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Category Archives: Rogue

MoP’ing up the Twinks

25 Oct

Today we’re going to take a look at the talent trees that are proposed for being in the Mists of Pandaria expansion, and how those talent trees might impact twink brackets. As we continue on, keep in mind the fact that this stuff was just announced at BlizzCon 2011 and this expansion isn’t scheduled to come out for who knows how long yet so any and all information here could potentially change.

I’m not going to look at every bracket in this post because there are just too many talents to smash them all into a single post. Instead I’m going to break in into two parts; one for the 10-14 bracket, and one for the 15-19 and 20-24 brackets as the impact on the two should be roughly the same.

I did not attend or in any way participate in this year’s BlizzCon, so I’m only going off of what the MoP Talent Calculator from Wowhead has to tell me, and what I heard people say on Twitter or on other blogs. If any of this information is incorrect, incomplete, or false please notify me of such in the comments so that I can get it updated with the correct information.

Right now we don’t know much of anything about the Monk class, so they won’t be included in this particular post. It is safe to say you better be careful around those pandas with their racial sleep attack though.

Level 10-14
At first glance this bracket doesn’t seem like it would be effected much by talent trees that are switching to every 15 levels. However, this has a huge impact on some classes because spells they enjoy right now at level 10 aren’t going to be available until much later. We don’t know all of the details of which spells might be changing to different level ranges, but we do know some of them from changes to the talent trees.

Druids:
Druids don’t have any obvious change of this nature. None of the spells shown in the new talent trees are ones that are currently granted at level 10. If Feral Druids still have access to Mangle in this bracket, they should be fine. Balance Druids will likely remain unviable in this bracket without significant changes. Resto Druids will likely remain the weakest of the four healers in this bracket.

Hunters:
The only talent tree change we’ll see is Beastmastery, who lose the stun effect of Intimidation as it’s changed to a level 30 talent. We don’t know yet what they’re going to give BM in place of Intimidation, but a BM Hunter combining the Bat’s ranged stun with Intimidation’s stun can be a brutal combination in today’s low level brackets.

The biggest announcement of all – no more minimum range. This means that Hunters are going to lose their only weakness in low level PvP as they’ll be able to shot you from melee range. Unless Hunter damage is decreased or general player survivability is increased, Hunters are going to be even more powerful than they already are.

Mages:
Mages don’t see any talent-related hits, but there is one big difference to point out. In MoP, some of the Mage’s baseline spells get restricted to your spec. Fireball can only be cast by Fire Mages, Frostbolt by Frost, and Arcane Blast (I think) can only be cast by Arcane. Meaning that the primary slow effect of most Mages in this bracket is removed from two of the specs. Granted, Arcane Mages typically kill you rather than slowing you down, and Fire kind of sucks in this bracket, but that does remove the ability for non-Frosties to slow you down in this bracket.

Paladins:
Paladins didn’t lose any of their level 10 talents either, and I did not see any major functionality changes mentioned either. Unless Blizzard changes spell levels or adds/removes other spells then the Paladins should remain about the same in this bracket.

Priests:
Priests have no changes due to talents in this bracket either. The one thing that could be worth mentioning is that Wands are now base weapons for casters which could mean that we’ll see more mana-free ranged attacks from the casters. Then again, we might not. The one change we do know about is that Priests lose their AoE fear spell, Psychic Scream, as it becomes a level 15 talent instead of a level 12 spell.

Rogues:
Rogues may or may not see any impact from the removal of ranged weapons, it depends on which level they give us the ability to throw melee weapons instead and at what range. As far as talents go, non-Rogues give praise for Shadowstep has been moved to level 60, which means you shouldn’t find yourself on the receiving end of a one-shot Ambush any more. Well, not as often anyway. Maybe…

Shamans:
Shamans are going to see some changes in their totems as all buff totems will be removed. We don’t have enough information yet to know whether that’s a good thing or bad, but it does remove some of the low level functionality at the least. There are no talent changes that will directly impact Shamans, so only more information on the other aspects will tell us for sure how Shaman play will change.

Warlocks:
Warlocks are going to have a different resource pool for each spec now instead of everyone using Soul Shards. I haven’t seen the details on those yet, so I don’t know exactly how or what that’s going to impact for low level Warlocks. None of the talent changes will have an impact on this bracket.

Warriors:
No talent tree changes here either that I can see. I don’t recall hearing anything about specific Warrior changes either, beyond the removal of ranged weapons, so we’re probably looking at very little overall change here either.

Level 15-19 and 20-24
Much like the level 10 bracket, some classes are going to see larger changes in this bracket than others because of the shifting of some spells. Both of these brackets have access to only one talent point for level 15, so in general the impact should be the same in both brackets when looking strictly at the changes to talent points.

Druids: Feline Swiftness, Displacer Beast, Tireless Pursuit
The fastest, most mobile flag carriers in the game are about to get a whole lot more mobile. It’s hard to say right now which of these is going to be the most effective in the bracket as they’re all very good, and I look forward to trying all of them out.

Feline Swiftness becomes a baseline 10% buff to movement speed, with an additional 20% while in Cat form. While the benefits of this one aren’t as extreme as the other two, it’s always active and has no cooldown, so you’ll be able to enjoy its effects constantly.

