Gnomification – a brewfest clip

The gnomified population of Azeroth as documented by my “print screen” caps.

musik :
L’Heros by “The Pinker Tones“
From the 2007 album More Colours: The Million Colour Revolution on Nacional.
(via KEXP song of the day)

A hidden nerf to rogues pockets

Thanks to the sobbing idiots who can’t play thier classes or use trade skills but keep an open eye on what ever others are doing, blizz has quietly nerfed the rogues once more in the patch. This time, by moving the chests in Mech a few inches so it will be impossible to kite the mobs the way we used to in order to farm the chests.

Some called it an unfair advantage to rogues, other, like me, just thought its a good rogue play. After all, we suppose to be a class of quiet sneaking thives. That’s the dictionary defenition of the Rogue class.

Apparently blizz is not that into backing up the lore of the class. Just like the way the lore can change when they want to make some easyRL gold by creating another expansion. In Azeroth, lore is not carved in no stone.
This is the kind of corporate thinking that I truly hate in RL. Never go an extra inch outside the sells-department box. Always have to keep everyone happy and smiling, as long as they seem to be the majority of the paying customers according to the graphs.
thank you blizz for reminding me that this is an RL enviroment with some poligones to cover the mediocre thinking of the mainstream customer.

Come to think about it, if the moving of some virtual chest, bound by XML to some virtual happiness, makes me that angry, maybe its time to leave azaroth for some RL time. After all, this is just a video game. Isn’t it?

Raiding rogue guide

There are many ways to play our leathery class in raids. Those tips are based on personal experience as a combat dagger rogue, and I hope to get more tips and advices on other specs and styles.
This guide is an open draft and is edited when ever I have the time.
Any contribution will be welcomed through the comments.

 

 

Maximizing your damage

Rogue’s damage is what gives him the precious raid spot.

1. You probably have heard this before but I’d rather be safe then sorry – SPEC COMBAT.
   There comes a point in every end gamer’s life when he must choose raid or PvP. If you have decided to be a raiding rogue, go combat.
   I know that you like the cool mutilate or the ability to sneak past any white faced human in AV, but Combat is the best raid DPS spec for most gamers.
   While combat swards spec suppose to be the best and subtlety maces considered the worst possible for raids (and in this combination – for anything), you should always find what’s best for your gameplay and flavor. Combat is known to work well for most raiding rogues.
   More about rogue builds: http://www.wowwiki.com/Rogue_builds
2. Combat daggers works best with a fast off-hand. If your off hand is a 1.8 speed, I think (but not sure) that mutilate is the spec for you.
3. Stack +hit gear.
   1. Because you need it to fight higher level mobs such as those you will meet in raid instances.
   2. Because it’s the only stat you can’t get buffs, chants or food for. Hence, you must have it on your base stat.

   Your +Hit goal should be 200 to 320, depending on your build.
   More info and math about the +Hit statas can be found here.
   And a forum thread about +Hit rating – here

4. Forget about Eviscerate. Acquaint yourself with that long forgotten Rupture. Mobs and bosses, which are not immune – should be ruptured.
5. Options for weapon enhancements:
   - When you have a shammi in your group that can cast Windfury - use it.
   - Adamantite Sharpening Stone – always keep a stack of those.
   Both of those options are very good against any poison immune mobs and bosses, and Windfury is a good option to have at anytime if you have a shammi.

Extensive theory and math crafting :
http://www.gameriot.com/blogs/The-WoW-Alley/Raiding-Rogue-Information-by-Myrx/

PVE Rogue Starter Gear:
http://shadowpanther.net/starter-pve.htm

Maximum DPS Armor Chart:
http://shadowpanther.net/armor-max.htm

Agro/Threat control

When grouping and raiding, the tank’s job is to get agro and let the DPS classes do their work. Unfortunately, in the first raid you’ll do, e.g Kara, your tanks will not always be the best they can (just like you will have a lot more to learn). When grouping with a tank who has hard time maintaining agro, you must know how to deal with your argo generation.
While soft mages or purple priests must take a step back and hold on their fire, so not to make the boss too angry at them, we can burst full DPS, then feint or vanish, and do it again in just seconds.
Agro control is a key to be a good raiding rogue.

1. KTM (or the new and improved Omen) will tell you when that trash mob is about to turn its deadly force to your delicate (but good looking) leather suite. Agro meter such as those 2 is not an option but a must have.
2. Anesthetic Poison – it may not give as much damage as the instant poison, but will do extra damage without the extra threat, therefor allow you to put an overall more damage.
   (again, that is off course unless the boss is immune to poisons)
3. Using Vanish, when you’re agro is too close to the tank, will allow you to restart the damage dance, but it has the 3-5 min cooldown.
4. Use Feint if your agro gets too close to the tank and vanish is on CD.

Add ons

Must have

1. Damage meter/SW Statas – evaluate your output compared to others.
2. Fubar DPS (or any other personal DPS counter) – evaluate your net output. Some addons will slice your dps by the ability used and other details.
3. KTM / Omen – To help you manage your threat levels.
4. eCastingBar – customize and mobile your enemy and personal casting bars. Will help when you most needed – to stop casters Etc.
5. DOTimer / CCWatch – timing your CC’s. It’s good to know when that sapped mob is about to wake up and go looking for you.
6. Deadly Boss Mode – will help you know when to COS, run away, stop DPS or any other action you need to take in any boss fight.
7. CT_RaidAssist – Everything you wanted to know and configure about your raid group display and info.

