Is there a better Rogue weapon than Duskfall?

[Verde]

If so, I haven't found it :D

[omgFIREBALLS]

I'm not sure why, actually. If I open combat with some stealth attack, it doesn't seem to get the Drawing Cut bonus. I can put it in the offhand, but I'll lose the single weapon bonuses.

Edited June 25, 2018 by omgFIREBALLS

[Boeroer]

That's because combat didn't start yet when you initiate it with an attack from stealth I guess?

 

For me personally AoE stuff like hand mortar, freezy bow, WotEP or the Wakinukitiki Pollaxe are for my rogues because I can apply Arterial Strike and such in an AoE. Combined with Escape or high move speed this can be very powerful. Also Run-Through from the WotEP, combined with Sneak & Backstab is (even without being an Assassin) almost always a one-shot. And if not, over 5 seconds of prone follow.

 

Frostseeker is particularly crazy in my opinion with Confounding Blind. With good attack speed you can reduce an bunch of enemies' deflection a lot just by firing at them with the bow.

 

I guess it all depends on the way you play your rogue. 

[Androoh]

Azure blade stiletto is nice too on a high perception build.

Good for shutting down spell casters.

[omgFIREBALLS]

That's because combat didn't start yet when you initiate it with an attack from stealth I guess?

Yeah, it's not weird to me, I just figured Drawing Cut was the reason it would be the de facto weapon. It's certainly good but not I-can't-imagine-using-anything-else good.

 

Although I do wish it would work that way. I'll see what the devs say.

[Boeroer]

Does it work if you let somebody else initiate combat while you stay stealthed - and then attack?

[omgFIREBALLS]

Yeah, that works, good point. I'll update my bug report.

[dunehunter]

The bonus is not high enough for the effort anyway. I'd choose draw parry enchantment instead.

[Verde]

Azure blade stiletto is nice too on a high perception build.

 

Good for shutting down spell casters.

Nice will have to check that out thx.

[Manveru123]

Also Run-Through from the WotEP, combined with Sneak & Backstab is (even without being an Assassin) almost always a one-shot. And if not, over 5 seconds of prone follow.

 

That sounds good, but makes me sad that I can't realize my dual-dagger Rogue Assassin fantasy without feeling inferior ;p

[Boeroer]

You can use the WotEP with Run-Through for the initial Backstab and then switch to daggers.

 

Also an Assassination with arquebus (+modal) is good - since it has no recovery but only reload you can immediately escape and switch to daggers then.

 

Also a DoT - build with True Lover's Kiss, Mask of the Grotto Deep and Pukestabber or Marux Amanth is cool. Attack with the Dagger from stealth with Gouging Strike and deliver several DoTs at once, then vanish an let the enemy bleed to death. It's not the most OP thing but it's powerful enough, a very safe way to kill enemies and it's also fun (at least for me).

Edited June 25, 2018 by Boeroer

[Aramintai]

How about this one:

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Rust%27s_Poignard

 

Or this one:

 

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2018 by Aramintai

[Dr <3]

Mask of the grotto have some effect on rogue strike? They are note tagged with "poison" afaik ( also if itshould be the case imho).

 

I tried to wonder about how to build a power "poison" build with mask of the grotto + silk robe (+5 poison power level).

The sad thing is that the only abilities with "poison" tag are a couple of wiz spells ( poisonous cloud, noxious burst iirc). No druid spell, no rogue ability

[1TTFFSSE]

I think poison power level affects anything with corrode damage as well as raw damage from a view "plague" spells from druid, the later part being an unfortunate thing at the moment because stuff that does raw damage over time in aoe is already really good. 

[dejarik]

That's because combat didn't start yet when you initiate it with an attack from stealth I guess?

 

For me personally AoE stuff like hand mortar, freezy bow, WotEP or the Wakinukitiki Pollaxe are for my rogues because I can apply Arterial Strike and such in an AoE. Combined with Escape or high move speed this can be very powerful. Also Run-Through from the WotEP, combined with Sneak & Backstab is (even without being an Assassin) almost always a one-shot. And if not, over 5 seconds of prone follow.

 

Frostseeker is particularly crazy in my opinion with Confounding Blind. With good attack speed you can reduce an bunch of enemies' deflection a lot just by firing at them with the bow.

 

I guess it all depends on the way you play your rogue. 

 

Boeroer: That kind of rogue build sounds a lot of fun. In such a rogue build, how high would you prioritize Intellect for the AoE effects? Are we talking max PER and max INT first and foremost?

[mosspit]

Hmmm, is the bug (well bug imo) where low int means higher dmg per tick for DoTs still applicable?

[Stealthmandem]

If you went with a wizard you can use the snakes skin grimoire which has a spell at level 10 turning your fists into cobra strikes which scale with level.

 

Very powerful with other poison items already mentioned and high alchemy.

 

It also has malignant cloud and noxious burst which scale too.

[Boeroer]

 

That's because combat didn't start yet when you initiate it with an attack from stealth I guess?

 

For me personally AoE stuff like hand mortar, freezy bow, WotEP or the Wakinukitiki Pollaxe are for my rogues because I can apply Arterial Strike and such in an AoE. Combined with Escape or high move speed this can be very powerful. Also Run-Through from the WotEP, combined with Sneak & Backstab is (even without being an Assassin) almost always a one-shot. And if not, over 5 seconds of prone follow.

 

Frostseeker is particularly crazy in my opinion with Confounding Blind. With good attack speed you can reduce an bunch of enemies' deflection a lot just by firing at them with the bow.

 

I guess it all depends on the way you play your rogue.

Boeroer: That kind of rogue build sounds a lot of fun. In such a rogue build, how high would you prioritize Intellect for the AoE effects? Are we talking max PER and max INT first and foremost?

