Raiding Highmaul as a Rogue

Raiding as a rogue and viewing the trends of fellow rogues has proven that the subtlety rogue is now a viable option for raiding. Its odd really but in Mists of Pandaria, the subtlety rogue still was ranked the highest in the DPS charts with the combat rogue coming in first and the assassination rogue coming in last based on sources like Noxxic and Icy-Veins. Despite it being the highest DPS spec it just didn't become the top raiding spec in Mists due to a couple of reasons.

The tier bonus of the Siege of Orgrimmar gave a combat rogue a shorter cooldown on damage enhancing skills, shadow blades and adrenaline rush. Along with that, the attack speed was greatly enhanced by Haste in Mists of Pandaria. With Haste being the main secondary stat of Mists of Pandaria, the combat rogue gained more damage up time then a subtlety rogue could. Another reason why the combat rogue didn't have issues like damage per second was because they could maximize their abilities more easily compared to a subtlety rogue that was limited from using backstab as a primary damage dealer since they had to be directly behind the target.

With that the combat rogue dominated encounters like the spoils of Pandaria, Protectors of the vale and Garrosh himself.

That though is a different story in Warlords of Draenor. The combat rogue's haste has been turned down a notch and was increased on the most recent hot fix if I'm not mistaken. With haste's effectiveness lowered, the all important auto attack damage that accumulated the DPS charts of a combat rogue gradually reduced. Shadow blades has been removed and subtlety rogues now can use backstab as the position requirements have been lifted partially and can be used on the sides of the bosses. Now with the subtlety rogue giving as much attacks as a combat rogue, the importance of that all important burst comes in to greater value thanks to Multistrike giving the rogue more chances to trigger critical blows. The AOE rotation of a subtlety rogue also helps as its just fan of knives and crimson tempest.

Oh the bliss of being a subtlety rogue is now an option for raiders and PVP'ers alike. That's why I'm currently running a Subtlety / Combat rogue right now. The secondary stats easily mesh and it depends on the current weapon and trinket. That is for now...Once Blackrock Foundry is out, the tier bonus will kick in and the higher i-lvl crafted gear will change things. I hope not too much though because I'm enjoying subtlety right now.

Rogues in Highmaul

It's been quite a busy week now that the gates of Highmaul are open both for the raid and the LFR and I've had a chance to go into LFR, normal and heroic. If any of you have attained your silver damage medal as a DPS rogue (That's the only spec we can do anyway)  you will find that normal and heroic raids have a very similar feel to the current heroic dungeons.


I'm happy really as I don't feel that my class is weak in anyway and that I'm crucial to the team instead of tunnel visioning into pure DPS mode. I was surprised though that a subtlety rogue performed better than me as a combat rogue and I think that it's time I went subtlety. I'll first gather all the critical pieces for my set so I can become the class that I can start using to spam content. I still feel though that the combat rogue will be used for most PVE content but I want to start using subtlety for raiding and only switch to combat in the event I will have to AOE. The reason for this desire to play subtlety is because I want to beat other DPS specs that have a crit centered build. I found myself being outdone by those classes because of the difference in damage given. Well here's to getting all the parts I'll need.

World of Warcraft - Warlords of Draenor - The combat rogue talents - Venom rush

In a earlier post I stated that shadow reflection was the level 100 talent for the combat rogue.

Alot of posts and guides though recommend that venom rush is the talent that is recommended. Of course I believe that isn't wrong because venom rush is useful since you are given additional energy and potentially more energy regeneration due to 3 targets having venom rush on them giving you a 15% increase (maximum energy increase from the talent) but you're not always in fights that would provide you with multiple targets. Which is unfortunate but it makes me wonder if that 5% increase and an additional 10 energy would provide you with the additional DPS on a sustained single target fight that most raids and dungeon bosses turn out to be.

In those situations I would then lean onto shadow reflection as the best choice for burst damage instances as a rogue. Albeit it'll be much harder if you are not going to be a good melee and miss out on the opportunity due to mechanics but that's the dance we can now take as a combat rogue as blizzard realized that not having the ability to control our insight phases was weakening our overall damage. For those of you who aren't aware we can move from each insight phase by using 4 Eviscerate's. This is important as you can maintain a insight phase longer because you know how many will need to be used and you won't need to worry so much about keeping the insight phase up because each Eviscerate will cause the insight phase to refresh it's timer but this only applies to the first 2 phases because the last phase will not refresh it's timer.

I don't feel any loss from not having shadow blades because now I'm more focused on maintaining the phases alongside ensuring that I'm using my energy efficiently. This is a good move really because it adds depth to being a combat rogue because during mist of Pandaria's siege of orgrimmar days, I was finding it extremely easy to raid, and give damage but on the long run would have been boring for a competitive player and move onto a more challenging spec like subtlety or worse... Another class altogether.

World of war craft: The state of combat rogues and the current heroic dungeons experience

A week after the launch of Warlords of Draenor, I'm now level 100 and working on the needs of my garrison and overall character.

It's funny really.... After raiding seriously in siege of orgrimmar, I can feel importance of crowd control abilities as I'm not able to carry the rest of the dungeon group in DPS. Time to gear up seriously and run encounters on a regular basis. At least I know now where I can get my gear from thanks to the dungeon journal.

The experience of reaching level 100 and replacing my tier equipment is somewhat like a step back from how my character felt during the siege of orgrimmar days. I'm back to casting my abilities slowly as the 4 piece tier bonus is gone. I liked the way it felt though being able to throw out my abilities continuously to reduce the cooldown times of my main damage causing abilities. It tempts me somewhat to go back to my mythic gear just for that because I feel oddly weak in heroic dungeons.

Thing is weak is a unfair term because I understand that Warlords of Draenor has been tweaked so that you aren't just being a silly DPS crazed character pumping out damage. Instead you're supposed:-D  to be managing the fight with a balance of helping out the healers by taking less damage by staying out damage causing phases or areas. Then their is doing your role and making sure you use crowd control and interrupts. I feel this is most noticeable now as DPS to the healers as its not like my health is constantly being maxed out for the fight.

In a way, now I understand what the developers were aiming for in Warlords of Draenor because the tuning is supposed to make the gaming experience "engaging" for MMORPG players and to constantly keep the world of war craft  fan base on their toes. So far I'm enjoying my experience in Warlords of Draenor and have much to expect from it.