what's a good way to build a Rogue?

[Haplok]

Depends on the boss I guess. But I think you want about 15 sometimes and even 18 when buffed.

But you have quite many tools: armor debuffs (maces, chanter, also wizard, cipher and fighter but those are more limited), priest buffs, berserker frenzy, food bonuses, weapon pen modals.

[Haplok]

 

Fur rogue utility IMO dual weapons are hard to beat. Dual pistols or blunderbuss Full Attack: Apply affliction with first shot, profit from it on second (and third and fourth with Driving Flight) to get: up to +60% Sneak, +50% Streetfighter bonus, eventually +50% Deathblows. Also if you fail to apply it on the first bullet, perhaps the second will do the trick.

Apply affliction/DoT to all enemies in sight in a single shot / ability use (+profit) vs waste rogue resources to have 1 chance to apply it to a single enemy.

How do dual gunpowder weapons work? I recall that in PoE 1 I avoided them because of hearing about massive reload times. Is that no longer the case in PoE 2? It's a bit jarring that so many folks recommend gunpowder weapons in PoE 2 when they were shunned in PoE 1 - except as a alpha strike tool in some weapons switch scheme.

Well you attack/reload faster with duals. More importantly, abilities which are Full Attack shoot both weapons in quick succession and proceed to only reload the offhand gun. Martial classes such as rogues can and should spam cheap full attack abilities (such as Crippling Strike). With duals that's 2 chances to debuff/Dot the enemy at the cost of 1 attack. Also if the enemy wasn't susceptible to sneak attacks before, after the debilitating shot from the first hand he usually is prepped to eat sneak damage from the second shot.

 

Plus dual hand mortar aoe blunderbusses (from Serafen and his quest) are really potent VS whole groups and enemies with not so great reflex.

Edited September 23, 2018 by Haplok

[Lampros]

Depends on the boss I guess. But I think you want about 15 sometimes and even 18 when buffed.

But you have quite many tools: armor debuffs (maces, chanter, also wizard, cipher and fighter but those are more limited), priest buffs, berserker frenzy, food bonuses, weapon pen modals.

 

Goodness. So I can't just rely on skill and gear. Damn, dun make me work too hard!

 

 

 

 

Fur rogue utility IMO dual weapons are hard to beat. Dual pistols or blunderbuss Full Attack: Apply affliction with first shot, profit from it on second (and third and fourth with Driving Flight) to get: up to +60% Sneak, +50% Streetfighter bonus, eventually +50% Deathblows. Also if you fail to apply it on the first bullet, perhaps the second will do the trick.

Apply affliction/DoT to all enemies in sight in a single shot / ability use (+profit) vs waste rogue resources to have 1 chance to apply it to a single enemy.

How do dual gunpowder weapons work? I recall that in PoE 1 I avoided them because of hearing about massive reload times. Is that no longer the case in PoE 2? It's a bit jarring that so many folks recommend gunpowder weapons in PoE 2 when they were shunned in PoE 1 - except as a alpha strike tool in some weapons switch scheme.

Well you attack/reload faster with duals. More importantly, abilities which are Full Attack shoot both weapons in quick succession and proceed to only reload the offhand gun. Martial classes such as rogues can and should spam cheap full attack abilities (such as Crippling Strike). With duals that's 2 chances to debuff/Dot the enemy at the cost of 1 attack. Also if the enemy wasn't susceptible to sneak attacks before, after the debilitating shot from the first hand he usually is prepped to eat sneak damage from the second shot.

 

Plus dual hand mortar aoe blunderbusses (from Serafen and his quest) are really potent VS whole groups and enemies with not so great reflex.

 

 

Hmm, so which gunpowder weapons can be dualed then? Pistols and Blunderbusses? What else?

 

Also, how do crossbows fare? Only reason I ask is, because there is one available very early from that store.

