[CLASS BUILD] TCS Rogue - Dual/Crit/Shadowing (+Video of my 6h TCS run as a basic strategy guide)

[AllanonTM]

This build is a solid choice for a TCS run and has been thoroughly tested by me. I'm sure quite a few people have come up with something similar by now, but my recorded TCS run might serve as a nice basic strategy guide for people wanting to use this build for a run of their own.

 

Here is the playlist of my run: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrU0fsUmH2FaASxfjRn9medY4YyQQOZZZ

And here is a video about dealing with Thaos: https://youtu.be/ynynYV2IJjs

 

Build

Moon Godlike, Rogue, Deadfire, Merchant
Stat distribution: 18 3 17 3 18 18

Abilities
- Crippling Strike, Reckless Assault, Blinding Strike, Dirty Fighting, Withering Strike, Deathblows

Talents
- Dual Wielding, Shadowing Beyond, Deflecting  Assault, Vicious Fighting, Bloody Slaughter, Quick Item Slots

Talent Rewards
- The Merciless Hand (Doemenel route)
- Dungeon Delver (Twin Elms, Girl in the inn, Help the adventurers)

Skills
- Stealth 5 (Required to sneak past Caed Nua throne room Spectres), Lore 10 (8 if you find Glanfathan Adraswen), Mechanics 7 (Requires two or three +1 inn rests throughout the game), Spare points into Survival.

Very important items
- Shod in Faith (Smith, Knights Castle in Defiance Bay)
- Rotfinger Gloves (Merchant, Ondra's Gift)
- Minion summoning figurines

Good items to have
- Azureith's Stiletto (Smith, Gilded Vale)
- Gaun's Share (Temple of Eothas, Gilded Vale, Dangerious to get early on)
- Äru-Brekr (Looted from the group trying to steal the Foge Knight research papers)
- Blunting Belt (Smith, Gilded Vale)
- Ring of Protection (Random loot, Merchant in Copperlane)
- Ring of Deflection (Random loot, Merchant in Copperlane)
- Glanfathan Adraswen (Random loot)

Endgame weapons
- Starcaller (Market, Hearthsong)
- We Toki (Larha in Galawain's Maw, Oldsong)

[T0rin]

I know you haven't had any feedback on this, but I would like to say I watched all 6 hours of the walkthrough, and the approach to getting Gaun's Share and getting to Maerwin was very helpful for me, I was really struggling with those on my TCS attempts.

 

Some questions...

 

1) Why Starcaller / We Toki? I mean, I can understand why you picked them, but why not Sabres?

2) Why Aru-Brekr? Just because it is easy to get / good when enchanted? The movespeed never seems to be very important, and at the levels of deflection you maintain, the added range deflection is practically useless later in the game. Is it because Sanguine Plate represents too much risk if you cannot see your health? What about He Carries Many Scars? Too risky?

3) If you are lucky enough to loot a Glanfathan Adraswen, what to you skill in lieu of those last 2 points of Lore?

4) I don't suppose you have a 'speed run' checklist handy, do you?

[AllanonTM]

Thank you for the feedback.

 

I hope getting Gaun's Share doesn't/didn't get you killed, it certainly has its risks. I'm still not quite certain what triggers Shadowing to end way prior to it's 10+ seconds runtime, but that happening there can be deadly.

 

 

 

1) Why Starcaller / We Toki? I mean, I can understand why you picked them, but why not Sabres?

2) Why Aru-Brekr? Just because it is easy to get / good when enchanted? The movespeed never seems to be very important, and at the levels of deflection you maintain, the added range deflection is practically useless later in the game. Is it because Sanguine Plate represents too much risk if you cannot see your health? What about He Carries Many Scars? Too risky?

3) If you are lucky enough to loot a Glanfathan Adraswen, what to you skill in lieu of those last 2 points of Lore?

4) I don't suppose you have a 'speed run' checklist handy, do you?

 

 

Now to your questions:

 

1) I did try out a few different weapon combinations for different sections of the game in my test runs.

 

But only in the the final battle it felt really necessary to switch away from Azureith's and Gaun's. So I thought that my endgame weapon choice should reflect my effort to make the Thaos fight as safe (reduce incoming damage) and short (increase outgoing damage) as possible.

