Aggramar realm status …… DOWN

How’s patch 4.01 working for you?  Raiding going well?  Getting used to that new rotation?  I wouldn’t know.  Since 4.01, my realm has been down about as much time as it has been up.  Seems like Blizzard likes to wait until I am in raid or a BG to have an issue as well.  We are talking at least 4+ crashes a day.  Pile on all the other ”features” of patch 4.01 (auto disco-nect when clicking an a BG objective, conjured item or the headless horseman fight.  Also teleport issues in and out of BGs and dungeons and just randomly being disco-nected while doing nothing.  Don’t forget the client lockups) and it had been one big pile of doodoo for me. 

Rotation:

I wanted to discuss the 4.01 rotation.  Although still uncomfortable, I was top DPS in my raids.  Getting used to the new energy regen and energy cap is throwing me for a loop.  I used to Envenom at 69 energy, now it seems like 55ish and that comes real quick.  Not to mention the finishing moves that give me combo points happen a lot more often now.  I am also looking to activate Hunger for Blood all time and I am so trained to ask for a bleed effect that I am going crazy here.

Patch 4.01 PvP Blues….. QQ’ing in my office

As I am sure everyone is aware, patch 4.01 screwed up more than anyone expected.  That Heroic LK fight looks doable now.  310 flying speed is only 5K away.  Damage and healing outputs are much higher.  My health pool is higher in my PvE gear than my PvP gear.  Rogues get a new healing spell and unexpectedly, Rogues are OP (thats over powered for the new peeps) in PvP.  Resilience had a big change in patch 4.01.  It no longer has the chance for the crit reduction is had.  What does that mean for a Rogue?  Well, we no longer do PvP like we are using a rubber sword (or dagger).  Just about all my attacks crit on my Rogue.  It is sometimes ridiculous.  With all attack power going to agility, our crit ratings are probably even higher than before.  Now keep in this mind, I do not PvP on my Rogue.  I hated the fact that it never felt like I was doing any damage.  I do PvP, almost exclusively, on my Shadow Priest.  Prior to the patch I could own all but the best players in my mediocre, mosly 251 with 264 off pieces gear.  That is not the case today.

I spent the last 2 days in Battlegrounds getting to know my Druid healer and my Shadow Priest DPS.  The one thing that is shocking to me is how fast a Rogue can take me down.  I used to be able to, at the very least, get away from one.  That is not the case today.  By the time the 1st stun wears off, I am almost dead.  Garrote and Rupture always crit and they take me down fast.  It is getting to the point that I do not want to PvP on any of my favorite PvP toons.  In addition, everyone is using PvE gear with all the haste and crit they can get and it isn’t unheard of to get burned down in 2 shots.  When the shaman crits you consistently for 20K, you just don’t last long.  There is no way Blizz can keep this going.  Good thing is Ret Palis are not a big deal anymore.  They do hit like a mac truck, but if you can keep them off you, you should be good.  Too bad arena is over.  I would like to see what a shadow cleave team would do with the current setup.

A little patch 4.01 fact:  Kings and Mark of the Wild are one and the same (stats wise).  Also, reagents seem to have gone the way of crit reduction too.

Patch 4.01 and you……

Ladies and Germs,

The day has finally arrived and patch 4.01 (or whatever it is) is here.  Everything you knew about a Rogue is so early 2010 and the new adventure begins.  Will we be top DPS?  What stat(s) do we want?  Will we blow the crit cap away?  The answers are sure to come ….. with time. 

Currently there are no spreadsheets that are trustworthy for the new patch but there is some information to be gleaned.  I would highly suggest some time on Elitist Jerk’s Rogue forum regarding the new patch.  But fear not friends (I use the term very loosely) and loyal readers (OK, I am being a little presumptuous) I have some information that you need to know TODAY!!!

Talents:

This is basically the going talent tree for Ass-ination rogues.  We do seem to have a single filler talent in Deadly Brew that could be used elsewhere.  Nothing is particularly appealing to me, so I may just put in Deadly Brew.

