Awakening Sage omni-comprehensive
class guide
Table of Contents
_clicking on a title will show a link to the corresponding paragraph_
Preface
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
Overview
Class Introduction Kit Analysis Skills Overcharge Lateral & Vertical Upsurge Arkanon Effect Rabams aka Skill Enhancements Locked Skills and Quickslots Weapon Swaps Interrogate Pocketing (please, don’t) Animation Cancels Seize Cancels Spear Bolt and Flow: Aftershock cancels Rift Storm cancels Divine Executioner cancels Upsurge cancels Lightning Prison cancels Interrogate cancels Impaling Flash cancels Void Eruption cancels Mobility Movement Skills Movement Chains
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
PvE
Skill Rotation The Question The Answer ⬦ Freestyling Skill Priority Freestyling Flow Chart Spear Bolt, Aftershock and Judgement Radiant Annihilation & Realm of Anguish Priority on AoEs PvE Combo Examples
Core: Enlightening Bolt PvE Gear PvE Addons Arkyve’s addons Diego77b’s addons
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
PvP
Playstyle PvP kit Core Skills Seize Shock Debuff PvP Combo Examples Mainhand Flows pocketing Finishing Touch CC fishing PvP Gameplan (Work in Progress) PvP Gear High Damage ⬦ DR High Survivability ⬦ Evasion Capped PvP Gear PvP Addons
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
Closing Remarks
Preface
Hi! Let’s start with an introduction, shall we? My name is Arkyve, and I’m a veteran Sage player. I’m not your number one Sage in either PvE or PvP fields, but I’d like to consider myself very well versed in both. Some might know me for moderating the OG Sage Discord server, others for my
presence in game here and there. Others again might remember me from the first Sage guide back in 2021, which mostly covered the Succession kit, and which I sadly abandoned during a hiatus I took a few months later. Regardless, I’m pleased to have you all here.
The choice to write this new guide was fueled by passion, but mostly driven by necessity, as information regarding the spec has been lacking and fragmented for the better part of the last three years. Unlike my first work, this guide will not cover the Succession kit at all, and will instead solely focus on the Awakening one. This is mostly due to personal energy and time constraints, and the fact Succession hasn’t been my main spec for a good while, hence any information would have to be gathered from other sources and I wouldn’t have good enough personal experience to validate those sources. This is not to say there aren’t reputable sources and veteran players representing Succession Sage out there, but I’m just not comfortable putting effort into covering something that doesn’t align with my main focus.
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
This guide will be divided in sections covering the general kit and how it works on a mechanical level, and then two more sections covering how to make use of that kit in PvE and PvP respectively. So, without further ado, let’s get right into it.
Overview
Class Introduction
Awakening Sage is sort of a peculiar class, not particularly simple or straightforward like some other classes out there. However, some might find an easier time picking it up if they are used to the playstyle of classes like Sorceress, Scholar or Hashashin. While those classes look drastically different from one another, they also have components to their kit that help them cover similar roles as Awakening Sage during a fight. There are clearly also other classes with similarities, but I feel those three would be most fitting for comparison.
Our kit offers us an edge in terms of raw offensive stats _(high AP self-buff/DR debuff/passives, high accuracy through debuff/passives_ ), allowing us to more easily reach significant breakpoints for our damage to go through in both PvE and PvP. On a mechanical level, we are a very mobile class with a high damage output alternating between hard hitting, quick burst damage skills, and slower skills with a fair amount of AoE sustained DPS.
In PvE our kit allows us to freely and constantly reposition behind mobs for high back attack uptime, and comfortably dish out damage in pretty large AoEs, which is something a lot of classes out there struggle with. While our tankiness on paper is subpar at best, our self sustain is high and we can easily avoid most of the damage by repositioning often. Our pack to pack movement in larger PvE rotations is fairly good and our stamina doesn’t suffer at all outside of spots where mobs all die in a single hit, forcing us to keep moving with no downtime.
In PvP we can stay on the move around and in the fight erratically, being a distraction, catching people behind their forward guards by constantly taking unpredictable angles, and following up on our teammates’ CCs with high damage skills.
The aforementioned raw offensive stats allow us to be a threat to anyone out ofposition, be it through collateral AoE damage or full focused combo’ing. Where most classes struggle to meet the necessary breakpoints to damage carpetbuilds, our stats allow us to be a threat for them too (granted your build of choice supports that). On top of all that, we are a great asset in any group PvP, especially smallscale, where we can support our group by constantly debuffing enemies’ DR, Evasion, andMovement/Attack Speeds.
Kit Analysis Following, you can find an extended list of all the useful skills in the kit, and all theireffects. If something isn’t mentionedworth mentioning to someone who is learning the class. (most mainhand skills will fall into this category) , it’s not
Skills
Skill Icon Skill Name Inputs Cooldown Self Buff Debuff Protection CC Notes
Lightning Surge Spacebar 5 s. +30% Crit. Hit Rate for 5 sec. Super Armor/iframe (^) Overcharge/off CD, movement skillSA only off CD, Iframe only on Bolt Shift+WASD 2 s. +36 Evasion for 5 sec. Super Armor/Iframe Iframe only on Overcharged/Off CD, movement skill Seize E 18 s. Super Armor Grapple Float on Ranged grab, Bound on Melee grab Spear Bolt W+F 7 s. +20 AP for 10 sec. Super Armor/Iframe Movement skill Flow: Aftershock W+F 7 s. +20 AP for 10 sec. Iframe/Super Armor Movement skill Rift Storm Shift+LMB 10 s. Super Armor Filler damage skill Enlightening Bolt S+LMB 7 s. -25 DR for 10 sec. Shock Debuff Floating Main damage skill Divine Executioner Shift+Q 12 s. Shock Debuff Super Armor/Iframe Movement skill Judgement W+Q 10 s. +20 AP for 10 sec. Shock Debuff Super Armor/Iframe Movement skill
Upsurge Shift+RMB 7 s. +10% Down Atk. Dmg for 5 sec. Forward Guard Main damage skill, has two versions determined by previous skill Lightning Prison Shift+F 10 s. Forward Guard Main damage skill, high HP regen on hit Flow: Interrogate F 9 s. Forward Guard Can be used after Lightning Prison or Upsurge Impaling Flash Shift+E 8 s. Shock Debuff Super Armor/Iframe Knockback Movement skill Radiant Annihilation F 7 s. Shock Debuff.. Ator’s Spear S+F 5 s. -24 Evasion for 10 sec. Knockdown Chain Lightning S+RMB 7 s. -25 DR for 10 sec. Forward Guard Shock Relay RMB 3 s. +30% Crit. Hit Rate for 5 sec. Stiffen Best cancel in and out of most skills Void Eruption Quickslot 10 s. Super Armor Extremely quick swap to Mainhand Ator’s Illusion Shift+X 10 s. Stun Quick catch from Rift Chain, viable in PvP Ator’s Palm Shift+X 7 s. -20 DR for 10 sec. Forward Guard Protected HP regen and decent damage, don’t abuse, good in PvE and PvP Rift Chain Shift+WASD 4 s, Iframe Stealthed movement skill, for repositioning Realm of Anguish S+RMB 15 s. -20 DR for 10 sec.. Bound (1st hit) Stationary AoE damage over time, for PvE
Illusion Compression Quickslot 10 s. Stiff/Float/Vacuum Niche and risky catch for group PvP Illusion Barrier Q 1 s. Forward Guard Qblock, only available in mainhand Compression^ Dimensional Shift+Q^ 14 s.^ -^ -^ Super Armor^ -^ Long animation lock, use carefully Void Blast Quickslot/X 10 s. Forward Guard Can be used with X or LMB from Ator’s Palm, viable for PvE Electrify Q/Quickslot 3 mins. +50% Crit. Hit rate for 30 sec. +60 Accuracy for 30 sec.^ +30 AP for 30 sec. Super Armor This is your class buff, use it in tandem with Reset to achieve higher uptime. Reset Quickslot 10 mins. Super Armor Resets all your running cooldowns
Spatial Collapse Quickslot/S+F 12 s. -20 DR for 10 sec. Forward Guard while casting Bound Can be cast to pocket Finishing Touch through Awakening Finishing Touch LMB/W+F 10 s. Floating Can be pocketed through Awakening
Illusion Expansion Quickslot/ Shift+F 7 s. +20 AP for 10 sec. Stiffness (^) Detonation through AwakeningCan be cast to pocket Illusion Illusion Detonation F Knockdown Can be pocketed through Awakening _Unmentioned Core skills aren’t worth considering._^ Core^ Skills Skill Icon Skill Name Inputs Cooldown Buff Debuff Protection CC Additional Notes Core: Spear Bolt W+F 7 s. Super Armor/Iframe Knockdown Mostly good for duels Core: Enlightening Bolt S+LMB 7 s. -25 DR for 10 sec. Forward Guard Floating Best in Slot for PvE and decent for PvP beginners Core: Upsurge Shift+RMB^ 7 s.^ +10% Down Atk. Dmg for 5 sec^ -^ Forward Guard^ Stun^ Best all round core skill for PvP, great in any scenario Core: Lightning Prison Shift+F 10 s. Forward Guard Stun Mostly good in mass PvP, can work in smallscale _Unmentioned BSR skills are a waste of BSR._^ BSR^ Skills Skill Icon Skill Name Inputs Cooldown Buff Debuff Protection CC Additional Notes 100% BSR: Rift Storm Shift+LMB Same as 100% Absorb Super Armor Vacuum/Bound Don’t recommend in PvP, decent in PvE 25% BSR: Interrogate F+LMB +10% Casting Speed for 20 sec. -10 AP for 20 sec. Forward Guard Insanely good AoE burst damage in PvP 10% BSR: Impaling Flash Shift+E+LMB Iframe/Super Armor Knockback Good for SA trades and finishing off low HP targets 100% BSR: Ator’s Mark S+E Same as 100% absorb -. Super Armor Bound (multi-hit) Niche multi-hit CC in PvP and quick 100% for PvE Now that we have a complete overview on what our kit offers, let’s address someelephants in the room. If you have at least skimmed through the skill table above, you will have wonderedwhat some things even mean. Let’s start with clarifying those.
