Absolute Skills will be added to Black Desert Online NA/EU. The Absolute Skills are the final and the most powerful rank of main skills. The base mechanics are the same, but the Absolute skills can deal more damage and can hit more targets. The prerequisites are Awakening swap skills (i.e. you have to complete the Awakening quests) and the highest rank of a specific main skill that you want to learn the Absolute rank of. The Lahn, which is currently only available in KR, is the only class that does not have to have Awakening swap skills to learn Absolute skills (the Lahn’s Absolute skills came out before Lahn’s Awakening.)

In KR, all 16 classes including the Lahn have Absolute skills. It has been a while since the Absolute skills were added in KR, and KR players now have expertise on which Absolute skills are good and which ones are not. KR players only choose the Absolute skills that are good (either in PvE or PvP) and get only those skills to maximize skill point efficiency.

Below are the recommended Absolute skills for all classes, except for the Lahn which has not been added in NA/EU yet. Please note that this post might not accurately reflect the meta in NA/EU, as the post is based on Korean players’ opinions.

In the recommended skills image, the skills written in red are highly recommended skills and the ones in grey are fairly good skills.

● Warrior

The Warrior doesn’t really need Absolute skills to level up. A majority of players learn all necessary Awakening skills first, and then learn some Absolute skills that they prefer.

One recommended Absolute skill is Absolute: Ground Smash. The damage is fairly high, and it has 100% critical hit rate in the Absolute rank. Absolute: Ground Smash is also useful in PvP, with debuffs and Down Attack/Smash.

Other frequently used Absolute skills are Absolute: Spinning Slash and Absolute: Shield Charge. Some players like to get Absolute: Forward Slash as well.

● Ranger

Some of the Ranger’s Absolute skills are good, but not good enough to replace Awakening skills. Players tend to use the extra skill points they have on Absolute skills after learning all Awakening skills. Recommended skills are Absolute: Blasting Gust, Absolute: Will of the Wind, and Absolute: Extreme Charging Wind. Blasting Gust was already a powerful skills with animation cancels, and Absolute: Blasting Gust makes the skill even more powerful with increased damage. Absolute: Extreme Charging Wind is available at level 60, and some players wait until they reach level 60 and then learn the Absolute skills, so they can use Absolute: Extreme Charging Wind with other Absolute skills.

Absolute: Evasive Shot is another powerful Absolute skill. The Ranger can use Evasive Shot by canceling other skills, and the accumulated shots will increase the overall damage output.

● Sorceress

There are many times where a Sorcerer will use pre-Awakening skills in order to get Shards of Darkness, which are a special resource for Sorceress. These skills are not used for the purpose of inflicting damage on the target but instead are mainly used for CC effects like stun, or skill effects like the Forward Guard. Thus, the Sorceress players do not invest too much on the Absolute skills that only increase damage dealt.

When they do have many skill points to spare, they normally invest them in the Absolute skills with huge increases in the damage stat. These skills include Absolute: Dream of Doom, Absolute: Rushing Crow, Absolute: Blood Calamity, and Absolute: Crow Flare. They also invest their skill points on Absolute: Midnight Stinger and Absolute: Dark Flame, which both have many uses.

● Berserker

Most players agree that the Berserker’s Absolute skills are not well thought out. Players can feel that there is damage increase for the grab skills, which are mainly used in PvP, but they do not seek to deal damage with these grab skills in the first place. There are many players who do not see much of a big difference for other skills as well, so most people tend to hold back on investing points in the Berserker's absolute skills.

But there are some Absolute skills that are considered good among players. Most of the Berserker players seem to learn Absolute: Frenzied Destroyer, which has damage and the number of maximum targets increased compared to Frenzied Destroyer. Also, the skill effects that Frenzied Destroyer originally had is one of the advantages of learning this Absolute skill.

● Tamer

The Tamer’s Absolute skills have been well received among players in general. Some of them do almost the same amount of damage as the Awakening skills do, or have even better efficiency in some situations. That is why there are players who invest points in both Awakening and Absolute skills simultaneously.

