Saint guide to healing and DPSing in Project Duck

Introduction

Self Introduction

Hi everyone! I am Neiphis (st_cryox). I’ve played Dragon Nest EU during cap 40 to 70 then started SEA DN cap 95 and I joined Project Duck in August 2020. I have been playing cleric since ever, mainly Inquisitor, Guardian and Saint.

(If you're interested in learning about other classes, we have a Class Guide Archive) - Vino

Class

Saint is one of the 3 healer classes in Project Duck Dragon Nest. The main difference between Saint and the other 2 healers is its immortality skill which gives a small party invincibility frame (1.3 seconds). Saint gameplay revolves around relic positioning. In order to DPS correctly on saint you need to know what is possibly the next move the boss is about to do. In other words, it rewards players who properly time and position their skills and accurately predict boss mechanics to effectively deal damage.

Skills

The skills are explained with the assumption that you have learned their respective awakening, class mastery, and EX passives. Cooldowns are explained with taking in account cooldown reduction buff from sorceress - kali.

Legend:

• [Awakened Heal] ⇔ [Small Heal]
• [Great Heal] ⇔ [Big Heal]
• HoT ⇔ Heal Over Time
• CC ⇔ Crowd Control
• 1 Meter ⇔ 100 Units. For reference Base class buff is 700 Units ⇔ 7 Meters
• CM ⇔ Class Mastery
• AoE ⇔ Area of Effect
• DR ⇔ Damage Reduction
• [Immortality] ⇔ Immo

Cleric

• [Paralyze Bolt]: Used as a combo skill for CM3. Throws a bolt of holy energy to attack the enemy in front of you and explode dealing damage and binding in an AoE. This skill binds for 2.5 seconds at level 16 and can be used to CC enemies for certain mechanics.

• [Redemption Aura]: Class party buff (+20% Max HP | +10% Elemental damage) which shall be used every time a buff wipe mechanic happens or if a party member is asking for rebuff.

• [Block]: Cleric's cheat skill . Gives you a buff that lasts 20 seconds or until you block 5 hits. This skill can save you from stomps or mechanics where other classes should be dodging. Keep in mind, while blocking it will cancel any skill you are casting.

• [Awakened Heal]: [Aura of Healing], later changed to [Heal] is one of your 3 heals on Saint referred to as [Small Heal]. It gives a burst of healing and apply a HoT :

  • Burst heal of 10% of the recipient's HP.
  • 5 seconds HoT (activates 5 times every second) and heal for 10% of caster’s Magic Attack.

    Do not neglect the HoT since it scales off of your magic attack.

  Example: If you have 5m magic attack, it heals for 500k HP every second for 5 seconds = 2.5m HP total.

Priest

• [Awakened Lightning Relic]: Summons am [Awakened Lightning Relic] followed by 3 small [Awakened Lightning Relic] near itselfs (after ~1.5 seconds) that lasts for 15 seconds. The lightnings from the relic does quite a lot of damage (about 7th on skill spread), be sure to position these relics near the boss.

  You should have 2 lightning relics up everytime since the cooldown allows enough time for 2 relics to be on field.

• [Healing Relic]: Summons a [Healing Relic] that heals everyone for 3.5% of their HP and 1% of their MP every 2 seconds for 11 seconds. The range is the exact same as class buff range (7 meters) so you should position it near the boss.

  It has a 9 seconds cooldown so you should have it up everytime.

• [Cure Relic]: Summons a [Cure Relic] that cures everyone every 2 seconds in a radius of 10 meters (a bit bigger than Healing Relic) for 11 seconds.

  This skill also can be cast during other skills or in air and can work as a second Aerial Evasion.

• [Bind Relic]: Summons a [Bind Relic] for 27 seconds which bind (CC) enemies for 2 seconds every 5 seconds and the range is half of the [Cure Relic] so 5 meters. Bind relic is your Damage Taken debuff (+20% damage dealt to enemy), be sure to position it near the boss.

  This skill should have a 100% uptime with cooldown reduction class buff.

