ROGUE - SETUPS
by FireIceTalon & Shade
I. Bow Rogue | II. Spell Heavy Bow Rogue | III. Melee Rogue | IV. Spell Heavy Melee Rogue
I. BOW ROGUE SETUPS
Foreword
° A 'Bow Rogue' is perhaps one of the most dynamic classes and builds to PvP with – it demands a very high level of skill and concentration from the player, but if used effectively (not considering arbitrary factors such as latency/desync) can produce devastating results against the opposition. One advantage a 'Bow Rogue' has compared to the other classes (especially a Warrior) is that they are somewhat less item dependent, even though they can choose from an incredible variety of exotic builds to use. I prefer to maximize the Rogue's damage and mana to an optimal level, that allows for fast, precise and aggressive play.
Bow Rogue vs. Warrior
° This is perhaps the most difficult duel for a Bow Rogue, although it is certainly one of the most fun duels to play in the game of Diablo. The Warrior is a very efficient class with big damage, and if he can get close even once, that can mean the end of the duel. For this encounter, the Rogue will want to maximize her damage, mana, and armor class. High armor class is key here, because it forces the Warrior to use a Strange Weapon of Haste rather than King’s Haste, reducing his damage a bit. It also, depending on the Rogue’s AC value, forces the Warrior to use at least one Gold Jewel, but possibly two if that value is high enough. This reduces the Warrior’s mana a bit, so he cannot go on a completely offensive rampage with teleport, or use for healing.
Helm: Royal Circlet
Armor: Awesome Full Plate Mail of the Stars (Awesome Sorcery or Precision are viable too)
Bow: Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness
Jewelry: 3 x Dragon’s Jewelry of the Zodiac
Armor class: 293
Mana/HP: 514/322
Damage: 118-145
Resists: 0%
° Note the 0 % resists. This may seem dangerous at first, but against most Warriors, a Rogue can get away with it! The reason is because Warriors are slow casters and would find it difficult to take advantage of this weakness. Most often, he would find himself in stun-lock very quickly. But this isn’t to say the Rogue shouldn’t be careful. Some Warriors will use Fireball and/or Flame Wave in an attempt to stun the Rogue, making her vulnerable to a 'Tele-Attack'. But this is pretty rare. If for some reason you meet a Warrior that is able to somehow cast effectively on you, you can max your fire resistance by substituting your Massive Swiftness with a Garnet Swiftness, and 1 Dragon's Zod with either an Obsidian Zod or Obsidian Wiz jewel.
° Another possibility is to use a Merciless elemental Bow. These are fun bows to use vs. a Warrior. A Merciless elemental Bow increases your damage per hit (though your DPS is a bit reduced because of the slower attack speed), and the spiked damage can be very buggy. I’ve killed very high 'HP Warriors' with 1 arrow using a Merciless Bow of Burning! But overall, a good Swiftness bow is the way to go, and you should only use a Merciless elemental Bow if you REALLY know what you are doing! It is not recommended for beginning or inexperienced Rogue duelists.
Bow Rogue vs. Bow Rogue
° Of all the duels a 'Bow Rogue' can play, this one might be the trickiest, and it’s almost certainly the most unpredictable. Because Rogues have the fastest attack rate, an important aspect of this encounter is to have fastest hit-recovery. If you don’t equip it, you may find yourself stun-locked, and with a red screen faster than you can say 'ouch”. AC isn’t important here, but mana ,as usual, is. Damage and hit-recovery also. The build should be as follows:
Helm: Royal Circlet
Armor: Obsidian Harmony (Note: the armor slot is by far the best to get your hit-recovery, helm and jewelry slots are not so desirable for this affix because you lose too much mana and damage)
Bow: Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness
Jewelry: 3 x Dragon’s Jewelry of the Zodiac
Mana: 498
Resists: 40%
Damage: 113-140
° The key trait here is having the fastest hit-recovery. In a face off situation, the hit-recovery will allow you to fire back much easier, but keep in mind that Bow vs. Bow duels are highly dependent on who gets the first hit. If you do not get the first hit in a standoff, it will be wise to disengage and then re-engage when appropriate. But not having the fastest hit-recovery in this duel would be certain death, if your opponent is using it. It is true that both players could agree to not use harmony, but experience has shown that this is not really advantageous for either player.
