Question about Rogue-type skills

Ecco · August 2016

I'm not interested in playing an evil character running from the law, but I do like playing a stealthy, ambushing, backstabbing type of character. A Rogue, in any other game. I rolled a Khajit and currently I'm leveling mostly with DW, but I also equip a bow and will probably use it more often once I hit 15 and can weapon swap (that will probably be tonight).+

I am subbed but I'm new to all these bewildering DLC choices so I've been looking into The Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. I would like to gain the ability to enhance my Sneak and melee burst damage capabilities as much as possible, but I tried a quest on the Gold Coast and it required that I kill an innocent. OUCH! I don't want to be evil. I just want to min/max my stealth and burst damage. Is this possible?

Would you recommend I join the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild? How exactly does the criminal system work and how can I max my Rogue-ish skills without becoming an evil?

Thanks!

Kraynic · August 2016

At the beginning, focus on your class/weapon skills and passives. Those will take your skill points for quite a while. If you want to play the DLC and unlock some of the things there, go for it. I would recommend waiting before spending points on them though.

davey1107 · August 2016

The dark brotherhood and Thieve's guild lines don't contain any passives at all that help with your sneak...they're all about reducing bounties, blah blah blah.

The sneakiest rogues in ESO are probably khajiit Nightblades. Although you don't have to be khajiit, they just get a smaller detect radius. Some other tips:

- Two sets give you a 100% boost to sneak speed, night silence for stam builds and shadow Walker for magic.
- Dark cloak, a Nightblade skill...duh.
- Use concealed weapon, regardless if you're stam or magic. It boosts your speed by 25% when sneaking. Stack this with night silence and...zoom.
- Need faster? Go into pvp when you can and do the intro tutorial. This will increase your alliance war rank and allow you to unlock retreating maneuver. This boosts speed 30% for 30 seconds. My NB sneak build puts on the back bar cloak and concealed weapon and retreating maneuver with a night silence set. I use this for all delves and whatever I want to run fast.

There is a good passive in legerdemain that reduces your stamina use while sneaking. This is essential for a sneak character. You need to get to legerdemain lvl 16 to get all four points for a 40% reduction. The easiest way to do this is selling / laundering items to fences. My recommendation - do the thieves guild repeatable quests from inside the Hews Thieve's guild. These require picking pockets and chests. You'll launder/sell the items you pick up, then quests count for Thieve's guild, so you're leveling both legerdemain and Thieve's guild at the same time.

As you become a sneak expert, there are dailies in the entrance hall to the hews Thieve's guild that will test your sneaking. They range from so-so to mega-hard. When you can beat them all meeting all objectives, you're a sneak master.

Ecco · August 2016

Thanks for the replies, folks, that was very helpful. Yes, I rolled a Khajit NB so it appears I'm on my way to my goals. Any other tips would be very much appreciated, the number of options is truly overwhelming. Great game.

Is it generally advisable to choose a Stamina or Majicka build and not try to be a hybrid? I look at the skill lines and I see skills from both lines that are very appealing. My objective, again, is to maximize my melee burst damage capabilities. Any suggestions here would be appreciated.

At my current level, I'm assuming it makes no sense to spend money on gear and I have just been using quest gear. But I notice that leveling is relatively slow in this game compared to others I've been playing, so at what point will it be worth my while to invest in special armor sets like Night Silence?

Nestor · August 2016

Ecco wrote: »

Is it generally advisable to choose a Stamina or Majicka build and not try to be a hybrid? I look at the skill lines and I see skills from both lines that are very appealing. My objective, again, is to maximize my melee burst damage capabilities. Any suggestions here would be appreciated.

At my current level, I'm assuming it makes no sense to spend money on gear and I have just been using quest gear. But I notice that leveling is relatively slow in this game compared to others I've been playing, so at what point will it be worth my while to invest in special armor sets like Night Silence?

Currently the Meta is to go all in on one Resource or the other, then pick the morphs for that resource. A Stamina character can command big Weapon Damage numbers, but outside of PvP and Trials, it is not required for the rest of the content. Not that a Magic character can't prevail in PvP and Trials.

You can always respec later, so try one then the other. My recommendation would be to start out with Magic, as your main NB recovery skill is much stronger. You can always go Stamina later if you want.

As for gear, during leveling, it is more important to wear all 3 types of armor so they all level up. Your rigth in that sets are not so important during leveling, and you outlevel them quickly. What is better is to use Training on your armor, if you can craft it. Learn the trait, it only takes 6 hours per piece. Other than that, mob loot is all the gear you need during leveling. Worry about sets once you reach the Champ Ranks.