Ardor Maiden

INFORMATION

FROM:

• ACCEL WORLD

LEGION:

• NEGA NEBULUS

SPECIAL ABILITY:

• ACCELERATION

MAIN ELEMENT:

• FIRE
• HOLY

ROLE:

• RANGED ATTACKER

UNLOCK:

• Unlocked in EP05

~SPECIAL MOVES~

Show/Hide Special Moves

	NAME	DESCRIPTION
	Flame Torrent	Area of Effect Attack. Fires a rain of arrows above a target. Deals Fire Based damage. GAUGE COST: 200
	Flame Vortex	Projectile Attack. Gather’s energy and fires a powerful beam of flame at the target. Deals Fire Based Damage. GAUGE COST: 200
	Super Luminal Stroke	Lock-on Attack. Fires a cluster of ricocheting arrows at targets. Deals Holy Based Damage. *Holding down the button lets you multi-lock targets. Release to fire arrows at all locked on targets in quick succession. GAUGE COST: 350

 ~INCARNATE SKILLS~

Show/Hide Incarnate Skills

	NAME	DESCRIPTION
	Flame Pillar	Area of Effect Attack. Summons several pillars of flame from the ground around Ardor Maiden. Deals Fire Based Damage. COOLDOWN: 10
	Purgatory Blaze	Area of Effect Attack. Brings fourth a huge volcanic eruption of flame to damage an area around Ardor Maiden. Deals Heavy Fire Based Damage. COOLDOWN: 30

 ~HEALING & BUFFS~

Show/Hide Healing & Buffs

	NAME	DESCRIPTION
	Enchant Flame	Increases Self Fire Based damage. Decreases Self Fire Resistance. Fire Damage Increase: Lv1 = 30% Lv500 = 39% Lv1000 = 48% Ice Resistance Decrease: 100% Duration: Lv1 = 20 Seconds Lv500 = 80 Seconds Lv1000 = 60 Seconds COOLDOWN: 180
	Fire Dress	Increases Self Fire Resistance. Fire Resistance Increase: Lv1 = 50% Lv500 = 58% Lv1000 = 67% Duration: Lv1 = 20 Seconds Lv500 = 80 Seconds Lv1000 = 60 Seconds COOLDOWN: 180

 ~PASSIVE SKILLS~

~HOW TO PLAY ARDOR MAIDEN~

This section is written as an more in-depth extension to the AW & SAO Character Overview post and is meant to be used hand in hand with the General Leveling Guide. The purpose of this How-To-Play is to offer players of all levels a skeleton plan which enables them to build their characters up to their full potential. With that being said, it is indeed recommended that you do follow the steps described here.

Accel World characters need a solid team (In particular, a competent Buffer) in order for them to truly shine. They serve as mainly Elemental Attackers and should only typically be used when the team already has all of the key characters that make up Buffer, Debuffer and Healer.

I am aware that AW characters are PvP oriented but I don’t really care about PvP so this How-To-Play is written with co-op play mind.

-Equipment Selection-

Ardor Maiden’s Main Elements are Fire & Holy so she is highly compatible with both Fire & Holy Engraved Stones and Enhanced Armaments that Increase Fire & Holy Abilities.

But since a AW characters rely on Elemental Damage for their main damage output, they can benefit greatly from simply using the appropriate Elemental Engraved Stones & Elemental Equipment for each corresponding Boss Weakness. It may appear as a hassle to constantly change equipment for every Boss Weakness but the difference is effectively Double Damage since elemental damage is multiplied by 2 if a boss is weak to that element (Also, if a boss resists an element, that specific Elemental Damage will be reduced by 90%).

For information on which each Bosses weaknesses and resistances, there are Weak/Resist spreadsheets on the Boss Guides page.

In the event that a boss is indeed Resistant to all elements, pick the Engraved Stone and the Elemental Equipment that the team will most likely end up using. Example: a Team with Strea, Seven & Kirito will result in a definite use of Enhance Earth since there is no other Elemental Enhance in the team makeup.

