Has anyone beaten the game as a melee combat rogue? I'm trying to play and beat the game as a melee rogue focused class but I am having a bit of trouble. My usual build consists mostly of Daggers, Two Weapon Fighting, Assassination, Artful Dodger, Perception, Wand Crafting, and Archaeologist. The farthest I've gotten with this build is the 5th floor. I cleared all of the floor other then a monster spawning trap. I went back and popped the trap expecting to kill everything very quickly but I had no such luck. It spawned a lot of eels and I was killed on the last one. The silly acid attack killed me it sucked. >.< So, I was wondering if anyone Has had success as a melee rogue character. I was also wondering if people had tweeks for the build I'm using. I usually skill up with my 1st point into daggers for Two Attacks One dagger, then my 2nd point into Artful Dodger for the Aikido for adventurers, then my 3rd point into assassination for Slim Customer, and my 4th into Archeology for It belongs in a museum. But after that I am lost as to how I should build my character. I have debated swapping in Tinkering or Burglary but I am not too sure. Any help from you guys would be great!
I've had some success with a dodge build. My build was this. Burglary Tinkering Artful Dodger Unarmed Vegan Fungal Assassination Getting started with this can be a bit tricky since ultimately it relies on a 100% dodge rate to stay alive in melee, building up to that takes time and the damage output on this build isn't incredibly high (until you get some decent books anyhow), though you do have tinkering to provide you with ranged options when you need them. Melee is a wonderful thing but I have yet to win with a character who NEVER used a ranged attack of some sort. Anyhow, early levels in unarmed and vegan will give you the stats you need to survive the first few floors (just one in fungal for the pet is great too) after that you'll want to blitz Burglary for Ninja Vanish and Move in Mysterious Ways, which will keep you alive in any situation that gets out of hand, fungal will provide you with extra invisibility as well as heals, after that keep cranking your dodge until you're nigh invincible. Just watch out for spell casters who don't care how cool your smooth moves are. Off them with ranged attacks whenever possible.
Does things usually get any better in Dredmor after 4th lvl? Im currently lvl 8 at that lvl with a 36 chance of dodge and its been brutal. I use spears,artful dodger, and other finesse skills to get a decent dodge rate. I am playing on normal and am not sure how many more lvls there are. The tough times I have are with the monster zoo. Melee is definitely brutal in this game.
You can level as high as you have skills to put points into. Most people finish the game around an average of level 30 or so for the full 15 floor dungeon crawl. Less if you're only going 10 floors obviously. Melee can be brutal and requires a bit of finesse. Remember to fight at bottlenecks whenever possible, especially when fighting monster zoos. Don't fight named monsters in melee if you can avoid it and don't be shy with your consumable items. Squid bolts for instance can make short work of monster zoos. Keep an eye out for good equipment, it might be necessary to sacrifice a bit of dodge in the early game for armor absorption until you can work up a good dodge percentage.
Ok sounds good and yes things are a bit better now. I have a dodge of 51 and am shredding through monsters with just my chars finesse. I was going to ask another question since you are helpful. When this char is done, what about crossbow/ranged weapons. I never understood them, do you restock ammo while in between fights? It said something about that next to the ranged weapons skill. I always wanted to try out an expert ranged combat but didn't want to run out of ammo. Any info you might know is helpful. Thanks, -Dave
The way ammo recovery works is every time you fire a bolt or throw something, there is a chance it won't be used up. Instead it will fall at the feet of the monster you fired at and you can pick it back up. The more points you have in crossbows the higher the chance that this will happen. Thrown does the same thing for thrown weapons. If you want to run a ranged build you should decide at the start if you want to run with Thrown or Crossbows since their damage is calculated differently. Thrown is usually better for characters who are primarily melee since it gets bonus damage from melee power but you can run it as your main source of damage. Lorrelian ran a pretty good thread on it a while back. Link here. http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/challenge-run-looking-for-sarah-conner.2656/ Generally either way you go you are going to want a crafting skill to go with to keep your supplies up. Smithing for Thrown, Tinkering for Crossbows. From there you can do all sorts of things with the build though you'll probably want to emphasize damage and have some way of maintaining distance in addition to the usual healing and escapes. Here's a sample Crossbow build. Archery Tinkering Perception Alchemy Rogue Scientist Archery and tinkering are the backbone of the build providing you with ammo and extra crossbow damage, both from raw stats and the ability tinker new Crossbows, better bolts, and useful encrusts. Perception gives the sight range you need to make the most of ranged abilities and also provides random loot to fuel your tinkering and alchemy. Alchemy is good for healing potions and more useful encrusts. Alchemy and Tinkering both synergize incredibly well with Rogue Scientist which will give you a bit of AoE to help out with zoos and such. For the last 2 skills you could throw in Burglary for escapes and a token melee skill just in case or splash a bit of magic since alchemy will provide all the booze and mana potions you'll need. There's really just a ton of ways to do ranged builds.
For a melee rogue there are two paths: either max dodge or counter. Your build suggests maxing counter because you already have daggers and two-weapon fighting. Well maybe you should add swords and dual wield them while using the daggers stance. Although I made a different choice for a melee rogue: Magical Law Blood Mage Piracy Archeology Asassination Daggers Dual Wield Not so different from your original build, but it provides unlimited swashbuckling via Magical Law's capstone which feels almost game-breaking.
Hmm.. Im getting further along the original campaign to get to the lich. Is there a viable strategy for this character class when it comes to defense and guarding your life against him, or is it just a crapshoot? Im only asking as Im lvl 14 and have a high dodge rating approaching lvl 8 of the dungeon. With strategy, the only characters I hate are the real heavy hitters in melee combat. Other than that, everything else dies quickly.
Once you hit 100% dodge you should be able to walk right up to him and swing for the rafters. You'll want to pick up what defenses you can against his magic and if you take half your life in damage use invisibility or teleport to back off and heal. Rinse and repeat. Watch out for the Fulminaric Bolt especially. It can wreck your day in a trice.
