Need help with my Level 16 Rogue

[markhoge]

So I have a Rogue trapmonkey at level 16.
He is GREAT at traps. No problems at all.
Battle is another issue. He does not have many hit points and his attack is not real great either. Having issues staying alive in the higher level quests and I KNOW that I am not going to be accepted into many (if any) EPICs once I get to level 20 because I wont have enough HP and will die too quickly.

I am looking for some advice on fixing this.
Links to some good trapmonkey builds would be great so I can see what I should change myself also.

Thanks in advance.

[Rauven]

Looking at your MyDDO page I can tell you the problems right away. You have 11 con, you're not wearing +con or false life items, you have base 10 str, no heavy fort and it doean't appear that you took toughness feat. If that is the gear you wear in game, MyDDO only shows what you were wearing when you last logged out.

It's not easy to tell from looking at MyDDO what your starting ability scores were, your naked scores are: Str - 10; Dex - 25; Con - 11; Int - 18; Wis - 12; Cha - 9.

I could be off here but I think you started with something like: Str - 10; Dex - 17 Con - 11; Int - 16; Wis - 12; Cha - 8. Level up points went into Dex with enhancements used on Dex and Int and you have a couple +1 tomes in there.

Barring a lesser reincarnate, which would allow you to adjust your ability scores and reselect feats, you need to get a +6 Con item and a greater false life item. These together would increase your HP by 79 from 116 to 194. While that is still very squishy, it's certainly less squishy.

You need to get heavy fort. If you have access to Necro IV, which I think you do based on your sig, get out to the orchard and farm tapestry pieces for a Minos Legens. The helm gives you heavy fort and +20 stacking HP. Now you're up to 214 HP.

If I broke your character down correctly you used one of your Human Adaptability enhancements for Int. If you respec your enhancements and take HA: Con you'll even out your Con and get another 16 HP for 230 HP.

As soon as you can, either by taking it at your next available opportunity or doing a feat swap, get the Toughness feat. Toughness adds +3 HP at level 1 and +1 HP each level thereafter. At level 16 that equates to +18 more HP, plus it unlocks access to the toughness enhancements for an extra +10 to +30 HP.

All of this is to address your HP and survivability and is based on a number of assumptions on my part. If I am incorrect in anything I have said please correct me so I can adjust my advise as appropriate.

As far as your damage dealing potential you're kinda of stuck with what you've got. I'm assuming that, since you described yourself as a trap monkey you are a mechanic and not assassin. If that is the case I would suggest respecing to assassin for the extra sneak attack damage. That will give you a small bump to your dps but with so low Str there isn't much that can be done to directly increase your dps output. That means you're going to have to really more on weapon effects.

Try to have the appropriate weapon for each situation. With the recent change to smiting/disruption/banishing weapons they offer bane damage with the potential to insta-kill on a vorpal 20 strike. Try to have a set of each with you at all times. For general use weapons look for something with the highest + along with a good prefix and suffix. With the Risia Ice Games around now is an opportunity to craft something like a +5 Icy Burst Shock Burst of Pure Good. Having three damage effects on your weapon will help up your dps.

As far as linking to builds here are two I would suggest for now, but I'd rather hear more from you as to what you want to do with your rogue. In truth, there is no need to be a pure "trap monkey." You can do great dps and still hit all traps in game, including epics, without building a trap monkey.

Here is Tihocan's Master Mechanic build. While I have a repeater MM, I really would not recommend one at this time. Not until the we see what will happen with the ranged pass that should come with U11 later this year.

I would suggest something based on Tihocan's Dark Blade assassin build. It allows for nice damage, survivability and utility.

As I stated above I made a number of assumptions about your build based on what I saw on MyDDO. If any of that is incorrect please correct me. If you can give more accurate/detailed information about your current build, such as starting ability scores, feats taken, etc, I can get a better idea of your current build and offer suggestions on what to change. Most likely though a LR is going to be your best bet as it will allow you to completely redo your character from level 1 back to 16.

[brzytki]

I'm on vacation but after i had glanced over your rogue on MyDDO i have decided i had to give voice to my concerns.

First of all, there is absolutely no way you gonna get accepted into any quest if someone checks your rogue on MyDDO. It's basically because you have only 116 hp at level 16 AND you have no fortification item. That means you probably get one-shotted pretty often.

