Let’s get the obvious out of the way: respec to Assassination. Patch 3.3 has buffed damage output from that tree so much that Combat doesn’t even stand a chance. I no longer have the data from Recount with me but here’s what drove the proverbial nail in the coffin when I was thinking about the numbers a few days ago.

I noticed the damage increase in Icecrown Citadel. There were two rogues in the group and we were just leaving everyone behind in DPS. No one else was even close. To verify this, I decided to use it on a fight where Assassination is at a disadvantage: Anub’Arak. We usually position the adds next to Anub so melee can AoE/cleave them. It makes sense for me to run Combat during that fight so I can use Blade Flurry + Adrenaline Rush. I was clearly in the lead of the other rogue in the group until we got Anub down to 30%. When he started leeching life from everyone, I had no more adds to buff my damage so it became a single-target race in terms of DPS. Guess what? The other rogue caught up and beat me.

So that’s it. Run Mutilate/Assassination. Don’t believe me? Check out the updated Q&A at EJ.

I expect Blizz to swing the nerf bat pretty hard on this one, so enjoy it while it lasts.

This is probably too little, too late at this point but life in general has been hectic and when I had time to write something down, the website wasn’t cooperating. Anyway, here’s what you should know about weapon swapping.
First of all, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a rogue swaps weapons in the middle of a fight. Second, it looks like it benefits Assassination more than Combat.

The idea is to have two off-hand weapons. One has Deadly Poison while the other has either Instant or Wound, depending on your spec or what’s on the main hand. Once Deadly Poison stacks to five on your target, you switch to the off-hand that has the same poison as your main. The result is a DPS increase. For Assassination, that around 400-600. The benefits are lower for Combat. Hey, it has burst capabilities to make up for things so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Patch 3.3 is expected to drop within the next two weeks. It includes a change to Deadly Poison that will remove the need to swap weapons. Till then, give it a try. As long as you have nearly identical off-hands you should see a damage increase.

This is it. You’ve skinned the beasts, banished the demon lord back to his realm, made short work of the opposing faction’s champions and clipped the wings off the twins. It’s time to face the Nerubian Lord Anub’arak, who’s back for round two.

Phase One is a tank and spank with adds. Anub’arak has a cleave attack so make sure you’re nowhere in front of him during the fight. DPS the boss, switch to the adds when your off-tank picks them up (one add in 10-man, 2 in 25) and then go back to the boss. A second set of adds will spawn shortly but we usually ignore those until the boss burrows.  The adds can also burrow and then pop back later. To prevent this, they have to be tanked on frozen ground. If they’re not, you can interrupt their burrow cast by using Kidney Shot.

When Anub’arak burrows, Phase Two begins. Kill the adds that your off-tank is dealing with then proceed to killing scarabs. These do not need to be tanked so just DPS away. They cast a stacking damage debuff on you so watch for it. If it becomes tough to handle you can use Cloak of Shadows to get out of it. The boss himself will cast spikes that chase random raid members. Just stand on frost (or get frost between you and the spikes) if it targets you. The spikes will hit the frost in a rather violent animation and then switch targets. Once Anub’arak pops from the ground, it’s back to Phase One.

Phase Three starts when the boss’s HP hits 30%. He’ll stop burrowing and will cast a life leech spell that will drain HP from the raid and give it back to him. This phase has more to do with your healers than you but the idea is to keep everyone except the tanks at 30-50 percent HP throughout the remainder of the fight. Just DPS the boss, pop your trinkets and enjoy the loot.

That’s it. I hope you enjoyed this guide to Trial of the Crusader. I know it’s delayed as hell but real life got in the way again. I was actually forced to a 3-week break from the game because of Ketsana and other shit (and when I say it’s shit, it really is shitty).

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.

Welcome to my guide on the Trial of the Crusader. Please note that I will cover rogue-specific roles and strategies only, although melee DPS will probably find something useful here as well.

Northrend Beasts

The first round of TotC pits your group against 4 Northrend Beasts: Gormok the Impaler, Acidmaw, Dreadscale and Icehowl.

Gormok the Impaler

Gormok is a magnataur that carries 4 snobolds on his back. This fight is mostly a tank and spank.

• Get out of the fire on the ground.
• Kill snobolds when they hop on to someone in the group.
• DPS the boss.

Acidmaw & Dreadscale

The next fight involves two jormungars: Acidmaw & Dreadscale. The important thing to note here is that one of them will be mobile while the other is rooted. You need to identify that. The simplest way to do it is to look for the tail. If you can’t find it, then that’s not the worm you should be DPSing.

Dreadscale always starts as the mobile worm. At some point, they’ll burrow to the ground and then swap places, with Acidmaw becoming the mobile worm.

• DPS the mobile worm. Make sure you stay behind it. Stay away from the rooted worm.
• Watch out for poison clouds from the mobile worm. They look like the ones that Grobbulus drops.
• The fight’s big gimmicks are two debuffs: Paralytic Toxin and Burning Bile. Paralytic Toxin can only be dispelled by Burning Bile. If a tank gets hit with the toxin and you have the burning debuff, run to the tank to remove the toxin, then run out of the group because you’ll be doing AoE damage while Burning Bile is on you. If you get the toxin, run to someone with the fire debuff.
• Burning Bile can be dispelled by Cloak of Shadows. I have not verified if this applies to the toxin as well.

Icehowl

Icehowl is a yeti and is the final boss of the Northrend Beasts encounter.

• Again, this is mostly a tank and spank.
• Watch out for Arctic Breath. I recommend you attack him from the side and not from behind.
• He knocks back often. Make sure you’re close to a wall so that you don’t do a lot of walking back.
• His big gimmick is Massive Crash. When he does this, everyone gets knocked back to the wall and gets stunned. Pay close attention to who he targets and get ready to run. You’ll have plenty of time to move away from his charge.
• If he doesn’t hit anything, he gets stunned. Unleash massive DPS.
• If he hits someone, he enrages. Hunters can dispel this, but so can you with Anesthetic Poison.

We’ll cover Lord Jaraxxus in the next post.