Displacer Beast (3 min cooldown) teleports you 20 yards in a random direction, removes all periodic damage effects, and puts you Cat form and Stealth for 10 seconds (attacking or taking damage cancels stealth, assume breaking cat form does as well). This has huge potential for flag carriers, though they will need to be careful to pick the flag back up after teleporting as the stealth feature will force you to drop it. I’m assuming that this teleport will take you out of combat (since stealth can’t be used in combat normally), otherwise if you’re in combat then the flag shouldn’t be dropped automatically with the current rules.

Tireless Pursuit (3 min cooldown) activates your Cat Form, removes all roots/snares and increases your Cat Form speed by 70% for 15 seconds (does not break Prowl). It’s like a beefed up version of Dash which Druids don’t currently have access to in this bracket. The only way to stop Druids right now is to either kill them quickly or use CC to slow/stop them long enough to kill them slowly, and this talent works to counter both of those.

Hunters: Frozen Arrows, Arcane Arrows, Venom Tipped Arrows
Can you say, “OP just got more OP?”

Frozen Arrows gives your Auto Shot a 30% chance to reduce the target’s movement speed by 30% for 10 seconds. Just what Hunters needed, free CC on top of their already insane ranged damage. It’s hard to imagine any twinks not taking this talent, unless Venom Tipped Arrows just proves to be too good (see below).

Arcane Arrows gives your Auto Shot a 50% chance to restore 5 focus when it deals damage. This one doesn’t seem all that great to me with Haste being so potent in the lower levels already.

Venom Tipped Arrows gives your ammunition a stacking poison DoT effect that deals Nature damage. Stacks up to 5 times. We don’t have any numbers on this one, nor does it specify only Auto Shot, so it’s hard to say how good or bad this one might be at this point.

Mages: Ring of Frost, Cone of Cold, Frostjaw
Stop!..Freezy time! /dance

Ring of Frost (1 min cooldown) creates a 10 yard diameter ring that lasts for 12 seconds, which freezes enemies who enter for 10 seconds. While it’s not the most effective form of CC, it is AoE and does have some great uses. This spell is going to add a level of strategy and area awareness to the low level brackets that many players might not be used to.

Cone of Cold (10 sec cooldown) deals Frost damage to enemies in a cone in front of the caster, freezing them in place for 3 seconds and slowing them by 60% for 6 seconds. This is pretty much what the spell currently does, except that only Frost has the talents that add the CC aspect to it. I can already see Arcane Mages making great use of this spell as another instant cast, AoE, and adding CC to their mix. Arcane is already pushing hard on the boundaries of being OP, and this might push it over the edge.

Frostjaw (20 sec cooldown) silences and freezes the target in place for 8 seconds, lasts half as long versus player targets. The only thing keeping this from being truly fantastic is the 1.5 second cast time, but even with that it’s still a great spell. Silence is always good, but the ability to cast a targeted freeze effect at range is a big deal.

I really don’t know yet which of these will see the most use in low level PvP because I can see uses for all of them. If I had to guess, I’d say Frostjaw >= Ring of Frost > Cone of Cold…maybe.

Paladins: Spped of Light, Long Arm of the Law, Pursuit of Justice
Tanks Upgrades: Rocket Boosters Edition!

Speed of Light (1 min cooldown) increases your speed by 60% for 6 seconds, during which you radiate healing to nearby allies. How much healing we’re talking about is the unknown (along with the range), which makes judging this one kind of hard. This could either be really freaking cool, or just pretty cool.

Long Arm of the Law increases your speed by 45% for 4 seconds after using Judgment. This is meant to be the Paladin’s “gap closer” similar to the Charge abilities of other tanks. I think we could end up seeing a lot of Paladin’s use this skill in these brackets as all three specs make frequent use of the Judgment spell.

Pursuit of Justice increases your speed by 10% for each current charge of Holy Power. This one is probably going to be the overall favorite. Holy uses their HP off and on depending on the situation, and they can almost always keep a full stack of HP ready with Holy Shock casts on themselves. Protection is almost always full of HP with nothing to dump it into besides Word of Glory (I did see someone mention the cooldown was being removed, but I can’t verify). Retribution uses their HP pretty frequently, so they’ll most likely use Long Arm of the Law (above) instead.

Priests: Void Tendrils, Psyfiend, Psychic Scream
Top Heals + AoE CC = MWAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!

Void Tendrils (30 sec cooldown) summons shadowy tendrils out of the ground, rooting all targets within 10 yards for 20 seconds. Killing the tendril will cancel the effect. This is either really cool, or it’s going to sucks. It all depends on how easy or hard it is to kill the tendrils, and right now we don’t have any information on that.

Psyfiend (1 min cooldown) summons a Psyfiend that stands in place. The Psyfiend casts a Psychic Scream on a nearby enemy within 40 yards every 2 seconds lasting for 10 seconds, preferring anything attacking the Priest or her friends. This one is also missing some key information to know just how good or bad it will end up being. For protecting your flag carrier I see this being a pretty amazing spell, but if killing the Psyfiend takes one attack then it kind of sucks.

Psychic Scream (30 sec cooldown) works just like the version that exists right now, fearing up to 5 enemies around you. This is a solid fear spell, and one that I make very frequent use of right now. With so many unknowns in the other two talents, it’s hard to say where this one will end up in relation to them.

Rogues: Nightstalker, Subterfuge, Shadow Focus
What the..? Who? /dead Ah, $#&@!

