What were you thinking with epic rogue hires?

[MangLord]

So my elven ranger is now level 23, and I'm focusing on PDK favor at the moment. Given that I'm a second life ranger, and I missed Wheloon on the way up, I decided to get heroic elite completions on the whole chain. I have epic destiny abilities and can easily purchase a rogue hireling to disable those pesky spell wards, so I should be able to breeze through this no problem, right?

Wrong!

My first foray into the chain was Friends In Low Places. The fighting wasn't that big of a deal, but the traps were a lesson in frustration. How does Cassandra, a level 23 rogue, have difficulty searching for traps? Her spot is entirely hopeless, which I assume was designed for players that know where every trap is. Fine.

By the time I get to Army of Shadow, I just dismissed her and chalked it up to a loss. She can't even search the traps in there, and died on a pressure plate trap in front of a chest behind a secret door. I wouldn't think that a level 23 rogue would need any boosts or heroism to search a trap in a level 18 quest. I was so over it that I just cocooned through the spell wards on the way to the end with a chip on my shoulder.

I have to assume that a player hiring a rogue is interested in one thing only, which is trapping. What on earth were you guys thinking with the woeful showing that is the epic rogue hire? What I want is to park them at the start and bring them along as needed. I don't want them actively fighting and running through traps to obsessively kill some shar worshipper. I feel sorry for anyone expecting them to actually trap and let you know when danger is nearby in an unfamiliar quest. My build doesn't have access to greater heroism, and if they can't trap a lvl 18 quest, how would they be expected to handle something at level? I remember them being better in the past, but it could be my imagination.

Long story short, please make the rogue hires competent at their jobs. No one hires a rogue for added DPS.

[toaftoaf]

the hirelings have not used any skill tombs, i bet money thats what happened

[EllisDee37]

Don't forget to scroll GH on them.

[PsychoBlonde]

This may be a result of the traps pass they did a couple of updates ago (I forget which specifically), but they re-scaled trap levels across the game. Lower level traps are now easier but they get harder faster and the high end is pretty high. Also the scaling on non-epic level 17-20 quests is completely borked. You go INSTANTLY from mobs in level 16 quests being CR 25ish on elite and having around 1k HP to mobs being CR 30+ and having 4k HP. Heroic elite mobs in level 18 non-epic quests have MORE HIT POINTS than EPIC HARD mobs in level 25 quests. So, yeah, the trap scaling is probably similarly borktastic. I suspect this nutzola is a holdover from the days where level 17-20 quests *were* the endgame so Elite had an aggressively ramped-up scaling system. Amrath, House Cannith, Inspired Quarter, and the High Road are just spectacularly out of scale with what you'd logically expect from that level. They're a nightmare on elite if you don't have an epic destiny to use for cheesing your way through.

[Vellrad]

Get a wand of dispel magic, and if you got UMD, scroll of greater dispel magic.

[MangLord]

Yeah, whilst soloing HE wheloon, I was surprised at how difficult the enemies were. They were on par with enemies on EH of the first Eveningstar chain. I didn't check HP, but at least they had poor enough saves that I could get them most of the time with paralyzing arrows.

My UMD is around 19-20, so I can't scroll much besides the basics (Raise dead, restoration, teleport), but I'll have to take a trip to the portable hole to see what my chances are on a GH scroll.

What about a fighter or other skillpoint starved class that might not have UMD at all? I guess you're just screwed.