Class Balance: Rogues

[HousePet]

I didn't say that!
I'm calling my lawyer...

Perhaps some more traps in various prodigies would allow for some sort of specialising without requiring another category?
Crafty Hands for instance could be extended to grant a new trap, or improve existing ones.

[morganp]

Oops! Sorry, still getting the hang of these simple functions like quoting.

[TheRani]

Or, roll trap launcher into one of the other skills and separate offensive and utility traps into two different skills (and adding some new kinds of traps to each). Seems a pain to wait until level 12 or 13 to invest in trap launcher, so you can place your explosion trap such that you're not in the AOE. I think that's a big deterrent for investing in them early, that your level one trap will blow you up most of the time, and you have to got to the level 12 skill before this isn't the case. Yes, at level two you can lure enemies over a bear trap, place an explosion trap next to them, and run further away, but it's situational, a big setup, and you gotta hope none of their buddies are around, since bear trap is only one tile. For that much work, I might as well find a bottleneck and bash 'em with stuns.

There are a number of other ways to avoid blowing yourself up with the explosion trap.

1. The bear trap pin as you mentioned.
2. Lay a trap under your feet, then Disengage (assuming there's room behind you).
3. Lay a trap and use a Movement infusion to run away.
4. Set a Lure and then put a trap underneath the lure, and walk away while they are beating up the lure.
5. Lay a trap and use Nimble Movements to escape its AoE.

These are just a few ways.

[morganp]

Yes, these are all fun and creative; I just meant that they are more situational than just pummeling whatever is in front of you with stuns, which is entirely doable from level one for every rogue ever. You have to try to stick to that trapping playstyle; but the path of least resistance for a rogue, to quote our famous troubadour, is flurry flurry flurry. Which is, yes, not a first level skill, but so too with lure, and nimble movements. You gotta set it up to use trapping with those, was my only point.

It's true, trapping rewards creative use of skill combinations (the fun of the class for many!), but Rogue seems like an obvious go-to class to a first time player, who is still learning the basics like what stunning means. It's not the starter class it was in T2. Or Rogue

[Atarlost]

Fighter was renamed bulwark to escape the "starter class" legacy. Perhaps rogue should somehow be renamed as well.

[Faeryan]

I gotta admit I didn't read the walls of texts after the initial party so I can only comment on it.

First, rogue with a bow instead of sling? Are you mistaking common street thugs for Robin Hood? For me the sling sounds just about as rogue as it gets.

Dying on the first area? I'm an avid rogue player as well for the same reason as original poster. I've never had any troubles with the Forrest area, that often being Trollmire since I favor Halfling and Cornac rogues. Along with archmage the rogue is the only class I can reliably march on to Bill's lair and challenge him, and that's without any kind of trap use.

I feel that rogues are for the most part quite ok, but one things evades my grasp. That's Rush or equivalent for a starter. Sure Field Control gives movement stuff but a Shadow Blade who's supposed to be magically inclined Rogue gets Rush that's quite far away from magical ability (except for being magically good), not to mention other, more magical movement effects on SB.
Actually if fear a rogue with natural access to Rush. That would just call OP.

[Tom]

I have now played hobbit thief for a month.
And I have had a GREAT time.
Loads of fun despite dying a LOT.
I play rogue style so a death is a death.
But I want to learn.

Three VERY important things:
First is a thief companion to get 'the see invisible/sneak talent' without wasting an unessesary point in the talent that lowers charm/wands etc
I never use those anyway.
This is by no means a must, as the talent can easilly be opened by a thief, but I still like to get it for free.

The second thing I could not be without is the wintertide phial.
Thats my best item by far. I have used it since very early lvls (only to be replaced by the sun phial in the sand cave).
First it gives infra vision which is a must if sneaking.
But it is also a life saver when the thief gets affected by mind controling spells to get rid of them. (confusion, hex etc etc)
I would have died many many times without it.
Its actually a MUST to survive the way I play.

One talent I also must have is RUSH.
At character lvl 10 I open up the tree and invest 2 points in RUSH. No way I play a thief without rush.

[stinkstink]

First is a thief companion to get 'the see invisible/sneak talent' without wasting an unessesary point in the talent that lowers charm/wands etc
I never use those anyway.
This is by no means a must, as the talent can easilly be opened by a thief, but I still like to get it for free.

That talent reduces the cooldown of any activatible item, including armor, weapons, and artifacts. It'd let you use your Windertide Phial more often, for example.

[HousePet]

Rogue, or Necromancer?!

[Tom]

First is a thief companion to get 'the see invisible/sneak talent' without wasting an unessesary point in the talent that lowers charm/wands etc
I never use those anyway.
This is by no means a must, as the talent can easilly be opened by a thief, but I still like to get it for free.

That talent reduces the cooldown of any activatible item, including armor, weapons, and artifacts. It'd let you use your Windertide Phial more often, for example.

Thx. Obviously I didnt know that.
AND that also means the clarifying text of the talent was bad and not so clarifying at all. :/