With the last post out of the way, i can finally get into the little nitty gritty on playing my rogue. This is not a guide, nor is it a primer of any sort on helping anyone learn the rogue class. this is just my experience so please, if you think im doing this wrong, please say something. =D
My initial experiences with rogues are that they are sneaky, elusive, and most of all, annoying. Ever level through Ashenvale, running from questgiver to objectives, only to be interrupted by a rogue who's bored? Ever read local defense and see that Cross Roads is under attack? its usually a rogue. Ever run around tarren mill, turning in quests and finding out that a rogue is having a great time sapping people? Ever enter a cave full of ogres and fighting through the ogres just to get to that one Khorium deposit but having it ninja'd by a rogue as you fight the mob guarding the node? Not too many good experiences with rogues i tell you.
But as i leveled my rogue, i find that they offer a pretty niche type of gameplay. The energy and combo point system makes playing a rogue a lot more complex while questing and significantly while in dungeons. The combo point system allows me to save up combo points for stronger finishers. The mob's health, their numbers, even their spell selections will determine which finishers i will have to use. Not only that, but the energy system is the only system in the game where timing is absolutely necessary. Spamming attacks isnt the rogue way. And rightly so, it shouldnt be since the whole character of being a rogue involves planning, timing and finesse. Button smashing might not be the best form of play. That is, unless you're playing shinobi.
Everyone knows the basics of a rogue. or at least i believe everyone does.
Energy: Rogues use energy to attack. Energy is used up when performing attacks. Energy replenishes at a certain rate. Missed attacks can refund a % of energy back.
Combo points: Rogues have two basic categories of attacks. One to produce combo points and the other to spend combo points. Both use up energy. Missed attacks can refund a % of energy back. Ideally, rogues will want to maximize their combo points (being 5) before using a finisher. Each finisher has its own effect (some do instant damage, others do damge over time, others make the target more vulnerable to melee damage, and still others cause your own attacks to speed up.
The basic combo point maker for Combat: Sinister Strike (SS) and Revealing Strike (RvS).
Sinister strike is your bread and butter attack. I use this attack more than any other attack. Revealing strikes are tossed in between, at least once per 5 point stack prior to an Eviscerate or Rupture. Revealing strikes will not do anything for Slice and Dice so using it before slice and dice is not essential. Although, if you use it as your 5th combo point move before slice and dice, revealing strikes will still be up since it has a 15 second duration. It basically buffs your finisher by 30%, so use once before you Evis or Rupt. Using it twice will do nothing but add another combo point (which SS can do) and reset the cooldown for Revealing Strike buff to 15 seconds. The 30% incraesed bonus to finishing moves does not change.
The basic finishers for Combat: Slice and Dice (SnD), Rupture and Eviscerate.
Slice and dice cases you to attack faster. use this first and always try to keep it active. some rogues start off with a 1-point SnD, which gives them a good 30 seconds or so. 5 points will give you 40 seconds of SnD. go with 1 point SnD. it ends up pretty easy to maintain.
Rupture causes a bleed on the target for a certain amount of time. the time is fixed, but the damage is different based on the number of combo points. with revealing strikes buff, it also ticks for more. Use this on bosses, or on long lasting mobs. there is no other benefit for this spell besides that you can keep doing damage while you're running around avoiding fires.
Eviscerate is often preferred over Rupture. The point is that many fights will have phases that take the boss out of the fight (basically immune) while we take care of adds, fires, dance, whatevers. in these instances, just Evis instead of Rupt. Getting all the damage at once may be more beneficial than going for a DoT that may not be allowed to last its whole duration.
The special finishers for Combat: Expose Armor, Recuperate, Kidney shot.
Expose armor is one of these spells that many other classes can do better. Plus, its only useful for physical damaging dps that having one magic dps in the mix will make this ability pretty much useless. you'll get more benefit if you just evis. Other classes can do it better because they dont have to waste too much of their resources to place this debuff on. Overall, this ability is very situational and almost never used.
Recuperate helps a lot when in high damage fights. Although you'll miss out on a finisher, it does make it easier for your healers to heal you. Finally, Kidney shot is one of those spells which i love to use on casters, especially the healing type casters. Open with cheapshot. When they come to and cast a heal, i kick. Then they cast another heal, i can blind. then i can kidney shot and basically finish them off. its not a stun "lock", as it was before, but it does keep the mob incapacitated long enough so that dps can kill him off.
