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Monday 8 October 2012

Silver Flash! - General Rogue Guide


The Silver Moon Guide





"They are the few masters of movement, those of the Dark Elves who possess physical ability beyond most comprehension, trained vigorously under the code of the Rogue."

“I was attacked… and defeated… by a living, breathing sound…. I saw it with my own eyes… it had no face... only a sound.”

They are the Silver Moons. Those who move in the blink of an eye.

The Rogues of the Royal Guard are considered by many to be of the most elite forces of the entire world. Studying the art of movement, they train to push their bodies to levels of extreme performance. Some even believe them to actually be manifestations of sound, as their physical form is not always visible when they attack. To be in a fight with the elusive Rogue is said to be like fighting a ghost, with razor sharp accuracy, who can manipulate the air around them as if it were an extension of their own body.


This guide will go over the skills, equipment, and general strategies of the rogue (silver moon) class. Hopefully, you may find some use of it. Let's get started!

[Table of Contents]
[Update]
[Class Summary]

[Skills]
[Builds]

[Equipment]
[Daggers]
[Twin Swords/Dual Blades]
[Armor]
[Accessories]
[Titles]
[Pets]

[Gameplay]
[FAQ]
[Tips]
[Videos]
[Ancients]
[Outerverse]
[Tower of Despair]
[Future Content]
[Rogue Mods]
[Closing]
[Credits]

[Update]

DFO is out, and it has pretty much every balance patch that DNF has received for rogue so far. The only thing DNF has that we do not is an increase to the physical attack power of daggers (which comes with the new level 85 area, castle of the dead). No details on that yet, though.
[Class Summary]
The rogue class, as you can probably guess, is an extremely fast class. Rogues use daggers or twin swords/dual blades as their weapons and leather armor.

Pros: 
  • Many invincibility frames 
  • Able to interrupt super armored enemies, even ones that can't normally be grabbed. 
  • Able to hold enemies for short period, disabling them completely. 
  • Able to gather enemies easily 
  • Lots of control in the air 
  • Higher critical damage
  • Ability to cancel out of skills to avoid danger


Cons: 

  • Two of our big cube skills are weaker on ungrabbable targets, and won't hold them for very long, and they do not benefit from counter damage. 
  • Leather armor isn't meant for taking hits.
  • Short range
  • You need to get used to pressing X before all your skills. This slows you down, especially since you can't cancel out of dash attacks.
  • Don't play this class with delusions about DPS and high damage. 

When you subclass, your cosmetic feature is a shine in your eyes. When you use certain moves, you can see the shine follow, somewhat like a berserker when he's slashing (or more accurately, a launcher with eagle eye. The trailing light is small and well placed.)

In a party, rogues play a partial utility role. You'll have both interrupting and holding abilities, though not nearly as many as a female grappler. Gathering monsters can be very useful for partying, but it's not that big of a deal. Of course you'll be doing damage, too, but how much you do is based mostly on your gear. Normally you'd see a class like this in an RPG and expect to do high damage, but there are other classes that can do far more with less gear.

Finally, I would like to make sure you understand that rogues are not really an aerial class. Yes, they have many skills that can be used in the air, but you won‘t be spending much time juggling enemies up there. Most of the action still happens on the ground.





[Skills]

This section will go over every skill and how important it is to your build. Whenever I go over a skill, I'll list several numbers showing what levels it's possible to leave this skill at. Each will be a color, depending on how recommended it is to leave it at this level. If a skill has (auto) behind it, that means you automatically get that skill level from subclassing.

If a skill level is blue, that means it's pretty much required. The only reason you would not follow blue is if you're running some gimmick build or just don't care about your rogue.
If a skill level is green, that means it's recommended, but you could make valid arguments for not following green (but if you don't follow green, make sure you know why!)
Orange skill levels are based on preference. Orange generally represents a choice. It's not bad having orange skills, they just represent the good skills you might not be able to pick up depending on your SP.
Pink is for skill levels that are also based on preference, but are generally not as solid of a choice as orange. If you know what you're doing and feel you have good reasons to be choosing a pink option, go ahead. If you're new and not sure, don't bother.
Red is for when a skill level is something that has almost no reasons to be obtained. You'll have to make it work, and it's rarely worth the trouble.
Taste the rainbow.
Well, let's get started!

[Pre-subclass]

Rising Cut: (1 (auto), max.) Your most basic skill. Press the skill key (normally Z) to use an uppercut with your weapon that lifts enemies and causes you to jump a bit. It's the only class launcher that can be used in the air. It has low range and a bit of super armor. Hold it longer to jump higher, which has not effect on how high enemies are launched. Leveling this skill increases the launch strength (as well as the damage).

In PvE, you don't need to juggle monsters. You'll just make party members mad and slow down whatever dungeon you're doing. Still, even with just level 1, it gives you super armor and builds contact points, so throw it out when your other skills are on cooldown. It also functions like another jump in the air, which can be useful.


The action enhancements patch added a feature called cross counter. If a super armored foe hits you during the super armored frames of this attack (0.3 seconds), you'll break their super armor and launch them.


Shuriken: (1 (Auto), max.) Throws a Kunai. A very gimmicky skill to get. The only reason you would get this skill is if you truly plan to spam it every 2 seconds to fill in cooldowns. It's quick and can be thrown out without much thought, considering it's long ranged and fills in gaps in your attack pattern. It pierces multiple targets (8?) and has very little Y-axis. If you max this, you'll probably get the EX, which allows you to throw 2 weaker shuriken. Also, watch out if you use certain unique daggers, their melee attack bonuses won't be applied to this skill.

This skill does okay damage for it's cooldown, but you generally have better things to be doing. Don't get it just because you want a long range option. It's only to aid DPS for those that love the skill and don't really care that's it's not ideal.


Slicer: (0, 1) After your dash attack, press X again to slash outwards with your weapons. This skill is useful for clearing out obstacles like boxes and generating CP (More on this later). It's damage isn't great, though the hit box is kind of wide, which is nice. I have seen some people max this for some of the same reason as shuriken, except that with the EX, this skill's range becomes very respectable. Combined with how fast it is and that it builds CP, and it'd be a decent skill, but the knock down is annoying.

Level 5 used to be required to get the awakening, but that's no longer true.


Flaming Cut: (1 (Auto), Anything) An awkward cut that leaves a trail of flame behind.

The skill becomes faster and gets better range as you level it, but it's still very weak, even if you convert it to physical.


Dark Soul: (0, 1.) When used, you make a dark orb slowly hover forward. If a target strays anywhere in a cone in front of it, it'll start moving faster after the target. When it connects, it hits twice then explodes.

The damage is really weak, but there is a little bit of utility in one level of this skill. It has use in room 2 of void, where I use it on the boxes to push them along while I run from the boss. Because it deals shadow damage, it also helps with Delezie's elemental gimmick. It's not really needed, though.


Shadow Cut: (0, 1, Max.) When used, you slash diagonally. If it hits, you'll teleport behind the target.

This skill does decent damage on a low cooldown. However, if you hit multiple enemies, sometimes the teleportation becomes unpredictable. If you enjoy the teleport and can use it between your other cooldowns, it's not a bad choice. You can also just get one level to abuse the teleportation.


If you don't like one of the four low cooldown rogue skills, you'll probably end up picking up either this skill or ankle cut. Otherwise, ignore it.

Shining Cut: (Max.) An honestly amazing skill. When used, you fly forward, cutting everything in your way. You can also press up or down to move diagonally.

This skill does really good damage on a low cooldown, and has decent range. It's one of your core skills. Max it and love it.


With daggers and dagger mastery level 1, you can use this skill anytime during most other skills, while gaining a contact point.

Bone shield: (0, Anything.) Summons bone shards around you that boost your defense stats slightly and counterattacks enemies that attack you.