Nightstalker increases your speed while stealthed by 20%. Right now this talent only increases speed by 10%, so doubling that means Rogues are going to be even more mobile and be able to outrun many of the other classes. Faster speed in stealth is one of my favorite traits of the Rogue right now, and I would definitely put this one to good use.

Subterfuge Your Stealth breaks 3 seconds after dealing or receiving damage, rather than doing so immediately. That extra three seconds gives you time to cast 1-2 additional attacks before your stealth is broken. If you happen to have your hands on a stash of Thistle Tea (restores 100 Energy) then you can double-Ambush people with this talent. Otherwise it’s a fair amount of protection from having your stealth broken by AoE damage and gives you a chance to use attacks like Ambush even after someone spots and attacks you if you can get behind them in time.

Shadow Focus abilities no longer cost Energy while you are stealthed. We’ll have to wait to see what abilities we have available to us before we know how good this one really is. It does mean you can Sap ALL THE THINGS for free, and you can Ambush for free instead of 60 Energy. If you have access to Ambush and Backstab then you can do Ambush/BS/BS combos with this for some very high damage, but we don’t know enough about other changes to know how good this will be just yet.

Shamans: Frozen Power, Earthgrab Totem, Repulsion Totem
Stop! Freezy ti- wait, didn’t we just do this?

Frozen Power Frost Shock now also roots the target in ice for 5 seconds. This is an existing talent deep in the Enhancement tree. I really like that this is going to be available at early levels as a ranged freeze is super cool, especially when it’s an instant cast like Frost Shock. When playing a DPS spec, I’m pretty sure I would want this one for that extra level of control knowing that I’m going to freeze the one I want to freeze (hello EFC) and I can do it at a range.

Earthgrab Totem summons a totem for 45 seconds that pulses every second to root all enemies within 8 yards for 5 seconds. Recently rooted enemies will instead have their movement speed reduced by 50%. This talent is currently deep in the Elemental tree, but it’s a pretty sweet spell. The only thing that I’m concerned about is what kind of survival this totem is going to have. If a hunter can one-shot it or a caster can wand it to death in a second, then it’s still good but not very. If it has a decent health pool, then it’s going to be fantastic.

Repulsion Totem summons a toem for 15 seconfds that repels enemies. In the world of PvP this thing is call “Totem of complete and total garbage”. If it repels Hunter and Warlock pets then it might be useful, otherwise it’s worthless.

Warlocks: Dark Regeneration, Soul Leech, Harvest of Life
There’s a reason my high school mascot was a Harvester…of Life.

Dark Regeneration (3 min cooldown) restores 50% of your Maximum health over 25 seconds. This one is a little…odd. On the one hand, that’s what heck of a healing spell, but on the other…that’s going to take forever. It feels like Gift of the Naaru to me, which is a bit too little too late to really matter in most cases. Still, that is a lot of healing and flag carriers could especially make good use of that.

Soul Leech Shadowbolt, Incinerate, and Malefic Grasp heal you for 25% of the damage dealt. I’d have to see some damage numbers and cast times to really be able to say how powerful this could be. My initial thoughts are something along the lines of, yes please thank you!

Havest of Life (channeled) drains life from the target and all targets within 20 yards, causing 94 Shadow damage and restoring 2% of the caster’s total health per target every 1 second. Lasts 3 seconds. Empowered Channel: recasting this spell before it finishes boosts the duration by 3 seconds. Stacks 5 times. Now THIS is what I’m talking about. I’d like to see the mana cost and damage potential for the appropriate level before saying too much about this one, but I love the look of it so far.

Warriors: Juggernaut, Double Time, Warbringer

Juggernaut you can charge every 12 seconds instead of every 20. This one isn’t bad, I guess. More charging is always good, but I don’t know that it’s good enough to really thrill me. If they removed the restriction of Charge to be used during combat then this could be a really useful talent, otherwise I admit I’m a bit disappointed in this talent.

Double Time you can use Charge twice before incurring its cooldown. Now this one is really interesting. As far as I’m aware, Charge can still only be used outside of combat, but using it puts you into combat, which leaves me confused. If you can use it during combat and twice in a row, then that’s pretty cool for chasing down flag carriers or even for returning the flag yourself.

Warbringer your Charge also roots the target for 5 seconds. Now this is something to write home to mama about. Right now Warriors aren’t in the best of places in low level PvP, but adding some more utility and CC to their toolbox just might do the trick. Assuming that charge hasn’t been changed to allow use during combat by default, I’d say this is the clear winner. If Charge actually is being changed, then it’s a bit of a toss up depending on the situation.

Foreseen Overall Changes
So to sum all of those changes up, this is what I see happening with low level PvP.

1. The return of CC
2. Hunters even more OP
3. Faster games

With so many classes getting CC talents in the first tier, I don’t know how we could not see more CC used in the low level brackets. The only thing I like better than killing my opponents is locking them down to the point that I can hear their furious screams over the internet, even over the sound of my own maniacal laughter. On the one hand, this is probably going to piss me off more than once (being on the receiving end of it), but on the other I look forward to adding some more tactical choices to the mix.

