Good morning everyone,

Don't forget to enjoy the coolness of the morning air accompanied by warm ginger tea that will make your day more memorable.

In Black Desert Online, each class possesses its own unique abilities, and Drakania, the female knight with dragon powers, is no exception. Let's delve into her Awakening state.

During Awakening mode, she wields a dual-spear weapon called Trion, with one held in each hand. The right-hand spear remains constant in appearance, while the left-hand spear changes its look according to the equipped skin.

The left-hand spear holds a special significance as it transforms into different forms based on the phases of her skills. Apart from her main skills, there are two distinct phases with their own set of abilities: Hexeblood Skills - "Bloodbearer of the Landroving Witch" and Dragonblood Skills - "Bloodbearer of the Skysoaring Dragon."

The main skills encompass a list of fundamental abilities, including basic attacks, and essential buffs with relatively long cooldowns, akin to other classes. Additionally, there are basic movement skills and techniques for immobilizing or catching enemies.

Hexeblood Skills offer several advantages, including swift animation and agile movements, along with a Hexeblood buff that grants +20 all AP and +15% attack speed.

On the other hand, Dragonblood Skills excel in higher damage output and broader AoE (area of effect) for skills, accompanied by a Dragonblood buff that bestows +25 all AP and +25 all DP.

Each player's hand possesses its uniqueness in playing the class, and no one can judge you based on your playstyle as long as you enjoy it and it proves efficient in defeating your enemies.

To better comprehend the combos, you should consider mapping the skills into categories: movement skills, protective skills, and main damaging skills.

Movement skills: These are abilities that aid in repositioning or evading attacks that allow you to move around the battlefield quickly.

Protective skills: These are abilities that provide defensive benefits to help you endure and survive enemy attacks.

Crowd Control (CC) skills: These abilities are designed to disable your enemies, preventing them from moving, dodging, or attacking.

Main damaging skills: These are your primary offensive abilities that deal significant damage to your foes.

By organizing your skills into these categories, you can better understand their roles and plan your combos accordingly.

Here is an example of how to map the skills.

7 Main Skills :

11 Hexeblood Skills :

10 Dragonblood Skills :

*People may refer to it as the red and blue form, based on the skill and animation effect colors.

Buff/Grab/Extra Skills :

Burning Resolve ▶ Quick slot (Main Buff)

Legacy ▶ Space after any skills in any form ▶ Switch to the blue form while in the red form, and vice versa (Form Buff)

Impale ▶ E in any form ▶ Remain in the current form (Grab)

Scale Bastion (Pre Awakening) ▶ Q in any form ▶ Remain in the current form (Guard)

Movement Skills :

Dragonwalk (Pre Awakening) ▶ W/A/S/D+Shift in any form ▶ Remain in the current form (Forward/Backward/Left/Right Movement)

Refraction (Pre Awakening) ▶ A/D+RMB in any form ▶ Remain in the current form (Left/Right and Forward Movement)

Tectonic Slam ▶ W+E in any form ▶ Switch to red form (Forward Movement)

Storm Maul ▶ W+RMB in any form ▶ Switch to red form (Forward Movement)

Fate Beckons ▶ W+F in any form ▶ Remain in the current form (Forward Movement)

Dragon Flight ▶ Shift+Space or Space after W/A/S/D+Shift (Dragonwalk) or Space after A/D+RMB (Refraction) in any form ▶ Remain in the current form (Left/Right and Forward Movement)

Massive AOE Skills :

Doombringer ▶ Shift+Q in any form ▶ Switch to blue form (Circular AOE around the player)

Obliterate ▶ Shift+E in any form ▶ Switch to red form (Circular AOE around the player)

Sundering Roar ▶ S+F in blue form ▶ Remain in the blue form (Linear AOE in front of the player)

Aerial Burst ▶ Quick slot (Circular AOE around the player)

Flow Skills (Morph) :

Legacy (Space after any skill to change form)

Switch to blue form from any form :

Doombringer (Shift+Q)

Tectonic Slam (S+E)

Switch to red form from any form :

Extinction (Shift+F)

Obliterate (Shift+E)

Tectonic Slam (W+E)

Storm Maul (W+RMB)

*Unlike the flow between succession and awakening mode, any skill from the Hexeblood and Dragonblood skill tree that can be placed in the quick slot can be activated directly regardless of the current form as long as we are in awakening mode. It will switch us into the corresponding red/blue form depending on which skill tree is used, either from Dragonblood or Hexeblood.