Overcharge This one is a key mechanic of our spec, although I wish it was much better expanded on and integrated into more skills. Skills can be activated in an Overcharged state by using them after other skills. Note that skills CAN’T be activated in an Overcharged state if cast after a skill that is used on cooldown.
Reading through the table above, you will have seen it mentioned in the notes for Bolt and Lightning Surge , as conditions to have certain protections. Let’s get more in depth and look at the differences between their normal versions and Overcharged versions.
Skill Icon Skill Name Protection Stamina Cost Self Buff
Bolt Super Armor 150 +36 Evasion for 5 sec. Overcharged Bolt (off Cooldown) Invincible^ ➾^ Super Armor^150 +36 Evasion for 5 sec. Overcharged Bolt (on Cooldown) Super Armor^200 +36 Evasion for 5 sec. Lightning Surge Super Armor 150 +30% Crit. Hit Rate for 5 sec. Overcharged Lightning Surge (off Cooldown) Invincible^ ➾^ Super Armor^150 +30% Crit. Hit Rate for 5 sec. Overcharged Lightning Surge (on Cooldown) -^150
You will also be able to recognize when those skills are used in their Overcharged state through the emission of some blue lightning effects, which aren’t otherwise there.
Lateral & Vertical Upsurge Once again, we have a skill that can work in two different ways, this time decided by what skill is used beforehand. We will go over which skills flow into which version of Upsurge in the Animation Cancels section, but before that let’s go over how the two versions work. Both versions of the skill are Forward Guard, but they differ in some aspects: ◈ Lateral Upsurge has an instantaneous attack animation and hits in a short range, but 360° around the character. This version of the skill is ideal for a sudden burst of damage on a single target in PvP or when mobs are clumped up together well in PvE. Keep in mind this skill is still Forward Guard, and getting up close means your opponent will have an easier time repositioning behind you, so make sure to
reposition yourself again right after to be safe. ◈ Vertical Upsurge has a slightly slower attack animation, but it hits in a long and relatively wide line in front of the character. This version works better to deal damage in a somewhat bigger area and from a safer position. Works great against larger clumps of mobs in PvE, and works amazing in larger PvP
fights, especially to be chained into our 25% BSR: Interrogate for a hard-hitting, fully protected AoE burst damage combo.
Arkanon Effect
You might have seen this effect in the tooltips of some awakening skills, and wondered what it even means. The
Awakening, called, as you would expect, the Arkanon. The skills that summon it are
Spear Bolt, Aftershock ,
Radiant Annihilation , and Enlightening Bolt. All summon hits, like for every class in the game, have a base critical chance of 0%, and their damage ramps up dramatically by gaining Critical Chance from various sources: ◈ Critical Hit levels _(up to 18%)_ ◈ Critical Hit Rate addon _(30% buff)_
◈ Shock Relay/ Lightning Surge _(30% buff)_ or Electrify _(50% buff)_ ◈ 100%/200% Rage Absorption _(30% buff)_ ◈ Critical Hit Rate Sovereign reforge stones _(5% each, 15% total)_
It’s recommended to alternate your Rage Absorption and Electrify buffs to achieve 100% Critical Chance on your summon hits more consistently, at least in PvE.
When using those skills, keep in mind that hits coming from the Arkanon will always be delayed by a varying amount of time depending on the skills. With some practice and game knowledge, that delay can be used to your advantage, especially in PvE.
We will explore better how to make it happen especially with Radiant Annihilation later, in the PvE section of this guide.
Rabams aka Skill Enhancements
Let’s now cover our Rabam skills for each level and which ones we should pick for every scenario.
◇ Level 56
◈ Ator’s Palm is definitely your best option for PvE, while arguably also good in PvP for the sake of staying protected.
◈ Ator’s Illusion is a niche catch for 1v1 or smallscale PvP, and doesn't quite serve any purpose for PvE.
◇ Level 57
◈ Piercing Thorn is a very slow and niche long ranged catch for PvP. Pay attention to your surroundings when using it. ◈ Energized Thorn. We don’t talk about Energized Thorn.
◇ Level 58
◈ Void Eruption is an excellent tool to quickly swap to your mainhand weapon, amazing for any kind of PvP.
◈ Void Blast is a decent filler damage skill for PvE that also provides Forward Guard paired with a good amount of self sustain.
Locked Skills and Quickslots
For the sake of performing some combos and animation cancels correctly, and to make sure you don’t run into conflicting inputs, there are some skills you should lock and some you should put in your quickslots.
Let’s go over the necessary quickslots first:
◈ Void Eruption for quick access to Rift Chain
◈ Reset to reset Electrify cooldown
◈ Electrify
Additionally, you can quickslot the following skills for convenience:
◈ Radiant Annihilation swap to Awakening and avoid input conflicts with Interrogate ◈ Realm of Anguish for AoE damage over time, particularly useful in PvE
◈ Illusion Compression , very niche and risky catch to stop beefy targets in group PvP from going in and out of your group or fort base
◈ Spatial Collapse in order to have an easier time pocketing Finishing Touch
◈ Illusion Expansion in order to have an easier time pocketing Illusion Detonation
Now let’s look at which skills to lock:
◈ Electrify to avoid conflicting inputs, can be used through quickslot
◈ Realm of Anguish , same reason as Electrify ◈ Ator’s Thorn ◈ Ator’s Fist ◈ Form Shift
Weapon Swaps
Let’s now look at some ways to quickly swap weapon, starting off from the commonly used Awakening to Mainhand swaps. ◈ Void Eruption _(quickslot)_
◈ Rift Chain _(Shift+WASD after_ _Bolt_ _)_
◈ Spatial Collapse _(quickslot)_
◈ Illusion Expansion _(quickslot)_
◈ Realm of Anguish _(quickslot)_
◈ Ator’s Palm or Ator’s Illusion _(Shift+X)_
◈ Reset _(quickslot)_
Let’s now look at some skills to quickly swap into Awakening from Mainhand
◈ Spear Bolt
◈ Judgement _(W+Q)_
◈ Lightning Surge _(Spacebar after a Mainhand skill)_
◈ Shock Relay _(RMB)_
◈ Bolt _(Shift+WASD while_ _Rift Chain_ _is on cooldown)_
◈ Radiant Annihilation _(quickslot)_
Interrogate Pocketing (please, don’t)
I want to preface this topic by saying that what I’m going to teach you is aimed towards knowing how to actively avoid this technique.
It’s still unclear whether the existence of this tech is the byproduct of a bug or an intended mechanic, but as a matter of fact its existence is useless at best and detrimental at most. In PvE it results in throwing out a very slow and low DPS skill, which we can’t freely cancel out of. In PvP it results in getting ourselves in a dangerous situation with no easy way out. Especially obnoxious when we’re trying to use Lightning Prison for its damage, AOE and ability to be canceled out of at will, and find ourselves stuck into an animation lock instead.
How to initiate the pocketing: ◈ Lightning Prison ➾ Lightning Surge
◈ Lightning Prison ➾ Upsurge
◈ Lightning Prison ➾ Bolt _(only works by using forward and off cooldown)_
◈ Lightning Prison ➾ Impaling Flash
The pocket will be maintained no matter what skill you use or what weapon you’re holding, unless:
◈ Bolt is used in its Overcharged state in any direction EXCEPT forward;
◈ Bolt is used ON cooldown in its Overcharged state followed by a skill without the F input.
