Zerk's Rogue Guide

Zerk's Rogue Guide

So.. you want to be a Rogue do ya?

Maybe this guide will help you on your way... and maybe it will help you on another choice for a class. All in all … this guide was written to help any adventurer out whether rogue, cleric, mage, or any of the other classes.

Disclaimer

This guide is laughably bad. Only to be read for fun by rogue veterans or by noobs who want a true classic experience. - Cecily

Race

So... the first question is... what race do you want your rogue to be?

• Halflings are said to make the best rogue... with naturally high dex and agility... as well as decent strength and stamina. They also wear small sized armor... which is lighter and cheaper than both medium and large type armor.. which adds to their playability. They also get infra-vision... which helps on those dark Norrath nights..

• My personal favorite is the Wood Elf, for many reasons.

1. First, they are natural rogues by sorts in their high agility and dexterity make em wonderful at their trade.

1. They also have the option of wearing both small and medium armor, whereas halfling can only wear small. This plays a greater factor in some magic armor that is medium… and some magic armor that is small. This allows the wood-elves and dark-elves to wear both... which adds to the amount of toys they have access to.

1. Wood-Elves also have foraging... a rogues best friend. Foraging helps a rogue stay out of towns and hunt for a long time, and help them get food when it would otherwise be impossible without the help of other players. Though the foraging skill does not go up for wood-elves that aren't druids or rangers, the skill it begins at is adequate enough to supply yourself with food and water.

1. Wood-elves also get infra-vision... which edges them above the human and barbarians.

• Dark Elfs come in second in my choice for a rogue... and nearly are as good as a wood-elf... if not equal to them in diversity. The one thing that dark-elves have over wood-elves is ultra-vision... but their race/class combo makes them hated throughout Norrath. If you choose to be a thief-type and role-play evil more... maybe dark-elves would be a wiser choice than wood-elves.

• Barbarians also have a strength... though many weaknesses to go with it. The slamming ability of the barbarian class gives Barbarian Rogues an edge over their counterparts... allowing them to stun their opponents (for a little damage) and then whirl around for a backstab. The slamming ability, however, never goes up in skill for a rogue.. so you have to be content with 1 - 4 damage with it. Barbarians also have the ability to wear both medium and large type armor (which makes them edge out human-type rogues) as well as being an excellent fighter. Barbarians, however, along with humans are blind as a bat when it comes to night. If you choose a Barbarian of any type... you need to get a greater lightstone as soon as possible, or find yourself stumbling into camps of monsters and dying often.

• Humans rogues have two weaknesses. They are limited to medium armor and have no infravision. If you choose a human rogue... make sure to read what I said about barbarians.

• I would not recommend a Gnome or a Dwarf as a rogue... though dwarves tend to have the stats. They might have the numbers down.. but to me its hard to imagine a successful gnome or dwarf rogue. They might.. however.. be better rogues than humans and/or barbarians... but I'm not too certain. Also dwarves never seem to like rogues.. although not KOS by the dwarf guards.. it was a very hard time to get a shopkeeper to deal with you. I ruled out gnomes fairly quickly just going to Ak'Anon once... I despise that city. =P Also they never liked me much after I killed all their zoo exhibits.

Whichever the class, pick the one you want to be by the area you are in and what type of character you want to be. Being the "ultimate" rogue with best stats would lead you to be a halfling, but that won't help you much if all your friends are barbarians. So choose a race with both the class in mind and your preferences. How you use ability points is another factor, which brings me to my next topic.

How to Spend your Ability points

Spending your ability points is really flexible.. depending on what you want to do with your rogue. I'll just basically tell what each stat does and tell you my preference.

• Strength - Strength basically affects your damage a little bit, but more importantly how much you can carry. If you're a small class, (dwarf, gnome, wood-elf, dark-elf, halfling, etc) you want your strength to be at least in the 70's... to be able to wear your armor and higher for the medium/large classes...

