Assassin Katar vs Dual-Dagger

While playing on DoM, lot of people asked me if they should go for a Katar or DD Sin for farming. I wanted to make a post which clearly states the differences between them and also enlightens about different builds for these weapons.

Katar Assassin

Katar is the bread-n-butter build for Assassins. Assassins get double crit rate when wielding Katar and building a critical assassin sounds logical. There are two types of Critcal builds i.e. Natural crit(uses Luk for crit and damage modifiers for weapons) and Equip Crit(uses Triple Critical Jur). Here are the pros and cons of this build:

Pros:

• Very good critical rate combined with nice aspd from Katar Weapons.
• Very efficient in certain maps like High Orcs and Turtle Dungeon.
• Nat-Crit Assassins have very good DPS and can take down some very tough mobs like Wanderer and Abysmal Knights with ease.
• People rarely play Nat-Crit. your friends will be quite surprised when they see such high numbers and crit rate.

Cons:

• 3x Soldier Skeleton cards are required for Equip-Crit Assassins.
• Nat-Crit Assassin is not really worth unless you have Rogues Treasure available on your server.
• Crit Assassins require endow/elemental Katars to reach their highest potential.
• Nat-Crit Assassin requires many cards which might take a while since people don't hunt them. (Dullahan, Goblin-Archer, Cruiser)

Dual-Dagger Assassin

When RO came out, absolutely nobody went for Dual-Dagger. Everyone just assumed that Katar was the best weapon and chose between Nat-Crit and Equip Crit. After 1-2 years few people tried Dual Dagger with Racial Cards and Elemental Daggers and were shocked with its DPS. Here are the Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Very good DPS when well-geared.
• It is easier to forge elemental Daggers compared to hunting elemental Katars.
• Does not need any Endow/Sage.
• Removes the necessity for Dual-Clienting.
• Works best on low-def monsters. Most of the monsters in RO have low-medium def and makes it more viable to use Dual-Daggers.
• Can outclass Katar Assassin if combined with Ice-Pick, Combat Knife and Exorciser.

Cons:

• Needs a heavy investment on elemental Damascus.
• Needs a lot of cards i.e 2xracials, 2xsize/element.
• Not every monster is the same and hence you cannot have perfect daggers for all the monsters.
• Slow aspd with high numbers.(not sure if its a con)
• Ice-pick, Exorciser are very end-game weapons.

Katar w/ Sidewinder

This is a very unique build and many people are not aware of it. Using a Side-Winder card on a Katar lets you use lvl 10 Double Attack on Katar type weapons. This is a hybrid between Dagger and Katars and lets you use the goodness from both worlds.

Pros:

• High Aspd from Katar with Double-Attack.
• Very beginner friendly.
• Sidewinder card is very easy to get and assassins are the one of the best classes to farm it.
• Very enjoyable since you do not have to worry about card farming.

Cons:

• Although you can increase the damage by racial cards and Ele-Katars, it has a cap to its DPS.
• Loses out to High-Geared Nat Crit and Dual-Dagger Assassins.

Stat Build

To display the kill-time between each type of Assassin I will be using the following stat build:

Standard Assassin:

Assassin 91/50

Str: 94+6
Agi: 80+10
Vit: 1+2
Int: 1
Dex: 32+8
Luk: 1+0

Self-Buffs: Awakening Potion
Other Buffs: None


Equip Crit:

Assassin 92/50

Str: 94+6
Agi: 80+10
Vit: 1+2
Int: 1
Dex: 12+8
Luk: 30+0

Self-Buffs: Awakening Potion
Other Buffs: None

Nat-Crit(High End):

Assassin 96/50

Str: 94+6
Agi: 90+10
Vit: 1+2
Int: 1
Dex: 1+8
Luk: 30+0

Self-Buffs: Awakening Potion
Other Buffs: None

Equipment Build

I have divided the equipment build into 3 tiers and each tier has different equipment sets. All these build use undershirt and pantie combo.

