Everything you need to know about Assassins part 1

Intro:
Assassins, one of the scariest class you will ever face. A combination of hard-hit, quickness, and evasion. No other class puts out as much stat points as a sin. No other class can dodge arrows/axes/magic better than a sin. Your worse enemy is yourself.

The Terms:
STR - Strength (attack power)
DEX - Dexterity (evasion/accuracy)
REC - Recreation (Defense/HP)
LUC - Luck (critical-evasion/chance/power)
ATK - Attack power
LVL - level
HP - Hit points (red bar)
SP - Skill points (yellow bar)
DEF - defense power
NM - Normal Mode
HM - Hard Mode (3x more exp - lvl50 NM req)
UM - Ultimate Mode (3x more exp - lvl50 HM req)
AoE - Area of Effect (Dealing Damage in a set radius)
DoT - Damge over Time (Dealing Damage in a certain amount of time)
Lapis - A stone that adds stat points to your gear

Assassin's Path
So you decided to play an Assassin. Tsk Tsk, this does not start well for you. Prepare to be challenged, Sins do NOT have any AoE skills, or Range for that matter. Your battles are face to face, Up-close and personal. No AoE party wants you, Almost all parties never wants you. You walk alone, and the only hopes of ever partying is with another like yourself, or with some oracles. Hunter and Assassin can work great, but not entirely. You will have difficulties leveling in terms of effeciency (killing 1 mob at a time.) Be warned.
(Note: This isn't to scare you or to talk smack about this class, its merely to get you prepared on the harsh and cold reality, I should know, i've played ALL modes as a sin.)

The Modes:
(Note: Assassins gain +1dex per lvl)
Normal mode - A good class to start your adventure and learning process. Easy mode does not really teach you as much as Normal mode does. If you ever plan on playing a sin in Ultimate mode, you might as well start now. 5-stat/3-skill points each lvl.
Hard mode - For those who never played sins in NM - they get to try out the scarier part of a sin. Better build flexibility, better skills available. 7-stat/4-skill points each lvl, more HP/SP, HM skills unlocked.
Ultimate mode - Playing as a sin, this is what i like to call, the Real Easy Mode. You haven't played a sin, until you have played a UM sin. Everything you've ever worked for, every waking time you've ever spent, comes down to this. +9-stat/5-skill points each lvl. More HP/SP, HM+UM skills unlocked.

The Build:
(Note: I won't cover what stat points to put, i merely describe the build type)
STR sin - A STR sin in this guide means your build is focused on having a good atk power. I dont mean pure STR, i mean versatility. Investing your stat points 50-70% in STR will net you a good atk power, and a good evasion. In example for NM build: 3str/2dex, the most common used at this mode. A very balanced build.
DEX sin - A DEX sin in this guide means your build is mainly focused on your evasion, opposite from STR build, you will imbalance your build by having an average atk power, and a great evasion/accuracy. In example for HM build: 4dex/3str, having 5dex per level will certainly give you an advantage in your evasion/accuracy. A good build for PvP having supportive STR gears.
REC sin - A REC sin in this guide means your build is a mixture of having REC for a bit more HP/DEF. A Combination of DEX and REC can be a great survivability in Open fields. In example for UM build: 4str/3rec/2dex, a balance between your attack power, evasion/accuracy, and HP/DEF when you fail to evade.
LUC sin - A LUC sin in this guide means your build focuses on pure luck. Relying on your critical as your attack power. A very weak and hard build to start off with as a low lvl. You will need atleast 450luc to actually make this build a worth while. This can be achieved by having a re-stat on later levels. (Personal note: Althought this build sounds awesome to some, it requires a VERY VERY balanced points in able to see a good result. This means you will have to sacrifice all points to LUC, have supportive DEX, and STR all at the same time. I do not recommend this build.)
Invincible sin - Coming soon... (still testing )

