I did keep a copy of the High End Rogue Guide on my hard drive (thankfully I didn't delete it).

Here it is:

Ok, so you’ve read the “Mid Level Equipment Guild” and you no longer think it applies to you. So, you want bigger and better. You want to take a step to the next level, be UBER rogue like the rest in the Ring. Well, here are some of the things you should be looking for.

Note: New items come into the game every patch (almost) and every expansion. These are just suggestions, and can be outdated rather quickly. Also, this guide is going to be set up very differently then the mid level guide. This guide is for items that will generally help you be a better rogue.

At the higher end, to do good/great damage it’s all about Attack Rating AND living long enough to survive any encounter (Hp). It does your guild no good if you can average 200 DPS, but can’t make it past the first 30 seconds of a fight because you didn’t have enough Hp to .. take a few hits until evade worked, cleric got the CH off, your resists were too low, etc. As we all know Strength directly adds to Attack Rating. But your strength caps at 255 (unless you're lvl61+, then it maxes at 255 + ((current lvl - 60)*5)). Once you get your strength up in the 180 range, a Harnessing of Spirit or Focus will put you up near the 255 cap. So having 255 strength on your own is silly (you wont be raiding solo, so don’t argue this point, you WILL have a HoS or Focus). It would be better too have a strength around 180 and stamina around 180 too, rather then strength at 245 and stamina at 120. So with that in mind, let’s look at what an UBER rogue should/would want.

General Info:
1) A no brainer, Ragebringer! If you are lvl50+, and don’t have a Temple of Veeshan, Tunare, Ssraeshza Temple, Vex Thall, or Tier 3-4 PoP No Drop peircer, this should be in your main hand (or off hand if you were able to buy a better peircer). The Seething Fury is a GREAT buff, and many a rogue that has some of those no drop weapons above wished they could put the Ragebringer in their Ranged slots.

2) Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring’s are expensive and a PAIN to camp, but in the higher end game it’s all about Attack Rating (and you want to be UBER don’t you?). There will be times that you wont have a Ranger for Call of the Tunare or a Paladins Brells, so this is the next best thing. And best of all it’s a targetless self buff, which are CRITICAL for any raid where the mob casts an AE debuff.

3) Aura of Battle the next must have. Any item that has Aura of Battle that you can afford, or quest will do. Different items with Aura of Battle will stack also (see below for stacking information). So whatever you get (Belt of Dwarf Slaying, Belt of the Great Turtle, Spirit Wracked Chords, etc.) will work, and they will stack giving you a nice little buff and a little regeneration. The max worn regen you can have is 30 hp per tick.

4) This should be a no brainer, but skills should not be ignored, all skills. Defense is free AC, Peircing and Offense is free Attack (only your main hand effects Attack, even if you have a skill of 0 for the weapon type in your off hand), and Backstab is what we all live for. These skills should always be capped.

5) Armor is great, but at this level, every piece of armor you have should give you not only healthy AC, but stats, Hp and a few resists (more on the specific armor later). As a rule of thumb, thanks to our melee brethren at Steel Warriors, it was determined that there is an AC soft cap around 1100-1150. What’s an AC soft cap? This is the point of marginal returns for AC, for every point of AC you add above this “soft cap” you are mitigating less damage then you did when you added the last point of AC. Let’s look at the example below (this example is to show the idea of marginal returns, not hard data from a parsed log):

AC = 1000 DPS taken 80
AC = 1050 DPS taken 70
AC = 1100 DPS taken 62
AC = 1150 DPS taken 58
AC = 1200 DPS taken 55

Again, those are just for illustration. But the fact is that once you cross AC 1100~1150, your might be better off concentrating resources elsewhere (Hp, Sta, Resists). True tank classes (Warriors, Paladins and Shadow Knights) will normally have AC up around 1500+ in UBER guilds. This is for two reasons: The armor that they get has INCREDIBLE AC to begin with and it’s also useful for the tank to be taking even 1 dps less then they would if they had an extra 25 hp.

6) If your normal armor doesn’t net you 100+ for each resist, have and CARRY WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES a resist kit. In this kit you should have all the armor and items that you need to self boost ALL your resist over 100+ simultaneously. You never know when a raid will be called, and UBER guilds HATE having to wait for people that need to run to the bank to get their resist gear.

7) You never know when you’re going to need it, but an Endure Breathing item is also VERY highly suggested. There are a few items you can buy for around 2-3kpp (Turtle Bone Ring, Fishbone Earring), but there is a Quested item out of Katta you can get (even if KoS, with the rogue handshake), which would be for the Amulet of the Grey Wastes.

