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Phat Loot Phriday: Rod of the Sun King
It seems to me that this proc is pretty singular -- after a little bit of searching, I can't find any other weapons that have anything like it. If you can, let us know in the comments below.Name: Rod of the Sun King (Wowhead, Thottbot, WowDB)Type: Epic One-hand MaceDamage/Speed: 189-352 / 2.70 (100.2 DPS)Abilities: Increases attack power by 52. Chance on hit: gain 10 energy or 5 rage. This is the proc (short for procedure, from the programming world, though it's come to mean a number of other things) that really makes this mace stand out as a choice pic for Rogues or DPS Warriors -- the proc rate seems to be around 3 procs per minute, which is a substantial amount of energy and rage coming back to the user. Unfortunately, it also seems there's a short cooldown on the proc, which means you can't have a bunch of procs in a row, and get a bunch of free energy or rage back to back. Still, this weapon provides a pretty steady source of extra Warrior/Rogue fuel, and it's exceptional for that reason. How to Get It: Drops from Kael'thas -- the Tempest Keep version, not the Magisters' Terrace one. The drop rate is somewhere between 15 and 20%, but the proc on this weapon makes it pretty specific -- only Warriors or Rogues would ever be able to use it to its fullest, and even then, it's definitely not a tanking weapon. Rogues may be tempted to switch to a Mace spec just to use this, but Warriors would only need it for a DPS set.Druids, unfortunately for them, have no use for this weapon, even the bear kinds. Since the proc requires a "chance on hit," and bear Droods don't actually hit anything with their weapon (just their paws), it'll never proc for them. Blizzard might have been a little more giving on that one, but as it is, this weapon doesn't help bears at all.Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 14g 59s 25c, disenchants into a Void Crystal. There will be other, better weapons you find on your way up the raiding ladder (and while the DPS on this is nice, the high-end Arena gear beats it), but the proc on this weapon is almost enough to keep it anyway.
Choosing the group role (for the hot engineer sex)
Why wouldn't you want to have hot engineer sex? That's the point made over at "Groups of Words" in a post about choosing a role specifically to set up your spot in a group. Well at least that's the point I came away with -- let me start over.Most players choose their role based on what they want to do the most -- if you like playing as a ranged character, Hunter is probably a good choice, while being a Rogue will let you sneak around. But if playing in groups is your thing, says GoW, then you should aim for one of those roles that groups want: healer or tank. That's one reason I personally chose a resto Shaman -- everybody always needs a good healer and/or tank, and with a Shaman, I can fill that role, or go off and do my own thing as well.GoW compares it to being a woman at an engineering school, where you've got your pick of the 1:6 girl/guy ratio (my alma mater, fortunately, had odds stacked slightly the other way). But other than the hot engineering sex, the point is a good one: if you're on a realm suffering from a lack of tanks and healers and you want to group up, why not fix things yourself and roll up one or the other?[Via Mystic Chicanery]
Player vs. Everything: I look hot in leather
Well, not me personally (I think), but my my World of Warcraft Shaman sure looks hot in leather. By hot, I mean ridiculously badass and uber. It's not just fun to run around looking like a Tauren Rogue-- it's also functional. You see, I play an Enhancement Shaman. We're the much-maligned, often mocked branch of the Shaman class (especially for PvP where we get kited around or pounded down with ease). Still, I persevere because it's fun to dual-wield while shocking and because I like being a support class. It's nice to be able to toss some heals out sometimes, boost my whole group's DPS, resurrect people after wipes, and still be 4th or 5th on the damage charts. So, if I love my Shaman so much, why am I wearing lots of leather when my class calls for mail? Simple. My primary role in a raid as an Enhancement Shaman is still pumping out damage. Take a look at the Shaman section of MaxDPS.com, a site that calculates the highest DPS items for a number of classes. If you glance through those lists, you'll notice something interesting: The best possible items in the game for Enhancement Shamans are leather items in more than 60% of the armor slots. Weird, huh? It's like that at every tier to some extent. Unfortunately, those leather items are also the best possible items for Rogues, Feral Druids, and Fury Warriors (in some slots). As you can imagine, this leads to some frustration and drama as everyone scrambles for the same loot (you'll notice that almost everyone shooting down the Shaman in the first thread is a Rogue). Still, the numbers are there. While Shamans have options, leather is often the best thing they can be wearing. What's the deal? Why isn't there more appropriately itemized gear for Enhancement Shamans (and should they get to roll on leather to make up for it)?
