1. Making your character and Chosing your build.

There are 6 different basic classes in Imagine also, several hybrid classes you can build as well. The possibilites are endless. I will break down each class and hybrid. Not all hybrids work. sometimes, you need to build a hybrid in which stats and expertise compliment each other. For example, a magic bullet gunner CANNOT be a mage. The main 3  classes are as follows:

 MELEE (Close Range) :

Based primarily on STRENGTH and VITALITY , the melee fighter uses close-range weapons such as knives and axes. LUCK can be added in order to increase the chance of criticals and rare loot. The role of a melee fighter in battle is usually as a tank (who takes hits and draws aggros) or a damage support (fights alongside a tank while dealing more damage but taking more as well). There are four melee weapon types they can use: Blunt, Charge, Slash and Thrust. Melee fighters can choose between three basic attack types: the default weapon attack, RUSH, and SPIN. RUSH attacks deal more powerful damage and break through GUARD stances but not COUNTER stances, while SPIN attacks tend to be significantly weaker but have an AoE (Area of Effect), which allows the user to target enemies in a radius around them or in front of them, as well as a good knockback to all who are hit by it. SPIN attacks also break through COUNTER stances, but not GUARD stances.

What is a Melee?

Character who uses swords , spears or blunt weapons. Their main attribute is STRENGTH which increases all close-range weapon damage and on a lesser scale, also increases health. Depending on fighting style , preference and demon type , Melee are suited either for crowd-control (Spin / Counter) or damage dealer (Attack / Rush). They can be easily placed as the DPS (Damage Per Second) build of the game.

Advantages of Melee

Health - Highest health growth due to main stat being Strength
Variety - Largest selection of melee weapons to choose from.
Hybrid Potential Melee types, in moderation, can mix with almost anything due to the build's lack of extreme variables. It isn't as easy to ruin a melee type as long as it gets the right stats and at least a decent Attack Expertise class.

Disadvantages of Melee

Costly - Melee weapons are the most expensive overall in bazaars, due to the great demand for them. The maintenance cost is only beaten by Demolition Dashers. due to the need of consumables and repairs.
Tanker - The Tanker in a party, you take the most damage.
Health Sacrificing Due to all the powerful skills requiring an HP percentage, melee types will always put their life at risk and will always have a fixed consumption rate without added benefits. Most of said skills average between 5% and 10% a command.

Expertise/Skills

Techniques

Attack - Basic skill for close-range combat. Breaks through Rush attacks. Further development will raises Strength , Critical hit rate and adds a 4th combo attack or more.
Spin - Skills for attacking multiple enemies in close-range combat. Breaks through Counter stance. Further development raises overall HP and Spin damage.
Rush - Skill that breaks down your opponent's Guard and unleashes a mighty blow. Break through Guard stance and Spin stance. Further development raises overall HP and allows for more Rush damage output.
Counter - Defensive skill that can be used to knock-back an enemy and damage them in any situations. Great for chaining different attacks style.
Guard -A useful defensive skill that can be used while waiting for Counter cool-down. Slows down an enemy attack when attacked in this stance. The user takes damage but it is lowered a lot as the skill grows.

Knowledge

Weapon Knowledge - Knowledge of weapons, swords and other close-range equipment. Developing raises close-range damage, lowers Guard /Counter time and raises Critical hit chance.

Chain Expertise

Sword Smiting requires a lot of expertise. It is recommended to have an alternate character that specializes in smiting and not for combat purpose.

Builds

Attributes

Strength - Increases damage output and HP.
Luck - Increases Critical hit rate, Critical hit defense , drop rate and chance to get 1 HP left in critical situation.
Vitallity - Raises Physical defense and HP.

Builds can vary depending what use the player wishes of their Melee Fighter. Some are composed of purely Strength, while others have varied amounts of Vitality and Luck based on what way their intended use is. Other builds may use different stats to improve proficiency with non-melee skills and weapons, forming more of a hybrid build.

