karurosu
05-17-2006, 07:58 PM
Last updated 18-03-05
Claw Thief:
Nimble Body: 10/20 <- Increase 3rd
Keen Eyes : 8 <- Max out first
Disorder : 3 <- To get Dark Sight
Dark Sight : 20/10 <- Increase last
Double Stab: 0
Lucky Seven: 20 <- Max out 2nd. Get to 10, then save for 2 levels, then max
The reason for 10 NimbleBody and 20 Dark Sight is that at higher levels, once you have Haste, you will find that theres a bit of a "quirk" (I would say bug) in the game whereby the speed penalty from Dark Sight actually OVERRIDES the speed gain from Haste, rather than stacking with it. Even worse, once you come out of Dark Sight your speed goes back to normal, even if Haste is still active!
However, with 20 points in Dark Sight you don't actually get any speed penalty at all, which means that you keep your speed gain from Haste while you are in Dark Sight, and also when you come back out of it. This makes Dark Sight a much more useful skill... A lot of Assassins who didn't max Dark Sight probably rarely use it, and the reason I think is the "quirk" i mentioned above.
If you really want to though, you can put 20 into Nimble Body and only 10 into Dark Sight, but I still think the other way around is better. But both options are totally valid, in fact most people choose to max out Nimble Body, probably because they aren't aware of the Haste/Dark Sight Glitch!
Assassin:
A lot of people have been asking for an Assassin guide, and I wrote this one a little while back (and have been tweaking it ever since). After much tweaking, this is the way I suggest you distribute your points:
There are 3 options... The first is a good "All Round Solo" Assassin. The second is a "Fast Levelling Expensive" Assassin. Finally we have a "Party Specialist" Assassin.
The advantage of the first type is you wont be spending as much mesos on potions as the other 2 types. Levelling speed is medium/high. You also get Haste relatively soon, which makes playing fun.
The advantage of the second type is, as long as you have meso's spare for MP pots you will be doing the fastest levelling. The drawback is of course that it is very expensive. You can expect most of your money to be spent on MP potions at least until lvl 40.
The Party Specialist is good for those people who love to Party. The advantage is that if you actually Party a lot, everyone in your party will benefit from your Haste, and you get to level fast from everyones shared experience, and also from their skills (eg Heal, Fury etc). The drawback is that if you train solo you will have the disadvantages of both the first 2 types, but neither of the benefits (but you do get the benefit of Haste early on).
Some people prefer to max out CT as early as possible, even before getting CB... Thats cool too I guess, but I personally recommend getting CB early on... Like I mention later, CB gives you an increase in damage done (essentially) by 50% right off the bat, but at lower levels CT doesn't add that much damage. Once you have tried CB you can't go back to slow sluggish attack speed.
Some people also ignore Endure completely, which is fine too if you are rich and don't mind quaffing potions constantly. However, I personally think it is a very underrated skill. Just think, its like 3 skills for the price of 1! (A warriors HP recovery increase skill, plus their Endure skill, plus a Mages MP recovery increase skill... All rolled into one.)
