Quote:
I've not been able to find a single thread that encompasses all the different skills a Fledgling Cutpurse needs to work on as he grows up, so I thought I�d try to come up with a single reference thread specifically targeting the younger days.
To preface this, I should explain what I mean when I say to use �autofire� to skill-up. There is a program floating around at EQ Hunters that Rangers use to autofire archery, meaning that instead of hitting the button once for every shot, you simply hit the button once to turn archery on, and hit it again to turn it off. Personally, I use a game pad that I�ve programmed to do the same thing. You simply make a hotkey for whatever skill you want to train, which will look something like this for a single practice:
/doability (1-6)
/pause 10
or like this for multiple skills such as sneak + hide:
/doability (1-6)
/pause 5
/doability (1-6)
/pause 10
Disclaimer: You should know that automating any action that occurs while you are away from the keyboard is a violation of the End User License Agreement, but I�ve been doing it for over a year on various puppets and have yet to hear anyone getting reprimanded for it. I think they�re much more concerned with exploits that affect leveling or platinum/items, for obvious reasons. Getting skill-ups like this is hurting no one.
Alright, now on to the skills, in no particular order!
Certain skills, like melee skills such as 1HS, 1HB, Piercing, Archery, Throwing, Parry, Riposte, Dual Wield, Double Attack, Dodge, Defense, and Offense should be trained initially (using training points at the Guildmaster) but will go up on their own provided that you use them. In other words, you need to actually rotate your different weapons for the various weapon skills to go up, and you need to get hit for defense and dodge go up. I�ll save the discussions on that for someone else. Don�t waste valuable skill points on these skills after you spend an initial 10-20 to get them started.
Other skills will not go up nearly as rapidly, unless you pay special attention to them. There are various ways to train each of them, and I�ll list the primary schools of thought on each, as I understand them.
Sneak/Hide: (sneak- level 1, hide- level 3, unless Halfling or Woodelf)
I mention these together because for the Rogue, they�re very closely linked. They also have the same level cap, and refresh at about the same rate (and thus train at about the same rate, or at least close enough).
Training options:
1) Make a hotkey using both skills, and hit it every time it refreshes while your group is recovering;
2) Use said in hotkey the same manner while standing around in the PoK, talking with friends; or
3) Make a hotkey, turn on autofire, and go to sleep/work (one in the same for some)
Sense/Disarm Traps: (Sense- level 8, Disarm- level 21)
Like sneak/hide, these skills are also very closely linked. Despite several posts to the contrary, you do NOT need to be anywhere near a trap to train these. I suggest waiting until you have learned both before you train, because there really isn�t much point in having them prior to level 20 and it�s easier to train them together.
Training options:
1) Use the same, boring method with a hotkey as mentioned previously (*yawn*)
2) Make hotkeys for each of these, and tie them into your movement keys (left, right, forward). Skills will go up very fast using this effortless method; or
3) Make a hotkey, turn on autofire. Anytime, anywhere.
Safefall: (level 12)
Not a particularly useful skill that I�ve seen, but anyway�
Training options:
1) Fall. a lot. Seriously though, there�s nothing more to it. Have someone cast Temperance and SoW on you, and head to a zone where you�re likely to fall a lot, but not be killed by a massive drop off. Stonebrunt works well for this, but unless you�re in your 50�s, you�ll need to be invisible to avoid a massive amount of adds. I haven�t worried much about training this skill�
Pickpocket: (level 7)
This is another skill of questionable value; it doesn�t seem to be a real moneymaker, but you DO need to have it to complete your Epic.
Training options:
1) Make a hotkey for combat that looks like this:
/attack off
/doability x (where x is pickpocket)
/autoinventory
/attack on
-note that if you plan to do this in a group that�s splitting the loot, you should ask if it�s ok, or even volunteer to be the main looter. Anything you manage to steal comes from loot that would normally be shared.
2) I have not yet tested this, but there are reports that certain NPCs can be pickpocketed without causing aggro. Two suggestions have been the Teleporting Gnomes on boat docks, or NPCs in the nexus. If proven to be safe, sneak up behind the NPC, and engage your autofire macro as follows:
/doability x
/autoinventory
/pause 10
EDIT: I have now practiced pickpocket on the boat gnome in Butcherblock, and have so far gotten about 10 skill-ups with no aggro from failures; this seems to be a safe way to train.
