Back in Black (my return to the 5v5 arena bracket)

Huzzah! I have finally found a team that is nice enough to take a halfway decent Rogue along for the ride. =)

Our team, modeled after a successful 5v5 team (ranked 3rd) in their battlegroup, is housed around a 3 melee DPS / split DPS setup with, unfortunately, minimal CC. But that’s neither here nor there… the setup works, also against some difficult setups, but not all obviously. But I have to say, this is the most fun I’ve had in a 5v5 team since my original stint in Season 1 in Unstoppable’s team.

This past week was our initial trial with this setup as [Paladin / Rogue / Priest / Warrior / Shaman]. We adjusted our specs (they aren’t the exact same as the team we modeled after) after getting more comfortable with the general game plan, adjusted our gear accordingly, and continued to learn from our mistakes and how to play effectively and successfully against a variety of teams. Overall, we had a winning record and gained about 50-ish points after 30-ish games… which isn’t bad seeing as though we were trying new strategies and getting better at working together as a whole. The main game plan was to nearly split our 3 melee DPS to put the other team on the defensive and force their healers to heal instead of CC or Dispell/Purge/Cleanse. It worked surprisingly well against our first opponents for the 6 games we played (4-2), which ironically we knew in the game and some were the alliance alts of our guildmates. =p

Things started to break down when we would fight good teams with high levels of DPS, specifically the one 4 DPS team we faced. Our tactic of splitting our DPS into their group didn’t quite work as they would simply focus on one of us (Shaman or Priest usually) and we would suddenly find ourselves down a man. We tried to counter them with their own tactic, but we basically traded our Shaman for theirs and we found ourselves in the same boat as before. Luckily, we stopped playing them after 2-3 losses in a row… makes people yell. =/

We also had a string of fights with a fellow Sargeras Horde team. After dropping the first 2 games, we pulled our heads out of our asses, went back to our main game plan, and rattled off 2-3 wins against them. Then we faced a drain team. God… damnit. ><

This drain team was perfect in how it controlled the fight, and kept our melee away from their respective targets. I was on the Druid, as usual, as I consider myself very successful in shutting down Resto Druids better than most Rogues due to a scary amount of patience. Anywho, this Druid knew exactly how to keep me away thanks to the Hunter’s slowing traps. And on top of that, the Hunter was Entrapment spec… lovely. Within a minute, our healers were out of mana, our Shaman was near death, and our Warrior and myself were stuck on the trap’s area of effect. Needless to say, we didn’t lose too many points from the loss. But we did get our revenge later that night against another drain team. This other team was way easier and the Hunter, thankfully, was a different spec than the norm. To sum it up, the Druid ran AWAY from the rest of the group and AWAY from the Hunter traps. Not smart at all. And while I was being as annoying as possible to this Druid, the remainder of our team dropped 2 of their guys on the other side of the arena. When the Druid shifted into travel form to help, my 5 point kidney shot opportunity I was waiting for presented itself, and with the help of our Warrior and Shaman, he was the 3rd casualty.

All in all, yesterday was the most fun I have had in the 5v5 bracket in a long while. And, we’re starting to mesh quite nicely against some odd and difficult teams. To make a long story short, after dipping below 1700 for the first time, we recorded 5-6 straight wins against varying team builds to bring us close to topping 1800 for the first time.

I WILL have my weapons DAMNIT! ><

GrizzlyAdams does NOT have a beard!!!

Over the course of the last few days, I thrust myself back into the world of alts and created a new character… a class I have never played and one that irritated me since the beginning of the game… a Hunter. Even the character creation screen was irritating, rejecting my first few names. By the way, who else in their right mind (other than me) would have come up with a character name of Dirk McGirk?!

Bastage.

So my new alt, aptly named ShootrMcGavn (had to shorten it because it wouldn’t all fit) to pay homage to Happy Gilmore, began his quest in Durotar. Now coming from an Undead Rogue with an ungodly number of “days played” (I have never leveled an alt past 28… and my current highest is around 26), my knowledge of the Durotar quests is a bit limited, especially starting in the Orc village. But, I got through the quests, got used to playing a ranged DPS class, and even got myself a nifty pet… a ravager from the Draenai starting zone. Boy, was that fun trying to get to that area as Horde. =p

I was thinking about naming him RobertPaulson… his name is Robert Paulson… his name is Robert Paulson… but I felt that I should keep with the Happy Gilmore theme and name him GrizzlyAdams. I was upset because he does not have a beard, and he should, because he’s Grizzly Adams, and he had a beard according to Lee Travino. So Grizzly and I ventured out into Durotar, killed some bad dudes, got ganked by some jerkoff 19 Dwarf Hunter (who got promptly snuffed by the 58 Orc Hunter that was following me), leveled my pet a bit more, geared out myself in the finest AH greens, and routinely poked fun at guildmates that did not immediately grasp what was so funny about my character/pet name combination.

