How to Build Better Katar (Brawler) | Aura Kingdom
Katar is a strong melee class that have great solo ability while dishing out great damage. However, being a combo class, the DPS really shows after all the DoT’s are stacked and charges are obtained to release. In this complete Brawler katar guide, we will go over everything that you need to get the best of this amazing class.
As a Katar, you can either go as a Def specialized DPS or Evade DPS. In this guide we will touch upon both of these potential builds to help you make the right decisions. Now, DEF builds are easier to build with higher damage output and require less gears setup. With EVA builds, you are giving up some DPS for additional survival capability in later dungeons. However, EVA builds will require you to be fully geared with high percentile gears with high fortification (+9 minimum). You never want to go fully EVA without the proper geared DEF to back it up. It should be noted that fully geared EVA builds with high DEF can act as sub tanks and even solo many of the dungeons by themselves (Although less efficient due to less DPS).
For the damage aspect, you have a few choices between either Crit or damage, or even mix in a little speed to make your combos go smoother. If you have found this Katar Brawler guide helpful, please check out the rest of our Aura Kingdom guides.
Katar Stats Build
Katar Gears
Katar Secret Stone Selections
Katar Skills
Katar ’s Skill Mastery
Katar Envoy’s Path
Secondary Class Choices
Katar Eidolon Choice
Katar Stats Build
Offensive Stats
For the offensive stats, there are a couple of ways that you can do to build out your Katar. Different from the other classes, Katar has higher natural crit rate which makes a pure damage build viable for your character. We will go through several potential builds that can help you with your Aura Kingdom brawler game play.
We personally like to use Pure damage build the most as damage can also boost your defense via skill mastery. Now, a “pure” build with gears that focus
Pure Damage
Add all of your offensive stats into damage, this will help you obtain the strongest damage burst. You should prep yourself to get all the damage buffs through other gears. The damage buffs also benefit through Katar’s Envoy path which gives you +10% damage after a critical hit. With a high natural crit rate, you should be able to proc the +10% damage boost most of the time.
Pure Crit
By going into pure crit, you can achieve a crit rate of close to 80~90% when fully buffed with party buffs and foods. Higher crit will actually give you a consistent damage output and higher damage coming off of your DoT attacks. Going full crit will opt for damage consistency rather than the burst damage from full damage.
Speed Hybrid
This option is best used if you are going as a sub guardian or sub bard. When you go with those two options, you will mainly use your main Katar skills for DPS and only use the sub skills occasionally. Thus you will need to have faster cool down speed for your main and sub skills. In general, you need roughly 20% skill cooldown to be able to rotate your main skills freely.
You can also go with this option if you are using a high cooldown class such as Wizard. However, you are really sacrificing your damage output for easier skill usage timing.
After getting speed to 20%, you can stats the rest of points into either Crit or Damage. We prefer crit however to get a consistent damage output with DoT skills.
Defensive Stats
For Brawler’s defensive stats, you actually have a couple of options that you can choose. We recommend you to start with Pure Defense and explore with EVA builds once you are past level 60 to improve your survival rate. At that time you will have enough funding to upgrade and complete your gear sets.
Pure Defense
Pure defense is the easiest way to spec your brawler. By going full defense you will have fairly easy time for solo play and better survival rate in party play. Pure defense allows you to be able to use damage gears more easily as you can buff your damage much easier.
If you have enough gear that you have capped the defense at 75%, place the rest of the points into HP.
HP and Defensive Hybrid
We personally do not like HP hybrid as having higher HP does not help as much as having a good defense. If you do choose to go with HP and defense stats hybrid, consider a ratio of between 1 HP to 3 Defense or 5 Defense. The only time you may want higher HP is if you find yourself dying to DoT attacks often, however that does not usually happen in PvE settings.
However, if you PvP often, HP and Defensive hybrids can work better against enemy’s DoT attacks.
