what's the best build for rogues/stalkers?

[Irxallis]

rogue (...) to grind at kiel2

It might not be the best place for a single rogue (unless you mean one with a priest). That is, it will technically work because you can down them, but Kiel2 is a bit special:


1) Constants with 10k HP. You need either to hit them ONCE, wait till they start preparing for blowing up (notice the skill bar being filled) and backslide like crazy - no other way you can avoid that attack. And 10k damage will kill a rogue. Good thing - you can hide from them.

2) Constants with 1k HP. You cannot hide from them. You cannot outrun them (unless with backslide). You will be dealt 1k damage >_>. It is not something that kills, but it is annoying and can be pot-consuming.

3) Alicels have a Guided Attack skill. This skill makes them hit you. By this I mean: no matter your flee you are hit once for... ~2k damage? (approximating)

4) Aliots... although it doesn't seem so from their stats they have a very high crit rate (no idea why, honestly). Crit bypasses flee.

To sum up, Kiel2 is not the best place for a rogue. You should be able to make it, but you will burn much more pots than you really want to.

gaining 2m from selling my thief's ring really gave me regrets

Me too. I have sold ~15 thief rings to good people of HeRO and not one was sold for less than 4.5 mln zeny XD.

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About Thin Blades:

For some monsters you might prefer an Exorciser dagger over a thin blade[2] with twin strouf cards especially if you are auto-attack. Look at the numbers:

Let us assume the rogue has 100 STR total, thus 'innate' damage is 100+100 = 200.
Exorciser: ATK 90, dagger, pierces defense of demons, ~5 mln zeny
Thin blade[2]: ATK 120, sword, with two stroufs -> 140% damage

Now, your maximum damage with both is as following:

Code:

Exorciser:
200 (your STR bonus) + 90 (Exorciser) + 4*7 (oridecon) = 318 damage per hit
with double attack, +50% avg damage

-> 477 damage per hit (statistically!)

Code:

Thin Blade[2] +7 with 2* Strouf:
200 (your STR bonus) + 120 (Exorciser) + 5*5 (oridecon) + 2*7 (overupgrade) = 359 damage per hit
Twin Strouf bonus: 359 *1.4 = 503 damage per hit.
Chick hat bonus: 503 * 1.25 (lv 5 double attack)

-> 629 damage per hit statistically

Seems Thin blade is much better, doesn't it? But now, let's apply our calculations to a real life monster named Aliot.

Code:

Aliot, def 35, vit 87, Demon.

Exorciser pierces monster defence, therefore we deal the same damage. 477 per hit.

Thin blade, on the other hand...

1) I need to disable Chick hat bonus to recalculate highest possible damage:
503 * 0.65 (armour def) = 327. 327 - 87 (vit def) = 240
2) Reapplying chick hat bonus:
240 * 1.25 = 300 per hit on average

Exorciser +4: 477. Thin blade +7 with two stroufs: 300. And Exorciser is cheaper :-).
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As you can see, the higher enemies' def the greater is the chance you want to use an armour piercing weapon over high ATK modifier one. For example, you want Combat Knight against Sword Guardians over PVP mes+7.


Hope it helps :-)