Your first mistake was to roll a character with 10 CON, you should never do that, especially on a melee character. Then you have no False Life item (GFL is 30hp), no CON item (+6 is 60hp), no tome (+2 CON is 20hp), no Toughness feat (18hp at level 16), no Toughness enhancements (max 30hp), no Toughness on item (20hp) and of course no heavy fortification item (prevents from being critically hit), not to mention Shroud hp item (45hp).

Those 223 more hp AND heavy fort will give your rogue a lot more survivablility.

EDIT: eh, Rauven beat me...

[Daedalis]

Got a question, do you have Weapon finesse Feat? Since your dex is your main stat, if you don't have this feat your using your Strength as your to hit as well as your damage. With a 25 dex, shouldn't have to much difficulty with hitting if you have finesse and using a finesse weapon.

As far as hp's, the others that have posted has given excellent advice on how to increase your HP and survivability. Another set items I would suggest is Rage click or pots. This will give an additional stacking +2 Str and +2 con. Temporary but the added con is what is most important. Also, you can get Aid and Falselife clickies, these spells add additional HP. If you have a cleric/favored soul in the group they can give a longer lasting Aid. Aid also gives +1 to hit I believe. There are other clickies such as prayer that give bonuses to hit. Bard songs (one of the inspire songs can give +'s to damage and to hit) and Recitation from a cleric will also help with hit.

All these suggestions are only temporary additions, but every bit helps. I use these on my ultra squishy toons when I solo. The extra buffer definitely helps

Hope this helps,
Dae

[karl_k0ch]

In addition to the valuable feedback which was already granted, also reading Draccus' Basic Rogue Build advice (linked in my signature) might help you understanding how to convince your character to give you a better playing experience.

Using appropriate weapons is acually a huge factor, which I recently realized.
Last night, I was doing 10 Litany of the Dead runs, which consists to 50/50 of Fleshies and Skeletons. Playing with a Monk and a Cleric (who was using Blade Barriers and Destruction frequently), thanks to my Disrupting weapons, I was able to lead the kill count on at least 8 of 10 runs. Also when we had a Wizard in group who used to use firewalls in situations where the skeletons were quite stationary, the numbers were in my favor. I don't mention this to brag, especially as the kill count does not properly map the damage output, but it is at least an indication what kind of impact can be made by the right choice of weapons.

[Miow]

If that is your equip, it is very sub par for your level. Put that together with the great advice from the others here and you could be much better.

[Ookami007]

It was painful to look at your character. Unfortunately, it's rogues like that which give us a bad rep.

Where to start.

First, CON of 11 is terrible. Worse than terrible. The fact that I didn't see any CON items or False life items is ever worse. With as few hit points as you have, you could be taken out with literally, one crit strike from an ogre or one failed save on a trap.

Next, your rogue skills will be far BELOW the level needed for most quests of your level. By level 16, you should have +15 spot/search/disable and a huge collection of +5 tools. AT MINIMUM. Preferably, you'll also want a luck item like Head of Good Fortune, and a GS Int skill item - tho that's not typical first a first life level 16.

Then, looking at your other equipment, you're pretty much subpar in everything.

Here's what I recommend:

1) Buy Necro 4 or buy the tapestries to get yourself a Mino Helm. That will give you 20 more hit points and heavy fortification.

2) Buy yourself a +6 CON item - probably a belt. That will add 48 hit points. You'll still be subpar... but at least you'll live long enough to scream.

3) Buy yourself a Greater False Life item for another 30 hit points. Together with the +6 CON item and the Mino helm, you'll have 98 hit points. Again... still below par, but if you play smart, you might survive.

That covers CON and hp's. As far as equipment:


1) Check the weapon vendors in house D and upgrade your weapons. You want to go for +5 weapon of something for more damage... preferably holy of pure good or flaming of pure good.... or start up crafting and make them. If you can't afford them, run the new series and pick up

2) Pick up some decent armor. The parasitic breastplate from the new series would be level appropriate and you can upgrade it with a special ability like +10 reflex save.

3) Get yourself a set of +15 goggles for spot, search and disable, as well as +5 thieves tools. If you have it, farm Vision of Destruction (VoD) for Tharnes Goggles.

4) Buy or get a guest pass to Delera's so you can at least get a Voice of the Master. That will give you +1 to all skills and +5% xp.

