So Plain!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

I seem to have lost my blog template.  Or more likely, the template I was using has had it's supporting images taken down.  I'm going to give it a little bit to come back up and if it doesn't I'll be on the hunt for a new one.

In other news.  I just got my 25,000 Honor Kills Achievement tonight.  Only 75,000 more until I can call myself Korzik of the Horde.

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Please help us, Akrios.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

We are slowing dying of suspense! 
Akrios from RogueRogue will be releasing his 10th non-arena video.  I for one can not wait!  I enjoy his videos and, have learned a good amount just from watching them.

And speaking of videos and soon, I have started to work on my guide to watching rogue PvP videos.  I have hopes that it will help out anyone that does not understand why these types of movies are so popular and how to get the most from watching them.

Yes, it was a short post but, it is 3:30am and I think it's time to call it.  Just wanted to update everyone and, to point out that another great movie is coming out soon.

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Facepalm: Check Your Poisons

Sunday, November 29, 2009

This isn't a post about letting your poisons run out mid fight.  Or even about forgetting to check that you have poisons applied before the pull.  This is a mistake I make far too often after Faction Champions in ToC.

Using the wrong poisons.   As Mutilate I run Instant in my main hand and Deadly in my off hand.  However for Faction Champions I switch to my PvP spec and use Dual Wound Poison.  The moronic part is I often forget about my poisons when I switch back to my PvE spec for Twins.  I'll run my normal pre-fight routine: check my flask, check my food, check my spec (via looking at my action bars), check my poison duration and, check what I'm wearing via clicking on my riad dps button Outfitter.  However, I tend to miss the fact that I have wound poison on my weapons after Faction Champions because, why would I ever have wound poison on in my PvE spec?

So a note to all the rogues at there who switch between specs for fights (and mainly to myself), whenever you switch specs; be sure to also check that you are using the correct poisons for that spec in addition to their durations.

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Monthly Cleaning

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Addons, almost everyone uses at least a couple.  Some people use hundreds.  They can really enhance your playing experience however, they can also needlessly slow down your computer.  I have gotten into the habit of once a month, going through all my addons and evaluating what they do for me and if I really need each add-on. I keep the ones I use and delete the ones I don't need.  In this way I make sure that my computer isn't slowing down by loading several add-ons that I don't use.  I highly suggest you also do this from time to time and, I will go through my add-ons as an example of what I mean.

My list of addons and process after the break...

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Facepalm: Ninja'd tower

Monday, November 9, 2009

Facepalm posts will be about those times when you see someone (or you do something) that just makes you wonder.

First off, an Alterac Valley story from the other night.  I am working on my Tower Defense Achievement so I have been spending my AV matches near the choke point in the southern middle of the zone guarding those two towers and the graveyard there.  The northern tower had 4 alliance inside so I moved to the unguarded southern tower and, capped that back.

I picked off a few random alliance running south as I made my way back up the guarded tower.  As I made my way up I counted two hunters, a warrior and, a warlock.  I decided that there was no way I could take down all four so I snuck up the tower.  Past the warlock on the middle level.  Up to the top.  Past both hunters who were standing outside the door.  I sapped the warrior standing next to the flag and capped the tower back just before one of the hunters turned around and shot me.  A quick gouge, sprint, jump down and, vanish and I was away with another tower defense on my record.

I can only imagine what they were thinking during their cast time to capture the tower back.

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Getting Defensive

Friday, November 6, 2009

After a half day of Athiri Basin and Alterac Valley play I have come to really appreciate playing defense in these battlegrounds.

In Alterac Valley I am really enjoying running around with a small group of people and helping to cap back towers or retake graveyards. It may not seem like it is accomplishing much and your honor kills will be lower than if you were on the offensive or defending the actual keep but, you will be slowing the opposing team's progress by several minutes which in the modern AV is more than enough time to give your team a chance to start on the boss sooner.  This is especially important for Horde players considering how imbalanced the map is in favor of the alliance team.  (The bridge, the route from the starting cave and, the design of the towers all add up to an alliance advantage)

Arathi Basin is by far my favorite place to play defense.  Specifically, at the Blacksmith.  If you can get a job as a Blacksmith guard you will get the buff for defending a flag which will increase your honor gain from all honor kills and, you will get credit for the vast majority of kills made on the map.  Only the extreme ends are out of range.  Just by spending your game at BS you will (if your faction controls it and you can avoid dying) end the match with the most honor kills and the most honor for your faction.  Besides the obvious personal gain for defending BS it is also the most strategic point on the map in my opinion.  The BS grave yard allows quick access to any of the other four nodes.  In addition, it will form a point of the triangle of friendly nodes that your team is trying achieve.  BS, Farm, LM is a lot easier to defend than Farm, LM, Stables.  Take a look at the map and you'll see why.

