Lawliet's Assassin Guide (IMG:http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4079/guild1ck6.png) Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Thief -> Assassin III. Rebirth and Beyond IV. Leveling Spots V. Builds VI. Armor VII. Weaponry VIII. PVP and WoE IX. Your Skills X. Conclusion XI. Credits Introduction I wrote this guide to help other SurgeRO-ers play Assassins better. I hope you enjoy reading this guide, and learn something from it. Thief -> Assassin Okay, this is the first step. From Novice, to Thief, to Assassin; these are your steps to becoming an Assassin Cross; whence you can participate in WoE and PVP! Now let's look at how you should do this most efficiently. Leveling path: prt_fild08 -> pay_dun00 -> orcsdun01/pay_dun01 -> ama_dun02 -> lhz_dun01 Start out at prt_fild08 when you first begin; job change to Thief after one or two kills. After that, proceed to pay_dun00, and kill a Skeleton. You then have a lot of skill points to use: put your first ones in Increase Dodge and Double Attack! After that, kill some Zombies and Poporings, and get to job level 40. You don't need all your skills since you will reborn. Go back to Prontera and job change to Assassin. Go back to pay_dun00 for Sonic Blow. After you have Sonic Blow and a type of katar, go to orcsdun01 or pay_dun01 and start blasting away. When you get to about level 70, go to ama_dun02 and start killing. You will get to 80s pretty quickly. After that, go to lhz_dun01, kill Removers! You'll get to 99, and now you can reborn. Rebirth and Beyond After your rebirth, follow the same route of leveling again. However, after you become Thief, make sure to get all your skills this time! (Job level should be 52). When you do, now you can become Assassin Cross! As an Assassin Cross, use your former methods of Sonic Blow to kill a lot of people. Make sure to get Sonic Blow, Katar Mastery, and Advanced Katar Mastery first. I recommend using a Jamadhar for leveling purposes. After gettting to 99, continue leveling to break the 99 level barrier and go to 100! You should continue leveling in lhz_dun01 for awhile. It should serve you well until you get to the 110s and 120s. Leveling Spots Finally completed, the Leveling Spots section! Be sure to check back if you need to know where to level as an Assassin. prt_fild08 [1 ~ 2X] - The most common leveling place for Novices, of any job. Just kill a Poring, (or I prefer, Lunatic) and you'll be good enough for first class. Not much to explain here. Except my fondness for Lunatics again, because they take you all the way up to the 20s. x.o;; prt_fild01 [1 ~ 2X] - Another place for beginner leveling, if you really need one. This is Lunatic haven, and it also contains Fabres (great EXP) and Thief Bugs as well. Except for the fact you probably can't kill a Thief Bug at level 1, but that's besides the point. prt_sewb1/2 [2X ~ 5X] - Tarous and Thief Bugs! Tarous are especially good experience during these levels and highly recommended. Near the entrance portal of prt_sewb2 is usually a lot of Spores, Familiars, and Tarous, so use that spot to your benefit. Great leveling place for 20s through 50s, even to 60. pay_dun00 [2X ~ 5X]- As said above, another excellent leveling place for these levels. At lower levels, stick to Skeletons and Familiars, then move on to Zombies and Poporings only. Strangely enough (and it doesn't look like it), Poporings are the hardest monsters here; they give the most EXP. However, they aren't aggressive so you should be fine even at level 20s. orcsdun01 [4X ~ 7X] - If you get bored of the Payon Caves, try taking a detour into Orc Dungeon. This place is filled mostly with Orc Zombies (renowned in official RO because of their Emperium drop), Orc Skeletons, and Drainliars (with Steel Chonchons, but they aren't much to kill). Drainliars give great EXP and aren't very hard to kill, except it's a pain to kill one without being mobbed. Just kill whatever you find. Mobs of Orc Zombies may kill you at lower levels, so use @jump well. pay_dun01 [5X ~ 7X] - Yep, you're back at the Payon Cavern. This