Melee Abyss Chaser Guide by Satsujinhan: Difference between revisions

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Hi, I'm Satsujinhan and I've been playing melee chaser ever since I first started out in renewal servers. I've received questions in game regarding my build, gears and so forth, and now I'm finally making this guide for everyone. This whole guide is based on what I've done and tested so far, so there are still some spots I will fill in once I get there in game. If you spot any mistakes, have additional questions etc, you can find me on the server's Discord as Karuna or you can ROdex me in game on my abyss chaser Satsujinhan.
Hi, I'm Satsujinhan and I've been playing melee chaser ever since I first started out in renewal servers. I've received questions in game regarding my build, gears and so forth, and now I'm finally making this guide for everyone. This whole guide is based on what I've done and tested so far, so there are still some spots I will fill in once I get there in game. If you spot any mistakes, have additional questions etc, you can find me on the server's Discord as Karuna or you can ROdex me in game on my abyss chaser Satsujinhan.


'''Last updated:  October 25th, 2024'''
'''Last updated:  February 28th, 2025'''


== '''Stats''' ==
== '''Stats''' ==
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The next important thing in building your character is the skill tree. Early on as a rogue before trans, you can feel free to skill the build however you like. However, these are some notable skills that can make your leveling faster.
The next important thing in building your character is the skill tree. Early on as a rogue before trans, you can feel free to skill the build however you like. However, these are some notable skills that can make your leveling faster.


* '''Back Stab'''As a melee build, this is your bread and butter skill. Using dagger makes this skill hit twice instead of just once, and it will oneshot most of the things you’re going after in the early leveling stages.
* '''Back Stab'''
* '''Haggle'''Melee rogues / stalkers don’t get a whole lot of skills they are required to max out, so once the basic damage dealing skills are set, you should look into this nifty skill. It allows you to buy things even cheaper than merchants with Discount. Keep in mind though that there are some NPC sold items that have fixed prices, which aren’t affected by either of these skills. With basic NPCs like Tool Dealers, this is a handy skill.
** As a melee build, this is your bread and butter skill. Using dagger makes this skill hit twice instead of just once, and it will oneshot most of the things you’re going after in the early leveling stages.
* '''Preserve'''The number one skill to get as soon as you hit stalker. I suggest getting it first since it has a pretty long list of prerequisites compared to other necessary skills. It opens up a whole new serving of skills you can use to level.
* '''Haggle'''
* '''Chase Walk'''While you can move around in Hide due to Tunnel Drive, this skill offers faster movement speed. Keep in mind that you can still be seen by demons, insects and boss protocol monsters. You also get a small boost to your STR after 10 seconds, but it doesn’t last long enough unless you’re linked. With link, you get a speed boost with this skill as well as immunity to Dispell.
** Melee rogues / stalkers don’t get a whole lot of skills they are required to max out, so once the basic damage dealing skills are set, you should look into this nifty skill. It allows you to buy things even cheaper than merchants with Discount. Keep in mind though that there are some NPC sold items that have fixed prices, which aren’t affected by either of these skills. With basic NPCs like Tool Dealers, this is a handy skill.
* '''Preserve'''
** The number one skill to get as soon as you hit stalker. I suggest getting it first since it has a pretty long list of prerequisites compared to other necessary skills. It opens up a whole new serving of skills you can use to level.
* '''Chase Walk'''
** While you can move around in Hide due to Tunnel Drive, this skill offers faster movement speed. Keep in mind that you can still be seen by demons, insects and boss protocol monsters. You also get a small boost to your STR after 10 seconds, but it doesn’t last long enough unless you’re linked. With link, you get a speed boost with this skill as well as immunity to Dispell.


=== '''Shadow Chaser''' ===
=== '''Shadow Chaser''' ===
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As shadow chaser, planning out your skill tree is quite straight forward. As we all know, this class was meant to be a pain in the ass in PvP settings – when you opt to go melee, you have less than 5 mandatory skills you need to get
As shadow chaser, planning out your skill tree is quite straight forward. As we all know, this class was meant to be a pain in the ass in PvP settings – when you opt to go melee, you have less than 5 mandatory skills you need to get


* '''Reproduce'''This is your third job version of Preserve, but with an upgrade. Unlike Preserve, which you have to recast every 10 minutes to keep the copied skill, Reproduce needs to be used only when you copy a skill. After copying you use it again and that’s it. It also allows you to copy a skill at max level, regardless of what level of the skill was used on you. Here are some of my favorite skills to copy.
* '''Reproduce'''
** This is your third job version of Preserve, but with an upgrade. Unlike Preserve, which you have to recast every 10 minutes to keep the copied skill, Reproduce needs to be used only when you copy a skill. After copying you use it again and that’s it. It also allows you to copy a skill at max level, regardless of what level of the skill was used on you. Here are some of my favorite skills to copy.
** '''Duple Light'''
** This is a fun skill to have as a freshly changed chaser. You can still get away with autoattacking things for leveling, and this skill deals extra damage when you play as melee.
** '''Ignition Break'''
** For leveling with this skill, it’s okay to ditch a dagger in favor of a one-handed sword because of damage penalties. However, you don’t have to rely on this skill alone on your way to lvl 200.


