Any good rogue builds?

[Salem Graves]

I've been able to make some pretty powerful mystics and warriors but rogues have been feeling incredibly under powered compared to the other two.. But maybe I'm just not thinking hard enough about them. I like their ability to return to stealth after killing, but I'm often afraid to attack with them because of how low hp they usually have and by mid-late game, most enemies can potentially one shot them and we're often getting swarmed by so many enemies that they always just feel super vulnerable.. Any tips appreciated!

[RedPine]

If by "Rogue" you mean "Hunter", they are one of the most powerful classes in terms of reliability - filling the same role a mage does in traditional D&D.

The "Silkstep" all hunters get is a free use of invisibility, usable as many times as time allows. The first shot while invisible ignores armor, you can position without consequence, though enemies will start searching for you under certain circumstances. In D&D terms, this is unlimited free invisibility with armor piercing as a bonus. Need I say more?

"Quellingmoss" does poison damage that bypasses armor and resistance, with only a small chance to dodge, in a respectable AOE. For a single action point. The poison damage scales with potency. This is OP and might get nerfed. A fully upgraded hunter can routinely toss 2 aoe's of poison onto 3 enemies per turn, dealing 3 damage per turn stacking, or a total of 3*3*2=18 total damage. Obviously, a lot of that damage is wasted on low hp targets, but even against bosses two turns of throwing two poisons of potency 3 each deals 2*2*3=12 damage PER TURN. This is equivalent to the Cloudkill spells on D&D wizards.

"Ambush" guarantees +2 damage and a free extra attack if you can set up an... ambush. Setup ambush the turn before opening doors, then unleash a free attack before taking a normal turn. Depending on how it's used, the extra attack and damage are roughly equivalent to the Haste spell on D&D wizards.

"Jumpjaw" guarantees two traps that deal 3 damage, automatically pinning anything that doesn't die. Against melee-only enemies, that's a effectively a stun. Deployed as a SWIFT action. You only have 2, but you rarely need more than 2. Equivalent to the various stunning/terrain abilities on D&D wizards.

You get the idea. Hunters are basically reskinned wizards... but with more mobility.

NOTE: Quellingmoss scales on potency, so if potency is low, it is indeed slightly less amazing. Ambush scales off weapon quality and ranged accuracy, so a hunter with Ambush will want different items than one with Quellingmoss. Jumpjaw doesn't care what the hunters stats are - it is always good.

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Compare to Mystics, who have powerful abilities - but only when the right kind of furniture is in range of the right kind of enemy. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE mystics, but they are more of a wildcard. They SOMETIMES trivialize fights, but are also SOMETIMES useless for a few turns while they get set up.

Compare to Warriors, who have powerful abilities - most of which depend on being in melee range. Ranged warriors can be good, but only if you get the right kind of abilities and equipment. Being in melee range means getting hit a lot, and wasting a lot of turns moving into melee range.

[RedPine]

If by "Rogue" you mean the "Rogue" melee ability on hunter, the answer is yes, it's good, but very situational.

"Rogue" makes a hunter enter stealth (read: invisibility) for free whenever they kill something with melee. Obviously, you need a high damage melee weapon, high melee accuracy, and any melee abilities RNG might give you. Walking into the middle of a pack of enemies only to miss a stealth attack is quite bad, for obvious reasons.

The benefits of a melee hunter is that they are way faster than warriors, so they waste fewer turns getting into position. The mobility makes it easy to get flanks for extra damage. The stealth gives armor piercing on the next attack, making it easier to chain multiple stealth kills in a row.

That said, don't forget that you have a bow. The greatest benefit of hunters is that on any turn where they aren't in range for melee, they can make a ranged attack instead. Even a 25% chance to hit with a bow is better than no attack at all.

[Salem Graves]

Originally posted by RedPine:

If by "Rogue" you mean the "Rogue" melee ability on hunter, the answer is yes, it's good, but very situational.

"Rogue" makes a hunter enter stealth (read: invisibility) for free whenever they kill something with melee. Obviously, you need a high damage melee weapon, high melee accuracy, and any melee abilities RNG might give you. Walking into the middle of a pack of enemies only to miss a stealth attack is quite bad, for obvious reasons.

The benefits of a melee hunter is that they are way faster than warriors, so they waste fewer turns getting into position. The mobility makes it easy to get flanks for extra damage. The stealth gives armor piercing on the next attack, making it easier to chain multiple stealth kills in a row.

That said, don't forget that you have a bow. The greatest benefit of hunters is that on any turn where they aren't in range for melee, they can make a ranged attack instead. Even a 25% chance to hit with a bow is better than no attack at all.

I meant hunter yeah. I guess I rely too much on my warriors running in and taking all the damage that I'm scared to send my low health hunter in to do anything so I usually build them as ranged. I do need to make more use of Silkstep, I didn't think it did anything for ranged hunters.