Lightbinder Guide
Overview
The Lightbinder is one of three starting classes that you can play in Skyforge without purchasing the collector’s edition. The Lightbinder is one of two main support classes, the other being Alchemist. Unlike your traditional MMO support/healer class there are no healing abilities. The Lightbinder relies solely on shields and buffs to mitigate damage players take until those players can heal themselves with health orbs from enemies. Therefore it is important to learn fights and know when shields and buffs are needed the most, especially for the tank. Also, as you level up through the Lightbinder Atlas and learn new abilities you will need to determine which ones are most important to your style of gameplay.
This article is focused on PvE and does not discuss the capabilities of the Lightbinder in PvP. Also, keep in mind that in the end you’re going to have to figure out what works best for your play style and in certain situations and this guide is meant to help you understand the class better and its capabilities.
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Abilities
Be mindful of your radius because your buff and shielding abilities are based on range. If you are out of range your allies they won’t get the buffs. (Blessing of the Sun, sacred barrier, halo, and blessing and tenacity 20 yd range, sacred barrier and radiance is only in front)
Radiance. “The Lightbinder and all allies in the front hemisphere gain additional 50% to Defense Penetration. Duration is 10 seconds.” Who doesn’t love defense penetration?
Sacred Barrier – “Creates a shield around the Lightbinder and every ally in a 20 yard radius in front of the Lightbinder. It absorbs incoming damage for 4 seconds and removes all negative effects.” This is a great ability but you need to be mindful of your positioning due to it only applying to allies in front of you and within 20 yards. It does have a 5 minute cool down but is a great ability.
Blessing of Tenacity or Rise and Shine? Well, it depends. Overall I believe Blessing of Tenacity is the stronger options as it has a 30 second cool down and removing negative effects and granting immunity is always good for the group. However, when running pick up groups having Rise and Shine for an instant in-combat rez for when your tank eats it can take your group from wiping to winning, even if it is on a ten minute cool down.
Supernova or Pulsar or Quasar? Well first I’m taking Quasar off the table, the tank can pull in the mobs to bunch them up nicely and you don’t need to worry about that. The other two abilities both have strong points so it really depends on the content you are trying to clear, I’ll leave this decision up to you. Supernova “... It will explode in 15 seconds or when an enemy approaches it, inflicting damage to them. It will also set the enemies int eh area on fire for 6 seconds, inflicting damage every second.” Pulsar “… It reduces the movement speed of the nearby enemies by 95% and explodes in 5 seconds, inflicting damage and stunning all enemies in the area of effect for 3 seconds”
Flood of Light – “Short Stroke: Pulsating Flare. Inflicts damage to the enemy or increases the damage of the next attack of an ally. Press and hold: Flood of Light. Increases Might, Strength, Spirit, Luck, and Valor of the selected ally for 8 seconds by 20% of those of the Lightbinder for each stack of the effect, up to 100% at the 5th level of the effect.” Increasing the stats of your team members and it can stack up to 100%, awesome. If you channel Flood of Light you can also split it between two people.
Blessing of the Sun – “Increases damage inflicted by you and your allies in a 20 yard radius by 50% The duration of the effect is 7 seconds.” Damage buffs! Nothing better than a support increasing all ally damage by 50%!
Talents
Rain of Fire – This is amazing… “Unstable shield has no cooldown but requires shield charges. Maximum number of charges is 2, and one charge is restored every 12 seconds. The charges are displayed above the Health bar as an effect.”
Solar Breeze – “Light Energy regeneration rate is increased by 25 in combat and by 100 out of combat.” When you equip this you will really notice a difference in the amount of abilities you can get off.
Bright Flares – “Pulsating Flare used against an enemy has a 10% chance to restore an Impulse Charge. When used on a friendly target, it restores 10 points of Light Energy.” This is a great ability to buff your left-click so that when you “auto-attack” enemies you have a chance to restore your Impulse Charge, or if you need to get back some Light Energy quickly just sit there and click on a group mate; they get buffed and you get Light Energy to do more stuff!
Guardians Gift – “Sacred Barrier cooldown is reduced by 120 seconds. Invulnerability duration is increased by 2 seconds.” Reduce the CD of an invulnerability? Yes!
Distorting Field – “Unstable Shield reduces the duration of control effects by 40% and provides immunity to movement restricting effects.”More useful late game during raid bosses but I wanted to mention it.
Captivating Light – “All allies affected by Blessing of Tenacity gain a shield that partially absorbs incoming damage for 4 seconds. When activated, the shield absorbs 70% of damage. The efficiency is gradually reduced to 25%.” Every 30 seconds you can cat Blessing of Tenacity so this means you don’t only remove negative effects you give players a damage absorption shield.
Spirit of Light – “When a Lightbinder dies, they turn into the Spirit of Light with 40% health and can continue to fight for 15 seconds. If the spirit survives 15 seconds, the Lightbinder is resurrected. The effect can be activated no more than once every 8 minutes. Spirit of Light is immune to Incarnation of Light.” This is a great ability, instead of dying when taking fatal damage you instantly turn into a spirit for 15 seconds! As long as you don’t take too much damage and die you will resurrect and continue fighting
Strength of Spirit – “Blessing of Tenacity cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds, and its Light Energy cost is reduced by 200.”
