Kain FAQ

~UPDATED FOR IGNITION~

Kain Discord: Discord

Thanks to all of the members and managers within the Kain discord that
helped make this FAQ!

CD hats are not used on kain ;)

Why we don't use CDR hats: Cartridges are NOT affected by CDR hats, this
includes the possessed versions too. Only executes are hence it is negligible.
 Main things to note that came with the ignition update:

● Natural Born Instinct

○ The Final Damage boost increased from 20% to 24%.
● Grip of Agony
○ Improvement is made to prevent Death Throe reset from the buff reset by the
content entry to Mu Lung Dojo, Sharenian Culvert, and Ursus.
● Thanatos Descent
○ Added a feature that maintains the damage increase buff for the remaining
duration of Thanatos Descent upon activating the Death Domain by leaving an
afterimage behind.
● Death Domain can now be activated while in mid air.
○ Improved issue where Death Domain would not trigger sometimes.
Skill nodes

Prioritize boosting AND if you are low on node slots.

: Are your execution skills mainly for bossing. Why only two you may ask.. Each

execute boost node boosts 2 execute skills. boosts Phantom Blade & Tearing Knife,
boosts Chain sickle & Poison Needle.

AND : Are going to be your primary mobbing skills but are still
useful in bossing.

Strike arrow, Dragon fang,

And Death blessing.
General Nodes —------------------------------------ —------------------------------------
Shaft break, Falling dust, and
Scattering shot
 Bossing nodes Execute chain sickle, Execute
phantom blade, and any node
of your choosing.

5th Job & V-matrix Skills

Below are some of the 5th job and V-Matrix skills that are important to max.
Always on nodes: Decent Sharp Eyes and Decent Speed Infusion.
Situational Nodes: Might Of Nova, Blink, Erda Nova(Almost a must for solo bossing now), Will of Erda,
and True Arachnid Reflection

Bossing Image Training Image

 Holy Symbol
Vicious Shot (Priority for Leveling
Speed)

Decent Speed
Thanatos Infusion

Grip Of Agony Decent Sharp Eyes

Dragon Burst Decent Combat

Orders

Decent Advanced
Fatal Blitz Blessing

Guided Arrow
Decent Sharp Eyes

Guided Arrow True Arachnid

Reflection

Erda Shower
Grandis Blessing
V Matrix skill overview

When held, unleashes a blast of arrows forward, you can change directions while casting
also you do not need to be in Possess state to use and will not consume Possess state to use.
(MP Cost: 750, Max Key-down Duration: 5 seconds, Damage: 800%, Max Enemies Hit: 12,
Number of Consecutive Attacks: 12, Max Attack Activation: 15. Immediately ends when all of the
attack activations is consumed. Can change direction but need to wait 0.5 seconds to change
direction again. Cooldown: 90 sec.)

Increases %Damage, %Knockback Resistance, and increases Malice gain rate.

Periodically, whenever you attack, you create an additional attack, at the end of the skill or when
the Skill Key is pressed again, unleash a final attack, also you are invincible during this time.
(MP Cost: 1,000, Duration: 35 seconds, Damage: +40%, Knockback Resistance: +50%) (Malice
created periodically increases by 40. Malice created when Whispershot skill hits increases by
35.) (If your attack skill hits, Damage: 650%, Number of Attacks: 3, Number of Arrows of Death:
6, Damage against normal monsters: +25%, Cooldown: 3 sec.) (Using the skill again ends the
effect immediately, while also activating Death Domain, which attacks 15 consecutive times,
dealing 1,300% damage to up to 15 enemies. While casting Death Domain, you are invincible.
Cooldown: 180 sec) (Also adds 9 stacks of death's blessing)

Unleashes a violent barrage of slashes forward. If the attack hits an enemy with death
blessing debuff, the debuff is consumed, If the enemy is defeated with Fatal Blitz, the cooldown
shadow step is reset. (MP Cost: 750, Duration: 2 seconds, Damage: 600%, Max Enemies Hit: 8,
Number of Consecutive Attacks: 12, Max Attack Activation: 14. When all of the attack
activations is consumed, the effect ends immediately. Cooldown: 90 sec)

Creates a zone of agony at your position that damages enemies within it. This skill has a
special resource called Death Throes which are gained from defeating enemies and attacking
boss monsters and you can hold up to 15 Death Throes, Using Grip of Agony consumes all
Death Throes to increase the duration of the attack, Unaffected by Damage Reflect. (Passive
Effect: Upon either defeating 30 enemies or attacking a boss 25 times, you can harvest up to
15 Death Throes.) (Active Effect: MP Cost: 1,000, Required Death Throes: 1)
(Consumes all harvested Death Throes to summon Hand of Agony for 6 seconds
attacking up to 12 enemies for 950% damage 6 consecutive times. Duration increases
by 1 second for each additional Death Throe consumed. Cooldown: 90 sec)
 Works like a bishop's heaven's door, except the duration isn't unlimited. Heaven's
door buff takes precedence meaning if a bishop casts door while the might of nova is
active,the might of nova will be wasted and overridden by heaven's door. Similarly, if
you have heaven's door already and you cast ,might of nova nothing will happen except
you dealing damage with the skill. At lvl 30, buff lasts 960s (16min) with a 1200s
(20min) cooldown.