The defense bonus is tiny, and the counter attacks are weak.


Transformation: Molting: (0, 1.) When you use this skill, your character teleports up a bit and leaves an afterimage on the ground. The after image is a perfect copy of yourself, which stands still and explodes when it runs out of HP or after a certain duration. The afterimage has a taunt aura.

This skill can be used while you're hitstunned/launched by an enemy, making it useful for recovering from boss shockwaves/launches. The taunt aura can also be helpful (see ov section).

Note: This skill can be interrupted the half second it takes to cast it. Use with caution!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Radwolf14 View Post
there is a very interesting glitch you can use with it and a Crusader's Fountain of Life. When you have Fountain of Life on and get killed, use Molting while in the air but before hitting the ground. Molting will work, teleporting you into the air, so you won't hit the ground for the fairies to revive you. You will be left with 1 hp and unable to be killed until the buff runs out. You can't heal yourself in any way during this time. If you get knocked down, you will revive like you were supposed to.


Diving Arrow: (5) When you use this skill (air only), you'll dive down diagonally. Once you reach a target, there are some strange physics. You'll instantly knock the target over and start kicking diagonally down at it. These kicks juggle, but if an enemy gets away (I-frame escape, super armor, or just too heavy), the kicks will keep going for one or two tries, then the move will quit. Super armor throughout the animation.

You can press normal attack key (X, usually) to kick more times (up to 6), or the skill key (Z, usually) to do an axe kick that brings you and the monsters down to the ground and slams them hard enough for them to bounce up, as well as creating a shockwave that launches, which makes it very easy to follow up with any move. 
If you don't use the axe kick, you'll backflip away after the move ends. 

It can be used at any point in the air, even off of backstep.

The main use of this skill is that it generates 2 CP when cancelled. More on that later in the hit end skill description. The skill itself is pretty weak and not worth maxing. Get used to manually inputting this skill as a cancel. Although difficult to learn, it's very much worth using, and you'll be using it a lot.

Level 5 because it's a pre-requisite for lightning arrow.

Flying Squirrel: (0, 1Max.) When used on the ground, you jump forward (or just enter the stance if used from the air) and punch the first enemy you meet with an explosive. Repeat several times until a final, larger explosion occurs, each hit pushing both you and the enemy up.

Again, juggling is usually not what you want. I hear the damage at max physically converted is like one shining cut. It's a gimmick skill. It's pretty fun, though.


Curse Spear: (1 (auto)). When used, point forward and 7 spears appear. Fire them by pressing the skill key.

It does low damage like Dark Soul. It has full super armor, so it might be useful when you need to stay standing for something. The curse debuff seems to not be based on status level, as it still works in OV.


New balance 3 allows you to move freely after summoning the spears, but reduces the amount of spears summoned to 4. You can use the skill again to fire the spears anytime. Still not interesting.

Ankle Cut: (0, Max.) A fast low sweep kick that inflicts slow. 

This skill is like shadow cut, you can max it to fill in gaps in your cooldowns. You probably don't need or have room for both though. Ankle cut is very fast, does good damage, and doesn't come with a teleport gimmick, and can even hit fallen enemies, but in trade knocks down and can't be cancelled into.

The slow is pretty good, 100% chance and level 85 at max. It was a great skill to have when I played, but rogues have received a few new skills since then, so this skill is obsolete.


Eraser: (0, 1, Max.) Jump on an enemy's back and stab their neck. Multiple stabs if used from behind. Then you backflip away.

It's actually pretty powerful. However, it hits one enemy and has no grab cannon, making it less useful later on. It's also expensive in both SP and TP.

It's useful at level 1 like any other grab though, just so that you can quickly escape bad situations.


[Common Skills]

Leap: (0, 1). Increase how high you jump for a short period.

One level of Leap can be fun, and useful for jumping over instant-death explosions in OV. It's really not that useful, though, there are far safer ways to deal with those gimmicks.

Physical Critical Hit: (Any level, Max.) This adds critical, 10% at max. It's pretty cheap and it's a solid upgrade, especially for us, since we have additional critical damage from our leather armor mastery. However, there are still two reasons why you might not max this. The first is if you plan to reach 50% critical without this skill, then spam sharp-eye potions forever. The second is if you need to take a few levels out of this skill to max something you find more important.

Physical Back Attack: (0, Max.) Increases critical rate on back attacks, up to 15%. Only if you plan on running some super gimmick build based on back attacks. Some of our skills can benefit from that, but it's probably not worth it for most.

Quick Rebound: (1 (Max).) When knocked down, press jump to instantly rise halfway, becoming invincible for up to 3 seconds, and then gain super armor for 0.3 seconds.

It's 10 SP for more utility than Batman's belt. It's outright required in OV, and it’s very helpful everywhere else. Use it to avoid taking multiple hits and escape.

The other common skills are meant for magical classes. In other words, NOT YOU.

[Rogue Skills]

Hit End: (Max.) When you subclass to a rogue, 5 orbs appear in the bottom left corner. They are normally empty and gray. When you cancel a normal attack into a skill from the rogue tree, one of those orbs turns red. The normal attack does not need to connect, only the canceled skill. Diving arrow/excel strike turns 2 orbs red. Up to 5 red orbs can be held. They expire after 20 seconds or so. Using cancels when your orbs are full resets their timers. These are called contact points, or CP.

What are they for? On certain skills, a faint red orb appears during a part of the animation. These skills have a small H in the top left on their skill icons (Rising Cut, Bandit Cut, Hurricane, and Excel strike). If you press the skill key (Z) during that faint red orb, you will use up all remaining contact points to perform an additional attack. The damage of the additional is determined by 3 things.

First, damage on the skill itself. Each Hit End skill will have values for the Hit End damage, which increase with the skill's level. Second, how many contact points you have. 1 CP halves the hit end damage value, 2 CP gives you 1x, 3 CP is 1.75x, 4 CP 2.75x, 5 CP 4x. Basically, using a single 5 CP hit end is much more damage than 5 single CP hit end uses, and it takes less time overall, too.

The level of Hit End also adds more damage, further multiplying this. Some people only get 10 because they believe Hit End scales badly, but it basically boosts the damage of 2~3 skills at once, so even a small increase is helpful.

When you use Hit End on Rising Cut, you'll do a second rising cut with a spinning blade, inflicting multiple hits. With twins swords, this spinning blade is wider and inflicts bleed. The other Hit End effects will be told on their respective skills.

Even if you miss a canceled skill, you still get a contact point. When I say miss, I mean hit rate and evasion missing, if you whiff the skill and it doesn’t touch anything at all, no contact point.


Weapon mastery of choice: (Max ONE only.) Adds more damage and other things. For daggers, hit rate and evasion. For dual blades/twin swords, attack speed and hit immobilize. Don't get both; it's not worth it. So which one do you choose? Read the play style section.

[Update]

Both skills now max at level 20, and have new effects for various skills, which I'll explain on the affected skills.

Swiftness: (any level, max.) Completely new passive obtained at level 15. You automatically get level 1, and it maxes at 10. It increases hit rate, evasion, movement speed, and attack speed, and automatically generates a contact point every so often. At level 1, this happens every 15 seconds. At max, every 10.3 seconds. Very cheap passive that gives you plenty of valuable stats.

Sword Dance: (Any level, Max.) Completely new rogue skill. A single fast slash that hits in a wide circle around you. It can proc bleed, hit on the ground, and be used twice in a row at the cost of a contact point. With daggers, you can use this skill up to 6 times in a row (each one after the first costing a contact point, and getting more range). It can be used to cancel out of other skills, and you can move around while using it. It has a base cooldown of 7 seconds.

