Garrote for leveling

[Wolfrig]

So I turned 14 on my rogue and got rank 1 garrote, right now the ability ticks for 26 dmg every 3 seconds, which is totally OP. What I want to know is how good does garrote get on later lvls and is it a good opener for the whole duration of lvling?

[Judo]

I used Garrote and Slice and Dice for leveling. It's not really OP and pretty similar to other rotations. Just use whatever works best for you man!

[Particles]

Go combat swords, get a high dmg MH sword. Garrote opener is okay, but slow, so only use it if you'll actually have trouble killing the mob. Usually you want to just run in and SS, because stealthing up to a mob takes a long time that could be spent killing more mobs.

[Wolfrig]

I am planning on lvling with dagger, using backstab as much as I can. I now have +30% crit chance for backstab from talents on lvl 17 and it's really nice to see those crits here and there.

Using gouge to get behind your target makes the fight a bit longer, but you take less damage so you have less downtime, so I guess in the end it's pretty much the same.

[XJ9]

Using Garrote for low level is really nice. Especially in the early 20 area when you can garrote into an immediate rupture and do a lot of tick damage. Thing is though a lot of fights I avoid Garrote on in the event I need to gouge for a bandage, most the time I'm not even stealthing as I progress into the 40s, was the same thing on Kronos and Emerald Dream.

As for Wolfrig, you can actually strafe through the mob by rapidly tapping strafe keys (A/D for me, Q/E by default) and backstab, sometimes the lag will let a backstab through negating the need to gouge.

[Particles]

I am planning on lvling with dagger, using backstab as much as I can. I now have +30% crit chance for backstab from talents on lvl 17 and it's really nice to see those crits here and there.

Using gouge to get behind your target makes the fight a bit longer, but you take less damage so you have less downtime, so I guess in the end it's pretty much the same.

Gouge costs a lot of energy, and you can't auto attack while your target is gouged. Your downtime should already be very low from dodge and parry talents, and the high burst that is any 100 energy open. To top it off, backstab isn't even much more damage than SS if you have a slow high dmg MH, even though it can only br used once a fight when solo.

If you want to level fast, go combat swords.

[Wolfrig]

Killing with gouge + bs takes more time, true, but I lose less hp in the fight, so I was thinking that in the end, gouge +backstab is a good way to go. It is certainly more fun than just spamming ss and evisc in the end. Also, this way of lvling only gets really good later on, with kidney shot and other talents that focus on backstab.

Edit: Thanks, XJ9, for that info on backstab, this is some REALLY great news! I tried it out and it's working like a charm.

[scorpderp]

@Wolfrig

If you like to level as dagger, by all means go for it.
But the topic about swords leveling contra dagger is not controversial.
Even if you save some downtime - in between - while playing dagger, doesn't mean that you save netto time.

But the real decisive factor though is item availability. Swords are always easy to find through instances (wingblade, vanquishers sword, sword of omen, trash blade etc). Daggers are random to find, and you would probably have to invest gold into upgrading like every 5 levels.

In the end its a game, for you to enjoy But don't ellude yourself into thinking daggers level faster or comes even close to the superior combat specc.