Best Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Subclass & Multiclass
If you’re playing Pillars of Eternity 2 (POE2) as a Rogue, you’ll want to know what the best subclass and multiclass options are, or else you’ll be stuck on the character select screen for hours. This guide has you covered by letting you know which Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue subclasses and multiclass combinations are generally considered the best.
Pillars of Eternity 2 Subclass & Multiclass Guides:
Monk – Fighter – Rogue – Ranger – Barbarian – Chanter – Cipher – Druid – Paladin – Priest – Wizard
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Pillars of Eternity 2: Best Classes Tier List in PoE2
Pillars of Eternity 2: Definitive Companions Tier List
Pillars of Eternity 2: Best Berath’s Blessings
Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Subclass Options
Pure Rogue
There’s nothing wrong with a classic. Pure Rogue is a fantastic class and, unlike many of the subclass options for other classes, Rogue’s subclass options do a genuinely good job at providing balanced bonuses and tradeoffs. Where several classes have subclasses that are just obvious upgrade to the base kit, pure Rogue is a legitimately worthwhile option if you want to play a rogue but don’t find the situational bonuses or penalties for any of the subclass options worthwhile.
Assassin – Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Subclasses
Assassin can be a very strong subclass option if you’re willing to micromanage enough to enter stealth as often as possible. Rogue does have a number of ways to enter invisibility, so this isn’t a problem. Attacks from invisibility gain significant armor penetration, hit and crit chance and crit damage.
To compensate, Assassin has the penalty of 15% more damage received, but if your assassin is getting targeted you’re probably not taking great advantage of that stealth bonus anyway. This class doesn’t really come into its own until you get Vanishing Strike, which will be very late in the game.
Streetfighter – Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Subclasses
Streetfighter is a pretty wacky Rogue subclass in Pillars of Eternity 2 because its bonus is huge, but its penalty is also pretty bad. Basically, if you’re flanked and/or bloody, you do significantly increased damage. -50% recovery time, +50% damage when flanked, +100% crit damage when also bloodied.
However, if you’re not flanked or bloodied, you have 20% increased recovery time. There are basically two options to go with this subclass: multiclass with another martial class with higher defense (like Fighter or Monk) and just dive into the thick of it, or go ranged and use the Blunderbuss modal to inflict flanked on yourself all the time. Keep in mind the Blunderbuss modal does cause friendly fire, so you may find yourself killing your tank with your highly damaging Streetfighter AoE bullet spread.
Trickster – Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Subclasses
Trickster is an excellent subclass. Your Sneak Attack skill only provides +20% damage instead of +30%, but in exchange, you get a bunch of very powerful Illusionist spells. The spells you get to learn are Dazzling Lights, Mirrored Image, Repulsive Visage, Displaced Image, Confusion, Wondrous Torment, Gaze of the Adragon, Freezing Rake and Wall of Many Colors.
That’s a really exceptional mix of defensive spells and powerful status infliction spells. Because of the versatility, Trickster is arguably the best Rogue subclass in Pillars of Eternity 2. It’s basically a multiclass Rogue/Illusionist without the penalty to power level.
Debonaire – Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Subclasses
Debonaire is a bit of an interesting subclass. You’re guaranteed to crit charmed targets and you gain a weak charm skill that only works on kith enemies. As a penalty you have -10 accuracy and -10 defenses when not near any allies. This subclass basically screams “multiclass cipher” as Cipher is the only class that’s going to be able to reliably provide the charm infliction necessary to activate the Debonaire’s subclass perks.
Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Multiclass Options
Fighter – Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Multiclass
The Fighter multiclass option is obvious, but it’s obvious for a reason: it works. A Devoted/Streetfighter build with a Pukestabber/Marux Amanth combo is one of the most potent martial builds in the game.
Even a vanilla Fighter/Rogue multiclass is extremely powerful because both classes are full to the brim with passive bonuses that benefit one another. In fact, the only major downside to this combo is that Eder exists, who is a perfectly competent and decently built Fighter/Rogue that you can recruit immediately at the start of the game.
Ghost Heart – Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Multiclass
Rogue really helps shore up some of the Ranger’s downsides: namely lack of damage boosting skills and escape options. Ghost Heart just tends to be the best overall Ranger subclass. Also, pairing Streetfighter with Ranger allows you to seriously abuse the Blunderbuss modal by combining Streetfighter’s flanked bonus with all the ranged damage improvements available to a ranger.
Finally, Ghost Heart/Assassin is a great build because with an Arquebus using a stealth skill and then blasting out a shot can produce devastating burst damage.
Evoker – Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Multiclass
This is a bit of a gimmick, but the Assassin bonus works on spells as long as you cast them from stealth. That means you can cast huge AoE spells like Fireball and have them benefit from all the Assassination bonuses. Casting spells from stealth also does not break stealth, so it’s basically just a permanent damage bonus for any Evoker. The cost/benefit you have to do is if that damage bonus is worth giving up the power level 8 and 9 spells from multiclassing.
That about covers it when it comes to the Pillars of Eternity 2 Rogue Subclass and Multiclass Guide. Check out the games section for more game guides and other game-related content, and click here for more articles related to Pillars of Eternity 2.