UPDATE 4 the Solo Spear rogue.
by RedRouge aka PoissonRouge.
(This is an Extensive look into being a Rogue Spearmen, and not for ppl who don't like to read.)
So with increased skills, and availability of decent spears, update 4 has made a spear rogue not only possible, but formidable. Does taking down 4* mobs youre lvl (8k+ exp)interest you? How effective is this build? As a joke to friends I was killing 4* boggans 150 lvl (my lvl at the time) with a bone spear, wearing full Wardens newb armor! Just goes to shows you how effective this solo build is.
Spearing is all about timing your skill attacks within your auto attack timer. By doing this, it will increase the level of efficiency of your slow heavy weapon. Think of it like this...you're using the in between wasted time within your auto attack timer and filling it up with your skill hit timer. What it does is lets you hit back to back, striking one after the other with the high damage of your spear. This is a Skills based build, with the use of a spear. You're main damage will be your skills damage not your auto attack. This isn't an auto build, and if you sit there without using skills you will die, so keep that in mind if you like lazy play. Also Just spamming skills isn't going to win you battles! There are ways to use your skill to maximize damage and insure that your skills work effectively against mobs. I will go into detail with your "Opening Attack sequences", in the skills section.
Spears
my recommendation in order:
it so happens to coincide with the lvl req as well.
1)Ancient Wyrmbone Spear Piercing Dam 150, Attk Speed 3750, Spear +500 LVL 160
2)Void Trident of Zeal Piercing Dam 110, Attk Speed 3000, Vit +75, Spear +300 LVL150
3)Wrymbone Spear Piercing Dam 131, Attk Speed 3750, Spear + 400 LVL 140
4)Shadow Trident of Zeal Piercing Dam 105, Attk Speed 3050, Vitality +50, Spear +200 LVL 130
5)Adament Spear Piercing Dam 120, Attk Speed 3750, Spear + 300 LVL 120
6) Dark Trident of Zeal Piercing Dam 100, Attk Speed 3100, Vitality +25, Spear +100 LVL 110
9) Opal Pike Piercing Dam 100, Attk Speed 3800, Spear +200 LVL 100
0)King Ymir Spear, Askold, Grimlings, WinterKing Spear not recommended.
When using spears, you'll need to be hasted 30% either with Heroic Gloves, Haste Dagger, Ring of Haste, to be effective. I recommend the Ring of Haste. For one thing having a full set frozen(Dragon if you're in a good clan) gives great benefits, and having Heroic gloves ruins that. Also the Beast Bone Gloves and DragonLord gloves with their skill boost to Quick Strike, makes losing the Heroric Gloves an easy choice.
I've been contemplating the Haste Dagger for quite sometime, with the added 200 Dex, and attack skill boost. In the end I decided, if you ever use haste pots/elixers like me, the haste dagger ends up being a waste, since it wont stack with the elixer. Let me know if you think the Haste Dagger is worth it, i have never used it and would like to get more info about the casting skill it gives you. Mainly the recast time of the skill, and it's effectiveness in battle. (*will update when ever i find info)
The Aggy Tridents are in a weird spot when hasted, sometimes they feel too fast and you seem to auto attack without skilling more often than with a Bone spear. These spears are a lot harder to come by if you're in one of the clans that still can't kill Aggy. I also don't recommend spending +200-300k on a aggy trident or 500k+ on a Void. Go to the vendor and buy your Bone spear for 121k-160k they are better IMHO
How to be an unstoppable solo machine! Being a good solo rogue is all about surviving, and to do this you need a good solid build. Meaning you need a build where you can take it as much as you can dish it out.
The Build
My Build When I was lvl 160( equiped w/full ancient beastbone armour, and 160 bone spear. no dps rings or added dps gear)
STR 300
DEX 120
FOC 30
VIT 525
(rounded figures)
health 4350
energy 780
attack:1900
defence 250
damage1150
armour 460
Ideally you want your Str and Dex to be within these variables.
Str 250-300
Dex 100-120
Foc 30-50
And you're Vit to be continually growing.
Vit 450+
*These are not set numbers, just guidelines, find out what works for you with you're current gear and tweak.
Why I'm not using a DEX build for soloing. I found lately in update 4, that Skill damage from mobs were the reasons I was dying. Dex does not effect skill evasion or it's damage. This was the sole reason why I decided to bring up my Vit to absorb some of that damage. Also the benefits of STR to amplify the spear damage, and STR based skills out weighed the benefits of Dex and defence from mobs auto attack.
But technically the build is a VIT based build, and the reason for that is... When soloing above anything else! If you can't survive hits, you will not get your exp when youre dead. Idols mean nothing, and if you need to use restoration pots to exp then youre doing it wrong. Save the pots for soloing bosses like Falgren.
