Silkroad has a very fluid skill system.
This means a lot of freedom in weapon and stat/skill choices, which sometimes means you get a lot of freedom in screwing up your character build
So here’s a little guide to different build types you can follow. Of course this is only a guide. You’re always free to experiment.

Legend

I will be using the folllowing words in the guide with the presumption that you know what I mean.

STR build - majority of player’s stat points are put into STR
INT build - majority of player’s statpoints are put into INT
all STR - all of player’s stat points are put into STR
all INT - all of player’s stat points are put into INT
2:1 - player’s stat points are put approx. twice as much in STR than INT
1:2 - player’s stat points are put approx. twice as much in INT than STR
1:1 - player’s stat points are put approx. equally into STR and INT (aka Balance build)
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Sword - One handed magical weapon
Blade - One handed physical weapon (previously known as Dagger)
Spear - Two handed magical weapon
Glaive - Two handed physical weapon (preiouvsly known as Big Sword)
—
Weapon skills - skills in one of three weapon skill trees (Swordmanship, Spearmanship, Bowmanship)
Force skills - skills in one of four force skill trees (Cold, Lightening, Fire, Heal)
Mastery Level - level of a certain skill tree, i.e. Cold Mastery lvl 12
Stat Points: Basics

When a player levels, s/he is given 5 stat points.
2 of those stat points are automatically allocated for you, 1 to STR and 1 to INT.
3 remaining need to be allocated by the player.

A stat point to STR will add HP, Physical Attack, Physical Defense
A stat point to INT will add MP, Magical Attack, Magical Defense

Builds: Basics

For obvious reasons, Blade and Glaive users usually do STR builds.
Sword and Spear users do INT builds.
Bows can go both ways.
You can also do a 1:1 build.. more on that below.

STR builds:
Your main damage skills will be your Weapon skills.
You will have a harder time levelling than INT builds.

In my opinion, STR builds should put close to all their stat points into STR.
The 2:1 build is not recommended.
Benefits for adding to your INT aren’t worth the stuff you’ll be losing for not putting it in STR.

When learning Force skills, particularly the first row ones that add damage to your weapon, it is usually best to keep them at lvl1 or 2, not higher, for better MP efficiency.

Also, consider levelling Bowmanship to lvl10 even if you are not a Bow user. The Bowmanship tree has an accuracy passive skill at lvl10 which is beneficial to all STR builds. The physical attack passive in Spearmanship is also obviously beneficial to all but it is only 1% at level 1 so it is up to you to determine if it’s worth it

If run speed is important to you level Lightning to lvl12 for Wind Walk skill lvl1

INT builds:
Your main damage skills will be your Force skills.
You will level fast, but will find it hard to beat the high HP of STR builds in PVP later on.

All INT and 1:2 builds are both viable choices. All INT build will do more damage but 1:2 build has more survivability.

Balance (1:1) builds:

Balancing INT and STR is not impossible, but unless you spend a lot of time farming SP the build will be difficult to do well. The benefit of concentrating on STR or INT is that STR builds can concentrate their SP on Weapon skills and INT builds can concentratet their SP on Force skills. As a Balance build you will have to put as much SP as you can into both in order to make the best of both worlds.

Guides to Common Builds
Blade - STR Build
Stat points: All STR
Skill Trees:
Swordmanship: Concentrate on Chain Sword Attack series, Blade Force series and the Shield Protection passive. Hidden Blade and Killing Heaven series aren’t really used in PvE but good to have for PvP. Shield Technique is very good for defensive players.
Force Skills: I suggest Cold or Fire. Cold for defensive builds and Fire for offensive.
Cold: Cold Force series, Frost Nova series, and Cold Armor passive.
Fire: Fire Force series, Flame Body series and Flame Devil passive.
Sword - INT Build
Stat points: All INT or 1:2
Skill Trees:
Swordmanship: Concentrate on Chain Sword series and Shield Protection passive. A little bit of Hidden Blade and Killing Heaven also suggested.
Force Skills: For PvP go Cold + Lightning. For PvE go Fire + Lightning.
Lightning: Wind Walk series, Lion Shout series, Heaven’s Force passive
Cold: Cold Force series, Frost Guard series, Cold Armor passive, maybe one Frost Nova and Snow Storm series
Fire: Fire Force series, Fire Protection series and Flame Wave series
Glaive - STR Build
Stat points: All STR
Skill Trees:
Spearmanship: Concentrate on Soul Departs series, Chain Spear series, Cheolsam HP passive. Flying Dragon series just to Flying Dragon-Fly lvl1. Ghost Spear series optional. Fanning Spear optional for those that do a lot of AoE hunting.
Force Skills: Fire and Cold both have their advantages.
Fire: Fire Force series, Flame Body series and Flame Devil passive
Cold: Cold Force series, Frost Nova series, and Cold Armor passive
Also spend some SP on Lightning and Heal for their passives. Both are learned at mastery lvl10.
Spear - INT Build
Stat points: All INT recommended since Spearmanship gives HP bonus passive. 1:2 ok too.
Skill Trees:
Spearmanship: Cheolsam passive, Chain Spear is good to learn.
Force Skills: Lightning highly suggested. Thunder Force series, Wind Walk series, Lion Shout series, Thunderbolt series, Heaven’s Force passive.
Bow - STR Build
Stat points: All STR
Skill Trees:
Bowmanship: Concentrate on Anti Devil series, Arrow Combo series, White hawk and Blue Hawk, Break Heaven series, Mind concentration passive.
Force Skills: Cold highly suggested. Cold force series, Frost Guard and Cold Armor. lvl1 Frost Nova-Wind can save your ass in bad situations.

SP Farming

SRO skill system is such that SP is nearly as important as XP in developing your character. As you level higher in the game, if you do not slow down XP to farm SP, you will find that your skill masteries aren’t able to keep up with your character’s levels.

This comes down to a matter of choice.
You don’t HAVE to farm SP at lower levels.
You will be farming SP at some point, however, to be able to level all the masteries and skills you want.
If you farm SP at low levels, it means you will have enough SP to learn most of the skills you want at every step of the way.
If you wait til your char is max level to farm SP, it means your char will be sort of gimp all the way there, but you will get there faster.

The rule of thumb in farming SP is this:
Greater the difference between character level and mastery level, greater your SP gain in relation to XP.

For example, lets say you’re a Blade user. If your character level is 18 and your Swordmanship mastery level is 18, you will get much more XP than SP per mob. (I forget the exact ratio.. I’ll update if I come across it.) On the other hand, if your character level is 18 but your Swordmanship mastery level is 9, you will get much more SP than XP per mob.

(Note the following:
1. The highest amount of SP per XP you can get maxes out at a char. lvl / mastery lvl difference of 9
2. The lvl difference applies to which ever is the highest mastery level of all the skill trees. If your Swordmanship is lvl9 and Fire is lvl10, your highest mastery level is 10. )

If you want to never have to worry about being short of SP ever again, Korean guides reccommend you farm atleast 20,000 SP in all. This is an extreme that I don’t suggest for most of you to follow unless you’re seriously hardcore.

I’ve been farming SP since around level 17 and I plan to do so until I’m 20 because the Bandit outpost is a great place to farm. I’m now level 19 and I only have around 2500 SP… you can imagine what getting 20,000 would be like. :shudder:

Finally

This guide was based very much on a Korean post on Playforum which seemed to sum all other posts I’ve read pretty well.
Opposing opinions and criticisms are welcome ^-^