To summarise:
Option 1:
Levelling Speed: Medium/High
Meso Cost: Medium/Low
Party Benefit: Low at first, medium/high after lvl40
Option 2:
Levelling Speed: High
Meso Cost: High
Party Benefit: Low at first, medium/high after lvl45
Option 3:
Levelling Speed: Medium/High if in Party otherwise Low
Meso Cost: Medium if in Party, otherwise High
Party Benefit: High
(CM = Claw Mastery, CT = Critical Throw, EN = Endure, CB = Claw Booster, HA = Haste, DR = Drain)
Well rounded / Fast levelling / Party Special
30: +1 CM
31: +2 CM, +1 CT <- All options should get CT early, as its useful even with only 1 point
32: +2 CM, +1 CB / +2 CM, +1 CB / +3 HA
33: +3 CB / +3 CB / +3 HA
34: +3 CB / +3 CB / +3 HA
35: +1 CB, +2 EN / +2 CT, +1 CB / +3 HA
So far at lvl35:
Claw Mastery = 5/5/3, Critical Throw = 1/3/1, Endure = 2/0/0, CB = 8/8/0, HA = 0/0/12, DR = 0
36: +1 CT, +2 EN / +3 CT / +3 HA
37: +2 CT, +1 EN / +3 CT / +3 HA
38: +2 CT, +1 EN / +3 CT / +1 CM, +2 HA
39: +2 CT, +1 EN / +3 CT / +1 CM, +2 CB
40: +2 CT, +1 EN / +3 CT / +3 CB
So far at lvl40:
Claw Mastery = 5, Critical Throw = 10/18/1, Endure = 8/0/0, CB = 8/8/5, HA = 0/0/20, DR = 0
41: +3 HA / +3 CT / +3 CB
42: +3 HA / +3 CT / +3 CT
43: +2 HA, +1 CT / +3 CT / +3 CT
44: +3 CT
45: +3 CT / +3 HA / +3 CT
So far at lvl45:
Claw Mastery = 5, Critical Throw = 17/30/13, Endure = 8/0/0, CB = 8, HA = 8/3/20, DR = 0
46: +3 CT / +3 HA / +3 CT
47: +3 CT / +3 HA / +3 CT
48: +3 CT / +3 HA / +3 CT
49: +3 CT / +3 HA / +3 CT
50: +1 CT, + 2 HA / +3 HA / +3 CT
So far at lvl 50:
Claw Mastery = 5, Critical Throw = 30/30/28, Endure = 8/0/0, Claw Booster = 8, HA = 10/18/20, DR =
0
51: +3 HA / +2 HA, +1 CB / +2 CT, +1 CB
52: +3 HA / +3 CB <- From here on in, option 2 and 3 level the same.
53: +3 HA / +1 CB, +2 EN
54: +2 CB, +1 HA / +3 EN
55: +3 CB / +3 EN
At lvl 55:
Claw Mastery = 5, Critical Throw = 30, Endure = 8, Claw Booster = 13, Haste = 20, DR = 0
56: +1 CB, +2 CM <- From now on, all 3 options level the same
57: +3 CM
58: +3 CM
59: +3 CM
60: +3 CM
At lvl 60:
CM = 19, CT = 30, EN = 8, CB = 14, HA = 20, DR = 0
61: +3 DR
62: +3 DR
63: +3 DR
64: +3 DR
65: +3 DR
At lvl 65:
CM = 19, CT = 30, EN = 8, CB = 14, HA = 20, DR = 15
66: +3 DR
67: +3 DR
68: +3 DR
69: +3 DR
70: +3 DR
At lvl 70:
1st Job Skills:
Nimble Body = 10/20
Lucky 7 = 20
Dark Sight = 20/10
Keen Eyes = 8
Disorder = 3
Double Stab = 0
2nd Job SKills:
Claw Mastery = 19
Critical Throw = 30
Endure = 8
Claw Booster = 14
Haste = 20
Drain = 30
The reasons behind why I decided on the "All rounded" progression is this:
Firstly, you need to get 3 CM in order to get CT, and 5 CM to get CB. I then ignore CM for a while and just concentrate on CT, EN, and CB (Up to 8 for CB for now). The reason for this is that levelling up by using standard attacks is just plain too slow. From lvl20 onwards you will pretty much use Lucky7's for 80-90% of your attacks, and since Lucky7's ignores mastery, CM is not as important as CT. CT will increase your damage significantly with Lucky7's, CM will only increase your acuracy.
I also choose to get EN early on for the same reason (using Lucky7's for most attacks). Sure after lvl 30 your not going to stand around and wait for your HP to recover most of the time. Probably 90% of the time you will take potions. The same goes for MP... HOWEVER... MP recovers even while you are fighting/moving, meaning the +to MP recovery you get from EN is actually significant to how long you can fight for before you need to take a pot. You might fight for 3 or 4 minutes before you need a pot, in that time you would have recovered MP 18 - 24 times. With no points in EN that would only be around 63 MP recovered. With 8 points in EN however, you would have recovered around 231 MP in that time! Meaning you can fight for longer, and u quaff less potions... In the long term it will save you money. Don't forget that your character isn't fighting 100% of the time... Often you are walking places, standing talking, trading etc... That whole time Endure may as well be doing something worthwile for you.
I also get CB up to lvl 8 early on because it does come in very handy to be able to attack faster. Just take it up to lvl8 for now though because that should be enough for the time being, in the mean time maxing CT becomes more important in order to start doing some decent damage from criticals. CB seems to increae your attack speed by about 50%, meaning you can attack 3 times in the time you would have otherwise attacked twice, essentially increasing your damage done by 50%, and speeding up your levelling more than CT at lower levels.
