Welcome to roguerogue, your resource for World of Warcraft's rogue class. Here you'll find up to date articles on strategies, PvE and PvP perspectives, video content, and more!

Tags

achievements arena blizzard dps duels enchanting eviscerate faq gear gemming guide guild information interface leveling mutilate nition opinion patch preview professions pve pvp racials site social spec stateofstealth strats talents tr video wotlk

Recent Comments

  • AK! I love you so mush! Good luck!
    in Formal Farewell
  • Thanks Akrios for your awesome videos and insight on WoW, especially the rogue class. Your videos...
    in Formal Farewell
  • you helped me expand my trance music tastes as well ^__^
    in Formal Farewell
  • I used to come back here for PVP tips (it got me to top 36% in 2s with my druid friend ^_^)...
    in Formal Farewell
  • Cheers for the entertainment and education, Akrios. Optimism for D3/cata. Good luck.
    in Formal Farewell

Popular Posts

last 7 days

Posts Tagged ‘pve’

« Older Posts

Rogue: the Class that Never Changed, How we should Evolve

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Before I start I want to make it clear that the play style of our class was much different in the past and has continued to change as the game has evolved. Comparing even burning crusade arena to current arena where I think strategy and control has give way to a much faster paced, split second play style with a growing list of opposition abilities to worry about. The rogue has evolved and the rogue player has evolved. What shocked me, looking back, is how little the class itself has changed in the past years.

Our abilities and PvP damage cycles have been similar for a very long time. The standard cheap shot — > combo ability(ies) –> kidney shot –> combo ability(ies) –> damage finisher has been the foundation of the class for a very long time. The last class shaping abilities that we received were mutilate (which was essentially played the same way as backstab, but let’s forget about that), cloak of shadows, and shadowstep. All of these abilities came before Burning Crusade was even released. You could argue for shiv here as well, but I’ll get to that later.

WOTLK gave us some very lame abilities and class changes. It’s kind of a sad situation when none of our three 51 point talents are used for any high end PvP

other than shadow dance, which is minuscule in comparison to mutilate representation in end game PvP (actually, none of the top 100 rogues in terms of arena rating are anything other than mutilate atm) . Hunger for Blood is irrelevant as far as PvP is concerned. Killing spree is, for lack of a better term, retarded. I really dislike having a 51 point talent that does lots of random damage and ports you without control, for PvP it’s underwhelming at best. Shadow dance, in it’s first iteration as a set of vanishes was cool although it needed some adjusting. This was changed to it’s present form which is, in my opinion, a lot more boring than people realize. Essentially, all dance does is let you use those same stealth moves you’ve had for 4 years out of stealth for a few seconds. It’s somewhat interesting but still lacking in terms of creativity as a 51 point talent in what should be one of our best pvp trees.

Shiv was another one of our new abilities, but deadly brew and the present burst situation has marginalized it greatly. Fan of Knives is the biggest joke of all in PvP; it’s paradoxical to me that the most common PvP use for our big new WOTLK ability is to aoe out other rogues. Am I the only one who sees a problem with that?

In Classic WoW, one of the most popular rogue specs was cold blood / prep daggers. To be honest (although play style has of course changed, there are more abilities and burst) the removal of shiv really makes present day prep mutilate feel a lot like cold blood prep. WOTLK gave us some interesting talent choice opportunities but it’s pretty sad when the basics of PvP can be summarized in this flow chart someone linked me which I found pretty amusing. Of course this is an exaggeration, and what differentiates rogues is reaction time and decision making regarding cooldowns and strategy, but is this really that far off?

I want to say first that I don’t think rogues are out of balance. I do not want rogues to be buffed. Actually I think they are right were they should be in terms of balance, and I’ll cite SK once again here which has us right in the middle of high end PvP representation. That doesn’t change what I said above and that doesn’t make the class ideal. I know this all may look like complaining but here’s what the changes I believe would move rogues in a better, fresher, and more interesting direction.

Survivability

The biggest problem limiting rogues now is (more…)

Stealth Nerf to Nitro Boots the Death of Engineering? How I fixed my ping

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

After several attempts to balance the Nitro Boots ability in the arena, we have decided that we currently do not have an acceptable solution. Until we are able to better balance this ability it has been shut down in the arenas. We fully plan to continue working on this item and we intend to adjust it in upcoming patches.

Now I can understand that Blizzard has to constantly make moves to adjust professions. As game balance changes so must profession balance; how strong each profession is relative to both PvE and PvP. That being said, this nerf to the nitro boots tinker that happened to get left from the patch notes is completely ridiculous.

First things first, I know that from a PvP perspective there is a lot more to this game than arena. That being said, arena is the centerpiece for PvP balance in this game. This is due to a few things: world pvp is basically non-existant, battlegrounds are essentially for honor farming and have lost their competitive spirit, wintergrasp is a joke and has nothing to do with pvp balance, and blizzard has repeatedly stated that the game isn’t to be balanced around 1v1. Therefore, we have to assume that when blizzard balances proffessions with PvP in mind, they do this around arena. At least you’d think that, until you hear ignorant blue posts like this:

I wasn’t aware that engineering consisted entirely of one schematic. I was under the misinformed position that it was actually a collection of interesting “gadgets” or explosives.

