Assassination Breakdown

I made the following post in the rogue thread of my guild forum after getting some grief when I said that Knife of Incision (1.8-speed dagger) wasn't an upgrade over my dual-wield Librarian's Paper Cutters. Turns out I actually about 1% increased DPS, but given the overall shock at the idea that a slow main hand weapon was a bad thing, I felt the need to post. I pretty much just regurgitated everything you can find on Elitist Jerks, but I thought it was a nice summation.

Recently it came to my attention that there's some confusion about how the Assassination spec works in comparison to Combat, especially with respect to weapon choices. I thought I'd post a few points to clear up some of the misconceptions. All of this info was gathered from regularly reading the Elitist Jerk forums, which I highly encourage any current or aspiring rogue player to do on a regular basis.

- Assassination is all about Crits. Focused Attacks gives you +3 energy for every crit - this includes either hand's attack on Mutilate, Instant Poison, and of course your regular attacks. +3 doesn't seem like much, but if you combine it with fast weapon speed and a high crit percentage, it adds up very quickly.

- Assassination is also all about poisons. Instant Poison, when spec'd with the Vile Poisons talent, does more damage than any other poison. It scales with Attack Power and is affected by spell hit rating (hence the 310 hit cap to poisons becoming a major figure in rogue gear checks). Further more, Envenom is buffed by several talents, and on a 5-CP, 5 DP stack Envenom crit, I've done anywhere between 6k-8k damage when buffed. You want your poisons hitting on an almost constant basis.

These two elements combined result in theorycrafting results that show that weapon speed plays a vital role in your damage output. The current understanding is that given the choice, a faster dagger should be equipped in your Main Hand, and the slower dagger should go in the offhand. This flies in the face of standard combat builds that favor the slower weapon in the mainhand for bigger Sinister Strike numbers, but it comes down to the fact that the damage you do by rapidly applying poisons (and the benefits to your other specials that come from them) outshine your standard combo-building damage numbers by leaps and bounds.

Prior to 3.0.8, there is a bug with Mutilate where you have a chance to apply your OH poison twice (as well as your MH poison). Based on this, you can put Instant Poison on your OH (and Deadly on your MH) and will occasionally see 2 attacks from Mutilate, and 2 Instant Poison procs - when all 4 attacks crit, it is a beautiful thing. However, this is a known bug that Blizzard will be fixing in the patch, so afterwards, Instant Poison should be going on the main hand (so that it can proc on Envenom and Rupture) and Deadly Poison goes on the offhand. The preference of a faster mainhand than slow still remains, however.

Currently there's some speculation as to whether Blizzard "meant" to do this. In Burning Crusade, Mutilate was widely understood to be the only reason you would want to equip two slow daggers - you get a big burst of damage every 60 energy. Combat was the spec to go for if you want to see rapid-fire attacks. While this is still true in some respects, the overhaul of Assassination to focus on utilizing poisons to provide a huge chunk (over 50% if my memory serves) has changed the mechanics significantly.

A note on Hunger For Blood:
A lot of rogues have mixed feelings about the 51-point Assassination talent. It certainly lacks the flair of Killing Spree (or even Shadowdance), being a relatively lackluster buff vs. an awesome new move. However, 9% extra damage applied to everything you're doing is nothing to scoff at. This is mitigated, however, by the fact that it only lasts 30 seconds, and if it runs out, you have to apply 3 stacks again to get your full potential. So many rogues are frustrated with having to keep an eye on the timer (along with the timers for Slice and Dice, and Rupture) and the constant finger-dancing that results.

