Scoundrel building in EE

This is a build guide for a Scoundrel based character.

Introduction

This is a way of getting the most out of the difficult Scoundrel Class in the game, with the goal of getting one to operate like a D&D Thief class.


There are many ways to try this, but this one is tested through all game content from levels one to 20. You can follow the template, or branch out on your own, but bear in mind the sections on the difficulties posed by the Scoundrel School.

The gameplay at the end is a Melee Finisher: we will be able to approach and rapidly kill crowd-controlled enemies. Works very well with a Crowd Control Mage character who might lack direct damage abilities. Stun-n-Gun is the basic plan.

Level 13 is the usual point when the Respec Option is available in game. This is a reasonable place to consider changing to all melee Scoundrel,

Main Problems to overcome

Main Game Issues- and how to fix them

There are a few primary problems with Rogue/Scoundrel classes in DOS:EE.

• Poor Weapons (Dagger/Rapier types)
  
• Poor level 5 Skills in the Scoundrel School
  
• Nerfed Stealth, which consumes 5 AP per use
  
• Need for Action Points(AP) much greater than most other characters
  
• Jokey uncool character appearance during stealth
  
• Need to dedicate at least one Talent Point to make a Backstabber
  
• Need to use Dexterity as the Primary Stat, blocking out access to Spellcasting

Poor Weapon Selections

Compared to one handed or two handed standard weapons, Daggers and Rapiers do only about half the damage as you level up. Problem gets worse and worse the higher up you get. We are constrained to the weapon class because they have to be equipped to use the offensive Scoundrel Abilities.

We can bypass this problem by making our own weapons.

You will need a crafter/blacksmith character with 5 total points in both the Crafting and Blacksmithing schools. Doesn't have to be the same as your rogue. Gain one point from Bracers item, one point from Belt item, one point from Scientist Talent- you have to invest only 3 points per field, for a total of 6 Skill points on your Crafter.

Recipe:
Paper Knife + Anvil----------------------- Dagger
Knife + Anvil-------------------------------- Dagger
Dagger/Rapier + Grindstone ----------- Improved Weapon
Log + Axe ---------------------------------- Wooden Stake ( Dexterity based Piercing weapon that counts as a dagger)

Near the mid-to-endgame you will need to improve the weapons with Tormented Souls, to gain DEX and STR stats. Crafting puts SPEED stat on your weapon, and you can get +2 SPD on both weapons by level 15, +3 by level 20. This is essential.


Comparing endgame crafted daggers with a store-bought one, you can see the HUGE damage difference.

Save before making your gear. If you don't get the SPD bonus, reload and retry.

Without crafted weapons, forget the whole idea of making a Scoundrel that can work in melee.

Scoundrel Level 5 Skills

Forget them. Just don't bother to acquire them. You won't need or want to use them.
Instead, you will get utility from combining some spells, some Master of Arms tricks, and from plain uncomplicated Backstabbing. Instead of ranking up to level 5 here, invest Skill points into Dual Wield.

You need level 5 in Dual Wield to reduce the AP cost to 3 per dual-attack just to be competitive.

On the bright side almost ALL the level one Novice Scoundrel abilities are very strong, so much so that selecting the first 3 is tough.

Of the Adept Abilities, Daggers Drawn is a useful Backstab Skill that will one-shot most things. Unfortunately, the cooldown is excessively long. Lacerate is a Novice skill that gets the cooldown to 3 Turns eventually with high Dex, which isn't too bad. EyeGouge is another one shot Skill worth picking up, as Blind status effect has recently been patched.

Stealth

Ignore this completely. You will have other methods of handling the enemy. Also, you will not have to look like a barrel.
Use Razzle-Dazzle Grenades, Tremor Grenades, and Smoke Grenades to CC the enemy.

Action Points shortage

This is overcome by investing heavily in SPEED stat mainly, and by crafting up good weapons with item bonuses to SPEED. It is possible to use Glass Cannon Talent, but this is optional and really not necessary.
Adding gear with Movement bonuses reduces AP consumption greatly, and can let us reposition for free over short spaces.
ThunderJump Aerotheurge spell is also useful earlier in game to cover long distances fast. More on that problem in the Tactics section.