* '''Duple Light'''
* '''Fatal Menace'''
* This is a fun skill to have as a freshly changed chaser. You can still get away with autoattacking things for leveling, and this skill deals extra damage when you play as melee.
** Thanks to rebalancing of third job skills, this is now a great leveling skill with dagger melee. It hits twice when used with a dagger and AGI increases the damage of this skill. This skill was '''the thing''' for me when I was leveling my chaser – it’s very spammable and there are plenty of gears to boost its damage.
* '''Ignition Break'''
* For leveling with this skill, it’s okay to ditch a dagger in favor of a one-handed sword because of damage penalties. However, you don’t have to rely on this skill alone on your way to lvl 200.
 
* '''Fatal Menace'''Thanks to rebalancing of third job skills, this is now a great leveling skill with dagger melee. It hits twice when used with a dagger and AGI increases the damage of this skill. This skill was '''the thing''' for me when I was leveling my chaser – it’s very spammable and there are plenty of gears to boost its damage.


The rest of the skills are very much up to what you want to pursue with your chaser. I admit I’ve been putting leftover third job skill points into second job skills, simply because with this build the whole Masquerade tree portion is basically pointless.
The rest of the skills are very much up to what you want to pursue with your chaser. I admit I’ve been putting leftover third job skill points into second job skills, simply because with this build the whole Masquerade tree portion is basically pointless.
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Very much like the shadow chaser skill tree, abyss chaser skills are very simple to pick. Simply put, it branches off into three different builds - bow, melee and magic. We will be looking at the melee skills of course.  
Very much like the shadow chaser skill tree, abyss chaser skills are very simple to pick. Simply put, it branches off into three different builds - bow, melee and magic. We will be looking at the melee skills of course.  


* '''Dagger & Bow Mastery'''This is the starting point of your skills. It boosts damage based on the size of your enemies, when you wear a dagger. However, you don't need to worry about maxing it as your very first thing. I'll tell you further down why.
* '''Dagger & Bow Mastery'''
** This is the starting point of your skills. It boosts damage based on the size of your enemies, when you wear a dagger. However, you don't need to worry about maxing it as your very first thing. I'll tell you further down why.