Cooldowns for Combat: The two major offensive cooldowns for combat are Killing Spree (KS) and Adrenaline Rush (AR).
These two abilities are my two favorite reasons to go combat. It took me several levels of practicing and playing around to really figure out how these buffs work. but when i finally got them to work well, they became the "candy" to this whole fighting system.
Killing Spree causes me to jump from one mob to another (if one mob, then it just jumps five times to the same mob) doing pretty good damage. It seems to last about 3 seconds, but in those 3 seconds, it is amazing. added bonus to this is that the auto-attacks are still going. True, you might only get 3 auto-attacks off, even with slice and dice on, it doesnt change the outcome--dps boost. Of course, being that auto-attacks still goes off while KS is up, it makes it doubly fun to time it just right (ie. during slice and dice, while my energy is zero. Also, KS also works with Blade Flurry, so if there are two or more mobs in the fight, KS will also hit adjacent mobs, as well as the sped up auto attacks. So like i said, its candy.
As for adrenaline rush, this spell speeds up my energy regen, thus allowing for more SS, RvS, Evis, etc. during its duration. Much like Killing Spree, time it after SnD and when your energy is low (you dont want to be energy capped). You can use these two cooldowns back-to-back. It might not be as effective together, as KS will not produce combo points and the time you're jumping around through the shadows, you may end up being energy capped.
Utilities for Combat: Other utilities are Tricks of the Trade, Shiv, Feint, blind, Evasion, Cloak of Shadows and Vanish.
I suppose Recuperate can be utility but do keep in mind that it does require combo points.
Tricks of the Trade, or Tricks, or TotT is used prior or during a pull to redirect threat to someone else, usually the tank. Not only does it redirect threat, it also gives the target an increase in dps. this can be utilized several ways, but the most important way is to Tricks the tank. Upon tricksing the tank, the rogue will basically pull for the tank, or pull a stray mob to the tank. This is almost identical to the Hunter's Misdirect, where they use misdirect to pull for the tank. The second area where this is useful is during fights where you want to buff the main dps. Sure putting tricks on the tank will buff his 5k dps. but tricksing the hunter who's doing 10k dps will ultimately produce twice the damage from Tricks than the tank. Finally, two rogues can simply Tricks each other to give each other a damage buff. since the tricks is on each other, the threat transfer is almost transparent.
Shiv removes enrage. Shiv also adds poisons instantly and cannot be dodged. Although this ability does add combo points, i did not include this as a combo point ability. We use this ability more for the two reasons stated above--the combo point is an added bonus. One more thing to add about instantly applying poisons, this ability costs less the faster your offhand dagger is. so in a pinch, if you're seeing 5 stacks of your poisons about to expire, this ability may be preferred over waiting and gambling on your next offhand attack (or Main Gauche) to hit.
Feint is awesome. Say it with me, Feint is awesome! It reduces a lot of the AoE damage, 50% to be exact, that can cause a lot of fail and healer stress. This ability not only reduces your threat it increases your healer's love towards you. Please use it often to avoid those nasty AoEs, especially on boss fights where tanks dont know how to move mobs out of dark fissures, etc.
Blind is basically a stun for 10 seconds. Also interrupts casting. Kick is on CD? blind. Mobs is running for the healer and your Tricks is on CD? blind. Similar to a hunter's scattershot. We have a lot of similarities, dontchaknow?
Evasion, cloak of shadows, vanish.... they all have their uses. Evasion is useful when you grab aggro, or have to grab aggro for a while. Cloak of shadows will remove harmful debuffs (slows, poisons, dots) and Vanish will allow you to stealth immediately, even in combat. When you do have some kind of debuff on you, like say, a disease or faerie fire, use cloak of shadows first, then vanish. the disease ticks will break your stealth if you dont remove it first (you can tell i want to end this post already since this section is so short!!).