Evade Build
Evade build is very viable for Katar class as one of the envoy skill allows you a 50% chance to remove a debuff during successful evasion. Now, evade build is tricky because you will need roughly 80%+ evade for the build to have any appearance of being effective. To achieve that, you will pretty much sacrifice your damage output in all areas including secret stone, costume, crafting core, and envoy path. However, Evade build with proper HP setup is one of the strongest survival class in the game both in PvP and PvE settings.
Again, with EVA build you will need at least 80% EVA, and preferably 90%+ so that you can cap it to 95% with foods and other party or skill buffs.
Similar to defense, after you cap EVA you can get some additional points into HP. HP will become a better secondary stats for EVA builds as you do not get hit often, and you want to survive potential one hit kills from bosses.
It should be noted that EVA builds are really easy to play in solo dungeons as you can mob the entire dungeon without dying if you have the healing skills available, however without proper HP and defense you can get one shot killed easily in party or Hell dungeons.
Katar Gears
Please check Aura Kingdom gear guide for more detailed information on the different gears.
Weapons
The best weapons to use for your Katar is either the Gold weapon or crafted weapon of your level cap. In general, the crafted weapon is better for bosses because of the bonus damage against bosses, and gold weapon better against normal mobs for their stronger base damage.
Trophy
The trophy really depends on your stats build. In general either Damage or Crit specialized trophies are great for your Katar for damage output. However, the only exception is that you HAVE to use Evade trophies such as Argo’s Heart if you are evade build. The EVA boost from trophies are huge to be ignored.
Accessory, Back, Ring
Similar to trophy selection, either Damage or Crit accessories work. However, you will “have” to use EVA gears if you are eva build to get that EVA number up.
Armor Pieces
You really only have two options where you can either go for the damage special sets or the sets with HP + EVA. Although there are armors that focus on EVA and Crit, those will leave you with too few HP and you can get killed easily in party settings.
Katar Secret Stone Selections
As a Katar Brawler, you have the following choices for your secret stones. We have bolded the secret stone types that you should get. As you can see, you should usually get either Crit% or crit damage. However, with Swift Strike you typically use it for the defense debuff, in that case getting the duration increase can help you to execute your combos or add sub class skills into your DPS rotation. For more generic guide on secret stones, please check the Aura Kingdom secret stone guide.
Katar: Swift Strike
1. + damage
2. Crit Rate +4%
3. Crit Damage +15%
4. Duration +4 seconds.
Head: Sparks and Flame
1. + damage
2. Range +5m
Armor: Electrocution
1. + damage
2. +15% crit damage
Waist: Lotus Strike
1. + damage
2. +4% crit rate
Glove: Inner Strength
1. Increase Heal
2. Cooldown -10%
Katar Skills
The special concept behind Katar is that it’s a combo class. Each of Katar’s skills deal less damage than some of the other classes, however you can achieve pretty awesome damage by using the skills the correct way.
(Wind) Swift Strike: Deal a small AoE while reducing enemy defense. Give 1 Earth Charge.
Blitz: Dash towards enemy and stun them for 2.5 seconds. Give 1 Sky Charge.
Inner Strength: Instantly heals and get a -20% damage taken buff as a Katar Main. If you have charge available, you can get crit boost with Earth charge and EVa boost with Sky charge.
(Lightning) Electrocution: Deal a small AoE damage. Note that you cannot move while executing this skill. Gets a +damage buff after the skill. Give 1 Earth Charge.
Lotus Strike: Your strongest single target move. Additional Earth charge deals more damage while have Sky Charge heals you with heal over time.
(Fire) Sparks and Flame: Your best AoE skill that can reach a huge area with the secret stone buff. You should use a fire Katar simply because this will be one of your most used skill.
Shadow Strike: Decent single target damage skill while placing a good stackable DoT that absorbs 10% of the damage.
Meridian Activation: The party buff skill that gives crit and damage buff.
Skill Rotation
For Katar, we will provide you with some guidelines to help you execute your attacks more easily. You can alter the combos depending on your speed or personal preference, however the general idea is to rack up the charges and release them for the extra effects.
