Trickster Rogue: On Which Path Should I Walk?

As Trickster Rogue we have two paths we can choose from. We can decide to be a Whisperknife (WK) or a Master Infiltrator (MI).

Power choices

MI offers us the At-Will “Gloaming Cut”, the Daily Encounter “Shocking Execution”, the encounter “Impossible To Catch” and the three class skills “Skillful Infiltrator”, “Invisible Infiltrator” and “Infiltrator’s Action”. WK meanwhile offers us the At-Will “Disheartening Strike”, the Daily Encounter “Hateful Knives”, the encounter “Vengeance’s Pursuit” and the three class skills “Razor Action”, “Advantageous Position” and “Dagger Threat”.

Both additional At-Wills are not that great in relation to our two other At-Wills: Sly Flourish and Duelist’s Flurry.
Same goes for the Daily Powers but especially for “Hateful Knives”, which can be considered utterly useless in PvE. It can only prone one target and then grant Combat Advantage for us and our group for a few seconds. If it hits an enemy that is immune to be prone one of its major effects doesn’t affect it and because we are in a group we get combat advantage from others sources most of the time anyway. But “Shocking Execution” is mainly a PvP as well and not that good in PvE.

Class features favor the Master Infiltrator

Class Features are also important and to make it short: MI wins. “Skilful Infiltrator” grants 5% movement, 1% Deflect and 1% Critical Strike per rank, which is an unbeatable stat gain. “Invisible Infiltrator” refills our Stealth Meter every time we activate a daily power and grants us up to 20% additional damage for 5 seconds.
These are the Class Features you want all the time.

Most of the other Class Features simply can’t compete. “Infiltrators Action” offers Combat Advantage after activating a daily, which basically is a less effective Invisible Infiltrator. Because as I’ve already pointed out Combat Advantage is a non-issue most of the time. “Razor Action” adds an AoE around you by throwing daggers, which essentially is what Whirlwind Of Blades does. But the daily also grants me a huge power buff. “Razor Action” doesn’t do this and it’s effectiveness depends on the amount of mobs around you. “Advantageous Position” doesn’t do anything for me. After leaving stealth you gain combat advantage and take 20% less damage for a maximum of 6 seconds. As Trickster Rogue however you aren’t that much concerned about incoming damage.

And then does anyone think “Dagger Threat” is helpful? You deal a maximum of +15% additional damage with your range attacks if you are within 20 feet range. Seriously? Neverwinter has Action Combat. You move a lot and can’t always make sure to be within range to profit from the feature. Also it is worthy to note that almost all ranged attacks of the Trickster Rogue deal comparably small amounts of damage.

Impossible To Catch ftw!

“Vengeance’s Pursuit” from the WK may sound cool. You mark a target, the target deals less damage for about 10 and on reactivation you can break free of control effects and teleport to the marked target and stun it for less than a second. But for PvE, where we are a walking talking meat grinder for monsters, it is less than optimal. It’s a good situational daily for PVP though.

“Impossible To Catch” on the other offers us control immunity and a huge damage resistance buff. A simple example: You normally instantly die from the first boss of the Epic Lair Of Lostmauth jump attack or if his drake catches you with a bite attack. But with ItC it takes only half your health and you don’t get proned. That way you don’t need to dodge/run away from the fight. You simply wait, activate ItC and answer back. It’s basically a passive DPS gain because you have a higher time on the boss/monster than other classes and characters.

Which brings us to one of the most basic thing most Trickster Rogues don’t do: Permanently hug mobs. Our class rarely has threat issues, so it is very unlikely that a monster attacks directly. Even if it does, there are plenty of tools to avoid the damage. Normally there’s no need to dodge around like a lunatic and NOT attack the monster. Simply run up to it, use proper positioning and stab the hell out of it until it stops moving.

Back to our Main Question: Which Path Should I use?

MASTER INFILTRATOR!

In my opinion the WK doesn’t offer us enough upgrade for PvE compared to what we already have. I additionally never saw a WK in PvE that was doing good. Even to find a WK that’s doing “okay” damage is very hard. I actually tried several times to create a viable build on the preview server but always failed to do so.