You can RELEASE the pocket by using Bolt in its Overcharged state, regardless of direction, followed by an F input.
Animation Cancels
Seize Cancels
Can be canceled into with:
◈ Bolt _(best option in general, full freedom of positioning to land a ranged grab)_
◈ Lightning Surge _(good option, recommended after Impaling Flash, Spear Bolt or Rift Chain)_
◈ Impaling Flash _(decent option, especially if the CC from Impaling goes through)_
◈ Shock Relay _(wouldn’t quite recommend)_
Ranged Version can be partially canceled out of with Spear Bolt. _(instant repositioning at the start of the combo)_
Spear Bolt and Flow: Aftershock
cancels
Both be canceled into with:
◈ Shock Relay _(versatile and available any time. Prioritizes_ _Spear Bolt_ _)_
◈ Impaling Flash _(prioritizes_ _Flow: Aftershock_ _)_
◈ Seize _(Only works from ranged version. Prioritizes_ _Flow: Aftershock_ _)_
◈ Flow: Interrogate _(good way to cancel between hits. Prioritizes_ _Flow: Aftershock_ _)_
Spear Bolt can also be canceled into with:
◈ Lightning Surge
◈ Chain Lightning
Both Can be canceled out of with:
◈ Lightning Surge _(allows to quickly get into the back of an opponent and within grab range)_
◈ Judgement _(good to stay on the move and be hard to catch while moving through enemies)_
◈ Bolt _(same as above)_
Rift Storm cancels
Can be canceled out of during 1st hit animation with Bolt. 1st hit animation can be partially skipped by pressing RMB.
Divine Executioner cancels
Can be canceled into with:
◈ Ator’s Spear _(good to iframe out of unprotected animation or after finishing off a pack in PVE)_
◈ Rift Storm _(good to iframe out of animation lock or after finishing off a pack in PVE)_
Can be partially canceled into with: ◈ Bolt
◈ Spear Bolt
◈ Flow: Aftershock
◈ Shock Relay _(don’t see a reason to do this in most cases)_
◈ Enlightening Bolt
Can be canceled out of with Judgement.
Upsurge cancels
The use cases for both versions are plentiful, and you’re going to figure them out as you play around with them.
Lateral version can be canceled into with: ◈ Bolt
◈ Lightning Surge
◈ Impaling Flash
◈ Judgement
◈ Rift Storm
◈ Divine Executioner
◈ Enlightening Bolt
Vertical version can be canceled into with:
◈ Shock Relay
◈ Chain Lightning
◈ Lightning Prison
◈ Flow: Interrogate
◈ Seize
◈ Spear Bolt
◈ Flow: Aftershock
◈ Ator’s Spear
◈ Radiant Annihilation
Can be canceled out of with Bolt.
Lightning Prison cancels
Can be canceled into with:
◈ Bolt
◈ Rift Storm
◈ Enlightening Bolt
◈ Shock Relay
◈ 25% BSR: Interrogate
◈ Spear Bolt
◈ Flow: Aftershock
◈ Upsurge
◈ Ator’s Spear
Can be canceled out of with:
◈ Bolt
◈ Impaling Flash
◈ Flow: Interrogate by pressing LMB.
Interrogate cancels
Can be canceled out of after each hit with: ◈ Bolt
◈ Spear Bolt
◈ Flow: Aftershock
◈ Shock Relay
◈ Lightning Surge
Keep in mind each hit of Interrogate is an animation lock.
Impaling Flash cancels
Can be canceled out of by skipping the SA animation with: ◈ Bolt
◈ Lightning Surge
◈ Judgement
Void Eruption cancels
Can be canceled out of with Rift Chain. _(typically used exactly with the intent to instantly access Rift Chain from Awakening)_
Outside of all the specific cancels listed above, note that most skills flow slightly better when chained from and into some other skills, with Shock Relay and Lightning Surge improving the flow of most skills and being available for use while on cooldown. This is especially useful in PvE, but it will be covered in more detail soon.
Mobility
Movement Skills
While our movement can’t really compare to something like Musa or Berserker in the long range, when it comes to pack to pack movement in PvE or staying mobile mid-fight in PvP we have the necessary tools to cover those distances with quick bursts. It can become a bit janky if the distance to cover is more than what we can do with our two or three best skills, but it’s still feasible.
Let’s look at our options:
◈ Impaling Flash is by far our best skill for this purpose. Quick, covers a decently long distance, chains well into some other movement skills; ◈ Divine Executioner, can be extremely good if used after casting Rift Storm or
Ator’s Spear , becomes only decent if used otherwise.
Can be chained into Judgement by pressing LMB either at the start of the skill or mid descent;
◈ Judgement doesn’t cover long distances and its movement is conditional to being targeted at an enemy. This can help close the final gap to a pack of mobs in PvE when
all better movement options are on cooldown, or reposition right on top of an enemy in PvP. Can be chained into Divine Executioner by pressing Q after reaching maximum height. ◈ Spear Bolt and Flow: Aftershock are definitely not our best options in terms of sheer movement, but are great for closing gaps if chained into from Impaling Flash. The resulting burst of movement of the two skills combined is by far the best we have in our kit. Both can cover a longer distance if aimed at a target within lock-on range of the skill; (red crosshair) ◈ Bolt and Lightning Surge cover little distance but can be used before, between, and after other movement skills to help cover longer distances. Note that they can also be chained with each other a couple times but not indefinitely, due to the built-in limitations they have through cooldowns and overcharged mechanic. ◈ Rift Chain , when you really are out of options in PvE or whenever you need to safely reposition yourself in PvP. Can be easily accessed from Awakening by casting Void Eruption through quickslot and quickly canceling into it.
Movement Chains Some examples of movement skills chained into one another to achieve fluid and protected movement over medium distances:
Shift+Q
➾ Shift+E
➾
W+F
or
Shift+E
➾ W+F
➾
Camera Turn
Spacebar
➾ W+F
Quickslot
➾ Shift+WASD
➾ Spacebar
➾ W+F
There are naturally many more ways you can mix and match movement skills to derive a seamlessly flowing movement combo, but the combinations are just way too many to list. What you will use will also heavily depend on what you’ll have available off cooldown at any given time, and with time you will learn to adapt on the fly.
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
This concludes the section covering our kit and how it functions mechanically. Let’s now talk about how to apply what we’ve learned in PvE and PvP.
PvE
Skill Rotation
The Question
Let’s start by getting this out of the way and answering the one simple question that I’m faced with every day in the Sage discord.
_«What’s the combo?»_
And my usual answer is that there’s simply none. All currently existing and viable combos are just examples of what a simple skill rotation could look like. But a singular, well performing and loopable combo that works no matter what, doesn’t exist. A loopable combo means you’d need to adapt it to every different spot you grind at, since mobs have varying tankiness and you might have part of your skill rotation still on cooldown when you start the next pack. The same happens when your AP changes from gearing up, or from temporary buffs _(Nodewar buff, event consumables)_. Your damage will reach different breakpoints at different spots, with different gear.
So, how do we get around that? Well, while some classes are limited by how their skills flow and by some unique class perks and buffs, and don’t have much freedom in how many ways they can put their skills in sequence, we don’t have many limitations.
As mentioned earlier, our kit offers two amazing spammable skills, Shock Relay and Lightning Surge , to seamlessly flow into skills as they come off cooldown whenever our last used skill can’t.
The Answer ⬦ Freestyling
This all contributes to something we call _“freestyling”_. We don’t need to follow a predetermined string of skills, and we can instead just throw skills out as they come off cooldown, ensuring our DPS remains high and consistent, and the uptime of our self buffs from skills and addons has very few gaps, if any at all.
Freestyling though does require practice to get a good sense of your cooldowns and, naturally, knowing which skills to prioritize as multiple come back online. I will include here a crude list of what skills to prioritize, and I will use Diego77b’s PvE spreadsheet as a template and point of reference, so credit for this mostly goes to him.