time, there are Skeletons, but much more brutal ones. Archer Skeleton and Soldier Skeletons both give similar amounts of EXP, and a decent bit of it. The Eggyra here aren't recommended to kill, since they are resistant to melee and don't give much EXP. Drainliars are here also, and still give good EXP (it means they are recommended to kill). xmas_dun01/02 [5X ~ 8X] - Great place, not many people train here so it's not very populated. Cookies in general give nice EXP, and Cruisers (in xmas_dun02) aren't bad either. Myst Cases are harder than Cookies but give good EXP. If you are going to be in xmas_dun02, watch out for Stormy Knight (even though most MVPers kill him the nanosecond that he spawns). ama_dun02 [7X ~ 10X] - Nice map for these levels, especially in the lower levels. In the 70s, Antique Firelock probably grabs you a level per kill, and 60% later on. Poison Toads are better when the Firelocks start to get below 60% per kill. Don't try killing the Shinobi, just @jump when he comes near. Same goes for the Paper, you probably can't kill that yet. Stick to Toads and Firelocks. And don't kill the Miyabi Dolls either. For their high HP, they don't give much EXP. lhz_dun01 [9X ~ 12X] - Best leveling place from level 90. Removers give excellent EXP for these levels and Sonic Blow should kill them in 5 hits or less. Try not to kill the First Class monsters (the mobs that are transparent and look like first class characters). They give you lots of trouble and little EXP for that trouble. Anopheles get annoying, so try your best to ignore them. When you have a mob of 3 - 4 Removers, gather them in a line, Hide, and use Grimtooth. alde_dun02 [9X ~ 12X] - Another optional leveling map. Kill High Orcs in this map for the most EXP (they give bountiful amounts of EXP!) Overall, it's a very nice map with High Orcs being the major spawn. (Hint: It's good to use PVP weapons such as Hydras and Turtles, since Orcs are Demi-Human. Also, there are 40 High Orcs in the map at any given time.) in_sphinx4 [9X ~ 13X] - A recommended map. Pasanas are easy reapings for nice bits of EXP, and Minorous gives lots of EXP (they can be brought down easily with Sonic Blow). Marduks aren't that difficult either as long as you keep an eye on them. All three of the major monsters give good experience. Try to ignore the Mimics or just warp away (@jump). tur_dun02 [9X ~ 13X] - The second floor of Turtle Dungeon. This place has three of the turtles: Perimeter, Freezer, and Solider. They are your main targets here. You can just brush away the Pests at this point, but keep your eye trained on the turtles. They are the ones that give good experience! juperos01 [11X ~ 15X] - Venatu heaven! These little robots give the same experience no matter what color they are (I'm not sure if you even noticed the difference). Be careful not to get overwhelmed by Venatus mobbing you, since they are fast and aggressive. However, this also means you can wipe out a lot of Venatus at one time, earning you tons of EXP. gld_dun04 [12X ~ 17X] - A nice leveling map with difficult Wraith Deads, Mini Demons, and Zombie Masters. At lower levels, it's good to rely on Zombie Masters for EXP. For lots of quick EXP, try killing all the mobs instead of just the mini-boss. Meteor Assault is the choice of skill here, killing lots of mobs at once. gld_dun03 [12X ~ 17X] - Another gld_dun map. This one's really nice in the fact that a couple of the monsters drop Golds, which you can quickly sell to NPC vendors for quick cash (100k per Gold!), which is a commonly-used method to gain zeny. Avoid Maya and Maya Purple unless you either need the card or can kill them easily. By this point you should be using an excellent Sonic Blow/Meteor build or an easier Soul Breaker build. Both are good in this map. jupe_core [14X ~ 18X] - Another packed map with robots buzzing around everywhere. Dimiks give you good EXP, and Archdams give you even more. Try grabbing a nice mob of them (8-10) and Meteor Assault them to death. Grabs you lots of EXP! abyss_01/03 [15X/16X ~300] - A highly underrated map(s), new with