Warsong Gulch is another map where I enjoy the defense.  As a rogue I enjoy sitting outside of my tunnel and waiting for the Alliance flag carrier to come out. (be watchful of both the ramp and the graveyard fall) You may not be able to get the flag carrier down if they have some friends with them but, you did slow them down allowing your team more time to get their flag across or kill the opposing flag carrier.

There is another reason why I enjoy the defensive style of play in battlegrounds.  Practice.  I don't enjoy being in the 'zerg' I enjoy the smaller scale battles. Being on defensive with 1-4 other people is more than enough to slow or stop a 10+ man rush and your choices and play matter more. Defending the central towers and graveyard with one other person.  Running into a tower held by four alliance and, taking it back feels better and, a lot more fun than running with 32 people up the map and standing around and waiting for towers to cap.

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I'm here, I'm here.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

I'm finding a posting schedule has proven more difficult than  I thought.  My free time at home is very random, which makes it difficult to get posts out at regular intervals.  I will try my best to get a post out a couple of times a week.  I have also been trying to get the layout of the blog to a place I like.  I do not like the comment sections of the posts but, am so far unable to get them corrected.

And just in case you had missed it.  My main went from a female Blood Elf to a  male Forsaken. I am loving the change, even with the announced nerf to WotF.

I also have a few posts I am working on slowly but, surely. About, topics from the steps I am taking to improve my PvP play to an opinion on the way Blizzard is handling tier gear and badges.  I hope to get a few of those out soon.

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WotF Nerf

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

"Will of the Forsaken now shares a 45-second cooldown with similar effects, including the Medallion of the Horde, Titan-Forged runes, Insignia of the Horde, etc."

Seeing how I just changed my rogue from a Blood Elf to an Undead this change is somewhat upsetting at first.  But, then I got to thinking about it.  Being able to break a fear, charm or, sleep affect and still being able to trinket immediately afterward was a bit unfair to fear classes.  And this will not go into effect until 3.3 anyway if it makes it out of the PTR.  I tend to believe that it will.

Now a 45 seconds cool down really isn't that bad.  I haven't run into too many occasions yet, where you need to go back to back with WotF and trinket.  I would still prefer WotF over any other racial for a rogue for the simple fact that it is now a second trinket for most situations on a 45 second cooldown and a 2 minute wait before you can use it again.  I know that sounds odd but, you know what I mean.

I'm sure you'll read a lot about this change both people praising it and condemning it but, in the never ending pursuit of 'balance' it is a change that had to be made.  And remember that with Cataclysm most racials are going to be changing anyway.

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Dueling for Gold

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Dueling is rare on my server.  You hardly ever see anyone outside of Orgrimmar or in the sewers. So when I saw an unusual message in trade chat it caught my eye.  I can't remember exactly what the message was but, basically someone (an affliction lock) was looking for people to duel outside of Org and, he wanted to bet on the duels based on the gear difference.

I finished up what I had been doing and headed over to find about five people outside.  From what I remember that ties the most I've ever seen outside Org.  It looked like no one was actually betting but, the lock was repeated asking and making fun of those who didn't want to.  I just sat and watched for a while as the lock destroyed everyone who came up to him.  One thing I noticed immediately was how hardly anyone was wearing PvP gear.  The lock himself only had a couple pieces of deadly on. Not really all that surprising on Staghelm I guess.

Finally, I stepped up and challenged the warlock to a duel.  Ten seconds later it was over, he was on his knees and, I was hardly touched.  He said, "Finally, some competition" and, wanted to bet on our next match.  I declined saying that I wasn't much of a betting man.  We dueled a few more times.  These matches were all closer but, I came out the victor in each of them. 

I told some guildies in vent what was going on and, they all couldn't believe I didn't wager after our first duel. But, I just didn't see the point in betting on a duel.  To me duels are practice, if you bet and someone wins anything worth while they are likely to leave; in fear of loosing what they have won.  Instead of staying and having some more matches.

Have you ever seen people betting on their duels? Would you or do you bet on your own duels?  What do you think about it?

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So you want to start over. part1

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Either with a faction transfer, server change; or completely re-rolling.  There are a few things to consider when choosing your new home.

First I would recommend taking a look at this list: http://www.wowwiki.com/US_realm_list_by_datacenter.  Choosing a realm with a near by datacenter (or the datacenter that you have the best ping to) is very important as a rogue.  Rogues are very twitchy class where a lot of our success can be determined by reaction time. Adding another 240ms ping to those reactions will not help.  You can also see what time zone each server is and what battlegroup they are in.  Find a realm where your ping is low and that is in a time zone where the server's peak hours match your play times. The best way to do this is to try out the realms on different datacenters at different times in both the starting areas and in a major city.  If you ping ever spikes on a certain datacenter you may be better off looking elsewhere.

