Help me protect my rogue!

[Frog Man]

I’ve beaten Pillars on hard, but am way late to the party on rogues! I know they are typically considered weak, but I’m

Having a blast stealth ing to the back line and murdering high priority targets (looking forward to playing one in Deadfire as an assassin!). I’m playing a dual wield stilleto rogue (though using he new Deadfire club right now). What are your strategies for keeping your rogue alive?

 

I’m doing fine now, but know the game gets harder and POTD should be even more difficult. Thinking a paladin with reinforcing exhortation should help? Maybe second chance gear?

 

Thanks for any ideas on how to make an assassin thrive in a (5man) Party!

[Boeroer]

Rogue will alsways be squishy in the early game and you can't do much about it. Picking Veteran's Recovery, skilling survival to 8 at least (for he healing bonus) and using Fulvano's Amulet + having decent CON helps though.

 

Later on, with a bigger health pool and more dmg bonuses, draining weapons are also not bad in order to keep your rogue alive. I once did a 1 INT 1 RES / max CON and max MIG rogue with Tidefall and its draining was enough to keep me alive behind the enemy lines. Since Veteran's Recovery and stuff is bad without INT that was the only source of healing I had and it was sufficient in most cases.

 

Other than that I also like to use a shield rogue who aims for Bargradr's Barricade. Its ToTV proc works with Deathblows. It's a nice combination of tankyness (for a rogue) and offense.  

[Frog Man]

Beautiful - thanks for the feedback! If I were to be bullish on dual wielding, would you recommend sticking with Oldreicht (stirlleto from endless paths level 1) as it provides draining?

[Boeroer]

Why not? You get it early and the next good unique stilletto is Bleak Fang which comes quite late.

 

By the way, if you meet perice-immune foes there's a neat thing with stilettos: the Lagufaeth from White March use stilettos that do slash damage instead of pierce. Those are good as backup weapon set.

[Frog Man]

Very cool - yeah I saw you mention that on another thread. Suppose I’ll keep the Deadfire unique club for now so

I can hit multiple damage types

[Phenomenum]

Additional advice: you should buy one of those fancy pirate clothing with +20 bonus to Deflection. It will rise up your defence close to fighter's one and a lot of enemies crits became hits, and so on - you'll gather much less damage. You can enchant it with durgan steel later, which brings you 0% recovery reduction and much more defence - another incoming crits to hits conversion.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Early game - Azureuth’s Stillletto and Oideracht. Bleak Fang later. Also remember that once you go to the White March and obtain Durgan Steel you can add a heavier Armour and still keep attacking quickly. Makes the Rogue more robust. I like to go 16 in Str, Dex and Per, keeping everything else at 10 from creation. Then just items that add % bonus and Crit bonus. Let your other party memebers apply the CC, concentrate on damage and abilities that let avoid being attacked.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Blades of Vanatar

[Whipstitch]

I feel like the key in the early game is just to be flexible and avoid prematurely throwing yourself into melee. After all, sneak attack is weapon agnostic and at low levels you haven't yet had an opportunity to sink a ton of talents, abilities and crafting supplies into any one particular style of combat anyway, so I never hesistate to shoot monsters right in the face if that's what the situation otherwise favors. That's why I'm a big fan of taking Runner's Wounding Shot and a big nasty ranged weapon in the early game even if the plan is to eventually spend most of my time dual wielding. Between sneak attack and the bleed damage you can routinely deal ~60 damage at level 2 with a basic crossbow from safer distances than what you get out of backstab. It's really nice because it lets you dump a lot of damage onto the biggest ugly without actually getting into arm's reach and once that first domino or two falls it becomes much safer to switch to your melee set and kick out some solid sustained DPS. The talent also works really well for two handed backstabbers, so it's not even like you necessarily have to spec out of it if you want to be a melee goon long term.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Whipstitch

[Boeroer]

[...]

and obtain Durham Steel [...]

I can't say how many times I had to correct my auto-correct because of that - until I finally put "durgan steel" into my phone's dictionary. :D

[Blades of Vanatar]

 

[...]

and obtain Durham Steel [...]

I can't say how many times I had to correct my auto-correct because of that - until I finally put "durgan steel" into my phone's dictionary. :D

No, no... you don’t understand. Durham Steel is made from a mix of Durgan and Ham. It oozes a sheen of pig fat. Adds an extra 4 DR and gives immunity to Crushing attacks.