One Rogue's Journey

Hello, hello. Here we are again on everyone’s favorite day of the week, Friday. (Even though I actually find the Friday evening to Saturday afternoon to be the superior “day”, though it is not technically a day and since technically is the best kind of correct that doesn’t count). OK, I’m rambling because I haven’t had enough caffeine this morning. I’m going to remedy that very shortly but first I have a couple of macros for you that fall into the “one-button, space-saver” variety.

Nothing fancy there, cast Deadly Throw if you have the combo points, otherwise cast throw.

For those of you still using Backstab (I love you by the way), here is a simple macro that will Ambush when you’re in stealth and backstab otherwise.

Have a macro request or suggestion? Leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do!

Stick to the shadows, I’ll see you next week.

Eresin tagged me again that silly hunter. I was originally planning on passing on this one as it is a little more RP than I like to get on this blog. Don’t get me wrong I love me some RP and I’ll get down on some Dungeons And/Or Dragons anytime. Have you ever noticed that there can and often is a dungeon without a dragon but you will rarely find a dragon without a dungeon? Of course, that all depends on how you want to argue the semantics of what makes a “dungeon” and whether or not a cave or lair would fall into the category. I say yes but I won’t go into too much detail as to why at the moment. Anyway…what was I talking about? Oh yeah, questions, let’s roll.

1. What is your name, and where did it come from?
Zaltu, but I’ve also been known to answer to Zaltu the Awesome, that one really awesome guy and oh my god that’s a sexy rogue. I don’t really remember where the name came from, just that I’ve been using it for years now.
2. How old are you, and what is your birthday?
Four. Precocious little scamp aren’t I?

3. Are you in love, and with whom?
Why me, of course! Though I do think you are pretty swell also.

4. What is your favorite mount, and why?
I believe that I am legally obligated to make a your mother joke here.

5. Do you prefer a certian type of Azerothonian meal, and where do you get it from? Take out, or dine in?
I thought eating was only something you did to increase some sort of stat?

6. You know those giant mushrooms in Zangarmarsh? What is your theory on how they came to be, and why they are so huge?
Due to the fact that I’m a walking corpse in a land full of magic and wonder, giant mushrooms don’t seem that odd to me. I hear that they taste awful but make electronic music sound AWESOME.

7. If you saw the Lich King walking towards you, what would you do?
Give him a hug. He clearly needs one.

8. (Dav added this one) Be honest, how many times have you used the Grizzly Hills outhouse without any real reason?
What’s an outhouse?

I hope that amused some of you because I certainly amused myself. Seri and Jov of snarkcraft, you’re it.

Welcome back to everyone’s favorite(ish) Q&A with one sexy rogue (that’s me by the way). Been a busy week, what with all the 3.1 PTR craziness and excitement but I haven’t forgotten you, my loyal readers so here you are. This one gets a little mathy…everyone likes math right?

Hey. I’ve been reading you blog for a few weeks now and your macros have been exceptionally helpful as was the nifty wound vs instant poison chart

I was browsing your armory and I saw you also use “Signet of Edward the Odd” on a pure stat for stat basis its inferior to most rings because I have no way to calculate the DPS of the haste proc. What have you found for a proc rate so far or some numbers on it?

Ah, the Signet of Edward the Odd. Who exactly is that guy actually? And why does he like haste so much? So, yes, I am using the signet and it is a fairly solid ring though far from the best one could acquire. According to wowhead, it has a proc rate of 15% and it does have an internal cooldown of 45 seconds. I used the following formula to calculate the proc uptime (source), someone correct me if I’m wrong here.

Plugging in my weapon speeds we get:

So, you’re looking at a 25.4% uptime. So, 125 haste, 25.4% of the time makes this trinket worth about 31.25 haste.

Keep in mind that this is napkin math and it doesn’t take into account procs from your special attacks but I think it’s pretty close. I also left my weapon speeds at their starting values rather that calculating in my current haste rating.

Conclusion or TL;DR: While a good ring, I wouldn’t pay anything absurd for it on the AH (I got mine though a random drop). If you happen to have one, play around with it. Plug it into a spreadsheet and spend some time on the training dummies to see if it works for you.

I hope that answers your question.

If anyone else as a question, leave a comment below or drop me a line.

Remember, follow your heart and stab your enemy in theirs.

Well, that didn’t take long. The undocumented changes to rogues in 3.1 have been dug up and some of them are quite interesting. As always, these are just on the PTR and undocumented at that, so have your salt shakers ready. Let’s get right too it, yes?

