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Encrypted Text: Fresh rogue rotations in Cataclysm
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 the new rotations that rogues will be using. After Blizzard's latest press release, we know that Cataclysm will be released in early December. We already know that there will be at least one patch that precedes the expansion. The period of time between patch 4.0.1 and the expansion's actual launch is a time of transition, and it's rapidly approaching. The transition phases of The Burning Crusade and Wrath were rocky to say the least; it's safe to say that that we're looking forward to exciting times. Many classes are hurting pretty badly on the PTR for patch 4.0.1 right now. Blizzard had the great idea of temporarily granting rogues Cloak of Shadows as our 31-point subtlety talent back in patch 2.0 to help us deal with the souped-up casters of that era. A similar change could be used to give retribution paladins access to Inquisition (at the cost of Zealotry) to bolster their damage until Cataclysm. Luckily for rogues, we were on the receiving end of the latest "damage pass." Several of our core abilities were granted significant damage and scaling bonuses to keep us competitive in a pre-Cataclysm world.
Encrypted Text: Cataclysm heroics from a rogue's perspective
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 the new heroic dungeons in the upcoming expansion. I remember what it was like to play a rogue in dungeons in vanilla WoW. Our only form of long-term crowd control was Sap, and it brought us out of stealth every time we used it. Subtlety rogues could spend three talent points on Improved Sap, which still left Sap knocking us out of Stealth a tenth of the time. Every mob had some sort of AoE or whirlwind-style attack, and rogues were often right behind tanks in terms of healing necessary. We've come a long way since the old days. Tricks of the Trade, with its instant threat transfer, has become the crutch that supports even the greenest tanks. Fan of Knives is one of the best AoE abilities in the game and synergizes with our poisons for incredible potency. Improved Sap has been baked in to the ability, and we can use our CC safely on a wide variety of targets. Feint's new ability to reduce our AoE damage taken also allows us to survive most attacks. You might say that rogues are nearly perfect for running heroics. Unfortunately for us, Cataclysm's heroics have a thing or two to teach us about complacency.
Encrypted Text: Top new, useful Cataclysm rogue abilities
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 the new abilities that we'll see as we level up in the upcoming expansion. As I've mentioned several times before, rogues are often thought of as the "cooldown class." We've got a plethora of abilities, with nearly one (or two) for every situation. We're then regulated via cooldowns attached to each abilities, limiting how often we can use them. This gives the rogue class incredible potency in short fights, when our cooldowns are able to be used in quick succession. However, we have often stumbled in longer encounters, when our cooldowns are only active for a small percentage of the overall fight. Blizzard has been working on resolving this by reducing both the potency and the cooldown of a few of our moves, like Sprint, to give us more flexibility. The DPS model for rogues hasn't change at all since The Burning Crusade. The only real addition was the creation of Mutilate and Envenom, which have been staples for rogues for years now. While Fan of Knives was a fun addition at level 80, its use on anything but trash has been limited at best. It's unsurprising that even though we're receiving three new abilities in Cataclysm versus BC's two, they're still all cooldown abilities. However, our new spells are actually incredibly fun and useful. They also take some skill to use properly, which is something that the rogue class needs desperately to get back to. Using your abilities wisely should yield a large reward -- and with that thought, I will now introduce the 2010 graduates of the Rogue Ability Academy.
Encrypted Text: Playing your rogue in patch 4.0.1
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 the new PTR and the upcoming patch 4.0. If you haven't heard, there's a new public test realm in town. It's riding on patch 4.0.1, the fabled pre-Cataclysm patch that contains a ton of class and stat changes. While you still can't fly in Azeroth and goblins are still just NPCs, you can experiment with the future of the rogue class without waiting for a rare beta invitation. As a rule of thumb, any changes that don't add content like quests or zones are in, while anything specific to Cataclysm, like archaeology, is out. It's important to note that patch 4.0.1 is not intended to be balanced in any way, shape or form. It effectively marks the end of competitive PvE and PvP until Cataclysm's release, and I can guarantee there will be class mechanics that are simply out of tune. What you should be focusing on are the changes to our class, how they function and how some of the new systems work in practice. Also, remember that it's your duty as a rogue to exploit any variations in power to kill as many of the opposing faction's members as possible.