Skill Priority If it’s not mentioned, don’t bother. Priority Skill Icon Skill Name Inputs Flows best from: Flows best into:
S Top Priority
Radiant Annihilation F Enlightening Bolt S+LMB Upsurge Shift+RMB Spear Bolt W+F Aftershock W+F Shock Rela y (off CD) RMB Any except: Any
A High DPS
Shock Rela y (on CD) RMB Any except: Any Chain Lightning S+RMB Lightning prison Shift+F Ator’s Spear S+F Lightning Surge (off CD) Spacebar Any All except:
B
Medium DPS
Lightning Surge (on CD) Spacebar Any All except: Ator’s Palm Shift+X 100% BSR: Ator’s Mark S+E Judgement W+Q
100% BSR: Rift Storm Shift+LMB
C
Low DPS
Rift Storm Shift+LMB Void Blast Quickslot/X/LMB Realm of Anguish Quickslot/S+RMB SR + LS spam RMB + Spacebar Flow: Interrogate F after: Dimensional Compression Shift+Q/Quickslot
Freestyling Flow Chart Let’s now look at a flow chart to better understand in general what criteria to adopt to proritize certain skills over others while freestyling, outside of raw damage. Skills used extremely often for animation cancels like Shock Relay and Lightning Surge won’t be included in the chart as they should be used regardless of the situation, and all priorities outside of damage purposes will be expanded on and clarified in the subsequent paragraphs.
Unlike the prep phase, the damage phase is more cyclical and it can continue indefinitely until mobs are taken care of.
Keep in mind this flow chart is only _indicative_ of the criterias used for skill priority while freestyling, and this specific flow chart might not apply perfectly to every situation. Also, note that giving certain skills priority doesn’t preclude you from using other skills as well.
As for your sense of cooldowns, nothing I write or show here will be able to help you. The only way to develop it is through practice, habit, and muscle memory. So get out there and start grinding!
Now that we have an idea of what skills to prioritize and how to seamlessly chain them into one another, let's get into some details regarding how, when and why you need to use certain skills or combinations.
Spear Bolt, Aftershock and
Judgement
All three of those skills have two important things in common: ◈ They will activate/refresh your +20 AP self buff ◈ They will allow you to more or less quickly reposition behind mobs
On both points though, Spear Bolt and Aftershock have priority. They both
activate Spear Bolt addons, they have higher DPS, and they are much quicker and easier to chain into other skills. Placing addons on Judgement for PvE will be a waste of a slot in most cases, and the skill flows smoothly into less high damage skills than the other two, outright making it a worse option to deal burst damage into the mobs’ backs before they turn around again. Some recommended skill combinations with those would be:
W+F
or ➾
or
or
Shift+RMB
S+LMB
Shift+F
W+F
or ➾^ Space^ ➾
or
or
Shift+RMB
S+F
Shift+LMB
W+Q
➾ Shift+RMB
Another interesting combination that can be used behind mobs when you have no other good filler damage skills off cooldown outside of Spear Bolt/Aftershock and Judgement , is the following:
W+F
or ➾^ W+Q
This combination will result in you going from the back to the front of the mobs with your first spell, but then instantly teleporting to their back again with Judgement. Most if not all of your hits will also land behind mobs.
Radiant Annihilation & Realm of Anguish Those two are our main summon skills. We do have other summon-based skills in our kit here and there, but those two in particular are the ones that share similar behavior, as in their damage being delayed and almost entirely summon-based.
Out of the two, Radiant Annihilation is by far the most powerful and I would recommend fitting it at any point in your skill rotations unless the mob(s) have so little remaining HP that the delayed damage would go to waste. Other than that, there are some use cases where both skills benefit from being pre-cast. Let’s look at some of them to have a better idea of what we’re talking about: ◈ In Dehkia spots or other similar tower spots, they can be used right before a mob wave has completely finished spawning by casting something in a time frame where we would otherwise be idle; ◈ In Yzrahid they can be used on a Seculion leg right before it becomes vulnerable. This facilitates killing the leg before the Seculion starts an attack pattern, which usually increases the time to kill dramatically; ◈ In Darkseeker’s Retreat, they can be used after killing the two bigger Darkseekers and before the smaller ones appear;
◈ In a spot like Quint Hill they can be used before the main Troll has reached the area where the smaller trolls have been debuffed by the petrified Shaman, overall lowering the TTK on the main Troll; ◈ In Boss Blitz encounters, granted you have enough experience and knowledge of boss patterns, they can be cast before they reappear or become vulnerable to damage.
As spots get updated and more are added, there will be more use cases, but through the list above you can come up with your own ideas to efficiently pre-cast those two skills.
Priority on AoEs
Much like the summon-based skills we just covered in a certain sense “override” the skill priority, something similar can be applied to other skills depending on their AoE size. While this isn’t a class-specific matter, I still feel like it’s worth mentioning for the sake of optimizing your PvE grind.
This mostly applies to Chain Lightning , Lightning Prison and Flow:
Interrogate , but occasionally also to 100% BSR: Rift Storm and Dimensional Compression. In certain cases where mobs are spread around in a wide area, we can make use of those skills to evenly damage them until they are grouped up enough for us to use skills with higher DPS but smaller AoE _(refer to priority table)_.
PvE Combo Examples
Yes, I know what I said. Combos don’t exist. But that’s just the short and straight to the point answer. Combos are an outdated method for PvE’ing on Awakening Sage, and through them you will not achieve optimal results. However as I stated before, freestyling requires practice to build muscle memory and a sense of your CDs. And I recognize you won’t be able to build those by freestyling from the get-go, as you will have no idea what you’re doing and what you should press next after each skill.
So, I will include below a couple combo examples for you to start practicing the class in PvE and oil those gears before fully optimizing your grinding experience. Once again keep in mind those combos won’t yield optimal results and you shouldn’t be surprised if you can’t reach the same results as some top grinders who freestyle.
Combo examples will be divided in parts by a yellow ⟾ symbol. Practice the combos by adding one part at a time, as it will be easier to build muscle memory without starting with a super long string of skills right off the bat.
Arkyve’s Infinite Loop Combo
RMB^ ➾^ W+F^ ➾^ RMB^ ➾^ F^ ➾^ S+RMB^ ➾^ S+F^ ➾^ Shift+RMB^ ⟾^ RMB^ ➾^ W+F^ ➾^ S+LMB^ ➾^ Shift+F^ ➾^ W+Q^ ⟾^ RMB^ ➾^ W+F^ ➾^ Spacebar^ ➾^ Shift+LMB
Diego’s Infinite Loop Combo
RMB^ ➾^ W+F^ ➾^ S+LMB^ ➾^ F^ ➾^ Shift+RMB^ ⟾^ RMB^ ➾^ S+F^ ➾^ S+RMB^ ➾^ RMB^ ➾^ W+F^ ⟾^ RMB^ ➾^ Shift+F^ ➾^ W+Q^ ➾^ Spacebar^ ➾^ Shift+LMB
Diego’s Tower spot Combo
RMB^ ➾^ S+RMB^ ➾^ RMB^ ➾^ Shift+F^ ➾^ F^ ⟾^ W+F^ ➾^ RMB^ ➾^ S+LMB^ ➾^ RMB^ ➾^ F^ ⟾^ RMB^ ➾^ Shift+RMB^ ➾^ RMB^ ➾^ W+F^ ➾^ Spacebar^ ➾Shift+LMB
I won’t cover more variations or other combo examples as it would take too much time, effort, and space in this document for something that is only a practice tool and not an end goal for the readers. However, if you are interested in more in-depth PvE resources for the class, I recommend giving Diego’s PvE spreadsheet a look. His research and documentation was invaluable to me while writing this section of the guide, and he deserves due credit for researching useful data and making it availableto everyone.
Core: Enlightening Bolt No point in going around in circles on this one, going straight to the point. Enlightening Bolt is the only viable and usable Core in PvE, as everything else provides nothing useful. Most mobs in the game are completely CC immune and this Core skill is the only one offering damage mitigation through an extra Forward Guard protection, which is definitely welcome in some higher level spots where mobs hit harder, or in spots where mobs can apply CCs.
PvE Gear
While modern PvE gear is in the vast majority of cases not class-specific, and what you were previously using on another class will carry over just fine, it has come to my understanding that some players might seek information here for the first time. Regardless, this will not be a gear progression guide and I will only be listing BiS item choices. As our gear wheel is now (soon) standardized to new BiS gear pieces, we can skip over that part and look directly at things like crystals, artifacts and lightstones
◇ Artifacts & Lightstone Sets:
In PvE, you will be required to use two Kabua’s Artifact with, depending on the situation, the two following sets:
or
In the current state of PvE, these are the only lightstone sets you may ever need. All-Out-Attack is the most versatile option and will serve you well no matter the situation. It’s always your best pick when you’re under the AP cap for a spot, and it’s always your best pick when fighting any sort of boss _(Black Shrine, Edania, etc)_ since they are only capped at 50% AP. It’s also your best choice where it’s impossible to consistently back attack entire groups of mobs, or in spots where back attacks don’t really work at all.
Vicious Shadows, on the other hand, will serve you best and better than All-Out-Attacks over the AP caps in spots where back attacks DO work and can be applied consistently.