5) Get some +6 STR bracers and some +6 DEX gloves.

6) If you have it, farm GH for Head of Good Fortune and Madstone Boots. Madstones will up your dps and hp's temporarily.

7) Buy lots of rage pots and keep yourself raged. More dps and more temp. hit points.

8) Get yourself a Greater Heroism item - GH. Easiest one at your level will be to farm Xorian Cipher in house J. The Planar Gird drops there and is a great GH clickie.

9) If you have Necro's... get yourself a Silver Flame amulet. The 10 charges of neg. level absorption will help you, since you really can't afford to lose any levels.

I can't judge your feats, but there are plenty of good guides around... including my own STR based rogue guide which will help you with feat selection.

At a minimum, you should have Toughness, Two-weapon fighting, Improved Two-weapon fighting and Greater Two-weapon fighting.

That's it for now.

[Ookami007]

I KNOW that I am not going to be accepted into many (if any) EPICs once I get to level 20 because I wont have enough HP and will die too quickly.

I forgot to address this.

You are correct. Unless people don't mind just carrying you to the epic end chest, you'll get very few epic invites and fewer epic re-invites once you get the reputation of a squishy. It's just easier to grab a well-built rogue.

The only way to correct this is to re-roll or LR this toon.

I suggest, on a human with 32 point:

Str: 16
Dex: 15
Con: 16
Int: 8
Wis: 8
Dex: 8

Go STR build and go assassin. Once you get the right gear, there are very few - if any - traps you won't be able to get. Not only that, but you'll do great damage, have decent hp's AND be able to get traps.

Granted, this build WILL be more gear dependant, which seems to be your weakness... but once you get a farm Tharnes, Hound, GH and Shroud, you should be able to handle it.

For epic, I recommend 2 easy to get items - well, easy if the birthday event comes back.

Epic Utility Vest (from Carnival) - gives +20 open lock and disable, as well as exp. int +2
Epic Spyglass (from event) - gives +20 spot and search

With those 2 items, a +2 luck item (Head of Good Fortune) and a GH, you should be able to get epic traps, provided you have put max ranks. I know... my half-orc with a starting INT of 6 can get them with those two items.

You can also farm Fens for the Epic Necklace of Venom, which would give you Superior False Life.... more hit points.

Fens and Carnival are both easy epics. You can farm them for gear and scrolls, and use the scrolls to trade for other things you might need.

[Rydin_Dirtay]

Thanks in advance.

markhoge. You are doing a good job of going to the forums! Look at all of the good advice you have gotten. You will be more survivable soon!

Just as a point-of-reference for you, on my rapier Rogue, I started him with a 16 CON. I don't regret doing so. He still gets all the traps and girls. Even more than Jeets.

[PommesBaron]

Interesting post!

So you say that survivability is more important than going for pure trapdisabling.
I just took the Feat Nimble fingers. After reading this post i am thinking about exchanging that to Toughness. Or maybe exchange Doge to Toughness......

[Ugumagre]

Interesting post!

So you say that survivability is more important than going for pure trapdisabling.
I just took the Feat Nimble fingers. After reading this post i am thinking about exchanging that to Toughness. Or maybe exchange Doge to Toughness......

PommesBaron, maybe you played Pen and Paper D&D, when picking Dodge (or nimble fingers...) was a good choice.
DDO doesn´t give you so much choices to make a flavour build and survive (or lets say, being accepted). I made the same mistake, trying to have a balanced PC. In a PnP game there are lots of different situation where a balanced PC is great.
In DDO there are plenty of feats that are good for nothing. Sadly, in DDO there is a lot of killing involved.
A typical rogue build will have a rather low* dex (just enought for TWF), a rather* high strenght (12 to 16, depending on build), 14 CON minimun and the rest, if any, in Intelligence. No matter if you go assesin, mechanics or acrobat.
*comparing to what you would do in PnP.

Pick toughness, NO DODGE (don´t even think about it)

[Feuerhammer]

I am simply amazed how often people search your my.ddo toon page when deciding whether or not to accept you into their game, and only found this out recently.

While I don't have any advice to add; the people above me gave you some excellent advice, I am curious to see how you put it all together on your toon.

[MindCake]

Swap "Skill Focus: Search" for something useful. Like toughness.