Encrypted Text: Rogue glyphs in the Cataclysm beta
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 the new glyph system and talk about which glyphs look good so far. Back in the day, before Wrath was even released, I had incorrectly speculated that there would be three tiers of glyphs in the expansion. It was my very first post on WoW.com, and my mistake was clearly pointed out to me by some of the helpful commenters. It turns out that I was actually right -- it just took Blizzard a few years to get around to adding the extra tier of glyphs. There are now three types of glyph: prime, major and minor. Prime glyphs aren't necessarily fun; they just buff us. Major glyphs are sort of the utility glyphs that give us a measurable benefit, but they're not necessarily mandatory. Minor glyphs are just for fun things that make our lives easier. Luckily for us, many of the new Cataclysm glyphs are available on the beta, complete with the shiny new glyph interface. While scribes may be complaining about their business models going out the window, I'm busy drooling over some of the new glyph options we have available.
Encrypted Text: Iconic rogue items
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 some of the awesome rogue items that help define our class' image. I remember the first time I was ever kicked from a guild. At the time, my main character was my very first rogue, who was a new level 60. I browsed around the realm forums for any guilds recruiting and found one that seemed to fit my schedule. I started raiding with them, and everything seemed to be going great. Well, it was going great, until I decided to argue with a hunter about weapons. The raid had a Core Hound Tooth drop for them in Molten Core, and a hunter had used his DKP to win the item. I saw him walking around Ironforge with it the next day. I argued with him that a rogue should've had first priority for it, since it's one of our main weapons. His stance was that any weapon a hunter could use was a "hunter weapon," or else Blizzard would've made it so that they couldn't use it. His other weapon was an Azuresong Mageblade that he claimed boosted his Serpent Sting and Arcane Shot damage. It turns out he was a high-ranking officer of the guild, and our spat was grounds for a /gkick. Luckily for us, there are a few items in game that rogues can take claim of. These items were designed specifically with us in mind and have become instantly recognizable symbols of our class to everyone.
Encrypted Text: The rotation system
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 the rotation model of DPS, and how it defines our class in every way. Blizzard has a long history of taking popular addons and rolling their functionality into the game's base user interface. The first instance of this that I can remember was when Blizzard introduced its own quest objective tracking overlay, nearly copying MonkeyQuest's original configuration. The dev team also inserted dungeon maps for the various instances, taking a page out of Atlas' book. Their latest invention is a replacement for Power Auras, the popular notification mod that displays custom graphics when a specified event occurs. Looking at the list of spells for which Blizzard created custom "spell activation" effects (thanks BB!), we see mostly random and reactive abilities on the list. Paladins will enjoy the art for Art of War, and every mage spec has a particular proc to watch patiently for. What intrigued me was that there is actually a spell activation effect for rogues, an orange lightning bolt that represents Slice and Dice. Slice and Dice, as any rogue will inform you, is not a random proc; it's a core part of our DPS and should be up at all times. While having a lightning bolt on my screen at all times sounds like fun, it got me thinking about the rogue DPS model. I utilize Power Auras extensively on every other character I play, yet I don't even have it enabled on my rogue.
Encrypted Text: Rogue mobility
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 talk about the brand new version of Sprint in the beta. I'm freshly back from slaying elementals and cultists alike in the Cataclysm beta, and I'm here to bring you some good news. I already talked about how Vanish was finally fixed and has managed to stay fixed on the beta servers. The mechanic they're using is a two-stage process, similar to how a space shuttle launches. The first stage is a buff called (unsurprisingly) "Vanish," which isn't actually Stealth, but a pseudo-Stealth that keeps us out of sight. The Vanish buff only lasts for 3 seconds, at which point regular Stealth takes over. We can't leave Stealth for those 3 seconds because we're not actually in Stealth anyway, which is a pretty elegant way of fixing the problem. I'm rambling again, as Vanish is fixed and you've already heard about it. Blizzard's newest gift to the rogue community comes straight out of our de facto wish list, again. General mobility worries have been heard from rogues since warriors received Intecept, which is to say we've been complaining about it since Day One. An oft-suggested change has been halving Sprint's cooldown and duration, and it seems that the dev team actually took the idea to heart. As the screenshot above shows, Sprint is now on a 1-minute cooldown.