Blade Flurry: An ability that allows you to hit two targets instead of one but in return your energy regeneration slows. the ability can be glyphed so that energy regen doesnt take as big a hit, which is often a must if you're doing dungeons. for raids where much of the damage is to a single boss at a time, blade flurry may be useless. in any event, it is up to the player to decide whether blade flurry should be used, assuming more dps is always better, even on trash, or left out altogether. if you use blade flurry often, do consider glyphing. Blade flurry also works with Killing Spree. The reason this ability is set aside and mentioned on its own is because this is spell does not fall into any of the above categories. It's just an ability any rogue can turn on or off and any time really. in dungeons, i have this on after my first slice and dice. then i turn it off when there is only one mob remaining, or when there are two mobs who are not standing right next to each other. in these situations, the cleave effect will be wasted. (Cleave effect = hitting two or more players at once with a single hit or cleave or swipe). Overall, this is a very handy ability. Remember to tricks often, as the cleave can cause unwanted aggro.
Other tricks, tips, or corrections? please comment so i can improve. I've only played combat for the past 10 levels, but during those 10 levels i've actually figured several things already mentioned above. To summarize, i cant spam attacks. there is a basic category of spells but what makes rogues particulary fun to play are the utility spells, timing of cooldowns and weaving of differnt combinations and abilities. This is the major reason why i enjoy the rogue. my favorite classes are usually melee classes with the occasional healer (of course, druid healing preferred), so finding another fun melee class to play is motivational indeed. the only other melee class i think i still havent played is the enhancement shaman. one day i hope to write about it as well!
Note: not all spells and abilities are mentioned. either i havent found a reason to use them or they do not apply. If there are other abilities that i should also consider, or if the abilities i've mentioned can be expanded on, please comment. thanks!
Showing posts with label rogue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rogue. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The Rogue Experiment
I have a rogue. His name is Bruno (post character re-customization). He's been leveling on and off for the past several years. Although i've never really taken any sustained interest in playing a rogue, i find that since i've leveled up through Northrend and now in Cata stages, i've begun to actually like my rogue more and more.
Perhaps the problem, in the beginning, is that i had a druid who leveled as Feral and about 80% of the rogue's major attacks and fight mechanics are copied directly on to the feral druid "cat" form style of play. From openers to finishing moves, to even combo point makers, they all seem so very similar. For example, Hemmorage = mangle, backstab = ravage, sinister strike = claw, maim = kidney shot, etc. After levels and levels of playing a rogue, it felt almost the same as leveling a feral druid. And i've told myself many times that i would probably never want to level a feral druid again.
Maybe the problem wasnt just the similarities these two classes/specs have, but also the differences make playing a rogue seem a little limiting to me. For one, as a druid i can simply switch into bear form and tank should a pull go bad. As a rogue, my only option is really to blind one, then switch back. When the blind wears off, its time to evasion aura. If things go really bad, i can vanish and start over. Now after the fight, my druid will heal, stealth and move on to the next mob almost seamlessly. With the rogue, i'll sit there eating or waiting for my health to replenish. Simple differences like that does make a difference when deciding what's more "fun" to play. Back then, i was unhappy with the way rogues cannot heal themselves apart from bandages and how they always have to remember to coat their daggers with poisons. Also the complexity of weapon choices with different specs also turned me off a little regarding this class. With a feral druid, pretty much any weapon is good, with the added bonus that you will never have to learn that weapon skill. of course, weapon skill is now built into your level and makes it easier to switch between swords, maces and daggers for rogues.
Now i dont want to make this post about Feral Druid Cats vs. Rogues of all Specs, but a background needs to be included somewhere. When Wrath of the Lich King hit, i went from feral dps to feral bear tank and never looked back at feral dps. in fact, i tried dpsing once or twice again and never enjoyed it. So there you have it. For the longest time, i have always felt that i am playing the rogue class with some limitations and would be better off playing feral dps. then, since i've already played feral dps, i never really cared to level up a melee dps class that relied on energy again. Well now im sitting here writing about energy-bassed rogue dps.