In case you are dealing great DPS as a WK, I’m very interested in sharing knowledge, because in all these years I never saw a WK performing well. You can post data and screenshots in the forum of NWO:UN. A guide how to track DPS can be found here.


Next time we will be looking into the different skill trees of the Trickster Rogue, starting with the Saboteur. In case you have any questions or remarks, post them in the comments below or visit the corresponding thread on our message board.

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5 thoughts on “Trickster Rogue: On Which Path Should I Walk?

  • September 5, 2016 at 9:16 am
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    I think ‘Tactics’ is better than ‘Skilful Infiltrator’ in dungeons

  • September 5, 2016 at 12:27 pm
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    Infiltrators Action has an offhand ‘feat’ that adds +5% dps.

    • September 5, 2016 at 9:26 pm
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      This is an often overlooked reason for this class feature. Once you can overcome the stat loss from skillful infiltrator, infiltrator’s action is the way to go.

  • September 6, 2016 at 6:10 am
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    I understand your favor for MI and it’s not entirely unjustified, but that’s not to say that WK has nothing else to offer.

    Sure, the passives are better as an MI, but don’t underestimate Tactics. TRs usually have little recovery (and no need for it either), but getting 20% AP gain.is not something to be taken lightly as your Shadow of Demise will only be more powerful for it with 25% bonus power on 3 encounter skills and a few flourishes. AP isn’t bad either. Or wouldn’t be if it weren’t slightly broken.

    In PvP, ITC and VP can be used in similar fashion and often VP can be the better choice too as it permanently removes you out of harms way and in CA as well. PvP is like playing chess. Retreat (or changing targets) is not always a bad thing. In PvE, there’s use for neither. If you need ITC to survive in PvE, get a tank doing his job properly. If you have one, don’t bother with these 2 skills. Just use Smoke and you’re set.

    Gloaming cut vs DS is a real no-brainer. GC is clumsy and dangerous to use at best and only really useful for those trying to keep in perma stealth, which nobody in PvE should bother with. DS, with the right feats, not only has very decent damage and is much easier to use than GC, but it debuffs as well as boost your own damage. Not entirely useless in PvP against other TRs either.

    SE vs HK..I kinda agree. SE is more suitable for PvP. But HK still deals a steady 100k crit twice in PvE, which doesn’t make it a bad daily even if the other advantages aren’t effective. Either way, in PvE, you’d use Courage breaker (followed by a stealthed WR) on bosses instead to boost the exec capstone damage, which is what you should be focused on during bosses. It’s here where you see the value of Tactics most clearly and where a few crit/def/mov speed % from SI won’t matter that much compared to getting 25% power more often. HK (or SE and WoB) is for solo play or elite trash.

    My WK has no trouble keeping up in damage. Sure, I’m hopelessly outclassed compared to the ever popular Rinat’s crit GWF build and MIs (and formerly the broken SW), but with equal IL that’s about it. In weaker parties going full debuff mode (yes that can include VP) can be the difference between wiping and slaying. Yes it costs you personal DPS, but a TR on his own usually doesn’t last very long against bosses. Sometimes making the lives of others easier is a better alternative than being the last man standing. That’s not something a MI offers. It can’t save a party.

    So, is an MI better than WK? I’d say yes, but only if you look at the DPS charts and nothing else. It’s a selfish (but good) path focused purely on your own DPS, where a WK has something more to offer besides DPS. So when would an MI be truly “better”? During speedruns with 4k IL people. And even then, the difference isn’t so huge that you’d be non-viable as a WK. It just plays a little different.

    Just my 2 cents.

  • October 2, 2018 at 1:10 am
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    My WK is dealing 5million something damage in shore of tuern and I’vm getting a perfect vorpal enchantment and greater shadowclad enchantment tonight to increase my deflect chance so I’m constanly ignoring about 80-90% damge dealt to me and increase my crit severity from 85% to 125% so major damage increase and mayby manage to get my crit sev to 129% or more after getting some of the crit sev boons and maybe the dancing blade caompanion at epic for another 5% crit sev

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