• Dexterity - Dexterity supposedly affects how often you hit in melee combat, but haven't seen this shown much. Dexterity does affect missile/throwing weapons however, so if you are planning on using archery or throwing.. make sure you have a decent dexterity. Dexterity also determines the rate at which magical effects on weapons take effect, so dexterity will play a more important role later on in your career as a rogue. Dexterity also slightly affects the usage of your skills.. Such as pickpocketing, picking locks and what not. Dexterity is one of the prime requisites for a rogue... at least that's what Verant leads you to believe. (Dexterity also affects the rate at which combat skills improve.)

• Agility- This is the mother of all stats for a Rogue, as well as any melee class in my opinion. Agility is the skill that most directly impacts your character in his AC.. So the more agility you have the less you get hit. (Does wonders when combined with dodging and parrying). A high agility is what makes a rogue a worthwhile melee class. Another prime requisite for rogues here. (Note: it is pretty much common consensus on P99 that Agility is a worthless stat for every class, giving only a point of AC for several points of agility.)

• Stamina - Stamina affects your hit points… as well as how tired you get while fighting. You might want to add a point or two here if you see yourself needing more hit points, but is totally un-needed in my opinion.

• Intelligence - Intelligence, though more important for mage-type characters, is an important stat none the less. It affects how fast you learn skills... so if you envision yourself with multiple-types of weapons.. you might want to add a few points here. I found that an intelligence of 75 lets me learn quite quickly... allowing me to learn piercing, slashing, archery (somewhat), and un-armed combat pretty quickly without being behind in skill. (Note: Dexterity affects combat skills increasing, not intelligence.)

• Wisdom- The only thing wisdom does for you is affect your resistances slightly. Other then that.. it doesn't really seem to affect anything else. (Wisdom affects skill-ups just like intelligence if it is higher than intelligence. It has no effect on resistances.)

• Charisma- Charisma might be important for you, because your going to need the edge you can get when dealing with NPCs. All in all everyone will hate ya... but a high charisma might help you get your faction up with some classes. If you’re a dark-elf good luck. =P (Charisma has no effect on faction, only merchant prices.)

How to start off...(A guide from 1-20)

Starting off is hard in any class, but luckily its nearly all the same. You just go out and kill things out in the newbie gardens and scrounge up some money for basic Equipment. Kill the local ruined-pelt giving animals (wolf/cats/bears) for patchwork armor and get a tailor (or be a tailor yourself) to make some patchwork. You also want to stick with that training dagger start off with and get another rusty/tarnished dagger as soon as possible. Though you might not always use a dagger... and prefer a spear or other piercing weapon.. a dagger is nice to boost your skill relatively quick, since you hit a monster a lot more with a dagger, which is a greater chance to increase skill per fight. This goes for all weapons... find the one with lowest delay and use that to boost skill. Also lower delay weapons help out on the higher-level critters in hitting em.. and I seem to do much better with lets say a tarnished dagger then a tarnished spear on monsters that con as gambles or low tombstones. Stick to the newbie gardens until at least level 5.. doing some exploring before then to where you'll hunt next. Always know your surroundings as well, it helps a lot with locating your bodies. At level 3 make sure you throw a point into dodging. It "primes" the skill up and it will increase by itself eventually. At level 5 or 6... you should be out of the newbie gardens and maybe a zone away or two. Around these levels... group with a cleric one or two levels lower then you... both you and the cleric will gain experience quickly killing off some of the undead around. Also practice some of your skills while resting and in combat... especially pick pocketing at level 7. You shouldn't use your practice points much unless its in a trade skill or the "basics" you MUST spend on skills to start learning them. Also a trade skill might pop in as well as archery/throwing... where it is wise to spend some points. Save some points up though... since skills later will need some boosting.

At level 10... you get your most prized skill.... backstabbing. Backstabbing makes you a viable component in any group, which is when you should start considering dungeon hunting and being in groups of more then 2 people. When you get level 10... you might want to consider pumping in a good 15 points into backstabbing since its a somewhat hard skill to increase quickly. Safe Fall at level 12 is also a skill that tends to refuse to go up much... so might want to prime it up a bit. You might also be considering either store-bought leather.. or maybe player-made metal armor now.. if you have the plat for it.

