Today, the Mrs. and I celebrate 5 wonderful years of marriage.  We exchanged our gifts this morning.  Her gift made it apparent that the side of me that is Sam isn’t going away anytime soon:

Again, I wouldn’t expect numerous or lengthy posts from me in the near future, but clearly if she’s this supportive, I should be back eventually.  Oh and for those of you who are wondering, the 27 is my lucky number, and it goes on any jersey that doesn’t already have one.  It’s not my age (unfortunately), but is related to my birthday, coming in 17 days….

- Sam

Not too long after my last post, my wife, who was 8 months pregnant at the time, was put on bedrest for the remainder of her pregnancy.  about a month after that, I was at work when my phone rang, and she told me that they would induce her that day.  That actually didn’t happen until the next day, and several hours and a C-section later:

If you’re serious about raiding, but want a  fun natured guild, Bucklers of Swash (Mug’thol US – Alliance) might be a good fit for you.  We’re currently recruiting to fill a few holes in our two raid groups.  Our guild has veteran raiders who are ready to attack the content, but eight people does not make a full raid for either of our groups. 

We’re certainly open to all players but our greatest areas of need for raiding are:

• Tanks of any class
• Non Priest healers
• Ranged DPS, especially Hunters and Warlocks

Our raid times are not set in stone, but our two groups currently raid on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at both 7 Eastern and 10 Eastern.  If you would like any additional information, feel free to email me or check out bucklersofswash.com for additional information and our application forum. 

Since it’s likely that you’d be switching servers or even factions, should you be interested, I’d advise you roll a low-level character on Mug’thol and spend some time getting to know us before you make your decision. 

Thanks,

Sam

P.S. – I should warn you, if you were to decide to come to Mug’thol and join BoS, you’d be stuck with me. 

My first reaction was to think, they’ve really overtuned this.  I  honestly thought: hey, I’ve got mainly the same players that I had when we had progressed through Lich King, there’s no way this should be this hard as the first tier of raiding.  My team should be able to handle this easily, and Blizzard has obviously overshot with the difficulty of its encounters.

Then I slept on it and realized that yes, the new raid content is more challenging than anticipated, but my guys should be able to handle it.  That being said, we weren’t.  As such, I began to write a letter to my group for our forums implementing some basic requirements for our raid group.  They are:

1. Cataclysm Dungeon Hero Achieve
2. Minimum 346 ilvl equipped
3. All gear enchanted with Cataclysm (Wrath if appropriate) enchants
4. All gear gemmed with uncommon quality gems

We’re not raiding again until we’ve got 10 people who can meet this requirement.  I personally have yet to reach these goals.  I have two heroics that I just can’t seem to randomly queue for and will queue manually for them, and I’ve got a belt buckle to obtain.  Other than that though, I’m ready.

To some people these might come off as elitist, but really, are these requirements too much to ask?  We have a large guild with the resources to make obtaining these four things all but trivial.  A time commitment is all that is really necessary.  When you’re talking about encounters where one person has the potential to wipe the raid, you want people with you that have worked hard to earn their spot and will give 100%.

I pose this question:  New content or not, if your group is consistently wiping in the same manner, even after identifying the issues, how would you handle the situation?

- Sam

The Blog:

Yea, I’m still here, and actually getting to work on some of the stuff I should have already finished.  For instance, the Baby Rogue: Cataclysm post was about three paragraphs from finished a month ago.  I’m still getting requests for help with a few areas, most notably gearing and reforging.  I expect to cover those in the near future, but I’ll probably work on the leveling 10-85 guides first.  If there are any other topics that you might want covered, feel free to post it in the comments, and I’ll do my best to get to what I can.  That said….

The Life:

I’ve recently made it through the holidays and then survived Snowmeggedon here in Atlanta.  My wife is now 8 months pregnant with a baby girl and we’re expecting around the middle of March to be pretty busy.  Whether or not that means I’m writing more or less at that point is anyone’s guess at this moment.  It really depends on how much time I still get to play and if I can type a lot while watching the kiddo.  You might be hearing more about downing the diaper boss than clearing raids at that point, but I’ll make a concerted effort to keep up to date with the wide world of Roguery too.

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays, and is on the right track for an awesome 2011.

