video gaming: neverwinter – trickster rogue

So here is my little write-up on Trickster Rogues up to level 10. This post also goes into a bit more detail on Combat altogether, which was touched upon over yonder.

Combat skills are broken into several little sections:

1. At-will Powers (Left and Right Mouse Buttons)
2. Encounter Powers (Q, E, & R)
3. Daily Powers (1 & 2)
4. Class Feature (Tab)

As you can tell above, you can only have a certain amount of each skill at a time, which gives the game sort of a Guild Wars 1 vibe with limited skills during combat. I like this, as it means I have to make choices on skills. For right now I’ll go over what the Trickster Rogue has access to from levels 1 to 10.

At-Will Powers

At-Will Powers are not unlike auto-attacks in the sense they are always available to you. From what I’ve see, every class’s left click is just a spam-able attack. Right click is different for every class. You do gain more as you level (indicated by the powers tree).

• Left Click – Sly Flourish: Just an auto-attack, moves forward a small amount which each attack if the target is out of range.
• Right Click – Cloud of Steel: A ranged attack that will continue to toss blades that increase in damage as you toss them in succession. You can hold 12 at any given time, and they reload at a rate of 1/per second

Encounter Powers

Encounter Powers are your old-fashion skills with a cooldown, you can hold 3 at any given time, and get more to choose from as you level (but always capped at having three to use at one time). Trickster Rogue’s encounter skills gain added effects once you have access to their Stealth ability.

• Dazing Strike: With a slight start-up, you jump up then come back down, dishing out some heavier damage while Dazing a target. While under the effects of Daze, any and all attacks will interrupt that target’s action, effectively disabling their attacks during the duration of it. Great for fighting harder foes.
  • Stealth Bonus: Start-up is reduced by 50%. Meh.
• Bait and Switch: You leap backwards and a decoy is created at your previous location. Enemies will attack the decoy, making it an effect tank for soaking up damage, even more-so while playing solo. You also build action points every-time the decoy is struck. Fantastic ability!
  • Stealth Bonus: Will reset your Stealth cooldown when activated within Stealth, also does not remove Stealth when used. Way to make a great ability better!
• Deft Strike: Will leap towards your target, popping up behind them and dishing out some damage and slowing. I like to use this after or before a Bait and Switch (generally after to close the gap again).
  • Stealth Bonus: Double the travel distance, and allows you to target friendly players. Pretty usefully to the target friend feature alone, can use it to gain extra distance towards/away from a target
• Lashing Strike: Point blank strike that hits really hard with a bit of a cool-down. Great for burst damage
  • Stealth Bonus: 50% extra damage. Jesus. JESUS. Currently the best of the stealth-enders in terms of raw damage at level 10

Daily Powers

Daily Powers worried me at first because of the word “Daily.” I was worried these were literally usable once a day, but in this game they are associated with the Action Point gauge located in the center of the skill area. They have different requirements to build up based on the class, Trickster Rogues build it up by dishing out some damage, or having their decoy from Bait and Switch get attacked. Once the meter is maxed out, you can use your Daily Power. It doesn’t take too long to build up, I usually can use it once every 3-4 fights. You can also sit on it if you wish.

You start with only being able to slot one of these skills, but gain another slot later, allowing you to have two available to use (but share the same AP stock).

• Bloodbath: Channeled skill where you bounce around hitting various foes nearby. You are unable to be damaged during this, and you can strike the same foe multiple times. I liked this a lot until I was able to stealth, which then made me use their second one instead.
• Lurker’s Assault: You gain a temporary damage boost, and your stealth meter refills twice as fast. If you use stealth during this and don’t come out of it, it effectively allows you to stay in stealth during its entire duration and reap its 25% damage boost for longer.

Class Feature

Stealth is their class feature, and is tracked on the left side of your character via a little stealth meter. Here are the important notes on this ability:

• Last five seconds
• Refills while not being attacked
• 25% Damage Bonus during its duration
• At-Will powers DO NOT break stealth
• Encounter Powers DO break stealth, unless noted otherwise (Bait and Switch is an example)
• Encounter Powers gain extra features (as noted above)
• Enemies will stop attacking you if they are. You are undetectable until stealth is over.

Stealth is powerful and fun, as one would come to expect. Bonus points for them not making separate skills that are stealth only, but instead giving all skills a stealth version as well. I was worried I’d have to learn a whole new skill set at level 10.

So far so fun! They don’t die instantly as I was afraid of, and are pretty mobile. Up there right now in terms of what I’d play at launch!