Hey there, I’m Shinobia and this is my introductory guide for the Wind Walker class. I will cover the basics as well as some more general topics (info you can apply to any other class) such as monster transformations and debuffing etc.
It is important to note that a lot of this information comes from personal experience as a PVE (Player vs Environment) focused Wind Walker, I’m not trying to force anything down your throat, so you are welcome to disagree. At the end of the day, everyone has their own way of playing, and I hope this guide helps you develop it (if you’re a newbie ofc).



Wind Walker is the last job of the Ranger Dagger class tree, a class focused on getting in, dealing high-burst single target damage and hiding in the shadows after, with a primary focus on the Agility and Stamina attributes (and all that comes with those, hit, critical etc) they can be exceptionally strong in PVP (Player vs. Player) and are so-so when fighting monsters, either way as with any other class, there is room to be useful.





















*Note: This skill build assumes max level and some SP quests to be completed, hence why I dont level up some Ranger/Adventurer skills, however, you can level them up IF you're still the former since you wont have many offensive skills.



If you end up focusing on PVE there is a few things you should keep in mind! Your main role will be debuffer, what is debuffing? it basically means keeping the enemy in a weakened state with skills that affect it in a negative way (such as -Movement speed, -Attack %, -Hit %, etc) for the longest period possible, the skills you will be regularly using are:

Savage Toenail 3: This will be your bread and butter skill for anything PVE related and the core of your skill rotation, along with Serpent Sting and Dexterous Jab 3 it has the lowest cooldown of all your attacks, paired with its base damage it means it is a good skill to use repeatedly, the other reason as to why you want to use it so much it’s because there is only a 85% chance of the debuff working if the hit connects, and sometimes it never effin’ procs (RNG BABY), slowing down overall DPS.

*Serpent Sting 2: Your other low-cooldown skill, it has a decent DoT (damage over time) and -All Attack debuff on the enemy for 3 seconds at a pop’. Usually 2nd in priority for debuffing.
*Note: It’s also a very good skill in PVP since DoTs cancel some healing skills from certain classes (Templars, sharpshooters, assasins, other windwalkers) that are cancelled on incoming damage.

Dexterous Jab 3: It's your combo starter! it has low cooldown and the highest base damage (1300)! 3rd in priority.

Combo skills 2~3~4: These will consistently deal the highest damage you can for the lowest cooldown possible, so you can rinse and repeat until a situation requires you to do something else.

All in all your usual skill rotation should be something like; Savage Toenail 3>Serpent Sting 2>Dexterous Jab 3>Tempest Assault 2>Cyclone Fury>Dragon Tail. You can stuff Crippling Jab 3, Paralytic Assault and Flying Scissors in between skills to buy time in case the other skills are still in CD.



It all depend on the boss you are fighting and how well you can time them to make the most out of their duration. In some fights (Excavater, Monoxia, Queen of Hearts to name some) you will have to remain very mobile to avoid getting hit (and consequently use less of Reflect, Blue Wind Aegis etc), the best thing to do is trying to rotate these skills as well, but in this case we will make use of Nirenia and Niria transformation cards. These will SAVE YOUR ASS no matter what class you are! Nirenia grants you 5 seconds of invulnerability and Niria on the other hands grants you a MP Shield for 3m, keeping a defensive skill up can be the difference between kissing the ground and living. For extreme cases you can stack up both Reflect and Blue Wind Aegis and take the least amount of damage possible, obviously this is not optimal since you will be very squishy until the cooldows reset.



You can use these to drop any aggro you might receive (you will generate a lot of aggro so don’t be surprised by sudden boss hits), while using camouflage not every action breaks the stealth, for example you can still transform to a monster while hiding (useful in PVP) and it is also worth mentioning that you are undetectable by any monster in the game while hiding, a good way to counter the movement speed penalty of Camouflage is to use Beastial Instincts 3 or use Shushu/Owl transformation before hiding (specially useful in dungeons such as Catacombs or Von's Stein Mansion, where you can effectively reach the area before the last boss without being detected)



Aside from using your own abilities to debuff, one of the most important aspects of your role is to make good use of monster transformations for offensive purposes, namely: Gerry, Roszak and Choppa’:

Gerry: 2nd skill, -20% All Defense for 10 seconds
Roszak: 2nd skill, -20% All Defense and 10% HP Drain to anyone hitting the target for 15 seconds
Pelican Choppa: 2nd skill, -6000 all defense for 10 seconds, with low cooldown; Making it good for repeated uses

Pretty neat right? keep in mind that spamming these transformations is a waste, this too, benefits greatly from having good timing. For example, using it at the start of an encounter is usually a bad idea since your party members have not gotten the chance to apply their own debuffs/self-buffs to maximize the -Def% effects, so ideally you would want to use it after the fact, maybe following up your teammate’s Gerry trans with a Choppa or Ros, to stack it up!
Other situations might present also such as your party/raid being in low HP in which case you could use a Roszak debuff, keeping your group in the offensive while also regaining any lost HP. Adapt and come on top! There are a few other transformation with debuffs similar to these so play the game and experiment! the more the merrier.

As a general rule of thumb; if your ranged DPS has to come and use these debuffs themselves then you either: used the trans and it missed (annoying but it happens) or you are NOT debuffing effectively. We are all guilty of this sometimes but it's all about improving.


Thanks for taking the time to read the guide, hope you found some use in it!

*Oct 14/2019 : Small image edits