Autocultivation for coins, what class to choose?

Evryn - Morai

I don't see a guide for this yet, and imagine some players might be interested in it... I'm sure I'll catch some flak over this for promoting botting, but since auto cultivation is a part of this game now, this information should be available to everyone in my opinion.

This little guide compares the various classes for the purposes of making a for-coins auto cultivation character. For players who aren't aware of auto cultivation: It is a built-in character automation provided by the PWI client. You can bring up its configuration by CTRL-F12, and activate it with F12.
Auto cultivation requires you to set an attack combo, and optionally, a support combo which is used at the specified interval. Auto cultivation, once activated, will continue until one of the following happens:
- There are no more enemies in range for several minutes. Auto cultivation will use town portal and end.
- You die. Auto cultivation ends, manual intervention is needed to revive yourself.
- Your weapon breaks or runs out of ammo. Auto cultivation will use town portal and end. Note that running out of mana will not do this.

This guide is a little biased to my own ideas as to what a character should be and do. For me, the following things are a priority:
- The character should self-heal. Relying on charms and potions isn't the way to go when you're just interested in making coins.
- The character should self replenish mana fast enough to use required abilities. For melee classes this usually just means the half-hour buffs, but for casters this means keeping the mana bar from depleting entirely.

Other priorities are:
- Ranged: How fast do your attacks hit? (If you're sharing a spot with others, you want that first hit so the drop is yours)
- Melee: How fast can you move? (You want to be at that mob for the first hit)
- How much damage do you do? The more the better, the faster a mob is down, the sooner can you start on another.

Blademaster
Pros: Heavy armor, regenerative
Cons: Lower damage then assassin, melee mobs only, weapon will break quickly, STR and DEX needed.
One of the earliest classes that was exploited for botting way before auto cultivation was introduced, the Blademaster is still very capable at it, although it is frequently outshined by the Assassin now. Typically, a Blademaster with heavy armor is more resilient in taking on melee opponents, but it does not handle elemental damage as well. Diamond Sutra (leave at level 1 to keep mana cost low) can be used in the attack combo until you get celestial/demonic eruption for life regaining. At level 60-100, the "Annihilator of Souls" fist is a very nice auto cultivation weapon, as it will regenerate your mana quite quickly.

Wizard
Pros: High damage - will one-shot enemies, regenerative
Cons: Very fragile vs melee, hard to regain mana before celestial/demon cultivation
Wizards are much like Psychics, pure elemental damage dealers with a self healing skill. They spike quite high, so they will often one-shot an enemy. However, as arcane armored beings, they suffer from poor physical defense and can't handle tanking much melee. They're outshined by the Psychics in terms of fast killing, since the channel times for their skills are much higher.

Archer
Pros: High damage - will one or two shot enemies, very fast ranged attacks, fast moving, easy to level on auto cultivation
Cons: Fragile and non-regenerative - Health charm recommended. Requires ammo - will stop if it runs out, weapon will break
Archers are physical damage dealers which can kill very fast and often will take the first hit. They have an immense range, more so then most casters even, which means they'll often have the first hit, and therefor the drop. They make great turrets for a killer/picker combination (see below), and solo killers. Their evasion buff also grants a movement speed increase, which is useful for areas where enemies are sparse. They are a liability when they wander into proximity to mobs though, as they don't have high hit points.
An added bonus for the archer is that it's relatively easy to get a Twilight Temple (bound) G15 weapon. The TT99 "Dragon Bow" can be upgraded to any G15 ranged weapon type, and subsequently upgraded to a G16 one even (recommended, archer needs peak damage). You can then use the free dragon orbs from the leveling up chest to upgrade this weapon to +5 almost for free, since those work on G16 gear too I'm told.

Cleric
Pros: Strongly regenerative
Cons: Slow movement, slow attacks, need to use regeneration skills in attack combo. Hard to regain mana before celestial/demon cultivation and required skill upgrade
Clerics aren't the most obvious auto cultivation characters but they can do it quite well. Both the sage and demon variants have a skill that generates more mana then it costs (Sage spirits gift, Demon celestial seal) which means they can regenerate mana easily, without relying on sparks. Iron Heart (and later Elven Boon) can regenerate health easily and efficiently. The drawback is that using all these support skills means they won't kill as fast - but they can take on almost any kind of enemy as a result, especially the damage-over-time kind.
Warning: Primal Cyclone tends to mess up auto cultivation if you also do picking.