Next thing I would do is head over to a server census site like: Warcraftrealms.com.  There you can see what the Alliance to Horde ratio is for the server you are thinking about moving to.  Just keep in mind that all information for that site is submitted by players, if no one submits data, the data will be off.  I would suggest finding as balanced a realm as possible.  It is rarely fun being vastly outnumbered.  And being able to roll the other faction consistently gets old after a while also.

Finally, spend some time on your chosen server before you transfer any existing characters there. It is amazing what you can find out about a server just by spending a little time in Trade chat.  Although rarely will you find any huge positives in Trade; you can find out if you can handle the negatives.

So you've chosen a Realm that you like.  Part2 will cover racials; specific to the rogue class.

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Akruz's first world PvP

Saturday, October 17, 2009

My rogue alt on Blackrock had his first experience in world PvP today.

I was in STV at level 30 working on the first of Hemit's quests.  Killing the tigers and panthers working my way over to the raptors when I spot a human warlock working his way around the area. I finish off the panther I was working on and stealth a little bit closer to get a better look.  He was a level 35 warlock with no heirloom gear. I decided that even with my heirloom advantage five levels would be too much to make up so I back away and start my killing of raptors a little ways off.

About five minutes later I had just finished killing two raptors and was at low health so I eat and stealth.  Just as I was about to move on to the next raptor I get a dot thrown on me.  I quickly duck around a nearby corner and I see the same Human Warlock a few yards away.  I gouge the incoming Voidwalker, sprint to the warlock and interrupt his immolate cast. I start to build combo points on him with Sinister Strike. I get feared, Will of the Forsaken out of it, Kidney Shot and, start again.  His next fear I took but, was able to vanish his shadow bolt.  After a bit more back and forth I killed him only to die from his Dots before I could drop out of combat to eat.

It was a rush and I'm sure the battles will only increase as I gain levels and move to more populated zones.

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About Korzik

Thursday, October 15, 2009

About the Author
I have been playing games since I was a kid.  I started with Wolfenstien 3D.  And have played anything from Doom, Descent, Medal of Honor and, countless console games among others.

I started WoW in February of 2008.  I bought the battle chest after a boring night out and gave the free trial an hour before I bought an account.  I tried all of the classes for about 10 levels and settled on a Hunter.  I raided during BC and into 3.2 with my hunter.  During this time I also leveled two other characters to level 80.  A Protection Warrior and an Enhancement Shaman.

With a change in my work schedule I started a Refer a Friend account and leveled a rogue.  I had tried a rogue before and I didn't care for them.  This time though, I was hooked.  I guess it was the first few levels that turned me off on a rogue at first but, as soon as I got into the level 20 range I just could not stop playing.  With a guild change also came a change of mains and I now raid on my rogue.

About the characters
I currently play two rogues.  A level 80 rogue on a PvE server and I have started another rogue on a PvP server.

Korzik - is a level 80 Male Undead Rogue on the PvE server Staghelm.  I raid with Bound who's guild leaders host the podcast, Rawrcast.  I have also just started to play in Arenas and am working on refining my play in PvP.

Akruz - Is my rogue alt on the PvP server Blackrock.  I started this character to help myself with maximizing my PvP play.  Blackrock is currently the top Horde Arena server.  I have never leveled on a PvP server and I am actually looking forward to the experience.

You can expect a few stories and experiences from both of my rogues to show up here along with opinions and thoughts on the rogue class overall.

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Ulduar: The Movie

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Atraira did an incredible job with this movie.  The editing and story telling in a boss kill movie are the best that I have come across.  While the movie is obviously not strictly rogue related I think it is worth a watch for everyone. The movie is dividing into 3 parts.

Part 1




Part 2




Part 3




I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.  And please head over to Atraira's YouTube page to let them know your thoughts as well.

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Rogue Macros 3.X

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Here are some of my favorite rogue macros for both PvE, PvP and, Utility.

#showtooltip Deadly Throw
/Cast Deadly Throw
/Cast Throw


Is a great space saver macro.  This will use Deadly Throw if you have combo points on the target, if not it will use your thrown weapon.  For leveling rogues or, if you have more than one ranged weapon for different situations.   You can add the line /cast shoot at the end to use your bow/gun also.



#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:alt] Eviscerate; Envenom


I use this macro for my PvE Mutilate spec.  Sometimes while questing/farming or even rarely during raids a mob will almost be dead but, you haven't gotten a Deadly Poison up yet.  Hold Alt and this macro will switch to Eviscerate instead of the standard Envenom.