Envenom now gives an additional 15% chance to apply Deadly Poison and a 75% increased frequency of applying Instant Poison for 1 sec plus an additional 1 sec per combo point. (Previously gave a 15% chance to apply both deadly and instant poison)

Wow. Increased 75% chance to apply instant poison for 6 seconds after a 5 combo point Envenom? This is going to be a huge damage boost I’m thinking if it goes in like this.

Improved Poisons (Tier 4) changed to increases the chance to apply Deadly Poison to your target by 2/4/6/8/10% and the frequency of applying Instant Poison to your target by 10/20/30/40/50%. (Previously increased chance to apply Deadly and Instant poison by 2/4/6/8/10%)

More instant poison buffing. As you saw in my previous post about wound vs instant poison, the extra 10% chance to apply was enough to push Instant poison to be used, now imagine a 50% increase to apply! We’re looking at instant poison having a proc rate of 70%. That is simply amazing! I may have to go assassination.

Expose Armor now reduces armor by 20%, lasting longer per combo point.

This is a wonderful change and rogues have been clamoring for it for a long time now. If you’re in a group that doesn’t have a warrior for Sunder Armor, it can make a big difference for a rogue to keep up Expose Armor. The problem was, that expose armor reduced an amount of armor per combo point meaning you had to use a 5 point expose armor for it to be the most useful and that was a big pain to fit into a cycle. This change suddenly makes it viable not only for a rogue to use expose armor but to keep it from dropping off without being a determent to their DPS.

Savage Combat (Tier 9) now increases damage caused against poison enemies by 4%. (Previously increased damage by 1%)

The wording on this one is what confuses me. Savage Combat is currently a two point talent that increases damage to poisoned targets by %1/%2. The original patch notes stated it was changing to 2%/4%. It is possible that this is still the case, but the way this is worded makes me think that A) The talent is now 4%/8% or 2) it is now a one point talent. You can file both of those under “interesting if true”.
Edit:

Glyph Changes

Ninja glyph changes FTW. Here we go.

Glyph of Sap – Increases the duration of Sap by 20 sec. (Old: 10 sec.)

10 more seconds? I’ll take it. Actually I won’t, I’ll continue to pass on this glyph.

Glyph of Deadly Throw – Increases the slowing effect on Deadly Throw by 10%. (Old: Increases the range on Deadly Throw by 5 yards.)

Nice little PvP Buff.

Glyph of Adrenaline Rush – Increases the duration of Adrenaline Rush by 5 sec. (Old: Decreases the cooldown of Adrenaline Rush by 60 sec.)

I guess this answers my question about AR syncing up with BF (read: it won’t). This is a nice glyph but I still don’t think I’ll take it over the current 3 “must-have” combat glyphs.

Glyph of Sprint – Increases the movement speed of your Sprint ability by an additional 30%. (Old: also reduced the duration by 5%)

That’s just really nice. The reduction to duration was a pain.

Glyph of Crippling Poison – Increases the chance to inflict your target with Crippling Poison by an additional 20%. (Old: 10%)

A buff, but I still don’t see anyone taking it. After all, you can just Shiv.

Glyph of Pick Lock – Reduces the cast time of your Pick Lock ability by 100%. (Old: 75)

Convenience, nothing more to say.

Glyph of Hunger For Blood (new) – Increases the bonus damage from Hunger For Blood by 1% per application.

Well well well, does assassination finally have a third glyph? You bet and it’s a nice one. That per application phrase is weird though, I thought they were doing away with HfB applications.

Glyph of Killing Spree (new) – Reduces the cooldown on Killing Spree by 45 sec.

Nice, but can it beat out the glyph of Sinister Strike, Slice and Dice and Rupture? I doubt it.

Glyph of Shadow Dance (new) – Increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 4 sec.

Maybe we’ll see something beside Mut/Prep in Pvp??

Glyph of Fan of Knives (new) – Increases the damage done by Fan of Knives by 20%.

Great for those AOE situations but I don’t expect a lot of rogues to take this in the long run.

Glyph of Tricks of the Trade (new) – Your Tricks of the Trade grants an additional 10% bonus damage to your target.

That’s neat. Looks like they really did expect rogues to be sharing tricks with each other. Does anyone else wish they had more glyph slots?

Glyph of Mutilate (new) – Reduces the cost of Mutilate by 5 energy.

Look like our assassination brethren and sisteren are going to be having a choice in glyphs come 3.1

Glyph of Cloak of Shadows (new) – While Cloak of Shadows is active, you take 40% less physical damage.