a variety of Dragon monsters. At lower levels (150 - 170) stick to abyss_01, and when you can comfortably kill the various dragons (which is up to you), you can move on to abyss_03, which is where many people spend their 200+ leveling careers (when they are utterly bored with lhz_dun03). In any case, a nice (perhaps boring, but still nice) leveling dungeon. Try sticking to a Soul Breaker build to kill these monsters faster. tha_t05~12 [17X ~ 300] - Thanatos Tower maps. Start at the lower floors if you are lower levels (obviously) and work yourself up as you get to higher levels. Try using Soul Breaker to kill some things in one shot. Melee attacks are bad because monsters like Observation and Retribution have different resistance to different elements, and "of Thanatos" spawns are completely resistant to neutral. lhz_dun03 [16X ~ 300] - Fanfare please! This map practically deserves its own color and music. I mean, every character spends at least a day training here to get from the 160s range to 300. It's THE training place. It's your last step to creating a character than can actually kill something besides common mobs. Yes, you can cheer. Did I forget to mention? It's horribly boring for me, since most people have other characters that they've leveling here, over and over and over and...over again. Still, at lower levels it can be pretty intense, and it's incredibly easy to die. It's great to have a friend to protect you against Snipers and Wizzies (preferably a Lord Knight, Wizard, or Soul Breaker SinX). You should definately be using Soul Breaker by now. If you want, you can equip a GTB shield and kill Wizzies, but you don't necessarily have to. Try sticking to Priestess, Knight, Assassin, and Whitesmith. Also, look for one that's alone. They are much easier to kill. Well, after you spend a few hours here...cheers! You're now 300! Time to get on to the good stuff. Builds Now, the hard and brain-testing part: the builds. For PVP and WoE purposes, you'll definately need a good killer build. Whether it's Sonic Blow, Soul Breaker, DEX, or Crit, you want a build that does decent damage to everyone. Knowing the best stats for each build can help. The stats I say below are the total stats. I keep about 30 INT on every build because it is good to have some easy spare SP. DEX Build Ah, the commonly used DEX build. People who use this build don't even know that they are using it. When I ask people what build they are using, they usually reply with something along the lines of "STR build!!". Newsflash. What most people say is a "STR build!!" is normally a DEX build. What kind of idiotic melee Assassin Cross would NOT use STR? So now, it's a choice between DEX and LUK (Crit). DEX depends upon Phreeoni cards, and uses accuracy to hit. Your choice of weapon is 2 Main Gauches or a Main Gauche and Blade. Stats: STR - 280 AGI - Enough for 192 ASPD DEX: 150 ~ 180 VIT: Leftover LUK: 1 INT: 30 Crit Build The antithesis of the DEX build; the Crit, or LUK, build. Although accuracy is still decently important, this build relies on your critical attack percentage. Therefore, it requires LUK to use (and a side-effect: it also adds Lucky Dodge!). Used with a Main Gauche and Blade or 2 Blades. Stats: STR - 280 AGI - Enough for 192 ASPD DEX: 60 ~ 90 LUK: 150 ~ 180 VIT: Leftover INT: 30 Soul Breaker Build This is usually used in leveling, and usually not seen in PvP. However, I do spot one of these builds once in awhile. So here you go! Stats: INT: 280 AGI: 130 ~ 180 DEX: 180 LUK: A little amount STR: 90 ~ 140 VIT: Leftover Sonic Blow Build Essentially the same thing as a DEX build. Different card usage. But for the sake of being direct, I'll give you a more precise Sonic Blow build here. Stats: STR - 280 AGI - Enough for 192 ASPD DEX: 150 ~ 180 VIT: Leftover LUK: 1 INT: 50 Armor The first, and very important, of the two equipment pieces. Armor! There are many cards to use for armor, and lots of different armors to choose from. What to get? Here are my armors of choice, and accesories included. Glittering Jacket [1] - Your armor of choice. The defense