[Request Class Build] Assassin melee rogue

[QuiteGoneJin]

Seems of the three builds on the list only one is melee and it has a lot of criticism on it. Looking to play on hard, with a PC assassin that opens from stealth, hits hard, escapes or shadowing beyond (wouldn't mind as much mobility and re stealth abilities as possible for fun factor even if its not the most practical).

 

My issue is I prefer melee but find the most effective melee builds are set and forget, right click to win. I don't want to micro every auto attack but I do want to micro cool flashy abilities hence the love for an assassin build. But I mess it up often in weapon and item choices, base stats and race etc.  And thats not including abilities and talents, ok basically I suck at making templates for these games even though I LOVE playing them. 

 

Are there any melee rogue builds relative to the current game build that would work for this theme? ty kindly! 

[Phenomenum]

I wonder you, but in this game rogues IS ABOUT micro and proper positioning, besides of this for highest effect all party must work for them, one way or another. Or you will die fast. Especially on hard or POtD. Dead rogue deals 0 dps.

Only exeption is tanky rogue with bash shield, as far as i could remember. He might be very fun, but he not be an assasin, in terms that you use.

And about rogue abilities - more of them, even high-level abilities is meh and per-rest. There are several abilities that makes base for high dps output, but you get all of them until 11 level and its all passive.

Of corse, you could't simply create a rogue, give him several active abilities and then just pick the target an click on flashy ability icon. But you'll die very often and waste more than half of his great dps potential.

[Phenomenum]

Also, i suggest you watch this video https://youtu.be/xX8QHjHMA34 for better understanding about classic DD rogues in PoE

[DreamWayfarer]

If you want a "flashy" high damage melee char, may I recommend a monk instead of a rogue? They have many more "active" skills, while rogues are all about positioning. Or, if tough masochists are not your thing, a melee Wizard? Here is an explanation on how to build one:

 

 

 

They require setting up the proper buffs, can't shine all the time due to limited resources, and may be less resource-efficient than implement-users, but they provide high on-demand damage, be it by awesome conjured weapons or direct damage spells, offer flexible CC options, can tank reasonably well while their buffs are up and have a teleport spell if you want to feel more like a magic-using rogue.

 

For this kind of wizard, I recommend investing in Intelligence and Dexterity above other attributes in order to make sure your multiple buffs will last long and overlap, followed by Might to amp the already good damage of your conjured weapons. If you feel like dumping an attribute, lower Resolve and cast Spirit Shield if you are afraid of being interrupted before you finish your cicle of buffs.

 

For a race, I am partial to Pale Elfs because they have cool looks and extra DR is always nice, but unless you plan on hitting yourself with your own AoEs Hearth Orlan may lend to slightly more damage, and Moon Godlike will make the early game easier, even if you will eventualy miss helmets a little.

 

 

Edited August 19, 2016 by DreamWayfarer

[QuiteGoneJin]

I like the idea of a high mobility rogue, Shadowstep, Escape, coordinated positioning all look like a lot of fun. 

[QuiteGoneJin]

And I feel like for big one hits a 2h'er would be better than 2 Sabres?

[Phenomenum]

Yes, but you need a lot of micro anyway. Just be prepared for that. You need to try yourself. You might use bild from video as your base and modify it as you like. Just don'miss several musthave abilities.

About your last question - no it doesn't. You free to use 2h and you will be fine, but sabres base damage just 1 point less than 2h. And all rogue offensive abilities is full attack - you hit 2h just once for 50 dmg or you hit 2 times with dual sabres and deal 90 dmg.

Only shoot from blunderbuss deals more damage, but it' situative and you'll need switch back to melee then.

[Phenomenum]

Just for example - lvl9-10 rogue lands crits with sabres about 50-70 dmg for each hit, it means 100-140 for each attack. And with proper stats and gear he hits fast. No one 2h cant't be compared with this.