° The 40% resists isn’t really a big issue, as casting in this duel is almost entirely too risky. You may however, meet a Rogue that uses an elemental bow, and in this situation you may want to max that particular resist. If they have a Merciless Burning, you could simply replace Massive Swiftness with a Garnet Swiftness. If it’s a Merciless Thunder, either a Cobalt Swiftness (if you happen to have one) or replacing your helm slot with an Obsidian Stars might be wise. You would lose mana this way, but the max resist and the fast attack should be advantageous over the elemental bow user. This is pretty rare though, as 99% of the time a Rogue will use swiftness for this encounter.
Bow Rogue vs. Melee Rogue
° The best way to approach this duel is to treat it like Rogue vs. Sorcerer. Melee Rogues have huge chance-to-hit, so there is no point in going high AC here. They do however, tend to also cast Fireball a lot, and unlike a Warrior, a Rogue casts substantially faster, so maxing fire resistance here is probably a good idea. In this duel, simply setup as if you were dueling a Sorc (See: Bow Rogue vs. Sorcerer), but you will probably use tactics more as if you were dueling a Warrior: You will want to keep your distance and apply as much pressure as possible.
° There are many other possibilities a 'Bow Rogue' could use in these duels. Some may opt to use Dragon’s Jewelry of Wizardry for instance, vs. a Sorc, to obtain an even higher mana value, though at a considerable cost to damage. And some Rogues even risk using a low-AC build vs Warriors, for the sake of higher spells (using Naj's Light Plate and Thinking Cap with Dragon’s Wiz and Massive Swiftness) and mana value rather than bow damage (See: Spell Heavy Bow Rogue -section) – the idea of such builds is to make spells as your primary offensive and the bow a secondary offensive. Although these builds are certainly viable, they are rather exotic and I personally don't considered them optimum builds – you should only use them if you are greatly experienced in playing this way.
Bow Rogue vs. Sorcerer
° The philosophy for this duel is simple: maximize your mana, and your fire resistance. It's good to try and keep a high damage value here, though not absolutely vital – and don’t bother with AC. There are a couple different alternatives here, the main one is as follows:
Helm: Royal Circlet
Armor: Obsidian Sorcery (Obsidian Stars is also viable)
Bow: Garnet Long War Bow of Swiftness
Jewelry: 3 x Dragon’s Jewelry of the Zodiac
Damage: 112-125 (117-130 with Obsidian Stars)
Mana: 528 (514 with Obsidian Stars)
Resistances: Fire Max, Magic/Lightning 40%
° Most Sorcerer’s only use Fireball as their offensive in duels, so you will only need to max fire resistance. Occasionally, you may meet a Sorcerer that tries to use Flash on you. Flash is a deadly spell if it connects right, and if you have low magic resists, you can be in for a world of hurt. Thankfully, it is very difficult for a Sorcerer to do this against a experienced 'Bow Rogue'. If you should meet such a Sorc, just be sure to keep about 2 tiles distance between you and him on your screen, and this should be effective enough to contain him. If for some reason he is really good at using flash, you will need to max your magic resistance, and thus your build will have to be altered. In this case you would change to the following:
Helm: Obsidian Stars
Armor: Obsidian Sorcery (or Stars)
Bow: Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness
Jewelry: 3 x Dragon’s jewelry of the Zodiac
° This build raises your damage, but reduces your mana substantially. The first build is preferable if you can use it, and in most cases, you should be able to. Note that some Sorcs also use Charged Bolt, which has a bug that can increase Fireball damage drastically ('Critical Spell Damage') if it connects. The Charged Bolt itself is easily avoidable but always be very careful when the Sorc is casting it, for when he switches to Fireball you may take unexpected large damage.
II. SPELL HEAVY BOW ROGUE SETUPS
Foreword
° The spell heavy variant of the 'Bow Rogue' build utilizes spell damage as well as arrow damage as offensive. This lethal combination offers the player a considerable increase in terms of versatility, which results in being extremely unpredictable for the opponent. Though the downside is, that we're forced to remain on low AC, which makes this variant only suitable for experienced duelists.
° I don't consider variants of this build to be very viable versus the Sorcerer class, simply because the Sorcerer will have a massive advantage in terms of cast-rate and spell damage. Consequently, it's not advisable to try to compete with him in this domain. I therefore highly recommend to focus solely on ranged damage in this matchup, as being able to cause ranged stun-lock is the main advantage of the 'Bow Rogue' over the Sorcerer class.