The gadgets useful in some very diverse ways, but no items that could entirely change the balance of the game.

The bombs useful in pretty much any situation you wished to do additional damage.

Neither the bombs nor the gadgetry were as simple as pure stats. All had some other trick to them which require skill, timing and understanding to use effectively.

Source

With this unannounced nerf, last week’s nerf to goggles (which from a rogue perspective was logically a buff, but still a nerf from an engineers perspective, but I digress) it’s hard as an engineer to think blizzard isn’t biased against the profession. This response from blue is completely irrelevant to arena. I refuse to believe that blizzard would plan this nerf, unannounced, and have it only apply to arena if they didn’t agree that arena balance is tantamount to PvP balance. That makes this post pretty inexplicable, talking about bombs that are not usable in arena, and too expensive to be used in other situations. This guy doesn’t seem to realize that what people are angry about is the removal of one profession from arena and the underhanded way it was removed.

Engineering now offers very little from any perspective. For PvP, the glove haste or rockets are mediocre at best as “the best things the profession has to offer”. From a PvE perspective, engineering tinkers are inferior to the best enchants available. So not only do you get extremely little for PvP, you also get essentially nothing for PvE. Engineering provides some fun tricks, but an entire profession providing a few fun, expensive tricks that you can use only once in a while is extremely underwhelming.

What about the other professions and what they provide in arena? I don’t think you can say that nitro boots were better than jewelcrafting or enchanting’s statistical upgrades in every situation before this nerf. Was nitro boots a powerful enchant? Yes, absolutely. Was it out of balance when compared against other professions? I would argue it was right where it should be. Engineering is clearly designed as a pvp profession, if you’re serious about PvP it was a good idea to level it. Nitro boots were nice, they helped with mobility slightly for less mobile classes (the ones who will really feel this nerf), but they could also backfire or be countered with an immediate snare in reaction to the boots. They were only effective when not snared and usually could only be used once an arena. Good? Yes. Overpowered? No.

Maybe removing glove tinkers and all other engineering advantages usable in arena would have been fine, but this move is equivalent to removing ring enchants for arena, and doing it without releasing it to patch notes. I really feel bad for those that leveled engineering and dumped thousands of gold into a dead profession.

How I Fixed my Ping

Now before you do anything, read this. Someone showed me how to do this. I have no idea how it works, I have no idea about registries. I am simply relaying information and I can tell you that it has thus far worked for me without a problem. This is by no means new information and it’s been around for years, but I had really forgotten about it until maybe a month ago. You make these changes at your own risk and I really can’t help you beyond what’s being said here. To make this clear, I don’t know how this works, I just know that it worked for me. People asked me to post it so here it is, use at your own risk.

About two months ago my latency was anywhere from 180-250. My current latency is anywhere from 40-90. I was under the impression that the “ping fix” from years back had been made irrelevant by some blizzard changes, but I was corrected. Here are the steps I took. (more…)

Rogue Mage vs Druid Plate strats, Rogue Solo’s Onyxia

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

I find a lot of rogue/mages (including my own until about a week ago) are struggling with the rise in druid/plate teams. While these teams will never by any means be easy, once you have the right strat they feel very much beatable. The use of deadly poison makes the “train the druid and cc the dps” strat very much viable. I’ll briefly go over some strategy but this video should give you a better idea of what I’ve found works against them. Also included a few reaction time clips because I’ve gotten a few people questioning if I react to stuff or just guess, I don’t really care what people think but the clips are just here for fun anyway.

Poisons: First things first, you want to have deadly poison on one hand and wound on the other. IMO wound should be on offhand if possible, so that you can shiv it on if it falls off, and it also allows you to shiv cripple.

Druid Warrior: What we do is have our mage run in and get a nova on the warrior. Open at this time with cheap shot and have your mage deep freeze. This will allow for a clean ToT shatter on the druid with your overkill opener. After the sheep, the warrior will likely trinket –> bladestorm. If the warrior tries to save trinket through 3 sheeps and 2 freezes the druid should die. Once he trinkets, get ready for bladestorm. Feint if possible and immediately get the fuck out. Regardless of your health, once you get away find a safe place and eat / bandage situationally.

Your mage should have enough time here to kite, block the storm if necessary. Wait for Sheep DR to expire if possible and get a full sheep, if for whatever reason your mage runs into trouble cheapshot the druid and blind the warrior. The warrior should, at this point, eat a full blind, 2 sheeps and a deep freeze possibly. This should be enough time to kill the druid. If you are going to die to thorns, don’t, bandage and eat, mage can evocate if necessary. Save your cloak for nature’s grasp or if thorns is about to kill you.

