Power Auras: Setup and Use for Assassination

Power Auras is a customizable addon that allows you to add auras, timers, etc. to  your UI so that you know what’s going on with your rotation, cooldowns, and just about anything else you can think of.  For Samuel, I use it to tell me 3 things:

1. If I need to reapply poisons
2. A timer for Hunger for Blood
3. A timer for Slice and Dice

This is what my Poison Aura looks like.  If I see this pulsing around Sam it means that I no longer have Deadly Poison on my off hand weapon.  Since I always apply my poison to my main hand first, this aura lets me know that I need to reapply.  I currently have it set up so that it’s on under any circumstances, but if that doesn’t work for you there is a way to set it up so that it only shows when in combat.

As for Slice and Dice and Hunger for Blood, I have it set up to flash the icon on screen with a timer underneath, just like this picture.  If you set it up the way I have it, there will always be a black background to the timers, so you don’t have to worry about the scenery interfering with the view of the numbers. 

Today I’m going to show you how to set up this addon to use it as I do, and hopefully this will help anyone who is having trouble keeping the rotation up.

Honest Scrap?

What’s this?   This was the thought going through Samuel’s head as he checked his incoming links.  What’s an Honest Scrap Award?  Carefully he read the inscription:

“This award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant.”

That’s cool, he thought.  Then he noticed a smudge underneath inscription.  Upon further investigation, with the borrowing of a World Enlarger from his engineering buddy Anabelle, he discovered that it was no smudge.  It was just really fine print:

1. When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.
2. Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

 

Samuel sighed, and realized, he had some work to do….

Raiding: Jigsaw Puzzle or Rubik’s Cube?

I’m going to take a break from being Samuel the Rogue today, and talk about being Samuel the guild leader.  With patch 3.1 coming out, and Ulduar on the horizon, I thought I’d discuss keeping a guild together in the storm that is to come.

Recently, another guild wanted to “merge” with us.  Mergers aren’t always a bad thing, but this case, their idea of merger was to absorb us.  The problems with this merger for our guild were the raiding times and the fact that the other guild had over 100 level 80 characters already.  They claimed that they didn’t want to be a giant mega guild, but they were still actively recruiting and attempting to merge with (absorb) other guilds.

I had allowed one of their officers and their leader into our vent server to talk about it, which turned out to be a mistake, because we’d be in the middle of raiding, and the officer would randomly log in and repeat the same lines over and over again trying to convince us to go with the merger.  The guild members in vent were very uncomfortable, so I politely asked him to leave.

The issues we had with his converstation were how he said that his guild “made another guild who they were,” and that if we didn’t join up “everything was going to fall apart with 3.1,” so we should join them in the interest of self preservation.  On that note, boasting and intimidation are not the way to get a guild to want to merge with you. 

We were also informed that their Ulduar progression team had already been made, consisting of only people who had played the game since it came out.  Add that to the comment that they “weren’t elitist” and most of my guys were whispering me that they weren’t interested.

All things considered, part of what he said is true.  Guilds will fall apart,  issues will come up and things have the potential to get nasty in 3.1.  Combating those issues won’t be solved by splitting my guys up in a 130+ member raiding guild.  If you’re like us, and it’s just as important to stay together as it is to progress, you’ll need to combat your problems before they happen. 

Depending on your guild’s circumstances, you are either a jigsaw puzzle or a Rubik’s cube.

I’m sure you think I’m crazy, but I’m going somewhere with this.

Wow Shenanigans Support Gnome Roguery

Here’s an interesting screenshot; Anabelle, my Paladin, towering over none other than Samueltempus.  What’s truly sad is that this screenshot could have come from a handful of experiences in this particular room.

If you don’t recognize the floor, it’s from Halls of Stone, more specifically the room where you protect Brann Bronzebeard from many, many, many waves of incoming mobs.  The problem I seem to have with this room is that other tanks (non-Paladin) with the exception of a few individuals I know, have severe struggles with this event.  It’s definitely a TRI (Tank Related Issue).

