Tales of Pirates

Tales of Pirates
Tales of Pirates Logo
Developer(s)	MOLI
Publisher(s)	Internet Gaming Gate
Platform(s)	Windows(Windows NT/98/ME/2K/XP/Vista)
Release	(Global) March 15, 2007(Closed Beta) (Global) March 30, 2007 (Open Beta)
Genre(s)	Fantasy Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game
Mode(s)	MMORPG

Tales of Pirates is a 3D Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game developed by the Chinese company MOLI. Tales of Pirates is published by IGG (Internet Gaming Gate), who have also published three other games, Voyage Century Online, WonderLand Online and Myth War Online. Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions such as an older version Pirate King Online.

Overview

Once an account is created, players are able to log in to a server and choose a character to begin the game. All characters start at level 1 and initially level up through very simple introductory quests designed to teach the player about the game. These quests take a few minutes to complete and will give a new player an idea of how to move, control their character and other simple concepts. At level 10 a character can choose a specific first class related to the character they chose. A "Lance" character can become an Explorer, Hunter or Swordsman, for example. See "Advanced Classes" further down for more explanation.

When a player levels up they receive 1 attribute point, but every 10 levels they gain 4 bonus attribute points. Starting at level 61, they will receive 2 attribute points every level, and 6 every 10 levels.

• Strength: Increases melee damage for swords. Recommended for: Swordsman, Champions, Crusaders.
• Accuracy: Increases accuracy and critical hit rate for all classes. More damage for bows/guns. Recommended for: hunter.
• Constitution: Increases HP (health points), faster health regeneration, and defense. Recommended for: Herbalist, Seal Master, Explorer, Voyager, Champion
• Agility: Increases attack speed and dodge rate. Recommended for: Swordsman, Crusader, Hunter, SharpShooter.
• Spirit: Increases SP (spirit points) - magical energy - as well as increasing SP regeneration rate. Recommended for: Seal Master, Cleric, Explorer, Voyager.

In addition to the class-specific skills that characters can use, there are generic "life skills" available for all, such as Woodcutting, Salvage, Mining and Fishing. As well as the cooking system, which allowing players to use their fairy to cook, manufacture, analize items and craft in game. These skills allow characters to make money, do quests, support their ships at sea, and create items.

Starting at level 15, a player may purchase a ship with which they may sail on the water (which makes up most of the world map). Certain elements of the game can only be accessed by the water including the usage of life skills like fishing and salvaging, as well as access to the three mazes (Forsaken City, Dark Swamp and Demonic World) that make up most of the mid- and high-end game content. (Demonic World does not require a boat)

Unconsciousness

When a character's health points reach 0, they will fall unconscious. A dialogue box will display and allow the player to teleport to a re-spawn point. When the character revives, no items are lost, but they will lose all of their HP and SP and approximately 2% of their current experience points. Note that experience points are not displayed as a number but as a percentage progression to next level. It is possible after dying to have a negative percentage progression, meaning XP will have to be gained to work off the negative penalty. In version 1.35, if you die you will lose a 2% EXP. You will not have negative EXP.

In addition, a character will lose 5% of the durability of their currently worn equipment if the player is above level twenty. Players may also be revived through the use of the Seal Master, Cleric and Herbalist skill, revive.

Partying

While solo play is entirely possible and fun for lower-level characters early on or even high level characters almost anywhere, joining a party is often preferred, players can start having party's at lvl8. Support characters such as the herbalist, cleric, and seal master may find it harder to adventure solo and would benefit from belonging to a party.

Joining a party is a matter of right-clicking on another character and sending a party invite. If accepted the invitee joins the party. Up to 5 people can be grouped at once. While in a party, experience points are split among party members, and loot dropped by monsters can be picked up by any party member. It would be wise to indicate if there are any rules for splitting loot beforehand, otherwise support characters not at the front lines may lose out on loot.

Chat

File:Chatsys001.PNG

Tales of Pirates Chat System

There are 5 different chat channels: Note: Instead of typing the selected symbol to chat in a channel, a user has the option to use an automated chat type.

World:- By typing * before a message allows the message to travel to the world channel. This channel allows players to chat to each other where ever they are in the game as long as they are in the map. i.e. people in the deep blue region use the world chat to talk to people in the deep blue. Speaking in World Chat will cost 500g, implemented to provent spam.

Local:- If the first character the user types into the dialogue box is a letter, the messages sent can be read by nearby players. By typing in the local channel, the chat is more directed at the people near them as a speech bubble appears above the person who typed it.

