Complete CPQ Guide

Hence me mentioning that it works better early on, when there are less potions on the ground. Also, if you can continue it long enough, they will get used up without any new ones dropping.

Yeah, it doesn't matter how strong the opponent is if they're constantly Darkness-ed. This strategy assumes that your party has the strength to pull forward with the first Darkness and maintain it, which is very CP intensive. If you end up only being able to use three or four, and run out, you're basically guaranteed to lose because they'll be able to kill things and have a huge CP advantage over you. People tend to not be coordinated and loot as many All-Cures as possible, per person to try to get rid of it, but recast the Darkness when you see their CP counter rise. I'd particularly use this strategy if the opponent has a pet.

Yeah, it doesn't matter how strong the opponent is if they're constantly Darkness-ed. This strategy assumes that your party has the strength to pull forward with the first Darkness and maintain it, which is very CP intensive. If you end up only being able to use three or four, and run out, you're basically guaranteed to lose because they'll be able to kill things and have a huge CP advantage over you. People tend to not be coordinated and loot as many All-Cures as possible, per person to try to get rid of it, but recast the Darkness when you see their CP counter rise. I'd particularly use this strategy if the opponent has a pet.

That is indeed a good point - I've noticed this a lot myself, as well as people looting the Party All Cures to heal themself when there is a single one right next to it. They also tend to loot in a frenzy to get to coins lying on top of potions, which drop more often in the beginning of a match anyway (seemingly).

The biggest threat from miscoordination or uncoordination, however, are Brawlers and their equivalent of Rush. I can't tell you how many times some dumbass kb'd a mob directly on top of my Gunslinger, resulting in the standard pistol-whipping and SSK'ing. And me being generally pissed off.

Personally, I would never invite a Gunslinger to my CPQ party if I wanted to win. I've noticed Brawlers be a pain in the ass to all characters though, constantly KBing things the way I don't want them to go. i.e. into minimum range as a Crossbowman/Gunslinger, and out of spear range as a Spearman.

You've obviously never seen maxed Teddies with Speed and Weapon Cancel.

On field 6, yes I have. As for the other stages, it doesn't work like that. Master Chronoes is better for me.

On field 6, yes I have. As for the other stages, it doesn't work like that. Master Chronoes is better for me.

Against Crossbowmen? As long as the Crossbowman doesn't die, you might as well be giving them free CP with that.

Personally, I would never invite a Gunslinger to my CPQ party if I wanted to win. I've noticed Brawlers be a pain in the ass to all characters though, constantly KBing things the way I don't want them to go. i.e. into minimum range as a Crossbowman/Gunslinger, and out of spear range as a Spearman.

I personally have/have seen Gunslingers do exceedingly well against Rombots and Robos alike. Double shot with booster with a Recoil thrown in now and again (serves the purpose of dodging and quick damage boost) is better than you'd think for dispatching Rombots. Invisible shot is quite nice for sniping Robos (I could kill a mob of 2-3 in 2-3 hits at 48). People just simply don't give them enough credit (similar to Clerics). A player who knows what they are doing can manage quite well. Slingers actually seem to do better than some other ranged characters, particularly Sins, on 3/4 as well, as they have more mobility and mobbing power.

I personally have/have seen Gunslingers do exceedingly well against Rombots and Robos alike. Double shot with booster with a Recoil thrown in now and again (serves the purpose of dodging and quick damage boost) is better than you'd think for dispatching Rombots. Invisible shot is quite nice for sniping Robos (I could kill a mob of 2-3 in 2-3 hits at 48). People just simply don't give them enough credit (similar to Clerics). A player who knows what they are doing can manage quite well. Slingers actually seem to do better than some other ranged characters, particularly Sins, on 3/4 as well, as they have more mobility and mobbing power.

The majority of Gunslingers are weak, and regardless of their strength, they can be much more easily overwhelmed than any other class. Any other class, on the other hand can provide much more power, except Magicians.

