Rogue race and other questions.

[slowpoke68]

Hello all. Played EQ from about a month after launch to Velious, on and off (mostly on, but a month off here and there due to extreme burnout).

Have been on P99 for a few weeks and am having my usual hard time picking a class. Funny when I played EQ originally I rolled a monk because I figured it would be an easy class to gear and learn. Quit at 19 because I figured out I didn't like pulling in dungeons. Rolled a cleric and took him to 50. Easy decision. For some reason, since then I always have class selection issues :)

Anyway, I played a rogue on Fippy Darkpaw (way different mechanics from here obviously) and am thinking about one for P99. My rogue on Fippy was a DE, which I thought looked cool but obviously wasn't the best choice stats wise.

Aesthetics are important to me and I have my races narrowed down to Half Elf (like the way they look in banded) and Dwarf (like dwarves). My one concern about Dwarf is how the weapons will look in their hands. I am using classic models and I know with Luclin all weapons look novelty undersized. Can anyone comment on this? Do they look like they fit in the hand properly and are they correct scale?

Also, I am curious about starting stat distribution. I have read a bunch of threads on the topic and consensus seems sta/str or str/sta. Could anyone comment on best place to assign stats on the two races I listed?

Also, I see rogues get crits on throwing. Do you guys find yourselves using that skill a lot?

I read about instill doubt/intimidate and some recent patch. Is this skill worthwhile in its current form? Reviews seemed to be mixed...can it be used in conjunction with backstab now?

I know Rogues are the worst soloers and I will not be twinked. My question is, will I be able to solo blues at all? I want to spend all my time possible grouped, but for those times I can't find one, it would be nice to be able to do something productive while LFG. Doesn't have to fast, just wondering if it is possible as it would only be something to keep me busy while waiting on an invite.

Lastly, what about poisons? Worthwhile or not?

Sorry for all the questions but I always like to know how to play a toon correctly. I figure with the server downtime, might get some really good answers from the experts here!

[nyclin]

Dwarf weapon models look fine to me

For stats do +5 STA and the rest into STR or DEX. If you ever plan on raiding there are lots of proccing weapons in Velious so DEX is very good. Otherwise, STR is fine.

Throwing is only used for pulling really. When you're 60 you will rarely see an assassination from throwing weapons, but otherwise it doesn't do enough damage to be notable

Intimidate works better here than it did on live and is a relatively reliable method of fearing when the skill is maxed. You could probably use it to solo but duoing with someone who can snare/heal is more ideal

You will have trouble soloing anything other than light greens/very low level blues unless you are twinked. Just group.. no group is ever going to turn down a rogue unless they just don't have room. No exp penalty and you bring tons of damage, even untwinked.

Poisons are basically worthless outside of PVP

[Samoht]

Dont listen to that guy. Dump all stats in STA. STR soft cap is like 189. That's easy enough to achieve. Barb is best starting race because most STA and ability to wear tree weave and hero bracers. Followed by dwarf. Looks don't really matter. You can eventually get dark elf, erudite, iksar, high elf masks to pick whichever of those forms suit you. Maybe even dwarf or gnome assuming sleepers doesn't get screwed up too early.

[Cecily]

Do some combination of STR and STA. Anything else is a waste. Race does not make any difference in the end, besides your looks which is ultimately most important.

[anarch]

Dwarves get parkour racial ability. 'Nuff said.

[Madbad]

Gnomes get wall peak

[Nocte Sicarius]

Stay Inky for the rogue experience. Everyone hates you. Ultravision. Innate hide. Race means nothing in the long run except for faction, but good rogues can circumvent that in a hearbeat.

[B4EQWASCOOL]

On a non-twinned rogue, 25 strength/5 dexterity. Barbarian is the best stats by far. Referencing untwinked again... Throwing is garbage because if you are throwing, then you are not meleeing. Melee always does MUCH more dmg than throwing. Stamina is a crap stat for a rogue... You're a damage dealer, the best in the game, and you have the best aggro management tools, go max dmg. ROGUES - NORRATH'S WORST SOLO CLASS! Get soloing out your head if you play a rogue. None. (non-twinked) Source: Played an epic rogue 99-04

[Samoht]

Stamina is a crap stat for a rogue... You're a damage dealer

How much damage will you do if you're dead? End-game fights have point blank area of affect damage spells that will eat you alive. The only stats that matter then are resists and hit points. With shaman buffs, the unbuffed STR soft cap (the amount that it would no longer be beneficial to pass) is 213. With a bard + a shaman, the amount required is 191. That's a trivial amount (especially if you're playing a barbarian rogue). Starting stats should be put in a full STA dump.

