Again did the beta this weekend to just about the exclusion of anything else. Didn't skip the super bowl as I had a little 10 inc lcd tv to watch it on while playing.
First off, most of what I typed in the review above still holds. They did some major rebalancing for this beta though which included ramping up the difficulty. This is good and bad, since the difficulty increase was at all levels of play. Some souls (i.e. subclasses) combinations at the start are harder to get going than others. Mainly because some souls require a bit more points into them to get essential skills to make them viable solo. They did move some skills around to help this out, but it needs more work. A few soul combinations right now are very difficult to start the game with. Had a few new guildmates to the game get very frustrated over this at the start of this game. Which is something I never heard of until now.
I have still been playing my rogue who is max level for the beta's so far. Which was level 35. I have all souls, including the PVP infiltrator soul. I have purchased all 4 roles as well. Profession wise I am butchering, outfitter, and runecrafting. These are my personal favorite builds for the Rogue so far. The thing is, since the talent trees keep changing every beta, what I plan out now will more than likely not be the same by release time.
Build Number 1. Main and best build IMHO
Bard 33 - Ranger 24 - Whatever 9
This is my favorite and what I consider the best build. Usable in solo PVE, PVP, groups, raids, or whatever. Why this so strong? First off, the pet is great. The basic boar pet is the tank pet and caps out at level 30. Send in the pet first and you have your own tank following you around for solo play. The bard does constant healing with constant dps. The DPS nor the Healing are the best every fight, I will talk about the caveat to this in a second, but it is more that sufficient to keep your pet alive through some major punishment while taking down mobs. The only downside is bards do not get an AoE ability until late. Also the pet doesn't hold agro from multiple monsters at once easily, but it can be done with the skill that transfers agro generated to the pet for a few seconds though. The only downside to my build is the interim of when to go for the next tier of ranger pets. The normal boar and direwolf top out at 30 and 34 respectively. You need to spend 22 points in ranger to get the greater direwolf that reaches level 50 and 24 points for the greater razorback boar. The difficult choice is when to go for these pets, since there is a ton of bard abilities that are needed pretty soon.
If you plan on solo play only, I recommend getting that upgraded boar by level 34. The low level boar can't hit monsters 4+ levels above it, which means it can't tank anymore. So using my build link above, plan out when to get the better boar by level 34 accordingly.
If you plan on grouping more such as leveling through pvp, raids, and dungeons; I would definitely try to get the top bard talent by level 31 called Virtuoso. This is THE bard ability to get. When activated, for the next 15 seconds the bard "finishers" consume no combo points. For 15 seconds, you will do more DPS than any other character type can do at your current level and you can outheal any healer spec. Basically, for 15 seconds, you are a GOD! From damage parsers (which I got from riftjunkies.com) I was able to top over 700 DPS at level 35 with clever use of this ability and the bard AoE Coda of Wrath. The best DPS any mage or othe rogue build could dish out that I saw was around 450~ish DPS with AoE blasting. The only downside is the 3 minute cooldown and that it only lasts for 15 seconds. Which means with global cooldowns you only get 13 to maybe if you are lucky 15 "honks" or uses of your finisher.
This build is basically the jack of all trades and master of none (except when you pop virtuoso). It does constant damage, but will rarely top the DPS chart. It will do constant healing, but will rarely top the healing chart. It can have a pet to off tank. It has great buffs for the whole raid. It also has a few decent debuffs. The best thing about this build is that it is always the hero of the party. The bard makes everyone do what they do better. DPS does much more dps with a bard around. Tanks will tank better. The main healer will heal much more. To top that off, the bard has the best "oh shit" button ability in the game with virtuoso.
The last option for a soul is pretty much left open for me. I have right now Sab in that slot for the zero point AOE sticky bomb. I have been contemplating either doing 9 nightshade or 9 riftstalker. That or sticking with the 0 point sab and putting the rest of the 9 points into either ranger or bard. I'm only level 35 so I'll have to test it out later, especially after more changes are bound to come with the next beta and release as well.
Build Number 2. The tanking build.