Provides a buff that gives you a chance to cd skip skills up to a limit. Also gives a
little damage buff. CD skippable skills: echo, nova temperance (hero's will), soul abilities
(lucid soul), mihile link, mushroom shrine skills (yorozu/takeno). At lvl 30, 40s duration,
35% dmg, 55% cd skip.

Creates spirit arrows that pursue and attack nearby enemies. Unaffected by
Attack reflection.
Can be toggled On/Off.

NEW ADDITION (Ignition patch)

Erda fountain for farming

Inner Ability

The Inner Ability that you roll for will change depending on your needs. Most sources
will say that Kains mainly require Boss Damage, Crit Rate, and Attack.
The Inner Ability that would be recommended is as follows:

Bossing (Depending on amount of Boss Damage you have)

+20% Boss Damage
+20% Crit Rate
+8% dmg to monsters with abnormal status / +21 att

or

+1 skill to all passives

+20% Crit Rate
+21 att / +10% Boss Damage

Training/Farming
+20% meso
+15% meso / 20% crit rate/ 15% Item Drop Rate/ 21 Att
+15% drop rate
DON’T GET +1 AS WE DON’T USE IT
Explanation below
I-Frames?
Kain has 2 iframes

I-Frame
Skill Image Description

Increases %Damage and

Thanatos increases malice gain rate.
Gain Additional attack when
you attack when activated. At
end of the skill or when skill
key is pressed again to
unleash a final attack you are
also invincible at this time

Dragon scale is a key hold

Dragon Scale skill that allows you to
become invincible for 3.4
seconds (Cooldown 40
seconds)
Link Skills Mobbing
Link Skills Bossing

If solo, then Replace Noble Fire with Phantom link skill

Hyper Skills Passives

Increases %Ignore DEF of Whispershot skills (Ignore Defense: +15%)

Increases %Damage of Whispershot skills (Damage: +10%)

Increases %Boss Damage of Whispershot skills (Boss Damage +15%)

Increases %Damage of Execute skills (Damage: +20%)

Increases %Damage of Lasting Grudge (Damage: +50%)

Replace with if you are not in need of IED

Hyper Skill Actives

Focuses several enemies and fires a precise shot (MP Cost: 300, Damage: 320%, Max
Enemies Chased: 7, Number of Attacks: 6, Number of Arrows Shot: 3, Damage against normal
monsters: +30%) (Cooldown: 30 sec)

While held, charges unleash a barrage of shock waves forward. Holding the Skill Key will
extend the range of the shock wave up to a max distance, also unaffected by Attack Speed
increases. (MP Cost: 350, Max Key-down Duration: 1.4 seconds, Damage: 175%, Max Enemies
Hit: 12, Number of Attacks: 10, Number of Shocks: 5) (1 Unseen Sniper cartridge is prepared
every 40 seconds and you can carry up to 1.)

Shares the same Skill Points (SP) and Key Slot as Unseen Sniper . If the attack hits
an enemy, a stack of death blessing is given then taken instantaneously. If the enemy is
defeated with Sneaky Sniper, the cooldown shadow step is reset. (MP Cost: 350, Max
Key-down Duration: 1.6, Max Enemies Hit: 12, Damage: 200%, Number of Attacks: 12, Number
of Shockwaves: 5) (Cooldown: 60 sec.)

Side Note: Possessed Unseen Sniper does not require a stack to proc

Increases %Damage, %Attack, and %Knockback Resistance. While active, increases the
number of hits per attack of death blessing. While active, party members can trigger an aura
attack while attacking near Kain, and unaffected by Damage Reflect. (MP Cost: 500, Duration:
40 seconds, Damage: +15%, Attack Power: +15%, Knockback Resistance: +50%. Increases
Death’s Blessing effect of Death’s Blessing-related attacks by 13.) (When other party members
within Kain’s aura attack, the aura causes 6 Death’s Blessing attacks, dealing 150% damage.
Blessing of Death cooldown: 3 sec.) (Cooldown: 180 sec.)
Training Locations

