UAC ambusher at cap?

[JustDan]

So it's been a decent amount of time, and I'm curious as to how UAC works for an ambushing rogue at cap. I've seen the epic post of epicness from the guy in Plat with 30m+ XP, but I'm wondering how it works for those who are a bit lower on the food chain.

Specifically, what kind of gear is being used, training "dos" and "don'ts", hunting style, and things to watch out for. How effective is it against heavier armored folks, where archery (and gathering all the @!#!R%^$#%@!# arrows) starts to blow goats? I'm pondering the viability of the build, but having never even tinkered with the mechanics, I'm trying to gather some initial intel. Currently a plate-wearing open archer, and it works well enough, but I hate arrow-gathering, and armored Grimswarm suck.

Thanks all.

[Jeril]

Yollia uses only UAC bare handed and no weapons. She wears 10x metal breastplate, and I think 4x UAC gear. Not sure about training dos and don'ts. Its a build based on ambushing so you'll want that and hiding. I forget if you have combat maneuvers or not but you'll want them because they add to your UAF and just to learn maneuvers. You'll want 1 rank of TWC and 3x dodge before training either more TWC or training to use a shield. Taking TWC from 1 rank up to 51 would give you 15 more DS then 1 DS for every 10 ranks after. I talked Yollia into using a shield because of swiftness and shielded brawler. Gives one more DS and only -5 MM compared to empty hands. If I remember I'll point him in the direction of this thread.

[Yollia]

So it's been a decent amount of time, and I'm curious as to how UAC works for an ambushing rogue at cap. I've seen the epic post of epicness from the guy in Plat with 30m+ XP, but I'm wondering how it works for those who are a bit lower on the food chain.

Specifically, what kind of gear is being used, training "dos" and "don'ts", hunting style, and things to watch out for. How effective is it against heavier armored folks, where archery (and gathering all the @!#!R%^$#%@!# arrows) starts to blow goats? I'm pondering the viability of the build, but having never even tinkered with the mechanics, I'm trying to gather some initial intel. Currently a plate-wearing open archer, and it works well enough, but I hate arrow-gathering, and armored Grimswarm suck.

Thanks all.

I have 11.35m exp at the moment. It's about cap and a half, certainly small potatos compared to 30m exp. I hunt in the scatter. Before I got the shield it was highly viable, and after I got the shield it got pretty fucking easy. Armor is pretty irrelevant, I can kill anything, usually takes no more than two hits. If a combo shows up, I don't even bother hiding again. I mainly use punch because it's faster, but I used to use mainly kick and it was doable because it usually stuns.

4x UAC gear directly from the weapon shop, 6x small shield, 10x max light but otherwise plain MBP.

Yollia (at level 100), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 150 50
Armor Use..........................| 190 90
Shield Use.........................| 232 132
Combat Maneuvers...................| 302 202
Brawling...........................| 302 202
Ambush.............................| 302 202
Physical Fitness...................| 302 202
Dodging............................| 403 303
Arcane Symbols.....................| 50 10
Magic Item Use.....................| 45 9
Harness Power......................| 35 7
Disarming Traps....................| 302 202
Picking Locks......................| 40 8
Stalking and Hiding................| 403 303
Perception.........................| 403 303
Climbing...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 120 30
Pickpocketing......................| 20 4

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 7
Training Points: 0 Phy 0 Mnt (1118 Mnt converted to Phy)


Yollia, your Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Combat Focus focus 3
Shadow Mastery smastery 5
Feint feint 5
Silent Strike silentstrike 3
Combat Mobility mobility 2
Combat Toughness toughness 3
Surge of Strength surge 5
Vanish vanish 3
Punch Mastery punchmastery 3
Kick Mastery kmastery 1

I hunt with shadow mastery constantly running (so I can 1-second stalk) and use surge but wait for the cooldown. Vanish keeps me alive a lot but being a dark elf I can really only use it sparingly. I get spells from a sorceror before I go into the rift. The 3x hiding is essential to staying alive in the scatter, but you don't really need it in Nelemar. I have 50 ranks of TWC for when destroyers use sunder shield...I put the shield away and rely on TWC DS instead of shield.

I used to hunt the scatter with a similar strategy, but I only had 2x dodge and was using two 4x yierka-spurs (pre-UAC)...and I went in with zero spells on and +22 MBP. It's possible, but it was really really stressful. Had to really pay attention. Only got away with it because of the 3x hiding, really.

The moral of the story: UAC can kill anything (at least with 2x ambush from hiding), 3x hiding makes staying alive easier (though the success rate for hiding in front of post-cap creatures in shifty rift rooms is nowhere near 100%, so be realistic), 3x dodge with 50 ranks of TWC makes your DS good enough to be comfortable getting attacked physically in the scatter (not much to do about the spells, though, except go to lengths I'm not yet willing to go to), and 1x shield use with shield brawler and shield swiftness makes life easy.

[Yollia]

Forgot to post the shield skills:


Yollia, your Shield Specialization training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Small Shield Focus sfocus 4
Shield Bash bash 3
Shield Swiftness swiftness 3
Shielded Brawler brawler 5

Available Shield Training Points: 6

[JustDan]

Thanks Yollia! I'm sitting at just barely past cap, so I don't have the TPs to quite pull off that sort of build without sacrificing something that I'm not really willing to.

I'm monkeying with the trainer, though, trying to see how to approach it. Maybe in another 3m or so XP I can give it a go. :)

[Gibreficul]

I just topped 37 mil with my rogue in Shattered, so I get it that I'm one of those "uber" people with more exp than I know what to do with.

I use 7x handwraps, T5 ensorcelled. I grapple and punch as my main attacks, despite having everything but blunt weapons and pole-arms fully trained. I mostly only hunt warcamps, but I've gone for a quick hunt in the Rift, in Nelemar, and in OTF and did very well with hide/punch head. Constructs in OTF are a bitch with UAC because they don't die to crits. I didn't bother with sentries or GWEs in Nelemar, I figured they'd pose a similar issue that the constructs gave. What I do know is that I can kill a grimswarm shaman/warchief in 2 shots with UAC. No other weapon I've tried is quite as reliable.

I say dive in if you're interested in UAC. I've enjoyed it.