 

With such a high crit% I was then looking for the best crit triggers on easy to come by weapons. If I recall correctly the unique sabres don't have crit triggers. Stun on Crit and Prone on Crit is really strong, incapacitating targets and thus reducing damage on yourself and increasing damage (easier to hit/crit while prone/stunned) significantly.

 

Converting grazes on the flail and the higher crit multiplier on the axe then sealed the deal for me.

 

The reason I don't really like sabres for the midgame is their attack-speed. While one can argue that the higher damage might make up for it, especially when taking DR into account, I don't feel that it does. With faster weapons I can get in more swings while the targets are under the influence of sneak attack enabling status effects. Sneak attacks surpass DR easily at this point in the game, so I never felt that I was doing too little damage. More swings also equal more chances for crits.

 

Apart from the last battle, the only other occasion where it felt nice to have different weapons was fighting Stone/Adra Beetles with Beast Slaying/Corrode enchanted spears. But tweaking my strategies a bit, I didn't even have to fight them until pretty late in the game, where I have a high enough level to deal with them even with sub-optimal weapons and/or casting a Paralyze Scroll.

 

Do you have any suggestions for sabres?

 

 

2) I have to admit that I like Aru-Brekr because of the convenient movement speed increase. There is so much running from point A to point B in the game, speeding that up alone is nearly worth it for me. I was also aiming for < 6h for my recorded run. The other reason is that, in my experience, the choice of armor really doesn't matter much, as long as it has a high enough overall DR. Which sounds strange for a TCS run i guess.

 

Why no Sanguine Plate... Well I have to admit that one, the patch changes didn't really register with me. And two, I thought you had to have Pallegina to get it, rendering it useless for TCS runs. If that is not the case, the quest that makes it accessible might make it onto my list of high priority quests for its xp. I probably wouldn't use it unless I can substitute for the movement speed somehow. But like I said, choice of armor pretty much comes down to personal preference. Alltho, not beeing able to see the endurance might probably make me change one of the rings to a Ring of Wonder.

 

 

3) I dump my last skill points into Survival, to make the potions last longer in the final battle. On a side note: Having thought a bit about skill distribution and certain challenges in the game, I think that a Lore 2 / Stealth 10 / Mechanics 8 approach would be really viable too. Right now I am prepering a Wizard TCS run tho, might come back to test that afterwards.

 

 

4) I do have extensive step by step documentation. I need to polish it a bit and then find a good way to publicize it. It's by no means the most optimized thing that can be done tho, and a few sections might be outdated or erroneous. But I will post here again once I got it ready.

[Narla]

Got an opinion to share on bloody slaughter? I've been disapointed with it every time I've taken it, I'm really surprised to see it here.

[AllanonTM]

Oh and about He Carries Many Scars: I have never done that quest (not even in my playthrough with a full party, don't like berath) and it isn't necessary xp wise, so I don't know if it is too dangerious. I don't think anything is too dangerious with sufficient preperation, tho. Is that endurance regeneration worth something? I've found the Shod in Faith boots to be pretty reliable in sustaining endurance, to the point of sometimes dying of health first.

 

Got an opinion to share on bloody slaughter? I've been disapointed with it every time I've taken it, I'm really surprised to see it here.

 

You are correct.

 

I was under the impression that:

 

a) The 20% bouns would be starting from <=35% enemy hp

b) That the crit multiplier would apply to every crit done <=35% enemy hp, even with the description saying otherwise

 

Both seemed to compliment the build well, speeding up the kill to make the most out of crits and sneak attack enabling debuffs.

 

Looking at some of my footage and reading up on it tho, it seems that it triggers at <=10% enemy hp. I still think the crit multiplier gets added to every crit <=10% enemy hp, but that hp value is way too low to make any difference, especially with high damage output. It seems a flawed design: If I can get an enemy to 10%, I generally do not need help for such a small window in hp. If I struggle so much that I need (randomised) help at 10% enemy hp, I probably didn't get to 10% in the first place.

 

Might be best to replace it with Savage Attack. I'd probably disable that for Thaos tho. Most defensive talents won't make much difference in the mid- to endgame, it's a glass cannon / avoidance build after all. Backstab might work with a more sneaky version of the build, but would have to be taken earlier. A weapon focus is sub-optimal with different types of weapons. Any nice suggestions?

[T0rin]

I hope getting Gaun's Share doesn't/didn't get you killed, it certainly has its risks.

