WoW: Rogue DPS, getting ready for Naxx

[Memnoch]

I know Pinch, he plays on my server. I have their logs. Those guys are insane. We have a few guildies in our guild who used to be in Premo and moved because they wanted a (slightly) more chilled out atmosphere.

Our guild is ranked #11 in Senjin now yay! :p

[Kakero]

I've just switched to combat. If combat does gonna shine in 3.1 might as well get acquainted to combat sytle of fighting again. But yeah, it does feel wierd going from mutilate to combat after doing the dailies. No button to press every 30 seconds, no fast combo points generation, finger pain from pressing sinister strike key too much....

Though wielding Clamity's Grasp makes me feel like I'm Captain America, the weapon looks more like a shield than a fist weapon.

[Zink Whistlefly]

Hi guys,

Long time no speakie!

I've been continuing to (slowly) gear up as I've been playing on and off over the past few weeks. Still not completed Naxx yet but I have started running 25 man runs and got some new bracers and my lvl 213 set chest piece. I probably won't be running Ulduar for a few more weeks yet.

I'm still running 51/13/7 and since the 3.1 patch I have got a very good boost to DPS thanks to the changes to improved DP scaling and the ArP boost, combined with the HfB and Mutilate glyphs (on a heroic combat dummy, no buffs at all I am pushing 2.5k DPS now).

I had a couple of questions if you'd indulge me.

Is Combat now superior to Mutilate, or are they about the same?

I will probably switch to combat when I have a main hand mace - I currently have Maexxna's Femur for offhand and I will very shortly have a Grimhorn Crusher from the tournament. I'm therefore looking at a mace spec to start with, mainly because I don't have anything else to run combat with yet!

In the meantime I am stuck with mutilate (for better or worse?) and have a question about the best dagger combo to use. I have TSS, LPC and a Spinal Destroyer (lvl 200 1.7 speed dagger). Now that IP is frequency based, I can safely use a slower weapon in my mainhand now, correct? I used to run with 2 x LPC but the instant poison damage from those has been brought into line now since the change, and Shadow Panther ranks the SD quite a bit higher than LPC for mainhand weapon now. What is my best offhand weapon therefore - a LPC or my TSS? The TSS would boost my Mutilate damage as well as white DPS, but is it too slow for energy regen now through Focussed Attacks? Deadly Poison applications isn't a problem as Master Poisoner also got buffed...

Next I have a question about gemming - what's more important if I am below the poison hit cap of 315 - Expertise or Hit Rating, or are they of equal value? Currently I am below the Expertise and Hit Rating poison caps - should I focus on one or the other to try and reach one of the caps, or keep a blend of both but stay below the cap for now? At what point does pure AP start to pull ahead of both!?

Thanks

[Memnoch]

Originally Posted by Zink Whistlefly Hi guys, Long time no speakie! I've been continuing to (slowly) gear up as I've been playing on and off over the past few weeks. Still not completed Naxx yet but I have started running 25 man runs and got some new bracers and my lvl 213 set chest piece. I probably won't be running Ulduar for a few more weeks yet. I'm still running 51/13/7 and since the 3.1 patch I have got a very good boost to DPS thanks to the changes to improved DP scaling and the ArP boost, combined with the HfB and Mutilate glyphs (on a heroic combat dummy, no buffs at all I am pushing 2.5k DPS now). I had a couple of questions if you'd indulge me. Is Combat now superior to Mutilate, or are they about the same?

I can only speak for where I am at so far - basically full T7.5 and BIS pre-Ulduar daggers. Also Kak may have a different opinion to me. I'm finding that I and the other Mut rogue in our raid are beating a better geared combat rogue in boss DPS. He's coming out ahead in overall because he does more dps on trash than we do (hard to keep HfB up on trash and can't use it with FoK that well now that you need a bleed effect on a target that usually goes down really quick). I've macroed the HfB opener with Rupture but I don't always get time to get it off.

The Mutilate and HfB glyphs really add a lot to my dps. I'm doing about 5.5-6k on boss fights in Naxx. Doing about 3.5k in 10man Ulduar.

I will probably switch to combat when I have a main hand mace - I currently have Maexxna's Femur for offhand and I will very shortly have a Grimhorn Crusher from the tournament. I'm therefore looking at a mace spec to start with, mainly because I don't have anything else to run combat with yet!

Haven't really looked at mace specs - I didn't see too many mace drops from Ulduar or Naxx TBH. I always felt mace was more of a pvp spec, but I could be wrong.

In the meantime I am stuck with mutilate (for better or worse?) and have a question about the best dagger combo to use. I have TSS, LPC and a Spinal Destroyer (lvl 200 1.7 speed dagger). Now that IP is frequency based, I can safely use a slower weapon in my mainhand now, correct? I used to run with 2 x LPC but the instant poison damage from those has been brought into line now since the change, and Shadow Panther ranks the SD quite a bit higher than LPC for mainhand weapon now. What is my best offhand weapon therefore - a LPC or my TSS? The TSS would boost my Mutilate damage as well as white DPS, but is it too slow for energy regen now through Focussed Attacks? Deadly Poison applications isn't a problem as Master Poisoner also got buffed...