Other than that, I haven’t really got into the meat and potatoes of the alt game. I haven’t tried out my PvP skills as a hunter… if any… and I still need to get some better gear and get used to playing in a group. I’m sure it will come to me eventually. If anything, this will train me on leveling an alt efficiently once the Death Knight class is released… if they start at level 1 of course.

Oh and Virginia, my jacket size is 44 long and… my right arm is just, a little bit longer than my left… =)

Shrimp Day! (The Unification of PvP and PvE)

Actually, that’s what it says under the cap on my Sobe:Power… so… I digress.

But honestly, with the most recent change on the PTR, making epic Hyjal/BT gems available for 15 badges each, is there any question NOW that Blizzard is trying to break the barrier between PvP and PvE… while inadvertently merging the two? Is this a bad thing? Absolutely. In my opinion, the gear obtained through each of the section’s means should be separate. Because, let’s face it… WoW has broken down into two factions: The Arena Specialists, and the Raiding Masters.

Players have been complaining about this for a while now, even before all these changes were being made on the PTR. I would imagine it started around the same time when arena gear became available using BG points, dubbing them “welfare epics”. But honestly, this argument can only be 1-way, as the PvP’ers were seeing more and more geared out PvE’ers muscle into their territory. It can’t work both ways. If a PvE’er complains about someone raiding in PvP gear but with the same effectiveness, someone needs to be kicked in the face… hard. It’s a one way street. You can succeed to a point in flat out PvE gear and spec in the arenas and BGs***, but the reverse can never happen due to resilience being a useless stat in instances, and a complete waste of iLvl.

*** Case in point – my Season 2 3v3 team housed a Disc/Holy Priest, Combat/Assassination Rogue (me), and a Feral Druid. The Priest was 50/50 PvE/PvP gear, but myself and the Druid were full PvE spec and gear. Our first target rarely survived our initial burst and we climbed up to 2100 by season’s end, only playing around 10-15 games per week. ***

From all the screenshots on the WoW news sites, it looks like more and more things are being put in place to give PvE’ers the opportunity to purchase PvP gear through PvE means. Now granted, that stuff isn’t the greatest PvP gear you can get, but some of the pieces… it actually is. Take into account the PvP cloak you could buy with badges at the beginning of Season 3. That’s arguably the best PvP cloak you can obtain. Hell, with some classes, some of the earlier arena gear is somewhat better than the later stuff. But again, I digress. And now with the badge-to-gem option upcoming in 2.4, PvP’ers can boost their gear’s strength with items from a raiding instance they have never stepped foot in. Now, I know it’s not a huge upgrade, but it’s the beginning of what could be the worst mistake Blizzard could make if they eventually combine the two aspects of the game.

Ultimately, skill will always beat gear, but gear will also increase the margin of error allowed and still be successful in any fight. I just hope Blizzard knows where they are going with this in the long run. I would hate for it to turn into a system where PvP’ers could purchase PvE gear using arena points, or worse… BG points. That would bring the merger to a definite close, and in turn, make both sides equally unhappy… and make crappy players look like they know what they are doing.

My head hurts now. =/

2.4 PTR – My first impression

We had our first run of Sunwell last night and had an interesting time with the sights, the lag (oh the lag), the Sunwell trash mobs, and our first attempts at Kalecgos. Here’s the rundown.

--- SIGHTS ---
The island where Sunwell resides… I guess I’ll just call it Sunwell Isle… is not terribly flashy, but rather basic and in tune to the normal blood elf visuals and architecture. I didn’t get a chance to explore more than the Staging Area and the instance bridge due to way too many people in one damn place, but I’m sure it will look fine. I just hope that it’s not a carbon copy of the outside visuals of Silvermoon City. I require depth. I also think that the general layout is a bit too bright. These are corrupt high elves… why is everything still so cheerful with bright colors? It makes my eyes water a bit. =/

--- INSTANCE: SUNWELL 25-MAN ---
It’s another one of those “inside looking out” instances, like those in Hellfire Peninsula. I like it so far, but again, bright colors make seeing the targeting circles on the mobs, and sometimes the mobs themselves a bit hard to see (I’ll have to adjust my gamma just for this instance I think). The layout of the instance, at least up to Kalecgos, is nice and clean. Nice big open areas, no suppression room type places, and no crowded hallways make this enjoyable (the bridges are the closest to being crowded, but they are more than wide enough). Also, putting repair and reagent vendors in the beginning of the instance was genius. Thank you Blizzard.