 

Yeah, it did. I saw you do it, and I was like OK, let's go! The first death was a learning experience in how Shadowing aggro works, or rather, that you need to let the mobs "touch" you before running off. My first attempt resulted in me running off with everything chasing me, and by the time it expired, I had a Spectre standing right next to me, and welp, that was all she wrote. My second death was more my fault, I waited too long to activate Shadowing, and again, Spectre got me. I've become rather proficient in the first hour or two of the game though...

 

Do you have any suggestions for sabres?

 

I ended up using Resolution (4th level Od Nua, not risky by level 8-9) and Purgatory (Blood Sands Archdruid, not risky by 9-10), simply for their +0.5 crit damage multipliers. Nothing fancy like Crit -> Stun or Crit -> Prone, but then again, I never really found myself in a situation where it was necessary, even the final fight. Earlier that that, you have Paralyze/Maelstrom scrolls for all your "hard fight" needs. The final fight was pretty anticlimactic.. with Corrosive/Vessel Slaying on the Sabres, each doing 20-35 damage or so, I was critting the statues for 70-90+ and they died in a short handful of hits, I think I took maybe 1 or 2 attacks from them, but the Exceptional armor (DR 26ish on slash/pierce and 24ish on crush) made it a pittance. Thaos died in 2 or 3 attacks I believe.

 

 

Why no Sanguine Plate... Well I have to admit that one, the patch changes didn't really register with me. And two, I thought you had to have Pallegina to get it, rendering it useless for TCS runs. If that is not the case, the quest that makes it accessible might make it onto my list of high priority quests for its xp. I probably wouldn't use it unless I can substitute for the movement speed somehow. But like I said, choice of armor pretty much comes down to personal preference. Alltho, not beeing able to see the endurance might probably make me change one of the rings to a Ring of Wonder.

 

Yeah, it is not the case. You need to talk to her once after finishing the trading company quest, but after you deny her joining your group, you can still go to the embassy and get The Forgotten quest. Though, like the more intensive fights (Raedric quest, Banshee quest) it is probably best going in prepared. Paralyze would probably be enough in combination with Touch of Rot, as long as you survive the first few seconds of the fight, it isn't difficult to recover and end it.

 

At first I was hesitant about Sanguine Plate and doing those near-end-game-hard-fights without being able to reliably see my Endurance, but after a few of them, I realized that when Sanguine procs, so does Shod-in-Faith, so as long as I know what I'm getting into, I'll still be doing a lot of endurance healing, but I'll have notably more damage output to boot. I ended up getting it at level 8 and using it through the end, and nothing got close to killing me that wouldn't have with Au-Brekr. And some might consider it shady/borderline abusive, but the low endurance auto-pause can serve as a warning when you can't see your endurance.

 

But yeah, a Ring of Wonder wouldn't be bad. Not sure which ring you'd drop though... I guess Deflection, since you mind less getting crit, since you have better armor/damage mitigation.

 

On a side note: Having thought a bit about skill distribution and certain challenges in the game, I think that a Lore 2 / Stealth 10 / Mechanics 8 approach would be really viable too.

 

How do you deal with the Banshee quest Spectre fight or the Burial Isle pre-hole fight? You're pretty reliant on Lore for both of those, and I don't think you could sneak past them? Do you think you could use Shadowing to break the encounter? I guess so, if people are doing 17 kill Pacifist runs with Rogue, no reason you couldn't skip those fights.

 

Right now I am prepering a Wizard TCS run tho, might come back to test that afterwards.

 

Good luck... after failing 15 or so of those at level 4, I gave up. No Shadowing means you actually have to fight the Cad Nua spectre fight, which can be really rough and RNG dependent. I kept getting stun locked by 1-2 remaining spectres after I managed to kill the rest. Perhaps no armor, really high deflection and some Fan of Flames scrolls to go with your level 1 spell repertoire would be enough to push me over the top. This Rogue run has really shown me the value of Lore... almost to the point that I think it is a bit OP as a skill.

 

I do have extensive step by step documentation. I need to polish it a bit and then find a good way to publicize it. It's by no means the most optimized thing that can be done tho, and a few sections might be outdated or erroneous. But I will post here again once I got it ready.

 

Would love to see a list, I really admire how you streamlined the first half of the run, would be a great pattern to follow for almost any speed run.

[T0rin]

Is that endurance regeneration worth something? I've found the Shod in Faith boots to be pretty reliable in sustaining endurance, to the point of sometimes dying of health first.

