daggers
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Age of Wushu sharpens up informations on edged weapons
Many of the combat forms in Age of Wushu are fully capable of inflicting grievous bodily harm without a weapon, but that doesn't mean you can't hack at people with sharp bits of metal. And there are a lot of variants on the core principle of "sharp bit of metal," as displayed in the latest development blog examining three linked types of weapon. While swords, blades, and daggers all have the same core design and function, they're very different just the same. Blades are the largest and most savage of these one-handed weapons; they are tools, meant to end lives as quickly as possible without any concern for elegance. Swords, meanwhile, are weapons and statements both, associated with grace and elegance in movement. Or you could opt for the short and concealable dagger, favored by duplicitous fighters everywhere. Even within a fairly narrow range of weapon types, variety abounds if you know the details.
Encrypted Text: We've been normalized
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. Rogues have a long history of exploiting weapon speeds for their own gain. The Barman Shanker was farmed by thousands of rogues, becoming a rite of passage in the early rogue community. While its model was unique, nobody farmed it for looks. The Shanker's unusual 2.0 attack speed dramatically improved the damage of our Ambushes and Backstabs, providing us with an amazing amount of burst damage potential. The slow-is-best phenomenon was cropping up with the other classes as well, and it started to create balance issues. Blizzard countered by introducing a new mechanic, normalization. By adjusting the attack power formula, instant attacks no longer favored slower weapons as heavily as before. Thus began the first of many changes that have led us here to the obsolescence of weapon speeds entirely.
Encrypted Text: Should all rogues use daggers?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. When the art team at Blizzard developed the class icons for World of Warcraft, it based them on that class' weapon of choice. Mages cast spells through their crystal-laden staves, druids fight with their paws and sharp teeth, and paladins wield a mighty, righteous hammer. The rogue class has been represented by the swift, poisoned dagger for years. While our dark leather armor and our brittle yellow class text are easily recognizable symbols of the rogue, the dagger is our one true sigil. While only two of our abilities can't be used with swords or other weapons, both assassination and subtlety rogues are still forced to bend the knee to the dagger god. Even the most stalwart combat rogues carry a dagger in one hand. Why not go all the way?
Patch 4.3: First look at the rogue legendary daggers
Blizzard loves rogues in patch 4.3. Not only are rogues getting a pair of legendary daggers (potentially named Fangs of Father), but the daggers will give the rogue black dragon wings as well. First revealed in Blizzard's Facebook album "Glimpses," the picture depicts a night elf rogue in full tier 13 Blackfang Battleweave wielding the legendary pair of weapons, black wings unfurled. The wings go perfectly with the bat aesthetics of the tier 13 armor and give the set something totally unique. That rogue also looks pretty high up in the sky, so could the legendary daggers also be a type of mount not unlike the caster legendary Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest? We will know soon enough. All I've got to say is one word: awesome. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Aeria teases Eden Eternal Thief video
Another day, another Eden Eternal video reveal. It's almost old hat now since the free-to-play fantasy title from Aeria Games is on its third class trailer in as many weeks. First we had the Warrior, then the Magician, and today we get a glimpse of the Thief as the game rolls on towards its June 2nd beta date. A glimpse is probably all we'll get, too, since the Thief is a trickster who excels at evasion and stealth. Two cloaking skills come standard with every Thief, and the rascals can also make use of the five branch skills available to all melee DPS classes. Thieves are most effective when dual-wielding a pair of daggers, but like all Eden Eternal classes, they can fight with any weapon in a pinch. Sneak past the cut for a look at the Thief in action.
Encrypted Text: Tools of the rogue's trade
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Email Chase if you have any questions or want to submit a great screenshot. If you've been plugged into the rogue community for any length of time, you're familiar with some of the common thoughts that we share as a class. We're all very thankful that Cloak of Shadows is now a 100% immunity to spells, that aggressive min-maxing is part of our culture, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that our most pressing concern is getting Swirly Ball back. I would mention our years of torment waiting for a functional Vanish, but it's working now, and I don't want to jinx it. We don't always see eye to eye on every detail, though. While I imagine the rogue as a brutal killer, some prefer to think of our class as a group of honorable assassins. One of the most common ideas that I've seen but not understood is the obsession with daggers. I've heard the old standby of "a rogue not wielding a dagger isn't a rogue" a million times, but I just don't get it. Maybe it's combat talking. I even lobbied at BlizzCon for the devs to implement quick off-hand axes and swords, but the request fell on deaf ears. Like it or not, rogue weaponry has evolved.
