Getting started on p99 as a Rogue.

[Cecily]

Originally Posted by AnthonyHJ [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I had heard that getting Pick Locks up to 11 was basically a requirement or else you can't use it. Not that I have used it yet, but it seems like it should be one of the defining rogue skills, so not getting it to a useful level sounds like I'd be doing myself a disservice.

As to backstab; I actually levelled it up in the field, but I'd been saving all of my skill points (other than the ones I spent getting Pick Locks to 11) and really wish I had been given that advice earlier. The difference between seeing 10 dmg (at 10 Sneak Attack; starting value) and 40 dmg (or higher) really made me wish I'd used training points...

Speaking of Pick Locks, is it worth going to Befallen to get my skill up or do most groups running dungeons with locked doors prefer to have keys in case they need to bail out in a hurry?

Lock picking is worthwhile to train early on. Playing a rogue involves quite a bit of time devoted to leveling the ton of skills you have outside of the typical leveling grind. You're going to eventually find yourself in WC or elsewhere with nothing to do. That's the perfect time to develop skill sets you will need to have later on. Might as well head over to Befallen every 10 levels or so and cap your skill for your level. You'll thank yourself later when you're clicking a door back and forth for only 30, 40, 50 points rather than 200 at 40 or 210 at 60. Divide it up over time is my recommendation.

Try to figure out smart ways to train skills (multiple if you can) in the easiest way possible, while doing other stuff. Makes it less of a grind. Here's a bunch of unsolicited advice on what worked best for me. Hope some of it is useful.

Pickpocket / Evade Macro

You'll want your pickpocket skill at 200 by level 40 for the best odds of not getting killed in the initial steps of your epic. I strongly suggest you get your notes around 40 so the deaths you may eat sting less. So how do we get ready for this? Setup an evade macro that includes pickpocket.

In your actions window (ctrl-A) on the 4th tab use the arrows to change pages and right click on a blank button.

Label it Evade

Line 1: /at off
Line 2: /do 3
Line 3: /do 1
Line 4: /at on

Where /do 3 refers to pickpocket and /do 1 refers to hide.

The numbers are where on your second tab you placed your noncombat skills. Combat skills on the next tab follow the same pattern starting with 7.

1 2
3 4
5 6

What that macro will do is turn off your attack, steal from the mob, trigger evade which is how hide functions in combat as an aggro reduction ability, and resumes attacking. Place this macro on your main bar and use it whenever you see your hide skill pop. Please inform your group that you'll be training pickpocket and make sure they are ok with that. Certain types of mobs will call you out on fails and some people are overly attached to the 3 silver that orc pawn was planning on giving them. In this case, simply delete the line that refers to pickpocket and the macro will still work for evading.

Later on people WILL care if you pickpocket, so get it capped by 40 and stop using it or risk your reputation.

Hide and Sneak

Mash these buttons together whenever you have downtime. Try to keep these capped for your level and you will save yourself a tremendous headache trying to move invisibly. Also higher hide means more evade successes.

Bind Wound and Safe Fall

The jumping off high places and hurting yourself one is kinda fun. The wrapping yourself in bandages one is less fun but valuable later on. Work on them together. My favorite spot for this was the lifts at Kelethin. Jump off, bind up to 50%, jump off again. Please make sure you have enough HP to actually do this lol. Safer safe fall training can be found along the walls of the Deserts of Ro and off the top of the EC tunnel. Safe fall caps early at a weird number. Bind Wound takes some dedication, but you'll be able to bind up to 70% in your late 50s with high skill.

Disarm

Like pickpocket, you can put this in a macro. The problem is that the skill has to be used very close to the mob. Rogues should be fighting from max melee distance in most circumstances to minimize push and to not get root proximity aggro. The skill frankly sucks to train. Level it up on green mobs with visible weapons or in groups. Not a bad skill to power through with practice point later on, as it will get very expensive at higher levels.