Spell Heavy Bow Rogue vs. Warrior & Melee Rogue
Helm: Thinking Cap
Armor: Naj's Light Plate
Bow: Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness | alternative: Jade Long War Bow of Swiftness | alternative2: Merciless Long War Bow of Burning/Thunder
Amulet: Dragon's Amulet of Wizardry | alternative: Dragon's Amulet of the Zodiac
Ring1: Dragon's Ring of Wizardry | alternative: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac
Ring2: Dragon's Ring of Wizardry | alternative: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac
Mana: 545 with 3 x Dragon's Jewel of Wizardry | 500 with3 x Dragon's Jewel of the Zodiac
Damage: 78-105 with 3 x Dragon's Jewel of Wizardry + Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness | 108-135 with3 x Dragon's Jewel of the Zodiac + Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness
Spell Level: 18
Resist Magic: 40% with Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness | 70% with Jade Long War Bow of Swiftness
Resist Fire: 40% with Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness | 70% with Jade Long War Bow of Swiftness
Resist Lightning: 40% with Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness | 70% with Jade Long War Bow of Swiftness
° The 'Spell Heavy Bow Rogue' is admittedly a very unusual approach. Nevertheless, I consider it to be amazingly effective if handled properly. The main idea of this build is to make spells (Fireball and Flash) our primary offensive. Arrows mostly serve as a secondary attack, which predominantly is used to narrow down the mobility of our opponent. The main advantage of this build certainly is it's abnormity. I consider it given, that most duelists never encountered an opponent which is able to deal massive spell damage and cause ranged stun-lock at the same time.
° I recommend this build only for players who truly have mastered a bunch of basic PvP techniques. Most importantly 'Arrow-Phasing Autoaim', 'Arrow-Teleport Autoaim', 'Fireball-Phasing Autoaim' and 'Double-Flash'. In addition, it's truly beneficial if you have a good feeling for what's going on on the opponents screen, since the room for mistake is very narrow. One false teleport/phase and you can easily die in stun-lock.
° This brings us to the main weakness of this build; the lack of AC. This allows our opponent (especially the Warrior) to scoop out his full damage potential. To make this a bit more bearable, I would always pick 3 x Dragon's Jewel of Wizardry. 545 mana is a pretty solid bolster, which should allow us to survive one or another stun-lock. Though, it's certainly a matter of taste and play style if you wish to boost your arrow damage, by exchanging one or another Dragon's Wizardry Jewel with a Dragon's of the Zodiac Jewel.
° 40% on all resistances should be sufficient versus most Warriors, though if you should encounter an opponent (especially Melee Rogues with their fast cast-rate) who's able to use Flash and/or Fireball effectively, I recommend switching to a Jade Long War Bow of Swiftness. Arrow damage is a subordinate factor in this encounter.
° Another variant of this build would be to pick an Merciless elemental Bow. This can be pretty effective, although it demands a very defensive way of playing, since our capability of causing proper stun-lock is limited with such a bow. I recommend focusing exclusively on 'Fireball-Phasing Autoaim' in combination with 'Arrow-Phasing Autoaim', and wait for a nasty 'critical' elemental arrow to finish the opponent off.
Spell Heavy Bow Rogue vs. Bow Rogue
Helm: Thinking Cap
Armor: Ruby Armor of Harmony
Bow: Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness | alternative: Merciless Long War Bow of Burning/Thunder
Amulet: Dragon's Amulet of the Zodiac | alternative: Dragon's Amulet of Wizardry
Ring1: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac | alternative: Dragon's Ring of Wizardry
Ring2: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac | alternative: Dragon's Ring of Wizardry
Mana: 473 with 3 x Dragon's Jewel of the Zodiac | 518 with 3 x Dragon's Jewel of the Wizardry
Damage: 108-135 with 3 x Dragon's Jewel of the Zodiac + Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness | 78-105 with3 x Dragon's Jewel of the Wizardry + Massive Long War Bow of Swiftness
Spell Level: 17
Resist Magic: 20%
Resist Fire: 75%
Resist Lightning: 20%
° Since we urgently need to max fire resistances in this encounter, it's not viable to wear the Naj's Lightplate. Such setup would decrease our arrow damage, as well as our mana pool too extensively. This is mainly because we would be forced to put on an Obsidian Jewel of Harmony, to achieve the required resistances, as well as fastest hit-recovery. Luckily spell level 17 is still sufficient to put the opposing 'Bow Rogue' under serious pressure.
° In this matchup I suggest to mainly rely on counter attacks. Basically, we remain in 'Diagonal-Walk', and 'Counter-Cast' Fireball and/or fire a slavo of arrows, as soon as we see a gap in the line of fire of the enemy. Although, it's always a good idea to mix these 'Counter-Cast' attacks with sudden 'Arrow-Phasing Autoaim' assaults. In case we can grasp our enemy in ranged stun-lock, we have to use this opportunity to fire one or two well aimed Fireballs in the back of the fleeing victim.
