PVP Status Check and Next Steps

In absence of a better title, I wanted to leave some personal notes regarding my overall PVP status in areas such as BG, Arena, thoughts about the Mutilate spec., and my current guild/realm status:

My overall PVP progression has been exciting to say the least. After settling on a key-bind layout, combat maneuvers and a fair amount of practice, I've been able to amass slightly over 6K of HP, several PVP items ranging in quality from S1 to S3 and have gained some valuable insight into PVP-land. I have also gained insight into other classes strengths/weaknesses as this is an essential element in PVP game-play.

As far as the specific areas of PVP-land (Arena/BG), my strategy up to this point is designate 1/2 nights a week for Arena, 3-4 nights for BG and perform dailys to raise capital when my loot supply is low.

I created a new Arena team "Cows in da hood" which was created out of a news incident observed on a podcast a few weeks back about some cows going buck wild in a remote neighborhood out in the mid-west - my description doesn't give it any justice whatsoever. I was able to bring on 2 Shaman from an earlier Areana team. I'm really happy they decided to join as we've played before in Arena and have developed a good rhythm with them. We also have a new hunter but am seeking 2 more to complete the team composition.

As far as the mutilate spec, its wicked evil. With the combo point build up of Seal-Fate + Initiative, I'm able to rack up CP's fairly quickly. I am also utilizing finisher's more effectively based on the class I am up against. One in particular that I am particularly fond of is Envenom as it appears to mitigate armor completely. I also use rupture on occasion but its dependent on if I want to be near the target or back off. One slight annoyance with the assassin build - its a positional talent which means you have to be behind your target to get off a mutilate. Some PVP'ers (not many) spot that out and try to keep their backs away from my front side.

I still want to try ShS build as this is the only talent build configuration I haven't tried as of yet. The only drag here is I hear this build works best with higher damage based weapons coupled with Hemo + lots of attack power which might mean I may need to get a new set of weapons.

One more note - I left my guild - it basically disbanded. I wish all members, class leads and GM the best of luck.

I don't think I'll be in a guild going forward - I switched to the dark side.

PVP Key Binds

Hello again,

I'm hooked on PVP'ing (Both Arena and BG) and have recently made the switch to a mutilate spec (43/0/18) - to accommodate for the faster game play, I had to remap all my key bindings. Previously (in PVE-land) I didn't have to worry about that split second key sequence but now I do.

This is a first cut so it will probably go through some minor modifications as I feel it out - unfortunately there are roughly 24 key bindings that I have to commit to memory so its no doubt that this will take some time before it becomes 2nd nature.

COMBAT
1 shiv
2 sinister strike
3 gouge
4 eviscerate
5 mutilate
6 cheapshot

SHIFT KEY STUFF (denoted s)
sC kick
sA Thistle Tea
sR slice-n-dice
sS Expose armor
sD rupture
sF envenom
s1 Distract
s2 Sprint
s3 Evasion
s4 cloak of shadows
s5 Vanish
s` Cold blood

MISC
` stealth
mouse3 deadly throw
s + m3 = throw
sV insignia of alliance
sG macro - quick bandage

STEALTH
1 ambush
2 garrote
3 sap
4 pickpockets
5 shiv
6 cheap shot

Note: I have to work on repositioning the s2 key - I have to shift my hands to get to this key combo. Also I had to move my escape key to the right side of the keyboard as I am constantly hitting it during battle.

Later on, I'll post some observations about the mutilate spec - still feeling it out.

Regards,
TJ

Time off...

I've been away from W0W for some time due to life's consistent time constraints - I don't know how some of my peeps do it (yes they have kids and full time jobs).

Basically I've made some decisions about what to do and when to do them based on these constraints:

1. Starting to PVP - this has changed dramatically since I last went into BG or Arena - the queue times are drastically down and the in/out times seem to have went down as well. This works well for me since I can't be on a schedule (its all adhoc) and I don't have much steady time to be on WoW - approx 1, 2 hours in a clip.

2. Getting my Epic - about 60% through collections and am running the 3,4,5 man group quests in BEM, SMV and NS - if I get a good group, we're basically going to roll through 4/5 of these in a clip - thats not bad l00t in one setting.

3. Rep building - need to get revered with some factions and considering exalted for 1/2 factions based on rep. rewards - some of them are real sweet such as skyguard.

4. Potion Mastery - I still need to run through bot and get my potion mastery - this will greatly increase my ability to make pots in quantity on occasion. I hope to get this before my epic as farming for herbs will no doubt be much quicker.

5. Skill Building - need to boost up fishing/cooking, as well as swords and thrown skills. Most of my other areas are max'd out already.

As for raiding, well this is not a focus area right now - its not the actual runtime through the instance that gets me its the setup, and the commitment to the scheduled time that I can't seem to fit in - oh well - luckily Bliz has provided enough rewards in BG/Arena to minimize the urge to raid.

More to come...

TJ

Combat Ratings: Level 70 Conversions

The following is actually an excerpt from the Blizz forums regarding the Combat Rating system at 70th level - I posted this here as a quick reference point for me :)

I should have a new rogue post up shortly...