The Skill style:
(Note: Yet again, i will not cover specific skills to choose from, merely a playstyle. Bear in mind that Having DUO skill styles will require alot of POINTS, and even more for triple combos. So choose wisely, as even UM can only provide you soo much. Having Dual Combo in NM is possible, but plan ahead, and know what skills are required.)
For a complete list of Skills > List by meeeps
The Damage Dealer - The damage dealer playstyle consist of the Damage Chain: Fatal hit > Tetanus > Aggravation > Slasher. A very deadly chain that consist of a pause, - defense, and a rain of pain. A Great combination of dealing damage quick. Having Fatal Hit lvl1 at all times can be great as your opening pause for its quick refresh.
The Stunlocker - The stunlock playstyle, one of THE MOST ANNOYING class you will ever face. Fatal hit > Halt Kick > Stun Crash > Fantom Assault. A very good chain to keep your opponent immobalized until it is dead. Having Fatal Hit lvl2 at all times would be recommended, so you can spam another halt kick after a crash/fantom.
The Dotter - The Damage overtime dealer consist of: Fatal Hit > Drag Down > Venom Crash > Gruesome Attack. A combination of poison that eats HP overtime and a deadly finish of % damage on HP. Having lvl1 fatal hit is good for this chain.
The Quick Pain - Combination of Dot + Damage chain. You unleash the DoT chain first, then finish off with Damage. All the styles below including this one will require Fatal Hit lvl3.
The Stun Killer - Combination of Stun + Damage chain. A Quick way to have an advantage in the means of Damage, having them stunned first, then finishing them off with pain.
The Sleeper - Combination of DoT + Stun chain. A surefire of DoT and having them stunlocked while you watch the poison do your work.
Master of all - Having to be versatile and quick with all of your given skills, this will require ALOT of skillpoints and only recommended for UM players with quick hands in timing.

The inevitable Skills
There are things that you want, and there are things that you NEED. Thus making it inevitable to pass up on the skill that you should level. Here is the list of the must:
(Note: Always max these out whenever you get the chance. If you dont have enough points to either pick between the skills, the ones in BOLD text are in priority)
* The ones bolded are priority *
The Passive
- Muscle Training
- Rouge Weapon Powerup
- Relax Body
- Evasion Ascent
- Backpack upgrade
- Rouge weapon Mastery
The Basic
(Note: Fatal hit is required, although not required to be maxed, this is based on your playstyle of chain skills)
- Agility
- Fatal Hit
The Combat
(Note: While these skills are not required to be leveled up, they are chosen to be beneficiary for you in the long run)
- Stealth
- Magic Defy (UM skill)
- Flash Attack (UM Skill)
The Specials
- Incantation
- Potential Nible

The Weapon of Choice
The Reverse Sword - Its a mini-sword/dagger that is wielded behind the hands of an Assassin. ATK-speed is a bit fast. The line between Normal and Fast. Reverse swords have a bit more critical status on them. And their attacking power have a big gap between your minimum and maximum hit, this means your damage is a bit more unstable per hit.
The Dual Claw - Its a dual wielded claw. ATK-speed is a bit fast. No different from Reverse Sword, except claws have less gap on the minimum to maximum hit, making your damage per hit more stable. Dual claws focuses more on STR/power status.
The Dagger - Its a dagger, unlike the reverse sword, the dagger is carried to the front. ATK-speed is fast. This weapon is faster than the 2 weapons above. It may sound better at first, but note that later on along the level, Daggers do not have masteries, thus losing advantage on the ATK-speed. The other 2 above have 2 masteries making their ATK-speed from a bit fast > fast > very fast. Daggers also have a bit less attack power that the other 2.
The lvl25 Epic Dual Claw - Its a dual claw with 20dex/10luc I forgot the stats, anyways... its a great weapon to start off with to 25. Great bonus, great damage. Stick with it till 35+ after that, please get rid of it and get another weapon and lapis it.
The lvl45 Epic Dual Claw (Fire Stat) - A great weapon to have, ITS in no way in h3ll crappy. It must not have stats, but it is great and outdamages any non-elemental weapons. You can keep this weapon all the way till the end to have another elemental arsenal in your inventory.
(Note: Stay away from daggers, they are mainly used by casters for its quick spell casting. Not meant for sins as they do not get masteries from daggers.)

The Gears
The Low budget - This should be for starting out NM sins. Get every quests that rewards you slotted gears. Don't look for anything fancy during lvl1-24, your okay with what you got, When you get to 25 try to farm some lv2s in 20-30 dungeon. START lapising those empty gears, IT really helps even if its lvl1 lapis. Do the same for higher levels. If you plan on playing HM or UM sin, remember to always save your EARLY gears for the next char you make.
Steadily Financed - You either have a NM/HM Farmer that you can farm with, or gold just grows on trees for you. Either way, when your in this status, you must be HM+. If your HM, never settle for anything less, For example, always try to get those Dread gears (4 slots) and Lapis away with lvl3s-4s. Work with what you got and then some. REMEBER to never settle for less than DREAD gears, that 1 slot makes a huge difference. At lv50+ You should start getting those Legends, and try to get some lv5s on them.
PIMP status - Heavy APer, almost unlimited gold stockpile.... Dreads is the only way to go, your still okay with lv3s-lv4 lapis, but once you get to lvl 43+ Start on those Legend gears, and avoid, i mean AVOID lapising lv3s on them. 50+ is even more specific. 50+ LEGENDS should never be lapised with anything less than lv3s, UM should only settle for lv5 lapis and legend gears. If you can't then your not on pimp status.