I struggled with HfB for awhile, and while I enjoyed the variety of the spec in terms of having to make split-second decisions for which timer to refresh (and still do), I definitely wasn't keeping it up as often as I should. However, I've found a rotation that takes advantage of Overkill (previously thought to be a dump talent) that makes keeping track of everything much easier:

- Begin combat in Stealth.
- Get Hunger for Blood up to 3 stacks. Try to do this about 5 seconds before the fight starts so that you're at full energy again.
- Mutilate out of stealth - don't bother with Rupture or Ambush.
- Mutiliate again - the first two Mutilates only cost 50 energy so you can do them in rapid succession. With a high enough crit rating, you're pretty much guaranteed to have 5 combo points.
- Slice and Dice - you'll have the necessary 15 energy (Overkill's still active) before the GCD comes up so you can do this immediately.
- Mutilate again. The 5-CP Slice and Dice, with Relentless Strikes, ensure that you'll get +25 energy afterwards, and then it's just a split-second wait to get another 25 energy (less if you get any crits in this process)

You may want to either use Tricks of the Trade, or wait for the tank to build threat, as you'll be putting out a ton of damage in a 6-second window and can easilly pull aggro if you're not careful.

Once you're established in combat, it's just a question of priorities. Here's the basic flow:

- Mutilate to 4+ CP
- If Hunger for Blood has less than 6 seconds, refresh. Never let it expire.
- If Slice and Dice has less than 6 seconds, Envenom, then start over.
- If Rupture is down or has less than 6 seconds, refresh. You may have to let it expire depending on your current CPs. Repeat.
- If Rupture, SnD and HfB are all up, hit Cold Blood and Envenom. Repeat.

You can also Vanish and repeat the opening rotation to get a nice boost.

Remember that HfB can be refreshed regardless of whether you're engaged with the mob or not, so in fights like Grobbulus with a lot of running, it can be good to try and refresh it while you're moving around so that it doesn't expire. Typically I'll see that if I let either HfB or SnD drop, my DPS takes a nose dive until I get back into the swing of things again. This is another reason to do a Vanish and start over.

I hope this helps people understand the Assassination spec a little better. Combat still has its value, although it typically does a little less DPS than Assassination right now. Blizzard is looking into making Armor Penetration a better stat for Combat in the future, so we may see it coming back on top sooner or later.

And HAT-spec discussion deserves its own post, so I'll hold off on that for now.

- Aidnan

5 Things I Am Sick of In Northrend

5) People still at level 73 farming Nexus incessantly.
Some people seem to have a very bizarre idea of how the game works. I understand that when we hit Hellfire Peninsula, all the quests led you right to the Citadel's doorstep (er, balcony?) and within that mighty fortress, there was some loot that could potentially take you all the way to 70.
Any small bit of research will tell you that that is not the case this time. Don't get me wrong, there's some good gear in there. I got a very nice mainhand dagger. It lasted me 3 levels. It was replaced by a quest reward green. Am I getting through here? Nexus is not something you put on farm status. You will get something better very soon. Move on.

4) Mining Drama.
Okay, maybe I'm coming at this one a bit unsympathetic because my medium of choice comes from just about anything with more than 2 legs. I'll admit, skinners have it easy. But my god, people, it's just a freaking saronite node. There's two whole professions that have a reason to grab it - odds are, someone else might have seen it at the same time as you, and then it's just a question of reaction time and situational factors as to who gets it first. It's not a slap in the face, it's not a rallying cry for changed mechanics. It's just a mining node.

What I'd like to see is for engineers to be able to make actual land mines that you can place in certain areas - they don't do any damage but they throw you back 50 yards, without respect to faction. The world would never be the same.

Because miners are jerks.

3) Rampant Wussiness
"Waa. Gundrak's too hard. I don't think I can do Halls of Lightning on heroic. Let's run heroic Nexus again. I'll just settle for badge gear. Waah."

Pansies.

2) The Healing Shortage
Again, lacking some perspective here, but is it that bad to heal? Really that painful? I get that the whole climb to 80 is a lot harder when you're set up just to keep other people alive, rather than doing damage. But between the fact that half of the quests are vehicular now (especially the phased ones that you can't get help on) and that getting help from all those other players you're keeping alive won't have any impact on the amount of experience you get for each quest turn in, and it seems like it should be doable. Not to mention, totally worth it for the thousands and thousands of instance runs you will be able to go on. Every single run has come down to one issue - no healer. I've sat for hours - HOURS - waiting for someone to pop on with maybe even an offspec healing gear set to let us do what we need to do. Druids, priests, pallies and shammies - it's time to pony up. Take off your little DPS gear, find your mp5 stuff, shift your talents around and do your damn job.

