Hello everyone, Ponyo here! This article is part of the “101” series, which gives an overview of each role or class in the game. Please be aware that this is not an extensive how-to guide nor does it provide optimal skill rotations. Instead, this is an introductory orientation to the class with some general hints and tips to get you started.
A Little Lore
These agile fighters pride themselves on their skills with knives and daggers to make quick work of enemies. Lurking in the shadows, adhering to no laws but their own, they punish the wicked, pilfering their ill-gotten gains and delivering them to the downtrodden masses. Thought by many to be mere common criminals, some would say they play an unseen hand in maintaining order in the buccaneer’s haven of Limsa Lominsa.
Rogue’s Role
See the DPSing 101 guide for an introduction to the DPS role.
Where to Start
The rogue class can be unlocked in Limsa Lominsa at the Rogue’s Guild. Jacke will give you your first daggers, and then you can start gaining skills! At every 5th level, you can go back to Jacke and pick up a new quest that will give you a new skill and new armor and/or weapons.
As You Level
The skills you get as rogue may not mean much when you’re leveling in the open-world, but once you are level 16 and can enter dungeons, the mechanics of rogues become more important.
Kiss of the Wasp and Kiss of the Viper are toggled skills that increase your damage dealt. Kiss of the Wasp increases your damage by 5%, and Kiss of the Wasp increases it by 10%. These are skills that you can just put up and leave up to increase your total damage output. Some of your other attacks will do different things depending on whether Kiss of the Wasp or Kiss of the Viper is up, so keep an eye out for those subtle changes.
Your primary damage dealing combination is Spinning Edge – Gust Slash – Aeolian Edge. Aeolian Edge does increased damage when you attack from behind the enemy. You can also weave in Mutilate, a damage over time attack, and Assassinate, which is only active when the enemy is below 20% life. Throwing Dagger is a ranged attack. Goad is a great way to be helpful because it gives TP back to a party member. Your fellow tanks and DPS will thank you!
Shade Shift nullifies physical damage for 20 seconds, up to 20% of your maximum HP, so this is great to pop when you’re running low and health and provides you with a defensive ability. Another way to gain back some HP is to use Mug while under the effect of Kiss of the Viper — this allows you to absorb 50% of damage as HP.
Because rogues are sneaky, you are able to Hide from enemies that are less than 10 levels higher than you. Practically, this means your characters grays out and is actually difficult to see. In exchange for literally hiding in plain sight, your speed is reduced by 50%, so you can only walk slowly along. While Hiding, you can use Sneak Attack, which does more damage when you’re positioned in front of the target.
One last point: Limit Break. This is discussed in more detail in our DPSing 101 guide, but it is worth mentioning again here. Rogues are physical melee fighters, and their Limit Break skill is a single-target barrage of damage. For this reason, rogues are often asked to “lb” to finish off a boss quicker, so be sure to go to the Action and Traits menu and put the Limit Break button somewhere on your hotbar where you can easily access it.
Cross-Role Skills
Please see the DPSing 101 guide for more information about cross-role skills.
Acquiring Your Job
At level 30, you can evolve from rogue to ninja. This is like getting a promotion – you become a better DPS, get new skills, new armor, and new weapons. In order to unlock ninja, you must be a level 30 rogue and have completed the rogue questline. It is no longer necessary to level a sub-class to 15 to unlock your job, as of Stormblood.
And that’s it, an introduction to the rogue class. Happy DPSing!