Forum:DW Rogue NM build (general concept) discussion

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Hi,

As a DW rogue fanatic, I would like to engage in some discussion about efficient Nightmare builds. Below are some of my generic opinion, please feel free to disagree or add to this.

Stamina: Stamina is rather limiting, as I try not to waste any points in willpower. Hence the choice between stacking sustained spells or preserving stamina for activated abilities is an important discussion; a balance is rather tricky. I have not worked out the math precisely. But I generally prefer activated abilities to maintain flexibility in battle. For the same reason, I have foregone the specialist tree entirely.

Dex vs. Cun I prefer Cun, simply because there are lots of talents that grant automatic crit. My character, for example, lands crits 80-90% of the time using a combination of passives, sustained, and activated spells. But again, to maximize damage output, one might need to calculate the optimal mixture of Dex and Cun. But in the spirit of gaming over taking first order conditions, I just pumped dex to the most restrictive gear requirement, and put the rest in Cun. My gut tells me that the marginal increase in damage output is greater for cun than dex, regardless of how I've distributed my attribute points. If some of you are interested in working this out rigorously, I'm more than happy to join forces and write down the most accurate output function.(we must take into account that 80-90% of hits are already crits, rendering Dex less effective) Once we have that, it's a simple optimization problem using the constraint: Dex+Cun = (Max attribute points in the game)

Shadow & Assassin over Duelist: I entertained the idea of a semi-tank using the defense bonus granted by the duelist spec. Ultimately, the lack of fortitude becomes a deal breaker, as I get pinned to the ground too often. A rogue simply cannot be hit in Nightmare. With careful planning and lots of pausing, rogue has all the tools to avoid being hit (Obscure, Stealth, threat redux...)

Magic Resistance: I admit, I have none to speak of. And this is my greatest concern by far. Do any of you have a solution? What I found is that once I hit the ground, it's nearly certain death. Any suggestions?

Companions: I haven't put much thought into this. Aveline is a beast of a tank. Anders is useful. The fourth member is debatable. I tried a second mage for double haste. But because we're in nightmare, AOE is a nono so offensive mages are less effective. So I take Sebastien sometimes for CC and damage. Or better yet, take whoever you want to romance =)

To end this discussion, I would like to ask each of you which ability is the most thought provoking, i.e. seemingly useless but deadly or vice versa. In addition, if you have a nice routine of abilities that you chain together, please share. This would give us some idea of how to distribute our points in the talent tree. My routine is something like this:

1. activate inconspicuous 2. back-stab and continue to hit until inconspicuous fades 3. stealth and then Assasinate

repeat. 1-3.

With the right passives and upgrades, this is worked very well for me.

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.200.32.34 (talk)

I'm an archery type myself, but that's closely related, so I'll chime in. Overall, rogues are a huge disappointment for me in DA2. The three talent trees I find good are: Assassin (protagonist only), Shadow (protagonist only), Swashbuckler (Isabela only). The only viable archer you can build is the protagonist. Varric and Sebastian are as close to useless on Nightmare as it gets :( Moreover, standard Archery talents are even less useful than they were in DAO/DAA, and that's a catastrophe. But yes, you can still build a decent auto-attack Assassin/Shadow archer. About that DW thing: Isabela's auto-crit DW AoE has a lot of potential, especially in conjunction with Deep Freeze/Dessicate (=brittle). It just takes a long while to get her to the level where her damage output will become significant, and a Whirlwind Reaver/Fenris will outshine her in an auto-crit AoE-spammer role anyway, so... :( IN (talk) 22:28, March 11, 2011 (UTC)