MythicalHeroes

Mio’s Assassin Guide Epic6 pt2

Class Breakdown

So you chose strider—> assassin? Well at first you will enjoy the stat-boost from your job change but you will soon come to realise that you are still a somewhat squishy dd. Lots of people have preconceived ideas about the class (can’t tank, slow farmers, suck at pvp etc.) and it’s up to you to prove them wrong! Playing an assassin is a bit like playing the guitar- it’s commonplace to learn the basics, but to become very good takes skill, knowledge, and a determination to live up to your potential. Assassins focus primarily on doing lots of damage quickly and avoiding incoming damage by using their stun and blind skills and (to a degree) their naturally high evasion; at later levels you can try the max. agility build but keep some vitality stones handy in case you change your mind.

Assassins are a dual-wield (dw) class; we expand on the sword and dirk passives from our strider days but can revert to a 1h sword and shield because in some situations this can be a lifesaver (dungeon running for example). There are several features to remember about being dw; these affect your p.atk, atk speed and the bonus given by some buffs and pet unities. If you equip one 1h sword, your atk speed is 95, if you equip a second 1h sword, it drops to 85 (if you have not maxxed your dw passive, it will be less than this). If you have any external buffs which increase your primary or secondary stats, the buff is at full effect on the main hand only; the off-hand gets 64%. The same applies to pet unities, like an orc or skeleton, the main hand receives more benefit than the off-hand. Finally, this carries over to the p.atk bonus from a weapons’ enchant and level – if you have 2 weapons with the same + and lvl, the weap in your main hand will give more p.atk than the one in your off-hand, which is why you will often see sins (and other dw classes) with a higher-enchanted weap in their right hand than their left. This is most important when using skills, as your skill dmg is calculated from your main hand only.

Pro’s:
Consistent dd’er, not as reliant on mana as most other classes
Can lose threat/aggro quickly whilst maintaining high dps (damage per second)
Can pull mobs from a squishy with correct skill use
Can initiate surprise buttsecks
4th fastest character in the game (1st is Shadowhunter, 2nd and 3rd equal are the huna variants)

Cons’:
Lacks the defense and hp of other melee classes
Evasion works best on same or lower-lvl mobs/chars
Not the fastest farmer because it’s melee
Uses more lak, cubes (and epro’s) than some other classes because of maintaining/ upgrading a dual-wield build.

Swords vs Daggers.

Occasionally there is a discussion on the decision to use swords or daggers. It basically boils down to:

Swords have slightly higher p.atk and do more dmg with skills, but are slower than daggers so do less dmg over time (fewer crits per minute, for example) with basic attacks. Daggers are faster and so do more dps when buffed and using sin impact, but do less damage with skills- this is especially noticeable in PvP.
In a dp it’s the assassins’ job to maximise their dmg output whilst not getting aggro from the tank, and trying to keep a disabling or high DD skill handy in case a mob wanders over to the healer. When farming, it’s all about the killspeed and I personally find that I farm slower when sin impact is on cd (when I’m using swords).
So my own conclusion is that swords and daggers offer benefits in different situations; as a result I would recommend getting both swords and daggers so that you have flexibility. I’m aware that this becomes expensive if you want pimped gears at r4+, but this is where it’s probably worth it to invest in your character.

Skills Utility

1st Class Skills

Smite: Starter skill attack, used to do less dmg than a normal basic attack but since it was beefed-up it seems to do a little over a basic atk. It’s really only used because it’s spammable when other skills have a longer cooldown. It only has 3 lvls so u might as well max it for the few jp it takes. There is also a little trick to using smite (and charge stab) to do a quick attack which circumvents the skill cd animation: when you close with the mob/player, hit smite followed by a basic attack/atk with pet as quickly as possible; within ½ a second hopefully. What should happen is that you execute smite then your basic attack cuts into the cd animation from smite- it’s important to hit smite first because your atk animation will be interrupted by the casting of smite, which then slows down your dd’ing.

Dark Strike: A 3-hit atk which does reasonable dmg; I recommend getting/making a +2 or better card for this skill. It’s semi-spammable but suffers from the same thing all multiple-hit skills do; each hit has its’ dmg modified by the p.def of the mob/player and so does less overall dmg than if it was a 1-hit skill. This is a pre-requisite skill to open your skill tree more, but feel free to max it whenever you want- there’s no rush, as it uses quite a bit of mp if your sub-r5.

Charge Stab: Another almost-spammable skill, it does decent dmg since it was recently beefed-up and is easy on mana, you can use it instead of smite for the smite-trick but apart from that it’s nothing special. Card it at your leisure.

Concentration: A self-buff which boosts phys. accuracy; I’m not sure how important this skill is in the grand scheme of things, but it’s better than not having it. The reason I say this is because having higher acc lets you hit higher-lvl mobs/players, but opponents 15 lvls or higher benefit from lvl-based evasion. Perhaps it’s best used against similar-lvl enemies which have high agility.

Quick Pace: A ‘sin staple, max and get a nice card ( +2 at least) for this skill as you will virtually always have it on. It adds 15 move speed at max lvl and has a longer duration than cooldown- each + card saves a bit of mana and adds 1 move speed.
Oblivion: For a start, don’t bother getting a high card for this skill because it just reduces mp, and Oblivion is not hard on the mana. This is our default threat-reducing skill so max it as soon as you can and always use it in dp’s unless you are the tank. Obviously, you won’t be using this for farming as you should be the tank, not your pet (unless you’re a wimp with a High-Lvl Pet :0 ) .

Assassin Impact: Another ‘sin staple, max it and get as high a card for this as soon as you can- AI/ sin impact is our signature skill and you should have it active whenever you can. This is a major source of our dd capacity as it gives the chance of an extra hit with basic attacks, and so will benefit most from any buffs you have (including Hidden Village buffs). With crit% earrings, a luck ring and a str ring (refer to the equips section) the chance of a succession of crits (don’t forget the 3-crit rule) is more than likely. As I loathe the feeling that I’m carpet-beating when using swords, I switch to daggers and revel in the numbers flying up the screen, especially when a huna casts Support of Gust. The drawback is that you will sometimes take aggro from the tank, so be ready with a quick Deep Evasion or Distort and pop a hp grocery to help keep you alive.