Types of Melees

Attack Melee: The most basic of melees that rely on Attack as their main form of damage. Essentially the bare-bones of any melee -- focusing on Attack only tends to leave the user more room to add in other expertise such as Rush, Enhancement, or Spin. This type of melee works best in one-on-one (1 vs 1) situations.
Rush Melee: A Melee that focuses primarily on using Rush as its main form of attack. A risky and dangerous type of melee that relies on one-hit kills or diminishing an enemy's HP low enough to be finished off with a counter or a follow-up attack. This type of melee is best used in tandem with a group or another tanker that can suck up enemy aggro.
Spin Melee: This Melee is designed for crowd control. Spin is the Melee equivalent of a Mage's AoE spells and can be very powerful when paired with the right weapon and expertise. As a downside, Spin has two negative factors in exchange for this room clearing and crowd control capability. It has lower damage modifiers than Attack and can sap a lot of HP from the user quickly without a help of a healer. This type of melee works best with any form of support and can be used to protect Mages and Gunners from enemy demons.
Hybrid Melee: The staple hybrid for a melee class. This class essentially takes the Attack Melee and adds Enhancement in order to buff the user. Considered a solo-capable build of the melee chain because of its ability to adapt to any situation by utilizing the Enhancement expertise. This type of melee works well alone or supporting a party.
Other Hybrid Melees may delve into Curse of the Wretched instead of enhance or mixing it with enhance. It's called a Hybrid melee for a reason because it dips into different chain expertise to supplement itself.

Equipment Compatibility

Melee equipment revolves around several aspects:
Melee equipment in terms of demon crystals should take into account: Strength, Vitality, and Luck. The only exception to these principles are Enhancement Melees. Pure-breed melees can focus their points in two different ways:

Strength and Vitality: For increasing defense with high HP.

Strength and Luck: For Pure offensive abilities, higher critical hit rates, critical hit defense and lucky survive.
Of course it's always recommended that Melees focus primarily on Strength while mixing in Luck with Vitality. Keep these stats in mind when deciding what to get for your Melee.
Additionally, Melee equipment should also look into anything that boosts their damage (e.g. Attack +3%).

 Gunner (Long Range)

Based primarily on SPEED, the gunner is a long-range fighter that provides support fire. The gunner can potentially be quite versatile, as they can also effectively use support, curse, and destructive spells if they so choose. There are many stats which can complement a gunner, including INTELLIGENCE (for MP pool), MAGIC (for spellcasting), and LUCK (for criticals). It is advised to specialize in only one or two of these stats, as stretching it too thin could potentially hinder your character. Most gun damage is based on the SHOT property, and therefore cannot be blocked or countered, but can be dodged.

  
What is a Gunner?

A character who uses a firearm as their main weapon of choice to combat demons in MegaTen. Their main attribute is Speed which increases their firearm damage.

Advantages of Gunners

Pin-pointer - Able to pinpoint a single enemy which is useful for luring/kiting or eliminating the most troublesome enemies as soon as possible without bothering the enemies around the main target
Long Range - Have the highest range out of all the classes. Does Not Apply to Rapids
Difficult to hit - With Counter, Dodge and Rapid , a skilled gunner can re-actively stay out of harm's way against many enemies and prepare for a Shot attack.
High DPS - Rapid is one of the highest DPS, only second to Attack Melee, this is countered by their near point-blank range.
Variety - Different play-styles depending on expertise used.

Disadvantages of Gunners

Cast Time - Gunners start off with slow attacks with either long cool-downs or cast times, length decreases later on. This is the downside to a gunner's defensive aspects.
Ammunition - Gunners must have stocks of ammunition in their inventory at all times.
Fragile - Gunners usually have little to no Vitality, thus most have low HP. This becomes a problem mostly around demon mobs.
Weak Modifiers - Magic Bullet and Shot Type Gunners have some of the weakest damager modifiers in the game
Near Point-Blank Range - Rapids, though possessing high DPS Ability must close to almost point blank range before firing.

Expertise/Skills/Attributes

Attributes

• Speed - Increases damage with firearms. Reduces Cooldown and Incantation effect as secondary effect.

