So, based on my search results on this forum and other players' experience IG I have a couple questions that haven't been (concretely) answered:
I've just hit lvl 89 and I did a bit of testing of some "controvertial" skills: Plunder, Mischief, Throw poison needle.
Results are these Skills rarely/NEVER land or do what they're supposed to do even on lower mobs (Swampland/altar), the "most"effective of them is plunder which has a decent landing rate on SoA Elites but apart from that..meeeh you know, I won't even mention how they work in PvP.
So: I DO know I'm still a lowbie and so my question is:
Can I expect all or any of these skills to actually work at a higher level? PvE/PvP wise?
I have fun playing the rogue even It clearly has big big disadvantages but who cares, l2 has never been a balanced game anyway :p and that's okay but one thing is playing a fun yet a bit underpowered class and another VERY different thing is playing a disfunctional class.
Looking forward to see some constructive answers, thanks a lot.
I don't use mischief, thought about enchanting it just for the decrease speed effect but throw dagger pretty much always lands, and since you have shadow chase on a short cd + shadow flash(long cd) at 99 it's pretty easy to not get kited.
Throw poison needle works for me, not enchantable.
Plunder is just for pve, but they broke it in the last update so who knows what's up with it now.
I'm not sure why so many people cry about imbalance for othell. I see no reason for all the QQ. I do very well in pve, Olympiad and open field PvP.
as far as plunder, yeah only place I used it was soa, sucks sure but that doesn't unbalance othell, nor does mischief as before stated, throw dagger works fine, and poison needle? it works just fine for me in pve, I personally don't use it in PvP and would rather use a more useful skill to interrupt, such as shadow chase, uppercut, bluff or kick.
Most of my skills are +10 (the remaining few are +8 or higher), so you can compare the differences.
Plunder got nerfed months ago. The success rate seems to vary with the target mob. Most Othell Rogues don't even bother with this skill anymore.
Throw Poison Needle does work in PvE with a somewhat decent chance. In PvP, it works almost everytime for Healing Melody, Progressive Heal, and Servitor Heal. Use its range as an advantage to interrupt skills such as Transform. However, Throw Poison Needle will not likely to work with anything else. Don't waste your time trying.
Mischief at +10 probably lands 1/5 in PvP. However, the skill itself is useless compared to the speed reduction of Throw Dagger. Don't bother with this skill.
Throw Dagger is a very good skill for the slow and ranged damage. It's very useful in Octavis raid and such. It's worth the adena to OE when you can.
Power Bluff at +10 will never land on someone around your level. I tried to use it against a Lv. 86 (I'm Lv. 99), and it still did not yield a high success rate.
Mass Trick at +10 does land but rare. It's up to you to use it or not.
In general, focus on using Uppercut, Throw Dagger, Dark Paralysis, Poison Zone, Shadow Chase, and Shadow Flash. Those are your main sources of CC.