Once you hit lvl40 you might start feeling boredom set in, because the last several levels you have only been increasing passive skills (CT and EN). If you want, you can soldier on and keep maxing CT until it hits 30. I however decided that I needed to make playing the game more fun for myself, and so introduced a bit of Haste at this point. I take it up to 8 so that it lasts the same length of time as Booster, so recasting is easier. This amount of Haste should make playing the game more fun for you, and gives you a break form increasing CT for a couple of levels. You might also find your levelling speed actually increases here since you spend less time actually walking around, ie you get to your destination faster. This is very true especially if you fight on a large map with slow to medium spawn rates, eg Burning land. After you have Haste at 8, you should be able to go back to Maxing CT with a character that is hopefully more fun to play. To maximize the effect of this, upgrade your shoes for some +speed or +jump to magnify the effectiveness of the Haste you have.
Once CT is maxed, I go for maxing out HA (the most fun skill in the game did I mention? ). We then take Booster up to 14. Do not want to take it any higher, as if we do we will be short on points for Drain or Mastery (bad), and besides, at 14 it already lasts a decent amount of time. (if you prefer, you can leave CB at 8 and put those extra points into EN... It depends on what you want, longer time between casting CB, or more HP/MP regeneration).
I then take CM up to 19, as this should definately be done before you get Drain. If you fight things often that require a lot of Accuracy, increase CM sooner, but being an Assassin, you should have enough Accuracy from Dex anyway. Don't bother with 20 in CM unless you REALLY want that extra +1 accuracy and +10 stars, because the 20th point doesn't increase mastery.
One more thing to take into account is if you prefer to level faster but for more cost, or if you prefer to level a bit slower but save lots of meso. The guide I propose above "All Rounder" is a good compromise between the two playing styles, and I find that you can save a fair bit of meso and yet at the same time level quite fast.
Thanks to Sugoi-Baka for suggesting I put points into CB sooner!
Feel free to comment, especially if you have a higher level assassin and think that the skill
allocation can be done in a better way... Preferably tho give a reason as to why you think your way
is better than this one!
Thanks!
Claw Thief:
Nimble Body: 10/20 <- Increase 3rd
Keen Eyes : 8 <- Max out first
Disorder : 3 <- To get Dark Sight
Dark Sight : 20/10 <- Increase last
Double Stab: 0
Lucky Seven: 20 <- Max out 2nd. Get to 10, then save for 2 levels, then max
The reason for 10 NimbleBody and 20 Dark Sight is that at higher levels, once you have Haste, you will find that theres a bit of a "quirk" (I would say bug) in the game whereby the speed penalty from Dark Sight actually OVERRIDES the speed gain from Haste, rather than stacking with it. Even worse, once you come out of Dark Sight your speed goes back to normal, even if Haste is still active!
However, with 20 points in Dark Sight you don't actually get any speed penalty at all, which means that you keep your speed gain from Haste while you are in Dark Sight, and also when you come back out of it. This makes Dark Sight a much more useful skill... A lot of Assassins who didn't max Dark Sight probably rarely use it, and the reason I think is the "quirk" i mentioned above.
If you really want to though, you can put 20 into Nimble Body and only 10 into Dark Sight, but I still think the other way around is better. But both options are totally valid, in fact most people choose to max out Nimble Body, probably because they aren't aware of the Haste/Dark Sight Glitch!
Assassin:
A lot of people have been asking for an Assassin guide, and I wrote this one a little while back (and have been tweaking it ever since). After much tweaking, this is the way I suggest you distribute your points:
There are 3 options... The first is a good "All Round Solo" Assassin. The second is a "Fast Levelling Expensive" Assassin. Finally we have a "Party Specialist" Assassin.
The advantage of the first type is you wont be spending as much mesos on potions as the other 2 types. Levelling speed is medium/high. You also get Haste relatively soon, which makes playing fun.
The advantage of the second type is, as long as you have meso's spare for MP pots you will be doing the fastest levelling. The drawback is of course that it is very expensive. You can expect most of your money to be spent on MP potions at least until lvl 40.
