Disengage Riposte Rogue?

[Giant Octopodes]

So I've been learning more about the systems, I'm on my first playthrough, and I just wondered if anyone has tried going full disengage riposte rogue.  As in the idea is, you get engagement with an enemy, and disengage, and reengage, and disengage, and reengage, etc.  Between attacks yourself of course, kinda like the "marine micro" or "stutter step" of mobas / rts games.  The idea is that your deflection is so high for disengage attacks, you force virtually *every* attack to miss, or at worst graze, and you force *way* more attacks than their normal rate of attack, to greatly increase the value of Riposte, and in doing so ratchet your damage up beyond what would normally be possible with just attacking.  This scales even more when engaging groups, since you can get a disengage attack from each and every enemy engaged with you.

 

That's the idea, anyway.  Obviously it may not actually be possible, or viable, much less optimal.  So please, fill me in on how good (or terrible) it is, and what you tried out of the things below.

 

Things that help:

items:

1) A weapon that heals you when you hit.  This helps offset the endurance loss on the grazes and hits you take, and keeps you healthy.  Since you also would (presumably) heal off riposte hits, it should be easy to avoid getting overwhelmed.  (Oidhrecht is a good early game weapon with that attribute)

2) an offhand which adds deflection, and is capable of dealing at least *some* damage (like a shield with bash, or a hatchet, or something)

3) Anything which adds deflection, whether all the time, or conditionally when disengaging.

4) Anything which adds DR, since you'll still be taking some hits

5) Abilities and talents which add to defelction, such as "graceful retreat", among others.

6) Abilities which lower enemy accuracy, such as a friendly chanter with the "fox from the farmer" chant

7) Abilities which enable sneak attack, usable on a per-encounter basis ideally

 

This idea is still VERY raw, I haven't even yet decided what would be the optimal main character build to pull it off, much less what party members would be optimal, or what they should pursue.  I'm just wondering if it's even worth going down this rabbit hole at all, or if I'll get to the end and be sadly underwhelmed.  Thanks for your time, thoughts, and feedback.

 

[Boeroer]

Yes, I played such a rogue and wrote about it here in the forums here and there, but I never posted a full build.

 

I stacked deflection and bonus deflection against disengagement attacks and used the one handed weapon with the highest damage on hit (Bittercut) and the best bashing shield (Badgradr's Barricade) - I guess you could easily take Purgatory as well to profit from draining. I also made sure I am fast as hell - because the faster you run the more attacks you can provoke in a given time.

 

I did it like so (only things that are somewhat important for this special build idea):

 

Bittercut + Badgradr's Barricade (procs Thrust of Tattered Veils on bash-crit unlimited times per encounter and works with Deathblows)

Night-Runner (+15 deflection against disengagement)

Cape of the Master Mystic (+12 deflection)

Boots of Speed (+3 move speed)

Fast Runner (+1 move speed, +5 against disengagement)

Graceful Retreat (+12 against disengagement)

Executioner's Hood (fear aura lowers ACC of enemies, heal on kill, bonus ACC when attacks miss)

Mourning Gloves (heal on kill, +5 to all defenses on kill)

Escape (+25 deflection)

Weapon & Shield Style

Cautious Attack (+8 deflection)

Superior Deflection (+5 deflection)

Riposte

Binding Rope (enemies get stuck when they hit you: easily unlocks Deathblows)

Spirit of Decay (for Bittercut + corrosive lash)

Vulnerable Attack

dumped DEX

 

Most bonuses here stack (esp. the normal deflection + deflection against disengagement). You can reach crazy high values against disengagement - but disengagment attacks also have higher ACC.

 

I helps a ton if you have some party members that can do blind AND frighten or terrify (most likely a wizard). Both will make sure enemies still attack but have very low ACC.