The Massacre in a nutshell
1-15 - This place would be a good spot to farm those kills for extra stat points. You are in a big disadvantage though, Remember that you have no range, and no AoE. 1-15 is all about having range. With soo much nossers in this area, its hard to get close to an enemy. Always look for a party, never wander alone.
20-30 - The Ultimate party leader, Its usually assassins that gets party lead in 20-30s, because of their ability to stealth almost everytime. Once again though, you are at a disadvantage here, mostly agaisn't wars. Given that warriors/fighters get almost their full skills below lvl30. You do play an important role in this map.
1-60 - *Shivers* This is where Sins truely shine. The latter levels gets you all the best part of being a sin. Evasion plays an important role on this map and so do you. Specially when you get that Slasher skill, it is one of the scariest attacks sins have ever come up with.

Knowing the balance of Elemental
Assassins have a Epic weapon at lvl45. I have heard alot of people saying its crappy because it does not have stats. WRONGGGGGGG! I would gladly trade any non ele weapon with stats for a Ele weapon. Reason why:
Elemental weapon adds 25% damage to non-ele and MORE to whatever its weak agaisn't. Ofcourse its 90% inefective whatever its weak agaisn't.

Order of Elementals
> Strong Agaisnt || * Normal Damage || ^ Weak Agains't
FIRE > WIND *EARTH ^WATER
WIND > EARTH *WATER ^FIRE
EARTH > WATER *FIRE ^WIND
WATER > FIRE *WIND ^ EARTH

This works for PvE and PvP manner.
Although for Armor elemental stat, it only works in PvP manner.
Having a Elemental Armor gives you 25% Defense all around, and Bonus defense on top of 25% on elemetal its weak agains't. This does not work agains't PvE, it just gives you 25% MORE def no matter what mob hits you.
(Note: LV45 EPIC Quest gives you a Fire Elemental Weapon, GET THIS. It will be important later on.)

Come back later for part 2
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General, Beginner, and Advanced FAQ

General FAQ (before you even get into the game)

Is this game free?
--Yes. The game is free to play and has an optional item mall.

What classes are there?
--Mage/Pagan, Priest/Oracle, Defender/Guardian, Fighter/Warrior, Ranger/Assassin, Archer/Hunter

What is the best class?
--The classes are pretty balanced. Pick a class that suits you.

Is it open PVP?
--No. PVP is zoned by levels. There’s a level 1-15 pvp zone, 20-30 pvp zone, and a 1-60 pvp (all levels) zone.

What is the maximum level? Is there a level cap?
--60 for all modes except for easy mode, which is capped at 30.

What are modes? --There is easy mode, normal mode, hard mode, and ultimate mode. Read about them here: http://shaiya.aeriagames.com/guide/start. For more details, see below.

Are there pets?
--No, but there are mounts for each class at level 40.

Is there crafting/making/trade skill?
--No. There’s a tab for it in game, but as of right now, no version of Shaiya has crafting.

How do you buy or sell things to other players? Is there an auction house?
--There’s no auction house. You can only set up a shop at your main city. (Apulune/Iris)

What are the consequences of dying?
--In PVE, you may lose up to 5% of exp. You cannot de-level. In PVP you can commonly lose equipment in inventory. In very rare cases, you can lose equipped items as well.

What server should I choose?
--Lailah is the older one that has been there since closed and open beta. Teos is the newer one which opened in late April.

What is light and fury?
--These are the two factions. Alliance of Light and Union of Fury. They fight each other in the pvp zones to increase blessing. Note that the factions have separate maps except for the pvp zones. The main difference is the looks.

Can I switch sides?
--Yes. You need to delete all your characters. Your warehouse stays the same, but there’s no way to store gold.

Can I switch servers?
--No. Your characters, items, and unlocked modes stay with that server.

Is this game in beta?
--No the game is considered live as soon as the item mall was opened but there are still bugs. There will be no wipe.