At level 13, you get parrying. This skill is a much-welcomed added defense which lets you get hit less by blocking an attack. Only spend a point or two here... it eventually goes up by itself.

Then comes the level 15/16 combo. Here you get Double attack and Dual wield... Which just add so much to a rogue I can't put it into words. If you trained up something besides piercing.. such as slashing.. Have your Primary weapon as a piercing weapon and your secondary weapon as either piercing as well.. or maybe a minotaur axe or Tentacle whip (The life-tap abilities help a lot), whatever you want. These two skills tend to have a slow start... so primer them up if you have training points to spare.

At level 18 comes another Rogue-specific skill... the Art of Poisoning. This skill doesn't come to play much til level 20... when you get to make your own poison. During the beta.. poisoning wasn't in yet (at level 10).. but it seems like a wonderful skill to have.

At Level 20.. comes the ability to make your own poisons.. which will help a lot for that apply poison skill... as well as the last name that you can have bestowed upon you. Make sure you petition a GM if you want your last name (unless they changed that). You also get Disarm traps at level 20, which would be real helpful if there were many traps to disarm. The abilities of a rogue don't seem to come in too often.... below 20 that is.

Remember that speed is a much needed quality in all your weapons that you get... Rogues tend to to better hitting a lot then hitting for a lot, but always have balance between damage and weapon speed.

Level 20 and beyond...

If you haven't been grouping yet... I am surprised you have gotten this high. now its ESSENTIAL to be grouping. Use your skills to add to the groups your in and be a viable team member. Some skills, such as Disarm traps and such not seems like they would be valuable skills, but they come into play during the deep-dungeon expeditions. Instill Doubt is a nice welcome to your arsenal, causing enemies flee (and showing their backsides for a nice backstab). Disarm also is a nice skill.. which lets you take the weapons your enemy is using (adding to the coin purse a lot there). Basically, your abilities beyond 20 truly increase in the new toys or items you get. A rogue, probably as much or even more then a warrior depends on the equipment he has a lot... with the rogue tending to have more cash then the warrior to buy this equipment. The upside to this, however, is that you get a bunch of cool toys to play with . =P This alone makes Rogues a much more appealing class then their nearest coutnerpart.. the Monk.. though the Monk is one of the true masters of avoiding damage, Rogues come in at a close second but with the added fun of all the nice toys that are available (especially for the wood-elves... since they can wear both small and medium sizes and quest for a lot of stuff). Remember to make a lot of friends... since you need em. =P The most important thing to remember is to have fun, is a game after all.

The Downsides to a Rogue

There are, however, lots of downsides to a Rogue. They are hated by most every race, (except Halflings of course), and that makes it a challenge sometimes. They also don't have the nice abilities of a magic-using class of getting spells every 4 or 5 levels... so at higher levels Rogues might tend to get a little boring (unless you can keep getting better and better equipment). They are however more enjoyable then a Warrior.. as you can see with a high-level backstab skill. They are, however, limited to 1-handed weapons... which makes it a kind of disappointment damage wise (as you see all the warriors completely destroying a monster with a halberd or other 2-handed weapon). Although we dodge melee attacks well, we take some hard hits from spells, making us weak to some higher level monsters (having less hitpoints then the other melee classes). This is where a lot of magic/fire/cold/poison/disease resisting magic items come to affect for the Rogue. Rogues also tend to be a class ignored by the programmers (their skills are somewhat incomplete and not very usable at times), and that tends to hit them hard from being truly balanced with all the other classes.

Your choice of character really is determined by how you want to play. There is no "best" class, there are no tank mages... which makes this game all the more enjoying. Rogues can be a worthwhile class, as all classes can be, and to me they are the class I would enjoy EverQuest the most as. But that is why you have eight slots.. To explore all the racial and career opportunities provided by each class.

All in all... although Rogues seem to be more popular now we are in the final... many people may find themselves struggling with a Rogue... as all classes seem to have, which can make the game frustrating. If you choose the Rogue because they can pick pockets... your going to be somewhat disappointed with the class in the long run. If you chose a Rogue because all their abilities and characteristics seems like the type of character that you would have the most fun with, then the game will be much more enjoying in the long run.