A filler skill, for that gap in your cooldowns (it fills in the same gap as shadow cut and ankle cut. I'd suggest only getting one of the three), but with daggers it's actually pretty effective for dealing with mobs of enemies, as the repeated slashes do decent damage over a wide area, and you can move to hit more enemies.

It does more damage then a single shining cut, it's pretty fast, it doesn't knock down or launch, and generates CP. It's a pretty good filler skill if you have the SP. Otherwise, you can live with taking a few points out of this skill.

Bandit Cut: (0, 5, Max.) This skill does a downward slash with surprising range. It's extremely strong, pretty fast, and comes with a strong stun.

Its Hit End causes you to kick forward after the slash and then jump after the knocked back targets, sending your blades flying forward, spinning again, then back quickly, inflicting 3 hits. It's pretty powerful and pretty fast, great for tougher mobs and bosses.

This is a very solid skill, there's really not much else I can say, use it often. It knocks monsters back without knocking them over, which can be useful in some places (room 3/5 void, room 2 bakal, room 2 goblin, room 3 castle, room 4 castle, landrunners in Rangulas, general gathering/pushing strategies). Only skip it if you somehow hate it.


With twin swords, the spinning blades launched forward during bandit cut hit end become wider and inflict bleed.

With daggers, the hit end's CP cost is reduced by 2 (you'll always have two CP leftover after using this hit end, unless you use it with 1 CP). It's still the most powerful with 5 CP. 




Double Pierce: (0, 1, ?.) A very fun skill, stab forward then kick, twirl, and kick again. Satisfying animation.

This skill actually does pretty decent damage now. If you hate chainsaw or sword dance, this could be a possible filler skill, it seems to do more damage then sword dance for the same cooldown. It's a little awkward to use though, and takes more SP to max.

Aerial Jump: 1 (Max) Allows you to jump in the air. 

Not as useful as it sounds, most fights happen on the ground, but it can be useful for avoiding certain attacks. Pretty crazy with leap.

Can be used to avoid land runner explosions in Rangulas, but I don't suggest risking your tokens for that.

Shining Spark: 5 (Max) Allows you to use Shining Cut twice in a row; one in the air, one on the ground. If you use it from the ground, pressing Shining Cut again will launch you diagonally into the air, while using it from the air will make you dive diagonally down before dashing across the ground when you land.

You can change directions for the 2nd slash, allowing you to hit an enemy twice, and the second Shining Cut can move diagonally as well, giving you a lot of movement options. It's a huge buff to one of your strongest attacks, never skip this.

With daggers, you can use shining cut up to four times in a row, but the damage is decreased slightly. The first three go across the ground, and the last one goes into the air. It's very strong, but very hard to control. I suggest taking it slow, wait a bit after each slash to see where your target is, you don't have much time, but there's no need to rush and spam the key.


Even if you can control the movement, it's still not an easy skill to use. Normally your second shining cut hits whatever you're standing on, but with three/four shining cuts, it does not. If you don't start your first shining cut from the right position, it'll be impossible to land every shining cut on a human sized target. The ideal range seems to be a bit less then the maximum range of your normal attack.

Once you get the EX, it decreases the distance shining cut travels, making it easier to control.

Chainsaw: (3, Max.) This skill makes you twirl your blade while slashing, hitting 3 times. You can keep pressing this to slash again while twirling, and then again for a total of 3 sweeps and 9 hits. The last sweep launches and hits on the ground.

This skill does pretty high damage. It's always nice watching 9 large chunks vanish from the enemy's HP bar. You can press backward after the first sweep to keep yourself from sliding forward on the 2nd and third sweep, or forward to make you slide forward farther.

There are two problems which prevent this from being an absolute must-max, despite it's great damage. First, it launches, which will annoy party members (though they can prevent this if they hit the enemy as they are being launched). Second, it takes a bit longer then your other low-cooldown skills, and you're very vulnerable while using this skill. Don't be too reckless while using this thing.

With Twin Swords, the size of the twirling blade is greatly increased, and it inflicts bleed. It's large enough to hit enemies on the floor with every sweep. The bleed proc is short and not that strong.


Breaking Rush: (1 (Max).) This skill makes you dash forward a little distance, and at any time you can cancel into anything else. During a huge part of the animation, you are invincible.

By giving up one contact point, any skill can be canceled, unless you are in the air. This skill can be incredible, allowing you to escape attacks no one else can, but it's pretty hard to make full use of it.

Massive utility. Get this, and learn to use it.


Hurricane: (Max) Spin around, slashing and drawing in enemies into your own personal storm, hitting 10 times. You can move around while the animation plays, at a reduced speed. Can be used in the air (but you can't cancel into it, you'll fall to the ground during the animation.)

At any time during the animation, you can press the skill key to use hit end, which will make the hurricane lift up, inflicting one powerful hit that launches foes very high. As hurricane falls back to earth, it may hit taller mobs that wander under you, launching them.

The skill does okay damage over a decent area, but it's very effective at gathering mobs. It's hit end does pretty good damage, and sets up enemies for further combos, but the high launch is annoying. As an alternative, I suggest cancelling into a few sword dances instead.

With level 5 dagger mastery, hurricane will move 50% faster while using daggers.

With daggers, this skills hit end is similar to bandit cut's, using 2 less CP.


Sidestep: (0, Max.) When used, you do a little hop down (or up, if you're holding up) on the Y-axis.

Doesn't go very far, and doesn't really help you dodge much of anything.

[Update]
This skill now lets you cancel out of other skills. Still not amazing, but it's alright. It only costs 30 SP, too.

Vertical spiral: (5, Max.) When you use giga drill breaker Vertical Spiral on the ground, you'll spin kick like a drill, heading diagonally up, and then slowly curving down in a gentle parabola. If used in the air, you'll go straight forward a set distance. Either way, you'll inflict multiple hits along the way, and at any time you can press the skill key to slam down with both blades and create a shockwave.

This skill is exceptional at gathering. You can push entire mobs into a generic pile on one side of the map, then use Hurricane to turn it into a more concentrated pile. It has super armor throughout the animation. Level 5 is usually obtained as a pre-req to the 70 EX.

Additionally, people tend to just Backstep and then Spiral, because it pushes mobs better (also hits on the ground.) If you launch monsters with Chainsaw/Hurricane and then time spiral right, you can drag them all along in the parabola of a ground spiral. Vertical spiral can also move up or down if you press the arrow keys while spiraling, but this can only be done off of normal jump spirals. If you use backstep into spiral or spiral off the ground, you'll go straight forward with no control.

It used to be a very rare skill to max, as it was our weakest cube in pure numbers and getting all of the hits to work was difficult in practice. Now, it has a few nice changes, like not having a delay when used on the ground, and being able to cancel it from a jump attack, and greater shockwave range and damage. Still not amazing for daggers.

For twin swords, however, you can now charge up the skill, using up all current contact points to greatly increase damage and range of both the spiral and the shockwave. It goes from pushing around small mobs of enemies to wiping out small rooms and huge mobs of enemies. Very good AoE skill, and one that Twin Swords should seriously consider.


Lightning Arrow: (1, ?, Max.) Grab an enemy, slash them 3 times, then use a large dive kick that sends the enemy into the ground, leaving behind a trail of fire as you both land and send out a shockwave to damage more enemies.

High single target damage. The only damage applied to other targets is a fixed shockwave. This skill also has a grab cannon. If used on something not grabbable, you'll just use the last diving kick (with a bit more power to compensate). This means it can interrupt anything (besides I-frames), deserving 1 point at least.

The higher you use it, the harder it is to control, but the more damage it does. Don't mind this, though, it's not important.


It's actually very strong, and makes a nice SP dump. Be mindful when using though, it pushes enemies around a lot, which will annoy them.

Sonic Assault: (Max). Dash forward, grab the first target you find, then slash them numerous times at hyper speed, leaving them completely helpless. Then, you do a backflip and hit their face with an explosive kick.

