Rogue
Creation
Guide
by Mouscellaneous
Archetype:
Offensive
Fighter
Primary Attributes:
STR,
DEX, INT
Continents:
All
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The
rogue is primarily an offensive fighter and damage dealer. Rogues gain
a large damage bonus from remaining stealthed during combat. Rogues
will also have a utility role with lock picking, crowd control, trap
removal and pick pocketing.
Strength, dexterity, and vitality
are the Rogue's primary attributes. Strength helps the Rogue do as much
damage as possible. Dexterity gives him a greater chance of landing
critical melee hits. Vitality allows the rogue to regenerate faster in combat.
Building a good Rogue takes some careful planning at the
character
creation screen and requires you to learn a handful of tactics in the
lower levels.
style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Selecting
the Right Race
Rogues of all races start with the same attributes, but the
choice
of race can affect how many points the Rogue automatically gets placed
into its prime attributes.
Starting
attributes:
Each character gets 20 attribute
points
(AP) per level, starting at level 10. 6 of your AP are placed
for you automatically--one per attribute (STR, CON, DEX, VIT, INT,
WIS). 4 points are assigned to attributes based on your race if you are
not a human (humans are kojani, mordebi, qaliathari, and thestran).
You can
place 10 (14 for humans) wherever you want to within soft caps of 5 per
level.
Additionally,
characters get
racial bonuses to their soft caps. These
are called preferred stats and allow characters of a race to flesh out
in a way that reflects the traits of the race. Non-human races get 4
bonus points to soft caps (usually two or three attributes only) while
human
races get 6, 1 for each attribute. Thus, a human can be more balanced,
while a non-human becomes more specialized.
The table below shows the attribute scores at level 50 before
gear
and buffs for
the Rogue based on the race selected. We've highlighted the best
results for each of the primary attributes for you. It is possible to
reach the soft cap for three attributes as a human, but those soft caps
may be lower than those attainable by other races.
src="http://media.tentonhammer.com/vanguard/gallery/albums/album32/Rogue.jpg">
style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Racial
Abilities
The other important factor to consider when picking the race for your
Rogue is racial abilities. With their short durations and long
recasts,
racial abilities are less important than attributes in the selection
process, but they can be used to pick between races that are otherwise
equal. The racial abilities are listed below.
Thestran: Inspirational
Commands
You will have 3 inspirational commands at your disposal:
Inspirational Presence, Inspirational Wisdom, and Inspirational
Tactics. Each command is a group buff that will add either 2% to
mitigation, a 3% reduction to mana cost of all spells, or a 2% increase
in damage. You may only maintain one command at a time, however you may
have all 3 effects active at the same time. Recast is instant.
Human Ingenuity: + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Ingenuity
Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking
style="font-weight: bold;">Dwarf: Earthen Embrace
For 60 seconds, this ability will turn your body to stone. Along with
removing all poison effects, you will mitigate 25% damage and become
immune to movement impairing spells such as knock back, stun, and
snare. Recast is 30 minutes.
Small Race: 2% bonus to evasion
Crafting: +10 Finesse
Harvesting: +5 Mining
style="font-weight: bold;">Halfling: Pride of the Vael (WAR
only) or Shroud of the Vael (all but WAR)
Pride of the Vael: This ability will add a vast
amount of hate to a single target, and apply a buff on the halfling for
30 seconds. All attacks during this time period will count for double
aggro. Recast is 15 minutes.
Shroud of the Vael: This ability will remove 99%
of aggro from a single target but keep the halfling in combat.
Additionally, for 30 seconds afterwards, any spell cast or attack made
will have its aggro reduced to 1% of normal as well. Recast is 15
minutes.
Small Race: 2% bonus to evasion
Crafting: +10 Reasoning
Harvesting: +5 Reaping
style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Varanjar: Endless
Fortitude
For the next 30 seconds, this ability will cut the cost of all
endurance/energy spells by half while increasing your spell and melee
damage by 25%. Recast is 30 minutes.
Large Race: 2% bonus to mitigation
Crafting: +10 Problem Solving
Harvesting: +5 Quarrying
style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Vulmane: Spiritual Bond
This ability will apply an effect to every member in your group,
allowing 35% of all damage done by them to return to you in the form of
health for 20 seconds. Recast is 15 minutes.
Animal Reflexes: 10% bonus to run speed.
Crafting: +10 Problem Solving
Harvesting: +5 Skinning
style="font-weight: bold;">Kojani:
Spirit of Jin
This ability will immediately restore 45% of energy and hit points to
the target. This ability has a diminishing effect on any target that
has benefitted from this ability (used by another player) in the last
10 minutes. Recast is 30 minutes.
Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Ingenuity
Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking
style="font-weight: bold;">
Goblin: Hex of Ghalnn
Whoever is afflicted by this hex will return 3% of the mana and hit
points for every hit that is made on them. The effect lasts for 60
seconds. Recast is 15 minutes.
Small Race: 2% bonus to evasion
Crafting: +10 Reasoning
Harvesting: +5 Mining
style="font-weight: bold;">
Raki: Planar Shift
While this ability is active, you will gain a 50% mitigation to all
spell damage. Recast is 30 minutes.
