evaluating a 51/x/x HfB rogue

Vulajin at Elitist Jerks has long held the title of author of the most useful post for a raiding rogue. However with the release of 3.0.2 and the ascendancy of Mutilate/HfB for raiding, it does need some updating. He's stated that it won't be updated until Wrath is released and people are raiding at 80 on regular servers, so here's a starter summary. I don't pretend to be an expert in mathcraft or even general roguery outside the specs I play, but I do raid a bit and have seen every raid in WoW/BC except BT. Additionally, the only toon I raid on is my rogue.

The Commandments are still very applicable, with an amendment for HfB. A 3-stack HfB gives you a flat 9% DPS buff. Renewing it before it expires costs you 30 energy. Bringing it up afterwards costs you 90 energy. No debate, keep it up at all times.

1. Don't die.
2. Don't do anything that risks wiping the raid.
3. Maximize your time on target.
4. Don't let your energy cap out.
5. Don't let SnD or HfB drop.
6. Use one of the spreadsheets to figure out your best cycle; this will usually be the highest Rupture uptime cycle that doesn't violate rule 4 or 5.
7. Use your cooldowns.

To be continued...

Hyjal

Well Hyjal is still as much fun as I remember. Tonight I was there for guild-first kills of Anetheron and Kaz'rogal. Both great fights.

2 wipes on Azgalor beat us but it was a great way to start getting used to my new build. Combos just keep coming, it's incredible. It's tough remembering to keep up Hunger for Blood and I'm slowly adjusting to the new hotkeys for my trinkets, Deadly Throw and pots/bandages. The decision tree for combos is interesting though - 1) SnD if it's down, 2) Rupture if it's down or going to expire, 3) HfB if it's down or going to expire, 4) Eviscerate. The free SnD refresh from Cut to the Chase is brilliant - but you do feel like allowing SnD to expire without getting an Eviscerate off is a waste of combos in getting SnD back up. Same with allowing HfB to drop. There is a real emphasis on not allowing those timed abilities to drop, because there is a real energy/combo penalty if you do. Yay ClassTimer.

2 of my brothers just started playing - Ploddy (Draenei Hunter) and Ponendus (Draenei Pally). A brother of mine a huntard. Ugh!

Going Down

Well as soon as I saw this Going Down achievement I thought I'd better get it.  Of course, a Rogue does get some resistance to falling damage, and I could get a pally to bubble me or something, but I really wanted to do it myself.

After one failed try off Aldor Tier from the top (obviously an enormous source of amusement to the nice person who rezzed me) I figured it out.  Start from the bottom of the elevator, let it take you up to about halfway, then run off.  One of three things will happen:

• You'll run off too low.  No achievement, try again.
• You'll run off too high.  And die.
• You'll run off in the right zone, take a huge whack of falling damage, live and get the achievement the hardcore way.  Like me.

builds

Neat site: http://www.talentchic.com/Assassination/Raid/Rogue

more songs

Once I'd finished Evasion Tank FTW I listened to some more Dos Gringos and have some more lyrics in development for the following songs:

• Jeremiah Weed (tentatively titled Roguey Thistle Tea)
• The Bitch Spent All My Money (tentatively My Alts Spent All My Money)

Watch this space. Obviously there's a lyrics warning on those songs. The clue's in the title.

Evasion Tank FTW

So I just got back from New Zealand.  I've had one hour's sleep since 6am Thursday (Brisbane time).  And due to the entirely inconsiderate person next to me, who had a bladder with the strength of a piece of wet toast, I had three hours to contemplate my navel with a flat laptop battery and no reading material on the flight.

So, I turned to my iPod.  The first song that came up (serendipitously as it turns out) on random was called "Twelve Inch Penis" by Dos Gringos.   If you're not into aviation you probably won't get a lot of the references, but it's basically about trying to pee in an F16 cockpit.  High class stuff.

Stay with me, this will make sense eventually.

So I was listening to that and my mind turned, as it sometimes is wont to do, about how awesome playing a rogue is and how much I hate PUGs.  So, I put one and one together and got 11.  I wrote WoW lyrics to the tune of the song I was listening to.  I call it "Evasion Tank FTW", or alternatively "The Ballad of the Raiding Rogue".  I like the first one better.

Evasion Tank FTW by me

Sung to the tune of "Twelve Inch Penis" with thanks to Dos Gringos for also being awesome.

There I was, pugging a boss

and we could tell he was getting a little cross

from all the damage we were getting on that day

Now an undergeared tank is bad enough

but it's even worse when you're missing buffs

just a plus stam and Salv would really ease the pain

'Cause if you pull aggro on Magtheridon man, it's over

Now about four minutes into the fight

I started to get nervous 'cause things were looking tight

with healers calling OOM and the hunters just standin' around

then a mage Ice Blocked, I knew he was in trouble

and a couple ret pallies started poppin' their bubbles

then the off tank he fell stone dead to the ground

And there's little old me in my leather armour

So we finally got him down to 20 percent

when the main assist said his gear was bent

I mean who the hell raids without getting repairs?

So I thought real hard about my rotations

popped a healthstone and a healing potion

watched the tank die and the druids go bears

And I cursed the shammy's name for forgetting Windfury

So I knew that I'd need a little help

to keep from bleeding all over myself

and if I stressed any longer well I'd give myself cancer

So in my hour of great despair

I offered up a little prayer

to Jesus, hoping that he might answer

And to paraphrase a bit, this is what I said

(CHORUS)

Oh Lord won't you give me

just one more cooldown

just one Adrenaline Rush will do

cause I'm stuck with these dumbos

and I need just a few more combos

and I swear I'll hearth as soon as I am through

Now things started looking pretty darn bleak

when Mags knocked the warlock into next week

and one shotted a shadow priest with a flick of his tail

The hunters feigned death but it didn't help 'em

Mags gave them both a pretty solid beltin'

and they QQ'd and died with a pitiful wail

Fucking huntards

Now it was too much to hope for a Power Word Shield

so I feinted and vanished and bandaged and healed

and jumped back into the fight with a look of dismay

And I never really thought about what was ensuin'

when I realised that there was nobody left pew-pewin'

and I paused for a second, and began to pray

Dear Lord, you gotta give me this one

(CHORUS)

Oh Lord won't you give me

just one more cooldown

just one Evasion will do

cause I'm stuck with these dumbos

and I need just a few more combos

and I swear I'll hearth as soon as I am through

Now just as Mags landed a crushing blow

my energy bar, it started to grow

and before I knew it, it was at least a foot long

Cold Blood jammed down for unlimited crits

and Evasion made me impossible to hit

and I couldn't help whistlin' a cheery song

Now I know you've figured out what happened next...

Well that was pretty much the end of my woes

since I poured DPS like a fire hose

and dodged every claw with a wink and a grin

24 bodies lining the pavement

watching this epic rogue with amazement

whispering "evasion tank for the win!"

This could be you if you learn2play, noobs

I finished off Mags with a Mutilate crit

looted and hearthed from that demonic pit

and ignored everyone before they could aggrieve me

I thought about boasting in guild chat

but something fairly obvious held me back

a fairly good chance no-one would believe me

Think I'll just quietly let the legend grow

(CHORUS)

Oh Lord won't you give me

just one more cooldown

one Cloak of Shadows or two

cause I'm stuck with these dumbos

and I need just a few more combos

and I swear I'll hearth as soon as I am through

yeah I swear I'll hearth as soon as I am through!

raiding with Mutilate

Basically, the trick is this:

• Keep Hunger for Blood up at all times, even when not in combat. Hotkey!
• Keep up SnD as usual.
• Keep your drums and trinkets up as usual.
• Keep your DoTs up - Deadly Poison and Garotte/Rupture. Garotte is still the best opener if threat is a problem.
• Watch your threat. Feint, Vanish and if all else fails, Evasion, are there if you need them.
• Combos should be spent on SnD, Rupture, and then something that does damage. I've not decided yet if Envenom or Eviscerate are the best way to go - probably Envenom at the end of the fight, Evis + Cold Blood otherwise if you have a threat buffer. Remember that both of these will refresh SnD if you have 5/5 Cut to the Chase (which you should in a 51 point Mutilate build).
• Of course, keep an eye out for opportunities to use Kick.
• On trash, keep one eye on your squishies and intervene with a blind/gouge. You can quickly build 3 combos for a Kidney Shot with a Cold Blood/Mutilate (assuming you have 5/5 Seal Fate) - with the added advantage of a huge crit that will definitely attract their attention! It might be worth Shivving them first to get the 50% damage bonus from Mutilate.

