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As In-Depth Look at 1-30 Trickster Rogue
hibbleton
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 33
It took me about 9 hours to hit level 30 in Neverwinter, and because of that I now have a ton of free time and experimenting to do with the Trickster Rogue class. This post will be updated as needed whenever I learn new stuff or have new ideas. The basic premise of this post is to help people who are "on the fence" about this class get a decent idea of how it plays to see if it caters to their personal playstyle. So let's go!
As the name implies, the entire point of a Trickster Rogue is to confuse your foes while killing them. A ton of the class revolves around the Stealth mechanic, which is the bread and butter of the class as well as getting into what is known as "Combat Advantage" which is basically a slight damage increase to everything you do.
---STEALTH---
You get Stealth at level 10, and right-away you should notice a meter to the left of your character. When the eye and the bar are purple, that means you can use Stealth (default Tab). This causes your character to become invisible for 5 seconds (more time if you get the appropriate feats). While in Stealth there are some key points that I noticed. Any At-Will you use does NOT break stealth. That means you can go into Stealth and FREELY attack any enemy for 5 seconds without fear of pulling aggro. If you use an Encounter or Daily power, your Stealth is immediately finished and you gain the unique benefit of each listed power for being in stealth. Also, any damage you do is increased by 25% while being in Stealth.
Another important fact is that although Players cannot see you very well (you are merely a blue shadow while standing still, and a puff a smoke while moving), enemy mobs will aggro onto you. They will not actively attack you, but when you come out of Stealth they will start attacking you. Also, your meter only refills when you are not taking damage (it takes about 10 seconds to fully recharges). So it is imperative that you attempt to avoid damage at all costs in both PvE and PvP, as your damage and utility revolves around having Stealth up and ready to go.
Here are all the 1-30 Powers and some theorycrafting on each so you can decide for yourself which to take with you into the field (you can only have 3 at one time).
--At-Wills--
Sly Flourish -- This is your basic attacking move. You stab at your target (takes about 0.8-1 second when you press your hotkey). If you hold down the hotkey, each consecutive attack is part of a "combo" and the hits come faster (I would say hits 3/4 are about 0.5 seconds to land). After your 5th hit (the end of your combo) there is a brief 0.1-0.2 second delay before beginning a new combo. Overall you are going to use this ability when you have to move around a lot and cannot focus on DPS.
Cloud of Steel -- This is your ranged attack. It does very little damage that slowly gets higher with each consecutive time it hits the same target (increase does not stay forever). You have 12 charges of the ability, which begins recharging at a rate of 1 every 3 seconds after your first. At max range, there is about a 1-1.2 second travel time, which means before you run out you should land about 16 daggers. Only take this ability if you are against a boss that has a phase of non-melee combat.
Duelist's Flurry -- This is your main DPS ability if you are standing still and can sit on the same target. Your first 2 attacks come out at the same speed as Sly Flourish, but instead of going into a third standard attack, you enter a "trance" (you'll glow purple) where you rapidly attack the target for 2 seconds, dealing a ton of damage. If you move or try to activate another power you will exit the trance, which has a 2 second cooldown. So if you cancel it as soon as you enter it, you have to wait the full 2 seconds before using the ability again. A good all-around ability, especially if you can grab a tanking companion.
Gloaming Cut -- This ability is the one you get at level 30 for being a Master Infiltrator (which is the only Paragon Path we can take). It has a 2 second ramp up time, at which point the Trickster Rogue lunges forwards with both of his/her daggers to deal moderate damage. It deals about 80% of a Sly Flourish. The kicker of the ability is that if it kills a unit, it completely refreshes your Stealth meter. This ability is good if you are killing a lot of groups of enemies in order to drop aggro quickly if you are taking too much damage.
--Encounters--
Dazing Strike -- This move is pretty much staple. You jump in the air for about 3 seconds, at which point you stab downward, dealing moderate damage to -ALL- enemies in a small area in front of you (about the size of a targeting circle for an average-sized enemy). You also Daze any enemy that is hit with this for about 5 seconds. I am not quite sure what the Daze mechanic is, because it sometimes stuns the enemy straight up, but also sometimes just slows them. I assume you can have "resistance" to Daze and that determines how Daze affects you. When in stealth, the time it takes to come down after jumping into the air is reduced to 1.5 seconds.