Picklock: (level 6, you cannot practice this until level 11- bug)
In order to use this skill, you�ll need to create or purchase a set of Lockpicks. Ideally, you�re going to want to acquire a set of Mechanized Lockpicks, which adds +2% to your picklock skill (made by other players with the Gnome-only skill of Tinkering). Normal Lockpicks can be purchased in most Rogues guilds.
Training options:
1) Put your Lockpicks on your cursor and left click a locked door. Personally I think the best place to do this is on the entrance to Paineel (looks like a boulder at the location your map shows as the entrance to Paineel). The boulder can be clicked repeatedly, over and over, without waiting for the entrance to reset. There are other places to skillup, such as the door in Befallen, or on the floating book in the Plane of Tranquility library, but I�ve never used them.
2) There have been reports that using the above method can be made to work with autofire, although I�ve not been able to do it. The reports indicate that the letter �U� is a default hotkey that works for picking locks, but it has not worked for me. Also, note that using the skill (macro) button to open locked doors will take a LOT longer to train, as it takes time for the skill to reset.
Disarm: (level 27)
Useless IMHO. There are better ways to waste your time.
Intimidate: (level 22)
The Rogues version of the fear spell. Great skill to use in combination with Backstab.
Training options:
1) When soloing, hit the hotkey every time it refreshes. Boring, and slow; or
2) Find an NPC in the PoK, make sure you�re at least 30 or 40 feet away, well out of melee range, target them, and hit your Intimidate hotkey. This would be sooooo much easier with autofire you say? You�re right! Hit autofire and walk away.
Backstab: (level 10)
This is one you shouldn�t ever neglect. This will ad a significant boost to your DPS when grouped, and even help when soloing. Remember the point I made about not wasting training points in the other melee skills? This is why. There�s no easy way to train Backstab, and thus using extra training points makes this go up a lot faster.
Training options:
1) Use in groups, hitting your Backstab hotkey every time it refreshes. It will go up slowly, but it WILL go up.
2) Team up with a Ranger friend (22nd level +) and help him fear-kite. He�ll definitely appreciate the added DPS.
3) Get a weapon that procs a snare spell, and use Intimidate to fear the mob (you�ve already maxed Intimidate, right?). run around behind it backstabbing as it refreshes.
That�s about it in a nutshell; everything I wanted to know but had to really dig to find. I�d definitely welcome any other suggestions, corrections, etc.
Silff Greyshade
To preface this, I should explain what I mean when I say to use �autofire� to skill-up. There is a program floating around at EQ Hunters that Rangers use to autofire archery, meaning that instead of hitting the button once for every shot, you simply hit the button once to turn archery on, and hit it again to turn it off. Personally, I use a game pad that I�ve programmed to do the same thing. You simply make a hotkey for whatever skill you want to train, which will look something like this for a single practice:
/doability (1-6)
/pause 10
or like this for multiple skills such as sneak + hide:
/doability (1-6)
/pause 5
/doability (1-6)
/pause 10
Disclaimer: You should know that automating any action that occurs while you are away from the keyboard is a violation of the End User License Agreement, but I�ve been doing it for over a year on various puppets and have yet to hear anyone getting reprimanded for it. I think they�re much more concerned with exploits that affect leveling or platinum/items, for obvious reasons. Getting skill-ups like this is hurting no one.
Alright, now on to the skills, in no particular order!
Certain skills, like melee skills such as 1HS, 1HB, Piercing, Archery, Throwing, Parry, Riposte, Dual Wield, Double Attack, Dodge, Defense, and Offense should be trained initially (using training points at the Guildmaster) but will go up on their own provided that you use them. In other words, you need to actually rotate your different weapons for the various weapon skills to go up, and you need to get hit for defense and dodge go up. I�ll save the discussions on that for someone else. Don�t waste valuable skill points on these skills after you spend an initial 10-20 to get them started.
Other skills will not go up nearly as rapidly, unless you pay special attention to them. There are various ways to train each of them, and I�ll list the primary schools of thought on each, as I understand them.
Sneak/Hide: (sneak- level 1, hide- level 3, unless Halfling or Woodelf)
I mention these together because for the Rogue, they�re very closely linked. They also have the same level cap, and refresh at about the same rate (and thus train at about the same rate, or at least close enough).
Training options:
1) Make a hotkey using both skills, and hit it every time it refreshes while your group is recovering;
2) Use said in hotkey the same manner while standing around in the PoK, talking with friends; or
3) Make a hotkey, turn on autofire, and go to sleep/work (one in the same for some)
Sense/Disarm Traps: (Sense- level 8, Disarm- level 21)
Like sneak/hide, these skills are also very closely linked. Despite several posts to the contrary, you do NOT need to be anywhere near a trap to train these. I suggest waiting until you have learned both before you train, because there really isn�t much point in having them prior to level 20 and it�s easier to train them together.
