Rogue
Professions
saedo — Wed, 04/01/2009 - 15:35
Here I want to talk about Profession bonuses and how they affect raiding Rogues. I don't think i'll mention monetary values and stuff. Costs are a part of raiding, how you feel about making/losing money with what prof is up to you. These will be pure stats for the min-maxing.
As a standization I will be using the value of AP to compare with all professions. These would be the equiv values to 1 AP for all the calculations to follow:
| Str | 1.1 |
| Agi | 2.0 |
| Crit | 1.6 |
| Exp | 1.6 |
| Haste | 1.5 |
| ArPen | 1.2 |
| Hit | 1.4 |
Alchemy:
Pros:
- 4 hour flasks (2 in 3.1)
- Flask of Endless Rage goes from 180AP to 244AP for 64AP boost
Cons:
- You have to use a flask to get benefits (vs passive stats usuable anywhere)
Blacksmithing:
Pros:
- 2 extra sockets for a 32+32 = 64AP boost
- When epic gems are released this turns into a 40+40 = 80AP boost (best if no new ranks of prof bonuses are released)
Cons:
- Besides maybe an occasional weapon, which are likely inferior to alternatives anyways, unlikely to touch anything else in the craft
Enchanting:
Pros:
- Ring enchants, 32+32 = 64 AP
Cons:
- Outside of enchants itself, it's more caster oriented with wand and oil (no longer applies) making.
Engineering:
Pros:
- Hyperspeed Accelerators, 340 haste for 10 sec, 1 min CD. Average Haste = 340x10/60 = 56.667.
- AP Equiv = 56.667 x 1.5 = 85 AP
- Advantage over Crusher = 85 AP - 44 AP = 41 AP
Cons:
- Though last patch did buff these, used to rank below Crusher, it's still a lower in value for our class
- Eng Helms are good, but replacable by Naxx-10 Helms
- Rest of the tinker enchants are below normal enchants
Herbalism:
Cons:
- No dps benefits with the removal of the Fire Leaf consumable
Inscription:
Pros:
- Shoulder enchants are 104 AP, over Hodir's 40 AP, so a 64 AP boost
Cons:
- Similar to enchanting, outside glyphs itself, it's caster oriented with Offhands
Jewelcrafting:
Pros:
- 3 x 54 AP gems = 162 AP
- Over blue gems that's 162 - 3x32 = 66 AP
- Factoring in Blue Meta gem requirement: 162 - 2x32 - 16 = 82 AP
- Factoring in Yellow Meta gem req: 162 - 32 - 16 - 16 - 8x1.6 = 85.2 AP
- Factoring in up to 3 extra socket bonuses, well this would vary with gear. For me, currently it's 24AP more, but using extra yellow gems to fill reqs. I'd put personal boost at 24+82 = 106 AP boost.
- As you can see this is massive compared to others, even on the low end of 82 AP if you can't take any other extra bonuses
Cons:
- This lasts til epic gems appear, let's do the math again with 40AP gems.
- Over epic gems: 162 - 3x40 = 42 AP
- Blue Meta Req: 162 - 2x40 - 20 = 62 AP
- Yellow Meta Req: 162 - 40 - 20 - 20 - 10x1.6 = 66 AP
- 3 extra socket bonuses: 24+62 = 86 AP
- Though, number is probably gonna be higher cause better gear should have better bonuses, but would require blue slots (or just non red) to take advantage of.
Leatherworking:
Pros:
- 114 AP bracer fur lining over 50 AP enchant for a 64 AP boost
Mining:
Cons:
- No dps benefits, only extra stam
Skinning:
Pros:
- The only dps gathering prof left, 32 crit rating. AP Equiv = 32x1.6 = 51.2 AP
Tailoring:
Pros:
- Swordguard Embroidery, 300 AP for 15 sec, 45 sec internal CD, avg AP = 300x15/45 = 100 AP
- Enchant is 22 agi, AP equiv = 22x2 = 44 AP
- Boost = 100 - 44 = 56 AP
Cons:
- This is yet another caster oriented profession, guess they just threw that embroidery in to make it look equal opportunity bonuses.
Adventures With Nancy (Funny SH&T)
Fjork — Mon, 03/30/2009 - 11:35
“Adventures With
Be warned. The following is an accurate portrayal of events that happened March 27 and March 28, 2009. Funny as hell though.
Adventure: “She’s a regular!”