Stay Inky for the rogue experience. Everyone hates you. Ultravision. Innate hide. Race means nothing in the long run except for faction, but good rogues can circumvent that in a hearbeat.

All rogues get hide, lol. And with a Mask of Deception (http://wiki.project1999.com/Mask_of_Deception), all rogues can be dark elves, ultimately gaining faction and ultravision advantages of dark elves without the crappy stats.

[Kutsumo]

I put 25str in creation on my barb and I do occasionally wish I'd put into stam instead. I'm constantly trying to find more HP/stam/resist gear to wear in place of str gear because I hit 187 str (where sham can buff you to 255) with only 29 str from gear other than epic.

However, it is very easy to equip my rogue very cheaply, with only HP/resist gear and a cheap offhand, and still perform my function (DPS) to within ~5% of those VP geared guys. It's also easy to swap in a few str pieces, use strength buff on kunark arms, and hit 255 without outside buffing.

Definitely don't put creation points into anything other than str/sta, as Cecily pointed out. That would be wasteful.

[B4EQWASCOOL]

At level 1, 25 stam gets a Barbarian 8 more hp. At level 60, 25 stam gets you 100hp. Unbuffed rogue at 60 in resist gear, roughly 1850 hp. so 40% more hp at lvl 1 and only about 5% at level 60. Neither seem ground breaking on paper now and I don't recall kicking myself over 100hp at 60 back 99-04 on live. 25 Str will be a lot of damage funneled through a rogue 1-59. Honestly, though, it won't matter too much. I see wood elf rogues in big name raiding guilds. Have fun!

[Samoht]

Honestly, though, it won't matter too much.

No, it won't. But it's called min/maxing for a reason. The very best players will always strive to make the very best decisions. Wood elfs are playable, but they will always have an innate HP disadvantage. Let me know when you can put STR over 255 to use.

[Cecily]

But it's called min/maxing for a reason. The very best players will always strive to make the very best decisions. Wood elfs are playable, but they will always have an innate HP disadvantage.

Please show me a Barbarian with my (+25 str) or Sckrilla's (+25 sta) stats. Wood elves are the best assassins because we can stand to look at our characters long enough to get BIS. Min / maxing is incredibly dumb in EQ and especially on a rogue.

[Samoht]

Race aesthetics are purely subjective. And I have no idea what the first half of your post is supposed to say.

[Cecily]

You're implying that the best players make the best decisions (barbarian / min maxing). Sckrilla and I, wood elves, were the best rogues on P99 for years. So.. no. There might be a BIS barb rogue now thanks to Rampage, but historically Barbs don't last that long on P99.

[Samoht]

Oh, I see. You've declared yourself as the premier rogue of P99. You're more of an example of how someone can make all the wrong decisions but still get carried to loot just for being online 24/7.

[Cecily]

That or I'm an example of one of the "worst" rogue races being better than the rest of you, despite your insightful opinions of what's best.
Point is race doesn't matter now. It'll matter less in Velious.

[Seltius]

I like Dwarf for the barrel roll. Dump points into Sta as stated above you can max str pretty easy through gear. Sta is whats going to keep you alive to do that extra backstab or 2. As far as race keep in mind you will be able to get masks to change your race to alot of others.

Not going to get into the debates on here you were asking for specific race/reason.

[Samoht]

That or I'm an example of one of the "worst" rogue races being better than the rest of you, despite your insightful opinions of what's best.
Point is race doesn't matter now. It'll matter less in Velious.

Oh god, you can turn auto attack on and press backstab once every 10 seconds. I'm glad that that inflates your ego enough for you to think you're better than everybody else. The rest of us have better things to do than keep farming Kunark content for 4+ years. Congrats.

[Cecily]

That's one of my favorite ways to ignite a flame war. But yes, I do play rogue better than other people. Don't really feel like RnFing with you atm though, sweet heart. Keep your chin up. You'll get half as good as me some day if you try your hardest.

[Samoht]

I like Dwarf for the barrel roll. Dump points into Sta as stated above you can max str pretty easy through gear. Sta is whats going to keep you alive to do that extra backstab or 2.

I like dwarf, too. Some would consider it the real best choice because of the extra MR.

[Roguejm11]

Play any race you want. Equally geared you will still out dps every class, except maybe a monk.

Play the race and class YOU want to play. That will make all the difference in the world on your experience in p99.

