Rogue as a main

[Revanx22]

Do rogues make a good class to main? I was wondering if the dependence on groups was a problem or not in the endgame. I prefer to group, but I've never played a class that couldn't solo in downtime.

[sajbert]

You could have a Rogue as a main, the main issues are:

- Can't get around without porters to help you.
- Pretty limited set of abilities.
- Can never really solo. You can do some pickpocketing or low level farms, maybe with insane gear do some more challenging things but overall, can't solo.

On the flipside. Almost always useful in a group. Even when there are other rogues. Always welcome in raids. Don't need to farm a lot of expensive items or spells. Epic is easy.

I'd say it makes for a pretty solid casual class for anyone who can make friends and group, especially if playing US prime time. The Eyepatch of Plunder is a bit of a pain to farm but most other items are accessible given either doing stuff like sebilis duo/grouping or raiding for BoE items and selling them. You could probably buy the entire pre-bis velious list of items for the price of 1 AoN. From there on you have to raid even more for progression only to get ... uh... sturdier...

[drackgon]

To main, as you in your first toon on server and such? I will say it will be tough, though p99 has a great community, and you might be able to hit up EC tunnel for some free gear. The issue with rogues is they are very gear dependent to solo with.

If its a new toon and you already have say a druid porter(or toon to farm with), that you can funnel money towards. Then your fine. I've done it, and seen plenty of twink rogues solo stuff(even high 40s via guards in feerrott).

They are truly a more group focused group, so expect to spend lots of time LFG. Sadly both blue and green lower lvls grouping is not easy to find, they do clearly happen aka Unrest, Oasis, crushbone etc. But a lot of dead zones.

Imo if its ur first and only toon, avoid it. Unless you have a for sure backer who's going to help twink you. Is it impossible? No, but your just setting yourself up to burn out via frustrations of not being able to solo.

Monk would be a much better choice if you want to melee and solo. Even without being twink, monks rock. Ikky monk natural regen can pretty much just solo naked to 50.

[zelld52]

If you have a moderate budget, you can easily solo a rogue 1-30+. 30-40 is a huge difficulty spike for rogue solo, because of how hard stuff starts to hit. I think regen is probably necessity for this, or at least will make it much less painful. Iksar regen is good, lower cost option to Fungi.

However, at around level 40, groups love rogues. Rogue means stuff dies quickly. The only downside, is that all the servers are past their prime and very top-heavy.. So there aren't too many options for grouping as a rogue. You're pretty much stuck in City of Mist and then Karnor's Castle or Velks from 40-60.

Rogue on raid is a blast. Wait for assist and murder. Evade every time Hide in on cooldown.

[Toxigen]

Yeah you've got to stay in the high traffic spots to level. Even then it may be a frustrating experience.

People just don't group like they used to. If you can manage to get to 38/40 you should be ok between CoM and KC.

Look for bards and necros. They make decent duo partners. To a lesser extent SK and Paladin if they're twinked.

Ideal is shaman + tank + you.

[wittles]

Do rogues make a good class to main? I was wondering if the dependence on groups was a problem or not in the endgame. I prefer to group, but I've never played a class that couldn't solo in downtime.

At this point in the server population history, I wouldn't make a rogue my main unless I understood it's going to be a slow climb, and I wouldn't create a wood elf, gnome or dwarf rogue, unless you see a bunch of people regularly in CB, unrest, or MM. Stick with human, half elf, Barbie, or DE.

[Snaggles]

Rogues are great in groups, great in raids, just great. They dont solo well without a lot of plat in gear or using poisons.

You only need one other person to make a "group". Rogue plus healer, rogue plus fear-kiter, etc.

Or log to your solo character when you dont have the time to group the rogue. Eventually you will prob want to do this anyway. You will spend a lot of time running and not grinding if not. Something like a necro or enchanter will make you a ton of plat to gear out the rogue to your liking.