Talent Tree

/GQUIT and other stuff

Tonight I left my guild.  It was a long time coming and tonight was just the catalyst to push me over the edge.  Last week, another guild got the realm first for downing H LK 10, a title we should have received.  Although disappointed, I would settle for 2nd or 3rd.  I do believe we had the people to accomplish it, but definitely lacked the drive.  Plans for the last couple raid lockouts included getting geared for killing Algalon in 226 gear, ToGC 10 insanity runs and the occasional fail run through ICC heroics.  We certainly stepped back a few steps in terms of progression ability. Add that our great Disc Priest quit until Cata comes out, our main Pali tank stopped playing his Pali and a general lack of willingness to do attempts on H LK 10, I decided that it wasn’t going to happen.  Killing H LK 10 as an 85 with 70K health isn’t quite the same as doing him now.  I was told my attitude was poor for not wanting to do Ulduar 10 raids and I decided to quit rather than subject 12+ other people to me any longer (I never said I was easy to get along with…. or just plain easy for that matter).  My goal of downing the end expansion boss is probably shot now, but it probably was with AFI anyways. 

Keep in mind that I ran tons of runs to gear others for weeks on end.  Attempted a 25 man combined guild run (that was epic fail) to “gear up people for H LK 10.”  Ran ToGC 10 runs on my main to help others.  Did massive DPS and was, more times than not, the last person alive.  The list goes on.  I sacrificed time with my family for the greater goal and sacrificed sleep for “one more shot.”  I believe that somewhere along the line you have to commit to finishing what  you started (in this case ICC 10) and suck it up until its done.  I certainly was committed and I don’t think it is unreasonable for others to be as well.  But then again, maybe I am. 

Raiding in ICC is a time consuming endeavor and getting far in the end game takes a lot of skill, some intestinal fortitude and a good group.  We apparently lacked 1 of the 3 since going to Uldaur and ToGC trumped ICC.  It is no great secret that I am tired of that place, but bringing it to a close would have been awesome and would open up doing other things.  Blizz announced December 7th as the Cata release date.  Include the upcoming 4.01 patcch (can you say 4.36GB) and the changes in the talent trees, it leaves little time to finish up the current content due to QQ’ing about this and that.

I must say it is kind of a relief not having a regular raiding schedule (not that we have been regular in the last month or anything) but I am not sure what I am going to do with my time.  I will probably continue my quest for the gold cap (sitting at about 150K right now) and level up my other toons in preparation for cataclysm.  Who knows.  Maybe I will even start a new guild, but odds are I won’t.

I wish AFI luck in thier future endeavors (except maybe Craig) and hope they do well in the new expansion.

Getting in touch with your inner Rogue (Rogue basics: Part 4)

Energy Pooling (no pictures, I am being lazy)

This is my last installment of this series.  Everything is about to change and all my work will be for not when the new talent trees come out in patch 4.01. It is on the PTR so we are destined for the change sooner than later.  But I feel compelled to go over this last part of Rogue basics (although I think it is more advanced than basic). 

I was running a raid this week with the best Combat Rogue I have ever run with before.  He is a guild member and I actually used to look up to him when I first started raiding.  Although lacking in help when I first started out, I was shocked to hear he had spec’d into Mutilate. After I picked up my jaw off the ground, we started the 25 man ICC run.  His DPS was acceptable, but then asked me what he was doing wrong since he wasn’t at the top (neither was I, but I had accidentally equiped a grey chest).  I couldn’t look at recount and see anything wrong but it also doesn’t tell the whole story.  I asked about his rotation and gave him a little advice.  I then asked if he was energy pooling and his reply was, “What is that?” 

