EZ_Miron Quickblade
11-23-01, 05:26 PM
The Dark Age of Camelot Rogue FAQ v1.31
Last updated: 08/17/2002
The Dark Age of Camelot Rogue FAQ is designed as a place to look first when you want to know something about one of the rogue classes or their skills. As more is discovered about all three classes more is added and updated. The FAQ is always evolving. If you have something that you think the FAQ could use please reply below. This FAQ is not meant to give spoilers to the class epic quests or other rogue related quests or equipment in general, only the knowledge on how to use them.
1.0 General questions about the Rogue classes
1.1 What is a Rogue in DAoC?
Mythic describes the three Rogue classes like this:
INFILTRATOR: A Roguish class that specializes in stealthy movement, hiding, and critical strike combat styles. The Infiltrator is very good at spying on enemy Realms. Rogues become Infiltrators by joining the Guild of Shadows.
NIGHTSHADE: The Nightshade is a spellcaster/rogue who specializes in hiding/sneaking abilities, as well as recieves some damaging magic spells. He can also fight when cornered, although not as well as other Hibernian combat classes. Lurikeen and Elves are the only races devious enough for this path and come from the Way of Stealth.
SHADOWBLADE: Patron god: Loki, the trickster. The Shadowblade is an assassin class, specializing in the abilities to sneak and hide, as well as getting deadly combat abilities. Here, the lithe Kobold comes into his own and excels. Norsemen may worship Loki, but the doors are closed to the enormous trolls and straightforward dwarves.
1.2 Why should I play a Rogue?
There are many reasons to play one of the Rogue classes. The idea of a Rogue is rich with roleplaying options. Rogues in DAoC also get a very unique skill set. Not only can they stealth through shadows but they have a deadly critical strike which they can suprise their opponents with. That, along with poisons, which can coat their blades, can make them fearsome to the unaware.
1.3 Stats
See the stats section in the Poison FAQ. For now I will leave these as direct links to Remmi's Poison FAQ. If he wishes I can edit them in here.
1.3.1 Where should I put my initial stat points at character creation?
See here.
1.3.2 Which stats raise naturally
See here.
1.3.3 When do stats increase and by how much?
See here.
1.4 Where can I find a log analyzer for my DAoC Rogue?
Check out Neill's DAoC Stats Parser or statz0r - the uncompromising daoc log parser, which is reported to not take blocked or parried styles into account.
1.5 Where can I find a character builder to see how I can specialize for the future?
Check out DAoC Catacombs. More specificly their character builder can be found here.
2.0 Skills
2.1 Specializations:
Rogues in all realms get a large assortment of specializations. Nightshades and Shadowblades get 2.2x their level in skill points per level while Infiltrators get 2.5x their level. Starting at 40th when a Rogue gets halfway through their level they get half their ordinary number of skill points, or 1.1x level in the case of Nightshades and Shadowblades. They will also recieve the normal 2.2x or 2.5x at each level past 40.
All specializations have a maximum value of your current level, however it is possible to specialize past your level with items and realm point rewards. Developers have stated that specializing past your level gives no benefit.
Rogues who let their Stealth drop below 1/4th of their level will get the specialization automaticly trained (8th, 12th, 16th, etc...), costing them no points, next time they visit their trainer. Only Stealth is automaticly trained for Rogues.
Level / Specialization
1 Blades
1 Piercing (Albion, Hibernia)
1 Axe (Midgard)
1 Stealth
5 Celtic Dual (Hibernia)
5 Left Axe (Midgard)
5 Dual Wield (Albion)
5 Critical Strike
5 Envenom
2.1.1 Blades
2.1.2 Piercing
2.1.3 Axe
2.1.4 Stealth
Stealth is one of the core skills of the Rogue class and is recieved at level one by the base class. Upon using stealth you become hidden and you will notice you become transparent. You must not engange in combat for 10 seconds and must be far enough away from enemies before going into stealth mode. ( oponents level / your stealth ) gives the ratio of the distance of how far away someone can detect you. Once in stealth mode you will walk slower than normal. As you bring your specialization up you will begin walking faster. Besides allowing you to sneak about stealth also grants four sub skills as of the 1.38 patch.