Now… the mobs. They are fairly straight forward in how to beat them. No tricks or LOS fighting so far, as they are similar to the packs in the area between the Mother and Council rooms in BT. The solo machines are pretty simple too, and they come with spiffy sound effects for their “chain lightning” type attacks. The interesting part was fighting the normal packs with a Scout added in. The Scouts will run to a nearby machine to activate it, and basically create a wipe as you can’t fight the pack, and the Scout, AND the machine. We found out the hard way that the Scout had been changed to make it immune to ALL CC… so we had to rush the Scout and melt it and then deal with the pack with the machine still deactivated (we later pulled the machine solo for loot). Fun stuff eh? We also ran into an interesting bug (we think) with the room at the top of the ramps right before Kalecgos. The mobs in the room, as well as the patrol that SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN UP THERE, were respawning almost immediately after killing them. Moving into the final bridge area before Kalecgos seemed to fix it. It’s not a mini suppression room as pulling the mobs out of the room and onto the bridge makes them evade and reset.

--- KALECGOS ---
This is a unique fight, requiring coordination and lots of communication between raid members. In the fight, you must battle Kalecgos as a Dragon outside, AND battle a demon who is trying to kill Kalecgos as a Human… kind of like an exorcism. Thankfully, both battles should be rather quick as the Dragon and Demon were both dropping fast. The problem was the mechanics of the fight and the rotations needed to defeat both enemies. Due to the simultaneous fight, you need 2 tanks and enough healers and DPS on both ends to win, but thanks to an arcane buffet Kalecgos does in Dragon form, a rotation must be made else the stacks will get too high and people will get 1-shot. We found that the buffet can be removed with Ice Block and CloS, so at the very least, Mages and Rogues can last longer on the Dragon fight than other classes. The portals that spawn to take you into the Demon fight explode arcane damage upon appearing… and they are buggy. You have to click the base of the portal to make it through, as I later found out sitting at a portal clicking like crazy, only to watch it vanish. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience the Demon side of the fight that much, but it seems pretty straight forward. You just can’t let human Kalecgos tank the Demon as he won’t survive… oh yeah, and the Demon does shadow bolt volleys. More fun stuff. We know what to do, we just need to work on our rotation and how to communicate it will the entire raid effectively.

--- NEW COMBAT WINDOW ---
It broke the important things. It broke Omen, and SCT, and any other UI addon that involves parsing or changing the combat window. It looks silly and did not need to be changed.

--- NEW INTERFACE WINDOWS ---
I understand they were going to simplify them and organize them, but why change what is working? Now we get to learn the new windows and categories to figure out where all of our custom settings are. Bleh.

--- LAG ---
The outside world lag was to be expected, I understand that much. The lag was fairly OK for most of our 3 hour run in Sunwell with only a handful of spikes (1 of which caused a wipe thank you very much). Combining the different regions and countries into a central PTR was very foolish. They would already lag like crazy, why add to it? Oh, right, almost forgot… CRITICAL ERRORS. I couldn’t remember the last time I got a critical error in WoW (been over 1 year) until I played on the PTR. I had 3 for the night, 2 while loading into the Sunwell instance itself and 1 in the middle of the Kalecgos fight. Others weren’t as lucky as I heard the same people at least 5 times last night exclaim they received a critical error. I at least hope the information we send to Blizzard about the error helps them to correct issues as simple as loading into an instance before this is released.

--- OTHER NOTABLE THINGS ---
1. At any given point outside of instances, you will see at least 2 Rogues with both Warglaives.
2. General Chat is more of a circus than the General Chat on your home server.
3. There are some very clever character names indeed.
4. Count on most of your UI to work flawlessly, except for anything with your combat window of course.
5. Oh yes… there will be lag.

When is it OK to buy/sell raid drops?

