zeroinitiate - A World of WarCraft Rogue Blog

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.

Let’s say you have the best possible gear that’s accessible to you, all fully gemmed and enchanted and you’re ready to go. How do you go about dealing maximum DPS?

Slice and Dice

If you use WWS while raiding, you’ll see that your swing damage is where most of your DPS comes from. Swing is your default, non-ability attack. It’s what happens when you right-click on a hostile target, click on the Attack button or cast /startattack. Since it makes up a good chunk of your overall DPS, keeping Slice and Dice up should be your number one priority. Don’t let it drop.

Hunger for Blood

If you’re specced for Assassination, then this one’s a no-brainer. Keep HfB up along with SnD. Maintaining SnD is simplified thanks to Cut to the Chase, so the only thing you have to look out for is HfB. You’re not the only class capable of causing bleed damage so keep an eye out for it so you can apply cast the skill ASAP.

Rupture > Eviscerate/Envenom

The fast and flawed advice here is to cast Rupture once you have SnD (or SnD + HfB) up. However, some mobs die too fast for Rupture to finish its duration. In that case, it’s better to hit Eviscerate or Envenom, depending on your spec. Obviously, you should cast Rupture first before the other two during boss fights.

Fan of Knives

For trash pulls and multiple mobs, Fan of Knives is your best friend. Get into range and spam the hell out of it. You’ll be dealing damage that even casters will be envious of. You can combine FoK with Blade Flurry or Adrenaline Rush for mad DPS. Also, don’t forget to cast Tricks of the Trade on your tank prior to spamming it.

Yes, I know that it’s going to get nerfed in the next patch, but it was bound to happen. We’re not supposed to be an AoE class. It’s nice to finally have an AoE skill after all these years but we shouldn’t be topping damage meters because of it. Single-target fights should be our area of expertise.

Patch 3.1 is live on the PTR and it’s the one that finally allows players to dual spec. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, dual specs will let players switch between two specs nearly on the fly. WoWWiki describes it as “the ability to switch between two talent specs, glyph sets, and action bars on each level 40 character.”

For hybrid classes, it’s easy to see how this can be exciting. As a paladin, you can be a main spec tank and a healer off spec. Of course, that would mean bringing two sets of gear, something that casters won’t need to do (or at least not as much). A priest can go resto to shadow without changing a lot of armor since spellpower benefits both offensive and defensive spells. Minus the inconvenience of gearing and re-gearing (so to speak), dual specs sound great.

Here’s the thing though: dual specs are less useful if you’re a DPS class. Rogues, warlocks, hunters and mages are all there to do one thing: deal damage. We don’t tank and we don’t heal. Sure, rogues can dodge-tank and voidwalkers took on Illidan at some point, but generally speaking, pure DPS classes get the shorter end of the stick with dual specs because of the limited options. A mage that goes from frost to fire simply changes the way how he or she deals damage. Rogues can switch from assassination to combat if they get bored with daggers. Warlocks can go from destruction to demonology if they want to do some PvP. The point is that regardless of the chosen spec of these classes, they will not be able to do anything other than deal damage.

I will be starting a mini-series of posts that center on resources for rogues. In each post, I will try to give you guys links to places that help me follow the path of those who tread lightly.

Any WoW player will tell you that finally getting to the maximum level—currently 80—only marks the beginning of your journey. After the toil of leveling comes the task of gearing up. As a rogue, how exactly do you go about doing that? Is it simply a matter of getting the items with the most agility? Does it involve getting anything that raises your attack power? What about haste, armor penetration and critical strike? When you think about all the things that you have to consider, it can be overwhelming.

The quick answer to all of that is to grab a spreadsheet. Yes, that’s a file that you can open in Excel. There are several out there, but the one I use the most is Vulajin’s. All you have to do is to grab the file, insert your talents, gear, gems and enchantments and you’ll get an idea of how much damage you’ll do. It’s particularly useful during planning. Thinking of respeccing? Input your talents and see how that works for you. Not sure about getting a gear upgrade? Insert it into the spreadsheet and find out if it will help your DPS or not.

