The Rogue: Schools & Gear

Rogue School

In your first chain, Dirty Fighting stuns a target for a short duration. Combat Movement is a passive ability that allows rogues move more swiftly in combat, allowing them a greater chance to flank or get behind their foes (for backstabs and such).

Considering that it's sometimes difficult to get directly behind foes in the flow of combat, this one really comes in handy.

Coup de Grace is a passive ability that allows your rogue to automatically backstab stunned or paralyzed foes (combos with Dirty Fighting or Dual Strike, warrior's Shield Pummel and Stunning Blows, mage's Mind Blast, to name a few).

Feign Death is like the warrior's Disengage: it greatly reduces your threat, making enemies seek other targets.

The second chain holds Below the Belt, an attack that deals normal damage and gives the target penalties to defense and movement speed.

Deadly Strike gives you a bonus to armor penetration. Use this on heavily armored foes. Lethality is a passive ability that gains the rogue a bonus on critical chance for all attacks.

In addition, if the rogue's cunning score is higher than his strength score, the cunning score affects the attack damage in place of the strength score.

If your rogue is high on cunning and low on strength, this is an excellent ability to have. So with this passive ability in the background, use Dirty Fighting to stun a heavily armored foe, sneak around behind it for an automatic backstab and critical hit (courtesy of Coup de Grace), and then use Deadly Strike to get in another attack with a bonus to armor penetration.

Pair this with Mark of Death, Exploit Weakness, Lacerate, and Feast of the Fallen in the assassin specialty talents, and you'll mark this guy's weak spots for other party members, gain a bonus to your backstab with Coup de Grace, deal damage over time with your Lacerate passive ability, and restore some stamina when your target falls to the ground.

If you've had enough offense, Evasion is a passive ability that gives the rogue a 20 percent chance to dodge physical attacks, including attacks used to stun or knock down the rogue.

The Deft Hands chain improves your ability to pick locks and disarm traps; it's a must for rogues who aren't just into combat.

Finally, the more you develop the Stealth chain, the more you can do while stealthed (use potions and other items such as traps and lures, and use stealth while in combat).

Dual Weapon School

The Dual Weapon talent school focuses more on activated abilities and attacks. In addition, you get to deal damage with two weapons simultaneously.

You don't need the Dual Weapon talent school to be able to wield two weapons, but it's a good school to develop to be more proficient at melee.

The focus of your passive abilities is on your second hand - you strive to deal similar damage and a similar rate of critical hits as your main hand.

You gain a bonus to attack and defense with Dual-Weapon Finesse. You gain a bonus to critical chance and gain the ability to cause bleeding lacerations on your opponent, inflicting damage over time with Dual-Weapon Expert.

You can wield full-sized weapons in your off hand while reducing the stamina cost of all Dual Weapon talents with Dual-Weapon Mastery.

Increase your attack damage with Dual Striking, but be careful because it eliminates your ability to critical hit or backstab. Next, you can score a two-hit combo with a possibility of stunning your opponent and scoring a critical hit with Riposte.

Cripple gives you a chance to score a critical hit and inflict your opponent with penalties to movement speed, attack, and defense.

Punisher is a three-hit combo that has a chance to score a critical hit, knock an opponent down, and cause penalties to movement and attack speed.

Dual-Weapon Sweep deals significant damage with each sweep, Flurry is a three-hit combo, Momentum increases your attack speed with every hit, and Whirlwind is a flurry of constant attacks: the signature of a Dual Weapon expert.

Archery School

Another school for rogues who build up dexterity, Archery gives ample special effects for a ranged combat enthusiast. Melee Archer lets you fire while being attacked (eliminating some of the pain of being an archer).

Master Archer gives you bonuses to activated abilities and eliminates the penalty to attack speed when wearing heavy armor.

Aim reduces attack speed but gives bonuses to attack, damage, armor penetration, and critical chance. Defensive Fire gives you a boost to defense but slows your attack speed.

In the second chain, Pinning Shot is a necessity because it impales the victim's leg and either pins it in place or slows its movement speed.

Crippling Shot deals normal damage to an enemy and gives it penalties to attack and defense, and Critical Shot delivers maximum damage upon impact.

The deadly Arrow of Slaying usually scores a critical hit, often dropping weakened enemies.

Rapid Shot increases attack speed, but you lose the ability to score critical hits. Shattering Shot deals normal damage and opens up an enemy's armor.

If a warrior finds that one, it'll be in sore shape. Suppressing Fire is like Rapid Shot, but its foes now take penalties to their attack rating. Scattershot stuns a foe and then shatters, dealing damage to other enemies around it.

When you have room to breathe, Pinning Shot and Crippling Shot turn enemies into sitting ducks for mage attacks, deadly warriors, or more of your carefully aimed arrows. Shattering Shot is excellent against heavily armed foes.

Rapid Shot, Suppressing Fire, and Scattershot hack away at the collective hit points of enemy ranks.

Don't think an archer just scores a hit or two before having to engage an opponent in melee. You can kill off a couple enemies in a few hits while pinning others in place and continuing to fire while other attackers swarm you.

This you turns you into a deadly sniper that enemies need to deal with or suffer the consequences.

Should the enemy swarm you, switch to Defensive Fire while you have the passive ability Melee Archer. You can fire off arrows while being attacked and still have decent defense.

Specializations

Daggers are a natural weapon for a rogue to use, given their high speed, armor penetration, and critical chance. Other one-handed weapons work well too, but you won't be able to dual wield them until you reach Dual-Weapon Mastery at 36 dexterity.

And definitely dual wield, even if it's not something you planned to spec in, because another weapon never hurts.

Carry a bow in the backup weapon slot and make good use of it. You need to build dexterity anyway for the Dual Weapon school, so you might as well use it to complement a bow, right?

There's more rogue gear than you could ever hope to equip in a single play. The general rule of thumb is to wait for loot that serves as an upgrade and snatch it up.

If you have extra coin to buy a nice gear upgrade, feel free to spend away, though most of the low-level equipment will be easily replaced by future loot, and the high-level equipment is very expensive (generally bought during the Landsmeet for a run at the archdemon).

With so much good gear, here are some beauties to shoot for based on beginning (1–5), intermediate (6–10), advanced (11–15), and expert levels (16–20):