[nyclin]

I do play rogue better than other people.

can you elaborate on this? what makes you a better rogue than other people?

[Samoht]

can you elaborate on this? what makes you a better rogue than other people?

Other than online 24/7 availability? Nothing. Everybody presses their backstabs 10 seconds a part.

[Sajan]

At level 1, 25 stam gets a Barbarian 8 more hp. At level 60, 25 stam gets you 100hp. Unbuffed rogue at 60 in resist gear, roughly 1850 hp. so 40% more hp at lvl 1 and only about 5% at level 60. Neither seem ground breaking on paper now and I don't recall kicking myself over 100hp at 60 back 99-04 on live.

I can't think of any instance where I would turn down a 100hp item just because it was only a 5% increase in hp. People on this server stare at walls for hours upon hours for month after month during Phara Dar's windows just to be considered for loot that has slightly less hp. The best Velious loot, which everyone will be salivating over, are almost all 100hp items.

Your stamina will not be maxed while wearing resist gear during endgame encounters during this era. Hell, most people won't max their stamina while wearing normal HP gear. You will want to muster as many hps through gear and buffs to survive these AEs, or you won't be putting any of that STR to use. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people take an AE and hover around 5% hp instead of dieing, given they don't get low hp aggro before receiving a heal.

[Sajan]

can you elaborate on this? what makes you a better rogue than other people?

Discipline timing, potion clicking, pulling, and positioning to name a few. Sure, everyone can auto attack and smash backstab on refresh, but there are certain Rogues who always top the dps charts because of their reaction times while performing the above abilities. Missing 1 round of auto attack or backstab because your raid pushed the mob out of range can cost you multiple spots on the dps chart. Not hitting your potions/reaper/soulfire in time to avoid low hp aggro can result in death immediately. Some Rogues are great pullers in zones like VP where Pick Lock is required and timing your Shiny Brass Idol clicks is the difference between you maintaining your pull or going splat.

[Cecily]

can you elaborate on this? what makes you a better rogue than other people?

A lot of it is just being a good player in general. Awareness of my position, push, and relative amount of agro I have. Knowing how to stop a gate. Not stealing agro from poorly geared warriors. Being able to pull if necessary. Having the gear and other items I need to survive any encounter. Knowing what buffs I need for an encounter. Having them. Knowledge of specific hit boxes. Knowing how to stay in a moving hit box and still land backstabs. Paying attention. Efficient corpse dragging. Better gear. Topping DPS charts consistently. Paying attention. Paying attention.

Or maybe I just turn on auto attack and press backstab every 10 seconds pretty well.

[Colgate]

doesn't really matter which race on a blue server

put all points into stamina

[Samoht]

A lot of it is just being a good player in general. Awareness of my position, push, and relative amount of agro I have. Knowing how to stop a gate. Not stealing agro from poorly geared warriors. Being able to pull if necessary. Having the gear and other items I need to survive any encounter. Knowing what buffs I need for an encounter. Having them. Knowledge of specific hit boxes. Knowing how to stay in a moving hit box and still land backstabs. Paying attention. Efficient corpse dragging. Better gear. Topping DPS charts consistently. Paying attention. Paying attention.

Or maybe I just turn on auto attack and press backstab every 10 seconds pretty well.

This says two things to me:

1) You are a hardcore camper/socker. You have more time to contribute to the acquisition of pixels than everybody else. That does not make you better.

2) You ride the coat tails of your guild. Hard. It's easy to top the DPS meters when your guild can kill VP mobs in 20 seconds. Tell, me, Cecily... What is the percentage of uptime of Duelist when your guild can kill VP dragons in 20 seconds? I think your "topping DPS charts consistently" can be attributed to the success of your guild in a swift boss kill that allows more than 50% uptime on Duelist and not your individual contribution. You're playing the game on easy mode. Granted, it doesn't make you a bad rogue, but you come in trying to take the credit of hundreds of players that came before you. And that's what makes you bad. Because you cannot fathom that your just a small part of something bigger and your illusions of grandieur are nothing more than a delusion.

I think you should find something more constructive to occupy your free time. That should fix your pixel obsession and keep you grounded in reality.

[Cecily]

I stand out on whatever coat tails I'm riding on at the time, tyvm. Been one of the top rogues for BDA, FE, TMO... VD I was a little low level to contribute as much. It's based on feedback I get from guildies, not just my own opinion. And I don't think you're responding to anything I actually said in the post you're quoting, so I'm done with you.