° It's a viable option to pick a Merciless elemental Bow. This can be pretty effective, though it demands to play even more defensively, since our capability of causing proper stun-lock is limited with such a bow. I suggest focusing exclusively on 'Diagonal-Walk' in steady rotation with 'Fireball-Phasing Autoaim' and 'Arrow-Phasing Autoaim'. Sooner or later, a nasty 'critical' elemental arrow will struck the opponent down.
III. MELEE ROGUE SETUPS
Foreword
° The 'Melee Rogue' had its prime back in times (1997 ~ 2002) in which most players couldn't handle a 'Bow Rogue' properly in PvP. Be that as it may, this variant unquestionably still got it's advantages compared to a 'Bow Rogue', especially since the latency conditions on Battle.net happen to be very unpredictable nowadays. All things considered, a 'Melee Rogue' is by far the most balanced class-variant in Diablo. We got a solid mana pool, solid melee damage and solid spell damage. Additionally, it's comparatively easy to reach a very high armor class, as well as chance-to-hit values. This is based on the high natural dexterity value of the Rogue class. These excellent basic foundations enable a 'Melee Rogue' to be highly competitive in pretty much any imaginable encounter.
° I'm careful to point out, that same as the Warrior class, the required items are partially very rare and thus hard to obtain, which certainly is a huge downside.
CLASSIC MELEE ROGUE
Classic Melee Rogue vs. Warrior & Melee Rogue
Helm: Obsidian Great Helm of Sorcery | alternative: Obsidian Great Helm of the Stars
Armor: Awesome Full Plate Mail of Sorcery | alternative: Awesome Full Plate Mail of the Stars
Weapon: King's Bastard Sword of Haste | alternative: Lightning Sword of Haste
Shield: Stormshield
Amulet: Dragon's Amulet of the Zodiac | alternative: Dragon's Amulet of Wizardry
Ring1: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac
Ring2: Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac| alternative: Obsidian Ring of Wizardry
Mana: 443 with Awesome Full Plate Mail of Sorcery + Obsidian Great Helm of Sorcery + 3 x Zodiac Jewel
Armor Class: 304 with Awesome Full Plate Mail of Sorcery + Obsidian Great Helm of Sorcery + 3 x Zodiac Jewel
Damage: 124-149
Chance To Hit: 305%
Spell Level: 15
Resist Magic: 75%
Resist Fire: 75%
Resist Lightning: 75%
° The 'Classic Melee Rogue' is a build which I personally don't consider to be exceptionally effective in this certain encounter, but due to the fact that it was a very common choice in the past, I decided to list it in this compendium. The main advantages of this setup is the big AC in combination with a pretty solid damage output. Nevertheless, a Warriors damage will always be superior to ours. Although we force him to pick a Strange Sword and a set of Gold Jewels to reach the necessary chance-to-hit value to get thru our AC, the Warrior will still have a crucial damage advantage, simply due to the fact that this class attacks faster and is capable of dealing critical hits. This certainly is another story, if we face another 'Melee Rogue'. In this case this setups serves quite well. However, I'm careful to point out, that I would always decide myself to pick a low AC / high spell level variant in ANY melee vs. melee encounter, simply because it offers a lot more versatility (See: Spell Heavy Melee Rogue vs. Warrior & Melee Rogue | Spell Heavy MS Warrior vs. Warrior & Melee Rogue)
° To pick a Lightning Sword of Haste can be quite an interesting choice in melee combat. In this very case, the basic idea is to wait for our opponent to move first and meanwhile totally rely on applying lightning damage. This however will slow down the encounter dramatically, since due to our low spell level and mediocre mana pool, offensive spells won't be a very effective option.