Actual Rogue-related Stuff
In any case, it has been an experience trying to get used to the rogue class. I leveled several months ago from 60-70 and found that Subtlety was quite simple and boring. I had to attack from behind constantly and realized that 50% of my damage comes from the first 5 seconds of play. The remaining damage just trickles resulting in a DPS in the first 5 seconds of 5k, then after a 15-20 second fight, it goes down to less than 1k. Sad huh? that's what i thought. I was a little dismayed but i figued i could work this to my own advantage. In outland dungeon fights where im stacked with delicate bloodstones, fights last 10 seconds max. and even boss fights dont last too long either. I was satisfied with 1k dps at level 65 anyway since most dps classes barely get to break the 1k
Enter northrend and things changed a little. Mobs have more health so fights last a little longer. Thats good and bad. Although it does favor the rogue in terms of dps in longer fights, it doesnt favor a subtlety rogue, who's usually great at opening damage but fails at sustained damage in the long run. So after several dungeons between 69 and 72, i was resigned to doing lowest dps in all dungeon fights. This did lead to days of non-play on my rogue and eventually, loss of play completely.
Then one day, my gf decides to level up a death knight and i leveled with her when she hit 70. The experience was relatively the same so i decided to switch specs and grab different weapons. Although i knew that Sub wasnt ideal for dungeon play, i really liked the idea of shadowstep. Keeping hemmorage up to buff rupture was simply familiar to me when i was playing a feral druid. Playing combat simplified things a little. one, i had no "buff" to maintain besides slice and dice, and two, i never really had to stealth. =D
As a combat rogue, my main concern was to activate slice and dice, rupture if the fight will be long, otherwise, eviscerate. my combo maker is sinister strike, which can be used from any direction (further simplification). Now there are a few items that are tossed into this spec that acually makes it different from Sub. I have two cooldowns to play with and one toggle-able ability that allows me to cleave. And those are the difference. But those differences make leveling a rogue so awesome this time around.
Bruno is now level 82 and working on leveling through vashjir. He basically sat in LFD queue for the first level and a half since hitting level 80.
Perhaps the problem, in the beginning, is that i had a druid who leveled as Feral and about 80% of the rogue's major attacks and fight mechanics are copied directly on to the feral druid "cat" form style of play. From openers to finishing moves, to even combo point makers, they all seem so very similar. For example, Hemmorage = mangle, backstab = ravage, sinister strike = claw, maim = kidney shot, etc. After levels and levels of playing a rogue, it felt almost the same as leveling a feral druid. And i've told myself many times that i would probably never want to level a feral druid again.
Maybe the problem wasnt just the similarities these two classes/specs have, but also the differences make playing a rogue seem a little limiting to me. For one, as a druid i can simply switch into bear form and tank should a pull go bad. As a rogue, my only option is really to blind one, then switch back. When the blind wears off, its time to evasion aura. If things go really bad, i can vanish and start over. Now after the fight, my druid will heal, stealth and move on to the next mob almost seamlessly. With the rogue, i'll sit there eating or waiting for my health to replenish. Simple differences like that does make a difference when deciding what's more "fun" to play. Back then, i was unhappy with the way rogues cannot heal themselves apart from bandages and how they always have to remember to coat their daggers with poisons. Also the complexity of weapon choices with different specs also turned me off a little regarding this class. With a feral druid, pretty much any weapon is good, with the added bonus that you will never have to learn that weapon skill. of course, weapon skill is now built into your level and makes it easier to switch between swords, maces and daggers for rogues.
Now i dont want to make this post about Feral Druid Cats vs. Rogues of all Specs, but a background needs to be included somewhere. When Wrath of the Lich King hit, i went from feral dps to feral bear tank and never looked back at feral dps. in fact, i tried dpsing once or twice again and never enjoyed it. So there you have it. For the longest time, i have always felt that i am playing the rogue class with some limitations and would be better off playing feral dps. then, since i've already played feral dps, i never really cared to level up a melee dps class that relied on energy again. Well now im sitting here writing about energy-bassed rogue dps.
Actual Rogue-related Stuff
In any case, it has been an experience trying to get used to the rogue class. I leveled several months ago from 60-70 and found that Subtlety was quite simple and boring. I had to attack from behind constantly and realized that 50% of my damage comes from the first 5 seconds of play. The remaining damage just trickles resulting in a DPS in the first 5 seconds of 5k, then after a 15-20 second fight, it goes down to less than 1k. Sad huh? that's what i thought. I was a little dismayed but i figued i could work this to my own advantage. In outland dungeon fights where im stacked with delicate bloodstones, fights last 10 seconds max. and even boss fights dont last too long either. I was satisfied with 1k dps at level 65 anyway since most dps classes barely get to break the 1k
Enter northrend and things changed a little. Mobs have more health so fights last a little longer. Thats good and bad. Although it does favor the rogue in terms of dps in longer fights, it doesnt favor a subtlety rogue, who's usually great at opening damage but fails at sustained damage in the long run. So after several dungeons between 69 and 72, i was resigned to doing lowest dps in all dungeon fights. This did lead to days of non-play on my rogue and eventually, loss of play completely.
