More fun with the Rogue: Staying pure?

[Ugumagre]

I will try to make it short.
I have several toons, one of them I play it with a static group, a Drow Rogue Assasin I, lvl 7, with XP enough for lvl 8. We are playing kind of 2-3 hours a week and we don´t zerg, so I will hit lvl 20...in one year or later.
Let us forget the capstone.
At the time I have
20 STR (14 +2 Tome +4 item)
23 Dex (18 +2AP+3 item)
16 Con (12-yes, I know- + cannot remember)
20 INT (16+2 Tome +2 item )
10 WIS
12 CHAR (+2 Tome)

Weapon finesse and rapiers. It sucks. I hate undead.
My static group is formed by RL friends with no time and no idea how to maximize a character, so no matter what sheet I do, I wont "stay behind". No way.

My options:
1) Conservative: Take finesse away, take kopesh, stay pure, stay assassin.
2) Conservative-annoying: Same as above, resetting enhancements for mechanic, and being an unberable annoyance with the repeating crossbow. I like the idea quite a lot.
3) Carpe Diem, there is no tomorrow: Take one or two lvl fighter for strenght, HP and feats, and basically follow number 1) or number 2). When I hit capstone I will buy a heart.

Last but not least: Is kopesh really that good? At the time I would have a +1 Kopesh +6 seeker on the right hand, and the lvl 8 tier 3 cutthroat on the left hand.

Option 2 and option 3-2 are very appealing to me. The idea of a constant "pew pew pew, pew pew pew" is very very tempting.

[karl_k0ch]

Some remarks:

Khopesh is not finessable.
Rapiers are not very far behind Khopeshes when having racial weapons. Nevertheless, Khopeshes are best on a Str-build.
Rapier/Rapier and situationally Rapier/Short Sword has +2 to +4 to hit, compared to Khopeshes on a Drow.

On a Drow, you can very well go Str-based. 16/16/14/12/8/10 is a good starting point for a Str-based rogue. Imho, your high int is not needed for a regular melee Rogue.


However, I'd suggest to make the best out of the situation and go full ******. And with that, I mean full Mechanic.
Go Dex-based, as your starting Stats provide you with a good portion of +damage from either of Str or Int. Where did your level-up stat go? Which feats did you take?

The feats to back-up a full Mechanic plan are:
Toughness, Precise Shot, Improved Precise Shot, Rapid Reload, IC: Ranged.

This leaves two more feats at your disposal, i.e. you won't be able to fit in the TWF line unless splashing deep.
Or you just say: Well, I'll pewpewpew most of the time, and pull out a single rapier once I'm engaged in melee.
If you have access to it, consider splashing two levels of Artificer, as this improves your ranged damage, gives you Rapid Reload and Heavy Repeater Prof. for free (and not as late as at your 12th Rogue level), and it gives access to runearms, effectively also increasing your DPS when meleeing with only a single weapon.

There is a huge thread on repeater rogues, btw: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=266855

A disclaimer: personally, I try to build my characters with a focus on melee, as I've made the experience that the combat in DDO is often at close range. For a character intended for pugs, I'd never build a ranged-only character, as these are frowned upon. But in your case, you have the protective environment of a static group, with people who will respect your playing style. Hopefully. I think that this is a nice opportunity to try out something less cookie-cutter.

[Candela90]

I went with my assasin with str with khopeshes build. I like it, but im only level 8 now, so cant say a lot.
Undeads still are not so fun like fleshy mobs, but better than with piercing weapon and dex build.

But if u like crossbow try this out. I personally hate playing with ranged weapons. Tried with ranger long time ago. Brr...

[Ugumagre]

Some remarks:

Khopesh is not finessable.
Rapiers are not very far behind Khopeshes when having racial weapons. Nevertheless, Khopeshes are best on a Str-build.
Rapier/Rapier and situationally Rapier/Short Sword has +2 to +4 to hit, compared to Khopeshes on a Drow.

On a Drow, you can very well go Str-based. 16/16/14/12/8/10 is a good starting point for a Str-based rogue. Imho, your high int is not needed for a regular melee Rogue.


However, I'd suggest to make the best out of the situation and go full ******. And with that, I mean full Mechanic.
Go Dex-based, as your starting Stats provide you with a good portion of +damage from either of Str or Int. Where did your level-up stat go? Which feats did you take?

The feats to back-up a full Mechanic plan are:
Toughness, Precise Shot, Improved Precise Shot, Rapid Reload, IC: Ranged.

This leaves two more feats at your disposal, i.e. you won't be able to fit in the TWF line unless splashing deep.
Or you just say: Well, I'll pewpewpew most of the time, and pull out a single rapier once I'm engaged in melee.
If you have access to it, consider splashing two levels of Artificer, as this improves your ranged damage, gives you Rapid Reload and Heavy Repeater Prof. for free (and not as late as at your 12th Rogue level), and it gives access to runearms, effectively also increasing your DPS when meleeing with only a single weapon.