So it’s a Friday night and my best friend’s and I are kid free. So my wife, our best friends (Terry and Dina), and I pile into the van to head out for dinner.
As we are about to leave the town we live in (McDade), we stop at the stop sign and wait to cross 290 (major highway that runs through the town). This strange lady with a cell-phone to her ear starts walking up to the van. So Dina cracks the window.
Fact: The cell-phone was off; discovered later.
Dina - “Do you need help?”
“Oh, my prayers have been answered, someone is stopping. Let me let you go.” Strange lady talking into cell phone then turns to address us. “Please don’t hurt me. I’m so scared. My car broke down a few miles back and I don’t know what to do. My husband is a priest who was attending a conference in
Hmm. A PRIEST you say? Really? Your HUSBAND?
Dina – “Well…. Um...” (Looks at us for the okay.) “We can give you a life to
“Oh thank you, I’m so scared, thank you.” Lady starts walking around van and sees my wife. “I’m so scared because I’m pregnant.”
My wife is noticeably eight months pregnant. The strange-lady didn’t ‘remember’ her pregnancy until she saw Lara.
I take the seat directly behind her because she isn’t taking her hands away from her purse. The minute a gun popped out I was going to snap her neck. Scary thought? My wife and friends knew without my saying anything that was the reason I took the seat behind her.
So she gets into the van and as soon as we start moving she starts going on and on about how she’s been to three or four gas stations, but all she has is the checks from the church and none of the gas stations will accept the Houston checks because they are out of area.
Then it becomes “If you have just a little money to get me from
Fact: Between Giddings (town in the direction she came from) and
So we tell her the honest truth. A few times. Like a dozen. “We don’t carry cash.” “No, seriously. We only use our checkcards. We don’t have any cash, and don’t really have access to it right now, we are a little strapped for cash.”
Well, as soon as she knew there was no-way she was getting money out of us, she pointed at a random house “Wait stop! I know those people! I know they’ll let me borrow their car! Drop me off here!” So we stop the car, but she doesn’t make any move to get out. Just keeps asking for more money. Then she holds her hand up for a second and flips the cell-phone to her head for 2-3 seconds (at MOST) and pretends to listen.
In Adam Sandler Waterboy styled voice (seriously, it was hilarious): “Well um… my momma sez, momma sez if you could just give me 20 dollars… momma sez that would be enough to get me to
This is where I noticed the cell-phone was off, but even if it wasn’t. Her mom would have had to fire off words faster than a gatling gun to get all that out in just a few seconds.
So we leave her there and drive to the nearest gas station (which was less than a mile from where we picked her up), filled up, and headed back the way we came. Sure enough, she was still standing out here with her cell phone to her ear trying to flag down cars. So I did the good-citizen thing (I didn’t want her raped and killed), and I called the cops.
“Yeah, there’s a lady on 290 between McDade and the gas-station right outside who’s trying to flag down cars and scam them for gas money.”
“Oh yeah, that’s
Adventure NEXT: “You’re taking the bus how FAR???!?!?”
So after the first adventure, we head to dinner and decide we want to go bowling afterwards. But the girls don’t have socks. So we stop at Wal-mart and the wives stay in the car while Terry and I run to go buy some socks.
While Dina is reading Lara the kids school-menu for next week, she looks up and there’s a lady in a hoodie just talking away as-if Dina can hear her with the windows closed and the radio on. So Dina locks the doors, and cracks the window.
My wife SWEARS it was
Dina - “Can I help you?”
Lady – Sob sob sob story: “My daughter is sick and I have to get back to
Fact: From
From Greyhound: (
|
Fare Type |
Qty |
Passenger |
Each |
Total |
|
1 |
Adult |
$192.00 |
$192.00 |
|
|
1 |
Adult |
$171.00 |
$171.00 |
So Dina rolls up the window and drives off without saying another word to the lady.
Seriously. Think up better (or more accurate) stories people.
Adventure TRY: “The entertainment value?”
So it is now late afternoon Saturday. We’ve had so much fun all day telling everyone, including a good family friend named Pam, the “adventures with
So Pam leaves to go get some more supplies and lunch, and gets flagged down by a lady with a cell-phone on her ear standing next to a red beat-to-hell El Camino*. She gives the exact same sob story from Friday night to Pam.
So Pam, being the kind-hearted person she is, put’s five dollars worth of gas in the lady’s car and tells her that if she’ll follow Pam to the next gas-station, her husband is there getting gas/supplies and he’ll be able to send the woman to Waco with a full tank.