**For some tips on how to select the appropriate Accessories for your character, consult the Selecting Equipment guide.

-AW Combat Guide-

AW characters cannot fly. On top of this, using Special Moves consumes the Special Gauge which is only filled by landing Square & Triangle attacks. This makes AW Combat a lot more complicated as you constantly have to be attacking to build the Special Gauge meter while at the same time trying to control your altitude. But don’t worry, a little bit of practice and picking up some good habits will help you become effective at combat as well as gain enjoyment from using these characters.

Building Special Gauge Meter:

When a fight starts, you will typically always have 0 meter. It would be ideal if there was a nearby mob monster you could smack around for meter gain but if there isn’t do not rush straight to the boss. If you rush straight to the boss you could become out of range of the SAO characters buffs with increase your strength tremendously. Patiently wait for your SAO teammates to cast all of their buff skills and once they are finished, Accel Move in for combat.

Spend the first few moments of the Boss fight restricting yourself to Square and Triangle attacks in order to build a good amount of meter. You can use your Incarnate Skills to punctuate your normal attacks but the purpose here is meter building, not damage output.

Triangle attacks build the most meter but don’t use them if you have below 50% stamina. If you run out of stamina, you will simply fall straight to the ground since you will become unable to Jump, Dash, Super Jump & Accel Move which are important for maintaining altitude.

Once you have around 60%+ meter, you can start using Special Moves rather aggressively and do Skill Connect combos into Incarnate Skills. Just keep in mind that you will be restricted to building meter if you completely exhaust your meter gauge. Because of this, it is recommended that you can get into the good rhythm of using short Skill Connect combos into Incarnate Skills and then building meter while the Incarnate Skills are on cooldown.

The reason why is a good idea to never completely exhaust your meter gauge is for CHRISTMAS. “Christmas” is what I call it when a boss is either DOWNED or does an attack with long duration and is rendered completely helpless for around 30 seconds. This is the time when everyone drops what they are doing and focuses completely on damage output. A lot of AW characters wait for Christmas so they can activate their Mega Buffs and deal high damage. So if you don’t have any meter when it’s Christmas, you will miss out on your biggest chance to deal maximum damage.

Controlling Altitude:

Majority of the Bosses in this game do in fact fly. Therefore it is extremely important for characters who cannot fly to know who to maintain a stable altitude where they feel comfortable and are in full control of the situation.

Your 4 main tools for controlling altitude are Square Attacks, Jumps, Super Jumps and Accel Moves.

Since all of the tools used for Vertical Movement consume a considerable amount of Stamina, there are times when you will just have to float in a safe place and use Square Attacks in order to maintain altitude while regenerating Stamina. Square Attacks don’t use any Stamina. So if you ever run out of Stamina, use Square attacks so that you don’t fall all the way to the ground.

For advanced players, would be ideal if you could land these Square Attacks on a Boss since you could build meter at the same time. If you spot an incoming attack you can simply Jump Cancel the Square Attack into a a quick Guard. If your timing is perfect, you can Instant Block the attack and go right back into Square Attacks without losing any altitude.

Jumps can be used to maintain altitude but be careful. If you use many jumps in quick succession you will rapidly drain your Stamina Gauge and fall right to the ground in failure. For this reason, you should train yourself to use basic jumps simply for maintaining your level of altitude as opposed to long distance upward movement.

Super Jumps and Accel Moves are the tools used to cover large amounts of distance. Quite often when you use one of these techniques, you can move a lot more than intended to and be caught off guard that you are now more displaced than you expected to be. This is especially the case with the Super Jump.

When you are in a boss fight and you have fallen considerably far underneath a boss, use the Accel Move in order to get back onto the Boss’ same Altitude level. Note that this will only work if you can still lock on to the boss. Do not use the Super Jump if you can still lock on to the boss unless you are prepared to elevate much higher than the boss. If you cannot lock on to the boss it means that you are really far below a boss and a Super Jump will be needed to put you into lock-on range.

But be careful since using an Accel Move from underneath a Boss puts you directly in front of the boss and you will be vulnerable its attacks.