Riftstalker 27 - Bladedancer 27 - Bard 12
This is the build I started with, but wish I had not. I am going to say this now, this is a difficult build to start with, especially if you are putting points into riftstalker first. This is the tanking build, but the riftstalker can NOT tank until it gets the ability "Guardian Phase" which is a 18 point ability found in the "root" of the soul tree. However, this is the tanking ability to get. It reduces all incoming damage by 50%. It provides a big buff to all magic resistance. It just ups all tanking mitigation needed to be a tank. Until this point, the riftstalker is WEAK! Low DPS, massive agro generation, and no real mitigation.
Another thing to note is that the devs keep playing around with the riftstalker tree quite a bit. They added this last beta a new ability to generate a mini "rift shield" for 15 seconds after teleporting which is similar to the shield made by the "Rift Guard" talent ability. Unfortunately, these talents do no stack. If you really want to play the riftstalker before level 18 as your main soul, you will need to get Rift Guard as soon as possible, which I think has been moved down to level 11. This ability will give you enough mitigation to survive somewhat most of your fights. You won't be tanking elites for a group or at rifts, but you don't die in a couple swipes either.
I will state this now, the riftstalker tank is an interesting idea, but the current implementation is very clunky. Too many abilities do not synergize well. Too much needs to be picked up from other souls to make a viable main tank for a group. It can be done, but it takes at a minimum waiting to level 18, but more realistically at least level 26 until anything can be done. You are prone to spike damage killing you, you are prone to lag not getting an ability off in time to keep a mitigation skill going which will kill you. You rely on bad teleporting mechanics which do always keep you on your main target. Lowest DPS output of all the rogues and any warrior main tank. The only saving grace the riftstalker has right now is tanking magic based creatures. The MR buff from Guardian Phase and either of the two rift shield talents will mean a rift stalker can tank caster monsters much better than any warrior class at the moment. Even the warrior voidknight as not as good at tanking caster monsters like the riftstalker.
Right now, the only useful thing about the riftstalker is using it as a supplement to another main rogue soul. Adding in some survivability as some dps boosting and teleports is about all it's good for. The build I listed is about the best I found though if you are adamant on main tanking with a rogue. It can be done, but it is better left up to the warrior classes.
Build Number 3. The PVP build
Saboteur 26 - Assassin 31 - Ranger 9
This is the build that goes BOOM! I really love this build for pvp. But beware, this build may make the entire other team focus on you for the rest of the warfront. I have accomplished once a 6 person instant kill with this build during the last beta. Of course I was buffed, but it can be done. This build is straight forward though. Stack on blast charges on a squishy from range. Toss on Time bomb and blow them up with either Detonate or Annihilation Bomb. Use Annihilation if the target is next to other targets. If not, use Detonate. The great thing about Annihilation bomb is that it hits up to 10 targets, and with the Demolition Specialist talent, it will make any charges stacked on the target blow as well. On top of all that, it doesn't remove the combo points so you can detonate for a bit more damage after it goes off.
With the right buffs (especially bard and archon buffs) and the warfront 100% damage boost buff, you will decimate people. I've had crits over 3K even after the recent crit damage nerf with all the buffs running. The accomplishment I did earlier was in the White Steppes pvp warfront. It was 15 on 15 and almost all the guardians were clustered together. I got my blast charges built on someone in the middle and then tossed out an annihilation bomb which hit all 10 max targets I could at once. Every thing critted while I was fully buffed. I hit just about all 10 people the bomb could hit and 6 people dropped dead instantly with the others following quickly after. Suffice it to say, I was focused on everytime there after. Still it was fun to have happen.
Fair warning, this build is great for 1v1 pvp, and big groups. It does not work so well in small skirmishes of 2v2 or 3v3 so much. For 1v1 pvp here is how I kill anyone.
Stealth up to them and use expose weakness a few times and then Incapacitate to mez them. While they are mezzed start building up blast charges since it doesn't break the mez. Toss out the time bomb first as well since it takes 8 seconds before it goes off. Soon as the time bomb goes off, pop detonate and hit them with blinding powder (assassin talent ability). What this does is a massive burst hit followed by another 10 second ranged mez! If they are still alive after the first detonate then do it again! 1v1, people have no chance right now of fighting back or defending against this setup. It's BOOM BOOM!
