ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I want to play any of the rogue classes but get stomped every time I try! I cant get decent but I dont think I have got past the maze with any of them! I have tried different way and things! I want to do it with Marauder the most since I like the way they work but dont know what to max or any ideas! I know what I max doesnt work!

Can't really say much about Marauders because they changed a lot since I last played one.
My rogue tips though would be the following:

- Get both tier 1 stuns, use them, first the one from dirty fighting tree, then The other.
- Pump Dex and max dual weapon defense. Prioritize +def equipment. Def 50ish should be doable between 10-20 and should carry you a long time.
- poisons at lv 10 will help a lot, even just the tier 1 skill at lv 2.
- movement is all you need after the others. You need to be able to flee from casters and purples. Movement infusion, phase or teleport rune, tele leap, rush items (I don't see it necessary to cat point rush though it certainly helps) and anything like that will be your bliss.
- Spec and use flurry and the whole tree. 1/5 on all skills will be good for a long time.
- Watch out for purples with damage returning skills. Most of my rogue deaths come from getting back my own flurry damage.

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Stronk is a potent combatant with a terrifying appearance.

I tried shadowblade last night and the game gave me the skeleton claw and that was the only piece of gear it gave me the entire game before I died twice! It was not fun! I saw 2 daggers I didnt start with and one of them I bought and the other was a normal item! I think it gave me a cloak right before I died!

I've played a fair number of rogues. What in particular are you having problems with? (What are you dying to?)

Depends on the person! At time I can't get out of the starting area! Other time things are going well to about the forest or the maze and I just get dead a few time and kill that person! Same story goes for all of the rogue classes! Just never have luck with them!

Cornac marauder is the first rogue class character that I've felt comfortable playing with. Very mobile and feels very good defensewise maybe because of dual weapon defense and heavy armour (you are not stealthing so go for massive plate all you want). This feels like one of the easiest characters so far, granted, I've had very good item luck (just found Wanderer's Rest !)

Since thuggery is now in the generics department, the generics for marauder's are extremely tight (if you actually want to use the marauder's defining tree). Fast leveling helps you take advantage of all those movement talents.

So cornac feels like a pretty good option for me.

EDIT. Almost forgot: Marauder's have excellent stun and confusion resistance in the thuggery tree (Riot-born).

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1.4.X Paradox mage guide for high level play

Physical Wild and some kind of teleportation can get you out of most situations.

Otherwise, three clases play very differently.

For shadowblade get temporal magic at level 10 and abuse time shield.

Rogue is quite weak early game before you max stealth skills, dex and cun, so just play very safely. Don't fight many enemies at onece, lure them on by one behind the corner.

Marauder is actually more similar to Berserker, than other Rogues. I think he is most easy. Not much fancy tricks, but very durable. Max Fast Metabloism and Unflinching Resolve, then consider taking Bloodthirst tree.

For all of them, max dual daggers defence asap, it will save you from nearly all melee attacks.

Yeah, all three play differently. And you can play all of 'em in different ways quite successfully. Defense is one way to go. I personally rarely max defense in the early game. Mage-type blasty enemies (and high-level doomed) seem to be the greatest early threats IMX. Anyway, my thoughts:

- Rogues require a bit more stat-juggling to pull off successfully than other classes. If only because their weapons need investment in two stats while maintaining enough con to survive. Shadowblades have it worst of the three. Early game with all three I go for dex to increase dagger mastery. With straight on rogues I switch to cunning after having maxed daggers.

- Flurry does great damage but will get you killed if you use it carelessly. Pay particular attention to high-end vampires and uniques with Phantasmal Shield up. For vanilla rogues, I tend to favor Deadly Strikes (instant attack talent) and Dual Strike as openers instead. Check how much damage you are taking from an enemy type on (your own) attacks BEFORE you flurry.

- Poison is nice but between levels 10-20 things should be dying rapidly to Dual Wielding/Shadowstrike. Consequently I tend to place more emphasis on scouting abilities such as Track. Know what you're getting into before you charge in. If, for example, you find several mages in a room you are probably going to want to lure one out rather than charging in. The Lure talent can help you do this without ever giving them LOS as a vanilla rogue.

- Using a Shield runes effectively increase your max life in the early game. I personally find this to be more useful than regen for certain challenges in the early game, such as the Rhaloren camp.

- For the first couple levels (i.e. before getting Dagger Mastery up), rogues are extremely vulnerable. Use Dirty Fighting to your advantage there - if the talent fails to stun you get your turn back (provided you hit). Which is important for fighting things that can otherwise kill you easily, such as Skeletal Warriors in the undead starter dungeon. You don't really need to pump stun abilities in the early game. Rogues are alpha-strikers. Make sure you've got at least a point in Dirty Fighting/Dual strike and focus on something a little more long term, like Dual Weapon Mastery.

- Pumping Illuminate to the point of causing blindness/damage seems to help early game Shadowblade survivability a fair bit.

- Try doing all the starter dungeons. I'm always at least level 14+ by the time I get to the tier 2s. Try looking for a mindblast torc with your initial starting funds, which will give you range, some early-game crowd control, allow you to bypass armor in case of bulwark uniques. Tentacled totems and damage wands are pretty powerful as well. If you've got any means of teleportation - psychoportation torc, even a phase door rune you can pretty much take Bill as soon as you get to the end of the Troll Forest. Bill's treasure should be enough (or almost enough) to purchase a decent tier 3 dagger from Last Hope or Zigur, if you're of an appropriate race.

I don't think killing yourself with Flurry is a concern this early in the game...

Dagger mastery. It buffs your damage and disable talents.

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My feedback meter decays into coding. Give me feedback and I make mods.

thanks for the help! i will have to try thing stuff one of them now have to decide which one to play now! lol!

for a heavy armor marauder should i worry about the mobility tree or not? i know the second passive is useless with heavy armor or should i abuse that and not go heavy armor?

http://te4.org/characters/105910/tome/c ... aa1ed2e63b

there was the shadowblade i was doing so well with but i messed up went into a grave mistake! doing good! died once and went back because i messed up and figured i could do it! died again and miss clicked again to go back when i wanted to teleport out of there so died a third time and killed him! but he was doing well! shadowblade with a crap ton of hp and hp regen! that is how i will try it again!