 

Yeah, I noticed that too. By level 8-9, I was just going full man-mode on some harder fights (Raedric's Keep for instance) without any scrolls at all, and found myself getting close to death, but Health death, not Endurance. I don't think I ever got close to an Endurance death... Moon Godlike + Shod-in-Faith is just pretty ridiculous healing.

 

Might be best to replace it with Savage Attack. I'd probably disable that for Thaos tho. Most defensive talents won't make much difference in the mid- to endgame, it's a glass cannon / avoidance build after all. Backstab might work with a more sneaky version of the build, but would have to be taken earlier. A weapon focus is sub-optimal with different types of weapons. Any nice suggestions?

 

I didn't take it, but opted for Weapon Proficiency: Ruffian instead. (Sabres!) More accuracy = more crits, so it remained in line with the build idea. I think I had 80-85ish Accuracy by the end of the game.

 

There are not a lot of good options though.. like you said, many of the defensive talents are just not very helpful, and most of the non-acquired Rogue talents are 1-2/Rest, which I don't like. All the good Per Encounter skills and passives get taken, which doesn't leave much. Maybe Fast Runner? Though it doesn't do anything outside of Combat..

[AllanonTM]

Yeah, it did. I saw you do it, and I was like OK, let's go! The first death was a learning experience in how Shadowing aggro works, or rather, that you need to let the mobs "touch" you before running off. My first attempt resulted in me running off with everything chasing me, and by the time it expired, I had a Spectre standing right next to me, and welp, that was all she wrote. My second death was more my fault, I waited too long to activate Shadowing, and again, Spectre got me. I've become rather proficient in the first hour or two of the game though...

 

Well, better that happens early than late. It's good to know the first 1-2 hours of the game by heart, even small mistakes can lead to unavoidable death there.

 

I ended up using Resolution (4th level Od Nua, not risky by level 8-9) and Purgatory (Blood Sands Archdruid, not risky by 9-10), simply for their +0.5 crit damage multipliers. Nothing fancy like Crit -> Stun or Crit -> Prone, but then again, I never really found myself in a situation where it was necessary, even the final fight. Earlier that that, you have Paralyze/Maelstrom scrolls for all your "hard fight" needs. The final fight was pretty anticlimactic.. with Corrosive/Vessel Slaying on the Sabres, each doing 20-35 damage or so, I was critting the statues for 70-90+ and they died in a short handful of hits, I think I took maybe 1 or 2 attacks from them, but the Exceptional armor (DR 26ish on slash/pierce and 24ish on crush) made it a pittance. Thaos died in 2 or 3 attacks I believe.

 

The crit effects are just another safetly layer for the final fight. Most of the times it will not matter, but there have been practice battles (very few) against Thaos, where I got really really unlucky on my hit rolls, and he got really lucky with his crits. A single stun or prone in those battles might be all it takes to shift the balance back firmly into the players favor. But it's really not hard for me to imagine that those sabres are quite sufficient.

 

Sanguine Plate

 

I will play around a bit with that quest and the armor.

 

How do you deal with the Banshee quest Spectre fight or the Burial Isle pre-hole fight? You're pretty reliant on Lore for both of those, and I don't think you could sneak past them? Do you think you could use Shadowing to break the encounter? I guess so, if people are doing 17 kill Pacifist runs with Rogue, no reason you couldn't skip those fights.

 

I think you can actually sneak past them. The sneak mechanics are a bit strange. Just one point more can transform something that is utterly impossible, into quite doable. If not, summoning your minions as a decoy and using Shadowing to pass them by should be pretty safe as well.

 

Good luck... after failing 15 or so of those at level 4, I gave up. No Shadowing means you actually have to fight the Cad Nua spectre fight, which can be really rough and RNG dependent. I kept getting stun locked by 1-2 remaining spectres after I managed to kill the rest. Perhaps no armor, really high deflection and some Fan of Flames scrolls to go with your level 1 spell repertoire would be enough to push me over the top. This Rogue run has really shown me the value of Lore... almost to the point that I think it is a bit OP as a skill.

 

I think I have already found a fail-proof strategy for the Throne Room fight, it was one of the first things I was looking for while establishing how viable a Wizard run would be. Fan of Flames is not the spell you want. I am a bit surprised how strong a solo Wizard seems to be, especially against groups, even early in the game. No need to care about friendly fire and all. After I find a nice way of dispatching Maerwald as safely as possbile (without the help of spiders), it seems that only Thaos will be left to provide a real challenge. Coming up with my own strategies to me is half the fun, that's why I don't really search for runs/strategies of other people for key parts of the game, at least not until my run has been completed. And yes, the Paralyze/Maelstrom combo seems a bit cheesy, that's why I like the idea of the Stealth Rogue build.