I’m writing this due to an in-game mail sent to my guild leader, requesting to purchase Illidan’s Warglaives in the event they drop. My initial response on Vent was “Did you tell him to go &$^% himself?”… was that too harsh? Let’s find out.

The reason for my response was due to the following:

1. This player wants to buy legendaries.
2. I highly doubt this player (probably a Rogue) is in a guild that is either clearing or progressing through BT. If they are, W-T-F??!!
3. MM has 3 main Rogues (The Big 3 as I call us, as we are 3 of the best PvE Rogues on Horde Sargeras) and only 2 OH Warglaives have dropped… no MHs. EVER.
4. The player was offering 2500g per Warglaive. GG undervaluing THE best swords in the game currently, and possibly through 2.4 and into the next expansion.
5. I will assume this player has zero knowledge of the Illidan fight itself, and therefore, a raid liability.

Given that, and the fact that I don’t know or want to know who this player is, I would say my response sufficed. Now… when would it be correct to buy/sell raid drops?

It would be OK (in my opinion) for a guild to SELL raid drops if and when:

1. Nobody in the raid needs or wants the item.
2. The item in question drops consistently from trash mobs and/or is not BoP (i.e. Hearts of Darkness, Gems, etc.).
3. The guild no longer really goes into the instance where it drops.
4. The player wishing to BUY is not a liability in the raid for the mob that drops the item.
5. Payment is sufficient and fair to both BUYER and SELLER.
6. The sale opportunity is initiated by the guild itself.
7. The item is a Quest drop, and the player complies with #4 above.

It would be BAD / STUPID / DISHEARTENING for a player to attempt to BUY raid drops if:

1. The player has no gear from the instance in question (no, patterns do not count).
2. The item is a legendary item.
3. You aren’t in the guild. You didn’t work together with us to beat this content. The drop rates are low as it is. NO.
4. The player does not negotiate with the guild or is 100% set on paying a certain price less than the weapon value.
5. The player’s main motive is to gear the character out then sell it.
BTW, having the Warglaives on a character (say, a Rogue) could increase the account value by at least $800-$1000. At 5000g for both, the real life cost of that 5000g comes nowhere near the real cost of the account with the items themselves.

Don’t get me wrong… this isn’t an elitist post. This is simply a guide (and a warning) on if and when it would be proper etiquette to obtain raid drops from a main raiding guild. Hell, I even followed these steps with an Alliance guild (Eminence) to craft the Leather haste bracers… which later fell out due to the announced haste rating nerf and lack of guild communication.

So if you’re polite about it, then you will be taken into consideration. However, if you honestly think you can get an item that guild members still need or without first asking them if they are up for sale, the guild will probably poke fun at you for a few days for not having the common sense to ask before making the offer… more so depending on the item.

2.4, PTR crashes, and character copy queues… oh my!

Yup, 2.4 is now officially on the PTR and not quite stable yet (which was expected). Thanks to the people at MMO-Champion and WorldofRaids, loads of confirmed loot info, class ability changes, boss encounters (well… only a couple actual fights as of yesterday) and instance screenshots were made available to our eager minds. So, out of those, what has me excited (and pissed off) exactly?

1. Already too many melee dagger loots!
--- Is Blizzard still trying to shove this piece of cake down our (Rogues) throats? We want more variation without having to be in a certain direction or position to the mob… or at least that’s what I feel. I need more stat pictures of the swords, maces, and fists.

2. New fist weapons!
--- OMG! The weapon skins picture on the above websites showed there were at least 3 fist weapon models in 2.4, with one of them having dropped already with some nice stats. I’ll be waiting for the matching MH shortly as that one was not the matching pair in the picture. But hey, it’s bulky, spiky, and it looks cool.

3. New heroic 5-man offers little to zero upgrades for BT raiding guilds!
--- I nearly saw this coming. I’m upset, but not really since our (MM) primary focus will be the 25-man instance. But still, I expected some of the items to be near upgrades.