  Example of usage to CC: Binding Volva staff

  

• [Awakened Grand Sigil]: After casting the skill, draws circles of light in front of you which keeps going until 6 circles are drawn or [Regular Attack Button] is clicked then summons a relic at the circle position. The relic:

  • Lasts 13 seconds.
  • Range is the same as [Cure Relic] (10 meters)
  • Pulse every 2 seconds curing and applying a 50% Damage Reduction buff for 5 seconds to yourself and allies.

  Keep in mind the relic lasts 13 seconds and the buff 5 seconds so as long as you are inside the buff range before the relic disappear you will have a total of 18 seconds damage reduction buff.

• [Wand Mastery]: A free +18% magic attack passive. Just learn it !

• [Protection Shell]: Upon cast, applies a damage reduction buff to you (-27%) and your allies (-10%). The range is the same as class buff, 7 meters and lasts 20 seconds (24 seconds with skill plate). This skill has a 52 seconds (72 cooldown - 20 duration) down time without skill plate so use it wisely.

  10% feels pretty low but it is enough to prevent death on stomps. This can also be combined with other damage reduction buff to decrease the damage taken.

• [Blessing of Strikes]: Upon cast, applies a damage buff to you (+21%) and your allies (+10%). This is another party buff with a 100% uptime.

  You should always rebuff this with redemption aura after a debuff mechanic or if party members asks for buff.

• [Lightning Rush]: Your only mobility skill. Can cancel any skill and is an iframe during the dash forward animation. You can hold W after the cast to transition into a dash.

• [Vengeance Blast]: Press left click when attacked to get out of an attack. If hit by a multi hitting skill, there is a small gap where you can press [Lightning Rush] to get out of the boss range.

• [First Aid]: Priest's cheat skill. Have a 30% chance upon getting hit to attack with a holy energy and restore some HP (80% of caster's magic damage). The heal is really high, if you have 5m Magic attack, it heals you for 4m HP. With a 27 seconds cooldown, you should not rely on this but it will save you a lot of time.

• [Awakened Grand Cross]: Fires off a fast projectile that slows down upon hitting an enemy. This has a pretty huge range and hits 6 times then explode for 1 hits (total 7 hits). The last explosion is 50% of the total damage.

  • This skill's main purpose is to get the enhanced version of your Awakened Skill [Antiphona Pool].
  • The enhanced version appears at the first hit of the Grand Cross but you should try to get all the hits if possible or at least the last explosion.

  Aiming at the ground under the boss will help get the explosion damage every time.

• [Awakened Holy Burst]: Your highest damaging skill. Powerfull light is released around you and your relics dealing damage to surrounding enemies. [Awakened Holy Burst] fires off of you and each one of your relics which means more relics = more damage.

  • [Awakened Holy Burst] hits 5 times from you and 3 times per relics but the total damage is the same per relic and yourself (you basically count like a relic !).
  • It will also activate CM2 which grants you a 10% light damage buff for 20 seconds.

  [Awakened Holy Burst] has a 13.5 seconds cooldown so you should have CM2 up everytime.

Saint

• [Awakened Great Heal]: [Awakened Great Heal] is one of your 3 heals on Saint referred to as [Big Heal]. It gives a burst of healing and apply a HoT :

  • Burst heal of 35% of the recipient's HP.
  • 5 seconds HoT (activates 5 times every second) and heal for 15% of caster’s Magic Attack.

    Do not neglect the HoT since it scales off of your magic attack.

  Example: If you have 5m magic attack, it heals for 750k HP every 1 second for 5 seconds = 3.75m HP total.

• [Relic Reaction]: Your second on the list highest damaging skill. Summons bolt of lightning from each one of your relics (not from you) that deals damage to surrounding enemies. This skill is a bit tricky to use since you need to have your relics up and positioned correctly like holy burst.

  Each bolt hits 3 times per relic.

• [Immortality]: Saint's cheat skill. Saint is well known because of this skill... Upon casting this skill, instantly bless everyone in the map (no range limit) with an invicibility buff for 1.3 seconds. This skill has a 180 seconds (3min) cooldown and is not affected by cooldown reduction buff and spells. Use it wisely.

  Immortality is an emergency button that can save your team from dying if you have good reaction speed or know what is coming next !

• [Class Mastery]: After casting any relic, gives a 30% movement speed buff for 5 seconds.

