So to combat this I have been using what might be the ultimate solo PvE spec: 32 BD / 18 Sin / 16 RS this build relies primarily on Rift Scavenger and Combat Culmination which restore your energy and health if you have combo points left on the target when it dies. Combine this with the massive CP generation from having mobs attack you as a BD, and you can tear through packs of mobs that would leave any other spec dead, and come out with 100% HP.

Macro

cast Reprisal

cast Precision Strike

cast Puncture

cast Quick Strike

cast Disengage

cast Keen Strike

cast Flash of Steel

cast Blade Tempo

cast Double Coup

cast Poison Malice

Press repeatedly for victory. Keep False Blade and Dauntless Strike up, but make sure to have combo points on the mobs as they die for health/energy boosts.

It's sick for closing Rifts solo, farming, doing dailies or whatever. I don't recommend it if you expect PvP though. You'll get trashed by anyone except champ or beast warriors (and maybe bad assassins). Props to Archaego for originally coming up with the idea.

I'd also recommend this spec for anyone thinking of leveling a rogue. The key idea is to get 3/3 Rift Scavenger in RS, then put the rest of your points in Bladedancer up to 32, then build up Assassin or RS as you wish.

Leave your water in the bank. You won't need it.

I did a little research and if you have FPS in Rift that is lower than other games or if you have spikes in your FPS where it jumps up and dips sharply at times, a few changes in your config file can help.

The file is in your Rift game directory and is called Rift.cfg. You can open it with notepad and you should make a copy of it before changing anything. In the file, you are looking to change the following variables to these values:

VfxCullDistance = 256

VFXLimit = 75000

LightingComplexity = 10.000000

MainThreadCPU = 0

VfxCullDistance might not exist. Just add the line above VFXLimit.

What this does is take advantage of the high memory in most graphics cards to load effects and keep them loaded. With smaller values, the effects load/unload repeatedly at the edge their range and this causes dramatic drops in FPS as your graphics card works to load things at the proper distance. MainThreadCPU = 0 lets the game choose the processor core that is under the least load. Thanks to Xensimilla for that one.

Thus, by increasing these values, you should see an increase in performance and not have the wild swings in FPS. It's worked well for me. Hope it helps.

After messing with various Assassin specs this week, I threw up a little in my mouth and decided NB is just more my style. I wish there was a viable NB spec for PvE, but Deadly Dance is just too good and has basically 0 synergy with NB, plus NB lacks the AP modifiers in BD and Asssassin. It's too much of a handicap. Maybe some day.

I've finally settled on Living Flame for PvP. I resisted it for a long time with my Nightblade Beast and Gunblade specs, but I love Nightblade and I think that despite how much I hate 51-pointers, it doesn't make much sense to go 44NB 16 Inf 6rng when I can go 51 NB 15 Inf 0 MM and only lose a snare and some AP, while gaining Living Flame.

I like 0 MM over 0 Ranger with NB because you already have a ranged finisher with Flame Thrust and Swift Shot is helpful in getting you back into range (or staying out of it).

The problem with this spec is it doesn't do too well against Assassins (at all) and struggles against Parry-gons and shield warriors as well. It is strong against mana bars and it will bring down a cleric solo. However, if a good 51sin opens on you, you are 50/50 at best, even with every cooldown up. With 600 valor, I have sins take me to 40% in 5 seconds then vanish and let me bleed.

Parry-gons you basically need to avoid DoTs and Dark Contain them when you see them start parrying every attack. If they have Break Free up, you'll need another CD, like Twilight Shelter. You can still sneak attacks in from behind, but Rift is not so good at detecting where you are in relation to the other player's orientation, so you can try, but they are mostly invincible.

I still keep Gunblade around also, because its the best overall. The kiting capability from Marksman gives you a strong chance to beat anyone. It's not as strong against bluebars but can still win, and Swift Shot/Hasty Departure/On the Double let you kite Assassins and warriors and win that battle.

If you have one ability that does so many different things that you need a wall of text to describe it, it might be overpowered. Trion has done it again. If there is one thing they have down pat, it is overcompensating.

Dominators are already a pile of awesome because of their crowd control and nasty damage abilities, but the AOE and "shut down" ability of the Mass Betrayal skill really needs to be examined. It's a virtual disarm for any rogue or warrior that can't cleanse it, while simultaneously dealing damage every time you manage to get an attack off (which is about half as often as usual). To top it off, the damage it deals is AOE, so casting it on a group of players essentially turns them into chum. Stormcallers eat your heart out.

So the lack of patch notes relating to rogues might make you think that nothing has changed for rogues in 1.3. Well, you'd be right. Nevertheless, with Hammerknell set to start "soon" and people wanting to get geared up to clear Greenscale, here is my take on the top 3 DPS specs for Rogues.

Good old melee sab is going great guns this patch, with the change to Deadly Dance's interaction with charges streamlining the rotation. In my (still) mostly T2 gear with some raid gear, my spike charge crit ticks for 2.2k and Shrapnel crit ticks for 1k. The rotation is more complicated than the standard saboteur, but the damage is also better.

Rotation:

3x Spike > Puncture > Deadly Strike > 2x Spike > Detonate

5x Shrap > Detonate

You can use Backstab if you want to, but I prefer Puncture because of the positional nature of Backstab. There's also not much difference in energy because a 2 Point Detonate costs less energy than a 1 point detonate that you would do with Backstab. Of course, if you prefer ranged sab, there is always the standard saboteur.

Bladedancer Tribrid 27 Bladedancer / 21 Nightblade / 18 Asssassin

Still going strong, the BD tribrid deals considerable damage to a single target. It's simple to play, to allow for good raid awareness and is extremely competitive for the top spot on the damage meter. More info is available in my complete writeup.

Hoko's Nonsense Spec 26 Ranger / 21 Bladedancer / 19 Assassin

I tested this and had very good results. It's bizarre running a melee ranger spec and you do have to run in and out of melee range to use Head Shot, but it deals very good DPS and may wind up being the best DPS of all, depending on your gear. You can read more about the spec in his thread on the rift forums. Note that my spec varies slightly from his. I find having instant-pet is too valuable to go without.

I was lagging too bad to give a good test to Hoko's spec this week (thanks Trion for those server mergers by the way) so next week will be the test on that one, hopefully.

Also, Guardians now massively outnumber Defiants on Deepstrike. Because sometimes being able to do Raid Rifts was too simple.