It is a very common misconception that rogues are a weak and ineffective class. Mages are no doubt a very powerful class due to the strength of magic spells and their huge amounts of mana. Warriors, on the other hand, have lots of life and can do very good damage. Then a new player will take a look at the rogue and see that the rogue has less mana than a mage, less life than a warrior, less damage (even with a bow), basically everything seems to suck about the rogue. But is this really true?
The answer is a simple NO.
Long before I started playing Diablo, I have learned, from friends, how strong the mage and the warrior are, and how pathetic the rogue is. That was when I decided to start playing with the rogue, and I found out many powerful strengths of the rogue. At that time, I had no access to DSF or any other guides for that matter; but merely focused my attention on the only strength I know the rogue had --- her bow. Armed with just that fact, I took my 'tin-can' archer down to the depths of hell/hell and had no much problems or whatsoever. And that was as a newbie Diablo player and done as an archer-only styled rogue (with only spells used being Town Portal, Heal and Manashield)...
Now, back to topic, which happened to be the strengths of a rogue. The rogue happened to be easily the most versatile class you can have and will have no problems no matter which style you play (unlike the other two classes in Diablo). With just some okay equipment, a rogue should not have all that much problems with hell/hell no matter which monster mix comes out (triple immunes can be dealt with by melee/bow; advo-types can be stunned by even a short bow; perfect blocking can be achieved even without maxed dex etc). All these are but signs of a character class with great potential.
Offensive Capabilities
Physical Damage
Damage of a melee rogue cannot of course compare with that of a
warrior, but a rogue can certainly come close with the use of Civerb's Cudgel (CC). CC has
some distinct disadvantages that makes it rather difficult to use it with the other two
classes with great efficiency (note: it is certainly possible but a better set of
equipment would be required). With the CC, the rogue can kill at a pretty much decent pace
that is comparable to warriors and mage. In any case, they can supplement their melee
capacity with some well-cast spells.
Bows, for rogues are particularly lethal. Fast fire rate means that damage would be dealt rapidly to the enemies before they can even come close. A good rogue will certainly use spells to her advantage as well. Thus, in terms of damage, the rogue is only slightly behind the warrior (but has a better magical offensive capability).
For damage comparison charts, I refer you to http://underworld.fortunecity.com/olympic/293/strat-melee.htm
Magical Damage
Though the rogue has but 70 magic and some limited mana compared to the sorceror, she is
capable of attaining level 15 spells as well through Enchanted Shrines and certainly has
decent potential with spells; in particular offensive spells like Chain Lightning (CL) and
Fireball (FB).
Of course, magical to-hit with FB would be lower in most cases than a sorceror's
(simply due to lower magic score) but sometimes I do find uses in having not-so-perfect
to-hit. Probably it's just my twisted preferences but it does seem more useful for FB to
miss its first target when thrown into a mob as the splash would then be able to kill (or
severely damage at least) more critters. There have been little occasions when my FB
passed through a whole mob of critters without hitting a single one.
Stunning/Stunlocking
Stunning is certainly no problem for any mid-level rogues (and above). Come'on, 63 damage
isn't that hard to achieve (even 90 is attainable against hell/hell Laz??). With a bow,
there is no monster, that can be stunlocked, that a rogue cannot stunlock. Yes, even a
non-magical short bow is enough to stunlock advos (see the advantage there?). That is
something the warrior CANNOT do without a hastened sword/club (includes of speed as well).
With melee, most enemies can be stunlocked as well except for advos types i believe but
there are more efficient ways to deal with advo-type monsters (such as golem and CC?) than
just brainless whacking.
To-Hit
With such a high score of dexterity, what problems can there be? For a maxed out rogue,
naked melee to-hit with melee is (175+clvl)% [50 + 250/2 + clvl] while naked bow to-hit is
(320+clvl)% [50 + 250 + 20 + clvl]. Thus, optimum to-hit (265% i believe) can easily be
achieved with a few dex or to-hit adders. This is unlike the warrior who needs a better
set of equipment in order to get decent to-hit (ever wondered why a true-blue beyond naked
rogue can survive decently in hell/hell but not a true-blue beyond naked warrior?).
Defensive Capabilities
Lifespan
Life for rogues are little but heck, that's what mana shield is for! Of course there are
rogues who shun manashield but the amount of life that the rogue has should be enough for
survival (difference between 200 life and 400 is but a few pots; since a rogue should
really be hit so many times in quick succession).
Virtual life is aplenty for rogues (though obviously less than sorcerors) due to the
decent mana pool rogues have. With manashield on, damage would be reduced by 33%, so each
point of mana is like 1.5 point of virtual life in a way. (There are of course differing
view about this but then...) The key to optimizing your manashield is of course NOT to let
the mana shield drop! Do not go into battle with the mentality that should MS drop, I will
still have my hitpoints as a safety net; this is often how people get into trouble.
Instead treat your mana as if it is your life (ie. a 'if mana drops to zero, I will be
dead' mentality and i can assure you that you will take far better care of your
manashield).
Armor Class
A rogue with maxed dex already have 50 ac in the bag (33 more than sorceror and 38 more
than warriors). That is something like having a Godly Great Helm on for free and goes a
long way to helping a rogue reach optimum ac level. It is also this high natural ac which
allows a rogue to utilize some great low-ac items (ie. Helm of Sprits, Thinking Cap,
Emerald (pathetic base) shields etc) without sacrificing too much ac. It also enables the
rogue to attain 'tin-can' status with the use of weaker and thus more available equipment
such blessed full plates (better suffix availability too). Isn't that useful?