Sigils and Soloing
I'm not a big fan of telling people that they need to buy platinum, and I won't start now. But Sigil for soloing is a tremendous help for leveling. Having 500+ health sigil myself, I find myself rebuffing FastRelex and I'm back to full health ready for another mob. I have about 50 energy sigils which seems more than enough. In the long run this boosts my effectiveness at using my super Knowledge elixers, getting more bang for my buck. So if you can i recommend getting sigils. Atm you can actually purchase sigils off players who have won them using Ancient Chests. Although after the 2013 summer event i think these will be rare to even see, so pick them up now if you can.
The Skills Used
(based off of 150 lvl 35/35 skill points)
ShadowStrike 30-Max
Riposte 30-Max
LifeSteal 30-Max
FastReflex 20-25 or Max (cast before fight)
QuickStrike: 5-20 (skill useful with beastbone wraps or DragonLord gloves)
Assasinate 1-20 (skill at 1 must use with Bestbone Jerkin)
DoubleStrike: 1 or close to Max
Rend: 1 (dummy skill: takes damage from spear)
Skewer: 1 (dummy skill: takes damage from spear )
Bandage 20-25+ ( don't bother if you have 250+ health sigils)
Distract:1-5 (very effective with beastbone foot guard)
How to use Skills- the Opening Attack Sequence
The main thing you want to have is a good opening attack, then fall into a steady rhythm of damage. You want to use the skills that do the most damage first, and having used them first ,give them a chance to reload for another cast if needed.
Here's is my Opening attack sequence with a Bonespear:
auto attack (start the auto for the run up only, dont wait for attack)
1)*ShadowStrike*,2)DoubleStrike
auto attack
3)Riposte,4)LifeSteal (if youre not damaged use Rend, save your energy)
auto attack
5)Rend
auto attack
(r)ShadowStrike, QuickStrike
auto attack
Skew
auto attack
(r)DoubleStrike
auto attack...ect
*ShadowStrike* glitch, where you get stuck, and need to take a step back to start Auto/Skill attack... usually happens when casting ShadowStrike from long distances)
(r) recasted
* Also looking at the sequence above it's good to note that Riposte, and Shadow strike are the only skills that an auto attack doesn't seem to load up behind. *correction Shadow Strike and Riposte the auto attack is instantly after skill hit, and the animation is skipped.
For some reason after QuickStrike there is a time gap before damage can be done from auto.
Opening seq, explanation...
Start by Auto Attacking. This will insure that the auto attack timer has started when you're close enough to the mob.
1)Shadow attack. I like to run to the mob, and get them using their skill attack, then when i'm close by i Shadow Strike. This may result in an interrupt, and you have less chances of having the skill glitching out.
2) Double Strike has a longer cast time, and using it as an opener insures that the auto attack timer will line up right behind the skill attack.
3)I almost never use Riposte as a first attack. The reason being, most mobs like to skill attack as their first attack, and if you Riposte while they are using skills, riposte won't do any damage. They must be auto attacking you!
4)LifeSteal if i've taken damage. Casting LifeSteal early insures that it may have a chance to recast if the fight is a longer one.
DO'S*Remember to wait for the auto attacks after the skill, this is your double hit, and is the main advantage for using a high damage spear.
DONT'S* Exhausting all your energy by spamming skills back to back without waiting for an in-between auto, will get you killed when fighting 4 star mobs. Also spamming will exhaust your energy, and If you have no energy to cast skills, then you're essentially sitting there auto attacking. If you're just auto attacking youre doing it wrong, and you're going to die!
Wait, you're using a lot of skills! im not a mage! i don't have tons of energy!
Exactly you're not a mage nor will you put any points into those skills for extra hits. What you're doing is using skills that use the damage from the spear and leaving the skill at 1. Also these skills use the damage from added dps gear, so those godly aggy rings aren't totally wasted on this build. But, packing yourself with dps gear over good defensive resistants/armor isn't a good choice for soloing. Dps gear is great! But how much dps are you going to do when youre dead?
Skills to Max or upgrade.
ShadowStrike 30-MAX thee most versatile dps skill. Usually can hit mobs several times doing 900-1500 damage on mobs same lvl. skill is instant cast and does not interrupt your auto attack. The recast is incredibly fast, and will be the staple damage dealer in almost any situation. Great for solo, groups, pvp.
