How to Esma

[SomeFailure]

This trashy little guide I wrote up to enlighten people who may have never thought to try an Esma Soul Linker to give it a shot.  There is little, if any, organization to it and I apologize wholeheartedly for posting it.

Firstly, we should go over the skills an Esma user would most likely (and have to) have:

Estin
Prereqs: Level 1 Wizard Link, Level 1 Sage Link
At level 7, this skill deals 70% Matk on SMALL enemies only.  Medium and Large will only be dealt about 2 damage.  However, the enemy will be pushed back 2 cells, regardless of size.

Estun
Prereqs: Level 1 Wizard Link, Level 1 Sage Link
At level 7, this skill deals 35% Matk on Small or Medium enemies (larges get dealt, like, 2).  If the enemy is medium sized, there's a chance to stun the enemy as well.

Esma
Prereqs: Level 7 Estin, Level 7 Estun
At level ten, it fires ten hits of (40+BaseLV%) MAtk.  This means at level 60 you're doing the same as a mage using bolts, and by level 99, at 139% MAtk, you're doing MORE.  At a 2 second cast time, you can get several of these out pretty quickly.  However, you have to use Estin or Estun before you can even use this skill.

These are your primary damage skills.  All of them are affected by Warm Wind, and thus you essentially have 7 elemental bolts to work with, including Ghost! At a grand total of 26 skill points, you shouldn't expect a lot of links if you're going for Esma.  However, there are other skills you might be interested in taking instead of links.

Kaina
At level 7, this doubles the effectiveness of Enjoyable Rest (aka Happy Break) and gives +210 extra SP.  However, the most important part of this skill is the reduction to Estin/tun/ma it gives.  Assuming you have it at level 7 (you should):
Base Level above 70: Reduces cost by 21%
Base Level above 80: Reduces cost by 35%
Base Level above 90: Reduces cost by 49%
This is mind-blowingly useful, and lets you level/farm at places far longer than you would be able to before.

Kaahi
Every time you're hit, you'll lose some SP and heal some HP.  At level 7, this would mean 35 SP for 1400 HP.  An excellent lifesaver, but it doesn't make you invincible.  If you're getting hit, I would argue you should be getting out of there with a fly wing or something, though.

Kaizel
When you die, you instantly come back to life.  At level 7, you come back with 70% your max HP.  You lose all the buffs you would have lost if you were to die for real.  Upon resurrection, you have a short-lived Kyrie Eleison and enemies ignore you as if you just teleported in, giving you time to escape.  While a good choice if you're not going to get hit/would be one-shotted, you'll still lose 1% upon death, which is rage-inducing.

Eswoo
Makes enemies small (As in, physically small, not changing their Size type or anything).  They move very, very, slowly.  At level 7, they stay like this for 7 seconds.  Boss monsters only last for 1/5 of the time, or about 1.4 seconds.  This is a great skill for an esma bolter, as slower enemies means more time to Esma them before they beat the crap out of you.

Therefore, with all of this, I would recommend this skill build if you're going for a pure Esma user (No links):

Monk, Priest, Wizard, Sage spirits at level 1.
Kaina at level 7.
Estin/Stun at level 7.
Esma at level 10.
Eswoo at level 7.

You have 7 skill points left over.  You can put them into Kaizel, or get the Crusader spirit for level 6 Kaahi.  Or get both!  In addition, Warm Wind level 7 during your TK age would be recommended to the point where you'd probably be laughed at if you didn't get it.

As for stats, you'll want 90+ INT for obvious reasons.  This is a magical attack and is kind of heavy on SP to begin with.  From there, DEX is a logical step, and at 63 (+12 job bonus) Dex Esma will have a 1 second cast time.  99 INT/DEX can work just fine, but if you're interested in some VIT for survivability you'll have to make a sacrifice somewhere (I'd recommend losing a bit of DEX since your cast time is already fast enough as is.)

Equipment, well...

Headgears I would use anything slotted.  An Ayam is awesome but would be hard to get on more vanilla servers.  There's always the Apple of Archer, or a Wizard Hat.  For cards, the usual Int-boosting cards would do.  I'd say Isilla but Elder/Willow could be fine too.

Silk Robes are good Armor, with decent DEF and a good MDEF boost.  Slotted ones can be easily farmed from Creamies (possibly while you're after their card).

For Garments, a Muffler [1] from Sohees is an immediately obvious choice, but there's probably better/alternative choices that don't immediately spring to mind.  I recall one SL I ran into on a server using a Wing Staff with Eagle Wing garment for the movement boost.  If you actually have those gears available, there's something.  (Eagle Wings are a Thanatos drop!)

For Footgears, High Quality Sandals are my go-to choice.  +10 MDef and a slot.  Verit card is a good all-around choice.

For Accessories, unslotted Rings could give you an int boost.

In addition, you could use the Morpheus set if you're into that.  You'll get a lot of SP and INT out of it, and +25% casting time means all of about half a second assuming you have no DEX.

As for your weapon, if you don't have any shield worth using, a Soul Staff is a 2-handed staff with +5 INT.  The problem is it's a pain the behind to get, so you're probably more likely to use something generic.  A Survivor's Rod of either type would fit the job.  As a side note, Soul Linkers can use knives.  Get out that Dagger of Counter, reset to a melee build with Kaahi, and go play!

For shields, you really have 4 choices: Guard, Memory Book, Valk Shield, and Stone Buckler.  The Guard is, well, a guard.  Last resort in my opinion.  If for some unfathomable reason you have a Memory Book and got it socket enchanted, that right there is a solid int-boosting shield for you.  Valk Shield is self-explanatory.  Stone Buckler isn't great but I suppose if you're fighting large critters it's a choice.  Note that all of these have 3 DEF, so it's more their effects you'd be choosing.

Finally, let's get down to using Esma.  If you went along with my skill set, it's as easy as Eswoo -> Estin/tun -> Esma.  Keep Warm Wind of the right element up so you do as much damage as possible.  If you should be using Estin or Estun is a matter of situation.  Large enemies are probably better off getting Estin'd for the knockback effect.  Medium monsters can be Estuned for the stun chance if you prefer.  When I'm fighting in Ice Caves, I'd use Estin for Snowiers/Ice Titans and Estun Gazetis, for example.

Where can you go?  Well, anywhere bolters would go, and more.  Go play in Ice Caves!  Blast Stings apart!  In addition, since you have Eswoo, faster monsters aren't quite as much of a problem for you.  I found this made Kiel F1 to be a fun place to level and nab some slotted Rosaries.  Go one-shot some Raydrics if you're up for it with Holy Warm Wind, or go play with an Anubis.  At higher levels, perhaps try some simpler MVPs like Eddga, or join a party to take tougher ones out.  You are the best source for single-target magical DPS in the game.  Go forth and be it!

The rest of this thread can be devoted to how stupid/wrong I am, or general discussion on Esma linkers.