The Actual Build

OK, enough preamble. Let's put this thing together. We're building a Rogue class.

Put one skill point in the Scoundrel School, and hold up.

FIRST of all, you have to bear in mind that we simply do not have enough AP per turn to start off doing Backstabs. There is therefore no reason to choose Backstabber Talent right away. Instead, go with Pinpoint.

You will be chucking AOE grenades as your main method of combat. This is a primarily RANGED approach. Thus, you might benefit from another RANGED attack form, such as Bow attacks.

Optionally: Put one skill point in Bows. Put one more in Marksman School.

We could get a lot of use from Bully Talent too. Take that one. You are going to rock Knockdowns with your bow.

Recipe:
Antler + Knife ------------ Knockdown Arrowhead
KD Arrowhead + Arrow Shaft -------- KD arrow!

Shooting a downed enemy will automatically give us 50% bonus damage. It's sort of like a ranged "Backstab" if you opt for this Ranger style route.

Recipe:
Oil Barrel +Empty Bottle ------------ Bottle of Oil
Bottle of Oil + Fuse ------------------ Firestorm Grenade

We are going to start off as a shooter/bomber, until we can get enough Action Points and learn to do Dual Wielding later on.


(Don't worry about the single point in Bows. We can respec later in the game if you want to eliminate it, but it's useful in early game.)

Hop over to ATTRIBUTES, and ramp up Dexterity. As you level up, you are going to want to have Dexterity level up about the same as Speed, but be conservative. If your weapon choices need 9 Dex, make sure that you have that before adding more Speed.

WHY do we need Dexterity? Well, some Skills check it to see if an effect will stick to the enemy. You will want your EyeGouges & Trips to work.

For starting Skills, take Scoundrel Invisibility, Haste, and Riccochet Arrow or Winged Feet. As you play, you can add Trip, Lacerate, Venomous Strike, Marksman Power Stance, First Aid as they become available.

Once you level up, you will want to gain one point in the Master at Arms school, so as to get access to Slingshot Talent, and Master at Arms Melee Power Stance Spell( helpful for direct combat later and adds movement distance). Other very helpful immediate things: the Heal, and Helping Hand Spells.

I find that by level 10 or 12 I can do a Respec to refocus entirely on Dual Wield, and can drop Marksman abilities, if taking Glass Cannon. The option is yours.

Converting to Melee

Lets say that you finish Hiberheim, and unlock the Respec ability by level 13. Do a Hard Save for safety, in case you make a mistake or want to go back & try a different config.

DEX weapons require you have just 10 points ( including gear bonuses) which we can hit easy.
Craft up a couple Daggers with +2 SPEED, add Tormented Souls to get +1 in Str & Dex, and Sharpen them on the Whetstone. You can use Knives At the End of Time from the big table there in the Hall of Heroes.

Hit the Respec Demon.

DO this:

Take 3 levels Scoundrel, 1 in Master at Arms, and 2 in Marksman.
Put 4 in Dual Wield. Leave one in Bows if you want. Use a Dual Wield Item to get that to 5.
That's the basics for your melee fighter.

Skillbooks:

SCOUNDREL:
Adrenaline - if you are getting just ONE Skill, let it be this one.
Walk in Shadows is generally useful for any build.
Winged Feet is effective at eliminating surface obstacles: like Lava. Best used on Scout type builds with high Perception.
Haste- also generally useful, but less critical for Glass Cannon high AP bulds

The Skillbooks you will want to get for a combat oriented build are:
1) Venomous Strike. This is Piercing, fast cooldown, imparts Poisoning status to attack. 2 Turn cooldown. Good Hit & Run skill.
2) Lacerate. This is Slashing, which permits you to get a new form of damage type on pierce resistant enemies. It leaves a Bleed. Cooldown goes to 3 turns by endgame, excellent bread-and-butter attack skill, with few enemies resistant.
3) Precise Strike Also Slashing, imparts Weakness. Less effective than Lacerate.
4) Eyegouge Hard hitting, with a chance to Blind. Very good Skill, but cooldown is too long for repeated use.
5) Trip A fantastic addition to arsenal. Knockdown at close range, One shot per combat though.
6) Daggers Drawn. The most lethal Scoundrel ability, which can Backstab unlike the others. Almost always a guaranteed kill.