Blocking
Granted the rogue does not have natural fast block. But this can be
made up for by using Stormshield or Holy Defender (more HD as rogues have less use for
high ac shields??). Other than that, fast-block, though very useful is not an essential
part of a rogue. Non-fastblock shields such as Emerald shields are extremely useful to
rogues as well as they will increase the magical potential of rogues (through freeing up
of a jewel prefix for +mana), but will reduce the efficiency of a rogue against multiple
enemies though (Stonecurse helps a lot here).
The greatest bonus here is that the rogue can easily attain 'perfect' blocking since ONLY 160 dex is needed at level 30 and less at higher levels. Warriors, on the other hand, would need some good pieces of jewels, helm or shirt to reach that level or be content with less-than-perfect blocking. See the advantages of high dex now?
Some General Stuff
In general the rogue has a very good mix of combat abilities (be it melee or ranged) together with a more than decent magical prowess. Combining these advantages, you get a very versatile class which can be played to great heights no matter how you play it. Her versatilty cannot be matched by any other class (for instance, trying meleeing with a spell-less mage; or archery with a warrior etc) as she is powerful as an archer, a melee fighter or a mini-mage; and even more so when a combination of these styles are used.
Another great advantage of a rogue is the lack of nemesis. No monster provides much problems for rogues; knights and strong melee monsters can be dealt with using weapon/shield setups or spells; triple immunes by physical damage (both bow and melee) and ranged attackers by bow or magic. On the other hand, for warriors, witches and advocates might pose some problems (still troublesome even with telekill); while mages can devastate all except triple immunes, especially soulburners and advocates.
It is also this versatility and lack of nemesis which makes the rogue least restrictive when it comes to variant-play. I'm still wondering if there is any variant rules which totally kills a rogue's ability to get a 3@30 (talking about normal Diablo Classic of course). Probably, I'm wrong but still can't think of anything. Even a BNR can do it with a cursed axe (hence no speed advantage of bows or perfect blocking of shields).
Weaknesses of the Rogue
No real disadvantage but damage level would certainly not be as high as warriors (consider critical hit etc) and finding the strength to wear a full plate might be troublesome for high ac rogues. Other than that, there are so many different ways to equip and play a rogue that most of the disadvantages are covered up by another style, hence the power of the CAT rogue.
Efficiency and Micromanagement
To play a coop rogue most efficiently takes quite a fair bit of micromanagement, and if one can spare the time and patience to do so, I would say that a very good way to go is the 'CC-CAT rogue'. Use of CC makes melee monsters a joke whereas a bow from inventory will likely crush anything else the CC cannot take down. Solo is perhaps easier to deal with, and one can be more reckless of sorts, so a mini-mage of any type (archer, CC or DF) would be the fastest and most devastating.
For lazy people, like me (duh!), changing equipment might be a chore, so sticking to one style might suit better. My personal favourite is still a 'tin-can' Emerald Archer-Mini Mage setup, with level 17 spells (courtesy of Thinking Cap), decent ac and THREE +mana/+all jewels (so only 70% resist ;() With an Emerald Shield in backup along with CC and KSOH, this rogue of mine has nothing to fear. Everything goes down so quickly, weakened first by spells, taken down easily after that.
For greater discussion on equipment and styles, try my rogue page at http://underworld.fortuncity.com/olympic/293/class-rogue3.htm
or Cathrin's/Claudio's page at http://www.claudiospage.com
So would any newbie/player still want to say a rogue is weak and ineffective?
Ice(BNR)
http://underworld.fortunecity.com/olympic/293/index.htm
Some Irrelevant Ramblings
Why I hate sorcerors
They are grossly overpowered, even the BNMs, due to the ridiculously powerful magical
spells. Hence I started out a spell-less SNOB-MM who has an addiction for cauldrons (six
in a game, 2 each on level 13-15). Great challenge for solo play and eventually did a 3@30
which took an eternity and a mircale to perform and the only sorceror character I really
liked.
Why I hate warriors
I started out with hellfire first before coming back to Diablo. There, I
came across two melee wonders --- the bard and the barbarian, which makes the warrior look
so weak and feeble... (just my opinion)
Bards. The only advantage warriors have is blocking. On the other hand, the bard possesses better to-hit, damage potential, easae of play and most importantly a VERY powerful magical attack. Blocking to my bards are largely irrelevant in the first place since almost everything dies in 2-3 blows at the most. So what realadvantages does the warrior have.
Barbarians. The warriors have blocking and better magic. On the other hand, the barbarian has insane damage, faster hit recovery, 'hit-3-enemy" sweep attack and enough magic to cast whatever he needs. Everything dies in 1 (or in rare cases 2) using a Bloodslayer and a RoE removes the need for dex/to-hit adders; telekill mana is can be easily recovered using a vampiric (or of bat) weapons, so again there is no real advantage of a warrior over a barbarian.
So, a warrior would have been rather challenging but unfortunately, there are many
variants out there to play and try out which provides a much greater challenge... + I
don't like chasing witches or telekilling them (barbarians are another story).
Why I love rogues
For their versatility. With an EBoH, a KSoH, a CC, an Aweful Plate, a
Ruby Armor of Tiger, a TC and an RC and an ESoA with tons of decent jewels, I have
everything I need to play whichever style I want, be it archer, melee, mini-mage, CC-mini
mage, archer mini-mage, high ac, low ac etc... anything is possible, depending on mood.
;-)