Animal Reflexes: 10% bonus to run speed.
Crafting: +10 Reasoning
Harvesting: +5 Reaping
style="font-weight: bold;">Half Elf: Symbol of Jin
This ability will apply a rune to every member of the group for 60
seconds, which will mitigate damage by 15%. Recast is 30 minutes.
Human Ingenuity: + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Finesse
Harvesting: +5 Skinning
style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Qaliathari:
Swiftness of the Sands
For this next 10 seconds, you will evade all melee attacks and spells.
Recast is 30 minutes.
Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Ingenuity
Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking
style="font-weight: bold;">
Dark Elf: Spawn of Haelufir
This ability allows you to summon forth a small drake for a short
duration. The type of drake you summon will be based on class and
level. Each type of drake will have a variety of effects at their
disposal, ranging from group auras, to breath attacks. The
higher
level drakes will also learn spells that are sympathetic with their
associated class. Recast is 30 minutes.
Elven Wisdom: 2% reduction in mana cost
Crafting: +10 Finesse
Harvesting: +5 Skinning
style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Gnome: Forge Crystal
This ability allows you to operate a variety of devices, only
available to gnomes, which are able to materialize a energy crystals.
Crystals will have several common effects, ranging from percentage
based mana, health, and endurance heals to several uncommon, rare, and
even ultra rare effects such as prismatic group resist buffs, rune and
damage shields, minion summons, and more.
Small Race: 2% bonus to evasion
Crafting: +10 Problem Solving
Harvesting: +5 Mining
style="font-weight: bold;">Kurashasa:
Symbiotic Armor
When this armor is active you will be protected by a proc (a process
that fires under certain conditions). In addition to a rune that
mitigates 25% of all types of damage,
you have a chance to apply an effect to all enemies within a 20 meter
point-blank
radius when you attack, cast a spell, or receive damage. Anyone
affected by this debuff will become snared and slowed. Recast is 30
minutes.
Animal Reflexes: 10% bonus to run speed.
Crafting: +10 Reasoning
Harvesting: +5 Skinning
style="font-weight: bold;">Mordebi: Curse of the
Ancients
This ability stuns the target for 8 seconds,
and reduces the aggro range to 0. The target will not assist/aggro
while
stunned, and the effect does not generate any aggro. Recast is 30
minutes.
Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Finesse
Harvesting: +5 Reaping
Level 1-10 Tactics
As you first enter Telon as a rogue, you will have the knowledge for
two abilities, Stalk and Wicked Strike. Your first intentions should be
the quest(s) that you start right in front of, as they introduce you to
the game and combat. At this time, the stalk ability has no real
benefit except to sneak past kill-on-sight mobs that you do not want to
fight, your first few first will involve you auto-attacking and using
Wicked Strike until your opponent is defeated. Mind your health bar
after fights, although, you should regenerate fast enough to go
directly from one fight to the next.
Through completing the intro quests, you should progress at a decent
rate to level 4 or 5, every even level you should make a trip to the
Light Fighter Trainer in the starting area to train your skills. The
first few skills are as follows:
- Wicked Strike 1 (Level 1) - A cruel strike that inflicts
melee damage plus 12. - Stalk (Level 1) - Using this ability allows you to begin
stalking. - Lacerate 1 (Level 2) - Slashes your target, inflicting 54
to 60 damage over 15 seconds. - Keen Eye 1 (Level 2) - Increases your damage by 10, your
accuracy by 5% and your critical chance by 2% for 12 seconds. - Backstab 1 (Level 4) - Backstabs your target, inflicting
300% weapon damage plus 26 to 32. - Pickpocket (Level 4) - This ability allows you to steal
items used in rogue poison, flechettes, and scrolls from humanoid NPC's. - Plunder (Lever 6) - A finishing move that allows you to dig
even
deeper into your target's pockets, giving you a chance to get more loot. - Hemorrhage 1 (Level 6) - A finishing attack that causes 79
to 87 damage over 15 seconds. - Ravage 1 (Level 8) - A deadly attack that inflicts 400%
weapon damage, plus 49 to 55. - Wicked Strike 2 (Level 8) - A cruel strike that inflicts
melee damage plus 40. - Blinding Flash (Level 8) - Throw a flashpowder in your
target's
face, stunning it for 6 seconds or until damage is done. This also
turns off auto-attack - Smoke Bomb (Level 8) - Using a flashpowder you can blind
nearby
opponents, allowing you to enter stalking form. If you are actively
being attacked, you will not be able to remain stalking. - Backstab 2 (Level 10) - Backstabs your target, inflicting
300% weapon damage plus 62 to 70. - Lacerate 2 (Level 10) - Slashes your target, inflicting 130
to 140 damage over 15 seconds.
