Questions about general rogue knowledge

[grig_since98]

I've recently started a rogue type character on Great Lakes shard, and while I haven't attempted theft in PvP yet, I'm having a great time just doing PvM steals and stealthing past monsters. I debated starting a rogue for 12 years, and now I'm really glad I did. My intent is to eventually move into PvP thievery. I have a few questions about rogues in general.

First, I've been wondering if raising dexterity is worthwhile. While I think dex should affect rogue skills, that is merely my opinion and I haven't seen anything at all to back up that the game actually works that way. If dex doesn't do anything for me, then clearly I want to raise strength. If I want to roleplay, then I can roleplay dexterous, and let the game worry about the numbers.

2. My character is human. Is tracking at all worth taking? I should have a natural 20 skill from JOAT. Ive been raising it, but if I don't really get an advantage in taking 100 points vs JOAT, then I'd much rather take another skill.

3. Could someone explain passive detection? The existence of this is making Siege look much more attractive. Does someone have to have the detect hidden skill to detect you passively? Is the difficulty of detect hidden, passive or active, based upon the target's stealth/hiding? On the other hand, is it worth taking detect hidden?

4. Templates. Clearly, almost by definition, I want Snooping/Hiding/Stealth/Stealing. Should I take wrestling for emergency defense and the special moves, or take magery and get defense with a mage weapon plus the obvious benefits of magery? While the idea of bushwacking people from stealth with poison is appealing, is it really feasible with four skills already taken up on the template? I figure that someone prepared for PvP is going to have more combat skills than you, and unless they're totally suprised they're probably going to at very least get away from you. Am I wrong?

5. I know armor makes it more difficult to stealth as you go up in level. For a hypothetical 120 stealth/hiding rogue, does armor have any effect on their success? For instance, does a maxed out rogue see any difference between, say, plate and leather? What about any armor at all versus just clothes?

Thanks

 

[Nexus]

First, I've been wondering if raising dexterity is worthwhile. While I think dex should affect rogue skills, that is merely my opinion and I haven't seen anything at all to back up that the game actually works that way. If dex doesn't do anything for me, then clearly I want to raise strength. If I want to roleplay, then I can roleplay dexterous, and let the game worry about the numbers.

I like having a fair amount of Stamina, so have moderately high dex (around 90), namely because Stealthing eats up stamina pretty quickly for some reason. I enjoy having a higher pool to work with, since I don't need to look at having much in the way SR on a suit. This lets me focus on resists more than anything since I use several Skill Mod arties to round out a fairly complex template.

2. My character is human. Is tracking at all worth taking? I should have a natural 20 skill from JOAT. Ive been raising it, but if I don't really get an advantage in taking 100 points vs JOAT, then I'd much rather take another skill.

Just use the JOAT most the people you'll eventually want to steal from won't be hiding any ways. You can't snoop what you can't see.

3. Could someone explain passive detection? The existence of this is making Siege look much more attractive. Does someone have to have the detect hidden skill to detect you passively? Is the difficulty of detect hidden, passive or active, based upon the target's stealth/hiding? On the other hand, is it worth taking detect hidden?

I wouldn't bother taking it, Thieves right now due largely to Passive Reveal have rather funky templates usually. The more points you can use to maximise your effectiveness the better.

As to what Passive Reveal is, when you pass by a NPC or other player there is a check done against your Hiding/Stealth to see if you are revealed, they do not need detect hidden for a passive check. Elves get a bonus to their passive reveal checks, to the point that ninjitsu is a Thieves best friend. Shadow Jump will let you approach a player without triggering a passive reveal check, otherwise about 80-90% of the time an Elf will passive reveal you the first time you take a step.

4. Templates. Clearly, almost by definition, I want Snooping/Hiding/Stealth/Stealing. Should I take wrestling for emergency defense and the special moves, or take magery and get defense with a mage weapon plus the obvious benefits of magery? While the idea of bushwacking people from stealth with poison is appealing, is it really feasible with four skills already taken up on the template? I figure that someone prepared for PvP is going to have more combat skills than you, and unless they're totally suprised they're probably going to at very least get away from you. Am I wrong?

Choice is your's really, but I'd advise getting a skill that gives you a little mobility. Magery or Chiv somewhere in there, though with the right build you can have (after +skill mods) 120 Stealing, 120 Stealth, 100 hiding, 100 snooping, 100 weapon skill (I use fencing and carry a Dread's Revenge for an extra +20 for 120 fencing for those pesky Bot Miners/Lumberjacks), 110 Magery/Chiv(Though splitting between Necro and Chiv 35/65 would give more perks) , 110 Ninjitsu. That's currently how my thief works out plus I have 80 poisoning to top it off with.

5. I know armor makes it more difficult to stealth as you go up in level. For a hypothetical 120 stealth/hiding rogue, does armor have any effect on their success? For instance, does a maxed out rogue see any difference between, say, plate and leather? What about any armor at all versus just clothes?

As long as the armor has the "mage armor" tag it has no more effect than clothing on your stealth checks. At 75 Stealth wearing all Leather or Mage Armor you will always succeed your stealth checks from my experience. The only difference when wearing this type of armor you'll see compared to having 120 stealth is how often you are revealed from taking AoE damage. Though you can easily get 120 Stealth from 75 via items. Considering hardly anyone wears armor that isn't Mage Armor or Leather any ways, the increased difficulty from heavy armors has become pretty much a moot point.