The Party Specialist is good for those people who love to Party. The advantage is that if you actually Party a lot, everyone in your party will benefit from your Haste, and you get to level fast from everyones shared experience, and also from their skills (eg Heal, Fury etc). The drawback is that if you train solo you will have the disadvantages of both the first 2 types, but neither of the benefits (but you do get the benefit of Haste early on).
Some people prefer to max out CT as early as possible, even before getting CB... Thats cool too I guess, but I personally recommend getting CB early on... Like I mention later, CB gives you an increase in damage done (essentially) by 50% right off the bat, but at lower levels CT doesn't add that much damage. Once you have tried CB you can't go back to slow sluggish attack speed.
Some people also ignore Endure completely, which is fine too if you are rich and don't mind quaffing potions constantly. However, I personally think it is a very underrated skill. Just think, its like 3 skills for the price of 1! (A warriors HP recovery increase skill, plus their Endure skill, plus a Mages MP recovery increase skill... All rolled into one.)
To summarise:
Option 1:
Levelling Speed: Medium/High
Meso Cost: Medium/Low
Party Benefit: Low at first, medium/high after lvl40
Option 2:
Levelling Speed: High
Meso Cost: High
Party Benefit: Low at first, medium/high after lvl45
Option 3:
Levelling Speed: Medium/High if in Party otherwise Low
Meso Cost: Medium if in Party, otherwise High
Party Benefit: High
(CM = Claw Mastery, CT = Critical Throw, EN = Endure, CB = Claw Booster, HA = Haste, DR = Drain)
Well rounded / Fast levelling / Party Special
30: +1 CM
31: +2 CM, +1 CT <- All options should get CT early, as its useful even with only 1 point
32: +2 CM, +1 CB / +2 CM, +1 CB / +3 HA
33: +3 CB / +3 CB / +3 HA
34: +3 CB / +3 CB / +3 HA
35: +1 CB, +2 EN / +2 CT, +1 CB / +3 HA
So far at lvl35:
Claw Mastery = 5/5/3, Critical Throw = 1/3/1, Endure = 2/0/0, CB = 8/8/0, HA = 0/0/12, DR = 0
36: +1 CT, +2 EN / +3 CT / +3 HA
37: +2 CT, +1 EN / +3 CT / +3 HA
38: +2 CT, +1 EN / +3 CT / +1 CM, +2 HA
39: +2 CT, +1 EN / +3 CT / +1 CM, +2 CB
40: +2 CT, +1 EN / +3 CT / +3 CB
So far at lvl40:
Claw Mastery = 5, Critical Throw = 10/18/1, Endure = 8/0/0, CB = 8/8/5, HA = 0/0/20, DR = 0
41: +3 HA / +3 CT / +3 CB
42: +3 HA / +3 CT / +3 CT
43: +2 HA, +1 CT / +3 CT / +3 CT
44: +3 CT
45: +3 CT / +3 HA / +3 CT
So far at lvl45:
Claw Mastery = 5, Critical Throw = 17/30/13, Endure = 8/0/0, CB = 8, HA = 8/3/20, DR = 0
46: +3 CT / +3 HA / +3 CT
47: +3 CT / +3 HA / +3 CT
48: +3 CT / +3 HA / +3 CT
49: +3 CT / +3 HA / +3 CT
50: +1 CT, + 2 HA / +3 HA / +3 CT
So far at lvl 50:
Claw Mastery = 5, Critical Throw = 30/30/28, Endure = 8/0/0, Claw Booster = 8, HA = 10/18/20, DR =
0
51: +3 HA / +2 HA, +1 CB / +2 CT, +1 CB
52: +3 HA / +3 CB <- From here on in, option 2 and 3 level the same.