Fighting Techniques
Through combat, you'll learn that you can mostly pick your fights as a
rogue, which gives you a good advantage in soloing. Sneaking past mobs
that you don't want to fight is sometimes dangerous though, as they are
not deaf, blind, or dumb. Sometimes an aggresive mob will 'think'
something uncanny is nearby, being you, they would become alert with
blue question marks rising above their heads, and begin to face in your
direction. The next course of action is mainly decided by yourself, the
rogue, if you are spotted the best idea is to back away from the mob
and it will eventually
lose interest in thinking you were sneaking up on it, then you can
return and try to get by again. Keep in mind that mobs are far less
alert of what's behind them than in front, so don't stand right in
front of something and make funny faces expecting to not get attacked.
Before level 4, fighting consists of using your DoT (if you have it
yet) and then repeatedly using wicked strike, but once you get backstab
and pickpocket, it should be procedure first to steal what is in it's
pockets, then backstab it, and then again use lacerate then wicked
strike until the mob is dead. Remember that using lacerate while the
effect is still on the opponent will overright it, but your endurance
(green bar) is more effectively used if you wait until Lacerate wears
off.
Stalk
Stalk is one of your most important abilities as a rogue. Besides from
looking badass when you do tricks with your daggers when idle in
stealth, your damage focus increases through combating in it. When you
target an NPC, the rogue class will get an extra little meter on the
left hand side of the NPC's name, it looks similar to the Blood Mage's
blood rage meter. As you fight in stealth, you will gain focus and deal
more damage. There are five levels of Stalk, with which each
improvement allows you to focus your attacks even further. Improvements
on stalk are gained passively as you progress and will not need to be
changed out on your hot bar.
Finishing Attacks
Finishing attacks are a core part of the rogue class, and when used
effectively, can make a fight go a lot better in your favor.
Your
first two finishing attacks at level 6 include a stronger DoT than
Lacerate and another pickpocket ability which works in conjunction with
your primary one. Finishing attacks are triggered by landing
a
critical shot through one of your primary combat arts, such as wicked
strike or backstab. As sparse as this may sound, it happens frequently
enough. Using Keen Eye increases your chance for criticals as well as
your dexterity stat. When you do hit a critical attack, your finishing
attack abilities will light up, with a timer bar on them (a small green
bar at the top of the icon), you must use them before the time runs out
and also before using another ability.
Essentially, if you score a critical hit, your next combat art should
be a finishing attack. NOTE: If you do not have enough endurance to use
the finishing attack you want after scoring your critical attack, don't
use any combat arts and you will regain enough endurance before the
timer is up. Endurance replenishes very quickly when you are not using
combat arts.
Flash Powder
Flash powders are very useful to keep in plentiful supply as a rogue,
you can purchase them from the rogue trainer for 10 morsens for a stack
of 50. They also go into the poison bag you can also purchase from the
rogue trainer, which is a 50 slot bag used for all your poison,
scrolls, and components you will use at a higher level.
Your level 8 abilities Blinding Flash and Smoke Bomb both require flash
powders. Blinding Flash is a primary method a rogue will use in solo.
At this point you will want to sneak up on the mob you are planning on
assaulting, opening the attack with Ravage, then use Blinding Flash to
stun the mob so you can reposition yourself and Backstab. NOTE: Any
damage done to the mob while it is stunned will break the stun, it is
advised to use Blinding Flash then backstab BEFORE using your DoTs, or
you will have a lot of trouble trying to pull this trick off correctly.
Smoke bomb is very useful in groups. As a rogue, you will want to fight
in stealth for the added damage. If you are attacked your stealth will
break, and you cannot recast it in combat. Smoke Bomb uses two flash
powders and puts you back into stealth. Your stealth won't be broken
the majority of the time in a group, but every so often you will get
hit by an area effect, so this comes in handy for slipping back into
the shadows where you belong.
The Right Weapon for the
Right Rogue
Your weapon is your lifeline, having a good weapon means having good
damage. Piercing weapons are principle, and daggers are more
characteristic. A rogue can use any one handed weapon, even clubs and
other crushing weapons, but some of your skills REQUIRE piercing, such
as backstab. The DPS rating is the the key factor in selecting a
weapon, stat bonuses are also nice, but if you can find a weapon with a
higher DPS rating and low stat bonuses, the DPS rating is king. Dual
wielding provides the highest damage output, but you may also choose to
use a parrying dagger in your secondary when soloing, this will greatly
reduce the damage you take.
As for ranged weapons, you can use bows, crossbows, and throwing
weapons, though some of your skills later on will require throwing
daggers so it's best to build your skill up at an early level. As a
side note, throwing daggers are equiped into the ranged slot instead of
a bow and used with the ranged attack ability.
Know your Role in a Group
Rogues aren't tanks. I repeat, rogues are
style="font-style: italic;">not tanks.
Your DPS is accumulated from fighting behind the mob and in stealth.
Your utility most of the time requires you to be in stealth. Tanking
means no stealth, no stealth means you lose a lot of your inherent
ability to contribute to a group.
Poisons, Scrolls, and
other cool rogue toys
These become available after completing a quest at level 20. More info
coming soon.
style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Other
Rogue Resources at Ten Ton
Hammer
-
href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=404">Rogue
Class Guide - Rogue Skills & Abilities ( style="font-style: italic;">coming soon!)
-
href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=186">Know
Your Role - Offensive Figther -
href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=472">Guide
to Vanguard Statistics
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