The Rogue - Exploring character classes in Desktop Dungeons: Rewind #12

"Rogues are mavericks with a touch of class. Although they inhabit the greyer areas of society, they put themselves above "common" criminals and hone their skills in preparation for all sorts of glory-seeking exploits. Their grace and poise in battle is unmatched. Their durability, unfortunately, is not."

Welcome back to another Class Post! Sneaking into the fray, today we'll be talking about the Rogue: the epitome of being able to dish it out but not being able to take it. They're a straightforward and versatile class that works around reduced health and quick hits.

Abilities

🔪 Dangerous - -5 health per level, but start off with +40% damage

🔪 Dexterous - Permanent First Strike buff

🔪 Evasive - Starts with 20% Dodge

Dangerous is the Rogue’s Defining trait, turning them into the glassiest cannon of Desktop Dungeons: Rewind. +40% base damage is an unrivalled boost to damage, but they gain health at half the rate of a normal class. This health penalty is sometimes offset by their amazing dexterity.

Dexterous and Evasive can put you up by two hits in a fight: one because you might Dodge their hit, and a second because you have First Strike. This means that you have 2 more attacks worth of effective HP! There are two risks to this though: your dodge chance is only 20% which needs to be maximised by taking more hits, and enemies with First Strike will still hit you first! These can be manoeuvred around, which we’ll get into later.

Kin choices

🔪 Orc - Leaning into the full glass cannon, Orc Rogues can have truly massive amounts of damage. Their Conversion bonus grants them +2 base damage, which turns into a lot of damage after the Rogue’s 40% damage multiplier. Downside is… You’ll need health from somewhere otherwise you will likely die if you don’t kill your target in one or two hits. You can find this health in items or Deities.

🔪 Dwarf - Taking the safer route, Dwarves get 10 HP from their Conversion bonus. This allows them to survive up to two to three hits, increasing the chance of a dodge and still being up an attack from First Strike. You’ll have to find items to boost your base damage to get the most out of Dangerous though.

🔪 Goblin - Orcs and Dwarves are far and away the best Rogues… But an unconventional yet effective choice is the Goblin. Goblins gain experience from their Conversion bonus, and levelling up gives the player +5 base damage. This makes the Rogue’s multiplier more valuable, and on top of that, levelling will fully heal you. Combine this with a Cydtsepp, and watch as the boss takes five massive hits in a row! Who doesn't want to stab people with a pencil?

Glyphs

🔪 Cydstepp - Death Protection is amazing on Rogues as it guarantees you'll be able to take one last hit… And with Rogues, every hit counts. Not only this, but it can be cast before a fight ("precasted") which allows you to regenerate your mana before you fully engage. Combine this with any other combat focused Glyph and you’ll have a killer time!

🔪 Apheelsik - With its fairly low cost and ability to stop enemies from regenerating, you can use this Glyph to sneak in another attack without perishing like milk in a Vegan’s fridge. It’s a little worse than Cydstepp because it doesn’t last long on higher level enemies and isn’t precastable, but still a great pickup.

🔪 Weytwut - Weytwut inflicts the Slowed status effect. When slowing an enemy, you’ll get 1 additional experience for killing them and temporarily remove their First Strike. Goblins and Gorgons are squishy but have First Strike and lots of damage… Completely negating your First Strike and taking advantage of your reduced HP. Pull out Weytwut to turn the tables in your favour!

All of these Glyphs help you to get an extra attack in one way or another. Other Glyphs that help with this are Endiswal for the physical resistances or Halpmeh for some healing. Burndayraz can also serve as a finisher or to mitigate some regeneration!

We’ve talked about Glyphs before Gods in this post because the Glyphs you’re using will likely change based on who you’re worshipping.

Gods

🔪 Tikki Tooki - The main downside of Tikki is that they punish you when you get hit a lot. Well guess what, you can’t get hit a lot anyways! Using Reflexes, you can have dodge prediction from the Quicksilver Potion, and get two attacks in one swing from the Reflex Potion. Dodging can further increase your dodge chance and Tikki rewards you for dodging attacks. Just be careful about using Cydstepp, as you’ll be punished for triggering a Death Protection. That will likely end your run. Use Weytwut and Apheelsik instead to get some free piety!

🔪 Glowing Guardian - Glowing Guardian synergises well with the Rogue on many fronts. Absolution gives you a beneficial health increase, and the downside of Humility lowering your regen doesn’t matter as much because of your low health maximum. Cleansing can turn your massive physical attack into a magical one, and Health Potions weren’t doing too much for us anyways so it doesn't feel bad to convert them. Just make sure to not use Apheelsik, as you’ll be heavily punished. Try Cydstepp or Weytwut instead!

🔪 Jehora Jeheyu - The god of Primordial Chaos appears again! Boost Health is great for the Rogue, as well as giving you a free Weytwut glyph when you begin worshipping them. Just make sure you have a plan to deal with the small punishments, as a level or two of Weakened can make your run a lot harder. Reaching Chaos Avatar is always a noteworthy spike

Unlike with Kin, Rogues can make great use of many different Deities. Earthmother gives health with Vine Form and slows enemies with Entanglement, Binlor can help you build up some resistances, and Taurog can be dipped into early for armour and Skullpicker before converting out. Even Mystera can give you some bonus mana and lower the cost of useful spells!

That’s the entire pantheon, so keep an eye out for cheeky conversions and play around the Glyphs that you find.

Rogues can tackle the hardest Dungeons your Desktop has to offer and now you know the basics of how to play them! That's all we have for this week, and we'll see you next week for another Class Post... Or something a little more rage induced and competitive 🏆

If you want to play the Rogue ASAP, wishlist Desktop Dungeons: Rewind here!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1976950/Desktop_Dungeons_Rewind/

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