REMINDER:

For best results, use an empty server (or as empty as possible) and try to stay alone so people don't steal your kills AND YOU MUST USE POTIONS, OR HAVE A SMALL COORDINATED GROUP, TO GET THESE RESULTS.

These are some quick tests I did on free time. From what I saw, the DoomKnight boss respawns take too long for it to be worth.

BEST:

https://preview.redd.it/pzjtgcr621ah1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=ac0f149f4ab26d0299deccb3f566784a7edbc0f2

Eos Soulworm - 100k HP

7~8k gold per second without gold boost

Requires VERY FAST killing for it to be worth it (22+ kills per minute at least)

Used: Arcana Invoker

• Examen / Ravenous / Vainglory
• Unstable fate tonic / Unstable battle elixir / Felicitous philtre

King's Echo should also be able to reach these numbers (Chrono ShadowHunter will be harder, but can also do it).

Anything that reachs those numbers (22+ kills per minute) will make this place faster than lichwar (fastest gold in the game outside of member / ultras quests).

SECOND BEST:

https://preview.redd.it/k6adp1pc21ah1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=28faa88c0eca07ac1ef72fe9baf87b6a8e355a64

Reawakened Priestess - 25k HP

This place matches Lichwar, but is easier to farm (Lichwar is 30k HP)

Anything above B-Tier in this list (except Paladins and Undead Slayer) will do well and perform slightly better than Lichwar.

https://preview.redd.it/24d5ujxr329h1.png?width=563&format=png&auto=webp&s=52ed1c11d864aaf0c6ce5760b959986433225bc0

https://preview.redd.it/ezbjjh12x38h1.png?width=408&format=png&auto=webp&s=ba3c4889d28e0e16bfe9c61c63d7160ec5096980

IF YOU A RETURNING PLAYER

Open your book of Lore on the bottom right, then click Badges, then Achievements and scroll to the left until you find these badges:

• 3 years: 15% Reputation boost
• 7 years: 25% Reputation, Gold, Experience and Class Points boost
• 8 years: /nostalgiaquest access
• 9 years: Shadowfall Fortress house
• 10 years: HighSeas Commander class
• 11 years: 25% Damage boost weapons
• 15 years: IoDA (token to redeem almost any item in the game, read below about IoDA)

Guides:

Full guides list here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_3qEGa3EdMNdVH1eN2y-Zo9pi-7LIfTBP9_2h1cJFTk/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.9bqai53c106i

Performance with tweaked settings:

Nice to mention that Linux has significantly better performance, and CachyOS with default settings is hard to make things lag without doing something very stupid.

Things will always lag when there are multiple people on screen, but you can hide people when you feel like it (you can set a custom keybind for that).

Recommended to set custom keybinds for hiding players and hiding monsters. You can also hide/show monsters by clicking on the skull on the top left of the screen.

Performance on Linux (CachyOS)

Performance on Windows 10 (Debloated)

Whenever I tell people that it isn't worth it rushing KE, they get mad at me, so I tested out if KE is actually that much better than other classes.

King's Echo

35% - Lucky Spiral Carve, Examen, Vainglory, Lucky

51+30% - Valiance, Examen, Lament, Lucky

1. Doesn't get close to dying, unless you get hit to the face by two crits in a row right at the start (very unlikely);
2. Might have to use 2 shields sometimes, depending on dodge RNG.

Yami no Ronin

35% - Lucky Aweblast, Vim, Vainglory, Lucky

51+30% - Valiance, Vim, Vainglory, Lucky

1. Very high dodge (never gets hit);
2. Good damage;
3. Sustain in case you take damage somehow.

KE is 30% better than Yami, but being a 100% dodge class more than makes up for it. Also, Yami gets way better later on, when you get your hands on Valiance.

Compared to King's Echo, this class is considerably better, considering the dodge and that it is significantly easier to obtain.

Verus DoomKnight

35% - Lucky Spiral Carve, Vim, Vainglory, Lucky

51+30% - Valiance, Anima, Avarice, Lucky

1. Extremely tanky;
2. Great utility for groups, outside of solo play;
3. Can solo almost anything, if you have the patience to sit through it.

At the end of the day, it is still just a support, so the damage isn't exactly good. However, being extremely tanky and the best debuffing support in the game make the class extremely worth the time investment.

Maybe not farm this instead of KE, but farm it together with something else and have 2 classes in the time it would take to get 1.

Scion of Flames

51+30% - Valiance, Pneuma, Lament, Wizard

1. Great support;
2. Very resilient;
3. Doesn't deal much damage by itself, or without some potions.

It is a support, but it can also be a DPS. The issue with SoF (and other damage over time classes) is that it is extremely dependent on Potent Honor Potion to deal any significant amount of damage.

Outside of that, the class is incredibly easy to get, after you get done with the storyline. Killing the boss with someone can take just one hour or two, depending on your speed. Definitely worth it.

Dragonslayer General

30% - Lucky Spiral Carve, Vim, Penitence, Lucky

51+30% - Valiance, Anima, Penitence, Lucky

1. Extremely strong against Dragons;
2. Ridiculously easy to get (and can solo the entire Chaos Saga with ease);
3. Scales very well into endgame, in case you don't have Chronos to kill Dragon enemies.