So I figured if this great raiding Rogue wasn’t aware of energy pooling, there has to be others.  I guess Combat Rogues don’t have to worry about Expertise or Energy Pooling…. who’da thunk it?  I do want to give the disclaimer that I do not have the hard evidence for my opinions from Elitist Jerks and I am not on a top raiding realm.  However, my rotation has been developed from about a years worth of raiding, research and some tinkering to see if I can get higher DPS.  My talents don’t always line up with the best geared Rogue’s on my realm either, but I do usually top DPS on fights where I am allowed to stay on the boss and the fight lasts for any length of time.

So energy pooling is basically ensuring that you have enough energy after throwing a finishing move to do X amounts of combo point generating moves while the finishing move buff is still active. 

New Talent Trees on PTR :(

Well sports fans, looks like patch 4.01 is coming out. 

       “This will be the biggest patch Blizzard has ever done”

                                                                                      — Blizzard Forums Dude

In short this means that the servers will be down more than they are up once it is released.  Among the tons of new features and bugs that will be coming our way, the new Cataclysm talent trees are included.  On the one had, this is good so we can get used to them before we have to shell out $40 and start leveling to 85 (some of us have to shell it out twice, but I digress).  A lot is changing in the talent trees and better people than me have written a ton of stuff on them so I won’t be going into details about it.  On the other hand, this is TOTALLY GOING TO SCREW UP EXISTING END GAME CONTENT!!!!!  Some of us are trying like hell to get H LK down.  Throw in a whole new talent tree and the objective is even further way. 

Some questions that come to mind

1. Attack Power or Agility?
2. Haste?
3. What is our new rotation? 
4. How will the Tier bonus’ factor into this?

I have read a lot about healing changes.  H LK has a ton of damage and unless there is a huge buff to healing done (yeah right…) it will make it that much more difficult to finally finish the end expansion boss and possibly gear alts. 

No one knows when this patch is going to be released, but if it is on the PTR you can bet that we will be seeing it in the next few weeks.  On another note, if the Arena Season has not ended, it should make for some interesting fights.  Personally, I like the way the classes are now (except for maybe the Warrior class which I think is OP at high gear levels in PvP and I welcome the nerfs to their talent trees).  I like topping the DPS and have a funny story about that.

Story:  Last night I ran ICC 25 heroics and got a grey chest piece when I looted a mob.  I mounted my mammoth and went to sell it, however, I inadvertently equipped it.  I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t top DPS but I was hovering around 7 or 8 on bosses.  Turns out, even with a major piece of gear missing, Rogue’s blow lesser players (and classes) out of the water.

So what are your thoughts on the new changes to the talent trees?  Do you think the end of the hybrid class is a good thing or a bad thing (you have spec all the way into a single tree before it unlocks the other trees)?  Do you think this will adversely effect your end game or help?  Leave a comment and win a prize!!! (<– that actually isn’t true)

The ICC Blues…… (raiding burnout)

Yes, I realize no blue quality gear drops in ICC except for the occasional world drop and maybe a gem or two in the weekly bag.  ICC was first released on December 8th, 2009 making it nearly 10 months old.  That’s 10 months of 10 and 25 man raiding……. every week.  It has been fun, on occasion.  A few memorable moments in my raiding diary (you seriously don’t keep a diary?)

1. Downing Suarfang in ToGC gear with no buff
2. Finally getting Putricide down after something like 38 attempts.
3. Downing the LK on our very last attempt of that night and opening heroics.
4. Getting my ICC achievement mount.

Looking back, we were such noobs at all these fights.  They take no time now, especially on regular. Our alt runs in ICC 10 heroic go relatively smoothly as well.  We struggle on Heroic Sindragosa, but who doesn’t. 

Also looking back, there are several things that I absolutely hated about ICC during the last 10 months.

1. Trash.  I just can’t stand trash and feel it is a huge waste of time.
2. Professor Putricide – It was a tough fight to get down.
3. Sindragosa – Another tough fight to get down.
4. Heroic Lich King – Still don’t have him down, but it is doubtful that you do to. 
5. Trash – Did I say that I hated the trash?