The Dagger Sin's Handbook

Hello and Welcome to the Dagger Sin's Handbook!

Well if you haven't read the Assassins Guide to the Universe, please do so now!

What I aim for this part is to expound further on dagger type Assassins.

Dagger type Assassins are well Assassins who use daggers. Their early game paths and gears are cheap and quite straight forward, dealing a alot of damage and very effective in grinding.

A few things to note:

- Daggers like all weapons suffer some size penalty: Small: None | Medium: 25% Large: 50%

- Size penalties are calculated at the end of the attack formula, this means that any and all damage coming from a dagger when hitting medium or large is reduced respectively. (this part is for all you people who keep saying that Sandstorm or Desert Twilight removes it)

- Size penalties however can be removed by 2 things:

--Whitesmith Size Stone 100% (can be bought in Exchange/Auction House)

--Whitemsith Skill Weapon Perfection (Love them smiths)

So lets begin!

The ideal dagger type Assassin at late game should have the following things:

1. High Attack

2. High Attack Speed

3. High Flee

4. High Hit

5. Moderate Survival (I say moderate cause you aren't supposed to be tanking stuff.)

Note: This section below is from the Assassins Guide to the Universe. I'm putting it here because you know, people!?

I. Phase I - Base Stats, Gears, And Skills

Stats:

1. 60 AGI first <-- this will help you survive most maps until Orc Village

2. 20 DEX <--- helps with hitting stuff 

3. STR rest of the points go here 

(Note: All Stats are base)

Base Gears: (The gears below are chosen because they are cheap)

1. Ebone Dagger or Full Black Dagger (Prontera Crafter)

2. Fox Bracer (Morroc Crafter) / Floral Bracer (Izlude Crafter)

3. Thief Clothes Craft (Payon Crafter)

4. Feral Shoes or Teddy Sack Shoes (Payon Crafter)

5. Coat of Dragon Scale (Geffen Crafter) / Muffler of Blue Eves (Boss drop) 

6. Clips / Flower Ring / Str Ring / Luna Brooch (All from Rifts)

Skills: 

A. Thief 

1. Mirror Attack 10 

2. Hiding 10 

3. Envenom 10 

4. Improved Dodge 10 

B. Assassin

1. Double Armor 5 

2. Sonic Blow 10 

3. Sonic Mastery 5 

4. Advance Poison Research 10 

5. 10 Backslide

C. Assassin Cross

1. Enchant Deadly Poison 10

2. Slash 10

3. Advanced Hiding 5

4. 15 Remaining Skills Points (You may choose to either add Ambush 10 and last 5 points may go to Venom Dust) 

D. Job 70 (PVE 30 Points Allocation)

1. Improve Dodge 15

2. Mirror Attack 20

3. Sonic Blow 15

4. Enchant Deadly Poison 20 (adds def piercing 10%)

E. JOB 70 (PVP, WOE, WOC 30 Points Allocation)

1. Mirror Attack 15

2. Improve Dodge 15

3. Sonic Blow 15

4. Enchant Deadly Poison 20 (adds def piercing 10%)

5. Advanced Hiding 10 (Adds moves speed so you ain't a turtle in PVP/WOE) 

II. Phase 2 - Dagger Stats, Gear Progression (PVE/Boss Hunting, PVP&WOE&WOC)

Stats:

1. 99 STR 

2. 60 - 70 AGI 

3. 60 - 80 DEX 

Gear Progression: (PVE / Boss Hunting)

This gear set is a combination of things, it was meant to be used for your daily stuffs, like grinding, ET, boss hunting, as you your targets are mostly monsters that do not require too many special things.

Weapon: Holy Dagger IV / Dessert Twilight T3 or Sandstorm T4

Armor: Grand Thief Clothes IV, +10 Staunch Armor (Anti Fear) 3% atk & Matk

Off Hand: Rose Princess Bracer 

Garment: Ancient Cape 

Shoes: Feral Shoes III / Staunch Shoes / Holy Heavy Boots or Holy Boots

Headgear (TOP): Cat Ear Beret / Baphomet Horns / Orc Hero Helm (if you can get it to +10) / Rudolph Antlers (Stormy Knight Drop)

Facegear (MID) : Nut on Head / Hockey Mask / Masquerade 

Mouthgear: Spiked Mask / Pipe 

Accessories: Power Rings / Rings / Matyr's Leash / Flower Rings T3 / Staunch Ring (Activate Staunch Armor Combination 5% atk & matk)

Back Gear: Devil Wings 

Tail: Fox Tail (flee)/ Petite Tail(move speed)

Gear Progression: (PVP & WOE)

This Gear set was meant to be used for WOE and PVP, the logic of the gear set follows, Staunch armor and ring combination gives you additional atk and while the armor gives you anti fear, str and dex stats, and 3% atk & matk at +10 full tier while the ring gives you hp. As for the rest of the gear, they are your typical ignore def set. (more later on achieving 100% ignore def)

