Shattered Kingdoms

Not if you use smart disguises. Unless you go from something like "pale" to "dark" then you'll be alright without having to change your description (unless, of course, you want to and are trying to be creative). You can use your eye color, skin color, height, weight, hair color, etc as your disguise when your adjective might be something like "plain."

You don't have to change your description - or at least you'll never get in trouble for not doing so. Sometimes it's useful to do so anyway in order to throw off an enemy. I generally just chose different adjectives that already applied to my character, though.

In response to one's description, I usually had about 3 or 4 preset descriptions set aside on a notepad so I could copy and paste them in and out for whatever situation I needed. At that point, no one should be able to recognize you unless they recognize or memorize your equipment. If I can suggest anything else, use sneak and hide as much as possible. Even when traveling. Once you are made as a rogue, people will not think twice to react poorly or stupidly. I had several disguises set on aliases so I could change at a moments notice as well. A rogue can be a wonderfully fun character to play. Just be cautious and never stop looking over your shoulder. Especially once you are of a higher level.

As for a race, I prefer halflings. Innately master sneak and hide saves a LOT of time, effort and spamming. Not to mention you don't have to wonder whether it was successful or not when you typed it in. Halflings get a tiny boost to magical resistance (I believe) so it comes in handy earlier on in the game. Eventually, I don't think it will make a huge amount of difference. Last but not least (and someone correct me if I am wrong in this statement) but the skill steal has a bit to do with one's size and the size of the target. If you are a smaller person, trying to steal from a larger person, the chances of success are higher. Thus, a sprite and halfling rogue can be quite handy sometimes. However, this all depends on what kind of rogue you want.

Well, there is -something- wrong with helf rogues, they cannot get 25 strength with giant strength. And on a large opener attack such as backstab, or attacks with some sort of multiplier in general, like circle stab, even the smallest differences in stats can drastically change the end result in terms of damage done.

That being said, on the subject of buffs, I agree that a newbie should not use buffs, if he wants to remain a newbie. If he or she wants to participate in sk PVP on a meaningful and competitive level, buffs are an absolute must. Nothing in this game makes or breaks pvp tactics as being properly buffed. A giant strength and a frenzy will literally change a backstab from something that kills mage classes and hurts cleric classes really bad to something that rawkills every single class in the game, except barbarians.

I would definitely recommend half-elf for a new rogue. While no, they don't have the ridiculous raw killing power of a human rogue, they can still get really close, and the infravision is worth it for a new player.

Heh, buffs make a difference, but they're not the end-all make or break for PVP. 90% of it is going to be your effective utilization of tactics as a player and the overall makeup of the situation and maybe 10% is going to be spread out over buffs and the luck of your roll.

As a new player, go half-elf. You'll want to learn the world as much as possible and the most effective way to use your skills. Being able to see in the dark naturally will help with that astronomically. If you want to get into hardcore PVP, you still have the ability. Building your entire character around one single move sounds like a completely ridiculous suggestion. Remember, roleplaying is required in the MUD, so you'll want to build your character centered around an RP concept before you build it around how to get the most out of your backstab.

While a rogue's backstab may be their bread and butter for an opener, if you pigeon hole your thinking that it's going to be your i-win move, you're going to be sorely disappointed those times when you don't get the double-backstab due to an unlucky roll and you're scrambling to figure out what to do after that. Learn as much as you can about all the encompassing skills of your class and practice them in different situations to be the most effective. I could literally count on one hand the number of hardcore veteran players that spend unbelievable amounts of time getting every single buff and all the best items to win in every single PVP situation, and that's pending the fact that some of them still play at all. That's also just limiting the game to PVP. There's a vast and rich world to SK to experience in the player/environment realm as well, so having that experience can be more rewarding a great deal of the time as well.

Knowing your opponent and how they operate, knowing your environment, and knowing your own capabilities and limitations are going to make your game experience and enjoyment exponentially better than just one move.

A build that maximizes backstab will also maximize what you get out of circle stab and hamstring. I am at a complete loss as to how anyone could possibly think that the focus on a rogue build should not go to maximizing damage output from those three abilities.


If by scrambling, you mean circle stabbing or recalling, then yeah, you'll be scrambling.


Unless there is a huge difference in the skill level between players, the character with better preparation (enchants, weaponry, and buffs) will win a vast majority of encounters. SK is all about preparation. The importance of buffs cannot be stressed enough, and I would highly recommend ignoring this comment if you want to be effective in pvp.

Dayamin said it best.

I'm always disappointed when people's advice to new players revolves around PVP. "Create this character with this race, get these buffs, join this tribunal, youwinesskayz" That's not always what a new player wants. It's overwhelming, and there's so much more to SK than that. I hope you have fun exploring the game, and varied classes are what make SK (and yes, even PVP) more interesting.

Don't worry about buffs, anyway, at least not at first. Hopefully when your character gets to be Grandmaster or a little bit below, you'll have enough friends to help you along with your armor and enchanting. Hopefully you'll find this through an IC experience and not through the forums. It will make your character a lot more interesting and it's more fulfilling to discover things as a CHARACTER instead of as a PLAYER.

I hope you enjoy Shattered Kingdoms as a game, and not just PVP. Because I assure you the PVP crowd is much, much more pronounced and interesting in other games. The ironic thing is that a lot of players who have responded with perfect answers about buffs, PVP, etc don't even play any more, because they learned to hate the game and got tired of the win/lose aspect of it. If you want to ENJOY the game, make a broad character whose focus isn't just PVP. Your half-elf rogue will do fine in PVP when it counts, if you choose to get involved.

His question was about mechanics. What was a good combo. His question was not about what was fun to RP or anything like that. I was only answering what his question actually was.


Yes, maybe as a new player he doesn't want to jump right into pk, or when he does, he won't be immediately concerned about winning his encounters. But again, his question was about what was effective. The way to be effective in pk as a rogue is to use the correct buffs and pick your fights carefully.




This is completely true and is very sound advice.


I agree 100%. Half-elf rogue is a fine combo and will have success in pvp.

Baldric.. I was answering my own self-righteous call to duty about how SK should work, not the actual question, sheesh. thanks for interrupting me