Bait and Switch -- This is your way to solo extremely strong enemies. You dash backwards for about 1 second, and leave a Shadow of yourself behind. That shadow "Tricks" enemies, which basically aggros any and all enemies who were previously attacking you. Whenever the Shadow takes damage, you gain Action Points. If used while in Stealth, you immediately refil your Stealth meter. So basically you can begin and engagement with your Shadow tanking, and then immediately go back into Stealth in order to start your damage rotation.
Deft Strike -- This is your gap closer. You disappear into the shadows for 0.5 seconds then appear behind your target dealing about half the damage Dazing Strike does. When used in Stealth, it allows you to target allies to teleport to (it does not damage them).
Lashing Blade -- This is the single highest damaging ability Trickster Rogues have. You spin-attack your opponent, dealing extremely high damage (at current rank, estimated damage is 859-1,012). When using it in Stealth, the damage is increased by 50%. Adding in the 25% increased damage you get from using it in Stealth, you can do about 1600-2000 damage without critting. Right now my highest crit has gone above the 3.2k mark.
Shadow Strike -- This is our bread-and-butter utility spell. When used you strike out against your target dealing minimal damage (about as much as a few Cloud of Steels). The main purpose of this ability is that it automatically refreshes your Stealth meter. If used in Stealth, it Dazes the target for 3 seconds. This is going to be your main ability you use when combo'ing your other Encounters for high burst damage.
Blitz -- This is one of our Encounter AoE spells. You dash backwards for a brief moment, then throw a large-radius fan of knives in front of you, doing about as much damage as Deft Strike. If used in Stealth, it slows all targets for 3 seconds.
Impact Shot -- This is the heavy duty ranged ability, as well as one of our interrupts. You throw a dagger at the enemy, causing them to take as much damage as Blitz, but knocking them back slightly. You only have 3 charges for this, however, and it only regens 1 charge every 8 seconds. Use this ability when fighting against a creature or class that has a deadly channeling spell.
Path of the Blade -- Another AoE ability. I have not adequately tested the damage it deals (it is not displayed in the tooltip), but the swords that come out of the ground are completely random. I do not know if enemies have to be physically hit by the swords to be dealt damage, or if they simply take damage as long as they are in the area of effect. It lasts / pulses for 10 seconds, and when used in Stealth it pulses twice as fast for half the duration.
So, this is going to be the main combos you want to be using for specific situations:
1) High single-target BURST damage: Stealth -> Lashing Blade -> Shadow Strike -> Stealth -> Dazing Strike
2) High single-target SUSTAINED damage: Stealth -> Lashing Blade -> Dazing Strike -> Impact Shot
3) Slippery movement around the battlefield: Stealth -> Deft Strike to an ally or enemy -> Shadow Strike an enemy -> Stealth -> Bait and Switch -> Stealth -> Deft Strike to an ally or enemy. You can cover a very long distance when combined with your Dodges easily using this combo
4) PvE DPS rotation: Stealth -> Lashing Blade -> Impact Shot while Lashing Blade is coming off CD -> Shadow Strike -> Stealth -> Lashing Blade
5) Kiting toolkit: Stealth -> Impact Shot -> Bait and Switch -> Blitz. This can quickly demolish most melee-based enemies as the damage Impact Shot and Blitz does is nothing to shrug off, and Bait and Switch helps make you almost uncatchable.
6) AoE Rotation: Stealth -> Path of the Blade -> Blitz -> Get as many enemies as you can into the range of effect of Dazing Strike.
There are some others I have bouncing around my head, but I haven't 100% gotten down the correct combo of moves. But for now, these are the strongest I have used.
---Dailies---
Bloodbath -- This ability is kind of hit-or-miss for me. You quickly dash around the room dealing damage to every enemy around you for minor damage (about 4 Cloud of Steels), but as you hit them they are slowed and anyone attacking them gains combat advantage. While channeling this ability, you take no damage and cannot be targeted. Use this ability if you are about to take damage from a boss, or in high AoE PvP combat where you can avoid CC and increase the damage your allies do. But to be honest, the bonuses you get from both Lurker's Assault and Whirlwind of Blades just makes this ability sub-par.
Lurker's Assault -- This is the Daily you will use when you want to do a ton of single-target damage. Instead of instantly using up the Daily meter, it instead grants you a lot of Power and slowly drains the meter. You can still gain more Action Points while the meter is draining, so the real beauty of this skill is knowing when you can get the highest uptime on this ability, as it gives you a TREMENDOUS damage boost. Use this any time you aren't doing AoE damage.
