Assassins (and their transcended Assassin Cross) are able to equip a weapon in each hand and the exclusive users of Katar weapons. Assassins have a variety of damage dealing and poisoning skills. The Assassin are the only class who can walk slightly faster than any other class ingame as long as they leveled the proper skill (Thief's Improve Dodge). The Katar wielding Assassins also receive double the normal amount of critical hit rate. Therefore, whatever amount of critical rate Assassins have, it would always be doubled.
Changing into an Assassin from a Thief requires the player to complete a number of tasks:
A Written Test
An Assassination Test
An Endurance Test
A Maze test
After completing these tests, the player will be transformed into an Assassin. All this takes place inside the Assassin Guild in the Morroc Desert (moc_fild16 xx, yy).
Builds
As a note of clarification, most Assassin stat builds are very similar to one another. For example, the terms 'equip critical', and 'DD' describe equipment preferences, but the actual stats of these two builds are similar.
The skills which most Assassins will get is very similar, because of the relative weakness of the poison skills, and the small number of available assassin skills:
Righthand Mastery Lv. 3-5 (only affect auto attack, which can be left at level 3 if intend to only use skill later)
This build is very similar to that of a Dual Dagger Assassin, the difference being that they use Katars with cards that add to the CRIT rate of attacks. Even if your HIT is not high enough to hit the monster with your auto attacks, a CRIT will still land. A small amount of DEX is still necessary for skill usage, as many skills require DEX to land the hit on the monster.
Natural Critical Assassins are built almost the same as the Equipment Critical Assassins but with less DEX, more LUK (around 50~60), and sometimes less STR. They're equipped with damage cards (i.e. Hydra, Santa Poring, etc) instead of critical rate enhancement cards for the Equip Critical Assassins. Natural Critical builds are not very effective and are generally not worth the tradeoffs.
There are two ways to accomplish this: a high ATK Katar (like a Jamadhar) carded with one Sidewinder Card or with a Chick Hat. It is important to note that multi slotted low ATK weapons is not effective in Renewal anymore, and it is usually best to go with the highest ATK weapon available (level 3 or 4 weapon preferred).
This is the quick build for leveling an Assassin. Note that the stats are similar to those of an Equip Critical build, and a Dual Dagger Assassin could pick up the gear of an Equip Critical build and have comparable performance. The main difference is the weapons used.
Note: the following information may be outdated. It may be better to use high ATK weapons instead of multiple carded weapons now. It is safer to just go with a Katar build.
Many players find that leveling AGI classes can become expensive due to the need for healing on high HIT mobs (and in renewal, many mobs have had their HIT increased drastically). There is a simple solution that wont bankrupt new players starting out with little money to spend with: Fresh Fishes. This cheap, yet viable option is a great substitute for the ever expensive Potions sold by Tool Vendors (and their weight is only 2 each). They can be bought from the Alberta Chef Assistant.
Eden Group Equipment is free and a great place to start for gear to use. The Katar is a good weapon and generally a good choice for an Assassin and their future classes' use.
It is recommended to look at the Equipment recommendations for the Third Class job to see what equipment to strive for, rather than to spend a lot of money on a piece of equipment that will not be used in the future as a third class. However, some equipment may have a high level requirement, or are transcendent only.
Weapons
After considering what requirement skills have (some skills can only be used with certain weapon types), the Weapon Search tool within the iRO Wiki DB site is very helpful. Generally, for physical classes (both melee and ranged), something with high ATK is best. For magic classes, something with high MATK is best.
Katar-type weapon with many slots. Normally compounded with +CRIT or Race cards. As of Renewal, this is no longer an optimal weapon due to increased importance of weapon attack. (ATK 125)
Dagger-type weapon that has a random Element when dropped. Has an ATK bonus that scales with upgrade level and user base level, and a MATK bonus that scales with upgrade level. (ATK 55)
Imbues the characters weapon with the Poison element causing each attack to be Poison element damage and to have a chance to inflict the Poison status.
Counters a Poison element attack with a one time physical attack for up to 400% damage. Also has a chance to counter non-Poison element attacks with level 5 Envenom up to 5 times.
In the equipment window (ALT+Q) the righthand weapon is in the left column, next to the sprite's right hand, and the lefthand weapon is in the right column, next to the sprite's left hand. If the character has no weapons or shields equipped, then the first single-handed weapon equipped goes into the right hand. If any weapon is in the right hand (including a katar) then the next single-handed weapon equipped goes onto the left hand. This means that if you have a katar equipped, the first single-handed weapon you equip goes onto the left hand (also un-equipping the katar) and the second one goes onto the right hand, while if you start out empty handed the first equipped goes onto the right hand and the second onto the left hand.
Righthand Mastery Lv. 3-5 (only affect auto attack, which can be left at level 3 if intend to only use skill later)
Lefthand Mastery Lv. 5
Katar Mastery Lv. 7-10 (for Katar builds)
Sonic Blow Lv. 10
Enchant Poison Lv. 6
Venom Splasher Lv. 10 (no longer needed when already Assassin Cross, can use Meteor Assault instead)
Poison React Lv. 10
Cloaking Lv. 3
Vali's Manteau: Although non-slotted, a decent substitute for Raydric Card. (DEF 13, weight 60, -15% Damage from Neutral element)
Undershirt: Cheap, can do a good combo with Pantie and can be slotted. (DEF 5, MDEF 1, weight 15)
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The Sign
Medal of Honor (obtained from Battlegrounds)