There is a huge thread on repeater rogues, btw: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=266855

A disclaimer: personally, I try to build my characters with a focus on melee, as I've made the experience that the combat in DDO is often at close range. For a character intended for pugs, I'd never build a ranged-only character, as these are frowned upon. But in your case, you have the protective environment of a static group, with people who will respect your playing style. Hopefully. I think that this is a nice opportunity to try out something less cookie-cutter.

Thanks for the advice.
I know, khopesh is not fines-sable. I was thinking about swapping the finesse against the khopesh feat.
Understood "tropical thunder" full ****** :D.
But I don´t know if I can do it, I would have to swap almost all feats. Have to check how many shards I have.
The Artificer splash is a good idea, but I am not sure. I don´t have access to it, but I could buy it, np.
Then, for getting Improved Precise shot I have to get Point Blank Shot, so I would need an extra feat....
Decisions, decisions...

[Kmnh]

If you are not worried about endgame, your weapon choice doesn't matter that much. The game is fairly easy on gear requirements anyway.


Still, slashing weapons do better damage, have better utilities and make more sense. You can't slit a throat with a rapier.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

My Drow Assassin does not use a Kopesh, and I live her. Her base Str is less than yours, yet she is always a contender for the high kill count.

Yeah, Undead are a Rogue's Kryptonite. :(
But that is as it should be, and the Dev's have done a good job of making just about every undead heavy quest also a trap heavy one to give Rogues a purpose in them. Some Undead Heavy quests also have some fleshies mixed in for you to backstab as well.

Crafting a Lesser Undead Bane wep is very easy for a beginning crafter. Most of my characters now have +1 Ghost Touch, Flametouched Iron Maces of Lesser Undead Bane now, since crafting came out.

Lesser Construct and Elemental banes are also good for a Rogue. Ture Law/Choas can be crafted with a little work (crafting lvls in the 20s) Either does extra damage against the neutral constructs and elementals. Trure Chaos would bypass the DR of the Marut in Von3.

Rogues need to take some steps to get weapons to use against their nemeses.

Other than that, against SA-able monsters, you just need to not get agro and hit them!

(Let me repeat that: DO NOT GET AGRO! & YOU NEED TO "HIT" THE MONSTER!)

[Diyon]

Bah! Splash acrobats don't care about undead! :p

In anycase, undead are especially difficult for rapier users because when undead have DR, it's typically this:

DR/bludgeoning (skeletons, generally most prolific)
DR/slashing (zombies)
DR/magic and bludgeoning (liches)

So if undead are giving you trouble, mechanic isn't really going to help too much.
Khopesh won't make much a difference on undead unless you lower fort, because they generally aren't crit'd.
Staff acrobats tend to do pretty good because they can get past the more common DR, and typically do the other thing that will help with undead: More STR->more base damage. Also since they are two-handed base, they aren't as heavily affected by unbypassed DR (in this case zombies) as a TWF, since they get more damage less swings, the amount of damage taken off their total is less.

So more strength will help you out because that will always deal more damage. That being said, another solution is just to switch to the right DR breaker for them when you run into them, sure you won't have the feats for it, or have quite as much attack bonus, but I'm pretty sure at least some of those DRs are DR-half damage, so you should come out doing more anyways. Specific anti undead weapons are also handy.

[Feithlin]

If you like to rush first (not a very good idea as a rogue), at least hit the Diplomacy button when you get there, to turn the mobs against your friends and hit them from behind ;D

*Edit: Seems I forgot to tell who you were hiting from behind! :D

[Ugumagre]

My Drow Assassin does not use a Kopesh, and I live her. Her base Str is less than yours, yet she is always a contender for the high kill count.

Yeah, Undead are a Rogue's Kryptonite. :(
But that is as it should be, and the Dev's have done a good job of making just about every undead heavy quest also a trap heavy one to give Rogues a purpose in them. Some Undead Heavy quests also have some fleshies mixed in for you to backstab as well.

Crafting a Lesser Undead Bane wep is very easy for a beginning crafter. Most of my characters now have +1 Ghost Touch, Flametouched Iron Maces of Lesser Undead Bane now, since crafting came out.

Lesser Construct and Elemental banes are also good for a Rogue. Ture Law/Choas can be crafted with a little work (crafting lvls in the 20s) Either does extra damage against the neutral constructs and elementals. Trure Chaos would bypass the DR of the Marut in Von3.

Rogues need to take some steps to get weapons to use against their nemeses.

Other than that, against SA-able monsters, you just need to not get agro and hit them!

(Let me repeat that: DO NOT GET AGRO! & YOU NEED TO "HIT" THE MONSTER!)

Yes, I have crafted a undead bane sickle and a undead bane light hammer....so you see me around with the sickle and the hammer, like a communist warrior :).


Diyon, I wanted mechanic for the repeating crossbow and adding the int to the damage. And having fun making pew pew pew. This for fleshy killing.
And then I dont want to have weapon finesse as it is suboptimal because of several reasons. I am anyway planing to hit the undead with a mace (skelis) or with a scimitar/kopesh.