MASTER-AT-ARMS
Melee Power Stance is essential, granting a movement bonus, and 20% damage melee boost.
You can choose between the rest, but of the novce abilities, Helping Hand and the Cure Wounds are standouts. Battering Ram can help you move, but with low STR - you won't knock anything over. Not worth it.

For Glass Cannon Early Builds:

Take Backstabber, Bully, Glass Cannon, Evade Opportunists, and Bigger & Better
Invest 3 points in SPD, 5 in CON, rest in DEX.
Trade a couple points Ability for Attributes with the Demon. You need only 2 or so.

This configuration will give you 13 AP/Turn, 17 AP MAx, which is slight overkill. Optimally you want a AP divisible by 3 for each Backstab. The Hitpoints will be about the same as build without Glass Cannon that have no CON investment. Higher MAX HP are nice when you use Adrenaline- it reduces overflows.

You could skip the CON boost, and spend the 5 points between SPD & DEX if you want to. But having a bigger total pool is nice, for those times when you save up AP. I haven't been able to get AP/Turn up to 15 with a level 13 Character, but it's possible if you find gear with SPD stat on it, or are willing to run with a lower CON, and dodgy DEX levels.

This configuration will give 4 Backstabs max, or 3 Bowshots max, by level 13- which is fairly decent. If you get AP to 15/turn, you can get 5 Backstabs off.





This is an example of the non-Glass Cannon build by level 20. You can get an idea of the relative emphasis put into the attributes here, but there is +4 to SPD, STR, and DEX from the 2 crafted weapons.

By level 20, SPEED affix goes up to +3, so that gives us +6 to SPEED once you craft the blades. One extra double stab Backstab.

here is the breakdown of the Attributes without gear:

SPD = 13 ( 8 points added)
DEX = 10 ( 5 points added)
CON = 6 ( one point added)
INT = 8 (3 points added)

We had to add one in CON because the max Action point pool was actually smaller than the AP/turn. That's a terrible waste, so juggle things around with your gear and make sure that your AP/turn does not exceed the full pool. This is why Glass Cannon really isn't needed unless you want to invest more in CON( bigger pool) and grab 4 AP/turn more to get started earlier in the career.

Here are the Talents Picked:



Sidestep, Parry Master, and Avoid Opportunists are all defensive ones that help a melee Rogue survive. You will need 4 Dual Wield points to get Parry Master. But you have to get 5 there to benefit from the 3 AP minimum. After level 10, you can start acumulating a few Skill points at a time here. The faster you get full 5 the faster you can begin effective Backstabbing tactics.
You can substitute Glass Cannon for Zombie, if you like, and probably would want Stench rather than Parry Master. I dropped Slingshot as we were all mostly melee by now, but Pinpoint is still useful. .

I would heartily suggest that you buy and use books from the Teller of Secrets to help your Attributes. You may also opt to sell Skill points for Attributes once you have Dual Wield at 5, Scoundrel up to 3-4 levels. Look out for helpful gear items that raise DEX, SPD and CON too.

So, why do we need all that INT? One point or 3 into selected Spell schools makes life much much easier.

• Thunder Jump from aerotheurge can help get us into position across environmental hazards for free.
  
• Shocking Touch and Bitter Cold give us CC that costs very little AP to cast.
  
• 2 points in Geomancer give us a Spider Summons, Petrify and Poison Dart
  
• 1 point in Witchcraft gives us Oath of Desecration to use.

Poison Dart is a nifty little ranged ability , suited to non Archer builds.

Tactical Thinking

Wherever possible, conserve Action Points and try for outright kills rather than just wounding the enemy. Retreat the Party- let them run into you and spend THEIR AP instead.

Short range to target, with reduced AP on his turn? I'll buy that for a dollar.

It takes 3 AP to run one Backstab. A quick assessment will tell you if a kill is going to happen based on how many shots you have left. If the enemy is going to live, you had best move away rather than continuing to melee them - unless they are CC-ed. If you have to leave, use Venomous Strike/Lacerate at the BEGINNING so they will continue to take harm.

