Abyss Walker

(PS : My apologies for my bad english, i hope it will be understandable by all)

When we speak about “dagger”, it is common to speak about Treasure Hunter. There is no guide about elves ones. So with my experience from an Abyss Walker, I’ll speak about it.
I don’t seek to know all on all this class, or to have a total mastery. And I have a real bad experience in PvP.
If people have information, please don’t be shy.

There a little reliable information about dagger. All is based by experience of players.




1. The dagger – Abyss Walker
For a same race (human, elf, dark elf), daggers are close-combat characters with best speed and evasion (don’t take into account, armor set bonus or tattoos).
Expert in use of daggers (weapon with great Atk.speed, but weak accuracy, p.atk, m.atk & accuracy), they have little experience in bows.
Their specificity reside in powerful but hazardous attacks.

In counterpart, they have the less HP & CP than their close-combat colleagues (in the same race). So, huge damage are quite nasty for them.
News T1 : CP will be boost for all dagger ^^.

It is, in fact, one of the major problem of the Abyss Walker. The dark elf race is well known for their delicate fighters.
With a score of 32 in CON attribute, AW is the dagger with the less HP & CP.
At lvl 75, he has 3478 HP and 1391 CP.
To compare, human (TH) has 4062 HP and 1624 CP when the elf (PW) has 3681 HP and 1472 CP.

With these weak HP & CP, his weak CON lead to :
- a great vulnerability to Stun/Poison/Bleed state
- a weak weight capacity
- a weak HP&CP regen

The AW is the more offensive of the 3 daggers (best STR - 41) and the second better DEX score (34).
And his skills show it.




2. Passive skills
2.1. Critical Power
This passive skill adds an amount of P.Atk (~300) during a critical attack.

AW don’t have Critical Chance, so they make less critical than the TH or PW who have this.

New T1 : AW will gain another lvl of Critical Power. He will be more offensive than the TH, and … will be the only one who can over-enchant this skill after the 76+.

2.2 Other passives
Acrobatic moves increases evasion during running, Speed & Evasion increase respectively Speed & Evasion.
Esprit boosts HP&MP regeneration during running. At max lvl, AW have the same regeneration by running than standing.



3. Self buffs
AW hava some personnal buff useful when you don’t have a buffer with you (yes, yes some people don’t have dual box !!)

3.1 Defence Aura & Attack Aura
With a duration of 20 minutes, these buffs give to the dagger a boost of +10% p.def and +10% p.atk at max lvl.
Gained when you was a young dark elf.

3.2 Mortal Strike
This buff increase the probability to make a critical strike.
It has a duration of 2 minutes for a reuse of 5. It is a physical skill, influenced by atk.speed for use/reuse time.
Its effect is very difficult to confirm. At the beginning, the English translation of the Korean server “Mortal Might” make people hope that this buff will increase blow landing. But in fact, it seems to be a boost on the apparition of a Lethal Strike.
And from my experience, it seems to be true (even if the boost isn’t very important).

But well, increase the landing or the Lethal Strike is a good bonus.

3.3 Ultimate Evasion
This skill increase your evasion to 25 pts during 30 secondes. Its reuse is very long (30 minutes).
During UE effect, you have a better resist to buff-lifting skill (as Cancel). I don’t know if it works with Surrender to … if you have the Resist …
Useful in PvE in urgency situation, it lose his prestige in PvP. Indeed, most of physical skills have gained a great boost by using SoulShot. And physical or magical skills cannot be avoided.

New T1 : UE will be able to avoid physical skills (hope it will work with ranged physical skills as well).




4. Toggle
Skills which, when activated, reduce MP continually.

4.1 Silent Move
This skill is used to move in a dangerous area without be detected by aggressive monster. And make you transparent.
But know that :
- If you attack a monster during Silent Move, the effect will be broken (even if Silent Move is always activated). You must eliminate aggro of the monster to be safe.
- Speed is reduced (by 40 pts).
- Some monsters are insensible to Silent Move.

4.2 Vicious Stance
This skill add an amount of P.Atk during critical attack (~600 pts). Very useful, but the MP consumption is huge if you let it activated for a long time.




