Have I picked the wrong mastery?

[.//Sora]

I've only been playing TQ 3 days so I'm not sure if this'll ever change, however at midway through act 2 on epic and as a level 43 assassin I'm easily 2-3 shotting everything, though I have been given some nice legendary swords and two rings with 108 fire damage and +48% fire+burn damage on each. I've also spent half my time rolling with a friend I've made who pretty much slaughters a group of mobs in seconds (down to gear I guess, considering they're a guardian).

With that in mind I can get onto the question..

Nothing seems to survive long enough for any of the rogue abilities to help at all. Nothing stays alive long enough for flash powder, poison bomb or the envenom line to be of any use at all. I can kill things quicker than the traps could (set-up time included). The calculated strike line is bested by onslaught. Open wound and anatomy also suffer from the fact everything dies too quickly for them to do much, if anything. That just leaves lethal strike for the bosses which also die pretty quickly and flurry of knives, which would be used for damage rather than mandrake and nightshade (again, nothing lives long enough for those two to be any help).

So, should I repick my mastery (TQDefiler) or do the ordinary monsters in legendary really survive that much longer than epics for some/any rogue skills to be worth the points?

[Ion Silverbolt]

The Rogue class is primarily defensive. When you get to legendary, you will appreciate the slow and confuse effects of poison. And traps are your best offense against crowds. There's nothing weak about assassins at all. The Rogue mastery It's just a more complex mastery to play than the other melee masteries.

[.//Sora]

Ok that's good to know. It was just that trying to implement anything from the rogue mastery would ultimately slow me down right now, so long as it'll start getting use in legendary I'm happy.

[perseus]

Traps are good against crowds, but IMO poison gas bombs (with shrapnel) are better.
Also, how did you get that far in three days?

[maul]

Originally Posted by perseus

Traps are good against crowds, but IMO poison gas bombs (with shrapnel) are better.
Also, how did you get that far in three days?

Good question!!

[Ring]

I don't think it's hard at all. Look at the game time counter on your character. Right now the char I play the most (my lvl 43 Brigand) has 1 day, 11 hours, 39 minutes logged in. If you spread that out over three days, that gives you approximately 12 hours of playing per day. Perfectly doable, provided that:
a) you play nothing but TQ
b) you don't work
c) you don't have to go to school.

If you meet these conditions, it's possible to get that far in 3 days.

[Shadowshire]

Well, the Assassin and the Slayer are difficult characters to play since both Warfare and Hunting dosen't provide Pets to take attention o your enemies or huge defensive skills as the Defence Mastery. These classes have "a strong defence" by not letting enemies near. Using Nightshade/Mandrake/Flurry Of Knives/Traps or wielding a bow. What makes the Assassin/slayer some of the weakest in close combat is that they are meant for close combat as they are melee characters, though hunting and rogue provides the best defence being ranged. However there are ways around this problem, though you will always have to plan your gaming more strategic and still your deathrate will be higher than other builds.

First of the Assassins best defence is Flurry Of Knives+Mandrake/Nightshade. This will fire 4 poisoned impailing knives that will slow attacking enemies and make them fumble their attacks = No damage to you. Second Traps (When Maxed or nearly maxed) provides you with high damage and distraction of your enemies from you to the traps IF they attack the enemy before you do. Note that War/Doom horn is a essentiel lifesafer for the Assassin/Slayer as you can Stun enemies around you giving you time to take them down. Last Rogues Flash Powder is Great doing the same thing, just not with stun but by confussing and making enemies fumble their attacks. You could stick with either Flash Powder/War and Doom horn depending on your playstyle.

If your looking for strong and defensive Rogue builds, the Corsair has one of, if not, the best defence in the game, and still deal very high damage with his Spear/Sheild/Flurry combo. I personally beleive that a Corsair with the right skills is almost unbreakable and gives the highest damage in the game, except from the spear brigand. The Bow Brigand is also fairly easy to play as your being both ranged and melee (spear), plus all defensive benefits of Hunting and Rogue Masteries.

[Shadow_azzazen]

Originally Posted by Ring

I don't think it's hard at all. Look at the game time counter on your character. Right now the char I play the most (my lvl 43 Brigand) has 1 day, 11 hours, 39 minutes logged in. If you spread that out over three days, that gives you approximately 12 hours of playing per day. Perfectly doable, provided that:
a) you play nothing but TQ
b) you don't work
c) you don't have to go to school.

If you meet these conditions, it's possible to get that far in 3 days.

He said he was playing with his friends, and when you play online, that too can speed up the leveling.

[The Envenomed Kiss]

quit digging up ancient threads :] quote some rule # blah blah I can't remember

[.//Sora]

Holy crap!

I look in my inbox today, "perseus has replied to one of your subscribed threads", what on earth? I havn't played or posted anything to do with that game in months!

..then I follow the link to find my thread revived.

At the time I had a lot of free time, but yeah, I had a guy who offered to run me through, who became a good friend of mine in the time I played TQ, his friend also helped now and then.

The key to that happening was, in fact, a hacked item. +200% exp in addition to the stats I mentioned in my first post, per ring (cloned using AQVault).

After a while I ditched the rings on that character, using them to level other characters here or there, and yet my Assassin remained my favourite character for the rest of the time I played. Using Warfare's AoE attacks (whirlwind and upgraded dual wield skills? I've forgotten the names since I played) and Flurry of knives along with envenom to confuse/stun most/all the mobs around me, while my fully upgraded traps did some nice damage. The combo worked flawlessly thanks to those things, even the final boss, I remeber I could kite around while my traps did damage (very slowly) and threw my flurries, hitting as many knives as possible eventually took the big guy down (Tychon?)

I figured I'd reveal the conclusion to my earlier posts considering you were all kind enough to post your advice after all this time.