Well, not much anyway. And certainly not to the extent that Christian Chase is talking about here. What am I talking about? One of the comments in Chase’s article sums it up nicely;
” … On the next trash pull, though, when your CDs are still blown, if there’s 3 or more mobs I’ll just keep SnD up on one of ‘em and spam FoK. Still does tons of damage.”
Gee, that sounds like fun. Sit there and keep up slice and dice while you just spam Fan of Knives the whole time. Yeah, that’s why I started playing this game in the first place, for a real challenge.
In the all out blood rush to top the damage meters, all players are doing a lot of the time is making the game boring for themselves. Don’t get me wrong – on any boss fight I am trying to top the damage meters. And if a trash pull goes wrong then I will up my damage output any way I can. But going all-out all the time to top the charts just means that the game becomes somewhat stale.
On large trash pulls I like to float around a bit, like say a rogue actually would. I like to neutralize and take down the casters and healers using my stuns and interrupts as much as I can. I might hit the dreaded Blade Flurry and Adrenalin Rush double and take out two mobs at once, then finish them off with a Killing Spree. In other words I like to quickly examine each encounter and see how I can be as useful as possible while still having fun and keeping my interest in the game. Sometimes that will mean that I will top the damage meters on a trash fight, sometimes it won’t. But the group that I play with know that I understand how to use my rogue to get the most out of her in any given situation. This is why playing with a good raiding group is so much more rewarding than Pugging or playing with a team that has the ‘Damage Charts Blinkers’ on all the time.
I like to use FoK together with Tricks of the Trade as an emergency threat generator button. Back in Burning Crusade, Hunters were the shit when it came to their misdirect ability. It was a huge thing for them to bring to fights and often we had to have a hunter in the group just for that. In Wrath, Tricks together with Fan of Knives are our own version of that. Just the other night in Ulduar while fighting Kologarn, (The big guy who you only see from the waist up because he isn’t wearing any pants), I used this combination on our off tank when he had to pick up the rubble adds, as without this he was having problems picking them up.
Of course, play the game how you want. If that means doing whatever it is that you have to in order to top the meters, then go for it. But it’s not the only way to play and enjoy the game and still be a successful raider. I mean, if they introduce a pink fedora that ups rogues DPS by 0.5%, I am sure that there will be a lot of rogues that will wear it. You won’t see me wearing it though.
July 15, 2009 at 4:56 pm
This is a very good topic to discuss because so many times people end up rerolling or even quitting because all they care about is the damage meter. I find myself in the same position as you where I try to keep the run as fun as possible. Sometimes that means trying to top the chart, sometimes that means doing exactly what you do, bringing more Rogue-ish utility to the group.
It’s essential to always keep it fun, I totally agree there! Great post!
~Ril
July 15, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I hear you Adam.
I have gone so far as to BAN meter spams from our raids. As I tell my raiders. “Meters are TOOLS they should NOT be indicators of Anyone’s worth. Are you doing the job you were assigned to do? Are you doing it to the best of your ability? That all that matters to me.”
I find it troubling when individuals get SO caught up in being the “Top of the Dps or over all Damage meter” that they REFUSE to use the OTHER tools we have as a class because it will ‘gimp them”. Like interrupts. PREVENTING damage is JUST as important as DOING damage sometimes. We sell ourselves short when we as a class forget this.
Nice job, keep it up!
July 16, 2009 at 7:00 am
It’s tricky this damage meter stuff. Too often, as a DPS class, the meter can be all we have to demonstrate our worth to less advanced players. Add that to the fact that less advanced DPS players themselves think that it is the final word on everything and the Damage meter blinkers come on very quickly. WoW is an easy game to learn and play but it only rewards you when you really put the effort in. We don’t spam meters either during raids. The only time I use it is to talk to a player if their DPS is consistently of a low standard and it should be higher.
At the end of the day, rogues bring damage and utility to a fight. Why ignore half of your options?
July 16, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Both of you are of course right in every aspect. DPS is important but it isn’t the *most* important aspect of the game. The utility needs to be there as well, not to mention knowing your class and performing well. Topping the DPS meter while also topping the threat meter = one dead DPS. A dead man does no damage. Of course this went more so for TBC raiding, as tank threat generation is astounding these day, but even so there is a great deal of AoE encounters and a rogue or any other DPS’er not paying attention may pull a caster mob, for instance, onto them that wasn’t picked up yet by the tank.
Talent and skill goes well past topping the meters, I could not agree more. At the end of the day it’s the players that are good all around that I remember.
~Ril
July 16, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Oh yeah, threat … a very good point. I remember reading a rogue blog or post once where the writer said that he didn’t even have Vanish on his action bar, and I was like, what the??
And you can’t do dps when you’re dead.
August 5, 2009 at 8:46 pm
You’re doing it wrong… And I say this in the least abusive fashion I can. The utility a rogue brings to a raid is the speed in which we are able to kill things. For trash where AoE is the most effective way to kill the mobs, you should be using your AoE ability. This is especially the case with tricks of the trade. If you tricks the tank and then use FoK, you build up an aggro buffer for yourself and all of the other DPS. This progresses your raid through content with greater speed and increases your chance of success. With Tricks of the Trade, aggro is rarely a problem, and if it is, your tank is sleeping through content. Everyone is entitled to play the game as they see fit. That does not change the fact there is a “right” way to do it, that increases both your effectiveness and the effectiveness of your raid members.
August 6, 2009 at 9:17 am
Hey Jeff,
I absolutely use ToT and FoK on trash in the way that you described. My point was that I use it to help the raid, not to inflate my DPS score. If someone is obsessed with their dps score then they tend to not stun-lock a mob that needs to be held down as their dps will suffer, as only one example. I have seen many rogues use only these two buttons on trash for an entire raid. For me, not only is that boring, it’s a good indication that somebody doesn’t know how to play their rogue well.