[eqravenprince]

Soloing a rogue right now at level 17. Just wearing leather at the moment and the +5 rings/earrings from Qeynos Aquaducts. Saved up and bought a Coldain Velium Spear and Coldain Velium Rapier. Will make banded when I get to a point where I can no longer keep up with soloing a mob that spawns every 6 minutes.

[Keebz]

Rogue is nice if you're 60 and raid a lot. It's a great way to earn DKP while having to contribute very little outside autoattacking. However, in every other situation, it's the worst possible class you can be more or less. Worst at soloing, worst at farming, bad at group DPS (esp. pre-epic), bad at duos, etc. Yes, if you're twinked you can almost do as much DPS as a mage or necro, but that's not OP.

That being said, it's got some great flavor and some people just love hard mode, but if that was you I don't think you'd be asking this question.

Level something that isn't a kick in the balls (despite being technically possible) and if you find yourself raiding 24/7, your guild mates will help you PL your rogue in no time.

[Lune]

bad at group DPS (esp. pre-epic)

Damn, if you think rogues are bad at group dps I'd hate to hear what you think of anything else that's not an enchanter.

[Snaggles]

Geared and buffed rogues are great. With crap gear they are still solid. There are other options but that doesn’t negate the rogue as a solid pick. It’s sure easy to join groups being able to sneak down and even open some locks doors like for the seb crypt.

I don’t understand the binary bad/good decision most have with class choices. There ae dozens of combinations that work. Ideally with some basics out of the way but even then you don’t necessarily need slows, tank, cc, for most content. It’s easy to grind to 60, pick the class you want and ignore the noise.

[Keebz]

It’s sure easy to join groups being able to sneak down and even open some locks doors like for the seb crypt.

I will say this is probably my favorite part about being a rogue. You can also easily check camps to see if they are open then invite friends.

[Evia]

Do rogues make a good class to main? I was wondering if the dependence on groups was a problem or not in the endgame. I prefer to group, but I've never played a class that couldn't solo in downtime.

I main a rogue, and i'm pretty anti-social. Its a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. It does suck sometimes when I wanna play my Rogue and no groups going on...without a fungi tunic soloing can be rough but This is why I made my shaman alt.

The best part about a Rogue is its straight forward simplicity imho. It's also its worst part since there aren't a lot of bells and whistles. One thing that is really hard not to have once you have it though is sneak/hide. I can just venture deep down into any dungeon I want and have no issues. For a player who likes to explore and take lots of screenshots its a real good time lol!

[Tnair]

i'd say rogue is a bad main character if youre comparing different classes abilities in getting themselves geared and providing twink gear for alts

best thing about rogue is having low maintenance playtime: never need to beg a CR, if a group has space they will probably take you, noone ever asks you to pull, easy raid job and always a welcome class, and most importantly, instant safe afk practically everywhere. rogue is slow to travel but what other classes can be instantly put down for RL concerns and not maybe die?

i did have to take up factioning and questing to stay sane for my rogue main though, i cant stand sitting around just ...... waiting for a group. lots of running around with LFG on/sending tells

EDIT: almost forgot the epic convenience of being able to use every bank and every merchant, and also the sheer fun of being able to explore almost any zone in 100% safety when you're bored or curious

[sammoHung]

i'd say rogue is a bad main character if youre comparing different classes abilities in getting themselves geared and providing twink gear for alts

best thing about rogue is having low maintenance playtime: never need to beg a CR, if a group has space they will probably take you, noone ever asks you to pull, easy raid job and always a welcome class, and most importantly, instant safe afk practically everywhere. rogue is slow to travel but what other classes can be instantly put down for RL concerns and not maybe die?

i did have to take up factioning and questing to stay sane for my rogue main though, i cant stand sitting around just ...... waiting for a group. lots of running around with LFG on/sending tells

EDIT: almost forgot the epic convenience of being able to use every bank and every merchant, and also the sheer fun of being able to explore almost any zone in 100% safety when you're bored or curious

I believe you mean monk for most importantly section of the post. Monk can get places rogue can't (mobs that see through Hide). If done right, Monk can also get there just as fast as rogue. (I've flopped down to Poop Mountain in Seb in a race with rogues and won) Monk is the ultimate, "I have to go right now" class for this reason. Feign death, /exit, and just remember to hit FD when you log back in.