 

Would love to see a list, I really admire how you streamlined the first half of the run, would be a great pattern to follow for almost any speed run.

 

I will post it after this reply, to keep it seperate from my general answers. I hope it's allowed to link to Google Drive files.

 

Yeah, I noticed that too. By level 8-9, I was just going full man-mode on some harder fights (Raedric's Keep for instance) without any scrolls at all, and found myself getting close to death, but Health death, not Endurance. I don't think I ever got close to an Endurance death... Moon Godlike + Shod-in-Faith is just pretty ridiculous healing.

 

I didn't use Paralyze and Maelstrom in most of the tougher fights in my test runs. Only vs the Ghost Army at the Sun in Shadow entrance hole and vs the second Shadow Drake + Shades Army, as I didn't realize that you could skip that confrontation until pretty late into my preperations for the real TCS run. I agree that it's way more fun to "man-mode" most stuff, especially the Raedric fight, and the Rogue Build definately allows for that. I've decided to keep it a little more safe in the TCS run tho, especially because I was recording it to be a bit of a safety guide. I had already violated my "best practice" approach with my performance in the Mushroom Room in Cliaban Rilag.

 

I didn't take it, but opted for Weapon Proficiency: Ruffian instead. (Sabres!) More accuracy = more crits, so it remained in line with the build idea. I think I had 80-85ish Accuracy by the end of the game.

 

There are not a lot of good options though.. like you said, many of the defensive talents are just not very helpful, and most of the non-acquired Rogue talents are 1-2/Rest, which I don't like. All the good Per Encounter skills and passives get taken, which doesn't leave much. Maybe Fast Runner? Though it doesn't do anything outside of Combat..

 

Weapon profs. are a good choice if you are using the same two weapons, yeah. I thought that Fast Runner works outside of combat as well, will have to check on that.

Edited June 4, 2015 by AllanonTM

[AllanonTM]

Here are the documents I had created to guide me in my own run

 

Beginning.pdf - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B14vMgkklrnva092Sm5Cd0xJWFE&authuser=0

Mid-Endgame.pdf - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B14vMgkklrnvVVl3SDQ3TUQxTmc&authuser=0

 

Build.pdf - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B14vMgkklrnvVTZNNDFXSWlQdGs&authuser=0

Ingredients.pdf - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B14vMgkklrnvMTNyTGRDdUdHc2c&authuser=0

 

The whole thing as an Open Office file - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B14vMgkklrnveGlCb3dyNGg0WFU&authuser=0

 

 

I advise to download them, the Google Drive preview quality isn't very good, and it obviously kills the Open Office document a bit.

 

I hope that most things are self-explanatory. Just ask if there are any questions.

[T0rin]

The documents are great, thank you.

 

So what is this secret spell for winning the Cad Nua fight as a Wizard? I've tried Fan of Flames and Chill Fog, separately and in combination. Bewildering Spectacle seems to have minimal effect, as they don't deal much damage to each other and can potentially lead to a Spectre ending up standing next to you. Stacking Chill Fogs wasn't enough.. and is even harder now that it is no longer a Foe AoE spell. I didn't try Ghost Blades or Ray of Fire, but the latter might be good.

 

The Thaos fight as a Wizard solo (I did play through twice as Wizard on PotD/Expert, just no Trial of Iron) is really not that difficult, and by the time you get Rotfinger Gloves and Essential Phantom, every encounter becomes a joke. Not only is your duplicate just as tanky as you are, but they have a full 3 uses of Rotfinger Gloves, regardless of how many you have used, so you essentially can get 15 uses in a single fight, if one were to go on that long.

 

Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff is really good in the early-mid game just for clearing out most non-Boss enemies.

 

And there is really no reason you can't do the Maerwald fight the same way you did with a thief.. i.e. drop a trap, buff up with Bulwark and spam Fan of Flames. Leave a single level 1 spell for Parasitic Staff to finish him off if needed. Arcane Veil (and Hardened Veil) trivializes most of the short early game fights, since you can afford to wear no armor and never get hit. It is the longer fights that can give you trouble, once your Arcane Veils are used up.