Then one day, my gf decides to level up a death knight and i leveled with her when she hit 70. The experience was relatively the same so i decided to switch specs and grab different weapons. Although i knew that Sub wasnt ideal for dungeon play, i really liked the idea of shadowstep. Keeping hemmorage up to buff rupture was simply familiar to me when i was playing a feral druid. Playing combat simplified things a little. one, i had no "buff" to maintain besides slice and dice, and two, i never really had to stealth. =D
As a combat rogue, my main concern was to activate slice and dice, rupture if the fight will be long, otherwise, eviscerate. my combo maker is sinister strike, which can be used from any direction (further simplification). Now there are a few items that are tossed into this spec that acually makes it different from Sub. I have two cooldowns to play with and one toggle-able ability that allows me to cleave. And those are the difference. But those differences make leveling a rogue so awesome this time around.
Bruno is now level 82 and working on leveling through vashjir. He basically sat in LFD queue for the first level and a half since hitting level 80.
Monday, November 15, 2010
My Rogue Feels Like a Cow
I have been playing my rogue a bit more often lately. So far, it feels like before. But there's a difference. I cant really put my finger on it. It seems more... fun. I think it is because im doing more damge. actually contributing to kills, things like that. when i first entered outland i put away my old rogue for something better, something more fun. i leveled everything else besides the rogue. she was just a placeholder then. today, she has more gear and much better dps. she started off subtlety years ago and changed to combat when a friend suggested that it would give me more dps. at that time, say level 60, i was in groups where everyone had a friggin AoE except for me. actually, its still true. I still do not have any AoE abilities, and im 66 now. So since patch 4.0.1, and the forced reset of all my talent specs, i decided to abandon combat and return to sub. after all, it was one of those assassin-like specs, more so than assassination.
Then i remembered why i like my rogue to begin with. it was because i was sneaky. i would pop up out of nowhere and attack something. it would be dead before other mobs would notice me. going stealth and sneaking my way to a quest objective was quite fun, even if i get almost zero experience from killing mobs. i would get the experience from turning in quests, and at a faster rate than someone who had to kill through an entire camp of, say, trolls in order to get to a box, or the head of a boss, or something like that. and if the boss has goons with him? ignore them and kill the boss. vanish after you loot the head. like those ninja movies, for sure.
anyway, it reminded me of when i first leveled my tauren druid. she was somewhat of a bulky character. she had hooves so being sneaky was a little difficult to do. but when she turned into a cat, she sneaked around better than most rogues. cats have this innate nature in them. they take each step with care and caution. they make sure they cannot be heard and lie in wait. patiently. unmoving. then at the right moment, they pounce on their victims. that's how cats play. that's how my druid was able to level her clumsy self to 80 with little difficulties.
and as i play my rogue, i am reminded of my druid. then i realized just how similar the two classes are. it made me felt like i was back on my cat, playing my first level 70 character (also my first level 80 when wrath came out). i was back to sneaking around and killing things. i was back to doing single target dps madness. it was fun, but i realize it will have its niche and one day i will leave it for a different character. but playing a druid cat did teach me a few things about myself.
1. I preferred the safety of stealth (even though sometimes i do get caught).
2. I like the feel of questing as a stealthed assassin. It makes me feel like im playing Metal Gear Solid, or Socom, or Tenchu.
3. I like to see big numbers. Coming out of stealth with an Ambush that takes most of the enemy's health away? that's awesome. doing a finishing move with an overkill of several thousand health? awesome still.
4. I like having emergency buttons. being able to incapacitate people even during a fight? awesome to the awesome. having abilities on my druid like maim helps buy me time. having sprint is awesome when i just need to run away. blinding opponents is wonderful. vanish is even more awesome. all of these things help me to survive when my blade just cant kill them fast enough.