Combat Ratings conversions at level 70 (rounded to 1 decimal point):

Weapon Skill Rating: 3.9 rating grants 1 skill point
Defense Rating: 2.4 rating grants 1 defense skill
Dodge Rating: 18.9 rating grants 1% dodge
Parry Rating: 31.5 rating grants 1% parry
Block Rating: 7.9 rating grants 1% block chance
Hit Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% hit chance
Spell Hit Rating: 12.6 rating grants 1% spell hit chance
Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% critical strike chance
Spell Critical Strike Rating: 22.1 rating grants 1% spell critical strike chance
Haste Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% haste
Spell Haste Rating: 15.8 rating grants 1% spell haste
Resilience Rating: 39.4 rating grants 1% less chance of being struck by any type of critical strike, and 2% less damage taken from critical strikes

Regards,
TheJackal

Pre-BC initial thoughts

BC is here in all its media-hype glory.

I was chatting with peeps from my guild the other night as it dawned on me that the expansion set will invariably effect our current raid schedule going forward. Let me explain:

1) There are no more 40-man raid's - probably due to either a lack of interest or from people complaining that its too much of a of a time commitment to attain top-end gear. Personally, I do set aside 1 raid night a week, however, the reality is that it doesn't lend itself to attaining top end gear in a reasonable time frame. Seriously, to do Naxx, its recommended to get the top-end gear from AQ40/BWL but in order to do those, its recommended to get the top-end gear from Ony/MC, but in order to do those, and so on and so on.

2) Two new races with *much* improved starting abilities than pre-bc races. Ok Blizz, nice job here; you have cleverly created an attractive incentive for players that already have 60 mains/alts, to start new characters from these new races. I can't say for sure, but I would imagine that some of our higher ranking guild members (officers and the like) will be gravitating towards these new races which means their availability with their main/alts will be somewhat diminished.

3) I think that the guild concept will change to some degree to smaller *clicks* that will be running 5-mans ad nauseam. So if you don't have any guildies that like instancing with you then you might find yourself S-O-L with doing these in-guild.

Regards,
TheJackal

Ony's Lair

So last night I turned in the elemental deck at Darkmoon Faire in return for my epic trinket. This compliments a few other trinkets in my possession but haven't had a chance to see how often it procs for nature damage.

Due to the 2.0.3 rogue talent refund (thanks bliz) I respec'd last night to a 31/2/18 build prior to entering Onyxia's lair. Talk about bad timing - I now have a spec that does quick burst damage thanks to SF but had to restrain myself since aggro control is key for phase 1.

As for Ony, we ended up wiping due to a number of reasons ranging from low head count (28) to not executing phase 2 effectively. On a positive, our guild is still in learning mode but has been making substantial progress getting closer to phase 3. As we attune more guildies and get the headcount higher, this will sail us past phase 3.

Some other comments on patch 2.0.3. Targeting was a big problem in Ony's and wasn't working properly. This was seriously messing up heals, and other castable's. Hopefully we'll see a patch for the patch real soon :)

Official 2.0.3 Rogue changes...

Ok so my timing was a bit off - 2.0.3 kicked in post weekly maintenance as the *official* class changes for the rogue class are:

Class Changes:
• Due to various talent changes, Rogues will have all talent points refunded.
• "Evasion" (Rank 2) now reduces the chance that ranged attacks will hit the Rogue by 25%, reduced from 50%. It is now available at level 50.
• The "Cloak of Shadows" cooldown has been reduced to 1 min, from 2 min. Now a trainable ability at level 66.
• "Shadowstep" (New Subtlety Talent) attempts to step through the shadows and reappear behind your enemy. Your next "Ambush", "Backstab" or "Garrote" ability is increased by 20% and lasts 10 sec. This is only usable while stealthed.
• "Premeditation" (Subtlety Talent) has had its range increased to 30 yards.
• "Preparation" now only resets the cooldown of the "Evasion", "Sprint", "Vanish", "Cold Blood", "Adrenaline Rush" and "Premeditation" abilities.
• "Wound Poison" now causes damage and reduces all healing by 10%, stacks up to 5 times.
• The Cooldown for "Blind" has been reduced to 3 min, from 5 min.
• There is no longer a random chance the effect of "Sap" will end (i.e. removed the heartbeat resist check). The effect will still end early when the target is damaged.
• Each rank of "Weapon Expertise"now provides 5 weapon skill.
• "Surprise Attacks" now increases the damage from "Sinister Strike", "Backstab", "Shiv" and "Gouge" by 10% instead of 8%.
• Resisted spells will no longer break "Stealth"/"Vanish".
• Combo points added to a target should not be reset until you add a combo point to a different target.

Items:
• The energy gained from "Thistle Tea" now decreases with levels past 40 :(

Bug fixes:
• Updated the tooltip on "Cloak of Shadows" with the additional line, "Does not remove effects that prevent you from using Cloak of Shadows."
• The rogue Assassination Talent "Quick Recovery" will no longer refund energy back to the Rogue if a finishing move is partially blocked.
• A "Vanished" rogue will no longer be taken out of their "vanished state" when they resist a spell.
• The rogue Assasination talent "Find Weakness" will now work properly with the finishing move "Deadly Throw".
• Using the rogue ability "Mutilate" when not behind your target will no longer initiate combat.
• The rogue ability "Slice and Dice" will no longer be reported twice in floating combat text when used.
• "Mind-Numbing Poison" will no longer stack with both "Curse of Tongues" and "Slow".

Due to the free respec for 2.0.3, thinking of respec'ing to the following talent build 31/2/18:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogue/talents.html?
3050231055001005010000200000000000000000000005502030300000000000000

Note: you'll need to paste the link together above - for some reason it gets truncated as a whole.

TheJackal