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Forumite wrote:

PHB2

thanks bud!

mkill wrote:

@tcg_researcher: Wow, thanks for looking up all the pages! You earned it.

Hey, thanks. *munches greedily* It's like we've been saying, you let the skinny guy in the dress with the funny book clear out the easy grunt work, so you can focus on the more important objectives.

BTW, Joe learned to spell sorcerer, so you can remove the note.

DrillbossD wrote:

Is the rogue not a lurker?

Awesome series, btw. Can't wait for other roles!

-Drillboss

I might consider a dedicated ranged rogue to be a lurker (using Stealth and sniping with a crossbow), but most will go for the flank to get CA.

For those looking for the other roles, alien270 has a guide on Controlling 101. (I could have sworn there was one for Leaders as well...)

Great guide! More, more!

I play two strikers.

I greatly enjoyed reading of the Warlock as a lurker. I had not thought of them that way, actually, but it makes sense. You could also mention that they have means to punish being attacked (Darklock is famous for this... they can be invincible once DMs decide not to attack them!). You could specifically mention the various pacts and how they mitigate damage, deal it back, avoid it by teleporting, and raise accuracy. Tactics-wise, each pact plays a bit differently, and there is an art to choosing how much of one approach to push (damage, conditions, defense, control, etc.).

My rogue is a ranged crossbow build, so certainly a lurker. I did enjoy the guide, as I see many squishy melee rogues that could benefit from improved tactics. (Most of them learn). For a ranged rogue, the tactics are all about ensuring you get that precious CA. This requires heavy reliance early on with Deft Strike, and thus reading terrain carefully. It can benefit from the Dragon Magazine's Bravo multiclass feat (extending and improving upon Deft Strike to add conditions and more damage) or use Hide In Plain Sight and various items to maintain cover/concealment. I see a lot of posts where players need help on how to maintain CA from a range, or even how to gain it with a charge. I have a tactics section for my ranged rogue at the end of the first post here, and there is a similar explanation for one of the posts in the Rogue Crossbow Sniper guide by Faytte. The guide is a bit dated, but still really useful.

One area the guide could grow is in discussing how best to pick targets. Another could be in how best to work with other party roles. I play three leaders, and with each one (Taclord, ranged Cunning Bard, Prot Shaman) I am constantly striving to get strikers to understand how I can vastly improve their damage output. The striker's DPR is a leader's damage output! At high levels, my Taclord's DPR is fantastic... and very little of it comes from his own weapon! It comes from the bonuses to hit, the movement, setting up a target, power bonuses to damage, AP boosts, etc. Strikers should be looking for how the other roles help them. A striker wants to know if the defender will block when they need to skirmish out, if the leader will boost that awesome power, and if the controller/striker/leader can give them CA or set up a condition that helps execute their plan.

mkill wrote:

The Art of Striking

-- A beginner's guide to the Striker role --

You've read the build guide for making the perfect Rogue, Ranger, Warlock, Avenger, Sorcerer or Barbarian. Good. Now let's talk about how to use your character in the game to be effective.

I The Three Important Abilities of a Striker

1. Reach / Mobility

2. Damage / Debuff

3. Survivability

to you!

I think this first section is really important. Know your role and understand how you class works is huge! This may sound obvious, but I can assure you, it is not.

I play in a group with a rogue that never sneak attacks and a 2-blade ranger who talked about how much damage he could do, yet that never took twin strike and always used careful attack (This had nothing to do with character thematics either) - and got so frustrated with the lack of damage he did, that he changed class, to become a Shaman, because "of the huge damage they do"... ??? The cleric gets it and our fighter is getting better at marking and tanking. The rogue and ranger/turn-druid are nice guys, but sometimes yesh...

I played another class for a long time and just got tired of watching the Rogue never sneak attack, that I switch classes in an attempt, by example, to show how you could SA every round. To be fair, I lost CA 1 round in three combats (16 turns). The other rogue had CA 3 times in 3 combats: twice for winning initiative and once because I moved to give him flank.

I would recommend this thread to them


McSmashin

I did a minor update today, mainly some cleanup and reformatting and a link on the brand new Art of Leading.

It would be nice if someone could check the Art of Striking whether any information in here was outdated by recent published books like Arcane Power or Divine Power.