I love you Cloak of Skill. That is all.

So there you have it. That’s A LOT of love for Assassination and poisons. Hopefully there is more to come and combat won’t be left out in the cold.

So the PTR for patch 3.1 is up. You can read the full notes here: 3.1 PTR Patch Notes.

Looks like everything that I talked about earlier is in for Rogues (with the exception of the mace spec buff…odd) with nothing new. The thing to note is that AR has a number to it’s reduced cooldown and that number is 3 minutes. With the glyph, this will put it in line with Blade Flurry and trinkets! Wow, looks like I’m going to have some glyph choices to make.

I’ll keep you up to date as I learn more.

Edit: Full Patch Notes below for those who can’t see certain sites from work or wherever.  Also…get back to work!

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.1.0

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/testrealm.html

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/patchnotes/

General

* All Ground Mounts may now swim without dismounting the rider. Flying Mounts still may NOT, and will dismount the rider upon entering water.
* Ulduar is now available for limited testing. Please visit the Public Test Realms for more details. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11572
* Players at maximum level will now be able to visit their trainer to pay a one-time fee and access the dual talent spec feature.
* A new Gear Manager feature has been added. Players will now be able to save gear sets for easy gear switching.

PvP

* Battlegrounds
o Players will now be able to queue for battlegrounds from any location.
o Seaforium Barrels can be looted while mounted, can now be seen from anywhere in the zone, and can now be found at the Central Graveyard.
o Teleporters can now be used while mounted and can now be seen from anywhere in the zone

Classes: General

* Hysteria, Tricks of the Trade, Enrage, Wrecking Crew, Death Wish, Arcane Power, Owlkin Frenzy, Beast Within, Avenging Wrath and Hysteria damage bonuses no longer stack together.

Death Knight

* Blood Boil’s damage increased to make up for Pestilence no longer doing damage.
* Blood Boil now does some damage to undiseased targets and extra damage to diseased targets. Its radius has been decreased.
* Blood Plague: Now lasts 15 seconds untalented.
* Death Pact: This heal cannot be a critical.
* Frost Fever: Now lasts 15 seconds untalented.
* Pestilence does no damage and has only one rank.
* Plague Strike and Blood Plague no longer remove hots. Plague Strike’s damage increased quite a bit to compensate.
* Raise Ally has a >15 min cooldown to keep it out of Arena.
* Raise Dead: Duration lowered to 60 sec. and cooldown lowered to 3 min. The cooldown on this ability now begins when the pet dies rather than when it is summoned.Rune of Cinderglacier now procs per minute instead of a 5% chance.
* Rune of Razorfrost now affects Frost damage done by the DK only, but stacks up to 10%.
* Strangulate no longer does damage and has been reduced to 1 rank.

Talents

BLOOD

* Blood Aura: Replaced with Improved Blood Presence. This allows the deathknight to keep the healing from damage done bonus of Blood Presence in any presence, and increases healing received while in Blood Presence.
* Blood-Gorged now grants armor penetration instead of expertise.
* Bloody Strikes now increases Blood Boil damage instead of Pestilence.
* Bloodworms now heal more.
* Dancing Rune Weapon: Fixed a bug making it trigger an unusual number of effects from the weapon equipped by the Death Knight. In addition, it will now only echo Death Knight spells whose primary purpose is dealing damage. Also corrected a bug making the effect last 8 seconds longer than intended.
* Scent of Blood will now proc on a dodge, parry or taking damage, and internal cooldown lowered to 10 from 20 sec.
* Sudden Doom now procs a free Death Coil instead of requiring you to push the button. Ranks reduced from 5 to 3.

FROST
F

* The following talents have moved in the Frost tree: Runic Power Mastery, Glacier Rot, Killing Machine, Chilblains, and Endless Winter.
* Black Ice now grants 2/4/6/8/10% Shadow damage in addition to the Frost damage.
* Black Ice: Frost Damage bonus lowered to 4/8/12/16/20%
* Blood of the North is 3 ranks instead of 5 for the same effect.
* Chillblains: Now a 15/30/50% movement speed debuff (up from 30%). Moved to position currently occupied by Glacier Rot.
* Endless Winter: Moved to position currently occupied by Chillblains.
* Frost Aura: Replaced with Improved Frost Presence. Allows the deathknight to keep the health bonus of Frost Presence in any presence, and decreases magic damage taken while in Frost Presence.
* Glacier Rot: Third rank added, and damage bonus increased to 7/13/20. Moved to position currently occupied by Endless Winter.
* Howling Blast: Swapped positions with Hungering Cold in the talent tree (HB is now at 51, and HC is now at 31). In addition, the damage bonus for targets with Frost Fever is now only 20%.
* Icy Talons – This talent how has a new icon.
* Runic Power Mastery down to 2 ranks.

