Shinobi

The Shinobi is the advanced melee DPS class unlocked by advancing a Rogue at Job Level 50. Where the Rogue is a single-target backstabber, the Shinobi is a multi-DoT brawler that layers poisons on every enemy and adds Shadow Clone for sustained burst damage.

Overview

The Shinobi retains every Rogue skill and adds:

• Poison: debuff that stacks 8 times, dealing 16 DPS per stack at max.
• Smoke Bomb: AoE defensive — enemies inside are blinded and skip their next attack.
• Shadow Clone: summon a clone that mirrors your attacks for 12s.

In combat, the Shinobi opens with Shadow Step → Backstab → Eviscerate as usual, then layers Poison on the target for sustained damage. Smoke Bomb is your panic button against packs. Shadow Clone doubles your damage during burst windows.

The Shinobi’s edge over the Rogue is AoE throughput. Against a 4-target pack, Shinobi poisons all four for massive DoT damage. The Rogue would have to cycle through them one at a time.

Shinobi evolves from the Rogue and is the only class the Rogue can advance into.

Stat priority

1. Agility — crit and attack speed.
2. Vitality — better than for Rogue; you take more hits as a melee DoT user.
3. Strength — minor contribution; tertiary.

Skill tree

The Shadow Stalker 4-piece (Lv 60+) is the starting set: +15% Backstab damage. Endgame: Shadow Stalker 4 + Veil 2 for guaranteed Stealth crits.

Cards to chase:

• Toxic Touch (Lv 65 dungeon) — Poison applies 2 stacks instead of 1.
• Shadow’s Doppelganger (Lv 95 dungeon) — Shadow Clone deals +25% of your damage instead of mirroring.

Leveling (Lv 51–70)

Shinobi levels very fast. The opener is Smoke Bomb → poison all targets → Backstab priority → Eviscerate — and against a 4-pack, your DoT damage outpaces your burst.

Endgame

Endgame Shinobis are the #1 trash clearer in The Echoing Spire farming routes. With poison stacking + Shadow Clone, you deal more AoE damage than most specs.

The PvE meta favors dual-dagger weapons with maximum attack speed and poison damage substats. Crit is secondary because poisons don’t scale with crit.

FAQ

Q: When should I use Smoke Bomb? A: When you pull too many — Smokebomb first, then kite, then poison them one by one. Or save Smoke Bomb for when you’re about to die.

Q: Is Shinobi stronger than Rogue? A: Yes, in AoE. In pure single-target, Rogue is competitive because of guaranteed Stealth crits.

Q: Do poisons stack across multiple Shinobis? A: Each Shinobi applies their own DoT independently. Two Shinobis means double the tick damage on a single target.

References

• Rogue wiki page — your pre-advancement spec
• Builds section — Shinobi poison builds (Phase 3)