Recommended to train at mobs at least <1 level for the 10% bonus exp (reboot)

200>205 - Below the Cave/Eastern Cave Path 2

205>215 - Hidden Research Train
215>230 - Hidden Illiard Field
225>235 - Rev 3 / Chicken Festival 2 / Occupied Dance Floor 1
230>235 - Between Frost and Thunder 1 / 2, The Volatile and Toxic Forest 1
235>240 - Arcana LP1 / Arcana LCUP / DCUP
240>245 - SSS5 / PD1 / PD3
245>250+ - LH2 / VC3 / Suffering Core 4 / Suffering Core 6
255+ - Liminia 1-5, 1-4, 2-3, 2-5
265+ - Cernium Eastern Ramparts 2, Royal Library Section 1, Burning Library 2,
Nostalgic Drive-In Theater 3
*250+ optimal way is VC3 > 2-5 > fire spirits 2

Burning Library 2 Rotation:

[Reboot] Kain Burning Library 2

Nostalgic Drive-In Theater 3 Rotation:

[NA Reboot] Kain grinding - Arcus - Nostalgic Drive-In Theater 3

Culvert

How to Culvert optimized with ROR (courtesy of @Theril)

https://youtu.be/aaQ5bahpu8I

Also shoutout to his BM solo

[GMS Reboot] Kain Black Mage Solo
Burst Rotation

With all our damage coming from our burst, it is important to know how to properly burst on
Kain. The main gist of it is: Step 1. Pop your steroids. Step 2. Throw V skills. Step 3. Profit.

Step 1. (You’ll need ~ 5 seconds to pop your steroids, account for this before the bind)

Incarnation -> Thanatos Descent (P1) -> Grandis Goddess Blessing -> Vicious Shot -> True
Arachnoid Reflection (Will skill)

-> -> -> ->

Step 2. (This step takes about ~10-15 seconds to pull off)

Grips of Agony (5 stacks) -> Terms and Conditions (AB Link) -> RoR (Oz Ring) -> Dragon Burst
-> Possession (whilst in dragon burst) -> (Possessed) Unseen Sniper -> Unseen Sniper -> Fatal
Blitz -> Thanatos Descent (P2 within RoR)

-> -> -> -> -> -> -> ->

Keep in mind that Vicious Shot is 30 seconds long and a large portion of added crit damage so
get step 2 in before it expires.

Side note: if you’re able to, you can pop Incarnation & Thanatos Descent (P1) earlier and attack
normally to maximise dps from Thanatos. Also keep in mind that Will Skill is only 1% of your BA
and is not necessary to have equipped, Decent Combat Orders does more for you.

True Arachnoid Reflection (Will skill) contributes to 1% FD in your BA, so use it if you please or
just take it out and replace it with DCO or something that’ll contribute more.

Do I need a RoR?

Yes.
Reasoning?

Burst lasts 10-15 seconds

Ror lasts 13-15 seconds

All our damage is in burst so get one (RoR3 or RoR4 or WJD4)

(This also means BIS rings are Slime ring, Superior ring & Reinforced Ring for GMS enjoyers
[Until you get an Endless Terror to replace Reinforced])

How to off-burst

Refer to flowchart below

Ping Reliancy

Is Kain ping reliant?

For the most part regarding damage, no.

Specifically, the whole possession system & dash system is ping reliant.

What does this mean?

Going into possession, using possessed abilities (coming out of it), using shadow step &
resetting shadow step are all ping reliant.

1. Going into possession

- You have a delay in outputting possessed abilities
- Annoying but doesn’t break the class
2. Using possessed abilities
- You have a chance of duplicating the possessed ability
- Looks good, but is not good. Only the first possessed ability will actually do
damage, whilst the duplicated one visually shows damage dealt, it does no
damage.
3. Using Shadow Step
- If you hold down shadow step you can actually double dash on high ping
- Unlike possessed abilities, this movement is registered and your character
actually double dashes
- This is extremely useful in things like bossing as you can hit skybox and
maneuver long distances in dark sight
- You can also change direction in between dashes e.g. Up + shadow step ->
*HOLDING SHADOW STEP* + Left/Right
- In my experience the most reliable double dash occurs when Up + Shadow Step
is First before the second dash.
4. Resetting Shadow Step
- For every death’s blessing stack that is executed, we get a dash reset. For pingy
players, we have a ~1 second delay
- This means we can’t do crazy dash execute weaving like NA players do (I’m
looking at you Yuel)

Reboot Gear Guide

UPDATED Gear Progression Guide | Best in Slot 2021/2022 | Maplestory Reboot

For suggestions please head to the
#suggestion-box channel :)