One Rogue's Journey

Ah the combat tree, how I love you. From my days as a silly dagger rogue (I still love backstab and would love to see Combat Daggers be viable…a man can dream can’t he?) to the current days in the icy north I’ve been spec’d some variety of combat. While Mutilates may be the cool new guy on the block with his slick hair cut, fancy shoes and brooding attitude that makes all the ladies swoon, I am -for the time being- going to dance with who brought me and that’s the rush of Combat.

The Specs

Here are the current combat specs laid out by elitist jerks.

• Combat Swords
• 7/51/13
• 15/51/5
• Combat Fists – Combat Fist/Dagger
• 7/51/13
• 15/51/5
• Combat Fist/Sword
• 7/51/13
• 15/51/5

I’ve been seeing a lot of rogues using the 7/51/13 builds but personally I prefer the 15/51/5. I find that ruthlessness and lethality are just too good to pass up. Experiment and find out which one rubs you the right way.

At this point I’d like to mention that do to the changes to windfury and the current itemization of swords (the best mainhand available currently drops off of Naxx-25 trash), the sword/sword build is currently one of the weakest available. Currently the strongest weapon setup available is to main hand: Calamity’s Grasp and offhand: Webbed Death. Of course, this is simply based off current itemization and could will change when new items are introduced, for now, my best advice is to spec for the best weapons you currently have.

The Rotation

First off, pop tricks of the trade a few seconds before the pull. This will allow you to immediately begin burst damage on the boss.

If you happen to be in stealth lead off with Garrote. Personally, I rarely find myself starting a boss fight in stealth. The time lost moving to the boss just doesn’t seem worth it in my opinion.

Once you’ve begun attacking the boss, cast Bladeflurry (skip this step if there are other targets around that you shouldn’t be hitting) and then Adrenaline Rush. The ordering here is important, if you start with AR you’re wasting the 1.0 seconds from the GCD (global cooldown). Let me try to explain that a little better. Bladeflurry costs energy, AR does not. If you lead with AR you will be at full energy for the 1.0 seconds before you can do anything else, wasting the increased regeneration from AR for that time.

Next, Sinister Strike and then Slice and Dice.

Now, Sinister Strike up to 5 combo points.

Does Slice and Dice have >12 seconds left? If so, Rupture, otherwise Slice and Dice.

Sinister Strike up to 5 combo points.

Does Slice and Dice have >12 seconds left? Eviscerate or Envenom.

Repeat until the boss is dead.

Kick the boss for good measure.

Basically, just like in BC you need to make sure that Slice and Dice never drops. Your next priority is Rupture and after that you can sneak in an Eviscerate or an Envenom.

A good rule of thumb is to always Sinister Strike up to 5 combo points. If Slice and Dice has <12 seconds remaining, renew it. If Slice and Dice has >12 seconds and Rupture is not up (or only have 1 or 2 seconds remaining), reapply Rupture. If you’re set with both Slice and Dice and Rupture use the big E of your choice.

Hot Tip: If you find yourself very low on energy due to some bad luck with Combat Potency, try using Killing Spree for some extra DPS while you regen.

So, is anyone still Combat out there?