Greetings, everyone.

I am a rogue newbie, and have a few questions about being a rogue in Lusternia. I read Lost Dog's thread, but it didn't answer the questions that I have, so I started my own thread.

My race is human, and I don't wish to join a guild or city, as I don't like the politics involved. I've got 155 lessons to spend on skills, and I would like to know which skills I should learn. I would like to be able to hunt for gold and such. What should I choose, and who can I learn from?

Thank you.
Mira

As a newbie rogue you'll be able to learn from the city/commune teachers. After you pass a certain level, 21 is it? you'll have to learn from others.

What skills you learn depend on what you want to do, I really don't know how to answer that one.

Everyone can hunt and earn gold. Any of the bashing grounds will give you gold and experience, as well as the village commodity and honours quest. Those don't depend on affiliation. However, some quests will still get you in trouble with orgs. For example, if you get undead miners from Angkrag, expect to be enemied to Magnagora. If you take farmers from Estelbar, expect to be enemied to Serenwilde. But the honours line quests wont' get you in trouble with anyone (that I know of).

And if you want to stay truly rogue, do so. Don't get affiliated with any orgs or mock orgs.

Thank you, Everiine.

To clarify, I mean what skills should I learn to protect myself while bashing, and what skill would be best to bash? I learned to kick and punch my shadow, but is there anything better that I can use?

Thanks again.

Hmm... I'm not exactly sure which skills you can learn as a rogue. If you want to use weapons, learn Knighthood if you can.

It also helps to consider whether you want to take a tradeskill. Some tradeskills require you to take other skills before them (for example, Herbs requires Low Magic, Enchantments need High Magic).

I'm afraid I've never been a rogue, so the help I can offer is limited.

If you want to be a real rogue, with no guild specific skills, bashing will be very hard. I mean very.

You'll be able to use weapons, but they'll be rather inaccurate. Still, get yourself a pair of speedy weapons - rapiers, hammers, one klangaxe or 1 katana (the last ones are two-handed) and use these. You'll be fighting slow, but it's better than kicks and punches.

If you can't afford them, at least use clubs or shortswords. But I'm not sure how good they are for non-warrior novices, probably worse than hand-to-hand/

An alternative is to learn how to influence, and get experience by influencing sentient NPCs. This won't give you much gold, but quests give enough gold anyways.

Also, don't forget about the gold and exp-giving power of pilgrims. Especially at low levels.

EDIT: Rogues can't learn Knighthood, it's guild-specific. They can only learn Combat, which is mainly about defensive skills. It MIGHT (I'm not sure) offer a small bonus to fighting with weapons, but I'm not sure. The bonus, if existant, is much smaller than that of knighthood.

Influencing, that's what I forgot to mention!

And cow and pilgrims are unmatched when it comes to exp. and gold. Ev is level 63 and that is practically the only way he gets gold and experience nowadays. They are awesome!

Cows? Pilgrims? I suppose I'll have to make use of that Newbie channel.

Influencing looks interesting, too. I'll give that a try.

Can you think of any other skills I should learn? I can't find Tattoos anywhere for shields or health or mana... I see I have Arts, is it higher up in Arts? Should I learn that?

Thank you!

You wont be able to do much hunting, or any good hunting, without Guild skills and the novice skills arent the greatest usually unless youre Specced. I do play a Human, and I was of higher skill level, but less Int and I was constantly outmatched by a High Elfen of lower skill level.

Influencing is fun! Very very fun! And its your best bet til around level 70, but as a Human youll be able to stick on things longer. I still get a good amount with Begging in the Nomad Camp.

A good skill in arts to have, I find at least, is Glassworks so you can just buy cut gems and make your own vials, theyre just difficult to find sometimes if youre not looking in the right places. Up until then, you can buy them I think from Neuf's Manse shop. Its called Jewels I think.

Watch yourself around some people, especially if you indirectly help the org theyre opposed to.

Best of luck, hope you can make it work. If not, one of our lovely Cities or Communes will be happy to take you in as a member.


edit: Lusternia doesnt use Tattoos, we have enchantments and skills that do the exact same.

Depends how nice I'm feeling, and how many Seren/Glom novices have been in Acknor doing the honours quest there. Seriously, it frustrates me to no end that novices that are still under Innocence who have no RP justification for it are coming there to do the quest just for the gold. Go quest in your own villages, or if you want that one so bad, help your org win it next time it revolts.

Cows, Sheep, Trout, Chickens, Pilgrims, Scholars are all good quests to get started on money and experience.

