18 réponses à ce sujet

[Gaidren]

I play with the Respec Mod (on Nightmare), so I've tried a number of different things with both my character and every NPCs.

For a laugh I thought I'd try turning my rogue into a 2h weapon user, heavy on Str and no points in Dex.  I really just wanted to be able to equip some cool looking armor, since I was sick of using studded leather.  I expected it to pretty much suck.

I'm pleased to say it didn't.

2h Str rogues are actually pretty sweet.  You have *tons* of free skill and talent points, making it easy to get max Stealth/Stealing/Lockpicking and max out your specialization trees too (Duelist/Assassin for me).  I used the Warden armor set from Soldier's Peak until I got the +15% backstab dmg gloves from the Antivan Crows quest line (couldn't pass those up, leather or no).  The fatigue penalty from heavy/massive armor is trivial since all you really use for abilities is Below the Belt and Dirty Fighting (and occasionally Pinpoint Striking).  The extra threat is also no problem, since you can take some hits and can stealth out of trouble mid-combat anyways if you get too much attention.

You *need* to have Haste in your party since you don't have Momentum.  The other thing that makes/breaks 2h rogues is *RESETTING THE SWING TIMER*.  All of the following abilities will result in your next melee swing starting immediately afterwards:  Below the Belt, Stealing, applying a poison.  It's key to pause the game the split second your melee attack hits, then use one of the above abilities to swing again immediately if you really want to squeeze out every last bit of DPS you can out of your rogue.

The synergy between auto-backstabbing when stealthed and using a 2h weapon is pretty sweet too.  With a 2h weapon you make the most out of that free crit.  Less poison procs vs. what you get with dual wielding hurts a bit, but it isn't that noticeable.

Dropping yellow mage enemies with a backstab/BtB/autoattack combo from stealth to start off fights is pretty sexy.  The front loaded burst is sick, mages don't even get to cast most of the time.

Of course, being able to disappear into mid-air in the middle of a fight while wearing full plate armor is a bit silly...and using a 2h weapon isn't very rogue-ish....so RPers probably aren't going to be big fans of the Str 2h rogue.  Still, if you want to try something different....it's pretty darned viable!

[RobotXYZ]

Did you hit a point where you had filled all your specialization AND rogue talents and just dumped talent points into dualwield or archery?

[dkjestrup]

Wouldn't you be able to get momentum anyway? Just don't use the other talents?

[Reinoc]

I think you have to weild two weapons to activate momentum.

[tetracycloide]

Shouldn't run out of places to put talents until around level 22 I'd say although lethality and deadly strike would be of limited usefulness and evasion requires points be spent in dex that are better spent on strength in this build. Device mastery is easy to achieve with all the talents floating around which is just as well since the cunning would be pretty low. Does Upset Balance result in an instant auto attack as well?

[RamsenC]

If that actually works well with one mage running haste, try two mages running haste.

[Nathair Nimheil]

try two mages running haste.

That stacks?

[Forumtroll]

Well you could use dual wield weapons to activate momentum then switch to another weapon.

[Foofad]

Forumtroll wrote...

Well you could use dual wield weapons to activate momentum then switch to another weapon.

'

IIRC I tried this early on and it deactivates when you switch weapon sets.

[Forumtroll]

Would you spec this kind of character duelist for more hit?

[Gecon]

Momentum only works as long as you have dual weapons ... the moment you switch to ranged or anything, its off.

[Gaidren]

tetracycloide wrote...

Shouldn't run out of places to put talents until around level 22 I'd say although lethality and deadly strike would be of limited usefulness and evasion requires points be spent in dex that are better spent on strength in this build. Device mastery is easy to achieve with all the talents floating around which is just as well since the cunning would be pretty low. Does Upset Balance result in an instant auto attack as well?

The problem with Upset Balance is that it has a pretty long animation and does zero damage by itself, which means it isn't useful for forcing auto-attacks.  Normally I just use BtB and Stealing, with poisons saved for tougher fights (and I try to keep a number of different ones around, since you can use as many different types as you like).

[Gaidren]

Forumtroll wrote...

Would you spec this kind of character duelist for more hit?

Yeah, Duelist is a must in my opinion.  20 seconds of auto-crit is just insanely good, especially against backstab immune enemies or when you just can't flank for some reason.  I'm on the fence as to whether Ranger or Assassin is better for the 2nd slot, but I hate that pets despawn when you enter a new zone so I prefer Assassin.  If it wasn't for that I think I'd probably prefer Ranger.

[Gaidren]

RobotXYZ wrote...

Did you hit a point where you had filled all your specialization AND rogue talents and just dumped talent points into dualwield or archery?

Yeah, at lvl 19 I decided to nab Melee Archer and Pinning Shot just to spend points.  Not a complete waste, can open fights with Pinning Shot and switch back to my Starfang and go back to melee (but I rarely bother).

[Forumtroll]

Tested it. 2H rogue yields the highest damage capabilities for auto-attack. Deadly Strike and Below the Belt give you instant attacks. At lvl 25 the only things that will live through your weapon swing would be Cauthrain, the Arch Demon, the High Dragon, and Flemeth. The highest backstab crit I've gotten is 302, that's more than most skills. Assassin offers you 2.5% more crit, ranger offers you a pet to Stealth/FD aggro onto if you're really hurting without resetting the mobs.

[RamsenC]

I really need to try this. Missing out on stun/knockdown resist is a downer, but those crits are impressive.



and yes haste stacks, i wish more people knew this.

[Gaidren]

RamsenC wrote...

I really need to try this. Missing out on stun/knockdown resist is a downer, but those crits are impressive.

and yes haste stacks, i wish more people knew this.

Haste stacks?!?!?


Brb respeccing both mages to Haste......

[Gaidren]

In other news, it seems that pausing the game followed by selecting an ability to use followed by canceling that ability and selecting attack again forces auto-attacks to start again immediately also. It's a small edge, all you really do is skip the "follow through" part of your swing animation but it does squeeze out a shade more DPS if you want to bother to really micromanage it.

[Gaidren]

Holy crap, Haste really *does* stack....pretty ridiculous. I always assumed it didn't since Momentum and Haste don't.



If Momentum and Haste stacked then dagger/dagger rogues would > 2h rogues just on the basis of having an extra haste I'd think.



In other ridiculous "overpowered stuff mages can abuse" news, Glyph of Warding stacks. Pretty easy to get a 100% dodge rate for a tank abusing that....