Bloody Blade: The only skill we have which leeches HP from the target, it’s a bit crap unless your lucky and crit, and the cd is a disappointing 1 ½ mins. Even so, you’ll need lvl6 to unlock the skill tree and it’s handy in a pinch (20% of the dmg dealt is restored to hp). As the hp restored is dependent on dmg, getting a +2 or better card and using swords (or even a 2h sword) will generate the most HP and damage.

Deep Evasion: Usage of this skill (in my experience) decreases as you level-up. I seemed to use it a lot from r2-r4, but only occasionally as r5- a combination of better hp items, equipment and class-knowledge means I only use it when I overpull (farming) or if I get aggro in a dp. Having said that, evasion in e6 pt2 is much better than it was in e4 when I started but there is one issue: no-one knows just how efficient at reducing incoming dmg evasion is supposed to be. Unlike say Godly Protection or Essence of Steel, there is no indication of how many dodges you’re supposed to make in a given time period, or how it varies with mob-level.

Sleeping Dust: Some ppl say “Don’t waste your time on this skill, it rarely works and is only good for pvp if you’re desperate.” which is quite wrong in my opinion. Sleep is a very useful CC skill if your blind and stuns are on cd, and if you use a crossbow, it’s casting range is increased. I use this a lot in dp’s if I see non-cc’d mobs or one heading for the healer; the worst part is its’ longish cast time and it’s not 100% success. I recommend getting a +2 card and using whatever lvl you feel comfortable with- this is where equipping a single wisd stone in your build can help it to land. Note: it is an attack skill so your character will attack the (hopefully sleeping) mob unless you move away. The card saves mp and slightly increases the sleep duration but doesn’t have a major effect.

Headbreaker: This causes damage and can give a 15-sec fear effect to the target if it lands (note: wisdom is helpful here). Feared targets cannot perform any actions but to run around in a random direction. In previous epics this was pretty much a pvp skill, as fearing mobs in a dp was a faux-pas and there was no point to fearing a mob whilst farming (unless you have a bad respawn or overpull). Given that most dp’s are still melee, it’s only real use is to fear an add but bear in mind that fear has an aggro modifier and the mob will probably come for you once the fear has worn off. In pvp, once your opponent is feared you can either use a xbow and strider x-bow skills or Sudden Rush + Deadly Dancing (or another high-dd skill) to save you looking stupid chasing your prey. The card only saves mp and adds a bit of dmg, card it at your leisure.

Evasion Passive: It doesn’t cost much to max and it’s permanent, lvl it early on as the extra evasion can make a difference in how much dmg you take- it’s one of those “might not do much but better to have than not have” skills (a bit like +1 blessing of strength :0).

Weapon Mastery: This passive takes a lot of jp if you try to max it too early; I suggest getting it to lvl11 to unlock the skill tree and adding a level or two occasionally as you progress through r3 and r4. While it’s always nice to do more dmg for the same mp using existing skills, a lot of ppl prefer to have access to a new skill, even if it’s at lvl1.

Dual-Wield: Essential passive, max it as soon as you can because it has a knock-on effect with sin impact. This skill increases atk speed and accuracy.

Armour Mastery: Sins are squishy; this helps you to be less so. Even though each level has a minor effect, it’s better to have more defence than not, as you’ll take less dmg should you decide to go with a full agility build, for example.

2nd Class Skills

Cloak of Shadow: Invisibility, instant-cast, longer duration than cooldown, FTW? Not really. This is another signature assassin skill, this was the business before epic5, when it received a severe nerf. In epics 2-4, cloak of shadow allowed you to stay invisible indefinitely; only a DoT, walking over a trap (taking damage and thereby uncloaking yourself) or the archer skill Vision of Prey were able to counteract your invisibility. Since the introduction of epic5, a LOT of mobs have been able to see and uncloak you thus reducing the potential use of the skill to pretty much pvp and the occasional use in a dp if you have lightning-quick reflexes. Although you become invisible, your move speed is drastically reduced; higher levels of the skill (and card) allow you to move a little faster. Sins’ have a few cloak-only skills which have either high damage or high damage with a stun or DoT and they are fun to use in a dp if u can get them off before a mob uncloaks you. Carding this skill is handy for the move speed bonus, if nothing else :)

Shadow Stab: Basic cloak-skill; must be cloaked to use and does decent damage. Card it at your leisure (tho the cards add nice damage) as they are cheap. Keep at lvl1 if you like; you’ll probably be using the other cloak-skills more often though you will end maxxing it, like all your other skills.

Shadow Crash: Second cloak-skill, this one does decent damage with a short stun, handy enough to throw a Deadly Dancing or Apocalypse before you Blind/fear in pvp (or if you have timed it right) cloak again. Increasing the level adds more damage. Increasing the card adds both damage and a little stun duration, while saving some mp.

Shadow Wound: Third cloak-skill, this one does a lot of dmg, reduces enemy acc and adds a DoT- perfect to use against other sins in pvp to stop them cloaking. I recommend getting a +3 card for this as (at r5) it can do 15K and more dmg (when buffed) against dungeon mobs if it crits, which is pretty good if you’re using daggers :)

Crimson Turbulence: Final cloak-skill, it may be a little disappointing for a final skill in the damage dept but it has a nice stun- handy against mages in your pvp chain. Again, carding this skill is advised- it reduces mp if nothing else, though the extra dmg is welcome too.

Sudden Rush: Great skill for chasing down a fleeing enemy in sieges/pvp or running to your farming spot/ from an overpull. It adds 50% to your move speed, so with Rapid dura gear, quick pace and a wind pot you virtually take off across the screen! However, it has a long (5 min) cd and only lasts a few seconds- again, getting a +2/+3 card for it is highly recommended.

Shadow Rush: Despite its’ name this isn’t a cloak-skill- this nifty skill lets you dash to your opponent and stun them so you must use it from a distance. It’s great for farming when you have no mobs near you and it prevents you taking dmg if the stun lands- win-win! I recommend getting a +2 or better card as it can be a drain on the old mana if you’re using it on every cd. You can use it whilst cloaked but it will uncloak you- try to time it so you can re-cloak straightaway and unleash a cloak-skill.

