zeroinitiate - A World of WarCraft Rogue Blog

Let’s talk about exploits. We know that Ensidia got banned for exploiting the Lich King encounter. We also know that the fight is not the only thing that’s exploitable out there. For example, it’s possible to trivialize the second half of Halls of Reflection by having the Lich King walk in front of the group. My question here is this: how do you feel about exploits?

For the sake of definition, an exploit is doing something that works outside of how a fight is supposed to progress. In the above example, your group is supposed to defeat the mobs before the Lich King gets close. By putting the Lich King in front, your group is effectively removing his presence and the threat he imposes. It’s not the way the fight’s supposed to work and is therefore an exploit. If you’re causing adds to despawn on an encounter that’s supposed to have them, that’s an exploit. If you’re off-tanking the said adds, that’s not an exploit.

I’ll admit that my definition of an exploit could be wrong and is open to interpretation, but I suggest you throw it out there anyway. My own thoughts on the matter will be shared later. I don’t want to influence what you guys have to say.

I tend to think of this fight as ICC’s version of the Chess Event in Kara because of how easy it is. Your goal is to bring the enemy ship down using the cannons mounted on the side. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The first thing you want to do is to talk to the goblin near the boss on your ship and grab a jetpack. Equip it then map it to a key in your action bar. Try it out and get an estimate of its range. Your raid leader may or may not assign you to a gun. Since you’re melee, there’s a good chance he or she will so here’s how to use it:

• Spam the first button until you get to 80-90%.
• Hit the second button. Repeat step one.

If you’re confident about your latency, I recommend waiting until you’re at 90% before hitting the second button. Shooting it as early as 80% is just a safe number for those who have relatively high lat. Since you’re basically spamming the first button it’s possible to lag a bit and then find that you reached 100%, rendering the cannon useless for a few seconds.

If you’re not assigned to cannon duties then help out with the adds that will spawn on your ship. These will spawn in the center and will be tanked by your OT. They spawn one at a time, so watch your threat. Don’t find yourself in a situation where you pick up an add that your tank hasn’t even touched yet.

The last thing to worry about on your ship is that the enemy ship will fire rockets at you. There will be a mark on the floor that will symbolize where they’ll land so watch out for it. They look like small arcane circles.

At some point during the fight your cannons will freeze. This means that a sorcerer (I know it’s a mage, but Bronzebeard keeps calling it a sorcerer for some reason) has appeared on the enemy ship. Use your jetpack to jump over and kill the mage. She’s in the center, stuck in a channeling pose. She does not need to be tanked so feel free to go all out on her. Note that Bronzebeard is the true threat here and your tank has to pick him up as soon as he lands. It’s a good idea to watch your tank and wait for him to jump over before you do so yourself. This way, you’re sure that someone’s going to pick the boss up while you make your way to the mage.

Once the mage is down, jump back to your ship and resume add-killing or cannon-shooting duties, whichever case applies. Repeat this process until the enemy gunship is down.

Obligatory TL;DR version:

• If you’re on cannon duties, spam 1 until you’re at 80-90% then hit 2. Repeat.
• If you’re on adds, DPS as you see fit. Watch your threat. Look out for rocket marks on the floor.
• Jump to the other side of the ship when the cannons freeze and kill the no-need-to-be-tanked enemy mage. Make sure your tank jumps first so he can pick up the boss. When the mage is down, jump back and resume whichever role you were doing.

I got asked about Tricks of the Trade twice this week and it wasn’t by fellow rogues. The questions came from two tanks that I regularly run with. For the purpose of this post, I’m going to name them Tanks, Cow and Mandy. If they ever read this post, they’ll appreciate the subtlety behind the naming. And yes, I realize that I said two tanks yet named three. We’ll get to that in a bit.

During a 5-man run:

Cow: Do you have to cast Tricks every time I pull? Am I having aggro issues? Do you do the same with Tanks?

Me: Yes. No. Yes.

During a different 5-man run:

Mandy: Do you hold back when I pull? Like, wait for me to get aggro before you attack? Do you do the same with Tanks?

Me: No. No. No.

For the tanks out there, let me say this: we’re not casting Tricks on you because we have issues with your tanking. It’s not because we think you don’t have enough aggro. Tricks is there to ensure that aggro does not become a problem for the entire group, not just us rogues. It also allows us to unleash our DPS without worrying about threat (for 6 seconds, at least). Overall, it benefits everyone. Tricks + Fan of Knives does wonders for group AoE. Tricks + Blade Flurry + Adrenaline Rush + Fan of Knives spam makes rogues smile. So please, don’t worry about getting the buff from us. We like killing things. Tricks is there to ensure that those things don’t kill us back.