But yeah, rogue is a great low-maintenance class, and is the second best at getting anywhere in the game. The big advantage of rogue over monk is the expectation from raids / groups. Monk are expected to pull, and rogue are expected to appear from hide and backstab until dead, then go back to hide until next mob in camp.

I think Rogue is a great main. Wonder how OPs doing now.

[greatdane]

If your playtimes or habits lead you to spend a lot off time alone, rogue is a poor choice. Aside from particular weirdos who like to insist that any class can solo, rogues can do nothing on their own. I'm an EU player who leveled a rogue from 1 to 55 this year, and if I logged in during off-hours, it was often just hopeless as there simply weren't enough players to get a group going. Even if I did manage to get people together in the afternoon, it was a nightmare anytime someone had to leave, because groups fall apart if it takes 20 minutes to find a new tank or healer.

If your playtimes are more peak-like, rogue is fine, though you probably do have to stick to the tired mainstream leveling route of Crushbone/Oasis > Unrest > Mistmoore/Highkeeep > City of Mist > Karnor's. Finding groups anywhere else is very unreliable, and if you bring your own group to an empty zone, you'll be spending more time waiting for replacement than you do actually grinding. There's a reason everyone sticks to the aforementioned path. Who wants to spend half an hour getting to some obscure zone and then the tank has to leave almost right away?

[Master Roshi]

If you're gonna main a melee as your first class, go monk. You will be able to actually farm stuff with moderate gear on it way better and flop to any camp same as a rogue would sneak.

Rogues are only good for raiding and dungeon recovery. But a monk can dps, tank, farm, PL, pull and survive nearly any encounter.

So much cheap monk and rogue stuff now on blue that either should be twinked pretty nice by the time you're lvl 20-30 and saved up some plat anyway, but I still vote monk, and that's coming from a main Rogue. I even got to level up my rogue with his epic at lvl 1 back before they enrfed it to 46, and it was still just a glass cannon toon.

[Trelaboon]

I personally think Rogue is the perfect main class if you’re gonna go melee. Their epic is super easy, literally any guild could finish it. Their DPS is incredibly good, even with tunnel gear. You can max strength, have your epic, and something like a winters fury in offhand for like 15k, and be a welcome addition to any group or raid. It’s not a class that will be farming a lot of plat, but it’s also a class that doesn’t NEED to farm a lot. Rogue is only a bad main if your primary objective is to level up and fund alts.

If you’re planning to make one character with the objective that that character will serve as your main, primary, maybe even solitary character, there’s no better melee class to main in my opinion. You’ll also be welcome to basically any raiding guild, If that’s what you wanted; even with that 15k gear setup.

If green 2.0 ever drops, I fully intend to make a rogue and play it pretty much exclusively and as my only toon. I’ve done the alt thing way too many times, and the class is a perfect main imo

[kjs86zskidoo]

If you're ok with being useless solo, sure.

[Tooboredtoquit]

If you're ok with being useless solo, sure.

People looking at a Rogue that are concerned about not finding groups or having to solo, Everquest is a game where you can ALWAYS make progress if you hate yourself, or are bored enough, and want to kill something once every 6-minutes or so...

I leveled my Rogue entirely solo from 1-51 with relatively bad gear while working-from-home and "dad camping" spawns. It was chill and perfectly doable/safe, plus I had "fun" stabbing stuff to pass the time.

Did 1-35 in Banded Armor, Orc fang earrings, SCHW, 2x 65hp rings, Sarnak Backstabber + Guard Captain's Mallet, and some bandages.


Everfrost & Blackburrow. I killed critters and gnolls.
West Karana. At the bottom of the hill with the bandit camp on top, you can get 2 singles.
Oasis. Crocodiles are non-social.
South Karana. Single birds at KFC. Centaurs in their stalls (kill greens). Gnolls at Spires.