The Absolute skills that are considered most essential are Absolute: Bolt Wave and Absolute: Jolt Wave. Both skills deal powerful damage, so much so that they can be considered the main Absolute skills for the Tamer. Each can be learned at level 56 and level 57 so they can make up for the Tamer’s insufficient Awakening skills.

Other than that, there are a few moderately good Absolute skills for the Tamer, but it’s up to players to decide whether they prefer Awakening or Absolute skills. Also, many players learn Absolute: Flash Stance Shift since Flash: Stance Shift is the preceding skill for a Rabam skill as well. Additionally, Absolute: Whiplash and Absolute: Trample are also considered good Absolute skills.

● Musa

The overall evaluation of the Musa’s Absolute skills was that they’re not superior in any way, and so most Musa players do not invest skill points in the Absolute skills. They usually invest their points in their Awakening skills first, and then use the spare points on their Absolute skills.

However, there are some Absolute skills that players do consider useful. Absolute: Blooming, the higher ranked version of Blooming: Phantom would be the prime example. Its critical hit rate increased from 30% to 100% and the damage increases by quite a lot. Absolute: Rising Storm can also deal fair damage, and is often used in 1-on-1 PvP. However, some players do say that it is not powerful enough to be used in fights against several opponents due to its animation delay and the fact that it doesn’t have sufficient defense like Super Armor or Forward Guard.

Other than that, players say that Absolute: Gale deals fairly good damage if you have learned Ultimate: Gale. Although it may be better to use this as a finishing move rather than in a skill combo due to the animation delay after the skill has been used. Also, most Musa players use their skill points on Absolute: Musa Spirit in order to keep up with their resource consumption.

● Valkyrie

The Valkyrie’s Absolute skills are moderately good, yet they are not good enough to replace the other efficient Awakening skills, so players tend to invest skill points only if they can spare them. The damage for the Absolute skills is higher, but it can be difficult to deal all the damage since the number of hits is usually small; players will need to be more accurate if they wish to use the Absolute skills.

Absolute: Heaven’s Echo, Absolute: Sword of Judgment, Absolute: Celestial Spear, and Absolute: Breath of Elion are the recommended skills. As for Breath of Elion, the amount of recovered health increased so that it will recover 30% of you and your ally’s max health. Absolute: Shield Throw also has good efficiency, and players have noticed a clear difference from the original skill in PvP.

● Maehwa

The Maehwa’s Absolute skills are quite good when used with Awakening skills. Of course, using only Awakening skills is still a viable way to play, so the Maehwa’s Awakening skills should come before the Absolute skills. If there are no more Awakening skills you can use your skill points on because of your low level and if you have spare skill points, using them on Absolute skills is not a bad idea.

Absolute: Red Moon is recommended because players claim that they notice a big increase in damage dealt; monsters that would take more than one skill combo now die before one combo is finished. As for Absolute: Blooming, the critical hit rate increases to 100% and the damage increase is huge. It is also good for skill combos since it can be instantly activated if used after Carver or Chase.

Other than that, Absolute: Dragon Claw also deals fairly good damage despite its small AoE. Absolute: Blind Thrust is okay as well. Just like the Musa, Absolute: Maehwa’s Will is an essential skill to learn in order to supply resources for Maehwa.

● Wizard & Witch

The Absolute skills are the same for both Wizard and Witch. Their pre-Awakening skills have been regarded as bad by players for some time, so players say that simple damage increases don’t make them much better. Therefore, you should learn your Awakening skills first and then use your skill points on Absolute skills when you can spare them.

Absolute: Meteor Shower and Absolute: Blizzard are recommended skills for Wizard and Witch. Learning Absolute: Meteor Shower will increase your damage by a fair amount and reduce its cooldown by 1 minute so it can be used much more often. As for Absolute: Blizzard, it is an enhanced version of Ultimate: Blizzard, and deals fairly good damage with a wide AoE.

Other than that, Absolute: Lightning is another recommended skill since it deals the highest damage out of all Absolute skills when using Black Spirit’s Rage, and has Forward Guard and Stun. Absolute: Lightning Chain also has high usage since it can now hit 10 targets maximum even if the damage increase is not very apparent.

