Warpurse? Pick-Aggressor? Help!

[Bushranger]

This version of Arctic Monkeys - When the sun goes down came up on youtube for me and I was inspired by a recent Kray twins documentary and these lyrics to tinker with a new character concept for the future.

And what a scummy man
Just give him half a chance
I bet he'll rob you if he can
You can see it in his eyes, yeah
that he's got a nasty plan
I hope you're not involved at all.

And I've seen him with girls of the night
and he told roxanne to put on her red light
they're all infected but he'll be alright
'cos he's a scumbag don't you know
I said he's a scumbag don't you know!

From my account notes I've played 53 rangers out of 76 characters so I think I really should try to focus on some other archetypes. Thugish bully, pimp and mugger is sounding great! Only problem is I don't have much experience with either warriors or pick-pockets (none of the small handful I've played survived more than a few hours) so I'm asking for some help.

Warrior/Cutpurse or Pick-pocket/Aggressor?

I'm assuming Warpurse would be much more fists first with a bit of thievery for flavour while the Pick-Aggressor would be much more sticky-fingered with a little more bite when he gets caught than your average pick-pocket?

Also I know how to survive (if I don't do stupid things or take big risks) as a ranger grebbing food and hunting small critters but I don't really have any experience surviving from thievery. Would one of these options have a better chance of surviving the learning mistakes of a newbie villain than the other?

Cheers for your help!
Bushranger.

[path]

Pickpocket is my hands down favorite guild ever. It's all I can do not to just play rinthis or pickpockets or rinthi pickpockets every single time.

Still, I listened to the song and I think the concept is best served with warrior/cutpurse.

[Fredd]

Burgler/aggressor would be a better pick in my opinion.

[path]

Moontug told me once that burgulars were the rangers of the streets.

[Jenred]

Warrior-Cutpurse, Warrior-Rogue would have considerably more survivability as Warrior-Anything is the strongest melee character in the game. You can work anywhere, etc etc.

A stealth primary guild is trickier.

Ultimately the main question is, 10 Days Played from now, do you want to be a good fighter or a good thief...
If the answer is Thief than Burglar-Slipknife, or Assassin-Cutpurse/Rogue.

[Bushranger]

I had thought that Assassin was the Ranger of the alleys? I've played a few of those (as a guild not a profession) and have usually picked this as my inside the walls characters. I had a short lived burglar recently (as in within the last 3 years) and don't think I'll be using it for this concept as I've no desire to be breaking into places. I want to be able to smell my victims customers. Face to face operator which is why I asked between warrior and pick-pocket.

I take your point about being a warrior though Jenred. If things do go wrong (ok who am I trying to kid) When I screw up completely a warrior is more likely to stand on his feet.

As for Burglar/Slipknife or Assassin/Rogue isnt that like picking Ranger/Grebber? Maybe not since there seem to be a few skills that don't cross-over but not many from my readings. Higher skill caps?

[Twilight]

Not sure why you would take pickpocket/aggressor over pickpocket/protector.

[Bushranger]

Not sure why you would take pickpocket/aggressor over pickpocket/protector.

Could you explain? It's why I'm asking these questions. I thought pick-pocket/aggressor could be a bully and a thug (kick/bash/disarm). Protector seems to give better defense to someone. Maybe adds some survivability but wouldn't make a guild better able to cause some pain?

[Malken]

Not sure why you would take pickpocket/aggressor over pickpocket/protector.

Pickpocket/aggressor would be terrible because having offensive skills without defensive skills is terrible.

A pickpocket fighting anything or anyone would commit suicide by delay-locking himself with a skill like kick or bash.

[Jenred]

I think the core of the concept would be Sap/Steal which obviously lends to certain specific choices.
Then figuring if you want to round out with more combat or stealth.

And having offensive skills without defensive is fine if you have disarmed the opponent, stolen his weapons, and poisoned him... and then need to finish him off with a mix of backstab and your awesome offensive capabilities to keep him down.

I.e.
sap Amos > steal everything Amos > backstab amos > bash amos > destroy Amos.

[Malken]

And having offensive skills without defensive is fine if you have disarmed the opponent, stolen his weapons, and poisoned him... and then need to finish him off with a mix of backstab and your awesome offensive capabilities to keep him down.

I.e.
sap Amos > steal everything Amos > backstab amos > bash amos > destroy Amos.

