I've been playing though with the new companions and while the Ranger seems to work fine, and I'm familiar with the class from my last game, the rogue ... well.

Right now I'm at level 7, still on the first map, clearing out the last sections. I kid you not, at the end of every combat the rogue is dead 50% of the time. I just can't keep this guy alive.

Combat generally goes like this. First round he goes invisible and moves up to the enemies, generally targeting mages and such. Second round he'll get in three or four back stabs (IF I CAN EVER GET HIM POSITIONED RIGHT!). That's generally it as he's dead the next round. If he does survive I have him teleport out and hide in the bushes.

The guy must have some giant 'KILL ME!' sign on his back or something as everyone seems to target him as soon as he's visible. It may be because of the major sneak attack damage he just did in his last turn, so all enemies consider him the most dangerous apparently and target him. I'm to the point now where I have to go back to town and stock up on res scrolls just for him.

So how do you guys keep him alive?

Did you considered taking the Stench talent?

Try saving enough APs and positioning yourself to end each turn in stealth.

How can I go into Stealth again if it's in cool down?

Sneaking has no cooldown. You can sneak for 1 AP in combat if you have 5 sneaking (as long as you're not within any enemy's sight cone). You can get 2 from items.

Sneak doesn't have a cool down like Walk in Shadows does. So long as you are behind the enemy lines and out of their direct line of sight, you can enter stealth mode for one action point.

I guess OP is confusing Sneak with Walk in Shadows? Sneak = press 'C' on your keyboard.

Sneak is key. I actually find rogues to be much more viable than rangers early game. Rogues' damage picks up much more quickly. If you want your rogue to be safe, pick a target behind whom you will be out of sight (e.g. an archer at the back of a fight), and save a few action points to hide at the end of each turn). Works a lot better with glass cannon... so that those few action points aren't your whole turn.

I'll try sneaking, but he's generally in someone's sight cone after he makes his sneak attacks.

He died again in the last battle though.

Er, so don't end up in someone's sight cone. You'll get it, just takes some practice and experimentation. Pretty sure my rogue has not died once in my current playthrough!

For the rogue to shine you need even more crowd control. Ideally only the opponent character that is attacked by the rogue can move.

Itï½´s an enormous amount of effort, thatï½´s why I have simply given up on the rogue - the return on investment (of effort) is obejectively low (looking at fight results) but may be satisfying for some people. Not for me, there are a lot of easier ways.

Regards,
Thorsten

I'm having a lot of fun with my rogue. He does a ton of damage (thanks to Guerrilla, Bully and Tenebrium daggers) and has loads of CC at his disposal: knockdown, stun, blind, silence and TWO charms. And just in case CC fails or is on cooldown, he has three skills that allow him to reposition himself without provoking an attack of opportunity. He's probably my 2nd favorite party member next to my warrior.

Well I'll keep using the companion rogue as the only reason I'm playing right now is to see the story for the new characters. But he's still dying ... often. Maybe when he gets up to around level 10+ he'll be better. He's level 8 now. Trying do the church since I got owned by that fire statue thing. Only two things I have left on this map.

Once you understand how the AI thinks, it gets much easier to have your rogue survive. Just think, "which way will each enemy charge?" and have your rogue hiding somewhere else ^^

The AI will never go looking for hidden targets when a visible target is available (even if the latter is far away). It has a learning curve, it works better when the stars align (glass cannon, guerilla, sneak 5), but I find rogues both extremely fun and extremely powerful.

If my maths is correct, for 3AP (sneak + attack), Rogues can do 8x their weapon damage (double hit, guerilla, autocrit = 2x2x2). That's some pretty serious stuff (especially when you end up generating 15-20 AP per turn).

Throw in another 50% from Bully and rogues can do massive damage, especially with crafted Tenebrium daggers at 7 Tenebrium for a 70% damage increase and an additional 15% damage increase from a different character who has 4+ Leadership.

Right, but those effects are readily available to other classes, making them less of a comparison point

I guess it does illustrate a nice part of rogue buffs though in that they should work multiplicatively rather than just additively with other buffs.

E.g. if they were just each +100% damage on hit, the effect would be much less than having things like double hits, and crits (which multiply total damage).

Well, maybe you shouldn't jump in that quickly. Wait till another character is in close combat to teleport and hide in the melee, or wait till the mobs can't all gang on your rogue.

Having one guy alone jump in a group of ennemies doesn't sound healthy you know

It works fine as long as you attack from the back (of where the enemies are facing). As long as you save enough AP to sneak at the end of the round, you should be fine most of the time.

Well I'm in a pickle now.