Guild:- When one types and places an % as the first character, the messages will only be sent to the user's guild members.

Party:- ! is the symbol to type to one's party. When one uses it or when another party member uses it, the messages will be highlighted in the chat box allowing more attention from the party members.

Trade:- Many users type ^ before they chat allowing them to chat in the trade channel. The channel is meant to let users to trade, sell or buy items. The message will be read by all users in the world. However, most users just use the World channel for trades. In version 1.36 speaking in Trade channel costs 200 gold, it will not allow you to speak until the next 3 minutes is consumed.

Camp:- This newly introduced mode of chat is used for Sacred War to talk with team mates, e.g. a pirate guild member in the Union War map can talk to anyone in any pirate guild that is also in the map using the "|" symbol. (Vertical Bar)

There is also Private Messaging, better known as a "PM", which allows a player to chat directly to another player with no one else viewing their speech. It can be done by left clicking another user's name, or by typing @character name, then typing the message to be sent.

Chat Channels: You can block out what you don't want to see by clicking the speech bubble next to the area where you enter your text. It will give you the option to block out any of the channels stated above and the system.

Guilds

There are two guild types one can join or make: a Navy Guild or a Pirate Guild. Both have their benefits and obviously oppose each other. To create a guild the player must have one hundred thousand gold pieces, reached level 40, and have obtained the Stone of Oath item. It is most reasonable to join a guild only after level 40 because most people don't want newbies (low level characters) on their guild as this will be disadvantageous during a guild event .

After joining or making a guild, you can participate in guild wars. Guilds bid to fight each other and reap the benefits of being able to buy from special NPC's as well as other benefits, such as status.

Item mall

Tales of Pirates is free to play, but some players may choose to further customize their characters appearance or enhance them by purchasing point cards via several methods of payment, which allows players to buy special items such as pet fairies, leveling items, decoration, teleportation items, etc. Updates (and occasionally new items) are added on a regular basis and there are special promotions at the end of every month. Current methods of paying are Google checkout, Pay Pal, Western Union, PayByCash, ClickandBuy, Alipay and cash payment. When you purchase from any of the methods except Google Checkout and Pay Pal you are automatically entered into the lottery contest giving you a chance to win up to 1 million gold in game. It is also possible to earn mall points in game from the reputation system with out spending any real money on the game. Mall points are often sold in game by other players, another way of obtaining mall points without spending money.

Mazes

The game also contains three dungeon-like areas called mazes, which offer considerably more experience and loot than the regular areas of play. The three mazes open in rotations of 3 hours each, and each maze has its own ranged level requirements. The mazes are also one of the few PvP areas in the game, enabling players to fight not only the monsters in the maze, but each other as well. Due to the PvP nature of the mazes, it is recommended to wait until a character is near the maximum level cap before attempting to traverse one. The mazes are:

• Forsaken City (FC Level 30-45)- You can find skele/inca chests here.

Entrance coordinates: Magical Ocean (1509, 3666). Item required: Ancient Generator

• Dark Swamp (DS Level 40-55)- You can find inca/eva chests here.

Entrance coordinates: Magical Ocean (2037, 2779)

• Demonic World (DW Level 50+)- You can find eva/enigma chests here.

Entrance coordinates: Ascaron (910, 1069)

Ships/commerce

There are several ships available for each city, ranging from a Guppy to a Great White Shark. Some are more suited for different task such as dealing damage or tanking damage. As your level increases you will be enabled to buy stronger ships, the level requirement ranging from level 15–45. Commerce is a great way to earn money using one's ship, which involves buying goods from a trader on one harbor and selling it to another trader and earning a profit.