Wet/bleeding enemies can get stunned by weapons with Air damage on them. Use Lacerate to get a pool of Blood just where you need it. Hopefully you can land a Stun by this means. You could use Water balloons too, or get attacks going after a Rain spell. Stun Immunity is good to have on you. If you land a STun, stay on target like Porkins, and kill them next turn.

Gameplay & Buffs

Set Melee Power Stance on.
Cast Oath on yourself prior to attacks, or get buffed by somebody else.
The main objective is next getting to target.

Insertion

Cast an Air Elemental, and use its Featherdrop spell to "parachute " your Rogue into backstab position for the most optimal, awesome airborne assault.

Black Site Extradition

Teleport the enemy into position close to the rogue, exposing the rear to Backstabs. Preferably if the Rogue is already standing on ice, or Stun Immune inside a Static Cloud.

Ingress

We can run ( high Movement skill from gear and MPS reduces AP costs) Teleport, Thunderjump, Cloak&Dagger in, or try a Battering Ram charge to target.
Generally, use the cheapest AP option. Get behind enemy. Very high SPD stat helps us go first.

Routing

If you are moving through a group of enemies, it pays to plot the path through them to get to a Backstab position. You may pass in front of a couple en route, and you can leave them Lacerated, Venomed, Tripped, or Eyegouged on your way to the destination. Non-Backstab attacks contribute to your usefulness too.

Execution

Once on spot, use Daggers Drawn to open up the first Backstab. Often, this is Fatal.

You can then continue reg Backstabs, Adrenaline if needed to get a kill, and then withdraw.

If you cannot get behind, fire a Lacerate from the front, go for a Trip, or hide with Walk in Shadows. At Range? Use Grenades. Or- delay turn. Knockdown doesn't stack with Backstab, use it as a poor alternative.

Shoot all the Bullets!!

I opted to keep Master level Expert Marksman on this build. Once you get up close, you can use Arrow Spray to replace Daggers Drawn as an assassins tool, and its nice to have the Bow options with piles of AP. Works fine if you can't get position behind: stay back & shoot.

Cooldowns

Lacerate gets reduced to 3 Turns, and becomes reusable. Venomous Strike is also OK. Everything else is once per combat effectively. But unlike the other characters, you will mostly rely on straight up Backstabs while buffed by Melee Power Stance, and Oath of Desecration.

EGRESS

Blinded enemies cannot attack if you move just clear of melee range. Blind is best reserved for Mages/Archers. Use Eyegouge, Razzle-Dazzle grenades, or try Smoke. All these work better on Soulsapped enemies.
You can chug an invisibility Potion for 2 AP and slide away as well. It is a little better than 3 AP for Walk-in-Shadows because of the cooldown, but Aerotheurge Invisibility and W-I-S are options for escape.

Assassinations

Unchain your rogue and have him go "Solo Operative, Right".
Go invisible, and approach the enemy. Get behind in the Backstab zone. Hit hard. Combat will start.
Use the teleporter Pyramid to leave the scene, and regroup.
Repeat till they're all dead.

Glass Cannon builds have a bit extra AP, but are fragile. Add a couple points to CON stat to get more hit points and more max AP, rather than SPEED as you'll need something like 10 SPEED for the 4 AP you get from Cannon. This can work for us, as we need to be more careful and have a higher AP pool. Get hidden at the outset, wait for them to come to you. The extra HP from 2 turns plus Adrenaline will make the next move a potential massacre.

Immunities:

• Zombie trait lets you heal inside Poison Clouds, or tolerate Poison Surfaces. Hang out in there at the end of your turns. No better solution to the Zombie Problem than a set of Poison immunities.
  
• Stun Immunity is fantastic protection from melee. Electrified Water and Static Clouds are where you want to go, immobilizing your opposition and getting you free 100% to-hits. Find this property on Rings.
  
• NON -Slip boots are a must. If your comrades can chuck Ice down *cough*HAILSTORM*cough* on the enemy, they will slip and get free Knockdown status or remain Frozen, but you cannot hit them unless you can walk on ice. Make yourself a pair with some Nails. Look for Boots that carry Movement bonuses.

[Perish]

good job, thank you for guide, really helpfull

[Krauser]

a very good build, i will definetly use it. I have played alot as Mage/ Ranger in co op with a friend and i tried Wolgraff "Scoundrel", he was hard to position, because he could die very easily.