Rogue Tips

[diablo1ks]

I have just started my rogue which i have just got to lvl 29 over the weekend hoping to get to lvl 50.

and i wondered if you have any tips to give me

Thanx

[Thenryb]

I suggest these two guides as a starting point (and perhaps an endpoint as well) http://www.claudiospage.com/ and http://www.diabloii.net/strategy/shuri_rog...uri_guide.shtml

[--Pete]

Hi,

Get her up to clvl 30, do a 3@30 and retire her. It just gets boringly easy after that.

However, if you really want to get to clvl 50, this link http://home.att.net/~dsf.glossary/diablo-exp.html will help you a lot. It shows you where you can get the most experience per monster killed. With a little bit of practice, you can translate that to where you can get the most experience per minute played :)

There are (were, some of them no longer seem to exist) a number of good guides for rogues on the net. However, there is a lot of personal preference involved in playing the rogue, so you might get better advice if you describe your playing style (mostly bow, magic, sword/shield or some combo of them). Equipment also has a lot to do with it.

For fast leveling, try using the experience table above, a fair bunch of gear to pump magic and the chain/teleport/chain/teleport/etc. method. Don't stop to pick up items (although I usually can't pass up dings :) ). Grab just a the gold you need to fill up with big blues. And do use mana shield.

However, that's advice from a tyro at leveling, I've only taken three character past early thirties (one of each class) and they are about 41 or 2. Frankly, leveling runs, gear runs, shopping runs , etc. are about as much fun (to me) as washing dishes. Like I said above, kill that character off and start a new one. It's those early levels (1-30) and making do with what you can find/buy getting there that is the fun part (IMHO),

But I'm sure you'll get lots of advice on how to get big fast :P

--Pete

[Cytrex]

I agree on the first one. But I think you get all you need from the first, so you can skip on second...it has some things in there which...are highly arguable. For example Shuri says that Flash is the most useless spell in the whole game while many of us would agree it certainly is not, it is often pretty useful for even rogues. It had some other things that bugged me a bit but I don't remember in detail.

If you need anything after reading Claudios page just ask here, there are plenty of experienced Rogue players here.

[Yogi_Baar]

While this won't help you get to clvl 50 very fast, I think the best way to play the rogue is as a bow/melee rogue. Use a bow against ranged attackers and switch to a melee outfit (preferrably StormShield/Civerb's Cudgel) when facing melee opponents.

The Tele/CL technique is great for getting exp, but IMHO it minimizes the gaming satisfaction. Not to mention that too many people do it already. I prefer being slightly original to Tele/CL.

[diablo1ks]

Thanx for all the help (fast and useful !)

By the way today when doing my second lazarus run i found a demonspike coat (100 ac +10 Strength + bla bla bla you know the rest)

When looking at the armor i see all pro's and no con's why does nobody use it (is it the low ac ?)

I am determined to get my rogue to lvl50 . . .

Thanx for the help

[Hammerskjold]

>By the way today when doing my second lazarus run i found a demonspike coat (100 ac +10 Strength + bla bla bla you know the rest)

>When looking at the armor i see all pro's and no con's why does nobody use it (is it the low ac ?)

Keep in mind I'm talking mostly about unrestricted, playstyle.

DSC on Normal: Decent AC for Normal. Nice Fire resists, handy as a cash holder.

DSC on Nightmare: Nice Fire resists, handy as a cash holder.

DSC on Hell: Handy as a cash holder.

[diablo1ks]

Thanx for that analysis on demonspike coat (Hammerskjold)

He he !

[the Langolier]

When looking at the armor i see all pro's and no con's why does nobody use it (is it the low ac ?)

That's why I prefer the ring :)

As to getting your rogue to lvl 50 anytime soon, don't count on it unless you have several days to kill and a will made of iron. To put it in perspective, you are about halfway to lvl 50 (experience wise) around clvl 45. I usually like to just play the game and level up as I level up. It can feel very rewarding when you have been playing a character for a few months and finally level up to 50, moreso than getting there with a solid week of playing (after which you are so tired of the game you don't play it again for 3 months).

[the Langolier]

I think the best way to play the rogue is as a bow/melee rogue. Use a bow against ranged attackers and switch to a melee outfit (preferrably StormShield/Civerb's Cudgel) when facing melee opponents.

It also helps to add magic into the mix - this really is the power of the rogue. Most hell levels will spawn some sort of melee attacker with ranged magic. A rogue can easily tackle this level by using magic against the ranged attackers (such as witches) and easily tanking the melee attackers. The advantage over the warriors is that they can take out the ranged attackers out quickly so they can focus on melee attackers. The advantage over a mage is that it saves mana when you can take out the melee attackers without the cost of casting spells.

[Az3ar]

Most of my Rogues are archers, in later stages you might find some very good swords and shields you might want to use, comes in handy to sometimes swap for a shield, because of the high dex score, keep in mind to get a fast blocking shield as you might get stuck in blocking ;), a good fast shield can be Stormshield.

As for armor, go for whatever you can find, the higher the AC score the better in my opinion, DSP is good if you dont melee too much, later you will need more AC for the hell runs if you plan to get to lvl 50.....

