Acrobat enhancement questions

[EssenceofEvil]

I'm getting close to tring again. (3rd life yay!) I was planning to trying out rogue acrobat, but I have a couple questions about some of the enhancements. I was wondering if anyone could answer them who's been experimenting with enhancements.

I have read that glancing blows doesn't work with quarterstaves, does that make the improved glancing blows enhancement worthless to grab?

Is shadow dodge worth it? I'll be going the dex route so it seems like I'd be trading a little bit defense for offense.

What about improved defensive rolls? Sounds useful for keeping you alive for all the melee I'd be doing.

[Erik.the.Read]

I am on my third melee life, 2 of them were acrobats and I am about to tr into another acrobat mix.

First, what kind of build were you thinking? Traditionally, most people take 13 levels of rogue, and then 6 or 7 of another ( usually monk) and 1 of another (often Druid). Frankly, I have run numbers on post enhancement pass, and this style is still solid.

To answer your questions,

THF feats: most acrobats completely forgo THF feats. They have had a checkered at best past with the q-stick, and people have simply moved to different ideas for dps. I think they work in regular combat right now, just not with the cleave feats like they should be. Often, acrobats will take the power attack/cleave/great cleave, and, especially with monk multiclassing, part or all of the dodge/mobility/spring attack/whirlwind line of feats. The former adds more overall dps than the THF line, and the latter makes the acrobat play style more comfortable.

Defenses: defencive roll is nice, however, it takes a special feat slot. With only 13 levels, most acrobats opt for opportunist and improved evasion. With a dex build, the later is especially powerful. Acrobats tend to have less ac, hp, and pr, and instead rely on evasion, dodge, blur, and the ninja monk shadow veil. Shadow dodge looks tasty but be careful to have enough fort. There are a lot of ways to up your dodge bonus, it is good to put some time in on that. I personally use the cannith challenges "bracers of wind" on my acrobats, it gives permanant blur and a dodge bonus, and if you get high enough also adds in air guard.

This is all in my experience, things have changed drastically in the last update and there may be some stuff I am missing.