There you go, easy!

the patch

Well it's certainly worth a look. After a long long time in Combat Daggers, Cat is now 51/5/5 Mutilate. Even on the first night using the spec (I've never used Mutilate at all) she still pulled a clear second on the meter in a quick-pace 2 hour Kara clear tonight. I'm feeling it's a good spec!

Her current spec is pretty close to the draft cookie cutter 51/3/7 Mutilate.

• Mine takes 1/1 Vigor, 2/2 Quick Recovery and 2/3 Master Poisoner, but
• Cookie takes 2/2 Murder and 3/3 Turn the Tables instead.
• Cookie drops 2 points in Dual Wield Specialisation to pick up the missing 2 in Relentlesss Strikes.

I'm not sure about the cookie cutter decisions. Murder might be useful in levelling, but is it better on boss fights than say the 2/3 in Master Poisoner? 4% increased damage against certain bosses, vs 2% extra crit chance against all but poison-immune bosses? Would like to see the mathcraft on that.

I can see the attraction of Turn the Tables over Vigor. But Quick Recovery looks good for boss fights, where you're often taking splash damage - 20% less mana used on you. 4% crit chance on finishers is not that super when you're probably going to be rotating SnD and Rupture (which don't crit) with maybe Envenom and Eviscerate which can crit. But one of those will get the benefit of Cold Blood, so hanging onto 80% of the energy on failed finishers (which mean they can be immediately repeated) seems a good bet.

Giving up 13% of your offhand damage to get an additional 8% chance to get 25 energy on a finisher doesn't seem worth it to me. Again, the mathcraft will decide.

*EDIT*

Right, I plugged the numbers into the Rogue DPS Spreadsheet in Cat's current gear.  On the Assassination tree talents, it's a no brainer.  Cookie cutter is clearly better than the build I chose.  Mea culpa.

On the Combat and Subtlety talents, we were both wrong.  The optimum build is actually 4/5 Dual Wield Specialization and 4/5 Relentless Strikes.  However, there's only about 10DPS in it over all three builds.

Looks like I'm up for a respec!

a nice way to level

Merry is 41 now and finally out of STV.  Jeez that place gets irritating after awhile.  The changes to XP rates and having a mount at 30 made it a lot less painful, but even so something about STV makes me want to donate to PETA.

My 3 favourite spriest spells: Levitate (for shortcuts), Mind Control (for snigger value and fighting groups) and Shadowform (cool looking and a nice buff).

Questing with Ben and Michael (both shammies) is way better than the lonely soloing I did with Cat.  Plus, as Ben's main is a tailor and Cat is a LW, we can keep each other in decent gear.  Rock on the sugar daddies/mamas.

priesting

Who'd have guessed.  I actually enjoy priesting.  It is a PITA to solo, but very easy to pick up a group and group healing is a load of fun (even though she's specced shadow).  Pushing 32 now and bouncing back and forth between STV and Desolace.  Ugh... STV.

300 fishing

Ding.

more asshattery

Ran H SP with Temp and Q last night to try to get a look at the new seasonal boss. We had to pug a tank and a DPS warrior, and that's where (as usual) the heartache began.
First, our original tank realised he was saved to SP and protested, when I politely dropped him, that he could "reset". O...K. Yes, you can - at 3am when the server resets the Heroics. Which is 6 hours away. Kthxbai.
Our replacement tank did OK until we started clearing mobs, whereupon he berated me for preventing him building rage by opening with Kidney Shot and stunning with my mace. A lengthy discussion followed, and he didn't seem to appreciate that a) KS is not an opener but requires combo points (he was thinking of Cheap Shot, which I don't generally use in groups and certainly wasn't in this one), b) I was not actually using KS except on one mob at the end of the fight where it peeled off to attack the healer due to the tank's lack of aggro, and c) I was using daggers, not maces (which I would have thought was fairly obvious).
He persisted however, and it wasn't until I pointed out that the DPS Warrior was hefting a huge two handed PvP mace that he realised maybe it wasn't me that was hurting his rage generation. Whereupon, instead of apologising, he just went quiet.
When the two warriors insisted that we bypass the seasonal boss because "there's no point" I started losing interest. Someone upstairs likes me, because at that point DCs and major lag started, and after 20 minutes of trying to log back into Lagrand, I gave up. Sorry guys, I tried, I really did.

The Lurker Below - Rogue Strat

I have here re-posted the SSC Lurker Below CliffsNotes post from Roguespot, and appended my comments. Many thanks to Roguespot and the original author.

• Trash: Large groups. Greyheart Technicians are weak and stunnable, and don't hit very hard. Kill them first, with or without a tank on them. Once all the trash is dead, the water boils and kills the hungry fish. Groups include 2 caster types which heal. These will probably stay sheeped, but are susceptible to kick and KS.
  
• Boiling Water: 500 damage every 3 seconds. If you jump in the water, each jump causes 500 damage. If you're in the water, do not jump. Be careful when jumping back onto an island from the water not to panic and keep jumping if you miss - it's 500 damage each jump. Take an extra second to get it right.
  
• Poisons: Normal If you're the only rogue, Deadly is a good MH choice so you can continue doing some damage while running out for Whirls.
  
• Buffs: Unless you're a DPS god, you won't need Salv. Kings helps with surviving an unlucky Whirl/Geyser combo. Bring health pots.
  

• Phase 1: Lasts two minutes

• Whirl: Physical aoe to all in melee range. 3-4k damage, 5 yard knockback, 30 sec cooldown. BigWigs gives good warnings on the cooldown, but does not notify of the Whirl which always occurs immediately after a Spout. If you're on the outer part of the ring, you're safe from Whirl. Stand on the inner edge of the ring, so when whirl knocks you back, you won't fall off the island. OR watch the timer on whirlwind and backup to the edge of the island just before whirl, so it doesn't hit you at all. I recommend backing off to save your healer's mana, it's a long fight. See the pic below for the safe zone.
• Spout: Every 45 seconds, a water ray starts at the tank, slowly rotating in a random direction for a full turn. Over 6k damage with a huge knockback (over 30 yards). Run around the island to stay ahead of it, or drop into the water and go under so it passes overhead. You get hit with this, you're pretty much dead, and will be mocked as a tard by your raid. Easy way is to jump into the water in the centre of the ring while the spout passes overhead (it's ok if your head is bobbing out, you don't have to be completely underwater) - this way you can continue DPS. Just remember to get back out after the spout has passed so you don't get cleaned up by the Whirl.
• Geyser: Random single target for about 3k. Seems to pick you if you get whirled! Don't get whirled.

• Phase 2: Lasts one minute

• Lurker submerges and nine adds appear.
• Coilfang Ambushers (6) - Two on each outer island. Groups on those islands will take care of those. But they will ranged DPS you on the inner ring so watch your health.
  
• Coilfang Guardians (3) - Inner ring only. Assist off the tank. These cleave. The cleave will one shot you unless you're topped off. Don't get in front of these guys.
  

