[This guide also includes another separate build at the end by Neoliia#2345. Neo's playstyle does not maximize Valkyrie's damage but instead ensures high consistent DPS, as she is from EU (and we know how EU ping can be). However, she is still able to pull consistent damage, so if you're finding yourself with mediocre ping but still are interested in playing, her build is the one for you.

Also, if you're interested in learning about other classes, we have a Class Guide Archive! - Naka]

Hayden's Valkyrie Guide

Hayden's guide contains an in-depth look at the Valkyrie class and discusses the gameplay in detail. His playstyle is harder to achieve if you have mid-higher ping, so please keep this in mind.

Introduction

Self-Introduction

Hey Ducks! I’m Ainiko (sio#5014) and I’ve been a Dragon Nest NA player since open beta. Welcome to my guide to playing (PvE) Valkyrie on Project Duck! She plays a little differently than on official servers. Of course, everything in this guide is catered toward how I play and Valkyrie has potential for varying playstyles. In this guide I will discuss her skill build, skills, crests, and overall gameplay. Please feel free to message me and reach out with any questions you have about the class!

Class

Valkyrie is the magical DPS branch of the Lancer class. She is a spear user who utilizes Intellect and the light element to deal damage using her magical spears. The class focuses on three main rotations (that I personally use) to deal damage, while maneuvering yourself around the boss and within your buff circles. It is also important to position yourself and use your skills at the correct time to optimize your burst skills. Valkyrie focuses on redirecting her magical afterimages as well as detonating spears.

Skills

With each skill, I'll start with a brief skill description and follow through with how the skill is relevant to your DPS rotation.

Lencea

[Criss Cross Cut (CM3)]

  • Chop diagonally twice, then end with a chop downwards.
  • CM3 increases [Criss Cross Cut]’s damage, but even with the damage buff, the skill does poor damage and is not worth using as a filler skill. The skill does not become light elemental either. The only time you should be using [Criss Cross Cut] is to trigger CM3.
  • Tip: Left click during [Criss Cross Cut] to activate CM3 ([Twirl Trance]).

[Hornet’s Touch]

  • Enter a defensive stance and when hit, slice forward at the enemy.
  • This skill is a very important pseudo-iframe/counter skill. If you can master the use of this skill instead of dodging, it can improve your DPS. Be aware though that debuffs and buff wipes will apply through this skill, so it is better to [Tumble] during some cases.

[Headbutt]

  • Using that hard head of yours, bash your head forward.
  • This skill is optional – it will never be used to DPS, but it is a useful skill for pushing.

[Harmonize]

  • “Harmo pls.” “Can I get a harm?” “Dude, why do I feel so slow?”
  • Harmonize is your class buff that increases attack and movement speed by 10%. With the introduction of dual class buffs, [Harmonize] also provides ATK%. If any of your teammates say any of the above phrases or the like, remember to rebuff your allies with [Harmonize] as the action speed is very helpful!

Lancer

[Lingering Swing EX]

  • Step backwards as you swing with your spear to create magical afterimages.
  • After the first afterimage is created, left click twice to produce two additional afterimages. Alternatively, left click, then right click to produce one additional afterimage, and then one boomerang afterimage that flies out and returns to your character. This skill doesn’t really see much use outside of its debuff, and I normally send out one afterimage rather than three. This skill induces a +20% damage debuff on the enemy.
  • The skill lasts on the field for 10 seconds and hits for an unlimited number of times during its duration. This means that larger bosses will take more damage from this skill, and the longer you leave the afterimages out on the field, the more damage monsters will take. If you use this skill while [Stalwart Spirit] is active and you have the buff icon active, you can continue to shoot afterimages. These afterimages only last on the field for 5 seconds though.

[Spear of Light EX]

  • Send out a piercing magical spear that travels forward.
  • This skill performs well on larger bosses. The longer you leave it out, the more damage it will rack up. Detonation of this skill by [Vengeance from Above] will produce 350% explosion damage, while detonation of this skill by [Flag Shine] will produce 300% explosion damage. Therefore, it is better to detonate this skill using [Vengeance from Above].

