reactivating for gs4, need help

[khand]

I have a level 40ish rogue from GS3 and I've decided to reactivate to see how much has changed. I haven't played in quite a long time and I'm looking for advice as to stat placement and training.

My character *had* insanely good stats through pure growth placement but with the changes with prime requisites it looks like you have to compromise growth.

Any advice in general or information on what the main differences to combat etc. will be is appreciated. Character is a halfling rogue, was fairly combat geared with picking. I think the training was 1.5x armor, 2x CM, 2x OHE, 1x shield, 1x brawling, .5x climbing, .5x swimming, 1x perception, 2x pick pockets, 2x hide, 2x ambush, 1x PT, 2x disarm and 2x lockpickingbut I can't remember exactly but can get the info if needed as soon as the account is reactivated.

I'm looking to train my char to be as effective in combat as he was with that training in GS3 while being able to pick within my level range.

How has ambushing lost effectiveness? How is combat different in general?
Any advice and placement help is appreciated.

[Kitsun]

You can use Tsoran's spreadsheet to mess around with stats until they're acceptable to you.

Get it here:
http://www.tsoran.com/

Nilandia has a GSIV info site that collected posts/news on major system overhauls...
http://www.geocities.com/ladynilandia/

For one month once you activate, you will be able to swap your skills around instantly with the GOAL verb ingame.

Sword and shield is no longer the only viable route. You can do two weapon combat, two-handed weapons, ranged(woot!), etc. I recommend playing some of the other ways, as they can be a nice change from the old overplayed method.

Evade, Block and Parry(EVP) has changed combat by making it somewhat longer. Critical hits are now more random. Ambushing is now a DS pushdown effect. Combat maneuvers now actually have maneuvers(quickstrike, shieldbashes, headbutts, etc).

Best recommendation: Make some time during the first month to play with your skill set. Find what you enjoy and are comfortable with. Once the month is over, skill change is still possible BUT it will take >*>*FOREVER*<*<.

[Parkbandit]

Did you have any good gear before you left khand? The reason I ask is that if you have a real nice weapon or armor and you want to keep it... I would gear my training path along those lines.

If you own no great gear and are open to anything... I PERSONALLY would make an ambushing rogue that used 2 handed weapons.

[FinisWolf]

Originally posted by Kitsun
You can use Tsoran's spreadsheet to mess around with stats until they're acceptable to you.

Get it here:
http://www.tsoran.com/

Nilandia has a GSIV info site that collected posts/news on major system overhauls...
http://www.geocities.com/ladynilandia/

For one month once you activate, you will be able to swap your skills around instantly with the GOAL verb ingame.

Sword and shield is no longer the only viable route. You can do two weapon combat, two-handed weapons, ranged(woot!), etc. I recommend playing some of the other ways, as they can be a nice change from the old overplayed method.

Evade, Block and Parry(EVP) has changed combat by making it somewhat longer. Critical hits are now more random. Ambushing is now a DS pushdown effect. Combat maneuvers now actually have maneuvers(quickstrike, shieldbashes, headbutts, etc).

Best recommendation: Make some time during the first month to play with your skill set. Find what you enjoy and are comfortable with. Once the month is over, skill change is still possible BUT it will take >*>*FOREVER*<*<.

Very well thought out. Kudos to you Kitsun. And I agree completely. Find who and what you want your rogue to be. The paths are all viable, and with the 30 day insta swap skills, you can't beat it.

Finiswolf

[khand]

Thanks for the info, I've been reading through it but still have some general questions.

Since ambushing has been changed what is the standard way to fight with a sword/shield rogue? Are crit deaths still somewhat reliable or do you usually have to deplete hit points?

I believe I have a 6x altered OHE(I think it's falchion base but not sure) and the rest of my gear is pretty standard. 5x shield, 5x double chain equivalent armor etc. I'd say it's my best bet to stick with sword/shield so I don't have to worry about buying new gear if it's still a good way to hunt but if hiding is impossible with anything better than brig I might need new armor.

If I were to go for two weapon combat though, how big of a role does weapon size factor in? I believe I have another 5x weapon but I think it was a backsword or some other larger weapon.