If used on an ungrabbable target, you'll just do the backflip explosion (with a bit more power), which interrupts the monster no matter what they are doing.

You can warp between targets by pressing jump, which helps if you accidentally grab the wrong monster. You'll jump to the monster nearby in range with the highest HP. This leaves behind a clone that keeps attacking for weak damage. You can't jump back to targets already passed. This allows you to disable several enemies for a short time (useful room 1 castle.) You can actually end up warping to an ungrabbable targat, which lets you hold ungrabbable targets that you shouldn't be able to.

This skill's real strengths, however, are its single target damage and holding. It will hold a monster for quite a bit of time. This allows party members to hit the monster without any fear. This skill helps you and your party members. Max it, use it, love it.

With daggers, this skill now hits 3 more times, and allows you to warp to farther targets. With twin swords and level 7 twin sword mastery (or daggers with level 12 dagger mastery), this becomes a hit end skill. You'll simply repeat the final explosive kick. This can be done on ungrabbable targets, too. This is your strongest hit end skill, try to get full contact points before using it.



Death Hurricane: (Max) Passive that allows you to throw out knives in a double spiral during hurricane which do damage and can proc bleed.

The knives are literally stronger then the hits of hurricane, and makes it do so much more damage. The only problem is that unlike the hits of hurricane, I'm pretty sure each knife can only hit one target. Still, the added damage makes hurricane much more useful, especially against single targets.

Excel Strike: (Max) When used, you duck down in super armor, then dash forward so fast you vanish. You strike enemies along the way, launching them (and disabling them) while you change directions and attack with several strong kicks.

Press the skill key during the last kick and the monsters will bounce up from the backflip kick and you'll appear on the other side again and use a huge axe kick that slams them into the ground.

It works like a grab, but it grabs everything you hit, so you can disable entire mobs. If used on an ungrabbable target, you'll warp past them, hitting them, then appear behind them and kick backwards with a powerful hit, then warp back to the start. You can use hit end here, too, which will make you kick backwards again after you warp to the start. Something useful to know is that if a grabbable target is hit, it'll use the full version of excel strike, regardless of whether or not any ungrabbable targets were also hit.

High damage AND mob destruction, full I-frames after the initial duck-down...there's no reason to leave this skill out, ever. Also, try to make sure you have at least three contact orbs before you use it (cancel into it for the other two), using this with any less is limiting its power.

[Silver Moon Skills]

Silver Stream: (Max (auto)). Your awakening active. Lasts 40 or so seconds and gives you two spinning ribbons. Normal attacks have extended range and multi-hits (though you won't be using these too much, they can be used to fill gaps in your skill rotation), you've got a huge strength and critical damage boost (this is the main reason to use it). The description is glitched, but apparently gaining contact points during the buff duration can apply a movement speed and critical damage buff that stacks twice. (Three times at level 9 silver stream, which requires an item that boost silver stream's level).

Near the end, the ribbons spin faster, and it'll automatically use three slashes across the screen in a triangle. Anything hit will be gathered to one point, which works like a perfect grab; it holds everything. You send a mini wave of clones to hit the enemy, then slash across the screen a final time. The finishing attack only happens if you are on the ground and not in the middle of another attack, so it's possible to extend the awakening as long as you are in the air or in the middle of a skill. You can also input the awakening again to use the finisher early.

Other notable effects include having a permanent 2 CP. When you use up CP on something, there will still be 2 left over. This lets you spam full power Hit End skills faster.

Awakenings are now free. You get levels in them automatically as you level up. Also, it appears the permenent 2 CP stacks with the CP usage reduction for dagger users for bandit cut and hurricane hit ends, use either one at 5 CP, and you'll have 4 CP leftover. Pretty insane, go crazy with it.


Moon Arc: (Any level, Max) The awakening passive furthers the use of cancels. Whenever you gain contact points, you have a 33.3% chance to receive a buff (duration rising with level), which gives hit rate, evasion, and critical hit buffs (effects rising with level.)

At max apparently it gives 11.5 seconds of +14 percent hit rate/evasion and +28 percent critical rate.

This is a pretty large critical rate bonus, and it's for doing what you do anyway. This buff can now be refreshed during it's duration, so it can be kept up forever. With this your big skills are not going to miss and will more likely give you that beautiful crit. The only problem is that awakening passives now cost 45 SP per level. Pretty expensive.


[EX Actives]

<old icon/new icon>
Chainsaw Rush: (Max) When used, the Silver Moon throws both her blades forward, then jumps up, catches them, and slams down, creating a large impact.

This used to be a terrible skill for many reasons. Now it's not.

After throwing out your blades, you're free to move around. The blades will stop whenever they hit a target (or just vanish after a certain distance) and keep spinning, attacking everything it touches for 5 seconds before vanishing. If you use the skill again before they vanish within a certain range, you'll jump to the blades and do the finishing slam.

With daggers (at level 9 mastery), the spinning blades duration is greatly increased, but the finisher is removed. With twin swords, you can charge up the final slam using contact points to increase the damage and range, plus the thrown blade is twice as big and procs bleed.



<old icon/new icon >
Aslant Spiral: (Max?) This skill gives you a bit of time to aim a target on the ground, then you'll jump in the air and use a version of vertical spiral that's actually vertical, slamming into the ground with the force of a missile. It hits for percentage damage multiple times on the way down, followed by a huge fixed shockwave hit.

Pretty strong skill.

With daggers, this skill can be used in the air and does more damage the higher you are (minor increase). It also has it's cooldown greatly reduced (20%). With twin swords, you can charge up this skill with contact points like the others to increase damage and range.


[EX Passives]


TP skills are more preference-based, seeing as you can't max all of them. TP is extremely tight, however. Consider everything below to be only guesses.

Generally though, you'll generally want to get TP passives for skills you boost through chronicle sets.

Shining Cut Upgrade: (Max?) Your best low-cooldown skill probably deserves TP. It increases damage as usual, but also decreases how far shining cut goes, which makes it easier to control.

Shuriken Upgrade: (?.) If you really love shuriken...

 
Ankle/Shadow Cut Upgrade: (Any level.) These upgrades are pretty efficient, instead of 2 TP for 10 percent more attack power, it's 1 TP for 8 percent. If you maxed ankle cut or shadow cut and use it in your DPS chain, this is a great option. Though that isn't as likely with the new rogue skills...

Shadow cut EX adds more enemy immobility too, while ankle cut EX gives a higher slow rate.

Hit end upgrade: (Max?) Boosts the damage of all hit end attacks by 10%, and increases the damage scaling for additional contact points by 6%. It costs 3 TP per level. It's quite expensive, but for dagger users who are spamming hit end all day every day, it's worth it. But for twin sword users, you might not benefit from this as much. Still useful, but perhaps not as useful as the same amount of TP invested elsewhere...

Bandit Cut Upgrade: (Any level.) Fairly standard upgrade, 2 TP for 10% damage, 5 levels. Each rank adds +10% damage. I'd recommend this, since it's such a big part of your DPS.

Chainsaw Upgrade: (Any level.) Standard upgrade.

Hurricane Upgrade: (Any level.) Increased damage, increased speed. It sounds nice, but I'm sure it won't apply to death hurricane's knives, and without that, hurricane's damage is pretty weak. It does not boost the hit end damage.

Lightning arrow upgrade: (Any level.) Standard upgrade. Adds damage to both the single target slashes and the fixed shockwave. 

Sonic assault upgrade: (Any level.) Standard upgrade, +10% damage per rank. A future patch makes it so that it does not boost the hit end damage.

Excel strike upgrade: (Any skill level.) Standard upgrade, +10% damage per rank. A future patch makes it so that it does not boost the hit end damage.