Upgraded some gear such as adding haze panther gear and barbed dragonscale boots and shoulders. No epic, fungi, or better weapons though.


West Karana. Kill either of the Cyclops Froon and Choon. Can pull a single despite them seeming close.
Dreadlands Yetis or Firiona Vie Dogs (low-mid 40s was the hardest I encountered, but I didn't really seek out a better spot. I'm sure there is somewhere good though).
Feerrott. Bouncer Hurd.


Look, I'm sure 51-60 is awful unless you have good gear, but 1-51 was not too terrible as a solo Rogue.


It is trivial to land backstabs while solo as long as you have SoW potions.
If you're AFK-camping a spawn, you can open every fight from hide with backstab and go into an intimidate (doesn't always land on first try or at all, lol).
I never messed with poisons.
I'd eat a few deaths if I got some bad RNG and they clobbered me, but I didn't have too many issues or deaths I can recall.

[jolanar]

It's funny Monk's cant solo well past 50 without epic and fungi, but somehow Rogues needing epic and fungi to solo is this huge insurmountable barrier.

[fortior]

It's funny Monk's cant solo well past 50 without epic and fungi, but somehow Rogues needing epic and fungi to solo is this huge insurmountable barrier.

??? who says monks can't solo well past 50 without epic and fungi?

[Jimjam]

It's funny Monk's cant solo well past 50 without epic and fungi, but somehow Rogues needing epic and fungi to solo is this huge insurmountable barrier.

??? who says monks can't solo well past 50 without epic and fungi?

Monks desire fungi/epic to solo well.

Rogues need fungi/epic to have a chance to solo at all.

[fortior]

yeah exactly, monks are a perfectly serviceable solo class pre fungi as dozens of monks have shown during classic and post kunark launch before the first fungi or epic was even acquired

[Videri]

OP, hopefully you’re getting the picture that:
• you can totally main a rogue, regardless of era
• rogues level vastly better in groups than solo (so play your rogue, but be proactive and outgoing and form groups)
• you will need friends, groups, and eventually a guild (and they need you)
• for greater efficiency and ease, it may also be helpful to have a “farm character,” such as a necromancer or enchanter, to farm items and platinum for the rogue.

What’s your take so far, OP?

[enjchanter]

Youll be fine leveling in groups but when you hit 60 outside of raids youre basically not useful for anything that produces value

You wont be able to solo and any group that produces plat wont be taking a rogue.

[Lowako]

Youll be fine leveling in groups but when you hit 60 outside of raids youre basically not useful for anything that produces value

You wont be able to solo and any group that produces plat wont be taking a rogue.

can confirm as someone who mained rogue a long time ago. the best plat farming strats on rogue include logging into your friends character and using them to make plat or making your friends PL you on a better class

[fortior]

luckily an enchanter in 2k worth of tunnel gear can keep you flush

[Snaggles]

Rogues need fungi/epic to have a chance to solo at all.

A turnkey epic is 30k. Not until HK greens out does any class have an issue killing a blue solo. 2,000 hps nobles drop quick.

A fungi is 150hps a minute. It doesn’t take a minute to kill a blue though recovery might be an issue waiting for a repop (7 mins sitting at 55 is only 350 hp back; a Fungi or Iksar tunic would help a lot). A myro bp is expensive but will heal 800hp a minute. Rogues can use a Locustlure (caps at 35% slow) or even Spine Break which is 6p an application and a 50% slow. Every HK guard is an average between FS and plat of 7.5p.

If you are deciding between a monk or rogue it’s better to think what the end goal is. Outside “dps” they have fundamentally different roles. Without battle bind-wound monks solo ok but not to the broken level of before. They are more camp and gear limited than knights.

[jolanar]

2,000 hps nobles drop quick.


So do 2k hp rogues :D.

[7thGate]

Youll be fine leveling in groups but when you hit 60 outside of raids youre basically not useful for anything that produces value

You wont be able to solo and any group that produces plat wont be taking a rogue.