Encrypted Text: Gear me up in 2.4
Surprised to see us again so soon? Well, with 2.4 hitting today (Elune willing), it's time to see what there is out there for rogues in the new patch -- at least gear-wise, since rogues don't have many mechanic changes on the PTR right now. This new gear is available as badge rewards, drops from Magister's Terrace, and even crafted loot! (Sorry -- since the Sunwell isn't going to be open at first, loot from the 25-man raid has been left out of this one, and we talked about the Shattered Sun rep rewards already.) Badge of Justice Loot The first things you'll probably be staring at in the new badge vendor's inventory are the new daggers. The Blade of Serration, Swift Blade of Uncertainity, and the Mutilator clearly have a lot in common -- all three have the same 103.1 DPS and stam/hit/AP stats. However, the Blade of Serration is 1.8 speed, one-handed, and costs 105 Badges of Justice, while the identical Mutilator is off-hand only and costs only 45 Badges. The Swift Balde, intended as an off-hand for combat dagger rogues, boasts a speed of 1.5 and the same discount off-hand price of 45 Badges. Since these daggers clock in as the fourth-best daggers in the game DPS-wise, they're a must-have for all small-group dagger rogues. Combat fist spec rogues can also enjoy some hot new weapons. (Sorry, swords and maces, but no new pointies/blunties for you.) Vanir's Right (and left) Fist of Brutality and Vanir's Left Fist of Savagery forgo the hit rating and stam of the daggers in exchange for agi and haste rating. They share the same 105/45 badge price as the daggers, so you can pick up the whole set for 150 Badges of Justice. Drawbacks include that the models look like rejected monsters from AQ40.
WoW Insider Weekly
Time once again for WoW Insider Weekly, where we put all of the best weekly content of the last week all in one place for you to click and browse as necessary. Warning: Reading content linked from WoW Insider Weekly may cause your player skill to exceed ownage limits. Take as directed. Guildwatch drinks your milkshake You know that feeling you get when you join a group without a warrior, and when you ask who's tanking, the hunter says, "My pet"? That's the feeling that guild drama creates in most guildleaders. WoW, Casually Patch 2.4 preview What's new for casual players in the upcoming patch (And we mean "upcoming," as in next week or later. Sigh...) Blood Pact: Warlocks are red, mages are blue One casts Fireball constantly and the other owns U! Know Your Lore: The Grimtotems Elizabeth Wachowski lays down the lives, loves, and laments of the nega-Tauren and their evil crone. If you win Arena matches for more than four hours in a row as a result of reading these columns, please seek medical attention. Click the link below to see more helpful features from our columnists here at WoW Insider.
Encrypted Text: Job perks
I love the profession system in WoW, but sometimes it strikes me as odd that we're basically paying money to go to work. I wouldn't run around the world and skin animals, pluck feathers, find rare threads and cause massive environmental destruction for a leather jacket in real life, but I'll gladly do all that to make an epic leather chestpiece in WoW. Nevertheless, it's a good idea to pick up a crafting profession in WoW, just for the perks. (Unless you want to be one of those ultra-capitalists who take two gathering professions.) We've covered this in general terms before, but today we're going to focus on the crafting profession-specific BOP items and abilities that can really help out rogues in the end-game. Alchemy Honestly, alchemy doesn't have a lot of good BOP stuff. It's good for money-making and as a support profession for an alt (someone has to get all those transmutes done), but it doesn't offer a lot of enhancement for your main, unless you count "Being the guy at the raid who sucks up to everyone by giving them pots" as an enhancement. Which, for rogues, is not a bad thing -- there's enough of us out there that being an alchemist can help get you that coveted raid spot. But for pure min/maxing, it might be better to buy herbs off the AH or farm them on an alt and then have a guildie make you your pots. Particularly useful pots include Flask of Relentless Assault, Haste Potion, Insane Strength Potion, Fel Strength Elixir, Elixir of Major Fortitude, Onslaught Elixir and Super Healing Potion. The Alchemist's Stone is one of two items that are only usable by alchemists, and though it's a good starter trinket, it'll be quickly eclipsed for everyday wear by more rogue-specific trinkets. It really shines for hybrid classes and mana-users, but rogues shouldn't be popping healing potions like bubble wrap in PVE. If you are, you have bigger problems than your trinket selection. The other alch-only item is the Mad Alchemist's Potion, which restores health and mana and gives you a random buff. Nice, but not reliable when you need it.