In big group fights, your defense is hopefully your obscurity. Staying at range and picking out targets to blow up with out flashy effects is what you are aiming for. If the other side doesn't notice what you are doing, you will take down the other team fast. Learn to help focus fire as well with your team mates to make the big group battles go quicker and in your favor.
The reason small fights don't work so well with this build is a) you may not be able to make full use of your mezzes and b) you will be found out as a sab real fast and focused on. This is why you have to be real careful when you start to engage as a sab in small fights. Too soon and you get focused. Too late and your support may die before you can help make an impact.
Still the sab is very fun to play and my build gets more killing blows than any other I've seen so far. I've had numerous Guardian players from the other side send me tells after the match asking how the hell I was building sab to do what I did for damage. Well there it is.
Build Number 4. Build 4, the all around DPS build
Marksman 32 - Assassin 26 - Ranger 8
This is one of the most consistent DPS topping builds I've seen for the rogue. It is great in pvp, decent solo, and good in groups (just watch that the fan out ability doesn't hit extra adds). Bullseye from marksman is great when paired with either strafe for single target or Crossfire for multi targets as each shot in the channel is an auto crit after popping bullseye. For pvp, popping Run And Gun and then Bullseye before smacking someone with Deadeye that has all 5 combo points can be devastating for a burst hit. The speed buffs make this a great pvp build, especially in White Steppes which is capture the flag pvp.
It is a great range build and can melt people in pvp with the consistent damage it puts out. Combine that with a ranged root, mez, snares, and knockbacks for some nice CC in PVP as well (not all of the CC is as useful in PVE mainly because there is no huge indication to notify people that something is mezzed like the mage dominator squirrel ability).
Solo with this build is slightly harder after level 34 as you have to kite beefier monsters which is not always feasible to do in the densely packed monster world of Telara. Up to 34 it is not to bad using the ranger pet, but once you start going after 34+ monsters, that pet is useless.
Well these are the 4 main rogue builds I've grown to like for various reasons. I've tried just about every combo of souls and builds out there that I've read about or can think of but these are the best in my opinion thus far.
First off, most of what I typed in the review above still holds. They did some major rebalancing for this beta though which included ramping up the difficulty. This is good and bad, since the difficulty increase was at all levels of play. Some souls (i.e. subclasses) combinations at the start are harder to get going than others. Mainly because some souls require a bit more points into them to get essential skills to make them viable solo. They did move some skills around to help this out, but it needs more work. A few soul combinations right now are very difficult to start the game with. Had a few new guildmates to the game get very frustrated over this at the start of this game. Which is something I never heard of until now.
I have still been playing my rogue who is max level for the beta's so far. Which was level 35. I have all souls, including the PVP infiltrator soul. I have purchased all 4 roles as well. Profession wise I am butchering, outfitter, and runecrafting. These are my personal favorite builds for the Rogue so far. The thing is, since the talent trees keep changing every beta, what I plan out now will more than likely not be the same by release time.
Build Number 1. Main and best build IMHO
Bard 33 - Ranger 24 - Whatever 9
This is my favorite and what I consider the best build. Usable in solo PVE, PVP, groups, raids, or whatever. Why this so strong? First off, the pet is great. The basic boar pet is the tank pet and caps out at level 30. Send in the pet first and you have your own tank following you around for solo play. The bard does constant healing with constant dps. The DPS nor the Healing are the best every fight, I will talk about the caveat to this in a second, but it is more that sufficient to keep your pet alive through some major punishment while taking down mobs. The only downside is bards do not get an AoE ability until late. Also the pet doesn't hold agro from multiple monsters at once easily, but it can be done with the skill that transfers agro generated to the pet for a few seconds though. The only downside to my build is the interim of when to go for the next tier of ranger pets. The normal boar and direwolf top out at 30 and 34 respectively. You need to spend 22 points in ranger to get the greater direwolf that reaches level 50 and 24 points for the greater razorback boar. The difficult choice is when to go for these pets, since there is a ton of bard abilities that are needed pretty soon.