Distortion of Rage: Probably one of the least-used sin skills, this is an AoE which (hopefully) sets all the threat you have generated to zero, allowing the tank to grab it back. It’s not a guaranteed success (75% at max lvl) so I suggest getting a +2 card at least for it- each card adds 2% chance of success. As you might surmise, it’s a dp-only skill as you’ll only use it whilst farming if your surrounded by mobs and desperate, though you can try it out if you’re participating in a guild Time-Attack as a runner.

Sonic Blade: Similar damage to sonic cross but nowhere near as useful because it has one annoying drawback: you must be using one sword or dagger, it can’t be used whilst dual-wielding. Add to this the fact that it’s ranged and you might be tempted to use it, but the unequip-re-equip hassle is seen as more trouble than it’s worth as it just does dmg.

Sonic Cross: I spam this skill relentlessly while farming and it’s recommended to keep it (or shadow rush or a blind) handy in a dp to stun an add going for a squishy. It’s ranged, it does decent damage, it stuns (most of the time) and u can use it whilst dw :) I highly recommend getting a +2 or better card for it simply to save mp and do more dmg- if you’re trying to save a squishy remember it will generate additional threat if it stuns…

Apocalypse: Great skill, one of two sin AoE’s - high dmg but high mp cost prohibit you from using it at every cd. With nicely-pimped swords and dd build (str/crit% rings, orc/hawk/kenta on belt or summoned) this can slaughter several mobs in a second. It does 9 hits to all targets in range; I pop deep evasion, pull a bunch of mobs and let rip. I highly recommend going for +3 card on this skill, again for the extra damage and mp saving. It’s not as useful in a dp unless you have 1 or 2 mobs near death and a third is chipped/spawns nearby, where it should finish off the nearly-dead mobs for faster KS.

Blinding Dust: Another skill I use when farming, this one has more limited use in a dp. Blinded targets cannot use basic attacks but may still cast skills, so it’s useful to reduce incoming dmg to the tank (saving healers’ mp to allow them to DD a bit more) or to cast on an add going for a squishy to hopefully draw attn to the mob and save the squishy.

Fatal Wave: I was also a bit disappointed with the dmg on this skill, as it is an end-tree skill. However it is AoE and you can use it whist dw’ing. Again a relatively high mp cost means u either don’t use it much or aim for a +2/+3 card for it. It has no other effects apart from dmg in a cone-shape in front of you.

Cross Block: This skill is ‘working as intended’ according to[GM]’s but in fact it doesn’t work at all as it seems that characters need to equip a shield in order to obtain a block. I’ve tried everything and I never saw a guard/block perfect without a shield (yes I have a gnoll and used +block def. dura gears- there were no blocks or guards while dual-wielding).

Equips, Rings and Stone Builds

Let’s review stone builds first.

The most common (by far) stone build is 50% str/vit in all equips. However, I would suggest you leave out one vit stone to be replaced by a wisdom stone. The reason for this is to increase the frequency of our crowd-control skills working, namely our sleep, blind, stuns and fear- if the skill fails you have wasted time and mana for nothing, apart from the stuns which do dmg before they stun. This build maxes one of your primary stats (strength) and makes-up for another (vitality).

Edit (credit to Richnox):
However, fear and stuns aren't affected by wisdom, only the blind and sleep are. Your fear and stun skills have a specific chance to land, which is probably also affected by level difference between you and the target. After extensive testing in E5 en E6 I've found that on same level targets
- head breaker lands its fear 80% - 90% of the time,
- shadow rush lands its stun 80% - 90% of the time,
- shadow crash lands its stun 80% - 90% of the time,
- crimson turbulence lands its stun 60% - 70% of the time,
- sonic cross lands its stun 60% - 70% of the time.

Another build which is less popular is 50% str/agi, which maxes two of your primary stats. The problem here is that agility works best on mobs/players which are around your level or lower; once you start hitting orange and red mobs, the dodges given by agility are much fewer in number- this is most noticeable when farming. The other downside to swapping vit for agi is the reduction in both p.def and hp; the argument goes that if you dodge then you lose no hp, but if you don’t dodge you get hit harder because you have low p.def and hp. The general opinion is that one must use full agility or none at all; one or two stones are not enough to compensate for losing hp and p.def from vitality. E7 update: 10 points of agi now add 1 atk speed, so if you decide to go full agi you will also see a little boost in attack speed, tho this may not be really noticeable until r4/r5.

There are four other stones which can increase your dmg output- atk speed, p.atk, crit % and crit power. MP Recovery stones do not increase your damage directly, however they might allow you to throw about a few more skills while your mp pots and groceries are on cooldown. E7 update: 1 point of wisd now adds 4 points of mp recovery, so adding a wisdom stone or two would probably be better than simple mp recovery stones.

At the minute, the p.atk stones offer less total dmg than str stones, but you can socket both types to maximise your p.atk. This means that you will do quite a lot more dmg, but you have only your base p.def and hp when you get hit. This is probably as glass-cannon as assassins’ get, which might make for interesting farming and dp experiences :) E7 update: at r5 the rare/dungeon str stones give +12 str and the p.atk stones give +25 p.atk, however 1 point of str= 2.8 points of p.atk….

Atk speed stones are currently nerfed, as rappelz rounds-down fractions. The result is that (for example) a r5 atk speed stone which gives +1.9 atk speed really only gives +1. Most people do not bother with these stones. It has been announced on the Rappelz forums that this will be corrected in a future patch (epic 7).
The same nerf applies to +crit % stones; anything but a whole number is rounded down, which means you need to be r6 or higher to get any use from them at all. Again, this should be fixed in e7.

Finally, +crit power stones may be worth a look-in, as sins’ have a naturally high atk speed. They also are rounded-down to the nearest whole number so you will need a few to see much benefit. Bear in mind though that a str+crit power build is also a glass cannon, and most likely an aggro-magnet in dp’s with sin impact running.

Now it’s down to rings and earrings. As sins’ are naturally a fast-attacking class, there are three ways to further increase your damage; increasing str/p.atk, crit ratio and crit power.