8) Another item that should be obtained is any See Invisible item. It’s usefulness is immeasurable, especially when the puller in City of Mist is standing right next to you when he says over group “Waiting for the rogue to get here to open the door for the next Reaver pull”, only to unhide and scare his pants off. A See Invisible item is pretty much a necessity for any class that can’t cast See Invis on themselves. Note: Some mobs DO invis themselves, so having See Invis up at all times (especially as a puller which many of us enjoy doing) is essential. Some items to look for are; Fingerbone Hoop, Choker of Majdd, Bracer of the Hidden, Ravenscale Mask and any item with True/Plain Sight.

9) Know where you're going. If you are making your first trip to a zone for a Raid, consult those that may know more about the zone, or how to get there (either in-game, here at the Safehouse or at your guild website). Uber guilds HATE waiting 30 minutes for some lvl55 first timer to try and figure out his way across Siren's Grotto by himself (just ask Wix). Print maps, guides and anything else you may want and have them handy (printing my not be as necessary now that you can window EQ).

ARMOR:

You should start by getting Allied faction with your guilds Velious Quest Armor (ie if your guild is on Claws of Veesah faction, you should be Ally to Claws of Veesah). Some are in big enough guilds that they have the best pieces from each set (Thurgadin Legs, Kael Arms and Skyshrine Breastplate). This is A LOT of work, so don’t expect your guild to help you. Your regular group of friends could/would, but don’t think that your guild will automatically get you Thurgadin Legs because they offer more Sta then the other two sets. That will be up to you to do on your own (most likely). Generally, accept and loot all Quest Armor pieces that you feel you would use (some rogues don’t like any of the Velious Bracers and prefer to use other options, some use one Velious Quest bracer for a consistent look and some use both). Know your guilds loot policy. If you pass on an item on one raid (let’s say Kael Boots), did you forfeit any rights to future drops for Kael Boots? The best time to really work on your Velious Quest Armor is lvl55+ as most guilds raid different parts of Temple of Veshan for the Quest Armor drops. Those under lvl55 normally are excluded from these raids as the AE from many of these mobs would be unresisted, draining healer mana by heals and rez’s.

If you don’t want to spend time on questing the Velious Armors, you can take the more expensive route and purchase some nice player made armor. The best player made armors are Tae Ew Chain, Night Terror Chain and Hurricane Chain. Plan on spending quite a bit of money are these have a trivial greater then 250.

Now that we’ve established a base, the next step up is would be the rare drops in Luclin or PoP.


ATTACK, Vengeance and Aura of Battle:

You can have up to 250 points of attack directly attributable to worn buffs.
What counts towards this cap?
1) Vengeance items: Venganence items have a rating system if you will. Vengeance I items add 5 points of attack, Vengeance II items add 10 points of attack, etc. So each level of Vengeance adds 5 points of attack.
2)        Aura items: There are currently 4 types of Aura Items: 1- Aura of Battle (adds +10 Attack and +2 Regen), 2 – Aura of Daring (adds +20 Attack and +3 Regen), 3 – Aura of Bravery (adds +30 Attack and +4 Regen) and, 4 – Aura of Valor (adds +40 Attack and +5 Regen). All WORN Aura items stack with each other. If you have a CASTABLE Aura item, it will stack with the WORN items, but you can NOT stack MULTIPLE CASTABLE Aura items (as you will only get one buff icon).
3) Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring: This item has several stacking issues of it’s own (Grim Aura and Strength of Tunare/Nature will not stack). But the 10 points of attack add to the cap (+10 attack is as good as an Aura of Battle item, which is one reason this little trinket is 5kpp and in a bag of even many of the Deceivers).
4) Primal: The 100 points of attack gained by a primal proc is counted towards the cap of 250.
5) Ragebringer: Adds 40 raw attack, which is counted towards the cap of 250.

Spells that are cast on you to increase your attack, do not count towards a cap. All stackable shaman, enchanter, necro and shadow knight attack buffs will raise your attack rating independent of your worn/self buffing attack cap.

WEAPONS:

As you can see now, Ragebringer is a curse as well as a gift. With it many rogues obtain their first damage 15 poker, attack buff and 40% haste item. To replace it in the main hand is difficult, as the majority of the rogue community will never be able to have a chance to loot something with a better ratio while not giving up too much in the way of backstabs. But to completely bag, or bank, the Ragebringer is a even more difficult. To effectively bag your Ragebringer, you need to replace your haste with another 40% haste item, obtain a weapon that has a better damage ratio and replace 40 points of attack.

