assassination
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Encrypted Text: Hunger for Blood is terrible (to play)
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we discuss how troublesome Assassination's new rotation is.During my regular readings of the Rogue forums, I often heard complaints regarding our Assassination 51-pointer (Hunger for Blood). The main issue is that people find with it comes from the fact that it takes our required button-pushing amounts from manageable to annoying. I was skeptical at first, as I had not been having much trouble with it in heroics and the odd Vault of Archavon run.I initially figured Mutilate would be a more interesting rotation than the old Rupture/SnD spam that was TBC Combat Swords. With Mutilate generating way more Combo Points than Sinister Strike, and simply replacing SnD with Envenom in my raiding DPS rotation, I figured it would be business as usual. I trade off using Mutilate less than Sinister Strike by having to keep HfB up. Easy enough, right? Wrong.
Wrath of the Lich King class changes roundup
Over the last two days, the WoW Insider team has been busy reviewing and gathering all of the still-current class information to bring you up to speed for your first steps into Northrend. You've probably had a chance to get a handle on your class since most of the changes were pushed through in patch 3.0.2, but you have an extra ten levels ahead of you, an extra ten talent points, and a whole bunch of new skills and abilities you're going to need to learn. Don't know what to expect? We're here for you. If you do know what to expect? Well, I guess you can keep reading if you want. We'll let it slide just this once. Death Knight - Being the new class on the block, there's certainly been a lot to talk about in the recent months. Daniel Whitcomb points you toward much of it, including leveling builds, in-depth looks at their core abilities and mechanics, as well as some sage advice from Allison Robert. Druid - Speaking of Allison Robert, she'll be your guide today if you're looking for more on the Druid class. Talent builds, a glimpse at raid healing as Restoration, the rise of the Moonkin and much more can be found within.
Encrypted Text: Our ancestors would not be proud
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we'll be talking about how Rogue weaponry is changing with the upcoming WotLK expansion.With a sharpening stone in one hand, he begins to hone the dagger to a fiercely sharp point. Sparks of metal and chunks of dried blood fall from the weapon with each stroke of his trained hand. Once satisfied with his work, the Rogue raises the blade high above his head; the edge catches a ray of the Sun's light and shines with a deadly glow. The dagger is lowered, and solemnly wrapped in a piece of black mageweave. The assassin hands the dark bundle to his apprentice, who is bowing in reverence. The neophyte takes the gift, and promptly places it in her backpack. Outraged, the elder Rogue demands to know why his student would insult him by not even admiring the gift. She sarcastically replies: "Sorry pops, nobody uses 1.8 speed daggers anymore! Read the patch notes." As she skips off to hunt down a rare panther, the master shakes his head in confusion and shame.
Encrypted Text: Trunks of the Trees, Assassination and Combat
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we explore two of the new 51 point talents coming soon.If you ask 75% of the top Rogues worldwide what the premier PvP spec is, they'll tell you Subtlety. If you ask an even greater margin of raiders what Rogue spec pumps out the most DPS, you'll get a solid shout of "Combat, duh!" And if you should ever feel the urge to pick up a pair of daggers, every brother of the shadows will direct you towards Assassination. These three trees have been neatly defined by Blizzard, and it's fairly obvious what each is designed for. What separates Rogues from every other class is our nearly unilateral use of 41 point talents. A dagger Rogue without Mutilate is gimped while a Sub PvP Rogue without Shadowstep is the laughing stock of the arena. And don't bother stepping into Sunwell without Surprise Attacks, unless getting trashed on the damage meters is your idea of fun. We've gotten so used to the comfort in knowing that dumping 41 points into any of our trees will yield a viable build. Now that 51 pointers are on the way in 3.0.2 and Wrath to follow, I've been asked by many Rogues "Will the bottom of our trees continue to be the anchors of our builds?" Find out after the cut.
