Introduction

Hello, this is Alex529 (Alessandro529#8288). I’ve been playing this class for at least 6 months, trying to get out the best DPS out of it, and it's now my main class.

Before starting, playing Ruina at best conditions requires good ping, a high framerate, always staying close to the enemy, and timing the ending of skills properly. Ruina is a pure DPS class where most of the skills are used off cooldown except for [Beast Rush] and [Parry].

You won’t need to focus on the bubbles ([Steam]) thanks to [Class Mastery I] and [Steam Mastery]. Most of the skills you use generate bubbles which means that you can constantly regain the Pressure Release buff (sometimes it bugs to 18 and the 2 “Gear step” skills become yellow and you have to press something else like Exploding Palm to push it to 20).

[Stomp Shuffle], [Steam Release], [Follow Up], [Exploding Palm], [Flying Knee-Kick], [Kidney Blow], and [Cycle Kick] all give 2 [Steam] when used. [Stomp Shuffle], [Steam Release], and [Cycle Kick] generate 1 extra bubble when they hit an enemy.

(If you're interested in learning other classes, check out or Class Guide Archive) - Vino

Skills

[Ducking] - his is the skill that will be used the most. It’s activated by pressing spacebar at any skill (Pressure release buff and Overclock included) except for Pivot strike, Parry (when nothing gets parried, unless you time it right), normal attacks (left click), Low Rear Hook and Bounding Reaction (these last two aren’t even used), what it does is interrupting the skill you’re doing and go in iframe for a really short time and go a bit forward. There’s no cooldown when the Pressure release buff is on. Always do that when you’re sure you got all the hits with the skills or when you have to dodge.

Right after it you can use Stomp shuffle if you press Left click, Steam release if you press Right click or Cycle kick (if unlocked) if you press Spacebar. By casting Gear steps this way you cast them faster than manually pressing the skill buttons, highly recommended to do so if you know how to chain them.

Keep in mind; right after you use this skill, left click will use [Stomp Shuffle], right click will use [Steam Release], or (if skilled up) spacebar will use [Cycle Kick].

[Pivot Strike] - This skill is close range, and after the first hit you’ll stay in the animation for a bit until you press left or right click (part of [Class Mastery III]). Left click activates [Overcharge], while right click does an extra hit and can be combined with [Pressure Burst]. You can cast a 3rd [Pivot Strike] with right click while [Overcharge] and [Pressure Burst] are in cooldown if you don’t worry much about timing those skills.

When you’re in the middle of Pivot strike, Tumble and Ducking won’t work! Be sure to use left or right click to get out of it instead of waiting!

[Stomp Shuffle] - When used, it gives you a speed buff of 25% that lasts for 10 seconds that can be stacked with Steam release’s and a Super armor buff that can’t be stacked (5 seconds, [Class Mastery I]), can be combined with either left or right click to start another skill (Follow up with left and Exploding Palm with right), when done so the cooldown of that skill is reduced by 20%.

When Stomp shuffle hits, Exploding palm, Follow up, Kidney blow, Flying knee-kick and Pressure burst get the cooldown reduced by 1 second. Also, it has no cooldown. That’s not a reason to just spam this skill tho.

The skill hits anywhere if close to the enemy only.

[Follow Up] - This skill is close range, so be sure to stick to the enemy to get all the hits. You can use the movement of the 1st attack to get closer and then hit with the rest. This skill is the 1st filler skill whenever other skills are on cooldown. When the skill starts you just need to hold left click, and if used with [Stomp Shuffle], you can start holding left click even before the skill starts. This skill has 5 hits in total, so be careful to not do normal left-click attacks on accident after the skill is over.

[Exploding Palm] - This attack can hit from mid-range, but you only get full hits when you are close to the boss. This skill can hit 15 times in total, and it has your only debuff (attribute resist -20%).

[Steam Release] - When used, it gives you a speed buff of 25% that lasts for 10 seconds that can be stacked with Stomp shuffle’s and a Super armor buff that can’t be stacked (5 seconds, [Class Mastery I]), can be combined with either left or right click to start another skill (Flying-knee kick with left and Kidney blow with right), when done so the cooldown of that skill is reduced by 20%.

When Steam release hits, Exploding palm, Follow up, Kidney blow, Flying knee-kick and Pressure burst get the cooldown reduced by 1 second. Also, it has no cooldown. That’s not a reason to just spam this skill tho.

The skill hits in front of you if close to the enemy only. It will deal a defense debuff on hit.