Riposte 30-MAX A must skill to have when soloing. (atm i have skill set at 44/35 with rings) Usually can use twice on harder mobs, and only once on 1-2 star mobs because they die before you can cast a second. On 4* mobs in total it will do 5k+ damage with two skill uses and can hit multiple mobs aggro on you. Only useful when mobs physical attack you, so do not use when mobs cast, or skill attack you.
LifeSteal 30-MAX it will do 200-500 damage/heals. Although many ppl gripe over this skill's usefulness. Life Steals can and will save you many times over when soloing. Not just heals remember, does damage too. So if you're looking at the health meter of your mob and judging it with your own, you will see what kind of benefit the skill brings with soloing. Think of it like this... if you do 500 lifesteal the difference between your health and the mobs *can/may* be up to 1000 health points with a single cast(*depends on mobs resists). Also when down to the wire, this skill will edge out that extra bit of health for you to Shadow Strike the killing blow to the mob. I can't even count how many times i've done that.
Fast Reflex 25 to MAX, i used to max this skill no matter what, but i've come to a conclusion. I don't die from mobs hitting me, i die from mobs skill attacks which fast reflex doesn't help with. So putting the added points to DPS skills to get rid of those casting mobs just a little bit faster actuallly has helped me more than maxing this skill. Btw, in the Carrowmore Tunnels, every mob is a skill casting mob.
*Optional skills to upgrade or MAX
DoubleStrike MAX if you're using the higher pierce damage spears (bone spears mainly). Unfortunately this skill must be maxed to 5 lvls above your own lvl to be effective. The best thing about DS is that it is unavoidable damage, and does double the damage of your auto. The bad thing is it takes a bit long to cast maybe 1.5 times longer than your auto, and the cool down is longer than Shadow strike. (definitely Max this and swap Riposte out if you're mostly DPS in groups. Especially with Warriors who always take aggro with taunts)
Assassinate If you have and ancient beastbone BP this skill is worth putting 10-20 points in I don't like maxing it because then it becomes a skill that needs to perform, and to be quite honest i'd rather not depend on this skill because of it's fail rate and slow cool down, but still worth while.
Quick strike Good skill to upgrade, but make sure your main skills are upgraded first. (Leaving skil at 1 * explanation below)
Bandage 25+ for soloing, (or if you have 250+ sigils don't bother with bandage)
Skills to leave at 1, (optional skills at 1)
Rend: good to leave at 1. Has same initial auto damage with small dot.
Skewer: leave at 1, this skill maxed is horrible. Maxing it doesn't add any more damage. It's lvl based where it holds the mob for 6 secs, but if you're standing right next to it, it will still hit you with everything its got. Also when used for groups, It resets aggro, great for the druid you saved, but horrible for you, when all the previous warrior taunts have reset and aggro is on you.
DoubleStrike: does same damage as auto when left at 1, but slightly too slow. Although it's good to use when other skills are reloading. One great thing is, this strike is unavoidable. (recommended upgrading if using high damage Bone spears)
Distract: leave at 1-5. But don't waste a lot of points on this skill, Warriors have no problem taunting my aggro even when they haven't even maxed their taunts. Also if you wear the Beastbone Boots it gives you a good bonus for your distracts.
*Skills you were thinking of usings... but are too slow and or too weak when left at 1.
Weakening does same damage as auto with the benefit of weakening -10 to abilities. Unfortunately it is way to slow! Although putting points in this insures that skills aren't evaded, I found the slow cast time makes it unusable for soloing.
Quick strike is a great skill, but too weak at 1. Doesn't use damage of your spear.
*Note if you're equiped with an ancient beastbone wristguards it can give you 100-130+ damage, Or Dragon Gloves, + 5 to quickstrike 50-65 damage. Makes keeping this skill on your main rooster worth while.
Assassinate too slow, at 1, as it does the same damage as auto attack dispite what it says on skill page. (also the horrible fail rate is still there) Dont use this skill if you leave it at 1.
*Note if you have the upgraded Bone armor, Ancient Beastbone BP the skill becomes more useful.
Poison Weapon isn't even worth casting time for a prebuff when left at 1 ( i love this skill and it was hard to give it up.)
Smoke bombs at 1 it's not worth the casting time while being attacked by mobs.
SpearGear
*Things might change when we see what drops from Mordrid, and Hrungnir...
the Solo Concept for gearing
While suiting up the build for soloing, I find you need a good balance. One that considers dps, energy regen, and evasion/resist/armour as a whole, instead specializing where you need someone to cover your weaknesses.
Finding good combinations with gear i'll leave up to you. But here are a few things that you should keep in mind to strive for at lvl 160.
-Energy regen at 50-65 per tick
-Spell/Physical evasion recommended 1200+ (for some reason from 1000 evasion skill in comparison to 1200 is a big difference when evading attacks) *This can also be achieved with training abilities.