When you are soloing, consider keeping up your inner strength at all times to have the -20% damage deduction. If you are facing a single enemy like the boss, start with Blitz to close the gap, follow with Null Strike, then immediately release the charges with Lotus Strike so that you can get the HP heal buff. In general, you are better off with the Heal over Time rather than the EVA buff from Inner Strength. However, you should always stack your Null Strike up to 3 times as fully stacked Null Strike can generate quite a bit of DoT DPS.
You general combo consists of Swift Strike to lower enemy defense, then Sparks and Flame to finish them off. You can also place a Electrocution before Sparks and Flame for the extra damage boost. After which you can either follow up with another Lotus Strike for increased damage output or Inner Strength for the extra critical buff.
The key is to execute your skills in 2’s or 3’s to generate enough charges, and release them immediately using Lotus Strike or Inner Strength. Doing so gives you additional Crit Damage too made available via your Envoy path.
Katar ’s Skill Mastery
General Skills
We actually think none of the skills mastery for the Katar is that helpful. Consider using a mastery from your sub class if they are more beneficial. However, we would use Targeted Blitz with a Pure Damage build or Swift Cruelty when using a full crit build. Piercing Swiftness is more helpful in PvP which can counter your enemy player’s +ACC gears.
Swift Cruelty: Swift Strike Damage +5%
Piercing Swiftness: Swift Strike Lowers enemy Acc by 10%
Targeted Blitz: Blitz Crit Rate +10%.
Attack Spec
Use DMG +5% if you have a pure damage build or Callousness if you have a Critical build. You can also consider using Murderous intent if you intend to get the most crit rate possible, however you will actually obtain a little higher damage output by getting the Crit damage from Callousness. Zeal sounds good in theory however the chance of it proc is actually pretty low. You are better off using the other skill masteries.
Divine Power: DMG +5%
Divine Power (Green): DMG +7%. Obtained via level 30 dungeon.
Focus: SPD +5%
Focus (Green): SPD +7%, obtained via Ultimate Skill Lucky Pack: Attack Spec or level 30 dungeon at 3rd boss drop.
Murderous Intent: CRIT +5%
Murderous Intent (Green): CRIT +7%. Obtained via level 45 dungeon or attack chest box.
Zeal: 10% chance to deal 50% more damage
Zeal (Green): 10% chance to deal 70% more damage. Obtained via level 50 dungeon or attack chest box.
Boost: SPD +3%, DMG +2%
Boost (Green): SPD +5%, DMG +2%
Callousness: Crit +3%, Crit DMG +4%
Advanced Skills
Either use Suffocating Flames when you are clearing out mobs, or use Null Strike against bosses. Null Strike is awesome when fully stacked. You can pretty much solo any bosses while recovering your own HP.
Suffocating Flames: Fortify Sparks and Flames Damage by 15%. Green version is 20%.
Phosphorescent Flames: Fortify Sparks and Flames for extra 5% EVA.
Null Strike: Fortify Shadow Strike DoT damage by 25%. Green version is 30%.
Defense Spec
Use Iron Wall for the DEF buff if you are pure defense build or Agility if you are EVA build.
Vigor: Max HP +5%
Vigor (Green): Max HP +7%
Iron Wall: DEF +5%
Iron Wall (Green): Def +7%
Agility: EVA +5%
Agility (Green): EVA +7%
Unyieldness: Recover 1% HP while being attacked. This effect can be triggered once every 30 seconds.
Courage: Max HP +3%, damage taken -2%
Extreme Speed: EVA +3%, Move SPD +5%
Tactical Spec
Go for either decrease target DMG or DEF. In general, you may want to decrease target’s DMG in hell mode to lower boss’s attack power, and DEF in party mode so that your party can kill the monsters faster.
Organized Sabotage: Every attack has a 25% chance to decrease the target’s DMG by 10%
Break Defense: Every attack has a 25% chance to decrease the target’s DEF by 10%
Preemptive Strike: Every attack has a 25% chance to decrease the target’s CRIT +5% and CRIT DMG by 10%.