#showtooltip Tricks of the Trade
/cast [target=focus,help] Tricks of the Trade


Great for raids.  Set whoever you will be wanting to cast Tricks of the Trade on as your focus using /focus with them targeted.  And this macro will cast TotT on them without ever deselecting your current target.  Not only is this macro convenient; it is also a DPS boost as you will not loose any white attacks due to switching targets.  And for PvP you can just replace the [target=focus,help] with [target=(teammate name)] and get the same benefit while keeping your focus frame available for an enemy target.


#show sap
/cleartarget
/targetenemy
/cast sap


A PvP macro that will clear your current target, attempt to find the closest target and, sap them.  What that boils down to is that this macro is a spammable sap macro very useful for fining enemy stealthers.  Any PvP rogue should have this macro on their bars along with standard sap.



#showtooltip Mutilate
/startattack
/cast Mutilate


((If you are combat just replace Mutilate with Sinister Strike)) This macro will start your auto attacks on a target even if you do not have the energy to perform your yellow attack.  This will save you those couple of seconds waiting on energy and will make sure you are at least white hitting your target.


#showtooltip Stealth
/dismount
/cast [modifier: shift] Stealth; !Stealth


A spammable Stealth macro. This macro will dismount you and put you into stealth.  No matter how many times you hit after you are in stealth it, will not de-stealth.  If you want to exit stealth, hold down the Shift key and press the button.  I personally like to have the /dismount in there for quickly and easily getting off of my flying mount. Just be careful hitting this if you are flying at any altitude.


#showtooltip
/cast [nomodifier] blind
/cast [modifier:alt, target=focus] blind
/stopmacro [nomodifier]


This Blind macro will Blind your current target by default.  Or you can hold down the Alt key to blind your target.  This is a great macro for Arenas.



#showtooltip
/use [nomodifier] Wound Poison VII; [modifier:alt] Deadly Poison IX; [modifier:shift] Instant Poison IX; [modifier: ctrl] Mind-numbing Poison
/use [button:1] 16; [button:2] 17


And this All-in-one poison macro is one of my favorites.  One action bar button for all of your poisons.
By default this macro will show Wound Poison.  Hold down Alt for Deadly.  Hold Shift for Instant.  And hold Ctrl for Mind-numbing.
Click the button with your left mouse to apply shown poison to your Main Hand and click with the right mouse to apply the shown poison to your Off Hand.


All of these can be edited to fit your keybinds or play style.  Such as changing the modifiers.  It is as simple as just changing a line like: [modifier: shift] to [modifier: alt].

If you would like to learn more about building a macro, I highly suggest http://www.wowwiki.com/Making_a_macro   as a start.  Macros can be confusing or intimidating but, knowing what they are capable of doing and how to get the most out using them will greatly increase not only your gaming experience but, also your play.

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But, I don't want to be a leaper. (Updated)

Monday, October 12, 2009

In case you haven't seen the Tier 10 Rogue models.


(Courtesy of MMO-Champion)
There it is.  Now I was happy with the T7, T8s Helm was a bit much for my tastes and, T9 Horde was ok (besides the spot lights on the shoulders)  But, this is just a bit much.  Admittedly it looks a lot better on an undead than a human male. (As you can see in this video, also from mmo-champion)







I miss the sleek and sharp design a lot of our armor used to have. Tier 5 is still one of my favorites and the Shadowcraft set is a classic.

While I may not enjoy the look; I love the bonuses.
  • Rogue T10 2 Piece - Gives your melee finishing moves a 13% chance to add 3 combo points to your target.
  • Rogue T10 4 Piece - Your Tricks of the Trade ability now grants you 15 energy instead of costing energy.
 The 2 Piece is amazing and will make Assassination that much more of a combo point game.  Being able to do two Envenom back to back occasionally will be great. Just try not to overlap the Envenom buff too much to maximize the chance of extra Instant Poison procs.
The 4 Piece is just as nice as Tricks of the Trade is an ability we use every cooldown, or at the very least during any 'burn' phase.  Getting energy back instead of spending energy for this ability will be very nice and, a much bigger DPS boost than it may appear at first.

(Update: it appears as though MMO or Blizzard had the set bonuses reversed. What I have listed as 2 piece is 4 Piece and vise versa)

What about you?  What do you think of the Tier 10 model?  What are some of your favorite armor designs for rogues?

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Welcome!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

To Dirty Deeds: A Rogue Story.
I hope to fill this blog with stories and thoughts from both of my rogues. One is a raiding rogue on a PvE server and I just recently started another rogue on a large PvP server.

This is my first ever blog so expect to see a lot of growth in the blog as time passes. So be sure to let me know what you like and don't like!

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