◇ Crystal Build:
In PvE, there’s not a whole lot of crystal builds we can use. Generally, everything branches from a main BiS crystal build, which is then adapted through minor changes depending on the grind spot.
You will instantly notice five of the crystals are highlighted by a red box. Those crystals occupy what I would call “flexible crystal slots”. This means that, depending on the spot we’re grinding, we can adapt by swapping those crystals for some others.
If you are above the AP cap for the spot you’re grinding, you can swap one or two of those flexible crystals out for Glorious Crystal of Gallantry Olucas for some extra Attack Speed.
Additionally, if the mobs you’re grinding can apply CC effects, you can also swap up to four of the flexible crystals for the following: ◈ Ancient Magic Crystal of Nature Adamantine/Giant _(you can use their Red Battlefield version if the mobs you’re trying to grind have both Knockdown and Stun/Stiff CC effects)_ ◈ Ancient Magic Crystal of Nature Fighting Spirit , mostly used at Dehkia Thornwood ◈ Crystal of Stalwart Fortitude for an extra 10% Knockdown/Bound resist ◈ Crystal of Dogged Patience for an extra 10% Stun/Stiffness resist ◈ Crystal of Unyielding Spirit for an extra 10% Knockback/Floating resist
Additionally, I would recommend using a single BON or better Dawn Crystal of Black Spirit Rage in your Kharazad slots if you’re already above the AP cap, as it will prevent BSR overflow in case you happen to kill a few mobs when you already have your 100% ready.
◇ Sovereign Reforges:
This is quite a no-brainer. For PvE we want to pump our offensive stats as much as possible, as outside of very specific cases survivability should never be an issue granted we’re grinding in a spot that is appropriate for our gear level. With that said, these are the Sovereign reforges I’d recommend running:
If you really are struggling with survivability somehow, or if you’re grinding a spot like Orzekea, where mobs hit extremely hard, swapping the Critical Hit Damage reforge for an All Damage Reduction reforge is a viable option.
PvE Addons
Surely some of you will be here looking for an addon list to slap on your character and calling it a day right before going into your first PvE session. Keep in mind it’s hard to define any single best addon build as they can be more or less efficient depending on the spot you’re grinding or your experience/playstyle on the class. However, I will provide you with my and Diego’s addon builds for you to try out and adjust however you prefer.
Arkyve’s addons
Diego77b’s addons
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
That concludes the PvE section of this guide, in which I hope you found all the information you needed to start grinding efficiently on the class. We will now move onto the PvP section where the more competitive and belligerent players will learn to stand their ground and come out on top in a fight against other players.
PvP
So, we finally got to the fun part, huh? This section of the guide will most likely be the longest, and we will cover everything you need to know to bring Awakening Sage into PvP, from the role of your class, to the combos you’ll need to use, from protection lingers to gear builds.
For this section I’ll also be helping myself with Average’s _(may he find solace and fulfillment in his retirement (nvm he's back))_ PvP guide from the 3.0 Discord server , as it provides a large amount of information about the class that would otherwise have to be rewritten from scratch.
Playstyle
While there is obviously variance in playstyle between players and even more so between different gear builds, Awakening Sage’s playstyle conceptually relies on being a disruptive and slippery class. Your job is generally to be an annoyance and a distraction, a class that is hard to ignore and even harder to commit against. To get value out of your kit, you will want to stay constantly on the move around the fight, never being too peripheral like a Musa or Maewha, but also never being too close to the core of the fight. Ideally, you want to stay away from blobs of classes whose purpose is to waste your time and get CCs for their team. You want to stay just at the perfect distance to always have direct impact into the fight, pull attention from opponents, and always be able to follow up on your teammates’ CCs. As you do so, you _can_ also pick off unsuspecting targets like ranged classes or zone out classes like bladers, but I wouldn’t recommend chasing people away from the core of the fight for too long. During all of this, however, I do recommend always giving yourself an opening to pull out of the fight as soon as you need it, be it to recover stamina, health, Forward Guard gauge, or lose the attention of your opponents.
The class excels at 1v1 and small scale PvP, but it does well in larger fights by playing safer, aiming to be less of a playmaker and more of an annoyance while still capitalizing on distracted or CC’d targets whenever possible.
Let’s now dive deeper and look at some further details regarding our skills and how to use them.
PvP kit
Core Skills
For PvP we have a few viable Core skills we can choose from:
◈ Core: Upsurge is our most versatile Core skill in PvP by far, and also the one preferred by most experienced players. It’s a good protected skill with a Stun effect. It can be cast as its lateral version for a quick and unexpected burst over a smaller AoE, coming very handy in 1v1 or smallscale PvP scenarios, or it can be cast as its vertical version for a slower hit but covering a larger area, finding its best use mostly in group PvP and becoming better as the scale of the fight increases. The biggest downsides of this Core are its protection being Forward Guard, hence requiring good positioning to not be punished, and its CC not being usable reliably as a re-CC.
◈ Core: Spear Bolt has probably always been our best dedicated Core skill for 1v1 scenarios, while losing relevance in larger scale fights due to the relatively small AoE and the stamina cost of using this skill more aggressively. Nowadays, with stamina costs being lower overall, this Core skill got better, especially for less experienced players who want to have an impact on the fight while taking minimal risks. Making this Core extremely strong are its protection _(Super Armor > iframe > Super Armor)_ , and its Knockdown CC, making it really hard to avoid or punish especially if canceled into with other skills. Note that the Core version of this skill is also bugged, and using it from any mainhand skill other than Rift Chain will result in the CC not being applied.
Keep in mind that choosing this core will NOT apply the CC to Flow: Aftershock
◈ Core: Lightning Prison mostly sees use in large scale PvP, where its AoE and delay between the two ticks of damage that _do_ apply the CC make it a great tool for catching large groups of players in their protection gaps. The skill is also fully Forward Guard and has high HP regen on hit, making it generally safe outside of grabs and blockjumps, given your positioning is optimal. So stay alert if you decide to use this skill, as the animation is long and it’s heavily affected by hitstagger towards the end of its animation, but can be canceled early. Stay on the move and don’t let people punish you. Just like Upsurge , this Core adds a Stun CC to the skill and can’t be reliably used as a re-CC.
◈ Core: Enlightening Bolt is a weird one as it sees more or less use depending on region, but outside of people’s prejudices, it does tend to work better and gain value in certain situations compared to some other Core skills. In particular, if you play in medium to large scale PvP, and you tend to play less peripheral, this selection will allow you to be more protected and also mitigate some
damage while running very squishy builds in scenarios where getting punished in your microgaps by stray hits and dying to splash damage being thrown around is far from uncommon. Tends to be much less useful in 1v1s and smaller case scenarios where both you and your opponents have much more agency on choosing what trades to take, and when.
Any Core skill that wasn’t mentioned here isn’t worth considering. Don’t bother.
Seize
As mentioned in the notes, our grab can result in two different CCs depending on the distance of our target. A longer distance from our target, more similar to Hashashin or Nova grab, results in a Float, while a “melee” grab _(which is still in the range of a Berserker grab, more or less)_ , results in a Bound.
If you have good positioning and you have the luxury of choosing, going for a ranged grab is always the recommended move. Not only the CC it applies will last longer, but our ranged grab can be chained into more skills compared to our Melee grab. The best example of this would be Spear Bolt , which can be canceled into from ranged Seize to instantly reposition, deal damage and self buff by +20 AP right away. Keep in mind that no matter which version of the grab you use, they’re both tied to a single 18 seconds cooldown.
To make best use of our grab, you absolutely will need to learn how other classes work and which animations are long enough to bother trying to punish. Since the grab changes, our grab still flows really well from certain skills _(like Bolt,_
_Lightning Surge and Impaling Flash)_ , the grab animation is now longer, enough to severely impact our chances of success when trying to punish extremely mobile classes, or classes that can cancel out of their animations on demand. In some cases, instead of using our grab aggressively, you might want to linger one of your protections, especially from the skills listed above, to wait for your opponent to acquire a vulnerable position in an attempt to catch you instead. Once they do, and you recognize an animation they can’t freely cancel out of, you can instantly punish it with a grab. Remember, once you use your grab against good opponents, and especially now that grabs have a visual indicator, you will have 18 seconds of downtime on good zoning pressure that you would otherwise have when your grab is available.
Note that our grab, despite all, is still extremely bugged. There will be instances where it doesn’t go through for no identifiable reason, and there will be even funnier instances where you will see a ranged grab go through on your end, but servers will detect a melee grab instead. This results in weird scenarios where a bound CC is applied before the grab animation has even finished playing on your end, meaning you will have very little time to do
anything before your opponent gets up from the ground. This bug is also not easy to spot for a non experienced player, and conversely it becomes even harder to adapt by either reapplying a new CC instantly or disengaging.
