Ragnarok Online/Leveling Stats and Skills

Basic Stats
There are six basic stats which will affect a large number of aspects of a character's combat worthiness against given opponents. These stats can be directly altered by the player either at character creation or when gaining a base level.


 * Strength: Increases attack strength in melee combat and weight limit.
 * Agility: Increases attack speed and dodge rate.
 * Vitality: Increases physical defense, maximum HP and HP recovery rate.
 * Intelligence: Increases magic attack, magic defense and maximum SP.
 * Dexterity: Increases accuracy, ranged attack strenght and minimum damage dealt, and lowers the cast time for some skills and spells.
 * Luck: Increases Critical hits and perfect dodge rate.

When a character gains a base level, he or she will gain a number of stat points equal to FLOOR(A / 5) + 2 where A is the base level gained. For example, at base level 10, the player will receive 4 stat points as (10/5)+2 = 4.

To increase a stat, the player must spend a number of stat points equal to FLOOR((A - 1) / 10) + 2 where A is the current value of the stat, not including any bonuses.

At character creation, the player is required to assign a total of 48 stat points according to three set axes:


 * Strength <--> Intelligence
 * Vitality <--> Dexterity
 * Agility <--> Luck

The maximum value that can be assigned to a given stat at character creation is 9, the minimum value is 1. Increasing Strength will decrease Intelligence and vice-versa. Increasing Vitality will decrease Dexterity and vice-versa. And increasing Agility will decrease Luck and vice-versa. A possible set of stats is 9 Strength, 9 Vitality, 9 Agility, 1 Intelligence, 1 Dexterity, 1 Luck, but 9 Strength, 9 Intelligence, 9 Vitality, 1 Dexterity, 1 Agility, 1 Luck is not permitted by the game.

These axes only exist during character creation and will have no impact on the player's stat decisions when he or she levels up.

Strength (STR)
Strength affects the physical melee attack power of a character. The higher your strength, the more damage you do by swinging fists, books, swords, maces, and axes. Strength also increases the limit on the weight of items a character can be carrying.

Strength will often be abbreviated STR.

This is what Strength does in more detail:


 * Increases melee attack damage by 1 per point of STR.
 * Also increases melee attack damage by [STR/10]^2, where the value in [ ] is rounded down and ^2 means squared.
 * Increases missile attack damage by 1 per 5 full points of STR.
 * Increases weight capacity by 30 per point of STR (Note that this only applies to base STR, which is the left value in the status window).

Agility (AGI)
Agility affects the attacking speed as well as dodging ability of a character. A character with high agility not only does more damage but also takes less as well.

Agility is often abbreviated AGI.

This is what Agility does in more detail:


 * Increases attack speed by about 0.1 per point of AGI; it depends on your equipped weapon, and also the higher your attack speed is, the less effect each point of AGI has on it.
 * Increases flee rate by 1 per point of AGI.
 * Reduce spell delays.

Dexterity (DEX)
Dexterity affects how accurate your attacks are, as well as how much damage ranged weapons such as bows do. The hit rate bonus of Dexterity is point-by-point equivalent with the dodge rate bonus of Agility.

Dexterity is often abbreviated DEX.

This is what Dexterity does in more detail:


 * Increases hit rate by 1 per point of DEX.
 * Increases missile attack damage by 1 per point of DEX.
 * Also increases missile attack damage by [DEX/10]^2, where the value in [ ] is rounded down and ^2 means squared.
 * Increases melee attack damage by 1 per 5 full points of DEX.
 * Increases attack speed by 1/4 the amount each point of AGI would.
 * Increases minimum attack damage by 1 per point of DEX; your minimum attack damage is just your total attack power minus your equipped weapon's attack power. (Note that once your DEX equals your weapon's attack power, then each of your attacks will do about the same damage; minimum attack damage won't exceed maximum attack damage)
 * Decreases casting time of skills by 2/3% per point of DEX; therefore, at 150 DEX you can instantly cast skills.
 * Increases forging success rates for Blacksmiths and brewing success rates for Alchemists...by an unknown amount.

Vitality (VIT)
Vitality is a measure of survivability. It provides a variety of benefits: First, it increases the maximum hit points (HP) of a character, and so this character will be able to take more damage. Having a high Vitality also means you take reduced damage from physical attacks. Third, vitality helps a character overcome debilitating effects such as blindness and stun. Finally, vitality increases the effectiveness of healing potions.

Vitality is abbreviated VIT.

This is what Vitality does in more detail:


 * Increases max HP by 1% per point of VIT; this stacks, so technically if you have 2 VIT, then your max HP is increased by 101% * 101% = 102.01%; it may not seem like much, but with enough VIT it'll make a big difference.
 * Increases HP healing items' effectivity by 2% per point of VIT.
 * Increases HP recovery power by 1 per 5 full points of VIT (meaning it increases the amount of HP you heal when you stand or sit).
 * Increases physical defense (VIT DEF) by 1 per point of VIT; VIT DEF decreases physical damage received by numbers (the rough estimate being, VIT DEF = number subtracted from base damage received); the damage actually reduced depends on whether you are hit by a monster or a player, and there are also some bonuses to VIT DEF at certain intervals.
 * Increases magical defense (INT MDEF) by 1 per 2 full points of VIT (this doesn't show on the status screen, however); works in the same way that INT decreases damage from magical attacks.
 * Decreases status infliction rate and time by an unknown amount.