[AllanonTM]

So what is this secret spell for winning the Cad Nua fight as a Wizard? I've tried Fan of Flames and Chill Fog, separately and in combination. Bewildering Spectacle seems to have minimal effect, as they don't deal much damage to each other and can potentially lead to a Spectre ending up standing next to you. Stacking Chill Fogs wasn't enough.. and is even harder now that it is no longer a Foe AoE spell. I didn't try Ghost Blades or Ray of Fire, but the latter might be good.

 

Yes, it's Ray of Fire in combination with good positioning and Animat blocking.

[MadDemiurg]

Wiz can become completely immune to phantoms for ~30 sec by level 4 with veil + wizard double (about 150 deflection needed), so animat is not really needed or only needed as a safety measure, Most effective spells are Concelhaut's draining siphon (good vs low fort), Ray of Fire and Fan of Flames.

 

Plus you can just avoid the fight with Animat and some stealth (after exiting stealth due to dialog just pull phantoms with animat and run to the exit yourself).

[AllanonTM]

Wiz can become completely immune to phantoms for ~30 sec by level 4 with veil + wizard double (about 150 deflection needed), so animat is not really needed or only needed as a safety measure, Most effective spells are Concelhaut's draining siphon (good vs low fort), Ray of Fire and Fan of Flames.

 

Plus you can just avoid the fight with Animat and some stealth (after exiting stealth due to dialog just pull phantoms with animat and run to the exit yourself).

 

Ah very interesting, thank you.

[chickenhed]

Just wanted to thank you, OP, for sharing your documents and insights. Really fantastic stuff.

[T0rin]

On a related, but kind of unrelated note... I started a new Wizard TCS run last night, trying to follow the punch-lists in this thread. Worked mostly well, except for the hidden loot containers, which I didn't have enough mechanics to find. At level 4, I had 5 stealth and 2(?) mechanics, which was not enough. I eventually died in the dungeon of Raedric's Keep to a chest I could have sworn was trapped, but nothing was showing up for, so I yolo'd it and it killed me.

 

I then restarted so that by level 4 I had 4 stealth and 3-4 mechanics, and died trying to sneak past the guard on the battlements of Raedric's Keep. (definitely need 5 stealth for that!)

 

So on a third attempt I waited until level 5 (had to level up on non-quest stuff mostly, spiders and the like) to go into Raedric's Keep, and was able to loot all the hidden caches along the way. I also did Cad Nua at level 4, at least I killed all the spectres/shadows, using the aforementioned Ray of Fire, Concelhaut's Draining Siphon (this was really good actually) and a few Fan of Flames... no armor, Arcane Veil + Hardened Veil + Fine Hatchet + Small Shield. (enchanted to Fine) I opted to come back to Maerwald, mainly because I hadn't done Raedric's Keep  yet, so I didn't have any traps, but it turned out to be more or less like the rogue run... drop the trap, buff up with potions, spam some Fan of Flames (brought 2-3 scrolls extra) and clean up with Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff.

 

Everything after that was pretty much smooth sailing.. once you get Rotfinger + Essential Phantom, combat because mostly a joke, and I proceeded to clear out all the combat heavy quests that the Rogue would normally need to bring scrolls for. Opted for using Pikes this run, (Citzal's Spirit Lance is really good) had Sanguine by level 8, Tall Grass by 6-7, using Ring of Wonder + Ring of Protection + Finreah's Grace + Int enchanted on Sanguine, and of course Shod-in-Faith. Got a bit into Act 3 and called it a night.. but Wizard is really pretty easy once you get past Cad Nua and Radric's Keep, which take a little extra effort compared to Rogue because of the lack of base Mechanics + Stealth.

[MadDemiurg]

You don't really need to go to Raedric's before Caed Nua if you can get by without animat and even then if you have the preorder ring you can get the necessary 5000 cp without visiting Raedric's if you sell it to Heodan.

[T0rin]

Yeah I didn't bother with Animat at all.. I was at that point of having 6000+, thinking whether I needed Animat for Raedric/Cad Nua, or whether I wanted Rotfinger as soon as I got to Defiance Bay. I opted for the latter. I usually end up selling some ~550 copper worth of stuff to Heodan.

 

Animat just isn't worth the money in the long run if you can get by without it. Once you get to Defiance Bay and can buff your mechanics to ~8, you're set.