If you plan on solo play only, I recommend getting that upgraded boar by level 34. The low level boar can't hit monsters 4+ levels above it, which means it can't tank anymore. So using my build link above, plan out when to get the better boar by level 34 accordingly.
If you plan on grouping more such as leveling through pvp, raids, and dungeons; I would definitely try to get the top bard talent by level 31 called Virtuoso. This is THE bard ability to get. When activated, for the next 15 seconds the bard "finishers" consume no combo points. For 15 seconds, you will do more DPS than any other character type can do at your current level and you can outheal any healer spec. Basically, for 15 seconds, you are a GOD! From damage parsers (which I got from riftjunkies.com) I was able to top over 700 DPS at level 35 with clever use of this ability and the bard AoE Coda of Wrath. The best DPS any mage or othe rogue build could dish out that I saw was around 450~ish DPS with AoE blasting. The only downside is the 3 minute cooldown and that it only lasts for 15 seconds. Which means with global cooldowns you only get 13 to maybe if you are lucky 15 "honks" or uses of your finisher.
This build is basically the jack of all trades and master of none (except when you pop virtuoso). It does constant damage, but will rarely top the DPS chart. It will do constant healing, but will rarely top the healing chart. It can have a pet to off tank. It has great buffs for the whole raid. It also has a few decent debuffs. The best thing about this build is that it is always the hero of the party. The bard makes everyone do what they do better. DPS does much more dps with a bard around. Tanks will tank better. The main healer will heal much more. To top that off, the bard has the best "oh shit" button ability in the game with virtuoso.
The last option for a soul is pretty much left open for me. I have right now Sab in that slot for the zero point AOE sticky bomb. I have been contemplating either doing 9 nightshade or 9 riftstalker. That or sticking with the 0 point sab and putting the rest of the 9 points into either ranger or bard. I'm only level 35 so I'll have to test it out later, especially after more changes are bound to come with the next beta and release as well.
Build Number 2. The tanking build.
Riftstalker 27 - Bladedancer 27 - Bard 12
This is the build I started with, but wish I had not. I am going to say this now, this is a difficult build to start with, especially if you are putting points into riftstalker first. This is the tanking build, but the riftstalker can NOT tank until it gets the ability "Guardian Phase" which is a 18 point ability found in the "root" of the soul tree. However, this is the tanking ability to get. It reduces all incoming damage by 50%. It provides a big buff to all magic resistance. It just ups all tanking mitigation needed to be a tank. Until this point, the riftstalker is WEAK! Low DPS, massive agro generation, and no real mitigation.
Another thing to note is that the devs keep playing around with the riftstalker tree quite a bit. They added this last beta a new ability to generate a mini "rift shield" for 15 seconds after teleporting which is similar to the shield made by the "Rift Guard" talent ability. Unfortunately, these talents do no stack. If you really want to play the riftstalker before level 18 as your main soul, you will need to get Rift Guard as soon as possible, which I think has been moved down to level 11. This ability will give you enough mitigation to survive somewhat most of your fights. You won't be tanking elites for a group or at rifts, but you don't die in a couple swipes either.
I will state this now, the riftstalker tank is an interesting idea, but the current implementation is very clunky. Too many abilities do not synergize well. Too much needs to be picked up from other souls to make a viable main tank for a group. It can be done, but it takes at a minimum waiting to level 18, but more realistically at least level 26 until anything can be done. You are prone to spike damage killing you, you are prone to lag not getting an ability off in time to keep a mitigation skill going which will kill you. You rely on bad teleporting mechanics which do always keep you on your main target. Lowest DPS output of all the rogues and any warrior main tank. The only saving grace the riftstalker has right now is tanking magic based creatures. The MR buff from Guardian Phase and either of the two rift shield talents will mean a rift stalker can tank caster monsters much better than any warrior class at the moment. Even the warrior voidknight as not as good at tanking caster monsters like the riftstalker.
Right now, the only useful thing about the riftstalker is using it as a supplement to another main rogue soul. Adding in some survivability as some dps boosting and teleports is about all it's good for. The build I listed is about the best I found though if you are adamant on main tanking with a rogue. It can be done, but it is better left up to the warrior classes.