Bugs confirmed for Cloak of Shadows and Vanish
A fairly lengthy thread on the official Bug Report forum today led to the discovery of a problem related to two Rogue skills. Cloak of Shadows and Vanish were both reported by players as simply not working. For whatever reason, rogues were unable to escape the attacks of their opponents in PvP when using these skills.Reports of problems with Vanish often plague the forums. Most often these issues are caused by client/server latency, as Hortus reminds us, but this time they've identified a separate problem. While not disclosing the nature of the bug, Hortus has informed the rogues in the thread that their feedback has resulted in the discovery of a problem with these two skills and they're currently investigating the issue in hopes of finding a fix.It's nice to see that players are able to help contribute to fixing the game. If you've had any problems with these skills recently, I'd suggest that you read over the thread and see if your experience adds anything to the discussion.
Phat Loot Phriday: Messenger of Fate
This week it's off to the Black Temple for a little stabby stab stabby.Name: Messenger of FateType: Epic One-hand DaggerDamage/Speed: 112-169 / 1.40 (100.4 DPS)Abilities: +22 Agility, +31 Stamina On equip: increases attack power by 44. Handmade for Rogues to use as an offhand. The speed makes up for all those offhand misses, and while Warriors who know what they're doing might like this one, too (since most of their abilities are all based on "next attack" procs), Rogues should get first pick on this one. This weapon was made for them. Also, while we're told the pic above is what this dagger looks like in 2.3, it used to look different. We're not sure why Blizzard changed it-- the old look is a little cooler. But then again, this new look is much closer to the icon. How to Get It: Drops from Gurtogg Bloodboil, a raging fel orc boss in Black Temple. The stats have it dropping at about 14 or 15%, but my guess is that it's a little lower than that. At any rate, if you can make it up to him in the Black Temple, and drop him about five or six times, it should pop up. Win the roll (or spend the DKP) and it's yours.Getting Rid of It: Disenchants into a Void Crystal, or vendors for 14g 22s 63c.
Additional Ravenholdt rep hints at more
Tipster Juro wrote in to let us know of another change that has popped up after Patch 2.3 went live. It seems that those slaying the Syndicate in Hillsbrad are receiving Raveholdt faction. Excited about the prospects of additional quests I ran on up to Ravenholdt Manor with my rogue only to find that I was out of luck.But allowing other classes access to the reputation in conjunction with the new Syndicate rep indicates that more is on the way. What could it be? I am thinking that the story of Ravenholdt will likely be continued in the months leading up to the release of WotLK. It makes sense when you think about it, since Dalaran will be lifting off, as it were, to have an update of the area much like we've recently seen in Dustwallow Marsh. I also remember Chris Metzen mentioning something at BlizzCon about Garona Halforcen and how they would like her to have a role in the next expansion, possibly as a partner for Thrall. Since she was last seen ingame during the closed beta at Ravenholdt Manor, it would therefore make sense that the mother of all assassins would usher in a continuation of the Ravenholdt mysteries. In any case, I know a couple of my characters are going to work on grinding Ravenholdt rep, just in case.[thanks Juro!]
One Shots: The family that slays together...