Weapon: Dessert Twilight T3 or Sandstorm T4

Armor: +10 Staunch Armor (Anti Fear) 3% atk & Matk

Off Hand: Rose Princess Bracer 

Garment: Ancient Cape 

Shoes: Staunch Shoes / Holy Heavy Boots or Holy Boots

Headgear (TOP): Cat Ear Beret / Baphomet Horns / Orc Hero Helm (if you can get it to +10) / Rudolph Antlers (Stormy Knight Drop)

Facegear (MID) : Nut on Head / Masquerade / Goblin Leaders Mask

Mouthgear: Spiked Mask

Accessories: Power Rings (if +12)/ Rings IV / Matyr's Leash / Staunch Ring (Activate Staunch Armor Combination 5% atk & matk)

Back Gear: Devil Wings 

Tail: Fox Tail (flee)/ Petite Tail(move speed)

III. Ignore def - its importance and function in WOE & how to achieve it

Ignore defense is one of the most important things in the game. Ignore defense allows you to achieve higher damage against targets who have higher defense stats, mostly players and boss mobs. This could mean the difference between hitting 1M Sonic Blow or 500k Sonic Blow. 

In PVP, WOE, and WOC, since your targets are players prepare to go against some highly geared characters, and since we are assassins, our main job is to mow them down and destroy the emperium.

Now achieving 100% ignore defense is a bit tricky in terms of HOW. But let me try and do my best to highlight these to you.

The first thing that you need to note are the importance of the Minoraus card and dessert wolf card's deposit effects.

Minoraus - Ignore def of monster by 50% when damage to large (modifier found in twilight, sandstorm or ninja suit 2 +5) is more than 50%

Dessert Wolf - Ignore def of monster by 50% when damage to small (modifier found in Grand thief clothes T8 and Holy Dagger T8) is more than 50%

Now what these two are basically saying, to achieve 50% ignore defense, you need to have achieve 51% to a target's size before it unlocks.

NON Enchant Dependent - Sandstorm Route:

Sandstorm or Desert Twilight T2 with 1 minoraus equipped and deposited = 50% ignore defense

Rose Princess Bracer = 25% ignore defense

Ancient Cape = 15% ignore defense

---- either of these combinations below ------

Nut on head = 5% ignore defense & Baby Desert wolf pet = 5% ignore Defense = 10% ignore defense

    -or-

Majestic Goat = 10% ignore defense

    -or-

Stormy Knight Horns = 5% ignore defense & Nut on head = 5% ignore defense -or- Baby Desert Wolf Pet = 5% ignore defense

All of this totals to 100% ignore defense.

NON Enchant Dependent - Holy Dagger Route: (Only viable in episode 4)

Holy Dagger T8 + Grand Thief Clothes T8 with either 2 minoraus equipped, 1 deposited / 2 dessert wolf equipped, 1 deposited = 50% ignore defense

Rose Princess Bracer = 25% ignore defense

Ancient Cape = 15% ignore defense

---- either of these combinations below ------

Nut on head = 5% ignore defense & Baby Desert wolf pet = 5% ignore Defense = 10% ignore defense

    -or-

Majestic Goat = 10% ignore defense

    -or-

Stormy Knight Horns = 5% ignore defense & Nut on head = 5% ignore defense -or- Baby Desert Wolf Pet = 5% ignore defense

All of this totals to 100% ignore defense.

As for enchant dependent ignore defense if you can get it that would be great, you just need to mix and match from the non enchant dependent above and eliminate either one or more of the items.

IV. Def piercing - What is this? Thought we already doing ignore def?

Def piercing is a trait that enables characters to add additional break through damage against targets that have high refined gears. I'm guessing you've seen those numbers when you refine your armors, reduce damage stuff.

That is what def piecing breaks through, there are only a handful of items and skills that gain def piercing like andre star card, Stormy knight horns, Enchant Deadly Poison 11-20 and Double Armor 6-10.

Having this is awesome for things like WOE and PVP, but most monsters in PVE don't even have anything to def pierce. So please take not of this.

V. Cards! Cards! Cards!

More often than not these are some of the questions i get on a daily basis. Lets start off by saying cards are segmented into the following categories utility, damage, and survival.

Now, the rule of thumb is that you always want your weapon to have the cards that deal the most to your target, but if you are broke AF like I am always. Well yeah stick to utility cards or cheaper versions of the damage cards. SO HERE WE GO!

Just to add, the cards are mostly the same for crit and dagger.

Cards: 

Weapon: Dessert Wolf / Minos / Hydras (PVP&WOE) / Elemental Cards & their cheaper versions (please see below)

Head: Deviruchi / Mummy Star / Ant Star

Off Hand: Marc 

Garment: Whisper / Ninetails

Shoes: Male Thief Bug / Matyr / Ferus

Armor: Thara Frog / Argiope / Dokebi / Peco Peco

Accessories: Greatest General (Auto Attack) / Mantis / Kobold (Crit) / Zipper Bear Star / Horong

Elemental Cards are a must have, always make sure you carry either these or their cheaper versions:

Mandragora for Wind Targets

Vadon for Fire Targets

Menblatt for Earth Targets 

Drainliar for Water Targets --- Cheaper version is Flora for Fish Type

I would add peco egg cards, I KNOW ITS NOT AN ELEMENT, but it's nice to have when you go up against neutral formless monsters.

