48 replies to this topic

[MetallicaRulez0]

I went full Assassin, and enough points in Dual Weapon to grab Chain/Explosive Strike. Also picking a few single points in other trees, like the 25% Crit Damage in Subtlety(?) spec and Speed in another tree.

Once you reach high levels, most of your damage I find comes from auto attacks, saving your 1-shot abilities (Explosive Strike with stacks or Assassinate) to kill off dangerous Mages or the larger enemies. I'm level 17 currently and both of those attacks easily 1-shot any normal enemy, and can usually 1-shot some of the weaker lieutenants. After you finish up Assasin tree, you can fiddle around with other stuff. I'm trying out some points in threat reduction and Improved Miasmic Flask for CC.

[Drew Daddy]

I go 2/1 dex/cun early but once I realize I've been gettin close to dying or running out of stamina I begin spreading the wealth. I like the fact that u can't just 2/1 thru the game. Kno ur character, pay more than the usual attention and u will be fine

[termokanden]

After playing a bit more... Bloodlust is very nice to have. Solved my stamina problem.

[pedantic79]

myyyyklk wrote...

I went to the Black Emporium, bought the respec potion, and dropped Miasmic Flask. Right now, I've got Evade and its upgrade and Subtlety. That seems to be enough, for now, as far as having a panic button and managing aggro is concerned. Everything else is going into the Archery and Assassin lines.

When I build a dual wielder, I think I'll focus on Sabotage and Duelist, along with the obvious.

While a good idea, you'll probably want to get Miasmic Flask eventually.  It's a prereq for the Overpowering Fog (Flask + Rush + Fatiguing Fog) and Chaos (Flask + One other Sabotage ability + Confusion), which are 2 out of 4 ways for a Rouge to start their Cross-class combo (DISORIENT)

The other ways are Disorienting Shot in Archery, and Disorienting Criticals in the Shadow specialization.

Edited by pedantic79, 10 March 2011 - 08:12 AM.

[pedantic79]

myyyyklk wrote...

*spoiler*

For what it's worth, the best rogue armor pieces require 31 DEX/31 CUN, and the best rogue weapons (bows or daggers) require 41 DEX, no CUN requirement. So take that for what you will when building. The best locks in the game need, however, a 40 CUN to open.

Technically, you only need a 27 CUN to open a Master lock if you have something with "Bonus to lockpicking".

[ilaughatjoo]

I went Duelist rogue, and got 1k crits pretty regularly towards the end of the game. I honestly think it's pretty hard to go wrong, but that's just my take on it.

[FatjoeBRO]

pedantic79 wrote...

myyyyklk wrote...

*spoiler*

For what it's worth, the best rogue armor pieces require 31 DEX/31 CUN, and the best rogue weapons (bows or daggers) require 41 DEX, no CUN requirement. So take that for what you will when building. The best locks in the game need, however, a 40 CUN to open.

Technically, you only need a 27 CUN to open a Master lock if you have something with "Bonus to lockpicking".

not trying to be a donkey butt, but, are you sure its 27 cun? i found some dagger with the "Bonus to Lockpicking" and id probly just carry it around with me if i ever hit a chest i cant pick id equip it pick it and re-equip my other better weapon.

[Parrk]

The key difference is that they have tied defense to cunning instead of defense this time. In origins, I always played dex-daggers because the rogue was literally untouchable with decent gear.

I think that perhaps the best dagger strat in 2 is to raise dex and cunning to the requirement of the best available daggers at the time, then pump pure 100% cunning. yo uwill want to dedicate every one of your accessories to raising crit %, and also base your choices of equal-dps weapons on crit% as well.

This will allow you to spend mor etime hacking, and less time on your back. Even with a low-ish crit % (40% or so), you should do fine because a single crit will 1-shot lesser mobs.

Some may not have paid much attention in Origins to defense, because it was a by-product of our main stat. Now that it is a by-product of what many treated as a secondary stat previously, they may be beginning to appreciate defense more for rogues.

tl,dr: Dex and Cunning to best weapon requirement, then pure cunning. Use all accessory slots to pump crit %.,  I suggest Duelist 1st for 20% defense, then shadow for passive obscuring effect.

Edited by Parrk, 10 March 2011 - 02:19 PM.

[Gloxgasm]

Nightmare:

I went quick +5 strength so I don't get knocked back every second, then 2:1 dex/cun.
Talents: First 6 into DW.