Whirldwind of Blades -- This is another AoE daily. After 1 second you unleash a hail of daggers around you, dealing moderate-high damage. In addition, you gain additional power depending on how many enemies were hit by it (the power boost does not reflect in your character stats, so I am unsure how much it actually gives). Use this ability when you do not want to use Lurker's Assault and do not need the invulnerability Bloodbath provides.
Overall the class is very rewarding. The moves look and feel like they are doing the things they are described as, and I can say that it is satisfying fighting in combat. I can safely say, though, that the class may be a bit too high on the damage side, but we currently do not have the GWF, CW, Ranger, etc. to compare it to, so I cannot say for sure if the damage is as balanced as Neverwinter wants. But the fact is, from Stealth, I can use Sly Flourish for 4.5 seconds, and then use Lashing Blade. I will probably do upwards of 5-6k damage from that alone, killing anything at my level (even Guardian Fighters who are not in full level 26+ gear). Damage needs to be toned down for PvP I feel, but I have no idea what gear will be like at 60 to accurately state what it will be like then.. But at least up to 30 Trickster Rogues output insane damage.
Hope this helped some of you, and I am always open to suggestions. =]
As the name implies, the entire point of a Trickster Rogue is to confuse your foes while killing them. A ton of the class revolves around the Stealth mechanic, which is the bread and butter of the class as well as getting into what is known as "Combat Advantage" which is basically a slight damage increase to everything you do.
---STEALTH---
You get Stealth at level 10, and right-away you should notice a meter to the left of your character. When the eye and the bar are purple, that means you can use Stealth (default Tab). This causes your character to become invisible for 5 seconds (more time if you get the appropriate feats). While in Stealth there are some key points that I noticed. Any At-Will you use does NOT break stealth. That means you can go into Stealth and FREELY attack any enemy for 5 seconds without fear of pulling aggro. If you use an Encounter or Daily power, your Stealth is immediately finished and you gain the unique benefit of each listed power for being in stealth. Also, any damage you do is increased by 25% while being in Stealth.
Another important fact is that although Players cannot see you very well (you are merely a blue shadow while standing still, and a puff a smoke while moving), enemy mobs will aggro onto you. They will not actively attack you, but when you come out of Stealth they will start attacking you. Also, your meter only refills when you are not taking damage (it takes about 10 seconds to fully recharges). So it is imperative that you attempt to avoid damage at all costs in both PvE and PvP, as your damage and utility revolves around having Stealth up and ready to go.
Here are all the 1-30 Powers and some theorycrafting on each so you can decide for yourself which to take with you into the field (you can only have 3 at one time).
--At-Wills--
Sly Flourish -- This is your basic attacking move. You stab at your target (takes about 0.8-1 second when you press your hotkey). If you hold down the hotkey, each consecutive attack is part of a "combo" and the hits come faster (I would say hits 3/4 are about 0.5 seconds to land). After your 5th hit (the end of your combo) there is a brief 0.1-0.2 second delay before beginning a new combo. Overall you are going to use this ability when you have to move around a lot and cannot focus on DPS.
Cloud of Steel -- This is your ranged attack. It does very little damage that slowly gets higher with each consecutive time it hits the same target (increase does not stay forever). You have 12 charges of the ability, which begins recharging at a rate of 1 every 3 seconds after your first. At max range, there is about a 1-1.2 second travel time, which means before you run out you should land about 16 daggers. Only take this ability if you are against a boss that has a phase of non-melee combat.
Duelist's Flurry -- This is your main DPS ability if you are standing still and can sit on the same target. Your first 2 attacks come out at the same speed as Sly Flourish, but instead of going into a third standard attack, you enter a "trance" (you'll glow purple) where you rapidly attack the target for 2 seconds, dealing a ton of damage. If you move or try to activate another power you will exit the trance, which has a 2 second cooldown. So if you cancel it as soon as you enter it, you have to wait the full 2 seconds before using the ability again. A good all-around ability, especially if you can grab a tanking companion.
Gloaming Cut -- This ability is the one you get at level 30 for being a Master Infiltrator (which is the only Paragon Path we can take). It has a 2 second ramp up time, at which point the Trickster Rogue lunges forwards with both of his/her daggers to deal moderate damage. It deals about 80% of a Sly Flourish. The kicker of the ability is that if it kills a unit, it completely refreshes your Stealth meter. This ability is good if you are killing a lot of groups of enemies in order to drop aggro quickly if you are taking too much damage.
