HP, MP, SD and AG

Your character has four resources, and the HUD shows all four: health and mana to the left and right of the orb, with SD under the health and AG under the mana. Each has a stat that feeds it, its own regeneration speed and its own way of running out.

• 90%of the hit goes to the SD
• 3 sinterval between ticks
• 1%health per tick, safe zone only
• 3.6%mana per tick, anywhere

The 3 second tick

Every automatic regeneration in the game runs on a single 3 second clock. On each tick the server adds, to each bar, `maximum × multiplier` plus a flat value, without going over the maximum. There is no continuous regeneration: either the tick happened, or nothing changed.

Health

Maximum health comes from vitality and from level, with different weights per lineage. The Dark Knight gains the most per level; everyone gains at least double per point of vitality.

There is a server balancing rule worth knowing before you distribute points: vitality gives health and SD, and nothing else. It was taken out of AG and out of damage on every class. The only exception is the Rage Fighter, whose melee damage scales with vitality.

Mana

Mana is the easiest resource to keep up: it regenerates anywhere on the map, at around 3.6% of the maximum every 3 seconds, for every class. It pays each skill's mana cost and it is what Soul Barrier eats when you take a hit while protected by it.

SD, the shield

Shield Damage, or just SD, is the yellow bar. It is not extra health: it is a filter in front of your health. As long as there is SD, 90% of every hit you take comes off it and only 10% reaches your health.

max SD = 1.2 × (strength + agility + vitality + energy)
         + final defense
         + (total level squared / 30)

The total level term is what makes SD grow so much in the endgame: it is quadratic. A character at total level 800 has more than 21 thousand SD from the level alone.

The SD regeneration rule

This is the point that causes the most confusion, so it is worth the full explanation in two parts.

1. The rate: the base SD recovery rate is 1% of the maximum per tick, and being in a safe zone adds another 1%, meaning it doubles to 2%.
2. The lock: even so, the server only runs SD recovery while you are in a safe zone. Outside of it, recovery is skipped, unless the character has the recover anywhere stat.

That stat comes from the Guardian armor option. With it, SD starts going up in the field again, at the base rate of 1% per tick. Without it, in practice, you recover SD in town, at 2% per tick.

When the SD does not protect you

• Shield pierce: the attacker has a chance to ignore the SD and throw the whole hit into your health.
• SD at zero: with the bar empty, 100% of the damage goes to your health.
• The 90% split can be pulled down by the attacker and up by the defender, always between 0% and 100%.

AG, the Ability Gauge

AG is the purple bar. It is a second skill cost: many skills charge mana and AG at the same time, and without AG the skill simply does not come out, even with full mana. It is the resource that limits how many strong skills you can chain together.

AG regeneration is the same everywhere on the map: a flat 2 points per tick for every class, plus a percentage of the maximum. The Dark Knight recovers 5% per tick; the other six lineages recover around 3%.

Practical summary

• Damage calculationHow a hit is split between SD and health.
• StatsHow much each point gives you in each bar.
• Potions and consumablesWhat to drink and when.