[Builds]


To use it, click the silvermoon portrait at the top of the planner. To the right of the thief subclass portraits, there should be two numbers, and below that three buttons. The leftmost button should be blue, click that (if it isn't blue, click the silvermoon). It should turn red. Then over on the right, there should be two more buttons, one on top of the other. Click the green one on the bottom. The one on top will reset everything.

Right click each skill to bring up options to instantly max it/set it to 0. Right below the silvermoon picture there are two circles, one with a check. They're like tabs, one is your SP planner, the other is a TP planner.

[Old builds]
Skeleton.
Just the essentials to almost every rogue build, the rest is for you to choose.

Generic build.
This build obtains all the essentials and a few of the luxuries. There's 700 SP leftover, throw 200 in whatever weapon mastery you want, then you're free for the last bit of SP. TP is your choice.

My personal build.
It only differs from the build above because I've used the spare SP to max ankle cut, thrown in a few spare SP into lightning arrow, and then the final 10 SP into shuriken cancel for the perfectionist title.
After testing lightning arrow, I've noticed it's actually very strong. Strong enough to consider dropping the awakening to level 1 for. 150 strength more during the 40 seconds silver stream is actually up and the extra damage on the awakening finisher might not be able to make up for a 5k% damage skill every 14~ seconds.

Maxed Vertical Spiral build. This is rhaeven's build.

Max Lightning Arrow build. This is eden's build. I like this build a lot, actually.



[Equipment]
For levels 1~85, you should generally use whatever magic sealed equipment you can find. Recast in order to make the equipment type you need; convert to a good stat. If you find boss uniques as you level up, you can use those as well. Once you start getting past 60, you have several options for what equipment you can get.

[Endgame Weapons]

A basic endgame weapon choice would be to +12/13 a level 80 magic sealed rare weapon, roll for smash (which adds damage like screaming necklace) (More information on damage bonus interactions) or some other good stat.

There's also magic sealed uniques, which have better raw stats, but are otherwise the same, except they're pricy and you can only reroll the stat.


The regular uniques and boss uniques are good too. None of them stand out as being amazing, besides maybe Limit Twin Sword.

All the level 75~85 epics are amazing, but good luck finding them.

Chronicle weapons generally have very high exorcism, which is handy, but very low physical attack compared to uniques of the same level. Try to avoid using them unless you really need the exorcism.

[Endgame Armor]

Magic sealed equipment still works for endgame armor. You can stack a scary amount of strength on them, plus get critical and other bonuses.

You can change the ranks on individual bonuses on magic sealed equipments with kaleido boxes. This way, you could probably get S-rank strength/crit on everything.


Chronicle 2 armor is very effective, and it's technically free. However, that just means you'll have to hunt for it yourself in OV, seeing as every piece is untradable. They add one type of bonus (damage, lower cooldown, increased range, etc) to one skill. Finding a piece that gives a skill you can use can take a while.

Primal (powerful) force hit end pieces are what you want to be using. Assembling a full set isn't easy, but getting a few pieces shouldn't be too terrible. It's luck and dedication that will get you the pieces you want.

You can also try and get one of three chronicle sets for rogue. Each piece of a set does nothing alone, but wearing 3 pieces of a set at once provides several bigger bonuses. If you wear 6, you get even bigger bonuses, and a full 9 pieces usually provides insane bonuses. However, if you want a 9 piece effect, you'll have to use a chronicle weapon as one of the set pieces, which won't have the raw stats of a unique weapon.

Each piece has decent stats on it's own, and the skill bonuses that chronicle gear offers can really make it an end-game choice.


Chronicle 3 armor. Every piece is made for one specific subclass, and no one outside the base class can wear it. So even if battlemage armor is leather, you can't use it. You're only allowed rogue and necromancer pieces.

Each of these specific pieces is like a blank slate; by using auras you get from doing chronicle 3 dungeons, you can "imbue" effect onto the armor, and each imbue adds similar (but slightly weaker) effects from chronicle 2 armor. The advantage is that you can imbue two different effects on one armor. You can't, however, imbue the same skill again. The first imbue always works, the second imbue has a high, high chance of ending in tears.

Getting every armor double imbued would probably be a first goal, and a tough one. But they'll serve you well endgame. The sets are harder to get, but unlike chronicle 2, you can wear a full 9 pieces without giving up your weapon, since there are also subequipment and magic stone pieces. (There used to be another tier of bonuses for having a full 11 set effect, but they scrapped that).
As for which imbues to get, I'd be careful about green sonic assault. It adds hits, which is awesome, but that won't help it's damage against ungrabbable targets, which means every c3 boss.
Dark Leather Set of Black Plague.
3 set effect: attack with a 3 percent chance of increasing defense by 100%. 5 set effect: +60 str, int, vit, spirit. Attack with a 5 percent chance of increasing str/int/vit/spirit by 60 for 30 seconds.
This is an armor set that takes 250 days to complete, requiring a daily quest at reshpon. Apparently, the bonuses from the set are larger then what magic sealed equipment can do. Still, if you're strong enough to get this, you're probably strong enough to get hit end pieces from OV, which are probably better.

[Endgame Accessories]

Magic sealed accessories still work pretty well. As I've said, they can provide some very good stat bonuses if you're willing to roll them.

Chronicle Accessories are the same as chronicle armor, good base stats and great skill boosts. Set pieces are ideal.

 Necklace of Deadly Screams. Level 58 necklace. Increases physical and magical damage by 8%. Easily one of the best necklaces you can get (obtainable from a 25~38 day grind with dailies at screaming cavern), but comes with a fatal flaw. This will not work with scramo boos or assassin's greetings, or militia captain's dual blades. More on this subject.

Golden Fellow's Glory/Forgotten Fellow's Glory. Level 65 necklace. Physical attacks with a 5% chance of buffing your strength by 11% for 30 seconds. This stacks twice I believe. In the future, I've heard it gets nerfed to only one stack. It’s somewhat equal to the necklace of deadly screams (depending on your other stats), but it doesn't interfere with damage bonuses on weapons.


Spirit rings. Burning/Frozen/Dazzling/Lightless spirit rings. They all add up to +35 elemental damage, and are obtainable in Grandis's epic shop. Get the one for the element you stack (though if you go fire, krazy ivan is slightly better). 

Also has a 20 percent chance to summon a t2 spirit when hit. This can be annoying in some OV rooms, but provides a nice distraction in Tower of Despair. It's like a pet.


[Endgame Special Equips]

Dread Noose. Level 60 sub-equip. All stats +24-29, Physical Attack Strength +55-67. Pretty good endgame sup-equip, the physical attack strength is quite helpful.

Second Death. Level 65 sub-equip. All stats +26-34, Physical Attack Strength +55-67. Very good endgame sub-equip.

 Red Evil Spirited Stone. Level 65 sub-equip. While not as powerful as some of the other equips, it has some pretty interesting effects when hit by a status ailment. Read: Reshpon, black earth.

 Black Fiend. Level 60 sub-equip. All stats +22~30, Physical Attack +86~111.

Selist, Ratria, Alicia, Sheyd's Tear. Level 65 magic stone. Also, all stats +38~45. +30 to one elemental damage (fire, water, light, dark, in order of names). Basically, +15 percent damage when using that element.

Flame hulk's, Aquarius's, Glaerin's, Dead Murker's Tear. Level 65 Magic stone. All stats +38~45. These tears are much harder to obtain, being epics. Their stats, however, are amazing. +45 to one elemental damage. This is a massive boost if you can obtain it, probably the best magic stone.

