Rogue Class Guide (Classic - Prophecy of Ro)
This guide will cover Rogues in EQ from Classic all the way until the Prophecy of Ro Expansion Pack (Level 70). Rogues start out as the worst class ever in Classic EQ but they get better as each expansion goes on until OoW and beyond where they compete with some of the top melee for highest DPS.
Aside from DPS, Rogues get Pick Lock and other utilities like Sneak/Hide which will make you invisible to most monsters. During PoP you can improve this combo with Shroud of Stealth which makes you invis to basically every mob in the game except raid bosses.
Important Stats & Focus
Your stats will give you the biggest benefit until you reach Luclin-PoP and you start maxing them out with raid gear and buffs. Once you max out your stats you can only raise them with AAs or with Heroic Stats which are a feature of the later expansions. Rogues will want to prioritize Strength and Dexterity for damage along with the Attack stat which appears on gear less commonly in the early eras. Last but not least, you'll want an item that gives you Haste as well.
Strength: This increases your Attack and weight limits
Dexterity: Increases chance to proc during combat and accuracy
Stamina: Gives you HP
Agility: Increases AC
Once Planes of Power is released you will start to notice Heroic Stats on your gear. This will become more and more common as time goes on until eventually every piece of gear will have Heroic Stats on it. Benefits from these stats are kind of like real stats but slightly worse.
Each of these Heroic Stats will give diminishing returns past their soft caps. For this reason it's typically best not to focus entirely on one and to spread them around a bit. As a Rogue you'll want to get Heroic Dexterity, Heroic Agility, Heroic Stamina and a little Heroic Strength.
Heroic Dexterity (Accuracy/Proc Chance): Heroic Dex increases your accuracy and proc chance during combat; it has diminishing returns later in the game once you start getting a lot of it.
Heroic Agility (Avoidance/Strike Through): Increases AC, Dodge, Block and Many of the most important Mod2s. Use my Heroic Stats Guide for more information.
Heroic Strength (Strength): Increases Endurance. Improves the percentage of AC that gets tranfered from your shield to be used for damage mitigation. It also improves melee attack damage very minimally.
Heroic Stamina (HP/Mitigation): Increases HP, HP Regen, and HP Regen Cap. It also gives you some Mod2s which help with damage and stun mitigation.
Want more information about Heroic Stats and what they do/how they're beneficial? Curious what Mod2s are? Take a look at my Heroic Stats Guide for more information about what each stat does and why we're getting the ones that we're focusing on.
Important Focus Effects
Starting in Luclin and becoming more common as the game goes on certain pieces of gear will come with Focus Effects. For melee classes you don't start getting tons of Focus Effects until OoW and beyond. Below are the main Focus Effects that you want to get on your gear when they become available.
****Haste: Not really a focus, but this is the most important secondary thing you should get on your gear. Eventually it becomes a staple on your gear in the future and you don't have to seek it out anymore.
****Cleave: Increases your chance to crit with all combat skills by a significant amount. This is the most important focus you should seek out once it's available.
***Ferocity: Your chance to double attack is increased by a small amount. Your second biggest DPS increase will come from this.
**Improved Dodge: Chance to Dodge is increased by a moderate amount. Pretty much gives you a bit more survivability.
*Improved Parry/Block: Chance to Parry and Block is increased by a moderate amount. You should never be using a shield, so you only benefit from the Parry. Increases survivability marginally.
Important Skills, AAs & Disciplines
From Classic - PoR you'll have very few buttons to press when it comes to dealing DPS. Backstab is more or less all you will be using during combat; this will require a dagger in your main hand and for you to be standing behind the enemy. You don't get many additional abilities to spam until later expansions; we'll cover that in future guides.
Backstab: Your main damage, always use this when attacking. Once PoP comes out you're able to /autoskill Backstab and use it automatically.
Sneak: When you use this skill regular and see invis mobs will be indifferent to you. You can use this to sneak past nearly any mob in any zone in the game, only the rare raid boss or mini raid boss will see through your invis as a Rogue. This skill can also be used to interact with and turn in quests that you normally would not be able to do. Press C when targeting a mob to see what you con to it.
Hide: As long as you stand still you can be invis with this skill.
Sneak/Hide Combination: If you use both of these skills in conjunction you will be able to have an improved version of stealth where you're invis to undead and normal enemies.
Pick Lock, Disarm Trap, Pick Pocket: These are situational skills. Pick Lock is used on doors, chests etc that are locked. Disarm Trap is used to disarm traps and Pick Pocket is used to steal money and non-magic items from NPCs.
AAs
Just like with all of the other classes, I am only going to cover the clicky AAs for Rogues. As a Rogue you actually don't get much until after this era, during this era you're pretty much the definition of basic. Starting with Luclin you will get Purge Poison which will cure you of all Poisons and Escape which is a fade skill.