Good to have

1. Outfitter - when you need to switch arcane resistance gear, or go from PvP to PvE, in a click – you know you want this add on.
2. AtlasLoot - if you want to plan your time and look for gear drops where you might get them
3. TrinketMenu – not a must, but its nice to be able to switch trinkets with 1 click.
4. SpamSentry - keeping your raid channel clean is pretty important even with voice chat.
5. NugieComboBar / Archud or any other tool that will place your CP right up front.
6. EquipCompare - make faster loot rolling decisions when you can easily comper it to your current item.
7. ElkBuffBars - I like those for showing me all my debuffes clearly.

There are planty more recomanded addons – for your bags, proffessions, poisons, loot and any other aspect of the game and it’s interface. Those listed are just the addons you will want, or must, have in a raid.
To find more addons you can visit – http://wow.curse.com/downloads/
(again, any suggestions, recommendations and well written opinions ar more then welcome)

Interface design

Personally i like to have the crucial data in the center and move any none battle necessary items to the corners, or top.
I need to have immediate data such as threat and mob health in my main focus (the green circle in the picture), without loosing eye focus. That’s very important when every millisecond of unfocused eye work can be crucial. I disable any non relevant combat text (such as heals gained or damage dealt). I have even removed the group icons from the raid interface and cleared it a little more.

The two main points to a good interface are:

1. Clean - the less on-screen data, the faster you process the data you do have.
2. Data placement, from the center outward – according to it’s importance and battle relevance.

An example to the second rule is that in a fight where I need to interrupt spells (R&J, High King Etc.), the target cast bar will be placed in a centered position, and be moved to the bottom in any other situation. Same with centering the debuff floating frame when debuffs are relevant (Heroic Mech Mechano-Lord Capacitus Etc.).

General

1. Always keep a stack of 20 from each of the main poisons rogues can use.
   Anesthetic Poison is good to deal damage without the agro penalty.
   Deadly Poison the favorite off hand poison of most rogues. Just don’t use it in a CC rich environment or you’ll have your group gratitude for some nasty wipes.
   Instant poison should be used whenever agro is not an issue.
   Wound poison is good against almost any boss with self healing capabilities, from Romeo’s biatch to the blind seer and beyond. Don’t forget about it.
   Crippling Poison is good in vary rare ocasions (such as Moroes add kiting), so it is good to keep a stack of it anyway.
   Mind Numbing is useless in most raiding situations.
   More about poisons and uses – here
2. Make sure you have the gold.
   Raiding can be expensive, from repair bills to regents and mats. An average raid can cost you 20g-50g or more. Don’t get to learn a new boss fight and wary about your repair bill and don’t come unprepared to a raid just because it requires gold. There are many ways to make gold, and if you are good enough player to raid, you should be good enough player to take care of the farming/trading/grinding side.
   What ever you do, remember that buying gold is the lamest way to make it, and that you often expose yourself to threats such as Trojans, account hacking and just plain cons.
3. Go heroics whenever you can. I know it’s a general recommendation and not a rogue specific, but do it. Heroics can gear you, by collecting the Badges or with some of the boss’s loots. Bloodlust Brooch and Searing Sunblade are two of the best items you can get in their slots till Gruul and beyond. I use the Sunblade even after Romeo’s biatch was kind enough to supply me with her nifty little offhand dagger (1.3 speed goes great with my play style).
4. Everyone will tell you to never leave home without some 10, or more, healing pots. Also to keep some Agi pots, Relentless flasks, or what ever redbull keeps you going.
   I’m just adding some sneaking potion to your grocery list.
   It’s good to have those, especially for a combat rogue, for any sneaking and recon missions you might need to do.
5. Read this guide to bad rogueing, be honest with yourself and find out what have you done wrong. It’s never too late to mend.
6. Don’t take anything you read on the web for granted – always try for yourself, use damage meter and find the best spec/tactics combination for your gear and game style.

Any other suggestions and tips are always welcome.

 

Additional info:

how to lrn2raid – more for the raiding rogue:
http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/07/25/encrypted-text-how-to-lrn2raid/

Kara, Gruul and Magtheridon strategy guide for rogues:
http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Guides.Detail&id=230

Useful info and links:
http://www.gameriot.com/blogs/The-Rogue-Compendium/

Thanks for the rogues who donated criticism and info at the official forum:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2043716553&sid=1

 

 

 

Get your hands of our DPS

Thinking about it, there is only one solution to our constant nerfs – we should stand and protest against the upcoming Haste NERF.

Here are a couple of suggestions for a non violent effective protest, in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi (a priest, not a rogue, but a wise men non the less)

1. Every day at 5:00pm – 5:05PM server time (on each server) , rogues, furi warriors, and anyone else who feels that this nerf will effect him, should dance nude in the main cities central locations. Places like the bank fronts of Ironfourge or Stormwind and the Hoard’s equivalent.

If you support it and want to take part, just spam your local trade channel some time before 5pm. Let people know to come and let them know whats its all about.

2. Create toons named “Nerfnomore” on each realm and bring them to lead the dancing.

3. Spread the word.

Any other suggestions will be welcomed. Its time to stand for your right to top the charts! Hell, someone will be there anyway – so why not us?
Remember that unlike a nature disaster – NERFING CAN BE STOPPED!