Cheers,

- Sam

 - Rogue 101: Basic Mechanics -

Rogues are a dual-wielding melee class that excels at damaging single targets.  They can be deadly assassins that strike stealthily, or they can stand toe to toe with their opponents.  Rogues rely heavily on the Agility stat to improve their damage output.  They prefer to attack targets from behind, if possible; however, this generally requires that the Rogue is in a group of two or more.  Rogues use two resources, Energy and Combo Points.  Energy is required for almost every Rogue ability and it will constantly replenish on its own.  Combo Points are a slightly more complicated and are part of a bigger system, the Combo Point System.

Almost every Rogue ability is tied to the Combo Point System.  In this system, there are three types of abilities:

1. Openers – Abilities you use to begin a fight
2. Combo Point Generators – Abilities you use to gain combo points
3. Finishers – Abilities that use all combo points

Basically, the idea is to use an Opener on a target (when possible) and build some Combo Points with a Combo Point Generator.  After that, you follow with a Finisher to use those Combo Points.  That said, Rogues don’t have access to all three types of abilities until level 8.

- Leveling from 1-10 -

Leveling a Rogue can be frustrating experience if you’re not sure what abilities to use and how to avoid getting yourself in situations that you don’t have the tools to handle.  I’m not ashamed to admit that when I leveled Sam years ago, I died many times and got pretty frustrated.  The following is a level-by-level guide to keep you alive and successful for your first 10 levels.  Please note that some abilities get more powerful as you level and for those I’ve indicated a range of damage from the level you get an ability to max level (85) with an asterisk (*).

Levels 1 & 2

Rogues start with two abilities (other than racial bonuses), Sinister Strike and Throw (Shoot also, but essentially the same thing).  Let’s first take a look at Sinister Strike:

Sinister Strike – An Instant Strike that causes 7-200* damage in addition to 100% of your normal weapon damage.  Awards 1 combo point.

This is a Combo Point Generator, though it won’t gain the ability to generate them until level 3.  When you use this attack at level 1, you will deal 7 damage plus your main hand damage instantly to a target.  Using this 2-4 times will usually kill whatever it is you are asked to kill for the first few levels quite easily.  We’ll revisit Sinister Strike again at level 3 when it begins to generate Combo Points.  Please note, that no matter how fast or often you press the button, Sinister Strike can only be used once a second.

The other ability that you begin with is Throw.  It’s probably hidden in your spellbook (accessed by pressing “P” or by clicking a small book icon near the bottom of your screen, if you’re unfamiliar with it).  You should drag this ability to an action button on your screen for easy access right now, because throw is an under-utilized ability at lower levels that can keep you from biting off more than you can chew.  You won’t need to use it for the first few levels, but its worth practicing on the easy stuff that can’t really hurt you.

Throw does exactly what it says; that is, it throws your thrown weapon at a target.  It can’t be used in melee combat, nor can it be used in excess of 40 yards away.  Using Throw, you can Pull (engage) mobs one at a time and fight them away from any others that might want to join in on your fight, and potentially ruin your day.  This becomes very useful in areas that have a high concentration of mobs that have red colored names, as these mobs will automatically attack you if you get to close.

Rogues are creatures of control, and if you find yourself dying a lot, it’s usually due to putting yourself in situations that you shouldn’t.  Using Throw to Pull targets away from areas with hostile mobs is an example of using your abilities to control where and how your fights happen.  Practicing this now may seem silly, but it can save you the hassle of realizing how much easier it is to use Throw than to run back to your corpse.

Eventually, you’ll run into enemies that can attack you from range, either by casting spells or shooting you.  Use throw to get their attention, and then either run a moderate distance away before running back to attack them, or if possible, use a building or terrain to move out of the enemy’s line of sight, forcing them to come to you. 

Levels 3 & 4

At level 3, You’ll be able to learn Eviscerate, your first finisher.  In addition, Sinister Strike will now generate Combo Points, which you will need to be able to use Eviscerate.  Let’s take a look at it first:

Eviscerate – Finishing move that causes damage per combo point.

 I’ve left off the rest of the tooltip, which shows you the actual damage that the ability will do, but it changes based on multiple factors, including your weapon, level and attack power.  If you look in your spellbook, you can see the amount of damage that it will do based on the number of combo points you have when you use it.  Basically speaking though, the difference is that each combo point multiplies the amount of damage that Eviscerate deals.