-- A flow skill is actually a continuation of the previous skill that can be activated by pressing a certain button, which normally cannot be activated directly. For me, I call the skill that changes from one form to another a flow skill, like water flowing between succession and awakening, or between Dragonblood and Hexeblood.

Protection Skills :

Forward Guard (FG) :

Scale Bastion (Pre Awakening) ▶ Q in any form ▶ Remain in the current form (Guard)

Legacy ▶ Space after any skills in any form ▶ Switch to the blue form while in the red form, and vice versa (Form Buff)

Spiteful Soul ▶ Shift+RMB or RMB in red form ▶ Remain in the red form (Offensive Skill)

Storm Piercer ▶ S+RMB in red form ▶ Remain in the red form (Offensive Skill)

Sundering Roar ▶ S+F in blue form ▶ Remain in the blue form (Offensive Skill)

Super Armor (SA) :

Burning Resolve ▶ Quick slot (Main Buff)

Impale ▶ E in any form ▶ Remain in the current form (Grab)

Dragon Flight ▶ Shift+Space or Space after W/A/S/D+Shift (Dragonwalk) or Space after A/D+RMB (Refraction) in any form ▶ Remain in the current form (Movement)

Obliterate ▶ Shift+E in any form ▶ Switch to red form (Offensive Skill)

Spiteful Soul ▶ Shift+RMB or RMB in blue form ▶ Remain in the blue form (Offensive Skill)

Sundering Roar ▶ S+F in blue form ▶ Remain in the blue form (Offensive Skill)

Tectonic Slam ▶ S+E in any form ▶ Switch to blue form (Offensive Skill)

Savage Decree ▶ S+LMB in blue form ▶ Remain in the blue form (Offensive Skill)

Doombringer ▶ Shift+Q in any form ▶ Switch to blue form (Offensive Skill)

*For Doombringer, it starts with Super Armor (SA), then turns to Forward Guard (FG).

You can also map it for the crowd control (CC) effect skills, but for me, who isn't really good in PvP, I may only focus on damaging the opponent and using protective skills.

Here is the common combo that I typically use in PvE.

Normally, we start after a flight from the previous spot, so after the flight,

If the target is on you, use LMB /. If you need an extra dash, use RMB. Then,

▶▶▶▶▶▶▶

Shift+Q ▶ Shift E ▶ S+E ▶ S+F hold F ▶ S+LMB ▶ RMB hold RMB

Doombringer ▶ Obliterate ▶ Tectonic Slam ▶ Sundering Roar followed by Storm Piercer ▶ Savage Decree ▶ Spiteful Soul followed by Cloud's Strife

Explanation :

We start with Doombringer. The idea here is to match your form, so any form that you use while starting a flight doesn't matter because with Doombringer, you will turn into the blue form. It can also move a bit while jumping in the air, allowing you to get better positioning in the center of your mobs. With its good AoE, you can maximize the targets you hit, ensuring you have loot while in a party grind. Some mobs may have just gathered, but with the Obliterate skill, it's like having a second chance to hit all the mobs with a good AoE, and it also turns us into the red form.

After the circular AoE, we switch to the linear AoE with Tectonic Slam which turns us into the blue form again. It's an opening for Sundering Roar, followed by Storm Piercer for the main damaging skill. Continue with Savage Decree and Spiteful Soul as additional offensive skills and finish with Cloud's Strife.

If your position isn't good to start the linear AoE combo after the circular one, or you want to do a back attack for greater damage, or you just want to dash back a bit to make sure you hit the enemies that were previously behind you, you can use Dragonwalk or Refraction to get a better position.