Increasing p.atk by equipping non-dura strength rings has a pleasant addition: you gain hp also, about 1500 at r5 for two rings. As our weapons have the lowest p.atk in the game (as their primary stat) increasing p.atk allows sins’ to have a consistent increase in dps.

The base crit% depends on your luck stat (it’s 3% basic + 1% for every 5 points of luck) and while 13% crit % might seem low you will effectively have 26% crit ratio because of dw- throw in AI and that rises to (just over) 36% depending on what + AI card you have. As a critical hit does 1.8x normal damage you can see why increasing crit% has a noticeable effect in your dps. There is a drawback though; luck rings increase mp not hp, so you lose out on (at r5) about 1500 hp, however the extra mp means you can use more skills. There is another benefit to increasing your crit%- the 3-crit rule. It works thusly; if you land a critical hit there is an increased chance the next hit will also be critical, and if the second hit is critical there is a higher chance the 3rd hit will be critical. If the 3rd hit is also critical the 4th will be a normal hit, as it resets after 3 crits in a row. However the 4th hit can be critical (as it is still a normal hit and has the same chance to crit like any other normal hit) and the process can start over as every attack has a chance to crit. The most I have observed is 9 crits in a row.

The third option is to use crit power earrings. Crit power earrings are not used as much as crit % because they rely on having a high critical chance; in other words, there is no benefit unless you get a critical hit. The other drawback is that it only adds a little to your total crit power, so instead of doing x1.8 dmg for a critcal hit you do x1.84 at r5- not a big difference.

There are two more ways to increase your p.atk- enchanting and lvl-ing up your weapons. Some people are happy with basic lvl enchants (namely +3) others go for the glow and aim for +5, and some try to max out their enchant for as much as they can afford. The reason is simple: more dmg done means mobs die faster and you take less damage (farming) and if you’re in a dp, that will increase killspeed. Remember that if you’re enchanting swords it’s better to have your main higher than the off-hand; with daggers this is less of an issue, as you’ll most likely be using them for sin impact. The reason for this is that skill damage is calculated from the p.atk of your main (right) hand.

OverBreeding

Many new players are unaware of character overbreeding and jump straight to sin at lvl50 jlvl40. Overbreeding involves getting job level 50 before you change class. If you decide to OB your character, you gain an extra +4 or +5 to your stats, apart from luck which is +2; basically your char gets 27 points distributed among the 6 primary stats. This equates to wearing an extra set of lvl40 rare soulstones which is not a huge bonus but it does maximise your character.
The downside is that 1st lvl OB costs 1.15 million jp, and that you will still be a
strider when others have some new skills and the stat-boost from job-changing. Most people complete OB by around lvl60, depending if they had red-name farmed or not.

Red-name farming is where you gain lots of immorality either by repeatedly pk’ing newb chars or a newb pet on a friends’ char. When you have a red name, anyone can attack you when you leave town and you get greatly reduced exp from killing mobs, but you get the same amount of jp as killing them normally. Red name farming allows you to farm the same lvl mobs for longer and to OB faster, as you will hit jlvl 50 sooner (or rather, you level up slower).

The other factor is that you only get one chance to OB, unless you use a Scroll of Rebirth, and that by mid r5, you will have jp gathering dust which could have gone into OB’ing. It’s entirely your decision whether to OB or not, though it does appeal to the perfectionist in us :)

Pets

Basic (Tier2)

Blue Pixie: A good starter pet as it can keep you alive if you get in too deep when farming, get too much aggro or have a slow/laggy healer in a dp. Its’ dps is minimal if it has a staff equipped, but it’s healing is less if you give it a mace. Be aware that if the BP gets healing aggro from you then it will probably die, so be ready with the recall button unless you can either regain aggro or cc/kill the mob/s before the BP dies. The BP does have a useful mp recovery unity which lets you spam a few more skills.

Red Pixie: Unless you want to use the more expensive luna chips while farming and always trying to keep the RP from dying, this is a poor choice as its’ only function is to DD. In a DP it’s slightly different however as it adds to KS a lot, though its’ unity (m.atk)doesn’t help you at all.

Skeleton: At first it doesn’t look like a bad pet for a sin but outside of a DP it doesn’t shine. Its’ blind and atk-speed reduce debuff are handy, but unbuffed it’s a lacklustre pet for farming, better off on your belt. In a DP situation however, with full buffs it’s an awesome DD, especially over lvl 90 when it gets the dirk passive for crit ratio. At this point, many people re-spec their skells to a passive build, which is basically no atk skills, max P.atk/def., OB str, item expert, dirk weap passive, hunter armour passive, unity and usually a few levels in accuracy (not OB dex) and maybe lvl5 or max HP and HP regen, as it will probably get hit in dp’s. I also gave my passive skell lvl1 blind, which is nice in DP’s as a short CC.

Orc: Probably the most commonly used t2 pet, its’ unity and skills are a good match for the strider/sin. A good pet for farming with (if you have a belted lvl90 skell so much the better) it’s not bad in DP’s either, though its’ slow attack speed with a 2h axe can mean it doesn’t get to hit often with basic attacks. Its’ one-hit+ debuff is handy to use on bosses, dungeon mobs and champ mobs as it reduces the targets’ p. atk and p.def, allowing you to do more dmg. Its’ unity is for p.atk and p.def which means it generally out-dd’s other melee t2 pets when unbuffed.

Yeti: Perhaps an odd choice for a sin, as you are supposed to be tanking, not your pet. The Yetis’ skills all have a threat modifier, and while it doesn’t DD as much as an orc, it can gain aggro easily through the threat generated by its skills. As such, yeti’s make excellent HLP for lowbie alts, but it would be unusual to see on a same lvl character. There is a ‘sin build however which uses a yeti to excellent effect: using haste and str stones with hunter armour, str and crit% rings and p.atk + crit% earrings. At lvl10, the yetis’ unity can bridge the gap in p.def between hunter and warrior armour, which means you can farm faster due to the increased move speed from hunter armour.

