Ideas for the Rogue

[ScotterDay]

I'm really super excited about the (potential) rogue release. I know it's still a bit of a dream in development, but still. I'm excited!

A few ideas I had knocking around about them.

Maybe give them a passive increased crit chance while not attacking?
A drop aggro stealth magic ability?
A summon decoy magic ability?
A switch to melee/switch to ranged magic ability? (throw daggers versus stabbing)
Smoke bomb blinding magic ability?

Just some thoughts. I'm trying to envision a different play style that'd reward dipping into large groups of enemies to kill multi projectile launchers or pits quickly. Right now the other classes really reward clearing the way safely, and I always imagine backstabs as high risk high reward endeavors.

[Hipshot]

At the moment, we are trying a thing on the Ranger, where he walks and attacks at the same time. It's being tried because it's a feature that most likely will land on the rogue later on. The few who have tested it seems to like it, so we might end up having two heroes with that feature.

Your suggestions are good and I'm gonna ask myran to read them, the graphics for the rogue is being done as we speak, but it will be a while before he will be in the game. The current look is him with two knives and inspired by the Defias in Wow.

[Heretic]

- A smoke-bomb-stun thing might be cool. Where you throw it and whoever is in the radius is 'stunned' where they don't move for a few seconds.

- The stealth thing would be cool too, maybe another smoke-bomb thing where they 'vanish' like the rogue in WoW and are undetectable for a few seconds.

Or maybe even combine those two - you throw a bomb that makes you stealth and unattackable for a few seconds, and also any enemies in the blast radius are stunned.


- Passive skill that is upgradable to take less damage from traps, and/or % chance to take no damage at all.

- The throwing-knives idea sounds cool too. Maybe have an ability that switches to ranged like that, but maybe costs 1 gold per knife thrown?

- Tumble ability like the paladin's dash but you tumble through enemies without taking damage, and also does no damage to enemies. Maybe have it cost less than 10 mana - 5 maybe?

- Passive to have better rolls when THEY are the one to open a chest?

- Since they have 2 blades/swords/knives/daggers/whatever - maybe their melee attack can attack two sides at once? Like if they attack north they attack north and south at the same time?

[seth]

I'm trying to envision a different play style that'd reward dipping into large groups of enemies to kill multi projectile launchers or pits quickly. Right now the other classes really reward clearing the way safely, and I always imagine backstabs as high risk high reward endeavors.

Actually that is kind of the way I play with the warlock. Run into a lot of enemies (kill a spawning pit, if there is time, else drag them back), run around them for a while until they form a ball instead of a line, and kill them all with lightning bolts (often just one or two, depending on the level). I cant imagine how one would play warlocks differently.. that poison knife didnt seem very useful at all against anything but very small groups of enemies.

That is also the reason why I enjoyed warlock the most so far. Staying back and slowly killing things just isnt as fun.

[Corion]

Adding to the ideas thread...

Rogues typically focus on stealth, trap detection/disabling, poisons or bleeding, daggers, dodging, critical hits, thievery, and things of this nature. With this in mind...
A lot of people have suggested similar ideas above me. I believe we're mostly on the same page.


• Stealth: An ability to sneak up on flowers or powerful enemies such as the mages and do much higher damage. This would probably be their first or second skill. Using it would drain some initial mana and then mana over time.
• Thrown daggers in a frontal cone. A great basic attack, or maybe a skill. These would probably do damage per dagger and be upgraded to have a % chance to poison/bleed enemies. If you wanted to execute enemies with these you could sneak up behind something and launch them all into one enemy - which would basically guarantee the dot. Otherwise, you could use these to clear out groups of enemies. Some great potential upgrades for these would be increased distance and number of daggers thrown. They should have an extremely short range and initial attack cone. Maybe you'd just start with one.
• Passive detection of traps and hidden passages.I know that this could be difficult to implement given how the game works, but it seems like a great addition. Let rogues see where walls can be broken down by highlighting them with a glow. Let rogues see which floor panels flip up as flame traps, and where traps will shoot from the walls. Highlight squares red that are about to turn into spikes. Players with a rogue should be able to easily navigate trapped and hidden areas.
• Let rogues dodge projectiles and over traps as one of their abilities. It would be great if rogues could dodge around 1 big square at a time. This should make them invulnerable to attacks, traps, and proejctiles for the duration of the dodge. You could still block routes off from players with traps 2 squares wide, but rogues could bypass some traps in levels to access areas out of order or get to ranged enemies or turrets.
• Let rogues take more damage from traps.Give rogues a stacking armor, dodge, or damage reduction for traps. By the end of the game you shouldn't really have to worry about darts, wave off flame traps, barely have to worry about spears, and not fear accidentally stepping once onto the otherwise insta-kill spikes.
• Pick-pockets.Give rogues a skill that grants the party (or maybe just the rogue) slightly extra gold for killing enemies.

In my mind, all of the current characters kind of have their own fortes and weaknesses, and have something to offer the party.  Playing with one in the party should feel natural, but then playing the same level again without one should make its value stand out. "If only we had a ________."

In my mind, the rogue should be kind of weak in most situations but good at getting into groups of enemies to take out high-priority targets such as flowers/mages/spawners, and then getting out alive. The major benefits of having a rogue would be the trap avoidance, additional gold, secret detection, and taking out high-value targets (flowers/turrets). He should not be that great at taking out huge groups of enemies quickly, dealing with archers, etc. or any of the other things that the other characters excel at.

[Valis]

When I think of a Rogue I think of Melee/close range damage dealer.  My suggestions for Rogue would be the following.

Main Attack: Throw Daggers three poison daggers (very short range cone in front of the rogue)
Magic Attack: Backstab (damage = current mana level instantly to target in front of the rogue) [50 mana = 50 damage attack] (double critical chance)
 this would allow them to do massive damage once until they regenerate the mana back up.  This would help them kill/majorly damage high profile targets every once in a while/make mana useful.
Passive 1: Dodge %chance to reduce damage to 0 Melee or Ranged (start at around 20% with +5% bonuses when upgraded)
Passive 2: Hide when out of combat for 20 seconds  (reduced by 2 seconds per upgrade) stealth (until you move or attack or get hit) this would allow them to hide until they get mana back to use backstab again.  Maybe give them bonus magic regeneration while Hidden (+1 mana regeneration per upgrade starting at +3)
Passive 3: Critical %chance to do double damage (upgrades would increase the %chance AND %bonus damage)
Passive 4: Detect Traps/Passages %chance to make trap boxes / hidden passages to glow red or even make it reduced %chance for trapped boxes to have traps
Passive 5: Poison Resistance Reduced damage from poison / reduced slow effect or negate slow effect from poison.

Health: 50
Mana: 50

Sorry if this repeats other peoples ideas.

[Devron]

Give the rogue a crossbow and the arrow penetration ability. The Ranger should rather have a spread shot.
Also an exploding decoy would be cool.
I've always felt like the ranger should actually be called a roque with bombs and such.

[Hipshot]

Before Christmas, the rogue was renamed thief and his skills involve money much more.

How the game, levels and skills work in this game, I don't think trap detection and poison resistance are any good skills to be honest. You would feel as if they are not to good use as soon as you become better. You get poisoned when you get hit, once you become better you learn not to and after a while you also learn what a trap looks like and where they are, even if they are hidden and random.