The Rogue's Gallery

[Concillian]

I want to add a build that I have not seen here much.

It is based strongly on the Osiris build from the worldofwar.net forums. It is EXTREMELY flexible with excellent potential for use in PvP, PvE or in group instance play

Sword/mace in main hand for SS damage
dagger in off-hand for procs

Primary skills are
Cold Blood (21 points in Assassination)
Hemorrhage (26 points in Subtlety tree... Instance play for improved aggro, allows you to help your tank do more damage and create more aggro, also the cheapest way to add combo points )
Preparation (On the way to Hem, good for PvP, solo and PvE for more uses of Cold Blood and Vanish)
Improved Cheap Shot (on the way to Hem. If you ever use this for an opener, it's like having a point in Vigor. 2 points here gives the opportunity for a crazy combo string: CS + SS + wait for energy while stunned + gouge + Cold Blood + Eviscerate = 5 combo point guaranteed crit Eviscerate with no opening for the mob to attack at all.)
Improved Sap (Instance play)
Improved Rupture (Instance play DoT that ignores defense for less burst damage... better aggro control)
Relentless, Ruthlessness and Initiative allows for better efficiency with energy and combo points.
With the leftover 4 points I got Improved SS (pretty much a must for rogues) and 2 points in improved gouge to allow me to regen more energy than I use for gouge, which essentially gives me a free combo point.

So I am currently going for 26 subtle / 4 combat / 21 assassination as final numbers.

Against mobs you have a few different strategies:
In early play this was my primary method:
ranged weapon + SS + Gouge
Run away until gouge wears off, then quick turn with mouse (right click and slide left or right... way faster than keyboard.)
ranged weapon + SS + SS + Gouge
wait for energy, then Eviscerate

You will take very little damage this way, and have very little downtime. Obviously this only works 1 on 1, but at low levels you can SOLO ELITES of approximately equal level this way. For non-elites, equal levels are usually dead at eviscerate, and you have only a few seconds of exposure to attack provided the gouges hit. If they don't you fall back on SS until you can gouge again. Usually you can run right to the next (equal level) non-elite without waiting for health at all.

I found Ambush and backstab just did NOT cut it for soloing elites. I didn't even buy ambush rank 1 or backstab rank 2 on my current character. The energy cost is WAY too high and you end up exposed for a LOT more time because you're always waiting for energy. I ended up dead before the elite. But by running instead of positioning behind the mob, you have the time to regen ALL your energy AND for gouge to be ready again when you're back in melee range.

I ditched dagger in the main hand pretty early on, primarly because a good mace can be had for about half the price of a good dagger on my server. Maces usually give higher overall damage with SS because they are slower and have higher absolute damage, which SS builds on. I had 100+ crit SSs by the mid-teens. Before level 20, you don't even use eviscerate, because SS does more damage, and if you miss, you don't lose the energy. Plus by the time you get to eviscerate, the mob is usually dead.

This will also skill up a new ranged attack VERY quickly.

Running away lets your energy completely regen while the mob is closing on you again. It draws lots of odd attention to you when you do this and bring a mob into town while skilling up an new weapon and are barely damaging them. Sit there on the road gouging and shooting a gun and running back and forth and people look at you funny.

Later:
Stealth
CS + SS + wait for energy + gouge
run away, quick turn, ranged attack, then eviscerate when close enough.

This gets you a 5 point eviscerate before a mob attacks you, provided the CS and gouge lands.

Then go back to SS/gouge/run ranged/SS/SS/Gouge/run/ranged/eviscerate

Most useful poisons I've found are crippling and instant (before you get crippling). Mind numbing looks to have has usefulness, but in limited situations, haven't used it myself.

In instances you are using:
Improved Sap when needed so you can Sap 2 targets or Sap 1 and CS another.
Then early on your primary attacks are gouge (so you don't do too much damage), SS, and Rupture. Later use Hem so your tank has a bonus to his damage and aggro. I use rupture for a couple reasons:
1) With increased armor on elites it will often do more total damage than Eviscerate.
2) Rupture has same DoT for any number of combo points, just reduced time. Early on when you have a hard time building 5 combo points quickly, you can Rupture with only 2 or three CP and be getting some significant damage in.

PvP you are stunning with a giant combo:
CS + SS + wait + Gouge + CB + Eviscerate + Blind + Vanish + wait and Prep + CS + gouge + CB + Eviscerate + blind + vanish + wait + CS + Gouge + Eviscerate

Diminishing returns rears its head, and that second CS will stun for only a couple seconds, and the third CS will barely stun, but it gives you two (maybe three with initiative) combo points. Add gouge and perhaps a combo point from Relentless strikes on the last Eviscerate and you may already have 5 for your third Eviscerate.

This whole string can't be used solo, since Vanish will reset mobs that don't have any aggro on another target. It could be used in a group (instance), but two quick crit Eviscerates will surely get aggro on you. Using Expose armor on the first will help your tank gain aggro, and you can use Cold Blood on your first SS, since expose armor doesn't crit, then use the second one after using prep for eviscerate later when your tank has gained aggro, and you have another chance to feint.

you don't have quite the burst DPS of an ambush point layout, but you are incredibly versatile. You are able to solo pretty heavy hitting mobs, as you are less prone to getting hit. Your progress is probably a little slower overall than a huge DPS rogue, but I like this build over the traditional, near warrior build. There is a lot more strategy involved and you have a lot of options at your disposal. Mostly I like being able to solo elites of my level without too much danger AND being able to be wanted in a party because of the usefulness against Elites and party friendly skills like Improved Sap and Hemhorrage. You also always have a trick up your sleeve with Preparation, you can use whatever useful skill is needed twice in a row (feint, evade, Cold Blood, blind, vanish, etc...)

For those using backstab, consider this:
Backstab is 60 energy for 150% weapon damage (of a dagger)
SS with Improved SS is 40 energy for 100% weapon damage + a little bit (of a mace or sword that has higher base damage)

If you figure out your overall damage, you are doing MORE damage for the same energy with SS without a crit. The only thing that gets you more damage from backstab is the 30% extra crit chance. You're relying on probability being in your favor. SS is more consistent and almost the same damage over time. You're trading slightly less damage for the ability to better regulate that damage (by having more opportunities to choose when to use it and when to not, and by a larger percentage of your damage coming from base attack rather than random crits.)

Arguments for backstab become more compelling with Seal Fate, as you're getting 2 combo points almost as often as you get one. But again you're staking your livelihood on the random number generator. I guess it's like DiabloII, where I prefered a lower average damage weapon with a tight damage range over a slightly higher damage weapon with a gigantic dmage range. You can plan your fights better with more consistent damage output. It's bad enough when you get a string of misses.