Dirty Deeds: A Rogue Story

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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?