• Luck - Increases Critical hit rate and Critical hit defense.

• Magic - Raises max MP and damage for Magic Bullet.

• Intelligence - Only useful for Hybrid builds with Enhance.

Techniques

• Shot - Single shot skills.
  

Effects:
Increases Speed Attribute
Critical Boost (Class 2 Only)
Decreases Shot Incant Time
Increases Shot Damage

• Rapid - Multi-Shot Skills
  

Effects:
MP Boosts
Decreases Rapid Incant Time
Increases Rapid Damage

• Gun Knowledge - Passive Skills
  

Effects:
Reduces durability damage taken by guns
Increases Long-Range Stat
Decreases Shot Incant Time (Class 7 only)

Chain Expertise

• Sharpshooter - A Battle Expertise Skill for enhancing the damage that guns do against certain demon species.

Expertise Required
Class 2 Rank 0 Shot
Class 1 Rank 0 Gun Knowledge
Class 2 Rank 0 Demonology

• Magic Bullet - A Battle Expertise Skill for endowing gunshots with curse magic and elemental abilities.

Expertise Required
Class 2 Rank 0 Shot
Class 1 Rank 0 Gun Knowledge
Class 2 Rank 0 Curse Magic
Class 1 Rank 0 Magic Control

Builds

Attributes

Gunners deal damage primarily through the Speed attribute

Additional Points on MB Gunners:

MB gunners additionally require high Magic, as MB is calculated with 100% Lng-R + 50% Spell Stats.
Sometimes MB Gunners go Speed/Luck, though this build is comparatively rare and only really useful for MB/SS/Regal

Additional Pointers on Rapid Gunners:

Rapid Gunners Utilize Speed and Luck due to magic not modifying their damage, luck allows for more critical hits and higher damage potential to the rapid.

Additional Pointers on Pure Shot and Shot/SS Gunners

These Gunners also use a Speed/Luck build

Intelligence is relatively useless for most gunners, same with Vitality. Strength is especially useless.

Standard Expertise Builds

Shot/SS - Deals Damage with a +30% Racial Boost Due to SS Toggles
MB/SS - Deals Damage with a +30% Racial Boost Due to SS Toggles
Rapid/SS - Deals Damage with a +30% Racial Boost Due to SS Toggles

Hybrid Expertise Builds

Curse Of The Wretched Hybrid Builds

MB/CoTW - Hybrid Build focusing on Debuffs
MB/SS/CoTW - To be Added Later
Rapid/CoTW - To be Added Later

Enhance Hybrid Builds

MB/Enhance - Hybrid Build Focusing on Support
Rapid/Enhance - To be Added Later

Advanced Builds

Counter/Dodge/Rapid - Prototype build for Rapid Survivalist. Scrapped in favor of current one.
Rapid Survivalist - Advanced build centered around around survivability.
Rapid/Regal/MB - Advanced Build centered around High-Damage-Low-HP Point Blank Range attacks (Also Nicknamed Suicide Rapid)
MB/SS/Regal - Advanced Build centered around High-Damage-Low-HP Long Range Shots (Weaker than Rapid/Regal/MB, but more survivable)

Equipment Compatibility

Magic Bullet/Shot Type Gunner:
Damage Types Needed:

• +Affinity Boost
  
• +Shot Action Boost
  
• +General Boost, Long-Range
  

Rapid Type Gunner:
Damage Types Needed:

• +Affinity Boost
  
• +Rapid Action Boost
  
• General Boost, Long-Range
  
• Limit Break Damage Boost, Not Required, but can be helpful
  

Synthesis

Tarots
Due to the variety of gunner classes, specific tarots are difficult to find, however, this is a list of useful ones:
Cups Ranging from +1 SPD (I) to +5 SPD (V)
Zhen SPD +2, STR -1, MAG -1
Hresvelgr SPD +3, VIT -3
Emperor SPD +2, Shot Boost +3%, Luck -5