Low-Tier Builds:

• Dual-Dagger Assassin:
  Right-Hand: +5 Damascus
  Left-Hand: Damascus
  
• Katar-Assassin:
  Weapon: +5 Jamadhar
  
• Katar w/ Sidewinder:
  Weapon: +6 Jur [1xSidewinder Card]

Mid-Tier Builds:

• Dual-Dagger Assassin:
  Right-Hand: +5 Elemental Damascus (not VVS)
  Left-Hand: Damascus
  
• Equip-Crit Assassin:
  Weapon: +6 Jur [3x Soldier Skeleton]
  Accessory: 2x Clip [Kobold]
  
• Nat-Crit Assassin:
  Weapon: +7 Jur [3x (+7crit, 10% crit damage cards)]
  Accessory: 2x Clip [Kobold]
  
• Katar w/ Sidewinder
  Weapon: +6 Jur [2x Racial, 1x Side-Winder]

High-Tier Builds:

• Dual Dagger Assassin:
  Right-Hand: +5 VVS Elemental Damascus
  Left-Hand: Main-Gauche [2x Racial, 2x Elemental]
  
• Nat-Crit Assassin:
  Weapon: +7 Jur [3x (+7crit, 10% crit damage cards)]
  Accessory: 2x Rogue Treasure

Kill Time

I have used Wushuang Calculator to compare each builds.

Type	Alice	Alligator	Angeling	Apocalypse	Argiope	Bathory	Clock	DragonTail	Dryad	Goat	High-Orc	Knocker	Myst-Case	Pasana	Raydric	Seal	Siroma	Solider	Wanderer
Dual-Dagger	15.2	9.67	62.19	~	8.29	6.9	20.03	14.51	15.89	38.69	12.43	13.81	4.83	20.3	21.42	13.81	9.67	91.21	~
Katar	16.32	9.69	65.79	325.38	8.16	7.65	21.42	15.81	16.32	34.17	12.24	15.81	4.59	19.89	19.89	14.28	11.22	52.02	216.75
Sidewinder	10.84	6.9	46.83	205.58	5.91	4.93	14.29	10.35	10.84	24.15	8.87	11.33	3.45	13.8	14.29	10.35	8.38	40.42	144.44
Dual-Dagger	15.2	5.52	31.09	~	8.29	5.52	11.74	8.29	8.29	19.34	6.9	8.98	4.83	11.74	14.51	8.29	4.83	52.51	~
Equip-Crit	14.25	8.44	69.16	38.01	6.33	6.86	14.78	11.08	11.61	14.78	9.5	11.08	4.22	11.08	12.14	11.61	8.97	18.48	12.67
Equip-Crit(Endow)		5.28	34.84			5.28	8.44	6.33	5.8	7.39	5.28	7.39		6.33	7.92	6.86	4.75	10.56	8.44
Sidewinder	7.88	4.93	33.52	146.42	4.43	3.45	10.35	7.39	7.88	17.25	6.4	7.88	2.46	9.86	10.35	7.39	5.91	29.08	103.53
Sidewinder(Endow)		2.95	16.76			2.95	5.91	4.43	3.94	8.87	3.45	5.42		5.91	6.9	4.43	2.95	16.76	69.02
Dual-Dagger	9.26	3.56	20.67	573.25	5.7	3.56	7.84	5.7	4.99	12.12	4.99	5.7	2.85	7.13	9.26	5.7	3.56	29.23	68.44
Nat-Crit	9.55	3.52	25.65	23.19	4.02	3.52	5.53	4.52	4.02	5.03	3.52	5.03	3.01	4.02	5.03	4.52	3.01	6.53	5.03

As you can see, Side-Winder and Nat-Crit produce some of the highest DPS. However, I have excluded IcePick, Combat Knife and other def ignoring daggers. If you do have access to these daggers, Dual-Dagger will certainly beat Nat-Crit.


Hopefully, I have helped you decide between the different types of Assassins. Personally, I prefer the Sidewinder build, but you could always go for the one that appeals you.


Good Luck and Have Fun

-Coco