Rogue guide: skills, stats and gear
The Rogue is a dagger assassin: fast blades, poison that keeps biting and a stealth that hides you from the other nation. Here is how to spend your points, which leathers and daggers to wear at every level, and how to turn Shadow Step and Ambush into kills from level 1 to 60.
Damage, meleeMain stat: DEX10% more HPTwin daggers, no shield
1. What the Rogue does
The Rogue fights up close with a pair of daggers and never with a bow. Its skills come back every few seconds, so a Rogue is always doing something: a double stab, a poisoned cut, a root, a flurry of four blows. Like the Warrior, the Rogue has no area skills. Unlike the Warrior, it cannot take many hits, so it wins by striking first and choosing its fights.
- Solo: fast kills on one monster at a time. Shadow Step lets you walk past camps you do not want to fight.
- Party: damage on the target the Warrior holds. Your poisons keep ticking while you move to the next one.
- PvP: the hunter. You pick the moment, open from stealth and root the target before it can run.
2. Stats and a point plan
You start with STR 8, DEX 14, INT 5 and VIT 10, and every level brings 3 stat points: 177 in all by level 60. For a Rogue:
- DEX (main stat): every point adds 2 attack power and a little critical chance. No other class gets both from one stat. Critical chance is capped at 30% for everyone.
- VIT: adds HP, with a 10% class bonus. A Rogue has less HP than a Warrior or a Priest, so VIT is your safety.
- STR: does nothing for a Rogue's damage.
- INT: only adds MP. Your skills are cheap, so skip it.
| Levels | Per level (3 points) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 2 to 20 | 3 DEX | Faster kills while common monsters never attack first. |
| 20 to 40 | 2 DEX, 1 VIT | Monsters attack on sight from level 22. |
| 40 to 60 | 2 DEX, 1 VIT | The Colony is open PvP: a few more HP decide a duel. |
Players who only hunt monsters in a party sometimes go all DEX. Once every point is spent, Reset stats in the character panel (C) gives them all back for free.
3. Weapons and armor
Rogues wear leather and scale, light and dark, with DEX on their chest pieces. Every set is a hood, a jerkin, grips and treads. A Rogue holds a dagger in each hand, so there is no shield.
| Level | Armor set | Daggers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Padded (everyone) | Worn Daggers |
| 5 | Hide | Iron Daggers |
| 15 | Stalker | Steel Daggers, Venom Daggers (poison) |
| 30 | Nightveil | Mithril Daggers, Rime Daggers (ice) |
| 45 | Drakescale | Dragon Daggers (fire), Stormfang Daggers (lightning) |
| 55 | Phantom | Phantom Daggers |
The Rogue has more elemental daggers than any class has elemental weapons. An element adds extra damage to every hit, and the other nation's players can resist part of it. Against monsters it is plain extra damage. The boss daggers are Fangs of Hellmaw (level 45, fire) and Duskreaver Daggers (level 60, poison).
For jewelry, the pieces "of Swiftness" carry DEX, so they add both your attack power and your crit. The gear and upgrade guide has every set and the + ladder.
4. Skills
The Rogue has nine skills. Every skill costs MP, and the cost grows with your level.
| Level | Skill | What it does | Cooldown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Twin Strike | Single target damage | 2 s |
| 1 | Swift | Run faster | 9 s |
| 5 | Venom Blade | Single target damage, damage over time | 3 s |
| 10 | Shadow Step | Stealth | 18 s |
| 12 | Shake Off | Removes debuffs | 15 s |
| 15 | Hamstring | Single target damage, root | 6 s |
| 20 | Ambush | Single target damage | 8 s |
| 30 | Crippling Venom | Single target damage, damage over time, slow | 5 s |
| 40 | Blade Flurry | Single target damage | 4 s |
- Twin Strike (level 1) stabs twice and is back every 2 seconds. It is your main button.
- Swift (level 1) makes you run 90% faster for 8 seconds, more than the other classes' Sprint.
- Venom Blade (level 5) cuts and poisons the target for 6 seconds.
- Shadow Step (level 10) hides you for 5 seconds and lets you move 30% faster. Players of the other nation do not see you at all, and monsters lose track of you. Your plain attack stops while hidden, and any attack skill ends the stealth.
- Shake Off (level 12) clears slows, roots, freezes, poisons and stat hexes from you after a short cast. Stuns are not cleared, and you cannot cast it while frozen or stunned, so use it when you are rooted, slowed or poisoned.
- Hamstring (level 15) hits and roots the target in place for 2 seconds.
- Ambush (level 20) is a solid hit in the open, but from Shadow Step it deals about twice as much. It is the opening blow of every Rogue fight.
- Crippling Venom (level 30) hits, poisons for 8 seconds and slows the target by 35%.
- Blade Flurry (level 40) strikes four times and comes back every 4 seconds.
- Shadow Step, walk up, Ambush. The stealth ends with the hit, at full strength.
- Hamstring right after, so the target cannot walk away while your poisons work.
- Then Twin Strike, Venom Blade and Blade Flurry as they come back.
5. Leveling a Rogue
Buy the level 5 Hide set and Iron Daggers from a town trader early. In Hearthmoor, up to level 20, common monsters never attack first: hunt the camps outward from Emberfold, from the Bristle Boars and Ash Wolves to the Thornback Boars (8), the Bandits (11), the Alpha Wolves (14) and the Barrow Skeletons (20).
From the Cave Bears (22) in Valcrest or Gorzhak, monsters attack when you come close. Pull one at a time, and if a second one joins, Hamstring it and finish the first. Open each pull from Shadow Step with Ambush when it is ready: on monsters too, the stealth bonus makes the first hit count. The homeland route runs through Forest Trolls (26), Granite Golems (30), Dire Wolves (34) and Ogre Brutes (38), and the Colony Zone takes you from level 40 to 60.
- Shadow Step and Swift together let you cross a dangerous camp or reach the far spot of a map quickly.
- Your endless red potion has a short cooldown: drink early, not at the last sliver of HP.
- The whole route is in the leveling guide.
6. Rogue in PvP
Players deal less damage to each other than to monsters, which gives your poisons time to work. Stealth is your real weapon: the other nation does not see a hidden Rogue at all, while your own nation sees your shadow.
- Crystal Clash (from level 20): six against six around a crystal. Slip around the fight in stealth and pick off the enemy healer or a caster standing at the back.
- The Colony (from level 40): hunt lone players between the camps. Open with Ambush, root with Hamstring, finish with Blade Flurry. Stay away from the fire towers of the enemy base.
- War of Morgard (Wednesday and Saturday 21:00 to 22:00 Istanbul time): in the big fights, look for the enemy Priests and Mages, the people your Warriors cannot reach.
- Keep Shake Off for a Crippling Venom, a Hamstring or a Warrior's slow on you. A Rogue that cannot move is a Rogue that dies.
See the PvP and war guide for times and National Points.
7. Common mistakes
- Opening with Ambush in the open. It hits about twice as hard from Shadow Step. Wait for stealth.
- Waiting in stealth for the plain attack. It does not fire while you are hidden. Use a skill to come out.
- Saving Shake Off for a freeze. You cannot cast while frozen. Use it on roots, slows and poisons.
- Putting points into STR. It adds nothing to a Rogue's damage. DEX does.
- Pulling a whole camp. You have no area skills and less HP than a Warrior. Fight one at a time.
Other classes
Compare with the Warrior, the Mage and the Priest, or see all four in the class guide.