4. Kael’thas is on crack!
--- Or was. Have you seen the picture of Kael 2.0?! HIS DAMN FACE IS MELTING! If that is what happens to Blood/High Elves after a dark arcane withdrawal, I’ll be sure to keep the lovely ladies away from that crap, else I’m going to move even more attention to the Draenai ladies. Hey, I have needs! =p

5. Confirmed 25-man loot already comparable to current T6 in power!
--- This was also a bit upsetting as I was expecting the items to be a bit more powerful than they currently seem to be. Currently, most of the Sunwell drops seem to be around the same power (sometimes slightly better) than the BT/Hyjal gear... at least for Rogues. I had already run the DPS points numbers on the new gear (2 AP = 1 AGI = 1 CRIT = 1 point) and most of the pieces are on the same level or higher slightly, depending on if you need haste rating or armor penetration. I will remain optimistic as I am sure there is more to come, giving more options to those already with T6 to swap pieces out for other stats. This brings me to my next point…

6. T6 is being expanded to 8 pieces!
--- I am both really excited and really pissed off at this, so let me explain. Yay for Blizzard in creating the last 3 pieces of the set, which allows classes to replace gear and keep their bonuses. But, why not add more bonuses to the set… like a 6 piece or even a super 8 piece bonus? Hell, the old T3 Naxx set had 9 friggin pieces with a max 8 piece bonus (of course 8 piece sets were the norm back then, but still). This would at least give us the option to either, keep a couple of the bonuses and swap pieces out, or to keep all the pieces and obtain even stronger bonuses.

7. More loot with haste rating!
--- Stop please, or at least change haste rating back somewhat to what it used to be so it’s not entirely worthless. Waste of item level points in my opinion.

8. Armor skins are re-colored older skins!
--- I personally haven’t seen them all, but this is still upsetting… yet I understand what goes into creating a new item graphic with the correct character mountings (see my earlier blog mentioning the fist weapon mounting headache). The art team really needs to start creating new graphics and armor skins. It really sucks walking around and seeing handfuls of people with the same armor skins with slightly different color schemes. Will the upcoming T7 and Arena Season 4 sets look the same?! I know it’s a lot of work to not only create the art for the skins, but to eventually make the mountings for all character types, but to the average player… it looks like laziness.

Well, back to the grind I guess. Maybe Illidan will drop a legendary tonight… if people actually FRIGGIN SHOW UP! ><

A moment to gloat

Yay votes! Boo for the 2 NO votes! WRU comments?!

2.4 Patch Notes: Real, Fake, or sort-of Fake?

Now I don’t remember the exact notes for each class that were listed in the “unofficial” 2.4 patch notes that were posted on worldofraids.com, but I feel the need to think some through right now… because some seem strange, and other seem to break the class to be honest.

First off… the ONLY Rogue update on the list: Envenom no longer consumes poison charges. That raises some questions, 1 in particular that I posted on the Blizzard Rogue boards that may or may not have sparked a small conversation (probably not… which makes me sad). My question was that if it won’t consume poison charges, would it work with Wound Poison as well as Deadly Poison since they are the stacking poisons we have access to? And if that doesn’t bake your noodle, what about with poisons without charges? Would Envenom then act like the damage modifier for Mutilate? That would be cool. That would mean Envenom would be a replacement for Eviscerate against poisoned targets that would have the same mechanic as Eviscerate... but if the damage is still poison CHARGE based, then it would only be for Deadly/Wound poison.

What does this mean for builds? Well, PvP would definitely change as you would see more Shadowstep 20/0/41 builds, as well as Hemo/Assassination builds instead of the normal Hemo/Combat 0/31/30 builds. As far as PvE, the builds wouldn’t really change that much. The Combat 19/42/0 builds would still exists with Vile Poisons, but the hybrid Hemo support builds would partially have their Combat points split into Assassination. I haven’t gotten a chance to play around with the different build possibilities, but they should be interesting if this little nugget of information on 2.4 turns out to be true.

Now, on to what little I remember about the other classes. =p

Warlocks got the damn shaft, and hard. Coefficients were changes as well as the Imp Shadowbolt debuff would now only effect the Warlock who cast the debuff. That is lame considering debuffs from other classes already have an effect on the damage from other classes (bleed Druid debuff that increases Rogue bleed damage for example). Hopefully those were fake, as this would cut down on their PvE DPS by a significant amount.

Druids had a few things nerfed. The main thing… the Lifebloom ability had its coefficient changed. But also, their primary PvP CC, Cyclone, had its range reduced. Now that probably won’t matter in the long run if true, but in the arena, every second and every yard counts.

Priests… say goodbye to mass mana burn spam in the arena if this goes through (/wave). I know it sucks for them, but even I have to admit that it was a bit too strong for PvP. During several stints in EoTS a couple weeks back, a Priest and I teamed up to defend the BE Tower the entire game. Well, any caster that decided to try their luck, was not only locked down by me, but during the course of 6-8 seconds, was completely out of mana thanks to the Priest… starting at full each time. I was amazed at how well it worked in the arena as well, partnering up with a guildmate’s alt (Drazhara). While I do believe it should have been changed, cutting its effectiveness in half was a bit too extreme. What ever happened to mini patches?