Soul Stones
Pa Bil Sag (Foot) +2 SPD +5% Shot/Rapid Damage if shot/rapid class is 4 or above. Level Requirement:30
Scorpion (Earrings) Penetration Res +10, Penetration-based skill effect +20%
Archer (Foot) Handgun Res +10, Handgun-Based Skill Effect +20%
Hresvelgr (Back) -10 MP Regen, +10 SPD, +5 INT, IF LAW and HP < 20%, Lng-R General Boost +50%

Magic Type (Mid Range)

Based primarily on MAGIC and INTELLIGENCE, the caster can fulfill many vital roles. The spells that can be cast are divided into three types:

Destructive Magic

Offensive magic such as Agi and Mazionga. Destructive magic can be immensely powerful when the correct element is used against demons weak against it, but can backfire if the demon is strong against it. Destructive magic is mostly SHOT property, and cannot be blocked or countered. However, if the enemy is using the DODGE stance, they will take no damage from the spell regardless of their weaknesses.

Support Magic

Helpful buff spells such as Tarukaja and Rakukaja. Enhances battle abilities significantly for you and your allies. Support spells can cancel out their Curse counterparts. Buffs are lost when their duration runs out or the character is defeated in battle.

Curse Magic

The exact opposite of Support magic, Curse magic such as Sukunda and Samakunda focus on crippling an enemy's status and making them easier to take down. Curse magic is most useful against more powerful enemies.

What are Mages/Magic Types?

A Mage/Magic Type is a character who uses magical abilities to cast destructive magic, heal and enhance others, or debuff opponents. Magic type characters are valuable assets in a party because of their ability to cast elemental and Almighty spells at their enemies. Casters are mid-ranged combatants. They don't need to be in close range to cast spells, however, if the target is too far away, the spell won't cast. To check to make sure your in range, make sure the target icon is green while your casting spells. If the icon is red you are too far away. Casting magic works the same as most other skills. You can click or press the skill key in the command bar to start spellcasting. You then click or press the skill key again to cast the spell.

Advantages of Mages

Mid-Distance Range - Although their range isn't as far as a gunner's, mages have a larger range than melees, allowing them to attack before an enemy hits them. Elemental Advantage - Destruction Magic allows the user to have the advantage of casting elemental magic. with these elemental skills, you can easily defeat an opponent by using their elemental weakness. With higher classes in Destruction Magic, almighty affinity spells like Megido become available. These spells completely bypass any elemental defenses.
Area of Effect (AoE) - Not only does Destruction Magic provide adept single target spells, but they also provide Area of Effect (AoE) as well.
Healing - One of the optional features of the Magic Type is that they have the ability to heal using skills such as Curative Magic. This makes them great for parties and can make the death count drop dramatically.
Debuffs - Casters are able to debuff enemies and cause several status effects to maximize damage done to opponents. Examples are Curse Magic and Curse of the Wretched.

Disadvantages of Casters

Mana Cost - Mages tend to use up their mana quickly and will need chakra heals like Chakra Candies to heal their Mana. Without mana heals you can use Ring of the Nibelungen or a Neuron COMP to increase MP Regeneration. Anti-Element Opponents - Casters only have 4 elements to use: Fire, Ice, Electric and Force. If an enemy nulls/reflects/has high defense on all elemental affinities, a caster cannot perform as well as before, however, Almighty can hit any target no matter what, which is a great advantage for higher level mages.
Low Health Amounts - Because most mages go for Magic and Intelligence statistics, they do not have as much health and physical defense as the other classes. With good armor though, this can be made up for.

Expertise/Skills

Techniques

Primary:
Destruction Magic - The primary expertise of a mage. This expertise will allow players to cast single target and Area of Effect(AoE) spells.

Secondary:
Support Magic - Include spells that buff you and your allies, making them stronger temporarily with shields and other related spells ; Also include passive skills that increase your Intelligence which improve your max MP and healing.
Curse Magic - These spells debuff your enemies by making their attributes and strength weaker ; Also include passive skills that increase your Magic for more damage.
Curative Magic - An expertise with Healing spells that can recover HP, remove status ailments and resurrect dead allies.