There are other options for magic stones, but I don't know if any of them are really endgame material.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eden View Post
My ideal gear options:
c3 bracelet
Pel Los Glory or Soul Chaser (possibly use pel los for the str buff then swap back to SC)
Ivan ring (and Banishing Finger for reshpon and c3)
Dread Noose or The Second Death w/ interdimensional str
Selist's Tear (and Evil-Spirited Flame Stone for reshpon and c3)
[Titles]

For titles, use what you can find while leveling. Rhythm rider is a good example of a low-level title with good stats. Later on, you have a few choices for titles to stick with...

Nightmare: +15 str, +8 dark resist, physical crit +4%. Solid title all around.


The Ironscale Captain: +13~18 all stats, +2% attack/cast/move speed, +120 HP. Every 40 seconds, give you a buff for +4% critical rate and +4% move speed. +3% gold in dungeons. Obtained from quest.

This title takes some work to obtain, but it's pretty good in terms of stats, and the +3% gold in dungeons is a nice little bonus.


[Pets]

Pets are sort of a lower priority, they don't give a massive effect for how much they cost. Still, once you start making money, a pet isn't too hard to afford, and the bonuses they provide could be useful if you know how to use them.

Marbas. +2% critical rate. Skill: Throw a small light grenade forward. Overskill: Increases attack power by 10~20% (depending on creature level) for 20 seconds (120 second charge time). 

The normal skill is pretty worthless, but the overskill is massive buff to your entire party. This is what you see so many pros using, to give them that additional burst damage to quickly take out a champion mob or the boss. The charge time is long, but it's worth waiting for. The critical rate bonus is also nice.

 Golden/Green Mini Goblin. Strength +10 Intelligence +10 (gold only). Skill: Summons a goblin to fight for you for 60 seconds. 60 second charge time.

This is useful as a distraction in tower of despair, APC's will focus on the summon, giving you time to set up an attack.

 Grave Skeleton Mini Creature. Strength +10 Intelligence +10 Hit Rate +3% Evasion Rate +3%. Transforms into a grave skeleton to fight for you for 60 seconds (60 second charge time). 

Another distraction pet, though that hit rate and evasion bonus is pretty nice.

 Cannoneer Askah. +15 Str, +20 exorcism, +3% attack/move/cast speed. Skill: Shoot a laser. Overskill: Shoot a laser that causes electrocution.

This pet is useful for the exorcism for outerverse. It looks awesome, too.

 Petite Tiger. +4% critical hit rate, transforms into an ice tiger for 60 seconds, 60 second cooldown. Decent stats and another distraction.
[Gameplay]

This is where I'll post various tips, videos, etc from the game. I'll also post questions that are asked and their answers. This is sort of a section for everything that doesn't fit in other parts. Feel free to contribute to this section, I will quote your useful tips/questions and edit them into this post.

[FAQ]

Daggers vs Twin Swords.

Which is better?

In terms of costs, we don't know what the DFO global economy will look like, but daggers are likely to be more expensive due to popularity. Twin Swords have a lot more base damage, meaning you might be able to get by with fewer upgrades. Dagger advantages in cooldown and critical are not enough to make up for this.

Twin sword users need to pay a little bit more attention to their contact points, as they have more things to spend it on, while daggers can build CP faster (thanks to lower cooldowns) and use less for bandit cut/hurricane hit end.

What avatar stats should I use?
Hair/Hat: Spirit
Top: Whatever weapon mastery you use.
Bottom: Bottom: Preference, shining cut is the best.
Torso/Face: Attack speed. 
Shoes: Strength
Belt: Evasion, but also possibly inventory weight.

What's elemental stacking?
Elemental stacking involves trying to get equipment that boosts one of four stats: water/fire/shadow/light damage. You can check them on your own stat page.

These stats multiply the damage you do with their specified element. Of course, only a few pre-subclass skills actually inflict an element, so these stats do absolutely nothing for you alone. However, if you get a weapon that inflicts elemental damage...all of your damage becomes elemental, and gets boosted up depending on how much elemental attack you have.

You only need to stack one element. If you inflict two different kinds of elemental damage (equip a fire dagger, then use a shadow whisper potion), only the stronger one (it'll calculate which element would do more damage based on enemy resist/your elemental damage) will apply.

You need to inflict the elemental damage on your attacks to take advantage of this. Some weapons come with elemental damage, it's one of many stats you can randomly get on a magic sealed weapon, or you can enchant a weapon with certain cards (rare and expensive) to force them to deal elemental damage. You should only start caring about elemental damage at endgame.

Exactly how much of a damage boost elemental stacking adds is a bit of a debate, but if you just take your current elemental damage and divide it by 2, that's a fair estimate of how much your damage is being multiplied by. However, you also have to factor in the enemy's resist (generally, just subtract their resist from your elemental damage).


What element is the best to stack?

Honestly, this isn't like pokemon where certain elements are super effective or weak against certain enemies. Few enemies have notable amounts of resistance in this game. What you should be concerned about is how you're going to inflict elemental damage in the first place. You're going to want to get your endgame weapon first. If it inflicts an element already, good, just stack that element.

If it comes down to a choice...
Remember any opinions on prices and rarity could be completely false, we don't know what the DFO global economy will look like.

Light damage has many advantages, as many endgame dungeons have enemies that are weak to light (Again, resistances don't make a huge difference, but even a 5% difference can be valuable), the most notable being bakal with -20 light resist. However, the new high level dungeon area, power plant, has many enemies that resist light (not sure on how bad it is). Light is probably going to be the most expensive element. Getting an inflict light damage enchant is crazy difficult and expensive (though you can get the accessory holy mithril relic), and the elemental damage cards are very rare.

Fire is a very popular choice. The inflict fire damage card is more available then light (though due to demand, it's still not going to be cheap), and the elemental damage cards are pretty common. However, there are some notable endgame resistances (bakal has an insane 50 fire resist)

Water is great, both in cost and effectiveness. The elemental cards aren't too rare (but not as common as fire), and not much really resists water. In the past though, there was only one high level dual blade that inflicted water, and no inflict water damage card. Now there is a card, but we don't know how expensive it'll be. Still, if you get water on a magic sealed weapon...

Shadow probably has the most resistances to deal with, especially for OV. Again, resistances aren't that important, but actively choosing shadow over other elements is a bit of weird choice. If your weapon inflicts it, though, go for it.

[Tips]

First off, get used to using a normal attack before every skill. Make it a habit, even when you already have full contact points, just press x before every skill. Don't bother trying to use more then one normal attack before cancelling into your skills, in fact, you don't even need to wait for the first normal attack to even hit anything. Just press x, then use the skill you wanted to use.


Shining Cut, Bandit Cut, and Chainsaw are your main three skills. They are basically your normal attacks, you can use them one after another, and by the time you finish with the third skill, the first one will be almost ready to use again. Don't try to be conservative by using your normal attack chains to kill things, use your skills. You'll do more damage and get more contact points.


Now, you can almost continuously cycle those three skills. Almost. There is a little gap where all three skills will be on cooldown, which is why many people get one more low cooldown skill to close that gap. It looks like the developers wanted Sword Dance to be that skill, but Shadow Cut and Ankle Cut are possible alternatives. There are also a few more...exotic choices that some people pick. You also might not need an extra skill depending on how you play.


Don't be afraid to use hit end. You only really need 4 contact points (3 for excel strike) before you cancel into whatever hit end skill you want to use next. You can build that up very quickly, so don't be afraid to use hit end whenever you need it.


Bandit Cut Hit End is fast and strong, and works best on single targets and tightly packed/gathered mobs, as long as they're standing up. If using Bandit Cut Hit End would be useful in a situation, don't be afraid to use it. At the same time, however, you don't need to use it every time you throw out Bandit Cut, and you don't need to save Bandit Cut just in case you need its Hit End.


Hurricane is an amazing skill, with great range, gathering, and damage. It has a slightly higher cooldown then your basic skills, so you'll need to judge the right times to use it. This skill isn't meant to be saved for only the hugest mobs though, use it often, on both mobs and bosses. Just be mindful of when the situation can be solved just as easily with your basic skills.