5. Debuffs
The great ability of the AW : to possess a good panel of debuffs.

5.1 Hex
Magical skill, its success rate is correct.
The success is influenced by AW’s matk, the mdef of the target and the lvl of the skill.
Dagger don’t have a good m.atk and the score of INT of DE - 25 - isn’t very impressive (even it is the best for fighters).
Target with huge m.def, high lvl or buff of protection will resist well to this skill. Use of Blessed SpiritShot increase greatly the success of this skill (as all magical skill).

Its effect is to reduce target p.def by 20% during 15 seconds. Cast and reuse correct (influenced by cast speed).
Very useful in solo or group where physical classes are in good number.

5.2 Power Break
It is a magical skill (like Hex).
It reduces P.Atk by 20% during 15 secondes. It applys only on target’s p.atk, not on the power of your target’s skills.
Useful against class who possess strong p.atk (like archers).

5.3. Sand Bomb
Decreases target’s accuracy. Its success rate is better than PowerBreak or Hex.
Very useful in solo, or in a little group where AW is the main target of monsters.
Less used in PvP (work only for class who possess not a lot of skills).

5.4. Freezing Strike
This skill does weak water damage + speed debuff.
Slow to cast and debuff success is weak. BSpS required ^^.
Its use is exceptional. His only goal in PvP is to slow runaways.




6. Blows
The offensive skills of daggers. Blows are characterised by :
- Quick skill (use & reuse), affected by atk.speed
- Failure (no damage, MP consumed) ~50/50 to land
- Huge power
- Multiple adjoining effects

AW have 3 blows :
- Deadly Blow. Effect : Lethal Strike
- Backstabb. Effects : Boost SS, Lethal Strike, Critical Skill, Bypass CP
- Blinding Blow (learned at lvl 66). Effects : Lethal Strike, Target show his back, +40 pts Speed during 15 seconds.


Blows are quite hazardous. You can miss 10 blows in a row and success 15 then …
There is a lot of discussion about what affect the landing of blows.

Only 2 things are confirmed to increase blow landing :
- SA Might Mortal (cannot be produced on dagger since Chronicle 3, but the SA hadn’t be removed for daggers which have it)
- Focus Death (buff for lvl 78 AW or PW), which increase by 60% landing blow.

It is common to say that DEX affect blow landing, but … in fact … it is not very important. For me, I have 38 DEX (+4 DEX), and I never seen a difference after on blow landing. I miss like before.
Boost DEX is only important for Speed, Atk.Speed and Evasion boost, much more than the blow landing ^^.

To be psotionned from the side or the back of your target has been called into question for blow landing. Some people say it affect and other not.
But, it is greatly advised not to attack your target from the front. Because :
- You eliminate shield’s bonus (for class who don’t possess shield mastery).
- Critical hits (normal attack) are more frequent, and you hit a little harder
- Backstabb doesn’t land from the front
- Lvl 78 buff Focus Power, Focus Death decrease your damage by 30% if you hit from the front.
And an assassin strikes always from behind, moron !


6.1. What influence damage on the blow ?
The blow power are really impressive (5400+ for Backstabb and Deadly Blow, 3500+ for Blinding Blow). By comparison to the 600+ p.atk with a Soul Separator with Might 3 at lvl 75.
In fact, dagger’s patk don’t influence a lot the damage done with the blows.

That’s why for PvP template, lot of daggers decrease the STR attribute to increase CON & DEX.
That means too that an AW isn’t completely tributary of his weapon. The possible SA or SS cost/consumption are better element to take into account to choose a weapon.

But the skill power don’t explain completely the huge damage done with a blow.
In fact it is due to the blow damage calculation by L2 system.
Because of their hazardous landing, blow are consider as “fatal strike” skill that means :
- the power of the skill is take into account at a better rate than other physical skill’s power to calculate final patk of the skill.
- blow damage can be boost by skills which increase damage during critical attack.