[QuiteGoneJin]

That video uses none of the mobile stuff I want to play with. Its just pure dps multiplier stacking and auto-ing. Not my style nor my definition of fun. 

Edited August 19, 2016 by QuiteGoneJin

[Phenomenum]

Its the base, i told you. Just choose slightly different abilities.

I don't understand you, honestly) Your demands include a lot of abilities usage and, at the same time, don't much micro - its incompatible things. Anyway, hope you find suitable bild and have fun with that. Cheers.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Phenomenum

[Jojobobo]

I thought of a Rogue Sniper/Assassin build a while ago, but didn't think it would be viable for solo play in terms of taking out things like Llengrath so I shelved it. In party play however, it should work fine. Details below for those interested:

 

 

Island Aumaua Living Lands

 

Attributes:

Might 21

Con 3

Dex 17

Per 18

Int 16

Res 3

 

Attributes final:

Might 31 (Maegfolc Skull, resting bonus, Gift from the Machine, Effigy's Resentment, Galawain's Boon)

Con 3

Dex 20 (Ring of Thorns)

Per 21 (Song of the Heavens, armor enchant)

Int 20 (Gwyn's Band of Union)

Res 3

 

Attributes can be further Priest, prostitute and food buffed - naturally.

 

Abilities

1 Blinding Strike

3 Dirty Fighting

5 FInishing Blow

7 Adept Evaison/Escape

9 Fearsome Strike

11 Deathblows

13 Sap

15 Feign Death

 

Talents

2 Weapon Focus Soldier

4 Shadowing Beyond

6 Arms Bearer

8 Vicious Fighting

10 Bloody Slaughter

12 Backstab

14 Devastating Blow

16 Spirit of Decay

 

Weapons - x 4 Arquebus, with Pliambo per Casitàs as your opener to disorientate them. All corrosive lashed, as many durganised as you can spare, +accuracy and damage enchantments as high as you can spare.

Rings - Gwyn's Band of Union, Ring of Thorns

Helm - Maegfolc Skull

Armor - Clothing with +2 Per enchant

Feet - Boots of Speed

Belt - Coil of Resourcefulness

Neck - Cloak of the Frozen Hunt

Gloves - Rabbit Fur Gloves

 

Additional talents: Gift from the Machine, Song of the Heavens, the Merciless Hand, Dungeon Delver, Effigy's Resentment: Eder/Maneha, Galawain's Boon

 

Skills: High survival, high stealth

 

Equipment choices: Fairly straight forward, max attribute gear with extra stuff thrown in for damage, Coil of Resourcefulness for the quick weapon switch and Boots of Speed for some manoeuvrability when needed.

 

Playstyle: This build is derived from a very complex and abstract fact... 7 > 4. Most arquebus toting Island Aumaua with Arms Bearer only get 4 sure alpha strikes, with Shadowing Beyond you comfortably get 6 (literally pop the effect, reload an arquebus, then get close for a Backstab shot, and repeat) - possibly 7 with the addition of Feign Death. An 8th could technically be got with Cape of the Master Mystic, but seeing as I don't think this Rogue would really survive any hits I don't think that's a good tact to take.

 

What you'll want to be doing every encounter you want the 6 or 7 shots is first open with Fearsome Strike or Sap from stealth. Fearsome Strike inflicts two statuses and so grants you Deathblows immediately, Sap can be followed up with Blinding Strike (with the blind part often critting due to the stun reflex debuff) for a major deflection hit (-50). The start firing off Finishing Blows, then once you've had your four shots pop Shadowing Beyond, reload, get into Backstab range and take another shot (preferably another Finishing Blow if you went the Sap/Blinding Strike route) - then repeat. If an enemy has a status immunity, as you can inflict 4 total hopefully you should manage to get two to land.

 

This build is more or less built to do the maximum damage in the game (short of taking a Death Godlike, but they don't get the fourth arquebus shot) so if your chosen target is left standing at this point I'd be surprised - in that way it's an ideal assassin.