Encrypted Text: The energy resource system
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, I'm talking about my experiences in as a beta tester. I love energy. Of the three different resources in WoW at level 60, energy was definitely the best around. While death knights may argue that runes are more fun, they suffer from up to 10-second lockouts on some abilities once a particular rune is used up. Some hunters in the Cataclysm beta have claimed that focus is the best thing to happen to their class since pets. That's fine, but energy doesn't require us to play the regeneration minigame to ensure that we're producing enough. Energy is simple to model and even simpler to use; no ability is more than 6 seconds away. The system has seen constant upgrades since its humble origins, though its core functionality has remained unaltered. It's become a crucial part of our mindset, and it defines the experience of playing a rogue. I had an old friend that used to say that all true rogues set their watches to only tick every 2 seconds. What is about energy that keeps it marching on so reliably?
Encrypted Text: One rogue's beta story
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, I'm talking about my experiences in as a beta tester. I have a confession to make. I'm typically one of those people who quit WoW for a few months between expansions. I give myself some time to catch up on games that I've been neglecting and work on any projects at home. I find that I'm actually more excited for the next expansion when I've been out of the loop for a while, as I'm absolutely overwhelmed by shiny new things that I never saw coming. I didn't even start playing the The Burning Crusade for a few weeks after its release, and I let my overachieving friends help me level instead. But that was before I received my Cataclysm beta invite. I'll admit that I'm new to beta testing, and I've been feeling my way around in the dark quite a bit. My first mission was to get my rogue's action bars in order. It turned out to be pretty easy, since I bind nearly everything, and I don't need to go clicking on any abilities. It's taken me a while to get used to playing without addons, and using the default UI is still a frustrating experience. I'm used to having so much more data at my fingertips, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from taking a tour of Hyjal.
Encrypted Text: Exposé on Expose Armor
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 one of the least-appreciated rogue abilities, Expose Armor. I took the above screenshot by pushing one of two Expose Armor macros I have. One of the most common complaints that I hear from the rogue community is that we don't provide enough useful buffs to make ourselves worth taking to a raid. The rumor was originally true; in fact, rogues had a bad reputation for actually knocking off important debuffs when there used to be a limit. I remember my raid leader using the CT_Raid addon to look for Phantom Blades and Gutgore Rippers, then kicking anyone wielding them. We were the simple rogues, brought to stab our enemies and soak up any leather gear that dropped. Times have changed. Both of the popular PvE rogue specs now possess a critical raid debuff. Mutilate has the fairly common Master Poisoner critical strike chance debuff, which is brought by a few other DPS specs as well. Combat, however, has the fairly unique Savage Combat debuff, which we share with arms-specced warriors alone. Since arms warriors aren't exactly common in the high-end raiding game, we're essentially the only way to pick up that serious boost. Add in the fact that Tricks of the Trade is often glyphed to provide maximum uptime, and we've actually got one of the better buffs in the game as well. All of this doesn't even include our most beneficial raid ability by far.
Encrypted Text: Why good rogues take bad talents
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 the effect of utility talents on a rogue's psyche. If you've been reading my column regularly, you know that DPS should be the main focus of any raiding rogue. As a "pure" DPS class, we're really required to do amazing DPS or risk being sidelined for more useful classes. We're designed around the concept of maximizing DPS, and using spreadsheets and theorycrafting has become a core part of our class culture. I love putting my new gear upgrades into one of Aldriana's sheets and figuring out how to flex my gems and balance various stat caps. I know that there are a ton of rogues who feel the same way. So why are rogues in the Cataclysm beta wasting talent points on Improved Gouge and Blade Twisting then? Why has the development team chocked our talent trees so full of fluff that we're forced to pick up junk talents just to progress down our trees? We don't need talents like Reinforced Leather if our healers are doing their jobs, and why make raiders pick up PvP talents like Improved Kick? Does this mean that Blizzard failed when trying to streamline the talent trees? Actually, it means exactly the opposite: they've succeeded in every possible way.
