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AshenPlanet

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Everything posted by AshenPlanet

  1. There are 2 important factors in stealing, stealth and speed. Nothing else applies... As the posters above stated, when your circle is yellow, you can steal without losing reputation. When your circle is red, you will be caught. This means the npcs may attack you, or you may lose reputation with them, or nothing will happen (sometimes happens if the npc has no faction to lose reputation with). What stealth does is affect how fast the circle turns from plain to yellow and from yellow to red - the higher the stealth, the slower the change. What stealth does not do is help you hide from an npc - if you are seen when you enter stealth, you are seen, plain and simple. So how do you steal those containers that are close to people? That's where speed comes into play. If you have high speed, you can go far enough away, hide, and then run to the container to open it before your circle turns red. Boots of speed are great for this with their +3 speed. So, a combination of high stealth to slow down the change to red circle, and high speed to run to the container before your crcle turns red, is how you steal successfully without any repercussions.
  2. Not bothering with deflection and only attacking things that are already engaged by your 'tank' means that you're either 1. playing on easy mode or 2. holding back your rogue half the time which massively reduces her dps. First off, why bother having any tanks at all if you are playing a rogue as your main char? You are just asking mobs to attack your rogue making you waste time and damage output running around and disengaging. You can make your fighter or paladin offensive as well with a 2hander or dual-weilding - don't worry, there is zero danger of anyone doing more damage than your rogue (unless it's a bad rogue build). Maxing Dex, Per and Res doesn't cost a rogue much, since int has no use whatsoever for a rogue, you can max all 3 of those stats and still have your might 3 points from max, and might means very little to a high level rogue, they get most of their damage from deathblows/sneak attacks, and might bonus is additive, not multiplicative. I've played it both ways, with as high a deflection as you can get and without, and the high deflection rogue has much much better DPS output. You don't have to go back and forth engaging/disengaging or waiting for other characters to engage, you can just jump right in and do as much damage as possible throughout the fight.
  3. 1. savage attack is the one to go for. If you are mostly fighting with an advantage (ie. against flanked, blinded, prone, weakened, etc. opponents), you will have no trouble hitting and criting, 2. Deflection is very important to a rogue, get it as high as you can if you want to do as much sustained dps as possible. Ring, Superior deflection talent, max perception and resolve. Shields have no place on a rogue. When every attack you make gets boosted by deathblows, sneak attack, savage, etc. there really is no good option that compares to dual wielding fast weapons.
  4. Try a different rogue build... Barbarians are tough, and heart of fury is their level 11 ability. Blind them, prone them, flank them, change your rogue, etc... There are lot's of ways to deal with barbarians. Single them out to deal with right away with your party before any other enemies if your rogue can't survive against them.
  5. Build him like a caster, i.e. max Int, might, and high Dex, dump con. Use a pike or durance's quarterstaff so he can stay close enough to the fight to provide heals to the front line, but not actually be on the front line. You could also go weapon and shield and be right up on the front line, but you won't have the high base deflection that fighters and paladins have.
  6. I agree with most of the above except this. Might is not the same for everyone, and neither is intellect. A monk, for example, receives double might bonus on their hands, for barbarians, that might bonus applies to a number of targets, but for a rogue, might means very little, with all the bonuses they get, they can better increase their DPS in other ways. Tanks can get full use from might, but generally, you have other priorities if you are making a tank. Also, if you are looking to do damage, then Dex allows any non-spellcaster, except unarmed attacks to do more DPS than the same points spent in might. So, this is definitely the stat that you'd want to max first, and even for unarmed monks, it's still arguably more important since it will allow you to spend your wound points faster. The reverse of this is true for casters, who get more value out of might than dex. Basically, decide if you want your fighter to be a tank, or damage dealing fighter and build accordingly - the various suggestions above are all good. If you are planning on have mostly casters in your party like the 4 companion casters, cipher, priest, druid, wizard, than tank may be a good option for you to protect those guys. If you are planning on using more of the attacking companions, like the chanter, ranger, paladin, fighter, etc. than you do not need a tank, just build for dealing damage.