And the boost is the in the same proportion than between a normal hit and a critical attack.
So we can distinguish :
- skills who add a fixed amount of p.atk like Passive Critical Power, SA Critical Damage, Vicious Stance, which provide a fixed increase, and
- skills who multiply the damage by a coefficient like Death Whisper/Chant of Rage, Dance of Fire and the Feline Queen’s buff, wich provide a huge boost (easily 2-2.5 times your damage by blow if you have all these buff).

So here is the origin of all dagger’s power. Without these buff, the damage are less impressive (even they are massive).
But this property is the weak point of the blows. Because they are affected as well by debuffs which decrease damage during critical attack, like Judgment.

New T1 : Tanks will have a passive reduction of damage during a critical attack, so it will certainly work for blows as well. And I hope greatly the damage reduction will be in %.

Damage are influenced by target’p.def and shield. But Hex can help you to deal with strong p.def.


6.2 Adjoining Effects
Blows have special effects implemented with Chronicle 5, which make them interesting/powerful/overpowered/completely abused (delete as appropriate depending of your empathy with daggers).


Lethal Strike
Only available until then to Lethal Blow (lvl 76), this effect was given to ALL blows of 2nd job daggers.
It has 2 effects :
- Effect 1 (low probability). In PvE, 50% remaing HP of monster vanish. In PvP, all CP’s target vanish.
- Effect 2 (very low probability, available ONLY for Lethal Blow). In PvE monster’s HP reduced to 1. In PvP, target’s HP and CP reduced to 1.

So Deadly Blow, Backstabb and Blinding Blow can provide only Lethal Strike effect 1.

It is interesting to know that this effect is resolved disregarding the success of the blow. You can fail the blow, but make a Lethal Strike :p.
Also, this effect applies after the damage of the blow (if it lands). This order is logical. Reverse the order of application and you will be able to easily OS your target (completely stupid).

Example :
- You hit a target (full CP/HP) for 1200 pts with a Lethal strike. 1200 points are removed from the CP of your target, and then all the remaining CP vanish.
- You hit the same target for 1000 pts with a Lethal Strike. HP are reduced (and the little amount of CP due to CP regen). The Lethal Strike removes all the CP, but there is no CP, so … useless.

So if target has low CP, Lethal Strike has little added value. In fact, his role is maintain your target’s CP at a low level.

From my experience, level’s target influence the success of a Lethal Strike. It appears more often on lower lvl targets than on higher lvl ones.
Also the buff Mortal Strike can increase the success of this effect (even I found that this effect appears pretty well in practical with no buff).


Effects of Backstabb “The Ubber”
Even if I am a dagger and love this class, I am aware that this blow is completely broken by the effects NC SOFT has given to it. Even if the blow only succeed from target’s side or back.
The effects are :
- Boost SS. Increase the damage done is SoulShot is used.
- Critical Skill. Double damage done. Resolved at the very end (after damage calculation by SS Boost or buffs). So if you should make 3300 damage, you do 6600. Nothing appears when a Critical Skill appears. Only the huge damage show that a Critical Skill has appeared. With SE and BD I can do up to 8000 damage to Hot Springs monsters (and OS some by the way). Critical Skill appears at a good rate.
- Bypass CP. Blow damage are always done on target’s HP in PvP.
- Lethal Strike. The only way to hit CP with this blow …

So if Lethal Strike & Critical Skill appears in the same time, you make massive damage to your target. That’s why people complain about the 1-2 shots of daggers.

If you hit a target from the front with Backstabb, only Lethal Strike can occur.
The MP cost of this blow has been increased in Chronicle 5, but it is a minor compensation for its victim.


Effects for Blinding Blow
Less powerful than the other blows, Blinding Blow have the special ability to make the target showing his back (chance) and give +40 pts to your Speed during 15 seconds (always).
The effect on the target is not visible a lot, because it is easily blocked. It works only if the target doesn’t do any offensive action …
The speed boost is cool, but cannot be compared to the Dash boost in term of efficiency (+66 pts) or use.

The most interesting to know it is that even the target doesn’t show his back, she is always affected by this effect. So, it the enemy loose his target and doesn’t make any offensive action, he will show his back. The matter is …nothing appears in the system window to show that the effect affects the dagger’s opponent.