I’ll have to look over the notes again as my brain doesn’t seem to be working this morning. 2.4 should be coming soon on the PTR, and if my crappy memory serves, it should be ready today… but maybe not stable. But as far as the validity of these patch notes, one thing has been true for the past year or so…

… there is always SOME validity to “unofficial” patch notes released on the Blizzard boards.

How much time do YOU honestly waste?

I bet not nearly as much as me… at least not in the past week.

For those that fail to understand MMOs, or just fail to admit it with other people present in the room… MMOs are an addiction. Not just playing them, but simply being logged in. And in proving that this past week for myself, outside of raiding, I managed to basically turn WoW into just another instant messenger. =p

Most of you Sargeras originals knew that I was notorious for wasting time, either waiting for things to happen, groups to form, or doing some game research… by sitting on the rock “chair” in Orgrimmar (the one between the main bank and the AH). Occasionally, others would sit with me, hit me with Halloween wands, and even shower me with various AE spells. Since TBC, I moved that time waster to Shatt, specifically, the right side ledge just outside of the Scryers bank. There, the same events happened, only with more people actually sitting due to the size of the ledge. =)

Anywho, enough background stuff…

Over the past week or so, mainly Friday through Wednesday (yesterday), I probably spent roughly 3-4 PER DAY sitting on the ledge, not really doing much… aside from random whispers from people and the occasional “ =/ “ face in guild chat. The reason? Mass Effect on my Xbox 360. The game is so large and immersive that in waiting for something to happen in WoW, I basically didn’t care that I was literally sitting there, on the ledge, doing nothing, for hours at a time. Now, eventually, I had to type something or move around to prevent logging off automatically, but I could not help not letting the game log me out… even though I wasn’t doing a damn thing. Call me crazy, but I like to keep tabs on things in the game, or at least be available in case something would happen or my assistance would be needed (which is already rare =/ )… even if my primary focus is my Xbox.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that sits in WoW doing nothing for extended periods of time. Now some players will just not do anything productive and stand around /moo’ing at people, like Moolicious ( <3 )… but not many literally sit and do nothing. But why do I do it? Like I said before… I like to make myself available whenever possible. Even if I’m really focused on something else, I’ll log in just for the hell of it, and if not to keep tabs on people and see if anything important is planned for later that day. Maybe there’s an alliance version of me that will sit in the same place for a ridiculous amount of time, but I guess I’ll never know. =/

Preparing for Sunwell

I, for one, am anxious to see Sunwell on the PTR, as well as the rest of our guild, Mob Mentality. This will mark the first time our guild will fully attempt a new raid instance on the PTR, with every intention of learning every fight we can, and destroying every fight we can… preparing for, hopefully, an early full clear of the raid instance.

Not much is currently known about the instance aside from the basic structure and a little bit of the layout (there is more known about the 5-man wing than the 25-man wing at this point). Recently, it was pointed out that the 1st boss of the raid instance will be a similar fight to the 1st boss of the Abomination Wing in Naxx… Patchwerk. I welcome our new potion intensive overlords. I’m not concerned though. We have the tanks to sustain a silly amount of damage from any type of melee boss, provided Blizzard does not add a resistance component to the fight (or any new bosses that are resistance gear heavy fights).

But we need to go into the PTR will the full intention and cooperation of the entire guild to not only want to clear this instance quick, but sneak in some server firsts as well. While Horde firsts on Sargeras are nice, we really aren’t in any danger of not getting them once 2.4 releases. Our primary competition will be Eminence (Alliance), and I have no doubt that they will also be on the PTR, learning and beating Sunwell right along side of us. As long as people show up and do their best, and we get through some of the un-tweaked bosses, we should theoretically blow through Sunwell in 2.4… until maybe the final boss since the game has had a history of making instance final bosses either way OP, or with broken AI.

