Rogue Tips

[!!SaLtMaN!!]

That's why I prefer the ring :)

There is no such thing as demonspike ring, you're not legit - I despise non-legits. DAMN YOU AND YOUR FOOLISHNESS.

[Yogi_Baar]

There is no such thing as demonspike ring, you're not legit - I despise non-legits. DAMN YOU AND YOUR FOOLISHNESS.

Of course there is. Every 42nd Demonspike Coat (in FPM form) your character finds (each character has a counter in his .sv file), transforms into a ring if you equip it UNIDENTIFIED and let it break by having monsters stun you (so that the durability decreases). It has so much durability that you will definitely die a couple of times, and that's why people don't know it and there are so many duped rings around. Damn cheaters. :angry:

[Occhidiangela]

. . . he was kidding.

Were you as well? ;)

[Yogi_Baar]

But I think it was pretty obvious. ;)

[Az3ar]

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.

I dont get my CL above 8 though, there is that bug that reduces the spell's efficiency at higher levels, slvl 8 is fine whith me, it works well for *most* occassions

[Walkiry]

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.

Well, apocalypse cannot be resisted by anything, whereas Nova will be ineffective against Lightning immune mosters (that's why I said you can still run into trouble ;) ). But with a measy 12 charges or so per staff, and having to cast more than once to kill monsters, it's nowhere near as fast as Nova.

Nova > * in the lightning realm, it just does so much damage you can kill any monster with a single cast (and usually kill them by the dozens in big rooms full of them), no gaping or anything. I used to keep one of these staves in my Rogue and sometimes killed Diablo by teleporting in his room and Nova-ing away while everyone started attacking. Fun :)

Although, for general usage, it's nowhere near as fun as chain lightning, as with CL you have to work a bit to line up the monsters nicely (and when you do, ooooh when you do :D). I used to walk around with level 18 CL when doing the mini-mage (Dreamflange and Thinking Cap) :) You have to work a lot to avoid gaping though.

If you are wondering, yes I kept a lot of rubbish in my Rogue's inventory. Why do you think my bow was always a plain bow of nothing? You can buy them in town or grab one in the church :lol:

[NiteFox]

Nova gaps indeed, even in the close range when the circle should be complete. (Um... *Deactivates Engrish mode*)

O'course, you can expect gapping with pretty much anything if you've got a pack of Magistrates loobing their useless Charged Bolt. I swear, the only reason Magistrates exist is to annoy spellcasters by filling up the screen with bolts that haven't got a hope in hell of hitting and when they do they do very little damage. How I laughed when my sorc waded into a packed room only to find that most of his crowd control spells were useless thanks to those ******* lawyers.

[Yogi_Baar]

I swear, the only reason Magistrates exist is to annoy spellcasters by filling up the screen with bolts that haven't got a hope in hell of hitting and when they do they do very little damage.

... AND bring smiles on the faces of bow-wielding rogues.

[NiteFox]

Still. My sorc still has a good edge in those situations. It's like a very erratic Static Field with 100% damage reduction :P I just gotta get close.

[Occhidiangela]

(Added) Dear Yogi: /(added)

I should have specified to whom I was replying. I was asking !Saltman! in re his reply to Langolier, not your reply to him.

Your reply was wonderful, and in the spirit of some of the fine old tales about the Cow Level. :)

[Yogi_Baar]

I AM using threaded view, but evidently I failed to notice that your reply refers to Saltman. Must have been a brain cramp :huh:. I'll try to limit those to the minimum from now on. Eyes on stalks.

[Jane]

well I am experimenting with the threaded view here
I have a bit of e newbie question about it:

is there a way to keep track of where new posts appear?
Cause I have a hard time following it.
Am I just stupid? do I really have to watch the dates of the whole list?
or am I missing something here?

[Fragbait]

Hail Occhi!

There is one thing about the threaded view that is somewhat annoying:

Whenever I click on the 'last post by' link, which supposedly takes me to the last post in the thread, it doesn't work and I am presented the first post instead, forcing me to manually :blink: :blink: :blink: click on the post I want to read again...

This issue seems to have appeared since I switched to threaded view.
How can I avoid this?

Thank You,

Fragbait

[Occhidiangela]

I normally switch to threaded view when I am unsure, by what is in the text, who the author was replying to. Usually, folks either indicate or spell out who they are talking to. When they don't, I check the post title, and then go to threaded view to look for it and see how that conversation was shaping up.

Maybe not the most efficient way to do things, but . . . it works for me, usually. :)

[Ryethe]

Some general TOP END equipment recommendations:

Civerb's Cludgel and Stormshield/shield combo is awesome. With the Rogue's tendancy to have high DEX, blocking becomes effortless. AC becomes much less important due to the high amount of blocking.

TRUE STORY: I once left by Rogue near some knights and when to eat lunch. Of course they mobbed here, but much to my surprise I came back and there was my Rogue deflecting away practically every blow. Needless to say I promptly finished off the mob. That's just how useful good blocking can be.

Another good option is the Bow of Quickness (right affix?), preferably with a +damage% affix, but even with 3+ years of Diablo experience, I have only found ONE Bow of Quickness and it didn't even have a suffix AND it was in SP :(.

I also suggest an Obsidian ring/amulet of ANYTHING. Resists are insanely important, and unless you want to fry in a pool of dog spit and be eaten up, you'll need excellent if not maxed resists.

As for playing strategies, I suggest investing is Mana Shield. Not only does it give you a second health bar, it also cuts the damage you receive by 1/3, not to mention that Mana Pots become practically the equivalent of Full Rejuvs.