And don't give me any crap about waiting for dual spec. It's not an easy thing to implement, I don't care what they say. If we get it in the next patch we are going to be lucky - in the meantime, keep the damn tank alive.

1) Phase Noobs
Okay, so I guess I'm a little ahead of the curve. I read the beta forums. I followed the blogs when all the information on new things in Northrend were coming out. I realize, now, that I am in the minority.

And that's fine. You can play the game however you want. Including, apparently, with blinders on. But I can't fault people for just not knowing what's new in the world now that Wrath has come out.

My issue is that phasing is so damn hard to explain.

Unless people have some frame of reference for how phasing works, explaining to somebody that "I'm not here, but I'll be here soon after you turn in the quest" just makes them scratch their heads. One of the best tutorials in the concept is the Death Knight starting zone - you go to the fields, kill some guys, then come back later and things are different.

So that's fine. But man, some people just get bitchy when you tell them "I can't help you, you're phased".

I guess that's really what it comes down to. I get that some people are playing at a different pace than me. I'm looking forward to when we all start to fit into the same stride again.

Welcome to Northrend!

That's what the sign said way back when, when WotLK came out. 

After a fun night at Best Buy, waiting in the cold till midnight, the game was bought thanks to the charitable contributions of a friend, the account was upgraded, and the fun began. I hit 80 exactly 10 days after the expansion came out. 

A lot of people hit it before me on my server. Even more people did not. But the one thing I've noticed is that you have the gung ho players, and the players who aren't so gung ho. Among the not so gung ho are those using Quest Helper, an addon that is meant (somehow) to help you quest (and yet is broken and does not). 

I've noticed the people following the little -------- lines -------- from one destination to another are more often than not finding that they're going places where the quest they are on don't have a presence. They're looting mobs that aren't going to drop the quest items they need. They're also not exploring and finding the drop quests that mobs so often have that are enticing but easily skipped by the focused QH user. I'm somewhat saddened. (You will notice I do not make links to this addon.)

My method was quite the opposite. Using the Achievement for each Zone to track my progress, I did every quest in order of their appearance in my quest log, even when new quests were added, or group quests appeared. In this fashion I was able to level, get the money I needed to save for things I wanted, and I could spend my time progressing rather than taking lots of little steps back. Additionally, I did the Zones in order of their appearance in the Achievement roster. I hit 80 in Grizzly Hills, long before I was heading into the higher reaches of Zul'Drak, Storm Peaks, or Icecrown. 

The week I hit 80 was the week I got Loque'nahak. 

All said, I'm still feeling quite ahead of the game. 

Now, the thing is, a lot of people wouldn't do things this way, and I'm by no means saying my way was best, but I certainly hit 450 in Mining and Engineering just fine, I'm about 4k away from my motorcycle, and I'm feeling pretty good with my bear, spirit beast, cat, rhino, and owl. I'm revered or exalted with nearly every Northrend faction. I have 25 lovely dailies I can do a day. And Cooking's even 450 already without much fuss. Who could ask for more?

This 'n That

Just a quick post about some of the stuff I've been reading this morning, as there's quite a bit more link-worthy stuff today than I'm used to.

First of all, hell yeah. It's about time I started getting some AoE love. I refer to myself and not "rogues in general" mainly because Combat spec was already getting good benefits to FoK, to say nothing of Blade Flurry, but now it's going to have some perks for stabby-Mutilate rogues like myself. I'm looking forward to bringing down the house again, so to speak.

Next up, World of Snarkcraft has a cool post summing up some amusing commentary on the state of things right now, but I thought the point at the end was worth sharing - although it's probably preaching to the choir, but I am seeing a lot of resentment on both sides of the speed-levelling camp.

For my part, I could have just run with Jame's guides to race for the finish line, so to speak, but I wanted to take things easy, mainly just so I could get through the content at my own comfortable pace (and lag behind the roaring mob making up the majority of players, who can't seem to coexist on the same quest chain without descending on each other like a pack of wolverines). I'm comfortable with my choice - and I just hit 75!