Ambush: Every attack has a 25% chance to decrease the target’s SPD by 10%
Expose Weakness: Every attack has a 25% chance to decrease the target’s Received Healing by 20%
Ars Noxia: Every attack has a 25% chance to decrease the target’s Move Speed by 10%
Special Skills
Go for Best Defense if you are DEF build or Capoeira if you have a EVA build.
The Best Defense: 1% of DMG added to DEF.
The Best Defense (Green): 2% of DMG added to DEF.
Capoeira: 1% of DMG added to EVA
Deep Blue: DMG +2%, Malice -5%.
Omniscience: 1% of DEF added to SPD.
Katar Envoy’s Path
As a DPS, you generally want to focus on the “attack” part of your of envoy path tree. We will discuss over these and give you general recommendations on which to pick first.
Attack
To be an effective DPS, you will need more or less all of the offensive envoy path passives. This includes Brawler mastery which gives you the following boosts:
Brawler Mastery: Katar damage +%
Battle Tactics: improve your damage %,
Weak Point Analysis: Increase Crit
Brawler Training: Increase Katar Crit
Brawler Studies: Increase Katar Crit Damage %
We recommend to get them except for the ones that give minimal boosts such as Crit +0.8%. By adding all the main ones, you ensure that you will have the maximum damage output. As you go past level 60 and get more envoy path points, you can go into attack swiftness too as it is needed to get some additional DEF points.
Defense
If you are EVA build, you will need to put points into all of your EVA squares. You will also need Truth Seeker which removes the negative debuffs when you evade. Lastly, place points HP may help too to help you survive during the times of being hit.
If you have a pure DEF build, consider getting some DEF + to boost your survival ability further if you are having trouble. However, it may be easier for you to simply upgrade, refine, and fortify your gears.
Secondary Class Choices
Because Katar’s main weapon’s damage itself is pretty strong, a brawler actually has some very flexible sub classes that can add to its playing style. With the natural high critical rate, you will have higher crits with the sub classes skills as well which make their DoT attacks more worthwhile.
Highest DPS – Sub Duelist
To achieve highest possible DPS at this time, duelist is the best because of its stackable DoT attack. In addition, you can add snowflower into your combo rotation right before releasing Lotus Strike which adds 75% more Crit damage. With correct execution you can pretty much take out half of a solo boss’ HP with a super powerful lotus strike.
In addition, Duelist has a skill which grants you some additional CRIT for a short period of time which help you with your combo strikes. The crit boosts can make your DoT’s extra deadly once you have fully stacked them.
Solo and Survival – Yes on Sub Guardian and Not Sub Bard
If you are going for survival ability, use only Guardian as your sub class. We do not recommend using bard in our guide as you really would not want to support your teammates with a sub bard neither. In addition, Katar has some really good healing skills such as Null Strike’s HP absorb plus Lotus Strike’s natural heal over time. Both of these makes sub bard irrelevant in comparison.
Ranged Attack Addition Gunslinger > Sorcerer
Both of these subs are great to have, both of these sub classes give you an edge to have a ranged attack. Being able to range attack can help in a few situations such as attacking without getting killed in Lava Pool. We recommend Gunslinger over Sorcerer for potential combo skills if you are into high burst damage with long cool time.
Nay on Ravager
Although Katar gets combo skills with Ravager as well, we do not recommend going that route. Katar itself has a few skills that deal great AoE attacks and you should spam those over Ravager’s AoE attacks. If you are looking for combo skills, gunslinger is a better choice because of its ranged attacks.
Grenadier or Wizard
Lastly, you can go either Sub Grenadier or Sub Wizard. We view both the same with Grenadier over wizard because Grenadier has additional stun skills. You probably will not use your sub skills all that much as you will most likely deal more damage with the main weapon skills from Envoy path boosts. If you like the Ranged AoE attacks, you are better off playing a wizard instead of a Katar.
Katar Eidolon Choice
Like most of the other DPS classes, your best choices are Bel-Chandra or Uzuriel for their CRIT and CRIT Damage party buffs.