Also, the Tattoos from Achaea are scattered over many different skills. Enchantments have most regeneration and other nifty abilities. Shield is Circle/Pentagram in Low/High Magic respectively and you have the skill as soon as you choose one or the other, Hammer is likewise Nullify/Void, etc... I'm not sure if anyone's ever mapped all of Achaea's tattoos to their Lusternian equivalents.

Select either High Magic or Low Magic, and you'll gain access to either Pentagram or Circle, depending on which one you pick. Its the first skill, and that is your shield.

And you'll want a Mercy Enchantment to regen Health, Beauty for Ego, Perfection for Mana, Kingdom for clotting.

First, out of all the IRE games, this one is the least rogue friendly. It's even quite rogue hostile, by the game's very design, as the main draw of the game is the org vs org conflict.

However, if you want to be a rogue, that's quite fine! Just remember that you will be unable to learn except from players after level (I think!) 21.

You will be unable to bash by killing things without guild skills, and the only way to get those is to join a guild, get out of novicehood, and THEN leave. However, then you won't be able to learn any more of those skills without finding someone to teach you them, and the guild/city that you left might not be very happy about you doing this.

However! You can still Influence and quest. Influencing is actually superior to bashing at the lower levels anyway, in my experience. 89 lessons of Influence will give you all the skills you need for Charity bashing, which is the best type, since it nets you gold, and you don't need fancy clothing for it. On the contrary, begging naked works best. There are threads that explain influencing, and I don't have the time to do it again right now, so either look them up, or ask someone on the Newbie aether.

Arts is about making tints, pipes, tinderboxes, vials, paintings, and statues. There are no Tattoos in Lusternia, but there are enchantments that do much the same thing as many Tattoos from other IRE games. Shield and Hammer tattoos are duplicated in Lowmagic and Highmagic. The inept skill of both is essentially unlimited Shield tattoos, and the Apprentice skill (16 lessons in) is essentially unlimited Hammer tattoos. Mercy enchantments are like Boar tattoos, Perfection enchants are like Moon tattoos, and Kingdom enchants are like Moss tattoos. Enchantments must be put on jewelery, so you need jewelery to enchant. They have a set number of charges, the max based on the type of jewelery, and they can be recharged if they have at least one charge on them via Energy Cubes, which you can find in shops.

Vitae is an elixir that, when sipped, does the same thing as a Starburst tattoo, but you cannot use it as a rogue, since it requires power to work.

No matter what you do, you want to learn 22 lessons of Planar for Rift. Without it, you don't have a Rift, which works the same as it does in all other IRE games. 89 total lessons of Planar also teaches you to teleport to people (which you can't do as a rogue since it requires power), or teleport to your nexus. Rogues don't have a nexus, but if they try to "teleport nexus," they will teleport to the Portal of Fate instead. This can be useful for you while taking pilgrims up the Peak for gold and experience.

Wow, that's a lot of great information. Thank you so much for being so detailed! I'll definitely try the influencing, and getting a rift.

Does it matter whether or not I choose high magic over low magic? What's the difference between the two?

High Magic gives a boost to charisma and strength, where as Low Magic gives a boost to constitution and an exp bonus.

Edit: Oh, and Shorlen is wrong about rogue's not being able to use Vitae. Rogues can draw power if they have enough skilll in Planar to link nodes on Astral, or there are the lost city nodes. You can also buy power from people, as there is a skill that allows you to transfer power to other people.

Oh, and since you're from Achaea-- Lusternia is quite a different game. RP is very important here, whereas it's pretty ignored on Achaea. I'd suggest not coming in trying to find similarities between us and Achaea (Tatoos, etc.), but starting from the beginning and treating everything like it's brand new.

That's why I'm trying Lusternia. I want to be able to roleplay consistantly... And in Achaea, its like one big chatroom. I'm not interested in player combat, though, just the roleplaying, questing, exploring, hunting, etc.

I play on java nexus, and I always hear that its not good for player vs. player, anyway.

Thanks again for the help!

If you want to get to level 100, and don't want to ever join a guild or org, influencing will be your chepest method. (even if you can only get to level 90 or something)

Actually, naked makes it worse. You want "nondescript" since that's the lowest level of actually clothed. Nakedness makes your influence target think you're an idiot. It's in the helpfile and I've tested this.

Incorrect. Remember, the only power skills you cannot use as a rogue are ones that list a specific power type. Since I'm a warrior, with no specific power types listed, I can use all of my power skills, including using a vitae potion.

I think it was meant that Mira may not get power.

Aha. Well, if he meant "you cannot get power", there's always astral, powerplex gems, energylink... Granted, those three are a tad expensive.