So far, I do not regret it at all.Compared to some of the other builds I've tried, this has been the best. The ability to quickly kill a mob when groups off adds spawn is priceless.

[mfmaxpower]

Is there a viable way to play a primarily DW-focused rogue but with some archery thrown into the mix? I really enjoyed playing this style in DA:O, though it wasn't until later in the game that I was able to upgrade most of my archery skills. Of course, not having quick-swap of weapon sets is a bit of an issue now, but I'd still like to give it a go.

[MetallicaRulez0]

I'll agree with everything Parrk said, but I would pump Crit Damage % instead of Crit %. If you go Assassin (see below), you get all of the Crit Chance you'll need out of Pinpoint Strikes. All of your other stat points should go toward Cunning after the requisite 41 Dex, and all of your gear should be Attack, Crit Damage %, and Physical Damage %.

I personally go Assassin instead of Duelist. Duelist makes you much more well-rounded, but I personally don't feel that it gives you anywhere near the damage output. Assassinate alone is probably better for DPS than the whole Duelist tree. Maybe I'm wrong, I have not yet tried Duelist. Your mileage may vary.

[chuck_debord]

The rogue is way better in DA2, fast massacre. Dex. And Cun. rings belts and necklaces will bring your Con. up. Just finished the game with one.

[pedantic79]

FatjoeBRO wrote...

not trying to be a donkey butt, but, are you sure its 27 cun? i found some dagger with the "Bonus to Lockpicking" and id probly just carry it around with me if i ever hit a chest i cant pick id equip it pick it and re-equip my other better weapon.

According to the official strategy guide, "Bonus to Lockpicking" gives a 50% increase to CUN when lock picking.  So when you have a CUN of 27, the bonus you get is 13.  Which when added gets you to the required 40.  In combat and other cun based skills, you'll still only have 27. 

I haven't tried it, but that's what the guide says.  

[SkyL1n31988]

for me... i found the best way to lvl Dual dagger rouge... is Dual Daggers masterys, Duelist, and Assassin. Tons of Skill DMG, Great mobility and surviveability...
my stats on 17th lvl, right before Arishok...
s/d/m/c/w/con
14/41/14/47/15/15

crit dmg.... 201% xD... and it's not ower yet... still had to get champion armor and top daggers...
BTW anyone have info about sets and dagger of game?

[Wissenschaft]

I'm an archer, I've respec the Flask away. Went for auto stealth crits which you can get by lvl 6. Thats when Archers really start to kick ass. Take Assassin. Bloodlust helps a lot with Stamina. Then get the mark of death fully upgraded. Then you can switch to getting shadow up till you get shadow veil. Then take the talent that lets you get 2 shots off stealth when your obscured as well.

By then you'll be an unholy killing machine, all while not having to risk melee.

I love Archers. 

Edited by Wissenschaft, 11 March 2011 - 04:09 AM.

[Graunt]

Special attacks can't miss, and if you're dual-wield, adding points in DEX beyond weapon requirements is somewhat of a waste due to how quickly Backstab cools down, and you can upgrade it for 100% crit.  Instead of doing 2 DEX 1 CUN per level, initially do 1 DEX 2 CUN until you're around 22-23 CUN and then switch it.

Edited by Graunt, 11 March 2011 - 04:14 AM.

[Gunndykol]

Just finished my first runthrough with a Archer Rogue and all I can say is WoW. Through Act1 and Act2 it's helpful to balance Dex, Cun, without neglecting Wil. Basically what I did was alternate 2/1 Dex/Cun & 1/1/1 Dex/Cun/Wil until I got up to about 15 Willpower. After that I aternated between the 2/1 and 1/2 Dex/Cun process; making sure to keep my attack rating as close to 100% as possible (might have to do 2/1 Dex/Cun 2 levels in a row now and then).

Once you get to late Act2 and definately Act3 you can use a repsec potion (if you have that content) and switch to pumping Dex up to 51 and everything else into Cun. The reason for the goal of 51 points into Dexterity is that once you get full Champions Armor + End game bow, you will have a 100% crit chance even on auto-attacks. Then you pump everything into Cun to make those crits as big as possible.

Ending the game at level 26, I ended up with 100% Crit, 100% Attack, and 300% Crit Damage; all without Heroic Aura active (Only using Precision Sustainable). If I had a mage to provide me Heroic Aura, I would simply switch to Speed Sustain and increase my attack speed while maintaining 100% Crit and Attack.