  7. Good points. I usually start with a pair of hatchets that you get in the starting area from the temple/ruin defenders. These are great weapons to start out with. The only problem with hatchets is that there are no great magic hatchets, so their usefulness diminishes later in the game. After leaving the ruins, I try to avoid fighting anything (except what's needed in cad nua) until I can pick up all the companions and get to defiance bay. In the first town weapon shop, you can buy the best stiletto in the game, and you can get a +12 accuracy, very nice stiletto from the doemenals as early as 3rd level. I use those pretty much exclusively until late game when you can get a superb rapier and superb dagger in deep endless paths. As you said, these stilettos are good against high DR monsters, and specifically the stiletto you get in the first town shop is pretty awesome against anything, high DR or not, until you get to the very late game superb weapons, a few basic enchantments like fine and eventually exceptional, and a lash, is all it needs. I'll wait to take focus noble and switch to the superb rapier/dagger for the late game. In the late game, you'll regularly be hitting for 60+, and the DR isn't as big a deal. Well made rogues work great against the dragons and the end boss. They won't be the first/primary target if you build them right, and they're not the lowest deflection in the front line, and if they do fall to a breath or tail swipe, you should bring them back into the fight asap. Whether or not they drop in the middle of the fight, they will do more DPS than anyone else in your party by a wide margin, even druids and wizards can't keep up with their crazy high single-target DPS.
  8. Nothing is screwed up, really. As long as you didn't gimp your Per and Res too badly, you can still make it work with equipment and a talent. You can also always make it different next time, and see how much easier it is. What I did on my last rogue, hearth orlan (best rogues imo): str 10 , dex 19, con 7, per 20, int 3, res 19. You could go with 14 str and 3 con if you wanted to really min-max (17 str is max), but I went with a little higher con. The main thing is get as much deflection as what's available. Take superior deflection, use a +10 def ring, etc. to get it as high as possible. You should be dual-weilding fast melee weapons with maximum padded armor to be attacking as fast as a halfling can. Keep in mind, your deflection will never be high enough to not get hit by everything. That's not what you are trying to do, dragons and bosses will always hit you. What you are trying to do is not be the lowest Deflection guy on the front line... So give eder and pallegina two-handed weapons or dual-weilding, guardian stance, etc. so that they are near where you are and not a lot higher (no shields), but they can be in heavy armor. They both get a lot more base deflection than rogues do, but if you maxed yourself out with stats, talents, and equipment, you should still be comparable to them. This way you will be sharing the front line with 1 or 2 people who can take many of the hits instead of you. I never bothered with backstab or finishing blows, backstab is terrible, and finishing blows is per rest... You shouldn't be thinking along the lines of "at least I get 1 more sneak attack", you should be engineering the situations so that you always get sneak attacks, and always deathblows as soon as that is available at 9th level. Use mother, use aloth, use durance, use hiravias, whoever you have with you, to add status effects to your opponents, with 2 status effects on them, you do crazy damage! If you didn't use the flanking spell (phantom foes), like if you opened with mental binding instead, then move Eder or pallengina around to give you flanking. They don't do anywhere near the damage you can do, so make them run around... Or, you could use shadowing or escape or coordinated positioning to do it yourself...
  9. Lol. Rogues using ranged weapons do about 1/4 the DPS as melee rogues, and that's with optimizing deep wounds, poison, etc to the best of their ability. If you are going to do a rogue, don't waste your time on a ranged weapon. Rogues actually do better than any other class for single target DPS, if built properly. Backstab is always a waste of time also, whether or not you use shadowing beyond. Max his/her deflection, it's his weakest and most important defense. Duel-weild fast melee weapons. Use eder or pallegina or both with him using a two-handed weapon or dual-weilding on the front line. Make liberal use of mother to keep his opponents on phantom foes / mental binding. Make liberal use of aloth to keep targets slickened / blacksight. With maxed dex and Per, you should have as high a reflex as you can get, so even if you are caught in a breath, you'll have a chance of surviving it.
  10. Combinations would really work in whatever way you wanted, so your suggestions would be just fine. The only thing I would add is weapons for a Flames of Devotion paladin or turning wheel monk may be better off with burning lash, and swift fists with lightning lash, since you are already doing a specific elemental damage type, and it's better to add to that than to use a different element and go through 25% of the DR again. Dual-weilders don't really pay any extra, because 2handers cost double the components for enchanting. As for your question, you get 12 points total. Fine is 2, exceptional is 4, and superb is 6 Any lash is 2. Kith slaying is 4, and any other slaying is 2. For your example of a 6/12 fine weapon, you are paying 4 points for the non-enchantables - that leaves 8 points for everything else. If you are planning on superb, then that leaves you with only 2 points which would be best spent on a lash, which is more universally useful than a slaying. Keep in mind, you can only make 2 superb 1-handed weapons or 1 2handed weapon throughout the whole game. If you choose to go to exceptional, which you should, as exceptional is a better use of points than either slaying or lash, than that leaves you with 4 points. You could either go with kith slaying or any lash + any non-kith slaying. So, to use your examples, you could use corrosive lash / Wilder slay. The most difficult opponents in the game are spirits and beasts, if that factors into what you'll want your best weapons saved for.