Excel Strike's Hit End is a huge portion of its damage. Unless you absolutely need to, avoid using Excel Strike until you have 3 or more contact points (then cancel into Excel for the last two).


I would not bother with Rising Cut Hit End. You probably won't be maxing Rising Cut, so the damage will be pretty weak. Even if you are, you probably have better places to be spending CP.


Simple combo: Cancel into rising cut, aerial attack, cancel into diving arrow, use the axe kick, attack and cancel into rising. This generates 4 CP in less then 2 seconds, if you use it right. Very useful for quickly preparing for a hurricane or excel strike.

After shining cut's second/fourth slash (shine spark), you're left in the air. A simple way to follow that up is to use diving arrow and then axe kick, followed by something else.

Remember shining cut's large diagonal range and huge hitstun. This is very useful for approaching an enemy that has an annoying X-axis attack, like some APC's. Very useful in tower of despair.

The awakening finisher is a full-screen grab that gathers everything. It also doesn't count as a cube if you buff silver stream the room before. This gathering is useful in room 4 castle and room 1 goblin kingdom. It can also be used in many ways. 

You can use shining cut directly after sonic assault or excel strike to throw in a bit more damage.


For dagger users, you can cancel out of skills with shining cut or sword dance, and you get contact points for this. Always be looking for opportunities to do this, especially during hurricane/chainsaw.

Feel free to contribute more tips!

[Videos]


This is a good video of some of the dagger rogue changes.
Kind of low quality, but it shows the Twin Sword playstyle.

Just a video of me running iron scale.

Feel free to contribute more videos!






[Ancients]

I'll post the guides for ancients and outer verse. Following each guide link will be several tips specifically for rogues. Feel free to contribute more tips of your own!


[Update]
We now have true ancients, which are basically harder versions of each ancient dungeon, scaled for max level (so you can't just outlevel the dungeon anymore).

King's relic


In the first room, catch him when he's free from the stone with sonic assault, then chain into excel strike if that is not enough. If you lose him, then try figuring out where he is by the dust he kicks up and use bandit cut to stun him.


Second room, hit and run with shining and bandit cut when the mob in blue. Otherwise just run.


Third room, use sonic, excel, lightning, and vertical spiral. All of those keep you safe. If that isn't enough to kill him with your damage, hit and run with shining cut until the cubes come off cooldown again.


Fourth room, use shining/bandit cut and then sonic/excel/lightning whenever you can. Use grabs when he turns larger to shrink him back down.


Fifth room, do what you can to keep the knight clones on one side, using breaking rush to get a favorable position. Slowly get rid of them by using hurricane while not facing them. A quick excel strike works well, but you have to capture all of them within it, or the ones not caught may stun you out of it. Sonic assault warping helps here.


Boss room, aerial jump helps avoid the ground pound attack. Avoid staying on his X-axis, stunning him with bandit cut will work wonders.


Vilmark


First room, hit and run with shining/bandit to get rid of single bloodgarus. Use excel/sonic to take care of groups.


Second room, use excel after waiting in the corner to get rid of the mobs, then take care of stragglers. If you quickly warp in sonic assault, you could wipe them out pretty fast. Another possible thing to do is launch one of the mobs and then use lightning arrow to go right through the barrier to Krazy Ivan,. Kill him, then excel strike to get through the barriers back. Use aerial jump/vertical spiral/rising cut to avoid krazy ivan's suicide bomb.


Fifth room, you can warp across the barriers with transformation: molting. It's quite dangerous though. The large mob in this room can tear you apart in seconds, though excel strike and sonic assault are relatively safe. Hurricane also helps, but be careful. Don’t hesitate to use breaking rush to escape.


Boss room, you can use transformation: molting if tau throws you in the air to recover faster. Aside from that, watch for his grab shield and stay off his X-axis.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Radwolf14 View Post
Vilmark: For the 5th room, use Silver Stream before teleporting across the barrier (you can use it earlier in the dungeon if you're confident it won't run out by this point). After Molting, you can use the finisher to gather all the Bloodgarus in the room and kill them/seriously damage them.
Screaming cavern

First room, stay in the bottom right corner, and let the boss come to you. Use excel strike to get him, then whatever else you have until he's dead.


Second room, it's possible to juggle evil sword if you hit him at the right time when he spawns, and if you chain sonic assault/bandit cut/excel correctly, you can kill him before he becomes a headache.


Third room, get rid of gravedigger quickly with cubes. Then use hurricane on Lene as she comes out and launch her with hit end. Don't cube. Just wipe her out with your normal skills before she can do anything. Avoid the red things when Blood Storm Hardy comes out. Hit and run.


Fourth room, hit and run. Don't get caught by the circle of infinite stun. Excel works great, sonic sometimes isn't enough to protect you from being stunned. Use your aerial abilities to avoid the circle, but it's very hard. Try not to use molting, it'll heal the boss.


Boss room, when he goes underground, go near him, then away once he starts coming out of the ground. Repeat until he starts staying above ground and spitting out nugols and red globs. Use your attacks then. Use shining cut to avoid the red glob explosions.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Radwolf14 View Post
Screaming: If you think you don't need the Silver Stream's STR boost to kill the boss, you can use the finisher to gather/kill the Nugol Larvae in the 5th room quicker. You can also use it earlier to kill Kane quicker and leave the finisher for 5th room.
Noir Ferra


Quote:
Originally Posted by Eden View Post
The lightning bolts in Noire (room) 4. The lightning bolts also only hit you if you are on the ground.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Radwolf14 View Post
Noire:
- Room 1: Just a regular room. Gather with Hurricane, launch, kill.
- Room 2: Depending on your damage, you can use Silver Stream before or after clearing the room. Enter the room and use Excel to gather the monsters along with the Militia Captain. Kill the Captain as quickly as possible, as he spawns more militia men.
- Room 3: Use the Silver Stream finisher to gather all the monsters in the room. If you don't kill them this way, use Breaking Rush to cancel out of the final slash early and use Hurricane to gather the survivors and kill them before they have a chance to stand up.
- Room 4: Immediately after entering the room, use Excel to catch Noubillius before he uses his invincibility/speed gimmick.
- Room 5: Sonic works wonders here. The mobs can recover from hit stun and aerial juggles so be careful.
- Room 6: You can grab the Impostor and the Portal with Excel Strike to do the full damage against the sturdier Portal.
- Boss: You can stun her easily. After she uses her aerial recovery once, she can't use it again for a while, so before doing any large damage, let her waste it. After you start the juggle, do your best not to let her hit the ground.
Ghost train

I mostly do OV so I haven't done much of this. Please contribute tips if you have any.


Reshpon guide



Quote:
Originally Posted by Radwolf14 View Post
Leshphon: In room 3, you can use Silver Stream's finisher to gather all the Divols and, usually, kill them all in the same spot w/o much hassle.
In room 4, Moon Arc counts as a buff. You can either kill Scarv in one powerful combo or kill all his minions w/o using any cancels before using hit and run tactics on him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eden View Post
You can grab the sorcerer before he starts summoning in resh 2. Hit End buffs do count towards Scar's antibuff attack in resh 4 but it's possible to grab/juggle him before he uses it. The green named mob in resh 5 always starts on yellow, so SA grab cannon can get to him before he can react to you.


[Outerverse]
Goblin kingdom

First room, use your awakening. Then try to gather the 4 lunatics with vertical spiral close enough so that your awakening finisher can finish gathering all of them. Then nuke. Keep them stunned with bandit cut.


Second room, it's possible to feed with backstep. Another method is using bandit cut to stun, then pushing slowly with normal attacks. Vertical spiral if things go wrong. It takes practice, and it's better to leave it to someone experienced with a skill like smasher.


