getting back in the "swing" haha

Have just checked out my WWS from a recent DTK run. Couple of notes:

• Stealthing for an opener is costing me a lot of time on target.
• I shouldn't be using Eviscerate (a hangover from grinding)
• SnD shouldn't be dropping (once)
• Rupture! Better get used to it, it'll be essential for HfB in 3.1

On rotations, it is a really complex balance. I need to keep 3 abilities up:

• Most importantly: SnD - refreshes with an Envenom after initial activation. Should never drop.
• Rupture - harder to keep up as requires specific refresh, and is useful in 3.1 for HfB.
• HfB every 60 seconds, requires a bleed (like Rupture) to come up (but not to stay up).
  

SnD is clearly the priority as it is a 40% boost to white and instant poison damage, which together represents about 55% of my damage. Fast daggers and SnD = high DPS. Combos should be used on Envenom to refresh SnD to full if there's any chance of it falling off before combos are available again.

So long as that is up, HfB is next. As it expires every 60 sec, I just need to keep one eye on it, as it may need a Rupture in advance to enable it. Luckily it doesn't use combos.

Rupture is nice to have up, but without a lot of combo procs, might be hard. Reserve for a) quick bleed when necessary for HfB, and b) when I have 5 combos and everything else is peachy.

If those are cooking along, then Mutilate. Ideally with a 120 energy pool for 2 quick Muts, and on the tail end of a CB/TotT for guaranteed crit and threat handoff, and a 5-dot Envenom for added instant poison procs. Bit of a PITA selecting the focus for TotT, will have to work out a macro.

Problem comes in with that rotation that Mutilate is the only combo builder. It's 60 Energy (55 glyphed), so if something is about to drop and energy is low, Shiv is the answer. It can't crit (in 3.1) but it gives a combo and applies Deadly Poison automatically and only costs 35 energy. Emergency use only, but definitely useful. (Note: see above post about the Triple Shiv opener).

Another problem: what if there's no warrior doing Sunder/Revenge/Devastate (or Feral Drood), Expose Armor needs to be in the mix, and done at 5CP for best effect. In raids this shouldn't be a problem, but in heroics it definitely is. This is one area where the rogue must sacrifice individual DPS for the good of the party DPS. Technically speaking, depending on the number of physical DPS dealers, it even needs to be ahead of SnD. It's only every 30 sec, but still needs to be factored in.

Another consideration is Attack Power. Most rogues will have a +AP trinket or two. When's the best time to use them? Well, seeing as both Rupture and Envenom scale with AP, ideally just before a 5-cp Envenom or Rupture refresh.

One final point: trading tricks. If the tank is doing well on threat and there's another rogue in the raid, trading TotT with them will give an average 3% DPS boost to both. The threat handoff is negated if both rogues swap tricks with each other, and both get the benefit of 15% increased damage for 6 seconds on a 30 sec cooldown. Requires some coordination as ideally you'd want to call for tricks just as you're about to unload a CB double mutilate or whatever your grandaddy burst is with other specs.

And all those people say that Rogues just mash 2. Pah.