Zhenning Guide

Introduction:
Zhenning is an event in which a squad works together to gain massive amounts of xp in a short amount of time. It is usually done by players within the 60-70 level range, but can be done at higher levels – however the xp reward usually isn’t as great. As a fact of life – archers and clerics will lose money zhenning, but if you are willing, the xp is nice.

You will need:
- A squad of 6 people consisting of: 2 archers, 2 clerics, and your choice of 2 others (preferably a barb or blademaster).
- Archers should bring about 40,000+ arrows.
- Archers and Clerics must have a GOLD MP charm.
- Depending on your level, it may also be handy to have some HP pots or a charm.
- A training scroll.
- An hour.

Chosing a Squad:
- Your level decides on what kind of squad you want to advertise for. You should set a range of 5 levels (60-65, 62-67, 65-70, etc.) so that everyone gets the maximum amount of xp possible. Remember, the closer to your level your squad is, the better HP you will earn.
- Make sure that the Archer has Barrage and a Gold MP charm.
- Make sure that the Cleric has BB and a Gold MP charm.
- This may seem like a no-brainer, but noone should be in PVP mode.

Chosing a Location:
The best (and really only practical) way to zhen is on pure physical mobs (that don’t have a super slow movement speed). The best locations for zhenning can be found on Night Scream where there are large groups of them. If you are zhenning in your 60’s, I would suggest setting up in the middle of the Chief Assassins.

Setting Up:
Setting up is probably the most dangerous part of zhenning. The best location is to be in the middle of the group of mobs and so therefore this is also the most dangerous location (especially on NS, where you can’t fly). If you are worried about your group not being able to keep you alive while setting up, try and ask if there is a high-level friend willing to outside guard you in the beginning.

Once you are all gathered in the location the archers and clerics pair off and duel with full chi. The cleric needs to let the archer get him down to about 15% without winning the duel. Once the cleric is down to that level, the archer should then cast barrage and be able to defeat the cleric before running out of MP (since charms don’t tick in duels). If this is not done successfully simply re-duel and use a no-weapon punch to get the cleric down a bit further in health without winning the duel. If done successfully the duel will end, but the archer will still be casting barrage on the cleric but dealing no damage to him/her. When the archer is set up, the cleric should then cast BB.

The other cleric/archer team should then do the same in a perpendicular fashion (so that the teams form a “+” sign with the barrages.

An important thing to keep in mind is that the clerics and archers should be grouped close enough so that incoming mobs are being hit with both barrages, and both BBs are helping to heal.

At this point, training scrolls should be activated.

Zhenning:
With the squad set up the barbs or blademasters (lures) should then start running around collecting the mobs and pulling them into the barrage trap and picking up the drops every now and then.

Archers and clerics will immediately steal agro, but the BB’s should keep everyone alive without a problem. HP pots might be helpful in this, but shouldn’t be necessary.

Basically continue this strategy for an hour (so yes if you are an archer or cleric you get to sit there staring at your screen). I wouldn’t recommend going AFK unless absolutely necessary since if for some reason someone dies you could possibly take agro and also die.

One thing that I’ve seen happen a lot is that there is a glitch where you may be watching the archer or cleric and suddenly it looks as though they have stopped barrageing/bb’ing. Be sure to ask (don’t just stop) if this is really the case because they may really still be doing it even though they look like they are standing there. Often times if you give it a minute they will be shown casting barrage again.

Enjoy zhenning and all the xp it brings!

under the choosing a squad portion, you put HP instead of XP.

good guide for first timers!

instead of 2 archers, you can also use any wizard with decent pdef and a high level dragon's flame. the benefit of having a wizard is that no duelling to exploit broken programming is necessary. just set up around the cleric and voila. as an added bonus, the wizard aoe is elemental, so zhenning on metal mobs will be faster. dragon's breath can also be kept up using sesames, negating the horrific cost of charms for that player.

it is probably easier to lure for a bm because of their abundance of large aoes, speed, and self heal. when luring, the lurer MUST do damage to the mobs every few seconds/metres or the mobs will reset. a barb has only 1 non-2spark aoe in tiger form which has a long cd and a small aoe even at level 10. if luring as a barb, it is a good idea to either get bramble cast on you by a helpful veno (do these exist?! jk :P) or to switch to human form when necessary to cast swell or slam. the annoying bit about slam is that it will knock mobs away so you can't run off too far to collect more mobs since your old mobs will have a greater distance to cover and may reset. a similar annoyance applies to surf impact, the tiger aoe, in that it slows foes. note: barb roar does NOT prevent aggro reset.

2 lurers is ideal. your party can cover more ground this way and, ideally, the 2 lurers will alternate bringing back small groups of mobs, thus resulting in a constant stream of mobs and reducing the threat to the party.

Hehe, I made the change.

Thanks so much for your input Blake!

Where are the Venos, Psychics and Assassins? :(