Review of Deep Assassin build for Raiding

Over the past week, I tried a variation in the Assassin tree which reportedly lends itself to raiding. Its a 51/13/7 build (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=f0gfoexoVboIzAo0xV0hZxb). It leverages Hunger for Blood (HFB), along with Cut to the Chase for refreshing Slice-n-Dice (SnD) to its 5 point maximum. In this post, I wanted to discuss its gains/weaknesses from an overall playing experience. Additionally, I've included my own comments about its viability in PVE/PVP, however, this is just my own feelings about it.

Once I got this build setup properly, I hit the dummy targets over near SI:7 and put up my DPS meter. In this scenario, I loaded my blades with inst/deadly poisons and primed HFB to its 3 point maximum. In order to sustain maximum DPS output, you have to keep up your HFB and SnD. Here is what I typically do to maintain this:

1) Opener - you should get anywhere between 4-5 on Combo Points (CB). I typically use Rupture then Shiv followed by a Mutilate.

2) SnD - get this up, then use your normal attacks. When you're SnD gets low, use Eviscerate to bring it to its 5 point maximum (20 secs)

3) While your refreshing SnD, wait for the Mutilate cycle to hit (60+ energy) then execute it

4) Check HFB for expiry and refresh to its 29 sec maximum

5) Rinse / Repeat - but make sure you keep an eye on your expiry timers on HFB, and SnD while at the same time refreshing them and hitting your Mutilate cycles. There are probably add-ons from wow-curse that can aid in keeping track of this. Its important to remember your raid cycles will revolve around building mutiliate, followed by either another mutilate or Evis / HFB reprime. You shouldn't be using any other offensive maneuvers during this cycle.

With a little practice you'll get the swing of this as it does require thought about its execution. So getting back to my experiment, after a few minutes of doing this on those target dummies (the master type), I noticed my damage meters shot up several hundred points going from a measly 1100 dps to like 1600 dps - w00t.

Ok now for the real test. I went into a PUG for AN in heroic mode. I noticed some improvement in my overall dps but problems arose that made it increasingly difficult to keep up SnD + HFB. For example, several situations required me to move around a lot compounded by having to shift between targets periodically. This is on top of the typical defensive countermeasures that a rogue has to employ such as (evasion, vanish, cloak of shadows, etc.) To me, this *greatly* adds to the overall complexity of keeping your Mutilate cycles up along with HFB + SnD. Needless to say, I am not overly enthusiastic about this builds viability in a raid setting. I will admit that heroic AN is tougher than most Northrend heroics but irrespective of that, the aforementioned variables exist in other Heroics as well.

Because I primarily do PVP/PVE stuff, I wanted to feel out this builds usefulness in each specific context. To keep this short, I found it largely ineffective in PVP/PVE as I simply either didn't have the desire to keep priming my HFB or by the time I opened on NPC's the target was down already. For now I switched back to my 41/5/25 build. I might look at a deep combat build at a later time but am hoping Blizzard implements a multi-talent spec option in game without paying for it.

Regards,
TJ

The Beginning of the End...

I hit 80th level about two weeks ago while questing in Icecrown. I was happy that I didn't have to level anymore but realized that this is it - I won't be leveling my main anymore...ever. The good thing is that there are lots of things to do, all with relatively little time investment.

So basically I have decided to break up my time in three areas:

1) Completing as many Icecrown + StormPeak quests - I really don't need to do IC but am enjoying the story line as it ties back to Arthas. I need to do StormPeaks so that I can grind out my rep. and get the shoulder enchants with the Son's of Hodir. Questing will obviously help maintain upkeep on my repairs and other miscellaneous expenses. Its been said there are on average 550 quests per zone in Northrend (whew).

2) Guild Raiding - Will be running whatever comes my way from Northrend thats level 80. This will aid in gear'ing me up as my DPS output is somewhat below par at the moment. This is partially caused by my talent spec being a Mut/Sub variant with lots of burst damage output and survivability measures for pvp. Luckily my guild doesn't require me to respec. I am considering a hybrid spec between PVP/PVE but don't want to incur any expenses at this time - I heard the next patch 3.0.8 may not have the mulit-talent spec. capability - might be buckwheats for me until then.

3) PVP - I recently started to PVP again in the BG's. Although it was nice to get back into this, its somewhat overwhelming since the whole gameplay feel has changed. Everything seems to move more quickly and with the introduction of DK's, a new twist to the gameplay has been factored in. I recently noticed my Thistle tea gets a -20 point energy reduction at 80 (booooo). As far as Arena, I bought a 2's team charter and will most likely start running rated matches this week. I will also be continuing skirmishes as a warm up prior to doing the rated team matchups. I don't want to rush into Arena too quickly until I start collecting better gear.

Cheers,
TJ

WOTLK - Nearing the End...

I just leveled to 79 tonight and started looking for gear to replace my S1-S3 pvp gear. To my surprise, there is one particularly insane leather-working recipe for pvp rogues that come stacked with crit-rating, attack power, and resilience, not to mention an abundant amount of base points in Agi/Stam.

The set is named the Eviscerator (an 8 piece set) and can be easily made or bought depending on your profession set, or who you know. In my case, I make decent money so I just said f*** it - I bought several pieces along with a respective entry level WOTLK enchants to boot. What I found astounding were the materials used to make this stuff - they can be easily harvested/bought if you so choose - and I mean EASY. The materials in pre BC took an insane amount of grinding/questing/partying to get measely table scraps. This works well for me as I am limited time wise on steady game play but I do recognize many oversights with Blizzard's casual game design which I will not get into - its just too lengthy of a topic.

Next steps my main (not necessarily in any order):

1. leveling to 80 (questing/grinding - the usual churn)
   
2. max out primary/secondary professions alchemy and lock picking
   
3. max out combat areas such as throwing stuff and daggers
   
4. get some higher end gear starting with my daggers and/or neck piece (its the only 70 item I have left)

The journey to 80 is nearing its end...onto 80.