The Silent Death: A Handbook to Sniper Rogues
What is this Guide?
This Guide it entirely devoted to the art of playing a ranged rogue, power options, common MC and other discussions. I created this Guide since playing a ranged rogue is considered a 'niche' and I think in general that it differs enough from a standard rogue to warrant its own specially catered handbook.
Why play the ranged rogue?
Many people hold their noses up when talking about ranged rogues since the idea of using a bow is generally considered the territory of rangers. Common conceptions are that a ranged rogue is inferior to a melee rogue. Common conceptions could not be more wrong!
A range rogue is still a rogue! As a result, you still are one of the kings when it comes to controlling enemies, applying mind numbing debuffs while still applying significant single target damage. While being ranged will prevent you from accessing certain immensly popular rogue powers (knockout), there are many new powers for the ranged audience which are more than compensate. You are just as accurate as a dagger based melee rogue before feats, and pack a larger punch! You will take a small hit as a debuffer, although if thats a role you relish, there are still a great number of those powers from ranged.
Spreading out the love. Ranged rogues have great natural access to a variety of multi or area strike powers. While popular opinion dictates that rogues should only focus on one target a time, the fact is a ranged rogue are not sacrificing their single target killing and are only adding area damage as a bonus!
Survivability. Most people never consider this as a Rogue, in deed most Rogue players simply accept the fact that they will take damage, and be a healing sponge for any party healer. In return, they are one of the most useful classes in the game for any party. Fair trade off, right? Well a ranged rogue can perform a similar role and (when properly played) significantly limit any exposure to damage they should be receiving (by either not being a target or being a very inconvenient target for enemies).
Damage. Even by rogue standards, you deal the pain. While melee abilities generally deal more weapon dice, your ranged attacks are no slouch. Add in the fact you are rolling d10's t many melee rogues d4's and d6's, and things start looking good. With the ability to stack on a number of static modifiers, properly built ranged rogues will keep up to their melee counter parts.
Precision. Sniper rogues (depending on their build) can maintain a very easy source of combat advantage per round. Coupled with sharp shooter talent and very long 'short' ranges on their weapons, Sniper Rogues are not only immensely accurate but they can deliver the pain where it needs to be delivered. This allows a rogue to handily take care of enemy controllers and leaders while their melee cousins are sometimes compromised by close range threats. A superior crossbow rogue on average has a 10%-5% higher chance per die roll to hit a target vs your standard bow/great bow ranger (depending somewhat on your weapon choice).
I use the following system on powers, feats, races and just about everything
Red - Poor power choice, bottom of the barrel. No reason to pick this over something else.
Purple - Not completely useless, but you can do better.
Black - An average power. There are no flaws to it, but noting to write home to mother about.
Blue - A good pick! Strong, but nothing that will define your character.
Sky Blue - A very strong pick, one that will help define your character.
Gold - Absolutely amazing powers that make you what you are. You are probably hurting your charting if you do not take this power.
A quick overview of the Rogue Class from the Snipers Point of View:
Hit Points: Blue? You have to be kidding me right? Its the same as every other Striker just about, so why blue?Well remember that this is relative. A sniper rogue defenses mean they have (on average) less damage coming in. In that respect as a striker, your similar hp means lot more long term.
Healing Surges: Nothing out of the ordinary here. While you should not be using many healing surges, you have them for a rainy day. Your relatively small surge value isnt ideal, so pray on your defenses to keep you healthy.
Defense Bonus: Since we stay far away and have cover, reflex attacks are (aside from AC) are the primary stat enemies will be targeting. Sure ranged fortitude and will attacks exist, but they are not as common as the reflex counter part. That being said, many of our save defenses are based along what build and stats you are building with your sniper rogue. Generally a Darkstrider Wisdom Rogue or a Brutal Scoundrel Rogue will sport the best defenses against monsters. Intelligencebased rogues will suffer.
Proficiencies
Armor: Almost the very bottom of the barrel, we only look down on Wizards as far as armor proficiencies go (anyone else in cloth tends to sport some trick to boost their AC and mitigate the choice). Repairable with some feats, but every feat spent on defense generally costs us some utility or damage dealing benefit.
