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Thoughts on Blade Flurry

Posted by on Jan 30, 2011 in Commentary |

If you’ve been keeping an eye on the patch notes you’ll know that Blade Flurry is about to become a toggleable skill in the upcoming patch, causing Combat rogues to get a permanent cleave. While I admit that it was a notable change, what made it even more interesting was last night’s main hand axe drop, giving me a weapon that I could use for that spec.

Long-time readers of this blog know that back in WotLK I ran Combat for 5-mans and trash pulls then switched to Assassination for boss fights. That switch involved changing specs and weapons only, which isn’t something you want to do in Cata due to the implementation of Mastery. Assassination rogues prioritize hit and mastery while those who prefer Combat reforge to hit and expertise. This leads to the conclusion that if we want to swap between the two specs, we need two sets of gear.

I’ve yet to come to a decision. I could wait until the patch is implemented to see how Blade Flurry performs damage-wise before I start working on getting the gear or I could throw caution (and gold) to the wind and prepare myself beforehand. In case you’re saying that I should check the spreadsheet, I already have. I’m looking at a 3K DPS decrease given that most of the Combat items will be ilvl 333. I’m okay with that. The spreadsheets are for single-target boss fights anyway. Cleaving a second target isn’t accounted for. Not yet anyway.

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Late Notes On The Subtlety Changes

Posted by on Mar 12, 2010 in Commentary |

You probably noticed that I made no comment on the upcoming changes to Subtlety. That’s because it’s the tree that I’m most unfamiliar with. I haven’t used it since the days of TBC, which is a little ironic considering that it’s the spec I leveled with.

It’s always been my opinion that Subtlety is the tree that allows you to experience what a Rogue is supposed to be like: one who’s at home in the shadows, an individual who feels more comfortable while stealthed than out of it. Unfortunately, Sub doesn’t provide optimum raid DPS. I actually had trouble letting go of it back in the day when dual specs weren’t implemented yet.

So, fast forward to today and you can tell why I didn’t write anything about it. One, I can’t say anything relevant about the changes because I haven’t been Sub for a while and won’t be able to contribute anything significant. Two, the changes won’t change raiding as a Rogue as we know it. I find that unfortunate, actually. A little variety would’ve been nice at this point.

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‘Sin Spec: The Highs & Lows

Posted by on Dec 17, 2008 in Commentary |

I’m lagging behind my guildmates on the DPS race due to my pathetic gear. I missed out on an instance marathon due to work and I’m now paying the consequences for trying to live a life outside of WoW. Yes, yes, I know. The whining and dining will stop there.

I’ve been looking at other builds for my rogue recently because Hunger for Blood is a bitch to maintain. There, I said it. Assassination is a tree that will keep you awake during raids due to the fact that its rotations are more complicated than Combat. I tried creating a dagger-based build for the truly lazy and came up with something focused on Sinister Strike. Now, I know that Backstab is supposed to be the attack skill of choice for Combat Daggers, but I did say “truly lazy”, right?. I keep hearing that ‘Sin (my shortcut for Assassination) specs have the best DPS output, but its learning curve is definitely a rude awakening for those who aren’t used to it.

There are two things that are preventing me from actually doing a respec: Mutilate and crits. Mutilate is well worth the talent-point investment and should be the only choice for Rogues who prefer using daggers. ‘Sin’s critical hits are just plain addictive to see. You’ll want to get an addon that will make your crits more obvious like SCT or MSBT that changes the fonts or Comix that plays sounds. They’re only aesthetic changes, but ones that you’ll learn to appreciate.

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