"My father was a surface elf,
My mother lived 'neath the wave.
My father 'twas a' sinking fast,
My mother, she did save.

The love that grew was more than self,
Though many a storm 'twould brave.
They lived and danced and then, at last,
Gave birth to a rhyming knave."

- Brenna Wavekin, the Dancing Rogue

Greensteel

There are a lot of nice Greensteel items out there, which are crafted by combining drops from The Shroud in various combinations (Please see the guides section of the forums). Details on recipes, item attributes, and crafting steps are beyond the scope of these Notes.

Three best items and one best weapon stand out for rogues:

1. Radiance II weapon
2. Hitpoint item (adds hitpoints and skill points)
3. Charisma item (adds spellpoints and charisma skill points)
4. Immunities item (fear immune, poison immune, disease immune, blind immune, + something else)

As far as build order, Rad II is most likely the way to go to Tier III first...but I'd say the first item you want to actually make is a Tier II HP item, then decide from there if you want to take that to Tier III first for more HP while raiding, or finish up going Tier III on Radiance for general use. Radiance is game-changing for a rogue, but sticking in on the raid boss means more successful completions, more ingredients, and thus more items.

Comment on Items: You can only slot one un-Cleansed item (without doing damage to yourself...so effectively, you can only slot one un-Cleansed item). Cleansing Stones drop as the end reward for your 20th, 40th, 60th, etc. successful Shroud completions. You have to choose between tomes and the Cleanser....tomes are tempting, but I'd just take cleansers every time.

Lastly, you'll want to plan your crafting out carefully. Few things are more disappointing than to have all your ingredients, get into the Shroud, and then screw up a step...you can't move backwards, so if you mess up, that's what you've got.

I like this planner.

Radiance II weapon

The biggest benefit of Radiance II is that it blinds on a critical hit (if the mob can be blinded...no red name can be blinded, some critters can't be blinded, etc). It also gets a Sunburst clickie (not impressed with Sunburst, generally, though I'll throw it on lower level mobs now and again).

Ask 100 rogues what should be on a Radiance II rapier and you'll get 100 different answers. Poke around until you find one that fits your playstyle...some people love damage, damage, and more damage on a rapier, some like taking more stat bonuses, others like a mix of the two...or something completely different.

Popular options include:

• holy/flaming burst/fire blast
• holy/flaming burst/+4 AC
• +6 dex or int/good burst/flaming blast
• +6 dex or int/good burst/+2 Exceptional Dex
• +6 dex or int/20% healing amp/+2 Exceptional Dex

etc.

Important Note: "good" in the form of either Holy or Good Burst is probably the single best attribute to put on a Rad II, to buypass end-game DRs. If I had to redo my sinister, I'd have found a way to put good on it for DRs.

I've tried both a +6 dex/20% healing amp/+4 Insight AC and a more traditional holy/flaming burst/flaming blast...the first has greater utility, the later has greater damage. If I were to do it over again, I'd just take damage, but everyone's mileage seems to vary a bit...if in doubt, though, just take damage.

Razcar has an excellent summary (minor edits made on request), complete with key talking points, on selecting a Radiance weapon:

Originally posted by Razcar.

It is not as clear-cut as just chosing between rapier or khopesh. It depends on your build.

Long-winded answer: You have two types of rogues when it comes to weapons: Str-based and Dex-based.

Str rogues start with a high Strength score and put all their level-up ability points into Strength (they usually have decent Dex as well since it is needed for the Greater Two Weapon Fighting feat). Dex rogues do the same but for Dexterity (and preferably also have a decent Str for damaging opponents that are immune to sneak attacks).

Dex rogues take the Weapon Finesse feat, since that is needed to use your Dexterity for calculating your to-hit score instead of Strength - but only for a select few weapons. The best of the Finessable weapons is the Rapier, with its high critical threat range (18-20), and it also gets racial bonuses for elf/drow (who are often Dex based).

Str rogues on the other hand can use any weapon they want (and have proficiency in of course). So they usually use the khopesh, since it is the most damaging TWF weapon in the game when push comes to shove.

If you are dex-based, as mentioned, you have to take the Weapon Finesse feat . So you cannot use a khopesh because that is not a Finessable weapon. So what to put Radiance on is already decided for you if you are a Dex rogue - you will use a rapier. You will also take the Improved Critical: Piercing feat to increase your crit threat range. For a Str rogue you will go Imp. Crit: Slashing instead. These necessary choices cements even more what kind of weapon you will put Radiance on.

If you are a Str rogue, you have more weapon choices. The direct equivalent to the rapier for a Str rogue is the scimitar. Same crit range, same base damage. (Before some grievous nerfs the rapier was seen as the superior of the two because only the rapier could have the mighty wounding of puncturing procs, but this advantage of the rapier is now gone.)

Str rogues can craft Radiance on the Khopesh, which has higher damage, but a smaller critical threat range compared to the rapier and the scimitar (19-20). This is a disadvantage as you want the blindness to process as quickly as possible (you'll do more damage on the other hand - but then again most of the damage from a rogue comes from sneak attacks). A scimmi, kukri or rapier will crit and blind in almost 3 hits with Imp Crit. A khopesh in 5 hits.

If you are a Strength-build you have another option as well: the kukri. It is seen as a Str-rogue weapon since even though it is light (and thus Finessable), it is a slashing weapon (Str rogues tend to go slashing), and also you'll need a martial class splash to get the profiency (and Str rogues are often splashed with a martial class, such as fighter, ranger or barb).

The thing with the kukri is that it has the same critical threat range as the rapier and the scimitar (but less base damage), but is a light weapon, and can thus be used off-hand without getting the minus to-hit a non-light weapon would give you (without the feat Oversized TWF which can be little hard to fit in on a rogue). This leaves your main hand to handle a DPS khopesh. The Str rogue I'm building now on the US servers will use a Mineral II khopesh and an off-hand Radiance II kukri... when I have managed to gather all the larges, please send any donations to Pixsie on Thelanis ;).

So to sum it up:

If Dex - rapier.

If Str - scimitar, khopesh or kukri.

Hitpoint Item

Hit point items take an item slot, gives Hitpoints, grant skills, and grants a power + guard.

A lot of people go Mineral II on their HP item, stick it in the helmet slot instead of Minos Legens, and forget about it. They have a net loss of 20 hp over using another slot, but they free up a slot, have a net hp gain over Minos Legens alone, keep their heavy fort, and gain +5 protection. Slot saver, but costs you 20 hp.

If you don't want exceptional dex skills somewhere, hard to go wrong with earth/earth/earth for the pets and earthgrab guard or concordant oppsition for +6 wisdom, +10 diplomacy, and a healing proc.

If you want to squeeze in some exceptional dex skills, a Smoke cloak, a Radiance cloak, or a air/air/air Haste + Airguard Cloak would work well. The perma-Blur + 2/day Displacement clickies are very handy as is the 20% when hit blind proc, but the haste guard would save you a bunch of large ingredients.

Charisma Item

Again, a charisma item takes an item slot, gives spellpoints, skill points, and a power + guard.

I chose an item slot other than gloves, so as to stack with 7 Fingered Gloves. This let me spec out of Skill Focus: UMD and still hit a standing +39 UMD @ lvl 16 for GH and Heal scrolls and to increase my Bluff/Diplomacy. Doesn't hurt that Haggle is increased as well.

Immunities Item

Hard to go wrong with immunity to fear, blindness, poison, disease, and deathblock all in one slot. You may want to choose a slot other than necklace, so you can wear your Silver Flame necklace during beholder fights and the like.