  11. There's no reason not to play a druid and have hiravias in your party. When I played a wizard main char, I had durance, mother, hiravias, and aloth in my party. We all had the elemental talents (except for mother), and just blasted everything to death. Another druid will only help your party, not hurt it. Turn on the option to reset levels on all npcs as soon as you recruit them. That way they reset to level 1, and you can level them up the way you want.
  12. One thing I forgot to point out, is that a tank won't be hurt by the change to Per anywhere near as much as a rogue. A tank will be using weapon and shield style and single weapon style (with shield), and so will still have super high deflection and only lose a small portion from stats. Rogues, dual-weilding, have no shield and very little (less than many other classes) base deflection as well. So, every single point of deflection that you can pull from stats and equipment is worth a lot more than it is for a tank.
  13. If you gimp int and con also, then what we are really talking about is 3 points of stats. Assume a hearth halfling, which imo is the best race for a rogue. Then you are talking about having a 14 Str, a 20 Per, and a 19 Res, which is what I am recommending because I think the extra deflection is a bigger deal than the extra few point of damage (interrupts are good, especially when you are dual-weilding fast weapons and your target can hit you for huge damage per hit). Or, having a 17 Str, a 17 Per, and a 19 Res, as you are recommending for the few extra points of damage and a little less deflection and interrupts. 3 points of stats is so little and not worth arguing about that I won't push this point any more. We are basically saying the same thing, 3 points is a negligible difference. Accuracy is not a big factor at all for a main-character rogue. On my rogue playthrough, I had over 2500 crits, and around 1300 hits. Just having 1 cipher in your party is enough to make sure everything you fight is flanked or blinded, or both. I almost never missed, and as you can see above, I crit far more often than I hit. I didn't even bother having gloves of accuracy on - I gave those to Aloth instead. While the stealth changes will be great for rogues, the perception changes will definitely hurt rogues more than any other class. Accuracy is not needed for them if you play them right, but deflection is a HUGE deal! It will definitely be a massive nerf for them. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, rogues are one of the top classes right now along with wizards, druids, and ciphers, so maybe a nerf is coming... Rogues will still want to max Per after the change just like every other class will have max Per, but losing deflection, which is extremely important for them, for accuracy, which is not a big deal at all, is definitely going to be bad for them...
  14. Agreed. Early greater focus is a great choice. I always choose it as the first talent for mother.
  15. Building a rogue offensively is exactly the way to go. Going with mid level stats across the board is not offensive, that is simply weak... Rogues have 1 important offensive stat - Dex. After that, it's Per and Str - Per for the interrupts is more valuable than str, because str means so little to a rogue in the late game. If you actually play a melee rogue and see the ridiculous amount of extra damage you do with 2 status effects on your targets, you'd see how little str contributes to that damage - the interrupts are more valuable. So, with a 3 int, which is useless, you can easily max Dex, Per, and Res, which will give you as much deflection as you can get as well as be the best offensive build. After that you are left with 17 points to split between str and con. You could go with a 14 str and a 3 con, I chose to take a 10 str and a 7 con, because str is less used for rogues than it is for other classes, and while con is not an important stat either, rogues do get hit, and some extra con is not bad to have. But, yes, I use +10 deflection ring, sup. deflection, nothing higher than padded armor, and only dual fast melee weapons, and I find this to be the best offensive setup you can have for a rogue while still being able to stand in the front dishing out ungodly amounts of damage and not holding back. Try it both ways and see for yourself.
  16. Ranged rogues are better than rangers, but that's not saying much. They are nowhere near the DPS of melee rogues, it's like a 1 to 4 ratio. Yea, melee rogues do over 4 times the DPS. It is totally worth doing a melee rogue if you can manage it, they are crazy good. The thing is, their defense does suck, so when I did a rogue as a main character, I maxed out perception and resolve and dex in order to have the highest Def. possible. You can leave both con and int at min. because the only rogue ability that uses int, deep wounds, gets overwritten so fast, that even a 3 int. is longer than needed. Str at 10 is fine, because, with all the huge damage multipliers that rogues gets when you combo with multiple status effects from wizards and ciphers, their str is meaningless as additional damage. You can start using stilettos, the best stiletto in the game costs very little, and you can buy it in the first town's weapon shop. You can also get another late-game caliber stiletto from a Doemenel quest that you can do as early as 3rd level. Later on, you can switch to rapiers/daggers/noble by saving your weapon focus for later when you can get end-game noble weapons from the endless paths. Their weak spot is defense, so you have to watch them, keep them healed, buffed, etc. You'll want at least 1 other front line character to share the engagements with the rogue, like eder or pallegina, or both. Also make liberal use of mental binding/phantom foes from mother and slicken/black sight from aloth. Note, this may all change with the expansion, if perception is changed to accuracy instead of deflection. This change will hit rogues hardest of all I think, because they need those 2 maxed stats for deflection. Extra accuracy is not needed, as you should be flanking most of the time anyway. My last play through, my rogue had more crits than hits, and that's with a big +crit damage multiplier as well. Definitely worth it to do the melee rogue to see just how fast you can bring down those dragons and bosses.
