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Trickster Rogue Executioner Build (for 60)
platefaceii
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 13 Arc User
Greetings Everyone!
I have had the wondrous opportunity to level a TR all the way to 60, and I have come up with a comprehensive build for players. I have seen a few of the other builds floating around but I do not 100% agree with the theorycrafting behind them, so I am offering my own version for players who want something a bit different.
The theory:
The other builds, although great and full of information, seem to suffer from the same flaw time and time again: AoE and ranged dps. Each build I have seen has tried to incorporate AoE based talents in order to "compete" with the other 2 (currently) dps classes. Every build I see will waste an encounter slot on a poor AoE attack that hardly ever gets used on bosses. I disagree with this philosophy. These talents will help us keep up on AoE at best, but trickster rogues will never do competitive AoE dps. I prefer to leave that to the other classes and instead focus on massive single target damage. I find that this strategym, due to the health pools of AoE mobs being so low, will out dps the play-style that hamstrings single target to make room for some mediocre AoE dps.
This being said, the other half of the flaw I am noticing is builds focus too highly on ranged dps attacks. These attacks are weak and should be avoided. Once you have developed the necessary skill to play a competitive high level TR, you should come to the realization that it is often better to roll in-and-out of combat to avoid heavy attacks and use your powers to close gaps (more on this below) than it is to simply sit back and use talents that ONLY support range. The point of a striker class like a TR is to use your agility and nimble movement style to close gaps and do massive melee damage. This build focuses on that play style. You will need some playing skill to pull this off, but the benefits outweigh those of the mediocre ranged style.
My build:
Race:
This really is up to you. A lot of people say human because of the bonuses to their talents. Some people prefer Halflings because the + rolls favor TR while gaining some defensive stats, but I prefer the Half Orc. It is hard to compete with +2 dex +2 str +5 crit severity and increased movement speed.
Powers:
A lot of the guides are doing breakdowns on every single power available. I am just going to list the must haves. Any excess points will either be spent on utility talents, or pointless fillers to unlock necessary powers.
Sly Flourish (3/3): your standard auto attack. Useful on low health pool mobs, or encounters that have a lot of moving (bosses that have no agro tables, or phase shift).
Dazing Strike (3/3): Your second hardest hitting strike. Can be used on bunched up mobs for AoE dps as this attack is a cone. Use this on every CD on bosses.
Lashing Blade (3/3): Your primary encounter. Use this on every CD, especially when stealth is available for the guarantee critical strike.
Lurker's Assault (3/3): Boss and Dungeoning Daily #1. Use this at the start of the encounter on trash or the boss. Stop using this on bosses when they are at or under 20% hp.
Whirlwind of Blades (3/3): Dungeoning Daily #2. Use this when pushing through the dungeon. Use it for AoE damage on large packs. If there are champion mobs I prefer to still use LA, but if there are several little guys in one pack then WoB will shine due to the +pwr buff.
Duellist's Flurry (3/3): Bound to the right-mouse button, this at-will attack is actually your primary DPS ability. Never interrupt the rapid strike portion of this attack for an encounter. Note: you can time your Lurker's Assault to start right before the 3rd phase of Duellist's Flurry to maximize dps while in ultimate form.
Tactics (3/3): Passive #1. The AP regen on boss fights is unbeatable.
Skilful Infiltrator (3/3): Passive #2. Movement speed and critical strike are a must on all encounters. This outshines the other DPS passive due to you not relying on proccing. The static bonus to movement helps you get in and out when you need to, and the bonus to crit is pretty obvious.
Shocking Execution (3/3): Boss Daily #2. The damage output on this ability is too high to ignore. I see players saying it is PVP only and I disagree. Use this on the boss when he is at 20% hp and he won't have any HP left for anybody else's attacks. Lurker's Assault is great on the boss up until he is nearly dead, because LA relies on your rotations to do actual damage. The boss may die before you even finish LA. Shocking Execution will often do 30k+ damage in a single cooldown to eat up the remaining precious HP pool of the boss.
Every other talent is either filler or situational.
