Consistently Low Backstabs

[Jefftc85]

Hi there, wanted to see if any other Rogues were experiencing consistently low back-stabs? I'm a 54 dwarf Rogue, max level BS, 151 Str, over 1000 Atk & for the past 6 days I will virtually every time back-stab for "79." I may slide in a 280, 300+, ect. as normal, but I have never experienced such a common, low strike back-stab, for such a long period of time. Anyone else experiencing something similar? Any thoughts, suggestions would be helpful. Thank you,

[Xaanka]

Your low-backstab will always be the most common hit, especially against targets with a higher level/ac than you.

[Jimjam]

You'd probably backstab higher if you rolled a barbarian instead of a dwarf.

[4WOFURY]

Dwarf > Barbarian. True story.

[silo32]

maxed self str 255

no primal no clicky arm buffs no buff bot

barb is the master rogue race, sorry slam

[Doctor Jeff]

You'd probably backstab higher if you rolled a barbarian instead of a dwarf.
Hey! It's hate[something]! I remember when I jimjammed your flimflam on hate[something]

still play red?

[Xaanka]

maxed self str 255

no primal no clicky arm buffs no buff bot

barb is the master rogue race, sorry slam

im a endgame raiding barbarian rogue, honestly since kunark i wish i had gone with halfling for high dex/agi. capping str is easy, sta dex and agi are the hard ones. maybe even gnome depending on if i ever get a mask or not.

but ya tl;dr get your strength + level up and your minimum backstabs will get up to 120. the minimum hit will ALWAYS be your most common backstab, but raising your min and max hit will raise the average backstab damage. Rogues excel at sustained DPS over time, short battles like group content are always just random chance.

[Thiefboy777]

Dwarf 5 MR best Rog racial.

Barbs and Halflings have increased consumption rate.

[Jimjam]

barbarian best rogue cos you can hide/break hide naked to troll people hadden camp.

[Cecily]

That's the best arguement for Barbs Ive ever heard. Otherwise, I rather they werent even an option. Almost 2x as tall as my wood elf. No way they are sneaky.

[Cecily]

Since none of them brought it up directly. It's specificially your str which is low for your level. At 151 you wont be able to 255 cap while buffed. Str effects your max damage and contributes to your atk. Atk determines the frequency of higher damage hits. So you need str+atk to fix your problem.

My recommendations are...
•Epic if you lack it. 20 STR 40 ATK on it. If you don't have one write an apology letter to everyone you grouped with post-52 and get the damn thing. Problem solved. OTHERWISE...
•Acquire enough gear for 183 Str minimum. Allows you to cap 255 w/ maniacal str.
•Ask for / tip for / get buffed. Rogues are one of the worst unbuffed classes.
Key buffs are whatever str you can get.. VoG and CoP.
•And finally get a Goblin Skull Earring. It's useful and a tiny bit of theoretical damage.
•Aura of Battle is the big thing you want later on.

That should help. Good luck!

[Xaanka]

That's the best arguement for Barbs Ive ever heard.

legitimately one of the only times a forums post made me wish i played blue /shed tear

also to add to your post, some of the kunark cast time clickies like myro arms are still relevant to pretty much any rogue; to further stress the importance of buffs it's very nice to be able to have any self-buffs you can get.
you might not want to cap str unbuffed, but you also may not always have a str buff. bingo. can farm those while you're exping your way to 60 easy.
also it's a trash buff & buries your sow/levitate that much further in situations where you don't have buffs from other players.

instant ones like the goblin ear are a must have at that level, like you said.

[Cecily]

Yeah Mrylo arms are amazing. Let me self buff to 255 in Kunark gear. Regarding capping STR... I think it's a very thing you picked a Dwarf OP. Barbs cap STR too easily in an expansion with so much readily available STR gear end game. Going over 255 unbuffed is such a waste. On blue at least. Running with 255 constant on red would be so nice if you cant find one of their 3 shamans.

[Jimjam]

Hey! It's hate[something]! I remember when I jimjammed your flimflam on hate[something]

still play red?

Hatespawn! Occasionally, I went without internet for a while so lost my impetus.