--Encounters--
Dazing Strike -- This move is pretty much staple. You jump in the air for about 3 seconds, at which point you stab downward, dealing moderate damage to -ALL- enemies in a small area in front of you (about the size of a targeting circle for an average-sized enemy). You also Daze any enemy that is hit with this for about 5 seconds. I am not quite sure what the Daze mechanic is, because it sometimes stuns the enemy straight up, but also sometimes just slows them. I assume you can have "resistance" to Daze and that determines how Daze affects you. When in stealth, the time it takes to come down after jumping into the air is reduced to 1.5 seconds.
Bait and Switch -- This is your way to solo extremely strong enemies. You dash backwards for about 1 second, and leave a Shadow of yourself behind. That shadow "Tricks" enemies, which basically aggros any and all enemies who were previously attacking you. Whenever the Shadow takes damage, you gain Action Points. If used while in Stealth, you immediately refil your Stealth meter. So basically you can begin and engagement with your Shadow tanking, and then immediately go back into Stealth in order to start your damage rotation.
Deft Strike -- This is your gap closer. You disappear into the shadows for 0.5 seconds then appear behind your target dealing about half the damage Dazing Strike does. When used in Stealth, it allows you to target allies to teleport to (it does not damage them).
Lashing Blade -- This is the single highest damaging ability Trickster Rogues have. You spin-attack your opponent, dealing extremely high damage (at current rank, estimated damage is 859-1,012). When using it in Stealth, the damage is increased by 50%. Adding in the 25% increased damage you get from using it in Stealth, you can do about 1600-2000 damage without critting. Right now my highest crit has gone above the 3.2k mark.
Shadow Strike -- This is our bread-and-butter utility spell. When used you strike out against your target dealing minimal damage (about as much as a few Cloud of Steels). The main purpose of this ability is that it automatically refreshes your Stealth meter. If used in Stealth, it Dazes the target for 3 seconds. This is going to be your main ability you use when combo'ing your other Encounters for high burst damage.
Blitz -- This is one of our Encounter AoE spells. You dash backwards for a brief moment, then throw a large-radius fan of knives in front of you, doing about as much damage as Deft Strike. If used in Stealth, it slows all targets for 3 seconds.
Impact Shot -- This is the heavy duty ranged ability, as well as one of our interrupts. You throw a dagger at the enemy, causing them to take as much damage as Blitz, but knocking them back slightly. You only have 3 charges for this, however, and it only regens 1 charge every 8 seconds. Use this ability when fighting against a creature or class that has a deadly channeling spell.
Path of the Blade -- Another AoE ability. I have not adequately tested the damage it deals (it is not displayed in the tooltip), but the swords that come out of the ground are completely random. I do not know if enemies have to be physically hit by the swords to be dealt damage, or if they simply take damage as long as they are in the area of effect. It lasts / pulses for 10 seconds, and when used in Stealth it pulses twice as fast for half the duration.
So, this is going to be the main combos you want to be using for specific situations:
1) High single-target BURST damage: Stealth -> Lashing Blade -> Shadow Strike -> Stealth -> Dazing Strike
2) High single-target SUSTAINED damage: Stealth -> Lashing Blade -> Dazing Strike -> Impact Shot
3) Slippery movement around the battlefield: Stealth -> Deft Strike to an ally or enemy -> Shadow Strike an enemy -> Stealth -> Bait and Switch -> Stealth -> Deft Strike to an ally or enemy. You can cover a very long distance when combined with your Dodges easily using this combo
4) PvE DPS rotation: Stealth -> Lashing Blade -> Impact Shot while Lashing Blade is coming off CD -> Shadow Strike -> Stealth -> Lashing Blade
5) Kiting toolkit: Stealth -> Impact Shot -> Bait and Switch -> Blitz. This can quickly demolish most melee-based enemies as the damage Impact Shot and Blitz does is nothing to shrug off, and Bait and Switch helps make you almost uncatchable.
6) AoE Rotation: Stealth -> Path of the Blade -> Blitz -> Get as many enemies as you can into the range of effect of Dazing Strike.
There are some others I have bouncing around my head, but I haven't 100% gotten down the correct combo of moves. But for now, these are the strongest I have used.