Now that you have a Finisher, you should start paying attention to combo points.  If you’re not using any addons to change the appearance of your game, they will show up as little circles around your character pane.  The ones that are filled in indicate how many points you have.  The general idea is to Sinister Strike a few times, and when your target is nearing defeat, use Eviscerate.  The number of times you should use Sinister Strike depends on how much health the mob has, but at this level two or three should be more than enough.  If Eviscerate doesn’t finish the mob off, another Sinister Strike should.

Also, since you’re using Combo Points now, it’s important to know that you can only have Combo Points active on one enemy at a time.  If you don’t use them on the target before it dies, they go to waste, with only a few exceptions.  Those exceptions won’t become available until after the first ten levels, so for now it’s a good idea to not let your Combo Points go to waste if you can avoid it.

Levels 5 & 6

New at level 5 is Stealth which is class defining ability:

Stealth – Allows you to sneak around, but reduces your speed by 30%.  Lasts until cancelled.

Stealth is not invisibility.  It makes you harder for an enemy to detect, especially from behind.  If you run right in front of something hostile that you do not significantly out level, it will see you and it will attack you.  If you are trying to sneak around in an area with hostiles, move cautiously.  If you are sneaking around in Stealth and something turns and looks your direction, freeze.  If you stop soon enough, it will turn back around and you can continue your sneakiness.  Also, pay attention for mobs with a blue symbol floating above their head.  You won’t run into them for a while, but they can see you in Stealth as easily as they can without it.

All of that said, Stealth isn’t terribly useful yet.  You don’t have any abilities that require it, and sneaking around to pick up any quest items you need probably won’t work all that well.  Most things that you are required to pick up are either guarded by hostile mobs, and even if you get there without being seen, clicking on items will take you out of stealth.  This will likely lead to several mobs headed in your direction and perhaps even your death.  Later on, when you have the tools to use it properly, Stealth can make quests like these much easier.  Just remember you’re trading the experience you get killing the enemies in the way for the speed of completing the quest.

Level 7

Nothing terribly exciting happening in level 7, but we do gain a new ability:

Pick Pocket - Pick the Target’s Pocket

The ability does exactly what it says, that is, if you pick something that has pockets.  Anything other than a humanoid will give you one of those annoying red messages.  So if you want to feel like a clothie that’s stunned (You can’t do that while stunned), by all means try to pick the non-pockets of all the Boars, Nightsabers, Dragonhawks, etc. that you see.  Besides, I hear its good to empathise with others.

Level 8

Level 8 is the first level where you can use a Opener, and therefore the first level that stealth begins to be more useful.  A quick visit to your local Rogue trainer, and…

Ambush – Ambush the target, causing 190% weapon damage plus 29 – 299* to the target (274.93% plus 41-1,012* if a dagger is equipped).  Must be stealthed and behind the target.  Awards 2 combo points.

Ambush scales with level, so I’ve included the range of damage from level 8 to 85.  This ability used to only work with Daggers, but now has been retooled to work with any weapon.  The extra damage dealt with a Dagger brings it in line with other weapons type, which hit as harder than daggers do. 

Using Ambush might take a little practice, but essentially, you approach a target from behind in stealth and when you get close enough, use it.  In addition to taking a decent chunk of your opponent’s health, you’ll also get 2 combo points.  When you combine this with Sinister Strike, you can quickly get 3-5 combo points on your target before pressing Eviscerate to finish them off.

Level 9

Once you reach Level 9, you can train evasion, which is the first defensive ability Rogues have access to:

Evasion – Increases the Rogue’s dodge chance by 50% and reduces the chance that ranged attacks hit the Rogue by 25%.  Lasts 15 sec.

This ability can save you a ghostly trip back to your body.  If you were to find yourself in a bad situation, which hopefully won’t happen often (as you’re using Throw, right?), this might allow you to escape that situation.  Evasion can help you live long enough to kill the things that are attacking you, or make a run for it.  Two words of caution though:

1. You can’t dodge attacks from behind.  If you run, it’s best to backpedal, or you’re defeating the purpose of using Evasion.
2. Evasion won’t protect you from spells.

Level 10

Once you’ve reached level 10, you gain the ability to use Poisons.  The first Poison you’ll have access to is Instant Poison, which gives your weapons a chance to inflict Nature damage when they hit.  You’ll have to seek out a poison vendor (and I highly recommend that you do) to purchase Poisons.   Each application coats one weapon and lasts one hour.