[Moldran]

It also helps to add magic into the mix - this really is the power of the rogue. Most hell levels will spawn some sort of melee attacker with ranged magic. A rogue can easily tackle this level by using magic against the ranged attackers (such as witches) and easily tanking the melee attackers.

Not really, or not with all monster combos. To hit with FB, you need high magic. A Rogue in tank setup will have too low magic to use FB efficiently in H/H unless maybe she has dream items. CL works fine against some ranged attackers, but not against all. Often, switching to a bow will be faster than using magic.

Moldran

[Pu uhonua]

Some tips...

Never kick a skunk.
Don't spit into the wind.
Buy low, sell high.

Sorry... couldn't resist.

[Hammerskjold]

>a good fast shield can be Stormshield.

It can be. Though if you want just the fast block, and don't care about the AC, a Holy Defender or a magical Shield of Blocking also fits the bill.

>As for armor, go for whatever you can find

I totally agree. This mostly depends on your luck on drops or vendor offerings. And hoping you get whatever gear that fits your playing style.

>DSP is good if you dont melee too much,

Do you mean DemonSpike Coat? Because personally, I find there's better armors if you're not going the AC for melee route. A resistance shirt\mail\breast plate of (insert suffix here) is better than a DSC to me. At least with those a Rogue doesn't need a STR+ item to wear it. Of course that DSC is still good for something. Like giving you some financial help should Gris happen to offer you an Obsidian mail of Stars, or an AFPM. Cha ching ching!!!$$$

>later you will need more AC for the hell runs if you plan to get to lvl 50.....

Just my opinion again. But I find there's only 2 critters in Hell that having higher AC would help. Lava Maws, and Maelstroms. If a rogue player can deal with those 2 fast attackers comfortably without melee or getting swarmed, ie: bows or magic, they don't need the AC.

[Az3ar]

Lol, I typed DSP, that was a typo, I meant DSC :)

Well, DSC isnt my opinion for the armor but there was a discussion in previous posts, what I meant there was that if you find a DSC its not a bad choise, and it isnt the best either, resistances are always welcome......

[Yogi_Baar]

I never liked using magic with my rogue, only CL in times of crisis (swarmed by maws). But against witches, I always use a bow. Maybe CL works ok against succubi, but that's about it. My magic is only around 120 (somehow I'm not able to find all those obs/zods & dragon/zods, kinda strange when I think about it), so I miss the snow witches too often with FB, and hell spawns are IMHO just too tough for my rogue's CL. I prefer my swifty, and thanks to the witches' poor AI, I sustain hardly any damage when dealing with them with a bow. So magic is a no-no for my rogue.

[Cytrex]

We are talking in terms of fast experience gain, right? I can recommend something. Try to do things differently. Maybe do 5 Hell/Hell games and then 10 games of powergaming(more on that soon). This way you will be killing a bigger variety of mosnters and don't get bored too fast.

Doing a H/H with a rogue by using only spells can be quite slow, so always have a bow and a melee setup ready. But as for faster experience gain:

To hit with FB, you need high magic. A Rogue in tank setup will have too low magic to use FB efficiently in H/H unless maybe she has dream items. CL works fine against some ranged attackers, but not against all. Often, switching to a bow will be faster than using magic.

Highly depens on what you call a 'tank setup'. AFP(SFP), RC, DF + SS? In this setup with zodiac rings your magical to hit is close to maximum. The only drawback are monsters that have double immunity+ a resist or are triple immune. My advice is to avoid them.

Here's an idea: enter level 13, if the mix is easy to do with spells(most mixes on 13 are) then clear it. If not, start teleporting. Either way, continue up to level 12 and clear all cave levels that do not include Obsidian lords. Two types of winged creatures (Death wing and one more) are also too slow to deal with spells. Skip them( you can even kill the other mosnter type on the level by just not spending time on winged ones and teleporting past). Do this until you are out of mana(sometimes you will have mana left even after clearing 13 and all caves this way, it is more likely that you will run out sooner though. Just quit the game and start a new one and walk to Adria.

(this thread had various points discussed, I hope I didn't get sidetracked on this one and discussed something that doesn't belong here)

[Moldran]

Highly depens on what you call a 'tank setup'. AFP(SFP), RC, DF + SS? In this setup with zodiac rings your magical to hit is close to maximum. The only drawback are monsters that have double immunity+ a resist or are triple immune. My advice is to avoid them.

That I would call Mini-Mage setup.
The post I was replying to suggested to melee close attackers and take out ranged attackers with magic... in hell levels.
Meleeing with DF is certainly possible, but quite slow. If you exchange the DF with a good melee weapon (high-damage sword of speed/haste or CC), you are lacking 30 Magic TH, which makes using FB a PITA.
Also, the setup you name lacks resistances, unless your zods have nice +resist prefixes, which would be "dream items" IMO.

Moldran

[Walkiry]

Well, if you really want fast leveling without caring about anything else, buy two or three bountiful staffs of Nova, go to hell/caves and start teleport/nova/nova/teleport/ad nauseum until you find stairs down, rinse and repeat.

You can still run into trouble though, so be careful ;)

[Hammerskjold]

>Well, if you really want fast leveling without caring about anything else, buy two or three bountiful staffs of Nova, go to hell/caves

Because Chain Lightning might be easier and faster. It's also a learnable spell. It's not as visually stylish as Nova, but it can be more efficient.