• Phase 1 and Phase 2 continue to alternate throughout the entire fight. On return from Phase 2, he always immediately does a spout then a whirl.
  
• Drops: Boots of Effortless Striking which probably won't be much use. The trash drops epics including LW recipes which are nice.
• Rotations: Now here's where there be dragons. Keep in mind I'm a die-hard dagger rogue. My general principles are these, in priority order:
1. If SnD is down, get it up, even with 1 combo point (unless he's about to Whirl). 1 combo SnD should get you 16 sec SnD (with T4 and 3/3 Improved SnD) compared to roughly 33 sec with 5 combos. The Whirl timer is the thing that determines how many combos you need to use on SnD - don't use more than you need as they'll be wasted.
   
2. Backstab. Don't SS or Shiv. Wait for it.
   
3. If you have 5 combos up and Whirl is 25-30 sec off, SnD.
4. If Whirl is impending, Shiv your combos up to 5 and Rupture.
   
5. Otherwise if you have 5 combos up, Eviscerate for max damage.
6. Rinse and repeat.

The Lurker Below

Probably the best WoW feeling to date last night... The Lurker Below went down in a cloud of stinky fish breath at 1130 last night after 8 or 9 attempts. It's a furious fight for a rogue, trying to maximise DPS, avoid the AoEs, watch health and threat and knowing that you are one stupid mistake away from dying the whole time over a 15 minute fight. Gladly I didn't make many stupid mistakes after the first two attempts, although my second (and last) death to the spout was a clanger and certainly qualifies as stupid. I won't go into detail, suffice to say that it involved a lamp post and me wondering why I couldn't run into the water. Nuff said. Dumb as a box of hammers.
The strats I'd read gave the basics, but tbh they didn't really cover all the things you need to know as a rogue on the "big fish fight" as nobody but me calls it. I'll follow this post up with a specific rogue strat post for the curious.
Also picked up a nice new LW pattern: Belt of Natural Power. The trash drops in SSC are very nice indeed. Anyone on Nagrand who wants one, let me know.
W00t!

update

I officially hate myself. Kara was super smooth last night until about 11pm, when everyone was tired and we hit Netherspite. I just couldn't get it into my head to stop hitting him when he came out of phase 2 and promptly got myself smeared all over the tiles. Remember the threat wipe dumbass! He goes down tonight, to make it a full clear (and a quick one for us, as we did all the other bosses in 4 hours with a few new folks in the ranks).

In other news:

• Prince gave up the Netherblade Gloves, taking me to 4/5 T4 set with both set bonuses.
  
• First time on Wizard of Oz last night, pretty cruisy.
  
• Necklace experiment favours the +hit. Aldor pendant goes in the bank until I'm closer to being hit-capped - currently only 245.
• All gems and enchants in place except for my Netherblade Breeches, which I'll slap Nethercobra Leg Armor on tonight if Netherspite doesn't give up the Skulker's Greaves.
• Picked up a Pristine Fire Opal in Sethekk Halls, which went into the head
• Swift Blade of Uncertainty is the next upgrade, hopefully by the end of the week if I can get the badges together.
• First run in ZA hopefully tonight! And first look at SSC on Friday!
  

10 minutes to invite... final check

I've been putting together a list of things rogues should be checking 10 minutes before invites to raids. Much is common sense and straight from other guides, but it's worth thinking outside the box a little too...

• A stack of every poison (Deadly, Instant, Wound, Anaesthetic, Crippling and Mind-Numbing). You can swap out before (and even during) encounters and not worry about running out.
• Sharpening Stones if there are going to be poison-immune mobs. Expensive for the good ones - befriend a blacksmith.
• One stack (preferably 2) of Flash Powder. Other rogues often run out and will hit you up for loaners. The first time you reach for Vanish and it isn't there, you'll wish you brought more flash powder.
• 2-4 stacks of Super Healing Potions. I eat these like candy. Dead rogues do 0 DPS. Charged Crystal Focus are nice to have as well as they're on a separate cooldown to pots (though they share one with Healthstones).
  
• A couple of Flasks of Relentless Assault, or a stack of Major Agility Elixirs (Flask if you're expecting wipes). Actually I usually go completely with the major agi as they're cheap on my server and the flasks... aren't.
• Demonslaying Elixir if the raid calls for it. Flask of Chromatic Wonder for +resist and a good stat buff?
  
• Buff food: Spicy Hot Talbuk and Ravager Dog are the undisputed kings. However, also consider bringing things like Crunchy Serpent, Spicy Crawdad and Kibblers Bits: useless for the rogue directly, but casters and hunters will love you and protect you when you feed them tasty treats. For the same reason, bring a stack of Super Mana Pots to donate to your favourite healer. Nothing says "please keep me alive" like free pots.
• Full repairs.
• +resist gear and every trinket you own (even a 25% arcane resist on something like VR can save your skin). PvP trinket for Hyjal.
• With the endgame recipes available to Leatherworkers now, most rogues should be considering it as a profession. Which means you should have drums. Which means you should bring drums - I bring at least 20 Drums of Battle, plus I have a few Restoration and Panic just in case. You can't break up the stacks, so it might be worth bringing an old set of War drums in case you get begged by a less well-prepared LWer.
• One stack, preferably 2, of bandages.
• Updated Omen, DBM/BigWigs etc.
• Consider being at the stone at invite time. Yeah you may miss out on 15 mins of dailies or whatever, but someone's gotta be there to summon and it may as well be you.

There, that should keep you out of trouble. Anything to add?

exalted with the Aldor

Exalted with the Aldor now (though I still owe Belaide 6 Fel Armaments, thanks for the loan mate). That means I now have my Greater Inscription of Vengeance and can equip my Shattered Sun Pendant of Might, which theoretically is better than the Worgen Claw Necklace. However, I lose a fair chunk of +hit, so only experimentation will tell.
Gruuls/Mags tonight.

a nice way to wake up

I quickly checked WoW mail this morning, not really expecting to find anything. Imagine my surprise when a token for the Netherblade Breeches was sitting right there. Thanks Trix and Yoso for sorting that out.

So what now?

• Meta gem for the helm (should be in the mail this afternoon)
• Save for Exceptional Stats and Assault enchants, and Nethercobra Leg Armour
• Get Aldor Rep to Exalted
• Look out for rings, trinkets, thrown weapon and a cloak in Kara and Gruuls (though there is also the Angelista's Revenge and Dory's Embrace, both for 60 Badges each)
  
• Run ZA, SSC and TK for the first time
• Start thinking about upgrading weapons! Maybe the Blade of Serration (105 Badges) and the Swift Blade of Uncertainty (45 Badges)? Then of course I'll need Mongoose enchants again...

Oh, and be.imba puts me into SSC/TK now. W00t.

Tier 4

Finished off Kara tonight without a wipe, dropping Netherspite, Chess and Prince first go. Netherspite went much better, so long as I stay away from the Netherbreath, I'm gold. Zooming the camera right out with the cameraDistancemax script helps a lot to see which way he's facing.
Was a bit disappointed with the Prince fight - I got about 75% through until Prince was surrounded by infernals, and I just couldn't get to him. In the end I died trying, which was a shame because I think I have that fight at "cake" level now.
Prince did, however, give up the Tier 4 headpiece - the Netherblade Facemask. I also bought the Master Assassin's Wristwraps with the badges I'd saved for a helm, upgraded my Violet Signet and scored the Violet Badge quest reward (useful in TK) and socketed the helm, the bracers and my Netherblade Chestpiece with 4 +8 Hit gems and a miscellaneous +crit/+AP red. A guildie is cutting a Swift Skyfire Diamond for me too.
On top of that! I got exalted with the Shattered Sun and picked up the Shattered Sun Pendant of Might which I'll leave in the bank until I'm exalted with Aldor (another 14k rep :( ).
Pretty awesome couple of days for T4 gear. Be.Imba puts me at ZA now, w00t.