53: +3 HA / +1 CB, +2 EN
54: +2 CB, +1 HA / +3 EN
55: +3 CB / +3 EN
At lvl 55:
Claw Mastery = 5, Critical Throw = 30, Endure = 8, Claw Booster = 13, Haste = 20, DR = 0
56: +1 CB, +2 CM <- From now on, all 3 options level the same
57: +3 CM
58: +3 CM
59: +3 CM
60: +3 CM
At lvl 60:
CM = 19, CT = 30, EN = 8, CB = 14, HA = 20, DR = 0
61: +3 DR
62: +3 DR
63: +3 DR
64: +3 DR
65: +3 DR
At lvl 65:
CM = 19, CT = 30, EN = 8, CB = 14, HA = 20, DR = 15
66: +3 DR
67: +3 DR
68: +3 DR
69: +3 DR
70: +3 DR
At lvl 70:
1st Job Skills:
Nimble Body = 10/20
Lucky 7 = 20
Dark Sight = 20/10
Keen Eyes = 8
Disorder = 3
Double Stab = 0
2nd Job SKills:
Claw Mastery = 19
Critical Throw = 30
Endure = 8
Claw Booster = 14
Haste = 20
Drain = 30
The reasons behind why I decided on the "All rounded" progression is this:
Firstly, you need to get 3 CM in order to get CT, and 5 CM to get CB. I then ignore CM for a while and just concentrate on CT, EN, and CB (Up to 8 for CB for now). The reason for this is that levelling up by using standard attacks is just plain too slow. From lvl20 onwards you will pretty much use Lucky7's for 80-90% of your attacks, and since Lucky7's ignores mastery, CM is not as important as CT. CT will increase your damage significantly with Lucky7's, CM will only increase your acuracy.
I also choose to get EN early on for the same reason (using Lucky7's for most attacks). Sure after lvl 30 your not going to stand around and wait for your HP to recover most of the time. Probably 90% of the time you will take potions. The same goes for MP... HOWEVER... MP recovers even while you are fighting/moving, meaning the +to MP recovery you get from EN is actually significant to how long you can fight for before you need to take a pot. You might fight for 3 or 4 minutes before you need a pot, in that time you would have recovered MP 18 - 24 times. With no points in EN that would only be around 63 MP recovered. With 8 points in EN however, you would have recovered around 231 MP in that time! Meaning you can fight for longer, and u quaff less potions... In the long term it will save you money. Don't forget that your character isn't fighting 100% of the time... Often you are walking places, standing talking, trading etc... That whole time Endure may as well be doing something worthwile for you.
I also get CB up to lvl 8 early on because it does come in very handy to be able to attack faster. Just take it up to lvl8 for now though because that should be enough for the time being, in the mean time maxing CT becomes more important in order to start doing some decent damage from criticals. CB seems to increae your attack speed by about 50%, meaning you can attack 3 times in the time you would have otherwise attacked twice, essentially increasing your damage done by 50%, and speeding up your levelling more than CT at lower levels.
Once you hit lvl40 you might start feeling boredom set in, because the last several levels you have only been increasing passive skills (CT and EN). If you want, you can soldier on and keep maxing CT until it hits 30. I however decided that I needed to make playing the game more fun for myself, and so introduced a bit of Haste at this point. I take it up to 8 so that it lasts the same length of time as Booster, so recasting is easier. This amount of Haste should make playing the game more fun for you, and gives you a break form increasing CT for a couple of levels. You might also find your levelling speed actually increases here since you spend less time actually walking around, ie you get to your destination faster. This is very true especially if you fight on a large map with slow to medium spawn rates, eg Burning land. After you have Haste at 8, you should be able to go back to Maxing CT with a character that is hopefully more fun to play. To maximize the effect of this, upgrade your shoes for some +speed or +jump to magnify the effectiveness of the Haste you have.
Once CT is maxed, I go for maxing out HA (the most fun skill in the game did I mention? ). We then take Booster up to 14. Do not want to take it any higher, as if we do we will be short on points for Drain or Mastery (bad), and besides, at 14 it already lasts a decent amount of time. (if you prefer, you can leave CB at 8 and put those extra points into EN... It depends on what you want, longer time between casting CB, or more HP/MP regeneration).
I then take CM up to 19, as this should definately be done before you get Drain. If you fight things often that require a lot of Accuracy, increase CM sooner, but being an Assassin, you should have enough Accuracy from Dex anyway. Don't bother with 20 in CM unless you REALLY want that extra +1 accuracy and +10 stars, because the 20th point doesn't increase mastery.
One more thing to take into account is if you prefer to level faster but for more cost, or if you prefer to level a bit slower but save lots of meso. The guide I propose above "All Rounder" is a good compromise between the two playing styles, and I find that you can save a fair bit of meso and yet at the same time level quite fast.
Thanks to Sugoi-Baka for suggesting I put points into CB sooner!
Feel free to comment, especially if you have a higher level assassin and think that the skill
allocation can be done in a better way... Preferably tho give a reason as to why you think your way
is better than this one!
Thanks!