A note on AoE dps: When dungeoning trash mobs I recomend Path of the Blade over Blitz. The reason being that Blitz is a once and done CD that you must repeatedly spend over and over during an encounter. Blitz competes with your single target cooldowns as you will constantly have to decide to either Blitz or use dualists flurry on the high HP mob. The second reason is that Blitz is the opposite of a gap closer, which is exactly what you DO NOT want. If you are aware of your situation in combat you shouldnt have to resort to a gap widening ability. Path of the Blade is an encounter that will do some AoE dps during your regular single target rotation on heavy mobs. It serves to add a little fluff dps to AoE packs without you actually having to think about it.
A note on Wicked Reminder: This is usually my go-to 3rd encounter for all bosses, but it doesn't suit the playstyle of a lot of players. Practice managing the cooldows of your other abilities first, and once you can manage the 2 primary encounters without clipping your Duellist's Flurry then start to weave in Wicked Reminder. The downside to this ability is many bosses do not let you sit on them for long, and you only have time for 1 or 2 Duellist's Flurries + your encounters, and you don't want to sacrifice the stealth crit of the Lashing Blade (until your crit gets so high that it no longer benefits you) for 3 stacks of this ability. I still consider this debuff very powerful...just make sure you practice weaving it in to your rotation before you prioritize it. If the boss is impossible to stick on for long, you will likely see a dps increase simply by dodging away and deft striking back to him/her to maximize your up time.
Under 50% Crit Feats:
The theory behind Feats is the same as the theory behind Powers: massive single target DPS. The feats listed below are for players who hit 60 and want to do as high damage as possible with their current gear. These feats will result in the best possible single target dps if your crit % is under 50%
Heroic Feats:
Weapon Mastery (3/3): Pretty obvious crit increase.
Action Advantage (5/5): You will always be dealing Combat Advantage damage so you might as well reap the benefits.
Toughness (1/3): Filler point.
Cunning Ambusher (3/3): Mediocre Talent. This build essentially ignore stealth unless its for the insta-crit strike, but this will ramp up the dps every time you do this. Don't expect huge gains because we are not wasting time with dancing in and out of stealth.
Endless Assault (3/3): Pretty obvious on this one, but this will actually help your Path of the Blade on trash should you care about that.
Scoundrel Training (3/3): You should never be the target of a high HP mob as tanks love to hold agro on them.
Executioner Feats:
Dazzling Blades (5/5): Your Duellist's Flurry will shred the seconds off your 2 primary encounters.
Devastating Shroud (5/5): This makes Shocking Execution an absolute monster. Near one-shot high HP mobs and then enjoy +10% crit chance and +10% severity on the garbage mobs that follow. Who cares about AoE when you can just nuke the primary target and auto attack the additional mobs for the majority of their hp pools? I see other guides saying to go with the reduced threat on crit but as of now it is NOT NEEDED.
Critical Teamwork (5/5): Another obvious crit buff.
Deadly Momentum (5/5): The best feat available for Rogues, This will be up nearly 100% of the time should you focus on single target dps and you won't even have to THINK about it.
Overrun Critical (1/1): This should apply to every second attack as once you are in heroics your critical strike chance is going to be over 50% with decent gear and these talents. This now means that on every non-crit you are closing in on doing near critical damage.
Scoundrel Feats:
Underhanded Tactics (5/5): Due to you always positioning yourself to do Combat Advantage damage, this is the best choice when branching out to a new tree.
Nimble Blade (4/5): This rounds out your dps, remove the burst component to your attack cycle, and turns you into an unstoppable killing machine. If you crit your target takes huge damage. If you don't crit you still get a bonus from Overrun Critical and you have a chance to do an additional 20% damage from Nimble Blade. Duellists flurry strikes so many times that you are going to shred the enemies HP pool when using this feat.
Over 50% Crit Feats:
Once the majority of your attacks become critical strikes, the quality in the Nimble Blade Talent drops way off. This talent shifts from an amazing increase to a ho-hum 3.5% increase in damage for 5 points. Your points will be better spent elsewhere. You can either add to Disciple of Strength and Cunning Stalker if you do not like to focus on stealth, or, you can redistribute your points and go 5/5 Cunning Stalker and 5/5 improved Cunning Sneak to get bigger AP regen on your duelist flurry (completed in stealth) to have a higher Daily uptime.
Note: the theory behind 5/5 Cunning Stalker and 5/5 Improved Cunning Sneak will hold to be true in a vacuum. In theory, if you are able to stay on a boss long enough to reap the benefits of 2x Duellist Flurry then you should be generating enough AP to overcome the loss in DPS from losing Disciple of Strength and Scoundrel Training and Nimble Blade. But if you find that the scenarios that your group encounters are more complex than simply standing on the same spot and holding Right-Click (to each their own) then I suggest avoiding this redistribution.