Other Catches
Outside of our Core skill and our Grab skill, we don’t have a whole lot of viable catches, but let’s go over what our kit offers us:
◈ Shock Relay despite only being a stiff CC, it’s one of our most common catches especially in smaller scale PvP where a microgap is less likely to get us punished, as well as being our bread and butter skill to perform most animation cancels. Outside of combos, it’s mostly used to quickly cancel into Spear Bolt or Aftershock , after which a combo can easily be initiated if the CC connected, and it should otherwise not be abused as it is, after all, an unprotected skill. Senselessly using it “just because” will get you killed way more often than not.
◈ Enlightening Bolt remains a good catch regardless of whether we have picked its Core version, as it has good range and can be canceled very quickly. Notably, it can be used to begin the combo with an air attack by following it up with Lightning Surge , or just weaved in between movement skills to fish for CCs from different angles. Keep in mind though, without the Core version of the skill, it will not have a protection, and you will need to make the best use of its range and position properly to not be easily punished.
◈ Impaling Flash while not being too reliable is also arguably overloaded as a skill. Long range movement, invincibility during most of its animation and a CC to top it off. It is best used by accurately gauging your distance from the target and aiming slightly to their side, for a pretty good chance of catching them past their Forward Guard protections. Can be quickly followed up with quite literally any other hard CC in our kit, except for Ator’s Spear , which is too risky to use due to its animation length and lack of protection.
Finally, you might be still wondering where Ator’s Spear fits in all this. Long story short, it doesn’t. The skill is best only used as a re-CC on an isolated target as it has a fully unprotected animation which you can only flow in and out of slightly more smoothly, but not outright cancel in or out of.
Shock Debuff
While reading the debuffs for each skill you will have seen this one mentioned a few times.
If you come from a class such as Succession Wizard/Witch, or Guardian, you might be familiar with something similar or straight up identical. When one of those skills hits an opponent, sometimes through a direct hit, in other cases through our summons, their movement, attack and casting speeds will be slowed by 20% for 3 seconds. Having this attribute on so many of our skills means we can consistently keep opponents around us slowed, making them easier to catch, run away from, and overall lowering their damage output. The best indirect consequence of this effect comes into play when your opponents’ combos require specific timings on their skills to work. Keeping them slowed means you will have better chances of surviving a CC if your opponent fails to adapt their combo on the fly. It’s worth mentioning just in case that this debuff only has applicable uses in PvP, as mobs are unaffected by slows.
PvP Combo Examples Somewhat similarly to PvE, but not quite as unrestrictedly, we also do sort of freestyle for combos in PvP. However in this case this doesn’t have much to do with efficiency in terms of damage as much as adapting to cooldowns. We are very limited by the number of our CCs, and depending on your Core skill of choice you might be entirely lacking a protected re-CC. So, depending on our surroundings and what we have at our disposal, we can come up with some combos on the fly to get the job done safely. As in PvE, this will of course require you to have a good sense of your cooldowns, to keep them on screen, or possibly both. However, there are some combos you can practice and that you will still be able to make use of fairly often. Let’s go over some of them. Let’s start off with a very simple and quick combo to kill fragile or low HP targets:
E
➾ or W+F
➾ Spacebar
➾ Shift+RMB
➾ RMB
➾ S+F
➾ S+LMB
➾ Spacebar
➾ Shift+LMB
Keep in mind that for this combo to work properly, you will need to use the ranged version of Seize. This combo can also be adapted to deal even more damage by using our 25% BSR: Interrogate after Upsurge , and keeping the rest of the combo unchanged. Another way this combo can be performed, is by using Core: Spear Bolt to initiate the combo instead of Seize , which will be skipped in the chain above. Next, let’s look at a more extended combo, once again starting with a ranged Seize , and designed to deal the most damage possible, to kill or force out of the fight even the beefiest of targets:
E
➾ F
➾ S+RMB
➾ Shift+RMB
➾ RMB
➾ (^) or W+F ➾ Spacebar ➾ S+F ➾ S+LMB ➾ RMB ➾ (^) or W+F ➾ Spacebar ➾ Shift+X ➾ Shift+F
Keep in mind that for this combo to work, Core: Spear Bolt CAN’T be your selected Core skill, as it will re-CC the target too early and make the rest of the combo impossible to fully execute. Note that, depending on your attack speed, you might have to wait a split second before using the first Shock Relay after Upsurge , as landing it too early or too late will cause the Stiff CC to not apply and your target to break free from the CC chain. There is also another ranged grab combo that provides about the same damage as the previous one due to focusing on landing some air attack hits, going as follows:
E
➾ W+F
➾ RMB
➾ F
➾ RMB
➾ S+LMB
➾ Spacebar
➾ W+F
➾ Spaceba
➾ Shift+RMB
➾ Shift+X
Let’s now look at some combos initiated through other non-grab CCs. First a combo initiated through Enlightening Bolt float CC:
S+LMB
➾ RMB
➾ (^) or W+F ➾ Spacebar ➾ Shift+RMB ➾ RMB ➾ S+F ➾ RMB ➾ F ➾ RMB ➾ (^) or W+F ➾ Spacebar ➾ Shift+LMB
Once again, this combo won’t be functional if used with Core: Spear selected, for the same reason as before. A shorter version of the same combo would be:
S+LMB
➾ RMB
➾ W+F
➾ Spacebar
➾ Shift+RMB
➾ S+F
➾ F
➾ RMB
➾ or W+F
➾ Spacebar
➾ Shift+LMB
Now let’s look at a combo initiated with Core: Upsurge:
Shift+RMB
➾ Spacebar
➾ W+F
➾ Spacebar
➾ F
➾ RMB
➾ S+F
➾ S+LMB
➾ RMB
➾ W+F
➾ Spacebar
➾ Shift+LMB
Another quick combo using Core: Upsurge with good range and repositioning to pick off a squishy target in a hectic situation:
Shift+RMB
➾ Shift+WASD
➾ F
➾ S+RMB
➾ W+F
➾ Shift+WASD
➾ S+LMB
➾ Shift+F
Lastly, let’s look at two combos executed with Core: Spear Bolt , as a combo starter in the first one and as a re-CC in the second one:
W+F
➾ Shift+RMB
➾ RMB
➾ F
➾ S+RMB
➾ RMB
➾ S+F
➾ RMB
➾ W+F
➾ Spacebar
➾ Shift+LMB
E
➾ W+F
➾ Shift+RMB
➾ RMB
➾ F
➾ S+RMB
➾ W+F
➾ Spacebar
➾ S+F
➾ S+LMB
➾ Spacebar
➾ Shift+LMB
I won’t be covering combo examples with Core: Lightning Prison as it’s mostly a tool for blanket CCs in group PvP and it’s hard to follow up on yourself with a proper combo, but it can still be followed up on with a very quick combo made on the fly to punish very squishy targets.
While all those are single target combos, we also do have a very short “combo” for AoE bombing in group PvP. This combo has a few variations depending on which core skill you’re using:
Version using Core: Upsurge:
Shift+RMB
➾ F+LMB
➾ Shift+F
Versions using Core: Spear Bolt :
W+F
➾ Shift+RMB
➾ F+LMB
alternatively:
W+F
➾ Shift+F
➾ F+LMB
Version using Core: Lightning Prison :
Shift+F
➾ Shift+RMB
➾ F+LMB
Note that in all these combos Flow: Interrogate is being used in its 25% BSR version for a quick and hard-hitting burst of AoE damage
Also keep in mind that in the versions using Core: Spear Bolt you won’t be repositioning for a longer period of time compared to the other version of the combo, putting yourself in a more vulnerable state if you don’t pay attention to your surroundings while executing the combo in its entirety.
While as I mentioned before the combo variations are nearly endless and will depend on what you have available at any given time and how protected you need to be, this is all I will be covering. Practice those combos, get used to your inputs, cancels and cooldowns, and you will be several steps closer to being able to develop your own combos mid-fight!
Mainhand Flows pocketing As mentioned in the skill list and in the quickslots list, there are two useful skills we can pocket in Mainhand and maintain as pocketed while in Awakening that can come in handy in PvP scenarios in particular.
Note that the use of these skills is pretty niche and I wouldn’t recommend it for new players who haven’t mastered the class yet, as the risk is definitely higher than the reward unless your positioning and decision making is spot on.