Several screenshots of “potential” gear/weapons were released into the internet over the past week or so. Blizzard has neither confirmed nor denied if these items and their stats are accurate, but they have said that the instance wings will contain tier 6.5/7 items. The latest screenshot released shows some weapons and trinkets that may or may not be legit. All I have to say is… where are the maces and, *deep breath*, FIST WEAPONS?! Fist weapons continue to be the red headed stepchild of the weapon types in this game. Now I know the items listed may not be real, but if they were fake, at least humor us and put a fist weapon in there. =p And the easy solution due to the fist weapon mounting issue… make it a graphic that is symmetric around the entire hand/forearm, that way only 1 graphic model needs to be made for the item (like if you shoved your hand into a Pringles can and glued nails all around it).

As far as the boss fights go, I am optimistic that Blizzard will create more unique style fights, but doesn’t make them insanely difficult in doing so. Make them creative and fun, yet still a challenge and at least possible to beat with enough practice. Please don’t make suppression room fights or have a really long string of trash mobs before the boss room. That got annoying quick with Kael’Thas trash in a hurry since the fight had one of the largest learning curves in the game… if not the longest, second only to maybe Archimonde. But at least he has no trash mobs to deal with. If he had trash waves like the other bosses in Hyjal did, I’m sure that it wouldn’t just be my head spinning off of my shoulders. =p

Now if you don’t mind, I’m back to work. And then later, off to spread my ramblings on the Blizzard Rogue boards, harp the “class leaders”, and continue on the long road to 1850 on my 3v3 team… hopefully.

Should I Make a PvP Video?

Now I could make this the shortest blog entry ever and just say “MAYBE”, but I’ll flesh it out a bit more to explain why I’m on the fence.

Positives:

- I would be editing the video in a way that 99% of the videos aren’t… with some form of commentary. Just like the instructional PvE videos I have been making for the better part of a year, I like to add some text here and there to better explain what is going on, and how it should be handled. With a PvP video, it would probably be easier to just add my voice to explain my thoughts during the fights… but do I really want tons of people to hear my (sexy) voice? =p

- There would be all kinds of fights… world PvP, duels, and arena matches. And it wouldn’t just be a gigantic highlight reel of massive crits and clutch performances… there would also be complete screw-ups and brain farts littered throughout the video. Because, let’s be realistic, even the so-called best players are prone to making silly mistakes or using the wrong keybind or ability.

- The Festive Pink Dress. Enough said.

Neutrals:

- I’m a decent/good PvP’er. I haven’t been in any arena bracket higher than 2000 for more than 1 week… but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m a bad Rogue. I may not have found a team yet that functions seamlessly, or has the same playing schedule that I do. My gear is good/great in terms of stats, but I am missing a few key pieces thanks to not reaching 1850 this season yet (see reasons above). I’m always looking for ways to improve and to fight certain classes and teams more effectively, so I plan on completing my set in the next month or so.

- Music… ooaahh the music. Most of the PvP videos I’ve been exposed to (Rogues mostly) have used the clichéd death metal, rap, or techno/trance music for their fights. It doesn’t matter what music I put in this thing, someone somewhere will hate it and others will love it. Despite being a cliché, I listen to metal anyway… so that’s what you’ll be getting if I choose to make a video. ENDAC SMASH!!!! /dance

Negatives:

- I’m a keyboard turner. Ugh, I know... at least I don’t click too. My reaction timing isn’t the issue, it’s the fact that I’ve never learned to turn with the mouse AND use all my abilities. You see, the way my current keybind layout is prevents me from using my mouse for anything but targeting for the most part. I use the standard WASD for movement, and then have core abilities and finishers using 7-0 up top, as well as F5-F8. My numpad on the right side houses all my cooldown abilities and pots/bandages/trinkets… as well as a couple other choice abilities. I have a Nostromo n52 gamepad, but it messed up on my old computer (would not retain the settings after closing WoW)… so I shelved it with my other computer parts at home. Maybe with my new computer, I can bring it back from the dead and force myself to use it until it becomes second nature. That will at least increase my mobility.

- I have never made a PvP video before, so my experience is limited on that regard and for what to show and how to show it. I also have limited experience on how flashy I can make things (like the opening sequence) look, but I don’t think that will become a main issue… players seem to care more about the fights rather than the special effects.

So you see, I’m kind of on the fence in making a PvP video. I don’t know how it will turn out, or how the Rogue community at the very least will accept it. Who knows, it could be a hit and I would need to make another one… make it into a series even. OOAAHH!!!

Or it could suck hard and I would be shunned by the community. =/

Current State of the Rogue Class

I’m back, and filled with scorn, /hugs, Skittles, and a slight odor… so I thought it would be fitting to return to the fold talking about what I know a little bit more than the next guy.