isn't too high for a Thanatos card to own you, yet the blind effect also comes in quite handy. Cards: Ghostring, Tao Gunka, Garm, Orc Lord, Evil Druid, Marc, Pest, Angeling, Dokebi (placed in order of usage) - There isn't one grand card to stop everything. Use different armors per situation. Use your head! Ghostring is really a useful card, as it reducts a lot of damage from neutral damage. However, it becomes less useful with elemental attacks. Garm is quite useful, for those who don't expect it. 50% Freeze can help you out big time, especially in disrupting your opponent. Pest gives a chance to Stone Curse an opponent (very useful). Evil Druid is considered cheap because it blocks so much, so don't use it often or people will hate you. Marc is useful against those annoying freezers. Orc Lord is a great card for reflecting damage back to an opponent. (30%) Use Angeling against GC/HC Paladins (warning: if he starts casting Sacrifice, switch to GR real quick). Also, use Dokebi against Wind Scroll users, Boots/Shoes [1] - Honestly, it doesn't make much of a difference. For a SinX, even getting Valkyrie Shoes aren't all that useful, though the +1 all stats may help you if you have the entire set. Cards: Matyr, Amon Ra, Verit, Moonlight Flower, Dark Lord, Antique Firelock - Matyr is a very useful card, giving a nice HP boost. Amon Ra is also very good, giving 2% chance of Kyrie Eleison with 99 INT or higher! Moonlight is if you want to move fast. Dark Lord disrupts a lot, with the Meteor Storm AoE skill auto-cast. Have that ultra-rare +9/10 Boots? Use Antique Firelock for 2 STR and +10% HP/SP. Valkyrie Manteau [1] - You definately want the Valkyrie Manteau. It gives an automatic 5% damage reflection (incredibly useful) and an increase of 2% per refine (+1). So you can safely get 13% of reflection! (with an unimaginable amount of luck, you may be able to get up to 25% reflection...1/4 of the damage!) Cards: Raydric, Deviling, Giant Whisper, Marse - Raydric is a solid choice against Neutral attacks. But again, it's only against neutral elemental attacks from you. Deviling blocks a whole lot more, except with elemental drawbacks. Not recommended in WoE since Wizards can practically blast you into pieces. Giant Whisper must be one of the most useful cards out there. It adds great stuff based on what stats you have, and most SinXs have those stats. Also, Marse is good against Box of Storm users. Sunglasses [1], Beret/Poopoo Hat [1] - Sunglasses are the best things since they have 1 slot and are middle, and Berets/Poopoo Hats both give 10% reduction from Demi-Humans...very useful! Cards: Maya Purple (1), Pharaoh, Lord Knight, Orc Hero, Marduk, Mistress - Maya Purple is almost a requirement in PvP, and definately in WoE. It allows you to see hidden or Cloaked enemies, which you can rat out with Sight or Ruwach. Pharaoh cards reduce SP usage by 30% (stacking), and Lord Knight card gives you Frenzy (triple HP with much higher attack) at the cost of half your HP. Marduk is useful when training with Soul Breaker, in LHZ 03. The Priestess tries to Silence you, and you'll be immune to it! Use Mistress for Venom Dust and Venom Splasher, so you don't have to use Gemstones. Ring [1], Earring [1], Rosary [1] - Depending on type of sin (Ring for most, Earring for Soul Breaker only, and Rosary for Crit only), you can decide your accessory. Cards: Owl Baron, Horong, Mantis, Kobold, Marine Sphere, Dancing Dragon Card - Probably the most useful cards for Accessory. Use Horong card for the Sight, especially in WoE situations! Use Kobold or Dancing Dragon if you are a crit build. Marine Sphere is useful to get Magnum Break. Magnum Break isn't a great skill in itself, but it makes your weapon Fire. Owl Baron is a great card, giving you a chance to double your attack! Weaponry Okay, the most important part (I think) of SinX equipment. Weapons: Main Gauche [4], Blade [4], Specialty Jur [4] (only for Sonic Blow) Now, the difficult part; the cards. One of the most significant reasons that some SinXs can't PvP for their lives is their carding. I'll share