What To Do:
This build is easy. Attack the biggest HP mob you can find. Open with duellists flurry, stealth, lashing blade, dazing strike, and duellists flurry their hp away until your encounters are off CD. Use your third encounter as a utility ability. The dungeon has lots of trash mobs? Path of the Blade will round out your damage without even thinking about it, and it lets you stay on that precious high HP mob. Enemies have powerful AoE attacks? Consider en evasive ability like deft strike simply so you can dodge out and teleport back in to continue your rotation. Seriously, don't waste your time with hilarious ranged attacks. Use Whirlwind of Blades if you must. Use Shocking Execution to 1-shot high HP mobs while the other classes compete to kill low hp minions. Use Lurker's Assault to rip very high HP mobs to shreds. Simple.
Post edited by platefaceii on
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Comments
it's just you are writing about the only viable spec.. pretty much everybody already using a spec like this except nabs
The only thing I would like to flavor in from this build is more AP regen.
How do you feel about Cunning Stalker in the Saboteur path?
How do you feel about Bait and Switch for massive AP regen when popped in circles?
How do you feel about Brutal Backstab for 25% more crit severity when stealthed over critical teamwork?
How do you feel about ability score distribution between STR, Dex, and Cha?
Can you post a pic of your actual feat sheet?
Finally, another theory over in Lunas TR thread is about taking 5/5 in Improved Cunning Sneak over scoundrel training / disciple of strength. Just before the third strike of duelist flurry, you pop stealth. This gets you 2x Duelists Flurries under stealth, which when combined with 20% more action points, and 25% crit severity while in stealth, could buff duelists significantly to outshadow other feats.
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?191912-Luna-s-TR-Build-Guide/page5
No. This build will not do well in pvp.
As your crimson red blood flows down my claws, I moan in pleasure at the memories of your demise.
He already said that he isn't using average AOE abilities to pad his DPS meter. He would probably do more DPS by spamming blitz and whril of blades on nonboss encounters, but as he points out, he crafted his rogue for max single target damage.
How would you suggest making this a "top DPS build for TR endgame"?
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?191612-Some-rogue-questions&p=2648792#post2648792
(Posted 3 days ago xD)
1 mistake: You have 31 paragon points listed :P
You can only go to 4/5 in the 2nd scoundrel feat.
I'm glad to see someone has combat experience with it and that it works out well~~
I wasn't 100% happy with lunas build due to exactly what you said, adding in subpar AoE's.
(And his use of the +15% dmg after daily really had me confused...+15% AP is much stronger...)
I think we hit the nail head on with this build for maximizing single target DPS.
I tend to use exclusively deft strike, because i feel that A) it has a fast animation, so respectable damage...and the instant reposition to your back mechanic is extremely powerful.
I want to try wicked reminder however (and had always intended too) but so far, i'm having a hard hard time wanting to drop deft strike for anything (i tried bblitz for like 3 minutes and instantly was like, nope this is garbage!")
**My only question**: If you were to take the 4/5 of nimble blade and drop into +20% crit severity while stealthed....would that work with a shocking execution or not? (replacing SE at the end of a stelath combo instead of lashing blade)
--I ask only because, while nimble blade is alright, i'm not 100% sold on it yet... assuming we sit around 50% crit chance, thats a 35% chance for half our attacks, so it's a 17.5% chance to proc for +16% damage... averaging 1 in 6 procs and 16% damage is like, a 2.7% overall damage increase for 4 points. Not sure if that beats, compares to or is worse than 20% damage on lashing blades and in stealth flurries/flourishes/Shocking executions (if that works)
Disciple of strength is confusing and is actually MUCH better than one would read it. It ADDS 6% damage to your strength bonus (It does NOT multiply it by 1.06 which would be awfulm instead say strength gives you 3% bonus it makes it 9%), which pretty much makes it a 6% across the board dmg increase.
Nimble blade is pretty awful. If you are critting half the time then only 17.5% of your attacks will get the bonus. This makes this a 3.5% increase for 5 points. Baaaaaad.
The AP regen of this build is actually quote good. But I will answer your questions.