Rogue changes, round two
The Rogue class is going to be the target of a vast array of smaller and larger modifications in the LK beta. We saw a set of these changes already, and last night Gamnin came by the forums to post another set. The interesting changes (and there are a lot of them): Cloak of Shadows cooldown down to 1.5 minutes, from 2 (1 in live). Elusiveness will now reduce the cooldown of CloS by 15/30 sec as well as its previous effect. Tricks of the Trade confirmed; they note that "we'll need one type of solution or other to prevent the need for 5 rogue Trick rotations." Assassination: Vigor moved to tier 3. It's long been a sub-par talent, so this is sensible. Relentless Strikes moved to Sublety tier 1, and raised to five ranks (from one) for the same effect (4/8/12/16/20%). Fair, but a little difficult to stomach too. This does somewhat achieve their stated goal of making it more accessible, but quintupling the cost and putting it in my least favorite tree is not what I had in mind. New tier 7 talent that I assume is taking Vigor's place: Overkill: Abilities used while stealthed and for 6 seconds after breaking stealth cost 10 less energy. I'll need to play with this, but it looks pretty great. Master Poisoner has been moved and redesigned. It's now in tier 9 and has three ranks, and instead of increasing chance for poisons to hit, it now increases everyone's crit chance against targets you've poisoned by 1/2/3% and lessens the duration of poisons on you by 17/34/50% [fixed, thanks]. Hunger for Blood's effect increased to 30 sec, from 10.
Ask a Beta Tester: Glyphs and gorlocs
Isn't this fella cute? Sooo cute? Adorable!? No? He isn't? Yeah, i don't think so either. We'll get back to these horrible abominations a little later, because Meethan asked...Is Hunger For Blood, the 51 point Assassination talent, at all useful for solo leveling?I asked a friend of mine about this since I don't personally play a Rogue, and he says popular opinion is that Hunger for Blood is mostly going to be a PvP talent. Keeping the damage buff up constantly while questing isn't worthwhile, and the debuff clearing it provides will be highly situational while soloing through Northrend. You can take it if you're gung ho about Assassination, but you'd be better served picking up something else until you start PvPing often.Drewcast asked...Are there or will there be any Aldor vs. Scryer type factions?
Many Rogue changes incoming
Rogues were one of the last classes to get new talent trees for LK; in general, it seems like they've been a bit behind during the beta. However, today another blue I've never heard of, by the name of Gamnin, dropped a lot of information about what's in store for the most stabbity of classes. Here are the changes that jump out at me:General: All reagents and tools (such as Thieves' Tools and poison reagents) are being removed. Poison skill is being removed. Poisons can now be bought from vendors. Evasion, Sprint, and Vanish cooldowns reduced from 5 minutes to 3 minutes (2 minute with talents). Cloak of Shadows cooldown raised to 2 minutes (1 minute with Elusiveness). An unspecified new level 75 ability is coming, which will "add some much needed group utility." The previous level 75 ability, Dismantle, will be trainable at level 20.
Encrypted Text: Assassination in Wrath
Every Wednesday, Encrypted Text explores issues affecting Rogues and those who group with them. This week Jason Harper, the new Rogue feature blogger, discusses the Wrath Assassination expansion tree.The Assassination tree, home to the deep dagger Rogue, is a major part of Rogue specifications for both PvP and PvE play styles. While the Combat tree is focused on increasing white damage overall, and Subtlety about survivability and burst, Assassination is all about the liberal application of consistent damage through a repertoire spells and damage application modifiers (a la poison). Burning Crusade talents and spells like Cold Blood, Lethality and (Improved Poisons assisted) Envenom are amazing non-positional damage sources, with Mutilate being the positional coup de grâce to a fight. All that said, it should be noted that while Assassination Rogues do benefit from three times the combo-point generation potential, white damage is reduced in comparison to other builds, most mobs in end-game are poison immune (and in situations where you need to change targets, you have to build back up your poison stack on them) and Find Weakness does not apply to white damage.Knowing all this, what's new that might make wayward-but-dagger-longing Rogues want to go deep into the tree?
