Awww the rogue
Probably the most underused class in LadderSlasher yet one of the best and most versatile IMO. Any new player with a limited amount of fg should choose rogue as first class in my opinion. Here are some points to consider when choosing a rogue.
Caster
Very cheap gear but you will have less of a big mana pool but will be able to afford stronger int weapons/armor. I've seen 45 int swords go for the same price as say 30 int staves. Lets say your getting +15 extra int off each weapon/armor thats 30 extra int from gear.
Rogue base int - 25 (+30) = 55 int
Magician base int - 60
They will have similar int
Rogue base vit - 35
Magician base vit - 20
So as far as going pure caster goes, I'd recommend using a magician instead of a rogue if you plan on doing a lot of catacombs. Reasons for this are.
1- You will have lower life, but this isn't as big of an issue in catacombs since there will always be healers ( in this case you, god forbid you go offensive caster in catacombs)
2- You will have a bigger mana pool (around 2k more at levels 55+) which translates into more heals, longer catacombs, better groups.
However if your going to go pure caster but plan on playing arena with a small budget I'd recommend going rogue. Reasons for this are.
1- Assuming your on a budget you may not have enough fg to buy a healing charm at which point you'll need your vitality to be higher to allow decent amount of kills before regen.
2- Scale int armors are super cheap and also offer some better defense vs mobs. In catacombs you can stand in back do receiving damage isn't as important.
If you have a decent budget though to build your caster (2k+ fg ready to invest) I'd have to say a magician will be a better caster.
Another important thing to keep in mind when going caster on rogue is that it can melee the lower levels 1-20 much more efficiency then the mage with similar gear.
As far as mana pool in arena goes, I find it to be negligible as you may get 30% less kills but your regens will be 30% faster, so it should even out in the end, I think.
Melee
The rogue already starts with a base of 60 dexterity, so if your planning on going melee with rogue I'd recommend you put all points into str and get dex on one peice of equipement str on the other. Some people have had good experiences using EE on scale armors, however I personally have never tried it but do know that they are cheap as dirt.
One thing that separates the rogue from the other feeder melee classes is the fact that it can use staves and daggers.
Staves - Probably the 1st or 2nd cheapest EE weapon to buy (clubs being first).
Daggers - Assuming you pass on your rogue you can use them on samurai
So for those of you that like consistent damage when you go melee this is an intresting option as axes can't be used untill paladain. Not a big deal, but still.
I'd recommend putting first 10 points into vitality if you plan on doing lots of arena, if you plan on going catacombs put first 10 into str and stand in middle/back row depending on group. It's base int also helps a lot vs caster hits that you can receive, so it's not entirely wasted.
All in all, the melee rogue is an interesting alternative and can be could for certain people but definitly not the best choice, in my opinion, as far as melee feeder classes go.
Hybrid Rogue
Now this is where to rogue gets all it's power and usefulness. I'm surprised there aren't more hybrid rogues honestly, I'm guessing it's because Hybrids take a decent amount of knowledge/fg investment to make and most *noobies* don't have either of those. The more established players that do, probably have already unlocked the other classes.
When building a Rogue hybrid there are 2 alternatives in my opinion.
The catacomb hybrid - When you catacomb the healer is always the limiting factor, however using a hybrid healer rogue you can dish out some decent damage as well as be able to heal which is a nice idea. If your building this type of character I would personally put all points into intelligence, get EE on weapon, Str on armor, HM on charm, EE on acc.charm (healing).
There are some really nice mods on scale armors that can sell for extremely cheap as nobody cares so you should look out for str/hm armors, str/int, dex/hm etc... They will probably be very cheap.
Using this build you can basically deal an acceptable amount of damage and be able to heal whenever the mage in group runs out of mana.
Arena hybrid - Well as any hybrid you will need some nice gear and some thought put into it. Again for for the obvious EE on weapon, EE on acc.charm (healing). As far as armor and charm goes, you'll need to find some good stats that will help you. Find out what your limiting factor is, if you need more damage go for Str, if you feel you need better heals go for healmastery and so on.
You should aim at least, 80 hard stat points into intelligence, 100 str, 60 dexterity, 35 vit ( you should leave this base as hybrid needs a lot of stats which can be better used elsewhere).
Assuming you dump all points into int until your level 55 you'll have 85 int at level 55 and can stat rest of points into str. Meaning you'll want to look for armors/charms with 45+ str for it to be a viable arena hybrid.
One thing to keep in my when deciding to go hybrid is that unless your gear is not up to par getting kills at levels 55+ will be painfully slow as you just won't have enough damage to sustain a good killing rate. However in the current version of LadderSlasher hybrid is the only way to go if you want to no regen from 1-71.
End thoughts
Some other things to keep in mind when choosing a rogue is that gear is also a lot easier to find. You will have much more diversity in the equipment you want to get. If time is a limiting factor for you finding things on the marketplace will be easier done with a rogue. ie: finding a 45 int dagger can be a bitch
If your planning on playing hardcore though I wouldn't recommend going melee/hybrid Rogue, despite the fact that gear will be easier to find (something very annoying in Hardcore) I believe it's inability to use Heavy armors as a melee class do not make it a viable Hardcore character.
The fact there is almost no catacombs either can be a challenge for all you catastars out there as well.
As far as going rogue caster though, here are my thought.
Number 2 rule in Hardcore NEVER PLAY ANY CHARACTER WITH UNDER 50 VITALITY
This means that you would need to invest your first points into vitality, so you will have a base of 50 vit at level 5. So for those 5 levels your getting 25 mana to your mana pool which the magician is getting 60.
When the magician gets 50 vitality level 20 it will have 60 int, while your rogue caster will only have 40 int. This will make your mana pool very small. It's up to you to decide whether it's worth it or not, I'm going to have to say no though.
Lastly, building a rogue adds an undeniable cool factor as well as being a fun class to play.