[Piercing Spike EX]

  • Jump into the air and throw out magical spears from your back pocket.
  • This skill is the bread and butter of Valkyrie! It should be your highest DPS skill and your main goal is to detonate these spears with [Vengeance from Above] or [Spear of Light] left-click (explosion damage is 400%). Detonating this skill with [Flag Shine] will produce lower DPS than the other two skills since the explosion damage is only 350%. This skill can be used while in mid-air – make sure to left-click while using this skill to send out a second piercing spike!
  • The jumping part of the skill is an iframe that lasts ~0.2 seconds.

[Twirl Trance EX (Instant)]

  • Twirl your spear and send out a large afterimage.
  • CM3 allows you to send out three afterimages, while the regular EX version and CM2 allows you to send out two afterimages. Similar to [Lingering Swing], this skill lasts on the field for 10 seconds. The longer you have it out and the longer it is contacting the boss, the more damage it will do.

[Circle of Spears (CM2)]

  • Slam your spear into the ground to generate magical spears, then send them flying outward around you.
  • Left clicking during this skill will send the magical spears outward. With CM2, hitting enemies with [Circle of Spears] will reset the cooldown of [Twirl Trance].

[Erratic Power]

  • Maximize your battle ability by taking your character to the limit.
  • This skill provides wonderful buffs to action speed (10%), movement speed (10%), and final damage (20%). It is a toggle buff, so make sure that every time you enter a portal, you turn on this buff again. Generate [Energy] when using Lancer/Valkyrie skills to reach a [Concentrate] state (20 bubble stacks). When in the [Concentrate] state, your movement speed is increased by 5% and [Circle of Spears] is enhanced to leave afterimages on the ground. These afterimages can be redirected using [Dance of Light]. Enhanced [Circle of Spears] can be used to trigger CM2 (though it does not reset the CD of [Twirl Trance]) so it is best to use it when [Twirl Trance EX (Instant)] is already off CD, then use the unenhanced [Circle of Spears] to reset the cooldown of [Twirl Trance EX (Instant)].

[Martial Spirit]

  • Red circle.
  • Creates a red shield that buffs your damage by 10%. The buff lasts for 5 seconds and the red circle lasts for 15 seconds. You may only use one of either [Martial Spirit] or [Stalwart Spirit] at a time. Always make sure you have this buff on while DPSing!

[Stalwart Spirit]

  • Blue circle.
  • Creates a blue shield (15 second duration) that reduces received damage and recovers HP. This skill recovers 1% HP per second and reduces all incoming damage by 30%. To recover HP, you MUST be standing within the blue circle. With Valkyrie’s awakening, you can continue to create additional afterimages using [Lingering Swing]. Unlike the HP recovery, as long as the 5 second buff is active from the skill, you can continue to produce additional afterimages (as well as reduce incoming damage).

[Flag Salute]

  • Jump on the tip of your spear and evade to a different location.
  • This skill is one of my favourite iframes for Valkyrie! It’s great for dodging and moving away to a location further than your [Tumble] can reach. You can activate this skill directly from the skill bar or you can [Tumble] then hit spacebar or right click. The first part of the skill where she jumps up onto her spear is an iframe (~0.3 seconds). You then have the option to left click, whereby she’ll slam down with her spear for an attack (not an iframe), or right click, whereby she’ll fling herself forward (an iframe that lasts ~0.3 seconds). You can control the distance she flings herself forward or left/right by experimenting with the WASD keys. You should never use the left click as it does poor damage, but if by accident you left click instead of right click, you can follow it up with [Hornet’s Touch] to evade incoming damage.
  • You can use the right click to dodge stomps as it provides airtime.

[Double Somersault]

  • “Pingu pinguuu~”
  • This skill is a really good DPS skill… on golem. In practice, the long casting duration of this skill often means you won’t be able to use it fully, and it drops in DPS significantly over the course of the raid. Fortunately, you are mobile during this skill, allowing you to potentially evade incoming damage. Overall, this skill is super fun to use and to other players, if they have their Party FX at 10, you look like a rolling ball on the ground. This skill can be used in the air and can be useful after [Piercing Spike] if you need a quick way to reposition yourself out of the air. It can also be used after [Flag Salute], but not [Flag Shine].

[Champagne]

  • Accumulate magic energy in your spear and thrust forward to POP open that buff circle.
  • This skill creates a magical circle buff that lasts for 15 seconds. The buff boosts your light attack by 25% and your critical rate by 90%. The only tricky thing about this skill is you need be standing in the circle to receive the buff (duration is ~1 second when outside of the buff circle). This may be difficult if the boss moves a lot, so it is best to use this skill when you know the boss will be stationary for a period of time.

