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My Secret Life as a Rogue: Of Talents and Talent Builds
It's been some time since I wrote about my initial attempts at playing the rogue class. And, no, I haven't given it up yet! I've only reached the fairly puny level of 33, but the rogue changes coming in the next patch have me excited about continued leveling - after all, there's little joy in having half of a talent build. However, my recent efforts have been divided between my own rogue on the live realms and a pre-made level 60 rogue on the test realms. After some initial goofing off - it is, after all, a bit disorienting to jump from a low-30s character in mostly greens to a level 60 character with dual crusader enchants - I set to work trying different talent builds. Of course I've read all of the discussion on possible builds, but sometimes there's just no substitute for experience - and the test realms provide an ideal opportunity to see just what the class is capable of, with all possible talent permutations. And, perhaps, some experimentation could teach me something about how to play my own, lesser rogue a bit better...
Patch 1.12 PTRs Online!
Well, at least the US public test realms are sort of online... in my experience I get a few seconds of connectivity before getting kicked off and needing to log on again. And of the two pre-made characters I attempted to copy over, one wound up on the PVE test realm and another on the RP-PvP test realm. But, usual technical problems aside, the realms are online. Of special note is the fact that the two world PvP objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands are not yet up on the PTR, though Blizzard explains they will be patched in later for testing. So what is there to test? Well, you can check out the rogue changes, the cross-realm battlegrounds, and anything else that didn't make it into the patch notes. Head over to the PTR site to download the client and copy a character. Head over to the PTR site to download the client and copy a character.
Patch 1.12: Rogue Review Revisited
CM Drysc has updated us with additional news of the rogue review - including some substantial changes. The talent calculator has been updated to reflect these new changes, and presents rogues with some interesting new opportunities in the subtlety tree. The changes are as follows: Murder has been changed to increase damage caused against Humanoid, Giant, Beast, and Dragonkin by 1%/2%. Remorseless Attacks has been reduced to 2 ranks, with the new effectiveness being 20% and 40%. Endurance has been changed to reduce the cooldown of your Sprint and Evasion abilities by 45 sec/1.5 min. It no longer increases the duration of Evasion. Weapon Expertise will now increases your skill with Fist, Dagger, and Sword weapons. It will no longer affect Maces. Mace Specialization will now also add 1-5 weapon skill with Maces, in addition to the stun effect the talent already provides. Adrenaline Rush now has a reduced cooldown of 5 min. Elusiveness has been reduced to a 2 point talent and now reduces the cooldown of Vanish and Blind by 45 sec/1.5 min. It no longer reduces the cooldown for Evasion. Opportunity is being moved to a tier 1 talent, swapping places with Camouflage. Ghostly Strike has been reverted back to the previous 125% weapon damage, but retains its new Energy cost of 40. Setup will now also provide combo points if you fully resist an attackers spell. Improved Rupture, Improved Cheap Shot, and Improved Garrote have been removed. New talent 'Serrated Blades' is a tier 4 talent in the Subtlety tree, causes your attacks to ignore X of your targets Armor, and increases the damage dealt by your Rupture ability. The amount of Armor reduced increases with your level. At level 60, the ranks will reduce target Armor by 100/200/300 respectively. New talent 'Dirty Deeds' replaces the Improved Cheap Shot talent, reducing the Energy cost of both the Cheap Shot and Garrote abilities by 10/20. Garrote, Eviscerate, and Rupture now all scale with Attack Power. (For the druids in the audience, Drysc has confirmed that the druid's cat form abilities ferocious bite and rip will also scale in this way come patch day.)
Patch 1.12: Rogue Talent Calculator Live
A new talent calculator showcasing the rogue changes went online today. With it, of course, comes plenty of speculation about possible new talent combinations and viable builds. I don't think the combat build I've been putting together with my own rogue has changed much, there are more viable options in the assassination and subtlety trees to pair with it. Decisions, decisions....
Life as a Shadow Priest: Day One
When I first rolled my priest, I planned to do more PvP with it than I had with my other characters. And as I leveled up, I'd usually spend an evening or two a week running through Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and eventually Alterac Valley. But after hitting 60, I found myself wanting to PvP less and less. I've talked a bit about struggling with healing in PvP, and while it's certainly possible, I can always tend to think up more entertaining things to do than venture into the battlegrounds these days.Yesterday, when a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Alterac Valley with him, I replied immediately: "No - all I do there is die over and over. I'm no shadow priest!" My friend had a quick comeback: "Why not respec?" I didn't have any response to that. I'd leveled up with a holy/discipline build that had served me well, but in the past few days respeced several times in an attempt to make solo and PvP a little more fun, without gimping my healing abilities. I hadn't been entirely happy with any of the results, so perhaps this was the time to consider more serious measures. I headed straight for the priest trainer and, after some hesitation, paid the fee to unlearn my talents.I put 20 points in discipline and remaining 31 in shadow. I was now, officially, a shadow priest.
New Talent Calculators Online
Everyone seemed to complain that the talent calculators on the official web site were slow and difficult to use. The talent calculators on Wowhead seemed to be favored by nearly everyone I encountered, with their slick design and layout. Blizzard has taken note of this when redesigning their own talent calculators, which are now online. I find Blizzard's borrowing from community projects interesting (note also there are several features that are awfully similar to CTRaid Assist coming in patch 1.11) - any other opinions?