-Video of Offensive Skills & Sample Play-

-Using Ardor Maiden-

Accel World characters are built for combat. They do not have many buff skills so they do not have to worry about constantly casting buffs the way SAO characters do. Because of this, they have a lot of freedom in their playstyle and benefit a lot from being played aggressively. But keep in mind that there is a huge difference between playing Aggressively and playing Recklessly. AW characters don’t have free access to Healing Skills so you have to play with caution.

Ardor Maiden has more Special Moves than Incarnate Skills so she has to spend quite a long time building meter. One of her strongest moves also potentially uses all of her Special Move Gauge so it would be a good idea yo pop an MP regeneration crystal whenever you can since she doesn’t buiuld meter than quickly.

Ardor Maiden has an interesting balance of character centered AoE and Ranged Sword Skills. Ironically, these are split among her skill types where Incarnate Skills are the close range types and Special Moves are the long range types. SInce her bread and butter is attacking from long range, she will end up spending a really long time building up the Special Move Gauge.

Given the split in her move types, it makes sense to use the Close Range ones as soon as they recover from cooldown. Once you do this, back away and go back to building meter as you use long range skills. When the Close Range ones are off cool down again, repeat this. But be careful since her close range skills have no Super Armor and a reletavely long cast time.

Her Super Luminal Stroke Special Move (The multi-lock one) can lock onto as many targets as you have Special Gauge. For this reason it is highly recomended that you equip the Cyan Wing on Ardor Maiden (Cyan Wind is the special enhancement that increases max Special Move Gauge). Super Luminal Stroke can drain you entire special gauge but its worth it because it is an incredibly strong move when used correctly.

-Using Buff Skills-

Accel World character buffs typically provide a larger increase than SAO buffs but have a considerably shorter duration. Since Buffs can be overwritten in this game I would like to emphasize that AW chara buffs do in fact overwrite SAO Buffs, but once the AW buff duration is over, they revert back to the SAO buffs. However, This doesn’t hold true when an AW buff changes the kind of element used when it comes to Element Enhance buffs (Same Element overwrites are still good though).

“Enchant Flame” yields the largest Fire damage increase in the game. This buff should only be used when the boss is weak to Fire and when you are equipped with Fire Engraved Stones and Fire enhancing equipment.

“Fire Dress” reduces damage from Fire Based attacks. This buff should be used when fighting against bosses that use Fire as their one of their primary means of attack.

-Healing-

AW characters have no access to Healing Magic. Therefore, Healing Items become their main source of HP Recovery outside of relying on Healer teammates. Since they have few skills and end up having lots of free space in their Pallet, you can equip tons of Healing Items directly to their Pallet for quick healing access.

Since using a Healing Item leaves you vulnerable to attacks, its good form to first super jump as high as you can and then use an item while falling to the ground.

When you take damage with AW characters, don’t be a hero. Pop a quick HP Regen item and then continue fighting cautiously. If you have taken considerable damage, fall back to safety and use an Ancient Fruit (Full Recovery item) or a Pure Healing Crystal (Party HP 50% Recovery item).

It would be the best thing for you, as an AW character, if you had a healer who would care about you and heal you constantly. But don’t be a burden to the team. Understand that you don’t have free access to healing and don’t fight recklessly.

 -BK’s Opinion on Ardor Maiden-

The strongest Bow user if you ask me. Sure Sinon’s OSS can hit for 1million in a Skill Connect combo but Sinon doesn’t get a heavy lava attack that stays on the screen for 15 seconds.

The only thing that cripples Ardor Maiden as a bow user is that most of her long range attacks require meter. This means that there are moments when you just have to use normal attacks for the sake of building meter. That can make her slightly more of a chore  to play as opposed to other SAO bow users who just show up, put their nuts on the desk and use Skill Connect Combos all day.

But unlike SAO bow users, Ardor Maiden has surprisingly strong close range attacks. The result of this is a rather flexible bow user who can handle both mobs and deal damage when she needs to. She just can’t do it consistently because she needs time for cooldowns and to build meter.

The only other thing I don’t like about her is that she doesn’t get a 48% Holy buff. Can you imagine how sick Super Liminol Stroke would be if she had that?

I can.

And I come very close to wetting my pants every time I think about it.

…

If you know what I mean www.

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