Jade Dynasty

Jade Dynasty Classes and Races

Human Classes:

• Jadeon – the Jadeon are honorable warriors that possess both martial ability and the power to wield magic.
• Skysong – the Skysong are arcane monks that focus on keeping peace, by healing and strengthening their allies and disabling their enemies.
• Lupin – the Lupin are the human assassins and they value love and despair. As any rogue-ish class, they focus on dealing huge burst damage, with critical strikes, debuffs, and fast attack speed. However, they can be taken down quickly if they’re not careful.
• Vim – the Vim value willpower, and they can be considered anti-paladins. They were a faction that used to be aligned with Good, but they have lost face with other such factions due to their brutality and disregard for life.
• Modo – the Modo value dark enlightenment and they are the necromancers of the human race. They are very versatile and they can transform into one of two forms: Modon or Demonic. Their Demonic form is used for close combat, where enemy spells are not much of an issue, while their Modon form is best-used against enemies at range.
• Incense Mage – the Incense Mages hail from the Incense Valley and they are Good-aligned, valuing justice. They are part-support, part-heavy DPS.

Athan Classes:

• Balo – the Balo are high-health barbarians who wield axes and focus on tanking enemy damage.
• Arden – descendants of fox spirits, the Arden are shape-shifting archers that use nature itself to attack their enemies. With each leveling tier, they get a new plant and a new beast that they can summon. Their attacks have the longest range in the game, but they lack in health and defense.
• Rayan – the Rayan are the Athan assassins. They specialize in stealth and shadow techniques, which allow them to summon clones of themselves that can be just as devastating as the original, using skills, combinations, and burst damage attacks.
• Celan – the Celan are the bards of Jade Dynasty. With an interesting chain-effect mechanic, they can buff, heal, and deal damage depending on the situation.
• Forta – purely melee DPS, the Forta specialize in getting close to their enemies and staying there while they dish out the damage.
• Voida – the Voida are masters of both light and darkness. The Voida powers up the light or dark, thus decreasing cooldowns and increasing the overall effect of specific spells.

Etherkin Classes:

• Psychea – small and childlike in appearance, the Psychea are summoners that focus on controlling the battlefield using traps and giant mechanical and celestial beasts.
• Kytos – the Kytos are the warriors of the Etherkin. They are four-legged, centaur-like cat men (and only men, since the class is gender-locked) and they specialize in plunging into combat, allowing allies to ride them to the front line.

Jade Dynasty Review

By Toan Layne

Jade Dynasty, aka Zhu Xian in China, is a 3D martial-arts-themed MMORPG both developed and published by Perfect World. It was released on May 21, 2009, and it has seen five major expansions since then. Regensis is the latest expansion.

Getting Started

Downloading and installing Jade Dynasty is a breeze. Using the Arc platform, players can gain access to about a dozen F2P games and can start downloading them right away. Arc’s interface is very user-friendly, being immediately familiar to anyone who uses Steam. Unlike Steam though, the only games available on ARC are games specifically published and developed by Perfect World.
Once you dive into Jade Dynasty, you’ll choose a server and start creating your character. There are three races and fourteen classes to choose from. The character customization options are not impressively varied, but they can satisfy most MMO players. You have about two dozen hair and face options. A great feature of the character creator is the armor set preview option, which allows you to view your character in three top tier armor sets for the selected class. The new race, the Etherkin, which was introduced with the Regenesis expansion, has two classes: the Psychea and the Kytos. The interesting thing is the look of this new race and these new classes, since Psychea are small and childlike in appearance, while the Kytos are what seems to be centaur-cat-men.
Jade Dynasty is set in the world of the famous Chinese novel Zhu Xian, which provides a rich medieval fantasy theme. Aesthetically, Jade Dynasty looks a lot like Perfect World and Forsaken World, two other titles from Arc Games. Leveling up is a pleasure, thanks in part to the questing system, which allows you to click on your objective in the quest tracker, and auto-travel to your destination. It seems like more and more free-to-play MMORPGs are adding this auto-travel system. It sort of gets rid of the exploration feeling, but does make things more convenient. The control scheme is the classic WASD with the option to point-and-click, if you’re a fan of eating while you game.

The Esper

Jade Dynasty comes with a built-in botting system based on the Esper item. The Esper can be used to make the player’s character automatically grind enemies for experience and items. But that’s not all; Espers also have stats and can actually provide bonus skills for players. They can also level up, and they change appearance as they do so. The pros of having this system in the game are pretty apparent. Besides allowing players to grind overnight, they also remove the need for bannable botting. Let's face it. Even if games disallow botting, some people are going to do it anyway. At least this evens the playing field. On the reverse-side, it does make the game feel a bit too easy. The Esper system makes it so more time is spent minimized / doing something else, than actually playing the game. Aren't MMORPGs supposed to be fun to play? Jade Dynasty isn't the only game I've played with a built-in-bot either. Godswar Online, Magic World Online, and Journey to the West International also have in-game botting.