Wolf: I haven’t used a wolf on my sin much because my wolves are much lower-lvl than my sin, and so contribute nothing to DD at all. Saying that, they are not bad DD’s and their unity (evasion) is helpful at reducing incoming physical dmg. Their 1-hit+ debuff applies an acc debuff, which complements their unity and the sins’ evasion quite well. However, they do not do as much dmg as a same-lvl orc or skell because they have less str and their unity is not offensive- they look pretty though :p. E7 update: the unity was changed to p.atk and evasion, +63 p.atk and +15.1 evasion at lvl5 unity.

Octopus: If you can tolerate the ugliness, octo’s are great pets for assassins. While their unity is a cross between an orc and a bp (p.atk and mp recovery) they do nothing defensively to help your sin. Octo’s are support pets; they won’t put out the big numbers of an orc or the crits of a skell, but they allow you to do more dmg and use skills for longer and have some unique skills. The most-used by far is the targettable leech-life buff, which is 4 minute duration and 10 min cd (same cd as sin impact…) and has a relatively high chance to take some of the dmg caused by basic atks as HP, so basically you’re healing yourself through DD’ing :) The downside to the leech buff is that the target cannot use their own HP regen while the buff is in effect. Another nifty skill is Blood Curse, which takes some of the Octo’s HP and poisons the target- it applies a decent DoT and stops HP regen for its’ duration. Octo’s are however squishy (their passive is for m.def and summoner armour) and their belt stats aren’t worth getting for a sin (10% int and 10% m.atk at lvls 40 and 90 respectively).

Siren: An odd choice as a farming pet, she might grab initial aggro ‘cos all her attacks are ranged so add some p.def/HP in the form of warrior armour/vit stones. Her skills and unity centre around accuracy; namely increasing your own and decreasing the enemys’. The acc debuff skill has a longer duration than its’ cd, so it’s permament (tho mana-heavy when spammed at max lvl) and her 1-hit skill is a move speed debuff with a DoT. Instead of a 3-hit skill at lvl 90 she gains a p.def + m.def debuff with a DoT. Her actual damage output is not significant as she is a support pet. In my opinion, best used on belt to farm higher-lvl mobs or for more wisd during pvp (mages) and sieges, can be used in DP’s if no-one else has one summoned but I don’t know how useful her debuffs are because I don’t dp with a summoned siren  Her belt skills are for dex/wisd and acc/m.acc (not terribly helpful to a Sin). E7 update: the unity was nerfed/changed to m.atk and m.acc, so now worthless to sins as a summoned pet, unless you really need her debuff skills.

Special Basic (Tier3)

Hawkman: Basically a straightforward upgrade from the Orc, its’ stats, skills and unity are all higher for the same mp. Also, at evo2 and more so evo3 it’s HUGE! Once your char can acquire a hawk, it seems to be the most-favoured t3 pet because it’s a good DD and can tank somewhat with the right build.

Salamander: Like the skell, it’s a pure DD pet and mostly underrated because it’s not a tank. Two of its’ skills apply a DoT as well as initial dmg which add a lot to it’s dmg output (it is a better DD than a hawk). You only benefit from ½ its’ unity (which is p.atk and m.atk) though its’ still an excellent pet for DP’ing, not so much for farming. Belt-stats are fot str/int and p.atk/m.atk; take them or not ^^

Harpy: Poor choice for farming (ranged, high DD) but useful for DP’ing as long as you wait a second or two before attacking with it (otherwise harpy gets aggro, needs healing etc). Perhaps best on your belt once it hits 90 (+12% atk speed). Its’ arguably a better DD than a hawk as it uses a bow/xbow. It has the same 2-hit, 1-hit + debuff (move speed debuff here) and 3-hit as all other DD pets. Its’ unity is for atk speed, and is a little higher than the skells’.

Unicorn: T3 version of the blue pixie, its’ first learned skill is an 8-sec cd heal, which is pretty good with a decent staff equipped. However, players also benefit a lot from its’ 10-sec blind skill, which (especially from a farming perspective) is an excellent CC for reducing incoming damage. It also learns a move speed buff which isn’t great but better than nothing (it costs 2 jp per lvl though; each lvl gives 1 move speed). The piece-de-resistance is of course the mounting ability, which is learned upon evo3 (hopefully lvl115) and allows you to ride the unicorn for a move speed of 280. The belt skills are for agility and evasion, and it gets a targettable buff (vital blessing) which imparts some HP when struck but doesn’t seem to be as reliable as the octo buff in restoring HP, although they are stackable. Its’ unity is Max MP which isn’t ideal for a sin, but at lvl10 it’s 940 mp which allows you to spam more skills- don’t forget that more mp means more mp regenerated every minute.

Nightmare: Yet another DD pet, a lot of players are put-off by its’ dirk weapon passive (at lvl90) because the dirk is the lowest p.atk melee weapon in the game. However, the NM has a lot going for it; beingT3 it has good stats, notably dexterity (which means it doesn’t miss as much as a hawk or sally) its’ first learned active skill is dmg+DoT bleed (so the target cannot regenerate HP). It gets a dash-stun and a toggle for increasing its’ critical power or the chance of stunning the target using basic attacks. Hunter armour and dirk passive may seem to make it weak but in fact they translate to a fast-moving, fast attacking pet with a high crit% and those crits hurt! Its unity is for max HP (meh, maybe) and belt stats are dexterity and acc (also meh) but its’ lvl90 skill is a 6-hit instead of the normal 3-hit. Like the unicorn, it’s mountable at evo3.

Rare (Tier4)

Angel: An odd choice; sin’s won’t maximise the angels’ strengths and the angel has little to offer the sin. It’s unity is for +m.atk and p.def, it has 2 dd skills and 1 heal, but the dd skills use m.atk and have long cooldowns. I’ve tried it once and for normal mobs it didn’t work so well, as it does nothing offensively (apart from the debuff, if it lands). I suspect you might find a niche use for it for farming champ mobs, but I’ve found that the octo leech buff lets you do that as well. I guess you could use in a dp, but it’s probably worse than showing up with a bp ^^.