It is sneaky. it is stealthy. it is more a mind game than outright dps. a sneaky cow. that's what i was.
Then i remembered why i like my rogue to begin with. it was because i was sneaky. i would pop up out of nowhere and attack something. it would be dead before other mobs would notice me. going stealth and sneaking my way to a quest objective was quite fun, even if i get almost zero experience from killing mobs. i would get the experience from turning in quests, and at a faster rate than someone who had to kill through an entire camp of, say, trolls in order to get to a box, or the head of a boss, or something like that. and if the boss has goons with him? ignore them and kill the boss. vanish after you loot the head. like those ninja movies, for sure.
anyway, it reminded me of when i first leveled my tauren druid. she was somewhat of a bulky character. she had hooves so being sneaky was a little difficult to do. but when she turned into a cat, she sneaked around better than most rogues. cats have this innate nature in them. they take each step with care and caution. they make sure they cannot be heard and lie in wait. patiently. unmoving. then at the right moment, they pounce on their victims. that's how cats play. that's how my druid was able to level her clumsy self to 80 with little difficulties.
and as i play my rogue, i am reminded of my druid. then i realized just how similar the two classes are. it made me felt like i was back on my cat, playing my first level 70 character (also my first level 80 when wrath came out). i was back to sneaking around and killing things. i was back to doing single target dps madness. it was fun, but i realize it will have its niche and one day i will leave it for a different character. but playing a druid cat did teach me a few things about myself.
1. I preferred the safety of stealth (even though sometimes i do get caught).
2. I like the feel of questing as a stealthed assassin. It makes me feel like im playing Metal Gear Solid, or Socom, or Tenchu.
3. I like to see big numbers. Coming out of stealth with an Ambush that takes most of the enemy's health away? that's awesome. doing a finishing move with an overkill of several thousand health? awesome still.
4. I like having emergency buttons. being able to incapacitate people even during a fight? awesome to the awesome. having abilities on my druid like maim helps buy me time. having sprint is awesome when i just need to run away. blinding opponents is wonderful. vanish is even more awesome. all of these things help me to survive when my blade just cant kill them fast enough.
It is sneaky. it is stealthy. it is more a mind game than outright dps. a sneaky cow. that's what i was.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Tankin and Spankin
For the last couple of weeks, my gf has been leveling a priest. I got her started with the basics (look for cloth gear with int, spell power, spi, stam, ignore the rest for now) and saw her heal more and more. now she's more pro than before. now she's healing bad tanks and just complains about them behind the screen (but will keep them alive anyway just to get the instance over with) like its normal. We talked about holy and disc and how they're different and all that. she chose Disc because i chose disc... on three of my priests. Yes, there're three disc priests. dont ask. i just like them.
anyway, she got her priest leveled up to about 60 when i decided its finally time to break out my old tank and practice a little. He's a burly orc warrior, with massive teeth and a dogface stare, ready to kick some butt. i started off looking at my reset talents. as i stared at the new tree, i realized that it was pretty much a no-brainer what i should get: more survival, more threat, more rage, better mobility. i wasnt able to get shockwave tho, as it was one of my favorite spells. i'll get it at level 67.
i then got all my new spells at the warrior trainer and then started on part two of my night: macros.
it didnt take long before i realized several things about the macros. its not different from before. just about every spell i used before was still there. nothing has really changed except for my macro to shockwave. that just gives me a red question mark. i'll get that spell soon enough so i didnt bother changing it.
i went into ragefire chasm and started running around to practice. there were two people hoping for a run, so i took them with me. they dinged in the two runs i was there. grats to them. after two runs i got used to the buttons, made some changes in my macros and decided it was time to take on some more solid content.
seeing that my gf was 60, we started the night in ramps. i grabbed, and grabbed and grabbed. it was fun. almost chain pulling, but making sure that the current group was just about dead before i moved on to the next group. most of the night, i was at near full health. of course, i was 65 doing a 60 dungeon.
several tries at ramps and then blood furnance, i ended the night at 66, almost 67 (and ready to do some durnhold, save my hero thrall, keep runs). he's not really my hero. he's my orc's hero. he'll be a warrior just like... wait... thralls a shaman. nevermind.