7. DoTs (Damage over Time)
AW have DoTs with quite relative power. Useful in the past in PvE, they are less used now with the Lethal Strike effect.
Indeed, the advantage of DoTs was to weaken opponents with lot of HP.

New T1 : They should be boosted … To confirm.

Sting is a physical skill who make damage and a Bleed alteration (chance). The Bleed appears quite well. But it is affected by CON.
Sting can provide an Over-Hit (i.e. more xp gained when Sting is used for a finish move). It benefits too of the Boost SS.

Bleed is a skill which provide only Bleed alteration. But it appears much more often than Sting.

Poison is a magical skill which poisoned your target. Affected by target’s CON and all parameters which affect magical skill (m.atk, target’s m.def, resist buff, …). Slow to cast.

They can be used in solo to weaken opponent who have incapacitating skills (like stun). You are stunned, but monster loose HP (and pray not to be hit a lot :p).




8. Magical offensive skills
AW have a Drain heath spell.
This magic skill, based on dark element, has a good power, but is penalised by your weak Int and m.atk. ~20% of damage are returned as HP. Blessed SpS is required.

In PvP, this skill returns HP only is damage are done in HP’s target. It doesn’t work with CP (all the drain are affected the same way).

In PvE, this spell may be useful, particularly on “Weak to darkness” monsters. If target has low m.def (or m.def is reduced with a debuff) and is affected by a Surrender to darkness, damage can be pretty good (more 2500 pts on angels weak to darkness in catacombs, with a surrender to dark :p).




9. Controlling aggro
AW have some skills to control in a certain way aggro of monsters.

9.1 Confuse
This magical skill report monster’s aggression from a player to another. But you cannot choose which player will receive aggression :p.
May be useful but hazardous.

9.2 Veil
Physical skill which transform temporary a monster aggro in passive one. All player near the monster will not be attacked during the effect.
But it works only if the monster doesn’t make hostile actions. And an attack on the monster or on a monster with which he is social will break the effect.
Can be used to make a safe way to friends (if they are not in a hurry :p).

9.3 Trick
Physical skill which suppress aggression of your target, which ignores you (you only ^^).
This skill possesses the capacity to suppress your opponent’s aim and can interrupt your opponent’s skill.
Really useful in PvP. And a real necessity (to stop slow skill like Stun Shot, for example).
Affected by atk.speed, this skill is quick to cast and can be reused in a quick delay.
It lands well, but targets can protect themselves. These effects are considered as Mental effect (so Mental Shield & Wisdom are useful ro resist it).

Very good job jeyne an so interesting !

/agree Shiny

again thanks

Cool, nice info, but... how about your own experience about this class? How good AW is at leveling? Is it hard to hunt solo only with self buffs? What best setups are for PVE and PVP? etc...

AW is a class which great power and great weaknesses. All the exemple have been confirmed by my own experience :p.

When i was 40 +/- there was no herbs, and no special effect on blow... Lvling was hard in this time. But now, hard to say.
Nowaday, you are quite good at leveling in solo with self buff, but it required to know the area to go.
When you come at lvl 70+ it becomes more harder to solo, since lot of monsters stun.
Don't be fooled. You can level but it will be longer than in a duo with a support.
That means : choose weak p.def target, herbs areas, etc.

The advantage of AW is to have a good offensive power by himself, so he can be supported by all type of support. EE is great for them (Clarity, Resist Shock, Agility). Even if offensive buffer can give him a better efficiency (PP, SE).
But in fact ... only ranged classes are difficult to team with AW.

All other DD ar welcomed, all support as well, and tank as well too. Since AW a bad HP, a tank give him a total freedom for placement and demonstrate all his potentiel. The efficency is variable, but you take advantage of all class, in fact. Trio SK+SE+AW at Hot Springs is quite a fury team ^^.