Obviously, that red el camino kept going right on down the road when Pam stopped to pull in and meet her hubby.
I <3 Pam very much as she is such a sweet lady, but did she give
When I asked her that exact question, Pam really wasn’t sure why she gave the chick five bucks.
*Red El Camino – Boy, that sounds like the Lexus from story one, doesn’t it? The two cars are basically the same.
Definitely says something about the state of our economy on how common this is becoming.
Well I've been thinking the last couple weeks or so to perhaps try a few different things.
Combat
Traditionally Combat, and for a min-max raid, you have to have that 1 Combat rogue in for the Savage Combat debuff (2% more physical damage).
Here are the last 3 weeks of parses of Patchwerk for me:
- 5463 dps: http://wowwebstats.com/kk3hiirwch125?s=598256-630236
- 5053 dps (TotT failkins): http://wowwebstats.com/asquzi5lbrx5i?s=484361-517307
- 5336 dps: http://wowwebstats.com/nmvihnbuf54ya?s=410812-443091
All 3 fights end similarly, 2:40ish. This is around what I should be doing for the time and gear I have, lower-mid 5Ks. For gear I'd have about 4 pieces to go, well 1 major one for a ~100dps boost, the other 3 are ~15, ~30, ~1dps each. So at best it'd be a ~150 dps more through gear.
Though the other way to boost it would be time of kill. Combat being a more CD reliant rogue spec, having 3 of them, the shorter time would ramp up the value of those CDs considerably.
Anyways, to change such a spec could possibly mean losing that Savage Combat debuff. Here's my estimate of how much it was worth to us using the 3 weeks.
- 4,484,957 Physical Damage x 2% = 89,699.14 / 157 sec = 571.33 raid dps
- 5,522,291 x 2% = 110,445.82 / 165 sec = 669.37 raid dps
- 5,769,391 x 2% = 115,387.82 / 160 sec = 721.17 raid dps
So all in all about a 653.96 average raid dps from those 3 raids. Of course in 3.1 this debuff is boosted to 4% for even higher numbers.
Anyways, on to the other specs...
Solo HAT
This would be a bit more interesting to try again. Me and Shinz did this before to exploit a bug with HaT. Though even with it fixed, with the right group setup and all, it can still top damage.
It is still a faceroll spec, spam Evis mostly. Though a tiny bit more thought without the bug, basically hemo or something whenever CPs are low.
This definitely loses the Savage Combat debuff. Though, in all likelihood, can make up the 600-700 raid dps lost through personal dps. But, ideally, then you'd want another rogue to go get that debuff, or Arms Warrior should they exist.
A bonus to this spec would be that it'd be the most survivable rogue spec too, with Cheat Death and a few other avoidance talents.
Well also to see how our raid would suplement a HaT rogue, I went and looked at the yellow crit/sec for everyone:
- Derchlon: 131/157, 109/165, 107/160 = 0.72 crit / sec
- Luminaire: 122/157, 98/165, 109/160 = 0.68 crit / sec
- Grasen: 87/165, 105/160 = 0.59 crit / sec
- Poisondonut: 64/157, 62/165, 64/160 = 0.39 crit / sec
- Luczilla: 66/157, 55/165, 62/160 = 0.38 crit / sec
- Onrique: 61/157,41/165, 46/160 = 0.31 crit / sec
- Garreth: 47/157, 57/165, 72/160 = 0.36 crit / sec
- Karvinen: 63/157, 51/165, 59/160 = 0.36 crit / sec
- Disrupta: 60/157, 51/165, 49/160 = 0.33 crit / sec
- Dangulz: 50/157 = 0.32 crit / sec
- Quisjaa: 44/157, 54/165, 48/160 = 0.30 crit / sec
- Primistic: 48/157, 43/160 = 0.29 crit / sec
- Antiquite: 48/157, 45/165 = 0.29 crit / sec
- Judgedredd: 36/165, 55/160 = 0.28 crit / sec
- Shinzwei: 44/157, 45/165, 42/160 = 0.27 crit / sec
- Knoppix: 49/157, 36/165, 36/160 = 0.27 crit / sec
- Nuitarin: 51/157, 40/165, 39/160 = 0.27 crit / sec
- Deadhli: 47/157, 38/165, 44/160 = 0.27 crit / sec
- Saedo: 41/157, 34/165, 41/160 = 0.24 crit / sec
- Vulk: 38/157, 33/165, 38/160 = 0.23 crit / sec
- Zildo: 28/157, 38/165, 39/160 = 0.22 crit / sec
- Moriella: 35/157, 36/165, 25/160 = 0.20 crit / sec
- Cplnewb: 29/157 = 0.18 crit / sec
- Orky: 28/157, 17/165, 32/160 = 0.16 crit / sec
- Tankard: 36/157, 13/165, 16/160 = 0.14 crit / sec
- Katibug: 10/165, 15/160 = 0.08 crit / sec
- Starshift: 13/157, 10/165, 10/160 = 0.07 crit / sec
- Pudolski: 12/157, 10/165, 6/160 = 0.06 crit / sec
Clearly Survival Hunters are on top. Well hunters in general. Pet crits count still.