One of the things that we've heard about many times over is the ability of MMOs to bring family together -- not just over long distances, but also over short ones. Case in point, the two Rogue World of Warcraft team you see pictured above. The one on the left happens to be my Rogue, and the one on the right belongs to my son, who is just as much of a gaming fiend as I am. Now we love to geek out together in both virtual and real worlds, and I can definitely say it's made us that much closer.Do you have a great screenshot that you feel shows off some common ground to all MMOs or has an interesting story attached to it? If so, send it along to us with your story, and you may see it here on the next edition of One Shots!
Phat Loot Phriday: Serpentshrine Shuriken
In all of the different items we've done here on Phat Loot Phriday, we've never once featured a thrown weapon. Time to fix that.Name: Serpentshrine ShurikenType: Epic ThrownDamage/Speed: 97-146 / 1.40 (86.8 DPS)Abilties: +14 Stamina, which doesn't seem like a lot, but don't forget, this is on a thrown weapon. That's a whopping +14 Stamina you can't get anywhere else. Improves hit rating by 12 and critical strike rating by 20. And while thrown weapons used to be used only for pulling or tagging cowardly mobs, the Rogue ability Deadly Throw has changed the game. You can get some nice crits in (using this or any other high level thrown items) if you've worked up a good number of combo points on a target running away from you. Put on the HWL or Gladiator's gloves and this also becomes a spell interrupt, so you want as nice a thrown weapon as you can find. How to Get It: The Shuriken drops from trash mobs in Serpentshrine Cavern, at a rate of about 1%, so it's not super easy to come by. I'd really say the weapon is meant for Rogues, too, but I could see how fury Warriors and other classes would have an interest in it, so you might have to win a competitive roll on it, too. But spend a lot of time in SSC, be a little lucky, and you can probably pick it up without too much trouble.Getting Rid of It: Disenchants to a Void Crystal, and I bet that's where most of these things have ended up, because odds are that anyone who could really use it in PvP has already picked up the PvP version anyway. Maybe there's a reason we've never done a thrown weapon... Sells to vendors for 3g 63s 68c.
I hate rogues! No, rogues are awesome!
Mirshalak doesn't like rogues. He makes a long post telling us why, and then Karthis from Of Teeth and Claws posts this rebuttal. Then in an utterly shameful display, Mirshalak... concedes that Karthis has a point.Oh dear. Well, there goes any hope of name calling, hair pulling or other ungentlemanly behavior. (Or unladylike, I don't know the actual gender of the folks involved.) So, then, what can we actually take from all of this? Well, here are my own incredibly long winded 'point/counterpoint' thoughts. Well, to be completely fair and honest, I have had a lot of the same problems with rogues Mirshalak mentions. While I don't believe that the entire class is sociopathic or full of people who can't work with a group, I have several stories stored up from my time playing WoW of rogues who decided to wipe the group and vanish because they didn't get a drop they wanted (not that someone else did get it, just because the boss did not drop the item, mind you) or rogues deciding to try and train bosses over the hunter who has feigned death to hopefully use his jumper cables to res a few healers in order to help prevent a reset wipe.
Encrypted Text: Ten great rogue trinkets
Even though I haven't raided on my rogue for about two months, I'm still pretty happy when I look at her gear. 4/5 T4, the Chestguard of the Conniver, the awesome offhand dagger from heroic Ramparts that I obtained after my guild found it in the chest, held the chest open, and summoned me in -- *Monty Burns voice* why, this is less a rogue than a god. (Disclaimer: My rogue is not actually a god, and yours is probably better geared and also prettier.) But there are two blues disrupting my sea of adequate purples -- I have yet to replace either of my trinkets. And when I talk to other rogues, many of them have the same problem. The truly good epic trinkets for rogues are hard to find or have many competing rogues after them, and many of the other trinkets are just ... meh. So to help out my fellow rogues, I'm posting a guide to some of the best max-level trinkets (as rated by their power and their ease of attainability.)
Shadowstep: Do rogues need more threat reduction?
