Newish Rogue: Some gearing, grouping, and skill questions

[medievalerror]

Level 15 rogue here with a few questions regarding the class. First, regarding gearing, I have about 800 plat to my name. I assume my first order of business should be to max out my strength, correct? I am a human rogue with STR currently at 134. Gear-wise I am rocking a Crystalline Spider Fang in my Main Hand and a Black Blade of Tormenting in the off-hand (I wanted a non-piercing weapon that had a decent delay)--I also have a second dagger (Chokidai Spine) that I sometimes drop into my off-hand when things get rough (b/c my 1hs skill is only about 20). My gear (below) is very cheap/lowbie:

Face: Sarnak Hide Mask/Mask of Deception
Earrings: STR +3 earrings (amber?)
Arms: Blackened Alloy
Head: Blackened Alloy Coif
Legs: Giant Scalemail Leggings
Chest: Giant Scalemail Tunic
Wrists: Hero Bracer + Bracer of Erollisi
Feel: Dwarven Work Boots
Waist: Purity Belt
Hands: Iksar Scaled Gloves
Back: Giant Scalemail Cloak
Fingers: Golden Fire Wedding Rings x 2
Empty: Neck & Shoulders

My first question for the forum is, what should I focus on upgrading, or should I simply keep saving for a haste item like FBSS or SCHW? What about my weapons--they are decent, but should I replace one of them prior to armor? Seb Dirk would be ideal of course but that is quite a lot of plat that I won't see for a while---I considered upgrading 1hs to a Crystalline Short Sword.

My second question: Where should I be spending my skill points as I level? I have been trying to keep Sneak/Hide (and backstab of course) maxed. I am also keeping Lockpicking and Sense Traps maxed---am I correct in my assumption that Sense Traps (though it is easy to max) is fairly worthless? I am working on increasing my "Pick Pocket" skill as well though that one is slower going (it is around 50 right now, mostly from pick-pocketing Orc Pawns and using it with groups permission). I was thinking about spending my skill points in increasing 1hs or another weapon skill that I do not readily use at the moment. Where have you other rogues spent your points?

Third question: In groups, even though the role of a rogue seems fairly straightforward (Backstab/Evade/Backstab), I wonder whether there are things I am missing or advice that other rogues wish they knew at lower levels. Any advice here? I want to be sure I am providing the max utility to my group and it seems that every class has little tricks that those new to the class are unaware of and that the wiki/guides do not mention.

Name is Dairk if you ever want to shoot me a message in game. Thanks for your help, all!

[Cecily]

Don't use your practice points for now. The only exception is I do suggest is that everyone banks all their points till level 10 and cap backstab with it immediately. After that, and provided you level in groups, it's very easy to keep that skill maxed. You also get an incredible damage boost with max BS right from the start.

Other than that, keep your practice points for the following things... First 25 points of any tradeskill you plan on leveling (Make Poison / Pottery / Brewing) and maybe disarm. Disarm is a very, very slow leveling skill. Rank it up by hand as much as you can tolerate and once you're rich enough to afford it, you can use those couple hundred banked points to max it if you want.

Everything else is better to train manually.

[Cecily]

My first question for the forum is, what should I focus on upgrading, or should I simply keep saving for a haste item like FBSS or SCHW? What about my weapons--they are decent, but should I replace one of them prior to armor? Seb Dirk would be ideal of course but that is quite a lot of plat that I won't see for a while---I considered upgrading 1hs to a Crystalline Short Sword.

Regarding upgrades, my gearing strategy was to only spend my money on permanent or semi-permanent upgrades. Basically something pricey, but something I'd use for the forseeable ever. There's an overflow of low-end gear on this server. That was true for me starting in 2012, it'll be more true 5 years later. What that means in reality is if I buy small incremental upgrades, it's going to be tough to sell them.

A haste belt or Seb Dirk is a great goal to save for IMO. Shouldn't be terribly difficult to resell either. I don't think rogues necessarily need haste pre-epic, but it is sure nice to have. CSS is a very solid pre-epic offhander though and might wanna get one. Spider fang is fine till 46.

[medievalerror]

Thanks for your replies! Regarding Make and Apply Poison, to what extent are those useful as a Rogue--I've heard some folks say that they never really use them. Is that the case?

[Cecily]

Pretty much. Theres a high end poison, mind melt, used for the Coldain Ring 9 quest which 99.5% of what I use the skill for. It's much more useful in PvP, but otherwise it's poorly implemented and takes up too much inventory space.

[Lhancelot]

Schw are now 1500pp, that's 22% haste which you could get fairly easily. Or grab a Velium Swiftblade which you can sometimes get for 1500pp and that gives 36% haste.

Frozen shards are 13/26, so are small dragonbone shards, 1500pp and these drastically increase your backstab damage.

I used both haste items and honestly I like the velium swiftblade with the frozen shard, I feel like it works well.

By the time your dual wielding is high enough to really matter, you should be close to getting your epic so imo this setup works great.

Essentially that's 3k-4k on 2 items but these will take you to your epic and beyond.

Stats look great, but don't worry about them so much except for hps, haste, and a hard hitting piercer in your mainhand on your way to your epic and beyond.

[Ravager]

Thanks for your replies! Regarding Make and Apply Poison, to what extent are those useful as a Rogue--I've heard some folks say that they never really use them. Is that the case?

I'd prioritize apply poison, since poisons are a pain in the butt and expensive to make, it'd make you cry to lose one to a failed apply.