That's all you get until DoDh, during this expansion you will get Stealthy Getaway which is basically a self only Succor. You'll also get Appraisal which lets you know the value of any item you're holding, pretty much useless. Honestly, that's all Rogues get during this era, it's not much.
Offensive Disciplines
Rogues get their first set of Discs during the Classic and a better set during Kunark. Much like all melee in Everquest though, you don't get much until Omens of War and beyond at which point you'll start getting upgades to your core discs with every expansion that increases the level cap.
During Classic - Kunark you'll have to shop at Entock Malso in the Commonlands. He'll sell most of what you need during this era. Once Planes of Power hits you'll be able to shop at Blane Darkblade in PoK and Xernic Gutner in Commonlands.
Deadeye (54) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases chance to hit with all skills by 10,000%.
Kinesthetics (57) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Dual Wield and Double Attack increased by 10,000%.
Blinding Speed (58) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
This gives the Hundred Hands Effect.
Duelist (59) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases damage by 50% and minimum damage by 400%.
Deadly Precision (63) - PoP (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Backstab chance to hit is increased by 10,000%.
Assassin's Strike (63) - PoP (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases Backstab chance to hit and critical hit. You also do 100% more damage and 200% minimum damage with your next backstab. 30second cooldown so this becomes a skill you hit often. When PoP comes out previous ranks will be added going back to level 20. In OoW and Prophecy of Ro future ranks of this skill are added, links to each are below.
- Sneak Attack (20)
- Thief's Vengeance (52)
- Kyv Strike (65) Acquired through GoD Spell Quests
- Ancient Chaos Strike (65) Acquired through GoD Raid Spell Quests
- Daggerfall (69) Acquired through OoW Spell Runes Quest
- Razorarc (70) Acquired through some Prophecy of Ro Quests
Twisted Chance (65) - LDoN (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases critical hit chance by 500% and chance to hit by 10,000%.
Imperceptible (66) - OoW (Allakhazam, Lucy) This disc is acquired through the OoW Spell Runes Quest)
This disc will give you a -500 Threat proc. Useful if you find yourself pulling agro.
Deadly Aim (68) - OoW (Allakhazam, Lucy) This disc is acquired through the OoW Spell Runes Quest)
Increases ranged damage by 150% and proc rate.
Frenzied Stabbing (70) - OoW (Allakhazam, Lucy) This disc is acquired through the OoW Spell Runes Quest)
Using this disc reduces all Skill Timers (including Backstab).
Defensive Discs
Resistant Discipline (30) - Classic (Allakhazam, Lucy) My advice for finding Classic era discs is to check Warrior Tomes merchants; Teniyu Emua in West Freeport is my choice)
Increases your resistances by a lot temporarily.
Fearless (40) - Classic (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Grants immunity to Fear.
Counterattack (53) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy) Visit Entock Malso in Commonlands for this Disc)
Increases your chance to riposte by 10,000%.
Nimble Discipline (55) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases your chance to dodge by 10,000%.
Other Disciplines
Throw Stone (1) - Classic (Allakhazam, Lucy)
You throw a stone that deals 1 damage to an enemy. Good for pulling when you lack ammo or when a mob summons.
How To Play: Rogue Basics
Until PoP you basically just stand behind targets and hit Backstab. Kunark gives you a few Discs to hit but it's nothing major. Once you get to PoP you'll unlock the Assassin's Strike line of discs which I talked about above, this will give you a button to spam during combat since you can /autoskill Backstab now.
From Kunark up until OoW you will get many new discs added into the game for your class, my advice is to put them all onto a bar and see which ones share cooldowns and which don't. The ones that don't share cooldowns will be the ones that you will rotate while doing DPS. I think during Kunark your best disc will be Duelist but after that you'll start to use Twisted Chance as your primary DPS disc.
Aside from this, you stay basic until after Prophecy of Ro - you'll start getting more buttons to hit as the expansions go on until around Rain of Fear. Once you reach RoF I find that most classes seem to stabilize and each time a new level increase is added you get upgrades to current skills instead of getting new ones.
More Tips & Tricks
- Once you get to Prophecy of Ro and beyond you'll want to create a single hotbar and keybind all your important skills to the same button. For example, make a Hotbar with all 12 slots using 1. Then you add all of your kicks, skills, AAs to this one hotbar so when you press 1 it will use all of them. This will be your raid spam hotkey.
- Learn to use macros! There are slash commands you can use like /disc, /doability, /alt act, /useitem, /timer and /pause which will make your life a lot easier.
- Ask around for parses, you should check your damage in comparison to what other raiders of your era are doing. That will help you get a better understanding of where you should be at.