[Flying Knee-Kick] - This skill is so close range, even if you move forward during the skill, that it won’t hit unless you’re already close with the enemy. This skill is the 2nd filler skill whenever other skills are on cooldown. When this skill starts, you can press left click to do a second kick that deals the same damage as the 1st. Each kick does 5 hits, but you could hit less than that depending on how far you are from the boss or if you press left click too fast. You can use this to jump stomps if you time it properly.

[Kidney Blow] - Make sure you're close to the boss for this skill, or you'll miss hits or even the whole skill. Be sure to use it when [Kidney Blow Instant] and [Exploding Palm] are on cooldown. You can use this to jump stomps if timed properly. When you use Ducking with this skill, you descend to the ground faster, but with the instant version, if you do it a bit late after the hits are done, you jump in the air and then land.

[Beat Down] - Just used to jump stomps. You could use [Rock Fist] right after since it works in midair.

[Parry] - If you press this skill on the ground you will jump and then start parrying at the highest point and stop doing it when you touch the ground. If you jump and then press the skill it will instantly start parrying until you’re back on the ground. You can move in the direction you want while parrying if you hold it while pressing the skill. When you’re back on the ground you can use Ducking, but can’t skip the falling and landing animation without successfully parrying. If you parry an attack, you’ll have an I-Frame while landing unless you interrupt the fall with other skills. You can interrupt it with [Rock Fist], [Flying Knee-Kick], [Kidney Blow Instant] (good luck doing such a thing), or the normal attack button to skip the landing animation. I’d say this is an emergency dodge button if you can’t trust Ducking, Tumble or [Beast Rush] (or you somehow have Tumble on cooldown), but remember that a parry doesn’t work as an I-Frame until you actually parry a hit.

[Overclock] - A buff that lasts 900 seconds that increases your damage. It’s necessary of course! Just remember to rebuff it when you get buff wiped, or 899 seconds have passed.

[Deus ex Machina] - Spawns a Vortex that sticks close to you, so it works only if you stick to the boss. The damage of this ultimate isn’t to be ignored, and when you charge before launching forward you’re in iframe. But for now if the boss’ hitbox is weird or the ultimate mysteriously bugs out you just wasted some seconds. It can work most of the times on dragons and small bosses. You can use Ducking just at the end of the skill, or if you press left click you activate Retro-charge and fly somewhere. It’s really useful when you know when the enemy will be back or just spawns; you can use other skills while the Vortex is on dealing damage.

[Overcharge] - You need to stick close to the enemy to hit this skill. The fastest way to use this is to use [Pivot Strike] and immediately left click (part of [Class Mastery III]). The other way would be to right click and then hold left click while holding S (not worth it unless you have just used [Pivot Strike] and you don't have other strong skills off cooldown). This skill can hit 5 times in total. It’s one of Ruina's strongest skills, so be sure to use it off cooldown, checking of course if [Pivot Strike] is ready. Ducking works only at the end of it.

[Pressure Burst] - This skill hits close-mid range in front of you, but works better when very close. With the normal version you have to hold left click, but with the [Class Mastery III] version, you first press [Pivot Strike] and then press right click and then press [Pressure Burst]. When you do so, the skill will be 30% faster. This skill can hit 18 times in total. Sometimes when you use Ducking, the cooldown won’t be restored by 20% and I have no idea what the cause is.

[Pressure Release] - Another buff, but this time it lasts 35 seconds and has a cooldown of 20. You can get it by filling the 20 Steam and then triggering a Gear step skill too, so you don’t need to worry about pressing it unless the boss wipes your buffs or you have nothing to attack for more than 30 seconds. This one keeps your Ducking skill at 0 seconds cooldown and increases damage.

[Class Mastery II] - After using [Exploding Palm], you have 2 seconds to use [Kidney Blow Instant]. The instant version doesn’t share its cooldown with normal [Kidney Blow]. There aren’t other skills that can trigger it. It's strong and has a quick cast time. You can use it every 2 [Exploding Palm] casts.

[Rock Fist] - This skill is close-mid range in every direction, it’s still recommended to stay closer in case the target moves and teleports and jumps every 3 seconds everywhere (Hrugnir and Managarm in a nutshell). Hold left click to do all the hits of this, release left click when you see you’re getting out of range or just interrupt with Ducking/Tumble when you are already out of range. The last hit has a slightly higher range and deals more hits at once, depending on when you stopped, the number of hits increases to a max of 3. Can be used in midair after skills like Flying knee-kick

[Beast Rush] - This skill is close range, and the charge you do at the start doesn’t go that far. After you get the 1st hit you’re in I-Frame until the end of it (about 2.5 seconds) or whenever you press Ducking to stop. It may have high damage scaling, but it’s so slow that it’s not worth it. Most of the hits are at the end of it (16 hits in total, but the last 8 are faster) and you need to aim at the boss and pray that the boss’ hitbox doesn’t suck and that you don’t somehow slip even though it worked all the other times. If you don’t get the 1st hit the skill won’t start! It sucks for everything except the I-Frame. You can’t use this as a filler either, since if the enemy moves a bit away you can’t hit it anymore.