Stealth specialization level / Skill name
1 Safe Fall I
8 Distraction
10 Safe Fall II
12 Danger Sense
16 Detect Hidden
20 Safe Fall III
25 Climb Walls
30 Safe Fall IV
40 Safe Fall V
50 Safe Fall VI
2.1.4.1 Distraction
The distraction skill has PvE uses only at this time. By using it you can cause monsters to stop walking and turn to look at a sound you made by throwing a small stone. To use distraction first hold down the target ground key, default F5. Use the arrow keys or mouse look to position the yellow arrow and let go of the target ground key. You may now hit the distraction ability and you will see yourself making a throwing motion. Any monsters in the vicinity will turn to look towards the sound. This is a very usefull skill as monsters can only detect you when you are in their forward line of sight.
2.1.4.2 Danger Sense
Danger sense alerts you if you, or anyone in your group, is spotted by a scout mob. Scout mobs, once spotting someone, often run back to their friends for help. You will see "You sense you are being watched" in the upper section of your chat window when this happens.
2.1.4.3 Detect Hidden
Detect Hidden is purely a RvR skill allowing you to spot others in stealth mode much farther away than normal. Rogues, Archers, and Minstrels (Albion) all get the stealth specialization but only Rogues get the detect hidden skill. This skill provides twice the detection range against as compared to anyone else. It also doubles the minumum detection range against all non-Rogues to 250 units.
2.1.4.4 Safe Fall
Taken from the 1.38 Pendragon patch message. Each level of safe fall lessens the damage from a fall and increases the minimum "no damage" height [Rogues] can fall from. The highest levels of Safe Fall allow the thief to jump from a keep wall and take very little damage. Currently recieving higher versions of Safe Fall as you level seems to be broken.
2.1.4.5 Climb Walls
Climb walls allows a Rogue with to climb certain sections of Keeps and Relic forts. These sections act just as a ladder to Rogues and allow them to infiltrate keeps before the doors have been broken.
2.1.5 Celtic Dual
Celtic Dual allows you to wield a weapon in each hand. Only the smallest weapons of each type may be held in the off hand (i.e. mace, hammer, short sword, hand axe, dirk, and stilletto). When using Celtic Dual there is a 50 / 50 chance of which weapon will attack first. From there the chance for the other weapon to attack is (25 + (0.5*spec level) + (0.25*char level))%. Your weapon delay is governed by the delay of the weapon that attacked first. Note, when a style is used your primary, right handed, weapon will always be used to execute the style and then Celtic Dual will check to see if the secondary, left hand, weapon attacks.
2.1.6 Left Axe
Left Axe allows you to wield two weapons. One in your primary and an axe in your secondary. Left axe is signifigantly different than Celtic Dual and Dual Wield. When you use Left axe you always attack with two weapons. Your damage will be halved for each weapon but (25 + (.5*spec level) + (.25*char level))% will be added on. Your attack delay is governed by the average of the two weapons. Your left hand weapon will always be an axe. The base damage of that weapon will be governed by the Left Axe skill, not your skill in Axe.
2.1.7 Dual Wield
Dual Wield allows you to wield a weapon in each hand. Only the smallest weapons of each type may be held in the off hand (i.e. mace, hammer, short sword, hand axe, dirk, and stilletto). When using Dual Wield there is a 50 / 50 chance of which weapon will attack first. From there the chance for the other weapon to attack is (25 + (0.5*spec level) + (0.25*char level))%. Your weapon delay is governed by the delay of the weapon that attacked first. Note, when a style is used your primary, right handed, weapon will always be used to execute the style and then Dual Wield will check to see if the secondary, left hand, weapon attacks.
2.1.8 Critical Strike
2.1.9 Envenom
See the Poison FAQ. Also note with the new Realm Rewards specializatio bonuses on envenom allow you to use poisons up to the modifyed level.
2.2 Abilities
Level / Skill
1 Evade I
1 Armor: Leather
1 Shields: Small
1 Weapons: Piercing (Albion, Hibernia)
1 Weapons: Blades
1 Weapons: Axe (Midgard)
5 Evade II
10 Evade III
20 Evade IV
30 Evade V
40 Evade VI
50 Evade VII
2.3 Spells
Only Nightshades have spells -- two of them.
