So, I'm playing a rogue, and I took the backstab talent. However since the moment anyone in my group breaks stealth they all do, My choices seem to be either open up with my rogue from melee (Which seems to result in nearly instant death for him) Or pull with / to my tank, thereby blowing the chance at the backstab damage. I regret taking this talent, anyone else have any experience with it?

From what I understand you can backstab as long as you are behind your target? Also rogues gain bonus damage whenever their target is knocked down, dazed, or has any number of debuffs on it. I'm not 100% on anything I just said, but if you try knocking an enemy down with a fighter you may still be able to take advantage of the ability. Also if you have a high disengage defense you may be able to open combat with your rogue and then run away towards the rest of your party/have your fighter ready to knockdown immediately following the backstab.

Isn't backstab just from out of stealth? I'm pretty sure you can use ranged out of it, you just need to be in stealth and within range. Or I am thinking of something else.

So there are Sneak Attacks which you do if the target is flanked/blinded/prone ect ect, or if you're coming out of stealth.

Backstab is a talent, that requires you attack from stealth, you can use a melee or ranged weapon however you must be within 4 meters of your target when you do it. It deals a great deal more damage then a regular Sneak Attack. I can often One-Shot some creatures with it attacking with my Estoc, but then all their buddies turn and bend me over.

On single targets, what I've been doing is sneaking up for a backstab with my bow rogue (yes, you can backstab with a bow) and then having my tank pick up aggro right away. It isn't ideal and I sort of regret taking Backstab, too. I'm not sure what hte alternative would be though.

On top of that, it renders my other talent useless, at least when opening up. I forget what it's called, but it's the one that gives the rogue bonuses against targets who are more than 4 meters away. At least you still get the massive damage from Sneak Attack + Backstab, and if you add the occasional critical strike it can add up to crazy amounts of burst damage.

From what I understand there are other talents later on that give the rogue some more mobility and some ways to get out of combat, so the problem may resolve itself for me pretty soon.

By the way....Backstab does work with ranged weapons, and you don't have to be behind the target, either. Just within 2m.

@skithus: There is a skill that rogues get at lvl 4 that will put you in stealth in combat, breaking all engagements too.

I only just started playing, but there's a Rogue ability called 'Coordinated Positioning' (2 per encounter) which lets you swap places with a target (ally or enemy). Could you open up with your Backstab and then immediately use the above to switch places with your tank?

Yeah I just started a rogue and early on sticking to a bow until I get some of the abilities others are mentioning in here. Those should open things up and give you means to escape danger.

Currently I'm actually finding the arbalest super good for sneak attack openings, a heavy 2h weapon with slow reload and attack speed, but that initial sneak bolt just does so much, and then i switch to melee weapons.

That's what backstab is about there. You aren't supposed to open with your rogue from melee, at all. You might try to pull with them from range but generally this is a bad idea. Rogues are best in melee if you hang back, let the tank do their job, then roll in behind the target and wail away. The backstab is really only worth anything once you get the talent Ten mentions that lets you "combat stealth". That said rogues are perfectly viable from range (especially with any of the weapons I mention below) and you can backstab from range by the way..... just saying. All it requires is stealth, not melee, and you don't even need to be behind them. Same with sneak attacks, you don't have to be the one flanking them, they just need to be flanked.

Also as an aside, heavy range weapons are the best openers as Ten noticed. Arbalests, crossbows, arquebus, pistols, etc are the best "pulling" weapons.

As has been said, the invisibility skill is what you want. Rogue can require a fair bit of micro management but the results are amazing.

I only send mine into melee when the battle is about 33% underway and she still has the most damage and kills of the party by a considerable margin.