Pets

Pets are a very important asset in this game as owning one can greatly improve your battle performance. You can add a specific stat on them by feeding them the corresponding fruits, e.g. Shaitan Biscuit for adding SPR, Snow Dragon Fruit for adding STR, etc. You can also add skills (only three to one pet) that can increase your health and spirit regeneration like Standard Meditation and Standard Recovery. The maximum level for a pet is currently level 41 and trying to feed it after that point will end in failure. To increase a pet's leveling speed there are fruits that will increase your pets leveling speed for a process of time. To level a pet you feed it a fruit when its exp bar begins to blink, a fruit will level your pets stat by 1 point and a great fruit will add 2 stat points at once instead of 1. Fairies can also be married, when both fairies are level 20 and above to create another fairy, depending on what object is used during marriage. Married pets can produce 2nd generation pets or Mordo Juniors, which have the ability to "possess", which activates your fairy's skill with the cost of some HP. Each of the different types of 2nd generation pets have a different skill, the Mordo Junior gives all of the 2nd generation pet skills at once. Possession can be bought in three different skill books: Novice, Standard, and Expert. Novice possession makes fairy stamina decrease 6x faster than normal, Standard 3x, and Expert 2x. To level a pet you simply keep it alive and it will automatically increase in exp. To keep your pet alive you feed it rations, or auto rations, obtainable through mall, credits or in game stalls. Rations give a certain amount of HP to your fairy depending on its level, the higher your fairy gets the less HP each ration will regenerate. HP slowly decreases over time and once your fairy's HP becomes 0 it will become inactive and the stats it gives will be reducted until active once more.

World

Currently the game consists of three "lands": Ascaron, Deep Blue, and Magical Ocean.

Ascaron

File:Ascaron.png

The Ascaron region.

Ascaron's main city is Argent City, and is the most heavily populated land in terms of players. There is also another large city in the north, Thundoria Castle, which is surrounded by higher level monsters. The class changes of Swordsman, Explorer, Voyager, Champion, and Crusader are made here.

Deep Blue

Deep Blue's main city is Icicle Castle. This land is snowy and is frozen over. Hunter class change is available here, as well as Sharpshooter (SS). There are also Islands which do not have the snow theme. Such islands are Spring Island, Autumn Island and Summer Island - the home of the notorious Black Dragon.

Magical Ocean

The Magical Ocean is a sandy desert region. Its main city is Shaitan City. The class change of Herbalist, Cleric and Seal Master is available. This city is well known as a place to forge gems into a players' equipment and to upgrade your apparel.

Classes

The classes available to a player are limited to the type of character that they chose. Players may advance to their first class at level 10, and when they reach level 40, they can advance to their second class. However, the second class depends on what you have chosen for your first class, so it is recommended to think carefully before you choose your character and your class before starting a new character.

Basic classes

Explorer
Available to: Ami, Lance, Phyllis
Advanced Class: Voyager

The Explorer class is able to fight in melee with daggers and cast combat spells with the use of coral items. They also have spells that are designed to be used at sea to support their ship. The spells do large damage but have a cooldown time before they can be used again. They are the fighters that are fastest at leveling out of the basic classes. Their skills are Diligence, Current, Conch Armor, Tornado, Lightning Bolt, and Algae Entanglement.

Herbalist
Available to: Ami, Phyllis

Advanced Class: Cleric, Seal Master

File:Magical ocean.png

The Magical Ocean region of TOP, where the Herbalist class began.

The Herbalist class is designed for support through defensive spells and healing of party members. However they do have one offensive spell - Spiritual Bolt, that can do a great deal of damage if they choose to follow that route of character development. Spells this class has are Vigor, Spiritual Bolt, Heal, Recover, Harden, Tempest Boost and Spiritual Fire.

Hunter
Available to: Lance, Phyllis
Advanced Class: Sharpshooter

The Hunter class uses a bow's ranged attacks to fight enemies. They can exploit a glitch by shooting through obstacles that enemies have to go around. A major complaint of this class is their low defense, but this problem can be solved by specializing in agility to increase dodge rate and can produce a much less fragile hunter. Skills include Range Mastery, Windwalk, Dual Shot, Frozen Arrow, Venom Arrow, Rousing, and Meteor Shower.

File:Pkoguide 4.jpg

A "Carsise" character.

Swordsman
Available to: Lance, Carsise, (Phyllis soon)
Advanced Class: Champion, Crusader

The Swordsman class is the only class that allows dual-wielding of swords. They are the primary melee combatants of the game, with specialized attack and defense skills, as well as ones that affect enemies. Their skills are Concentration, Sword Mastery, Will of Steel, Break Armor, Illusion Slash, Tiger Roar, and Berserk.

Advanced classes

Champion
Available to: Carsise

Carsise can be advanced to the Champion Class at level 40 by taking to Swordsman - Peter
Out of all the classes available in the game, the Champion has the greatest HP and defence progression which resulted in most Champions opting for a 'tank' build. The basis of this build is to increase your defence and HP to a state where the player can absorb the hits of multiple monsters and bosses while the rest of the party deals damage. The downside of this is that Champions have an extremely tough time dealing any sort of noteworthy damage, and as such have an extrmrly difficult time levelling alone. As such, this class should never be played by players wanting to solo their way.

