Ancient Protector is the all-rounder of Lord Nine: Infinite Class (LordNine) that refuses to choose between offense and defense — its class skill stacks both damage categories at once, and its milestone ladder keeps feeding Attack and Defense in the same breath. Its real identity, though, is as the Hunter alternative: the class you bring to high-level PvE when Hunter's famous 50-stack passive either can't get rolling or gets you killed.
Verified current as of the August 12, 2026 update. All skill text below matches the live in-game tooltips, cross-checked against the game data files.
How to Unlock Ancient Protector
Hidden classes in LordNine unlock automatically when you carry a specific combination of six abilities at the same time. The combo is arranged as three slots with two interchangeable options each — you need one ability from both columns of every row, active simultaneously on the same character. Order doesn't matter, and the abilities can come from any base class you've leveled.
| Slot | Option A | Option B |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Create Zone |  Deliberate Attack |
| 2 |  Overcome |  Fire Spirit |
| 3 |  Spell Infusion |  Wanderer |
Swapping any qualifying ability out of your active build reverts the class until the combo lines up again — plan swaps carefully. For every other combo in the game, see the complete hidden class combination reference.
The Class Skill: Stack Everything
Class Skill: Landing a Basic Attack has a 100% chance of increasing All Damage and Damage to Monster. Stacks up to 20 times.
Twenty stacks build off basic attacks alone — no kill requirement, no conditions — so the ramp is fast and survives target swaps. That distinction is the whole matchup against Hunter.
Ancient Protector vs Hunter: the Real Comparison
Hunter's stacking passive is stronger on paper — up to 50 stacks of bonus damage to monsters — but it stacks per kill, and the same passive also increases the damage Hunter takes from monsters as it stacks (that trade-off is right in the skill's own tooltip). Two situations follow from that:
- Hunter can maintain 50 stacks and survive comfortably → Hunter wins. Take Hunter.
- You can maintain stacks but the content hits too hard, or kills are too slow to build stacks at all → Ancient Protector wins. Its built-in tankiness eases potion burn and lets you lean on healing abilities and HP recovery instead of white-knuckling every pull.
It is not a direct Hunter replacement — it's the niche pick for exactly the content where Hunter can't help you.
Light of Protection at Ability Level 800
On paper it's a party-wide +15% All Damage and −15% Damage Received for 30 seconds — a raid cooldown bolted onto a solo farming class. In practice, almost nobody has chased Ancient Protector to ability level 800 yet, so there's no honest field report on how good it really is. Treat it as unproven upside rather than a reason to pick the class.
Build: Weapons, Stats, and Relics
Every weapon class can run Ancient Protector — the stacking skill rides on basic attacks that everyone has.
Relic priority: Origin of Destruction (Attack) first, then Barrier of Protection (Defense) and Magic Storm (Skill Damage) roughly equal, with Crystal of Life (HP) last. Plan the Temporal Piece budget with the relic calculator.
Ability Total Level Bonuses
| Ability Total Level | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 100 | Defense Power +50 |
| 200 | Movement Speed +8% |
| 300 | Attack Speed +8% |
| 400 | Attack Power +70 |
| 500 | Defense Power +75, Attack Power +100 |
| 600 | Increases the caster's Attack Power and Defense Power per 4% of HP lost. (Lost HP increases up to 80%) |
| 700 | Defense Power +100, Endurance +30 |
| 800 | Light of Protection — Increases All Damage of the caster and allies within a 10m radius by 15% for 30 sec, and reduces Damage Received by 15%. (Up to 10 targets) |
Your ability total level is the sum of every ability level on your build, so any ability you level walks you up the ladder. Milestones 100–500 come fairly quickly — the game hands out Expert and Maestro scrolls often. At 600 the wall starts: promoting an ability tag from level 90 to 100 takes a Master Scroll, crafted from 10 Maestro Scrolls, and you need six of them. 700 and 800 are long-haul goals if you rely on freebies and grinding alone — the 800 milestone effectively asks for four ability tags at level 140 and two at 120, where 100→120 costs one Master Scroll and 120→140 costs two more.
Verdict
A specialist despite the all-rounder stat sheet: the class you swap to for hard PvE where sustain matters more than peak damage. For general use, Destroyer still leads, and pure grinders should compare against Sword Master for elites or Harbinger of Storms for AoE.
Where Next?
- The complete hidden class combination reference — every slot for all eight classes
- Free LordNine tools — relic upgrade costs with live market prices, enhancement odds, MP sustain math, and homun probabilities
