Plain Mod 18 PVP HP/Deflect Rogue Build With Envenomed Journal

trgluestickz

I decided to make a separate post to put this particular build in. The other thread I was using is getting very cluttered.

The following is an HP/deflect PVP build, the one in the screenshots below is a solo que oriented version; it only has 380k HP.
This build type in general is designed to fight players with similar amounts of HP.
If you find yourself fighting players with really high HP a lot, I recommend increasing the HP on this build to 450k or 480k. Raising the HP like this is also how you'd convert it into a tournament, premade, or 1vs1 oriented build.

The screenshots below are using the plain rogue build setup. Which uses envenomed storyteller's journal (can substitute journal with sigil of the cleric) and a stat or HP granting mount bonus. This setup is tournament legal, easy to balance your stats on, and has a great all around performance.

Other Important Things To Know About This Stat Combo:

Using HP/deflect as your defensive stat combo gives you a lot of room for offensive stats while still maintaining good survivability, but it comes with the downside of making it easier for enemy players to stack more offense stats themselves that they can use against you.

The safest approach to builds in general is to always have more than one option, make multiple loadouts with different stat combos and builds if you can afford that luxury, it will make it easier to adapt to whatever situation you find yourself in. If you can only do one PVP loadout though, HP/deflect is the most flexible and efficient defensive stat combo to work with and is my top recommendation right now.

66k combat advantage is a sweetspot for CA, you cut through almost everyone like butter with that, I was surprised how different it feels from 50k. Honestly I like 66k CA better than having 70k or even 80k, you can slot 66k on balanced builds that work in a majority of situations fairly easily but its much harder to do a balanced build with larger CA numbers that is good in a majority of situations.
Note: In PVP, combat advantage is only something rogues stack high, none of the other classes in PVP do this that I've seen.

I recommend stacking 90k through 100k critical strike. In some situations you can lower it to 62k and use that room for more other stats but the safest general approach is to keep your crit at a high number.

For armor pen, you usually need around 40k armor pen in solo que but I recommend going a bit higher than that right now if you can, 50k and 60k both work better than 40k right now.

Most hp/deflect builds run 30k deflect, same for this one. You can lower it to 25k but I recommend trying to keep it as close to 30k as you can.

You only need around 60k power.
If you have the funds to reach extremely high numbers for power (110k+) and still have at least 66k CA and at least 62k critical strike, then this is also a strong build option.

Disclaimer: The screenshots and list of items for this build below function as a basic blueprint for all of my PVP rogue builds that have HP/deflect as their defensive stats. Its pretty strong just as is but there are many ways to tweak it to get even stronger specialized versions of it.

Enchantments:
Armor: Shadowclad
Weapon: Vorpal
Utility: 5X tactical
Offense: 4X woven tales, 4X shiny coin, and 1X tenebrous
Defense 4X silvery

A note on the stat enchantments: There are other good combos you could use, the ones above are just the ones I used for the screenshots. Some of the most flexable options I've worked with recently are:
Good offense options:
8X woven tales
4X woven tales and 4X savages
6X woven tales and 2X savages
Good defense options:
1X radiant and 3X silvery

Insignias:
6X crescent skill
5X illuminated Aggression
2X barbed skill
1X enlightened skill
1X enlightened prosperity

A note on the insignias: There are a lot of different stat combos you could use, the ones listed are just the ones I used for the screenshots.

Armor Kits:
4X major HP +1

Jewel Kits:
4X major CA +1

Weapon Side Bonuses:
10% more gloaming cut damage
10% critical severity
2.5k armor pen

A note on the armor pen weapon stat bonus:
You can change the stat bonus to whatever you need if you run a different version of this build. The armor pen is what I used for the screenshots.

Extra Section On Overloads:
Usually 1X greater corrupt black ice enchantment and 1X greater corrupt piercing enchantment.
I also often use the stronghold class ward overloads.
Note that overloads aren't tournament legal but its easy to take them off without changing anything else.