[Samoht]

Wait til Velious comes and your slide on your DPS spot. I'd feel more sorry for you if you didn't "stand out" with 50% Duelist uptime on Kunark dragons.

Or maybe their feedback is based on this female avatar you've created for yourself. Everybody is a lot nicer to girls.

[Cecily]

Maybe you're just picking a fight with a TMO person you don't like in an inappropriate subforum.

[B4EQWASCOOL]

There has been an explosion of salt in this thread. Not sure why. I read it twice and I can't figure out why everyone is so mad. lol

TLDR: DUMP ALL POINTS INTO INT

[Cecily]

Probably not a bad idea. Trade skills are horribad on a rogue if they are Int / Wis based.

[Samoht]

Aesthetics are important to me and I have my races narrowed down to Half Elf (like the way they look in banded) and Dwarf (like dwarves). My one concern about Dwarf is how the weapons will look in their hands. I am using classic models and I know with Luclin all weapons look novelty undersized. Can anyone comment on this? Do they look like they fit in the hand properly and are they correct scale?

Also, I am curious about starting stat distribution. I have read a bunch of threads on the topic and consensus seems sta/str or str/sta. Could anyone comment on best place to assign stats on the two races I listed?

I know Rogues are the worst soloers and I will not be twinked. My question is, will I be able to solo blues at all? I want to spend all my time possible grouped, but for those times I can't find one, it would be nice to be able to do something productive while LFG. Doesn't have to fast, just wondering if it is possible as it would only be something to keep me busy while waiting on an invite.

Lastly, what about poisons? Worthwhile or not?

So back on topic, dwarf is a solid choice for all of the reasons discussed here. They have the second best starting STR/STA, and the best MR. Put max points in STA. Any remaining pints are just preference. They normally go in STR because you don't need WIS/INT/CHA are useless on a rogue. AGI is useless over 75. DEX and STR are actually both quite easily capped with buffs in Velious gear. You will never cap STA in the timeline of this server.

That's factual and well known at this point. Some people have already made the wrong stat decisions or picked races based on aesthetic reasons. It's honestly not that big of a deal, but to pretend it's optimal and try to post on the forums to encourage people to make the same mistakes is just intentionally spreading misinformation.

Please don't poison the well.

[Samoht]

Rogues are terrible soloers. Even with epic, fungi, bandages, most fights will bring you within inches of death, if not worse. Instill doubt is unreliable at best. It used to be broken on this server and work better than it should have. It's been fixed now. Find a kiter with snare to duo. You're not going to be able to tank well yourself. You have no aggro abilities. Pet classes are out of the question because pets cannot tank over PCs in melee range.

Poisons are hard to use. You have to sit down to apply them, so it's best done when out of combat. Poison making is expensive to raise. You probably won't ever make any money back on it. It got better on live in the PoP era because poisons became self-buffs with charges like on WoW or Rift. They are not on the timeline of this server.

[Samoht]

Find a kiter with snare to duo.

This is referred to as aggro kiting. It works well with druids or necros, but it can also work with wizards, SKs, or even rangers if you're OK with doing all of the work. Just have them cast snare, get lots of aggro, and run. You follow behind using backstab. Necros or SKs can fear to help, as well.

[Seltius]

Rogues are terrible soloers. Even with epic, fungi, bandages, most fights will bring you within inches of death, if not worse. Instill doubt is unreliable at best. It used to be broken on this server and work better than it should have. It's been fixed now. Find a kiter with snare to duo. You're not going to be able to tank well yourself. You have no aggro abilities. Pet classes are out of the question because pets cannot tank over PCs in melee range.

Poisons are hard to use. You have to sit down to apply them, so it's best done when out of combat. Poison making is expensive to raise. You probably won't ever make any money back on it. It got better on live in the PoP era because poisons became self-buffs with charges like on WoW or Rift. They are not on the timeline of this server.

I will disagree with you here. Everyone talks about how bad rogues are at solo but I found geared I was able to solo several places effectively til about 49. Then I started grouping. Then again I went extreme with my twinking and a friend loaned me a EotN and another friend loaned me a Fungi until I could get better weapon and my own Fungi. Some of it came down to sneak pulling to get singles. If you look around there are camps that can be single pulled if available and you just have to have plenty of bandages for downtimes. It allows for time to split the mobs also. So they arent all respawning together.

Edit: ok I am not sure when the ID ability was fixed I may have been leveling him during that time while it was still broken. This was back in 2013 towards the middle to end of year when I leveled rogue.