I use WotEP on Aloth (Spellblade) and use his leather armor and two Rings of Overseeing as well as INT buffing gear and Infuse with Vital Essence. In this case I prefer INT over DEX. INT and overseeing have a good impact on cone size (but not so much with circular AoEs due to the new way of applying the AoE-size-bonus in Deadfire). Atm I have double cone length and can easily hit 4 or sometimes even 5 foes with stuff like Arterial or Gouging Strike without too much positioning hassle and then vanish. I guess it could also be cool for a solo run where you inflict Gouging Strike to several enemies, then vanish and let them die - then rinse and repeat.

 

I also tried this with Confounding Blind and Finishing Blow and other non-DoT upgrades of the rogue strikes - and while it's nice to put Confounding Blind on a bunch of enemies I find it's a lot more powerful to use the DoT variants in an AoE. Especially Arterial and Gouging Strike since the don't get influenced by the (lowish) weapon damage of the WotEP - this is just about hitting several enemies at once.

 

This works even better with the Spirit Lance I guess (if its blast still procs afflictons). Its a better weapon than the WotEP but comes rather late for multiclass chars.

 

Another really nice variant with WotEP is using rogue/monk instead of Wizard and combine +10 INT from Duality (INT) with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. I prefer Nalpasca + Dance of Death because then I don't have to get hit so much in order to get wounds. Helwalker would be nice as well in order to get really high numbers with the DoT ticks. But it's not so easy to get a lot of wounds at the start of battle without hassle. I added Enervating Blows and also used Stunning Surge besides Arterial Strike and so on. Enemies get stunned, weakened AND bleed to death.

 

The Pollaxe does the same but in a less big AoE and it only hits 2 additional foes. But basically the same idea.

 

The Hand Mortar is also cool for a Spellblade because Pull of Eora + AoE Arterial Strike with the mortar is just bonkers. They try to reach you but bleed to death while trying. Arterial Strike costs only 1 Guile and you can combine that with Combusting Wounds as well. Rod + Blast will NOT work.

 

Also works well with Frostseeker I guess, especially the Combusting Wounds part(?). But maybe the frost/burn combo negates each other? I didn't test that.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Boeroer

[Manveru123]

You can use the WotEP with Run-Through for the initial Backstab and then switch to daggers.

 

Also an Assassination with arquebus (+modal) is good - since it has no recovery but only reload you can immediately escape and switch to daggers then.

 

Also a DoT - build with True Lover's Kiss, Mask of the Grotto Deep and Pukestabber or Marux Amanth is cool. Attack with the Dagger from stealth with Gouging Strike and deliver several DoTs at once, then vanish an let the enemy bleed to death. It's not the most OP thing but it's powerful enough, a very safe way to kill enemies and it's also fun (at least for me).

Backstabbing with a huge two-handed sword kicks my immersion in the balls :D But I realize that it's effective.

 

I was actually considering a "dot" build. Single class Assassin with True Lover's Kiss and Rust's Poignard, spamming Gambit from Stealth, but I'm not sure how good would that be considering that I'd have to spend Guile to re-stealth during combat.

[dunehunter]

WotEP’s cone sttack cannot trigger Swift Flurry and heart drumming, that pollaxe however does.

[Boeroer]

Oh, nerfed with 1.1? SO the cone counts as ranged I guess? That's unfortunate for the monk.

 

I think the pollaxe still works because it's not really doing an AoE attack but merely attacks two additional targets (and not everything that's in its radius).

[Verde]

How about this one:

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Rust%27s_Poignard

 

Or this one:

 

 

 

 

Really good stuff. Picked up the Sabre and I'd say it's on par with Duskfall if not better. Will leave the dagger for another playthrough

[Boeroer]

 

You can use the WotEP with Run-Through for the initial Backstab and then switch to daggers.

 

Also an Assassination with arquebus (+modal) is good - since it has no recovery but only reload you can immediately escape and switch to daggers then.

 

Also a DoT - build with True Lover's Kiss, Mask of the Grotto Deep and Pukestabber or Marux Amanth is cool. Attack with the Dagger from stealth with Gouging Strike and deliver several DoTs at once, then vanish an let the enemy bleed to death. It's not the most OP thing but it's powerful enough, a very safe way to kill enemies and it's also fun (at least for me).

Backstabbing with a huge two-handed sword kicks my immersion in the balls :D But I realize that it's effective.

 

I was actually considering a "dot" build. Single class Assassin with True Lover's Kiss and Rust's Poignard, spamming Gambit from Stealth, but I'm not sure how good would that be considering that I'd have to spend Guile to re-stealth during combat.

 

Yes, you can stack a lot of DoTs with one single hit from stealth (Mask of the Grotto Deep + Deep Wounds + Lover's Kiss + Gouging Strike for example) and then vanish. It works very well because stacking DoTs is powerful - even when going toe-to-toe. However - in my opinion a simple battle axe (or two) + modal (Bleeding Cuts) works even better than that dagger. Bleeding Cuts stacks with itself and puts a very long lasting DoT onto the enemy that does 10% of the attack's damage as raw dmg tick every 3 secs.

If you are doing a Full Attack and each axe does 40 damage that means that 2 Bleeding Cuts will do 4 (modified by MIG I think) raw dmg every 3 secs for 60 secs (20 ticks * 4 raw dmg * 2 = 160 raw damage). Perfect for the "hit and run" strategy.

[InsaneCommander]

[Verde]

So I found it - Rust's Poignard. Fun to get and damn, what a great weapon.

 

Granted there are some other great swords and sabers (like Min's Fortune) but I gotta give props to this weapon.