Weapons: For a weapon based striker class, our proficiencies are horrible. We get access to a hand full of weapons and thats it? Now, all things are relative, and rogues make fantastic uses of these weapons, but unless you go the thrown dagger route, weapon based feats are more or less mandatory.
Rogue Talent
Rogue Weapon Talent: For a dagger focused Sniper, the +1 to hit is valuable. Generally given the poor nature of shurikens however, its will limit most of your career to your deadly knife friends. If you choose to use a bow instead of a crossbow, this might be your pick for flexibility reasons.
Sharpshooter Talent: For the majority of Sniper Rogues, this is it. A +1 bonus to Crossbows is immense and remains the popular choice. Sling users also benefit from this.
Rogue Tactics
Artful Dodger: You spend most of your life at ranged, so bonuses vs OA arnt useful. Sliding enemies can assist the party, but your feat support are generally focused at close range users. Still its a viable way to do our job but far from ideal.
Brutal Scoundrel: Strangely this makes for a good ranged rogue! A number of brutal scoundrel based powers are usable from ranged, and the feat support for Brutal makes it a competitive choice in Epic. However in general play the inability to sustain combat advantage from ranged can cause issues. Unless your party has a lot of melee whom are working with you to ensure ranged CA via Distant Advantage you will loose damage out to our next option...
Cunning Sneak: With bad feat support, few powers that use the tactic or give it much additional benefit, why is this sky blue. Simple: Easy and Repeatable method of sustaining ranged CA. Until level 16 where you receive Hide in Plain Sight this is very important. Any round without CA means the loss of our striker mechanic, so between the superior damage of other tactics and Cunning Sneak, you will end up with more damage as a cunning sneak. We can pray in the future that Cunning Sneak receives more feat support, especially to make Intelligence worth while. If that is the case it might deserve a gold star.
Ruthless Ruffian: Where to begin? Or not rather. Very few ranged powers and the stat support rarely stays in line with a Sniper Rogues desires. Feat support is so so. This is primarily a melee rogue Tactic, and even melee rogues hold their noses up to it. No reason to consider this at this time.
What is this Guide?
This Guide it entirely devoted to the art of playing a ranged rogue, power options, common MC and other discussions. I created this Guide since playing a ranged rogue is considered a 'niche' and I think in general that it differs enough from a standard rogue to warrant its own specially catered handbook.
Why play the ranged rogue?
Many people hold their noses up when talking about ranged rogues since the idea of using a bow is generally considered the territory of rangers. Common conceptions are that a ranged rogue is inferior to a melee rogue. Common conceptions could not be more wrong!
A range rogue is still a rogue! As a result, you still are one of the kings when it comes to controlling enemies, applying mind numbing debuffs while still applying significant single target damage. While being ranged will prevent you from accessing certain immensly popular rogue powers (knockout), there are many new powers for the ranged audience which are more than compensate. You are just as accurate as a dagger based melee rogue before feats, and pack a larger punch! You will take a small hit as a debuffer, although if thats a role you relish, there are still a great number of those powers from ranged.
Spreading out the love. Ranged rogues have great natural access to a variety of multi or area strike powers. While popular opinion dictates that rogues should only focus on one target a time, the fact is a ranged rogue are not sacrificing their single target killing and are only adding area damage as a bonus!
Survivability. Most people never consider this as a Rogue, in deed most Rogue players simply accept the fact that they will take damage, and be a healing sponge for any party healer. In return, they are one of the most useful classes in the game for any party. Fair trade off, right? Well a ranged rogue can perform a similar role and (when properly played) significantly limit any exposure to damage they should be receiving (by either not being a target or being a very inconvenient target for enemies).
Damage. Even by rogue standards, you deal the pain. While melee abilities generally deal more weapon dice, your ranged attacks are no slouch. Add in the fact you are rolling d10's t many melee rogues d4's and d6's, and things start looking good. With the ability to stack on a number of static modifiers, properly built ranged rogues will keep up to their melee counter parts.