• [Class Mastery II]: After casting [Awakened Holy Burst], gives a 10% light damage buff for 20 seconds.

• [Class Mastery III]: Enhance [Paralyze Bolt] damage and after casting it, press [Blessed Sign] to cast the holy energy in front of you. [Blessed Sign] deals more damage on target hit by [Paralyze Bolt].

  Aim under the boss with paralyzed bolt to trigger the AoE and hit enemies.

Saint Awakening

• [Antiphona Pool]: Fires a holy bolt that hits 5 times over 5 seconds. Targets near the center of the bolt will be hit twice (total 10 hits). Hitting a target with [Awakened Grand Cross] enhance this skill to [Enhanced Antiphona Pool].

  • [Enhanced Antiphona Pool]: [Enhanced Antiphona Pool] have 4 bolts.

    • The first bolt hits 10 times.
    • The remaining 3 bolts hits 5 times each.

    [Enhanced Antiphona Pool] does a total of 25 hits and deals 60% more damage than the regular one.

  Be sure to use these bolts when the boss is not moving and right under the boss to get all the hits.

• [Blessed Sign]: Amplify and release all the holy energy stored within your body around you dealing damage to surrounding enemies. Hits 10 times and the last 3 hits does the highest damage. Try to not cancel the skill since most of the damage comes from the last 3 hits.

  This skill can be casted without the CM3 version to hit around you and not in front of you.

Invincibilty Frames

• [Lightning Rush]: 0.5 seconds
• [Sliding Step]: 0.6 seconds
• [Immortality]: 1.3 seconds

Skill Build

Unified skills : FD Boost, Max HP Boost

Saint Skill Sim Minerva

With the remaining SP you can max whatever you want. Chain Lightning is a good filler when you have downtime (happens very rarely since you have to do your support duty as well). Detonate might be a choice as well but never use it when playing with an Inquisitor or it will troll his detonate which results on a huge damage loss.

Skill Crests

Damage :

• [Holy Burst]
• [Grand Cross]

Cooldown Reduction :

• [Lightning Relic]
• [Bind Relic]
• [Relic Reaction]

Optional :

• Duration :
  • [Protection Shell]
• Cooldown Reduction :
  • [Block]

Skill up: +1 Holy Burst

Gameplay

Damage on Saint

Dealing damage on saint is not your main goal but as a support you should try to do some damage as well. Saint's damage comes from relic positioning and boss reading since you need the boss to stay near your relics as much as you can. Reading boss mechanics and movement is key to dealing damage on Saint. You should always try to get the most out of your relics and not just place them randomly.

Rotation

1. Spawn as many relics as you can (2 * [Awakened Lightning Relic], 1 * [Healing Relic], 1 * [Bind Relic], optional: 1 * [Cure Relic] and 1 * [Awakened Grand Sigil]) and place them around the boss.
2. Cast [Awakened Holy Burst] near the boss to get 5 hits from you and (3 * numbers of relics) hits. It will also activate CM2 and grant 10% light buff to yourself.
3. Cast [Relic Reaction] to fire bolts on as many relics as possible.
4. Cast [Antiphona Pool] followed by [Awakened Grand Cross] then [Enhanced Antiphona Pool]. Be sure to aim under the boss to get the max hits.
5. Cast [CM3].

Do not forget to press [Awakened Lightning Relic], [Healing Relic] and [Bind Relic] off cooldown to keep them up. You can also use [Cure Relic] and [Awakened Grand Sigil] if you know you won't need them for an upcoming mechanic.

Golem 3000B

Golem Spread

Relic Pulse table:

Relic	Range(meters)	Pulse(every x seconds)	Total Pulse	Duration	Cooldown
Bind	5	5	5	27	26.7
Healing	7	2	5	11	9
Cure	10	2	5	11	25.2
Grand Sigil	10	2	6	13	189

Grand Sigil total buff duration = 18 seconds

Hit count table:

• [Awakened Holy Burst] hits = 5
• [Awakened Holy Burst] hits per relic = 3
• [Relic Reaction] hits per relic = 3

Relic	[Awakened Holy Burst]	[Relic Reaction]
Lightning + Small Relics (x3)	(3 x 4) + 5 = 17	12
Bind	3 + 5 = 8	3
Healing	3 + 5 = 8	3
Cure	3 + 5 = 8	3
Grand Sigil	3 + 5 = 8	3

Relic usage

Only hold on [Cure Relic] and [Awakened Grand Sigil] for some mechanics. If you know you won't need these relics for upcoming mechanics, do not hesitate to use them. Especially [Cure Relic] which only has a 25.2 seconds cooldown and the summoning damage is pretty high.