VI. Grinding Tips

These are the spots I would recommend for grinding: 

10 - 30 Willows / Mandragora

31 - 40 Vadons or Goblins

41 - 50 Ants (cause who likes ants!)

51 - 75 Dustiness / Horong (dagger) 

71 - 90 Punks / Ridewords / Hunter Fly / Cramps (Dagger) / Kobold Archer

91 - Beyond Cookies / Christmas Cookies / Brilights / Teddies

Now the fun part after all that basic and advanced stuffs! (looks like someone copied the original guide... yes i did cause I know you are too lazy to press the freaking linked stuff on top!)

VII. Now the Fun Begins

In case you are wondering this section we will discuss mainly a few things first things first, the weapon.

Holy Dagger - This is the Final Form of your Full Black Dagger (SEA) or Ebone Dagger (CN). This bad ass knife is what I would consider a brute force dagger. This has power and that's it. 

(In Episode 5 though it gains a combo effect with Grand Thief Clothes that allows you to use the storing effect of Dessert wolf cards.)

Sandstorm - This is the Final Form of Desert Twilight. This knife has modifiers to medium and large, at the same time enabling you to activate the Minoraus card storing effect by Equipping 1 and storing 1. This dagger is also one way to augment Hit issues you may be having.

There should be no debate on which dagger to use. Think of it this way, Holy dagger has High Atk while Sandstorm has High modifiers to medium and large, what normally happens is that Holy dagger's Attack bonuses are able to compensate the modifiers of Sandstorm. With that said the only few things you need to consider are the things below:

1. Cost for 2 Slotting: Holy Dagger is cheaper

2. Cost for tiering: Sandstorm is cheaper

3. Fixes my hit problems: Sandstorm is better

Now, if you all consider those factors, if you are aiming for just grinding, boss hunting, endless tower, and normal pvp you may opt to use Holy Dagger. In the long run though, if you want to go further you will need to use Sandstorm +10 base minium refine.

Runes:

For this section lets talk about runes, unlike their brother the katar sinx, dagger types only need a minimum of 6 gold badges and and 5100 contribution to activate their first Double Attack Rune. The gain from activating this rune is immediately visible.

The priority of Runes for dagger types will always be:

Double Attack 5 Runes - 40% damage increase

Double Armor 2 Runes - increase atk by 15% when triggering Double Armor

Three images below are the evolution of how your runes might look like.

In terms of Numbers:

Double Attack - 38 Gold Badge and 26250 Contribution

Double attack + Double armor runes - 54 Gold Badge and  24300 Contribution (optimal path)

Now that you are done with all these priority runes, your question is whats next? (I know right? I'm  A FUCKING MIND READER)

Since there are a billion ways to do this, I will list down what i think would be the the most needed route.

POISON!!

Going Poison has a few advantages you get more damage to fire earth and wind, cheap converter for 500z for 5 minutes, and you will need this to trigger the most powerful and most awesome skill of a sinx, Poison Pitcher (CN) or Poison Cast (SEA)

The Rune paths below will include the base Double attack + Double Armor Runes.

The priority runes will follow this order:

Poison Restraint 2 Runes - Adjust poison damage to other elements by 20%

Enchant Poison 2 Runes - Increase Poison Elements Damage by 75% (adds roughly 30-40 atk)

Enchant Poison Research 2 Runes - Increase Attack Gained by Poison Enchanting by 75% (modifies skill)

In terms of Numbers:

This path requires 96 Gold badge and 47100 contributions

Now, that we are finished with poison runes lets move on to poison cast or poison pitcher.

Why is this rune so important, well what this Rune Skill Does is it amplifies ALL DAMAGE be it normal attack or skill damage when enchant poison by 100%.

To put it simply, Sonic blow has 700% damage under the influence of poison pitcher that's 1400%. <--- FUCK YEAH!

So here is the rune path:

Poison Cast has 8 Runes but the most important one is the top right which adds the 30% damage modifier first.

Then after take the last remaining 7 Runes that add 10% damage modifiers.

In terms of Numbers:

This path requires 216 Gold badge and 100050 contributions

Well after that? What's next?

Simply put at this stage you won't be a newbie anymore, since you went from 0 gold badges to 200++

Since runes are easily reset you can mix and match them and tailor fit to what you need.

You may do Double attack with Poison Cast first, or Poison with Poison Cast (for burst damage).

Either way, this will be one of the things you will be trying to fulfill in the long run.

This guide is long, i know and I enjoyed writing it.

Thanks for taking the time to read it and enjoy!