Single target direct damage spell with a three second casting time.
Level / Spell Name
1 Lesser Dusk Single
3 Dusk Strike
5 Lesser Twilight Strike
8Twilight Strike Single
12 Lesser Gloaming Strike
16 Gloaming Strike
22 Lesser Nocturnal Strike
28 Nocturnal Strike
35 Lesser Midnight Strike
45 Midnight Strike
Single target direct damage with an instant casting time and a twenty second recast time.
Level / Spell Name
6 Dart of Night
9 Dagger of Night
13 Knife of Night
18 Stiletto of Night
24 Arrow of Night
31 Rapier of Night
39 Spear of Night
48 Lance of Night
3.0 Player vs Environment (PvE)
3.1 Grouping in PvE
3.1.1 Why do I always get attacked by adds when I'm hidden when fighting with a group?
In Dark Age of Camelot aggro is group based, not simply single target based, therefore, when a puller pulls a group of mobs, aggro transfers to all members of the group in a sense, the puller naturally being the brunt of it via proximity and whatever arrow/debuff/DD he pulled with. A hidden rogue thereby gains aggro despite being hidden, if you've ever ran from a mob long enough to get far enough away to hide, you'll rapidly learn that being hidden doesn't wipe aggro. On top of that there seems to be a flag within the system that rogues are flagged as a higher target because of being hidden assassin types. It's likely this is an artifact from "scout" type mobs (Mobs who can naturally see rogues from a distance, and reveal hidden rogues like all mobs.) and it's applying to normal mobs for some reason. This bug has no ETA for resolution, and is something you are going to have to cope with. If you are in a group pulling several high reds to purples it may cost you your life if you are unaware of it.
3.1.2 Why do mobs keep frenzying on me and the tank can't taunt them off after a backstab, should I not backstab?
No, you should backstab or perform your later criticals, if this is a regular problem (Which it can be your life if you're fighting high reds and beyond) then you should take steps to rectify the situation. The first is taking a bit of time to allow the tank to get a taunt or two in. In constant multiple pull situations, the time it takes you to run off and hide, and get back, a tank will generally have taunt, it's mostly in single pulls where this is an issue. You may lose a few hits, and reduce your effectiveness a bit, but nothing harms downtime and general group morale than a party member dying, or dying regularly. Your experience bar will be none too pleased either.
3.1.3 I'm setting up a good distance from my puller and following the target in, and it's hitting me despite it not being aggroed on me and I'm hidden! What's going on?
This also relates to the above issue of group aggro and all sorts of other unidentifiable issues. This is also a bug, the finest solution is just to keep your distance as a mob is being brought in. It might cost you a hit or two on your opponent, but it'll save you several hits, and your healer some mana as well.
3.1.4 Why does a mob still hit me when running?
Even though a mob may be chasing after another person when you attempt to follow it and attack, it will hit you back. This was put it in to discourage kiting.
3.1.5 What is "stick" and how do I use it?
Stick or /stick (How it is applied) is an auto follow command, but keeps you within melee range at all times of your target presuming your movement allows it (IE, if you're hidden, your target is gonna outrun you if it's moving quickly.) This is stick as the title applies, you can strafe and maneuver for your critical to your heart's desire. It has been recently patched to have a small range associated with it. Use stick to your advantage.
3.1.6 Are poisons useless in groups?
Yes and no. In small groups, up to four mayhap, the dot poison is particularly useful if you're fighting high cons, the extra punch can make or break a battle, and due to a battle's long length due to your small group, your dot gets to run its full length, sometimes you may be able to get off as many as two. The crippling poison can also be mildly useful, again, in a small group the benefits become more obvious.
But even in large groups some poisons can still be useful. The snare poison, for example, is heavily overlooked. A wise rogue always has a blade with snare poison on it, always. If you are the last alive and your healer is being chased down, whip out a slow delay weapon (Yes slow) and smack that mob. This could be a grey broadsword and you're specializing in piercing/thrust, it doesn't matter. The goal is not to damage the mob, it's to hit it with the poison, the low delay gives you more control over breaking the snare, as hitting it again will wear off the poison's effects. Once the poison kicks in, it's now snared and your healer will be able to get away. This can be the difference of your group spending 20 minutes on horse rides or getting a bunch of free rezzes. Particularly adept groups can adapt the snare poison as a form of crowd control as well. Since a hidden rogue will almost always get aggro to begin with, bring the add to you, and smack it with a snare poison. Then proceed to kite it around for a wee bit (It is only a wee bit, but better than nothing) while the rest of your group smacks the primary target.