I'm on the second map and everyone is levels 10-11. I'm clearing some map because I'm not high enough level to take on the spiders and what-not. I've gotten all the way to the goblin camp where they are all sleeping ... and it is just killing my party that I have a rogue. Best he can do is get in one turn of sneak attacks, which maybe knocks someone's health down to about half, and then it's all about trying to hide him and run away before he dies, which is all but impossible when there are like 10 enemies ... all tough. He might as well not even be there except he draws there attention for the one turn it takes to kill him.

Now I either change the game difficulty or just quit. Honestly I'm really getting tired anyway with these difficulty spikes this game has. I've cleared about everything else I can and am left with just this sleeping camp or on to the dust storm area, which I know I'm not ready for.

I know exactly the place that you are talking about. I just finished Hiberheim and I went exploring a bit and killed these goblins just for fun. Wolgraff can charm up to 2 people with Charming Touch and Rapture (requires only an Expert Marksman investment of 1 which is also Dex based).

At any rate, he's far less likely to die if you move him to the far back of where the enemies are facing and end his turn with Sneaking. This is easy to do with Fast Track (movement boost), Walk in Shadows (invisibility) and Cloak and Dagger (6 AP to move to any in sight location within 15 meters, alternatively you can use Tactical Retreat for just 4 AP if you have 1 Expert Marksman).

My Wolgraff has Glass Cannon and he has never died. He also has a good amount of CC at his disposal (in addition to the 2 charms I already mentioned): stun (Razor's Edge), knockdown (Trip) and blind (Eye Gouge).

I would recommend sticking with him until you get the hang of him. Once you do, it makes everything a lot easier. He can deal damage on par with a 2H warrior and they are the kings of damage.

Donï½´t get it. I had a party with 2 fighters. Guess what - both spent their time enjoying the view from the cliff.

Sleeping enemies in troves. And oil does not trigger anything with sleeping people. And fire sets all connected oil in flames. And poison (e.g. after bolder bash) explodes violently ...

This specific fight can be won with and by exactly 1 mage. Uno. Or any other figure with a healthy amount in fitting scrolls.

Regards,
Thorsten

I have found the rogue to be very powerful as well. But I don't rush him into the combat. I normally use Fast Track the first round and just press space to end his turn and save the action points. The other members summon a couple of monsters (spider and fire elemental) and put them in front. Next turn I use Wait on my rogue to move last that turn. This gives me a double turn where the rogue is hasted. I can move in and normally kill one or two enemies (using backstab) in that double turn and move to safety. Try using the double-turn trick, it makes it much easier.

I feel your pain, LeBurns. I started another run through the game around the same time you did and picked up the two new companions. I have a warrior and a mage rounding up the party. I didnt like my rogue either... Wolgraff kept dying every other round (especially around level 4 - 6); I had to hotkey my rez scrolls because of him :p. But like what everyone else has been saying, sneak at level 5 keeps him alive. And for insurance's sake, I started putting air/water shields on him. He's a much better character now. Currently running at level 14.

Don't go in and attack straight away. Go invisible and just wait for the right opportunity. Once the AI focus is on your tank or summons you are less likely to be the point of attention.

The rogue has skills like Eye Gouge (blind a target), Trip (Knock down a target), Razor's Edge (Stun a target), Charming Touch (Charm a target) which can seriously change the battle in your favour. Maybe look at applying these skills to your enemies first, to change the battle in your favour first, and then start killing things.

While invisible if you can position your self near 2 or 3 targets, use charm first to make them attack each other followed by a disable spell on another enemy or just use tactical retreat (expert marksman) to move to a lone enemy which will be bread and butter for a rogue.

I'm currently playing a rogue on hard difficulty, and using the following build is working pretty good for me:

Man-at-Arms x 5 with the following talents:

- Thick Skin (Armor)
- Picture of Health (Vitality)
- Weather the Storm (Resistance)

This will help your rogue survivability.

Backstab with Bully, but without Guerilla (I'm lazy - extra backstab just as good :D).

With the following non-rogue skills (in addition to the rogue spells i suggested for you):

Oath of Desecration - Witchcraft (int)
Rage - Man-at-Arms (str) (only use when they knocked down)
Melee Power Stance - Man-at-Arms (str)
Tactical Retreat - Expert Marksman (dex)

I'm doing damage outputs like the following in phantom forest at the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpAMpSCEgQ0

If you come across a difficult battle, maybe consider getting out summons first and then using shields on your party members (earth, fire, water, air - one for each party member :D). This will allow your party to withstand more damage for a few turns in which you should really eliminate a few enemies in order to change the battle in your favour.