Template for PvE ? Easy, dagger Focus/Critical Damage. I tested the tow SA, and ... the two are good for PvE. B Grade is quite good for PvE. If you can have a A Grade dagger, it is ok, but you can survive without it. B Grade is good beacause of SS consumption (en weight of SS ^^).
For tatoos ? Change nothing. It is quite effective with the basic attributes. You can make -CON and +DEX or STR, but be warned that stun will be a plague.
Armors. B Grade : Doom or BW are two good armors in B Grade. I have taken BW because BW +4/+3 = ToP A +0 (in p.def) and too, it is the only armor which increase MEN (and resist to mental alteration).
But Doom is very good, only to be cautious about the -2 CON.
In A Grade armor, well DC, NM, MAJ all these armors are interesting. DC for the +4% patk and +4% atk speed, MaJ for the MP boost and stun resist (lot of mobs stun in end game area), NM for +4% m.def and +3% VR.

For PvP, well ... i don't advice anyone to go in a full PvP template before gain the 78 lvl (and to have Focus Death). XP is always needed in L2 and it is the basis of all the system. Noone can avoid it.
the full PvP template is --STR/+DEX/+CON. Each point of STR is 3% of p.atk. So ... if you make -9 STR to boost DEX and CON ... you loose 27% of your damage. Solo = 0 (SS consumption increase a lot : you need more hit to defeat a monster).
For armors, well MaJ is very loved by AW because of his stun resist. But some players use NM and others DC for PvP. In fact all depands the role you want to give to your dagger. MaJ => vs archery, NM => vs Support/Nuker.
But be sure than MaJ will not be enough to protect you very well of Stun. You must boost your CON as well to be very effective.
But there is too, the price of armor. NM is less expensive than the DC or MaJ.
Weapon ? Well A-S if you can have the SA. if you cannot, stay in B Grade, i make a lot of test un C5 PTS with Demon Dagger and Soul Separator, and well ... the damage differences is not so important.

My template is -2 STR /+3 DEX / -1 CON and NM light full enchant. Full maj +3 (and full tateo ready). I don't think about changing armor or tatoos for a long time. This template give a good boost in speed, evasion and atk speed and the lost of p.atk is quite neutral.
For the CON ... well 32 or 30 ... difference in shock resistance is not very important. And the HP/CP loss as well.

AW hava bad HP/CP and stun weakness. It is genetic :p. Try to change it is possible but require lot of equipment. If you are afraid by stun, make a TH ... it is more safe.

wow, good explaination )

I ever played a Darkelf, most of my time a PhantomRanger. Its not the same, but i can add my experience concerning the race.

All DE fighter have the skills like hex, powerbreak, freezing, drain. I have myself ever ~500 bsps with me, so success of all is in generally > 50%.

I use hex in ~95% of all situation PVP and PVE. I would say its the most important skill of DE fighters. The powerbreak i use really rarely, if i already hexed a targed, its waste of mana and time to use powerbreak.

Freezing Strike is very usefull in PVP. It not even reduce the targets speed, it also is on of the rare debuff attacks, that can be used on unflagged ppl. So the target have an disadvantage, if the skill succeed, just in the moment when the PVP started.

Drain Health, is mentioned to restore own health on use, but this works really crap. But the damage is really nice. Root is a bad enemy of a melee fighter, so it adds a chance of doing huge damage while rooted. For me as BD its also good attack while using UD.

So all DE fighters are childs of dark magic, they are not only fighter. If an SE is the only buffer in party, i prefer to have Empower, so near all targets are at least hexed, just gf.

The toggle skills Vicious Stance and Acuraccy, are prefered to activate in PVP. With Clarity they dont consume that much MP, so keep a buffslot free for it

I like to play the DE fighters, cause i found an effective way to play them.
But yes, the low CON is an disadvantage. Stun is really not a friend, but god thx, i was able to get Majestic. I personally like to get +STR -CON, but i very easy reach weightlimit. I can only take 5k SSA, 500 BSSA, 10 of each elixier, ~100 Healing and 50 GCP, its not that much. But i prefer to fight for a spot if needed so I need it. Ah yes, and ~200 arrows. As in past playing PR, i time by time like to play with bow, but as melee its often a way to survive when rooted (especially when lvling in FOD).

so long...