevail? It was never even a question.

This video is not liable for any post-traumatic stress disorder induced by using a 255 BPD shield to block a 5-hit 21 Crit debuff t1. It was simply the most efficient way to rack up chip damage on Duskbolt whilst avoiding one inconveniently placed attack from Keelhaul, that fortunately, in later rotations, occurs alongside Duskbolt's threatening skills that are to be avoided, as he is the much more threatening foe.

Duskbolt plays very similar to a standard Ninja, with the main difference being that whenever he scores an Ambush, he uses a small nuke - that is to say, he attempts to inflict up to three venom effects and then uses Catalytic Flow, which buffs him based on the number of inflicted venoms. If one venom is in play when this is used, Duskbolt only recieves +25% Boost, which is largely manageable. However, at two or three venoms, he gains +100 Bonus and +200 Crit as well, which are much less manageable. Once he enters Catalytic Flow, he uses a -All skill into a nuke if it hits, or a +Health debuff if it misses. Then, he gains a one-turn 180 MPM shield and restarts his rotation. Duskbolt can gain Ambushes on the first turn of battle, upon restarting his rotation, or upon using Catalytic Flow powered by three venoms.

So the idea would be to simply shield as many venoms as you can, right? Well, there is a bit of a catch. First off, if you use a shield skill, Duskbolt will, once per rotation, pause his rotation, and use three filler attacks. This means you need a spare shield to throw away just so you can use your real shield on the threatening attacks. Also, every time Duskbolt gets hit, he gains +5 Bonus through Techno Charge. At +100 Bonus, he pauses his rotation to use another small nuke. Fortunately for Guardian, it has both a throwaway shield and a very high hitcount skill that can almost always pop Techno Charge. However, we don't shield all the three venoms before Catalytic Flow - we just reset Techno Charge and use BPD+Allres with Ray of Light + Awethur to eat up two venoms comfortably. Vortex, Shield, and Scales can be used to cover the third one if needed, otherwise a shield can instead be saved for the Catalytic Flow burst cycle (which becomes increasingly difficult to avoid with C2 +100 Bonus and Techno Charge pairing up.

While all this happens, Keelhaul stacks a -END effect on you per turn that is only cleansed using potions. As such, a slightly more aggressive playstyle is required due to the massive cutdown in Guardian's effective HP once the debuff builds up. With a few Awethur procs, you should be able to blaze past Duskbolt, after which Keelhaul becomes largely manageable. He stacks +Boost and Bonus every time he hits, which are reduced when he misses, meaning it's no challenge for Guardian to keep his stats low throughout the fight and especially when it can actually start blinding him. At 50% HP, he uses a strong nuke and gains +100% Boost and Crit, which are reduced by hitting him with Water. But even a class like Guardian can burst him down pretty safely from this point.