-Ryethe

[Spear]

It has been an age since I've played Diablo, but I'm feeling like sharing some memories about taking a rogue to 50.

At the time, never one to too often make things difficult for myself I donned enough gear to get my strength high enough to wear an awesome or saintly full plate, so that when I was wandering around hell I wouldn't have to worry much at all about melee critters being the end of me.

With that safety (and resists managed anywhere possible), I recall playing a lot of nightmare/hell games. Equipment finds are basically as good as hell/hell, experience earned per kill is just about as good, and I seemed to be able to find an occasional cooperative game there too.

Every once in a while I'd take a trip around the first 8 levels in hell difficulty. Mostly looking for useful shrines (to increase fireball, CL, and teleport spell levels, and my Civerbs Cudgels durability). Useful to be on hell levels, because CL earns a few really quick and easy XP's.

To be fair, and as Pete basically said, it isn't always particularly thrilling stuff. Levels come extremely slowly, and most games result in a chance of a useful shrine, and a couple of potential equipment drops that 999 times out of a thousand are bog standard bore. Thing is though, with a few useful shrines, and just a couple of lovely equipment drops, the route to 50 then becomes somewhat safer, much easier, but probably even more boring still!

Once I was finding that nightmare/hell wasn't always giving great experience, and once my spell levels were all quite large, and I was basically tanked to high heaven, I spent a while doing something akin to a laz run, but also taking in level 16, on nightmare difficulty, and then playing a game in hell/caves, where the experience points tend to come quickly and easily.

The last few character levels though, I completed mostly in hell/hell games. It isn't the fastest, but the slight, slight, chance of careless deaths at least kept me thinking about what I was doing. And there is that glimmer of hope that something like an awesome full plate plate of the stars, or obs-zod will drop, useful for bragging rights, perhaps.

Most of the time I played in a very high magic mode (heavy armour, thinking cap, high AC shield (probably storm shield), dreamflange, and whatever jewelry that was required). A big pool of mana, mana shield, and high level fireball and CL makes most of hell/hell a walk in the park. There are annoying enemies, but none have to be dangerous, especially when stone-curse is always an option.

For cooperative games, and pesky tripple immunes, I also carried around a bow of some description (... lucky Griswald eventually offered up a nigh on perfect obs heavs), and Civerbs Cudgel.

Unfortunately, the more immune to death one becomes, the less challenging the game becomes, the more inevitable it becomes that 50 is just a matter of time, the less urgent it seems to actually get there, the more rapidly the boredom sets in.

A vaguely interesting distraction on the way to 50 is to walk into hell/hell, teleport arond a bit, let yourself die, and then attempt to resque your equipment. Eventually you'll fail to do it, and have to rebuild your characters equipment from nothing! For me, I find I rapidly get bored trying to laz-run my way back to invincibility, and I jump into overly difficult situations, which at least puts some healthy challenge back into the game, if only for a while.

Paul (Spear)

[diablo1ks]

> vaguely interesting distraction on the way to 50 is to walk into hell/hell, teleport arond a bit, let yourself die, and then attempt to resque your equipment. Eventually you'll fail to do it, and have to rebuild your characters equipment from nothing! For me, I find I rapidly get bored trying to laz-run my way back to invincibility, and I jump into overly difficult situations, which at least puts some healthy challenge back into the game, if only for a while.

>Hmmm last night my clvl35 rogue died in hell/cats by acid beasts (BASTARDS)
>Item recovery felt impossible as all the dogs were guarding the staircase as I went down, so i finaly gave up, losing . . .

>2 zod jewels
>Awsome plate of precision 160 AC / +20 DEX
>Massive LBB Of heavens +97% DAM/ +13 ALL

And thats all that really mattered, I have now learnt the hard way about teleporting into random positions.

By the way is there any way to resist dog spit ?

[Hammerskjold]

>By the way is there any way to resist dog spit ?

Magic resists that is.

[Cytrex]

Unfortunately, the more immune to death one becomes, the less challenging the game becomes, the more inevitable it becomes that 50 is just a matter of time, the less urgent it seems to actually get there, the more rapidly the boredom sets in.

Well, I on the other hand can tell that I enjoyed all the way to 50 and didn't feel bored too often. She is still my second-most-played character. Perhaps it's down to personal preferences, but I feel a rogue is most fun with a bow. If I had played her mainly DF or CC style I would ahve got bored rather quickly I assume.

[Yogi_Baar]

TRUE STORY: I once left by Rogue near some knights and when to eat lunch.  Of course they mobbed here, but much to my surprise I came back and there was my Rogue deflecting away practically every blow. Needless to say I promptly finished off the mob. That's just how useful good blocking can be.

Try that on level 16 with more than 3 knights. You won't last long. Their hits get in sync quite often and that's how they kill you.

Another good option is the Bow of Quickness (right affix?)

Swiftness.

but even with 3+ years of Diablo experience, I have only found ONE Bow of Quickness and it didn't even have a suffix AND it was in SP :(.

Tip: get a level 20 shopper and do Griswold shopping runs. That takes away the fun though, because finding such a bow really is something (best chance for massive/swiftness in caves).

As for playing strategies, I suggest investing is Mana Shield.  Not only does it give you a second health bar, it also cuts the damage you receive by 1/3, not to mention that Mana Pots become practically the equivalent of Full Rejuvs.

I have to disagree. My rogue has around 350 hit points and around 320 mana. I get cca. 7 casts of healing per full mana potion so that's around 2000 hit points, compared to around 800 I'd have with a mana shield. And all I have to do is be a bit more careful.