One of the first midgame classes you (should) get, and one of the best classes in the game (against Dragons). It can solo Desolich without even getting close to dying, and can also make some harder fights extremely trivial. The only downside is the below average damage against non-dragons.

Chaos Slayer

30% - Praxis, Vim, lament, Lucky

51+30% - Valiance, Vim, Lament, Lucky

1. Very strong;
2. Extremely strong against Chaos;
3. Best F2P class against Champion Drakath (Ultra Boss).

One of the best classes in the game (even against non-chaos, if you believe hard enough in your gambling abilities), and also one of the few early classes that stays good, and relevant, for the entirety of the game.

You will get this one just by doing the story, so there is 0 time investment into getting it.

Dragon of Time

35% - Wizard Aweblast, Pneuma, Vainglory, Wizard

51+30% - Valiance, Pneuma, Vainglory, Wizard

1. Great DPS in groups;
2. Basically immortal, unless enemy can one shot you;
3. Best class to solo Gaol Cell (unlocks Lich).

Another damage over time class suffering from lack of Potent Honor Potion.

As bad as it looks, I swear that if you use the potion, the class will become one of the strongest in the entire game. It's even crazier when combined with 1+ other Dragon of Time, since the debuffs can stack on top of each other.

Chaos Avenger

51+30% - Valiance, Anima, Avarice, Lucky

1. One of the tankiest classes in the game, if not the tankiest;
2. Really high damage;
3. Great utility for groups.

For a class that takes basically zero damage from mobs, it hits for way too much damage. The only downside of this class is that it stops getting stronger pretty quickly, since Valiance is currently the best enhancement for it.

However, Hole-y Cheese is extremely cheat (1000 per potion), and works better than Luck potions when solo. There are zero reasons to not get Chaos Avenger.

Void Highlord

51+30% - Valiance, Vim, Lament, Lucky

1. Very high damage;
2. Only dies if something one shots it;
3. Unlocks Ravenous.

One of the class you must get, if you intend to play King's Echo, since it unlocks Ravenous enhancement.

Besides that, VHL is also known as one of the best classes in the game, ever since it's release, and the powercreep isn't as big as people make it seem. In fact, it is one of the best classes, once you get your hands on Ravenous.

Hollowborn Vindicator

51+30% - Valiance, Pneuma, Penitence, Lucky

1. Tanky in a weird way;
2. Great debuffs;
3. Can solo almost everything in the game.

A major downside of this class is needing Dauntless to reach max power, so you are forced to wait 1 or more weeks for it.

However, it is probably the tankiest class in the game (that deals real damage, we do not count Blood Titan). The downside of being this tanky is that you sacrifice a lot of your damage for survivability, just like KE (their damages are always very comparable, tho).

Lich

51+30% - Valiance, Examen, Lament, Lucky

1. One of the best F2P DPS in the game (probably only behind Arcana Invoker);
2. KE, but without any build-up;
3. Has more utility than people think.

Surprisingly, Lich completely nullifies the dodge and critical chances of mobs (other than bosses with way higher chances), on top of increasing magical damage they take, so the class is really good in groups.

It is also relatively easy to get, although you need either Membership, or a Friday 13 portal to get it out of season. 4 weeks of dailies + doing the challenge boss on 2x reputation days will give you enough reputation to max out without needing to do the boring as hell grind.

Conclusion: KE = Bad?

Not really, but people have been rushing KE without thinking about other classes they have available, or other ways to get stronger.

While KE can deal 30% more damage than Yami no Ronin, or Dragonslayer General, why not spending some time doing a couple quests and unlocking a boosted item instead?

Awescended can be done at different levels, giving increasing rewards as you go (on top of later unlocking a lot of stuff), you can get Blinding Light of Destiny in 2-3 days nowadays (check AQW Hub guide), and it is very easy to get started on your first 51% weapons.

Apotheosis, Malgor's ShadowFlame Blade, Gramiel's Epoch, and even Necrotic Sword of Doom (I recommend doing only dailies and friendship, if you don't have membership for SDKA) can easily be obtained.

Dark Lord has been available for a while now, and it is the best mid~late game farming class in the game, taking barely 2 hours to get. There's also Unundead Goat in April, and Ultra OmniKnight (it's 2k ACs, tho) during Black Friday.

There's a lot more to the game than classes and levels, and prioritizing some of these things can help you a lot later. Like a lot of people here, I stopped playing for a few years, before coming back about 3-4 years ago, and I was completely lost. Guides? What's that?

When I came back, my first genius idea was to buy ArchPaladin and ShadowScythe General (which I immediately sold back because it was trash), then rush levels and go farming classes like an idiot, just to find out that Forge and empowered items existed and have to backtrack for months (to be fair, I play for about one or two hours), before catching back to something I could have done way before if I listened to some advice a couple players gave me.

Yes, King's Echo is very good, but maybe it's a stupid idea to put so much into a class. King's Echo is 30% better than Yami no Ronin, but Awescended is 40% better than nothing, and also unlocks a bunch more stuff.