The 7 bonus points you get from Rune of Valiance rune more than covers your HP and Stamina needs at this point of the game. 1000+ point auto attack crits, 8k assasinate crits (32K vs brittle), and knocking 95% of the "shock troop" mobs down is just amazing. With the attack speed rune in your bow, you can keep an army of 6-8 mobs from ever getting to you all alone using nothing other than auto-attack (just switch mobs after every shot and keep knocking them back 15m).

Edited by Gunndykol, 15 April 2011 - 01:38 AM.

[wowpwnslol]

sacredclay wrote...

pump a minimum number of points into dexterity so you ensure you get updated daggers and put everything else into cunning. extremely powerful critical hits ftw. this is especially important if you're going to do the assassin specialization.

So how are you planning to hit anything with minimum dex?

[Amioran]

jweath wrote...

The basic rogue attributes are cunning and dex still. Funny thing is now it is DW rogues that probably do better with high cunning (increased defense and CH damage). Dexterity is more important for 2H warriors now too because it determines you CH chance. 

Was so also in DAO. A cunning DW rogue was much more powerful than a dex DW rogue also there.

[Bones40]

Rogue is probably the slowest starter of any class, but once it gets going...look out.

One of the reasons for the slow start is the lack of any health. I think the main reason though, is because there is no super DLC gear for a Rogue like the Blood Dragon armor set, Hayden's Razor, Linon of Orlais or Fade Shear for the warrior and the Staff for the mage (Parlothan?).

There's a decent dagger at the top of Sundermount early on (run into the blue shield thing at the top of the moutain to spawn the enemy that drops it). And you'll find various others as you go (I think there's a good one at the end of the Vicount Son Rescue mission as well).

For armor, make a run through the lowtown bizarre during the day and eavesdrop on the guy selling Andraste's Ashes, stick around and the guard there will offer you a quest to get those frauds to stop selling. Kill them and you get a very nice chest piece of armor (Boar Hide or something).

Other than that, slog through picking up equipment as you go and by the time you hit level 11 and pick up Assassinate, you will be golden for the rest of the game.

[Amioran]

wowpwnslol wrote...

sacredclay wrote...

pump a minimum number of points into dexterity so you ensure you get updated daggers and put everything else into cunning. extremely powerful critical hits ftw. this is especially important if you're going to do the assassin specialization.

So how are you planning to hit anything with minimum dex?

41 dex is enough. Take Duelist spec, you have +20% attack and when using parry another +20% (with upgrade). That's more than any dex you can put in a character and with 41 dex at level 25 is 99% hit chance against bossess (with a rune of valiance).

This naturally for a DW. For an archer dex is more important because: A) they usually take shadow instead of duelist, they should strive for 100% crit chance always, C) in shadow spec there are abilities that increases +crit dmg and an archer should invest on being obscured.

Edited by Amioran, 15 April 2011 - 06:35 AM.

[NaclynE]

Basically dexterity, Cunning and Willpower for Points. I was also research into most of the dual wielding tree. However Lacerate and the enhancement seem like a meh. Stealth I would do Stealth and all 3 for it plus the critical hit ability (top right) and the one bellow for longer time for stealth. evade was ok but later on seemed useless. On the Vagaurd (green tree with power, speed, and precision) I would hit up speed and try to get the mastery. with speed your attacks are super fast and getting the other two enhancements quicken the recharge rate of every power you have. I like Subertfuge because of the Chamelions breath. Miasmic flask in Sabatoge temp stuns groups of guys including bosses and you wail on the good. Chamelions breath shadows your allies in a cluster and makes them partially and temporaily immune to physical attacks which is handy. I gave Isabella on a playthrough most of the of the scoundral set like back to back to have her protect mages and kill them nicely and twist the knife to drop bosses easy. Specialized classes I would go Assassin and Duelist if you can. I wasnt a big fan of Shadow in Dragon Age Awakening. If you want to play a super stealth classes that eats stamina then Shadows a good class.

[Toastedsnow]

There's an awesome rogue guide floating around in this subforum, penned by some bloke named Aralex (sp?). It's a pretty fun guide if you enjoy glass cannon gameplay. Followed his guide and got in the 40 to 50 thousand crit range stacking debuffs/buffs. That aside, you are a glass cannon after all so it requires a decent amount of awareness and micromanagement

[Atheos Vei]

.