UNHOLY

* Blood-caked Blade: Now has a 3 second cooldown on the effect.
* Desecration: This talent now has a 100% chance to be triggered. Additional points in the talent increase the damage bonus and snare magnitude instead of increasing the chance.
* Epidemic: Epidemic now has 3 ranks (adding an additional 3 sec of disease duration). Magic Suppression is 3 ranks (down from 5) for 2/4/6% magic damage reduction.
* Master of Ghouls: Now also reduces the cooldown on Raise Dead by 60 sec.
* Necrosis: Can now only be triggered by main hand attacks.
* New talent: Improved Death Strike. Increases Death Strike damage by 10/20.
* Night of the Dead: Redesigned to grant a flat reduction on cooldown to Raise Dead and Army of the Dead instead of a reduction from using abilities.
* Outbreak bonus for Scourge Strike lowered to 10/20/30%.
* Scourge Strike: Damage increased.
* Unholy Aura: Replaced with Improved Unholy Presence. Allows the Deathknight to keep the movement speed bonus of Unholy Presence in any presence, and increases rune regeneration rate while in Unholy Presence.
* Unholy Blight and Gargoyle have swapped places in the Unholy tree. Gargoyle is the new Unholy 51 talent.

Druid

* Abolish Poison: Now ticks every 3 sec, up from every 2. Now lasts 12 sec., up from 8.

Talents
BALANCE

* Owlkin Frenzy is now properly considered an Enrage effect. Now also does not trigger from spell hits, only physical ranged and melee attacks.

FERAL

* New Talent: Primal Gore: Grants the periodic damage from your Rake, Lacerate and Rip abilities the ability to critically hit.
* Savage Roar is now considered an Enrage effect.

RESTO

* Living Seed: This talent now accounts for your ineffective healing, rather than effective.
* Improved Mark of the Wild: Now also increases all of your total attributes by 1/2%.
* New Talent: Improved Barkskin: Increases the damage reduction granted by your Barkskin spell by 5/10%, and increases your resistance to Dispel mechanics by an additional 30/60% while under the effect of Barkskin.
* Replenish: This talent is now re-named “Revitalize” and now also works with Wild Growth.
* Tree of Life: You can now use Nature’s Grasp and Thorns while within this form.

Hunter

* Frost Trap: If the target who triggers Frost Trap is immune to its effect, the Frost Trap area effect will no longer be triggered.

Talents
BEAST MASTERY

* Improved Aspect of the Hawk now has a new spell effect.
* Improved Wing Clip: This talent has been removed.

MARKSMANSHIP

* Piercing Shots re-designed: Your critical Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of the damage dealt over 8 sec.
* Ranged Weapon Specialization: Points reduced from 5 to 3, 1/3/5%.
* Wild Quiver: Chance increased to 4/8/12%, up from 4/7/10%. Damage increased from 50% of an auto shot, to 80%.

SURVIVAL

* Hunting Party: This talent has been reduced to 3-points, and now increases your total Agility by an additional 1/2/3%.
* Lock and Load re-designed: You now have a 33/66/100% chance when you trap a target with Freezing Trap, Freezing Arrow or Frost Trap and a 2/4/6% chance when you deal periodic damage with your Immolation Trap or Black Arrow to cause your next 2 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells to trigger no cooldown, cost no mana and consume no ammo. This now has a new spell effect and sound.
* New Talent: Trap Launcher: When activated, your next Trap will be launched instantly at the enemy target. 1 minute cooldown.
* T.N.T. re-designed: Increases the damage done by your Explosive Shot, Explosive Trap and Immolation Trap by 2/4/6%, and gives your Explosive Shot a 33/66/100% chance to refresh the duration of your Immolation Trap effect on the target.
* Trap Mastery: This talent has been moved up to tier-2, up from tier-9.
* Wyvern Sting duration increased from 12 sec to 30 sec. PvP duration reduced from 10 sec to 6 sec.

PETS

* Roar of Sacrifice can be used on the hunter only.
* Stampede (rhino) only affects 1 target, but adds a 25% bleed damage debuff (that does not stack with Mangle etc.) in addition to its knockback.

Mage

* Arcane Blast stacking effect is no longer considered a Magic effect and will not be dispelled.

