Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Help/Tips/Tricks Shadowblade / Rogue Guidance

Hi,

I'd like to try my hand at the Rogue / Shadowblade as a lizard, but I could do with a little advice.

How effective are they?

Any build and playstyle advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

I've been playing Sebille as a melee rogue for quite a bit now, here's what I learned so far:

- Totally forget about stealth (as a combat mechanic) in its current state, it's utterly useless. Even out of combat, I fail to see its usefulness. (This is a very annoying issue IMO, since, for me, rogue + stealth go together.)

- The usefulness of thieving is debatable. Most of the locks can either be blown up or unlocked with keys you find. There are only very few (non-essential) chests/doors where you can get stuck without thievery. Pickpocketing and stealing is a two-edged sword since you have to be extremely careful due to the 'stolen' tag. Unless it's a stackable item, it'll remain marked as stolen and every freaking guard that accosts you will confiscate it unless you un-equip and dump the stuff in some crate. Its usefulness is pretty much limited to stealing + immediate vending, not very satisfying from a thief-RP perspective.

- Assuming you want to play melee, get and learn to love movement abilities. Don't be afraid to dump a few points into such schools (e.g. aero/pyro) -- but to me polymorphism just takes the cake in regards to usefulness. It's fantastic. Invisibility, flying, medusa face, heart of iron...

- Points wise dump most points into FINesse. I'm not sure if you're aware of this but WITs is pretty busted at the moment, especially for rogues because they practically almost crit due to the lovely backstabbing mechanism. (I still have put quite a few points into it just so I can go early, but that's perhaps not the strategically best choice.) (Check the various threads on initiative in the 'General' forum, if you want, there have been endless posts and debates on its usefulness.)

At the moment my rogue is a beast -- very high damage output and good survivability. It's probably not as powerful as a wayfarer/summoner but fun to play. You just need to treat her more as a very mobile (and deadly) swashbuckler than the traditional 'sneak-sneak-ambush' rogue you might expect.

Lizard is the race with the worst synergy with the Rogue archtype. It starts with +1 Persuasion, and Rogues would rather spend points onto Thievery and sometimes Sneak, the other racial bonus is a couple of resistances, and the racial skill creates a fire surface which Rogues HATE because they have to move around to hit enemies in the back.

You can if you really want to, it's just Lizard is the worst choice.

Ignore the Guerrilla Talent, it is virtually useless because Sneaking in combat costs 4 AP and therefore is totally useless. The Pawn is good.

There are actually a few different ways to make a Rogue or Shadowblade.

1. Maximum Damage Rogue
This Rogue basically tries to maximize damage from both regular backstabs AND skills. It puts most of its points into Warfare and Scoundrel. Warfare affects ALL Physical damage, Scoundrel only increases the critical damage (backstabs).

• It takes all the Rogue damage skills like Throwing and Sawtooth Knife.
• It may take the Executioner Talent instead of the Pawn, but that's at your discretion.
• Dual-wields daggers for increased damage.
• Elf is good for this Rogue thanks to Flesh Sacrifice.

2. High Evasion Rogue
This Rogue focuses more on survival.

• It puts points into Dual Wielding and Scoundrel. Dual Wielding increases Dodge.
• It probably takes skills like Chameleon Cloak (Polymorph) and Uncanny Dodge (Aerothurge), as well as escape skills.
• It takes the Parry Master Talent for increased Dodge, and probably Duck Duck Goose as well.
• Dwarf is good for this Rogue thanks to its racial bonuses to health and dodge.

3. Position Master Rogue
This Rogue focuses on manipulating the mobility of itself and others.

• It takes a lot of mobility skills, like Favourable Wind, Teleport, and Netherswap from Aerothurge, as well as Cloak and Dagger and Tactial Retreat from Huntsman.

4. Debuff Master Shadowblade
This Rogue focuses on inflicting status effects to enemies. It uses mobility skills to get around the battlefield and inflicting statuses to assist teammates into finishing enemies off.

• It takes Chloroform and Chicken Claw.

I would have written more detail but I'm tired.