Kentauros: Ahh, now we’re talking! What’s not to like about the kenta? It’s a great DD, has a nice –p.atk debuff as part of it’s 1-hit skill, it has good p.def and hp and its unity makes you do more damage. Should you be lucky/rich enough to have one your lvl and a lvl90 kent, you can belt the 90 kent for +14% str and +14% p.atk. There is a slight downside though, and it’s because the kent does nothing for you defensively- it’s just your armour, hp and evasion keeping you alive :) If your kent ends-up tanking for you, it either has pimped equips, is much higher lvl, or you need to ++ your own equips :0

Gnoll: A downgraded kent (on a sin anyway) as you only benefit from the p.atk part of its’ unity. Sins have a passive skill called Cross-Block which is supposed to allow us to block when dual-wielding, but it doesn’t work at all, even with block def. stones/equips and gnoll unity- the only way for a character to block an attack is to equip a shield. Also, it’s less of a DD’er than the kent, with only two main attack skills under r7 (3 if you include stunning strike, which is melee, not much dmg and low chance to stun).It has a nice targettable buff which reflects incoming damage, but that’s why sins have evasion. It’s a good tank pet, but then again your pet should not be tanking, you should!

Naga: Ummm, no thanks! (see red pixie).

Special Rare (Tier5)

I should mention here that I have none of the following pets, so I can only make comments based on published data.

Genie: Some say it’s an upgraded hawk, but it’s more than that as its’ skills and stats allow it to do truly amazing damage. It is simply a DD pet, but it has the highest p.atk among all pets currently in the game and excellent vit/p.def to go along with that. It gets a chance to implant a wind seed with its’ attacks and it has a skill which explodes implanted seeds for a guaranteed critical- this has been known to 1-hit kill characters in pvp. It’s unity is for + p.atk and p.def and its’ belt stats are for str/vit and p.atk/p.def but you may not have enough jp for those…

Ifrit: T5 version of the BP, but much better as you might expect. It has a spammable skill which does great dmg and a nifty Heal-overTime which amplifies the effects of all other healing spells cast on the same target. It also has the chance to implant a wind seed, and the skill to explode it BUT!!! a genie can explode an ifrits’ wind seed and vice-versa. It’s not a tank at all however, and its’ unity is for m.atk and m.def which are pretty useless for a sin.

Cerberus: The salamander among t5 pets, it was great when it was first released, but since the introduction of the genie and ifrit it has plummeted in value. Shame really, cos it’s still a great DD pet. It gains the +16% stat bonus for equipment due to its’ tier and has a unity which increases p.atk and acc. Following the cookie-cutter build, its’ belt-stats increase str and dex, and p.atk and acc, it has the usual 2-hit, 1-hit + debuff (p.atk and acc here) and 3-hit skills.

Unique (Tier 6)

White Dragon: Thanks but no thanks, see RP.

Mystic Koala: Hmm, I’ve heard both good and bad things about Koala on a sin- the unity is handy, it has good stats but a poor skillset to use them, and its appearance is questionably ‘cute’. Unlike the WD, anyone can get a koala if they want, it just takes time and patience. It is a tanking pet, but only for single mobs or chains (dungeon bosses, champ mobs) though like the orc/hawk/genie its’ skills have no aggro modifiers.

E7 update: Death Tyrant- will add info when i remember, but it seems the ideal melee counterpart to the wd.

Life begins after Job-Change

The newby lvls (r3-r4)

Those 10 levels from 50-59 are probably the worst in most cases. While you have received a stat boost from your job change (or are persevering with overbreeding) you are still using those lvl40 stones despite being r3. You discover that you’re squishy still and that you have to get certain lvls of some skills to open your skill tree more. In many ways you’ll play much like your strider until early/mid 60-ish when you get a few more skills to use. In your previous dp’s you’ll probably have had 2 healers and one or more HLP (high-level pets) to aid your killspeed or tank, or both.

As you progress through r3, you’ll see that your dp’s generally need only one healer from about lvl70 onwards (depending on the healer, ofc). The reason I mention this now is because although your primary function in a dp is damage-dealing, if a healer gets aggro assassins have 2 ranged stuns, 1 blind, 1 sleep and 2 cloaked-stuns. The aim is not necessarily to try to take aggro from the healer (because heals have a massive +200% threat modifier) but to disable the mob and draw the pt’s attention to it- the healer is probably shouting “Add” already ^^. If you do want to grab aggro, the best way is to use a disabling skill followed by a spike-dmg skill, like deadly dancing; all disabling skills have a threat modifier (meaning they do more threat than just the dmg caused) and you’re adding to that threat even more by doing a lot of dmg in a short space of time. If it works, congratulations you now have aggro! Time to hit deep evasion and pop a hp grocery to keep you ticking over, otherwise the healer may just get aggro again from healing you :)

When you hit lvl70 you’ll probably finish-off the witch quest, catapulting you into mid r4 and Palmir Plateau (PP). In PP, dp’s are generally easier because most of the rooms consist of 3 mobs, unless you go to a controller (con) room. In a 3-mob, KS is king- the faster you kill the mob the faster they respawn; a mob should be down in 2 chips or under and you should aim to always have 1 mob up for chipping. These rooms generally have 2 linked mobs and 1unlinked, so it’s easy for the tank to get aggro on the linked mobs whilst the 3rd is either dead or CC’d. However, this is where the HLP-dependent ppl become obvious and problematic, as they simply don’t know how to play their class to its’ potential. Tanks are reluctant to take aggro, healers are slow off the mark, hunas and dm’s just DD and (if you’re lucky) rebuff, there is no CC (crowd control) and often not even a chipper. If you find yourself in a dp like this, it’s best to politely pm the people who are not doing their job and ask them, or make your excuses,/pleave and farm with the buffs you have just received.

R5
If you made it to R5, I shud say gz! but it’s not the achievement it used to be due to the witch quest. However, r5 is where sins start to shine (all asura classes are late bloomers) as pimped equips, nice + cards and decent pets (hawk/nm by now hopefully) mean that farming is much less of a chore than it used to be and PVP/DPing is more fun as your dmg output scales nicely with better stones and higher dmg per + of your weaps. However, you’ll soon notice the reduction in the number of equipment and pet-card drops from r4. At the same time, late r4 and into r5 is where a lot of chars make their money mostly due to the r5 equip and t3 pet cards, esp duka entrance and upper CV (90 and higher mobs drop t2/t3 pet cards and 96+ mobs drop r5 equips). Recently though the t3 pet-market has taken a dive, and where e-harpies and hawks used to be around 65-75 mill, they are now 45-55 mill. E7 Update: good luck trying to sell an e-t3 pet for more than 50 mill, seems they have taken another hit with the introduction of durability pets (beyond the scope of this guide).