Fight Report:
Trash - This spec is definitely weaker on trash. The energy regen is pretty much the lowest of the 3 specs, so spamming FoK was less beneficial. With all the aoe, I wonder if spamming Evis even during this is better.
Archavon (http://wowwebstats.com/oquyc4qqjflhs?s=10286-33170) - Well this being the first one, was trying to get used to it. The CP rate was mostly good, though fluctuated. I definitely capped energy a few too many times waiting for that CP to fill up for an Evis.
Sartharion 3D (http://wowwebstats.com/oquyc4qqjflhs?s=100153-167157) - For the most part it seemed fine. But I assume pet deaths caused some dips in my CP generation. But clearly this is lower than combat due to lower ability to aoe adds. When we got down to single target like Sarth (http://wowwebstats.com/oquyc4qqjflhs?s=100153-167157&a=xf1300070bc000244...), seems to shine ahead obviously.
Malygos (http://wowwebstats.com/oquyc4qqjflhs?s=172287-214684) - Is a bit more iffy. I do lose any burst CD usage for the sparks. And parts of P2 I think pets were out of it for lower CP generation. Plus I'd normally aoe in P2 (with some focus on that skull). But with 6 min attempt being short, that CD usage is prob more beneficial.
Razuvious (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?m&s=50320-77710) - Was a bit more of test. Part way through that fight I decided to just drop Rupture and spam Evis. lol
Gothik (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?m&s=115856-144147) - So I went on the living side for once, cause most of my CP generators are there.
Four Horsemen (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?m&s=177037-208615) - Stuck with Rivendare at the start cause of HaT. With the staying out of Zeliak damage dropped.
Noth (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?m&s=242963-270805) - For the most part was fine Course that period of aoe'ing adds weakened it.
Heigan (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?m&s=292905-318398) - This fight I switched 2 of my casters for the more critty melee ones to leech off them. Able to build up a lead so the dancing portion didn't allow ranged attackers to catch up.
Loatheb (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?m&s=323313-367351) - Of course this fight was made for HaT! Everyone critting all the time, Evis spam away! 7681 dps, no one even close. lol
Patchwerk (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?m&s=424262-456700) - DPS wise, topped it at 6071 dps. But that time spent waiting for the Hateful costed damage and couldn't catch up in time, seems like 14% dps time loss, so got 4th in damage. Though I did make a small mistake in the fight.
Grobbulus (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?m&s=472268-504537) - Still range advantage with that fight.
Gluth (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?s=508409-532167) - Hmm, perhaps HaT generation was a bit lower with hunters having other tasks.
Thaddius (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?s=556515-604384) - This fight felt odd... It wasn't a CP generation thing, but it's as if my Evis weren't being boosted by the damage buffs. Well it was boosted sometimes, but a chunk of the time it didn't seem like it, even making sure I had a 10 stack of buffs. It was weird.
Anub (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?s=621654-642539) - 6217 dps, able to mostly tank and spank it, and avoided the spikes!
Faerlina (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?s=665434-689701) - Made a bit of a huge mistake mistargetting on this boss. lol Oh well.
Maexena (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?s=723580-743895) - Think there was some unlucky interruptions to me and the others.
Sapphiron (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?s=745418-787086) - Topping dps, but need more dps time. lol Made a couple mistakes with the tail too.
Kel'thuzad (http://wowwebstats.com/u4dj1o6aipjau?s=802009-846637) - I know I got mc'd for part of it. P1 was slow for me.
Combat Shiv
This is something I'm tempted to try out cause they're killing this in 3.1. Shiv will no longer allow poison crits. However, for now, it's theoretically a 200dps boost to me.