Swords and daggers
Foxx asks over on Livejournal about the oldest question a budding Rogue can face: sword or dagger? As our great Rogue column Encrypted Text says, Rogue specs are designed more around weapons than roles-- the basest decision you make as a Rogue is to use daggers or swords.To my mind, there's no question: it's got to be daggers. I'm a longtime D&D player, and Rogues are supposed to Backstab, and Ambush, and sneak around and get in positions to do huge amounts of damage. A poisoned dagger is a Rogue's specialty, and that's what he's got to be wielding.On the other hand, some Rogues can't handle the pressure of stealth-- they equip swords and go in swinging for the fences. Don't get me wrong-- there is a lot of good in a sword spec. Combat is basically the best solo spec you'll find, and Blade Flurry is pretty much a Rogue's only weapon against multiple opponents.But even though it actually makes soloing harder, to me, a Rogue's just not a Rogue without a dagger in the main hand. You sword Rogues can disagree (and I know you will-- a sword-loving guildie of mine has argued this with me many times), but if you're not interested in sneaking around behind your target, and burying that toxic dagger in his back, maybe you should have rolled a fury Warrior.
Encrypted Text: Instruments of stabbiness
So you've decided to become a rogue. Roaming invisible through the darkness, lashing out in fury with your blades, the bane of casters in PVP, the most sustainable DPS in PVE, the most mispelled class name of all. You've picked your race, entered the game, rerolled your race because you noticed your stealth animations sucked, and finally started leveling. Then one day while you're grinding in Darkshore or running through Wailing Caverns, a nice weapon drops, and you finally have to face the question that all rogues must answer someday -- what kind of weapons do I want to use? Whereas other classes are defined by their spec -- "I'm a feral druid," "I'm a prot warrior," "I'm a resto shaman" -- rogues are defined mainly by their choice of weapons. This is because we can only DPS, while many other classes can tank or heal as well. (At least until Dogan's Bandage Spec becomes a reality.) Plus, from my experience in-game, not too many non-rogues know much about rogue talent trees. ("So you're Assassination ... is that the one with the thing that lets you sneak up behind people?") While you're leveling up early, you'll probably just use the best weapon you come upon, whether it be a sword, a dagger, a mace or a fist weapon. This is a pretty good strategy, since it gives you experience with all the different weapon types and helps you decide which one you like most. But eventually, you'll want to pick a type of weapon and stick with it for a while. No one wants to raid with the rogue who changes his weapons every time something new and shiny drops, and then spends the rest of the instance going "lol sword skill 230" and whacking at trash while the actual sword rogues and fury warriors who lost the roll seethe in anger and plot how to make him autofollow them off a cliff. So here's a quick guide to the types of weapons out there for rogues, their ideal specs, their plusses and their minuses.
Encrypted Text: Building your own Rogue
Friends, countrymen (and women), lend me yer... eyes! Today I come to you with the first installment of our shiny new Rogue column, Encrypted Text. As the weeks go by, Elizabeth W. and I will share Rogue tips, tricks, gear, and more about all things stealthy and stabby. You'll get lots of Information spanning levels 1 to 70, based on questions we get, interesting forum posts, and more. (As such, if you have any questions or suggestions for Encrypted Text, you know the drill!)Before we get rolling, allow me to steal just a moment of your time and give you a bit of information about my history (and passions) as a Rogue. My main Rogue is a L70 Troll who I have spent the last year and a half leveling and raiding under different Combat variants for the most part. I also have a L23 Blood Elf Rogue on Zangarmarsh who will be my test subject for builds once she gets to a respectable level. Currently, I am running a Swords variant on my main and do a respectable amount of damage with her. While I know many folks will immediately scream "but Swords don't fit the sneaky stabby thing, and you disable attacks that way" at me. Yes, I am aware of that. Playing up the assassin personae can definitely be a lot of fun. However, as I am primarily about PvE content, and still spend a great deal of time soloing between instances (motes - you know I love 'em) I find Combat Swords to be an excellent build for what I generally want to achieve. I do not want to mess around with having to worry about positioning or timing -- especially when in a situation where I am competing for taps. I want to walk up, pilfer through the mob's pockets, drop an opening Cheap Shot (love that noise) get my Combo Points, throw my (Improved) Slice & Dice, and proceed to Cuisinart my target into a pile of sparkly win at my feet. If this sounds like fun to you, then keep reading. Past the jump I'll share some of what I consider to be the crucial things that anyone considering rolling a Rogue for the first time needs to know. (For those of you who are battle-proven Rogue veterans, feel free to join us and add your own observations!)
Rogue weapon specs: mace rogue = PvP server?
Some flavor of combat build is generally taken to be the easiest build for leveling a rogue. But once you get to the middle of the tree, you face a decision: which weapon type to specialize in? Fist Weapons is easily eliminated, since there just aren't that many fist weapons, pre-raid. That leaves dagger, for 5% extra crit chance; sword, for a 5% chance to get an extra attack on doing damage with the sword; and mace, for +5 weapon skill and a 5% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds when doing damage with the mace.While the swords play-style tends to revolve around Cheap Shot and Sinister Strike, dagger rogues lean more towards Ambush and Backstab. Why? Well, Sinister Strike is best with a high-average-damage (read: slow) weapon, and daggers are generally fast. And honestly, Backstab is a lot harder and more time-consuming to pull off in solo PvE than Sinister Strike. Sure, you can gouge and run through the mob, but it's so much easier to just stand there and whack it in the face with something big and sharp.