Intimidation

Your unreliable fear ability. Good skill to have maxed if you can find a use for it. Allows extremely well geared rogues to solo a bit before the 50s. I believe this will train off of green mobs. The best way is to get yourself into a fear kiting group in areas like OT or FM giant fort where they actually would like the mob feared. I pressed the button on an impulse in the middle of Droga dungeon. That didn't go well for us haha.

Sense Traps / Disarm Traps

Sense traps will train anywhere. It's like hide and sneak training, just slower and more pointless. Disarm traps should be very easy to train now as of the latest patch. Click the swinging pendulum trap in Sol A repeatedly. Should go quick, but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. These skills will get some use in Velious so train them if you have time for it.

Make Poison / Apply Poison

Like other tradeskills, drop 20 points into this to skip tedious early skill ups. Honestly though, don't bother with poisons until you're 60, rich, and bored. At that point don't bother farming reagents, just follow this 100% vendor bought progression:

Gindlin Toxfodder in WK: Spine Break (32), Athropic Sap (98), Aching Blood (108)
Ennixy Frennor in Steamfont: Calcium Rot (172)
Brak Daggermist in FV: Spirit of Sloth (250)

Get your apply skill up by clicking cheap poisons over an over. Success rate gets pretty good around 100. Think that's where I stopped and I blew some practice points on it because it was annoying.

Lockpicking

Drop training points into this skill to get it to 11, or simply wait to train it initially at 11. Then buy some lock picks and click them on the first befallen door. Locks don't go trivial, so you can go from 11 to 210 on the first befallen if you cared to. Different locks do, however, have a minimum skill levels. That's why you needed the extra points for the easiest door in the game at Befallen.

[AnthonyHJ]

Regarding the Safe Fall skill, isn't it set so that a fall which would hurt you levels the skill regardless of whether your skill is high enough to negate all damage? If so, Kelethin has a bridge leading away from the rogue's guild which might be perfect; it consistently does 1-3 damage when you jump off it onto a handy platform below, for a nice safe training environment and a fairly short run back to the bridge. I often jump down from this bridge as a short-cut to the lifts.

[Cecily]

I'm pretty sure that's how it works. Try that spot out and see how it works. The desert walls were great too. Usually very small falls, but a bunch of them as you go down the wall. I just mentioned the lifts because they consistently deal a nice bit of damage to you for bind wound practice. Self inflicted wounds are tough to come by.

[Daldaen]

I also would put sense heading or sense traps in your Evade hotkey. Let's you skill up those semi-important skills as you play without paying attention to it.

Otherwise Cecily has a solid post.

But if you want to pickpocket, just put on /role and tell your group you're roleplaying a rogue if they ask about the lack of gems. Wish more people would use /role for its proper purpose. Not hiding their class/zone.

[AnthonyHJ]

Isn't the disadvantage of sense traps on your evade that you suddenly get turned to face the trap? That could be an issue in combat, I would think...

[Cecily]

That's rogue ethics, Dald. Stealing anything without grave risk of bodily harm is cheating. I didn't steal from my NG groups in Seb back when they were still pickpocket flagged. I did go and rob them blind, solo, when the various beetles were uncamped. It's more fun and you're not, directly at least, screwing anyone over. Pick pocketing real valuables from your group or others is pretty repugnant imo.

I funded my rogue main on live with money I stole from unengaged hill giants. Yeah I made soo many druids whine in ooc about stingy giants, but stealing from their mobs was a line I wouldn't cross even though it would have been easier.

[Cecily]

Originally Posted by AnthonyHJ [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Isn't the disadvantage of sense traps on your evade that you suddenly get turned to face the trap? That could be an issue in combat, I would think...

If you were around a trap, yeah. Pretty rare though and you can take it out of the macro easily. Was just a button mash thing for me. For sense heading, what I like to do is bind the sense heading button to the left or right directional key so it fires off every time you turn. Will get you to 200 skill within a day's playtime and you just unbind it then.

Alt+O.. hotkeys I think. Add sense heading's key to the second slot for the directional key.