Though, it plays almost exactly the same way. Just replace one attack for another, one poison for another, one weapon for another. Everything else is the same, well except the spec of course. This even keeps the Savage Combat debuff for the raid. Personal damage distribution is shifted more towards the poisons.
Experience: http://wowwebstats.com/ri3ge5olo1mbo
Trash: I definitely think it's lower in trash damage, and it's obvious in hindsight. I'm using a fast sword OH with Instant Poison on it. That means no 5% crit on that hand, and less poison procs compared to Wound Poison.
Bosses: There's basically not much variation from playing Vanilla Combat. It's similar cycles, CD usages, attacks etc. Just supposedly better by maxing poison damage with Shiv and Instant Poison. It is kinda funny to see my Instant Poison damage outdoing everything except white attacks. That's shiv for ya, instant IP on each shiv.
So did I see a dps increase? Not particuarly. Well some bosses might have dropped, like Heigan and Noth, but those could be positioning issues. Patchwerk was more or less the same. I'd say that RNG might have been a huge factor to me not seeing much of a diff.
Also in hindsight I probably wasn't gemmed properly for it. I gem Agility. Reasons being that with it being similar to AP in dps value it gives me dodge and fatty crits for epeen. However, with Combat Shiv being poison reliant, that means AP mostly likely is the better choice for it. Agi won't affect poison critting, so pumping it all into AP would've boosted that.
I think I'm going to shift to AP gemming, should see higher average numbers hopefully.
Also, was running a new mod that I had to get used to, that's could be partially why I'm not seeing a huge diff. But I think I'll advertise about that mod later.
Day 2: http://wowwebstats.com/bevwh4z3xz5ke?m
For Sarth and Maly it did feel a bit better. Though it seems still weakest on FoK spamming so dropped a bit in damage overall for Sarth. Maly I screwed up a bit and missed hitting Killing Spree. But overall I was more used to watching things for it.
Saedo's 3.1 Wishlist
saedo — Mon, 03/09/2009 - 15:59
The parasite spec. This relies on you to be in a good group that's able to crit at a good rate. Not necessarily a high crit percentage, what's important is most crits per time.
The spec would be like: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=fhhZ0xV0x0xoZezcbI0ddVzAco
It doesn't have to be exact. The main points to take are Imp Evis, Aggression, and of course Honor Among Thieves. Everything else is mostly filler. Well some fillers are better than others but leave that up to more personal taste.
Glyph wise you'd be using Eviscerate, Slice and Dice, and let's go with Rupture.
How to dps... Spam Eviscerate. Well, keep Slice and Dice up, throw in a Rupture when you can. But for the rest of the fight, in a good group setup, you should be able to do 4-5 point Eviscerates almost every time you have available energy for it (35).
Just need a good group that can crit a lot, and real crits, not psuedo-crits from dots or anything, and works off pet crits too. Approximate order of desirability should be as follows:
- BM Hunters
- Surv Hunters
- Marks Hunters
- Enh Shamans
- Rogues
- Dual Wield Death Knights
- Warriors
- Ret Pallies
- 2H Death Knights
- Mages
- Elem Shamans
- Boomkins
- Holy Pallies
- Locks
- Shadow Priests
- Everyone else
3.1 Upcoming Class Changes
saedo — Wed, 02/04/2009 - 22:23
Now the real shit comes in:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14910002204&pageNo...
We are planning a lot of exciting content for patch 3.1.0, and we are doing a three-part preview series on upcoming class changes. This is the first in the series: Priests, Rogues, and Shaman. Please keep in mind, that this list is not at all comprehensive, and subject to change.
PRIEST
- Divine Spirit – this spell is now a core ability available to all priests.
- Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).
- Several area of effect (AOE) heal spells have been improved: Prayer of Healing can be cast on any groups in your raid party. Holy Nova’s mana cost has been reduced. Circle of Healing now heals for more.
- Shadow priest PvP survivability has been improved: Shadow Form now reduces magic as well as physical damage. Dispersion now removes snares.
- Penance – this spell can now be targeted on the priest.
- Serendipity – this talent now reduces the cast time of Greater Heal and Prayer of Healing when Binding Heal or Flash Heal are cast.
- We are also working to give Holy additional PvP utility.
ROGUE
- Hunger for Blood – instead of a self-buff, this ability can only be used when there is a bleed effect on the target. However, it has no stacks and grants a 15% damage bonus.
- Adrenaline Rush – the cooldown on this ability has been lowered.
- Lightning Reflexes – reduced to 3 ranks. In addition to 2/4/6% dodge, this talent now also grants 4/7/10% passive melee haste.