Third room, it's possible to use your awakening finisher to gather all the goblins out of the trees to one spot, where they will be unable to move or summon. Possible, but your awakening might be on cooldown from the first room.


Fifth room, you can use sonic assault for I-frames, so you can be the bomber. Excel strike if, somehow, you miss the sonic assault. You could also use leap and jump right over the explosion, and use vertical spiral to stay in the air long enough to completely avoid it.


Boss room, don't buff awaken once you enter the room, you could be interrupted. Wait until the boss charges and get somewhere safe to buff it, or buff in the room before.


Castle nebulous


First room, excel strike is extremely helpful in protecting grabbed party members. Warping with sonic also helps, and bandit cut can stun the mobs.


Fourth room, your awakening finisher will not trigger any anti-cubes. Very useful for gathering. An excel strike also works as a last resort, if nothing else is working.


Fifth room, there's a split second upon entering the room that you can cube once. After that, no cubes as usual.


Boss room, during his dimensional gate attack, a vertical spiral over the room can end the attack pretty quickly. Use breaking rush to get behind him when he uses stone gaze.


Rangelus’s Guerrillas


Boss room. Cube gemenix (mary jane in the guide) without mercy. Use your grabs to interrupt her and get rid of her quickly. When dealing with landrunners, a quick bandit cut can stun them and knock them back. This is useful for saving yourself and others. You can also use a chainsaw, but I'd rather stun them first. Transformation: molting can be useful to get rid of the landrunners by being bait, but be careful not to let your party members get hit either. A well timed breaking rush or shining cut can allow you to avoid the explosions, too.


You can use leap to jump over the landrunners and landrunner waves and avoid the explosions.


Void


First room, an excel strike is useful to get rid of these safely. Warping with sonic assault also works.


Second room, you can use molting's taunt aura to reset the monster A.I. If you're lucky, the monster will focus on a caged party member.


Third room, after the boss jumps to the left meteor, I'd suggest stunning him with bandit cut. Bring him to the center with vertical spiral, then juggle him with chainsaw and your other moves until his yellow aura fades. Then nuke. Be careful. Your shockwaves (spiral, diving arrow) are ranged and will hurt you.


Fourth room, use bandit cut to stun the wisps to interrupt them, or your cube grabs. If you're inside an I-frame move like sonic assault when his poison meteors hit the ground, you won't get a mark.


Fifth room, a lightning arrow can put the bottom right mob in it's place regardless of meteors. Vertical spiral works too. Hurricane can gather over the Y-axis, but be careful not kill with it.


Boss room, while fighting the boss, you can use vertical spiral to go over the gaps in the platforms safely. It's possible to interrupt his tile-destroying move with a well timed cube grab.


Black earth


Room 4, use hurricane/vertical spiral and your other moves to inflict back attacks. You've got an advantage with breaking rush. Use it to get to a decent position and be ready to jump in with a back attack to get rid of the red orbs.


It's also possible to interrupt her just as she tries to start casting the orbs, but the timing is tough.


Boss room, get rid of his shield with multi-hits. Be careful not to use excel until the very end of the cast bar, or you'll make him recover faster. Stick with hurricane+hit end and your EX skills.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Radwolf14 View Post
Dark Side/Black Earth: For room 4, immediately upon entering room, use Excel Strike to grab Astaroth. She will escape the grab, but she will skip the barrier. She will not summon any orbs, but she will still summon Fears of Death. If timed right, you can lock her in Sonic right before Fear of Death causes you to stop, allowing party members to kill her easily.
For the boss room.... Sonic ignores Ozma's invincibility frames, so spam Sonic off cooldown 
Bakal's castle

Room 2, use shining, bandit cut, hurricane (no hit end), and the first two sweeps of chainsaw. You can't knock him down; his standing frames are the only frames you can hit him in. As long as he's launched or laying down, he's invincible.


Room 4, when the boss summons duplicates, push them to one side with vertical spiral, then excel strike and quickly get rid of them.


Room 5, the mob is invincible in every frame except for his attack frame and standing frames. Despite what the guide says, he is invincible while hitstunned. The best way to damage him is to get a multi-hit on him while he's using super armor to extend it as long as possible for the party. The timing and positioning can be tough, but using hurricane from the Y-axis as soon as he starts his attack works well. Cubes are fine, but not grabs.


A rogue is a pretty good option for the ice. When you get hitstunned by the ice, start spamming shining cut and as soon as it lets you go, you'll rocket forward more then half the distance needed. A quick breaking rush after that and you're done.


Boss room, be careful not to get behind/under him, because he'll start using fire pillars. Your cube grabs might put you under him if you aren't careful, get out before you take any damage.


[Tower of Despair]


Tower of Despair is a purely level 70 challange. 100 floors, 1 floor per day. You can only use 3 tokens each floor, if you do not pass, then you'll have to restart that floor the next day. It's full of APC's, all with various special abilities. There are too many to list here, it's best to watch videos to get an idea of what you're dealing with.
  • No potions, summons, or any use item.
  • Pets allowed, equips that summon allowed.
  • Tokens restore enemy HP to full.
  • Cube skills put on cooldown upon entry.

General strategy: Use shining cut from a diagonal, and start a simple chainsaw~>bandit cut combo from there. Then follow up with any cubes that are off cooldown or just any move you have (another shining cut or an ankle cut, etc). Then run. This strategy will not work against high hit recovery enemies, which happens quite a bit. Still, when it does work, it's awesome.

Use hurricane from above or below to launch. Then follow with chainsaw, then bandit cut, and follow with anything. This is less vulnerable to high hit recovery, but for some floors this is not possible, like floor 6 where you fight a ranger with revenger or floor 12 with an asura spamming wave radiation.

Hit and run strategy: Use shining cut to get away, either through the enemy or just for it's movement. Use things like vertical spiral in the air to escape. If the enemy if vulnerable to stun, see if you can hit them with it from long range. Otherwise, stay back and use your cubes once they come off cooldown. This is a better strategy against some floors.

[Despair playlist]

[Future Content]

DNF, the korean version of this game that get all content updates before we do, has made huge changes. You can read all about it by clicking right here.

If you're only looking for rogue-specific changes, then check out this, and this, and this.

More recently, Rogues have gotten some interesting buffs in DnF's testing servers...but it's not in the official game yet.

Also, there's a patch that changes around chronicle set options for a lot of classes, including rogue, which you can see here.

[Rogue Mods (Probably outdated)]

To download a mod, go to computer~>nexon~>DFO~>imagepack 2. Download a mod, then take the file from the download and stick in it imagepack 2. Make sure the file you get has a number encased in parentheses, like (2) or so. Character_Thief_sprite(2).NPK. Notice it's before the .NPK, just rename it. You can't do this while the game is running, log off first.

Blue rogue icons Backstep blue icon Credits to redwaveslash.

[Closing]

I certainly hope this guide comes in use to anyone interested in the rogue class, or any current rogue player looking for some advice and information. If you're a veteran rogue and you have some tips you want to give, feel free to private message me on the DFO core forums, right here.


[Credits]


Frozenstep (shadesteps), the blue moon.

Maker of this guide

Masaki

Contributed a lot to the rogue community and basically provided me a lot of what I know about the various weapons.

Tigger and theexpierencednoob.

Read through and corrected much of this guide. Thank you so much, you two!

Thank you Kargos for being nit-picky about my guide. Just kidding, thanks for the various small corrections here and there.


Radwolf14

Some help with the ancients/OV section. Everything contributed by this person is quoted.

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This site is a collection of up-to-date guides, maintained by some of the most dedicated players of various classes in DFO.
While articles may contain the personal opinions of the writers, they are opinions based on hundreds of hours of gameplay and the general consensus of their respective communities.