Early/Mid R5 is also when you get the chance to complete your Overbreeding, as once you have maxxed your skill levels there is nothing else to spend your job-points on. So, with all your skills and stats maxxed, now is a great opportunity to play around with pets and builds.

Hawk as main and belted skell/hawk/orc/harpy/kent(o.O) is such a traditional and mainstream build, I encourage you to experiment a little. Two farming/dp builds I’m running at the minute are:

1)octo main, belted skell, war armour (str/vit in all equips) with crit% earring and forceful & rapid luck rings

2) yeti main, hunter armour (str/haste stones) belted orc/skell same bling as above

3)If you get lucky/merchant/are rich you could invest in a kenta or genie which are both great on a sin, but despite the witch quest and tame-protect mirrors, they are still uncommon pets.

Sins can use rp’s and harpies as main pets in a dp, but time their skills carefully so as not to draw aggro; sallies are a more viable choice in a dp due to increased m.atk from buffs and luna chips- when farming the m.atk component of salamanders is neglected.

R6+
Easy! I don’t know cos I’m not r6 ^^

Mana-Management:

In a DP, no-one should have full mana unless they have popped a mp grocery and pot; everyones’ mp should be dropping (some let it go to almost zero, others ½ or ¾ empty) and rising again- full mp means the char is just tab+f1’ing (or less!) and doing much less dmg than they could (which means less exp for all). If you see anyone with full mp for more than a minute don’t hesitate to say in pt chat or general- “Use mana/skills pls”. If they claim their resilient (dura) build means their mp recovery is very high, remind them that any dd skill they use will increase KS and that maybe they can use higher-lvl skills. The reverse is also a sign of a bad player (unless they are tanking which is usually mana-intensive) because if you have no mana then you can’t use any skills and just do basic damage. Some people will take umbrage if you draw attention to their full mana bar and proceed to dump it all asap; this is a very stupid and childish thing to do as most of their skills will be on cooldown and all they can do is tab+f1 until they regen some mp, rendering them pretty much useless (unless they are a ‘sin or SH whose basic dmg with ‘impact is usually good enough, though SH can maximise Drain Arrow to quickly get a lot of mp back).
E7 update: now that Wisd adds mp recovery I have found that all of my characters have consistently high mana, so now seems an ideal time to raise skill levels and embarrass nooby tanks ^^ For example, my SB with 30% int./vit/str with mace has 278 Hp recovery but 770 Mp recovery-remember that SB’s have naturally high Int and Wisd.

Roles in a DP

I thought I’d stick this in here as your role can change somewhat depending on the DP make-up.

Normal: You’re a DD and an off-tank for adds which go to the healer (or another squishy). It is the tanks’ job to grab and hold aggro for the dp, but if they lag or d/c (disconnect) sometimes the sin is the next most-valid tank. Note that you should only disable or aggro the mob to get it off the squishy and hold its’ aggro until the tank can take it off you. Whilst sins can tank, our damage reduction and threat generation are nothing compared to an experienced tank. Use skills freely and take enough mp pots/scrolls and groceries to last the dp (normally an hour) which is about 25 of each for me. If you find yourself unwillingly getting aggro, use Distort, deep evasion, Cloak and stop attacking; even using blind and sleep in this situation will generate more aggro to you. If you are dd-built, chances are you won’t have vit/evasion rings on and will distract the healer from healing the main tank. I shouldn’t have to say it, but always wait a second or two for the tank to establish aggro; don’t just mindlessly attack the chipped mob.

Puller: You run around looking for mobs to pull and bring back to the DP and help kill them. Simple? Not really. If you find yourself in a con room in PP (as an example) you need to be aware of the 2 chains of linked mobs, the boss spawn time and above all, the KS (Kill Speed). There is virtually no benefit to having the tank surrounded by mobs as he’s just getting beaten on (losing soulpower and durability from his equips) and stressing the healer, who cannot DD much as they are spamming heal/rapid heal and resto. It’s also very easy to atk the wrong mob and get aggro yourself, diverting the tank and healers’ attention and slowing KS as a result. Remember that the DP can generally only kill one mob at a time so be on noob alert if this happens in your DP, as it is a symptom of HLP pt’s- the only bonus is that mobs are on-hand to chip, but they will spawn in different parts of the room when they die which then takes time to find and chip them. It is most efficient for the DP to have 2 mobs nearby- one to kill and the other to CC. When the second mob is at ¾-2/3 health, start looking for the unlinked mob or the other chained mob/s and bring them to the pt. If only one mob of a chain is available, pull it anyway, start dd’ing and watch for the other- pull it also and it will go to the tank when it reaches the dp. Note that you should always have quick pace, oblivion and a wind pot running, and getting your pet to attack the mob the dp is on to help KS. Cheapskate tip: chips generate aggro when thrown, but you can use any rank of chip to pull, so use r1force or soul chips! The alternative is to switch to a x-bow and shoot a mob, but the need to constantly change equips puts most people off this method.

Tank: This is where it gets nerve-rending, as sin tanks are fickle and edgy beasts. Let me start by saying that assassins are not intended to tank in this game; they do not have spammable skills with aggro modifiers, high HP or high p.def. If you are intentionally tanking, I strongly suggest you remove distortion of rage and oblivion from your skills bar- you have likely spent most of your time DD’ing and tanking requires a different way of thinking than dd’ing. The aim is to take and hold the mobs’ attention over all the other dp members, and we do this by sheer damage and using our +threat skills (sleep, blind and stuns). You will likely be spamming deep evasion every cd, and I suggest you have an orc/hawk/yeti out (helpful unity and defence debuff with 1-hit skill) and belt a skell, wolf, unicorn or harpy (you’re looking for atk speed and/or evasion here). At the cost of slightly nerfing your damage, use 1 agi and 1 vit ring, or 2 of each depending if mobs are similar level or higher (agi if similar lvl) as you want to survive the hits. The basic process is to chip and atk a mob, see if others come with it and use a skill on each of those when they’re in range. Ideally you’re looking for the mob at the top of the aggro-chain, so any threat you do to it will be passed to all mobs in the chain. Mana-management is essential, so bring lots of pots, scrolls and groceries- don’t be shy in asking others to scroll you as well, as you will be using pretty much all of your skills apart from the cloak ones, as cloaking usually resets your threat to zero. One of the key things is not to use all your skills on one mob, as if someone gets an add, you need to have something ready to get aggro on it (this is where chipping it and using apocalypse when it reaches you are handy, as you generate a lot of threat on the add and still dd the other mobs).