Speaking of Jame, he makes a point I've been trying to convince people of for awhile now on his muhmopegher blog; well, two of them. One, that it's worth your while to take your time in Outland and do the quests there while they actually benefit you (because gray quests = fail), and second, that doing quests in zones a level or two below you is not actually a bad thing - it's actually really freakin' efficient. Wrath really pushed down hard on players to force them into levelling via questing - gone are the days of spending two weeks in Duskwood getting 10 levels (thank GOD). Contrary to what some people might think, green quests give you the same damn experience as yellow or orange quests, and they go way faster. Between that and the fact that maybe only 10% of your experience is actually coming from mobs, compared to what you get from turn-ins, and it should be pretty obvious to anybody working the math that hitting Borean Tundra at level 71 is only going to do you favors in the long run.

One point I would add to Jame's list is that you're less gear dependent (depending on class to different degrees, but all of them see some improvement) if you take on Northrend at higher zones - feel free to rock out the green quest rewards and save your money for the many, many expenses you will soon encounter.

In other news, I totally made a gnome death knight and she is awesome. Also, my family already did the Thanksgiving business, so I have a four day weekend with no familial obligations. So it's totally on.

Hardcore Casual Gaming and the MMO Experience

Title's still in the works.

So this week has been hell, and I'm not even through it yet. I have one of those jobs where you get lulled into a false sense of idleness, where you joke about getting paid to sit and read webcomics, and eventually start to really question why you came into work today, before suddenly all deadlines converge into one massive, inconceivable cluster#$@! (known as the Day of Reckoning) and you can't remember the last time you were able to sleep without quivering in terror-induced stress.

That may be overdramatizing it a bit - I'm still a little out of it today.

What does this have to do with WoW, you ask? Well, if you're an avid player like myself, the better question would be what doesn't this have to do with WoW? All that time I've been spending these last few weeks working long hours, staying up later than is healthy to finish projects and cranking my massive brain trying to find to solutions to all my company's problems is time that I'm not raiding, farming and theorycrafting. It's a travesty, I tell you.

So it just figures that right in the heat of the moment (tellin' me what your heart meant...) Blizzard goes and kicks off the craziest world event evar. Zombies, plagues, invading floating fortresses of DOOM (which surely can only be taken down one way), and of course, phat lootz.

And I don't have time to get any of it.

I could go into a whole diatribe about Blizzard's treatment of casual gamers vs. the hardcore never-leave-the-basement community, but there's so many sides to both arguments that I imagine the world event would be over before I even finished the post. But I don't believe the WoW community is so black and white as to say that players either spend every waking moment on Azeroth, or log in once a weekend. Most people, like myself, find the game to be one of their primary hobbies - the source of all activity that takes up "leisure time". And for a lot of people, myself included, the actual scheduling of that leisure time isn't always set in stone.

So it's kinda aggravating when something totally sweet happens outside of that schedule.

So what's a player to do when free time is limited and you want to get the most out of your WoW experience, now so very much enriched for a limited time only?

Prioritize.

I may not be able to play all the time, but damnit, I can figure out exactly what I'm going to do as soon as I get the chance. And naturally, something that's around for a specific time only would take a pretty high ranking, but when you look at the current state of the game, pretty much everything has a time limit right now.

- Scourge Invasion Activities
- Hallow's End (less than a week! D:)
- Badge loot
- The sweet sweet taste of being well-geared, before it all comes to a crashing halt.
- Battleground insanity

I can go on. My point is, for those of us who have to budget our time, this world event comes bittersweet. I'm impressed with Blizzard's groundbreaking efforts in MMO storytelling and overall immersion into the new content. I'm a little pissed off that I'm barely going to have a chance to see it.