 

Edited August 19, 2016 by Jojobobo

[Phenomenum]

Quite interesting build. Not sure those be viable for our dear TS, but very handy for me. Thanks.

Also i think about backstab for melee - ability is bad first half of game, but then:

1.Shadowing beyond - 2 per rest

2. + 1 Shadowing from soulbound mace - per rest

3. Feign death - 1 per rest

4. Cape of master mystic - on crit per enc

5. Opening from steals 1 per enc

 

So, on high levels we have 4 invicibility per rest + 2 per encounter. It's worth enough for spare a point into Backstab. With cipher's Fractured Volition, which gives 2 afflictions for Deathblows, and simple dual attack its appears oneshot any target ( might +30, RA + 20, SA +50, DB + 100, BS + 150, enchants +30 = at least 380 percent of bonus damage!). I should definitely try to go this way.

[DynEira]

I don't think race matters too much but you could do:
Max Str/Dex/Per

Leave Con as is

Dump Int

Steal a few points from Res

There's an early cloak that can cover some weaknesses in defenses as you are going to pick up aggro.

I've been playing a few PotD playthroughs with different set ups.

 

One is a monk/rogue tag team with two tanks for charging into battle and drawing aggro. Scout ahead and have your tanks go in to draw early attention and then flank with the rogue/monk to do major damage and finish off back row casters/archers etc. then swoop in on to the big melees and help your tanks finish the fight. For harder fights just have them stay out of the way in stealth and strategically place your party at a door way with your rogue behind enemy lines and then start the fight and flank in on an enemy spell caster and use escape to get behind the door way if the fight is too much or the shadowing skill to break aggro and take a breather.

 

My other duo is rogue/ranger. 
The rangers crippling shots are good juju for a rogue to get in behind on. The rest of your team could be two tanks/healer/spell caster that you could mostly leave to themselves with proper aggro management and a careful eye.

Other potential duo work is a cipher/rogue. The Cipher can look after the rogue using paralysis skills/eye strike/the mental push off an ally one and can be a fun pairing. 

I like to use escape to engage on backline enemies. 

This the kind of advice you're looking for? 
My main crew is a Rogue PC and then all customs from the inn monk/pally/fighter/cipher/druid and I've had a few challenging fights due to my inexperience but you can usually come in a level later and wreck that same fight so it's all good. 

EDIT: I realize my stuff may not be optimal but it is fun and it is working for me on a PotD playthrough so far. This is my first Crpg since neverwinter nights all those years ago and I only have 100 hours in but I do believe it has more of a spirit of fun that is what OP is looking for  

Edited August 19, 2016 by DynEira

[Boeroer]

Actually backstab also works for the second hit when you attack out of stealth. A two hander is not bad, but sabres also work well. Tall Grass and Hours of St. Rumbalt are nice weapons to backstab, as is Tidefall. The first ones often cause prone with the backstab so you don't have to retreat all the time if the enemy was standing alone. Tall Grass has the advantage that you don't have to be very near and most of the time you are not engaged by the enemy yet because of that - allowing normal retreats without eating disengagement attacks. Hours of St. Rumbalt is annihilating, so if you crit you do more damage. Tidefall does wounding damage which is based on the damage you do before DR and also benefits from MIG. While you retreat the enemy will still get some damage from the wounding DoT.

I don't know how special attacks like Blinding Strike work with bavkstab nowadays (a few patches ago they didn't trigger backstabs). If they work correctly now then with Hours oSR or Tall Grass you could set up Deathblows with one backstab: causing prone plus blind. The second hit would be Deathblows already which will likely kill most normal foes.

Another nice weapon for Backstabs is Firebrand - but summoning it breaks stealth. So you would only be able to backstab with it if you summon it and then use invisibility to backstab.