One thing to note about the file is that it only contains blues and purples. Don’t expect it to help you if you’re weighing two greens against each other. I shouldn’t need to say this, but it’s only applicable if you’re level 80. Like I said, you can use it for planning, but you’ll only be able to maximize its use if you’re at the level cap. It may sound silly for you to grab an Office document to find out how much DPS you can do, but when you get used to it, you’ll find that it’s an invaluable tool.

Happy holidays to everyone. Today’s post is about something that’s loved and hated: Honor Among Thieves (AKA HAT). As you can see from the skill description, you get a combo point everytime someone else crits. That part works as intended. The rather controversial aspect is how it stacks with other rogues. You get one combo point per HAT rogue, so if you have 3 rogues with the talent, you get 3 combo points per crit. That’s how you can spam Eviscerate and get the top DPS spot in no time.

Right now, that information isn’t groundbreaking. A lot of people know about it and the reactions are mixed. Those who love it argue that it contributes to overall DPS and makes raids faster and easier. Those who hate it say that it’s a bug that’s being exploited. I’m not here to discuss the pros and cons in those terms. The fact is that it’s happening and it’s being used to its fullest advantage.

There is one question that some of you are asking: how does HAT perform with only one rogue in the group? I hope to answer that. Note that I’m approaching this coming from a Mutilate background. I was curious about HAT so I decided to give it a whirl earlier today. I do not have the screenshots anymore but after running three instances, I was satisfied that I got the answer I was looking for. We ran Caverns of Time: The Culling of Stratholme, The Nexus and Drak’Tharon Keep, all on heroic. I reset the data per instance, to give it a fair comparison. Our group consisted of a prot pally, a ret pally, a holy priest and a hunter. At the end, my DPS was a hundred or so less as a HAT rogue compared to Mutilate. I’m used to seeing it hit 1300-1400 DPS with Mutilate. With HAT, it was 1200-1300.

Now, here’s where the pros and cons “in those terms” come in. The pros of a HAT rogue is that it’s very easy to get the numbers above. You literally just spam Hemo and wait till the combo points come in. Once you get five, hit Eviscerate and repeat the cycle. It’s literally easy DPS, probably the simplest that you can get in-game. The cons? If you’re running solo HAT, its performance greatly depends on how well your group crits. Your damage output is literally dependent on everyone else’s crit ratings, so be prepared for that.

So that’s it. If you have your doubts I suggest you try it out yourself. It’s really not too bad. Plus, you get the benefit of taking a break from the complicated rotation of Mutilate.

I read this post on Forever A Noob and, while I share the whine about rogue DPS (more like the lack of it), it’s comforting that I’m not the only one experiencing it. I still consider myself in the learning phase of all things related to rogues so there’s always doubt about the gear, talents, rotations and skills that I’m using. If I’m not on top of my party’s DPS list, “am I doing this right?” is among the first questions that come to mind.

My inability to keep up with my guild’s raid schedule has led me to shelf my rogue if no raids are ongoing. The DPS is disappointing and I don’t really join PUGs. I’m currently having a lot of fun with my death knight alt. There’s something about multi-mob killing that’s very satisfying. For once, I created a male toon. My DK would’ve been a female BE too (similar to my rogue) had it not been for the awkward-looking animations. Male BEs look better wielding two-handed swords and axes than their female counterparts, so that served as the deciding factor. And no, I don’t have plans to dual-wield right now. My rogue is already doing that.

Some of my guildmates are asking if I’ll be switching mains, considering the amount of time I’m spending on my DK. For now, no, and I’m only saying that because I don’t like making final statements. My rogue is still my main. I’m just waiting to get her properly geared before I start playing her seriously again. I just wish I could meet those raiding schedules.