-resists 450+
-armour 400-450+
-Damage 1000-1200
New LUX
I haven't tried them all, and I may not have enough insight to foresee their worth, but for now here are the items i know that will most likely help. Also my recommendation will be for the 150 LUX. (exception being Ring of Haste) so if I'm recommending a 150 Lux, i will most likely recommend the 130 lux for lower levels, since it's just a water down version.
Lux Rings
Ring of Haste 30% speed haste, Health 100, Str 30 lvl 100 (if you have full frozen) and or want to use Beastbone/Dragon gloves.
Ring of War 50 vit, 200 physical and spell evasion.
I prefer this ring over all other LUX rings. First of off, you cant go wrong with having more VIT. Also skill attacks is the usual cause for my death, and increasing the evasion of those skills that do the most damage to you, which are Spell attacks, and Physical attack are a tremendous benefit.
Ring of Might 50 str, +200 wounding, and weakening evasion.
Skill rings from the new update are much easier to obtain and are very practical. Grand and Royal dropped from various new 5* bosses around the Caverns.
I currently used these skill rings Royal Riposte, Royal Shadow Strike, Royal Life Steal
Aggragoth rings
Godly +50, Resist physical +30，Resist elemental +30
Imperial +45 Resist physical +28，Resist elemental +28
Royal +40 Resist physical +25，Resist elemental +25
* if you have them great! Still not worth buying for this spear build, but the added resist always makes having these rings worth while.
King Vorum drops
Burial Ring of Spear Mastery Dexterity +20, Spear +50, Weakening Attk Evasion +50
Not a great ring, but a great choice for helping you train up spearing if your skill is lacking.
Bracelets
LUX
Bracelet of Shrouding. + 500 to all evading abillities.
not much difference if you're skills are under 1000, but if this boost your abillities to 1300 there is a dramatic difference in evading skill based attacks (RECOMMENDED)
Bracelet of Souls 20 per tick and adds 100 resist to elemental damage, +250 energy
A good choice for energy regen if you're using a DPS necklace
Bracelet of endurance adds 200 resist to elemental damage, +200 health, and energy
Aggragoth Bracelets
Reaper's Bracelet of Spears Rend +5, Spear +250, STR+75
Shadow's Bracelet of Dex Fast Reflex +5, Cunning +250, STR +75
Offhands
Dagger of Bounty + 25 energy/health regen, pierce 30, Poison 80, + 250 attack
Axe of Conquest 300 elemental damage, +250 to 1 elemental resist, +250 attack, 150 str.
ElderBlade, 150 cold damage, 60 focus, 60 vit
Shield of the Ravager deals 50-100 damage to attacker (* not really sure about this, but would love to give it a try)
Neck
talisman of stars +40 energy/health regen, +200 health, energy
Amulet of Annihilation, 120 heat damage, +100 attack, +200 health/energy
Charms
I use the OW boss quest charm +100 to physical attacks evasion
As well as the new Beltane 2013 summer event Sunfire dps charms
King Vorum drops
Slashing Charm of the Ghoul Play Dead +10, Spear +100, Resist Slash +60
*not listing charms that aren't available any more.
Armor
If you don't have frozen, and are not in a clan that can help you achieve getting full frozen, Update 4 has provided quest based armor that is very decent, and in the case for ancienct beastbone, is better than frozen for soloing.
Adament armour is decent for the level, but IMO I would save the money and either go for collecting summoning runes for Oynx/Obsidian armour starting lev req 120, and or later saving up beast bone shards for your beastbone/ancient armour when your reach 145. Like i said previously i was killing 4* boggans with warden's armour, so having Meteor, Opal/Flint should be good enough until you can start collecting runes and bones.
The Solo build for Grouping/Bossing
You most likely won't be the top dps in a good clan. Nor will you get the kills on bosses in good groups. But what i guarantee is you'll be the toughest Son_of_a_Rouge in group. You'll see other rogues drop like flies when bosses let out their AOE, and you and the tank will be the only one left standing. On some bosses you'll be able to sub in for the tank for a bit, and if you're lucky be able to shake the aggro off when tank recovers. Also with the added cursed feature from to many deaths close together, this can be the down fall of any group. So having as little death as possible is more important than having a few extra point to you're dps IMO.
At 150 you'll be able to solo bosses like Brutus without pots, and Falgren with pots/haste but not stress over the timer on the pots next use.
Solo Leveling Guide with Spear 115-161
Blackstones leveling 115-130
If you're looking for decent poison dps armour you can try and level OW at the Fortress Outskirts Leystone.