In terms of damage rotation on the druid, I suggest cheapshot –> kidney shot –> imp counterspell — > garrote –> evis. Save at least one vanish for the bladestorm. Don’t forget, mage also has nova to keep that warrior off of you. Resetting is always possible if things get sloppy so long as your mage still has the mana and hp to kite. A frost mage can live for a very long time against druid warrior alone.

Druid / Deathknight

A bit more tricky than druid warrior. I notice most DK / Druids will let the rogue beat on the druid, deathgrip them when possible and do their best to shut down the mage, letting thorns wear the rogue down so that a swing or two will finish them off. What you want to do is if the deathknight rushes your mage, you can cc them as far away as possible from the rogue. Mage should focus on cc off the start while the rogue opens and goes through an initial damage rotation on the druid. Mage should then be able to catch up and finish the druid. It’s really difficult due to lichborn, but the mage can use nova, deep freeze, and rank 1 frostbolt to control the deathknight and take as little damage as possible during this time. Eventually you hope to get a sheep off. If the DK trinkets at any point, blind as soon as possible.

I talked about Druid / Ret here.

Phishy Solo’s Onyxia

Congrats to Phishy (great pvp’r as well) who just posted this video on wcm solo’ing onyxia! You can find his explanation below, something I didn’t think I’d get to see at level 80, cool achievement for the class! Best of luck to all those out there looking to complete this as well.

Hi. This is simply a pve video showing how the rogue class can solo the Onyxia encounter.

Blizzard may have nerfed the “untouchable” rogue by greatly reducing the amount of dodge we get from agility, but they did make a key change to (more…)

General Tips for Improving your Gameplay

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Often on this site I’m giving advice and opinions, but when someone asked me “how do i become a better rogue” or “have do I become a better player” I’m usually left without a clear response because its not a simple question. The following is the first in what may become several articles with tips for what I believe it takes to become better. Some of them may be extremely obvious to an experienced player, some may not be helpful to you at all, but hopefully, regardless of your skill or experience, you can get something out of it. I’ll also take this time to give a disclaimer if this article comes off as condescending in any way, it’s not intended. There are a lot of things I myself still have to improve on and I by no means have all the answers.

Bindings and Movement

Movement is an enormous part of this game, and I’d argue it’s more important for rogues than any other class.

Bindings

The first and most important step in improving is to bind your keys. If you already do, great. This is the paramount, first step on your journey to success in game. Look at it this way, if I had to choose  between 5000 attack power and having unbound keys, I wouldn’t have to think twice to choose bound keys. I think it’s ridiculous for people to invest countless hours into this game without binding, it’s the equivalent to fighting with one hand behind your back. I often hear the argument that clicking is a choice or you can make it work. I can spec 20 / 21 / 20, kill people and it can work, but it’s far from optimal.

Once you bind your keys you should probably unbind turn, its a waste of good key bindings (there is no reason to have it bound). Your primary movement should be using strafe and your right-most mouse button, combined with the occasional use of forward (default “w”) and strafing. Strafe often, strafe is your friend. In almost any situation where you can back-peddle (s key) you can simply strafe instead (while turning with your mouse). Using the ’s’ or back key is the equivalent of applying hamstring to yourself, it should rare if even be used.

Landing Kidney Shots and Abilities

The majority of a rogue’s burst and utility comes from our stuns. In spite of how much blizzard has done to hurt is in this regard (they don’t go out of the way to give us a great chance for KS to be reliable), landing KS’s is imperative to success in PvP. Ideally of course, you want to chain a KS while the target is still effected by cheat shot, gouge, a fear affect, a horror effect, or any time the opponent can’t dodge, but this isn’t always possible.

When using Kidney Shot (hereafter reffered to as KS) on a target that can dodge, block or parry, you should try to get behind them, negating any chance for your attack to be avoided.. This is a lot easier if they are snared, so try to put up a snare if possible before kidney shotting.

What you have to try doing is jumping through the opponent when you are not snared (preferably you have sprint up), spinning around very quickly, and using ks right as this happens. This works fairly often for preventing KS dodges for a few reasons. Firstly, if you are through them, and tart spamming ks, ability will not be used until you are facing the character. So essentially, as long as you don’t start spamming the ability until you are through them it won’t be a frontal ks. You may be thinking “they are a melee class, they will just turn to me because they are attacking me”, but in reality unless they predict it’s coming, it happens too fast to be countered. You have to jump for this to work properly.

This concept work the same for other abilities. For example, you want to eviscerate a rogue a rogue with evasion that is attacking you. Jump through them and use the ability while spinning in the same manner as described above.

Another easy tip for landing abilities that may seem simple to some, is to use gouge before KS’ing a rogue, druid, warrior, or death knight. Even if they can berserker rage out of the gouge quickly or you have dots on your target, that short gouge guarantees KS will not be dodged. Obviously gouge isn’t worth using against prot warriors or rogues with evasion.

Gouge is your Friend

I have to say that I (more…)

« Older Posts