Also new to level 10 is the ability Sap:

Sap – Incapacitates the target for up to 1 min.  Must be stealthed.  only works on Humanoids, Beasts, Demons and Dragonkin that are not in combat.  Any damage caused will revive the target.  Only 1 target can be sapped at a time

First, yes, you can sap hostile players, but it only lasts 10 sec.  If you continue to sap the same player, it will suffer diminishing returns, until it doesn’t work at all.  When you use Sap on a mob, it will last the full duration.

Sap is useful when leveling for many reasons.  If you are faced with a multiple enemies in a tight grouping, Sapping one of them will reduce the number of mobs you will be fighting at the same time.  Also, you can use Sap to sneak around and pick up quest items without pulling as many mobs.  One important thing to consider is that if you Sap an enemy and engage another near enough, the Sapped enemy will engage to you, and when the sap breaks, come after you.  You will be in combat until you kill the Sap target or run far enough away that upon breaking Sap the target gives up after a short chase.

-  Growing Up  -

Once you reach level 10, it’s time to start your journey to 85.  The basics from the first 10 levels will apply to a large majority of situations you’ll find yourself in, but you will get tools along the way to help with any exceptions you find.  Another consideration is the use of talent points, and as with Wrath, there will  be a full write-up on leveling for each of the three Rogue talent trees.  Once those are written, they will be referenced a linked here.  Good Luck with your Rogue, and as always, leave any questions in the comment box and I’ll get back to you soon.

- Sam

I’ve also got a plan to get the rest of my alts to 85 before February by leveling each of them one level at a time so that I never run out of rest experience.  Why spend the time to do that?  Every profession at 525.  That’s why.  It saves a ton of money to craft things yourself, and also, you can make a good deal of money if you want.

Anyway, my first impressions are largely positive.  While I didn’t expect (or want) Blizzard to completely remake WoW as a brand new game, they sure have given it a heck of a make-over.  I spent the few week leveling my Bank Alt Warrior from level 25 to level 72.  I got a good sampling of the changes to the old world, and again, found the changes to generally range from good to great.  In the last two days, I’ve noticed more of the same in the two starting zones.

Really my only complaint so far would be realm specific.  On my (PvP) server, my faction is outnumbered somewhere between 5 to 1 and 10 to 1.  Needless to say, I spent most of the first day leveling Archeology and running dungeons, because questing, even stealthily, wasn’t possible.  It wasn’t as bad yesterday, but I spent a good deal of time playing Mr. Sneaky Sneak.  This is going to sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not; it was very disorienting to be the one Alliance Player surrounded by forty or so Horde upon landing in Hyjal. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about world PvP.  I actually enjoy it.  What I’m upset about is the non-response we’re getting from Blizzard about at least attempting to keep some balance between the populations on PvP servers.  Sure, I could server transfer, but that’s expensive for me and my guild, and would probably be the deathblow to the server, as we’re one of the last remaining larger, stable guilds on our side of the server.  Blizzard has already commented on the topic, saying that’s just PvP, but to be honest it’s not.  In our case, it’s more of PvR, or Player versus Raid.  It will be interesting to see if it’s still an issue in a month.

Anyway, the Horde won’t keep my from 85, and I’ll be there soon enough.  My Assassination spec is doing ridiculous damage in instances and the Combat spec is leveling with efficiency.  I am Curious how everyone else’s leveling is going, so pop a comment if you desire.

Happy Trails…

- Sam

I, the writer of the blog, got my comment flagged as spam.

Now, that’s just funny.

- Sam

While this spec is clearly inferior to my Assassination Raiding Spec, it will do decent damage in a group.  I’ve also noticed the ability to survive for an extended time in PvP matches, and was able to solo the entirety of ZG (level 60 raid) several times to get my Zandalar to exalted before the Sundering makes that impossible.  I will stress again that this spec isn’t the best damage dealer, or PvP spec, but it will do a good job at both of those tasks while vastly improving your abilities to solo content you couldn’t before.

- Sam’s All Purpose Combat Spec -

Combat (31 pts)

Tier 1

Improved Recuperate (2/2) – Causes your Recuperate ability to restore an additional 2% of your maximum health and reduces all damage taken by 6% while your recuperate ability is active.

This ability brings our Recuperate heal up to 5% of our total health every 3 seconds and reduces all damage by 6%.  This equates to living longer in both soloing and PvP.