FROST

* Improved Water Elemental: Renamed Enduring Winter. Instead of the Water Elemental increasing mana regeneration for the Mage’s party, casting Frostbolt now has a 33/66/100% chance to provide the Replenishment buff to up to 10 people in the Mage’s party or raid.

Paladin

* Auras will now persist through death.
* Blessing of Kings is now trainable at level 20. Removed from talent trees.

PROTECTION

* New Talent Divinity:Tier 1 protection talent, increases healing done by and to you by 1/2/3/4/5%.
* Sacred Duty (Protection) rank 1 now increases Stamina by 4%.

RETRIBUTION

* Benediction (Retribution) now affects Hand of Reckoning.
* Fanaticism reduced to 3 ranks for 6/12/18% bonus and 10/20/30% threat reduction.
* Repentance no longer resets the Paladin’s melee swing timer.
* Righteous Vengeance reduced to 3 ranks for 10/20/30%.

Priest

* Abolish Disease: Now cleanses a disease every 3 sec, down from 5. Duration reduced from 20 seconds, down to 12 sec.
* Devouring Plague: This spell now has a new icon.
* Divine Spirit is now trainable at level 31.
* Holy Nova: Mana cost reduced approximately 20%.
* Hymn of Hope: This spell has been removed.
* Improved Holy Concentration removed.
* Prayer of Healing: This spell now heals the target’s party, rather than being limited to just your direct party.
* Shadowfiend: Health scaling increased. Now receives 30% of the master’s spell power. Mana return increased to 5%, up from 4%. The Shadowfiend now receives mana when its melee attacks land, rather than when it deals damage. Movement speed normalized to player movement speed. Tooltip revised.

s
DISC

* Divine Aegis – Divine Aegis effects will now stack, however the amount absorbed cannot exceed 125*level (of the target).
* Grace: Duration increased to 15 seconds, but now is only limited to one target.
* Improved Power: Word Fortitude – Now also increases your total Stamina by 2/4%.
* New Talent: Soul Warding: Reduces the cooldown of your Power Word: Shield ability by 4 sec., and reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Shield by 30%.
* Penance: Damage increased approximately 30%.This spell can now be cast on yourself.
* Power Infusion: This effect now has a new spell effect and sound.
* Reflective Shield:This talent has been removed.
* Unbreakable Will:Increased from 3/6/9/12/15% to 6/12/18/24/30%.

HOLY

* Circle of Healing: Healing increased by approximately 40%.
* Holy Concentration re-designed: Mana regeneration is increased by 16/32/50% for 8 sec after you critically heal with Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal or Renew.
* New Talent: Empowered Renew: Your Renew spell gains an additional 5/10/15% of your bonus healing effects, and your Renew will instantly heal the target for 5/10/15% of the total periodic effect.
* Serendipity re-designed: When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 6/12/20%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 20 sec.
* Test of Faith: No longer increases critical effect chance of your heals, but healing done on targets lower than 50% health is increased from 2/4/6 to 4/8/12%.

SHADOW

* Blackout: This talent has been removed.
* Darkness: This talent is now in tier-1, moved up from tier-6.
* Dispersion: Now clears all snare and movement impairing effects and makes you immune to them while dispersed.
* New Talent: Improved Devouring Plague (Shadow): Increases the periodic damage done by your Devouring Plague by 5/10/15%, and when you cast Devouring Plague you instantly deal damage equal to 5/10/15% of its total periodic effect.
* Shadowform: Bonus damage from critical strike chance removed and replaced by the ability of those periodic damage spells to generate critical strikes.
* Silence: Range increased to 30 yards.
* Vampiric Embrace duration increased to 5 minutes, up from 1 minute. PvP duration is now 60 seconds. Cooldown removed.

Rogue

ASSISSINATION

* Hunger For Blood: No longer stacks. Damage bonus changed to 15% for a single application. Requires a bleed effect active on the Rogue’s target. No longer removes bleeds from the Rogue.

COMBAT

* Adrenaline Rush cooldown reduced to 3 min.

Killing Spree: Now also increases all damage done by the Rogue while active by 20%.

* Savage Combat improved to 2/4% increased damage against poisoned targets.
* Lightning Reflexes reduced to 3 ranks for 2/4/6% dodge and 4/7/10% melee haste.

SUBTLETY

* Shadow Dance now opens a new action bar when used.

Shaman

* Bloodlust/Heroism: Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes, but Sated and Exhausted now last 10 minutes.
* Poison Cleansing Totem and Disease Cleansing Totem have been merged into “Cleansing Totem.” Cleansing Totem pulses every 3 sec, down from 5.

