Revision as of 16:08, 8 December 2014 (view source) Mentathiel (Talk | contribs) (→‎Weapons) ← Older edit		Revision as of 01:03, 9 December 2014 (view source) Mentathiel (Talk | contribs) (→‎Other Tips) Newer edit →
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	=Other Tips=		=Other Tips=
−	*When you are sneaking, consider walking sideways. For some reason, strafing is faster than walking forward.	+	*When you are sneaking, consider walking sideways; for some reason, strafing is faster than walking forward
−	*Hide and sneak, when used together, are better than invisibility.	+	*Hide and sneak, when used together, are often better than invisibility; get used to using them and they will save you a lot of trouble
	**Sneaking slows you down, so don't sneak while running from a train		**Sneaking slows you down, so don't sneak while running from a train
	**Looting corpses (even your own) or handing in quests will reveal you, but will leave sneak working		**Looting corpses (even your own) or handing in quests will reveal you, but will leave sneak working

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Revision as of 01:03, 9 December 2014

Contents 1 On The Wisdom of Crowds 2 Disclaimer 3 Character Creation 4 Gaining Experience 5 Weapons 6 Armour 7 Skills 7.1 Opinion 1 - Save your points 7.2 Opinion 2 - Practice to stay skilled 8 Other Tips

On The Wisdom of Crowds

It is a commonly-held belief that the consensus of a large enough group of people is often nearly as good as the knowledge of an expert. With this is mind, I have decided to collect information found on the forums in hopes of creating a source of useful information.

• Mentathiel (talk) 14:27, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Disclaimer

This is based on personal experience and 'what some guy said on the forums' rather than scientific investigations. As such, it might be wrong.

Character Creation

Much has been said about stats and races, but the basic message is this; low strength is bad. Rogues use strength for their damage and a full set of banded armour (an example of low-level armour with 91AC) is heavy, about 47lbs. If your weight allowance is only 60 (starting strength for a dark elf or gnome) then that leaves just 13lbs for a weapon and anything you loot from corpses.

Other than this, feel free to read the Rogue class-page.

Gaining Experience

As soon as you can, look at joining a group. A rogue is not a tank, has no crowd-control ability and can't use tricks like roots or snares to escape until level 20. In a group though, you can stab away to your heart's content without the risk of death which comes with a solo career. Zones like Befallen and Crushbone offer accelerated experience and collecting Crushbone Belts can be very profitable if you sell them or give a fair amount of experience if you complete the associated quest yourself. The same is true of Crushbone Shoulderpads and the related quest.

It's worth noting that quests which gain you experience or money are a much better idea than those which gain you items. There are almost no quest rewards after the first few levels which can compare to the items you can buy from other players with the platinum you have collected.

Weapons

At level 1, you want something with a good DPS. High damage or low delay will be ideal, but try to focus on piercing, since you'll need to be handy with piercing weapons once you hit level 10 and learn to back-stab. There is a damage-cap in place at these low-levels, so the highest-damage weapons are actually not as useful for a newbie rogue as a fast weapon. Despite the fact that you will probably keep getting given daggers by your guild, a rapier or a spear is often a better choice.

Level 10 brings backstab, a fairly useful skill which does high damage from behind and is at least one more attack from in front. A higher-damage weapon means better backstab damage, but it has to be piercing. At this level, a good balance between damage and delay is the most important trait, but damage should win out if two weapons ever seem close.

Some rogues will swap weapons in combat, switching to a high-damage weapon for backstabs, then back to a good ratio for normal combat. Some other rogues suggest that this is a bad idea as it harms your DPS enough to negate any advantage you might get.

The following progression of weapons has been suggested: , , , , (From the Rogue Epic Quest)

Armour

The best low-level armour for a rogue is apparently banded armour, for 91AC. It will cost you about 85pp for the full set, but is player-crafted and so you may find blacksmiths levelling up their skill who will sell it cheaper or just give it away to newbies. Please note that it is fairly heavy, so this should be combined with any Strength-gear you can find or buy. While Dexterity is useful, rogue gear often comes with dex as standard.

Skills

I was advised to spend training points for levels 1-9 only on unlocking important new skills, saving them up for a huge investment in Backstab once you hit level 10. Having failed to take this advice, I can vouch for the huge difference between 10 skill and 55 skill when it comes to damage; this is a defining skill for rogues, so getting it up as fast as you can really pays off. Luckily, backstab will skill up pretty fast once you have it, so you should never have to invest training points in it again. Hide and sneak should also be kept high, which means using them as often as possible.

As to the less useful skills; there are apparently two schools of thought...

Opinion 1 - Save your points

While skills like Hide, Sneak and Dodge are useful and should be unlocked as soon as you can manage it, not all skills should be unlocked straight away. Pick Lock, Pick Pocket and Sense Traps all unlock much earlier than you will need them. While you can pick locks in Befallen from level 6, it is a much better idea to wait until you are ready to use these skills. Unlocking Pick Locks at level 6 gives you 6 skill, unlocking it at level 50 will give you 50 skill. The same goes for Disarm Traps; why unlock it at 21 when you might not even see a trap until 50?

Opinion 2 - Practice to stay skilled

Rogues have a selection of skills which nobody else can really match. At the same time, they have limited use. Some rogues suggest heading to Befallen every ten levels to keep your Pick Locks up to date (though make sure you have 11 points in the skill and a set of lockpicks before you go) so that you don't end up sitting in Befallen at level 50 trying to skill up to max level all in one go. On the plus-side, locks never go trivial; the first door in Befallen, which requires 11 skill, can be used to skill you up to the cap whether you are level 6 or level 60.

Other Tips

• When you are sneaking, consider walking sideways; for some reason, strafing is faster than walking forward
• Hide and sneak, when used together, are often better than invisibility; get used to using them and they will save you a lot of trouble
  • Sneaking slows you down, so don't sneak while running from a train
  • Looting corpses (even your own) or handing in quests will reveal you, but will leave sneak working
  • Getting hit by an enemy will end sneak and probably indicates that you are no longer hidden
  • Some enemies can see through Hide, just as some enemies can see through Invisibility
• Rogues can evade in combat by turning off auto-attack and then hiding; this reduces aggro and can let you backstab and/or pick pockets
• Safe Fall works even on a small fall, as long as you would take damage
• Bind Wounds is no substitute for magical healing, but it's better than natural healing
• Backstab acts as a normal (extra) attack if the enemy is facing you