my gf got from 60 to.... 61! yep. rocked. but i knew that once i hit 69 or 70, i wont be able to do randoms with her anymore. i can, however, queue up for specific dungeons with her. that sucks. the extra bonus exp will not count since im too high level? really? that's really sad. anyway..... i got on my rogue (who's level 61 as well, who i havent played since forever. to put this into perspective. she has slow riding, which was about 90gold at level 40, back in the days. and at level 60, we would get journeyman, fast land riding for about 600g. that, i would not pay for since i wanted to stop playing my rogue. yea, thats how old this rogue was. wasnt played with for a long while). i got on and repsec'd subably, made some macros for stealth, openers, finishers, and combo point makers. then i configured my buttons to just the way i liked it.... and queued up with my gf. at the start of the day, at level 61, i was doing about 500 dps.
okay i lie. i started off doing about 350dps. then, as i got the hang of it, ended the instance with about 500dps. several quests and several instances later, i was doing slightly more damage. it wasnt until late last night, about level 65, with several dungeon pieces (mostly gemmed with delicate bloodstones (yes, just bloodstones)) that i finally broke 1k dps. 1k dps!! wtf??? yes. its awesome. then by the end if the instance, it leveled out to about 800-900 dps. not bad for a 65. what happened is this. i found out that my biggest damage came at the beginning of a fight, and only coming out of stealth. so i wait for the perfect time to shadowstep, then ambush (3cp), someone will crit (4cp) and i will simply do a backstab (5cp).... then finish with Evis. they die. in about 6 seconds i just did 10k-12k damage. the rest of the fight has me applying backstab+evis, or hem+rupture.
there really isnt much else to do because after the first mob dies, everyone else is at about 1/2 health anyway. there is absolutely not enough health or time left to get a full stack of combo points to really do anything useful. and then there's the bosses. =] love those fights.
anyway, hopefully spending some time as a rogue will help me with my paladin dps. lol fat chance. but will hope.
as for my warrior, this was how it was played for the several instances that i actually tanked.
for trash, i would charge in and rend immediately. then thunderclap to apply rend to everyone (and slows them), then cleave. thats it. all done. actually i'd demo shout at times, shieldslam as often as possible, revenge when proc'd, shield slam when proc'd, thunderclap on cooldown (unless i see more mobs coming into the picture, i can save it for them) and cleave to dump my rage.
on bosses, i charge, shield slam, devastate, rend, devastate, devastate, revend on proc, shield slam on proc, keep sunders up (and increase my threat lead) with devastate.
i find that devastate is pretty useless with trash unless its one of those "theres nothing left to press" situations. trash dies quickly enough. healer has no problems healing me, and i rather save my global cooldown for some more aoe moves than a single target move. that said, devastate the boss, cleave the trash.
one other thing, my gear is made for questing. my spec is for questing. i leveled up as prot for a while and it was awesome. even in outland, lack of defense gear is not doing any harm to me. i'll save the dodge gear for later, when i hit 70 and have to get the cobalt set. my design before was this, to allow myself to be hit more, thus gaining more rage, but also being able to heal myself as i fight. this worked well, but those days are gone. now that i am doing dungeons regularly, i dont want to be hit more to gain rage. i'll be hit plenty, so i'll have to slowly switch over to more mitigation, avoidance, and stamina gear. my talent tree is not as customizable any more, so im stuck with a cookie cutter spec. thanks bliz. now we're all the same.
anyway, thats just my update. it feels like the weekend but its not... yet. have a great weekend everyone!
anyway, she got her priest leveled up to about 60 when i decided its finally time to break out my old tank and practice a little. He's a burly orc warrior, with massive teeth and a dogface stare, ready to kick some butt. i started off looking at my reset talents. as i stared at the new tree, i realized that it was pretty much a no-brainer what i should get: more survival, more threat, more rage, better mobility. i wasnt able to get shockwave tho, as it was one of my favorite spells. i'll get it at level 67.
i then got all my new spells at the warrior trainer and then started on part two of my night: macros.
it didnt take long before i realized several things about the macros. its not different from before. just about every spell i used before was still there. nothing has really changed except for my macro to shockwave. that just gives me a red question mark. i'll get that spell soon enough so i didnt bother changing it.