ENHANCEMENT

* Lava Lash now has a new icon.
* New Talent: Frozen Power: Increases the damage done by your Frostbrand Weapon if it is enchanted on your main-hand weapon by 10/20%, and your Frost Shock has a 50/100% chance to root the target in Ice for 5 sec. when used on targets at or further than 15 yards from you.
* Spirit Weapons: Now reduces all threat generated by 30%, not just physical attacks.
* Stormstrike charges have been increased by 2, and cooldown reduced by 2 sec.
* Improved Stormstrike re-designed: When you Stormstrike, you have a 50/100% chance to immediately grant you 20% of your base mana.
* Toughness: No longer increases your armor. Instead, this talent now increases your total Stamina by 2/4/6/8/10%.
* Unleashed Rage – Reduced to 3 points, down from 5. Each point now also increases your total Agility by 1/2/3%.

ELEMENTAL

* New Talent: Booming Echoes- Reduces the cooldown of your Flame Shock and Frost Shock spells by an additional 1/2 sec., and increases the direct damage done by your Flame Shock and Frost Shock spells by an additional 10/20%.

RESTORATION

* Ancestral Awakening: This talent now accounts for your ineffective healing, rather than effective.
* Cleanse Spirit now has a new icon.
* Riptide: This spell has a new icon.

Warlock

* Curse of the Elements (Rank 5) – Increased to 13% spell damage, up from 10%.
* Curse of Recklessness has been removed.
* Curse of Weakness – Now also reduces the armor of the target by 5%.
* Enslave Demon: Spell haste penalty reduced by 10%, Melee haste penalty reduced by 10%.
* Warlocks now innately have an increased 10% spell hit chance on the Enslave Demon spell.
* Fire Shield (Imp): You can now cast this ability on raid members, rather than party members.
* Ritual of Summoning: The summoning of the initial portal is now instant cast, down from 5 seconds.

AFFLICTION

* Eradication re-designed: Eradication: When you deal damage with Corruption, you have a 2/4/6% chance to gain the Eradication effect. The Eradication effect increases the critical strike chance of your Shadow Bolt spell by 30%. Each critical strike reduces the critical strike bonus by 10%. Lasts 30 sec.
* Haunt: Now only increases your shadow damage-over-time on the target. (No longer includes non-Shadow damage over time spells.)
* Malediction: No longer increases the effect of Curse of the Elements.
* Pandemic: This talent has been reduced to a 1-point talent, now grants your Corruption and Unstable Affliction the capability to critically hit.
* Shadow Embrace: Now only increases the damage done by your shadow damage periodic spells.
* Siphon Life: The Siphon Life spell has been removed. Siphon Life now causes your Corruption spell to instantly heal you for 40% of the damage done.
* Suppression: Now increases spell hit for all of your spells.

DEMONOLOGY

* Demonic Empathy has been removed.
* Demonic Empowerment: This talent spell now has a unique spell effect and sound.
* Demonic Sacrifice:This talent has been removed.
* Fel Synergy has been moved to tier-1. No longer increases Intellect, Stamina and damage of your summoned demon.
* Improved Enslave Demon talent removed.
* Mana Feed: This talent is now a 1-point talent, down from 3-points. Now is the 21-point talent in Demonology. Now grants 100% mana return to your pet, up from 33/66/100%.
* New Talent: Molten Skin: Reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%.
* New Talent: Decimation: When you Shadowbolt or Incinerate a target that is at or below 35% health, your next Soulfire cast time is reduced by 30/60% and costs no shard. Lasts 10 sec.
* New Talent: Nemesis: Reduces the cooldown of your Demonic Empowerment, Metamorphosis, Soulstone and Fel Domination spells by 10/20/30%.

DESTRUCTION

* Aftermath re-designed: Increases the periodic damage done by your Immolate by 3/6%, and your Conflagrate has a 50/100% chance to daze the target for 5 sec.
* Backlash has been moved up to tier-5, up from tier-7. Now requires Intensity (pre-req).
* Cataclysm: Now reduces the mana cost of Destruction spells by 4/7/10%. No longer increases the chance to hit.
* Conflagrate: Spell now works similar to Swiftmend, consuming an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the target and dealing damage based on the strength of that effect. Reduced to a single rank.
* Improved Immolate: Now increases the damage done by your Immolate by 10/20/30%, rather than just the direct damage.
* Improved Shadow Bolt: Now increases the damage done by your Shadow Bolt spell by 1/2/3/4/5%, and causes your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 1/2/3/4/5%. Effect lasts 30 sec.
* Improved Soul Leech: Now has a 50/100% chance to proc Replenishment.
* Master Conjuror: Increased from 15/30% up to 150/300%.
* Molten Core: This talent has been moved to Demonology.
* Pyroclasm re-designed: Now increases your Shadow and Fire spell power by 2/4/6% when you critically hit with Searing Pain or Conflagrate. Lasts 10 sec. Also moved down to tier 7, down from tier-5.