Precision. Sniper rogues (depending on their build) can maintain a very easy source of combat advantage per round. Coupled with sharp shooter talent and very long 'short' ranges on their weapons, Sniper Rogues are not only immensely accurate but they can deliver the pain where it needs to be delivered. This allows a rogue to handily take care of enemy controllers and leaders while their melee cousins are sometimes compromised by close range threats. A superior crossbow rogue on average has a 10%-5% higher chance per die roll to hit a target vs your standard bow/great bow ranger (depending somewhat on your weapon choice).
I use the following system on powers, feats, races and just about everything
Red - Poor power choice, bottom of the barrel. No reason to pick this over something else.
Purple - Not completely useless, but you can do better.
Black - An average power. There are no flaws to it, but noting to write home to mother about.
Blue - A good pick! Strong, but nothing that will define your character.
Sky Blue - A very strong pick, one that will help define your character.
Gold - Absolutely amazing powers that make you what you are. You are probably hurting your charting if you do not take this power.
A quick overview of the Rogue Class from the Snipers Point of View:
Hit Points: Blue? You have to be kidding me right? Its the same as every other Striker just about, so why blue?Well remember that this is relative. A sniper rogue defenses mean they have (on average) less damage coming in. In that respect as a striker, your similar hp means lot more long term.
Healing Surges: Nothing out of the ordinary here. While you should not be using many healing surges, you have them for a rainy day. Your relatively small surge value isnt ideal, so pray on your defenses to keep you healthy.
Defense Bonus: Since we stay far away and have cover, reflex attacks are (aside from AC) are the primary stat enemies will be targeting. Sure ranged fortitude and will attacks exist, but they are not as common as the reflex counter part. That being said, many of our save defenses are based along what build and stats you are building with your sniper rogue. Generally a Darkstrider Wisdom Rogue or a Brutal Scoundrel Rogue will sport the best defenses against monsters. Intelligencebased rogues will suffer.
Proficiencies
Armor: Almost the very bottom of the barrel, we only look down on Wizards as far as armor proficiencies go (anyone else in cloth tends to sport some trick to boost their AC and mitigate the choice). Repairable with some feats, but every feat spent on defense generally costs us some utility or damage dealing benefit.
Weapons: For a weapon based striker class, our proficiencies are horrible. We get access to a hand full of weapons and thats it? Now, all things are relative, and rogues make fantastic uses of these weapons, but unless you go the thrown dagger route, weapon based feats are more or less mandatory.
Rogue Talent
Rogue Weapon Talent: For a dagger focused Sniper, the +1 to hit is valuable. Generally given the poor nature of shurikens however, its will limit most of your career to your deadly knife friends. If you choose to use a bow instead of a crossbow, this might be your pick for flexibility reasons.
Sharpshooter Talent: For the majority of Sniper Rogues, this is it. A +1 bonus to Crossbows is immense and remains the popular choice. Sling users also benefit from this.
Rogue Tactics
Artful Dodger: You spend most of your life at ranged, so bonuses vs OA arnt useful. Sliding enemies can assist the party, but your feat support are generally focused at close range users. Still its a viable way to do our job but far from ideal.
Brutal Scoundrel: Strangely this makes for a good ranged rogue! A number of brutal scoundrel based powers are usable from ranged, and the feat support for Brutal makes it a competitive choice in Epic. However in general play the inability to sustain combat advantage from ranged can cause issues. Unless your party has a lot of melee whom are working with you to ensure ranged CA via Distant Advantage you will loose damage out to our next option...
Cunning Sneak: With bad feat support, few powers that use the tactic or give it much additional benefit, why is this sky blue. Simple: Easy and Repeatable method of sustaining ranged CA. Until level 16 where you receive Hide in Plain Sight this is very important. Any round without CA means the loss of our striker mechanic, so between the superior damage of other tactics and Cunning Sneak, you will end up with more damage as a cunning sneak. We can pray in the future that Cunning Sneak receives more feat support, especially to make Intelligence worth while. If that is the case it might deserve a gold star.
Ruthless Ruffian: Where to begin? Or not rather. Very few ranged powers and the stat support rarely stays in line with a Sniper Rogues desires. Feat support is so so. This is primarily a melee rogue Tactic, and even melee rogues hold their noses up to it. No reason to consider this at this time.