Forum Post of the Day: Assassination nation
I love what Kre's doing on the forums: he's calling for NPC assassination targets. And he's not all talk -- when he gets asked to take a target out, whether it be Katrina Prestor herself or the Ironforge bread vendor (who will not... shut... up!), he and his assassination crew get the job done.My choice for a kill has already been done (Die, Fandral Staghelm!), but there are all kinds of great requests in the thread -- unfortunately, due to the code of the assassin, Kre can't kill the little kid who stole that dolly in Stormwind, as children are not viable targets. But even Drysc has been sent to meet his maker by these guys. Hilarious. If an NPC has been giving you trouble lately, they'll make sure there are no more problems, if you know what we mean.Not all the war in Warcraft can be fought on the battlefield -- some of it has to be fought in the back alleys and in the shadows. Glad to see that Kre and his crew (Aelas has pulled off some excellent kills here, too) are going a little guerilla in the constant fight against NPCs.
Encrypted Text: Raiding as a Rogue, Part II
Every Wednesday, Elizabeth Wachowski or Chris Jahosky write Encrypted Text, a look into the shadowy world of rogues.Last time, when I discussed raiding on your rogue, I talked about the differences between the 3 talent trees as they relate to raiding, and the Hit cap. A couple of people made comments that basically say there is no magic number for Hit rating that you need to be at, and this is true. I'm not advocating stacking hit at the expense of all your other stats. There should be a balance, and you don't want to gimp yourself in other areas just to stack Hit rating.Today, one of the things I'm talking about is the Expertise cap, which should be viewed in a similar light -- the information is there so that you can make good decisions regarding your gear. Don't just run out and start stacking Hit and Expertise and leave your other stats to twist in the wind.
Encrypted Text: Raiding as a Rogue, Part I
Every Wednesday, Elizabeth Wachowski or Chris Jahosky write Encrypted Text, a look into the shadowy world of rogues. This week on Encrypted Text is the first part in a small mini-series of articles that should serve as a guide for any up and coming rogues looking to start raiding. I will cover a few of the more raid-friendly specs, talk about their strengths and weaknesses, the hit and expertise caps, and the type of gear you should be looking for. Combat vs. Assassination and SubtletyI'll be the first to admit that many Combat heavy builds, especially Combat daggers (which I was for a long time while raiding), are not inherently fun to play.
Dealey Plaza, JFK assassination site, recreated in Second Life
A press release on PRWeb informs us that Dealey Plaza, the scene of the crime for President John F. Kennedy's shooting, has been reconstructed as a virtual environment in Second Life. It was created by Jason Baird of Avatar Promotions in the hopes that people would visit and pose theories to each other as to the reasons for the former president's untimely death, and so that those who aren't able to go to the actual site in person will be able to experience it in some form.But it isn't just the environment itself that has been recreated -- on the anniversary of the shooting, there will be a re-enactment of the assassination. This sounds a bit like one of those interactive history-museum displays. Due to the population limits within the simulation, this event will be invite-only for around 40 people. If anything, it's a novel idea and worth checking out if you already play SL. You can get there by searching for Dealey Plaza Dallas within SL, or from a link on Avatar Promotions' JFK page.
Build Shop: Rogue 41/20/0
It's Tuesday, which means that talent junkies everywhere get their fix (well, part of it, anyway) -- welcome to Build Shop! Last time we talked rogues in this column it was all about the Subtlety tree. Well, this time we're going into a heavy Assassination / Combat build, known to some as "Combat Mutilate."Unlike builds that incorporate talents from the Subtlety tree to go along with Mutilate, this build is aimed at rogues who want a competitive PvE build that doesn't suck the fun (and the life) out of you like some other PvE-centric builds. Since Mutilate is an attack that must be made from behind, like Backstab or Ambush, it has a positional requirement. And yes, for it to do the maximum amount of damage, your target must be poisoned. And yes, there are several other things you can do if you want to buff up your damage even further. It's the price you pay for a build that's fun to play, with quick combo point generation and the potential for a lot of damage.
Gears of War Video: Torque Bowned
Ah, the Torque Bow, easy to use, difficult to master. Formidable a task as that may be, Nismojoe seemed to handle it with little effort. To top it off, he also threw up a montage of his proficiency with the bow on YouTube. In the video he gets roughly one hundred and eleven (or eleventy-one, for you Tolkien fans) kills, a few deaths here and there, and plenty of gibbled body parts. Due to the graphic nature of this "M" rated game, we're going to keep the video waiting for you after the break.