[Kutsumo]

I solo'd most of the way to 52 or so back when Intimidate was broken. Was extremely fast, but tedious chasing unsnared feared mobs.

[Cecily]

That's why god made jboots.

[slowpoke68]

Thanks much friends for all the advice :)

[Kutsumo]

That's why god made jboots.

Yeah I had jboots, it's still tedious chasing unsnared mobs lol

[Samoht]

That's why god made jboots.

Is that where you got your jboots? I got mine from Tattersail.

[Layne]

There is an illusion mask for every race except human and wood elf starting stats don't matter much I always do 25sta 5str. Barbarians get slam no other rogue race gets that ability. Find a druid to duo w/ fear kite oasis, wolves in EK, aviaks in SK, overthere, TD aviaks

[Samoht]

Barbarians get slam no other rogue race gets that ability.

Slam and Backstab are on the same CD. And considering that Slam increases with the Bash ability (and rogues don't have Bash), then there is practically no reason ever to use Slam.

[Saludeen]

How much damage will you do if you're dead? End-game fights have point blank area of affect damage spells that will eat you alive. The only stats that matter then are resists and hit points. With shaman buffs, the unbuffed STR soft cap (the amount that it would no longer be beneficial to pass) is 213. With a bard + a shaman, the amount required is 191. That's a trivial amount (especially if you're playing a barbarian rogue). Starting stats should be put in a full STA dump.



All rogues get hide, lol. And with a Mask of Deception (http://wiki.project1999.com/Mask_of_Deception), all rogues can be dark elves, ultimately gaining faction and ultravision advantages of dark elves without the crappy stats.

You're a smart man.

[Xaanka]

I'm a barbarian, and it's a lot easier to get str/dex when I'm in resist gear than other races. If I were to roll again I would be a gnome for wall-looking -- melee stats on resist gear won't be as scarce in velious.

P sure woodelf has what is typically considered to be the best non-illusion hitbox when you eat dispels, so there is that.

It really doesn't matter what you roll, though.

[Synthlol]

Play any race you want. Equally geared you will still out dps every class, except maybe a monk.

You said monk when you meant to say warrior

AGI is useless over 75.

Except for the fact that agility decreases as your hp lowers, and agility bonuses counteract the resulting loss of movement speed and prevent your agility from dropping below the all-important 75 threshold when you need it most.

Instill doubt is unreliable at best. It used to be broken on this server and work better than it should have. It's been fixed now.

Instill Doubt and Intimidation are unreliable when you haven't yet realized that your special attack needs to be off cooldown when the skill check occurs for it to work.

You're a smart man.

If by that you mean he isn't always wrong, then sure.

[Xaanka]

Instill Doubt and Intimidation are unreliable when you haven't yet realized that your special attack needs to be off cooldown when the skill check occurs for it to work.


mind: blown, i was wondering why intim suceeded so much more often on my bard

[Samoht]

Except for the fact that agility decreases as your hp lowers, and agility bonuses counteract the resulting loss of movement speed and prevent your agility from dropping below the all-important 75 threshold when you need it most.

So what you're saying is, AGI over 75 is only useful to keep AGI over 75? AGI over 75 is still useless, though.

[Synthlol]

So what you're saying is, AGI over 75 is only useful to keep AGI over 75? AGI over 75 is still useless, though.

I'll just let the wheels in your head keep spinning, I have faith you'll get there on your own.

[Samoht]

You're wrong about Instill Doubt and you're wrong about AGI. Throwing insults around won't change anything.

[Cecily]

It honestly depends on how Haynar coded it. ID used to function like that on live. And yes, AGI to save your AGI is good to have, but it's not worth gearing for. Rogues get so much AGI without trying to stat for it.

[Samoht]

I seriously just got ID to fire on blue while BS was on cooldown. He's just talking out of his ass.

[Cecily]

There's a reason for him to say that and it's possible that the skill fires off at a lower rate while backstab is on cool down. I'm actually with you and I don't think it makes a difference. It's hard to be certain on P99 mechanics though. They change / break so often.

[justin2090]

You can't parse a barrel roll. #dwarflife

[Jimjam]

On live rogue get an AC bonus after level 30 for excess Agi. Prolly not the same here.

[Samoht]

On live rogue get an AC bonus after level 30 for excess Agi. Prolly not the same here.

Any AC gains you get from AGI are negligible at best, so you should not be gearing for AGI at all. Besides, you shouldn't be getting hit much as a Rogue, anyway. You have no aggro management tools like taunt or spells, so you'd suck as a EXP group tank, and a lot of hate inducing weapons aren't even Rogue useable.