Sounds like going through a lot of trouble when you could just play a warrior with sneak 

Sneak into your victim's apartment and murder his ass with your dual-wielded clubs and extremely good strength.

[Jenred]

And having offensive skills without defensive is fine if you have disarmed the opponent, stolen his weapons, and poisoned him... and then need to finish him off with a mix of backstab and your awesome offensive capabilities to keep him down.

I.e.
sap Amos > steal everything Amos > backstab amos > bash amos > destroy Amos.

Sounds like going through a lot of trouble when you could just play a warrior with sneak 

Sneak into your victim's apartment and murder his ass with your dual-wielded clubs and extremely good strength.

Well yeah... thats why I said earlier if you wanted to be more of the fighter type, then - warrior anything was better.
But there is something about sapping people that is really rewarding.

[hyzhenhok]

If you want to be a thuggish bully you don't really need any sneaky skills at all. All you need is the cover of night and the strength to take what you want from those unfortunate enough to share the street with you.

I would definitely recommed main guild_warrior, since you need to be able to mess people up if they try to stand up to you. If you really want some urban stealth skills, I guess I would recommend warrior/slipknife. Remember you can use >steal on unconscious people and take everything regardless of if you have the skill.

[hyzhenhok]

I think the core of the concept would be Sap/Steal which obviously lends to certain specific choices.
Then figuring if you want to round out with more combat or stealth.

And having offensive skills without defensive is fine if you have disarmed the opponent, stolen his weapons, and poisoned him... and then need to finish him off with a mix of backstab and your awesome offensive capabilities to keep him down.

I.e.
sap Amos > steal everything Amos > backstab amos > bash amos > destroy Amos.

That doesn't sound like a thuggish bully mugger. That sounds like a ninja. Wrong archetype.

[Twilight]

Aggressor adds some offensive ability.  I am not sure that offensive ability is any more, and definately not more situationally, useful than the pickpocket guild's skills.

I'd really only want a couple of the skills from the protector extended subguild.  But they would allow me to better use the pickpocket offensive skills with some ability to survive long enough for them to matter.

No point in remaining a paper tiger if the tiger part isn't increased.

[Fredd]

I had thought that Assassin was the Ranger of the alleys? I've played a few of those (as a guild not a profession) and have usually picked this as my inside the walls characters. I had a short lived burglar recently (as in within the last 3 years) and don't think I'll be using it for this concept as I've no desire to be breaking into places. I want to be able to smell my victims customers. Face to face operator which is why I asked between warrior and pick-pocket.

I take your point about being a warrior though Jenred. If things do go wrong (ok who am I trying to kid) When I screw up completely a warrior is more likely to stand on his feet.

As for Burglar/Slipknife or Assassin/Rogue isnt that like picking Ranger/Grebber? Maybe not since there seem to be a few skills that don't cross-over but not many from my readings. Higher skill caps?

Burglers are more like rangers. Branching a very wide variety of skills, according to the docs. Including assassin skills.

That being said, the listed skills do overlap for things like burgler/slipknife. But then again, you don't have to pick subguilds based on getting the most. One of my faves was a burgler/conman and that essentially just gave me one skill early (that burglers branch later anyways)

Another favorite of mine was a burgler/guard that was a member of the Oash elite when the elemental thingies attacked Allanak. That was a blast. Burglers can get pretty decent at a straight fight. Might not rofl-stomp things like a warrior. But they are not a bad fighter choice if played right.

[Morrolan]

Burglers can get pretty decent at a straight fight. Might not rofl-stomp things like a warrior. But they are not a bad fighter choice if played right.

I had a burglar/mercenary who made sergeant in the Byn (thanks, Lt. Raul!).

I played him as the guy who wanted to be a merc (he came from a family of mercs), but had darn little talent. Of course, when it was time to climb a wall...who ya gonna call? He got this rep as someone willing to do about any crazy thing...things that (as it turned out) he had the skills to do.

[Fredd]

Burglers can get pretty decent at a straight fight. Might not rofl-stomp things like a warrior. But they are not a bad fighter choice if played right.

I had a burglar/mercenary who made sergeant in the Byn (thanks, Lt. Raul!).

I played him as the guy who wanted to be a merc (he came from a family of mercs), but had darn little talent. Of course, when it was time to climb a wall...who ya gonna call? He got this rep as someone willing to do about any crazy thing...things that (as it turned out) he had the skills to do.

I think I remember that... LOL.

Burglar = All time fave guild