Cleric
Available to: Ami, Phyllis

The Cleric can either be developed as a support specialist with advanced healing, defensive and protection skills or a battle cleric with an offensive skill. Support clerics are invaluable to a party in higher-level areas of the game where monsters can deal hundreds or thousands hp damage within a short time. The spells available to this class are: Divine Grace, True Sight, Energy Shield, Tornado Swirl, Angelic Shield, Healing Spring and Crystalline Blessing. Clerics also have the Herbalist class spells, Herbalist being the base class for a Cleric.

Crusader
Available to: Lance, Phyliss

Lance Swordsman can advance to the Crusader Class at level 40 by talking to Swordsman - Peter.
Out of all the classes available in the game, the Crusader has the greatest attack speed and dodge progression. This, as well as their trademark skill, Illusion Slash, has resulted in the standard Slasher build. This build takes advantage of the massive potential of Illusion Slash (a long range physical attack) and couples it with a Crusaders already fast attack speed. Added to this is Stealth and Shadow Slash, which allows the Crusader to become invisible and stun respectively. While the Crusader has the potential to be the most overpowered class in the game, players should be warned that for this to happen, massive amounts of malling to obtained gems is needed.

Seal Master
Available to: Ami, Phyllis

The Seal Master is a deadly class, specializing in offensive spells that cause great deals of damage. As well, they are the only class that has meta-spells, shutting down spell casting and melee attacks of their opponents. This makes them deadly opponents in player-vs-player combat within the game. They also have curses that debuff their opponents, giving them the ability to act as a support character as well. The spells that Seal Master has, in addition to the Herbalist class (the base class) spells are: Divine Grace, True Sight, Cursed Fire, Abyss Mire, Shadow Insignia and Seal of Elder.

Sharpshooter
Available to: Lance, Phyllis

The Sharpshooter is a ranged combat specialist, using powerful guns to fight. Some of the disadvantages of this class are that guns have a shorter attack range compared to bows, most guns decrease the player's attack speed, and skills that require bows can not be used on guns which means some of the skills from the hunter class may no longer be useful. Despite these disadvantages, sharpshooters are still popular because of their strong ability in player vs player combats. Just like Champions, Sharpshooters are also important in parties due to Enfeeble and Cripple never miss.

Voyager
Available to: Ami, Lance, Phyllis

The Voyager is a seafaring class with extremely powerful spells for damage and support. Voyagers can concentrate on land-based spells for dealing massive damage to groups of enemies, or sea-based spells for ship-to-ship combat and ship defense. Voyagers are known for their high damage and are welcomed in many parties. Overall the voyager is the best magic damage dealing class, but don't expect high damage through melee attacks.

Variation advanced classes

There are also different types of classes within classes, different builds experimented with for different usages in the game. For example, alt characters built for a certain task might be useful but as a main character not work out so well. It is best to keep this in mind before hand and think about the development of your character, alt or main.

Agility Champion
Agility Champions (Agi Champs), a class invented by Chuck/SadChamp. This class is very different from the usual Pure Constitution Champ, Agi Champs aim for 210 (attack speed) aspd w/o berserk. If made correctly, Agility Champions are very strong.

Bow Sharpshooter
Retains their bow. These characters are not very good as the best skills are only usable with a gun, but they have unique bows that can be obtained from crafting. These bows also have irregular level requirements, leading some into thinking that the lvl.35(Meteor Bow), lvl.44(Recca Bow), lvl.53(Bow Of Dawn), lvl.62(Bow Of Dusk), lvl.70(Rainbow), lvl.75(Twilight) bows are just speculation and not actually true, but they are i saw them from my eyes. This class of Sharpshooter is generally not as strong as a gun-wielding Sharpshooter because they are unable to use important skills like Enfeeble and Cripple, but they can do rapid damage as they have no attack speed reduction, which occurs when wielding guns.

Shield Crusader
Sacrifices the ability to use two swords in exchange for a shield. But I suggest, if you want to tank, to make a Champion (only available as Carcise). When making a shield Crusader, it saves skill points by not learning any skill that requires two swords.

