What’s up with my Heroic DPS?

I’ve had a few comments and emails recently about Rogues getting destroyed on heroic bosses by Mages.  I figured I’d do a quick write-up on why.  Before I get into that there are some things you should know:

• It’s going to happen.
• It can happen often.
• It doesn’t matter if you’re better geared.
• There’s not a whole lot you can do about it.

A well-played Mage will destroy a Rogue on fights that last around 40 seconds every time.  This happens due to our resource, Energy.  Energy is a great mechanic.  Even if we’re completely out of it, Energy will completely regenerate in ten seconds or less.  However, it’s not Mana, and for that reason a good Mage can whip you on those short fights every time.

Envenom & Eviscerate

One thing I’ve noticed traveling in Azeroth and what’s left of Draenor (that’s Outland for the lore challenged) is that a lot of Rogues don’t completely understand what’s going on when you use Envenom and Eviscerate.  I’ve known more that one Rogue that had never used Envenom during Burning Crusade, and was halfway through leveling in Northrend before they used it for the first time.  If you’re not a theorycrafter, you might not care what’s happening mathematically when you press a button, but that knowledge can help you decide exactly what you should be doing in your DPS rotation.  Today, I’ll break both Envenom and Eviscerate down so that you can decide for yourself which one is better for you.

Dagger Conundrum

I often get asked what weapon speed is preferred for each hand, and while that option is pretty cut and dry for Combat, sometimes the results with Assassination will surprise you.  Before we get started, know that I spent an hour at the dummy last week when I did these tests, so I ran these tests multiple times and chose the results that best represented the average for each specific test.

Generally speaking, for PvE, a fast off hand weapon coupled with a heavier hitting slow main hand is the way to go.  Of course there are exceptions.  If you are Assassination spec and have a choice between an ilevel 200 and an ilevel 232 dagger, the 232 will probably be the better way to go regardless of weapon speed. For example, I was using two Dirk of the Night Watch , a 1.4 speed dagger.  I have a plethora of ilevel 200-219 daggers that are in my bank that I don’t really use, but I’m too much of a packrat to get rid of.  Many of those daggers are 1.7+ speed, but their damage range is very similar to that of my two Dirks, so the Dirk in the main hand essentially is as good at dealing damage as any other slow dagger I have, with the benefit of being a bit faster.  I recently replaced that Dirk with the other ToC 10 Dagger, the Icefall Blade, which is 1.8 speed.  You might think that that would be a guaranteed huge upgrade, but the results I have are different that you might expect.

The Hallowed

I know that some of this title was based on luck.  I also know that I saw 3 Hallowed Helms yesterday, the third coming in a treat bag after I finished the Achievement.  I’ve also already received multiple sets of toothpicks from treat bags.  Lucky or not, I finished all of the achievements this year in less than 2 days.  Check my Armory if you don’t believe it.  It is possible, and it really doesn’t require that much work.  Just make sure you’re running with a consistent group for the drops off HH and trick or treat whenever possible.  You’ll get there, you still have almost 2 weeks.

Good Luck,

- Sam

From Zero to Hero

There are some truly terrible players in this game. If you read this blog with any consistency, you’ll know how foreign a statement that is coming from me. I’m of the belief that anyone can be a decent player if the can find the right information, and to that end, I try and point people in the right direction. But, I have to admit that I wasn’t always like this, and at one point I thought the person I’ll be discussing today had no hope of ever becoming a better player. Not only was I wrong, but this particular player is now a well respected guild member, and a good friend. This is his story…

We Conquered and Now We Triumph

I’m sure most of us saw this coming, but in 3.3 everything that’s currently dropping Conqueror’s badges will now drop Triumph badges.  Recked has a good analysis of the change, along with his thoughts.  I won’t retool his thoughts here (you should read his post, imo), but I will answer the question he wrote at the end of the post: “What do YOU think?”

Dehydration and the Missing Gnome

I was never much of an achievement freak (excepting Holiday Events), but a few weeks ago, I decided to start knocking out the 20 or so Heroic achieves that I had left for Glory of the Hero.  You would think that after getting Watch Him Die, Less-Rabi and the full scope of Occulus acheives that I’d probably be done, right?

Of course not.  I need 1 more achievement, and it’s not even difficult, it’s just luck based.  I need Dehydration, and I can’t seem to get Ichiron to spawn in the Violet Hold.  I’m almost positive that I have the acheivement on every other 80 character that I play, but for some reason, the game is flaunting that one grey achievement in the Glory for the Hero list…

Anyway, I’m sure that some of you have noticed that the posts are coming less frequently these days.  It’s mainly RL that’s getting in the way, but don’t worry, it’s nothing exciting or troublesome, just multiple things keeping me busy.  I hope to be back on a regular schedule by the end of the week.  If I can find a second, maybe I can update my guides.  Maybe.