- Killing Spree – while this ability is active, the rogue does 20% additional damage.
- Savage Combat – now causes 2/4% physical damage done.
- Mace Specialization – this talent now grants haste in addition to armor penetration.
SHAMAN
- Chain Lightning – now jumps to 4 targets but does less damage. We wanted to make the distinction between Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning more clear.
- Storm, Earth and Fire – this talent now increases all damage done by Flame Shock, not just periodic damage.
- Spirit Weapons – now reduces all threat, not just melee threat.
- Unleashed Rage – reduced to 2 ranks, now also increases your critical strike chance with melee attacks by 1/2%.
- Totem streamlining: The Mana Spring and Healing Stream Totems have been combined. The Disease Cleansing and Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined.
- We are also working on giving Enhancement and Elemental more PvP utility.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14910422662&sid=1
We are planning a lot of exciting content for patch 3.1.0, and we are doing a three-part preview series on upcoming class changes. This is the second in the series: Warlocks, Druids, and Warriors. Please keep in mind, that this list is not at all comprehensive, and subject to change. To read the previous list in the series, check out Part 1 -
http://f
WARLOCK
- Improved Shadow Bolt – this talent now provides a 5% spell critical strike buff (similar to Improved Scorch).
- Improved Soul Leech – this talent now provides Replenishment (similar to shadow priests)
- Drain Soul now has a chance to produce Soul Shards even if the target doesn’t die.
- Siphon Life no longer as an active ability but the talent grants the old Siphon Life effect to Corruption.
- Curse of Recklessness and Curse of Weakness have been combined into one spell
- Consume Shadows – this Voidwalker ability is no longer channeled but has a cooldown.
- Several other warlock talents have had their ranks reduced, their effects changed or removed. This list includes but is not limited to Demonic Empathy, Shadow Embrace, Eradication, Suppression, and Pandemic.
- Additional new talents have been added.
DRUID
- Savage Defense – this is a new passive ability. When a druid in Dire Bear form deals a melee critical strike, the druid gains a damage shield equal to 25% of their attack power. The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.
- Survival of the Fittest has had its bonus armor reduced to compensate for the above increase in damage mitigation.
- Faerie Fire (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 5%. See Sunder Armor in the warrior update below for additional details.
- Thorns and Nature’s Grasp can be cast in Tree of Life form.
- Survival Instincts now works in Moonkin form.
- Replenish – to avoid confusion, this talent has been renamed “Revitalize.”
It now also works with Wild Growth. - We are also looking at increasing the sustained (not burst) damage of feral druids in cat form.
WARRIOR
- Changing stances now has a much reduced cost: you lose a maximum of 20 rage (10 with Tactical Mastery). For example, if you have 100 rage and change stances, you will have 80 rage remaining. If you have 10 rage and change stances, all of your rage is lost. In addition, we may change the penalties associated with some stances.
- You now gain rage when damage done to you is absorbed, such as through a Power Word: Shield.
- Blood Frenzy now causes 2/4% physical damage done.
- Sunder Armor (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 4% per application, and is now a single rank. Creature armor has been globally reduced so that debuffed targets should take about the same damage from physical attacks that they did before this change. The net effect should be that this debuff is slightly less mandatory in PvE and is not disproportionately more powerful against cloth targets in PvP.
- We are also adding increased damage to Arms, possibly through Overpower or Slam.
- We are also looking at granting rage when the warrior blocks, dodges or parries.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14910003268&sid=1
We are planning a lot of exciting content for patch 3.1.0, and we are doing a three-part preview series on upcoming class changes. This is the third in the series: Mages, Paladins, Hunters, and Death Knights. Please keep in mind, that this list is not at all comprehensive, and subject to change.
MAGE
- Improved Water Elemental – this talent has been removed and replaced with a new talent that grants Replenishment (similar to Shadow priests).
- We are also working on a way to give frost mages Ice Lance “Shatter combos” in PvE.
- We are also working on more survivability for Fire spec in PvP.
- We are also working on making Spirit a more useful and interesting stat for all mages.
PALADIN
- Blessing of Kings – this spell is now a base ability trainable by all paladins.
- Exorcism – this spell now causes damage to all types of enemy targets. However, it always critical strikes undead or demon targets. This change should make sure paladin damage doesn’t drop when going from Naxxramas to later tiers of content.