I don’t want #2 up there to seem too much like I’m crying here. I like playing classes that are super powerful. I love playing with Sub Rogues and Arcane Mages, and seeing how many kills I can get out of a lowbie game. But, there does come a point where things are so unbalanced that they just aren’t fun anymore. There’s an honest to goodness problem with the power of Hunters in low level PvP right now, and things only seem to be getting worse. I don’t want to see them nerfed into oblivion, but I would like to see them pulled back a bit for low levels. We’re almost at the point right now that matches are decided before the gates even fall, based purely on the number of Hunters on the opposing team.

I see faster games coming from a couple of reasons. First, because a lot of classes get more speed buffs which does have a direct impact on the speed of WSG and AB matches. Second because of the increased CC options. Teams who use CC well are going to make short work of teams that don’t know how to use it or how to fight against it. If neither team uses it, then matches stay the same. If both teams use it, then we could end up seeing longer games. With non-premades still being the norm though, I think we’ll end up with faster games overall. Personally, I’d love to see a match where both teams were making good use of CC and we had to honestly struggle for a win.

 
4 Comments

Posted by on October 25, 2011 in Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior

 

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New Heirlooms in 4.3

01 Sep

In Patch 4.3 the Darkmoon Faire is going to get a nice little revamp (details here). I’ve never been too big on the faire beyond abusing the vendors there to get high selling mats for cheap vendor prices that I could toss on the AH for a quick, easy profit. My lack of interest almost made me ignore the information regarding the faire, but I was bored anyway (and about to leave work for the day) so I figured I might as well take a look.

Most of what the notes mentioned weren’t bad, but nothing that would get me otherwise interested in the DMF, until I stumbled onto this:

“We have adorable companion pets inludin’ a fez-wearing monkey, a plethora of profession recipes, toys, balloons, souvenirs, delectable carnival snacks and beverages, heirlooms for the little ones, and even replicas of long-lost suits of armor that we’re offering for your Transmogrification needs.”

Unfortunately for us, there’s no more mention of heirlooms in the article, so we don’t know for sure what it refers to. It could be new heirlooms, it could be existing heirlooms, or it could be other items all together that they simply used the word to describe. Without the details, one can only hope and imagine.

But wait… we do have details!

Not details about the DMF, but of heirlooms that have been sitting in the PTR database for over 8 months now. Heirloom Legs and Heirloom Rings, to be exact. I’ll throw out the disclaimer here, just in case you didn’t read the rest of this post: The heirlooms I’m about to mention have not been confirmed for patch 4.3 as of the writing of this post.

Heirloom Rings
There are four new heirloom rings in the Wowhead database that do not currently exist in the game. Each of these four puts the existing Dread Pirate Ring (DPR) to shame. So much so, in fact, that if you have access to any of these they will be better than the DPR even if you only have Strength rings and you’re playing a Mage.

I would like to see the DPR get an upgrade when/if these four do become available because of how much weaker it is in comparison. Whether or not they’ll do so remains to be seen, though I kind of doubt that they’ll change anything about it at all given that it’s from a previous expansion and an upgrade isn’t necessarily…well, necessary.

The important thing to note about these rings is that all of them are Unique-Equip, so you can’t wear two of the same ring. That’s not much of a problem for Strength-based melee classes since there are two Strength rings, and Agility-based classes aren’t too bad off since they can get at least some benefit from the Strength (Hunters less than others, of course). Casters get the short end here with only one ring that grants caster stats (sorry Healers, no Spirit here at all), so a second heirloom ring only benefits you so far as the secondary stats and stamina bonus are concerned.

Antique Myrmidon’s Signet: Strength, Stamina, Hit, Crit, +5% Exp
Burnished Dark Iron Ring: Strength, Stamina, Dodge, Expertise, +5% Exp
Gleaming Seal of the Archmagus: Stamina, Intellect, Crit, Haste, +5% Exp
Ornate Band of Accuria: Agility, Stamina, Crit, Haste, +5% Exp

Strength-based melee classes will want both the Antique and Burnished rings. Agility-based melee will want the Ornate and Antique rings. Hunters will want either the Ornate and Antique (Hit/Crit) or the Ornate and Gleaming (Crit/Haste) rings, but I’m not familiar enough with the Hunter to tell you exactly which one is better. All casters will want to use the Gleaming ring and either the Ornate (Crit/Haste) or Antique (Hit/Crit) depending on which secondary stats are more beneficial for their given class and spec.

Ring Enchants
There are a total of seven enchants that you can put on these heirlooms, and all of them require the character wearing the ring(s) to have the Enchanting skill and a skill level high enough to cast the enchant themselves (even if they don’t have the pattern themselves). Three of the enchants can be used with a skill level of 400, and the other four require 475.

The numbers in parenthesis below represent the Enchanting skill level required to activate the enchant.

Enchant Ring – Assault: (400) +40 Attack Power
Enchant Ring – Greater Spellpower: (400) +23 Spell Power
Enchant Ring – Stamina: (400) +30 Stamina
Enchant Ring – Agility: (475) +40 Agility
Enchant Ring – Greater Stamina: (475) +60 Stamina
Enchant Ring – Intellect: (475) +40 Intellect
Enchant Ring – Strength: (475) +40 Strength

Of the options available, you’ll get more use out of the first three options simply because of how many levels you can make use of them compared to the other four. As far as stats are concerned, the last four are definitely the more beneficial option as they’re roughly twice as good as the others.