Kara

Got as far as Netherspite last night, where we wiped. Tough fight, still getting used to it. Dropped Illhoof and Shade for the first time, and Attumen gave up the Worgen Claw Necklace which I was very happy to accept (saving me the 25 badges I was going to spend on the Choker of Vile Intent).

progression

Tonight was a big one in Tier 4 raiding. I saw - and dropped - High King Maulgar and Gruul for the first time, and finally got Magtheridon down. I wouldn't say I really know any of the fights that well, though Gruul was certainly the best for me (being alive at the end). On the High King I'm not really sure what happened, I must have caught a cleave but I'm sure I didn't pull aggro. On Magtheridon it was much more clear - one of the knockbacks later in the fight bounced me in front of Mags and boom - cleaved.
Picked up tokens for the Netherblade Chestpiece and - once a minor looting error has been resolved - the Netherblade Breeches. The pants are a slight upgrade from the Fel Leather, so they'll go on straight away, but the chest is only an upgrade from the Primalstrike once properly gemmed, so I'll hold off for a little while as I collect some nice gems.
We followed up our successes in T4 with a venture into The Eye to face Fel Reaver. Tier 5 content, and isn't it a doozy. We had a bit of trouble with the trash and I accidentally caused a wipe as I was blown back into another group of adds. In my defence, I stopped and vanished as soon as I heard the aggro siren, but it was too late. Positioning is the key there I guess. I went down like a cheap tent the first (wipe) on FR but after that I hit my rhythm. It's a tough fight for melee DPS - you have to run in from 16-18 yards, take a few swipes at him then run out again before the stomping starts again. When CoS is up you can - if you time it right - light up trinkets, BF and AR and stay in through the stomping. It's a real rush pulling it off as until then you've been doing maybe 4k-8k every 13 seconds (3 secs of stomping and 10 sec DPS window) but with CoS up you get a solid 23 secs of backstabbing goodness in between stomps. I need to average 6.5k on each cycle to do my bit, which is a bit challenging at this stage.
So I finished the final attempt at the enrage with about 160k damage done and FR at 40%. We're a bit light on DPS - assuming 15 DPS types, we need to be able to pump out 300k each on average (500DPS over 10 minutes) - but ranged DPS should be able to pew pew more consistently from outside stomp range. I need to not run out too far, and not run in too far either, to maximise DPS. Still, I lived till the end on 2 of the 3 attempts, and now I know the fight. Sweet.

a Merry milestone

In other news, Merrybelle hit level 20 last night. Good grief, how do priests keep track of all those spells? Maybe if I can get healbot to work properly, it will be a bit easier.

gear progression

So where to now?

Head: Mask of the Deceiver for 50 Badges (Netherspite and High King Maulgar also drop suitable alternatives) and an appropriate set of gems (probably the Swift Skyfire Diamond as it only requires 2 yellow and 1 red gem to get the bonus). However, if I can get myself into SSC I'll be praying to Lady Vashj for the Deathmantle Helm!
Neck: The Shattered Sun Pendant of Might once I get Exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive (I'm halfway through Revered). The Choker of Vile Intent is a good alternative too at only 25 Badges, as the +hit is useful.
Legs: the Skulker's Greaves from Netherspite or the Netherblade Breeches from Gruul (obtained 1/6/08).
Ring: the Ring of a Thousand Marks from Prince, and/or the Garona's Signet Ring from Curator.
Trinket: The Dragonspine Trophy from Gruul would be lovely. Otherwise there's a few, including Romulo's Poison Vial from the Karazhan Opera Event and the Violet Badge once I've dropped Prince again.
Back: Drape of the Dark Reavers from Shade of Aran is probably the best bet.
Thrown: Xavian Stiletto from Illhoof is really the only option.

All the rest I'm pretty happy with currently, but if something drops I'll take it!

So: Badges, Kara, Gruuls, Gold. The usual.

we ain't in Goldshire no more, little Catheryna

600ish gold for the pattern. 1350 gold for the mats (plus leather, which I had in stock), and would have been another 150 gold if it weren't for a generous donation of Primal Air from Electricmonk. All that for one set of shoulder armour - the Swiftstrike Shoulders.
According to Shadowpanther, these sit between the Deathmantle (T5) and Slayer's (T6) in terms of effectiveness for PvE Rogues. That makes them my first ever piece of T5+ gear and I finally, finally, have a piece of gear better than Monk again. That hasn't happened since we were in our forties and he blew past me.
These put me firmly into Gruuls/Mags. Thank Elune for the dailies - without those, I never would have had the patience to grind the gold. W0000000000000000t!

New gloves, and Mags

Picked up the Grips of Deftness from some trash mobs in Kara with the Best PUG Eva TM. Slap an Assault enchant on there, and they're a very nice upgrade from the Fel Leather.
Ran Magtheridon's Lair with the guild last night. Three decent attempts, each better than the last, but we got to 10pm and called it. Shame to punch out with an hour remaining on my Flask of Relentless Assault, but I (mostly) learned the fight and didn't cause a wipe. Counts as a win at this stage of my experience and gear :)

long time no post

Well it's been quite a while since I updated the blog. So here goes:

Biggest news is that I've taken Cat across to Pinnacle. Despite best efforts, TKT are still a ways off being able to mount a credible challenge into Kara and I want to see Illidan before WotLK. So.
I've started a shadow priest - Merrybelle - who is now lv14. They grow up so fast! She's kinda fun to play, I never thought I'd get into a healer but I did and I do.
Gear - where do I start. Dual mongoose now on both daggers (still the same daggers), the Primal Intent set is finished, I picked up patterns for Boots of Utter Darkness and Swiftstrike Shoulders though I'm still grinding the mats for the shoulders. Boots are nice.
Got my Cenarion Expedition rep to revered, so now have the Glyph of Ferocity. Other enchants: Exceptional Stats, Assault and Dexterity.
Next is farming badges for the Bloodlust Brooch to get rid of my last green, and money for mats for the shoulders. Looking forward to seeing where things go with Pinnacle, they seem like a good bunch.

you know you're sick of it too

the new weps

I feel, somehow, like I've made it now.

I love - LOVE - my new daggers. Happy, happy day.

another very good day

The big K.

I thought it would be a while before I saw it. Gear up in heroics, get some S1 and S2 weapons, finish my Primal Intent set, then I'd maybe get an invite. I reckoned without an ex-guildie, Belaide, who recently jumped ship for Pinnacle, a raiding guild.

So it turns out that their rogue was late for the final stage of their Kara run. The Prince. Bel knew I was recently keyed, sorta kinda geared, and keen as mustard. The invite came, I almost choked on my water, and I was beamed up to the gate of Karazhan.

Now The Prince isn't an easy fight for under-geared rogues. we wiped twice, and on both occasions I stayed alive all of about 40 seconds. Combination of the 1-hp enfeeble debuff and the AoE shadow nova blast got me both times. Third time though, I did better but still got killed when a nova knocked me back into one of the hellfire pools. Low stam hurt me, and I died having done about 40k damage. For a boss with over 1 million hp, I wasn't impressed with myself. Nevertheless, he dropped.

Now: the master looter asks me to roll. I say - publicly in raid chat - that I didn't contribute much to the fight, was only parachuted in 75% of the way through the instance, and didn't want to roll against anyone for loot. However, the master looter insisted and I rolled a totally gammy 86. Much to my surprise and, to be honest, guilt - I received the holy grail of Karazhan for dagger rogues: Malchazeen.