- Shield of the Templar now causes your Avenger’s Shield and Shield of the Righteousness to silence targets for 3 sec. The old damage bonus of this talent has been folded into Holy Shield, Avenger’s Shield, and Shield of the Righteousness.
- Ardent Defender, Improved Hammer of Justice, One-Handed Weapon Specialization and more have had their ranks reduced.
- Guarded by the Light – no longer reduces the mana cost of shield spells, but now has a 50/100% chance to refresh Divine Plea duration.
- Judgements of the Just – now also reduces the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20 seconds and increases the duration of the Seal of Justice stun effect by 0.5/1 second.
HUNTER
- Consumable ammunition has been removed from the game. Arrows and bullets no longer stack, but are not consumed. Ranged attack speed bonus gained from quivers and ammo bags will be preserved in a different capacity.
- A new tier of hunter pet talents have been added. In particular, this allows Beastmaster hunters to improve their damage per second (DPS) with their 51 point talent.
- Hunting Party – this talent has been reduced to 3 ranks and also grants a passive bonus to the hunter.
- Piercing Shots – this talent has been changed. Your Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of damage dealt for 8 sec.
- Sniper Training – this talent has been changed. After standing still for 6 sec, you gain a 2/4/6% damage bonus to Steady, Aimed and Explosive Shot.
- We are also looking to add additional trap functionality to Survival.
DEATH KNIGHT
- Gargoyle and Unholy Blight have swapped talent positions. Gargoyle’s damage has increased and runic power cost per time has decreased.
- Pestilence – this spell no longer causes damage but just spreads diseases. Blood Boil is intended to be the general area attack, and has been changed to be castable on targets with no diseases on them, but does extra damage if diseases are present.
- Unbreakable Armor now absorbs a flat amount of damage that increases as your armor increases. It no longer boosts armor.
- The Frost tree has been shuffled. Among other things, PvP talents such as Endless Winter are closer to the top of the tree where Blood and Unholy death knights can access them.
- Sudden Doom – this talent now procs a Death Coil rather than requiring an additional button click. It works similarly to shamans’ Lightning Overload.
- Magic Suppression and Blood of the North have been reduced to 3 ranks for the same benefit.
- Blood Gorged now grants armor penetration instead of expertise.
This or something similar will probably be the highest trash dps spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=fGx0oexoVrobZ0xqbxi0oru
Glyphed with: Vigor, Blade Flurry, and Adrenaline Rush.
Basically try to obtain the energy restoring talents so you can spam Fan of Knives all night long. Assuming nothing's changed, but they probably will. Can top trash meters already without spec'ing for it and this would only push it up way higher. I personally expect some sort of nerf like Hunter Volley did.
But who cares about trash dps right? This is more for when Dual Specs appear (possibly 3.1) and you don't got a pvp spec you wanna do for the 2nd spec. So why not, just spec for trash to make the clear go faster.
Here's some trash tips, and it pretty much applies to current Mutilate and Combat specs as well:
- 2 slow weapons to hit the hardest
- 2 1.8 speed daggers best atm due to 150% weapon bonus to them. So they'd hit like 2.7 speed weapons
- Fan of Knives is only really efficient to use if there are 3 or more mobs to hit
- Dual Instant (or Wound) poison for your weapons
- Don't be overly concerned with regular dps like SnD, SS, Mutilate, etc, especially in large groups. Though you probably want to keep HfB up if you have that.
Mutilate is the premier single target dps spec nowadays, especially on Murderable mobs. It is also the "most difficult" of the specs to play (though it's really not that hard), but you get your high dps as returns if you can pull it off.
Potentially, this spec is also a source of 3% more raid crit from Master Poisoner, but most raids will generally have a Ret Pally or Elem Shaman, or both, providing it. Mutilates are probably the worst source of it and should not spec for it unless really needed.
IP / DP / Envenom
Therefore, the only spec for it currently is this 51/13/7. If Master Poisoner is really needed, points should be shifted from Turn the Tables. If you're not facing a lot of Murderable mobs, and want to min-max for that, Murder can be switched out for other fillers. Though do note, Fleet Footed will not stack with Unholy DK's aura, and Quick Recovery can be very rendered useless through expertise. So most likely, not much of a dps filler points if you move out of Murder.
Weapon wise, due to Focused Attacks and Poisons scaling, fast weapons recieved a boost in power. Though do remember, speed isn't everything, just like Combat with Combat Potency, speed only gives a benefit, not an overriding rule. You would main handing the Faster of your daggers, and offhanding the Slower of your daggers, finishers proc poisons which outweighs the *slightly* lower mutilate damage.
