Killing Spree in PvE

I’ve received a fair number of comments, emails, etc. asking why I think Killing Spree is worth putting a talent point in.  First off, here’s the ability text:

Step through the shadows from enemy to enemy within 10 yards, attacking an enemy every .5 secs with both weapons until 5 assaults are made, and increasing all damage done by 20% for the duration. Can hit the same target multiple times. Cannot hit invisible or stealthed targets.

At first glace, this appears to just be a series of 5 assaults to anything in a 10 yard range, making the ability good for moderate AoE use, but not much else.  If you look further you notice that all damage is increased by 20% during its duration, so any white hits will receive the 20% buff.  Basically this ability allows you to pump some serious damage out over the span of 2.5 seconds.

Given that it’s only 2.5 seconds, you might think that it’s not that useful, but with the glyph, you can use this ability every 1.25 minutes.  With that kind of cooldown this ability can give you a worthwhile DPS boost, and for only 1 talent point.  Here’s some numbers for you:

6.5 Minute Combat Parse, no Killing spree

6.5 Minute Combat Parse, with Killing Spree

What can you take from these numbers?  First off, Killing spree is a significant DPS boost.  150+ DPS for 1 talent point is nothing to sneeze at.  Looking into the numbers, Killing Spree contributed to 6.1% of my DPS.  However, that’s not entirely accurate.  Some of the DPS is hiding under “Melee.”  Calculating that DPS would take some serious math, and that’s just not in the cards for this post.

I was able to pop KS 5 times and that’s 12.5 seconds of a 20% DPS boost for white damage.  I estimate that I got in about 8 main hand and 15 off hand hits in that time.  To maximize the effectiveness of this boost, I only use it when I have Slice and Dice up, and if possible Blade Flurry.  

In conclusion, Killing Spree is a very effective tool when used properly.  It can provide a compliment to Fan of Knives in the Rogue AoE arsenal, or it can help boost your single target DPS.  In my opinion,  it is certainly worth a single talent point.

- Sam

Samueltempus is….

… 29 years young today.  Maybe tomorrow you can expect some new WoW related commentary…

- Sam

Sam Dabbles in Arenas

 Go ahead.  Make my day.

Umm…Yeah right.  I’ll admit I’m a force to be reckoned with in PvP, but I’m far from world class.  I have made some observations about Rogue PvP, and that’s the subject matter for today.

First of all, I’m running with a hybrid Assassination / Subtlety build, using glyphs of Mutilate, Prep, and Vigor.  This build and closely related variants are pretty standard among the Arena Rogues I bump into.

I did half of my honor grinding for PvP gear as my raiding Combat Spec, and half of it as the spec I’m using for arenas.  There were pros and cons to both, but I think my favorite part of using my Combat spec was when a warlock was hiding in their base in WSG with our flag, and I jumped out of nowhere with Killing Spree and sent the flag back to the base before he had a clue what was going on.  Note that there’s no way that would have worked if he had any significant amount of PvP gear.

On to the arenas, I was a late bloomer in TBC, and I didn’t really get into arenas until season 3, and it was season 4 before I got into it enough to break the 1750 barrier.  I didn’t participate in season 5, and I’ve only got about 250 games between 2’s and 3’s in season 6.  In 2’s we either run dual Rogue, or Rogue Shaman (the more effective of the two), but we’re finding that we have a hard time beating several popular comps, and the rating is going nowhere fast.  For 3’s however, we’re learning how best to use the same 3 people, and it feels a little more balanced.

What is a Revix?

I can’t answer that question, but if you go to whatisarevix.wordpress.com, you’ll probably get your answer.  Also, if I do anything absolutely fail, I’m sure you’re more likely to hear about it there than here.  Plus, the author of this site is a hit stuff druid with sick dps.  If that’s your bag, there’s another reason to check it out.

- Sam

Punked!

The Mrs and I had a lovely time celebrating our Anniversary, but Friday came, and it was time to come home.  I hadn’t played WoW in almost a week, and was home for vacation less than 3 hours when shenanigans ensued:

We received an interesting Application for Bucklers titled “Hunter to end all hunters.”   You can read the whole thing here, but here are some highlights:

When asked why this person wanted to join, he replied:

- “A long time ago I did an instance with Moghann, and he inspired me to roll a hunter. I checked armory and he was in this guild. I found the website from trade chat. I’d really like to do another instance with him to see if I can out-dps him now!”

For those of you who are unaware, Moghann is my hunter, and I haven’t really played him that much since 3.0.8 hit and BM took the massive nerf.  I’m a very pet centered hunter, so that’s the spec I like to play.  Maybe I’ll look into some more playing time for him in the near future.

Moving on, like an employer, we ask about previous guilds, and this gem came up:  

- “The GM was a real jerk, and was mean to me when I used the guild’s money to buy epic flying. Which is ridiculous, because I was in that guild like the whole time I was leveling.”

Wow, he ninja’d guild funds to buy a flyer.  This app sounds like a winner.

I’d love to see this app for a hardcore raiding guild, because when asked how he feels about our raiding requirements (which are very lax), they responded with:

- “IMO guilds shouldn’t make such strict raiding requirements – like having their raiders bring consumable, they should just be provided. So I’ll do it, but I’m not gonna like it.
I like the serious raid attitude, but I get annoyed with too much joking around. And don’t worry, I won’t ask for anything, because aside from raiding I’ve already got what I need.”

Again, what a winner. So I log into game and hop on vent, where our story continues….

3 Years and Counting

Come June 10th, The Mrs. and I will have been married for 3 years, so we’ll be vacationing this week in celebration.  Our honeymoon was spent at the Grove Park Inn.  We enjoyed the experience so much, we’ve been back every year, Including this one.

I remember when we went the first time, and the Mrs. said “you’ll love the spa,” and I was skeptical at best.  I was wrong, she was right (this happens a lot).  Few things are manlier than a room filled with 140 Degree steam.  Even rogues need some pampering sometimes.

Anywho, as always, I’ll have my iPhone on me, so I can reply to comments, and leave some of my own.  If I’m relaxed enough, I might even post something, although I gotta say the formating tools on the iPhone WordPress App are nonexistent, so you won’t get nice justified text like normal.

Have a great week, and yes, more than a few beverages will be consumed in the making of this vacation (Aka, Rev, I’ve got you covered)

- Sam

Stream of Consciousness

I’m done with post planning, and I’ve had a plethora of time to play.  What that boils down to is that I am having so much fun playing the game and doing other non WoW things, that I’ve not been here in a while.  Well today, I’ll cover what I’ve been up to, some reader mail, and see if we can’t get this whole posting thing back up and running…