● Kunoichi

The Kunoichi’s Absolute skills are altogether pretty good according to Kunoichi players. The speed of pre-Awakening battles is fast, and they say you can add more damage to fights through the Kunoichi’s Absolute skills. When you are fighting against monsters with a lot of health, use both Awakening and Absolute skills together for maximum damage, and you can also use just Absolute skills for speedy grinding in certain grinding areas.

Absolute: Tendon Cutter is a recommended Absolute skill for the Kunoichi since it deals the most damage out of all Absolute skills. Also, this skill now has more usage since its attack speed increased. Absolute: Shadow Stomp is another skill with a good damage increase.

The last most viable skills would be Absolute: Black Moonlight and Absolute: Fatal Blow, since both skills have a good increase in damage and number of max targets.

● Ninja

A majority of players are positive towards most of the Ninja’s Absolute skills. The Ninja is a class that shows high efficiency when his pre-Awakening skills are used with other skills, so you can make it even more efficient by using his Absolue skills as well. This does not necessarily mean that the Awakening skills themselves are not sufficient enough, but there are times where you can learn Absolute skills that are superior efficiency-wise, so some players invest their skill points in Absolute skills first rather than on Awakening skills.

Absolute: Blade Spin is a recommended skill for the Ninja as it almost deals the same amount of damage that Awakening skills do. It also has moderately good AoE and high usage since the animation can be canceled with Shuriken: Malice. Absolute: Fatal Blow is another recommended skill since it is cast quickly and can be followed by a Flow skill to deal additional damage. Other than that, Absolute: Shuriken Malice is also thought to be a good skill by many Ninja players.

● Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is one of the classes that has high usage of Awakening skills and does not have many opportunities to use her pre-Awakening skills. The same goes for her Absolute skills, so players normally use their skill points on Absolute skills only after they’ve invested all they can in their Awakening skills.

Absolute: Wheel of Fortune and Absolute: Lunacy of Vedir are the main recommended skills for the Dark Knight. Both skills are AoE skills that inflict damage around the Dark Knight. Absolute: Lunacy of Vedir also comes with an attack speed increase (the skill animation), giving it more usage.

There are players who learn Absolute: Corrupt Ground for resource purposes, although it differs from player to player since the animation delay is fairly long.

● Striker

The overall evaluation of the Striker’s Absolute skills is moderately good among players. However, his Awakening skill combos deal exceptionally high damage, so many players agree that there is no need to mix pre-Awakening skills in a skill combo. Because of this, players postpone investing points in the Striker’s Absolute skills. Actually, at this point, many Striker players chose to enhance their most-used pre-Awakening skills to the Absolute rank rather than just spending their skill points on “powerful skills”.

Absolute: Roaring Tiger and Absolute: Rage Hammer are included in these Absolute skills. Roaring Tiger has good skill effects and is frequently used in skill combos, so you can enhance Roaring Tiger to the Absolute rank. Rage Hammer is a main pre-Awakening skill as well, so many players enhance it to the Absolute rank. Other than that, there are many players who learn Absolute: Mass Destruction.

● Mystic

Many Mystic players say her Absolute skills are fairly good. Her Absolute skills are not that important since her Awakening skills are efficient enough, like the Striker’s. Therefore, most Mystic players tend to invest their skill points in Absolute skills only after they have finished learning all their Awakening skills. However, there are some players who choose to learn Absolute: Twisted Collision first, which can be learned at level 57, as they say, this skill is good in PvP.

The reason Absolute: Twisted Collision is recommended is that it can be used during your Awakening and deal moderately high damage. It also can be used in skill combos for PvP since it has Air Attack. Although you might want to note that its Flow skills, Flow: Landslide and Flow: Fatal Smash, don’t have Absolute ranks.

Other than that, many players prefer Absolute: Roaring Tiger which is used in skill combos, and Absolute: Rage Hammer which can be used to pull targets towards you in PvE.