Every relic on summon deals damage to the target but [Cure Relic] has the highest one (99% of 1 holy burst damage). The basic attack is the summoning relic hit. [Cure Relic] + [Basic Attack] is the total damage from the relic summoning.

Heal on Saint

As a Saint and one of the 3 healer classes your main role is to support your party with heals and buffs. You should try to keep your party members alive.

As a Healer you should try to read the boss's next move and ALWAYS look out for your party members health bar and buff bars. Knowing what is their HP, what buff they have (Damage Reduction buff) and what move the boss is about to do next, will let you be ready and react on time.

Boss HP is a good indicator on what mechanic is going to happen.

Healing

• You have 3 heals on Saint. [Big Heal], [Small Heal] and [Healing Relic]. [Small Heal] and [Big Heal] have a huge range, about 30 meters. If you stay in the middle in BTG room, it will cover the whole room.

  • [Big Heal] is your main heal and should be used in case of an emergency.

  • [Small Heal] is the heal you would be using the most. You should use [Small Heal] whenever one or more party members HP is under 85%.

  • Healing relic is your 100% uptime heal which should be on the field everytime. It gives a total of 17.5% healing and 5% MP over 10 seconds.

Sometimes you won't have [Big Heal] up when your party members got hit heavily. Do not hesitate to use [Small Heal] if that happens. In case you don't have any Heals and boss is about to hit hard you should press Immortality.

No Heals up: In case you used all your heals and party members keep getting hit DO NOT PANIC. Let your party members know if you don't have heals by using a Macro, typing in the chat or yelling at them in voice channel. Look what the boss is doing and be ready to use DR skill or Immortality. Since [Healing Relic] should be down near the boss, your allies will heal.

Do not overheal: There is no need to press another heal when your HoT is up. If your ally has 50% HP and you used [Small Heal], it is normal that he won't be full health instantly. Wait a few seconds, [Healing Relic] and the HoT will do the work. Only heal to full health if you know the boss is going to do mechanics in which your ally is most likely to get hit. Otherwise your ally should play safe until he is full life or get [Tank bubble] again.

Do not panic: when you see your party members health is low, you don't need to press heal instantly. If you see your allies low on health and know what mechanics the boss is doing next, you can estimate how much damage your ally will take based on :

• Boss attack
• if ally has [Tank bubble].
• if ally has any Damage Reduction buff (self / party / passive).

  You might need to know the classes kit.

According to these information you will know if you need to heal your ally before or after the bosses next hit.

Reason : The reason for not healing your ally instantly (if not needed) is because you want to maximize the use of heals. It means to use heal on not only 1 but as much allies as possible.

Example:

• PT have [Tank bubble].
• Raven got hit => lost 30% barrier and 40% HP.
• Heals are off cooldown but only 1 out of 8 party members got hit.
• I noticed what mechanics is happening next and knew it would not deal enough damage to one shot him :
  • This boss mechanic do not do enough damage.
  • Assassin have feint.

Considering all these points, healing after the mechanics would help in case :

• Other party members got hit.
• If another mechanic follows up then HoT is up and ready to heal.

[Tank bubble] icon:

Do not panic heal video example:

As a Healer, your job is to save and prevent the death of your allies but keep in mind you have limited supporting abilities. If one or multiple allies keep getting hit and do not dodge it is not your fault.

Damage Reduction

• You have 2 DR buff on Saint.[Protection Shell] and [Awakened Grand Sigil].

  • [Protection Shell] DR buff is only 10% so you should try combining it with other DR buff from other classes.

    Knowing what other classes are in your party and what party or self DR buff skill they have will help on when to cast [Protection Shell].

    • Example 1: RuDN HC S2 - Stomp after Dark Room mechanic => 10% DR is enough to prevent the death of your party members.
    • Example 2: If you have a Kali in your party, they can use [Phantom Guard] which also give 10% party DR and you can synchronize your [Protection Shell] with it.

