Rogue gear suggestions

[Rigsta]

Lo. I've just hit lv 6 on my rogue (5 rog 1 ftr) and I'm looking for some gear suggestions. Me.

I've got the overall gist of it, but I'm wondering if there are any particular items that anyone can suggest, especially for low-mid levels. Eg:

Head slot

Secretive Indigo Hood : Item shop > cosmetic.
+5 search & spot, 150 tokens. How I wish I'd noticed this before level 6, spotting has been tough in hard/elite dungeons! >=(

Weapons

Muckbane : Drop from the rare encounter mob "Muck" in the quest "Durk's got a secret."
+1 enchantment, lesser ooze bane, doesn't get eaten. Dual wield a club (not mace) with this and slimes go splat.

Gerard Dryden's Mace : The Crypt of Gerard Dryden (P2P), locked room chest.
+1 enchantment, lesser undead bane. Eats skeletons when dual-wielded with another blunt weapon.

Others

Nimble hand set : 2 quest reward items from the Korchos Island quests. +3 tumble, +5% run speed, +1 DEX, +1 saves, and the set bonus grants +1 attack bonus and +2 damage to sneak attacks. I'm still wearing these.

[shadow_419]

If you have the Tangleroot pack, I'd suggest starting to run that for some decent xp and pretty good quest chain end rewards. (+3 bound to account stat items with a ML 5). If you're a free player, I'd look into upgrading your armor to mithril chain if you can or studded leather for the extra armor bonus. In the early lvls having the highest possible ac can mean the difference between getting hit sometimes and all the time.

[QuantumFX]

I would suggest trying to find some “Pure Good”, “Holy” or “Flametouched Iron” Light Maces/Light Hammers. You’re getting into the area of the game that features undead and an unprepared rogue is often a sad rogue in those quests. You should also start keeping your eyes open for Heroism and Foxes Cunning clickies. They boost your Search and Disable Device skills.

[Beld]

Try to keep you STAT, SKILL items up to your level (which requires some lucky pulls or a significant investment) and you should be fine.

Fox Cunning pots, heroism pots and your rogue skill boosts also help (Owls Wisdom pots also btw, spot is a WIS skill).

[Rigsta]

Nice quick responses there

(+3 bound to account stat items with a ML 5)

Thanks, I'll make Tangleroot my next project. What does ML5 mean? Do you need to run Tangleroot on hard/elite for items of that caliber to drop? Regarding access, I got VIP membership. It seemed like good value considering the lowbie adventure packs will last me maybe 2-3 days each.

Also, doesn't the armour check penalty harm some of my skills with chain or studded armour?

I would suggest trying to find some “Pure Good”, “Holy” or “Flametouched Iron” Light Maces/Light Hammers. You’re getting into the area of the game that features undead and an unprepared rogue is often a sad rogue in those quests. You should also start keeping your eyes open for Heroism and Foxes Cunning clickies. They boost your Search and Disable Device skills.

Yeah I found that out on the first catacombs quest >_> I had it in my head that short swords were slashing rather than piercing, but oh look yellow 0s, 1s and 2s. So the zombies took ages to kill until I remembered power attack. After that I spent over an hour in town checking the peddlars, AH and item shop, which is when I discovered that indigo hood.

I have 5 weapon sets:
+1 rapier x2 : most stuff
+3 Crossbow : anything that constantly jumps out of melee range with 1% HP left.... >=|
Handaxe x2 : zombies
Gerard Drydens mace & +2 club : skels
Muckbane & +2 club : oozes


Aside from the Catacombs undead wake-up call, my only real difficulty has been spot & search. On hard or elite I don't spot anything until some skull on a wall is breathing fire in my face, even with the spot skill capped and +3 spot goggles. Maybe the extra +2 with that hood will make a difference. Disabling/opening hasn't been an issue with +2 or +3 theives tools and rogue skill boost I.

I considered the potions but they're kinda pricey. I'll look out for clicky stat buff items like you suggested.


Thanks for the advice everyone, it's appreciated.

[Draccus]

Here's some general advice for lowbie gear.

Unless you have a lot of stats at odd numbers, don't waste your time looking for the next best ability score item until level 9. At level 9, you can wear +4 items. But at level 1 you can wear +2 items (mainly Sharn's Syndicate stuff). So from level 1-8, there's no reason to hunt for better stat items since they won't give you a bracket.

I ignore wisdom, int, and cha at these levels. Your UMD is too low to matter, you can't assassinate yet so int is irrelevant (except maybe for some traps, but swap if you need), and your will save is horrid even with +2 Wisdom.

For weapons, look for a main hand weapon that does two different damage types. Any two will do since few monsters at these levels have immunities. Examples are Flaming of Pure Good, Acid Burst of Righteousness, or anything crafted with a Risia upgrade (Icy Burst Shocking Burst...blah blah blah).

For your off hand, look for something with either a high Seeker or Backstab. These are great offhand weapons because they apply to both hands. Free damage. If you solo a lot, go for a seeker. If you group a lot, go for a backstabber. A Seeker +4 of PG is a great low level off hand weapon. Also, for offhanders, try to find something light. At these levels, your attack bonus is relatively low so you want to make sure you can hit stuff. I still laugh at these dual-khopesh wielding rangers running around at level 6 bragging about the 50 hit point crits they get but ignoring the 3 misses between them.