 

In general PoE punishes you when doing backstabs with fast, small weapons like daggers and stilettos. Since Backstab is a percentage based damage modifier and it's appliance is very limited and therefore doesn't profit from weapon speed, it works best with weapons which have very high base damage. It would have been better to add a flat damage bonus that scales in some way. Or give small, easy to hide weapons like daggers, stilettos and clubs a bonus or something like that. But like it is now, arquebuses and two handers and sabres seem to be your best choice.

 

I didn't test backstabs with fists (Novice's Suffering). The damage calculation of Novice'Suffering is quite weird. It may be that only the whimpy base damage of unarmed will be taken into account instead the boosted one by Nov.Suff., so either they are the worst choice for backstabs or a good one. Loren Tyr...?

 

Invisibility can be achieved in some ways, this enabling you to do more backstabs:

- Shadowing Beyond ability

- Cloak of the Master Mystic spell holding

- Nightshroud's spell binding

- Feign Death

That's all I know of. But with this things you can do quite a lot of backstage in am encounter while also being untargetable and highly maneuverable.

 

Since a backstab rogue usually has to get near and has a lot of damage mods, he doesn't necessarily need high MIG to do a lot of damage. But if you want to take also Deep Wounds and Envenomend Strike (which I recommend) you might want high MIG. He wants to have high INT as well because of longer invisibility, higher Deep Wounds and Env. strike damage. Also his afflictions like prone(Tall Grass and so on) blind, hobbled and stun last longer. He doesn't need too much DEX because he will not stand there and hit as fast as possible, but hit two times very hard and then vanish. But higher DEX is always good if you can afford it.

It all depends what you want to do after delivering the backstab. If you want to retreat at once I would go Tall Grass, high MIG, INT, PER and normal CON, RES and DEX. If you want to kill at least that enemy and last as long as it takes to finish that job I would use quick switch, a weapon set with the backstab weapon (most likely a gun or HoSR) and one with weapon + shield plus fat armor and higher RES.

 

Good additional abilities and talents to backstab (if they work correctly with it) could be:

- Envenomed Strike: strike and retreat. With max MIG + INT + Tidefall + Deep Wounds + Envenomed Strike most normal enemies would die after you retreat. Lets time work for you.

- Runner's Wounding Shot: like above, a bit weaker but same effect basically

- Deep Wounds

- Finishing Blow: if you already damaged the target severely but it's not dead yet and you want to make sure it does with the next strike. Usually I find the mechanics of it stupid - like Bloody Slaughter. But maybe here it works.

- Shadowing Beyond: obvious

- Shadow Step: but it canceles stealth I guess?

- Feign Death: like a retreat, but you will get up with invisibility that lasts quite a bit and is not cancelled by you attacks. So long INT and fast hits are your friends (best thing would be quick switch + coil of resourcefulness and four weapon sets with guns - that would make four backstabs with deathblows possible in theory)

- Fast Runner: not only fast movement ,but also bonus when disengaging

- graceful retreat: staks with fast runner and any item with that bonus

 

Items:

- Boots of Speed

- the weapons I spoke of

- Nightshroud for the additional use of Shadowing beyond

- Cape of Withdrawal or Night Runner: +15 defenses against disengagement attacks. With Fast Runner and Graceful Retreat you will have a bonus of +32 which will prevent crits when disengaging. With cape of the master mystic you will have +44 to deflection against diseng. attacks. That's quite awesome. If you still receive a crit you turn invisible, if not you don't get hurt a lot. And with the boots+fast runner you only will eat one diseng. attack most of the time.

 

That's my 2.5 cents.

 

Edit: it just came to my mind that arbalests with quick switch might also be great for backstabbing: high base damage and prone on crit while having no acc malus. Aedrin's Wrecker would even stun on crit.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Boeroer

[Phenomenum]

Thanks. Always many good info from you (i was reading forums some time, before started write something there). It may be a classic DnD assassin. Mostly)

About backstab+abilities. I tested this moment a while ago - with duals+ability backstab triggers only on first hit, not full attack. Don't know about 2h - seems like only first hit triggers too. I need to try it, before i can be 100% sure.