Personally, I’d go with Greater Spellpower for the caster ring, and +40 Attack Power for all of the others. I would consider +30 Stamina for the tanking ring, though I’d probably stick with the attack power as I don’t often find Stamina to be high on my priority list while leveling.

Heirloom Legs
There are seven heirloom legs in the database, and up to this point we’ve had none. Legs can sometimes be a pretty hard slot to find upgrades for, so I’m pretty happy to see this slot get heirlooms. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been to Outlands while still wearing level 20-30 legs.

There are Leg options for every class and spec. The stats that they offer follow the same pattern we’ve seen in the other armor heirlooms up to this point, so you’ll find that some pieces might not have the perfect stats for you but you’ll at least be able to find something that works well enough.

Tattered Dreadmist Leggings: [Cloth] Stamina, Intellect, Crit, Haste, +10% Exp
Preened Wildfeather Leggings: [Leather] Stamina, Intellect, Spirit, Crit, +10% Exp
Stained Shadowcraft Pants: [Leather] Agility, Stamina, Crit, Haste, +10% Exp
Mystical Kilt of Elements: [Mail] Stamina, Intellect, Spirit, Crit, +10% Exp
Tarnished Leggings of Destruction: [Mail] Agility, Stamina, Crit, Haste, +10% Exp
Burnished Legplates of Might: [Plate] Strength, Stamina, Parry, Hit, +10% Exp
Polished Legplates of Valor: [Plate] Strength, Stamina, Crit, Expertise, +10% Exp

Leg Enchants
There are a lot of options for leg enchants. The main question you have to ask yourself when deciding which you want to use is at which level you want to benefit from an enchant. The higher the level requirement, the larger the stat benefit (as you would expect), but of course the fewer levels you get to benefit from it.

If you’d like to take a look at the enchants available as a search, you can follow this link: Link. Just make sure there’s something inside that Source column, as those without a source are ones which can no longer be obtained. If you happen to have made/obtained some of those enchants back in the day when they were available then you can still use them, but I don’t expect many people at all to still have them sitting around (unless you’re an old school twink player). Also note that there are a few leg enchants that require an item level instead of, or in addition to, a character level and none of those can be used at all since heirlooms are considered item level 1.

In the list below, the number in (parenthesis) is the player level required to use the enchant. Rather than putting a full list here, I’ve gone through and listed the ones I’d particularly consider for my own heirloom legs. I’ve also categorized them by the types of bonuses that they give.

—Generic Bonuses—
Medium Armor Kit: (5) +16 Armor
Heavy Borean Armor Kit: (70) +18 Stamina
Savage Armor Kit: (78) +36 Stamina
Earthen Leg Armor: (80) +28 Stamina, +40 Resilience
Heavy Savage Armor Kit: (81) +44 Stamina

These will likely be the easiest for you to obtain as well as the cheapest. They all provide a decent bonus for their level range even if they’re not that impressive overall. If you’re planning to use them on low level twinks then only the Medium Armor Kit is useful to you, but if you’re going to level characters with them then you’re better off going for the Heavy Borean or Heavy Savage armor kits. If you really like PvP, then the level 80 Earthen Leg Armor is for you.

Personally, if I were going to choose between just these, I’d go for the Heavy Borean Armor Kit so that I could benefit from the enchant for 15 levels. However, I’d still prefer to pick an option that’s more class-specific from the lists below than any of these. But that’s because I’m a crazy min/maxing fool, and overall none of these bonuses are high enough for me to care about using them.

—Melee Bonuses—
Clefthide Leg Armor: (50) +30 Stamina, +10 Agility
Cobrahide Leg Armor: (50) +40 Attack Power, +10 Crit
Nethercraft Leg Armor: (60) +40 Stamina, +12 Agility
Nethercobra Leg Armor: (60) +50 Attack Power, +12 Crit
Jormungar Leg Armor: (70) +45 Stamina, +15 Agility
Nerubian Leg Armor: (70) +55 Attack Power, +15 Crit
Frosthide Leg Armor: (80) +55 Stamina, +22 Agility
Icescale Leg Armor: (80) +75 Attack Power, +22 Crit
Scorched Leg Armor: (80) +110 Attack Power, +45 Crit
Twilight Leg Armor: (80) +85 Stamina, +45 Agility

For your melee classes, I would lean towards the Attack Power/Crit options over the Agility/Stamina. The main reason for that is that Stamina isn’t that big of a deal for leveling, and the amount of AP you get from the Agility doesn’t match the amount given from the other options of the same level. If you choose to go for one of the level 80 enchants, then I might change my mind and go for the Agility instead (for Hunters, Rogues, and Shaman) since the stat does offer more than just attack power, but otherwise I’d stick to AP.

My personal preference for these would be Cobrahide, Nethercobra, or Nerubian; in that order. The difference between those three isn’t all that big, and there’s a 10 level difference between each of them. I’d lean more towards an enchant that gave me 35 levels worth of benefit over one that gave me only 15 levels worth and only 15 more Attack Power.

—Tanking Bonuses—
Core Armor Kit: (50) +5 Dodge
Vindicator’s Armor Kit: (55) +8 Dodge

The tanking enchants are available if you really want them. Personally, I’d just go for a melee enchant instead since the amount of Dodge on these things is so small. If you want survivability then go for one that offers Agility, otherwise stick to the AP/Crit options as I suggested for other melee classes. The only thing the AP/Crit gives you as a tank is better threat generation and easier solo play which may or may not be appealing to you.