How do I know that it’s a TRI?  Well, any time I run Halls of Stone on my Rogue to get the Fleshshaper Dagger off of the last boss, it’s a wipe fest on this particular event.  After about 5-8 attempts on this event with tanks that have 32-36k buffed health, I logout, switch to Anabelle, and down it on the first attempt.  I’ve done this several times, and the one-shot happens every time.

I know what you’re thinking.  Consecrate makes it easier.  I did it last night, only dropping Consecrate once.  If I can tank it basically without using Consecrate, I don’t understand why the event is so difficult for non-Paladin tanks (I’ll admit, I’ve never seen a Bear tank it).  The only things I can come up with are lack of Rage, and Runes on cooldown.

Anyway, I don’t want to rant too long about it.  I’ll say that the Fleshshaper finally dropped, so unless someone needs me to tank H HoS, I’ll likely not return.   On a happier note, my DPS went up about a hundred on a combat dummy after equipping the Fleshshaper, and that’s before an enchant.

- Sam

Rogue PvP: Talent Considerations

As I’ve mentioned before, PvP can be a touchy subject, and there’s really not one standard spec that is used by all PvP Rogues.  Each tree has tools for PvP, and depending on skill, gear and talents, any tree could be effectively used for a Rogue to PvP.  Today I’m going to discuss talents in the three trees that specifically have a PvP flair to them, and let you decide for yourself what suits your individual playstyle.  Today’s discussion more to Arena usage, but world PvPers and Battleground enthusiasts should find the information useful too.

Other Wow Shenanigans

Altaholics Anonymous.  Not a new idea, but if it did exist, I’d probably be a member.  I currently have three level 80 characters, and I’m leveling a fourth at the moment.  Add that to the 70 Warlock that will probably get leveled after 3.1, and the pair of Shamans that my wife and I are leveling, and it’s possible that I could have six level 80’s in the same number of months.

Balancing the play time between all of toons can be trying, but it does have its advantages too.  For starters, I’m covered on 7 professions between between my four 70+ toons.  With the Shaman and the Mage on the way, I’ll have everything covered and be self sufficient. 

Also, with the exception of my Mage (Enchanting is a huge money drain while you’re leveling it), leveling a toon always nets me a good amount of gold.  On the three toons that are already 80, I’ve made over 20, 000g in Northrend alone.  Most of that has gone to epic/cold-weather flight, but I’ve still got about 5,000 saved up.

As amazing as the versatility of having three different 80 characters is, it has its price.  My Paladin gets more playtime than my Rogue, as more often than not, the guild either needs a tank or healer.  Anabelle, is known as Jenkins, the Argent Champion, and Champion of the Frozen Wastes.  Poor Sam, is just an Explorer.  If I can get Maly and KT down, plus run old Strat a few times, I’d have both of the Champion titles on him as well.  I’m pretty sure Moghann, my hunter, is only missing KT, and a heroic or two for his Frozen Wastes title.

What I’m getting at is that the price of playing multiple characters on a consistent basis is that it’s much harder to get one character all of the acheivements and gear you’d like.  My fatal flaw in the equation of who to play is that I will always take the character that my guild needs me on.  As guild leader, I feel the responsibility to make sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible.  I know that sometimes, it comes at the expense of Sam, who is my main, but I enjoy playing with my guild, so I do what it takes.

In defense of Alataholsim, having many high level characters adds to your experience of the game, as you see it from multiple angles.  The only thing I haven’t done in Tier 7 is tank Malygos.  Other than that, I’ve Healed, Tanked and DPSed every single fight.  In fact, I’ve DPSed every fight, except KT from Ranged and Melee.  I know the content backward and forward, because I’ve done it in every possible way.

I won’t lie, I wish I spent more time playing my Rogue, but I enjoy being well rounded.