Encrypted Text: Cataclysm's effect on iconic rogue abilities
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 the latest build of the Cataclysm beta. A wild ride, indeed. Ghostcrawler, the lead systems designer for WoW, let us know in advance that we'd be seeing a deluge of new information about the plan for each class in Cataclysm. While much is still unknown, a large number of changes pertaining to rogues have been drawn out of the beta data. While the entire scope of Blizzard's plan for rogues remains to be seen, we've definitely gained some insight into the future of the class. What's interesting is how they've arranged the talent trees, particularly when it comes to the passive bonuses that a particular talent spec will receive for choosing to focus on that specialization. Blizzard did some tweaking to each of our most potent abilities to make them fit this model, as well as completely killing many theorized hybrid specs. You're essentially stuck with whatever abilities your spec possesses, and you can only pick up non-ability talents from the other trees. Due to this rebalancing of the talent trees, our signature moves from each tree have also seen an overhaul.
Encrypted Text: Rogue survivability in Cataclysm
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 the new ability Recuperate and how it's going to change the class. The veil of NDAs surrounding the Cataclysm has fallen, and the community at large is now privy to all of the juicy details of what Blizzard has in store for us. I have been reviewing the changes that rogues can look forward to, and I've been excited so far at what I've seen. While I still want to get the opportunity to test Smoke Bomb's exact mechanics first hand, I am still waiting with many of you for a beta invitation. I have high hopes for the spell, but I've been satisfied browsing our new abilities on Wowhead. One spell that I'm really excited about is Recuperate. We only originally knew that it would be a self-healing finisher, and that was about it. Now that all of the specifics are released, I'm even more excited to acquire this spell. Rogue survivability, outside of our cooldown-induced periods of invulnerability, has been a hot topic for rogues since diminishing returns were put into the game. With our stunlock losing a few seconds in Cataclysm, being able to survive an active opponent will become even more important.
Encrypted Text: Ruby Sanctum gear for rogues
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 the new loot dropping in the Ruby Sanctum. In one of the worst Patch Tuesdays in recent memory, Blizzard took down a large number of their North American servers for a full 24 hours of maintenance. At the same time, all European servers were offline while patch 3.3.5 was applied and the Real ID system was implemented for our friends across the pond. However, for those lucky enough to have their servers excluded from this massive maintenance window, a surprising gift awaited them. The portal to the Ruby Sanctum was open. Ruby Sanctum fills the role of being the last salute to Wrath's raiding scene before Cataclysm. It's a short, single-boss instance, designed to start ushering in the lore of Deathwing's imminent release. Those of us who had a chance to fight against Sartharion will be familiar with this type of dungeon. Since it's such a small raid, the total loot table is relatively small, and there's only a few pieces of interest to us leather-wearers. However, the loot that is there is worth some discussion, as it fits into a few very particular roles.
Encrypted Text: The new style of rogue PvP
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 rogue PvP is going to fare in the next expansion. I often see players talking about their experiences in PvP, sometimes in trade chat or a battleground. Almost inevitably, after a few minutes of chatting, the old stereotypes about each class start coming out. They'll start complaining about paladins having three lives, due to Divine Shield and Lay on Hands. They'll label any arena composition with a warlock as a "drain team," even though warlocks are clearly capable of massive burst damage now. If there's an arena team composition that they don't like to face, that comp is immediately labeled as cheesy or unskilled. I don't really care if warlocks get a bum rap, it's up to them to convince the public that they can nuke too. What I am concerned about is that rogues have been stereotyped since the earliest days of vanilla WoW, and we need to break that cycle. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I would suggest watching the World of Roguecraft films. These early pieces of WoW machinima firmly cemented rogues as stunlocking gods in the minds of thousands of players. Even now, with Cataclysm putting the final nails in stunlocking's coffin, we will still be thought of as dirty fighters that need to be nerfed.
