Thursday is my day off which coincided well with the release of patch 3.3 yesterday. After lunch I jumped online to see what was up for offer. The first thing was to check my addons. At this point in time, Deadly Boss mods and Atlasloot have been updated and are working fine. Omen3 and recount have not. The next thing was to get my attunement for the Frozen Halls 5 man dungeon. I used the new looking for group feature which uses your realms battlegroup to find players for you to run the instance with. It was a bit slow, we had a 10 minute wait at one point to find another tank, but it worked quite well. As recount is not working I was not able to compare damage charts, but our group which had a hunter and shadow priest with me for DPS worked well. The hunter was mostly geared in lvl 245 gear and we had no problems running through the three dungeon wings. A lot of plate dropped. In fact, only plate dropped. And a two handed hammer. And a tanking cape. Sucks to be us. The dungeon was interesting, and I must say that I like attunements. Also the emblems really start piling up quickly.
I am still specced combat and I am going to stay that way unless I get some awesome dagger drops. I will be the lone rogue flying the combat flag. Yey me. The big news though is the daily raid quest. This awards 5 emblems of frost and 5 triumph. Holy crapparoony. Today all you have to do is take down Ignis the Furnace master. You can do it in 10 or 25 man, heroic or normal. I think that this is a game changing feature. You will be able to use this to gear up to raid without being in a raiding guild. And seeing as I am now guildless, this will be a nice little experiment for me to try out. The Looking for Group interface does not list raids anymore. For that you need to go into the new raid browser. Here is a guide.
The other big news? The next wing of Icecrown opens in 28 days. As I thought, Blizzard is going to string this one out. They say that the next one will be released quicker. Yeah, it’ll be 25 days.
I still have to run the Heroic version of the new 5 man instance, which I’m planning on doing tonight. The normal version was not that challenging – it was a lot of fun, but we never even looked like wiping. I have heard that the Heroic version is a good deal harder, we shall see this evening. What else? Apart from a constant stream of players spamming chat for Battered Hilts, that’s about it. Encrypted Text has a post up listing the new gear in the patch. Have fun wading through all of that. One thing about the gear, they are really pushing Haste and armor penetration. As Chase says, Hit is becoming a rare stat in Wrath end game.
Me? I’m hoping to find some new swords. Bugger those dagegrs for a joke.
December 11, 2009 at 12:29 am
You won’t be the only rogue flying the combat banner! I have dual spec combat axe/sword and mutilate, 232 weapons (we only do 10man) and have done the heroic 5man twice, trying mut for one and combat for the other, and it feels like the pros and cons for each outweigh each other. I switched my comb spec to something slightly different so i could use IP on MH and give poisons a bit more punch, and i’m finding it to be pretty effective, so far. I’m by no means geared out the ass, so i have no access to BiS shit, but with my measly 32% (?) ArP, i’m finding a ruptureless eviscerate cycle pretty nice. Tonight we’ll be heading into the 10man ICC so a fight longer than 3mins will be interesting! I spec swap even for heroics depending on the fight… i think i’m getting a bit Obsessive compulsive…
GL getting a Battered Hilt in your heroic runs!
December 13, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Thought i’d better update my above post now that i have played with these changes alot more over the weekend. Heading into ICC for the first time, we had a general overview of the marrowgar (sp?) but played it mostly by ear. I went in as mutilate, and have three words: Fucking stupid damage. Seriously. I’m usually ahead on damage anyway, but previously competed with a fury warrior, hunter (my wife!) and warlock (depending on fight) for damage done and dps. I’m partial to damage done because ppl can get top dps for being in the fight for 30secs and dying, time vs dmg = dps. Being 1.8~2k dps more than the next person (and corresponding dmg done was more or less proportionate because no-one died) i felt OP. Running around killing spikes when a ranged got one in the ass, staying out of fire and not pulling aggro after a whirlwind spinny thing was pretty… usual.
Had a few goes at the next chick, burn down mana shield when adds not up, letting ranged take care of the empowered add when being kited blah blah, then interrupting frostbolts on boss ZZzzzzzz but a few of the guys had a dinner appointment so we left it at that, but nothing really hard. We didn’t get her down, but the next lockout period we will no doubt.