Intelligence (INT)
Intelligence is a measure if ability in the arcane arts. It increases the damage of magic spells much as strength does for physical attacks. High intelligence also gives increased spell points (SP), which allows a character to cast more spells for a longer time. Finally, Intelligence reduces the damage taken from spell effects.

Intelligence is abbreviated INT.

This is what Intelligence does in more detail:


 * Increases max SP by 1% per point of INT; just as with VIT, this stacks.
 * Increases SP healing items' effectiveness by 2% per point of INT.
 * Increases SP recovery power by 1 per 6 full points of INT (note that you also recover SP even if you are moving, just really slowly); once INT is past 120, however, SP recovery power increases by 1 every 2 full points of INT.
 * Increases magic attack power by 1 per point of INT (in your status window MATK has a range; whenever you cast a skill that uses MATK to calculate damage, a value from the range is randomly selected).
 * Increases maximum magic attack power by [INT/7]^2, where the value in [ ] is rounded down and ^2 means squared.
 * Increases minimum magic attack power by [INT/5]^2, where the value in [ ] is rounded down and ^2 means squared.
 * Increases magical defense (INT MDEF) by 1 per point of INT; INT MDEF decreases the damage received from magical attacks by its value.
 * Decreases status infliction rate and time by an unknown amount.

Luck (LUK)
Luck raises the rates at which certain randomly triggered combat events happen. Primarily, luck increases your chance of making a critical strike, a normal attack that always hits the target and is not reduced by armor or by vitality. It also increases, to a lesser degree, the chance of a lucky dodge, which is a chance of completely avoiding a regular attack. It also figures into the calculations for certain class skills such as the hunter's Blitz Beat or the priest's Turn Undead.

Luck is abbreviated LUK.

This is what Luck does in more detail:


 * Increases critical hit rate by 0.3% per point of LUK (only the integer rounded down is shown in the status window).
 * Increases perfect dodge rate by 0.1% per point of LUK (same with critical hit rate, only the integer is shown).
 * Increases attack damage by 1 per 5 full points of LUK (this is for any type of physical attack).
 * Decreases status infliction rate and time by an unknown amount (but less than VIT and INT's effects).
 * Increases forging success rate for Blacksmiths and brewing success rate for Alchemists by an unknown amount (but less than for DEX's effect); INT apparently affects brewing success rate for Alchemists as well.

Derived Stats
While basic stats are directly controlled by the player, derived stats are not directly controlled by the player. These stats are functions of the basic stats (and, in some cases, functions of skills or equipment the character is wearing) and thus altering them requires changing some aspect of the character's equipment, skills, or basic stats.

Derived stats generally have more of an impact on the actual power of a given character and should be strongly taken into consideration when evaluating a particular stat set.

Attack Power (ATK)
Attack Power = STR (str + str bonus) + Mastery (e.g. sword mastery +40 Attack) + Weapon's Damage + Weapons Refine Bonus

Damage Dealt = ((Attack Power - (Attack Power/(100/Enemy's Def))) × Card Effect) - Enemy's Vit

Defense (DEF)

 * Hard Defense

From Armors, each base DEF gives 1% reduction. Each refine gives .66% (2/3) damage reduction. For example, if you have 50 hard def and 1,000 damage inflicted unto you, the formula is:

$$\frac{DamageInflicted}{(100 / (HardDef + (Refine*\frac{2}{3})))} = Reduction$$

If you don't have any refine you can just think of it as Damage ÷ (100 ÷ HardDef), or in this case, simply 1000 ÷ 2 = 500. Note that this number refers to the amount reduced and not the total amount of damage taken. The amount of damage taken can be calculated as:

$$DamageInflicted - Reduction = DamageReceived$$

In this case, it would be 1,000 - 500 = 500. If you had 60 HardDef, instead of 50, the rounded result would be 1,000 - 600 = 400.

Soft defense is based on Vitality, and the formula is: damage - soft def. For example, if you have 50 soft def and 1,000 damage inflicted unto you, you would have 1000 - 50 = 950.
 * Soft Defense

Accuracy (HIT)
HIT=Base level + DEX

Chance of hitting an enemy = 80 + HIT - Enemy Flee = %

Minimum Hit = 5%

Dodge Chance (FLEE)
FLEE = Base level + AGI + Skill Effects + Card Effects

Perfect Dodge
Every 10 luck points brings 1 perfect dodge.

Skills
Skills can add additional types of attacks or defensive tactical abilities to your character. Each character has a unique set of skills depending on their job. These skills can either be active or passive. Generally when you use a skill, SP decreases. When you level up your Job Level, you can add a point to a skill. As with stats, your Job Level grows as you kill more monsters.


 * See Character Jobs and Skills for detailed Skill information for each character.