When i played first time, before WM, i landed crit on Sky Dragon with blunderbuss, its was about 210 or 230 dmg. Other my playtroughts for rogue i didn't take backstab, becose were very few possibilities to use it. But now, with all this staff...)

Edited August 19, 2016 by Phenomenum

[Boeroer]

Thanks a lot.

With autoattacks it was the first two hits after stealth lately. Don't know about special Full Attack abilities. They used to not trigger backstabs at all but maybe now they only trigger on the primary attack. I didn't test all that Backstab stuff lately (3.0+), only read about it here and there.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Boeroer

[Phenomenum]

I tried all variants a couple minutes ago, from stealth at battle start and from shadowing beyond.

1. Simple auto attack - you're right, BS triggers for two hits for DW and two hits for 2H, so 2H deals more damage. Works identically for stealth and Shadowing.

2. Ability (Crippling strike) - for DW triggers BS only on SECOND hit (for steath and shadowing) and for 2H triggers only one BS hit from stealth, and from Shadowing...no BS at all, just ability.

 

So i presume, best way is to land saimple attack with BS and then active ability - anyway rogues attack very fast and nothing figures out whats goin' on))

If we want deadblow+BS, someone shall debuff enemy with two afflictions, as i wrote previously. It can be cipher or someone else, doesn't matter.

Looks simple. I'll try to make my Backstab rogue and, maybe, post whole build after all.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Phenomenum

[DreamWayfarer]

For a backstab-focused rogue for a party, I would like to suggest skipping most "strike" abilities and using a Hearth Orlan with an Hours of St. Rumbalt(sp?) and either Tall Grass or an Arquebus, and the Forgemaster Fingers gloves. With Dirty Fighting, Minor Threat, high Acc, debuffed enemies and eventually Durgan Steel you will crit more often than not and pile up damage multipliers like crazy.

 

Also, with a spiritshift-focused Druid or any melee char with the White Crest (is this the right name?) armor opening with Overwhelming Wave and then helping you flank you get easy deathblows against helpless foes.

[Boeroer]

Spells for long lasting Deathblow setup in an AoE that come to mind:

- Cipher: Phantom Foes

- Wizard: Binding Web (wear items that make you immune to stuck like the stag helmet), Curse of Blackened Sight, Chillfog (use a Pale Elf with Crossed Patch as rogue)

- Druid: Tanglefoot, Calling the World's Maw, Overwhelming Wave

 

Phantom Foes is especially nice to also trigger the flanking damage bonus from survival and items like Glanfathan Stalking Boots and such.

 

Also note that a rogue can do Deathblows with any spell from items or scrolls (NOT sneak attack) and Deep Wounds with any spell that does pierce, slash or crush damage, allowing him to do AoE Deathblows PLUS AoE Deep Wounds - for example with Overwhelming Wave (White Crest Armor), Twin Stones (scroll, Grey Sleeper), Bounding and Concussive Missiles (scroll), Vile Thorns (Bittercut) and more.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Boeroer

[Phenomenum]

Thank you both, i know) I already beat whole game two times. Phantom Foes always been my favorite to trigger Deathblows - it's cheap, big AoE and long-lasting. And i never pick any of strike abilities exept first.

I have one question about Deep Wounds - is this true good? I never pick it up, becouse 3 damage over 10 sec, even it raw, always seemed weak for me. They stack somehow? Or works with Sneek attack/Deadblows?

Edited August 19, 2016 by Phenomenum

[Boeroer]

You can reach 20 extra damage with Deep Wounds if your MIG and INT are high. But it doesn't stack with itself. But since high MIG and INT is also great for Envenomed Strike and high MIG for wounding and Runner's Wounding shot you can combine those and I wouldn't miss Deep Wounds then. It's perfect if you:

- Meet high DR foes because- like the others I mentioned - it's raw damage.

- Is nice to stack damage over time effects with one single blow - good for hit & retreat or ranged combat (shooting at multiple enemies - switching targets after one shot).