Lady Deathwhisper is the second boss of ICC. Here’s how to deal with the fight as a rogue. Be prepared for a very long read (at least by my standards).

The fight has two phases. The first phase involves burning down her mana shield. Once it reaches zero, phase two starts. The key to the fight is controlling the adds in the first phase because it’s easy to get overwhelmed if they’re not handled properly. Recognition of which mobs to DPS is important.

Phase 1

At the start of the fight, ranged DPS has a few seconds to kill the boss. After a while, the first wave of adds appear on the alcoves on the sides of the room. For the 10-man version, they spawn on the left side first then the right. For 25, both sides spawn adds simultaneously.

There are two types: melee mobs named fanatics and caster mobs named adherents. Your role is to DPS the caster mobs. On the left side of the room, the adherent is always in the center alcove. On the right, they’re on the front side (near the boss) and the back area (near the entrance to the room). This means that only one adherent will spawn on the left while two appear on the right.

For the 25-man version, an extra add spawns in the back of the room where the entrance/steps are. This can be either an adherent or a fanatic. Obviously if it’s the former, you have to kill it too.

Adherents do not need to be tanked. When they spawn, DPS them ASAP. They start out as regular adds but if they don’t die fast enough, two things can happen: they either become Empowered Adherents or Reanimated Adherents. The crucial thing to remember when this happens is that the casters won’t be able to help you with them at this point (they can with the regular ones), so it falls to you to take them down. It’s kind of your fault for not killing them quickly enough anyway. It’s very unlikely that you’ll run into this problem with the left side of the room since only one adherent spawns there but, with two adherents, the right side can be a problem.

I can offer no shortcut here. Simply put, the adds have to go down. Some people have trouble recognizing which add to kill. When that happens, it causes a delay in taking them out. You can avoid the confusion by answering the following:

• Can you identify which alcove they spawn from?
• Do they have the word “adherent” in their name?
• Are they casting spells?
• Do they have a mana bar?
• Do they have a staff?

If the answer’s “yes”, you can identify the right mob. Here’s a hint: if they’re hitting you with a big axe, it’s unlikely that they’re casters.

Oh, keep out of the Death and Decay.

Phase 2

When phase 2 hits, it’s mostly a tank and spank. Mostly.

Avoid the blue ghost-like things that approach you because they go boom. They’re actually tough to see in 25-man so keep an eye out for them.

Make sure you interrupt frost bolt whenever you can. I know, it’s KT all over again. For the 10-man version, Kick should be enough to cover it. She’ll cast the spell, you interrupt it. By the time she tries to cast it again, Kick should be available. You’ll see her use frost bolt more often in 25-man. Interrupt when you can.

Use Tricks on the active tank whenever you can. The boss casts a debuff that reduces threat. You can use Tricks to counter it.

Here’s the TL;DR version:

Phase 1

Kill the caster adds. Identify their spawn points and learn to recognize them. They do not need to be tanked so just burn them. Stay out of Death and Decay when it’s cast.

Phase 2

Interrupt frost bolt. Use Tricks on the active tank. Run away from the blue ghosts. DPS the boss.

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Okay, there it is. The DPS you see above is post-nerf. ICC 25, Saurfang plus a few pulls on Festergut. See anything different from the last time?

On 25, it’s not too much of a difference given that you get all the right buffs. The nerf becomes more evident on 5 and 10-mans. We did a quick TotC 10 afterwards just to get Jaraxxus down for the weekly raid and a hunter managed to outDPS me cleanly. I think the new change warrants more testing just to see how much of a decrease it really did to us. Or maybe the number’s already out there. I’m going to need to review.

I hate to say it, but I saw it coming:

• The base damage bonus from Hunger for Blood has been reduced from 10% to 5%.
• The bonus damage rogues gain from attack power for poisons has been decreased. This applies to Instant Poison, Deadly Poison, and Wound Poison.

[Source]

Dinaer posted that the number crunchers at EJ are saying that this means a 7% decrease in damage for Assassination. I was doing nearly 7K on Festergut last night. The nerf brings that down to 6500, give or take. The actual numbers are still out so I’m waiting for the results. While I expected the nerf, the manner in which it was implemented is disturbing. Rogues are doing too much damage? Nerf HfB AGAIN. Nice. Thanks for making us WoW’s guinea pigs.

This is what I’m worried about.

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This was taken from ICC 25 earlier today.

I’m not going to write about it anymore because I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but the chart illustrates my point. A gap of nearly 2K DPS looks OP regardless of how you look at it.