In large groups tearing through purples every 20 seconds, your poisons aren't going to be as useful. But in small groups doing single targets multiple spell lines and styles (Those which are Area Effect based) have no purpose as well. As in all abilities, envenom has it's profoundly useful spots and it's minimally useful spots.
3.2 Soloing in PvE
3.3 Endurance and Combat Styles
3.3.1 Regenerating Endurance
Get in the habit of always sitting after a mob dies. A rogue in particular needs all the stamina they can get. There is nothing worse than chatting and forgetting to sit and having your puller bring back three mobs and you're half fatigue. In the frontier this isn't such a bright idea, and you'll need to fight more conservatively to preserve your stamina.
3.3.2 Take advantage of all your combat styles
Do not be lazy and use a single style bank. By the time you are 20 you will have more styles than you know what to do with. Set up multiple hotkey banks for multiple situations. In an ideal group you will never need your taunt. But things are rarely ideal, sometimes you will need that taunt to get it off of a healer. Having it in a nearby bank will make things easier. The same goes for styles you previously thought outdated, Pincer seems much more desirable when you don't have enough stamina to perform a garrote but really need a little extra punch. Shift and the number of the hotkey bank will allow you to toggle between your hotkey banks as easily as you dance through your styles.
4.0 Realm vs Realm (RvR)
4.1 Grouping in RvR
4.2 Soloing in RvR
4.3 Endurance and Combat Styles
4.4 RvR Tactics
Contributors:
Miron Quickblade
Remmi
Virvallen/Hubris Blackbane
Gron Ghewarth
Kezzek
Devils
RagingIdiot
Dither
Winderpane
Eyes CBH
Squink
Tinkerman11 Edited by: Miron Quickblade at: 8/17/02 9:41:14 pm
Last updated: 08/17/2002
The Dark Age of Camelot Rogue FAQ is designed as a place to look first when you want to know something about one of the rogue classes or their skills. As more is discovered about all three classes more is added and updated. The FAQ is always evolving. If you have something that you think the FAQ could use please reply below. This FAQ is not meant to give spoilers to the class epic quests or other rogue related quests or equipment in general, only the knowledge on how to use them.
1.0 General questions about the Rogue classes
1.1 What is a Rogue in DAoC?
Mythic describes the three Rogue classes like this:
INFILTRATOR: A Roguish class that specializes in stealthy movement, hiding, and critical strike combat styles. The Infiltrator is very good at spying on enemy Realms. Rogues become Infiltrators by joining the Guild of Shadows.
NIGHTSHADE: The Nightshade is a spellcaster/rogue who specializes in hiding/sneaking abilities, as well as recieves some damaging magic spells. He can also fight when cornered, although not as well as other Hibernian combat classes. Lurikeen and Elves are the only races devious enough for this path and come from the Way of Stealth.
SHADOWBLADE: Patron god: Loki, the trickster. The Shadowblade is an assassin class, specializing in the abilities to sneak and hide, as well as getting deadly combat abilities. Here, the lithe Kobold comes into his own and excels. Norsemen may worship Loki, but the doors are closed to the enormous trolls and straightforward dwarves.
1.2 Why should I play a Rogue?
There are many reasons to play one of the Rogue classes. The idea of a Rogue is rich with roleplaying options. Rogues in DAoC also get a very unique skill set. Not only can they stealth through shadows but they have a deadly critical strike which they can suprise their opponents with. That, along with poisons, which can coat their blades, can make them fearsome to the unaware.
1.3 Stats
See the stats section in the Poison FAQ. For now I will leave these as direct links to Remmi's Poison FAQ. If he wishes I can edit them in here.
1.3.1 Where should I put my initial stat points at character creation?
See here.
1.3.2 Which stats raise naturally
See here.
1.3.3 When do stats increase and by how much?
See here.