You can kill a mob of 2~3 in 2~3 hits. A Crossbowman or Hunter can do the same with six monsters. Their mobbing power only causes more monsters to be aggroed towards them than being able to kill. An Assassin can easily kill a single target without being overrun, whereas a Gunslinger either aggroes three, and a new unit moves into the mob and they lose KB priority on something, or it uses Double Fire and doesn't manage to KB lock or kill a target. Gunslingers are a good choice in Stage 5~6 for platform sniping though as they can Invisible Shot Robos from the ladder top. It's hardly effective when there's no summons though, and any other job will output more damage.

The majority of Gunslingers are weak, and regardless of their strength, they can be much more easily overwhelmed than any other class. Any other class, on the other hand can provide much more power, except Magicians.

You can kill a mob of 2~3 in 2~3 hits. A Crossbowman or Hunter can do the same with six monsters. Their mobbing power only causes more monsters to be aggroed towards them than being able to kill. An Assassin can easily kill a single target without being overrun, whereas a Gunslinger either aggroes three, and a new unit moves into the mob and they lose KB priority on something, or it uses Double Fire and doesn't manage to KB lock or kill a target. Gunslingers are a good choice in Stage 5~6 for platform sniping though as they can Invisible Shot Robos from the ladder top. It's hardly effective when there's no summons though, and any other job will output more damage.

Someone who actually knows how to play won't just be sitting in one spot sniping - it's incredibly easy to alternate between 2 platforms, killing as they spawn on each. Even if other classes overpower them, there IS a limit to how fast things can spawn, and slingers still catch that limit fairly easily. The ability to quickly move accross the map to a new spawn location gives them a small edge as well. And crossbowmen can't jumpshoot in the manner that a gunslinger can to constantly attack while moving from the mob. At any rate, I disagree with people excluding a job simply because they are more of an all-around useful, yet not the best at anything, type job. Ought to be a bit more open minded, and stop taking the pq so seriously

Or, hell, if you want to win so badly, just cheat. (/end rant, I really dislike exclusion of "weaker" but perfectly good classes from anything. This includes FPs at Zak, and Clerics/Slingers at CPQ. Half the reason that I made this guide was to show that any class can be useful with the right strategy...)

Added 2 new sections near the end. Nearly finished!

There should be a section on the Cygnus knights once they are out for a while, because they have a 49(i think) AP advantage over Adventurers and also are probably going to have a substantial boost from the Blessing of Sprite than an adventurer. Dawn warriors get Soul Blade which gives them longer range. Wind archers get Storm Breath (don't actually remember name) which I believe has no minimum range. I'm not so sure about the other cygnuses.

One thing to note is that for F/P mages it is beneficial to use a hybrid build during 2nd job, and max or 28 poison brace/breath is very useful in certain situations, mainly Magic Cancel. When I cpqed with my hybrid f/p I would poison all the monsters and then go break the towers. Then I would finish off all the monsters with one hit. This really shines when the other team has a lot of CP and can put the magic cancel back up the instant you break it. The only problem is that it does not poison rombots.

It is my strong opinion that no monsters should be summoned in rooms 1-4 and only master chronos should be summoned in fields 5/6.

Summoning monsters is a very bad idea for rooms 1-4 if the opposing team is over say... 40. It just becomes more monsters to kill for cp. Lower leveled teams might be overrun, but the higher leveled teams just take the lead. If you are trying to summon master chronos to keep them from breaking the protectors, they just get the boost for the rest of the pq after they destroy the towers. Sins with haste can generally jump shoot over trojans and robos in 3/4, so they are still fairly mobile and useful when summoned on.

However, summoning in rooms 5/6 is a great idea, and should usually be top priority. This is because in every room, there is a maximum number of monsters that can be summoned on your opponent. Iirc, Field 3/4 is 7, and the most in 5/6 is 16. But in 5/6 there can only be 20 monsters summoned TOTAL by both teams, meaning if you summon 16 monsters first, they can only summon 4. If you summon 8 first, they can summon 12. Master Chronos are good choices for summons here because of their ranged magic attack and their avoid to an extent. The magic number for 16 master chronos's on your opponent is 192 cp. If you can max out your spawn before the other team can respond, there is a good chance that they can't put a master chronos on BOTH double robo platforms. After they summon their 4 monsters and start using avoid/cancels and such. You can just camp the double robo platform and not even need to worry about breaking the towers. Good teams can max master chronos in ~2 minutes. As a general rule of thumb you only really need 1 attacker killing rombots, and you want this to be your strongest member.