* '''Abyss Dagger'''This is your secondary skill to spam between Deft Stab's cooldown. It's a small AoE that doesn't require you to target a monster, and it can be spammed very easily. It also creates a short window after use where your Fatal Menace damage is increased, in case you want to try wiggle that into your hotkey combos.
* '''Abyss Dagger'''
* '''Deft Stab'''This is your holy grail, '''the''' damage skill you will live and breathe as melee build. It wasn't originally this great back when 4th jobs were quite new, but skill rebalancing happened and made it a very usable damaging skill. Deft Stab is your priority number one to get as an abyss chaser. Once it's maxed, you can work on the prerequisite skills.
** This is your secondary skill to spam between Deft Stab's cooldown. It's a small AoE that doesn't require you to target a monster, and it can be spammed very easily. It also creates a short window after use where your Fatal Menace damage is increased, in case you want to try wiggle that into your hotkey combos.
* '''Abyss Slayer'''Every 4th job came with an "ultimate" skill of sorts, that costs AP to use. For us, it's this buff. It increases your P. ATK and S. MATK +30 for the duration of the buff and also gives you an incredible +300 HIT bonus, which I found incredibly useful in maps where monsters use agi up. The skill cost is 120 AP and has a 1 minute cooldown. Due to Deft Stab being your main skill, you should be easily able to keep up this buff constantly, as Deft Stab recovers 3 AP per use.
* '''Deft Stab'''
* '''Unlucky Rush'''This is completely optional, but I've found it very useful. It helps you to dash to your target and deals damage according to your base level and POW. It came very handy in Bio 5 whenever I was targeted by multiple ranged mobs - it allowed me to move right next to them and then just Deft Stab all that was left.
** This is your holy grail, '''the''' damage skill you will live and breathe as melee build. It wasn't originally this great back when 4th jobs were quite new, but skill rebalancing happened and made it a very usable damaging skill. Deft Stab is your priority number one to get as an abyss chaser. Once it's maxed, you can work on the prerequisite skills.
*'''Hit and Sliding'''  This is a brand new skill and it comes with a new buff called Chasing. While it's active, your Unlucky Rush damage gets a boost, which is pretty nice in my opinion. Unlucky Rush itself is pretty spammable to begin with, so feel free to test it out in your build!
* '''Abyss Slayer'''
*'''Chasing Break'''  I view this skill basically as an upgraded version of Unlucky Rush. It deals nice damage on its own, but does more when the Chasing buff from Hit and Sliding is active. In case you want to jump into a mob, this is a definite go-to skill.
** Every 4th job came with an "ultimate" skill of sorts, that costs AP to use. For us, it's this buff. It increases your P. ATK and S. MATK +30 for the duration of the buff and also gives you an incredible +300 HIT bonus, which I found incredibly useful in maps where monsters use agi up. The skill cost is 120 AP and has a 1 minute cooldown. Due to Deft Stab being your main skill, you should be easily able to keep up this buff constantly, as Deft Stab recovers 3 AP per use.
* '''Unlucky Rush'''
** This is completely optional, but I've found it very useful. It helps you to dash to your target and deals damage according to your base level and POW. It came very handy in Bio 5 whenever I was targeted by multiple ranged mobs - it allowed me to move right next to them and then just Deft Stab all that was left.
*'''Hit and Sliding'''   
**This is a brand new skill and it comes with a new buff called Chasing. While it's active, your Unlucky Rush damage gets a boost, which is pretty nice in my opinion. Unlucky Rush itself is pretty spammable to begin with, so feel free to test it out in your build!
*'''Chasing Break'''   
**I view this skill basically as an upgraded version of Unlucky Rush. It deals nice damage on its own, but does more when the Chasing buff from Hit and Sliding is active. In case you want to jump into a mob, this is a definite go-to skill.




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* '''Depth 2''' '''Dimensional gear set'''  
* '''Depth 2''' '''Dimensional gear set'''  
** The Dimensional gear set from [https://wiki.muhro.eu/Varmundt%27s_Biosphere_Depth_2 Depth 2] is quite new on our server and seems very potent for Deft Stab builds. I've finally managed to get the set of hat and weapon, and this I can say so far. With A graded +12 Dimensional Abyss Knife and a non-graded, not enchanted (yet) +10 Time Dimensions Rune Crown (Abyss Chaser) the damage I deal with Deft Stab is more or less the same as what I did with my +12 Dim weapon with full enchants and a grade A +10 Crown of Beelzebub. However, you need the whole set before there's any point in using it. One isn't enough without the other. I do understand though that the hat enchanting and grading will bring out the full potential of this set, so it for sure is a must get at a very late point in game.  
** The Dimensional gear set from [https://wiki.muhro.eu/Varmundt%27s_Biosphere_Depth_2 Depth 2] is quite new on our server and seems very potent for Deft Stab builds. I've finally managed to get the set of hat and weapon, and this I can say so far. With A graded +12 Dimensional Abyss Knife and a non-graded, not enchanted (yet) +10 Time Dimensions Rune Crown (Abyss Chaser) the damage I deal with Deft Stab is more or less the same as what I did with my +12 Dim weapon with full enchants and a grade A +10 Crown of Beelzebub. However, you need the whole set before there's any point in using it. One isn't enough without the other. I do understand though that the hat enchanting and grading will bring out the full potential of this set, so it for sure is a must get at a very late point in game.  
*'''Hall of Life + Nebula gears combo'''
**Finally, I have acquired these gears and gotten their enchant up enough so that my DPS is now better with them than the D1 armor and Varmundt gears. What you're looking at getting here is the Spring garment and Spring accessory. To go with them, Nebula Armor of Power and Stellar Power Seal. Good news is that since nobody likes spring gears, the materials from Lake of Fire are probably the cheapest ones to get. You can most likely trade any other season parts with at least 2:1 ratio. The hardest part in all of these gears is enchanting. Unless you're willing to throw billions in zeny into the mats from vends and whatnot, it will take some time to get what you need. Personally, I struggled with Stellar Power Seal enchants - that double mettle sure did not want to come easy. With the Signet of Circulation Spring, there is now option the option to pick perfect enchant for slot 3, so unless you want to gamble for fun, I suggest you go that route. It takes more mats, but at least you will get the Power Signet needed.


=== Headgears ===
=== Headgears ===
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