Thankfully, we went on to drop Nightbane where I carried myself far better. I only died on the first two wipes once the tanks were dead and I was pulling the dragon off the healers, and the third attempt (when we eventually dropped him) I got unlucky on the final skelly fight, wore the fireball and got aggroed by a bunch of skellies with no evasion up. Until that point, I was neck and neck with the other two rogues for DPS.

So: what started as a reputation-wrecking failure on the Prince ended nicely, got 5 of the 10 Badges of Justice I need for my next BOP epic, and I got a truly epic main hand dagger to boot. And I've still never even fought Attumen :) Having this drop means I don't need to keep saving honor for a S1 main hand, and can instead get a nice S1 offhand. Tonight.

Yeah baby.

a big night

1. Aeonus goes down like a cheap tent in Black Morass, after 2 wipes. Grats also to Quron and Zah, and big big thanks to Sal for giving up her own chance at The Master's Key to tank for us. BM is my new favourite instance.

2. As a result, The Master's Key is mine and I can now enter Karazhan. Tits.

3. As a result of the rep gained in BM, I got the pattern for Drums of Panic which took me (finally!) to 375 Elemental Leatherworking.

4. As a result of that, I made my first BOP epic item: Primalstrike Bracers.

So, a big night no? About on par with dinging 70. Still buzzing over BM.


The Karazhan portcullis opens for me now. Phear.

my nostromo

A few people have asked now how I have my Nostromo N52 set up. Well folks, it's your lucky day.



Basically, the setup is this:

The middle row of buttons are my core attacks - SS/Shiv (I move the icons around depending on my equipment), BS, Garrotte/Rupture (depending on stealth state) and Ambush/SnD (again depending on stealth state). Above that are my core interrupts: Kick, Gouge, Kidney Shot (or Pick Pocket in stealth), Blind.

Next to blind I have bandage, so I can quickly hit the blind>bandage combo. With health pot under bandage, the right hand side becomes my healing functions.

The bottom row is Cheapshot or Blade Flurry (depending on stealth state), Trinket 1 (which will be either an AP trinket or Insignia of the Alliance), Tea or Drums (I drop the most likely one to be used into the appropriate slot before battle) and Sap (in stealth)/Distract.

Stealth, Feint and Vanish are on the bottom left of the thumb button, deliberately close together as if I'm trying to feint, there's something wrong and accidentally hitting Vanish is no big deal. Hitting feint also triggers Trinket 2, which is always an AP trinket. Feint and AP on the same key? Isn't that two opposite things? Well I make a point to always blow Trinket 2 at the start of the fight when feint kinda helps (I've usually opened with a big crit) and after that if I need to hit feint the AP trinket will probably be on cooldown.

Evasion, Sprint and Adrenaline Rush at the top right of the thumb button. The scroll wheel is next/previous target so I can quickly cycle to the one I want to put the hurt on.

Where are Cloak of Shadows, Eviscerate and the other of Shiv or SS? On the keyboard, near my arrow keys which I use for movement. There just weren't enough keys.

So that's it. The idea is that every most common function is quickly available for a twitch hit if needed. Organising them in this way helps me to remember where everything is, but it's getting to the stage of muscle memory now. It also helps that I only play a rogue - I think if I ever level Sprynkles I'll have to get another Nostromo for her so I don't have to relabel :)

a new build?

I'm thinking about a new (really, only slightly tweaked) build.

It basically gives up 1% dodge and 4% non-crit rear-attack damage to get 100% chance to silence for 2 secs with Improved Kick. I've really found I've missed that silence when grinding and in PvP. What do you think?

the knights

A nice piccy of some of the boys in Shadowmoon.

2v2

Ph34r the Noobs Templar! Quron and I have decided to get our feet wet in Arena.

BM attempt 1 and 2

Got to 12/18 portals and wiped on Temporus. Wow, that's intense.

redux

And with far less drama, I got the 3rd frag with a guild group tonight. Thanks to all the folks that helped - Wev, Sal, Zah and Monk.
We followed it up with a successful run (with Sal, Lon, Quron and Temp) through Old Hillsbrad to complete the pre-req quest to get into the Black Morass for the final stage of the Kara attunement. We now have about 6 guildies all at or near the same stage, itching to get into the big one.

the 3rd frag... or not.

So I've been reading WoWWiki a lot lately about the Kara chain, and I started reading in a lot of places that the 3rd frag was duoable with another Rogue or a Drood. After my success ninjaing the 2nd frag, I wanted to give it a try.

So, I sit in LFG for a little while casting out for a partner to give it a shot. Eventually the guildless Quron answers my call, and we book it for The Arcatraz.

Well. It all turned untidy almost immediately as the initial corridor, complete with unending stream of Horrors, cast a very strong and harsh light on our unimproved stealth abilities. Eventually we zigzagged through to the next room, only to be set back with spawns and have to try all over.

An hour passes. We make it to the Sentinel guarding the Voidie Room, which contains the treasured key frag chest. The strat guide calls for a stealth sprint and well-timed CoS, which is intended to get the rogue past the Sentinel un-destealthed, so that he (I) can pull, evasion tank and vanish (or die) to get the stealthed Drood through.

Amazingly, after the frustration of the past hour, it goes off without a hitch. First attempt, Q gets to the Kara key and hugs the corner, I make my way over to him having vanished safely, and we prepare to spank the chest guardian.

So, for one reason or another, we get the guardian to 1% before we get wiped by one of the Voidies. Shame, but we're pumped and believe it's doable. We sneak in again.

Now the problems start. I'm unable to repeat my success with the steath/CoS, and the Sentinel aggroes me. I run, evasion, and die far enough away to get Q through. Sweet, I can come back. Q settles into the corner for the wait.

And wait. And wait. I'm unable to stay stealthed through the Sentinel for another half-dozen attempts. The one time I do, a Horror on the other side runs right on top of me, destealths me and I fall under a hail of blue fists.

It's now about 2 hours into the attempt and we've decided to give it one last try. Amazingly, it works. We huddle in the corner, with the chest guardian sniffing for us, and plan the fight to the nth level of detail.

It works. The guardian goes down like a cheap tent, but Q dies to a Voidie. I'm left in evasion, with my health rapidly declining, and with the Voidie standing on top of the dead guardian, I'm unable to get a loot. I die - disappointed, exhausted and lootless.

Now: at this point you're probably thinking: "no worries - just stealth back in, loot the corpse and you're gold". And you'd be right. Unfortunately, a combination of exhaustion, frustration, a time well past midnight and having already committed to "one last try" we had a collective brain fart and hearthed out.

Q logs. I cast around YouTube looking for 3rd frag videos and something in one of them triggers an awful thought in my mind. OMG. The frag is just sitting there waiting for me to loot it.

I jump on a bird and book it back to the Arc. I stealth in, die three times on the horror corridor, but eventually get to the Sentinel. I try the stealth/sprint/CoS trick, and it fails again. I die in sight of the Key corner - where there is no sparkling loot. 40 mins after the kill, it's too late.

Yes. You're right. You STUPID BASTARD, ME!

Positive end result: Quron joined the Knights, and got the frag in a guild run the next night. I logged on 3o mins too late and missed the run. Sigh. The quest continues.

370...

Hit 370 LW tonight crafting Drums of Battle. Only, surprisingly, took 6 to go from 365-370 at yellow.
Next: Honoured with Keepers of Time, buy Drums of Panic and hit 375. Then, my friends, it's on.

Shiv

I was grinding leather today (in my usual lazy fashion - BS > SnD > spam SS) when I wondered something: maybe Shiv is more effective in a front-on spam fight than SS?