Knowledge

Magic Control - For controlling magical power in addition to various types of attacks; Lowered MP cost for all skills, shorter cast time for skills and better damage output on fire/ice/force/electric elemental skills.
Bless - Passive party-only buffs. While it's not as useful as other skills, it's a requirement for certain chain expertises.

Chain Expertise

Demolition Dash

A Chain Expertise for staging an assault while enveloping the caster in destructive magical energy. It increases damage and reduces incantation time with leveling. If used correctly, it will be deadly. It is a rush affinity with an element imbued to it.

• Requirements: Rush at Class 1-0, Destruction Magic at Class 1-0, Magic Control at Class 1-0.
• Expertise Gaining: 40% gain from Magic Control, 30% gain from Destruction Magic, and 30% gain from Rush
• Disadvantages: User easily dies when rushing into a counter. Also, if used without caution, nearby enemies can easily knock you out.
• Advantages: Very powerful attack with the potential to easily wipe out entire groups of enemies; Elemental advantages over specific enemies.
• Note: Demolition Dash's damage is based on 100% Spell + 50% Close-Range, not the other way around!

Curse of the Wretched

A Battle Expertise Skill for controlling curse magic over a wide area for indirect assistance in battle.

• Requirements: Destruction Magic at Class 1-0, Curse Magic at Class 2-0, Magic Control at Class 1-0, Bless at Class 1-0.
• Expertise Gaining: Gains expertise equal to 10% of your Destruction Magic level, 50% of your Curse Magic level, 20% of your Magic Control level, 20% of your Bless level.
• Disadvantages : Requires to use Bead Of Heaven (North/South) for some higher skills to be be usable. Eats a lot of MP and your expertise points.
• Advantages: Enemies will be frail enough for you to do a 9999 hit(if your equipments are good and if you have c3 CoTW minimum) if you do land the curses on the enemies. A very dangerous expertise in both PvP and PvE. Further, the first skill Erosion Hex allows nearly perfect crowd control in PvE scenarios

Enhancement

A Battle Expertise Skill for controlling recovery and support magic over a wide area to assist one's allies.

• Requirements: Curative Magic at Class 2-0, Support Magic at Class 2-0, Bless at Class 1-0.
• Expertise Gain: Gains expertise equal to 30% of your Curative Magic level, 40% of your Support Magic level, 30% of your Bless level.
• Disadvantages: Requires to use Bead Of Heaven (West/East) to use some of the enhancement spells, which can be expensive.
• Advantages: Very useful for both soloing and party runs, since these support spells will boost offence and defense of yourself and nearby allies and heal them.

Builds

Attributes

Magic - To increase the power of Destruction Magic.
Intelligence - To raise max MP (0.5 MP per Int point), and effectiveness of Curative Magic.

Style Types

For Offense - These types use primarily spells that damage the enemy's HP drastically - Destruction Magic, Counter, and Curse Magic are the main Expertise focuses.
For Support - These types primarily heal their allies, and give them buffs to make them stronger - Curative Magic , Support Magic and Bless are the main Expertise focuses.

Equipment Compatibility:

Weaponry

You want weapons that have high Spell and/or Support, depending on whether you are focusing on Destruction Magic or Curative Magic, or both.
Examples:
Kris Naga (Sword) - increases Spell +36 and Support +30, bonus effect of MP +3 - Can be found in Home III, Arcadia and Shinjuku Babel weapon shops
Kingo Rod - increases Spell +36 and Support +30, bonus effect of blunt attack skill power up 15% - found in Souhonzan, Home III and Shinjuku Babel weapon shop
Crystal Sword - increases Spell +37, cool time of skills are decreased. A rare drop in Shibuya Quartz dungeon.