Celene has an interesting point: "Who in their right mind thought that the Subtlety tree needed additional threat reduction? Even the rogue class as a whole?" Indeed, she points out multiple ways that rogues already have to get rid of all the threat they can possibly build up: Feint, improved Fein (via the Sleight of Hand talent), Anesthetic Poison -- not to mention Vanish! And now, in patch 2.3, the Shadowstep talent is set to give an extra 50% threat reduction on the next attack the rogue makes after using it. (This is on top of the change to make Shadowstep useable regardless of whether you are in stealth or not.)But the 5000-gold question is: Why? As you can see, rogues are buffed up with threat-reduction options already. Is Blizzard blind to the actual needs of the rogue class? Bornakk shadowsteps into the thread to point out, basically, that we ought not to look a gift horse in the mouth: "Rogues with Shadowstep will probably be attacking mobs at some point and this will help them use the ability and not pull aggro." The problem here, as I see it, is that players sometimes assume that devs are handing out some abilities and buffs at the expense of others. A player sees a reduction in threat gained after using Shadowstep, for example, and thinks that the devs are opting to put that in rather than look at the class's real problems and get around to fixing them. In reality, I believe, the devs take their time with the small changes, and wait and wait for the big ones; they do a lot of internal testing to make sure that they don't mess up the class even more by trying to apply a "fix" to whatever problem is presented to them. If there are going to be sweeping changes that revolutionize the class, they'll either come bit-by-bit, or else they'll coincide with the release of an expansion, which is really the only time when huge changes make sense.Personally, I'm all for more threat reduction, but it's really not that big an issue for me. I'm more excited about being able to teleport about out of stealth as well as in. This and other changes coming up for rogues might actually make me go back to playing my rogue alt again.
Encrypted Text: Rogues, Patch 2.2, and the exploding UI
Ahh, patch week. You know the time-honored dance by now: enable your outdated mods, and log in to see what explodes. As many of my guild-mates and I were discussing on Tuesday, different classes really have different UI needs. I know when I used to run my Mage as my raiding main, Decursive was one of the biggest mods that I simply couldn't live without. Now that I've shifted to my Rogue as my raiding main, it's a whole different ballgame mod-wise. (I couldn't even tell you the last time I thought about Decursive.) As such, I thought I'd take this patch week to open the floor to the discussion between Rogues of what mods are absolutely crucial for us, and what mods are just "nice to have."
You're flagged, you sap!
In a move that many Rogues knew was coming, but some are acting shocked at nonetheless... The "Stealth in and Sap flagged players just to annoy them" routine isn't working so well anymore. Specifically, if you're on a non-PvP server and you Stealth in and Sap a flagged player, it now flags you for PvP. There have been reports of folks getting their faces eaten by guards in neutral cities for just Sapping other people. There's also been some good World PvP starting up out front of instances for the normal/RP servers due to Rogues thinking they're going to be smart and interrupt flagged folks using the summoning stones/mounting up/etc. Whoops...Personally, I feel that Sapping another flagged player just to be a prat should always have flagged the Rogue in question. Sure, you've still got a chance to get away if nobody happens to see through your stealth and/or you can pop Vanish or Sprint away fast enough. But 'lo and 'ware to any young Rogue thinking s/he can annoy another player by Sapping them and not get flagged by it any longer.
Patch 2.3 and you: Rogue edition
My oh my, it's a veritable information storm out there in the forums. We've already talked about Shaman and Priest buffs in patch 2.3. Here are a few changes that are coming for the sneakier ones among us: we actually have some changes coming in 2.3 for Deadly Throw. The speed at which it travels is being increased significantly, so it will reach your target much faster, and the snare duration is being increased slightly. One second longer if I remember correctly. (Drysc) It won't be able to activate Ruthlessness anymore though, no more chain deadly throws. (Kalgan) Do you mean the amazing change to Shadowstep so that it can now be used at any time, not only while stealthed? In addition, after use of Shadowstep threat caused by the next Ambush, Garrote or Backstab will be reduced by 50%. The cooldown will however be increased to 40 seconds.Also on the Subtlety front is a change to Dirty Deeds so that it will also be increasing damage of special attacks by 10/20% against targets that are below 35% health.We're also taking a look at bumping up Hemorrhage a bit, but no details yet on what that may be. (Drysc) Fleet Footed will now be a 15% speed increase instead of 8%. (Kalgan) In 2.3 Blind will no longer require a reagent. It will also be changed to a physical attack, will share the same diminish category as Cyclone, and diminish in PvE as well as PvP. (Drysc) we've updated [Blind] to be a ranged physical attack (also no longer counts as a poison) (Kalgan) That's quite a bit of stuff. I'm especially pleased to see Shadowstep increased in viability, so I no longer have to wince whenever a SS rogue joins one of my groups. Deadly Throw gets both a buff and a nerf, which I suppose will make it more generally useful, but less useful in the specific case of DT kiting. The Dirty Deeds buff is extremely interesting; +10% when the target is below 35% translates to a 3.5% increase in damage overall to special attacks, which is not at all shabby for one talent point (and that's not even including DDs' current, lackluster effect of energy reduction on CS and Garotte). As for the Blind changes, all I have to say is that it's about time. I have no opinion on Fleet Footed, since I've never used it, but maybe someone else does.