Now the caveats here would be:
- combat dagger spec (I'm 15/41/5)
- dagger in MH (I have Ced's Carver)
- fast weapon in OH (I have Revenger)

SS is definitely going to beat Shiv if Combat Swords spec due to the reduced energy cost of SS and the likelihood of having a high-damage sword in the MH. However, comparing SS to Shiv with the above caveats:

- SS: 129 wpn dam + 113.5 SS dam + (170 instant poison VII dam * 20% chance to apply) = 276.5 average damage per SS
- Shiv: 107.5 wpn dam + (170 instant poison VII dam * 100% chance to apply) = 277.5 average damage per Shiv

Now of course that isn't so impressive a difference, but remembering that SS costs 45 energy (combat daggers remember) and Shiv only 35...

For a 10 second grind fight (100 energy at start plus 100 regained during fight):
SS: 276.5 dam * 4.44 cycles = 1229 total dam or 122.9 DPS
Shiv: 277.5 dam * 5.71 cycles = 1586 total dam or 158.6 DPS

So it seems that Shiv is about 29% more effective in a front-on combat daggers lazy grind fight.

Now this wasn't just to show off my dubious math skills, I have a question: what have I missed?
- I am assuming that the % chance to hit with the SS and Shiv is the same; is this correct?
- Given that Shiv is an OH attack, which usually has only 75% damage (with maxed Dual Wield Spec, as Combat Daggers should have), should I apply this?
- Any other stupid and wrong assumptions?

With the 0.75 weapon damage applied to the Shiv calculation (assuming it still gets the full damage from the poison), Shiv still comes out on top with 143 DPS vs 123 DPS.

You may say "so what, this is only applicable in very limited circumstances" and you'd be right, but hey the servers are down so why not think about this stuff? :)

Fel Skin

Completed the Fel Skin on Sunday with these beauties: Fel Leather Leggings

According to Shadowpanther's Kara Guide, I'm almost ready. The Primal Intent set and some new weapons (maybe the Gladiator's Shanker and Shiv?) are really all that remain. Mind you, getting LW from 363 to 375 plus 27k honour and 40 EOTS marks isn't exactly a doddle, but I'm not forced to sit in LFG for hours either! I'll have enough of that completing the Kara chain.

2nd frag...

Electricmonk and Zaharah helped me stealth to the 2nd Kara frag in Steamvaults this morning, score. Next: The Arcatraz for a bunch of quests and the 3rd frag. Maybe tomorrow on WoW night!

Also now have my Consortium rep only 3,000 away from Revered, which means only 110 more Zaxxis Insignias (so about 220 more Zaxxis Ethereals) or a Heroic Mana Tombs run are all that stand between me and completing my Fel Skin set.

Leatherworking now 361... So close but yet so far from the Primal Intent...

Slabs again

Last night I got the first Kara key frag. I also witnessed the crappiest thing I've seen since playing WoW.

I was invited into a pretty solid group, all from the same (other) guild. It was a decent group; prot pally, frost mage, holy priest, a geared hunter. Solid. We cruised through the instance in about 3 hours with only 2 wipes, as far as Murmur who stopped us in our tracks. We had agreed that nobody would touch the Kara chest and after we'd had a crack at Murmur, those who had the key would leave and we could bring in guildies and friends for the key.

So three of the group drop, leaving me and the pally. Now we have a mishmash group, and the Fel Overseers have respawned, so we're having trouble getting back to Murmur. Pally starts making all sorts of noise in party chat about "we had better get that damn key" getting all tense. After a couple of attempts at getting past the Overseers, I hatch a plan to pull the guy patrolling the corridor over into a corner, evasion tank long enough to let everyone run through, then vanish or die and stealth back in. All in agreement, but before everyone is ready Pally tries to run for it and gets his skull bashed in for the effort. Sigh, wait.

So I set it up again, and as we're making sure everyone is ready, Pally does his bubble run trick again and this time the rest of the group decides that they're sick of waiting so they run through too. The tank grabs the overseer, giving the rest of the group time to get away, and I stay with the tank until I have to vanish. Tank dies, foregone conclusion.

So now it's a simple matter of the Pally returning to the tank, rezzing him, then we all stroll through for the frag right? You would think so. With the tank dead on the floor and me waiting by him to escort him through, I see "wtf" in party chat and the pally's health starts going down.

You already know what happened right?

The tank tells me to go, and I sprint into Murmur's room to find the chest open. The pally protests that it wasn't him that opened the chest, but the evidence points strongly against him. Luckily I was alive and in the instance at the time it was opened, and I can loot. The tank, because of his self-sacrificing grabbing of the Overseer to save the rezzer, doesn't get it. I hearth out in disgust.

Just imagine if I had done my pull to let the group through, died, and after 4 hours of Slabs, get the frag ninjad? I was furious enough as it was just seeing the tank miss out, I think I would have hunted the guy down if it had been me.

Anyway, (takes pill) tick.

Slabs

Screw you, Murmur... 10 wipes? Grrr.

Next

Note to self: Bracers need an upgrade. Try Find Spy To'gun for Spymistress's Wristguards (apparently soloable as a rogue).

*Edit* soloed this today. Very simple - Stealth to the spy, turn in. Accept next in chain, stealth to the tent right of the second boss. Sap, blind, loot 1st item, vanish. Wait for blind CD, sap, blind, loot 2nd item, die. Reset instance. Go back in and repeat for another 2 items, then again for one item and the chest. Hearth to Shatt, done. less than an hour.

Mech

Cleared Mech tonight with a PUG that started horribly but ended well. 2 droods, a good tank and a hunter. Died 8 times before the first boss, but then didn't die again until the red sorceress, who killed me twice before I realised that running away from the Fire Elementals is a good idea.

No loot (at all, not even greens) but completed the questline for the Arcatraz Key and Naaru Belt of Precision (an upgrade). Neato. As now Honoured with Sha'tar, also got the Warpforged Key.

Also respecced to 15/41/5 Combat Daggers. Only real thing I lose is the 2 second silence with Improved Kick. Shame that, but the backstab damage should go through the roof now. Just have to watch the aggro!

Tombs

Cleared Mana Tombs tonight with Len, Mags and pug tank and pally. Len dinged 70 in the process, so bigups to him!

Also got Lower City Honoured (stupid Arakkoa Feathers) for the Auchenai Key - hooray! Heroic Tombs now! - and started grinding my Darnassus rep to Exalted so I can get a Frostsaber.

Combat Daggers?

So what about this now that I have Ced's Carver in the MH and Revenger in the off?

Bot

Cleared Bot tonight with Temp, Tan, our new Hunter (sorry mate I forgot again) and a pug Tank. A few wipes early on as we figured the group dynamic, but otherwise all good. Picked up half of the Arcatraz key, and 3 nice rogue blues including this sucker: Revenger

promoted

I got made an officer of the Knights today. Hooray! Now to empty the GB :) j/k

Shirt?

I've been obsessing over what shirt best matches my Kara gear. So far I've gone from the Stylish Black Shirt to the Rich Purple Silk Shirt, but now I'm wondering about the Master Builder's Shirt...

gear

Going by my previous list, I have about half the gear now. Those I don't have are:

- MH/OH weapons - on the questlines (though I picked up Ced's Carver today at the AH for 40g, a nice intermediate)
- the Slayer's ring (though I have the almost-equivalent Overseer's Signet) - on the questline
- The Primal Intent set (chest/bracers/belt) - needs 375 LW and Primal Nethers
- The Fel Leather Leggings - grinding Revered with The Consortium (now Honoured)

So my current activity surrounds grinding Lower City and Consortium rep, and trying to get Bot/Mech/Arc/Slabs/heroics runs for the other bits. Joy! LW is now up to 355 and climbing slowly.

seventy

Yes folks, it's all over. I hit 70 tonight.