Barbarian
Pros: Very fast moving, high hit point count
Cons: Low damage, hard to regain health before celestial/demon cultivation, higher repair costs
Barbarians are hard to kill, but they are not the most suitable killers. In beast form they are VERY fast moving, but the drawback is that they don't have a high damage output. This can be offset by using a G16 axe with good refines. An alternate tactic used by some players is to "glitch" it by switching to a claw or fist weapon while the beast form transformation is being cast. This setup requires more dexterity for the barbarian, which generally means less health, but it will increase damage output by a lot.

Venomancer
Pros: Very fast moving, has summon
Cons: High channel times on skills, fragile, mana and health regain skills have high interval, hard to regain mana before celestial/demon cultivation
Venomancers aren't popular for auto cultivation, even though they have their perks. Putting the summon on defensive means you can ward off the odd excess enemy that attacks in addition to whatever you are targeting. However, they can't easily heal themselves and most of the venomancer magic attacks have quite a long channel time.
An alternate strategy posted by Desdi for foxform: Venomancers can auto-cultivate in Fox Form using Leech and Consume Spirit to keep their HP and MP up. This is most effective for HA/LA builds that take better advantage of the attacks (due to increase Str stat) but might work for some AAs too (depending on gear and level). It doesn't work as well if the person has learnt the Primal Skills though, due to the loss of Consume Spirit. The skills don't have to be Sage/Demon but, of course, the Sage/Demon ones are stronger and more effective.

Seeker
Pros: None, really
Cons: Non-regenerative, can't use fast attack weapons
Seekers aren't suited for the economic side of auto cultivation. Sword only means a low attack interval, which means you'll not spark as often. They also have no easy means to regain health and mana, which means you'd need to burn charms in order to use many abilities. They are outshined by all other melee classes.

Mystic
Pros: Regenerative, has summon
Cons: Fragile vs melee, slow moving, hard to regain mana before celestial/demon cultivation
I'm surprised to see few mystics in auto cultivation, since they do quite well. Some choose to spam only Natures Vengeance (mainly Sage), some choose to also add Absorb Soul in the mix. With Clear Thoughts and celestial/demon eruption mana shouldn't be an issue, while a summon on defensive (ideally Devil Chihyu with stun on auto cast) can handle any excess mobs that take you on.

Assassin
Pros: Strongly regenerative, fast, high damage, easy to level on auto cultivation
Cons: Somewhat fragile vs ranged
Assassins are a no-brainer class for auto cultivation, and as such, the most frequently used one. Periodically recast bloodpaint and you're all set, even at a level 1 bloodpaint. A full-offensive assassin with a sacrificial strike weapon seems to be the golden standard for auto cultivation drones these days, and I have to admit that they are potent at solo auto cultivation, so long as they don't wander into a group of ranged attackers, or stall out in another way. An assassin needs to deal damage in order to heal, so make sure it's in an area where it does not get stuck.

Psychic
Pros: Very fast attacks, regenerative, high damage
Cons: Fragile vs melee, slow moving, hard to regain mana before celestial/demon cultivation
Psychics are good caster turrets. Their primary skills do good damage and are very fast casting ones, meaning that if you're competing with others you'll often get the first hit (and therefor the drop). Bubble of life regenerates more than enough life to keep them going. Getting them to level 89 for sage/demon cultivation can be a bit of a bother though.


Tactics
Sometimes it can be a good idea to spend a few minutes to think about how you can maximize the efficiency of your character or characters. First you'll have to decide where you will go. Scout the area, make a note of where various enemy types are and find a good spot. Next, set your auto cultivation range appropriately. Many people fail to do this and end up chasing after others, with 3 to 5 characters all running for the same enemy. A narrow range will often prevent this - in most cases no more than 50 is needed. Also, scout around in less obvious places. Remember, you can fly and swim too...
If you have more than one character at your disposal, or can coordinate with friends, you can try the picker/killer combine: Setting up one ranged character to not pick items, but kill enemies until the weapon breaks, and setting another character to pick the items. Make sure the picker range is slightly larger than the killer, and fully overlaps.

