Storm Legion’s first closed beta weekend event may be under NDA wraps, but thanks to yesterday’s Rogue reveal live stream, we can now share some new information about the Tactician– the Storm Legion Rogue soul. Ever want to use a flamethrower in RIFT? Now’s your chance. Tacticians come complete with a fully-stocked arsenal of technological gadgets including the flamethrower, mechanical cores, engines, and if paired up with the Saboteur soul– even a Molotov Cocktail or two.

The Tactician’s style of gameplay shares a few things in common with both the Tempest Warrior soul and the Harbinger Mage soul. Trion wanted to throw some new, cool stuff into the soul, along with aspects that synergize well with other souls and help fill any sort of gap in the current souls to choose from. The Tactician is bit of a hybrid soul, combining AoE damage and AoE healing power along with a wide assortment of utilities and support abilities that synergize well with many Rogue souls, including Bard, Saboteur, and Nightblade. Ability wise, the soul carries lots of fire power– flame tech and magical tech specifically.

Originally posted by Ailion (Source)

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Additional changes to the Sab will be coming up in tomorrow’s PTS update (if the push goes through).

High Explosives: Duration has been increased to 8s, up from 6s. Now stacks up to 3 times.

Increased Explosive Power: Damage increased by 5-25%, up from 3-15%.

Bomb Specialist: Damage increased by 5-25%, up from 3-15%.

Combat Wounds: Now increases damage of Spike Charge and Caltrop Charge by 15-30%, up from 10-20%.

Chemical Bomb: Damage has been increased.

Caltrop Charge: Damage has been increased.

Spike Charge: Damage has been increased.

Fragmentation Bomb: Reduced the cooldown from 15s to 10s.

Carpet Bombing: Reduced the cooldown from 2 min to 1 min.

Rapid Setup: Reduced the cooldown from 1 min to 30 sec.

Trench Warfare: Damage bonus from Attack Power is increased by 5% for every point spend in the Saboteur soul above 26, up from 4%.

Originally posted by Ailion (Source)

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Some minor changes:

Splinter Charge and Embers Charge will now apply their full debuff effect from a single charge. The debuff duration will be 12 sec per Charge.

The armor debuff from Splinter Charge will be equal to a 3/3 talented Piercing Shot.

Originally posted by Ailion (Source)

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Additional updates for 1.8. These won’t be up on the test shard until the end of the week or next week.

Marksman

• Empowered Shot: Energy cost has been reduced from 45 to 40.

Ranger

• Splinter Shot: Energy cost has been reduced from 45 to 40.
• Improved Escape Artist: Removed
• New tier 6 talent: Steady Hand: Increases the effect of Attack Power on ranged weapon abilities by 5%, plus an additional 2% per point spent in the Ranger soul above 26.
• 2 piece HK synergy crystal: Now also reduces the energy cost of Shadow Fire by 10.

Saboteur

• Chemical Bomb: Duration of the effect is increased to 10 sec, up from 8 sec. Damage has been adjusted.
• Spike Charge: Duration of the effect is increased to 10 sec, up from 9 sec. DOT interval is now every 2 sec, down from 3 sec. Damage has been adjusted.
• Caltrop Charge: Duration of the effect is reduced to 10 sec, down from 15 sec. DOT interval is now every 2 sec, down from 3 sec. Damage has been adjusted.
• Improved Spike Charge: Removed
• New tier 4 talent: Combat Wounds: Increases the damage of Spike Charge and Caltrop Charge by 10/20%.
• Bomb Specialist: Now also reduces the energy cost of Bombs by 1/2/3/4/5.
• Demolition Specialist: Number of enemies affected has been increased to 4/8 other enemies.
• Trench Warfare: Now also affects Detonate.
• Splinter Charge: The value of the armor debuff has been increased. A 5 point Splinter Charge will be slightly higher than a 3/3 Piercing Shot.

Originally posted by Ailion (Source)

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Saboteur changes for 1.8
Here are the preliminary changes for the Saboteur in 1.8, with the goal of making the Saboteur a competitive AOE DPS soul.

1) All Saboteur Charges can no longer be parried/dodged/blocked/deflected.

2) High Explosives: Functionality has been changed. Your Fragmentation Bomb, Time Bomb and Annihilation Bomb cause the target to bleed for 6 seconds.

3) Combat Survival: Removed

4) Combined Arms: New talent. Your Fragmentation Bomb has a 50/100% chance to detonate all Blast and Spike Charges you have applied to your enemies.

5) Charge Booster: Functionality has been changed. Increases the damage bonus from Attack Power of your Charges by 10%. The damage bonus from Attack Power is increased by 3% for every point spent in the Saboteur Soul above 21.

6) The Trapper: Removed

7) Trench Warfare: New talent. Increases the damage bonus from Attack Power of your Bombs, Traps and Land Mines by 10%. The damage bonus from Attack Power is increased by 4% for every point spent in the Saboteur Soul above 26.

8 ) Demolition Specialist: Now affects an additional 2-4 other enemies, up from 1-2 other enemies.

9) Caltrop Charge: Functionality has been changed. It now causes the target and surrounding enemies to bleed over 15 seconds when detonated.

10) Splinter Charge: Now deals damage and applies debuff to the target and surrounding enemies.

11) Embers Charge: Now deals damage and applies debuff to the target and surrounding enemies.

12) All traps, except Land Mines, now no longer have a cooldown.

13) 2 Piece HK Synergy Crystal: Functionality has been changed. It now increases the damage of Blast Charge and Spike Charge by 30%.

14) 4 Piece HK Synergy Crystal: Functionality has been changed. It now increases the damage of all Saboteur’s AOE abilities by 15%.

If you had one role and you had to choose one spec for all current raid content, what would you choose? I would choose nothing but a saboteur spec. Why? Simple, saboteur is the most versatile soul in the rogues lineup. Offering the ability to go from melee to range as needed losing less damage than other souls. Depending on how deep you go into the soul, saboteur offers several forms of utility to the raid.