Additional Mage Tweaks
Two additional changes have been made to the upcoming mage review. The talent calculator isn't updated with these yet, but should be soon. So for patch 1.11, expect the following additional changes:Winter's Chill: Will now increase crit chance by 1% (lowered from 2%), but will stack up to 10 times (from 5).Improved Scorch: The fire vulnerability effect has been increased to 30 seconds (from 15).
What to Expect in Patch 1.12?
No, patch 1.11 isn't even live on the test server, but there is already information coming out about patch 1.12. It seems to be fairly well-known that rogues will be getting reviewed in this patch, and World of Warcraft Vault's E3 wrap-up notes that we should expect some kind of PvP revamp. This morning Tseric chimed in saying it was also possible that Warriors and Warlocks may be looked into as well. Anyone out there have great expectations for this future patch?[Fan art by Astrid Hansen]
Mage & Shaman Talent Calculators
Official talent calculators have been released for the recently reviewed mage and shaman talent trees. These provide a clearer picture of the mage and shaman revisions than the already available text-based descriptions for the classes. To those dissatisfied with these changes, I can only encourage you to wait until we see how they play out on the test realms.
Shaman Review Revealed
Eyonix has posted notes on the Shaman changes planned for patch 1.11. Expect a talent calculator in the next few days, but for now you can see them summarized in text. Other than a single dark note - windfury attack power reduced (to bring it in line with other weapon enchantments) - the review sounds like a good one. What do the shaman players in the audience think?
Patch 1.11: Mage Changes Announced!
Blizzard has released an official look at the mage improvements. It does, as expected, include Arcane Explosion as an instant-cast spell by default and Evocation as a trainable skill at level 20. As to the rest of the changes? Well, I may not have played a mage far enough to make a judgment call, but none of them seem overwhelming. Any opinions out there?[Thanks, Silvertusk]
What Would You Do with 61 Talent Points?
You may have heard that the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion will raise the level cap of the game from 60 to 70. But what doesn't seem to be such common knowledge is the fact that you will receive ten additional talent points to spend, and that all of the talent trees will be expanded to accommodate these extra points (likely providing each talent tree with a 41-point talent). So, the question remains - what do you plan to do when you have ten extra talent points to throw around?
Priest Talent Builds?
Have all of the priests in the audience decided how they want to respec when the servers come back up? Despite having spent some time considering available options, during the my play-time on the test server I've been unable to reach a conclusion. Fortunately, Azrathil of EU server Kel'Thuzad has put together a fairly comprehensive list of possible talent builds for 1.10. For those of us still indecisive, there are a few pages of commentary in the thread, as well as additional build suggestions.
Shaman Review in 1.12?
As other class reviews have come and gone, the remaining classes have become quite touchy about who is going to be next. We already know that mages will be reviewed in 1.11, and yesterday Eyonix let us know that shamans are scheduled after mages, leaving them patch 1.12. To the rogues groaning on the sidelines, remember that being last may not be for the worst - after all, shaman was the last class reviewed by Blizzard before the game's launch.
The Rising Cost of Respecs
Do you remember the first time you hit level 10 in WoW? I do - I put my first talent points, as a young warlock, into the talent suppression, in the affliction tree. Any old hand warlocks out there are likely to recognize this as a rather silly first choice, but I was very new to the game and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Thankfully Blizzard allows us to rearrange our talent points at any trainer - for a cost. The cost of the first one is hardly worth noting - a single gold coin will suffice. But then it jumps to 5 gold. And the next time it will be 10. While the cost is capped at 50 gold, this can certainly add up - especially if you enjoy both PVE and PVP content, for which the best talent spec tends to be drastically different. When community managers respond to queries about talent respecs, they tend to say that they want players to take their choice of talents seriously, rather than being able to casually respec every evening. I'm only on my third respec, personally, but others hit the 50 gold cap long ago. Have you respeced much yet? And if so, what do you think of the costs?
A guide to paladin talents
While some prefer to make up their build while they go along, I have always been a proponent of researching every last detail before coming to a specific decision on talent spec. So I was thrilled to find this recently posted guide to paladin talent builds, by Geld of Eredar server, which provides a fairly comprehensive list of builds along with variations and general gear recommendations for each. Though if you are more interested in advice on specific talents, rather than overall talent builds, you might prefer this guide, by Daybreak of Shadow Council server.
How much is that Raptor in the window?
Everybody needs a best friend. Hunters in WoW have an almost endless selection of pets to choose from, as just about any beast in the game is tamable. Just like anything else, though, some pets bring more to the table than others, and with the recent changes introduced in v1.9, a slew of new pet abilities are now available to the cautious tamer.If you're looking to pick out a new pet, or just want some good info, a couple of great recources are the Hunter Pet FAQ over on the official WoW forums, and Petopia, the most comprehensive pet guide that I've seen yet, even though some of the info hasn't yet been updated for the new patch.I've always been a fan of those fancy, elite pets myself. One of my Hunters has a tamed Strider Clutchmother that can outrun almost anything, and my Orc hangs with a tamed Takk the Leaper that has been his faithful companion for over 30 levels. What do some of you other hunters look for in a pet?