Glyph wise, there's not a lot of Mutilate glyphs out there. You'd choose Slice and Dice and Rupture as the main 2. The last one is really anything filler, nothing else helps with dps.
Cycle for Mutilate is more of a priority system. Watch timers, hit the appropriate button to refresh the ones you need to.
- Keep HfB fully stacked at all times (can be done in stealth, out of combat, on the run, etc)
- Keep SnD up at all times you are dps'ing (start an SnD whenever)
- Mutilate to 4+ combo points
- If SnD is low, Envenom
- Else if Rupture is not up, Rupture
- Else just Envenom til you can Rupture again
IP / IP / Evis
So another spec has been floating around now. This involves 2 fast daggers (til 3.1), dual Instant Poison, which means relying on the raid (hunters) to provide the poison, and use Eviscerate. So a bit more of a greedy spec, but supposed to be on par or above the old IP/DP/Envenom method.
The build would be something like this: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=fhxf0exoVboIzAo0xV0hZxb
And your third glyph would be the Eviscerate glyph.
Cycles are pretty much like before, but you're more likely to land 5 point finishers rather than 4+.
Combat has become a secondary dps spec. For single target dps, it comes behind Mutilate, especially Murderable mobs. However, it does better in trash, multi-add fights, interrupted fights. It is also the best source for Savage Combat (2% more physical damage), probably better than Arms Warrrior (Blood Frenzy) over Fury warriors nowadays. So it is advisable to have at least 1 combat rogue in a raid.
Spec wise, it is not really the case where Sword spec dominates everything else. The spec itself is still best, but talents like Prey on the Weak boost crit value which boosted Fist/Dagger spec. Also, through itemization, swords only having 1.5 - 1.6 speeds to them compared to daggers 1.3 - 1.5 speeds gave Dagger offhands another boost. It'll be better spec'ing around the weapons you can obtain, using a spreadsheet to check which is better, and not gunning for a particular weapon spec.
There are 2 schools of thought for combat specs, they are said to be very close, some debate on which is actually better. They are the 7/51/13 build, and the 15/51/5 build. Note, although it's a sword/CQC spec, you would move points to where your weapon spec lies. If you're using 2 weapons of the same type, then the extra points are filler you can put anywhere. For specs of different weapon type, the points you should sacrifice should be from Sword Spec, go 4/5 sword and 5/5 in the other for maximum benefit.
Now, I will go into each spec type with more depth.
This spec goes into Serrated Blades, and sacrifices a point in Imp SnD.
Glyphs it would go for is Sinister Strike, Rupture, and Blade Flurry or Slice and Dice if you're having trouble with upkeep.
The goal of this build is to, while maintaining 100% SnD uptime, also try to maintain near 100% rupture uptimes. Cycle would be 4+/5r, nothing else just SnD and Rupture. Even with Energy Pooling, there will be times where Rupture would still be up, and can't override due to previous higher AP values, those times you'd just SS more til you can Rupture again.
This would be similar to the vanilla wow combat spec, going into Ruthlessness and Lethality, maxing SnD, but also sacrifice points in Sword Spec if applicable.
Glyphs it would go for is Sinister Strike, Slice and Dice, and Rupture
This build introduces a 3 finisher cycle, 3+s/5r/5e. While maintaining 100% SnD uptimes, rupture when you can, and can probably squeeze in an Evis with decent luck on procs.
Poisons
For either, your choice of poisons will be Deadly Poison, and Wound Poison. With the 50% proc rate, and lack of talents in Imp Poisons for combat, Wound Poison will out do Instant Poison, always. Here's an AP crossover chart if you do happen to have points in it for whatever nub reason to make Instant Poison the better poison.
| Rank of Improved Poisons | Attack power |
| 1 | 19250 |
| 2 | 7875 |
| 3 | 4084 |
| 4 | 2188 |
| 5 | 1050 |
As for what poison to put on what hand. Depends. If your offhand is 1.4 speed or faster, put Wound Poison on it, Deadly on the other. Else, put Wound Poison on the main hand, Deadly off.
Update for 3.0.9+: So with 40% SnD now, people at the higher end of gear actually has Wound Poison surpassing Deadly Poison. Not a whole lot, maybe 10ish dps. But Dual Wound has become the ideal setup. Provided your gear is good enough for it. Exactly when? Check a spreadsheet.
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