1.4 Where can I find a log analyzer for my DAoC Rogue?
Check out Neill's DAoC Stats Parser or statz0r - the uncompromising daoc log parser, which is reported to not take blocked or parried styles into account.
1.5 Where can I find a character builder to see how I can specialize for the future?
Check out DAoC Catacombs. More specificly their character builder can be found here.
2.0 Skills
2.1 Specializations:
Rogues in all realms get a large assortment of specializations. Nightshades and Shadowblades get 2.2x their level in skill points per level while Infiltrators get 2.5x their level. Starting at 40th when a Rogue gets halfway through their level they get half their ordinary number of skill points, or 1.1x level in the case of Nightshades and Shadowblades. They will also recieve the normal 2.2x or 2.5x at each level past 40.
All specializations have a maximum value of your current level, however it is possible to specialize past your level with items and realm point rewards. Developers have stated that specializing past your level gives no benefit.
Rogues who let their Stealth drop below 1/4th of their level will get the specialization automaticly trained (8th, 12th, 16th, etc...), costing them no points, next time they visit their trainer. Only Stealth is automaticly trained for Rogues.
Level / Specialization
1 Blades
1 Piercing (Albion, Hibernia)
1 Axe (Midgard)
1 Stealth
5 Celtic Dual (Hibernia)
5 Left Axe (Midgard)
5 Dual Wield (Albion)
5 Critical Strike
5 Envenom
2.1.1 Blades
2.1.2 Piercing
2.1.3 Axe
2.1.4 Stealth
Stealth is one of the core skills of the Rogue class and is recieved at level one by the base class. Upon using stealth you become hidden and you will notice you become transparent. You must not engange in combat for 10 seconds and must be far enough away from enemies before going into stealth mode. ( oponents level / your stealth ) gives the ratio of the distance of how far away someone can detect you. Once in stealth mode you will walk slower than normal. As you bring your specialization up you will begin walking faster. Besides allowing you to sneak about stealth also grants four sub skills as of the 1.38 patch.
Stealth specialization level / Skill name
1 Safe Fall I
8 Distraction
10 Safe Fall II
12 Danger Sense
16 Detect Hidden
20 Safe Fall III
25 Climb Walls
30 Safe Fall IV
40 Safe Fall V
50 Safe Fall VI
2.1.4.1 Distraction
The distraction skill has PvE uses only at this time. By using it you can cause monsters to stop walking and turn to look at a sound you made by throwing a small stone. To use distraction first hold down the target ground key, default F5. Use the arrow keys or mouse look to position the yellow arrow and let go of the target ground key. You may now hit the distraction ability and you will see yourself making a throwing motion. Any monsters in the vicinity will turn to look towards the sound. This is a very usefull skill as monsters can only detect you when you are in their forward line of sight.
2.1.4.2 Danger Sense
Danger sense alerts you if you, or anyone in your group, is spotted by a scout mob. Scout mobs, once spotting someone, often run back to their friends for help. You will see "You sense you are being watched" in the upper section of your chat window when this happens.
2.1.4.3 Detect Hidden
Detect Hidden is purely a RvR skill allowing you to spot others in stealth mode much farther away than normal. Rogues, Archers, and Minstrels (Albion) all get the stealth specialization but only Rogues get the detect hidden skill. This skill provides twice the detection range against as compared to anyone else. It also doubles the minumum detection range against all non-Rogues to 250 units.
2.1.4.4 Safe Fall
Taken from the 1.38 Pendragon patch message. Each level of safe fall lessens the damage from a fall and increases the minimum "no damage" height [Rogues] can fall from. The highest levels of Safe Fall allow the thief to jump from a keep wall and take very little damage. Currently recieving higher versions of Safe Fall as you level seems to be broken.
2.1.4.5 Climb Walls
Climb walls allows a Rogue with to climb certain sections of Keeps and Relic forts. These sections act just as a ladder to Rogues and allow them to infiltrate keeps before the doors have been broken.