Specializing

Demolition Dashers often pick a single element as a strength: Fire, Ice, Force, or Electric. Each elemental focus requires a different set of crystals for equipments. Mages who use Destruction Magic as their main form of attack will, at later levels also want to specialize on one specific element to do the highest possible damage.
Fire is most commonly used as the damage modifier is the highest among the 4 elements.
Force spell has the least incantation and cooldown time of all the elements, being valuable when you need to disable targets quickly. Electric, when compared to the others is only 2nd best/worst, e.g. it has the 2nd best stun timer, the 2nd highest mp cost, the 2nd worst damage modifier, etc....
Ice has the advantage of freezing targets, "stunning" them longer than the other elements. It also costs the least to cast AND has the longest range. Almighty is the strongest "element" due to it's high base damage and the fact that there are usually no resistences against this affinity. However, Megi-type spells cost much mp, consume Magnetite in addition in the case of Megidola and Megidolaon and have long to very long cooldowns.

Crafters

What is a crafter?

A crafter is a character that does not focus on fighting. A crafter focuses on the creation of weapons, divided into two types: guns and melee weapons. When trained properly, a crafter can become a great source of income.

Advantages of crafters

Easy Revenue: Creates weapons from raw materials, making high profits possible.
Strong Weapons: Has the ability to create weapons that are better than store-bought versions.

Disadvantages of crafters

Item Dependant: Requires a high rate of raw material consumption for weapon creation.
Non-Combat: A Crafter will have no combat skills unless they hybrid with another class.

Expertise/Skills

Knowledges

Blades - An Expertise Skill for the proper handling of all types of blades. Required for Chain Expertise Swordsmith.
Weapon Knowledge - An Expertise Skill for the knowledge of swords and other close-range equipment. Required for Chain Expertise Swordsmith.
Crafts - An Expertise Skill for the proper handling of complex structures. Required for Chain Expertise Arms Maker.
Gun Knowledge - An Expertise Skill for the proper handling of guns. Required for the Chain Expertise Arms Maker.

Chain Expertises

Swordsmith - A Production Expertise Skill for making close-range arms using acquired "recipes".
Arms Maker - A Production Expertise Skill for making guns using acquired "recipes".

  
Synthesizer

What is a Synthesizer?

A Synthesizer, often abbreviated simply as Synther, is a character who specializes in fusing demon crystals with weapons and equipment. Due to the powerful stat bonuses given by these fusions, Synthesizers are vital members of a community, but have no use in a party unless hybrided with another class.

Advantages of a Synthesizer

Synthesis - The whole point of this class, Synthesizers are capable of fusing Demon crystals and soul stones in to any compatible equipment
Strong Equipment - As long as a Synther can get their hands on decent fusion material, they can make powerful equipment out of even the cheapest equipment.
Crystallization - Provided they have the right gemstones, a synthesizer can create demon crystals for use in fusion out of any demon, even ones owned by other players.

Disadvantages of a Synthesizer

Item Dependant - Every Synthesis skill uses a rare material of some kind, be it Gems, Demon crystals, or Tarot cards.
Non-Combat - A Synther will have no combat skills whatsoever unless they hybrid with another class

Expertise/Skills

Knowledge

Occultism – Needed for the Synthesis Chain Expertise, Its only other purpose is to provide INT boosts
Demonology – Gives skills the increases the negotiation success rate for certain species of demons. Also boost experience of summoned demons of that same species. Used to rank up synthesis
Weapon Knowledge – Increases damage of Close range weapons. Used to rank up synthesis.
Mineralogy – Has no use other than to rank up synthesis

Chain Expertise

Synthesis – The core of this Class, Allows the user to Crystallize demons and do Tarot/Soul Stone fusions.

Builds

Synthers, although there are a few pure, almost always hybrid with some other class.
Pure Synther: A rare breed, Pure Synthers Max out every expertise related to synthesis in order to gain the best possible success rate in fusion. This, however, leaves them with no expertise points left, forcing them to rely on demons for anything involving combat.
Enhancing Synther: The most common Synther Hybrid. The Synther part of the Build benefits from the enhancers High INT, as it Increases the success rate of Fusions. The Enhance part of the build benefits from INT boosts that come with Occultism.