- works with some AoE spells which also profit from high MIG and INT and then adds +20 raw damage to every AoE target, that's huge.

- is not dependent on base weapon damage. So it's equally good on weapons with whimpy damage or weapons with high base damage. It also works with retaliation.

 

Those are the cases when I use Deep Wounds. Of course it's terrible with low MIG and/or INT and also neglectible when you are a dual wielding windmill because it doesn't stack with itself.

[Climhazzard]

Spells for long lasting Deathblow setup in an AoE that come to mind:

- Cipher: Phantom Foes

- Wizard: Binding Web (wear items that make you immune to stuck like the stag helmet), Curse of Blackened Sight, Chillfog (use a Pale Elf with Crossed Patch as rogue)

- Druid: Tanglefoot, Calling the World's Maw, Overwhelming Wave

 

Phantom Foes is especially nice to also trigger the flanking damage bonus from survival and items like Glanfathan Stalking Boots and such.

 

Also note that a rogue can do Deathblows with any spell from items or scrolls (NOT sneak attack) and Deep Wounds with any spell that does pierce, slash or crush damage, allowing him to do AoE Deathblows PLUS AoE Deep Wounds - for example with Overwhelming Wave (White Crest Armor), Twin Stones (scroll, Grey Sleeper), Bounding and Concussive Missiles (scroll), Vile Thorns (Bittercut) and more.

 

 

Crossed patch is a little hit or miss, plus you only get one, but having a bunch of toons running around with stag helmets on while you spam binding web everywhere seems like a really fun and intimidating way to enable sneak attacks, lol.

 

My problem with rogues has always been that their best abilities are all passive and/or extremely limited...  like, why does rogue get strikes they can only use once or twice per rest when other classes such as monk or cipher get abilities they can use many times per encounter, or casters get entire spell lists they can choose from multiple times per rest.

 

This thread is giving me some ideas though, hope it continues to.  Pale elf might be a good idea regardless of crossed patch since you could use litany against minor afflictions as another option to counter blind.  With a stag helm and litany against minor afflictions you could stack up binding web and chillfog.  To bad they both use fortitude saves for their afflictions.

 

EDIT:  Now that I think about it, Litany Against Minor Afflictions will protect your character against pretty much all the best early game sneak attack enabler afflictions.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Climhazzard

[QuiteGoneJin]

So...much info. My brain. Ty guys. 

[KDubya]

Deep wounds is nice because it is raw damage. I think of it as  DR penetration without an attack speed malus. It gets refreshed each strike so having a 4 intellect is as effective as having a 20 as long as you keep hitting the same target.

 

Plus when it is available there are not that many better choices, but I am not a big fan of the strikes that Rogues get tend towards the stacking auto attack damage type of Rogue.

[QuiteGoneJin]

Actually backstab also works for the second hit when you attack out of stealth. A two hander is not bad, but sabres also work well. Tall Grass and Hours of St. Rumbalt are nice weapons to backstab, as is Tidefall. The first ones often cause prone with the backstab so you don't have to retreat all the time if the enemy was standing alone. Tall Grass has the advantage that you don't have to be very near and most of the time you are not engaged by the enemy yet because of that - allowing normal retreats without eating disengagement attacks. Hours of St. Rumbalt is annihilating, so if you crit you do more damage. Tidefall does wounding damage which is based on the damage you do before DR and also benefits from MIG. While you retreat the enemy will still get some damage from the wounding DoT.

I don't know how special attacks like Blinding Strike work with bavkstab nowadays (a few patches ago they didn't trigger backstabs). If they work correctly now then with Hours oSR or Tall Grass you could set up Deathblows with one backstab: causing prone plus blind. The second hit would be Deathblows already which will likely kill most normal foes.

Another nice weapon for Backstabs is Firebrand - but summoning it breaks stealth. So you would only be able to backstab with it if you summon it and then use invisibility to backstab.