I don't see you mention that the robos in fields 5/6 are not party specific like all the other monsters. Both teams can kill them which means ksing is likely for the double robo platforms when you have large teams. Also might be good to note that rombots require significantly less cp to summon in fields 5/6 when compared to fields 1-4 (22 in 5/6 and 30 in 1-4). Players should be wary of players that will party lower leveled characters to get into a pq in fields 3/4 and then expel them to have makeshift 1v1 fights where they each get full exp from monsters instead of sharing it with party members.

I can't think of anything else at the moment. Great guide so far, can't wait to see it completed.

There should be a section on the Cygnus knights once they are out for a while, because they have a 49(i think) AP advantage over Adventurers and also are probably going to have a substantial boost from the Blessing of Sprite than an adventurer. Dawn warriors get Soul Blade which gives them longer range. Wind archers get Storm Breath (don't actually remember name) which I believe has no minimum range. I'm not so sure about the other cygnuses.

One thing to note is that for F/P mages it is beneficial to use a hybrid build during 2nd job, and max or 28 poison brace/breath is very useful in certain situations, mainly Magic Cancel. When I cpqed with my hybrid f/p I would poison all the monsters and then go break the towers. Then I would finish off all the monsters with one hit. This really shines when the other team has a lot of CP and can put the magic cancel back up the instant you break it. The only problem is that it does not poison rombots.

It is my strong opinion that no monsters should be summoned in rooms 1-4 and only master chronos should be summoned in fields 5/6.

Summoning monsters is a very bad idea for rooms 1-4 if the opposing team is over say... 40. It just becomes more monsters to kill for cp. Lower leveled teams might be overrun, but the higher leveled teams just take the lead. If you are trying to summon master chronos to keep them from breaking the protectors, they just get the boost for the rest of the pq after they destroy the towers. Sins with haste can generally jump shoot over trojans and robos in 3/4, so they are still fairly mobile and useful when summoned on.

However, summoning in rooms 5/6 is a great idea, and should usually be top priority. This is because in every room, there is a maximum number of monsters that can be summoned on your opponent. Iirc, Field 3/4 is 7, and the most in 5/6 is 16. But in 5/6 there can only be 20 monsters summoned TOTAL by both teams, meaning if you summon 16 monsters first, they can only summon 4. If you summon 8 first, they can summon 12. Master Chronos are good choices for summons here because of their ranged magic attack and their avoid to an extent. The magic number for 16 master chronos's on your opponent is 192 cp. If you can max out your spawn before the other team can respond, there is a good chance that they can't put a master chronos on BOTH double robo platforms. After they summon their 4 monsters and start using avoid/cancels and such. You can just camp the double robo platform and not even need to worry about breaking the towers. Good teams can max master chronos in ~2 minutes. As a general rule of thumb you only really need 1 attacker killing rombots, and you want this to be your strongest member.

I don't see you mention that the robos in fields 5/6 are not party specific like all the other monsters. Both teams can kill them which means ksing is likely for the double robo platforms when you have large teams. Also might be good to note that rombots require significantly less cp to summon in fields 5/6 when compared to fields 1-4 (22 in 5/6 and 30 in 1-4). Players should be wary of players that will party lower leveled characters to get into a pq in fields 3/4 and then expel them to have makeshift 1v1 fights where they each get full exp from monsters instead of sharing it with party members.

I can't think of anything else at the moment. Great guide so far, can't wait to see it completed.

Cygnus is planned, I'm going to add a section at the end of the classes area. I thought I had mentioned the robos thing, I'll include it in the next revision. I agree with not summoning without a specific strategy in mind - namely, combos with protectors or to capitalize on weaknesses. Master Chronos in particular can be pretty nasty.

If I were doing competitive CPQs, a Cleric would be a waste of a slot. The only reason to bring onw would be for insurance against MC. As an Archer or Thief I could outrange them and no one needs healing with 30 billion pots lying around. Even if I wer stunned, my other teammates would like, kill crap to make me not die.