This was the moment it happened - the last XP I will get until the new expansion.
Following shortly after the ding (and many thanks to Temp who quested the last 100k XP with me) two others demonstrated the legendary generosity of the guild. Firstly, Crissie slipped me 500G to make up the difference for my flying mount, and Electricmonk slipped me 100G for my lv70 training. To say that I was grateful is a gross understatement. Anyone in any doubt about the values of TKT should know that it is alive and well.

To anyone that's ever helped me with a quest, thank you!

Now... to grind that Consortium rep...

The Night Watchman

Yes that's right, it dropped off a trash mob in Netherstorm. Yes, I am a lucky git. Here's my Kara gear with the fancy new helm (though for PvE my original blue choice actually rates higher).

the family that WoW's together...

The relationship between Catheryna, a smokin' hot human female rogue, and Electricmonk, a sturdy human male rogue, was always going to be a little weird. After all, I'm married to Monk's sister IRL, whose name is Catherine, and who Catheryna was modelled on. Hence...

Herding Cats

kara gear preview

So here's my planned gear courtesy of WoW Model Viewer. Neato!

Kara Gear

Here is my preliminary gear list. Note that this is not my be-all and end-all, but is intended to be a target gear set that is reasonably easy to achieve without spending weeks grinding random boss drops and rep.

- Stealther's Helmet of Second Sight (I know Helm of the Claw is better for raw DPS, but see below about my bandanna/hood commitment)
- Earthen Mark of Razing
- Expedition Scout's Epaulets
- Primal Intent
- Fel Skin
- Kaylaan's Signet
- Slayer's Mark of the Redemption
- Bladefist's Breadth
- Insignia of the Alliance or Core of Ar'kelos
- Delicate Green Poncho
- Mama's Insurance
- Illidari-Bane Broadsword
- Ashtongue Blade

Most things, especially the weapons, are up for replacement if something better drops. I'll be running heroics to get the nethers for the Primal Intent, so there's every chance something nice will weasel its way into the list. However, this does give me a target to aim for!

gearing up for Kara

I'm now spittin' distance from 69 and starting to think about gearing up for Kara. I found an absolutely tremendous guide at ShadowPanther.net for getting geared up without depending on boss drops - I'm aiming to have every slot at or near the top of that list. As a bonus, the gear I've chosen all looks pretty good in blacks, greys and purple. However, I did have to take a small hit on the headgear to keep my bandanna commitment. Such is the fate of a casual RP'er.

I've also started looking at weapons - initially both the Illidari-Bane Broadsword and Ashtongue Blade are available from SV quests, and that puts me solidly into a competitive DPS range. Better blades will follow, but these are decent places to start aiming for.

The hard part will be levelling Leatherworking to 375 and getting 30 Badges of Justice for the Primal Intent set! The rest is all quests (which I need to do for XP anyway) and grinding motes.

I have my plan... now to execute!

a little bit of build tweaking

So, this is what I'm going to try...

builds

OK, I'm going to experiment with a new build. Here's what I've currently got:
(I know this is showing as requiring lv61 and I'm currently 63, I don't know what went wrong with the exporter). This is my evolved levelling build which is neat and I'm used to it, but isn't great for DPS.

Here was my first thought: a hybrid combat daggers/assassination build with MoD for solo PvE.

Craig from the guild offered this as a lv70 suggestion: pure combat DPS.

Modified for lv63 and daggers gives this :

... but I lose the improved Backstab. So... this?

Well? Hmm....

The Blood Furnace

A fun guild run through The Blood Furnace last night with Wev, Bel, Tan and Electricmonk. It included the world's biggest bad pull, resulting in a pile of bodies that reached the ceiling :) Great healing though from the pallies made it pretty much a breeze. Thanks guys!

Outland

What a difference the new patch made. After a break of some 6 weeks, I jumped back into WoW and made 10 levels in about 3 weeks - quest XP is just insane now! Currently at 58 and have just seen Outland for the first time. Laaaaag....
Have taken Elemental Leatherworking and am grinding for the materials. Will work my way up to the Epic 70 set over time.
Next: finish off some BRD/BRS quests for the massive XP, get the final mats for Elemental LW, and get back to Outland to explore some.
The guild has a new tabard, which I'm not sure I like as much as the old one, but it certainly suits the guild name better.

I would so do me

Ninja Halloween costumes rock very hard.

Got my Ebon Mask (thanks to Del and Cop for their kind assistance in ST) and may I say: w00t. It's a nice bit of kit.

Also picked up some Stormshroud Duds at the AH. I think I'll go for the set, they look kinda cool, all orange and black and wavy.

contemplation

Don't sneak up on skeletons with swords. ESPECIALLY if you're a defenseless bunny rabbit.

Hanzo

I have been wanting a Hanzo Sword almost ever since I started playing WoW. Last night I got one - a bargain at 46g on the AH.
The whole reason I started a rogue was the ninja / samurai thing - you know, sneaking around, garotting people from behind, dual-wielding the long-short. Of course, the codes of ethics of your stereotypical ninja are very different from your garden-variety samurai, but I take what I like from both. The ninja's dress sense and morals, with the samurai's achingly cool weapons.
Now the circle is complete - apart from the Ebon Mask (and that's next).

laaaaaaaaaaaaag

OK, my WiBb card (Wireless Broadband for the uninitiated) sucks. My latency tonight hovered between 1300ms and 3000ms. That's 3 seconds for something that should take less than 1/10th of a second.

Needless to say, I didn't run Sunken Temple. Instead, I did a grindy rogue quest chain that, conveniently, ends in a boss in ST. The big reward is the Ebon Mask which, apart from being a neat bit of kit, allows me to keep up my bandanna commitment.

What is my bandanna commitment? Well, back when I was a wee nipper rogue, I got a red silk mask and thought it was the best thing since sliced murlocs. I committed at that point that I would always have a mask, not a helmet. It just felt more roguely.

It became Catheryna's thing and I now always wear one unless I am fully specced for an instance or soloing/raiding in the world. I do carry a helmet (currently my Spooky Dog Hat which I picked up in ZF) but I always switch back to the mask in towns and for social occasions.

So I'm looking forward to the black mask - I can ditch the rather silly dog hat and have one ninja looking mask for all occasions. Sweet.

The Blasted Lands

" ... and she gazed upon the Dark Portal for the first time, her eyes drawn to the shimmering magics within. She approached it, feeling the inexorable pull of the promise of limitless power, and reached out tentatively towards the crackling surface.

A dark, hollow voice spoke in her mind, mocking and cruel. She recoiled in anger and frustration at the cold words...

You must be at least level 58 to enter Outland."

Bugger.

Tarren Mill and Swamp of Sorrows

The Knights Templar had a guild raid on Tarren Mill on Friday night which was a bit of a hoot.

Still, as a 49 I got pwned good and proper most of the time. I found my best success rate came from sneaky cheapshots on otherwise-engaged 70's. A 4-second stun really gives our guys a chance to wail on the person unopposed - and if it's resisted, well I just stay in stealth and try again. I actually sort of ganked a Horde 70 doing this - he had run away from Southshore chased by one of the (pretty tough) human guards, and he got proper beat up once I stuck him in the goolies. I actually got the killing blow on him too while he was occupied with the guard - a 5-dot eviscerate. Noice.

The highlight for me though was almost pwning a level 70 rogue. Key term: almost. Humankiller had been annoying us all evening and I finally chanced upon him fighting one of our 70's. As is my wont, I I cheapshotted and backstabbed a couple of times while he was tied up and between us we got him down to about 1/4 health - at which point he ran like a little girl! Big bad 70 running from a tiny 49 (and a 70 of course, but that's by the by).