Build Number 3. The PVP build
Saboteur 26 - Assassin 31 - Ranger 9
This is the build that goes BOOM! I really love this build for pvp. But beware, this build may make the entire other team focus on you for the rest of the warfront. I have accomplished once a 6 person instant kill with this build during the last beta. Of course I was buffed, but it can be done. This build is straight forward though. Stack on blast charges on a squishy from range. Toss on Time bomb and blow them up with either Detonate or Annihilation Bomb. Use Annihilation if the target is next to other targets. If not, use Detonate. The great thing about Annihilation bomb is that it hits up to 10 targets, and with the Demolition Specialist talent, it will make any charges stacked on the target blow as well. On top of all that, it doesn't remove the combo points so you can detonate for a bit more damage after it goes off.
With the right buffs (especially bard and archon buffs) and the warfront 100% damage boost buff, you will decimate people. I've had crits over 3K even after the recent crit damage nerf with all the buffs running. The accomplishment I did earlier was in the White Steppes pvp warfront. It was 15 on 15 and almost all the guardians were clustered together. I got my blast charges built on someone in the middle and then tossed out an annihilation bomb which hit all 10 max targets I could at once. Every thing critted while I was fully buffed. I hit just about all 10 people the bomb could hit and 6 people dropped dead instantly with the others following quickly after. Suffice it to say, I was focused on everytime there after. Still it was fun to have happen.
Fair warning, this build is great for 1v1 pvp, and big groups. It does not work so well in small skirmishes of 2v2 or 3v3 so much. For 1v1 pvp here is how I kill anyone.
Stealth up to them and use expose weakness a few times and then Incapacitate to mez them. While they are mezzed start building up blast charges since it doesn't break the mez. Toss out the time bomb first as well since it takes 8 seconds before it goes off. Soon as the time bomb goes off, pop detonate and hit them with blinding powder (assassin talent ability). What this does is a massive burst hit followed by another 10 second ranged mez! If they are still alive after the first detonate then do it again! 1v1, people have no chance right now of fighting back or defending against this setup. It's BOOM BOOM!
In big group fights, your defense is hopefully your obscurity. Staying at range and picking out targets to blow up with out flashy effects is what you are aiming for. If the other side doesn't notice what you are doing, you will take down the other team fast. Learn to help focus fire as well with your team mates to make the big group battles go quicker and in your favor.
The reason small fights don't work so well with this build is a) you may not be able to make full use of your mezzes and b) you will be found out as a sab real fast and focused on. This is why you have to be real careful when you start to engage as a sab in small fights. Too soon and you get focused. Too late and your support may die before you can help make an impact.
Still the sab is very fun to play and my build gets more killing blows than any other I've seen so far. I've had numerous Guardian players from the other side send me tells after the match asking how the hell I was building sab to do what I did for damage. Well there it is.
Build Number 4. Build 4, the all around DPS build
Marksman 32 - Assassin 26 - Ranger 8
This is one of the most consistent DPS topping builds I've seen for the rogue. It is great in pvp, decent solo, and good in groups (just watch that the fan out ability doesn't hit extra adds). Bullseye from marksman is great when paired with either strafe for single target or Crossfire for multi targets as each shot in the channel is an auto crit after popping bullseye. For pvp, popping Run And Gun and then Bullseye before smacking someone with Deadeye that has all 5 combo points can be devastating for a burst hit. The speed buffs make this a great pvp build, especially in White Steppes which is capture the flag pvp.
It is a great range build and can melt people in pvp with the consistent damage it puts out. Combine that with a ranged root, mez, snares, and knockbacks for some nice CC in PVP as well (not all of the CC is as useful in PVE mainly because there is no huge indication to notify people that something is mezzed like the mage dominator squirrel ability).
Solo with this build is slightly harder after level 34 as you have to kite beefier monsters which is not always feasible to do in the densely packed monster world of Telara. Up to 34 it is not to bad using the ranger pet, but once you start going after 34+ monsters, that pet is useless.
Well these are the 4 main rogue builds I've grown to like for various reasons. I've tried just about every combo of souls and builds out there that I've read about or can think of but these are the best in my opinion thus far.
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