Valkyrie/Awakenings

[Dance of Light]

  • Sends a magical flying ball.
  • This skill redirects all your afterimages to the enemy it hit. This skill also reduces enemy elemental resistance by 20%.

[Vengeance from Above] (VfA)

  • The Gods are angry…
  • Using this skill detonates [Spear of Light] and [Piercing Spike]. Press spacebar in the air after [Piercing Spike] to immediately use [Vengeance from Above] in the air. If you hold the W-key while using this skill, it will NOT detonate [Piercing Spike]. I mainly redirect [Vengeance from Above] using [Flag Shine].

[Angelic Spear]

  • Shoots a giant spear made with afterimage wings.
  • Nothing much to say about this skill. Thanks to Project Duck’s balancing changes, when this skill comes in contact with an enemy, its full board damage (including [Dance of Light] and [Flag Shine] detonation) will be applied. Using [Dance of Light] or right-clicking after [Angelic Spear] can allow the afterimage wings to redirect to the enemy.

[Flag Shine]

  • Summon a flag to lure all spears to its location.
  • This skill is useful for redirecting [Spear of Light], [Piercing Spike], and [Vengeance from Above].
  • This skill is also useful for extending airtime to dodge stomps.

Afterimage Redirection and Spear Detonation

Valkyrie focuses on exploding and redirecting her skills to deal damage. It’s important to know which skills detonate which, and I will try my best to explain them here.

Skills that produce afterimages include: [Lingering Swing EX], [Twirl Trance EX], and [Circle of Spears].

  • All afterimages can be detonated by right-clicking immediately after the skill (this is especially useful if you know a boss mech is coming and don’t have time to use [Dance of Light] to redirect your afterimages), or redirecting the afterimages using [Dance of Light].

The following skills are spear skills that can be detonated: [Spear of Light EX], [Piercing Spike EX], [Vengeance from Above EX].

  • All spears can be redirected using [Flag Shine]. However, I do not recommend using [Flag Shine] to detonate spears because the explosion damage will be weaker. The only time I will use [Flag Shine] to detonate a spear is if the boss has moved out of range of my spears, or if I am detonating [Vengeance from Above].

The following skills can be detonated by left-clicking [Spear of Light] for the centre explosion damage: [Piercing Spike] and [Vengeance from Above]. The following skills can be detonated by [Vengeance from Above]: [Spear of Light] and [Piercing Spike].

  • Tip: After [Piercing Spike], press spacebar in the air to immediately use [Vengeance from Above].
  • Tip 2: Holding the W-key while using [Vengeance from Above] will cause the skill to NOT detonate [Piercing Spike]. This is useful if the boss has moved out of range of your spikes and you want to redirect both [Piercing Spike] and [Vengeance from Above] using [Flag Shine].

Note: Unfortunately, the redirection of your skills is very ping-dependent. Afterimage redirection is usually good and will not bug out, but redirection of spear skills, especially redirection of [Vengeance from Above] using [Flag Shine] can bug out often. This is why some Valkyrie players prefer to detonate [Vengeance from Above] using the left-click [Spear of Light], even though it generates lower DPS. Please refer to Neoliia’s Valkyrie guide below to see how she plays with higher ping.

Skill Build

Unified Skills: Ultimate CD, HP Boost

Crests

[Vengeance from Above CDR] / [Twirl Trance CDR] / [Piercing Spike DMG] / [Spear of Light DMG] / [Hornet’s Touch CDR] (Optional) / [Double Somersault DMG] (Optional)

Rotation

Always start with your debuffs [Lingering Swing] and [Dance of Light] then follow up with [Champagne].

These are the main rotations I use:

  1. [Spear of Light] --> [Piercing Spike] --> spacebar in the air for [Vengeance from Above] --> [Lingering Swing] (only one afterimage) --> [Dance of Light] --> [Flag Shine]
  2. [CM3] --> [Circle of Spears] --> [Twirl Trance EX (Instant)] --> [Double Somersault] --> [Dance of Light]
  3. [Angelic Spear] --> [Dance of Light]

Neoliia's Valkyrie Build

Skill Build

Unified Skill: FD Boost

Crests

[Piercing Spikes DMG] / [Vengeance from Above CDR] / [DS DMG] / [Twirl Trance CDR] / [Spear of Light DMG]

+1 [Piercing Spikes]

Rotation