  17. The game isn't balanced, that should be clear. It's a SP RPG, balance is not as important as story. You want balance, make a mod. If you want to play on easy mode or 'smart' mode as you call it, rest after every encounter - no one is stopping you. Who cares how you want to play the game? I don't understand how you can rail against something, and at the same time, defend doing it because it's the 'smart' play... If you don't like resting all the time, stop doing it... No one is telling you to replenish your abilities after every combat. I don't do that, I'm sure many players don't rest after every combat. When I see that tired symbol on the character's icons (around 5 athletics), is when I rest... If you think that's a stupid way to play - ok, whatever you think. It doesn't matter. Everybody can enjoy the game their own way. PS. focus is gained as a percentage of the damage you deal. Warbow or Hunting Bow are the best ways to gain focus ranged, pike or quarterstaff are good in melee.
  18. I use a mac, and I haven't tried console, but I read somewhere that it works on mac. Your kana does gain xp while you are not adventuring with him as does everyone in your keep, but it's not as much as your active party members get. If you send him on adventures as well, he will actually get more xp than you or your party members. I usually use Aloth in that role, because he is not as useful pre-9th level. I send him on adventures until he hits 9th level and then take him out to do stuff. There is a problem that you can run into though, and that is that they seem to cap xp just before they would gain 2 levels. ie. if you park someone at 5th level, and you go to 8th level, he/she will be short of 7th when you take them out. To get around this, stop in cad nua or an inn every other level at least to switch out party members, level them up, and then you can park them again.
  19. Classes aren't balanced, period. Rangers and chanters just plain suck, they don't even come close to comparing to anyone else. Neither class contributes anything appreciable to DPS, and priests, who are also low DPS, can at least cast good buffs which will increase party DPS. Chanter phrases just suck, their summons are good, but the only time you'll see them on POTD is if your entire party sucks, and does very little damage. Ciphers are definitely one of the top classes, along with wizard and druid. I always take the extra focus talent with ciphers first, so that I can always use the highest level ability available once at the beginning of combat. As far as resting goes, that's your choice, if you want to play on easy mode, you can rest after every combat, if you want to not cheese it, you can rest only when you get tired, it's totally up to you. This is a single player game, so there's no real need to balance all the classes or restrict 'easy mode'. If people want to play that way, let them...
  20. The first level spell oil slick, is an almost guaranteed prone for a decent area of effect. There is also blind, confusion, petrify, paralyze, etc. Lot's of amazing stuff. It's so easy to reduce their reflex saves to very little. If you do use DPS spells, it's good to just memorize the reflex ones, and combo it with the debuffs.
  21. It's more expensive for Durance, but he's the gameplay choice for mechanics. He's the one that gets trap spells! Those spells use his mechanics rating for their accuracy.
  22. Phantom > skellies. Wurm > will-o-wisp Ogre > drake Just to add: Anything summoned by a wizard or druid > chanter summon. Unless your party is extremely weak, most battles are over before you can do a chanter summon, even on potd.
  23. Those rings are listed as wizard rings, so not for druid. Minor blights are actually level 2, so they are usable unlimited now at 11+. Blights are not that good though, not like the level 4 wizard summon, which is very good. As for changing this in the expansion, I'm of the opinion that this shouldn't be changed. We should get unlimited 3rd at level 13+. The thing is, if you want to cheese, you can rest after every encounter and get full spells if wanted. Many people do this, you can see various threads about it. So, going through the game more realistically, resting when you get tired, etc. makes the game a little more challenging than if you cheesed it. Getting unlimited 1st and 2nd level spells at higher levels makes this a not-terrible choice for role-playing, or convenience of not having to run back to inns multiple times. They should add level 3 at 13+, since if you rest all the time, you'd have unlimited level 7 spells! Why penalize choosing this way to play even more by not giving 3rd level spells per-encounter status? The whole health vs. endurance mechanic puts the difficulty in your hands - if you want to rest a lot, or not, it's up to you. That's also why some people think moon godlikes are overpowered - they only are if you rest all the time to replenish their health.
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