Farmed lfgs.. what can i say? More-or-less a good system. Only thing on the con side is people sporting all the badge gear and still doing 1200dps. What the fuck? I got quite pissed off because people are too lazy! Also leads me to a story:
Lfg with 4 guild members, picked up a 5th a mage and got DTK. Went through first few packs and mage at entrance still.. “Mage you afk?” then he miraculously runs up and autofollows our priest… It was a bot? Fucking serious.. already, and due to the
“instance timer” debuff couldn’t remove… Ok, got half the mobs down in the next circular room bit, so i tell everyone to get back, priest runs around a corner to break the autofollow, i tott the mage, sprint in, FoK the pack of undead, run back, /farewell, and vanish. Must’ve bought the cheap bot cos he didn’t rez for the 5mins we had left to boot him, I wish i’d fraps’d it now haha!
Apart from that we farmed (we only play when the little one is asleep, so no all-dayers) roughly 200+ badges, a tonne of enchanting mats and cash. I bought the wooly mammoth because i have nothing to spend badges on really, orbs and gems don’t bring in much cash anymore. After a few runs i switched back to combat, as it generally felt alot more powerful for the quick fights. We had a tank, healer (wifes alt) and 1 more dps so it was instant heroics, just entering as dps was slow as i found. No Q’D dammit! xD
Anyways, there’s a wall of text for somebody (anybody?) to wade through!
How was your take on the new changes?
December 13, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Apparently this was implemented in a hotfix on the 11th, the tooltip not reflecting the change so it seems. That being said, my above still stands as we did ICC on the 12th (Australia) of December:
Hunger for Blood now increases damage by 10% instead of 15%. We wanted to increase Assassination rogue damage, and we were succesful, but we overshot the mark. We buffed Hunger for Blood back when Assassination needed a damage boost, so we’re more than happy that this talent won’t account for such a huge dps increase. Because of the nature of hotfixes, it is unlikely the tooltip will change to 10% right away.
I have the +3% glyph for HfB, still down 5%, but we’ve been given the buff–>nerf thing for 5yrs now so i just roll with it!
December 14, 2009 at 8:20 am
Ah, the buff nerf. Give you candy and then take it away after a single bite. Some interesting reading there, I had never thought to be on the lookout for bots in group runs. Will keep tha in mind.
I did two runs of the new 5 man and a random LFG for badges, (we got Gun Drak or however you spell it.) Every group, but particularly the last one were awesome. I did good damage, usually 1st or 2nd. We ran through Gun Drak in under 15 minutes. Just powered through it. The new 5 man was fun because it was new and I hadn’t done any research. Exploring the game again.
December 14, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I’m stubbornly flying the combat flag as well, but that might have something to do with the fact that I got the battered hilt to drop
I did update my mutilate spec and I’ve been playing around with it, but I still prefer my combat spec(which I updated for the new patch as well). I have switched to muti for some fights, but I just don’t find it as enjoyable as combat. I don’t quite have the gear to go ruptureless, but I’ve been running a low-rupture cycle and it’s been working pretty well.
I haven’t run into any bots yet in lfg, but I have run into a few jerks. A healer a guildie and I got grouped with decided that he wasn’t going to heal my guildie anymore… but for the most part, the groups I’ve been put with have been really good.
December 15, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Just wanted to add a point about the ruptureless cycle, which i’m now sporting on both specs
With the change to poison procs, i tryed out on both the old specs i had for both, and the new specs for both, does that make sense? Anyways i found i was a bit ahead without rupture on a dummy that was stock standard (no debuffs on it, only myself) and using eviscerate to keep DP at 5stacks i was still ahead. i have high-ish hit so maybe the OH is proccing the MH poison more, but it was definately better. Also for heroics i found rupture to be a waste because a mob is either dead before i can see it wear off or i’m moving for aoe/adds etc. As i raid with mutilate, i have a fury warrior so there’s always a bleed effect on the target so i can have HfB up all the time (cheater!) I have also been using Expose armor more for the ruptureless/eviscerate on some bosses when i get a pally or dk in the group, so for randoms it might be better for a rupture build?
I’m no theory crafter, but try out new things all the time just for the what-if factor,
and at the moment it seems to be doing really well for me.
