zeroinitiate - A World of WarCraft Rogue Blog

Before you go on, please read this first. The post below started as a comment on Dinaer’s thoughts on the matter and when I noticed that I had written three paragraphs on the subject, I decided to just make a post about it here.

I think the whole point of Trial of the Champion is to make Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader more accessible to players. The heroic version of Trial of the Champion drops ilvl 219 gear, sharing the item level that comes from Ulduar 10. This makes it possible for players to skip Naxx 25 and go straight to Ulduar 10.

Going back to the post title, I think we need to define what a typical player is first. Dinaer says:

Most players have a max-level character. The majority of those have been in either Naxxramas or Obsidian Sanctum to some extent. Somewhere between half to two-thirds of them have done Ulduar raids, and maybe a quarter have done any of ToC.

I know that it’s hard to define exactly what a typical player is, but if we take a look at the last part of the description, we’ll see that the closer we get to end-game content, the number of typical players goes down. Do we actually want all players to see the end-game content? I think Blizzard wants us to, given three things:

• the accessibility of ilvl 219 gear from heroic Trial of the Champion;
• the streamlining of emblems so that they’re all Conquest now;
• the rewarding of Triumph emblems via heroic dailies.

All this points to the conclusion that gearing up is easy, and that means if we put effort into it, we will see end-game content. The question here is if a typical player is willing to do all that legwork. Do we want all players to see end-game content? Of course. Should everyone see end-game content? Not if you don’t work for it first.

My two-cents. It’s something that I’ve always thought about since patch 3.2 came out and I’d like to thank Dinaer for asking that question. It helped organize my thoughts into this (somewhat) cohesive post.

Patch 3.2.2 is out and we have to deal with a revamped raid and two nerfs . Ony’s back and so is her upgraded loot! The bad news is that the Fan of Knives nerf is also live. To be honest, that should be the least of your concerns because the armor penetration (ArP) nerf is a bigger deal.

The general rule for ArP is that when you have enough of it through gear, you should gem for it. How much is enough, you ask? I hate to say it but consult a spreadsheet. Slap your gear in there, check your DPS and then begin weighing the benefits of stacking Agility versus Armor Penetration. If you have enough ArP, you should see it as the runaway victor. If not, try speccing to Mace Specialization and pretend you have a good mace. The Tankard O’Terror is readily available right now because of Brewfest, in case you actually need one. Don’t forget to equip your ArP trinks too.

When you see the results, gem for whichever stat gives you more DPS. Even with the ArP nerf, there’s a good possibility that it will turn out to be the better stat if you’re in item level 226-245 gear. It’s a tricky stat to work with, but it’s well worth the effort.

I found myself in a situation where my ArP wasn’t enough to justify staying in it. Prior to the patch I was fine, but without Grim Toll or Mjolnir Runestone, I was gimping my DPS by gemming ArP. Now, you’d think that going back to Agi gems is the answer. Sadly, it’s not, because the nerf applies to ArP in general, so the effect of Mace Spec is nerfed, the ArP you get from your gear is nerfed, etc. In short, even if I gemmed back to Agility, I’d still feel the nerf because of the ArP in my gear. Also, it was horrifying to see that doing so would only result in a very marginal increase in DPS. Yes, it’s an increase, but was it worth buying 6-8 Cardinal Rubies for? No, it’s not. In order to bring my DPS back to its level pre-3.2.2, I need one of the two trinkets I mentioned above.

I think I found another solution to the problem and I’m looking forward to raiding with it already. I’m not going to post it right now. I want to see the results first. And no, it’s not some goofy experimental thing at all. It’s just something I came up with after spending another two hours playing around with spreadsheets.

The Faction Champions match is a PvP fight done in PvE gear. You’ll be up against members of the opposing faction. For this round, your ability to survive is more important than your DPS. It’s also a good idea to have your crowd control abilities within easy reach. Evasion, Cloak of Shadows, Kick, Blind, Gouge, Vanish, Dismantle, Cheat Shot and Kidney Shot are all going to be vital for the fight.

Since this is a PvP match, there are no phases or gimmicks. The key to winning is to know which target to prioritize. Obviously, healers are on top of the list. Your raid group should be able to identify which is which and mark them accordingly.

Stay away from the melee members of the enemy group. From what I’ve seen, they all have a habit of using some AoE ability such as Whirlwind that literally drops your health to half or more. On normal mode, they can be taunted, so your tanks should be able to keep them distracted.

Your targets can be stunned. It’s a PvP fight, so both Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot work. If you’re having a hard time bringing a healer down, stun him! Like I said, DPS is only a secondary concern for this match, so don’t feel bad about not using those precious combo points on a damage-oriented finisher like Envenom or Eviscerate. When you’ve stunned a target, call it out on Vent so your teammates know they can unleash more DPS if they want to.

Get ready to interrupt! Kick should be your primary interrupt ability, but keep in mind that Gouge, Kidney Shot and Blind work as well. If you have Throwing Specialization, Fan of Knives can interrupt, but it’s getting nerfed in 3.2.2 so don’t get used to it.

Regarding survivability, Dismantle works on anyone, but it’s better to save it for melee targets. If you’d like to get someone off your back, Gouge works well. Just make sure your target is facing you. You also have Blind to fall back on. If all else fails, Vanish.

Still on survivability, Cloak of Shadows and Evasion will keep you alive if you use it well. Don’t expect your teammates to be constantly on the money when it comes to dispelling debuffs on you. A well-timed CoS will remove them and grant you near immunity to spells for a few seconds. Got melee AoEing? Evade before you run away if they happen to be too close.

That’s it. Like I said, it’s a PvP fight so there’s a bit of unpredictability involved. Keep yourself alive, tweak your group’s strategy to match your opponents’ abilities and you should be able to push past them.

The entire fight is an exercise in staying out of stuff that can kill you. If you can do that while doing decent DPS, you’re all set. The target you’ll be DPSing depends on who your raid leader will assign you to. The fight starts out as a tank and spank then becomes livelier when the adds spawn.

Lord Jaraxxus

• Interrupt Fel Fireball.
• Watch out for Legion Flame, regardless of whether it’s cast on you or not. It’s a debuff that does fire damage and leaves fire on the ground. Anyone that stays in it dies, obviously. If it’s on you, run to the outer wall so you don’t end up spreading fire all over the place. Keep running along the wall until the debuff is gone. I think you can use Cloak of Shadows to remove the debuff, but even if you can, you’ll still end up with fire on the ground, so it’s best to just move away from the group and run along the wall.
• The part about watching if it’s cast on you or not is dependent on whether Legion Flame is cast on someone in the melee group. Keep your eyes open and stay out of the fire.

Mistress of Pain

This add is spawned when a Nether Portal opens during the fight. The portal itself does damage to nearby players so stay away from it. The mistress herself is just TnS, but watch out for the piledriver and get ready to pop a pot or healthstone in case you’re out of heal range. Because Jaraxxus’ Fel Fireball can be interrupted, it’s possible that your raid leader will ask you to stay on him instead of helping out on the mistress, so just pay attention.

Felflame Infernals

Ranged DPS is usually assigned to deal with these adds because they move around too much for melee to be able to do anything substantial. That doesn’t mean you can ignore them though. Keep an eye out for their AoE. It looks like a Warlock’s Hellfire, except it’s green. Stay away from it.