Conclusion
In terms of best auto cultivation characters, I'd have to rate the archer the top one, followed closely by the assassin, then a little further below, the psychic. The archer has a leg up due to it's faster attack speed, great range and fast movement rate, and as such is an ideal choice for areas where enemies are sparse or many other people are doing auto cultivation. The assassin is an easy choice that doesn't require much in terms of gear - G15 daggers with interval and sacrificial strike seem to be the standard gear for them. They require less attention then archers, no ammo to worry about. Psychics are a good choice to pit against pure elemental damage dealing enemies, but like all arcane classes, they are a pain to get to level 89 for sage/demon culti (and you generally need that level of culti in order to get the mana recovery you need).

Desdi - Sanctuary

Not a bad idea!

Here's an addition to the Venomancers though;

Venomancers can auto-cultivate in Fox Form using Leech & Consume Spirit to keep their HP and MP up. This is most effective for HA/LA builds that take better advantage of the attacks (due to increase Str stat) but might work for some AAs too (depending on gear and level).

It doesn't work as well if the person has learnt the Primal Skills though, due to the loss of Consume Spirit.
The skills don't have to be Sage/Demon but, of course, the Sage/Demon ones are stronger and more effective.

The rest of classes are covered, I think.

LuckingFoco - Raging Tide

In an area with a lot of sins, you can't go wrong with an archer. Other than sin's knife throw, an archer will always get the ranged kill first and the cost of arrows is pretty cheap. Weapon durability is also good for 15+ hours with a Jaden +10

Alphaben - Raging Tide

I have to say a few things:

For "fragile" classes, I'd suggest possibly using HA, if you can balance it out for damage they should still be able to quickly down enemies while being able to take more damage (HA psychic or HA Sin are particularly strong in this case)

As for Seeker autocult, Parchedblade stance is probably the best bet as stalagstrike can aoe stun and recharges relatively fast along side darkcloud bolt

Other pros of seeker: defensive buffs (sage adrenal 30 def lvls+5 extra def from krav maga)

Can vortex (assuming the seeker is charmed or AA((which I'd only recommend if it's an autotoon only))

Can arme nier and Gemini which normally take out near same level mobs before they reach attack range (normally with only 1 or 2 hits to kill the mob)

Can have macro set up to use Blade Affinty which can make skills cast extremely quickly (and sage/demon versions can avoid part of damage)

Staggering strike can be spammed fairly quickly and can deal(depending on weapon damage) a lot of damage easily and can be conbined with Northern Sky Waltz to drop enemy defenses, making them easier/faster to kill

Assuming seeker is lv79, they can also set up autocult to use Last Stand if the mobs don't deal too much damage.

Can voidstep to mobs to quickly reach and stun them (rewinding gesture can make this spammable)



For Archer, it may be good to also mention Wingspan as it can save quite a bit of charms/pots when set up correctly in autocult

Evryn - Morai

How will a seeker maintain mana regeneration for continuously spamming stalagstrike, Alphaben?
Using vortex in autocultivation will fail. Character will only trigger this skill once - after that it will keep going since autoculti does not have the intelligence to cancel the channeling skill.
Blade Affinity as an instant skill is not handy - instant skills in combos tend to freeze them. There are ways around them but they are not foolproof.
Staggering Strike/standard attack with Northern Sky Walz stance as buff is in my opinion the most efficient way for seekers to autoculti, but will still need a mana charm to do. It was possible to do when the DQ system was still up and running, but no more.

Using heavy armor is situational. It will help a lot if you intend for your character to be fighting melee heavy opponents, but it will reduce your attack power. Typically, a character intended for autocultivation is a purely offensive one, with no vit, max mag, str or dex depending on what raises your damage, and enough str/dex otherwise for wearing the equipment you use.