the info with you all now: Hydra Card - The most useful PVP card known to RO mankind. A whopping +20% in damage to DemiHumans! That will be a lot of hurt if you use it right. Remember to only use 2 on a weapon, because the effect is halved after the 2 cards. A requirement for any PvP weapon. Skel Worker Card - The second best DemiHuman attack card, +15% damage to Demihumans and some ATK. If you have room after using 2 Hydras on a weapon, use this. However, it is recommended you use other cards such as Paper (if you are Crit) or Turtle General instead. The Paper Card - Only for Critical SinX builds. It increases damage by 20% to anything if it is critical, a significant amount! Use 2 on one weapon, cardings explained below. Turtle General Card - Another popular PvP card, it is used frequently. Used by both crit and DEX builds. Use up to 2 in combination with Hydra and/or Paper cards (again, only if you are Crit). This is a bit harder to get than other cards, however, since it is an MVP. Phreeoni Card - Another must in your weapon card arsenal. This card adds an entire stupendous amount of 100 HIT! That is equal to what you would receive with another 100 DEX points. A very significant amount, have at least 1 or 2 total. Stormy Knight Card - A card that new players rarely use, but is highly useful. It is hard to obtain, since it is a popular MVP among the players. It adds a 20% of freezing the enemy (very effective) and a chance of casting Storm Gust (also very disrupting, but be sure to have /effect off). Thanatos Card - A little-known card among new players. This is a very tough MVP to defeat and find, so obtaining one of these cards aren't necessary or easy, but they help your damage greatly by adding more damage to your weapon per defense of your enemy. Carding Combinations Some common combinations of weapon cards I remember using frequently are listed below. These are templates, so it's recommended you follow them, but remember that you can innovate according to your will! Different card combinations are listed by letters (A, B, C, etc). MG is Main Gauche. After the weapon type, the R and L specifies which hand it is. DEX Build carding A. MG R: Hydra/Hydra/Turtle General/Thanatos MG L: Hydra/Hydra/Phreeoni/Turtle General OR Hydra/Phreeoni/Skel Worker/Stormy Knight B. MG R: Hydra/Hydra/Turtle General/Stormy Knight MG L: Hydra/Stormy Knight/Stormy Knight/Phreeoni (This card focuses on Freeze, and this carding enables 60% chance of freezing your enemy. Substantially effective.) Some other cardings you can use accordingly: Hydra/Hydra/Skel Worker/Turtle General Hydra/Hydra/Phreeoni/Turtle General Hydra/Hydra/Skel Worker/Phreeoni Hydra/Phreeoni/Stormy Knight/Thanatos Crit Build carding A. MG/Blade R: Hydra/Hydra/Eremes Guile/Paper Blade L: Hydra/Turtle General/Eremes Guile/Paper Other cardings: Hydra/Hydra/Eremes/Skel Worker Hydra/Hydra/Eremes/Eremes Hydra/Paper/Eremes/Eremes Hydra/Hydra/Phreeoni/Paper Hydra/Hydra/Stormy Knight/Stormy Knight PvP and WoE PvP and WoE are a subject of focus for lots of players. For some it is an obsession. Here, I'll cover some methods and usages in the popular PvP and WoE. By the way, Backslide can't be used in WoE. Sadly. In PvP, randoming is bad. Keep that in your head. Randoming = killing random people just because you feel like it. That's bad. Unless you want to be famous for being a jack***, don't do it. Duels are much better. Ask someone to duel you, and they'll probably do it if they have the time. Just because they refuse, don't go killing them without permission. Now, if you accept the duel, you two will most likely move to an open spot in the PvP arena, where you won't be disrupted by other PvPers. After the duel, don't go back in and kill your opponent just because you lost. That's the most idiotic method there is. It'll earn you the reputation of noob, and no one will like you in the entire arena. Another rule; don't kill babies. Even if they try to kill you, people have this unfair reasoning that whoever kills a baby character should be slaughtered, even if the baby attacked you