The past two weeks have been hell for me WoW-wise because of my Internet problems. My lat would reach 6k to 12k and I’d get disconnected shortly thereafter. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting the problem and at the end of the first week, I thought I solved it by replacing the LAN card. It was actually more of a workaround than a real solution so I knew there was something more to the problem. After running into the same issues I was able to isolate it down to one thing: my modem. I had it replaced two days later and also bought a wireless router over the weekend. I then spent another night making the modem, the router and the wi-fi connection work and here I am now. So far things have been stable. This week’s heroic Ulduar run will verify that.
Rogues, prepare to wield axes.
Rogues
After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.
Combat
Sword Specialization: This talent is now called Hack and Slash and applies to axes as well as swords.
Subtlety
Shadow Dance: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute. Now lasts 6 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
Full notes here.
One of the things that Wrath of the Lich King has given a lot of emphasis on is vehicle combat. Instead of simply acting as mounts, there are plenty of vehicles in the game that act as more than methods of transportation. The introduction of the Argent Tournament takes vehicle combat to a new level by introducing a jousting system. Instead of the usual practice of simply spamming the attack button of a mount, players are forced to strategize by juggling between offense and defense.
I’ve read feedback from here and there and know that the reaction has been mixed. Some players love the Argent Tournament while others hate it. Regardless of how you feel about it, it will be one of the focus points of patch 3.2, so I suggest you hone your jousting skills while you have the time. In this guide I’m going to tell you a few tips that will make it a little easier to do.
Let’s go through your mount’s abilities first.
Ulduar & Rogues: Flame Leviathan & Razorscale
Posted on 2009 under Guides, Raids, Rogue | No Comment9 Jun
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been raiding Ulduar thanks to a guild that’s been gracious enough to include me during their runs. Yeah, it’s a PUG, but when you’re always tagging along with them you kind of get used to how their guild works and how they do their runs. Anyway, here’s what I’ve been able to gather so far on what you’re supposed to do as a rogue in the early parts of Ulduar. Before we get into that, let me set the expectations first:
This is a guide specific to what rogues should be doing. This isn’t a comprehensive Ulduar guide nor does it outline boss strategies and abilities.
My experience is limited to the 25-man version.
For now, I can only take you as far as Auriaya. I have not had the privilege of defeating any of the keepers yet.
With that said, let’s begin.
On Realm Transfers & Raiding
Posted on 2009 under Commentary, Raids, Rogue, guild | No Comment30 May
It’s probably very late (because saying “too late” doesn’t really cut it) to talk about it now, but I’ll tell you guys about the realm transfer.
Sinlaris and Razcien used to be in Quel’dorei. Some of my guildmates were being asked to move to Area 52 and, under a bit of peer pressure, I decided to join them. I’ll admit that for personal reasons I was hesitant to do so but these guys were my friends. That outweighed the misgivings I had about the whole thing.
So anyway, I moved. I realized about three weeks ago that it has been worth it. Aside from the gear upgrades that Sin has been receiving, I’ve been able to see content that I would have been unlikely to see back in Quel due to the number of PUGs in Area 52. For example, I’ve been to Ulduar thanks to a guild that has been gracious enough to include me in their runs.
Unfortunately, this is also the downside. When one consistently runs with a good PUG or guild, the idea of joining their side of the fence eventually comes to mind. A guildmate has already done this (note that I do not fault him for that. I’m merely stating a fact.) so a precedent has already been set. After all, you do better with them than you do with your own guild so why not join them instead right? I haven’t given jumping ship serious thought because I can’t commit to a raiding schedule due to time zone differences but the temptation is certainly there.
On a side note, our guild is planning to host a Naxx 25 run this weekend. Hopefully it will push through. I don’t know if we’ll be doing Ulduar 10 but I certainly hope that we will. The previous week’s one-boss kill on Flame Leviathan was pathetic. I mean, come on, one boss? I know we can certainly do better than that.
If you went to my Twitter page recently (and you should, just to show me some love, LOL), you’ll know that I was looking forward to heading to Ulduar over the weekend. It’s not that I haven’t been there. I have, thanks to a 25-man PUG whose raid leader was nice enough to bring me along even though I was a bit undergeared for it. The eagerness was more on going through the instance with my guildmates. It’s always a lot more fun to raid with people you actually know. I have to admit that I was also looking forward to leading the raid again, so I reviewed boss strats and what-not. To make a long story short, we ended up not going through it because we didn’t have enough people.
Things evened themselves out later on. First, I was finally able to pick up this title. We’ve been trying to get that title ever since we jumped realms so it’s good to finally get it. The embarassing thing was that I was the only one who died during Malygos’ third phase. He dropped the shield, which made a certain paladin very happy.