2.1.5 Celtic Dual
Celtic Dual allows you to wield a weapon in each hand. Only the smallest weapons of each type may be held in the off hand (i.e. mace, hammer, short sword, hand axe, dirk, and stilletto). When using Celtic Dual there is a 50 / 50 chance of which weapon will attack first. From there the chance for the other weapon to attack is (25 + (0.5*spec level) + (0.25*char level))%. Your weapon delay is governed by the delay of the weapon that attacked first. Note, when a style is used your primary, right handed, weapon will always be used to execute the style and then Celtic Dual will check to see if the secondary, left hand, weapon attacks.
2.1.6 Left Axe
Left Axe allows you to wield two weapons. One in your primary and an axe in your secondary. Left axe is signifigantly different than Celtic Dual and Dual Wield. When you use Left axe you always attack with two weapons. Your damage will be halved for each weapon but (25 + (.5*spec level) + (.25*char level))% will be added on. Your attack delay is governed by the average of the two weapons. Your left hand weapon will always be an axe. The base damage of that weapon will be governed by the Left Axe skill, not your skill in Axe.
2.1.7 Dual Wield
Dual Wield allows you to wield a weapon in each hand. Only the smallest weapons of each type may be held in the off hand (i.e. mace, hammer, short sword, hand axe, dirk, and stilletto). When using Dual Wield there is a 50 / 50 chance of which weapon will attack first. From there the chance for the other weapon to attack is (25 + (0.5*spec level) + (0.25*char level))%. Your weapon delay is governed by the delay of the weapon that attacked first. Note, when a style is used your primary, right handed, weapon will always be used to execute the style and then Dual Wield will check to see if the secondary, left hand, weapon attacks.
2.1.8 Critical Strike
2.1.9 Envenom
See the Poison FAQ. Also note with the new Realm Rewards specializatio bonuses on envenom allow you to use poisons up to the modifyed level.
2.2 Abilities
Level / Skill
1 Evade I
1 Armor: Leather
1 Shields: Small
1 Weapons: Piercing (Albion, Hibernia)
1 Weapons: Blades
1 Weapons: Axe (Midgard)
5 Evade II
10 Evade III
20 Evade IV
30 Evade V
40 Evade VI
50 Evade VII
2.3 Spells
Only Nightshades have spells -- two of them.
Single target direct damage spell with a three second casting time.
Level / Spell Name
1 Lesser Dusk Single
3 Dusk Strike
5 Lesser Twilight Strike
8Twilight Strike Single
12 Lesser Gloaming Strike
16 Gloaming Strike
22 Lesser Nocturnal Strike
28 Nocturnal Strike
35 Lesser Midnight Strike
45 Midnight Strike
Single target direct damage with an instant casting time and a twenty second recast time.
Level / Spell Name
6 Dart of Night
9 Dagger of Night
13 Knife of Night
18 Stiletto of Night
24 Arrow of Night
31 Rapier of Night
39 Spear of Night
48 Lance of Night
3.0 Player vs Environment (PvE)
3.1 Grouping in PvE
3.1.1 Why do I always get attacked by adds when I'm hidden when fighting with a group?
In Dark Age of Camelot aggro is group based, not simply single target based, therefore, when a puller pulls a group of mobs, aggro transfers to all members of the group in a sense, the puller naturally being the brunt of it via proximity and whatever arrow/debuff/DD he pulled with. A hidden rogue thereby gains aggro despite being hidden, if you've ever ran from a mob long enough to get far enough away to hide, you'll rapidly learn that being hidden doesn't wipe aggro. On top of that there seems to be a flag within the system that rogues are flagged as a higher target because of being hidden assassin types. It's likely this is an artifact from "scout" type mobs (Mobs who can naturally see rogues from a distance, and reveal hidden rogues like all mobs.) and it's applying to normal mobs for some reason. This bug has no ETA for resolution, and is something you are going to have to cope with. If you are in a group pulling several high reds to purples it may cost you your life if you are unaware of it.
3.1.2 Why do mobs keep frenzying on me and the tank can't taunt them off after a backstab, should I not backstab?
No, you should backstab or perform your later criticals, if this is a regular problem (Which it can be your life if you're fighting high reds and beyond) then you should take steps to rectify the situation. The first is taking a bit of time to allow the tank to get a taunt or two in. In constant multiple pull situations, the time it takes you to run off and hide, and get back, a tank will generally have taunt, it's mostly in single pulls where this is an issue. You may lose a few hits, and reduce your effectiveness a bit, but nothing harms downtime and general group morale than a party member dying, or dying regularly. Your experience bar will be none too pleased either.
