Need Rogue Skill Clarification

[mrtitanboi]

1. Does Anatomy work with Shrapnels and Throwing Knife?

2. Does Mandrake and Toxic Distillation work with Poison Gas Bomb?

3. Is Flash Powder worth it?

4. Do you need Envenom Weapon active for Toxic Distillation to work?

[Maktaka]

1) Yes. Most enjoyable too. Get Necrosis from Spirit and whoo-wee that..... can kinda kill things in Legendary. Better in 1.20, but not something to write home about.

2) Mandrake no, TD yes. If you want to spread Mandrake across multiple targets, use Flurry of Knives - the only non-weapon Envenom Weapon and its effects work on. Envenom Weapon DOES work with staffs (try it with Ternion and Arcane Lore for some real evil).

3) Oh hells yes. Rogues don't have squat that lets them take damage better, so they have to keep targets from even being able to attack them. At max level, FP will stop 2/3 of the nearby crowd and send them wandering around. The remainder can't hit the broad side of a barn (in melee). Flurry of Knives w/ Mandrake + Flash Power + one other crowd control ability does a great job of keeping things manageable.

[PHJF]

flash powder isnt worth it. energy cost is through-the-roof (74 at max default lvls), and, as maktaka said, flurry of knives is also crowd control. You don't really need both.

If you are like a corsair or (melee) brigand FP can be very useful as a follow up to any Charge skill, stunning groups before they can act, but again, you can just lob some knives at them from a distance to the same effect.

For reference, lvl 1 throwing knives + lvl 8 flurry of knives costs 26 energy.

[RDespair]

Flash Powder is a good spell, but since my build is focused around bleeding damage and poison, I haven't really felt the need for it, much prefering knives followed by melee or a poison bomb to finish off the stragglers.

[Felexitus]

4) no

flash powder is a better beginners skill than knives because you can allow yourself to be surrounded and you wont ever have any target issues. knives require control and placement and always have a lesser effect.

however if youre good and throwing knives 2 flurries are usually better than 1 flash powder

[Fenix]

I was never that fond of Flash Powder really. I tried it a bit during Normal, but found that I ended up never using it.

Flurry however is divine. When I went through Olympus on Epic I used it constantly for the minotaur groups and for the cyclops. The cyclops with their speed boosted after 1.20 can really be quite deadly if you dont have a way to control them right from the start, which flurry is great for.

So two big thumbs up for Flurry.

[Felexitus]

caster based rogues, especially caster sorcerors get much more out of flash powder for one simple reason: it costs much less skill points to use.

all the builds that are usually mentioned employ poison anyway, thats hardly ever a discussion base. lets try tp make a pro and con list

Flash Powder:
+easy to use, doesnt need a mouse button, triggers on select
+affects a large radius
+big chance of success, at ultimate level its almost guaranteed to wreck a whole group of melees
+costs only 8 skill points
+at its best when youre surrounded = when its most needed
-immense energy cost
-cant deal with enemies coming in line or generally one after the other
-since it requires you to be close to the enemy its not a skill that can usually applied more than once

flurry of knives while using poison anyway
+slows enemies too
+longer range
+costs only 7 skill points
+double applying is much easier
+much better use vs multiple groups of archers
+very low energy cost
-cone is unrealiable especially with small opponents
-lower chances of success, a strong melee opponent still shouldnt be fought melee unless confused

Flurry of knives + poison
+slows enemies too
+longer range
+double applying is much easier
+much better use vs multiple groups of archers
-costs 24 skill points
-high upkeep cost, high energy reserve cost
-cone is unrealiable especially with small opponents
-lower chances of success, a strong melee opponent still shouldnt be fought melee unless confused

these are the 4 classes who should consider flash powder imo

1 maxed out trapper/spear brigand
2 caster sorcerer
3 caster Magician
4 caster Illusionist

why the brigand? because when you onehit enemies poison isnt that awesome anymore. and brigands have massive energy reserve issues already