So of course I threw all caution to the wind, thumbed sprint and chased him while my guildies cackled uproariously at the sight :) We got past the SS graveyard before he stood to fight. My vanish was on cooldown but unfortunately his wasn’t - he vanished and circled around for a sap. If I had been just a fraction quicker on my trinket I would have broken out in time to hit him with the 5-dot eviscerate I’d saved specially, but it wasn’t to be - he ambushed me for 2900-ish in one hit - and I went down like Paris Hilton after a bacardi breezer.

The Nostromo really is the shiz for PVP though. If I was a little higher up the learning curve I would have hit that trinket in time and it would have been something to crow about indeed had I chanced a decent crit.

In other news, I had a solo venture into the non-instance part of the Sunken Temple for the first time last night. Very atmospheric, can't wait for the full instance run on Tuesday night.

nostromo and big crits

I picked up a Belkin Nostromo N52 yesterday. Yes, I freely admit, until yesterday I was a clicker. Now - omg - I am not. Not ever again. After the learning curve (which I am admittedly still on) even as a left hander it makes a HUGE difference. No more mis-clicking, and the twitch hits readily available when needed without thinking. it is an awesome addition for the PVP'er, even one as hopeless as me.


I practised for about an hour last night on the 43-44 elite trolls in Tanaris and after that short time refining my profile I was reflexively stunlocking and absolutely tearing through them. Until you make the decision to stop clicking you will never know the true joy of dishing out instinctive hurt.

I still accidentally hit my trinket every now and then instead of backstab, but that will disappear with muscle memory. Of course the real test will be PVP, and I'll hit WSG tonight sometime to try it out.

In other news I got my biggest ever crit - 1092 on a 5-dot eviscerate with my Searing Needle. Sweet.

Arathi Basin for Cockheads

I've just spent a few days grinding AB and WSG for tokens and PVP gear. This resulted in a) my first ever epic item (which I can't yet use) and b) the opinion that approximately half the people in AB are cockheads.

I'm normally a pretty easygoing sort. I go along with the BG commander's plan, even though it might be flawed. I report recon. I don't fight off the flags. Yada yada. So when it was my turn to be BG commander, I greeted my PUG with something approximating the following:
"Hi folks. Let's try grp 1 GM, grp 2 BS and grp 3 LM then see what happens. Please report what you see, call out any zergs and don't fight off the flags. Good luck."
Pretty reasonable I thought. The response, of course was something similar to:
"stfu n00b"
"hahahhahha"
"wtf thay always send mroe thn 5 to bs"

The last guy has a point, but as I pointed out to him: "if you can organise 7/7 and the fat kid with a PUG, be my guest". Response: "n00b". Same response when I reported the numbers at the LM, when I advised LM was safe, when I called out numbers at BS from my recon at LM... and so on. As almost everyone else fought off the flags. He eventually went on /ignore, so the FSM only knows what he said after that.

This guy is quite clearly a cockhead.
AB is full of them.

The cockhead matches invariably ended the same way: one token. The non-cockhead matches ended more often in an Alliance victory than not. Given that I needed 50 AB tokens for my PVP gear, I must have run it around 30 times. So I think I'm somewhat qualified to comment on what makes a successful AB run. And that is: a) A DESIRE TO WIN, b) BRAINS and c) COMMUNICATION.

The desire to win is almost invariably absent in cockhead matches. They mindlessly bash each other for honour kills, ignoring the flags. I really don't get it - what use is honour at 40-49 without tokens? Does anyone really want to spend 3 times as much as is necessary to get their PVP gear? I have never fallen short on honour for rewards, tokens are always the limiting factor. What are you cockheads thinking? Please, if you're an honour-kill cockhead post a comment and tell me what the attraction is. Is it just to baffle people like me?

Now it's possible to want to win but still fail to use one's brains. Here are some classic AB goofs:

• treating the stables like it's something special. Stables are just another flag - if you can't cap it because of numbers, leave it. They are weak somewhere else as a result.
  
• Trying to defend a zerg. If you're heavily outclassed, they are going to cap that flag. They will not trip over your corpse and impale themselves - your death will serve no purpose. Again, if they are zerging they are weak somewhere (almost everywhere) else. Go there. Don't call for reinforcements. Say this: "/bg zerg at gm, lost it".
• NOT re-tapping flags when the opportunity presents. I have lost count of the number of times I've re-capped one of our flags that has been contested by simply looking around, seeing that no horde were watching the flag during the fight, and going to tap it. A lot of people get caught up in the whacking and don't realise that the clock is ticking. If someone gets a 10-second tap on your flag, you just lost a) a resource node and b) a graveyard. Anyone who dies (horde or alliance) will spawn away from the flag you're defending. It is VITALLY important that you tap it back. 10 seconds is all it takes and the flag goes straight back to blue, restoring resources and graveyard instantly. Defence is much easier than offence because when your defenders die on a held flag they rez right there at the battle. That is why you usually need greater numbers on offence than on D.
• Not understanding the mechanics of the BG. The example above is the best one, but I had a conversation like this the other day: "Folks, I'd prefer 3 AB tokens than 1 this time, can we try to win?" " you mean we get 3 if we win? I never knew that" "Really? Yes we do get 3 tokens if we win." "Oh, I've never won, so I didn't know". Read wowwiki.

Now here are some of the things I like to do as a sneaky rogue:

• Stealth to undefended flags and tap them. This is surprisingly easy, especially at the farm, GM and LM which are often under-defended as the horde focuses on the BS. If you time it right with a sap you can contest the flag before the (single) guard wakes up. Then it's 1v1 and up to your PVP skills to hold it. I have held flags for a couple of minutes by myself after a solo cap - people just get distracted. Ninja-ing flags is a great occupation for under-levelled rogues (i.e. 40-47 in a 40-49 bracket).
• Use stealth to make them nervous. I once lost a flag to a mini-zerg (I was the only one who stayed behind to D after a cap) but managed to rez at the local graveyard before they tapped the flag. Now if I had stealthed in and cut up a couple of them I might have delayed their cap by 10 secs or so, but I would have died and rezzed elsewhere. So, I let them see me coming from the graveyard, then I stealthed. I kid you not, 5 horde started running around looking for me - one lone rogue tied up 5 assorted badasses at one flag. I just avoided them while they pissed themselves waiting for the cheapshot. Meanwhile, the rest of the team capped the other 4 flags with a 14-10 advantage. Let them see you disappear, it makes them very nervous.
  
• Stealth is also good for misdirection. Whenever I think the farm might be undefended and I'm coming from stabs or LM down the right hand side, I do this: I ride fully visible to the bridge up to BS and then stealth. To the casual observer (e.g. from farm or LM) it looks like I'm going to ninja the BS. Once cloaked in shadows, I turn around and go for the farm. Misdirection and cunning, both roguely tools. It works in a lot of other cases too - a highly visible run from stabs down towards GM, stealth then go for BS. Horde at GM are typing "oh crap, Catheryna's coming" and pissing themselves looking for me (well, maybe) while I ninja the BS. It's gold.

So brains is really just keeping that situational awareness and thinking "where should I be, and what should I do, to bring my measly skills to the most effect?". The answer almost never is "bashing big group in the middle of nowhere". Like it or not, in a PUG you will almost always be a loner. Maybe a loner in a group of people who all had the same idea at once, but essentially a loner. You have to use your brains and, as a tidy segue, your mouth.

Bad communication kills more AB campaigns than anything else. If I had one rule for BGs it would be this: when you are waiting at a graveyard to rez, type intel. That's it - just tell everyone else what you know about the tactical situation. You got something better to do? You're a ghost. There's nothing else you CAN do, unless you're a cockhead. In that case, instead of disseminating useful information, you should abuse everyone on your team and/or complain about Alliance always losing BGs.

update

Well, let's see: Catheryna is now lv48, I'm now on the Nagrand server with some buddies, I'm in a new guild and I'm a little less n00bish in my WoWishness.