Pets and Travel

Players can own pets and level them up as they progress throughout the game. Having a pet is a great extra source of damage and tanking. They can also change appearance as they level up, which adds flavor to the game. Fast traveling in Jade Dynasty is done through Skylords, Skyblades, mounts, and charms. Skylords teleport players between towns for a small fee while Skyblades allow players to fly themselves to a destination, but they are temporary and require energy items to use. Skyblades can also level up with use. Mounts can be both temporary and permanent, but can only be acquired with real cash in the game's marketplace. Some temporary mounts (2 hours for example) can be acquired through various quests. Jade Dynasty seems to be one of the only games where practically all mounts are cash-shop only, which is a bummer. Charms can also be bought in the cash-shop marketplace and they can teleport players to quest objectives or previously visited towns. Oddly, some quests are nearly impossible to finish without these portal charms, so free players may be disappointed.

Class Tiers and Late Game Leveling

Each class has five tiers, which are activated once players reach a certain level and complete a quest chain. Once a new tier has been reached, a new set of skills becomes available for players to invest in. Character tiers work differently for Humans though. Humans start as an Initiate class, and they only have access to tiers and classes once they reach Level 15. Athans and Etherkins start their tiers at Level 1.

You then have the late game leveling systems called Ascension, Affinity, and Chroma. Ascension allows players to reset their class to Level 15 and gain extra stats as they level up. The higher the level when a player chooses to Ascend, the greater the benefits. The moment a player chooses to Ascend will also determine what skills he or she gets out of the deal. Ascension also raises the level cap to 160, so it's a must-do later in the game. Affinity becomes available at Ascended Level 90 through a quest chain. There are three Affinities: the crusading Dagos, the meditative Fuwa, and the dark Felkin. With an Affinity, players get extra skills and access to a new zone where they can grind XP and items. Finally, the Chroma system is unlocked once players reach Ascended (Level 120) and they’ve picked an Affinity. Chroma levels can be gained by consuming Chroma Beads, which will give players access to new skills and stat bonuses. For each Affinity/class combination there are 20 Chroma skills, which adds a variety of end-game customization for each character.

The Marketplace, Treasure Chest, and Brocade Box

Jade Dynasty creates revenue through a cash shop called the Marketplace. While players have full access to the game without having to spend money, F2P players are at a disadvantage to paying players. The offers in the Marketplace is quite varied. Players can find almost everything including, but not limited to: buffs, pets, mounts, skyblades, potions, clothes and accessories, fireworks, gems, hairstyles, weapons, respecs, storage containers, and teleportation charms. The treasure chest is an item given to players when they create a new character. With the treasure chest, players receive shop items every five levels. The brocade box works as part of Jade Dynasty’s referral program. New players can input a code they receive from a level 60+ player and they will receive a brocade box. The brocade box is similar to the treasure chest, as it can be opened every five levels, and the level 60+ player receives bonus cash shop currency whenever the referred player’s character levels up. So one of the only ways for free-to-play users to keep up with paying ones is to refer friends to the game. My only big gripe with the cash shop is that all permanent mounts can only be obtained through the cash shop. Most games give basic mounts to everyone and sell the shiny looking ones in the cash shop.

Other Features

Other features worth mentioning include: PvP battlegrounds, clans, alliances, marriage, master apprentice relationships, crafting, end-game PvE dungeons and raiding content, and in-game events (fairs, fishing competitions, etc.). Since Jade Dynasty has been around since 2009, there's a lot of content for players to experience. Perfect World has added numerous major expansions to the game as well as countless smaller updates.

Final Verdict – Good

Jade Dynasty is a good game. There have been some bugs here and there, such as messed-up visuals effects, and things of that nature, but overall my gaming experience was great. From the looks of it, it is a full game with a lot of great features, a slick leveling up experience, and a ton of great classes. It’s definitely worth at least a try.

Jade Dynasty Screenshots

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Jade Dynasty Videos

Jade Dynasty Links

Jade Dynasty Official Website
Jade Dynasty Official Wiki (Database / Guides)
Jade Dynasty Wikipedia Page

Jade Dynasty System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP SP2 / 2000 / Vista / 7
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 2600+
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT / ATI Radeon HD 3850
RAM: 1 GB
Hard Disk Space: 8 GB

Recommended Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 7 / 8
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz / AMD Equivalent or better
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX / ATI Radeon 4850 or better
RAM: 4 GB or better
Hard Disk Space: 8 GB

Jade Dynasty Music & Soundtrack

Jade Dynasty Additional Information

Developer: Perfect World Entertainment

Game Engine(s): Angelica 3D

Closed Beta Date: May 21, 2009 - June 14, 2009

Foreign Publishers:

China: Beijing Perfect World
Europe: Perfect World Europe

Shutdown Date: June 5, 2018