3.1.3 I'm setting up a good distance from my puller and following the target in, and it's hitting me despite it not being aggroed on me and I'm hidden! What's going on?
This also relates to the above issue of group aggro and all sorts of other unidentifiable issues. This is also a bug, the finest solution is just to keep your distance as a mob is being brought in. It might cost you a hit or two on your opponent, but it'll save you several hits, and your healer some mana as well.
3.1.4 Why does a mob still hit me when running?
Even though a mob may be chasing after another person when you attempt to follow it and attack, it will hit you back. This was put it in to discourage kiting.
3.1.5 What is "stick" and how do I use it?
Stick or /stick (How it is applied) is an auto follow command, but keeps you within melee range at all times of your target presuming your movement allows it (IE, if you're hidden, your target is gonna outrun you if it's moving quickly.) This is stick as the title applies, you can strafe and maneuver for your critical to your heart's desire. It has been recently patched to have a small range associated with it. Use stick to your advantage.
3.1.6 Are poisons useless in groups?
Yes and no. In small groups, up to four mayhap, the dot poison is particularly useful if you're fighting high cons, the extra punch can make or break a battle, and due to a battle's long length due to your small group, your dot gets to run its full length, sometimes you may be able to get off as many as two. The crippling poison can also be mildly useful, again, in a small group the benefits become more obvious.
But even in large groups some poisons can still be useful. The snare poison, for example, is heavily overlooked. A wise rogue always has a blade with snare poison on it, always. If you are the last alive and your healer is being chased down, whip out a slow delay weapon (Yes slow) and smack that mob. This could be a grey broadsword and you're specializing in piercing/thrust, it doesn't matter. The goal is not to damage the mob, it's to hit it with the poison, the low delay gives you more control over breaking the snare, as hitting it again will wear off the poison's effects. Once the poison kicks in, it's now snared and your healer will be able to get away. This can be the difference of your group spending 20 minutes on horse rides or getting a bunch of free rezzes. Particularly adept groups can adapt the snare poison as a form of crowd control as well. Since a hidden rogue will almost always get aggro to begin with, bring the add to you, and smack it with a snare poison. Then proceed to kite it around for a wee bit (It is only a wee bit, but better than nothing) while the rest of your group smacks the primary target.
In large groups tearing through purples every 20 seconds, your poisons aren't going to be as useful. But in small groups doing single targets multiple spell lines and styles (Those which are Area Effect based) have no purpose as well. As in all abilities, envenom has it's profoundly useful spots and it's minimally useful spots.
3.2 Soloing in PvE
3.3 Endurance and Combat Styles
3.3.1 Regenerating Endurance
Get in the habit of always sitting after a mob dies. A rogue in particular needs all the stamina they can get. There is nothing worse than chatting and forgetting to sit and having your puller bring back three mobs and you're half fatigue. In the frontier this isn't such a bright idea, and you'll need to fight more conservatively to preserve your stamina.
3.3.2 Take advantage of all your combat styles
Do not be lazy and use a single style bank. By the time you are 20 you will have more styles than you know what to do with. Set up multiple hotkey banks for multiple situations. In an ideal group you will never need your taunt. But things are rarely ideal, sometimes you will need that taunt to get it off of a healer. Having it in a nearby bank will make things easier. The same goes for styles you previously thought outdated, Pincer seems much more desirable when you don't have enough stamina to perform a garrote but really need a little extra punch. Shift and the number of the hotkey bank will allow you to toggle between your hotkey banks as easily as you dance through your styles.
4.0 Realm vs Realm (RvR)
4.1 Grouping in RvR
4.2 Soloing in RvR
4.3 Endurance and Combat Styles
4.4 RvR Tactics
Contributors:
Miron Quickblade
Remmi
Virvallen/Hubris Blackbane
Gron Ghewarth
Kezzek
Devils
RagingIdiot
Dither
Winderpane
Eyes CBH
Squink
Tinkerman11 Edited by: Miron Quickblade at: 8/17/02 9:41:14 pm