zeroinitiate - A World of WarCraft Rogue Blog

You probably noticed that I made no comment on the upcoming changes to Subtlety. That’s because it’s the tree that I’m most unfamiliar with. I haven’t used it since the days of TBC, which is a little ironic considering that it’s the spec I leveled with.

It’s always been my opinion that Subtlety is the tree that allows you to experience what a Rogue is supposed to be like: one who’s at home in the shadows, an individual who feels more comfortable while stealthed than out of it. Unfortunately, Sub doesn’t provide optimum raid DPS. I actually had trouble letting go of it back in the day when dual specs weren’t implemented yet.

So, fast forward to today and you can tell why I didn’t write anything about it. One, I can’t say anything relevant about the changes because I haven’t been Sub for a while and won’t be able to contribute anything significant. Two, the changes won’t change raiding as a Rogue as we know it. I find that unfortunate, actually. A little variety would’ve been nice at this point.

After a few weeks of musing about it I think I’ve been able to pinpoint exactly what I like about Mass Effect that makes it different from WoW: it reminded me of how it felt like being the hero. WoW has a habit of addressing you as a hero. In fact, it calls everyone in the raid heroes, which kinda defeats the purpose of being one. It removes the importance of the word. It echoes Syndrome from The Incredibles movie, “And when everyone’s super, no one will be.”

I know it’s not a fair comparison, but this isn’t really a WoW-bashing post. It’s more about why I like Mass Effect. In the game, you play as Commander Shepard, recently assigned as the executive officer of the frigate SSV Normandy. Without spoiling things, let’s just say that the game gives you the opportunity to not only choose who gets to live or die, but also allows you to reshape the galaxy as you see fit. It’s fun to be in the spotlight again, to know that what you do literally sends ripples across star systems. WoW, as an MMO, is almost always about the group effort. The sense of accomplishment is different and the variety that the single-player experience brings is a breath of fresh air.

Oh, and the gameplay rocks too.

Bosses that have Mind Control abilities always make a fight more interesting. If they cast it on a healer, the other healers have to pick up the slack. If it’s on DPS, they have to be CCed quick enough before they kill somebody. Also, there’s the chance that it might burn a cooldown you’re saving for later in the fight. Seeing it wasted is always a downer.

Lady Deathwhisper seemed to have it in for me this week. She Mind-Controlled me thrice throughout the fight. I’d imagine that something like that would be frustrating under different circumstances but given that it was a one-shot, seeing it happen that much was amusing.

I have nameplates enabled for hostile targets only and (you can probably see where this is going) when I get MCed, everybody goes red. This is probably a bad thing to say but when that happens, I can’t help but think “Go Sin!” and hope that my toon casts a couple of Fan of Knives before getting CCed. The second time I got MCed, a fellow raider typed in chat that I killed him. I didn’t see Fan of Knives cast so I wondered how he died. Then I noticed that my Killing Spree was on cooldown. Oops.

What’s your take on getting MCed? You do root for yourself when it happens, right? Tell me I’m not alone here.

I’ve been holding off on purchasing emblem gear because I want a tier piece to drop from VoA first. My goal is to get the tier 10 4-piece bonus going and see my DPS increase. I want to be able to nail one finisher after another. After two weeks of doing VoA, I’ve yet to see rogue leather drop so I haven’t had the chance to even roll on it yet. That’s been the story of gear for me for the past couple of weeks, even in ICC. Melee DPS leather simply does not drop in our runs.

Yesterday Festergut dropped Plague-Soaked Leather Leggings. I put it on my spreadsheet and saw a DPS increase. Just for fun I decided to put the tier 10 legs and hands just to check what my DPS would be if I bought those instead.

I was floored to see a DPS decrease.

I checked and re-checked but the numbers were consistent. If they were both at ilvl 251, getting the tier 10 legs and hands to complete the 4-piece bonus was going to lower my damage output. I was in denial at first, thinking for so long that the 4-piece bonus was really, really good. Well, screw that. The discovery then led to me checking out what pieces I should buy. I finally settled on the waist and trinket, with those being the biggest DPS upgrades according to the spreadsheet. I’ve yet to run ICC to see how my DPS turns out though. I’ll find out this week.

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 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.

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.

[Report link]

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.