---Dailies---
Bloodbath -- This ability is kind of hit-or-miss for me. You quickly dash around the room dealing damage to every enemy around you for minor damage (about 4 Cloud of Steels), but as you hit them they are slowed and anyone attacking them gains combat advantage. While channeling this ability, you take no damage and cannot be targeted. Use this ability if you are about to take damage from a boss, or in high AoE PvP combat where you can avoid CC and increase the damage your allies do. But to be honest, the bonuses you get from both Lurker's Assault and Whirlwind of Blades just makes this ability sub-par.
Lurker's Assault -- This is the Daily you will use when you want to do a ton of single-target damage. Instead of instantly using up the Daily meter, it instead grants you a lot of Power and slowly drains the meter. You can still gain more Action Points while the meter is draining, so the real beauty of this skill is knowing when you can get the highest uptime on this ability, as it gives you a TREMENDOUS damage boost. Use this any time you aren't doing AoE damage.
Whirldwind of Blades -- This is another AoE daily. After 1 second you unleash a hail of daggers around you, dealing moderate-high damage. In addition, you gain additional power depending on how many enemies were hit by it (the power boost does not reflect in your character stats, so I am unsure how much it actually gives). Use this ability when you do not want to use Lurker's Assault and do not need the invulnerability Bloodbath provides.
Overall the class is very rewarding. The moves look and feel like they are doing the things they are described as, and I can say that it is satisfying fighting in combat. I can safely say, though, that the class may be a bit too high on the damage side, but we currently do not have the GWF, CW, Ranger, etc. to compare it to, so I cannot say for sure if the damage is as balanced as Neverwinter wants. But the fact is, from Stealth, I can use Sly Flourish for 4.5 seconds, and then use Lashing Blade. I will probably do upwards of 5-6k damage from that alone, killing anything at my level (even Guardian Fighters who are not in full level 26+ gear). Damage needs to be toned down for PvP I feel, but I have no idea what gear will be like at 60 to accurately state what it will be like then.. But at least up to 30 Trickster Rogues output insane damage.
Hope this helped some of you, and I am always open to suggestions. =]
Post edited by hibbleton on
0
Comments
Wrong it does damage them, if it didn't then why did i one shot lower level mobs/enemies with just the deft strike? But thanks for posting information for people.
Correct. Your character still makes the animation as if they were going to stab your ally, and your ally even spews blood, but no damage is dealt.
Any thoughts on the specific spec path you chose?
Also, I wanted to know if you encountered problems with companions getting aggro while in stealth. Did you have success working around that?
Rigas
"Perfecting the art of being a meatshield since 1998"
Banners of the Light
I have no issues with stealth whatsoever and I'm keen on learning how it will turn out in PvP.
Just please don't make this fresh, innovative stealth that 'old/boring' all the time WoW stuff (out of combat, ends if you attack...).
I was initially going to go Executioner (the bottom one), but looking at the talents for the middle Paragon tree, I may end up going that as well. Since we have no idea what health / damage / damage mitigation is going to be at 60, I am unsure if I want to go for high crit burst or sustained dps with some utility / survivability. Overall, the 3 specs seem to be pretty viable, although I wish some Feats were 3 points instead of 5 (such as the one that buffs your Shadow clone from Bait and Switch).
Also, Stealth temporarily reduces your Threat / Hate / Aggro to 0, so if you are in stealth all mobs will go to the next highest threat target until you come out of stealth.
I also want to test out Action Point generation for Sly Flourish vs. Duelist's Flurry. Even though DF does more DPS than SF, if SF actually generates more Action Points, it may end up being better since that inevitably gets you more Lurker Assaults.
Hopefully the respec is up and running then as well, so I can toy around a bit. =] Would be nice if the damage meter also gave a DPS meter, since that is the only statistic that matters.
In terms of suggestions for Paragon specs (again class, not feat), I want Cryptic to make sure that they don't have it set up so that 1 is for PvE, 1 is for PvP, and 1 is for leveling. That would be just lame. Granted both -have- to have different abilities (and so far Master Infiltrator has a pretty strong Daily that makes you invulnerable to damage and gives you a power boost if used in stealth), but I don't want to be pigeonholed into 1 design path to maximize my ability in each section of the game.
That said, that + stealth and that big blue sword skill = sweet numbers
Neverwinter Thieves Guild
Good writeup
cant remember many parts of it
Does it still count if you use stealth after the enemy mobs notice you? or you can only get this combat advantage if the enemy mobs haven't seen you?
PS its a good note that your at-will powers do not break Stealth so you can combo chain an atwill and follow up with a finisher like Lacerating Strike To stack up some massive damage.