Slasher Crusader
Slasher Crusader or often called "Slasher", this build was created by a well know PKO (PirateKing Online)Player Chuck. This type of Build aims for 210 attack speed (aspd) w/o berserk. When 210 aspd is maxed all stat points go to Strength,for more damage. The "Slashers" main weapon is the "IS" or Illusion Slash which depends on aspd, on two multipliers, the 140 aspd multiplier which means IS is 5x your normal dmg or the 210 aspd multiplier or IS dmg is 7.5x your normal dmg. This class is very expensive as it requires items that are heavily forged. This build needs Rages,Winds,And Collos to become more strong. When done correctly, the slasher may be the strongest class.

Zerker Crusader
This class is used in FC (forsaken city), and DS (Dark swamp). The concept is to use berserk to reach 210 attack speed. This Class is the most useful in mazes because they don't need to waste stat agi too much and put the remaining stats on str. However if made to stand out among the crowd, it needs to have wind gems, colo gems, rage gems. A lvl 41 fairy and CA armor is also needed. The best zerker ever is from Skull isle, Zerker. His slashes are legendary, hitting 20k shrub at lvl 55. Most lvl 70+ crusaders can not even slash that high. This makes him stand out in the game.

Pure Constitution Champion
Sacrifices all attack to have a massive defense making him near invulnerable against melee attacks; their attack is low, but around level 45 onwards their attack begins to rise with strong two handed swords. These Champions are one of the strongest battlers in player vs player, however, most have little to none magical defense, due to the lack of spirit. This makes them quite vulnerable against magic attacks. True tankers will focus on spirit after maxing con, to raise magic defence.

Pure Spirit Cleric The most powerful of the battle clerics , they can do great damage and resist large amounts of damage using the spell Energy Shield. When a cleric casts an energy shield, the SP takes the damage, instead of HP.

Pure Spirit Voyager
These are not some of the best voyagers, sacrificing constitution for higher attack damage. Spirit voyagers are not useful in team pvp, as they die with few hits unless they play with a subdued style. But in combat areas heavy with high lvl monsters these are the most exceptional with consecutive high hitting attacks due to their most powerful move, Conch Ray, dealing massive damage to multiple targets. An pure spirit voyager paired with a pure constitution champion in team pvp will often create a potent and lethal deadly combination (A style created by TOP Player MisterPenut*). The Ami can ‘hide’ inside the champion (using the champs defence and HP) to be able to both resist and deal huge damage.

Constitution Voyager
The Constitution Voyager(Con Voy) is a very Strong class which uses more Armor and HP for battle. Constitution Voys add Pure Con until Maxed then add Spr or, Add 15–20 Spr then add con, the only con of the con voy is its low SP and DmG, But this can be fixed by using gems, Possession using a con pet then using a spr pet while on Poss. At CA constitution voyagers are very strong especially with their conchray adding a mini stun.

Constitution Seal Master
Attains a high level of health, Constitution Seal Masters are very rare yet very strong, and are a great help in any battle situation.

Constitution Sharpshooter
This can become a support character or an offensive character depending on the monetary status you are in inside the game. It is meant to be able to survive because of its high defense and be able to seal opponents. This kind of build is also meant to be fast so it is recommended to get movement speed boosts such as windwalk, paw stones, etc. E.g. Chuck's Baurus, his Constitution Sharpshooter is very fast because his movement speed can gain up with Kylin Boots or Black Dragon Paw which add 100 movement speed and Apollo Framestone (+30 movement speed) and Gloves of Evanescence (+20 movement speed).

Agi Sharpshooter
This character has a godlike speed attack rate, yet deals low damage. It is recommended this character has all the skills of a normal sharpshooter or has at least lv1 Rousing, and lv1 Windwalk. A buffer, lv 20 acc, acc rings, and a good movement necklace will make this build more efficient. When leveling this character, it is ideal to level off low defence monsters. By lv55 it is possible to reach 270 attack speed with the correct EQ making it attack speed faster then a crusader.

Influences

There are many elements included into the game. The most recognizable are the characters, storyline, and clothes in game. Pirates of the Caribbean clearly had some influence. There are characters and items ingame that show this for instance, the NPC Jack Arrow, who represents Jack Sparrow. William, a blacksmith, Elizabeth, Captain Barbossa, and even Davy Jones' chest.

The game also borrows from the one of the most famous Shonen Jump manga and anime, "One Piece". The item mall has many clothes representing some characters from the show. Example: Straw set, Sexy set, Shaitan princess set, Happy Reindeer set, Brutal Chef set, Smoker navy set etc.

External links

• Official Website
• Official Moli Website
• IGN interview #1
• IGN interview #2