Current guideline to bagging your Ragebringer, if you have the following:

41% haste
15/20 or better ratio for main hand, 13/20 for off
1500+ ATK for non-Luclin encounters
1600+ ATK for Luclin encounters

If you have all of the above, then you can bag your epic.

Backstab mods: Hands down, if any rogue has a chance to loot a weapon with a backstab skill modification, you HAVE to loot it. It would be an upgrade well worth the price paid, as backstab caps at 225, so there is PLENTY of room under the hard skill cap (hard cap is 252 for Backstab).


There are tons of weapons around, but it’s generally accepted that the best damaging peircer (especially if it has a backstab mod) should always be main hand. For the off-hand, use the best damage delay weapon you have (Yes, Ratio is KING). If two weapons have the same ratio, many rogues would suggest using the one with the GREATER delay – to help reduce the how quickly you generate aggro.

ATTACK BUFF CHECKLIST (Thanks Qutse):

1) Do I have max Str? Ask Shaman for Focus/Harness of Spirit, or Druid/Ranger for their best Str buff.
2) Do I have Strength of Tunare? Turn off Brells Mountainous Barrier and ask ranger for Strength of Tunare.
3) If your fighting a mini-boss (or similar) and the ranger doesn’t have Strength of Tunare, get Force of Nature and Strength of Nature.
4) Do I have Call of the Predator? Ask ranger for Call of the Predator.
5) Do I have Beastmaster Spiritual Strength attack buff? Ask beastmaster for Spiritual Strength.
6) Does the Enchanter have share illusion? Ask the chanter to share werewolf illusion (will not stack with a Ranger’s SPIRIT of the Predator).
7) Does Enchanter have Speed of Vallon? Ask enchanter for Speed of Vallon.
8) Is the Shadow Knight using Torrent of Hate? Ask the shadow knight to use torrent of hate.
9) Is the Necromancer using Crippling Claudification? Ask the necromancer to use Crippling Claudification.
10) Do I have Spirit of Bih’Li? Ask the shaman to cast Bih’Li.
11) Do I have share greater wolf form? Ask the druid for share greater wolf form (chastise the druid for not having a level 49 buff).
12) Do I have haste? Get haste...
13) Is there a bard in the group? Request that the bard be put in your group.

HIT POINTS

So why all the stress and importance on Hit Points? For the simple reason that Hit Points are never wasted. The idea of marginal returns on AC was already discussed, so I wont drag it back up here. Many rogues like having stat boosting armors, but once you achieve lvl55+ chances are that wherever you go, a buffer will be there. Strength is very important to a Rogue and the damage we can deal (it’s been shown that for every +10Str increase DPS by 1%). Any lvl53+ ranger can cast a +35 Str buff, and that’s the worst of the Str buffs. Chances are that there will be a Druid (lvl55+ can cast a +42 Str buff), a Beastlord (lvl55+ can cast a +34 Str buff) or Shaman (which will be able to HoS you for +67Str). On any given raid you will attend, there will be a Shaman there casting at LEAST a focus on all melee’s (which is again a +67Str buff), so many rogues try to maintain a Str of 188 (188+67=255 the cap Pre-Planes of Power). After reaching this platue of 185+ Str many rogues choose to accumulate +Hp items.

Again, the main reason that melee’s LOVE Hp is that there is no cap on Hp (or at least no cap has been found). You can add as much as you can, and it ALL counts. While Hp may not add an increase in DPS (which is why we get asked to groups), it does allow us to LIVE longer in a situation where we are taking damage (and we do take damage from time to time either through AE or direct melee). There is no way to to put a percentage on survivability for every +100Hp you add, but the amount of tanking even rogues can do with more Hp is noticeable. And your healer will notice it too. The less they cast the Incomplete Heal lines (I’m including clerics here too since their CH has a cap on the amount of Hp it will heal), the longer they will have mana. And that normally translates to better group/raid survivability.

Insta Cast Buffs:

All the named dragons (Woushi, Doze, etc) all have a dispell AE. It is a MUST that EVERY melee has an insta-click self buffing item. The 3 most common are;
1) 8/9/10th Coldain Ring (Quested in Velious),
2) Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring (drops from Grachnist in WW),
3) Spyglass (made by tinkerers and ONLY LASTS 3 TICKETS), and
4) JBoots (Quested and Out doors ONLY).