Coldridge Mountaineers

So, in a fit of fun, Aidnan and I (Flintcrack) made a Guild, with a snaz tabard, and a bitchin' theme. We promptly filled it with characters so that one of everything is present. However, it is a guild of dwarves striving to protect the mountains of Dun Morough, and in a meditative exercise of consciousness striving to protect the little people everywhere, which of course gives them the excuse of having other races in their motley crew, and to travel outside the confines of the Mountains around Iron Forge. 

Not that we're, you know, Roleplaying, or whatever. Cuz we're not. 

But anyway, I have a Dwarf Priest, and a Night Elf Druid, and of course they are small frys. Which brings us to the point where I don't have to call them Bank alts anymore, because the fun of all this is the bank space. I mean goodness. Talk about an improvement over having bank alts. 

At first, I filled it with everything my Hunter didn't need. What did I need stacks of Netherweave and Primal Fires for anyway? My bank cleaned out quickly, accept for the silly stuff like clothes to wear to special events, or soulbound equipment I haven't quite given up yet (just in case). Of course this led me to cleaning out the Guild Bank, which is now down to bare bones. And at the end of all things I finally recognize that you don't really need all the crap you collect. I mean, I have a hunter item that you can't even see on me even if I equip it, and it doesn't actually improve my stats at all now days: Toss.  I have a flower: Toss. I even had a picture of a gnome from Un'goro and his girlfriend: Toss. A boomerang?! TOSS. 4 Halaa Battle Tokens: TOSS! (I don't even World PvP!) About fifty or so things later, I have a neat, organized, clean set of banks. 

However, this wouldn't be TDaaB if I didn't talk about my pets. 70 Chimera, 70 Cat, 70 Gorilladin, 70 T-Rex, 70 Wasp. Can I just say the Wasp is very fun with Swoop? The sound CLANG is super!

Bring me the head of... oh wait!

So I've seen the Horseman's Blade drop 7 times, and I haven't won a roll yet. Not that I need a one-hand sword. But it's neat, you know? It looks kinda fun. I'll definitely want it for my Death Knight's town sword. Heh. But, alas, this post isn't really about all that.

It's about pets.

Lots, and lots, and lots of pets, all named after geology, or really just rocks. I've leveled a bear, a wolf, a cat, a turtle, a devilsaur, a raptor, a spider, and some others to 69 and 70. On the Island it takes about an hour and a half, really. The Gorilla was the fastest. My top count of Gorilla killing at a single time is fourteen. The trick is that you can't thunder stomp with each new mob you add, otherwise the older mobs actually die before you can apply damage. Unless you plink at them here and there to make some damage that'll stick for if they die (so you can get the pet xp and loot them). I think I'm reviled by Paladin farmers everywhere. They spit on me and make rude gestures. I don't get the hate, frankly. Every class has its own little AoE tricks, and they shouldn't feel somehow diminished by someone else getting a chance.

I hate the raptor skins from Outlands, so my Raptor is from Dustwallow Marsh. (I could link these but that would be telling. You should find what makes you happy!) In fact, all my pets are rare or rare elite. From my dinosaur King M, to my Gorilla from Stranglethorn, to my Chimera from Netherstorm, I've been a busy bee. If the Core Hound comes up again (that was just... messed, going in for it), ok, I might toss a dino. But frankly I think I need to narrow it down somewhat.

So, so far, my rare Winterspring frostsaber is my cat. She's beautiful, she's enjoyable, and last night she tanked Onyxia for a solid third of the fight without breaking a sweat. She's just mean.  The Devilsaur, frankly, doesn't come close. Yes, he grows in size, yes he's entertaining, and he's loads of funny. But he just doesn't eat enemies like you'd want. Bleed is where it is at. And no I don't think it's over-powered, not when compared to the speed of everyone else's damage in comparison to my own. I think we're right spot on. Good job Blizz.

I am 1/2 way to getting an elephant pvp mount. I am 1/2 way to getting a frostsaber mount from Winterspring. I am 1/2 way to being so cool it's epic!

So when you see me riding around on my elephant, and fighting with a gorilla or a dinosaur, know that I am in love with the game all over again, and finally feel like Blizz has rewarded me for all the money I've spent month after month when we were in the 4 year suck phase.

Hee.