Posted on 2009 under Commentary, Raids, Rogue, guild |
30
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.
Posted on 2009 under Commentary, Rogue, guild |
21
May
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.
Posted on 2009 under Rogue |
7
May
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.
#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.
Posted on 2009 under Commentary, Rogue |
7
May
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?