A note on overloads:
Sometimes I use the strongholds class slayer overloads instead of the class wards, but I do this less often.
If you are on a tight budget, I recommend using 2X red dragon glyphs. 1X black dragon glyph and 1X red dragon glyph are also decent.
These dragon glyphs are only good because of their interaction with duelist's flurry, so don't use them if you take duelist's flurry off.

trgluestickz

Note: If the images appear blurry, try viewing from an arc link you opened, for some reason when you viewing arc from a window where you aren't logged in, the images appear clear.

If that doesn't work, here are the direct links, clicking on them will take you to the image:

https://i.imgur.com/lzbEewt.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/C8A5Ak7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fGvN2uY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/o2aEqj0.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JEEcU9c.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/8wDfd9f.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/NNU89Et.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/s5Tu8uW.jpg

trgluestickz

Playstyle Tip:
If you find yourself in a match where your HP is significantly lower than most of your opponents' and you can't swap, here is a tip:

Move from fight to fight more, you would play in a very mobile way. You have the best odds of killing someone around the beginning of combat, especially if you take them by surprise. You swoop in, you kill someone, and you leave as soon as a teammate arrives that can take your place. Don't linger.

trgluestickz

Likewise, if your version of this build has high HP (450k or 480k), you can play in some ways that a low HP build (390k or less) has a hard time handling. High HP makes it so you can survive longer 1vs1s much easier, this makes high HP builds better in duels and also helps you hold your team's blue nodes without needing to switch places with people as much.

trgluestickz

Some Extra Info On Rings For HP/Deflect Rogue PVP Builds:

The screenshots use the generally safe option of 2X striking ring of the master. But there are many other good options to consider for specilizing your build.

Ieading ring of the teacher:
Leading ring of the teacher is actually really good on rogue PVP builds, even though it does reduce your daily power damage by 30%. You'd wear leading ring it to maximize your encounter and at will power damage. It also makes it really easy to stack extreme numbers of CA (80k through 107k). I usually use 1 copy of this ring combined with either 1 borrowed ring or 1 striking ring. But I have worn 2 before for maxed out CA testing.
A visual on how leading ring changes your daily power damage:
When you don't have a leading ring on, the highest PVP damage setups I have built so far dish out 700k through 860k shocking execution hits on a crit with CA applied that didn't get deflected.
When you put the leading ring on, your shocking execution damage drops to 500k through 600k on a crit with CA applied that didn't get deflected.
How that 30% daily damage reduction effects your overall performance:
You will notice the drop in daily power damage from wearing leading ring but your dailies will still be plenty lethal even with it on.

Twisting gold ring:
Twisting gold ring is a good alternative to leading ring of the teacher on setups with extreme amounts of CA, I usually combine 1 twisting ring with 1 borrowed ring. It has CA as the bigger of the two stats this ring offers, unlike the other two-stat rings with CA. It also throws in a little bit of extra accuracy and 3% more at will damage, both of which are useful. The accuracy is helpful vs opponents that stack a little bit of deflect.

Borrowed ring:
This ring offers really good stats for balancing your stats on a PVP rogue. Crit and CA. They don't offer a % dps bonus but are often still worth using for some stat setups. Usually I only use 1 of this ring when I do use it.

Budding ring of the rose:
This ring you'd use in a similar way to borrowed ring, but there are fewer stat setups I end up needing it on. My best specilized high HP loadout often uses 1 of this ring combined with 1 borrowed ring. They don't offer a % dps bonus but this is not a big deal.

Nickel-plated ring:
This ring is something I don't use much anymore but it is a good ring for any high armor pen setup. When I do use nickel ring, I usually combine 1 nickel ring with 1 striking ring or I wear 2 nickel rings.

Guiding ring of the spy:
This ring isn't something I use often, but it is good. It tends to result in me having too much accuracy when I put it on. The 3% ranged damage bonus on this ring is really good when combined with the 3% melee damage bonus offered on striking ring of the master, but I found balancing my stats when wearing these 2 rings at the same time harder to work with.

Honorable Mentions:
Piercing ring of the killer
Budding ring of Ivy
Tanner's leather ring
Imperator's Duelist Ring
All 4 of these rings are usable on an HP/deflect build, but I don't actually use them.
Imperator's gladiator ring and lichstone ward ring are also good PVP rogue rings, but since this build isn't stacking critical avoidance, I didn't list them.