saiumi
Newbie
Posts: 14
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« on: April 11, 2011, 01:51:26 am » |
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***
A strange froglok bumps into you on the platform in the Nexus. Your pocket feels a little heavier. You quickly move to a hidden corner and search your pocket and find a note wrapped around a shiny platinum piece. Opening the note you discover that it is an invitation to the Hidden Shadows, a guild of shady repute, and an offer to train you in the larcenous arts.
***
The basics:
So, you have chosen the path of the rogue. I'm not gonna sugarcoat this. the trip is tough. You are probably wondering why, if at all, anybody would chose this path. Simply put, rogues are the top of the food chain.
Sure warriors, paladin, and shadow knights are survivable, but they can't kill most things with a single stroke of their blade or sneak past dungeons full of terrors to pick only the finest of treasures without any troubles from the guards. You, as a rogue, can get into and out of places that other people can't. We are a class meant to be seen only after our blades are already in our target's backs, after they are crippled by our deadly poisons, as the final being they see as they slip away from their life.
Your Skills:
The skills most used by a rogue are Stealth and Perception.
To master the skill of Stealth you have to train yourself in the art of Hiding and Sneaking!
Hide - Skill maxes at 200; Sneak - Skill maxes at 200
Something that every rogue should learn to do as soon as possible is to sneak while you are hidden. To do this Activate your Hide Skill (success: You have hidden yourself; Fail: you fail to hide), then activate your Sneak skill(Success: You are as quiet as a cat stalking it's prey; Failure: You are as lout as a herd of elephant). Stealth works best when you move behind your target, as they cannot perceive you from behind while you are sneaking. (Trick of the Trade: If a vendor refuses to sell to you just activate sneak while behind them and then start the transaction again and they will sell to you). When setting up for combat and assassination you should remain hidden until the last moment, the moment when you take careful aim and stab your target in it's back.
Combat Disciplines are your friend, do not hesitate to activate them. They may have from 30 second to 5 - 40 minute cool downs, but they will save your life( I guarantee it ) or greatly increase your combat ability. If you are out hunting with a partner and you happen to gain more attention than you would like during combat you can stop attacking and hide from view for a moment and the target should ignore your attacks for a little while. (turn off attack and press Hide, then activate attack again or activate a discipline and back stab). Quickly empty your fresh kill's pockets and vanish from sight once again.
The next set of skills, which many rogues overlook in their journey, is that of poison crafting and application (an in-depth guide will be written in the future). I know, I know... **whiny** but poison crafting is soo hard, and I can't find my ingredients **stop whining**. If you think you are doing great damage without your poisons, you are wrong. Poisons will triple, or quadruple the amount of damage you can do early on. Later on it will be like having 8 melee strikes in 1 round of combat. Now the next question that I know is on your mind: "Will it work with my charm?" Well, yes and no. Any direct damage portion of your poisons WILL be affected by your charm. Damage over time effects will not. I know... sucks, but if you think about it, our poisons are like an interchangeable charm or damage type on our PIERCING weapons.
Tools of the Trade:
Every rogue should have the following items either on them or someplace they can get to quickly.
Chain Armor
Piercing Weapons
Shuriken or Throwing Knives
Bow and Arrow
Mortar and Pestle
Poison Vials
Lock Picks
Rogue Combat (solo):
A rogue should choose their battles wisely, never show your back to an enemy, and never take on mare than you can handle. Using the skills you learned in your basic training. hide and sneak up behind your target and attack them. You may, if you are skilled enough, pick your target's pockets during combat(turn off attack, use the Pick Pocket skill and turn attack back on) though that will only yield coins and non magical items.
Rogue Combat (group):
Always stay behind your target. A honorable rogue does not pick pockets while in a group as it takes away from any money and items split up at the end of combat.
Your Disciplines:
You probably won't start using your disciplines religiously until level 20, because let's be honest Throw Stone just doesn't really cut it. 1 Point of damage in a range that you should be engaged in melee anyway isn't that useful for pulling a single monster from it's pack.
Discipline types:
Enhanced Backstab accuracy and damage: We get our first one at level 20. You must be hidden to use it. It has a cooldown of 30 seconds, and a use timer of 15 seconds from activation. Our most powerful one is on our Epic Weapons 3.0 - 4.0, where the 4.0 adds a 500% damage modifier to our backstab damage when activated!
Damage Mitigation and Avoidance: Counter Attack and Nimble Discipline will allow you 12 seconds of either 100% Parry/Riposte or 100% dodge. the Cooldowns on these are fairly long but don't be afraid to use them when you need to.
Damage Increase and Process Effect Increase: Your Duelist discipline doubles the damage you can do for 12 seconds. It's great for taking down small things fast, or boosting your DPS if a group member happens to die... Weapon Affinity is your 100% Process Effect(proc) activation discipline. When activated it will activate any and all procs, poisons, combat innate abilities, or other weapon based effects on your equipped weapons every successful melee hit for 12 seconds. With haste and some "Tier V" or better poisons on you will really be able to do a lot of damage fast.
Hate Reducing: Your Imperceptible Strikes discipline is supposed to reduce your rank on the hate list every strike. If you have a good tank or two you shouldn't have to use this discipline, ever.
Shared Cooldowns: A lot of our really nice looking abilities share their cooldowns with another ability. One of the most obvious ones is the Counter Attack discipline and Nimble discipline. If you'll have to choose whether your situation requires being able to dodge or parry/riposte. Honestly though, I usually choose to parry/riposte because dodge seems a little unreliable.
*** To be filled in later***
*Edited to insert Discipline guide (4/18/11)
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