I’m not sure if what i am using is an accepted cookie-cutter build, but have a look at the armoury for this name on Caelestrasz US server. My gear does swap a few items between specs, mainly chest, victors call trinket, weapons and something else, but give it a try and let me know how you go, and/or how much different it is in your case
December 16, 2009 at 3:11 am
Just learnt if you /ignore someone, even across-realms, the lfg will not group you with them. You might already know this, but handy to know when you come across a ninja or a random jerk
December 16, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Just looked at your specs.. our builds are practically identical save 1 or 2 points on both. I just need to reglyph my combat spec(been meaning to… just been lazy I guess lol – sad thing is, my alt is a scribe). I’ll give it a try tonight. I have been using rupture only on bosses for quite some time now – it’s completely worthless on trash, I don’t even think it would get to tick before the mob goes down.
Only thing is… without rupture, there is really no reason to keep my tier 9 set bonus. I guess I will have no second thoughts replacing either of these pieces if this rotation works out for me.
I see we are also gemmed the same… with the evis cycle, is there any merit to gemming arPen? Or is agility still the way to go?
December 16, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Hey
I use mostly the same set for both specs, so gemming for agi is pretty safe (and cheaper!) I’m waiting for the Scorpion trinket to drop, and win it, to try gemming ArP, as i’ll regain the crit i lose from gemming agi, and give that a go. I have been stockpiling gems from badges, so i might get to it on the weekend when i have enough to revert back to straight agi for muti in ICC. Hopefully have enough of the “A-Team” on to do ICC at some stage this weekend, should get the rep ring!
They raised the drop rate on the Battered Hilts *cheer*
2x FoS 2x PoS and 1x HoR last night, 7 battered hilts!
None for me *shakes fist at the sky*
Rupture was the t8 bonus 2pc “+energy DP” 4pc “chance to crit rupture”, t9 one was the 2pc “40 energy on next abilty” 4pc “5%crit SS/mut/hemo etc” jobbie. I saw a dps decrease from t8 4pc to start with, but after a few item upgrades i leapfrogged what i had lost.
Its all a work in progress! I could be totally wrong, but it seems to work for me, and if others find similar results, great!
Our guild is starved for numbers, so often we don’t get alot done so i have to keep myself entertained by mucking around with specs and spam here during work hours
December 15, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Good to hear you got the hilt to drop! I’m still in hope haha
Another thing i found out, apparently recount is a bit screwy when it comes to cross-server syncing, so getting annoyed at peoples dps was wrong on my behalf.
One thing i have come across, moreso now after a week of free t9, is the “apparent” lack of understanding of some people’s class. I did a Forge of Souls on the lfg, after the first 4~5pack mob i had to mark up prioritys (anyone can mark now!)and leave my tott on the paladin tank (i usually switch tott to another dps after the initial pull) Anyway, people died, boss’s got healed a bit too much but we prevailed. Getting to the last/2nd boss, it was a bit of a disaster but got it/her? down. Rez’d up we looted and cool! the ArP trinket! So myself and the hunter (which i considered passing on becasue it was significant upgrade for him) needed. Then the prot pally and holy pally rolled for it too.
Now, i’m not one to get all sexed up about drops, but paladin? I have never seriously played one, but ArP? Doesn’t affect seals, consecration, judgements or any holy damage, only crusader strike and something else, so the chance of it proccing and getting the full use of it is wasted. Do these guys know what certain stats do? Maybe the allure of a shiny trinket.. i dunno!
Think i’ll just stick to doing the new places it with guildies… as for every other instance prior to these new ones, generally they have been pretty good save maybe the “leet” speed tanks who can’t wait that 3 secs for someone to drink.
My wife had a funny one the other day, when she pugged by herself. She was healing on the druid, and kept getting aggro (i know!) off the DK tank, and the another dps, a ret pally, came in to rescue her by aggroing it off her. All good! The DK then goes on for a rant and abuses the pally about aggro control until my wife piped up saying she was getting the aggro and the guy was helping by pulling it off her. The DK’s response? “Well don’t heal me then”
I have to laugh, or i’d cry!
December 16, 2009 at 6:29 pm
With the ruptureless cycle now I am wondering what major glyph I should replace rupture with. Decisions, decisions …
December 16, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Yea i had to think about that too. I eventually went +Evisc for combat as i was only going to use combat at this stage for heroics, and ToTT glyph for mutilate for the raid’s benefit. Who said rogues have no buffs?!