Yet another rogue thread

Crawdad · #1 04-20-2016, 12:59 PM

Never played a Rogue, one of two classes I can say I have 0 experience with. After an afternoon goofing around with a velium rapier and helping a kindly rogue kill Renux, I got the urge to twink one up. There's a wealth of info out there but I had a few questions.

1) Weapons: 13/26 mainhand seems pretty clear until epic, and I believe the ratio is all that matters for offhand.. But what about same ratios with different speeds/stats? Does it even matter using 17/34 versus a 12/24? I assume prices for similar ratios depend on stats/fashion/weapon type more than anything else.. but a Lath Drinor goes for 6-8k, whereas a Balanced velium warsword has a (barely) better ratio and goes for 1-2k.. doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

2) Ranged: I assume most rogues are rocking an Idol of the Thorned until they get the bow from the coldain quest, but are bows/thrown ever used? I've collected throwing boulders for fun but damn are they heavy..

3) Groupage: Are (twinked) rogues a hot commodity for groups? I've been playing a twinked-out Ranger, but I'll be damned if anybody cares. I'm fine with having to be proactive, but sometimes its like pulling teeth for pick-up groups. If I'm going to be even more group reliant as a Rogue, I'd hope we get picked up pretty quickly?

Thanks! Any good links would be appreciated.

Man0warr · #2 04-20-2016, 01:52 PM

On my rogue I've been rocking Barbed Velium Spear (12/22) and Crystalline Short Sword (12/24) - not the best money can buy but that combo can be had for under 5k and it's pretty effective until you can equip Epic. Sure you could dump a ton of plat on marginally better weapons but I'd rather save my plat for Ragebringer when the quest gets fixed. Some of those weapons you listed are rare (Lath Drinor, no one farms Skyshrine), whereas the Velium stuff drops like candy in a zone farmed heavily for Velious BP Gems (Dragon Necropolis).

I sneak pulled with bow+flight arrows all the time while leveling up in groups in dungeons. It's not as good as a monk doing it, but it's better than most other classes as pullers.

Rogue twinks do get picked up pretty quickly. Through Mistmoore/Guk/Sol B you can hit for 200-300 damage backstabs which on sub-45 level mobs is 1/4th or 1/2 of their HP.

Crawdad · #3 04-21-2016, 02:12 PM

Thanks! I'm using a frozen shard and balanced warsword currently.. debating on grabbing a Green jade axe to 1) use two old-world graphic weapons and 2) bump up the Str... though currently its sitting at 194, which I think is above the required pre-buffed number, though I guess <60 it can't hurt.

About Strength: Are there any formulas for how much Str boosts your damage? Never played a melee Dps (only ever played Bard/Pal/SK) or cared about white numbers before.

capco · #4 04-21-2016, 06:15 PM

1. Just a thought: in cases of equal ratio, take the weapon with higher delay for your offhand. In this way you will take less damage from damage shields.

2. I was told a long time ago that it's actually better if you keep your range skills low as long as you can to help with sneak pulling at higher levels. It had something to do with making sneak pulling more effective (this advice is easily 3 years old so I have no idea how relevant/factual it is, as I was never a big sneak puller with my rogue anyway).

3. DPS classes can make up half of a common group composition (tank, healer, enchanter/bard, 3 DPS), and I've managed to get in groups with 2 other rogues before, so if you can't get a group it's because of a reason other than your class.

Swish · #5 04-21-2016, 08:11 PM

Biggest damage in your main hand (higher backstabs)
Lowest ratio in your offhand (more dps) .... 13/25 better than 9/18 etc

You'll never go without a group, make sure to wink at the nearest LFG wizard - he'll be there for hours [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Swish · #6 04-21-2016, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Man0warr [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

On my rogue I've been rocking Barbed Velium Spear (12/22) and Crystalline Short Sword (12/24) - not the best money can buy but that combo can be had for under 5k and it's pretty effective until you can equip Epic.

You might as well buy a jade mace (9/18) for a cheaper offhand (also very good at low levels). Might be the only time you raise 1h blunt too [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

NarcolepticLTD · #7 04-25-2016, 07:45 PM

The only time I've had trouble getting groups on my rogue was sitting in mistmoore at prime, when everyone else is sitting waiting in a queue for a group. The biggest thing you can do is to make sure you're not /role or /anon as people looking for good DPS to fill out their groups will do a /who all rogue and seek you out from across the server. Set /lfg on as well... even though you can't filter a /who with LFG, the tag will still show up in any query you'd regularly show up on.

Most XP groups aren't going to be inspecting your gear before inviting you either, and won't even care unless they see you doing silly backstabs, then they start inspecting gear and wondering what that small dragonbone shard is in your primary (if your a stubby race).

Apparently at some point before rogue epics were restricted to being equipped before 46, people that didn't have their epic (at say, level 20?) were getting denied groups.... which is pretty ridiculous [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The best thing you can do is make a list of good tanks/heals/CC that you've grouped with at lower levels and friend them as this will help you find groups at later levels.

Crawdad · #8 04-26-2016, 03:43 PM

Up to 15 on the rogue. Spent 4 hours camping Ass/Sup and managed to snag a couple TBBs but only saw one assassin (with dirk).. logged in yesterday and got a mask the next spawn, Weow!

Grouping so far has been incredibly easy, but I guess that's the perk of doing those well traveled zoned. Orc highway group with three twinked rogues+pally+token healer was pretty amazing. Heading to Unrest or Guk today.

I guess the biggest issue for me right now is handling aggro better with Warriors/lazy Knights, especially those with big slow 2-handers. Evade doesn't seem to work very often right now, so I guess I need to just wait a little longer before hacking and slashing.

One of the rogues at Orc Highway said he went all Dex for backstab, which seems false based on all info I can find. He was probably wearing ~150k worth of gear though, so I'm conflicted on what to believe. Anyone know where this might come from and if there's any truth to it?

Akashx · #9 04-26-2016, 05:05 PM

Dex does not give you more hit rate, backstab success chance, or backstab damage.

Samoht · #10 04-26-2016, 05:14 PM

Quote:

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

One of the rogues at Orc Highway said he went all Dex for backstab, which seems false based on all info I can find. He was probably wearing ~150k worth of gear though, so I'm conflicted on what to believe. Anyone know where this might come from and if there's any truth to it?

He's wrong. Backstab is basically determined by strength + level + weapon damage. DEX honestly is a pretty poor stat investment considering all rogue gear has DEX + buffs + diminishing returns at procs starting as low as 144 DEX. Min/max directions would be to go all STA with anything left into STR.