I-Frames

Tumble

[Fly By] (just before the launch)

[Ducking]

[Parry] (after parrying, at the landing animation)

[Deus ex Machina] (the charging part only)

[Beast Rush] (after getting the 1st hit)

Skill Build

Unified Skills: Max HP Boost, Final Damage Boost

Skill Crests

[Pressure Burst DMG] / [Kidney Blow AS] / [Exploding Palm DMG] / [Follow Up DMG] / [Flying Knee-kick DMG] / [Deus ex Machina CDR] / [Pivot Strike DMG]

The last two plates can be changed out for other skills or special crests like the Black Dragon crest or buff crests

Skill up: +1 Kidney Blow

Rotation

I divided this class’ skills into burst skills, filler skills and dodges.

Exploding palm, Kidney blow instant, Overcharge, Kidney blow, Rock fist have the priority in this order, Pressure burst, Follow up, Flying Knee-kick, Beast rush are the fillers and Deus ex Machina, Parry, Ducking and Tumble are the emergency dodges.

You can use Deus ex Machina as damage instead of emergency dodge to increase the DPS a bit.

Do your best to maintain the 2 speed buffs. Since you can use these 2 skills whenever, I’ll call the option between Stomp Shuffle and Steam Release “Gear Step”, the lowest buff duration remaining (from Class Mastery I or Awakened Ducking) or the skill that I know I won’t use yet gets rebuffed by pressing one of them at that time.

That being said, ignoring the ultimate, I usually start like this:

[Steam release] (buffing) ↦ [Stomp shuffle] ↦ Right click [Exploding palm] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ [Kidney blow instant] ↦ [Ducking] ↦[Pivot strike] ↦ Left click [Overcharge] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Right click [Steam release] ↦ Left click [Flying knee-kick] ↦ [Rock fist] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Right click [Steam release] ↦ Right click [Kidney blow] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Left click [Stomp shuffle] ↦ Right click [Exploding palm] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Right click [Steam release] ↦ [Pivot strike] ↦ Right click ↦ [Pressure burst] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Right click [Steam release] ↦ Left click [Flying knee-kick] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Left click [Stomp shuffle] ↦ Left click [Follow up] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ [Beast rush] ↦ [Ducking]

Loop 1 :

(after Ducking) Left click [Stomp shuffle] ↦ [Exploding Palm] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ [Kidney blow instant] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ [Pivot strike] ↦ Left click [Overcharge] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Right click [Steam release] ↦ Right click [Kidney blow] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Left click [Flying knee-kick] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Left click [Stomp shuffle] ↦ Left click [Follow up] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Left click [Stomp shuffle] ↦ [Exploding Palm] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ [Pivot strike] ↦ Right click ↦ [Pressure burst] ↦ [Ducking]  ↦ Right click [Steam release] ↦ Left click [Flying knee-kick] ↦ [Rock fist] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Left click [Stomp shuffle] ↦ Left click [Follow up] ↦ [Ducking]

Loop 2 :

(after Ducking) Left click [Stomp shuffle] ↦ [Exploding Palm] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ [Kidney blow instant] ↦ [Ducking] ↦[Pivot strike] ↦ Left click [Overcharge] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Right click [Steam release] ↦ Right click [Kidney blow] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Left click [Flying knee-kick] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Left click [Stomp shuffle] ↦ Left click [Follow up] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Left click [Stomp shuffle] ↦ [Exploding Palm] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ [Pivot strike] ↦ Right click ↦ [Pressure burst] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Right click [Steam release] ↦ Left click [Flying knee-kick] ↦ Left click [Stomp shuffle] ↦ Left click [Follow up] ↦ [Ducking] ↦ Right click [Steam release] ↦ [Beast rush] ↦ [Ducking]

After Loop 2 it’ll loop in a similar way if not the same as the start.

Always chain skills with Ducking to cast them faster, Pivot strike and the Flying knee-kick - Rock fist combo aside. If you’re unable to, you can always cast the Gear steps manually.

Use Tumble/Ducking for short attacks to dodge and Beast rush for long ones.

There are also other rotations with other skill-up crests that can be as strong as this one, so you don’t have to follow this one to achieve a good DPS, but I suggest to ask in #mentoring chat since I didn’t learn those.

Dragon Gems

1 Conversion + 3 Elemental

Good luck!