Editing Beginner's Guide

<big><big><big>Auranogi Beginner's Guide (Unofficial)
Work In Progress

Feel free to contribute!!!1111one</big></big></big>

== The Basics of Mabinogi ==
If you have never played Mabinogi, have never played Mabinogi before the Dynamic Combat update, or just need a refresher, this section is for you.
Otherwise, you may skip to the next section.

=== Character Creation / Racial Differences ===
The very first choice you make when creating a character is your choice of race.
There are 3 races in Mabinogi, each with their respective pros and cons.
Though you can shape your character into anything you like, each race has some skills unique to them.

==== Human ====
Humans are the all-rounder. They have equal access to all styles of play, and are well-suited for new players due to this.
Humans are capable of using bows and two-handed weaponry, though they lack certain perks that elves and giants have when using those.

==== Giant ====
Giants are melee specialists, featuring increased damage scaling on several close combat skills, as well as being able to wield 2-handed weaponry with a shield.
They are incapable of wielding bows, and their magic spells have a higher mana cost than humans and elves. Be wary that of the three races, giants are the most limited, as they are entirely restricted from the archery skillset.

==== Elf ====
Elves are ranged specialists, featuring a multitude of benefits to the archery skillset and reduced mana costs on spells.
Note, however, that both archery and magic have heavy drawbacks that come into play especially in the early game, including gear prices, Ability Point costs, and a more fragile style of play.
Elves cannot use two-handed weaponry, and their melee skills are heavily weakened compared to humans.
While elves become incredibly strong with good gear, they suffer heavily in early game and are not recommended for new players.

=== Combat System ===
Mabinogi features a rock-paper-scissor's style combat system, with certain skills beating out other skills. Each skill or spell has a load time, meaning that must either play defensively or react quickly to enemies to survive. Enemies can kill you as fast, if not faster, than you can kill them, so facetanking isn't an option!

==== Rock Paper Scissors! ====
Listed below are the 4 primary "types" of skills, and how they interact with one another.

* Normal Attacks: Clicking on an enemy automatically uses one of these. They can be blocked with the Defense skill or countered with the Counterattack skill. Higher level enemies may also automatically defend against these mid-combo, so be careful.
* Smash: This skill deals high damage to one target, knocking them down instantly and ignoring the Defense skill. It is vulnerable to the Counterattack skill, and can be interrupted by normal attacks.
* Defense: This skill protects you and reduces damage taken partially. It is effective against normal attacks, some AoE attacks, and most ranged attacks. It can be circumvented with strong attacks like Smash.
* Counter: This skill protects you against normal attacks, smash, and other single-target melee skills, avoiding damage entirely in the proccess. You
* Windmill: The crown jewel of melee combat. This skill deals damage to all enemies around you and grants you invulnerability for the duration, but also consumes some of your own HP. It can be blocked by the Defense skill, but will ignore the Counterattack skill, and will intercept enemies attempting to use normal attacks or Smash on you.

The RPS system is mainly interfaced with using close combat skills — archery and magic focuses on attacking the enemy before they can get to you, ignoring Defense and normal attacks entirely. However, you are vulnerable if your arrows miss or you're attacked while casting a spell.

=== Rebirth / Ability Points ===
Unlike most MMOs, the main way of increasing your strenght in Mabinogi is to level up to obtain Ability Points, spend them on unlocking/ranking up skills, and then Rebirthing to reset your level to 1 in order to obtain more Ability Points. Your level does not indicate your power, but merely your potential.

Skills can be trained by using them, with the training requirements being shown in the skill menu. After the training requirements are met, you can spend your Ability Points to increase it by one rank, going from F to A, and then 9 to 1. Higher rank skills deal more damage and provide permanent stat boosts to your character.

Every 6 days, you are able to Rebirth, resetting your level to 1 while retaining all your skills and Ability Points. Rebirthing temporarily weaknes you, as you lose your stats gained from levelling up, but each time you rebirth, you'll become a little stronger as you spend your Ability Points on skills to, which permanently strengthen you. Below is a list of skills you may want to focus on, depending on which of the 3 basic skillsets you find most engaging.
==== Melee Skills ====
* Windmill: While it is recommended to rank this ASAP (even as an archer or a mage), it is also an immense pain to do so, especially if you're not a giant, as humans and elves have even higher training requirements than giants do. Nonetheless, its difficulty is exactly why you should try to rank it as soon as possible.
* Smash: The best defense is a good offense. Melee combat is a lot easier if you rank Smash, as it will allow you to one-shot enemies and prevent them from retaliating entirely. Dead enemies deal no damage. It is recommended you get this to at least Rank C in order to unlock Assault Slash.
* Assault Slash: Speaking with Trefor (the knight in black armour on the path to Alby Dungeon) with Rank C smash gets you this skill. It allows you to jump to an enemy that has been knocked down, attacking it one additional time. It provides some much needed mobility for close combat.
* Combat Mastery / Weapon Mastery: Combat Mastery and the various weapon masteries provide a significant amount of health and damage for very few Ability Points. While you shouldn't use all your Ability Points on passive skills immediately, they are the easiest way to increase your damage once Windmill and Smash have been ranked up.

==== Archery Skills ====
* Ranged Attack: Your bread n' butter attack. This is effectively your normal attack, so it'd be bad not to rank it.
* Magnum Shot: The smash-equivalent for archery. It has a slower aim time, but the high damage more than offsets this drawback.
* (Cross)Bow Mastery: More damage. The damage bonus on the Combat Mastery skill does not affect bows, so ranking up your weapon mastery skill is much more important.

==== Magic Skills ====
* Firebolt: The smash-equivalent for magic. As a mage, you want to kill stuff before it can kill you, so damage is key.
* Icebolt/Lightningbolt: While each bolt spell has their use case, ice and lightning are less important. Nonetheless, you'll want to rank them up for the stats and for defeating multiple weak enemies, as their cast time is shorter than firebolt.
* Magic Mastery: The magic-equivalent to Combat Mastery.
* Meditation: After learning all 3 bolt spells, talk to Stewart in the school in Dunbarton with the "Skills" keyword, and you'll get Meditation. This skill is trained by reading books rather than using the skill itself. It increase the regeneration speed of mana, letting you save some mana potions.

=== Dungeons (without dragons) ===
(Section about making money with part time jobs, then buying some basic gear to do dungeons, and then a list of recommendations for quests and other contents a new player should know about)

== Growing Stronger ==
(A list of important skills to unlock for each skillset like charge, thunder, and crash shot. Afterwards, a guide on upgrading weapons, and how the enchantment system works)
== Custom Content ==
(Info on Makenna, Pon shops, Chisai, and other important custom contents)