Also, if I were to go for 404 to help picking how much will that detract from redux?

Thanks for the help and the links.

[Kitsun]

I changed my OHE/Shield rogue to an archer sniper so I can't really comment on the efficiency anymore, I know some people have said it is fine, others have complained about a loss of relative power.

Just as a side note: Archery stuff is way cheap. A 4x bow can be like 30-100k, and ebladed arrows make for an 8x weapon right off the bat. Going 2x ambush and 2x perception is EASY for a rogue to gain the max benefit from the ranged bonus formula.

The hiding changes with heavier armor hasn't gone into effect yet.

The higher the weapon speeds, the slower you will swing. You'll want a lighter/faster weapon in an offhand.

A dinky four spells shouldn't hinder redux much at all.

It is a lot of info to absorb and its all sort of insubstantial until you've tried it out. Go out there and kill stuff and be killed.

Note: No more demonic. So deeds don't mean much. Death Recovery points are mostly 'off' right now. You only get 1,000 worth per DECAY. And 1k is really easy to work away so don't sweat it.

[khand]

73 Strength (STR) 85 Aura (AUR)
70 Constitution (CON) 60 Logic (LOG)
77 Dexterity (DEX) 58 Intuition (INT)
72 Agility (AGI) 50 Wisdom (WIS)
85 Discipline (DIS) 30 Influence (INF)

STATS AT LEVEL 37
----------------------------------------------
84 Strength (STR) 92 Aura (AUR)
84 Constitution (CON) 72 Logic (LOG)
94 Dexterity (DEX) 76 Intuition (INT)
90 Agility (AGI) 57 Wisdom (WIS)
93 Discipline (DIS) 47 Influence (INF)

That's the stat placement I'm trying out for now. Any suggestions to tweak it some? Going for sword/shield ambusher.

Remaining Training Points: 2032 Phy 1507 Mnt

is that about right for TPs at level 37?

[khand]

Hmm... I redid those stats some already to try to squeeze out a few more TPs. My training is 1x armor, 1x shield, 2x CM, 2x OHE, 2x dodge, 2x ambush, 2x PT, 2x hide, 2x perception, 2x pick pockets, and a little over 1x picking/disarming with 20 ranks of climbing and 10 of swimming.

I wanted to be able to fully double in picking/disarming but I don't really want to give up any combat skills to do so. I'll see how this works out for me.

[Tsoran]

With regards to ambushing, no, it's not as effective as before because there's more randomization in the result.

It's still damn effective, however.

I OHE/shield ambush in 4 just like I did in 3. Well, not just like as in 3. It's better now. Just had to change tactics a bit.

The combat changes in 4 are widespread. In 3, some types of combat had definite advantages. In 4, they've tried to make almost all combat choices viable and roughly equivalent. One thing you'll want to look at carefully is the weapon that you use. Daggers are now very fast - you can ambush in 4 seconds with a dagger, whereas it's a minimum 6 seconds with a falchion/axe/etc.

Depending on the critter, I use either a dagger to the eye, or an axe to the head or neck. Combined with shadow mastery allowing me to hide in 2 seconds (as well as chase critters while hiding in just 1) I am having little trouble as an ambusher. That's with 1x ambush and 2x hiding at level 61, hunting the blighted forest (been hunting there since mid 50's).

[Fengus]

Weapons have been nerfed so your hyper DEX/AGI bonus is largely wasted now, unless you use a >5 speed weapon, but then only for normal attacking. The ambush times are +1 base speed and are unaffected by DEX/AGI (other than encumberance effects).

There are weapon weigh factors now but having never played a small race I don't know how serious they are.

[khand]

So far I've found the new combat system to be pretty favorable to GS3. I'm not gauranteed the death crits every hit from ambushing but being able to attack without standing there waiting to be attacked is very nice IMO. My DS seems to be a lot better and defense in general seems a lot better with evading/blocking etc.

I don't really know what to spend all my cman points on yet. I got shadow mastery so far and have a ton of points to spend. If I put points into the rogue guild skills with cm points will my skill stack with my guild skill? Otherwise what are worthwhile skills?

Still planning to tweak my stats a little but I think I'll enjoy playing the same character template that I played in GS3.