I will first start by explaining what a Ghost assassin is. While similar to a hybrid sin, as both use traps and WW, ghosts differ from Hybrid Sins mainly by only putting 1 skill point into Lightning Sentry and Wake of Fire. While they still use Traps, mostly for FHR locking people, their traps aren't for damage. The main source of their damage comes from WW. While hybrid sins generally only put 1 point in the Shadow Discipline skills (hybrids max LS and synergies, and max Venom), Ghosts again, only put 1 point into traps, and max out the useful shadow discipline skills (Mind Blast, Weapon Block, Fade, Claw Mastery, Venom). Therefore, Ghosts aren't looking for claws that maximize trap damage, they are strictly looking for ways to maximize their WW damage.

A Ghost will either look for a high ED fools Claw (max ED with fools mod is 300), or a high ED Cruels claw (max ED on cruels claw is 450ed).

First, we will discuss fools claws.

A ghost will look for the following base stats on a fools claw:
Fools Mod
200+ ED
30+ IAS
Ethereal

To Further enhance the usefulness of this claw, they will be looking for the additional stats:
Higher ED
Replenish Durability
2 Sockets
2 Assassin Skills < Not as useful as the above

The Best Fools Claw on all realms for a Ghost is below, and will run you about 100k currently. While I don't currently own this claw, I did own one until recently:


You might wonder why this is the best, even though it doesn't have 295+ed, and it has skills. Without going into a deep explanation of skill distribution of a Ghost, the extra skills on this claw, will save you skill points and help you achieve 63% Weapon Block. These extra skill saving staff mods more than make up for the extra possible 15%ed (285+15=300, with 300 being max ED roll with fools mod).

You can also get the above claw, in a Feral Claw base. Which is the second best base for Ghosts. As it has fairly high damage, and you can use the WSM glitch, which was talked about in the hybrid thread, to achieve max trap laying speed, without suffering much physical damage loss. Against some opponents, the max trap laying speed is important. Again, i'm not trying to go into to much detail around builds and PVP tactics.

An example of a mid level claw will be (12-15k on NL, assuming War Fist base claw):
280+ED
40IAS
Fools Mod
Eth
Eth Rep
1 Socket

An example of a budget claw will be (be in the 750-2000 range, depending on ED and weapon base. War Fist will be the most effective and most costly) :
250+ed
30ias
Fools Mod
Eth


War Fist and Feral Claw are the best bases for Ghost. Generally speaking, War Fist, due to it is the highest damage claw, will be the most saught after and most used, therefore, the most expensive.

Other acceptable bases will be, but will be worse than the above:
Suwayyah
Scissors Suwayyah
Runic Talons < Under very rare circumstances this is useful

Bad Bases that aren't that usable due to damage stats and IAS stats:
Wrist Sword
Battle Cestus

An Even more budget claw will be:
250+ED
Fools Mod
Eth

Notice this doesn't have IAS on it. The only bases that can ever be used without IAS (assuming no socket for a 15ias jewel or Shael), are Feral and Runic.

Ghosts do enjoy having useful staffmods on their claws, however, it is not as necessary as having +3 LS as it is on a hybrid claw.

Useful staff mods are as follows:
Lightning Sentry (Only need to be +1 LS as opposed to +3 LS on a hybrid claw)
Mind Blast
Weapon Block
Blade Shield
Wake of Fire




This part of the post will be about Cruels claws. While debated about their usefulness in Ghost vs. Ghost duels, these claws offer higher damage than their Fools counterparts. I will pause here for a brief caution regarding cruels claws. Cruels claw only start to become effective, once you have higher end gear. If you are looking to build a ghost under a budget, I strongly suggest opting for a fools claw. For a budget build, the damage between fools and cruels will be extremely minimal, but your hit rate using fools claw will go up substantially.

That being said, the best Cruel claw in the game, which I own, is below:



Because of cruel claw mechanics, im not going to spend as much time as I did above. However, everything you read above, still holds true for cruel claws, you just change the 200+ed+ Fools mod, to 400+ED and no fools mod.

Again, I only suggest Cruel claws to high end builds and best of the best builds.

This post was edited by Ukon on Oct 30 2019 01:14pm