Classic Melee Rogue vs. Bow Rogue
Helm: Royal Circlet
Armor: Obsidian Armor of Harmony | alternative: Ruby Armor of Harmony
Weapon: King's Bastard Sword of Haste
Shield: Crimson Shield of Blocking | alternative: Stormshield | alternative2 (along with Ruby Armor of Harmony): Topaz Shield of Blocking
Amulet: Dragon's Amulet of the Zodiac
Ring1: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac
Ring2: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac | alternative: Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac / of Wizardry
Mana: 498
Damage: 127-152
Chance To Hit: 310%
Spell Level: 15
Resist Magic: 40% | 15% with Ruby Armor of Harmony & Topaz Shield of Blocking
Resist Fire: 70% | 75% with Ruby Armor of Harmony & Topaz Shield of Blocking
Resist Lightning: 40% | 15% with Ruby Armor of Harmony & Topaz Shield of Blocking
° Another old school build which had its prime back in the days, when most players couldn't handle a 'Bow Rogue' properly in PvP. Nonetheless, even nowadays this setup is still a considerable choice to make the Rogue vs. Rogue interclass encounter a little more interesting. Basically, we're a 'MS Warrior' with a large mana pool and a fast cast-rate, though we certainly can't draw level in terms of melee damage output. At any rate, the advantages of this build are that we can use melee attacks, as well as spells quite dynamically. A mana pool of around 500 also ensures a certain level of solidity.
° In case our opponent should be able to use Flash effectively (which won't happen often, since it's very hazardous for a 'Bow Rogue' to stay put) I recommend to attain maxed resistances by replacing one jewel with an Obsidian Jewel of the Zodiac or alternatively of Wizardry and exchange the Crimson Shield of Blocking with a Stormshield, since we don't benefit of its resistances anymore.
° If we're are absolutely certain our opponent won't use Flash at all, it's a clever option to replace the Obsidian Armor of Harmony with a Ruby Armor of Harmony and switch to a Topaz Shield of Blocking. In doing so, we max out fire resistances and still remain 15% on all other resistances, -just in case.
° It's conceivable in this matchup to pick a shield without the blocking suffix on it, -for example a Crimson of Shield of Brilliance, to boost our mana pool further-, though I consider it to be a extremely risky to play without 'Perfect-Block'. Although for very experienced duelists, who mastered techniques like 'Diagonal-Walk', 'Tele-Delay' and 'Tele-attack', this can be a valid option.
Classic Melee Rogue vs. Sorcerer
Helm: Royal Circlet
Armor: Obsidian Armor of Sorcery | alternative: Obsidian Armor of the Stars
Weapon: King's Bastard Sword of Haste
Shield: Garnet (Crimson) Shield of Brilliance | alternative: Emerald Shield of the Tiger
Amulet: Dragon's Amulet of the Zodiac |alternative: Dragon's Amulet of Wizardry
Ring1: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac | alternative: Dragon's Ring of Wizardry
Ring2: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac | alternative: Dragon's Ring of Wizardry
Mana: 550
Damage: 127-152
Chance To Hit: 310%
Spell Level: 15
Resist Magic: 40% | 75% with Emerald Shield of the Tiger
Resist Fire: 75% | 75% with Emerald Shield of the Tiger
Resist Lightning: 40% | 75% with Emerald Shield of the Tiger
° This build can be considered exotic, since it's beyond debate that a 'Bow Rogue' is -by far- the more effective choice in this matchup. Even though, in some cases it can be a true alternative to switch to this melee build. Especially if we have to face a Sorcerer who is playing very defensively ('Diagonal-Walk', 'Counter-Cast', 'Perfect-Block' etc.) this build works like a charm.
° There is not much to say regarding our adjustment options of this setup. It's basically the common question, if our opponent is using the Flash spell or not. In case he is, we simply max out our resistances by swapping the Garnet (Crimson) Shield of Brilliance with an Emerald Shield of the Tiger. Everything else is just a matter of taste. In case we feel like we need a larger mana pool, for example because our opponent is on spell level 20, we trade one or another Dragon's Jewel of the Zodiac with a Dragon's Jewel of Wizardry. Same applies to the choice between Obsidian Armor of Sorcery or Obsidian Armor of the Stars.
IV. SPELL HEAVY MELEE ROGUE SETUPS
Foreword
° The spell heavy variant of the 'Melee Rogue' build utilizes spell damage as well as melee damage as offensive. This lethal combination offers the player a considerable increase in terms of versatility, which results in being extremely unpredictable for the opponent. Though the downside is, that we're forced to remain on low AC, which makes this variant only suitable for experienced duelists.
° I don't consider variants of this build to be very viable versus the Sorcerer class, simply because the Sorcerer will have a massive advantage in terms of cast-rate and spell damage. Consequently, it's not advisable to try to compete with him in this domain.