- Sam

Math: Subtlety, Daggers, and Hemo; Oh My!

I’d like to clarify a few things today with the reasoning behind my Subtlety leveling guide.  I’ve caught some flak for using Daggers with Hemorrhage, and rightfully so.  Using Hemo with Daggers is vastly inferior to using it with a slow weapon, such as a Sword.  I would never recommend that anyone use Dagger Hemo in a group or raid; however, the Subtlety guide was written for someone to solo content, so different rules apply.  

Still, if Hemo isn’t as good with Daggers, why would I spec for it, and worse (gasp!) use it?   I’ll explain that using the numbers within the game.  Before we get started, a few explanations:

1. I’ll be using level 80 abilities to keep it simple.  The Attack Power and Crit numbers are obtainable in blue /crafted epic gear with proper enchants.
2. I will not be calculating white damage or armor mitigation.  I’d rather spend my time playing the game than number crunching, and they should pretty much cancel themselves out.  If anything, my damage estimates should be on the low side.
3. As previously stated, I know that Hemo works better with Swords and I’ll show the math to prove it.   Please refrain from being redundant and commenting on how Hemo is better with Swords.
4. Hemo was never considered to be a main ability in this build, like Ambush and Eviscerate are.  It’s main use is combo point generation, and even at that, it’s not used often in this build.

Let’s get started; you might need an Advil, though, this is math intensive :

PvP: Coming Soon

I haven’t done this before, but since I do get emails here at Slice and Dice, today I’m going to answer a piece of mail.  Don’t worry, I always ask before I post, so don’t be discouraged from sending in email.

Hi Sam,

I have recently just started levelling my rogue from 70 – 80 (currently 73) with the premise that he will become my PvP/Arena toon. I was linked your site from the forums on the BigRedKitty web site and I must say I think your explanations and reasoning for your builds are fantastic. I will be using your Combat guide to level to 80 without a doubt. I was wondering (as you seem to be extremely knowledgeable with regards to the PvE aspect) if you have any information/tips/builds for a PvP Rogue?

Thanks in advance,

Felkadar (EU) Chamber of Aspects

Generally, what’s best for a PvP build is more personal and controversial than what’s best for a PvE build.  The main cause of this is that while PvE encounters are fairly rigid (encounters typically happen the same way each time), PvP encounters are fluid and require adaptation.  To win at PvP you’ll either need more burst damage than your opponent can handle or a bigger bag of tricks than they have.  Today we’ll talk about the basics…

Leveling a Rogue: Leveling Subtlety 10-80

It’s time for the Subtlety guide.  Thanks in part to some help from the community and some research of my own, I’ve built a Subtlety spec for leveling with the criteria I set for myself.  Those criteria were :

1. The build would emphasise the use of Stealth
2. It must include 51 points in the Subtlety tree
3. It would be balanced for PvE, but include tools for PvP use

Will this build level as fast as Combat, or even Assassination?  I’m still testing that, but I’m fairly sure the answer is no.  Will it be a fun ride?  I’m positive the answer is yes.  So without any further delay, here’s a fun spec that will let you release your “inner Rogue” to dispatch your opponents quickly and return to the shadows…

The Subtlety Guide is on its Way

Thanks to all that gave their input on the Subtlety leveling guide.  I really do appreciate the help with a tree that seemed so foreign to me a few weeks ago.  The guide is currently being written, and I hope you enjoy it when you get the chance to view it (later today I hope).

I’m continuing my leveling of the Borean Tundra Sam to see how it works, but I’m fairly confident that it’s a viable spec.  I’m also pretty sure it’s going to be a blast to play as well.

The guide is about halfway typed up already, and I hope to have it out a little later today, but even using the same skeleton for each guide, 2000+ words is a lot to type and format.  Anyway, I’m really looking forward to trying this spec and seeing how it alters my playstyle. 

- Sam