These three items are the best you can get for insta-click self buffs. The main reason is that you DON'T have to target yourself to buff, it's a self buff item only, so it will immediately buff you without switching your target. There another item that will work, but you have to target your self before you click it.
5) Bracer of Hidden (drops in LoIO)


These 5 are the most common. Any of the first 4 are the most desired, as I said you don't have to worry about targetting and re-targetting.

The reason that these are SO important is that these AE dispells hit every other tick (or is it every tick?). Putting these buffs in the top two buff spots, should mean that they will get dispelled first. After getting them dispelled, you can just re-click to refresh them, putting them back at the top of the list saving your haste, Aego, resist, regen and any other buffs from going bye-bye.

Get out of Jail Free Card:

Sounds silly, but you NEVER know when you'll LD from a raid and not be able to get back on. Sometimes late at night, you might find yourself in a group grind deep in BoT when you realize that the group doesn't have a druid or wizard. This is where your "Get out of Jail free card" comes in. You should ALWAYS carry one of the following on you AT ALL TIMES:

1) Vial of Velium Vapors (Casting Time: 9 seconds) - Quested in Thurgadin. Can be completed by those NOT on Coldain faction, by using sneak (to get the Velium Purifier from Frundle Frenkler). The TL drops you on the Thurgadin Bridge OUTSIDE the city area, so it's an easy stroll to the Great Divide zone.

Difficulty: Once Pottery is over 122, the Velium Vials are Trivial. Rather easy to collec the ingredient for the Vial of Velium Vapors in Velketor's Labyrinth or Crystal Caverns.

2) Worker Sledgemallet (Casting Time: Weapon Proc) - Quested in The Overthere. Must have higher then Indifferent faction to complete quest. The hammer is a 2hb weapon that proc's a TL to The Overthere (which conveniently has a PoK book right outside the outpost). Good races need to be aware that they MAY have to kill a green con skeleton everytime they use the hammer.

Difficulty: Only problem with the hammer is building the faction to get it. As a DE Agnostic rogue it took me a few level of hunting in OT to hand in enough Sarnak Warbraids to be able to complete this Quest. Good races may have an initial problem of being kill on sight to the outpost, even in DE form.

3) Lizard Blood Potion (Casting Time: Instant) - These babies drop in Ferrott off the Thul Tae Ew Cenobite's. The Thul Tae Ew Cenobite spawns at the top of the Lizard Pyramid to the right of the ramp leading up to the Cazic Thul zone line (the Pyramid to the West). The Cazic Gate Potion drops you in the middle of the Cazic Thule maze, you WILL want a map printed before you use your first Cazic Gate Potion. The top of the wizard pyramid you port into should be safe, but the maze is full of some very mean lizards.

Difficulty: Any rogue lvl50+ shouldn't have a problem camping a potion or two. May get boring as the Thul Tae Ew Cenobite is a rare spawn, but you could collect a pair of Ravenscale Boots (the boots are the Thul Tae Ew Cenobite's rare drop, the Gate Potion is the common drop). The Lizard Blood Potions ARE NOT lore, so it may be in your best interest to camp more then 1 each time you head there.

4) Shaman Gate Potions (Casting Time: Varies) - The proper names are;
Potion of the Swamp (Casting Time: 30 Seconds) - TL's you to Innothule Swamp, at the giant Hand with the Shaman Spell vendor.
Potion of the Frost (Casting Time: 30 Seconds) - TL's you to Everfrost Peaks, near the three ice goblin igloos south of Halas.
Potion of the Bone Field (Casting Time: 30 Seconds) - TL's you to Field of Bone, near the stone archway leading to Kaesora.
Potion of the Shadeweaver (Casting Time: 30 Seconds) - TL's you to Shadeweaver's Thicket, at the Shar Vahl zone line.
Gate Potion (Casting Time: 10 Seconds) - Gates player to bind point. Cost is higher the the other four potions, but your casting time is one-third.

Difficulty: These all are shaman made, and the component cost for each potion is around 184-250pp. Bazaar price would probably be in the 300-500pp range for a single port potion, multiply that by 5 or 10 for multiple port potions.

5) Vial of Swirling Smoke (Casting Time: Instant) - This is a non-player vendor/merchant item. It's a instant gate to bind. Cost is about 1kpp EACH.

Difficulty: None, just come up with 1kpp each time you want to buy one.

Edited by: Durden  at: 10/3/03 6:28 am