Warrior

ARMS

* Blood Frenzy improved to 2/4% increased damage.
* Heroic Throw missile speed increased.

Professions

Alchemy

* Blackmouth Oil and Fire Oil no longer require a vial.
* Increased the health granted by the Flask of Stoneblood.
* The Mercurial Stone is no longer required as a tool for alchemists. It is instead a green quality bind-on-equip trinket.

Blacksmithing

* Most of the recipes in the 1-300 skill range of blacksmithing have had their stats updated to be more useful.
* Added a new recipe for the Titansteel Spellblade.
* Titanium Plating now reduces the duration of disarm effects by 50% as well as increasing your block value.

Cooking

* Grub now sells the Dig Rat Stew recipe to players who completed the quest.
* Prospector Khazgorm, found in Bael Modan in southern Barrens, now sells the recipe for Dig Rat Stew to the Alliance.

Enchanting

* Added a recipe for enchanting staves with spell power.
* Several recipes in the 250-300 skill range have been rebalanced.

Jewelcrafting

* Added a new recipe to cut black diamonds.

Leatherworking

* Shadowskin Gloves and Dusky Boots no longer require Shadowcat Hide to create, but instead require an equal quantity of Shadow Silk. Shadowcat Hides can no longer be obtained from skinning.

Quests

* The fight event for the “Grim(oire) Business” quest at Vim’gol’s Circle in the Blade’s Edge Mountains now only requires one character to stand within a fire circle in order to summon Vim’gol the Vile. However, it still takes five characters, one in each of the fire circles, in order to interrupt Vim’gol the Vile’s Unholy Growth cast.

Dungeons and Raids

Eye of Eternity

* Malygos will now properly delay before breathing after a Vortex on Heroic difficulty.

Naxxramas

* The Chains of Kel’Thuzad will no longer reset the raid’s threat.
* The Portal of Shadows created by Shade of Naxxramas will only persist for a maximum of one minute.
* Players with pets who attempt to use the Obedience Crystals in Naxxramas will have their pets dismissed automatically so they may possess an Understudy.

User Interface

* New Advanced features for quest tracking are now available. Players will need to activate this option within the Interface panel.
* A new Color Blind option is available under the Interface panel.
* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Items

Glyphs

* Glyph of Blood Boil: Now only applies a snare to diseased targets.
* Glyph of Holy Light: Can no longer crit and has had its range updated.
* Glyph of Mocking Blow correctly increases damage of the ability by 25%.
* Glyph of Shocking’s tooltip has been corrected.
* Glyph of Sprint no longer reduces the duration.
* Darkmoon Cards of the North will now take three seconds per card to create.
* Divine Hymn will now trigger Illustration of the Dragon Soul.
* Frozen Scepter of Necromancy now sounds like other maces.
* Heavy Junkboxes will no longer have deprecated poison materials.
* Magic Dust now has a 10 second PvP duration.
* Old Naxxramas Shoulder Enchants will now soulbind items.
* Outrider’s Lammellar Legguards and Sentinel’s Mail Leggings have had their costs reduced to the correct value.
* Pack of Endless Pockets can now be mailed.
* Patroller’s Pack now sounds like a bag.
* PvP Trinkets will now break Shackle Undead.
* Several beverages missing from the “Beverages Consumed” statistic have been added.
* Several foods missing from the Food Eaten statistic have been added.
* Thunder Capacitor again requires four charges.
* Thunder Capacitor’s cooldown functions.
* White Tickbird Hatchling is now classified as a Pet.

Bug Fixes

* Dartol’s Rod of Transformation has had its tooltip corrected.
* Mace of Unyielding Life is correctly a 2H weapon.
* Many Northrend maces now make correct noises when sheathed and unsheathed.
* Many items with 110 attack power now correctly grant 110 ranged attack power.
* Oracle Talisman of Ablution’s spell data has been clarified.
* Personal Rating Requirements for offhand Deadly Gladiator items should now display correctly.
* Several Hateful and Deadly plate helms were over budget and have been corrected.
* Yaaarrrr! now has a detailed tooltip.

