zeroinitiate - A World of WarCraft Rogue Blog

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?

Lord Marrowgar is the first boss of ICC. Here’s how to deal with him.

• He only has two phases: a melee phase and a whirlwind phase.
• During the melee phase, stand behind him while staying inside his hit box. He has a frontal attack that requires tanks to stack on top of each other similar to the Patchwerk fight. Don’t make the mistake of standing in front of him. Give him a wide berth.
• Standing inside his hit box will prevent the fire from touching you. It’s one less thing to worry about.
• He will cast bone spikes which will impale a few group members and render them immobile. Throw a quick Fan of Knives while you get your bearings and target the spikes. Take them out then resume DPS on the boss.
• When he does his whirlwind phase, he behaves like a top, moving to a spot, staying there, then moving to another, all while spinning around. Unlike most whirlwinds from other bosses, his won’t one-shot you (at least on normal 10 and 25 versions). Just do your best to avoid him while he does his thing.
• He will drop blue fire on the ground where he stops. It spreads in an X-shaped pattern and crawls across the floor. Avoid it as much as you can. In my experience, you can jump over it and not take any damage (or it’s minimal damage, I couldn’t tell).
• If you have to choose between avoiding the whirlwind or the fire, take the latter. It’s more survivable.
• Once the whirlwind phase is over, wait for your tanks to re-establish aggro because it will reset. Go back to what you were doing during the melee phase.

Here’s the TL;DR version:

• Melee phase: stay behind him, inside his hit box. Kill the bone spikes when they’re up. DPS the boss.
• Whirlwind phase: avoid the boss, avoid the fire. Wait for tanks to gain aggro once the melee phase resumes.

A quick guide to the 5-man bosses of the Icecrown Citadel:
The Forge of Souls:

Bronjahm:

• He will create soul fragments from a member of the party. The fragment will spawn from where the party member is located. It will then start moving toward Bronjahm. If it reaches him, it will heal him. Obviously, killing the fragment is a priority. The group also has the option of creating distance between the boss and whichever party member that becomes the fragment source.
• When he’s close to death, he will move to the center of the room and create a vortex around him. Anyone who gets hit by it is damaged, so move in along with him. He will cast fear on someone, possibly causing the feared player to run to the vortex. This is something that’s more for your healers but watch out for it anyway. Can anyone confirm if Cloak of Shadows works when you run to the vortex?

The Devourer of Souls:

• This thing reminds me of a quintesson.
• When it uses Mirrored Soul, stop DPS. You’ll be killing the team member who received the debuff if you don’t.
• Unleash Souls will spawn adds. Try to avoid them as much as you can. They don’t hurt a lot but become troublesome once they gank you. Use Evasion if necessary.
• Wailing Souls shouldn’t be a problem for you if you’re doing what rogues were born to do: attacking from behind. Still, if you do see it being cast, move behind the target.

The Pit of Saron:

Forgemaster Garfrost:

• Permafrost is a problem for healers. The best way to deal with it is to avoid unnecessary damage (meaning don’t get hit by massive boulders) and DPS as much as you can. Killing him faster means leaving less chances for your healer to run out of mana.
• When he runs to a forge to craft something, you can either chase him (make sure the rest of your party does so as well) or you can hide behind the boulders to avoid Permafrost damage.

Ick and Krick:

• Make sure your group clears the trash around the boss. Those pats have a nasty habit of inviting themselves to the fight thanks to a party member that isn’t paying attention.
• There’s a lot of poison to avoid, giving this encounter a lot of movement. Move away from the puddles.
• If the boss goes after you, run away. Pursuit will one-shot you.
• When it casts that nova spell, run away from it.

Scourgelord Tyrannus:

• He likes hearing himself talk.
• Overlord’s Brand is an ability that’s best understood before the fight begins. If you get the debuff and attack the boss, you’re also hitting the tank. The boss can also get healed by it. The groups I’ve been in have never had a problem with it but it’s better to be prepared.
• His mount, Rimefang, will cast ice spells that freeze targeted party members. The game calls out who it’s cast on so move away from him or her. The damage itself isn’t too bad so if you get hit, it doesn’t mean it’s a wipe.

Halls of Reflection:

• Once you’re done with the dialogue, the place becomes a static gauntlet. You fight waves of adds followed by a boss then more waves followed by the other boss. Unlike Violet Hold or Black Morass, wiping after the first boss is downed doesn’t reset the entire thing. You start from first wave after killing the first boss.
• Once again, this place is more of a problem for your tank. Your job is to DPS as fast as you can. Take down the casters first. I usually just TotT + FoK the entire thing. If you have a death knight in your group, have him or her Death Grip a caster or hunter to the group to help your tank out.
• The bosses themselves are easy. Well of Corruption from the second boss is the only thing you’ll need to avoid. Getting to the part where you can fight them is the hard part.
• The next mob after the encounter is a huge undead guy that will spawn copies of your group, similar to what happens with the Herald Volazj fight in Ahn’kahet (AKA OK). There’s no phasing involved this time, so just bring it down as quickly as you can.
• You’ll run up to the throne room. Move to the right exit and get ready for another gauntlet. Your group along with Sylvanas or Jaina will start to run away from the Lich King. He will block your path with huge ice walls and then proceed to move forward very slowly. Waves of undead will also start attacking you. After you deal with them, the wall will shatter and your group does more running away. You’ll repeat this process three or four times.
• Don’t get close to the Lich King. He has an aura that deals 6k-7k damage on plate (I was on my DK at the time) per second. Imagine what he can do to leather.
• When you board the ship, a chest will spawn signalling the end of the instance. Get your loot and celebrate.

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.