Hopefully I will be returning and bringing Innoruuk approved bone chips to the masses once again!

[Jimjam]

That's the best arguement for Barbs Ive ever heard. Otherwise, I rather they werent even an option. Almost 2x as tall as my wood elf. No way they are sneaky.

The tallness is why they have higher backstabs than dwarves.

[Qtip]

Dwarf or gnome if you play blue. On red barb is the way to go. Boulders do some nice damage to running targets in pvp.

[Xaanka]

Dwarf or gnome if you play blue. On red barb is the way to go. Boulders do some nice damage to running targets in pvp.

in kunark yeah.
in velious bows are better than throwing boulders, so there's no point to go with throwing anymore. primal bow and bow of the destroyer are crazy good. ring 9 bow is also good, and a borderline welfare pixel that rots regularly that any casual player should be able to get.
i say this as a barb rog on red :p

[Cecily]

The tallness is why they have higher backstabs than dwarves.

This is just.. the perfect answer to this thread.

[Colgate]

play w/e race you think looks the coolest

the only stat that matters for rogue dps is easily maxed on every race at the endgame

size makes a big (no pun intended) difference on red, but illusions can fix that and after not long the entire fuckin server will have an amulet of necropotence

[Xaanka]

play w/e race you think looks the coolest

the only stat that matters for rogue dps is easily maxed on every race at the endgame

size makes a big (no pun intended) difference on red, but illusions can fix that and after not long the entire fuckin server will have an amulet of necropotence

gnome illusion is NLA on blue now right? so wall looking's the only time race would make any difference on a rogue. a very minor one that barely matters especially on blue.

larger race rogues also can't camp at a few dungeon safe spots that small races can.

so basically yeah, race doesn't matter for rogues. in general, race doesn't mean shit and you should always pick for fashionquest, unless your class can be an iksar or troll.

i rolled barbarian so i could have a neck beard and a skirt. i have no regrets about this decision.

[Qtip]

gnome illusion is NLA on blue now right? so wall looking's the only time race would make any difference on a rogue. a very minor one that barely matters especially on blue.

larger race rogues also can't camp at a few dungeon safe spots that small races can.

so basically yeah, race doesn't matter for rogues. in general, race doesn't mean shit and you should always pick for fashionquest, unless your class can be an iksar or troll.

i rolled barbarian so i could have a neck beard and a skirt. i have no regrets about this decision.

LOL

[Damn]

Dwarf or gnome if you play blue. On red barb is the way to go. Boulders do some nice damage to running targets in pvp.

Barb rogues are garbage for anything but pve can't backstab cornered targets huge size if you want to pvp you go wood elf for the hitbox or dwarf for stats

[syztem]

avatar gnome rogue, can go any illusion, like skeleton. proc avatar, be the size of a skeleton click with 2 shrink doses without using a potion. great being a gnome. Go gnome or go home.

[NarcolepticLTD]

My recommendations are...
•Epic if you lack it. 20 STR 40 ATK on it. If you don't have one write an apology letter
•And finally get a Goblin Skull Earring. It's useful and a tiny bit of theoretical damage.



Dumb question but I'm about to go camp the earring so figured I'd ask... does the earring buff stack with epic or does epic cancel it out? (my assumption would be that it stacks, since you have it listed here with epic... but wanted to ask for confirmation :)

[Cecily]

Yeah it does. There isn't much atk buff stacking issues I'm aware of. Only one I can recall would be wolf form doesn't work with avatar. Grim Aura on the earring will work with everything besides maybe firefist (rng dru self buff). Ragebringer atk (worn atk) stacks with everything, including other worn atk pieces with aura of battle (10 atk 2 regen).

[Freakish]

Grim Aura will not stack with strength of nature.

[Colgate]

boon of the garou and clicky aura of battle do not stack with avatar

celestial tranquility does not stack with grim aura

[syztem]

Str of Nature beats out grim aura by far if you can get it, but if grim aura is your only clicky other then a telescope might be easier to keep that up on dispell dragons. Between ring/grim aura/aon/flowers/illusion/avatar dispells should keep you buffered.