~ ` The Rogue Caster
A very versatile character.
He starts out with his stats spread amongst Strength (30), Vitality (35), Intelligence (25) and an abbundance of Dexterity (60).
These stats make him a perfect character to play as a hybrid character.
To make him succesfull, you will need every point in intelligence. So don't waste any on something else.
~ ` Why ?
You are taking the benefits of both playing types.
No regen from melee (higher compares to what a mage is possible)
And always high damage (casters, got to love them)
Amazing synergy created when having the right gear.
Not only as a rogue, but even if you pass to next classes.
You can pickup use swords all the way up to a monk.
And as any other character, use the same charms anywhere.
Great for your proficiencies!
Fun to play -- Don't feel obliged to keep on dealing low damage while going no regen.
Deal fast quick damage, many kills, and nice regen to check upon the forums / etc.
~ ` Equipment
Not only his stats are versatile, even what he can wear is.
He can wear any light weapon, and armors up to scale.
This makes it very easy to find the gear that you need, compared to the other classes.
Also, not all of the gear is most sought after.
Melee swords are not crazy expensive anymore.
Medium intelligence armors are common.
And there aren't too many new people trying to build a nice RC.
~ ` Building The Melee
What you are to achieve by going melee the first part is
- Faster leveling
- No regeneration
- Getting affordable gear
A pure caster needs really good gear to get him no regen past level 15.
A melee guy needs decent items to get him going fast.
How to achieve quick leveling with melee?
The idea is to have stats compensating your life loss, while you are dealing a nice chunk of damage.
The lower life lost (defence by armor) the more you can fixate on damage instead of mods compensating the loss.
You have to find a nice balance there. For life per kill and life steal to work good, you need high damage.
To stay alive with nice defence, life per attack comes in better.
The best ofcourse would be to try and get the highest damage you can pump out, while staying alive.
You can achieve this by getting really nice level 0 gear, but that is just luxury.
You can get to level 15 - 25 fast... and get a new armor & charm there that work really nice!
Also, by choosing only swords, you can keep leveling it's proficiency all the way up to a monk.
Who wouldn't love that?!
So what you would need is a good synergy between these
Nice damage output
Defence reducing the damage
Stats compensating the life lost.
Especially by getting an armor around level 20, your life lost will be reduced quite a few.
As a charm around level 20 can spawn with higher stats, it is adviced to improve there aswell.
But remember, the most important thing is to keep a nice damage output while staying alive.
~ ` Building The Caster
It is hard to say when you should start casting.
Mainly because it is so depending on when your melee starts to become slower than casting.
Usually this is from around level 30.
You can achieve a great synergy by going melee and casting at the same time.
When you go casting, you should have absolutely no health problems.
This due to the nice defence given by
- High level medium armor
- High intelligence
- Decent dexterity (from starting points).
Because you have no health problems, you can use this to melee with.
Use your mana to cast with, and your health to loose when melee'ing.
Getting dual regen then is nice, but a luxury.
Might aswell focus on high mana regen, and cast much... and melee every now and then.
When you start to notice that regenning your mana & casting is faster than going melee, stop trying to do both.
This usually is around level 35-40.
When you start casting, the only problem you should have is mana. All the way.
If you notice that your life is going down too fast, even though you have a nice leather/scale armor...
You will have to boost your damage by getting more damage output. Achievable by intelligence / EE.
This should take you at a nice speed to the higher levels.
After level 60-65, this can be hard to achieve. So a healing charm for these levels never hurts.
That also works very well versus well monsters.
There is not more than that to the casting part than that.
Although, the mana is the main problem of a RC.
Trying to boost your damage output, and getting in fast regens is your main goal.
You might have 2/3'rd of a mages kills per regen, but regen takes half as long.
If you manage to get fast regens, and fast kills (the main idea behind the RC)...
You can start thinking of other ways to improve him. But don't let this take away from the damage!
Especially magic per combat round, magic per kill and mana consumption work really nice.
It might not seem like a big improvement, but these stats work really nice along with the high damage output.
You can achieve even 15+ on your MCC with it. But, don't expect more than ~ 7 - 10 at first.
~ ` Actual Items
Melee
You are aiming to get around 15 ee below max spawnable.
This will get you going really fast! Although, can get a tad expensive.
Just getting a nice setup works fine.
This should be the least to aim for on your weapon:
Level 0 - 40 EE
Level 5 - 60 EE
Level 10 - 70 EE
Level 15 - 80 EE
Level 20 - 95 EE
Level 25 - 105 EE
Level 30 - 110 EE
Level 35 - 120 EE
Note that you might not need all of those -- if you start fully casting earlier!
If you wonder when you should start thinking about getting the caster gear...
You should do this when the no regen part is about to stop.
Armor & Charm
You are trying to get a synergy going between the two of these.
You are aiming for these to to provide damage boost and no regen.
A bigger damage boost requires less life management. So choose wisely.
A small low level gear guideline:
Armor: Tier III Scale
~ 15-25 Strength
Charm: Max Tier III
~ 60 Lpk
~ 10 Strength
Armor: Level 20 Scale
~ 30 - 35 Strength
Charm: Max Level 20
~ 100 Lpk
~ 10 Strength
You can switch the stats around.
Casting
This is pretty straight forward. You are aiming to get as many kills with the decent mana you have.
You will have around 1750 mana when you start to cast, ending with around 5000 mana.
Like said, fast kills, fast regens.
Aiming to get as much EE on charms
And highest intelligence possible on the weapon
And highest intelligence possible on a medium armor (possibly a robe aswell, if you don't need the life)
A small charm guideline:
Level 30 - 130 EE
Level 35 - 140 EE
Level 40 - 140 EE
Level 45 - 150 EE
Level 50 - 150 EE / 180 EE
Level 55 - 160 EE
Level 50 - 150 EE
Healing charm -- can also be level 55.
You shouldn't need it earlier on
Getting charms every 10 levels is adviced. With an additional level 30 charm.
Getting one for every 5 levels is not the most effective, as the mana cost of charms goes up aswell!
Might get a level 50 charm to MQ with, but in the end a 55 charm will be faster.
Weapon / Armor
Preferably a sword, as you can use it on a rogue & samurai & paladin.
Preferably a scale armor, as you can use it on a rogue & samurai & paladin.
Besides, it gives really nice defence.
Pretty straight forward, you will only look for damage boost at first.
After that, you can think of adding mana regain stats besides them.
Never let that overtake your damage output!
Level 30:
+40 Intelligence
Level 55:
+50 Intelligence
This guide has been written and inspired by myself only, so if you have a problem with it come to me.
It is based on my experiences, and I am merely trying to share them with this guide.
This is not adviced for starting players, rather for current Rogue Casters and Mages.
This post was edited by eekzie on Sep 21 2008 09:27am