Cunning stalker is a nice ability, I would spec into that next should I have the points. We are already gaining additional AP from combat advantage due to Action Advantage, and with this build our steal time is VERY low. We essentially only use it for our primary strike. The majority of our AP is going to be generated from out of stealth duellist flurry in combat advantage, so i see the 5 points are more valuable in underhanded tactics. Plus Nimble Blade is so powerful that it would almost be worth putting the first 5 points into ANYTHING in the first scoundrel tree just to get it.
Bait and Switch does work great in these scenarios. In the guide I only listed the essentials, and i opt to use my third encounter for utility. if you feel you can pull off a lot of damage via AP regen with Bait and Switch then go for it! It helps to have a group that will allow you to arrange your abilities from area to area, but I don't see why this wouldnt be a viable utility option.
Ive been asked about Brutal Backstab before. It is great when you get that guaranteed crit, but the problem is a) you are not always going to be able to stealth, and b) we have so much synergy from being able to crit regularly that I see the overall damage being HIGHER if you simply spec for more crit rather than slightly harder hits on a single attack on a long cooldown. If you manage to smash a boss for a ton of damage via Shocking Execution, and you specced into Devastating Shroud you will see just how powerful a higher crit % really is on Duellist's Flurry.
In regards to STR vs DEX vs Char my opinion is: DEX>STR>CHA. Dex gives you the essential crit. STR ensures that all abilities hit harder AND offers some syndergy (although low) with Disciple of Strength. I personally prefer strength over charisma as it has other utility advantages that i prefer. (who cares about AoE resist if you can roll in and out with some practice?)
Disciple of Strength is weaker compared to where our other points can go. I didn't even mention it in my guide, because these last points are variable. Right now, with 50% crit i believe that Nimble Blade outshines most other abilities with the current synergies, but I 100% agree that swapping to a 5/5 Cunning Stalker and 5/5 Cunning Sneak will come out ahead once our crit % increases to levels that push out the effectiveness of Nimble Blade. The other thing worth mentioning is that scenario is an 'in a perfect world'. It works great vs a boss that just stands there, does no AoE, no knockbacks, no agro whipes, no spins, no targeted attacks, and who doesnt spawn mobs that may attack you. In reality we are moving around a lot, taking occasional hits (even while in stealth) and have to be versatile with our attacks. But I do agree that the maths behind that theory should show a truer higher number...currently I just dont see it being as viable in-game.
Well you pretty much answered the first bit yourself. It procs 5% per attack
There is a difference between Damage Per Second and just Damage. I prefer a build that will just down a boss as fast as possible, hence the single target priority. I don't much care about the total Damage that you see when I hit 'X' at the end of a dungeon. Its pretty easy to spec into something that will give you a bigger damage total, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is the damage that counts.
Oops! Typo! Consider this Fixed!
I 100% agree with you. These two talents you are talking about depend on your gear score. My guide was more for people who hit 60 and wanted to see how to perform right out of the gate, but once your GS increases and your non crit becomes the MINORITY then you will see a decrease in performance. Right now a lot of 60 rogues will have 35-40% crit, meaning those last 5 points outshine anything else they could really try. Push 60%+ crit and yes definitely.
What I will do is add this bit at the bottom to explain to others.
PVP really depends on two things: who are you playing with, and who are you playing against.
Opinions vary, and it is difficult to say which build performs better than others like you can in a PvE environment because the situations in PvP are never the same twice, and player skill vs player skill can be a factor. I am sure that the most skilled player can use 0 feats and only auto attack and they will defeat the most unskilled player and his full pvp build. So it can be hard to say what really outshines what.
But, consider your play style. Consider your strengths and your weaknesses. In PvP it is generally better to build against your weaknesses and to supplement your strengths. The Following Link is to a rogue PvP build that focuses on the Scoundrel talents. If you don't agree with the theory behind the build it will at least offer you a jumping off point to craft something of your own.
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?200902-TR-Scoundrel-PvP-Build
Also what do you guys recommend when it comes to weapon & armor enchants?
Just saying.
Right now the only thing I prefer Path of Blades over Blitz is the fact that even against solo monsters, it is still worth casting unlike Blitz. I probably need to test it more though.
Have you ever considered battlewise? In my opinion 3/3 of that is better than the +hp
Just use Luna's she's current
How much did the OP pay you?