With the Ulduar patch you want to run slow MH fast OH again. I'm running with SR MH and WD OH. For you, you probably want to run with your Spinal Destroyer MH. Forget TSS and stick with LPC until you can get WD or Murder or even Omen of Ruin.

Next I have a question about gemming - what's more important if I am below the poison hit cap of 315 - Expertise or Hit Rating, or are they of equal value? Currently I am below the Expertise and Hit Rating poison caps - should I focus on one or the other to try and reach one of the caps, or keep a blend of both but stay below the cap for now? At what point does pure AP start to pull ahead of both!? Thanks

Thid depends on how far below each cap you are, but basically you want to do in this order:

- get to yellow hit cap (99 or 66 with draenei)
- get to poison hit cap (315 or 210 with draenei + boomkin which your raid should have unless you are horde)
- get to expertise cap (24 expertise or 214 rating)

Generally they say not to gem expertise but rather keep running the raids till you get the exp items to drop. Obviously some of us don't have time to run the same bosses over and over and over and sometimes you have bad luck with epgp/dkp/etc. I've gemmed expertise before (even though Kak gives me a hard time because of it ).

If you have 300 hit and 15 exp then obviously try and get your exp up. Or think about how you can fill the gap with food/pots etc. Right now I have 238 hit unbuffed and 19exp, so the +exp food gets me up to 24. I just need the +exp items to drop but been trying for weeks now and they haven't.

[Memnoch]

Got myself up to about 4kdps in Ulduar now, got Rising Sun as my thrown woot!

[Zink Whistlefly]

Thanks for the info mate!

That's a very nice new thrown weapon you've got

I've been running heroic Naxx a bit recently. Got my Sinners Bindings and Murder, thanks to a kind guildie who passed it to me

Oh, and I got my AC boots finally.

I can't believe that I still don't have the ring from GD yet - I am so sick of that place! I've seen it once in what feels like dozens of runs, I've never seen the legs, it's always the plate hands and DPS caster leather item that drop

I've almost got enough gold together now for a DC:G - are you still using yours Mem, and is it really worth all that cash?

[Memnoch]

Originally Posted by Zink Whistlefly Thanks for the info mate! That's a very nice new thrown weapon you've got I've been running heroic Naxx a bit recently. Got my Sinners Bindings and Murder, thanks to a kind guildie who passed it to me Oh, and I got my AC boots finally. I can't believe that I still don't have the ring from GD yet - I am so sick of that place! I've seen it once in what feels like dozens of runs, I've never seen the legs, it's always the plate hands and DPS caster leather item that drop

Nice mate, gearing up! Seriously, forget about that ring - you will replace quickly in Naxx25. Strong Handed Ring drops a lot, and you can use your emblems to get the Ring of Invincibility.

I've almost got enough gold together now for a DC:G - are you still using yours Mem, and is it really worth all that cash?

Yes, it's the best mutilate rogue trinket without doing hard mode Ulduar. For combat rogues Grim Toll is better, but DCG procs so often (I have it on my NtK and it procs every 40 secs or so).

I'm using DCG and GT as my pairing now, I dropped MoT and Bandit Insignia. When I get Pyrite Infuser I will probably drop GT.

So far I've picked up the following from Ulduar (10 and 25):

- Treacherous Shoulderpads (awesome graphic effect)
- Treads of the Invader
- Rising Sun

BTW Kak, Pinch went back to Mut spec.

[Zink Whistlefly]

Originally Posted by Memnoch Nice mate, gearing up! Seriously, forget about that ring - you will replace quickly in Naxx25. Strong Handed Ring drops a lot, and you can use your emblems to get the Ring of Invincibility. Yes, it's the best mutilate rogue trinket without doing hard mode Ulduar. For combat rogues Grim Toll is better, but DCG procs so often (I have it on my NtK and it procs every 40 secs or so). I'm using DCG and GT as my pairing now, I dropped MoT and Bandit Insignia. When I get Pyrite Infuser I will probably drop GT. So far I've picked up the following from Ulduar (10 and 25): - Treacherous Shoulderpads (awesome graphic effect) - Treads of the Invader - Rising Sun BTW Kak, Pinch went back to Mut spec.

DC:G it is then, cheers mate. I've got 4k saved up now which should just about be enough. The next DF is a couple of weeks away anyway, so I've got plenty of time to find all the cards/snap up a cheap deck.

I was just about to give up on the ring from GD when I ran it last night (since it was the daily) and it dropped. At last!! Happy times

Those new shoulders you've got look badass!

I've just started taking my druid from 70-80 now. Planning on dual spec feral (tank) and resto which should give me lots of vareity, one of each role. Think it will be a long process though inbetween various raids on my rogue...

[Memnoch]

Funnily I'm still using DC:G - fantastic trinket with a long life!

[Kakero]

Get Herkumi (60 Emblem of Frost) or Mark of Supremacy (40 emblem of triumph).

You can also farm FoS for that trinket off final boss.