Improved Sinister Strike (3/3) – Increases the damage dealt by your Sinister Strike ability by 30% and reduces its Energy cost by 6.

Sinister Strike is our main combo point generation ability as a Combat Rogue, so this talent’s double benefit (more damage, less Energy) is quite nice.

Precision (3/3) – Increases your chance to hit with weapon and poison attacks by 6%.

Dual wielding classes have the highest penalty to their hit%.  Taking this talent lessens the amount you need on your gear to guarantee your special abilities and poisons hit.  With 3 points here, you would only need 289 hit rating on your gear.

Tier 2

Improved Slice and Dice (2/2) – Increases the duration of your Slice and Dice ability by 50%.

When you’re engaged in a longer fight, it’s quite nice to be able to only spend one or two combo points refreshing Slice and Dice. 

Aggression (3/3) – Increases the damage of your Sinister Strike, Backstab and Eviscerate abilities by 15%.

Since we’ll be using Sinister Strike quite often, it makes sense to increase the damage it does.

Tier 3

Lightning Reflexes (3/3) – Increases your chance to dodge enemy attacks by 9% and your attack speed by 6%.

The dodge gained with these talent points will help your survivability in PvP and while soloing.  In addition, the 6% haste buff is much like the hit bonus in the talent Precision, as  6% Haste takes a good deal of Haste Rating to achieve.  Unlike Hit, though, Haste isn’t a make or break stat for your abilities.

Revealing Strike (1/1) – An instant strike that causes 125% of your normal weapon damage and increases the effectiveness of your next offensive finishing move on that target by 20% for 15 sec.  Awards 1 combo point.

This ability is completely new, and quite helpful.  While it complicates the rotation to throw it in, you can use this at 3-4 combo points to guarantee that your offensive finishers hit 20% harder. 

Reinforced Leather (2/2) – Increases your armor contribution from cloth and leather items by 50%.

Armor damage reduction isn’t going to make you invincible, but taking less physical damage is still beneficial for the soloing / PvP Rogue.

Tier 4

Combat Potency (3/3) – Gives your successful off-hand melee attacks a 20% chance to generate 15 Energy.

Assuming an average off-hand weapon speed of 1.0 thanks to haste and Slice and Dice, this means on average, you’ll gain 15 energy every five seconds, or 180 energy per minute.  That’s about 30% more energy a minute than you’d gain without this talent.

Tier 5

Adrenaline Rush (1/1) – Increases your Energy regeneration rate by 100% and your melee attack speed by 20% for 15 sec.  (3 min. cooldown)

Now that Blade Flurry is obtained by Combat Rogues at level 10, Adrenaline rush gains the Haste buff that Blade Flurry used to have.  For reference, Blade Flurry is now usable every 30 secs, but has an energy regeneration penalty while it is active.  This ability is really useful for beating down an individual enemy, or a group of enemies.

Savage Combat (2/2) – Increases your total attack power by 4% and all physical damage cause to enemies you have poisoned is increased by 4%.

Most Rogue abilities scale with attack power, so this will boost a majority of our damage causing abilities.  Additionally, this will cause any target you have poisoned to take 4% additional damage; this is represented with a debuff, and anyone else doing damage to this target will also have the same bonus to their damage.

Tier 6

Bandit’s Guile (3/3) – Your Sinister Strike and Revealing Strike abilities have a 100% chance to grant you an evolving insight into an opponent’s defenses, increasing damage to that target by up to 15%.  Opponents will adapt their defenses once this maximum is reached, or if you Strike a different opponent, and the cycle will begin anew.

When you use one of your two strike abilities, a debuff will appear on the target that increases your damage on the target by 5, 10 or 15%.  Once you reach 15% the debuff lasts for 15 secs before it falls off.  Then the cycle starts again.

Restless Blades (2/2) – Your damaging finishing moves reduce the cooldown of your Adrenaline Rush, Killing Spree, and Sprint abilities by 2 sec per combo point.

This ability will only proc when you deal damage with a finisher, so abilities like Slice and Dice and Recuperate will not cause the cooldown reduction.  That being said, especially during a longer fight, this will significantly lower the amount of cooldown time of your sprint (1 min), Killing spree (2 min), and Adrenaline Rush (3 min).

Tier 7

Killing Spree (1/1) – 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.