At level 120 you can start the Onyx armour quest by the NPC beside the bridge.
I suggest avoiding all 3-4*Mage/Warrior Blackstones for solo lvling because they are a bit over powered.
If you level there from 115-130 getting full Onyx shouldn't be too hard. You'll probably have some Obsidian upgrades as well. I don't recommend staying there past 130 just to get the upgraded Obsid armor. Get to the Boggans right away and start collecting Bone Shards. That's the armour you want for spearing!
Boggan leveling 115-161
My true recommendation at level 115 would be to start off with the yellow Boggans right away by Fianna Encampment. Hopefully you have your Full Meteor or Opal armour. I wouldn't even bother getting Adament armour, but if you have gold to burn, it's pretty decent for lvl 120.
Start with the Boggan Foragers and as you level closer to 120 start killing just outside the entrance to their Tribal tunnels. The reason being is that Ancient BeastBone Armour is the best armour you can obtain as a solo-rogue. The only armour that is better is the DragonLord armour which you can never obtain soloing or with small groups
For the BeastBone amour you'll need to collect 5 of each type of bone shard for the basic bone armour, and 10 more for it's upgrade. These bone shards drop randomly off of any boggans (not the boggan's beasts). The drops are rare, and the lower lvl boggans seem to drop them less frequently and drop more common shards. The 4* boggans have a better chance at dropping, plus dropping a rarer type of bone shard as well. The rarest being the grand shard.
minor-handwraps
lesser-footguards
common-cowl
greater-breeches
grand--jerkin
*same for onyx/obsidian
when you level past 120, start moving into the Boggan cavern and land the Tribal Leystone.
in the entrance you'll see the first Bone Merchant's quest which you won't be able to unlocks, but is a place to find respite when you need to reheal.
At level 140 you will unlock the Bone Merchant quest (where you need to raid eggs from a Boggan Hatchery and give to the merchants.) When unlocked you'll be able to buy you're first bone spear. Also you can actually buy bone armor called Wyrmbone. It's decent armour, with slightly better stats than the quest Beastbone armour. It also has added stat to dex and str, where as the quest armour adds bonuses to health and energy. The store bought armour/resist are slightly better than the quest armour as well. But what makes the quest armour better (for rogues) than the store bought is it provides bonuses to skills. For example the Beastbone Helm gives bonus damage to Shadow Strike, also the bonus is added to the current skill level, so your energy usage of the skill stays the same. (the breachers is the only quest armour that has little benifit to spearing, which gives +bonuses to damage for the sneaky skill.)
At level 145 you will unlock the first bone armour quest in Fianna encampment which is the handwraps. Then every 2-3 levels after, it will unlock the next armour piece.
The great part about the armour quest is, once you achieve the basic armour, you can immediately upgrade it if you have the 10 extra bone shards into ancient beastbone.. Which is why i recommend starting with the Boggans early.
Here is a boggan list of levels and what their skill based attacks consist of.
130 Raiders/Workers (light yellow) Pierce (*needs confirmation)
135Ember/Cinder Boggans (red) Fire
140Poison/Toxic Boggans(green) Poison
145SunBoggans (yellow) Magic (*needs confirmation)
150 Frost/Ice Boggans (purple) Ice
155 Blight/Death Boggans (dark purple/blackish) weakening based skills (*needs confirmation)
Leveling off the ones in the hallway is by far easier to do, but i recommend learning how to tackle the ones in side the main rooms. That's where the 4*s are, and you definitely want their exp and bone shards. What i've learned to do is small circuts inside the rooms. Kill 4-5 of them on the left or right side, then starting back at the first one you killed when he respawns. Learn which ones roam, and avoid the Boggan Beasts. (great exp, but they don't drop bone shards, and their DOT poison makes them horrible to solo.)
past the 160 bone merchant
160 purple boggans RazorFangs... The sad thing is, if you don't have your 15 grand/greater bones by now, you're not going to get them by killing these boggans. The great thing is all the RazorFang boggans are 3* and easy to solo, and they give +6k exp. The spacing of them is much better than in the boggan rooms, with only 2 roamers. Easy to track their paths. Although this is where 4* soloing stops with boggans. The 160-165 4*s in the Dragon lord rooms all have choas, and hit extremely hard. I've only been able to solo them twice without using pot, and even when i did, it was more by good luck than proper skilling. Stick with the 160 3* and when you reach level 161 you've graduated to the deep cavern leystone! GJ!
RedRouge signing off!
UPDATE 4 the Solo Spear rogue.
#1
Last edited by RedRouge on Fri Sep 13, 2013 3:10 am, edited 4 times in total.
and now I'm thinking about a spear rogue alt
