Trickster Rogue: Getting Dizzy With the Scoundrel

In this part of my Trickster Rogue guide (Part 12, 3). I will show you a picture of my feat tree and then explain what you should do and what you shouldn’t do. I will go ahead and explain which powers I use. The heroic feet tree part will always look the same regardless of your build by the way.

MinMax Scoundrel Build

What does the Scoundrel do?

PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE!

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3ZmHV-Dqo8″ https=”yes”]

No joke, that’s basically its job. The build punches people openly in the face and stuns them. Many player gave up on this build because it seems not that great. One reason is PvP. In the past the devs changed Tenacity to grant way more control resistance. It means a build which is build around control is way less effective.

For PvE it is still great!

With this build your critical strikes and attacks from behind stun a monster for 2.5 seconds and you deal 25% additional damage on monsters under a control effect. You are very effective between boss fights because you offer additional control and gain the 25% damage bonus from all CC sources. A Control Wizard is in your group? Good for you!

Stealth within this build should be mainly used to trigger stun effects of your encounters. The capstone of the Scoundrel is “Skullcracker”, which can be activated every 15 seconds, stuns a target for a decent period of time and also gives us another damage boost of 25%. So in certain situation the damage boost adds up to 50% for a controlled target.

The fastest Rogue alive!

The Scoundrel capstone also grant 15% movement speed. In combination with “Skillful Infiltrator” this adds up to 35% additional movement speed. You like even more? The Insignia Bonus “Gladiator Guile” has another 15% while we are over 75% Stamina. The speed feels pretty nice. It also combines with another feat we choose with this build: “Dying Breath”.  It grants 25% additional critical severity and movement speed for about 10 seconds if a monster dies close to us. Hence 75% additional movement speed is easy to obtain, which makes the build faster than a sprinting GWF.

Ok, but how is that important?

Because you are a controller. And as a controller it is your job to control monsters before they can reach your teammates. With a lot of movement you can always run in front of the group, start controlling the monsters and sort of prepare the mobs before they arrive. Also you can start dealing damage before everyone else and snatch away a good portion of the Paingiver chart (the Scoundrel is a sneaky little bastard).

Your Powers

The At-Wills of your choice are, as always, “Sly Flourish” and “Duelist’s Flurry”. Please refer to part 3 of my guide for usage and reasoning of these At-Wills. Your regular encounter powers should be “Impossible To Catch”, which grants you 10% additional power in this build and combines nicely with Bonding Runestones, “Smoke Bomb”, because it controls mobs, and “Dazing Strike” for even more CC and feat proccing.

Your class features are “Skillful Infiltrator” and “Invisible Infiltrator”. Your Daily powers are “Lurker’s Assault” and “Whirlwind Of Blades”. You use “Whirlwind Of Blades” similar to a Saboteur. You go into stealth and activate the daily, which stuns up to five monsters close to you. On top of +100% power you also get the +25% damage bonus for controlled targets. A good follow-up power is “Smoke Bomb”. Then you attack the targets, ideally the one with “Skullcracker” on it. In case the mob is still alive after this attack, which they rarely are, you should be able to use stealthed Dazing Strike to stun them further.

You should use “Lurker’s Assault” only if there are two or three monsters left. You should prioritize the biggest target which is controllable. Because “Lurker’s Assault” blocks your Action Point gain, you get most out of the feat “Back Alley Tactics”, which provides 25% additional damage depending on how empty the APs are.

The problems of the Scoundrel

The Scoundrel deals great damage against trash mobs it can control. But it loses effectiveness against other targets. Gladly there are some tricks to work around. In boss battles you can swap “Lurker’s Assault” or “Whirlwind Of Blades” for “Courage Breaker”. It is one of very few control powers which are allowed to pierce control immunity. It’s no bug, but intended to work like that. Maxed out it decreases the damage of the boss by around 50% to 60% and slows it down drastically.

Especially the slow effect is very pleasant against Valindra and her erratic movement. But also don’t underestimate the damage debuff, which is very good for the survivability of the group, especially the tank. Another example are the Scorpion Twins in Lostmauth. The build can cripple the second Scorpion and it is less likely that one of your group members will be one-shotted.

With “Courage Breaker” you additionally fully profit from +25% power and the 25% bonus damage for a controlled target as well as 25% bonus damage for your empty Action Points. The daily allows AP to refill while in use, diminishing the bonus from “Back Alley Tactics”, but that obviously means you can activate it more often. I’d also recommend swapping “Dazing Strike” for “Wicked Reminder” because of it’s buff potential and group utility.

Even with these changes it’s inevitably that the build loses DPS in a boss fight. With the decreased damage from the boss (“Courage Breaker”) and the increased damage for the group (“Wicked Reminder”) you are however still a very helpful asset.


That’s the Scoundrel! Despite its low popularity it’s still a very fun build to play! What’s your take on the path? Share it in the comments below or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

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4 thoughts on “Trickster Rogue: Getting Dizzy With the Scoundrel

  • September 20, 2016 at 3:14 am
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    Great articles. Thank you
    Do you also write a build/guide for exec?

    btw: i cant see the picture for feats on this site.

    • September 20, 2016 at 3:39 am
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      I fixed the picture you should now see the feat tree again.

      Yes, next week there will be an article about the Trickster Rogue Executioneer

  • October 25, 2016 at 8:33 pm
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    I use path of blades for large groups and bosses with lots of adds, but my life steal is ridiculous, so it what keeps me alive. It also does do a minor stun effect on weaker mobs so you can concentrate on the stronger baddies and take them out while the small fries are distracted.

  • September 17, 2017 at 8:43 am
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    This is the best loadout to my Trickster Rogue, better than Executioner. I tested a lot of gems combinations and the best was Azure ones o offensive. When I use Radiant to get Power, my TR does not deal so much damage. I’d like to know if Rage Drake Imperial could be the best mount to Scoundrel because I use Epic Rage Drake (2k critical) and it’s better than 2k power mounts. What about the cap of critical? Thank you for the post!

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