Encrypted Text: The subtlety rogue of tomorrow
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 the future of subtlety rogues. Last week, Blizzard released the Cataclysm talent preview for rogues. If you read my coverage of the changes, you noticed that I mentioned that Master of Deception is missing from the subtlety tree. While I praised the change due to the removal of the frankly dumb mechanic of stealth levels, many rogues were worried that this meant all rogues would be left with simply basic stealth and we'd be sitting ducks against any competent opponent. Luckily, Lead Systems Designer Ghostcrawler chimed in on the issue, and informed us that all rogues would gain the benefits of Master of Deception, and for free. It's clear from looking at the previewed talent trees that Blizzard's design intent is to try to give each rogue tree some PvP viability. By removing three filler points that any rogue serious about PvP was forced to take, they allow us to explore other talents deeper in our core trees. Subtlety had the reverse problem, though, where the tree was too PvP focused and didn't have enough damage talents to let it compete in a raid environment. Aside from one broken talent for a few months, sub rogues have been stuck in battlegrounds and arenas in Wrath. The new subtlety tree looks to have several new DPS talents available, but will it be enough to bring this spec back to life?
Encrypted Text: Weapon speed analysis
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 the reason we're picky about weapon speeds. If you've ever played with a hunter, then you know that every weapon is a hunter weapon. Either they need to gear for some special gear set they're working on they're hoping that Blizzard allows them to use maces and wands someday. Polearms, swords and even daggers can all fall prey to their instant need rolls. I'm just happy that they're not allowed to equip their pets with gear à la Diablo II, or else there would be a massive weapon shortage. Rogues, on the other hand, have very narrow weapon requirements. In most cases, weapon speed can trump nearly any other stat weight, due to specific mechanics that favor a certain type of sword or dagger. While Cataclysm has promised to roll all weapon types into a single, balanced specialization, we are currently forced to pick our instruments of destruction carefully.
Encrypted Text: Vanish fix in the alpha
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 the possible fixes for Vanish that Blizzard is testing. I am not in the Cataclysm alpha. I'm fine with waiting until the official release date to experience the goblin and worgen races first hand and to see the destruction that Deathwing's arrival has wrought upon the world. However, that hasn't stopped me from reading up on any alpha information I can get my hands on. A prepared rogue is a successful rogue, knowledge is power, knowing is half the battle, etc. My curiosity gets the best of me, and I can't help but speculate about the tentative changes that are coming our way. There is one upcoming item in particular that has me incredibly excited: a possible fix for Vanish. The best part is that's there's even more to it than that: a possible "clutch" ability to replace the old Vanish immunity windows. I can't imagine rogues asking for anything more, considering that guaranteed restealths through Vanish are required for Vanish to remain a powerful cooldown. Let's be honest here -- who has seen a video of a rogue vanishing a Death Coil and not immediately wanted to go try it out? I can tell you that I called my warlock friend up that minute and had him outside of Durotar testing the technique with me. All rogues need is an instant of protection mixed with fast reflexes to get the job done.
Encrypted Text: What it feels like to be a rogue
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 the experience of playing a rogue and how it differs from every other class. I have recently been reading a variety of forum threads concerning Cataclysm and noticed an interesting trend. Many people like to state that they know their class the best, because they've been playing it "since day one." I think that's a funny thing to say, considering that most classes barely resemble their original forms. Hybrids are now capable of tanking and doing damage, and many classes have more than one viable tree for both PvE and PvP. Even the basic playstyle has been drastically altered, with Blizzard moving more and more classes to the reactive model of DPS instead of the fixed rotation of previous years. I firmly believe that rogues have changed the least over the past expansions, when compared to any other class. Our basic playstyle remains unaltered, and the majority of our new abilities and deep talents are cooldowns or trick attacks: Mutilate and Envenom are the only two new abilities that we've added to our rotation repertoire. Assassination's 51-point talent is so bland that Ghostcrawler confirmed it's being yanked in Cataclysm. What is it about the rogue class that makes it so resistant to change? I think that we had a very solid original design, coupled with several unique mechanics that make it impossible to flex the rogue experience without breaking it entirely.