Personally, I won’t bother with either of these for my tanks. I’d suggest you go with the melee enchants I listed above.

—Caster Bonuses—
Mystic Spellthread: (50) +25 Spell Power, +15 Stamina
Silver Spellthread: (50) +25 Spell Power, +15 Stamina
Golden Spellthread: (60) +35 Spell Power, +20 Stamina
Runic Spellthread: (60) +35 Spell Power, +20 Stamina
Azure Spellthread: (70) +35 Spell Power, +20 Stamina
Shining Spellthred: (70) +35 Spell Power, +20 Stamina
Brilliant Spellthread: (70) +50 Spell Power, +20 Spirit
Sapphire Spellthread: (70) +50 Spell Power, +30 Stamina
Enchanted Spellthread: (80) +55 Intellect, +65 Stamina
Ghostly Spellthread: (80) +55 Intellect, +45 Spirit

There are quite a few caster leg enchants available to you, though some of them require various reputation grinds to get their patterns (if you don’t already have them). There are also some Tailor-specific spellthreads that I have listed down below in case you’d like to consider those. If you like your casters to be tailors, then I’d definitely consider at least looking at them. Otherwise you’ve got plenty of options here.

Much like the melee enchants above, I would lean towards the level 50 versions myself for the sake of getting 35 levels worth of benefit from the enchant. In order of preference, I’d go Mystic/Silver, Golden/Runic, and then Brilliant. The one benefit of Brilliant over the others is that it gives Spirit rather than Stamina which is more appealing in my opinion (even for casters that get no benefit from Spirit beyond passive mana regen).

—Tailor-Only Bonuses— Number in parenthesis is the Skill Level required to activate
Master’s Spellthread (Rank 1): (405) +50 Spell Power, +30 Stamina
Sanctified Spellthread (Rank 1): (405) +50 Spell Power, +20 Spirit
Master’s Spellthread (Rank 2): (475) +95 Intellect, +80 Stamina
Sanctified Spellthread (Rank 2): (475) +95 Intellect, +55 Spirit

The tailor’s special spellthreads are quite good. While the Rank 2 versions are significantly more powerful than the Rank 1′s, I would still lean towards the Rank 1′s myself because of how much Frostweave it takes you to level from the 405 mark for Rank 1 to the 475 mark for the Rank 2. That’s a lot of cloth to farm for an upgraded enchant that you can only use for 11 levels. Especially for someone like me who rolls a lot of alts, as I’d have to level tailoring on every one of them if I wanted to benefit from these. If you’re an altoholic, these enchants probably aren’t the best option for you.

So my preference, if I was going to use any of these, would be Sanctified 1, Master’s 1, Sanctified 2. Personally, I roll too many alts to seriously consider any of these when other options exist that don’t force me into a specific profession to use them. Rings don’t have any non-Enchanter options so it’s either those or bust, but there are way too many leg enchants available for me to really consider these worth it.

Heirlooms Guide
If these heirlooms do end up confirmed for patch 4.3, then I will update my Guide to Heirlooms to include which rings, legs, and respective enchants that I would suggest for each class and spec just as I’ve done with all of the other heirlooms to date.

I would also like to take a moment to thank all of those who have sent me emails or who have left comments regarding how useful they’ve found the various guides that I’ve written here. The Guide to Heirlooms post has consistently been my most frequently visited post since just a few days after I wrote it, and I’ve gotten more emails from readers about that post than any other. So thank you, one and all.

 
25 Comments

Posted by on September 1, 2011 in Caster, Death Knight, Guide, Hunter, Leveling, Mage, Melee, Patch Notes, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior

 

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Hand Me Downs: Rogues

24 Nov

I realize that my Hand Me Downs: A Poor Man’s Heirlooms post was a huge wall of text, so I’ve decided to do a breakdown of it so that it’s more useful to those who want try it out.

To do this, I’m going to do a breakdown of each class and show you which Hand Me Downs (HMD’s) I suggest using for the given class and spec. Most of this information is copied and pasted from the original post, but I’ve put in specifics related to the Warrior class and specs and hopefully given a bit more detail and direction for why I chose what I did.

General Concept
The basic idea of what I call “hand-me-downs” (or HMD’s) is that you’re taking items that can be passed from one toon to the next (so Common, White-quality items) and enhancing them them to make them better. Enhancements that we’re going to talk about here come mostly from the Enchanting profession, though a few may also be found in Blacksmithing (counterweights, sheild spikes, etc), Leatherworking (armor kits), and Engineering (scopes).

The whole point here is to get low level gear that you can pass around to any alts that you ever roll to make them more powerful starting out. As Cynwise and I have proved through experiment in both PvE and PvP at low levels, it isn’t heirlooms that make your character so overpowered, it’s actually the enchants.

So if you’re trying to decide on which class to role, or what to go take one for a test drive for 10 levels or so before deciding whether or not to keep them, this is a great way to get a feel for how the class is going to play for you without putting in investment that’s going to be wasted. Since these items can be passed around due to their lack of binding, it’s not a big deal to roll a character, gain a few levels, scrap them and reroll another, and so on until you find a nice fit.