The last thing is even sweeter. This is going to be very indulgent, by the way, but remembering how well it turned out still makes me smile. I was able to join a Naxx 25 PUG and, to make a long story short, Sapphiron and KT dropped their respective daggers. Before you start calling me a greedy bastard, no one rolled on Sapph’s drop and I just plain won the weapon from KT. You’ll probably call me a greedy bastard anyway, but there it is.
This post is going to be an information dump for Ulduar since my guild is planning to step into the 10-man version of it this weekend. At best, I’m hoping that we can get four bosses down. Since we need to review the strategies for the fights, I’m using this blog to act as a central resource. Obviously, none of these strategies, videos and links are mine. If you own these links and want them removed, please let me know and I will take them down.
Ulduar @ WoWWiki - layout, boss list and general information about the raid.
The Siege of Ulduar
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Following my last post, I thought about writing things I like about the class. Don’t get me wrong, folks, I still love being one. I wouldn’t write QQ about it if I didn’t care. Anyway, here’s the list of top ten signs you love about being a Rogue.
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#10 - Illidan is your favorite lore character. Or maybe Garona.
#9 - You love stunlocking.
#8 - You love picking pockets and then stunlocking.
#7 - You think mana is for wusses.
#6 - Poisons are more likely to be in your inventory than food.
#5 - You consider unlocking doors and chests an actual skill.
#4 - You’re a big Nightcrawler fan.
#3 - When in doubt, vanish.
#2 - You love doing it from behind.
#1 - You think pain should be delivered up close and personal.
Today’s post is more on commentary (and maybe a little QQ) than anything else. This article on WoW Insider by Eliah Hecht got me thinking about Rogues and the state of the class. I already touched a bit on the subject back when dual specs came to light by saying how it has less of an impact for pure DPS classes.
First of all, the idea of giving Bloodlust to Rogues (or coming up with a new or redesigned ability that will give a similar benefit) is great, but the article itself highlights a main weakness of the class: the lack of utility. Let’s enumerate the pure DPS classes: Mages have caster buffs, tables and portals. Warlocks have soulstones, summoning stones and soul wells. At least Hunters have their aspects. They’re not the greatest utility abilities by a long shot but at least they have one. Rogues have what? Tricks of the Trade? My proposal here is to provide a new ability instead, something that’s more in line with the class: a raid-wide buff that adds poison damage (or at least a chance to add it) to physical damage. Again, it’s just an idea. I’m sure that it will upset the delicate PvP balance that Blizzard is maintaining so I don’t expect anything to come out of it.
Another thing that’s been nagging me for the past two weeks is this question: why bring a Rogue to a raid? The question came from the fight with Kel’Thuzad and how melee DPS deals with it. If you don’t know about positioning for melee for that fight, here it is: KT’s freeze spell affects its target plus anyone within ten yards. To get around this, melee classes form a triangle around KT, with the main tank taking one corner and the other melee take one of the remaining two. The idea is to split up then stack on top of each other to minimize the damage and, more importantly, the freeze’s range. Because of this mechanic, it makes it difficult to join PUGs because almost all of them look for ranged DPS. I’d imagine that for the KT fight, the maximum melee DPS that you can bring is four. Since Rogues are the only pure DPS melee class, they offer the least value in terms of flexibility. So, why bring one to a raid?
3.1 is out. To be honest, it’s still too early to determine what the optimum spec is but keep your eyes open on the Rogues section of the EJ forums. Use a spreadsheet when you can. I’m still waiting for Vulajin to update his. The quick-and-dirty response to the spec question is to take a look at your weapons. If you’ve got good swords and/or fist weapons then go with Combat. If your daggers are better, then go with Assassination. Dual specs are live, so you can go with both if you want to.
As for the actual specs themselves, here they are:
Poisons: Wound MH, Deadly OH
Note that the third major glyph is up to you. You can use Killing Spree, Adrenaline Rush, Slice and Dice or Tricks of the Trade. Also, the update to Lightning Reflexes throws the old Fist MH / Sword OH out the window because there aren’t enough points left to assign for both CQC and Sword Specialization
I should also mention that there is another Combat spec out there that’s been receiving a lot of attention, but I’ll wait until I see better confirmation about its viability.
Poisons: Instant MH, Deadly OH.
Like before, feel free to swap Fleet Footed with Murder. The jury’s still out on which one’s better: Master Poisoner or Turn the Tables. Otherwise, Assassination is relatively unchanged. As soon as I find out more information about specs, glyphs and other things, I’ll post them here.