Spell Heavy Melee Rogue vs. Warrior & Melee Rogue
Helm: Thinking Cap
Armor: Naj's Light Plate
Weapon: King's Bastard Sword of Haste | alternative: Lightning Sword of Haste
Shield: Crimson Shield of Blocking | alternative: Stormshield
Amulet: Dragon's Amulet of the Zodiac | alternative: Dragon's Amulet of Wizardry
Ring1: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac | alternative: Dragon's Ring of Wizardry
Ring2: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac | alternative: Dragon's Ring of Wizardry | alternative2: Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac / of Wizardry
Mana: 500 with3 x Dragon's Jewel of the Zodiac | 515 with2 x Dragon's Jewel of the Zodiac 1 x Dragon's Jewel of Wizardry | 530 with 1 x Dragon's Jewel of the Zodiac 2 x Dragon's Jewel of Wizardry |545 with 3 x Dragon's Jewel of Wizardry
Damage: 122-147
Chance To Hit: 305%
Spell Level: 18
Resist Magic: 40%
Resist Fire: 70%
Resist Lightning: 40%
° I can't deny that I'm truly in love with pretty much any melee based hybrid build, simply because they offer so much versatility. In this case we basically got it all. A huge mana pool ,-which is expandable up to 545, when equipping 3 x Dragon's Jewel of Wizardry instead of 3 x Dragon's Jewel of the Zodiac-, solid melee damage, sufficient resistances and an amazing spell level of 18! The ideal conditions to teach the meaning of fear to any melee opponent. I recommend mixing moves as much as possible. This basically means to operate in melee combat, as well as attacking with Flash and Fireball. 'Tele-Delay', 'Tele-Attack'. 'Fireball-Phasing Autoaim' and 'Double-Flash' are the most important techniques we should make use of.
° In melee encounters like this, the Firewall spell can be a very interesting choice too. Nothing beats casting a well placed Firewall on the opponent, just before locking him in melee combat. This way he is forced to move first, otherwise he'll receive constant damage of the burning wall of fire which smolders below his feet. Unfortunately, Firewalls tend to be very unreliable in bad latency games, which results in them being placed on an entirely different spot on the opponents screen, or, in the worst case, they are sometimes not even present at all.
° In case we really want to be mean, we can switch to a Lightning Sword of Haste. With this fine weapon equipped, we just wait for our chance to fire a nasty salve of Fireballs into the back of our opponent, as soon as he gets sick of receiving constant lightning damage, while being in melee combat with us.
° As always, in case our opponent is using Flash properly, we swap out one of our jewels with its Obsidian counterpart, and adjust the shield-slot properly.
Spell Heavy Melee Rogue vs. Bow Rogue
Helm: Thinking Cap
Armor: Naj's Light Plate
Weapon: King's Bastard Sword of Haste
Shield: Crimson Shield of Blocking | alternative: Stormshield
Amulet: Dragon's Amulet of the Zodiac |alternative: Dragon's Amulet of Wizardry
Ring1: Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac | alternative: Dragon's Ring of Wizardry
Ring2: Dragon's Ring of Harmony | alternative: Obsidian Ring of Harmony
Mana: 470
Damage: 112-137
Chance To Hit: 295%
Spell Level: 18
Resist Magic: 40%
Resist Fire: 70%
Resist Lightning: 40%
° Same as the 'Spell Heavy Bow Rogue', its very advisable in this certain matchup to focus mainly on being defensive. Basically, this means that we should remain in 'Diagonal-Walk', and 'Counter-Cast' Fireball as soon as we see a gap in the line of fire of the enemy. Since our melee damage is pretty solid, it's smart to mix these 'Counter-Cast' attacks with sudden 'Tele-Delay' and 'Tele-Attack' assaults. In case we can grasp our enemy in stun-lock, it's always a good idea to fire one or another well aimed Fireball in the back of the fleeing victim.
° In case our opponent should be able to utilize Flash effectively, we simply exchange the Dragon's Ring of Harmony with an Obsidian Ring of Harmony and adjust the shield-slot properly. Furthermore, I highly recommend to additionally switch at least 1 Dragons Ring of the Zodiac to a Dragon's Ring of Wizardry to maintain a solid mana pool. Luckily, it will be a rare thing in this encounter to ever face a 'Bow Rogue' which will cast Flash frequently, as they'll risk getting killed in stun-lock by doing so.
° It's conceivable in this matchup to pick a shield without the blocking suffix on it, -for example a Crimson of Shield of Brilliance, to boost our mana pool further-, though I consider it to be a extremely risky to play without 'Perfect-Block'. Although for very experienced duelists, who mastered techniques like 'Diagonal-Walk', 'Tele-Delay' and 'Tele-attack', this can be a valid option.
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