  • [Awakened Grand Sigil] gives 50% DR but comes with a long cooldown of 189 seconds. [Awakened Grand Sigil] is good to use during mechanics where the boss is doing a lot of damage and your party members might die from the hits.

    • Example 1: RuDN HC S2 - Dark Room mechanic => You can put [Awakened Grand Sigil] and [Healing Relic] in the center of the map so if your allies get hit they won't die and get healed by the [Healing Relic].

      • Dark Room - Grand Sigil video example:

        

    • Example 2: RuDN Norm and HC S3 - 2 green ball mark mechanic => You should put Grand Sigil near the boss so your allies can get the DR buff and even if they get hit by the green balls they won't die.

      • Volva green balls stack:

        

Cure

• You have 2 cures on Saint, [Cure Relic] and Grand Sigil.

  • [Cure Relic] is your main cure skill.

    • Example 1: RuDN Norm and HC S3 - Shock mechanic => When Volva spawns electric puddles twice, you should precast [Cure Relic] near the boss or cast it right after the 2nd hit (in air) in order to remove electrocution debuff on your allies.

      • Shock cure:

        

    • Example 2: RuDN Norm and HC S4 Part 2 - 50% wisp mechanic => After killing the wisp, one ally is going to be rooted. If you don't cure him, he will most likely die to dragon breath.

      • Wisp dragon cure:

        

    Side note: [Cure Relic] can be casted in air or during other skills so you can use it to cancel the end lag of a skill or if you got hit.

  • [Awakened Grand Sigil] also has a cure effect but the skill cooldown is too long to be worth using as a cure. Only use it if [Cure Relic] is in cooldown and it is an emergency.

Immortality

• One of the strongest abilities in the game.
  • Immortality allows you to instantly give a map wide party invincibility buff for 1.3 seconds on cast. You can use it to either let your party members greed damage on some mechanics or save them from death.

    • Example 1 : RuDN HC S3 - Shotgun mechanic => If someone get stun locked during Shotgun mechanic, you can use immortality to save them.

      • Volva Shotgun:

        

Examples of immortality usage

Immortality:

Raid	Boss	Mechanic	Type	Timing
Rune (Norm - HC)	Stage 1	Breath	Emergency	Ally got mark and is about to die, press immo if you have no heal and ally is under 40% HP.
Rune (Norm - HC)	Stage 2	Bar mechanic	Emergency	In case someone forgot to get his mark, you should immo when the shield breaks, before the explosion to prevent a party wipe.
Rune (HC)	Stage 2	Dark room	Emergency	During dark room if you ran out of heal and an ally is about to die, press immortality
Rune (HC)	Stage 2	Dark room stomp	Safety	After dark room you can immo the stomp
Rune (HC)	Stage 3	Shotgun	Emergency	During shotgun, in case someone get stun locked you should press immo
Rune (Norm - HC)	Stage 3	Pizza	Emergency	During pizza, especially confusion. When a party member gets hit, press immo to prevent him from getting hit again and die. Do not immo if where he stands is going to be the next safe zone.
Rune (Norm - HC)	Stage 4 phase 2	Starbust	Safety	During Starbust you can press immortality to prevent allies from getting comboed or hit and get their skills canceled.
BDN TA	Stage 1	Stomp	Safety	After the combo + head bump press immo
BDN TA	Stage 2	Fear	Greed	When boss teleports to mid, he might do the fear mechanics where you have to spam ADAD. You can immo to prevent having to spam ADAD.
BDN TA	Stage 4	Triple stomp	Safety	When boss crosses hands and is about to slam the ground, you should press immo. Triple stomp would most likely kill or wipe your team. Keep in mind 1.3 seconds won't save you for the 3 stomps so be ready to heal or use DR skill.
BDN TA	Stage 5 phase 2	Stack mechanic	Safety	After 50% when the text appear for the stack mechanics. You can immo when you see the boss doing some mechanics (rain, hand swipe, etc, ...). It will prevent allies from getting hit and thrown out of the green circle.
KTN	Stage 2	Stomp	Safety	when boss disappear in air and red mark appears on ground, you should press immo.