The two skills I’m talking about are Finishing Touch and Illusion Detonation. Let’s look at how to pocket them and how to release them
◇ Finishing Touch:
S+F or Quickslot
➾
Swap to Awakening (C-swap or any awakening skill)
➾
Awakening gameplay (can do anything, even go idle)
➾ (^) Shift+WASD Or C-swap ➾ Shift+WASD ➾ LMB
◇ Illusion Detonation:
Shift+F or Quickslot
➾ Shift+WASD
➾
Swap to Awakening (C-swap or any awakening skill)
➾
Awakening gameplay (can do anything, even go idle)
➾ (^) Shift+WASD Or C-swap ➾ Shift+WASD ➾ F
Both of those pocketed skills can be used from a safer distance to poke for CCs on unsuspecting targets. But once again, doing so is risky as both the skills to initiate the pocket and the skills themselves are slow and unprotected animation locks, and any class that can punish you from a distance or close the gap quickly will most likely do so. Make sure you get your flow skill of choice pocketed before the fight has started, so you can do it safely and have a long range CC option locked and loaded throughout the fight.
While mainhand pocketing is a neat technique, it’s extremely niche and vastly outdated thanks to what is explained next.
Finishing Touch CC fishing
Additionally to pocketing those flows before a fight, Finishing Touch can also be used on its own through W+F inputs.
I would recommend only trying to use it after building enough distance from your target with Impaling Flash , Divine Executioner or Rift Chain , granted your target doesn’t have extremely quick movement skills or ranged CCs to punish you before you can safely cancel out of the skill.
Keep in mind Finishing Touch inputs conflict with Spear Bolt in most cases, except
when used from Idle stance _(walking included)_ or C-swap. Finishing Touch is prioritized also after certain mainhand skills, but it’s not worth the risk of getting into another long animation lock.
PvP Gameplan
(Work in Progress)
So, now that we have an idea of what tools are provided by our kit, we can talk of how to put them together into a concrete gameplan, like puzzle pieces!
PvP Gear
As mentioned in the PvE section, I will not be covering gear progression at all as it’s not a class-specific matter, and I will be using high end gear builds as a point of reference. There are plenty of “zero to hero” kind of guides out there in both document and video format, so I’ll let you all use those as a point of reference.
High Damage ⬦ DR
The general goal of a DR build, like on most other classes out there, is to have access to the extra AP from Nouver, which you can then exchange for more Accuracy through Kharazad crystal slots depending on the situation. Very high damage builds aren’t quite viable on Evasion as you need a good amount of it above your opponent’s accuracy before it starts having any effect, let alone become efficient. On the other hand, DR always applies, no matter how little you have, and will mitigate some of the incoming damage. Let’s look at how your gear should look like.
◇ Artifacts & Lightstone Sets:
On a Damage Reduction build, the best route would be to use two Dehkia’s Artifact
- All Damage Reduction with one of the following lightstone sets:
or or or
Both the first and second set are really good choices for all kinds of players as theywill give you the best value without any loss. Rigid Shield will allow you to commit to a fight for longer and soak some damage in your Super Armor animations, as well as make your Forward Guard beefier, while TheWild: Humans will allow each of your individual damage skills to be more impactful without needing to commit to dealing damage for too long. All-Out-Attack and Merciless exacerbate the desired results of The Wild: Humans, butwith a significant hit to your defensive stats. They are less stat efficient and not a good choice for the average player. They will onlyyield good results for players who have excellent positioning, target priority and overall decision making. You may think those are the BiS choices and you have what ittakes to make the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, but I can guarantee I could count the players in each region who can make that choice work with one hand. I’m putting them here just to let you know they will eventually become a viable option for you once you commit to the class for a long time and gather a great amount ofexperience on it.
◇ Crystal Builds:
Glasscannon^ Full^ Blast build Balance^ High^ Damage build^ High^ Survivability build
or or
Those are three builds with varying degrees of damage to tankiness ratio, with the first one investing all available slots into damage, and the third one taking all the good available tradeoffs to gain survivability without sacrificing essential offensive stats. In the latter, swapping the Elkarr crystal for a Red Fang Armor crystal for an extra 7 DR is a viable choice.
Be advised, going for a tankier build than that on DR is unadvised as it will require you to take some pretty bad stat tradeoffs. If you are interested in being even beefier than a DR build allows you, going for Evasion is probably a better choice.
Keep in mind, for all builds, when you’re in need of more accuracy, you should slot JIN Accuracy crystals in your Kharazad slots. I would recommend always running at least one as a baseline at any given time in PvP.
◇ Sovereign Reforges:
Mandatory: ◈ All AP +3 ◈ BSR Recovery +0.5% ◈ Critical Hit Rate +5%
Flexible Choices _(order of importance)_ : ◈ Down Attack Damage +2% ◈ All DR +5 ◈ Max HP +200 ◈ Critical Hit Damage +1% ◈ All Accuracy +6
This is the setup I would personally recommend:
High Survivability ⬦ Evasion
Contrary to DR builds on Sage, an Evasion build will aim to achieve a fair amount of tankiness and allow us to commit to a fight for as long as possible while disrupting the enemy group and still retaining just enough damage to kill the squishiest targets.
Please note that, as I haven’t played Sage with a tankier build, and especially an evasion build, in a relatively long time, my information on the matter might be partially outdated. Nonetheless, I will do my best to present the data I could gather from seeing recently and commonly used Evasion builds and items on classes such as ours.
There is variance in Evasion builds, with some going heavier on evasion, some only maintaining the minimum necessary _(around 1300 to 1350)_ and investing the rest in more DR or AP/damage. Keep in mind, the average player you will commonly encounter in popular uncapped PvP scenarios has easy access to high amounts of accuracy, hence I would NOT recommend playing an evasion build unless you own Edana gear, in particular gloves and shoes.
◇ Artifacts & Lightstone Sets: On an Evasion build the best route would be to equip two Evasion with one of the following lightstone sets: Dehkia’s Artifact All
or or or
All those sets are viable, although the Human Damage set is mostly onlyrecommended as a swapout in case you find yourself in a situation where you really need some extra damage. Other than that, the other sets all provide valuable defensive stats, with Centaurus providing extra tankiness through raw Evasion and Olun’s Descendant/Steel Shieldproviding about the same tankiness in the form of a mix between Damage Reduction and Evasion ◇ Crystal Builds: High Damage Semi-Tanky High tankiness
or or
All three builds provide essential stats for an Evasion build to work, and provide varying degrees of tankiness, going from a more high damage build with only the bare minimum evasion to work, to a build providing the highest tankiness that running on a class like Sage would make sense.
Just like for DR build, if you’re in need of accuracy, you can gain it through your Kharazad slots. However, on evasion I would recommend never going over a baseline of 1 or 2 accuracy crystals as your AP will drop to a very low value.
◇ Sovereign Reforges:
Mandatory: ◈ All AP +3 ◈ All Evasion +10 ◈ BSR Recovery +0.5%
Flexible Choices _(order of importance)_ : ◈ Critical Hit Rate +5% ◈ Down Attack Damage +2% ◈ All DR +5 ◈ Critical Hit Damage +1% ◈ Max HP +200 _(wouldn’t really recommend)_
This is the setup I would personally recommend:
Capped PvP Gear
Unlike DR and Evasion builds, capped PvP gear doesn’t have a lot of variance in stats or playstyle. The choice for pieces of gear will be between very similar options that don’t really change much from one another, where choice even exists in the first place. Let’s go over the builds we can use in T1 and T2 Nodewars, and capped Siege.
◇ Gear:
No matter whether you’re built for DR or Evasion, there isn’t much variance in what you can run in capped PvP. Just make sure you are running special accessories that provide value beyond what is limited by the gamemode’s stat caps. Notably, PEN: Asadal Necklace and PEN: Asadal Belt will serve you well in any kind of capped PvP. Lower levels of the same items will work fine as well but won’t be optimal. Both items provide value in the form of extra skills that can be used through quickslot to gain a large amount of HP and Black Spirit Rage respectively, on a 10 minutes cooldown.
◇ Artifacts:
or
Kabua’s Artifacts are generally the preferred option for all kinds of capped PvP. Provides Max HP and Stamina, which are always useful. Even in T1 Nodewar where reaching the HP cap is extremely easy, or in T2 Nodewar where some people might still hit the cap, boosting your Max HP WILL affect your Forward Guard gauge no matter what. It also offers more HP and Stamina than dedicated artifacts for those stats, making it the best choice for whoever can afford it.
Dehkia’s Artifacts (evasion version included), are marginally superior to Kabua’s for capped Siege, providings slightly less stamina but more HP, which in Siege is never capped.
◇ Lightstone Sets:
or or
Crocodile Tooth is without a doubt the most useful lightstone set for capped PvP, offering the best offensive stats in the form of Critical and Down Attack damage.
Target Openings doesn’t have as much damage potential as Crocodile Tooth, but it
performs better when it comes to raw damage to standing targets, and also makes a marginal difference on structures and other objectives.