Edit (credit to Richnox):
Cloak doesn't drop aggro. It does nothing to aggro at all. And yes, every single mob can see through your cloak skill. Red named mobs will attack you and white ones won't, just like normal. However, when you're cloaked mobs can see you from around 10% - 15% of their normal aggro range. Experiment a little bit by running up to mobs until they detect you. Try to get a good feel for it, so that you know when it's safe to cloak.

Farming styles.

There are two main farming styles, and I guess most sins combine them out of boredom more than anything else ^^.

The first is single-pull, the second is mass-pull. Needless to say, the first is the most straightforward, common and some argue efficient method, presenting the least amount of damage to the sin. This is offset by having to run/shadow-rush to the mob (or chip it first) find the next, repeat etc.

Mass-pulling involves you gathering a bunch of mobs, chipping as many as you can and popping apocalypse, backing up a little and using fatal wave. If they aren’t all dead you’ll need to finish off the stragglers. The downsides to this method are that you take a lot more damage in a short time-span and have to find another nearby spot or wait for the mobs to respawn, and your skills to cooldown, during which you’ll be single-pulling as above.

Most sins prefer to use AI and skills, as simply tab+f1’ing is soporific, but farming provides the pots and scrolls which keep you going for longer, and help in dp’s which mostly drop comparatively few pots and scrolls.

PvP

Let me start by saying I don’t have a wealth of pvp experience so I’m just presenting some guidelines. Remember that generally the difference between pk and pvp is that you can chip and use pots/scrolls/groceries/pieces in pk, but not pvp.

Against classes which have instant-stuns/blind/resist status effects your best option is to cloak just before the duel and move away from the spot where you cloaked. The idea is to try to get the first stun, and if you are uncloaked and sonic wave fails you have to hope that their stun will fail too or that you can shadow-rush them instead . Hunas’ have recklessness of lightning, which resists all status effects, so if you see it cloak until it’s about to expire then launch into your attack.

As you know, when cloaked you cannot be seen or targeted, but any AoE spell or skill will uncloak you if you are within range of it’s damage radius. Needless to say, don’t use cloak at the start of a fight against archers ^^ and be aware of the trigger radius of traps- you can attack and not get hit by the trap.
If you see any damage-reducing buffs (godly protection, recklessness of earth, divine shield etc) sleep them or cloak until they wear off. You can try to fear them but your damage will be nerfed for the duration of their buff so I don’t think it’s a good use of your fear or time.

Ok, so you got the first stun (which should either be sonic wave, shadow rush or crimson turbulence) now what? This is where having a range of equips comes in handy; several sin skills can use a 2h sword for more dmg and we still have a crossbow skill-tree from our strider days. So while they are stunned from crimson turbulence (preferably, as it frees up cloak and has the longest stun) use 2h sword and use the smite/charge stab-trick then dark strike-switch to 1h swords- followed by sonic wave (if u haven’t used it to open with) and charge stab/smite trick, then head breaker. The idea here is to hit them hard while stunned from turbulence and just as it’s about to wear-off, stun again with sonic wave; if you started with sonic wave, either cloak now and use turbulence or use blinding dust but remember that they can still use skills/spells when blinded. If they are feared from headbreaker, quickly fire-off deadly dancing then sudden rush and apocalypse (don’t forget it has a short range) or switch to crossbow and use all the xbow skills (pref critical shot first, for the bleed then cursed arrow for the DoT). If you decide to switch to xbow, don’t forget drain arrow to get some mana back from basic attacks after you have used the skills and they are still feared.

So the fear is almost done, a nice combo here is (with xbow) sleeping dust then cloak and sit, yes sit! If they’re asleep any dmg they take will wake them, so u might as well take advantage of the time to sit and regen some mana- you don’t have to cloak if you don’t want to but it means you can use a nice cloak-skill (like shadow crash) to start the stun+dmg again.^^ If sleeping dust fails, cloak, move away a bit and sit down to regen some mp- keep an eye out for traps or AoE’s, as you might have to move out of their radius. By now (if all has gone according to plan) they shouldn’t have much HP left at all, so switch to 1h swords, approach them with the last few seconds of cloak and pop a shadow crash, dark strike and- if you have any mana left^^- deadly dancing (if it’s ready) re-cloak and throw a shadow wound, deep evasion, charge- stab trick and take down their remaining hp with basic attacks while deep evasion lasts. If they are still not dead, sonic wave (should have cooled-down by now) and apocalypse (if u have the mana) or blind and bloody blade.

Against mage-classes/mage-built pet-classes aim for a straight str+vit/wisd set-up, though only rings and belt pet might not be enough. Against hunter classes, evasion is pretty much redundant so str/vit (maybe a little wisd) is probably the best option. Against other warrior classes, agility may be a go-er if maxxed, otherwise str/vit is a standard build (though you could experiment with crit-power and agi). Needless to say, you should use magic-resistance+ crit% earrings in all cases, as the +36 p.atk at r5 isn’t worth it in pvp.

Classes which present a particular challenge: bish (less so priest) and the hunas’ have good cc and dd skills, plus healing ability, SB/BS with an Angel/BP/Uni or Evoker with Kenta/BP/Uni as they can just heal away all your dmg and outlast your mana pool, knights with high block% can completely nullify your damage thereby running you out of mana.

And that’s pretty much it. I’m sure there are a few tips and tricks from more experienced sins but i just felt the urge to write a guide!