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The Newbie's Guide to Shaiya

Table of Contents
Introduction
Equipment
Monsters
Colors and Code
Slang
Adventure, Maps, and Exploration (Also covering the use of water)
Parties and Party Member Roles
Last Tips


Introduction
To start, there are many other guides for Newbies that are available. There's only one problem that comes to me when I read all of them. They cover many things, good things, things I will not bother covering, but they don't cover basic, easy, things that every newb wants to know. They cover things like character builds, the best stuff, where to train for how long blah blah yada yada yada. They don't cover what the different colors of the names on monsters mean, where to go to have some fun, how the big the game is, and how to traverse the maps, the slang on online games, and various other topics. I will try to cover these things in a clear, short, grammatically correct Guide. So then, let's get off to the adventure! I will add here that I will be adding some training areas to help newbs get into the game a bit more as well as cover the quests to get out of the first area.


Equipment
Okay, one of the biggest things in Shaiya, the weapons, armor, necklaces, bracelets, rings, boots, helmets, gauntlets, and other things you will wield and wear. To start, each class or set of classes (ranger/archer and fighter/defender) have special equipment. A ranger cannot wield a bow, and a archer cannot wield a dagger. A fighter cannot wield a battle hammer as a defender cannot wield fighter's weapons. The armor goes the same way, except, for example, rangers AND archers can both wear cloth armor and fighters AND defenders can wear copper armor. Pretty simple system right? Yep, it sure is. There's also levels associated with each piece. In other games you can wear armor with a level higher than you, but in Shaiya, you can not. In Shaiya you can only wear armor equal to or below your current level. Equipment can get expensive , but they do seem to do quite a number on your stats.


Monsters
Got to love the evil beats who try to kill you. Each beast you kill give you a number of EXP that will help you level up, they also provide you with loot when killed. Now, when killing a monster you can dodge by double tapping your movement button, this doesn't help much at all though. You'll also find as you get to harder monsters, you'll want to use your buffs and debuffs to your greatest advantage. There's also people called Kill Stealers, they, as the name implies, steal your kills. They can also be referred to as vultures. They seem to swoop in at the last second and deliver the final blow, stealing your loot and EXP. Others think it's cool to battle it with you, henceforth stealing it. If you keep getting your kills stolen you can try to report them. To do this take a screenshot of the player stealing your kill, and report him to Aeria. A small counter action is simply to note to the stealer that this is your kill, simply saying "This is my kill buddy" has saved my from a stolen kill.


Colors and Code
Colors of text mean a lot in Shaiya, as do colors of monsters and players name. The colors of text don't change much, but here are what the few colors mean:
Gray - Simple chat that show to everyone in your vicinity
Brown - Trade chat, often used as a simple global chat, not just for trade
Green - Various system messages (correct me if this is not green)
Light Green - Party chat, only members of your current party/team can see this.
Pale Red - Whisper or private messege, only the sender and receiver can see it.
Red - Yelling, only the people on the same can see this chat. (correction may be needed)
Pale Purple - Guild Chat, only your current guild (not party) can see this.
The colors of the name of monsters mean even more than chat colors. Each color shows how much stronger the monster is than you, they are as follows:
White - Way too easy, I mean, it's like paper against a rifle. No EXP given
Light Blue - Way too easy, not as bad as white though
Dark Blue - Easier than most
Green - Somewhat average
Yellow - Medium strength, they're the best to train on
Orange - Harder, they seem to be much harder to fight, you'll nearly never win
Red - These can be beat if you try hard enough, and they don't one hit you, although it is better to just run on past them.
Purple - These things will kill in one hit. They are much stronger than you.
Grey - You like life? Don't even look at one of these, they'll kill you tenfold in one stare. No EXP is given for killing one.
Please correct me if I missed any or got any wrong.


Slang
Slang plays a big part in all online games, as in Shaiya most of the abbreviations are the same. Here's a simple list of most slang
WTB - Want to buy
WTS - Want to sell
WTT - Want to trade
brb - be right back
KS - kill steal/kill stealer
PK - player kill/player killer
PvP - player vs. player
PVE - player vs. enviorment/player vs. monster
lol, lmfao, lmao, lolz, lolololololol - various forms that means the character is laughing, the last two forms I would highly discourage.
LFP - Looking for Party
ATM - At The Moment
afk - Away From Keyboard
Tank/Meatshield - Defender
AoE - Area of Effect (regarding the area a certain spell will effect)
LFG - looking for group
LFM - looking for more, people who have a group but want more people in it
WTB - want to buy
PC - player character
NPC - non player character
Mob - a group of enemies
Those are only a few of the slang words used in Shaiya, the most popular I have seen. If any need to be added tell me please.