Melee Weapons
We’re going to start off with weapons because they have more potential than armor for making your low level toons extra powerful. When you’re choosing a hand-me-down weapon, you need to consider which type you’re really looking for. For Melee weapons you’re interested in three things: damage, usefulness, and coolness.

WARNING! - Using Poisons will bind non-bound gear to you. Meaning, if you use any of your poisons on your HMD’s, they become bound to the character and can no longer be traded to your other toons. The only weapons that will not become soulbound when using Poisons on them are the actual BoA heirlooms.

Melee Weapons
Fine Scimitar: [Lvl: -] 3-7 Damage (2.5 DPS), 1.90 Speed
Arcane Forged Axe: [Lvl: -] 2-5 Damage (1.7 DPS), 2.00 Speed
Studded Blackjack: [Lvl: 5] 5-11 Damage (4.4 DPS), 1.80 Speed
Copper Dagger: [Lvl: 6] 5-10 Damage (5.0 DPS), 1.50 Speed
Cutlass: [Lvl: 10] 10-20 Damage (7.0 DPS), 2.20 Speed
Left-Handed Brass Knuckles: [Lvl: 10] 6-13 Damage (7.0 DPS), 1.40 Speed
Right-Handed Brass Knuckles: [Lvl: 10] 6-13 Damage (7.0 DPS), 1.40 Speed
Jambiya: [Lvl: 11] 7-14 Damage (7.4 DPS), 1.40 Speed
Hatchet: [Lvl: 11] 12-25 Damage (7.4 DPS), 2.50 Speed
Scimitar: [Lvl: 14] 14-27 Damage (8.7 DPS), 2.30 Speed
Cleaver: [Lvl: 15] 14-27 Damage (9.2 DPS), 2.20 Speed
Double Axe: [Lvl: 19] 19-37 Damage (11.2 DPS), 2.50 Speed
Kris: [Lvl: 19] 12-24 Damage (11.2 DPS), 1.60 Speed
Left-Handed Claw: [Lvl: 20] 12-23 Damage (11.7 DPS), 1.50 Speed
Right-Handed Claw: [Lvl: 20] 12-23 Damage (11.7 DPS), 1.50 Speed

I have a lot of weapons listed here, stretching up all the way to level 20. The reason for that is because a Rogue lives and dies by the power of their weapons. How frequently you upgrade your weapons is up to you. Personally, I have Rogue HMD’s for level 1, 3 and 10-11. Why do I bother with the level 1′s when I’m just going to replace them at level 3? Because I enchanted the 1′s before I thought about the 3′s, so since I have them anyway I might as well use them.

The only other thing you really need to take into consideration for a Rogue HMD is that you have abilities that deal more damage if you’re using a Dagger instead of another weapon. The first example of that you’ll see (I think) is Ambush. If you want to get the most damage out of Ambush, then you want to use Daggers. But remember that Ambush is a stealthed-only attack so once you’ve opened with Ambush you get more damage from non-daggers, so weigh your options.

Weapon Enchants
Enchant Weapon – Agility: +15 Agility
Enchant Weapon – Fiery Weapon: Proc: +40 Fire damage (x2 crit)
Enchant Weapon – Lifestealing: Proc: Steals 30 health from the target (x2 crit)
Enchant Weapon – Crusader: Proc: +100 Strength for 15 sec., heals you for 75-125 (x2 crit)

My personal preference for Rogue HMD’s is Fiery because using Sinister Strike allows you to “cheat” the Procs Per Minute rule and get more Fiery procs than you otherwise should be able to, and Fiery already has a very high proc rate. For the sake of being able to reuse them though, Agility is generally a better option so it gets listed first even if it’s not my personal choice in all cases.

I have Crusader listed last because even though it gives 100 AP when it procs, I don’t like it quite so much for Rogues. The benefit of having +15 Agility on your Rogue HMD’s is that you can also pass them to a level 20+ Hunter once they can dual wield where Fiery Weapon gives almost no benefit at all to a Hunter.

Note: Concerning Crusader, Fiery Weapon, and Lifestealing – these enchants all work off of a proc rate which ties directly to the weapon’s speed. The slower your weapon, the more often it will proc on a per-swing basis. The faster the weapon, the fewer times per-swing it will proc. The proc rate is based on a Procs Per Minute (PPM), so you won’t get any more procs each minute from a slow weapon than you would from a fast weapon, but the chance of a proc on each swing is higher if it’s slow.

It’s kind of confusing, so let me simplify it by saying this: Given the level range at which HMD’s are viable, the strength of classes, and the fragility of mobs, you’re better off using slow weapons rather than fast weapons when using proc-based enchants.

Armor
Armor isn’t nearly as important as your weapons because in the levels that you’ll use HMD’s you should not have very many issues with survivability, making the armor stat much less impressive than it really is. The main benefit that you’ll get from your HMD’s then is actually the enchants that you place on them. The best-in-slot items for both chest and leg slots (that can be used at level 1) are interestingly cloth items; Haliscan Jacket and Haliscan Pantaloons.

And since the whole point of HMD’s is to enchant them in order to make them more powerful than regular gear, we’re not going to bother making HMD’s that cannot benefit from enchants, or which benefit only a very small amount. So we’re not going to look at Belts, jewelry or trinkets.