The current state of the Rogue class is in confusion and a general pissed off nature. Mainly, this was due to the fact that after Hemo recently received a much needed buff to compete with Sinister Strike in damage, not only was it toned back down a little bit (which it needed, I’ll admit), but Preparation was changed to not include AR anymore. Why was it changed? Was it because a large majority of all arena Rogues were using the new cookie cutter 0/31/30 build (or some form of AR/Prep/Hemo), or because of the incessant bitching from other classes that we were now too strong?

I couldn’t honestly tell you or anyone else why… and neither could any other Rogue as we are still asking Blizzard devs for a reason behind this kind of change. The last time I checked, nearly every class is basically pigeon-holed into a specific type of spec for arena, regardless of how strong it is… so when are those specs going to be looked at? Warlocks were very briefly looked at in terms of SL/SL last patch… the same patch our nerf happened. What about Resto Druids? MS Warriors? Frost Mages? I’m I hitting any nerves yet?

Like I said before, I’ll be the first to admit that yes, the AR/Prep spec was quite strong, but it didn’t deserve the kind of nerf it did. It was nerfed because of Hemo in my opinion, since we’ve always had AR/Prep since TBC was released and the arenas were the new AV. Why didn’t they just nerf Hemo? Not a clue. But changing Sinister Calling and fixing Cheat Death to get us to spec Shadowstep was not a healthy alternative.

All of my current Shadowstep experience has been in the 2v2 bracket, which is 90% Resto Druid teams, paired with Warriors, SL/SL Warlocks, and Rogues. The burst and control needed just isn’t there. Yay! We can’t really be kited anymore! That should make up for something, right? Not really. Against many teams, I found myself rarely using Shadowstep until I tried to get fancy and Shiv Crippling Poison on the other target and using it to get back on the primary target. Whoopdy-doo. I have yet to be in a consistent 3v3 team with Shadowstep for testing, and have yet to be in a decent 5v5 team period since Season 1… GG Rogue usefulness in the 5v5 bracket. But it’s too late now, because it’s either going to be Combat Maces or the same nerfed 0/31/30 build for all arenas now… depending on which day it is due to my raiding schedule of course. =p

What other specs can we really go? There are a few, but not as many as there were in the past seasons. Mutilate is probably the most difficult to play now, more than it was in Season 1 due to everyone and their friend’s grandmother having at least 250-300 resilience. It can still be played effectively, but I would go another spec before even considering that again. Combat Maces has always been steady in terms of effectiveness across all seasons, before making a huge wave in Season 2. I’ve even seen some off the wall builds used pretty well, but required a specific play style and arena team partners to make it work. Bleh.

Oh, and we still don’t have viable Fist weapons that can be attained outside of the arena system. GG devs. I understand that you have to really make 2 models for each Fist due to the character mounting, but come on. The best one outside the arena is still lower in power than the Season 2 rewards (I’m referring to the “salad fingers” maces from Al’ar in TK).

PvE-wise, Rogues are Rogues still… thank god. Our DPS is still second to none in boss fights and we have remained where we should for instance utilization. The problem comes into PvP. This was predicted, not only by me, but other Rogues on the boards when the resilience system was introduced… that our effectiveness and usefulness in certain brackets would plunge. And oh look, it did. Did you know that the #1 class across all arena brackets is the Warrior? I bet you did. Amazing how much more use that class has over all others in all 3 brackets than say… a Shaman or a Paladin. But that’s another post down the road… and I didn’t forget about you either, Druids. ><

The Rogues’ anger is more from our confusion over the past couple patches and the changes made to them, and not to other classes. We still have no real reason as to why we were buffed in 1 tree, then nerfed in 2 trees in 2 consecutive patches. We had an idea that Hemo would be nerfed as in its first buffed form, it was actually stronger than Sinister Strike… but the Prep change took us by surprise. I still remember when Prep refreshed ALL Rogue cooldowns… then it was limited and Blade Flurry, Blind and now AR were all removed. Of course, I also remember when WotF was passive and made undead immune to polymorph… that’s how spiffy I am. Amazing how I have no other 60 or 70 character in the game… that’s my kind of dedication… or laziness. =p

Our biggest frustration is that none of us really know what Blizzard has in store for our class in terms of PvP. Maybe we will get some answers soon… otherwise, I will be looking forward to creating a DPS Death Knight in the next expansion.