Rogue raiding specs.

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Prior to last nights Naxx run we had a new rogue who was going in to do a bit of DPS, and was seeking some advice on some SOTN (Squeezing of the nuts) to make sure that she didn’t let the raid down by under-performing. This brought me to questions the various specs and how well they will be for raiding.

First off, let me give the greatest bit of raiding advice for a rogue I may ever give.

DO NOT RAID IN SUBTLETY.

I may stand corrected if anyone wishes to provide a working raiding build and setup, but the custom spec build used here was very un-optimized, even for PVP, never mind soloing or raiding.

After some extensive testing and talent checking, it just was not viable for individual DPS.

Subtlety is the PVP build, and is designed around burst damage. You open with a big hit (ambush) and you close with a big hit (Eviscerate.) the damage in between, from what I could see, was sub-standard. On a level 80 target dummy in full heroic/pvp/crafted epics and blues was just over 700.

We tried playing with attack combos (testing rupture and eviscerate for finishers, applying hemorrhage in the middle etc.) and through the wonders of recount, came up with the following info for her build.

Ambush was hitting for under 4k (was not optimized for it though.)

Hemorrhage, whilst it applied a dot and gave a nice debuff (+75 damage to next 20 hits on target) spamming it was highly inefficient, and a single sinister strike was doing about the same damage as the hemorrhage brought forward – without talents or a glyph.


Rupture – whilst talented – was only pulling about half the damage of an eviscerate.

The first obstacle we came across when looking to get this DPS up, was the weapon combination. Dagger main hand, new + enchanted PVP offhand sword. This threw a Mutilate spec out of the window (I am informed this is the highest single target damage build – and after some testing on my own rogue, tend to agree, although I have not seen it in a raid, ever, as raiding rogues tend to still be combat spec like in TBC.I decided the best build would be a modified Combat dagger raiding build (Wowwiki cookie cutter build.)

The dagger (epic) has good stats, good dps, and compared to any non epic sword we could have gotten, had about the same one-hit damage (250-300, or thereabouts.) It was not ideal for a combat build, but it was going to have to do. After speccing we took to the dummies again. Ambush opener (may as well, there’s a dagger and some points in talents to boost it.) Sinister strike through, and eviscerate finisher. Plain and simple. This on its own boosted to a consistent 1100 DPS. Throw in adrenaline rush when it’s cooled down, and doing my favourite: Trinket + blade flurry + Killing spree, this provided bursts of damage peaking to 2k – providing a sustained 1200-1300 DPS on said target dummy.

Her +hit was virtually non existent before, she now has 5% +hit chance thanks to Precision she took to Naxx and ended the run with recount displaying an average of 1600 DPS. Low for Naxx requirements, but that’s a huge boost to what it was previously. She also got a shiny epic dagger which means she has mutilate build options available.

I’m sure there are better more optimal builds out there, but considering my own rogue is only 76, I think this is quite good. My rogue in quest blues/greens with a pair of Saronite daggers averages just under 900 DPS when soloing – I am very very curious to see how this build with someone epic-clad would do against a raid boss.

Any hints or tips from out there? Please feel free to provide J

-V

Who am I?

I guess this is where I put in a customary introduction post before I get into the nitty gritty content! Apologies for the wall of text that’s incoming, ill try to keep it simple!

First off, the blog name doesn’t apply to me, it’s just a random statement I thought of and decided it might be an interesting name. I tend to make many random statements. Thank Vonya/Ego for me going with something so random. (latest Twisted Nether Blogcast show explains all.)

For about 5 months at the end of 2008 I kept a blog, but I was not really happy with its content or consistency, so I abandoned it and decided to start over to give better content to the bogging community out there, its readers, and most importantly - myself. (Hey, if I aint having fun, what’s the point eh?)

I doubt anyone will ever actually read this, so pardon me if I seem to be talking to myself a lot, I probably am! ;)

I am 26; I am married (To my GM! But panic not, its not one of those relationships where I think I can get away with murder in the guild, I try to be responsible and do the best for the guild and my comrades at all times.) I have a son, who is coming up for 1 year old. And a 3-legged white Alsatian husky cross, who always wants fed or walked.

The guild is a pretty efficient social raiding guild. We have a strong core of raiders, and a nice big pool of friendly, skilled players who we try to get in as often as possible on runs. The current player count is 104, pretty bulky for a raiding guild, but not everyone raids – and some are alts of friends in other guilds. More about us in a future post.

I guess I should let you know what I play, so that you can see what you may expect me to blog about ;)

My characters:

• 80 Mage – Velkairiwyth (Frostfire build)

• 76 Rogue – Bibsy (Mutilate spec)

• 72 Priest – Asterra (Full Discipline)

• 70 Death Knight – Aretheus (Blood, previously unholy, but Im experimenting.)

• 57 Hunter – Telvanya (BM spec, not played since launch of expansion, but one day Ill get back to leveling her up.

I will make separate posts about my thoughts on the classes, and my experimentations for optimization. I’m a bit of an efficiency junky, and like to squeeze the nuts of every character (or pet, in my hunters case since the toon is female!) to get the best damage I can out of them.

As for blog content, I expect to be bogging about the classes I play, my raiding experiences, random things that are WOW related, and occasionally give my input to WOW news, or other bloggers posts. I’m considering having a friend or two be guest posters, for extra content and some variety, we shall see how it goes.

I have an extensive RSS feed (would be bigger but some bloggers really need to activate their RSS feeds so I don’t have to visit their site – I’m too lazy, with too much to read! :p) of I would hazard, about 30 WOW blogs. I shall link a selection in the side bar for those that somehow don’t know them yet have stumbled across this. (Hey, it happens :p )

And there you go folks, that is me. This is how I play, and I hope ~I continue to entertain myself – and I guess, anyone else that might visit. ;) Yeah… Ill try :p Shall add the finishing touches to my blog over the coming days, i have a log of posts to put up aswell, but now I have some heroics to nuke through.

-V