Oh yeah, check out Recked’s Rogue blog.  It’s new, but it’s a good read.  I recently got the pleasure of throwing out the first comment there.  Maybe a few of you can follow that lead.

- Sam

Assassination; Pro’s and Cons

After a week and a half of playing Assassination again, I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with it.  When I can stand and wail on something, I’m in love with the huge numbers that I see, but I’m really missing Combat in just about every other scenario.

Assassination:  Pros

1. Great Single Target DPS.  In a Patchwerk style fight with everyone being equally geared, you should be on the top of the DPS
2. Relatively Simple Rotation.  After you get started, the rotation really consists of 3 moves, in a simple pattern.  Mastering the rotation by knowing when to throw in extra envenoms or when to hold off on a finisher for some energy regen does take time though.
3. Big Numbers.  In addition to having great sustained DPS, the largest numbers you can see as a Rogue come from Envenoms while being Assassination.  It’s not uncommon to top 10k on a single hit, and depending on the fight and your buffs, 20k+ in a 10 man isn’t out of the question.

Assassination:  Cons

1. Lack of Cooldowns.  I’ve touched on this before, but Assassination doesn’t have the calibre of cooldowns that Combat has.  Cold Blood guarantees a crit, but in this day of 50%+ chance to crit on your Finishers, you almost feel like you’re wasting it every time you cast it, as it’s likely you didn’t need to use it to achieve the same effect.  The beauty of Combat is in the cooldown management, which allows the Rogue to pump out extra DPS on demand.  Assassination would likely need nerfs to key abilities to get something similar.
2. Target Switching.  Having to switch mid fight to another target to burst it down is much harder Assassination than it is Combat.  Fighting the twins in 10 man ToC really illustrates this point.  Having to switch to the other target hampers your DPS as you re-establish your poison stacks.  If you’re unlucky it can take what seems like an eternity for that first poison stack to proc.  While you can substitute an Eviscerate to keep using up your combo points, you’ll likely drop Slice and Dice in the process your overall DPS will take a bit of a dip while you re-establish your DPS on the new target.
3. Multi Target DPS is Low.  Your only real option for multi target DPS is Fan of Knives, which just received a significant nerf.  The problem with the FoK nerf is that it affects Assassination far more than it does Combat.  Combat has both Blade Flurry and Killing Spree in addition to FoK.  Don’t get me wrong, FoK needed a nerf for Combat, and to a smaller degree Assassination.  That being said, the loss of DPS is really hurts and is quite evident in a heroic group, especially when Assassination.

All things considered, I’m generally in favor of Assassination over Combat.  I love the big numbers and the high single target DPS, but I loathe Heroics and my significantly lower trash DPS.  Assassination could use better cooldowns, but I think as long as Mutilate / Prep is the dominant PvP spec, that it’s not likely to happen.

- Sam

Assassination in 3.2.2

Assassination got some pretty significant buffs in 3.2.2 to make sure that it could continue to scale as well as Combat has.  In short, your Envenoms no longer consume your Deadly Poison (when talented via Master Poisoner), and Envenom gets an extra 2% boost from attack power per combo point.  I knew this change was coming since they announced it just after 3.2 hit, and I’ve been trying to acquire Daggers of equal or better quality to my Swords.  As luck would have it, I reached that goal on Thursday and I have been testing Assassination since then.

I think that the best way to summarize the differences between the current Combat and Assassination specs is that Combat has controlled burst, whereas Assassination does not.  There are the three major DPS boosting cooldowns for Combat:  Adrenaline Rush, Blade Flurry, and Killing Spree.  I can blow them all whenever they’re available, or save them for when I need solid burst damage.  Assassination only has 1 true cooldown, Cold Blood, which really isn’t all that great, as most Rogues aren’t hurting for crit chance these days.  Your only other option is to fake another cooldown by using vanish offensively to activate Overkill.

You might assume that I’m not thrilled about Assassination, but that’s a false assumption.  While it lacks in on demand burst damage, Assassination, It makes up for with BIG numbers.  In a collection of 219-232 ilevel gear, I’ve seen Envenom crit for 14k, and that was in a 5 man.  So while I can control the spikes in Combat damage, I’ve no real control over the spikey nature of Assassination’s damage.

I have yet to raid with the 3.2.2 Assassination yet, but from what I’ve seen so far, Assassination seems to be producing more DPS than Combat at the moment.  I went from pulling 3-3.2k unbuffed on a dummy while Combat to 3.2-3.5k unbuffed after I switched back to Assassination.  If my schedule permits it, I’ll be testing this out in earnest this evening in a TOC10. 

Finally

Until yesterday, I’d never seen one of these drop, and I ran Coren on 4 toons daily last year, and as many as 6 every day this year.  In the hundreds of times I’ve killed him before the kodo dropped, I’d seen 1 remote, and 1 ram.  I’m just thankful that I won the roll.  Hopefully my good luck will rub off on any of you that are still trying to get it.

- Sam