This ability will cause massive damage to one single target or a moderate amount of damage to a group of enemies.  Your regular (white) damage will continue while the 5 assaults are made, so it’s beneficial to couple this ability with Adrenaline Rush when possible.  Also, it’s very effective to use Blade Flurry with this ability to help take down a group of mobs.

Assassination

Deadly Momentum (2/2) – After killing an opponent that yields experience or honor, the critical strike chance of your next attack within 10 sec is increased by 40% and your Slice and Dice and Recuperate abilities are refreshed to their original duration.

With this ability, on level content becomes much easier.  It is possible to keep Slice and Dice and Recuperate active at all times by simply a new mob before those abilities fall off.  If that’s your goal, it’s better to use two mobs to activate the abilities separately, as the abilities refresh to their original duration.  Additionally, the 40% increased crit chance on your next ability will likely make killing your next mob easier.

Coup de Grace (2/2) – Increases the damage done by your Eviscerate and Envenom abilities by 20%.

Eviscerate is our go to finisher when want something with low health to die quickly, or on high health mobs who already have an active Rupture on them.  This simple talent will increase its damage.

And with 3 extra points from leveling:

Quickening (2/2) – All healing effects on you are increased by 20% and your movement speed is increased by 15%.  This does not stack with other.

This will allow you to move faster and provide additional healing from Recuperate, bandages, or any heals from another source.

Lethality (3/3) – Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Backstab, Mutilate and Hemorrhage abilities by 10%.

30% increased crit damage on Sinister Strike.  You will be taking a considerable chunk of a mobs health off with the first hit if you crit.  Thanks to Deadly Momentum, that should happen often. 

Level 85:

Will I keep this spec at 85?  That I don’t know yet.  It depends on how reliable it is for the things I use it for then.  If I decide to do Arena, this will be the spec I replace.  First and foremost, I’m a PvE rogue, so there will be no replacing of my main PvE spec for Arena.

Playing considerations:

For PvE, you would play this spec the same way you’d play a standard Combat Spec.

• Keep Slice and Dice and Rupture (5pts) active as much as possible.
• Use Eviscerate when able.
• Use Revealing strike at 3/4 combo points when you’re about to Rupture or Eviscerate.
• Use Killing Spree and Adrenaline Rush together when possible, but don’t wait an extra minute for them to line up the second time.

Other tips:

• The rest of the time, if you’re fighting on level mobs, remember that you can keep Slice and Dice and Recuperate up at all times if you can kill mobs fast enough.   A good place to test this out is on Frenzyheart / Oracle mobs in Sholozar. 
• Cooldowns are made to be used, so don’t be afraid to pop them.  That being said, if you’re trying to solo BC heroics, or any other similar content, make sure that you save your cooldowns for situations that you know you’ll  need them for, like a tough multi mob pull or a boss fight.
• Don’t forget about Blade Flurry.  It’s only a 30 second cooldown, so you should use it often to take down packs of mobs.  Be warned though, it’s useless in single target situations, and actually hinders your energy regeneration.  If you still have a large duration on Blade Flurry and a mob that’s not close to death, click it off manually
• Don’t forget you’re a Rogue.  Sure, as a Combat Rogue, you can stand toe to toe with most mobs in any given situation, but your life will be easier if you remember that you can still control fights with abilities like Sap and Blind.

If you have any questions pertaining to this spec, send me an email or pop a comment my way.  Remember, this is meant as a guide, not as “the way” to do things.  I have battle tested this spec for a good month and for the things I’m doing in game, this spec works great.  It might not work as well for you, depending on your needs, so tweak away, and let me know how your modifications are working; maybe you’ll figure something out that’s better.

- Sam

For those of you who may not quite understand the concept of student teaching, its when a college student who is majoring in education goes to a school to work with a mentor teacher and their students.  Mine will be here until Dec. 7th (convenient timing for WoW), but she’s doing a great job, so it will likely be bittersweet to get that extra time back.

Something else most of you aren’t aware of is the fact that my wife and I are expecting our first child in March.  Things have been a bit crazy around the Tempus household in the last several months, and that only seeks to get more crazy (and very exciting) tomorrow when we find out whether it’s a boy or girl (If squirt cooperates, that is).

As for the blog and WoW, I’ve been working on the write up for my all-purpose combat spec, and I’m in the process of penning the leveling guides, so I’ll get those out when I’ve got some extra time on my hands later in this week and next.

- Sam