▶▶/▶▶▶▶▶▶

Or if you find yourself in a perfect position for the linear AoE, you can skip Obliterate and use it later, or you can swap it with Extinction.

▶▶▶▶▶▶▶▶

You can also add an additional Sundering Roar before turning back to blue to extend the combo.

▶/▶ ▶▶▶▶▶▶

You can also skip intro skills and directly use the massive AoE skill.

▶▶▶▶▶

If your next camp of mobs isn't too far, you can simply use the dash skill instead of flight.

▶▶▶▶... or /▶▶...

For defense, if you need to dodge the damage or tank the AoE with FG, you can do this.

▶▶▶▶▶▶▶▶ ▶

Use Refraction to reposition yourself outside the red AoE if possible. If you can't, then proceed with the following skill, ensuring that the damage is received under the invulnerable (iframe) state or frontal guard (FG) to avoid dying in super armor (SA). Hexeblood skills are generally quick, use Scale Bastion for protection until your frontal guard skills are depleted. Afterward, use Legacy and repeat, or wait for the cooldowns of Spiteful Soul and Storm Piercer to use them again. Alternatively, you can just fly away to avoid the danger, as lethal damage can quickly break your frontal guard skill.

For the Super Armor (SA) rotation, you can do this.

▶▶▶▶▶

In PvP, use Sundering Roar SA only when you successfully knock down your enemies, as the SA animation is swift and turns to FG, and opponents can counter or crowd control (CC) you while you are channeling it. Be prepared to cancel the skill with another ability if you are about to get hit to avoid vulnerability.

For PvP, it is generally recommended to initiate with crowd control (CC) skills to disable your opponent before starting your damaging combo. This allows you to gain an advantage and increase the effectiveness of your attacks.

By utilizing this movement combo, you can disable your enemies, assuming they are not protected. The success of this arrangement is contingent on the conditions being met.

▶▶▶... or ▶if you take flight in the blue form or ▶ for any form.

Use Sundering Roar as your main damage dealer, preceded by an opening skill to apply necessary buffs. To ensure a swifter animation for Sundering Roar, use any Dragonblood skills exactly before casting it.

To maximize skill usage and easily monitor their cooldowns, set up a cooldown UI, especially for crucial skills with long cooldowns. This will help you avoid using skills that are not yet ready, preventing your combo from failing.

Here is an example to set up UI cooldown.

▶ For easier skill management, customize your cooldown UI by grouping it based on skill categories, button positions for skill casting, protective buffs granted, or crowd control effects inflicted on your opponents.

▶ In the skill (K) menu, instead of reading all the skill descriptions, you may notice that some of them have tiny icons at the bottom. These icons indicate whether the skill provides a protective buff, has crowd control effects, or not. Additionally, a bright yellow square border indicates that the skill can be placed on the quick slot.

▶ When activating the weapon from idle mode or switching to awakening from succession mode, neither the Hexeblood nor the Dragonblood buff will be granted. These buffs will only be applied once you cast any skill from the Hexeblood or Dragonblood skill list. Using a flow skill that changes form will also trigger the switch in buffs. However, utilizing the main buff (Burning Resolve ) will grant an additional separate buff. The buffs will be displayed above your food, elixir, and other buffs.

Here is an example of a skill add-on effect.

Put the add-on effect on your most frequently used skill and prioritize the add-ons with the highest bonus stats. For instance, if one skill add-on gives +10 extra damage and another gives +15 extra damage, prioritize the one with +15 damage. Additionally, focus on add-ons that provide accuracy and attack/casting speed for the skills used earlier in your combo. This will help optimize your damage output and improve your overall effectiveness in combat.

"Every player has their unique playstyle, and there is no definitive right or wrong, or good or bad approach. It's all about finding what works most efficiently for each individual."

Criticism and suggestions are very welcome.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely, 

Irishtia

your truly wholeheartedly supporter

this is one of the best formatted, planned out, laid out class-guide out there! 
You even have UI guide for skill placements and etc, very organized!!

thaanks