[Haplok]

Yes, pistols and blunderbusses. The former provide good single target damage, the latter are multi hit weapons which synergize with hit response/stacking effects, such as wizard Combusting Wounds or druid/item Avenging Storm. Also this category includes great aoe reflex based mortars.

 

Crossbows... Can't say much about them. They are usable I suppose. Not very exciting though and outshined by firearms IMO.

Edited September 23, 2018 by Haplok

[Verde]

Ahh Rogue. Love what PoE2 has done with the Rogue. Very versatile, fun, and powerful class.

 

First, I would focus on Mechanics. Super important skill for dungeon crawlin and lock openin. Secondly, Perception. I don't think you really need Mig, Con, or Resolve, so Dex and Int are naturally other focus areas.

 

I'd also say dual wielding. I actually use Flails because of the new DLC Flail, but there are a ton of dual wielding options

 

Lastly, however you play your Rogue, always try to get that Sneak Attack and then Deathblows damage.

Edited September 23, 2018 by Verde

[Sykid]

Ahh Rogue. Love what PoE2 has done with the Rogue. Very versatile, fun, and powerful class.

 

First, I would focus on Mechanics. Super important skill for dungeon crawlin and lock openin. Secondly, Perception. I don't think you really need Mig, Con, or Resolve, so Dex and Int are naturally other focus areas.

 

I'd also say dual wielding. I actually use Flails because of the new DLC Flail, but there are a ton of dual wielding options

 

Lastly, however you play your Rogue, always try to get that Sneak Attack and then Deathblows damage.

Which flail?

[Verde]

I'm dumb. It's a mace. Frostfall.

Edited September 23, 2018 by Verde

[Matt71]

I'm playing on PoDT, and when I recuited Eder, I made him a pure rogue (swashbuckler would probably have been a better option, since Gambit and Vanishing Strike are really meh).

 

At first, I played Eder as a ranged dps, but then I respeced him to use him as a melee rogue. Melee has 2 big advantages over ranged:

 

1) Persistant distraction, so that you get the sneak bonus and the +50% from deathblows on all attacks.That's really awesome and it's a big plus for melee imo.

 

2) With ranged, your reload time can't go under 3.1s (even if the tootip says the contrary). With melee, recovery time can be as low as 2.1s (it's prolly possible to go even lower), even while wearing some armor (I use fleshmender, which has +20% recovery). Also, melee weapons attack times are significantly lower than those of ranged weapons. All in all, a full melee attack takes much less time than a full ranged attack.

 

Also, Sap is melee only.

[heldred]

Both range and melee are great, multiclassed.

 

I like melee better and my choices are:

 

Streetfighter/Druid shifter -nasty damage, low micro

Priest of Skaen/Assassin -invisible terror, but higher micro

Streetfighter/Paladin -decent tank, good dmg

Trickster/Paladin -good tank, decent dmg

Wiz/Streetfighter -most versatile, does everything well

 

I played all of these through the entire game, but the Priest/Assassin (under 30 hours). Unless you are really a min/maxer, you can safely play with any race, weapon, weapon style, and stats (within reason).

 

For skills, look at the “builds” sticky post for the “must have” choices. Really can’t go wrong and you can always respec with ease.

[Lampros]

Fur rogue utility IMO dual weapons are hard to beat. Dual pistols or blunderbuss Full Attack: Apply affliction with first shot, profit from it on second (and third and fourth with Driving Flight) to get: up to +60% Sneak, +50% Streetfighter bonus, eventually +50% Deathblows. Also if you fail to apply it on the first bullet, perhaps the second will do the trick.

Apply affliction/DoT to all enemies in sight in a single shot / ability use (+profit) vs waste rogue resources to have 1 chance to apply it to a single enemy.

 

Do afflictions attach with Driving Flight? I've read competing claims on this forum, and my tests are somewhat inconclusive.

[Boeroer]

Not with Wounding Shot. Wounding Shot only works on the initial target. The rest should work with Driving Fight.