Fast & Ragious is a peculiar set that doesn’t offer any raw stat, but visibly improves uptime for our BSRs, in particular our 100% absorb or our 25% Interrogate, both extremely good in capped PvP.
◇ Crystal Builds:
Let’s now give a look at the crystal builds we can use in Capped PvP scenarios. Those will vastly differ from what we would use anywhere else, as most of the stats we find valuable in the open world and uncapped Nodewars/Siege, here are severely limited by the game.
T1 Nodewar T2 NW + Capped Siege
Our first crystal build is tailored for T1 Nodewars, and it aims to get the most out of every stat that is and isn’t limited by the extremely low caps. This includes Attack Speed, Special Sttack modifiers, Stamina and HP Regen on Hit.
You will also notice I have added an HP Crystal in this build. This choice was made because while your HP will be limited to a fraction of your HP bar during the nodewar, the durability of your Forward Guard will still be affected by your Maximum HP, and also because there are no other crystals to gain meaningful stats for that slot.
The second crystal build aims more to squeeze the most out of the extremely high HP values we can achieve in T2 Nodewars and capped Sieges. At the same time, we still want to bring the most relevant and impactful crystals for attack speed and special attack modifiers, hence the Corrupted and Glorious crystals.
◇ Sovereign Reforges:
Mandatory: ◈ Critical Hit Rate +5% ◈ BSR Recovery +0.5% ◈ Down Attack Damage +2%
Flexible Choices _(order of importance)_ : ◈ Max HP +200 ◈ Back Attack Damage +2% ◈ Air Attack Damage +2% ◈ Critical Hit Damage +1%
This is the setup I would personally recommend:
PvP Addons
Just like in PvE, it isn’t really possible to pinpoint what a BiS PvP Addon build would look like. It heavily depends on your playstyle, experience on the class, and in this case also your gear build and role in the fight.
Despite that, we can still give a look at some Addon build examples for all types of PvP content, which you can then experiment with and change up to fit your likings. There are no specific addons for Capped PvP as, currently, all addon buffs and debuffs are applied in capped content.
Damage Reduction Evasion/Hybrid
◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈
With this, the PvP section also comes to a close, and we can finally wrap the guide up as a whole.
Closing Remarks
Well, I’m finally done writing this all _(until next patch )_ , and you, reader, have finally reached the conclusion of this seemingly unending wall of text. Whoever you might be reading the guide, I sincerely hope you share the same interest and passion for the class that motivated me to write this all. And if you don’t, and you’re just passing by in a period of glory for the class, well, I hope I could change your mind and make you stay for more than just a temporary power fantasy.
The meta shifts too quickly, often and unpredictably, and there is so much choice of classes in the game. Don’t let a balance patch decide what you’re going to spend your next few tens or hundreds of hours on. Play the long game, and settle on something that resonates with you and that you truly feel like you would enjoy playing.
And if that something is Awakening Sage, I want to thank you for sticking around until the end, and I wish you a wonderful time playing the class, whether you plan on using it to slaughter endless monsters or face off against other adventurers.
If you have any questions or suggestions, don’t be afraid to contact me through the Sage Discord server , or, if necessary, in game. DMs on Discord are also open but don’t get your hopes up, I’m not big on checking DMs too often. And please, for the sake of respecting my time as well as your own intelligence, make sure to double check that the answers to your questions can’t already be found in the guide.
Hope I’ll get to see many of you try the class out, learn it, and hone your skills to perfection!
Youtube: Arkyve BDO Twitch: ArkyveBDO Discord: theblazed Family Name: Arkyve Character Name: RuxMahaDehkia Server Region: EU
Guide changelog
Guide Changelog
Tip: you can see the date of the latest edit by clicking here _(it’s a screenshot example of where you need to click, not where you actually need to click)_. I will only be listing major edits below. If you ask me directly if the guide is up to date, I will most likely not reply.
20/04/25 ◈ Added “Rabams” paragraph ◈ Moved “Shock debuff” paragraph to PvP section ◈ Updated header decorations to match section dividers ◈ Updated uncapped crystal builds ◈ Added link to Sage 3.0 Discord Server
21/04/25
◈ Updated PvE addons _(Diego was definitely ahead in the thought process )_
08/05/25 ◈ Added Gear, Artifacts, Lightstone sets and Sovereign reforges for Capped PvP
06/07/25
◈ Added crystal build for T2 Nodewars and Capped Siege ◈ Updated skill flows into Shock Relay ◈ Added paragraph header for Arkanon Effect
10/07/25
◈ Added crystal build for T1 Nodewars _(3 months of stalling later lmao)_ ◈ Added in-depth explanation for Capped PvP crystal builds ◈ Added PvE Crystal build and PvE Sovereign reforges
24/07/25 ⬦ Systemic Doomsday patch day (wasn’t that
bad) ◈ Updated Arkyve PvE Addons ◈ Updated all PvP Addon builds
◈ Updated all PvE and PvP Crystal builds ◈ Updated all Sovereign weapon reforges ◈ Added PvE Lightstone Sets ◈ Updated and simplified PvE skill priority list
07/08/25
◈ Updated all Addon builds ◈ Removed Capped PvP Addons _(all addons now apply in capped PvP)_ ◈ Updated PvP DR Crystal builds
09/08/25
◈ Updated Capped PvP crystal builds ◈ Updated Capped PvP lightstone sets ◈ Removed all Resistance items from PvP gear
14/08/25 ⬦ We all saw it coming
◈ Updated all tooltips and descriptions in the guide according to class changes _(refer to class changelog)_ ◈ Updated some Accuracy/Evasion tooltips from % to flat values
15/08/25 ◈ Added Finishing Touch exclusive PvP paragraph for standalone use
17/08/25
PSA ⬦ PvP Playstyle Overhaul
_I think I did an awful job at writing that part. It’s misplaced, messy, dispersive and inconclusive. I will be working to rewrite it in a way that meets the quality standards of the guide and reflects the recent class changes. Keep in mind this work will line up with the early Edania release period, and will be significantly slowed down by my own in-game commitments. Please understand, and be patient._
18/08/25
◈ Changed font for all paragraph and section headers to Julius Sans One to reduce visual clutter and match the guide’s cover ◈ Removed HP and Stamina only artifacts for Capped PvP builds _(not a budget gear guide)_ ◈ Added Freestyling Flow Chart to PvE Skill Priority paragraph
23/08/25
◈ Added Arkanon Effect paragraph
31/08/25
◈ Removed Gear Wheel paragraph for all build types _(full purple grade gear is now BiS for any kind of build, and how to get there is not the purpose of a class guide)_ ◈ Updated Artifact and Lightstone Set choices for all builds _(PvE/PvP)_
27/09/25
◈ Added Twitch channel link to contacts at the bottom of the guide _(pass by whenever!)_
19/10/25
◈ Updated PvP Crystal Builds for Evasion. Make sure you can meet the minimum requirements before trying them out and feeling disgusted. ◈ Starting work on PvP Gameplan section. Two months later. ◈ Highest Damage PvP Combo updated _(demonstrative clip included)_ , can now make carpet players double check that they’re not on PvE crystals. ◈ Core: Enlightening Bolt added to selections for PvP Core skills. Please read the extended description before being surprised it works poorly while misused. ◈ “Other Catches” PvP paragraph added ◈ Seize skill paragraph updated
06/11/25
◈ Updated Semi-tanky Evasion PvP crystals _(experiments have been made and results are nothing short of evil)_
16/11/25
◈ Updated PvP Addon builds. Fuck Lightning Prison, can’t greed that shi anymore. ◈ Finished adding input string and demonstrative clip for the Air Attack focus combo. Packs a serious punch, nearly as much as our usual extended combo.
Awakening Sage changelog
24/07/25 ⬦ Systemic Doomsday patch day
◈ Electrify: Removed 30% Ignore All Resist effect Added 50% Critical Hit Rate effect
◈ Upsurge: Removed Knockdown Resistance Reduction debuff
◈ Enlightening Bolt/ Chain Lightning: Reduced -30 All DP to -25 All DP
◈ Seize: Now flows slightly worse after certain skills, has a telegraph animation and a short Super Armor animation lock on grab failure
14/08/25 ⬦ We all saw it coming
◈ Judgement: Stamina cost changed from 100 to 150
◈ Bolt: Stamina cost off cooldown changed from 100 to 150 Stamina cost on cooldown changed from 150 to 200
◈ Divine Executioner: Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds
◈ Chain Lightning: Shock Effect on hit removed
◈ Lightning Prison: Protection changed from Super Armor to Forward Guard
◈ Improved Fall Animation detection on some movement skills _(we’re so up guys)_