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Before venturing forth in the world ofCrystal of Atlan, players need to pick a class, and that is not going to change later in the game. However, the class is just the beginning of the path ahead, as players will get to choose a class branch soon after finishing the first few story missions.
Unlike class, the branch class can be changed later on in the game, but it’s not without sacrifices. Whenever the player completes a story mission, they will be given items and weapons that are only usable with the branch that they completed the mission with. So, if you have made a lot of progress with your branch already, changing it to something else will deliver a vanilla version of the branch, missing a lot of valuable drops. So, it’s typically best tocreate a new characterand play the campaign all over again if you want to try out every available branch.
Players who start the game with Puppeteer usually like the wide coverage range of the melee attacks in this class. This class almost sits somewhere between a ranged damage dealer and a close melee damage dealer. Also, those who love fast-pacedhack-and-slash experienceswill probably enjoy the fluid moves of Puppeteer.
Scytheguard Branch Overview
The first branch is Scytheguard, and it ismuch closer to the basic version of Puppeteer.Although it delivers some new skills, the attacks still have the same wide coverage, pushing back anyone who tries to get close to the player. Puppeteer is generally a class to deal with hordes of enemies simultaneously, and the Scytheguard branch is the best execution of that idea.
Most of the skills in this branchfocus on multiple hits in a brief fraction of time, which keeps enemies at bay. These kinds of skills make it possible for the player to perform a jump and stand in the air for a longer duration while chaining multiple attacks together. This is quite beneficial, especially when fighting giant monsters with ground-focused attacks.
When the player is in the air, they are not affected by ground attacks anymore.
There arethree different ultimate movesavailable for Scytheguard: thedefault ultimatehas a medium range, but it’s still quite effective against bosses. It unleashes multiple chains that come out of the ground and deal devastating damage to enemies. Thesecond ultimatehas a smaller range and is more suitable for boss fights, sending the player’s Marionette to the air and returning it with a wrecking attack. Thethird and final ultimate, which unlocks at Level 60, is the one with the biggest range, summoning a rain of explosive projectiles that covers a large area of the battlefield.
Some of the best skills for Scytheguard includeArclight Cross,Photon Blast,Moonlight Sear, andWhirlwind Scythe. It’s strongly recommended to put these skills as a priority as you make progress and level up in the game. Moonlight Sear is a great follow-up to the default first skill, while Photon Blast is a short-range attack, best used on single enemies and bosses.
Blademaiden Branch Overview
As a branch of Puppeteer, Blademaiden also has a wide coverage range, but its basic attacks might not be as expansive as those of Scytheguard. The basic attack of Scytheguard relies on swinging a chain, which covers a wide angle in front of the player, but for Blademaiden, the angle for the basic attack may only cover two or three enemies at most.
However, Blademaiden comes with a bunch of better skills that compensate for the basic attack’s low coverage. Some of these skills, like Magnetic Force Field, allow the player to choose the covering area of the attack before unleashing the power, which is perfect when dealing with lots of enemies who are not in close proximity.
Even the ultimates for Blademaiden are more boss-focused than Scytheguard.The best ultimate is Magnetism Incarnation, which lets the player take control of the Marionette for a limited time and land powerful hits on the enemy. This is a superbly effective ultimate when fighting high-level bosses in the Elite missions.
The default ultimate for Blademaiden is almost similar to that of Scytheguard, but the second ultimate (unlocked at Level 45) has a wider range, though it still requires a single target to activate the ultimate, which, again, makes it best for bosses.
Speaking of the abilities, Blademaiden’s most notable non-ultimate skills areRhapsody,Electromagnetic Pulse,Magnetic Force Field, andWhirlwind Dance. Whirlwind Scythe from Scytheguard is almost the equivalent of Whirlwind Dance, though the one for Scytheguard targets multiple enemies, while Blademaiden only acquires one target, which is a common difference between other similar skills of the two branches as well.
Best Puppeteer Branch Overall (Blademaiden or Scytheguard?)
With all that said above about each branch,Blademaiden is the better choice. The core ofCrystal of Atlanis about defeating bosses, which is where players face the most challenging fights. And having a built-in crafted around bosses is the wise choice. Although playing as Scytheguard feels more satisfying than Blademaiden, thanks to all the fluid skills and combos, Blademaiden provides better moves for dealing with bosses, and that seems to be an important factor here.
Blademaiden’s Magnetism Incarnation ultimate alone is a big reason to choose it over Scytheguard. Not only does the ultimate improve damage output for a limited time, but it also gives players faster movements to dodge the incoming attacks.
Even for solo players, Blademaiden is still the best offer in the Puppeteer class. Although dealing with a large number of enemies might be a little bit difficult with the basic attack, unlocking skills like Surging Thunder, Magnetic Coil, and Curtain Call can help with the situation. Not to mention that using pet abilities later in the game will help even more with dealing damage to a large number of enemies simultaneously.
How to Change Class Branch in Crystal of Atlan
If you have already made your decision on the branch selection, there is always a way to come back. As mentioned earlier, players are allowed to change the branch during the game through the skill tree menu, but it will result in missing some of the drops for the newly acquired branch. Plus, this is only possiblebefore reaching Level 45orbefore getting the Awakening quest.
Once the player hits any of those milestones mentioned, changing the branch will not be possible for free, as players will need tospend a Soul Stone. So, it’s strongly recommended that players change their branch, if they want to, before reaching Chapter 3, where they acquire the quest of Awakening.
Remember that after changing your class branch, the game runs a respec on both the previous branch and the current one. The skill points are shared between the two branches, and that’s the reason why a respec is necessary.
Last but not least, it’s worth noting that the primary weapon types for Blademaiden and Scytheguard are not the same. After changing the branch, theequipped weapons will not convertand will rather move to the inventory as unusable items. However, the game does have an item known asSoul Reconstruction, which is able to convert the weapon type while keeping the rarity. The bad news is that Soul Reconstruction only works on select Epic weapons, and the item is quite difficult to achieve.