With the Christmas break and all I decided to do something that I’ve been considering for a long time: I dropped Skinning and switched to Jewelcrafting. Here’s what I found out in the process:

1. The benefit of Skinning is Master of Anatomy, a passive buff to critical strike. I was at 37.XX% with it. Without, it dropped to 36.XX%. For the math crunchers out there, I apologize if this is going to sound idiotic without knowing the numbers too well, but I felt stupid for clinging to 1 percent for so long.

2. As with most major undertakings in-game, I didn’t plan things out very well. It took me close to three days to level JC from 1 to 400. I’m at 430 now. I nearly had all the mats I needed to get to 300, but when I got there I was stuck. I didn’t have enough gems or ores from TBC to level properly. Thankfully, my DK alt is a miner and I have a guildmate who told me where to go to farm the mats (thanks Arianya!).

3. Obviously, my goal is to buff my DPS. I created my first Dragon’s Eye earlier so hopefully I see results in a couple of days when I have all three. Plus, there’s always something new about the profession. JC has dailies that I still need to learn. I think it’s unfair that it has those while the other professions don’t.

At least I have a reason to actually play my DK now. He’s mining stuff for Sin.

Happy holidays to everyone! I hope that you guys got your Merrymaker title by now. Icecrown is on its second week and we’re all going to have to catch up with the content once the holidays are over.

I find it odd that I’m actually nursing a toothache right now. I first felt it a couple of weeks ago and when I finally consulted my dentist, I was told that an extraction was necessary. I’m fine with that. However, she was going to go on vacation which meant that we would have to postpone the procedure until Monday. In the meantime, she gave me painkillers to medicate through the problem.

So here I am, spending Christmas with a tooth that’s nagging me worse than any mother-in-law would do. If the pain becomes unbearable, I reach for my pills. This isn’t exactly the way I pictured my holiday to turn out.

Back to rogue matters: make sure that you check the EJ forums regularly as 3.3 progresses. A recent example of why it’s important is Instant Poison’s rise to becoming the main hand poison of choice, even if you’re running Combat. I tested this on my last 25-man raid and the results were very, very clear. I was even asked by two of the people we PUGged in how I was doing that much damage. Funnily enough, the point I was trying to bring up in my last post was raised.

PUG rogue: What’s your rotation? (Note that out of personal pride I never ask this from a fellow rogue. I feel like I’m not doing my job if I’m getting out-DPSed and I don’t know why. I don’t mind getting asked though, like in this case.)

Me: SnD, HfB, Mutilate, Envenom, Mutilate, Envenom.

PUG rogue: Oh. You changed specs.

Apparently, he was asking about my rotation as Combat. By the time he asked, we just downed a boss so I was in my Assassination spec. I then told him that I go Combat on trash and use whatever cooldowns are available during the fights, which is exactly what I wrote about last time.

So, how have your fights been? I like the changes because rogues are doing so much damage right now. Still, either Blizz nerfs Assassination or they buff Combat. I’m hoping for the latter. Our hunter is starting to complain though. He made a comment about how poisons are “cheap damage” at the moment. It’s actually a little funny. Back when Ulduar was relevant he was saying my damage was “all from Fan of Knives”. If it isn’t one thing it’s another, I guess.

Enjoy the holidays, folks. See you after the break.

I have this feeling that Assassination is going to get nerfed to make it on par with Combat.

A couple of months ago, rogues were at a good place. Combat and Assassination were more or less balanced. The damage output between the two specs were relatively the same. It all boiled down to your weapon preference and the fights themselves. For the former, you may have found yourself switching between specs depending on which weapon set was stronger—think better daggers versus better fists/maces/swords/daggers—or simply depending on whether you liked daggers or not. For the latter, knowing the fights themselves can be a determinant in your weapon choice. For example, Anub’arak in TotC is very AoE-friendly, favoring Combat in terms of DPS output. For single-target fights, Assassination pulled slightly ahead of Combat.

Those times are past. Assassination is clearly the leader in terms of single-target DPS. Combat is still very strong in terms of AoE so you’ll want to use it when it comes to trash pulls, but for boss fights, the daggers spec simply blows it away. On one side, you could say it’s fair. After all, why would you want to use Assassination if it only gave you a marginal increase? Now that daggers are doing so much damage, we should all be happy right? Maybe.

Consider this: in Icecrown Citadel, I’ve been switching between Combat for trash and Assassination for bosses. Why? Because it’s worth it. The AoE damage that Combat yields on trash 3k-4k greater than Assassination. I then go back to using daggers for bosses because the output is greater.

You may wonder why I’m having issues with this. The only reason is stated above: I think a nerf is on the way for Assassination and I do not want it. The DPS is great, but the effect is so marginalizing that I don’t think it’s sustainable. Is what we’re seeing a design that Blizzard intended to happen? Is “Combat for trash, Assassination for bosses” a mantra we’re going to go by right now?