first. Just try to avoid these encounters as much as possible ;; For WoE, remember your Alt Keys. These can be modified using Alt + M. Just replace the text with something like "@warp alde_gld 195 95" or something, and it'll take you there. This is very useful for warping back to castles that you are defending or attacking, if you die. As a guild leader, make sure you use the Emergency Teleport guild skill often. It teleports all your members to where you are, even if you are standing inside the emp room! Your Skills Here I'll outline the skills that you need to save your neck, and how to use them. Enchant Poison The infamous Enchant Poison skill. It must be one of those badly overused skills. And just to spite it, what card is released? The Evil Druid card, that basically cancels out everything you can possibly do: freeze, stone curse, and also makes your Poison damage 1. Boo. Enough ranting though, let's get on with Enchant Poison, also called EP (don't get mixed up with EDP, which is Enchant Deadly Poison). It basically makes your weapon poison-element, which was essentially used against Ghostring users. Neutral (normal) damage is only 25% to GR users, while Poison isn't blocked as much. It shouldn't be used anything more than that though. Better sticking to Wind Scrolls and Box of Storms. Enchant Deadly Poison Now, the VERY overused melee power-up skill. Enchant Deadly Poison! *fanfare* It's what all SinXs abuse, and rightfully so. I mean, who WOULDN'T want a 5X damage boost skill? It's just that it's abused...but, well, whatever. Anyway, EDP is obviously a very useful skill, that adds 400% damage to your attack. Yeah. It's just that good. It has basically no drawbacks, except for the fact that it's overused, and that you have to either hunt materials for EDP bottles or hunt the bottles themselves, which can be a pain (since we don't have Chance Cards anymore, thank god). Poison React Yeah, I know. Poison this, Poison that, Poison, Poison. Well, you ARE an Assassin, and apparently we deal with poison. Anyway, I personally think this is one of the best Assassin skills. It essentially counters Poison-property attacks (hint, Enchant Poison), but with level 5 Envenom, is also counters NORMAL ATTACKS! That's right, your opponent doesn't have to be using EP to get reacted. It does a whopping +300% damage, up to 6 hits (which would be 4X your damage, and if all 6 hits, that's 24 times your attack). Very useful in PVP and WoE scenarios, use it when you start a match/duel, and in between if you are stalemated. Cloaking Another famous Assassin skill, that makes you invisible...almost. Unless your idiot opponent isn't even wearing a Maya Purple (which means, don't count on it. They can see you.) However, they can't attack you unless: a) you are hit by a range skill (Magnum Break, Meteor Assault), B) you are caught by Sight or Ruwach, or c) you step on an Alchemist's bomb. However, this skill IS very useful, as with other Assassin skills. Use it well during WoE especially, sneaking into emperium rooms. Venom Splasher Awesome, one of the most underrated and unused skills. Most people don't realize how good this is. You plant a bomb in your enemy when he/she has 75% or less of their HP remaining. You can basically hit your opponent a few times, Cloak, plant a Venom Splasher, and laugh as the clock ticks down and they explode. Best part is, the damage. It does a whopping 10X your damage (1000%)! I strongly recommend using a Mistress Card to stop paying Red Gemstones per use. Grimtooth ...Gives me nightmares. Grimtooths on my old server...agh. Scary. It goes to show, if you use this skill well, it can do TONS of damage. (e.g. like 50k per shot, and with practically no delay...it's like 5 shots in a 2 second period. Yes. That's 250k damage. But that was only in the overpowered other server, though) Still, experimenting to the best of this skill can prove to be a rewarding experiment. Conclusion Well, I hope you learned some information from this guide and hope you enjoyed it. I will hopefully update this as time passes, so stay tuned!