You're not going to be clutch-tanking on a raid, either. That's what knights (and Rangers in Velious to a lesser extent) are for. But if you did have to, dodge/riposte disciplines would override the need for armor until a Warrior/knight gained aggro, anyway. If you're tanking for longer than 12 seconds, something has obviously gone horribly wrong.

[Cecily]

Gonna go ahead and disagree there. I'm not a typical case, but I can tank anything in Sebilis on Cecily decently. Backstabing off puller and 41% VP weapons (Nightfall & Feverblade) make for pretty amazing threat. For raids... clutch-tanking those 12 seconds of disc are enough. I've saved several raids with nimble tanking. The extra AGI might... make the dragon miss you once or twice out of disc too. That's important!

[Samoht]

Sigh. Of course a rogue with a VP tanking weapon can keep aggro when (if) it procs, but you still lack snap aggro (taunt/spells).

And you're still not going to be stacking AGI for it.

[Cecily]

Sigh. Of course a rogue with a VP tanking weapon can keep aggro when (if) it procs, but you still lack snap aggro (taunt/spells).

And you're still not going to be stacking AGI for it.

Ofc I wouldn't stack AGI. I'm just arguing that it's not completely worthless. And tanking doesn't have that much to do with procs, honestly. Nightfall (9/16) in primary is basically an epic monk fist. Very very fast agro generation, and I'm thinking a seb dirk or locustlure would preform similarly. Backstab is remarkably good as a taunt button when you're not trying to shed agro.

[Kennie]

Dwarf

[SyanideGas]

Dwarf

[Kutsumo]

Might consider throwing boulders in this decision if you'll be doing PVP (botb on blue, or just red in general).

[Kowalski]

On a side note: can you image how funny it would be if ogres could be monks and to see them flying kick?

[RDawg816]

Any AC gains you get from AGI are negligible at best, so you should not be gearing for AGI at all. Besides, you shouldn't be getting hit much as a Rogue, anyway. You have no aggro management tools like taunt or spells, so you'd suck as a EXP group tank, and a lot of hate inducing weapons aren't even Rogue useable.

You're not going to be clutch-tanking on a raid, either. That's what knights (and Rangers in Velious to a lesser extent) are for. But if you did have to, dodge/riposte disciplines would override the need for armor until a Warrior/knight gained aggro, anyway. If you're tanking for longer than 12 seconds, something has obviously gone horribly wrong.

Not to start an argument, but for general information directed mainly at the OP or anyone reading this post...

I tank often on my rogue. I'm 39 atm, and it's not ideal but there isn't always a tank around. I've held many groups together for hours at a time in places like Highpass, SolA, OT, Droga, etc. I'm not saying you should gear specifically for AGI. I tend to go for str/dex and just pick up the other stats as riders.

Again, it's not my preferred role but I tank often enough I thought it worth mentioning. I did the same on my rogue on live back in the day as well. One was a barbarian, other is a halfling. :)

[wubblesnort]

Be a half elf because they're handsome.

[Monty405]

Be a half elf because they're handsome.

The male mustache half elf.

[wubblesnort]

If you're not a salt n pepper half elf, I don't really know what the hell is wrong with you.

[Malone88]

Rogues are terrible soloers. Even with epic, fungi, bandages, most fights will bring you within inches of death, if not worse. Instill doubt is unreliable at best. It used to be broken on this server and work better than it should have. It's been fixed now. Find a kiter with snare to duo. You're not going to be able to tank well yourself. You have no aggro abilities. Pet classes are out of the question because pets cannot tank over PCs in melee range.

Poisons are hard to use. You have to sit down to apply them, so it's best done when out of combat. Poison making is expensive to raise. You probably won't ever make any money back on it. It got better on live in the PoP era because poisons became self-buffs with charges like on WoW or Rift. They are not on the timeline of this server.
Agree with this completely, from my experience. Most fights bring you down below 50%, then you need to bandage up to 50%,
sit and wait before next fight. Very tedious. Intimidate is only useful once the skill is high, and even then,
it fails a good amount and you get beat on. Find a kiter to duo with or find groups. Can't use epic until 50 now either.
Doesn't sound like OP will be able to twink much at all, so soloing even more painful.

[Zutizutzut]

For raids... clutch-tanking those 12 seconds of disc are enough. I've saved several raids with nimble tanking.

I'm sure this would happen more often if the timers were separated so after duelist, you could still blow a 2nd offensive disc and then save the day with a well timed nimble.