 

In general PoE punishes you when doing backstabs with fast, small weapons like daggers and stilettos. Since Backstab is a percentage based damage modifier and it's appliance is very limited and therefore doesn't profit from weapon speed, it works best with weapons which have very high base damage. It would have been better to add a flat damage bonus that scales in some way. Or give small, easy to hide weapons like daggers, stilettos and clubs a bonus or something like that. But like it is now, arquebuses and two handers and sabres seem to be your best choice.

 

I didn't test backstabs with fists (Novice's Suffering). The damage calculation of Novice'Suffering is quite weird. It may be that only the whimpy base damage of unarmed will be taken into account instead the boosted one by Nov.Suff., so either they are the worst choice for backstabs or a good one. Loren Tyr...?

 

Invisibility can be achieved in some ways, this enabling you to do more backstabs:

- Shadowing Beyond ability

- Cloak of the Master Mystic spell holding

- Nightshroud's spell binding

- Feign Death

That's all I know of. But with this things you can do quite a lot of backstage in am encounter while also being untargetable and highly maneuverable.

 

Since a backstab rogue usually has to get near and has a lot of damage mods, he doesn't necessarily need high MIG to do a lot of damage. But if you want to take also Deep Wounds and Envenomend Strike (which I recommend) you might want high MIG. He wants to have high INT as well because of longer invisibility, higher Deep Wounds and Env. strike damage. Also his afflictions like prone(Tall Grass and so on) blind, hobbled and stun last longer. He doesn't need too much DEX because he will not stand there and hit as fast as possible, but hit two times very hard and then vanish. But higher DEX is always good if you can afford it.

It all depends what you want to do after delivering the backstab. If you want to retreat at once I would go Tall Grass, high MIG, INT, PER and normal CON, RES and DEX. If you want to kill at least that enemy and last as long as it takes to finish that job I would use quick switch, a weapon set with the backstab weapon (most likely a gun or HoSR) and one with weapon + shield plus fat armor and higher RES.

 

Good additional abilities and talents to backstab (if they work correctly with it) could be:

- Envenomed Strike: strike and retreat. With max MIG + INT + Tidefall + Deep Wounds + Envenomed Strike most normal enemies would die after you retreat. Lets time work for you.

- Runner's Wounding Shot: like above, a bit weaker but same effect basically

- Deep Wounds

- Finishing Blow: if you already damaged the target severely but it's not dead yet and you want to make sure it does with the next strike. Usually I find the mechanics of it stupid - like Bloody Slaughter. But maybe here it works.

- Shadowing Beyond: obvious

- Shadow Step: but it canceles stealth I guess?

- Feign Death: like a retreat, but you will get up with invisibility that lasts quite a bit and is not cancelled by you attacks. So long INT and fast hits are your friends (best thing would be quick switch + coil of resourcefulness and four weapon sets with guns - that would make four backstabs with deathblows possible in theory)

- Fast Runner: not only fast movement ,but also bonus when disengaging

- graceful retreat: staks with fast runner and any item with that bonus

 

Items:

- Boots of Speed

- the weapons I spoke of

- Nightshroud for the additional use of Shadowing beyond

- Cape of Withdrawal or Night Runner: +15 defenses against disengagement attacks. With Fast Runner and Graceful Retreat you will have a bonus of +32 which will prevent crits when disengaging. With cape of the master mystic you will have +44 to deflection against diseng. attacks. That's quite awesome. If you still receive a crit you turn invisible, if not you don't get hurt a lot. And with the boots+fast runner you only will eat one diseng. attack most of the time.

 

That's my 2.5 cents.

 

Edit: it just came to my mind that arbalests with quick switch might also be great for backstabbing: high base damage and prone on crit while having no acc malus. Aedrin's Wrecker would even stun on crit.

Shadowing now reenters stealth? Also, that item that grants it, can i have it in my second set and use the active ability without swapping? Thinking of the high might/int/perc backstab and escape playstyle.