A Barb with a disorienting weapon (-5 to ACC in an AoE, Barbaric Yell) and/or Captain Viccolo's Anger (fatigue in an AoE) and GLitering Gauntlets (daze in an AoE). Frighten, daze and fatigue stack their ACC maluses and you can bring down enemies ACC a lot like this.

 

And then I ran around mobs at high speed in order to provoke attacks.

 

It works quite well. However: since engagement stops you you have to click a lot in order to continue OR you have to uncheck the option in the game menu. If you do so you can chain movement points with shift + click and draw circles around mobs right at the start of the encounter. 

 

BUT: it is a lot of micromanagement. I did not finish a playthrough with this build because it was too much fuzz for me. But it surely is viable.

Edited February 5, 2018 by Boeroer

[Torm51]

Yes, I played such a rogue and wrote about it here in the forums here and there, but I never posted a full build.

 

I stacked deflection and bonus deflection against disengagement attacks and used the one handed weapon with the highest damage on hit (Bittercut) and the best bashing shield (Badgradr's Barricade) - I guess you could easily take Purgatory as well to profit from draining. I also made sure I am fast as hell - because the faster you run the more attacks you can provoke in a given time.

 

I did it like so (only things that are somewhat important for this special build idea):

 

Bittercut + Badgradr's Barricade (procs Thrust of Tattered Veils on bash-crit unlimited times per encounter and works with Deathblows)

Night-Runner (+15 deflection against disengagement)

Cape of the Master Mystic (+12 deflection)

Boots of Speed (+3 move speed)

Fast Runner (+1 move speed, +5 against disengagement)

Graceful Retreat (+12 against disengagement)

Executioner's Hood (fear aura lowers ACC of enemies, heal on kill, bonus ACC when attacks miss)

Mourning Gloves (heal on kill, +5 to all defenses on kill)

Escape (+25 deflection)

Weapon & Shield Style

Cautious Attack (+8 deflection)

Superior Deflection (+5 deflection)

Riposte

Binding Rope (enemies get stuck when they hit you: easily unlocks Deathblows)

Spirit of Decay (for Bittercut + corrosive lash)

Vulnerable Attack

dumped DEX

 

Most bonuses here stack (esp. the normal deflection + deflection against disengagement). You can reach crazy high values against disengagement - but disengagment attacks also have higher ACC.

 

I helps a ton if you have some party members that can do blind AND frighten or terrify (most likely a wizard). Both will make sure enemies still attack but have very low ACC.

A Barb with a disorienting weapon (-5 to ACC in an AoE, Barbaric Yell) and/or Captain Viccolo's Anger (fatigue in an AoE) and GLitering Gauntlets (daze in an AoE). Frighten, daze and fatigue stack their ACC maluses and you can bring down enemies ACC a lot like this.

 

And then I ran around mobs at high speed in order to provoke attacks.

 

It works quite well. However: since engagement stops you you have to click a lot in order to continue OR you have to uncheck the option in the game menu. If you do so you can chain movement points with shift + click and draw circles around mobs right at the start of the encounter. 

 

BUT: it is a lot of micromanagement. I did not finish a playthrough with this build because it was too much fuzz for me. But it surely is viable.

Ya that is why I did not like it as well.

 

1.  Too much micro.

 

2. Good at fighting non boss enemies.  Not a good tank against bosses (but thats ok I guess as it can be your off tank)

 

3. No AOE to speak of for boss adds/non boss encounters, which is a problem with rogue in general.  The only thing that makes boss encounters dangerous is adds and they are terrible against many adds.  

 

That being said I can still find great use for them as a Dragon Killer, as a ranged or melee combatant.  You can easily stack MANY forms of raw damage on a Dragon and they have high ACC so they will be able to hit it hard and with ease and suck the life out of it (Deep Wounds + Wounding Weapons + Poison raw damage talent, plus the poison from the Stronghold quest all stack and can kill a Dragon quickly).   Its the one thing I like about rogues...but I know this post isnt about that...

Edited February 5, 2018 by Torm51