The draw of DPS classes
Keen and Graev have a good post up about why (according to them) players prefer playing DPS roles. Statistically, it appears to be more or less true-- according to Warcraft Realms, four of the five highest class percentages are traditionally DPS classes: Mage, Rogue, Warlock, and Hunter. Warriors also have a higher population, but it could be argued that only 1/3 of the Warrior specs (Prot, as opposed to Arms or Fury) out there are actually meant for anything other than DPS.So why do players seemingly prefer to play DPS? K&G give three main reasons. They cite something they call "Big Number Syndrome," which is the idea that unless you're dealing big damage, your class is worthless. They say that doing DPS requires less responsibility-- tanks and healers have to pay attention to everything, but DPSers choose a target and kill it. And they say that DPS classes level faster, which seems anecdotally (at least) to be true-- more damage means a faster kill, which means XP more often.In general (very generally, in fact), I tend to agree. For these reasons, some people are definitely drawn to the DPS lifestyle. But I don't think that these reasons are why people chose these classes in the first place. Hunters, for example, have pets, and I think that's a much bigger draw to the class than "big number syndrome" ever was. And let's not forget that these are more or less the most archetypal classes in the game-- someone who's never played the game probably would immediately know what a "Mage" or "Rogue" could do, whereas a Shaman (the lowest class population, according to the census) is a little harder to explain.So I think K&G are putting the chicken before the egg-- these things may be true about DPS looking back (and they may in fact be reasons people choose DPSers as alts). But when people first choose a class to call their own, I think it's a little simpler than that.[ via Hardcore Casual ]
What class can't you play?
For me, it's rogues, hands down. I have alts of pretty much every other class, some more advanced than others, but no matter what I do, if I try and get a rogue above level six it's usually a disaster. Everyone tells me that rogues are the easiest class to play, but I'm not seeing it. How is managing stealth, figuring out how to get behind pathing targets to unleash attacks, and managing combo points easy? I even tried to play one of the level 70 uberrogues from the PTR, but that didn't go any better because (big surprise) I didn't have any idea what I was doing.I just don't get rogues. I don't get that when they talk about specs they're usually talking about what weapons to use instead of what talents they've picked half the time. I don't get that they're expected to do the most melee damage, that flies in the face of my gamer geek experience from years of tabletop play. I don't get how to use stealth propery, I don't understand how to stunlock. I'm just a hopeless case as a rogue. It doesn't help that Tauren, my second favorite race and my favorite horde side, can't be rogues.I'd personally and with great glee batter my head against the class if I could be a stealthy manbull. And don't tell me to roll a druid, I have one of those, it's just not the same. I have rolled Night Elf, Blood Elf, Human, Orc, Troll, Undead, and Gnome rogues. It always ends the same, with a dead rogue in some zone that I never go back to again. I think I left my highest level rogue dead in the Shimmering Flats.Come to think of it, my favorite alliance race and indeed my favorite race, can't play rogues either. No stealthy Draenei for me. As far as I'm concerned rogues are the hardest class to play. I'd play a Mage, a Warlock, anything else and do a lot better than I will on a rogue. It takes a skill set I don't seem to possess.Any class just totally elude you? Either because of personal preference, playstyle, or a frank and baffling inability?
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.