Best I've found so far is Puppet Show duos. You can clear the cycle with a good shaman, its maybe 1 Throne per 4 or 5 cycles. Something like 10-12 hours a Throne per person with some crowns thrown in, which is decent if not crazy.

Can go farm Ice Giant toes or Droga, but its kind of peasant farming relative to the better gear farms.

[7thGate]

I main a Rogue, and its pretty fun. You have to group to level up for the most part, there's some solo possibilities but they're hard especially if you're not twinked out. I found quest based XP to be some of the best while soloing (sarnak war braids and shardwing courier, the first because the targets are full green in your mid 50's but still give decent XP through the quest drop, and the second because its such a huge XP gain its worth the pain of bow kiting it). Group XP definitely way better though.

Its easy to get to the gear level where you can be helpful on raids since your epic is the easiest in the game, and noone is ever sad to have rogues at a raid. Most of your progression will come from raiding anyway.

[Jimjam]

I main a Rogue, and its pretty fun. You have to group to level up for the most part, there's some solo possibilities but they're hard especially if you're not twinked out. I found quest based XP to be some of the best while soloing (sarnak war braids and shardwing courier, the first because the targets are full green in your mid 50's but still give decent XP through the quest drop, and the second because its such a huge XP gain its worth the pain of bow kiting it). Group XP definitely way better though.

Its easy to get to the gear level where you can be helpful on raids since your epic is the easiest in the game, and noone is ever sad to have rogues at a raid. Most of your progression will come from raiding anyway.

Speaking of raids and gear, something I’ve noticed is many ‘low’ level rogues (46-54) show hesitancy in seeking help to get their epic. I’ve seen reasons like “I don’t know anyone in guild”, “it is too early”, “I’ll appear greedy/pixel hungry” or “I’m not worth their time”. However, my experiences call these thoughts into question - in all the guilds I’ve been in people have been very keen to help out on rogue fights - whether to schedule something or even just do it at a drop of a hat - even if that rogue is a level 46 app that nobody really knows.

So yea, don’t be shy: ask for help - many people in guilds are there to have adventures and help people out. You won’t put anyone out bu asking for a rogue epic - instead you’ll give them a fun adventure and hopefully a nee friend! Ps it will help out your own levelling and dps a lot.

[WarpathEQ]

Just make your life easy and tunnel quest your way to nice twink gear and you can solo all the way up to 60

Fungi (in battle) + Mylokar's BP (out of battle fast heals) + Epic + Spine Break pots + Intimidation you can kill virtually anything that any other melee class can solo. Roughly 150k in gear.

[Tnair]

Intimidation works so rarely its a fun gimmick rather than a viable tactic... dont plan rogue fights around intimidate, the payoff is bad. Spine Break will root them anyways so sometimes it wont even work when it works :)

[WarpathEQ]

I exclusively used intimadation and spine break on the high green cons in the sarnak fort outside of Chardok anytime I was soloing from 55-60.

You are correct that even though spine break is technically a snare and not root that it works as a root in the sense that the mobs will not run when intimidated when the spine break is active.

With that said I would average atleast 1 intimidation per fight after spine break wore off before the mob is dead allowing for additional backstab damage to be delivered while eliminating damage from tanking. It was often the difference between whether I could successfully kill the mob before he killed me or not and therefore the difference between whether I could solo or not as a fairly well geared rogue at 55+ (Epic+Fungi+Mrylokars+Edge of the Nightwalker)

The success rate is much lower on blue cons and above but at that level you aren't going to be able to solo any blue cons anyway. In my experience you will get one intimidation per every 2 blue con mob.

[Toxigen]

yeah sounds like so much fun

just group ffs

[WarpathEQ]

You get to a point where you can't take KC any longer and haven't quite gotten the people needed to form a chardok group that you might as well be productive.

Chardok Group > Soloing > KC Noobery

[Toxigen]

They need to nerf KC zem into oblivion and buff the hell out of the good zones.