Update: Big patch today, so far I notice the energy regeneration smoothed down to 1 increment at a time instead of the 20 per tick! Hopefully more talents are working now, will update tomorrow as I check things out.

Summery of what I have experienced personally so far on beta realm as well as video #2 below:

Vimeo decided that they’re lame(and want to make a profit) and no longer supports ‘game videos’ right after their policy of not supporting porn videos(lol) so check comment 1 to download the normal looking version since filefront un-widescreens it.

General: All the new weapons are either faster or equal speed of TBC weapons, not sure if they plan on making the level 80 end game weapons to be even faster than TBC weapons. Instances are really easy right now, most likely cause everyone got purples from 70.

Mages: Frostfire bolt, slows and DoTs you - not so good if you want to sheep right after… Instant cast Arcane Barrage hits you for 2300 isn’t really fun btw.

Shamans: Thunderstorm’s knock back can be countered by Shadowstepping right after (so Intercept should own it as well), Enhancement Shaman hurts like hell and even their Shocks do significant damage.

Shadow Priest: Dispersion can buy valuable seconds for the next Fear as well as block out big DPS moves such as Shadow Dance. Also unlike other immunity moves, you gain a nice sum of mana and hp back in it’s duration (this actually makes a huge difference).

Warriors: 2 2handers = better than 1? I’m sure most will still go back to Mortal Strike + Bloodthirst as long as the games are still won by mostly healing debuffs at 80.

Death Knights: I think I see more ice in these guys than Mages atm. Imagine the insane amount of synergy they’ll have together when both of them have moves that do triple damage on frozen targets and can freeze for each other with ease. High armor targets are also no sweat for DK since they have a good amount of magic DPS. Only thing missing for DK is some sort of healing debuff. Their reversed Shadowstep will also give them an amazing role in Arenas.

Paladins: Everyone’s ret atm 10k 1 shotting things, not much else to say…

Druids: Things are looking pretty good for them, feral still does boat load of DPS while Resto with 1 second GCD on lifebloom is rocking harder than ever, only toped by the new heal Flourish which solves the multi-target healing problem as well as another burst prevention on top of Swiftmend and NS. Did I mention Tree form armor increase and no movement penalty? Expect a lot of ugly trees which you can’t sap running around in arena coming soon in 2009. The relief is that they won’t be getting Feral Charge with it being a 21 point talent.

Some Shadow Dance feedback: Even though it’s amazing for bursting (and much needed vs just about any non-clothie right now), I have the feeling once people are used to dealing with it, a lot of aoe spam deny will happen. Even now, it’s often that I miss out on 1 or 2 of the vanishes just because random aoe move or vanish being broken like usual. It’s also very weak against classes that have on demand damage reduction or immunity, especially the ones that can be used during stun.

You also want to come in to Wotlk with as much AP and as little crit as possible. level 70’s crit rating is garbage once you’re 72 or higher. Same applies to spell damage vs spell crit rating I would imagine.

Spec used in video: http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=f0ecoZZiMsshhRcxoguVo

Tags: Videos · Rogue

Since I went to blizzcon, I was given a key to the beta. I was able to copy my Rogue and Druid over and just started playing yesterday. (The download was 2 gigs, ouch!)
Well pictures speaks a thousand words and a video has plenty of those so let’s check this out:
1. Since I’m bad at leveling I’m still 70 at the time I made the video. At 71 with relentless strike, the build would be much stronger.
2. Mainly trying to show 51 subtlety with daggers as a viable spec, the other 2 51 points are still broken so not much to show there… I believe the ability to get 45 Energy Backstab/Ambush made a huge difference. (keep in mind I don’t have relentless strike or ruthlessness yet)

Original size was widescreen, see comment 1 for download link.

Here’s the spec used in video: http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=f0xfZZAMcshhR0xstuVo

Tags: Videos · Rogue

A good Rogue friend of my has brought to my attention today that Vindicator Dragonhide Bracers might actually be better than Rogue set’s Vindicator Leather Bracers

I laughed at first, then I took a closer look at the stats…

Assuming you gem 16 AP for Dragonhide’s Red slot and 8 AP 4 Crit for Leather’s Yellow slot, you get the following stats:

As you can see, you get 42 more Armor, 4 more AP, 5 more Crit and 2 more Resilience at the cost of 3 Agi and 4 Stam. Even if you assume 4 AP and 1 Crit cancels out with 3 Agi (the former is superior), you’re still looking at 42 Armor 4 Crit 2 Resil vs. 4 Stam. I think the choice is clear, Blizzard want Rogues to wear Dragonhide!

All jokes aside, if you haven’t already picked up the Vindicator Leather Bracers, make sure you get the Vindicator Dragonhide Bracers instead (also for those that wants to get the max out of every possible spot, another 12k honor is added to your to-do list).

Tags: Rogue · Rants

With the new 2.3.2 patch, many Rogues are left wondering which spec will be the replacement of AR/Prep. The spot light is on one of the abilities that has been deemed ‘worthless’ for almost 1 year, Shadowstep.

This ability has been receiving the most attention and buffs in the last couple patches. Going from only usable in Stealth and giving no bonus aside from the teleport effect, to the current usable outside of Stealth, grants 20% damage to next special attack as well as giving a 3 seconds mini sprint per use.

We all know the sacrifice you have to make in order to pick up Shadowstep…
Read More

Tags: Rogue · Articles

Ziss: Just got my ass handed to me by Warglaives ShS Rogue 4 games straight. He was able to drop me to 47% with 1 CS and with that type of damage, I’m sure the selected few will excel with ShS next patch. (Dec. 20)

As many of you already know, the recently favored AR/Prep spec for Rogue is being nerfed by removing Adrenalin Rush from Preparation. Many Rogues are left wondering where to go from here, and some looked towards the newly buffed Shadow Step as the way out.

To help us answer this question, let’s take a brief look at Arena history. At the start of Season 1, the focus of Arena was almost all 5v5. With Blizzard backing the bracket via tournament and international competition, there was no reason to look else where. Everyone started playing 5v5 and used it as a rule-of-thumb in determining skill. You would often hear players that lost in 2v2 or 3v3 say “Play in a bracket that matters!” to the opposing team.

This period was the darkest for Rogues. Every team was running Warriors as melee DPS using crafted tier 1 or 2 Blacksmith weapons and gathered 4 pieces Arena armor in few weeks. Rogues on the other hand was stuck using the precious points on weapons while wearing blues socketed with full 12 Stam gems just to survive the barrage of Warriors in 5v5, often with another Warrior on their team.

Noktyn and Nitrana from Team Pandemic summed it up well during Season 1: Read More

Tags: Rogue · Articles