Adventure, Maps, and Exploration (Also covering the use of water)

Adventure, or mighty adventure. It's what everyone wants, it's what they get. There are many maps, you can traverse to the different maps by use of portals and gate keepers. Most map changing portals are kept by oceans, on docks. There's three PvE only maps and also three PvP only maps. There may be more maps I have not yet been to. They are huge maps too, and there quite a number of dungeons and Pandorashys, correct me if I am wrong. Then there's water, tons of it. It you swim in the ocean as far out as you can, you won't get anywhere. But you can swim along coastlines to get to different parts of the map and across lakes and rivers to get to different areas. Sadly though you cannot swim to different continents. When exploring be careful of monsters, some are hostile while others are not. Keep your eye out for greys and reds.


Parties and Party Member Roles
Parties are groups of people that go around the world of Shaiya helping each other. A party lasts until you log out or exit the party. The party itself is nothing binding, I believe part of the gold collected and EXP splits up between members. Being invited to a party means that the particular party wants you to be a party member. Being somewhat of a newbie myself I do not know how to invite folks to my party, though to accept there should be a button. Then once in a party comes the issue of your role within it. For a Defender you would be the 'tank' or 'meatshield'. Which means you run into the monster(s) and start unleashing whatever you can upon them as well as soaking up all the damage. Basically you hold them away from the archers and mages who stand back and damage them from afar. Healers stand more off to the said, of course healing those wounded in battle, mostly the tanks. If I were a party leader I would keep another Defender or two by the healer and long range hitters in case a monster wanted to mess with them. Assassin's or the closer range Rangers, strike to the back of the monster quickly, pulling back. As the tanks stand there and hold the monsters, then the Assassin comes in and deals high damage into the back, at the same time trying not to get hit.


Chatting
When you chat or type something in the chat box it will pop up above your characters head. To enter something in chat, click the chat entry field, which is a small box below where all the words and coming up, or pressing Enter or Return (the same button, it's the one with the arrow that looks like an L but rotated) should do the trick. Once you see the little | cursor type what you wish. Pressing Enter will send the message through, making it appear above your head.


Last Tips
Here a few tips are you finish up this article, I've put them in a Q&A format.

Q: Okay, this is really getting dull, will this game ever pick up and get better?
A: Hang in there, at level 10 the game changes a lot, you finally get to get some new stuff and start the PvP aspect.

Q: How do I make money?
A: Tons of ways, the easiest is to kill monsters and take their gold and loot, selling the loot.

Q: I'm SO tired of grinding!
A: So stop, take a break. Sell some loot, do a quest where you don't have to kill anything. Just jump around and look at the scenery.

Q: Okay, so you see, I'm stuck in the middle of NOWHERE and want to get to civilization, how do I do that?
A: Open your chat box and in the normal channel type /town

Q: What's the matter, I can't type in Trade chat?
A: You cannot type in trade chat until you reach level 10.

Q: Does typing in Trade chat cost any money?
A: Nope, totally free.

Q: When do I get my mount?
A: At level 40 you can buy a mount for 11 million gold (yeah, it's a lot but you don't waste your gold on useless stuff you'll have enough) in Apulune/Iris from the Mount Seller.

Q: Why does the game say for 18 and up?
A: That would be for some blood and cussing as well as nudity (yes full fledged nudity, I have not seen it on players but I have on monsters, Mercenary Arachnids to be more specific), there are also sexual themes. A note on the nude monsters, what I have seen, it as from the waist up only, I don't know if there is anything down further.
Q: Can I fly or anything like that?
A: Nope, although there are some unique features in Shaiya, mostly that it's a very high quality free game, and it's PvP system which works like a charm.

Q: My computer is lagging horribly, what should I do?
A: Well, you downloaded the game so I would guess your connection is fast enough, so if you go into the options there is a graphics selection, if you go into there and slide the sliders to the left and unselect the water feature it should help a lot. Remember you have to exit the game and reload it (not re download it) for the settings to work.


I hope my guide helped some, any feedback, comments, and other information is encouraged and accepted. As well, if anyone knows where I can get fairly large maps of Shaiya (for the light side, I've never played the Fury) I would like to add good training areas for newbs. A short PS note to GMs or anyone who has the power, it'd be a good idea to add WHY the game is for 18+ as for the children who may need some kind of parent approval. I searched the entire site, some of the forums, and asked some players and found nothing until I made this post and found the arachnids.

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