Leather Armor Set
Chest: Haliscan Jacket: 90 Armor (Cloth), Sun Cured Vest: 33 Armor
Legs: Haliscan Pantaloons: 77 Armor, Black Tuxedo Pants: 54 Armor, Sun Cured Pants: 29 Armor
Waist: Squeeler’s Belt: 22 Armor, Sun Cured Belt: 18 Armor
Bracer: Sun Cured Bracers: 14 Armor
Gloves: Sun Cured Gloves: 20 Armor
Feet: Sun Cured Boots: 23 Armor
Back: Linen Cloak: 12 Armor

Above is the vendor bought Leather set from the Blood Elf starting area. For level 1 characters these do end up being the strongest items available to you, so I haven’t bothered listing items for other levels as armor upgrades really aren’t important for your first 20 levels unless you’re a tank.

The Haliscan Jacket and Pantaloons and the Tuxedo Pants easily beat out the best leather options at level 1, so they’re listed here as well even though they’re cloth. They also happen to have higher item levels than all of the other options, giving you the ability to put more worthwhile enchants on them as well.

Chest Enchants
Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats: +6 All Stats [ilvl 35+]
Enchant Chest – Greater Stats: +4 All Stats
Enchant Chest – Exceptional Health: +150 Health [ilvl 35+]
Enchant Chest – Stats: +3 All Stats
Enchant Chest – Major Health: +100 Health

The +6 Stats is excellent for Rogues because it grants 18 Attack Power (6 Agi = 12 AP, 6 Str = 6 AP). While Rogues are known for being squishy, they are also known for being able to survive when they otherwise should not be able to. And with Recuperate now allowing you to use your combo points to heal yourself, survivability isn’t as hard as it used to be.

Bracer Enchants
Enchant Bracer – Superior Strength: +9 Strength
Enchant Bracer – Superior Stamina: +9 Stamina
Enchant Bracer – Minor Agility: +1 Agility

Old gripe is old – I don’t know why in the world they gave us +9 to both Strength and Stamina, but not Agility. We don’t even have a +7, +5, or even +3 Agility; they just left us with the dinky +1. However, we do still get 1:1 AP from Strength, so the +9 Str enchant is your best bet here. If you’re feeling especially fragile then go ahead and reach for the +9 Stam instead, but you shouldn’t have many survivability problems in this level range.

Glove Enchants
Enchant Gloves – Superior Agility: +15 Agility
Enchant Gloves – Greater Agility: +7 Agility
Enchant Gloves – Minor Haste: +10 Haste
Enchant Gloves – Greater Strength: +7 Strength

Gloves provide us one of the best enchants of all of our HMD’s with Superior Agility (+15 Agi). The +15 Agi enchant isn’t exactly easy to find though, because it’s not exactly easy to farm either. If you can’t find it, then look for the +7 Agi instead, or +7 Str if you can’t find either of the Agility enchants. Having that +15 Agi enchant is like giving us a third weapon though, it’s actually pretty sick as far as HMD enchants are concerned.

Haste isn’t quite as cool starting out as it will be later on, but Rogues are all about stabbing people as many times as they can in as short a time frame as possible. Once you start using your Poisons and spending your talent points, you might want to consider using the +10 Haste enchant.

Leg Enchants
Light Armor Kit: +8 Armor to Chest, Legs, Hands or Feet
Medium Armor Kit: [Lvl: 5] +16 Armor to Chest, Legs, Hands or Feet

I’m going to go ahead and list these here just for the sake of completion. I don’t use HMD pants because of the fact that these are the only enchants you can put on them. A little extra armor never hurt anybody, but it never really helps for your low level toons either. Not when we’re talking about 8-16 points of it, at least. If you want to use them, then here they are.

Boot Enchants
Enchant Boots – Greater Agility: +7 Agility
Enchant Boots – Lesser Accuracy: +5 Hit
Enchant Boots – Minor Speed: +7% Run Speed

While my personal choice for HMD boots is almost always Minor Speed, the +7 Agility is the best one for actually improving your performance. You can also get a lot of use out of the +5 Hit, especially since Rogues can dual wield from level 1. In fact, I would almost consider putting it above the agility enchant because it’s just that good.

Cloak Enchants
Enchant Cloak – Stealth: +8 Agility, +8 Dodge
Enchant Cloak – Lesser Agility: +3 Agility
Enchant Cloak – Superior Defense: +70 Armor
Enchant Cloak – Subtlety: -2% Threat

As far as performance goes, the +3 Agility gives you the biggest bang for your golden buck. The Stealth enchant is a great option if you’re considering doing a lot of PvP (and you should, you overpowered backstabber, you), but it’s not that great against mobs.

The Stealth enchant has stepped up in 4.0.3a as the top enchant for Agility-based HMD’s. Rather than making it harder to be noticed while it stealth, it now gives you +8 Agility and +8 Dodge making it far superior to every other cloak enchant available on your HMD’s. The mats for it are also fairly inexpensive given how powerful this enchant it. The +70 Armor enchant can balance out some of your squishiness if you feel you need it as well.

Rogues have a lot of burst damage in low levels compared to many of the other classes, so if you’re doing dungeon runs you may give some serious consideration to the Subtlety enchant to reduce your threat. It’s not great, but every little bit helps.

 
3 Comments

Posted by on November 24, 2010 in Class, Guide, Hand Me Downs, Leveling, Melee, Play Styles, Rogue

 

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