Training options:
1) Use the same, boring method with a hotkey as mentioned previously (*yawn*)
2) Make hotkeys for each of these, and tie them into your movement keys (left, right, forward). Skills will go up very fast using this effortless method; or
3) Make a hotkey, turn on autofire. Anytime, anywhere.
Safefall: (level 12)
Not a particularly useful skill that I�ve seen, but anyway�
Training options:
1) Fall. a lot. Seriously though, there�s nothing more to it. Have someone cast Temperance and SoW on you, and head to a zone where you�re likely to fall a lot, but not be killed by a massive drop off. Stonebrunt works well for this, but unless you�re in your 50�s, you�ll need to be invisible to avoid a massive amount of adds. I haven�t worried much about training this skill�
Pickpocket: (level 7)
This is another skill of questionable value; it doesn�t seem to be a real moneymaker, but you DO need to have it to complete your Epic.
Training options:
1) Make a hotkey for combat that looks like this:
/attack off
/doability x (where x is pickpocket)
/autoinventory
/attack on
-note that if you plan to do this in a group that�s splitting the loot, you should ask if it�s ok, or even volunteer to be the main looter. Anything you manage to steal comes from loot that would normally be shared.
2) I have not yet tested this, but there are reports that certain NPCs can be pickpocketed without causing aggro. Two suggestions have been the Teleporting Gnomes on boat docks, or NPCs in the nexus. If proven to be safe, sneak up behind the NPC, and engage your autofire macro as follows:
/doability x
/autoinventory
/pause 10
EDIT: I have now practiced pickpocket on the boat gnome in Butcherblock, and have so far gotten about 10 skill-ups with no aggro from failures; this seems to be a safe way to train.
Picklock: (level 6, you cannot practice this until level 11- bug)
In order to use this skill, you�ll need to create or purchase a set of Lockpicks. Ideally, you�re going to want to acquire a set of Mechanized Lockpicks, which adds +2% to your picklock skill (made by other players with the Gnome-only skill of Tinkering). Normal Lockpicks can be purchased in most Rogues guilds.
Training options:
1) Put your Lockpicks on your cursor and left click a locked door. Personally I think the best place to do this is on the entrance to Paineel (looks like a boulder at the location your map shows as the entrance to Paineel). The boulder can be clicked repeatedly, over and over, without waiting for the entrance to reset. There are other places to skillup, such as the door in Befallen, or on the floating book in the Plane of Tranquility library, but I�ve never used them.
2) There have been reports that using the above method can be made to work with autofire, although I�ve not been able to do it. The reports indicate that the letter �U� is a default hotkey that works for picking locks, but it has not worked for me. Also, note that using the skill (macro) button to open locked doors will take a LOT longer to train, as it takes time for the skill to reset.
Disarm: (level 27)
Useless IMHO. There are better ways to waste your time.
Intimidate: (level 22)
The Rogues version of the fear spell. Great skill to use in combination with Backstab.
Training options:
1) When soloing, hit the hotkey every time it refreshes. Boring, and slow; or
2) Find an NPC in the PoK, make sure you�re at least 30 or 40 feet away, well out of melee range, target them, and hit your Intimidate hotkey. This would be sooooo much easier with autofire you say? You�re right! Hit autofire and walk away.
Backstab: (level 10)
This is one you shouldn�t ever neglect. This will ad a significant boost to your DPS when grouped, and even help when soloing. Remember the point I made about not wasting training points in the other melee skills? This is why. There�s no easy way to train Backstab, and thus using extra training points makes this go up a lot faster.
Training options:
1) Use in groups, hitting your Backstab hotkey every time it refreshes. It will go up slowly, but it WILL go up.
2) Team up with a Ranger friend (22nd level +) and help him fear-kite. He�ll definitely appreciate the added DPS.
3) Get a weapon that procs a snare spell, and use Intimidate to fear the mob (you�ve already maxed Intimidate, right?). run around behind it backstabbing as it refreshes.
That�s about it in a nutshell; everything I wanted to know but had to really dig to find. I�d definitely welcome any other suggestions, corrections, etc.
Silff Greyshade
Edited, Nov 1st 2006 at 5:05am PST by Gladestrider