As for weapon types, don't go nuts yet. At these levels, you really only need 3 sets of weapons, in my opinion: DPS, bludgeoning, oozes. We talked about the DPS weapons so you know what to do there. A pair of maces are almost essential for a rogue because the game is FULL of skeletons and they are tough for a rapier or khopesh wielding rogue. You can find Holy of PG light maces on the AH for super cheap. For oozes, dual muckbanes is all you'll ever need. At higher levels you'll want to start adding banes (elemental, construct, undead) and DR bypassers (metalline, etc.) but for now stick to DPS, skellie beaters, and muckbanes.

For goggles, you're not going to find much better than the +1 Insight goggles from Korthos. Keep those. Also find the best spot, search, and disable goggles you can and hotbar them to use when appropriate. Eventually, you'll get Tharne's Goggles and won't change that slot again.

Helms are easy: Ignore the slot until level 11 and then turn in 20 tapestries for a Minos Legen.

Cloaks are a good slot for a Resistance item

Belts are good for False Life or your Con item. Your con item is probably the most important item in your inventory so ensure you've always got it equipped.

I like striders on my boots. Speed kills and at low levels you can't rely on always being hasted so I permanently wear the best striders I can get. At level 7, you can wear 15%.

For armor, simply find the highest Mithril Chain Shirt or BP you can. You can wear a +5 MCS at level 8 and probably won't swap it out until you get Dragontouched armor at 16.

I treat rings very differently depending on the slot. The non-swapping slot is where I like a stat item that I need permanently equipped (Con, Str, or Dex). The other slot I leave open for item swapping. There are so many stats that can be found on rings that it's too versatile to make permanent. At level 20, I use this slot for my +8 Cha item (UMD), my +9 Int item (Assassinate), my super stealth item (Ring of Shadows), and my "Hey, a will save would be nice here!" item (+8 wis ring).

Hope this helped.

[shadow_419]

Nice quick responses there

Thanks, I'll make Tangleroot my next project. What does ML5 mean? Do you need to run Tangleroot on hard/elite for items of that caliber to drop? Regarding access, I got VIP membership. It seemed like good value considering the lowbie adventure packs will last me maybe 2-3 days each.

ML 5 stands for minimum lvl 5, and no they drop on normal-elite which include a +3 con belt, +3 dex bracers, +3 str gloves, goggles with an 7 min(?) Deathward spell clicky (really good drop, keeps you from negative lvls and instant death spells except from Beholders as they will just anti-magic the spell away)

Also, doesn't the armour check penalty harm some of my skills with chain or studded armour?

Armor check penalties affect skills like tumble, jump, and swim(double for swim) but not others like Disable or Open lock. The 1 or 2 Ac penalty is insignificant since you're not wearing heavy plate or using large or tower shields.

Yeah I found that out on the first catacombs quest >_> I had it in my head that short swords were slashing rather than piercing, but oh look yellow 0s, 1s and 2s. So the zombies took ages to kill until I remembered power attack. After that I spent over an hour in town checking the peddlars, AH and item shop, which is when I discovered that indigo hood.

I have 5 weapon sets:
+1 rapier x2 : most stuff
+3 Crossbow : anything that constantly jumps out of melee range with 1% HP left.... >=|
Handaxe x2 : zombies
Gerard Drydens mace & +2 club : skels
Muckbane & +2 club : oozes


Aside from the Catacombs undead wake-up call, my only real difficulty has been spot & search. On hard or elite I don't spot anything until some skull on a wall is breathing fire in my face, even with the spot skill capped and +3 spot goggles. Maybe the extra +2 with that hood will make a difference. Disabling/opening hasn't been an issue with +2 or +3 theives tools and rogue skill boost I.

I considered the potions but they're kinda pricey. I'll look out for clicky stat buff items like you suggested.


Thanks for the advice everyone, it's appreciated.

Some answers in red above.

Here's a list of items that can drop as a quest chain end reward for Tangleroot quest

Assault on Splinterskull (Tangle Root Series)

* Black Wolfskin Belt - (Belt) Consitution +3
* Black Wolfskin Cloak - (Cloak) Lesser Cold Resistance, Resistance +2
* Blademaster Bracers - (Bracers) Dexterity +3
* Blademaster Gauntlets - (Gloves) Strength +3
* Crimson Gemstone - (Trinket) Wizardry II
* Fanged Wraps - (Weapon) +1 Handwraps, Vicious, Maiming [BTA]
* Fist of Daarguul - (Weapon) +1 Club, Lesser Goblinoid Bane, Intimidate +5
* Krugg's Spiked Boots - (Boots) Reflex Save +2, Striding +10%
* Lhor-Tragu's Shadowed Armor - (Armor) +1 Leather Armor, Shadow, Silent Moves
* Spider Silk Robe - (Robe) Lesser Axeblock, Move Silently +5
* Splinterskull Acolyte Ring - (Ring) Improved Devotion II, Improved Nullification II
* Splinterskull Chainmail - (Armor) +3 Chainmail
* Splinterskull Docent - (Docent) +3 Docent
* Totemic Staff of Splinterskull - (Weapon) +1 Quarterstaff, Summon Monster III (CL:5, 3/rest)
* Visor of the Flesh Render Guards - (Goggles) Death Ward (CL:7, 1/rest)
* Warmaster Halfplate - (Armor) +3 Halfplate
* Whisperdoom's Fang - (Weapon) +1 Dagger (Base dmg: 1d6), Enfeebling
* Yarkuch's Greatsword - (Weapon) +1 Greatsword, Elf Bane
* Yarkuch's Helm - (Helmet) Charisma +1, Will Save +2, Intelligence +1
* Zulkash's Bone Necklace - (Necklace) Wisdom +2, Improved Nullification II

copied from this thread : http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=121279

[Rigsta]

Many thanks, this will keep me going for quite some time.