Here we are again on Monday and today is rather cold. It is a well known fact that Zaltu does not like to be cold. The cold makes Zaltu bitter and angry. It also makes him do weird things like refer to himself in the third person like some kinda big jerk. Alright, that’s enough, stop whining and start talking about your week. Yes sir, Mr Voice In My Head, sir.

The week was pretty good overall. I spent a decent amount of time in Wintergrasp, and you know, surprisingly, I don’t hate it. I’ve started to put together a gear set that almost but not quite appears to be a PvP set. This whole PvP thing is actually kind of fun. Granted I’m not spec’d for PvP in the slightest, nor am I really any good at it at the moment, but I am enjoying it and that’s all that matters? I hear there is this “arena” wherein you and a team can fight other teams. Mayhaps I should investigate.

Last Week’s Results

• Professions

400 fishing. Done and Done. That’s right, I am, the man.

• Macro

Let’s call this a draw, yes? If you read my Friday post you understand.

This Week’s List

• PvP

Run Wintergrasp everyday. Shards are delicious.

Yes, that’s it for this week. I’m taking the week “off” so to speak. Not that I won’t be playing mind you (I don’t actually do anything else) but I’m not going to bind myself to do anything in particular. I’m just going to relax and let the wind and my fancy take me wherever I end up (I hope there is pie there).

So what’s everyone else up to?

I’ve been playing around with MMOclusters custom achievement tool and boy is it more fun than it should be. Here are a couple of rogue-based achievements I’ve come up with. Personally I like the first one the best, but then again, I’m a sucker for terrible puns.

Let’s share, shall we?

So I know I mentioned earlier this week that I would be working with some (hopefully) neat LUA scripts to come up with some nice macros. Well that turned out to be an exercise in fail as most of those functions are protected and can only be called by Blizzard’s code. I really should have know that. Think before you speak Zaltu, think before you speak. But I don’t wanna. Well if you don’t, you end up having to backpedal on stuff. Well I’m really good at backpedaling. Good point, keep doing what you’re doing you awesome guy you.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to worry about remembering to actually use a trinket. I was rolling around with the Shard of Contempt and the Dragonspine Trophy for too long. If you’re like me, you certainly won’t mine having one less thing to worry about so you’ll be happy to hear that on-use trinkets are not on the Global Cooldown (GCD) meaning that you can macro them to other abilities, like so.

or

or

And so on and so forth. I personally like to macro them to my other abilities with two minute cooldowns (Killing Spree and Blade Flurry). Also if you like you can replaced the numbers with the name of the trinket, just remember to change it anytime you get a new one (which is why the numbers are better).

Enjoy your weekend!

Seems that Eresin has tagged me for
Voodoo Ventures’ Screenshot Challenge, wherein you are to post the 6th screenshot in your folder and explain what’s going on.

I don’t take a ton of screenshots and my sixth screenshot turned out to be an image from one of my first few raids in Magtheridon’s Lair. Yes, that’s me doing a massive 800 DPS as a combat dagger rogue. Yes faithful reader, it’s true, I have always been awesome.

Now it is my turn to do the tagging:

• Eskel of Gone Rogue
• Rogue Chick

You are, as they say, IT.

I have said on several occasions that for combat rogues Wound Poison outperforms Instant Poison due to the higher proc rate (50% as opposed to 20%). I’d like to take a minute and look at this in a little greater detail. I’m going to show how each poison scales with attack power and sense a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ve provided pretty graphs. Everybody loves pretty graphs right? Right? Sure you do…OK, what if they were both pretty and informative? Huh? Huh? Does that sweeten the deal some? Alright, how about if I just shut up and show you the graph? You win:

Above you have the damage per strike of our two poisons in question based on attack power (AP). How did I get these numbers you ask?

The base damage of Wound Poison is 231, with a .04 multiplier to AP. It has a chance to apply of 50%

The base damage of Instant Poison is 300, with a .10 multiplier to AP. It has a chance to apply of 20%
So, let’s look at 1000 and 3000 AP (round numbers are fun and easy!) for both.

That’s a pretty sound victory for Wound Poison.

Now, things change for our Assassination brethern and sistern (patent pending on that word by the way) who pick up Improved Poisons. Let’s see what happens when you add that extra 10% to apply to Instant Poison, shall we?

Well will you look at that, it seems that with Improved Poisons, Instant starts to overtake Wound at 2500 AP and beyond.

Interesting, no?