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Backstab
A Rogue-only skill which can inflict enormous damage. The target must have its back to the Rogue and the Rogue must have a piercing weapon equipped in his main hand. Higher skill will increase not only the chance of hitting, but also the damage done!
Positioning is important, and a good Rogue will need to make use of strafing (Ctrl + ← or → by default) to help stay on course.
Backstab Damage Potential
A number of factors determine the potential of the backstab skill:
Skill Levels
Higher skill in backstab will provide increased accuracy and a slight increase in damage.
Innate Damage Modifier
At level 10, backstab has twice the damage potential of a normal attack. This is referred to as 2x. As the Rogue levels, this innate mod increases. These increases raise the innate mod to 5x by level 65. And with the AA Improved Backstab - the innate mod is raised 1x per rank for a maximum mod of 8x.
Primary Weapon Ratio
Backstab scales directly with primary weapon ratio (damage/delay). This includes bane and elemental damage modifiers on weapons (restricted by body type and resists), however it does not include worn bane from other slots.
Worn/Buffed ATK
ATK and STR increase damage potential of all melee attacks including backstab.
Haste/Slow
With no attack speed modification backstab has a reuse time of 10 seconds. The minimum reuse time for backstab is 5 seconds, which is achieved once a Rogue has at least 100% haste (combined from all sources). To compensate for this, backstab gains proportional bonus damage if you have more than 100% haste.
When a Rogue is affected by a slow, all haste effects are trumped by the slow effect and the backstab cooldown is modified from the 10 second base time (so a 40% slow would result in a 14 second cooldown for backstab). This does not effect the bonus damage for over 100% haste.
Special Conditions
Assassinate
At level 60 Rogues gain the ability to assassinate mobs from behind. Initially this works only on mobs lvl 49 and below, but the AA Assassination Mastery raises that to lvl 54 and adds the chance to assassinate using throwing weapons on unengaged mobs. Combined with the AA Lethal Strike (which guarantees an assassination on the next viable target), Rogues can use this ability to quickly dispatch certain enemies.
Chaotic Stab
Chaotic Stab is a permanent change to backstab skill from the AA of the same name. Before obtaining this AA, a backstab from the front will behave as a normal extra attack (1x damage.) After obtaining this AA, backstabs are possible from the front, however, damage is reduced by one half and assassinations are not possible.
Insidious Stab
This Rogue-only tome gives your critical backstabs a 2-8% chance to deal double the usual critical damage.
Openings
When a Rogue is in melee range of their target, they will automatically watch that target for "openings." When they see an opening, they will have 1 second to hit backstab to take advantage of it. A backstab during an opening cannot miss, and the rogue's non-backstab melee attacks will gain a small accuracy bonus that grows with each opening so exploited on the same target, as the rogue gets used to the target's "rhythm."
Openings are caused by observable, and in some case deliberately-triggerable, events:
- the target misses a kick or bash (exposure)
- the target is hit by a bash (distraction)
- the target is stunned (exposure)
- the target begins casting a spell (exposure)
- the target suddenly switches targets, i.e. someone steals aggro (distraction)
- the target is hit with a big critical hit/spell (distraction); what counts as 'big' is semi-randomized and semi-adjusted based on the target's max HP
Player Versus Player
Backstab does 60% of its total damage in PVP combat. (40% less damage than usual)
Sneak Attack
The Rogue must be sneaking, behind the target, and have no aggro. Sneak Attacks cannot miss, deal 25% bonus damage, give a nifty message, and generate only 1 point of aggro.
Stalker's Distraction
This stance (/s 4) gives the Rogue a reactive proc that allows the Rogue to backstab from the front. When the proc occurs the Rogue receives the message: You see an opening in <insert attacker>'s defense. The Rogue then has a brief window (~3 seconds) to land a normal backstab.
Skill Modifying Items
Backstab
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