Symbols
Shroud of Light – Lightbinder class symbol. “When the character is not in combat, they gain a shield that absorbs damage equal to 5% of the character’s maximum health (three plates maximum). The shield can be restored during combat, if the character takes no damage for 6 seconds.” It’s always great to start a fight with a shield!
Reinforced Shields – “Shield Power is increased by 4% for each level of this symbol”
Impulse Barrier – “When Impulse Charge is activated, the character gains a shield that absorbs damage for 3 seconds.”
Divine Intervention (Paladin Symbol) – “Ioncoming damage is completely absorbed if it is more than 10% of the maximum health. The character becomes immune to all damage and negative effects for 4 seconds. The effect is activated no more than once every 70 seconds.” Every class needs this ability, it is amazing.
Now Let’s Play Lightbinder!
Your abilities as a Lightbinder will be limited at first. Your shields/buffs will only be able to help out mainly one player at a time so when you get to your first 5-man dungeon it may seem a little overwhelming. But do not be discouraged! You will gain a lot more group buffs as you unlock later abilities and it will get easier to help out the whole group instead of just one player.
The key to being a good support as a Lightbinder is obviously your shields. Remember, you cannot heal anyone, you must anticipate and prevent damage with shields. Also, remember that you most importantly want to protect the tank, because if the tank dies most likely the group will wipe. Of course if a dps starts taking a massive amount of damage do not shy away from throwing them an Unstable Shield. It is also important that you understand fight mechanics so you know the best times to use group buffs, like Blessing of the Sun and Radiance.
So first, let’s talk about shielding/buffing single targets. Unstable Shield is one of your first abilities and your bread and butter. So having Rain of Fire for a talent should be a no brainer, as it reduces the cooldown for Unstable Shield from 20 seconds to 12 seconds, and allows you to have two shields ready to go at the beginning of a fight. But make sure not to button smash this ability or you may blow two shields quickly. When supporting a Paladin it can be difficult to know when to use Unstable Shield since you don’t want to overlap with their shields and basically waste your shield. If playing with a Paladin friend you can use a VoIP like Ventrilo or Mumble to call out when shields are up/ready, but this can get tedious. Try to closely watch the shield bar on your Paladin target and if there is a gap in shields and they take any damage you should throw your shield. Also, be sure to use your Pulsating Flare/Flood of Light to buff group mates. You can easily be clicking Pulsating Flare to give damage buffs to group mates in between pulls (or during fights to regenerate Light Energy if you have Bright Flares). However, be careful with Flood of Light as if you let this stack up to the 5th level it will drain pretty much all of your Light Energy.
Now for group shielding/buffing. Halo will be your main group shield as this has only a 45 second cooldown and creates a shield within a 20 yard range (you don’t need to worry if players are in front of or behind you, unlike Sacred Barrier). This ability has almost a one minute cooldown, so this is not something to spam every time it is up, and should be mostly used for when the group will be taking damage. That being said, don’t be stingy with using this shield to protect the tank or a dps if you do not have an Unstable Shield available. Sacred Barrier is you other main group shield, but this has a 5 minute cooldown (or 3 minutes if you have Guardian’s Gift) and only will affect group members in front of you, so be aware of where everyone is! This shield is superior to Halo since it will absorb all incoming damage, and Halo only absorbs 50%, so it should be used wisely. If you have Captivating Light, Blessing of Tenacity can also be used as a last resort group shield. Blessing of the Sun is your most important group buff and should be used wisely. It only has a one-minute cooldown, so feel free to use it on pretty much every trash mob pull during 5-man dungeons. However, when it comes to boss fights make sure not to waste this buff and use it when the boss will take the most damage.
Once you feel comfortable with supporting your allies with shields and buffs then it’s time to mix in some damage during the fight. For some nice single target damage, and to use my impulse charge, I use Sparks of Anger. This ability has no cooldown so you want to be careful not to run out of light energy for when your tank needs another shield. You also have Particle of Light, your right-click, which activates your impulse charge but unlike Sparks of Anger it does Area of Effect (AoE) damage. Sticking with AoE abilities I like Supernova because it is a nice AoE ability that provides good Damage over Time (DoT) and if you’ve got the light energy don’t be afraid to use this on a single target like a boss. Finally, when in doubt it never hurts to throw out some left-click attacks with Pulsating Flare especially if you have the Bright Flares talent which has a 10% chance to refresh your impulse charge. It may take time but soon enough you’ll master the doing damage in between shielding and buffing your allies making you one hell of a good support!
Equipment
Weapons – Increase Blessing of the Sun duration
Off hand – Increase Blessing of the Sun duration to increase damage output or increase Sacred Barrier duration. Keep in mind that increasing Sacred Barrier only increases the effect to the Lightbinder and not allies
Amulets
- Every third Pulsating Flare inflicts X more damage
- Particle of Light inflicts X more damage
- Burning Stream inflicts X more damage every second
- Sparks of Anger inflicts X more damage
Temples
Accuracy – “Brings the minimum base damage closer to maximum and increases your Strength’s influence on the base damage.”
Critical Chance – “Increases your critical hit chance”