Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Rogue / assassin builds

Anyone have builds or experience to share with their rogue characters? I'm looking to make a high damage and very mobile rogue. Anyone willing to critique my initial thoughts?

Race:
Elf - Finesse and Flesh Sacrifice for more DMG and AP

Attributes:
Most in Finesse, maybe a couple in Con.

Talents: (I ordered them in what I think may be most important)
Backstab - necessary
Warlord - It seems good for rogues who have high DPS
Pawn - seems more useful than speedcreeper.
Glasscanon - Extra AP! but is it worth the vulnerability?
Speedcreep (is that the name?) - is the speed difference noticeable and are you sneaking often?
Guerilla - worth spending the extra 1AP sneak for +%50dmg?
Bigger&Better / Skilled up - so many talents these seem to get overshadowed.
Forgetting any important talents?

Skills:
Mostly scoundrel, 1h, and sneak, but maybe a point in Aero and Pyro for teleport and haste. 1h seems better than dual wield. Split points in scoundrel and 1h or is one more valuable than the other?

Adrenaline- burst DMG
Haste - movement + more AP
Teleport - get enemies close or out of range
Sawtooth - no idea other than pierce DMG and bleed Chloroform - one ability that targets magic armor

Critique, share thoughts, or let me know your build!

Sounds pretty good to me, although I would think that a two-handed backstabbing Rogue would be better than a one-handed one.

My thoughts were:

Dual wield costs 2AP per attack, while 1h costs 1AP. In the end you will swing your weapon(s) an equal number of times. There are three differences that seem to benefit 1h and one benefit for dual wield.

1h:
1. Every point in 1h offers +4% DMG and +2% accuracy. Dual wield offers +3% DMG and +1% crit chance. The damage increase is higher for 1h and accuracy is nice. Dual wield offers a lower DMG bonus and crit chance won't matter as much with backstab. *Not sure if these bonuses stay the same beyond a few levels*

2. Having one weapon means you get to swing your primary weapon, which should be the strongest, four times. Dual wield will give you two swings for your primary weapon and two for your secondary, which is likely weaker.

3. If you are left with only 1AP left in a turn you can still attack with a 1h weapon.

Dual wield:
1. Having a second weapon equipped gives you additional passive bonuses from magic items.


I could be overlooking or unaware of something. This is just my initial understanding. Any other benefits for dual wielding?

My most successful Rogue build thus far has been a pure Scoundrel rogue as far as skills, but by dumping all of my Skill Points into Dual Wield, as it provides the best return on damage investment.

Maybe one point in Huntsmen to have access to Tactical Retreat. Any other enhancement skills are better placed on another character, such as a supportive mage.

I do believe that Elf is by far the strongest Rogue option due to their racial skill and innate Finesse. Also, the self healing from body parts allows them to sustain after escaping a foe.

Pumping Finesse to max and then extra in Wits worked well for me, but you might want to find some items with +Initiative to really get a good start to your turn to assassinate the key non-armor target to start benefit from Warlord.


The most important traits are in this order:

Backstabber
Warlord
Pawn

At that point it gets a bit iffy.

Guerrilla is good IF you can consistently get a Sneak off, and for using a "odd" point of AP if you have 3 AP left, or if you have no other 1 AP skills that are worth using at this time. Using Smoke fields with your supportive mages or grenades on other characters can do wonders for enabling this, as well as teleportation key targets to kill line of sight. I've put it to great use, but its much easier to utilize with Archers and Snipe. This can turn the assassinate Source ability with absolutely devastating damage though.

Glass Cannon is ... risky. I'd much rather survive a turn of CC than have one extra attack in, especially given we can often sustain our initial "burst turn" of AP with Warlord and Adrenaline if needed. Its not a bad trait for sure, especially if you have a VERY low initiative support mage who can cure any CC at the end of the round before the Rogue's next turn.

Speed Creep is definitely a luxury, and is likely better than the remaining options, although Bigger and Better might tie with it if you want to squeeze in more Dual Wield and Sneak skill, making it more feasible to use Guerrilla.

I'm unsure if I'm missing something, but how does dual wield equate to more damage? Doesn't it cost double the AP for a dual attack, which is the same cost as attacking twice with 1h?

Dual Wield can be used with Guerrilla to perform the equivalent of 4 AP worth of regular attacks for 3 AP. Other than that, err...

Isn't that equivalent to 3AP worth of damage not 4AP? Guerrilla offers +50% damage, which 50% of 2 attacks is +1 attack? That would then be the same as attacking three times with a 1h dagger and not needing the Guerrilla talent.

So it does. Huh, I misread it all along... Okay, well, that makes things simpler: Guerrilla is a garbage Talent not worth taking.

I think I heard or read somewhere that dual wield offers 3 or 4 attacks per action at later levels. I haven't had a character with a high level dual wield but the progression seems to be a linear bonus to DMG and crit chance. Can anyone confirm more attacks at higher level? It seems untrue and OP.

I'm going to move the discussion of 1h v dual wield to a new topic so we can focus on rogue builds.

Elf.

Finesse/Wit:Memory.

Talents:
Backstab, Pawn, Warlord

Skills:
Dual Wield, Scoundrel, Warfare.

Dual wield gives higher crit chance, so autos are more useful as well as abilities in general. Scoundrel because you need it. Warfare for rage.

Abilities:
Fatal Blow, Walk in Shadow (optional), Vault. Rage, Adrenaline, Sacrifice of Flesh, and whatever else.

I've found guerilla quite useful thus far. With stealth costing just 1 ap coupled with the new scoundrel skills that don't break stealth, I go in and out of stealth each round of combat and the extra 50% dmg helps me one shot enemies.

Backstab, warlords, guerilla, pawn, then maybe speed creeper, but I haven't felt that last one necessary with the extra movement from scoundrel.

All in all I've found scoundrel much more rewarding than in the enhanced edition.