i went into ragefire chasm and started running around to practice. there were two people hoping for a run, so i took them with me. they dinged in the two runs i was there. grats to them. after two runs i got used to the buttons, made some changes in my macros and decided it was time to take on some more solid content.
seeing that my gf was 60, we started the night in ramps. i grabbed, and grabbed and grabbed. it was fun. almost chain pulling, but making sure that the current group was just about dead before i moved on to the next group. most of the night, i was at near full health. of course, i was 65 doing a 60 dungeon.
several tries at ramps and then blood furnance, i ended the night at 66, almost 67 (and ready to do some durnhold, save my hero thrall, keep runs). he's not really my hero. he's my orc's hero. he'll be a warrior just like... wait... thralls a shaman. nevermind.
my gf got from 60 to.... 61! yep. rocked. but i knew that once i hit 69 or 70, i wont be able to do randoms with her anymore. i can, however, queue up for specific dungeons with her. that sucks. the extra bonus exp will not count since im too high level? really? that's really sad. anyway..... i got on my rogue (who's level 61 as well, who i havent played since forever. to put this into perspective. she has slow riding, which was about 90gold at level 40, back in the days. and at level 60, we would get journeyman, fast land riding for about 600g. that, i would not pay for since i wanted to stop playing my rogue. yea, thats how old this rogue was. wasnt played with for a long while). i got on and repsec'd subably, made some macros for stealth, openers, finishers, and combo point makers. then i configured my buttons to just the way i liked it.... and queued up with my gf. at the start of the day, at level 61, i was doing about 500 dps.
okay i lie. i started off doing about 350dps. then, as i got the hang of it, ended the instance with about 500dps. several quests and several instances later, i was doing slightly more damage. it wasnt until late last night, about level 65, with several dungeon pieces (mostly gemmed with delicate bloodstones (yes, just bloodstones)) that i finally broke 1k dps. 1k dps!! wtf??? yes. its awesome. then by the end if the instance, it leveled out to about 800-900 dps. not bad for a 65. what happened is this. i found out that my biggest damage came at the beginning of a fight, and only coming out of stealth. so i wait for the perfect time to shadowstep, then ambush (3cp), someone will crit (4cp) and i will simply do a backstab (5cp).... then finish with Evis. they die. in about 6 seconds i just did 10k-12k damage. the rest of the fight has me applying backstab+evis, or hem+rupture.
there really isnt much else to do because after the first mob dies, everyone else is at about 1/2 health anyway. there is absolutely not enough health or time left to get a full stack of combo points to really do anything useful. and then there's the bosses. =] love those fights.
anyway, hopefully spending some time as a rogue will help me with my paladin dps. lol fat chance. but will hope.
as for my warrior, this was how it was played for the several instances that i actually tanked.
for trash, i would charge in and rend immediately. then thunderclap to apply rend to everyone (and slows them), then cleave. thats it. all done. actually i'd demo shout at times, shieldslam as often as possible, revenge when proc'd, shield slam when proc'd, thunderclap on cooldown (unless i see more mobs coming into the picture, i can save it for them) and cleave to dump my rage.
on bosses, i charge, shield slam, devastate, rend, devastate, devastate, revend on proc, shield slam on proc, keep sunders up (and increase my threat lead) with devastate.
i find that devastate is pretty useless with trash unless its one of those "theres nothing left to press" situations. trash dies quickly enough. healer has no problems healing me, and i rather save my global cooldown for some more aoe moves than a single target move. that said, devastate the boss, cleave the trash.
one other thing, my gear is made for questing. my spec is for questing. i leveled up as prot for a while and it was awesome. even in outland, lack of defense gear is not doing any harm to me. i'll save the dodge gear for later, when i hit 70 and have to get the cobalt set. my design before was this, to allow myself to be hit more, thus gaining more rage, but also being able to heal myself as i fight. this worked well, but those days are gone. now that i am doing dungeons regularly, i dont want to be hit more to gain rage. i'll be hit plenty, so i'll have to slowly switch over to more mitigation, avoidance, and stamina gear. my talent tree is not as customizable any more, so im stuck with a cookie cutter spec. thanks bliz. now we're all the same.
anyway, thats just my update. it feels like the weekend but its not... yet. have a great weekend everyone!
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