Stupid Rogue Questions..

[Khurse]

Trying to get a (melee Assassin) Rogue to cap, for the first time since the cap was 18ish.. and questions

1)Threat Reduction, There seem to be a ton of sources for this. I like the idea of mobs ignoring me while I hit them repeatedly, but I dislike spending points on things that i don't need to.
How much of this stacks? Does the Assassin tree stuff stack with Shadowdancer, do the item enhancements stack? The Filigrees? Something else I'm not thinking of?

2)Does Assassinate work in Reaper? I keep hearing people say it's almost impossible to sneak in Reaper,which (iirc, it's been forever since I played a Rogue) would mean it would be difficult to stealth and get off the assassinate without getting spotted. Yet I also read players saying they have assassinate scores that work in Reaper. So obviously I'm missing something.

3)Does Improved Feint work yet?

4) I've been looking at some of the builds and gear lists, no one seems to use improved deception gear on their Rogues..or I just missed it on a few posts. Any reason for this?


Thanks!

[Wh070aa]

Threat reduction just reduces the priority if you are beating on a monster at same time as another person and outdamiging them. Just use epic destiny ability that drops agro if you pull it or just let yourself be killed and wait for someone to res you, if you can't tank/kite it. That said it's nice for doing bosses if you are not kiting them. Really depends on strategy you are using.

Assasinate works on Sneak attack that works on Helpless targets. Use gliterdust traps to blind them, or other statuses that allow sneak attack. It's not great, but it's a thing. A ton of things that should let you do this don't work, because they nerfed them so yea.

As far as I know Improved Feint is still bugged and does not work, but then again I would not take it even if it worked, so I haven't tested it, so I dunno.

Improved deception Got nerfed, and basically no longer works on anything. Also before the nerfs it had problems with resetting agro on bosses, so other people not tanking would get it randomly. Also you don't really need it, if your agro management is good, or are using alternative sources of free sneak attack.

[blerkington]

2)Does Assassinate work in Reaper? I keep hearing people say it's almost impossible to sneak in Reaper,which (iirc, it's been forever since I played a Rogue) would mean it would be difficult to stealth and get off the assassinate without getting spotted. Yet I also read players saying they have assassinate scores that work in Reaper. So obviously I'm missing something.

Assassinate works in reaper. Monster saves do increase in reaper, but the main issues are with using stealth effectively and aggro management.

If you approach a group of mobs in stealth that includes a reaper, solo or even at the same time as other group members, you will normally be 'heard' by the reaper before anyone else is. This is due to the extended detection radius of tremorsense and the fact that it doesn't locate people not in stealth. Then if there are no terrain obstacles between you and the reaper it will sight you before anyone else, and then it will tell all of its friends to attack you first.

That is where the main danger is for people using stealth in reaper without understanding it. It's not that assassination doesn't work in reaper, it's that the combination of how reapers can locate us, how monsters alarm each other now and how aggro is assigned that makes it harder to use the ability. It can be played around both solo and in groups, but it really constrains stealth play compared to what we can do with it in sub-reaper difficulty runs without tremorsensing monsters (like bats, oozes, spiders, etc).

The simplest way to work around this issue in groups is always make sure someone else is picking up aggro first. This doesn't mean piking down the back, it means being just far enough behind the person on point so they pick up aggro not you. That way you can lead with an assassination (or two) and then start ripping up monsters without being hit back. With practice you will get good at judging how to do this and do it so you aren't joining fights late. And if the fight lasts more than 12 seconds, you can drop back into stealth for more assassination.

As people have pointed out, apart from good aggro management there are other ways to make enemies vulnerable to assassination. For example, if an enemy is blind, you can assassinate it even if you have aggro. So glitterdust traps, blinding weapons and power word blind scrolls are all very useful tools, especially for soloing.

Thanks.

[cru121]

Improved Feint is now a +2 [w] Cleave attack on a 6 second cooldown.
And IIRC if you have an obscene bluff score, the bluff should actually work.

[HuneyMunster]

Trying to get a (melee Assassin) Rogue to cap, for the first time since the cap was 18ish.. and questions

1)Threat Reduction, There seem to be a ton of sources for this. I like the idea of mobs ignoring me while I hit them repeatedly, but I dislike spending points on things that i don't need to.
How much of this stacks? Does the Assassin tree stuff stack with Shadowdancer, do the item enhancements stack? The Filigrees? Something else I'm not thinking of?

2)Does Assassinate work in Reaper? I keep hearing people say it's almost impossible to sneak in Reaper,which (iirc, it's been forever since I played a Rogue) would mean it would be difficult to stealth and get off the assassinate without getting spotted. Yet I also read players saying they have assassinate scores that work in Reaper. So obviously I'm missing something.

3)Does Improved Feint work yet?

4) I've been looking at some of the builds and gear lists, no one seems to use improved deception gear on their Rogues..or I just missed it on a few posts. Any reason for this?


Thanks!

1) Diversion items follow the same rules as any other effect. Regular Diversion I think is enhancement bonus that stacks with Insight and Quality. Treachery: Threat Reduction Filigree stacks with other effects you have equipped. I would think if there was a second Threat Reduction Filigree on a different set it would also stack with Treachery version.

There are no threat reducing effects in Assassin tree only a bluff attack (Shiv). Acrobat Sly Flurrish threat reduction stacks with eveything as far as I know. Acrobat Subtlety does not stack with Shadowdancer Shadow Training III core as both cant be active at same time, but Acrotbat version can be up to 40% while Shadowdancer is 20%.

2) Yes as already mentioned by blerkington

3) Yes, bluff items helps a lot, but some creatures such as mindless undead and spiders are immune. Nothing is immune to Shiv though.

4) Improved Deception items still has its uses, it just red named that no longer are turned when the effect procs but still become vulnerable to sneak attack damage even when you have agro.