One Rogue's Journey

So, how you gem your gear is pretty important.

You sir, are a master linguist.

I know, right? I should get paid for this.

Anyway, one of the things you have to take into consideration when gemming your gear is socket bonuses. When should you go for them? Often times a spreadsheet is your best answer to theses and many other DPS questions but I’m going to take a minute and show you how to quickly eyeball a piece of gear and make an intelligent decision.

A quick disclaimer first: The most important thing when gemming is to make sure your Meta-Gem stays active. Which for rogues, will require at least 1 red, yellow and blue gem and you should use take the opportunity to kill two birds with one gem (rim-shot) and grab a socket bonus while activating your meta whenever possible.

For this discussion I will be using the following gems to fill the various slots.

• Red – Delicate Cardinal Ruby (+20 Agi)
• Yellow – Deadly Ametrine (+10 Agi, +10 Crit)
• Blue – Shifting Dreadstone (+10 Agi, +15 Stam)

The method of calculation (quick secret, it’s addition) is the same when using other gems but for simplicity I will be using these. It should be noted that when ignoring socket bonuses you will simply be stacking the red gem of your choice (Agi, Arpen, or AP)

Now, let’s look a two pieces of gear, one of which I suggest ignoring the socket bonus and the other I suggest going for the socket bonus. Let’s find out why.

Cuirass of Calamitous Fate – 1 Yellow Socket, 1 Blue Socket, +12 AP Socket Bonus

If you go for the socket bonus:
+20 Agi, +10 Crit Rating, +15 Stam, +12 AP

If you ignore the socket bonus:
+40 Agi

So, the question is really:
+20 Agi vs +10 Crit Rating and +12 AP

So, what’s the answer? Well, 20 Agi will give you 20 AP. So far, no socket bonus is winning but what about the 10 Crit rating? How does that stack up to the 20 Agility. Not too well actually.

With that known, the abstract question of which is better:
+20 Agi vs +10 Crit Rating and +12 AP
Is actually, which is better:
+20 AP and .24% Crit Chance vs +12 AP and .21% Crit change

That’s an easy, apples to apples comparison and you can easily see that not going for the socket bonus wins. Keep in mind you don’t have to do this math every time, once you know the basics you can pretty much eyeball it (do the math to double check if you’re unsure).

Conqueror’s Terrorblade Legplates – 1 Red Socket, 1 Yellow Socket, +6 Agi Socket Bonus

If you go for the socket bonus:
+36 Agi, +10 Crit Rating

If you ignore the socket bonus:
+40 Agi

So, the question is really:
+4 Agi vs +10 Crit Rating

So:
+4 Agi vs +10 Crit Rating
Becomes:
+4 AP and .04% Crit Chance vs .21% Crit Chance

To me, the socket bonus is an easy win here.

So that’s socketing in a nutshell. Isn’t math grand?

Happy Socketing!

First, the rogue specific changes:

Those first two were already know and we talked about them. They make us sad but we understand.

You understand, I liked being the top AOE.

Yeah, but was it fair?

Of course it wasn’t fair, but it was awesome and we deserve it because…uh…we just do.

The next two are decent buffs to our Assassination brethern and sistern, who were already beginning to fall behind Combat and was only going to slip further and further behind as those of us of the Combat persuasion gobbled up more and more Armor Penetration.

Decent way to give them a helping hand. I figured they would have just tacked more damage onto Hunger For Blood.

The next thing I found most exciting, while not rogue specific, is the return of leatherworking drums.

What the hell? This is what we get? What happen to my awesome haste buff?

Yeah, yeah, they aren’t the same as they were (or even close) but they removed them for a reason (Blizzard hates ultra heavy beats – there, I said it) but it’s a step in the right direction, right?

Maybe, those buffs look awfully familiar, don’t you think?

OK fine, so they probably won’t stack with Blessing of Kings or Mark of the Wild but a rogue can dream can’t he? A rogue can dream.

So apparently, there was some sort of event over California-way this last weekend.

And we weren’t invited? What the hell?

I know, it’s a travesty.

Seriously, where’s the love? Oh well, we probably didn’t miss anything important.

I suppose that all depends on your definition of important. They did announce the new expansion.

You mean the one we won’t be seeing for over a year?

Yeah, that one: Cataclysm.

OK, so I suppose you want to start speculating and talking about all the different things that are for sure going to change and we don’t really have any information on?

Sigh…yeah, I guess so. So, there was a ton of stuff talked about at Blizzcon this year and I’m not going to regurgitate it all. There are plenty of other sites that have done just that. I would just like to take a moment to make a brief, knee-jerk reaction statement to the stat simplification was discussed.

Knee-jerk reactions are the best kind of reactions.

Right, so, Attack power on gear? Gone. Armor Penetration? Gone. Expertise? See ya (I think, I can’t really remember if that’s gone or not). Attack power now comes solely from Agility. Yeah, really. Haste? Well, now it just increases our energy regeneration, actually, that’s really really really awesome.

Are you going to make a point? It’s going to be about the “dumbing-down” of the game isn’t it? You shouldn’t be that guy. Nobody likes that guy.

I hate to say it, but you’re right. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that this is just a dumbing down of the game and blah blah blah, catering to casuals and the like. That’s the kind of stuff that should be saved for the trolls on the official forums. I’m not jumping to any conclusion just yet and I don’t think anyone else should either. I would just like everyone to remember that just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s going to be bad and just because it may appear simpler (we don’t even really know that it will be) doesn’t mean that it’s watered-down.

Now that I’ve made my Don’t Panic statement I would just say that my initial reaction was one of sadness, while I understand that many people might not like using a spreadsheet to help them with the game, I do, very much so. What can I say, I’m a nerd who likes numbers.

Point? Oh yeah, I’m suppose to have one of those. So, my point is, just relax, the expansion is a long ways away and nothing is set in stone. Besides, shouldn’t we be more focused on patch 3.3 and taking down Mr. McFrosty up in Icecrown? I mean, that’s what we’re doing in Northrend, right?

Hold onto your hats for my response to this one, or if you don’t have a hat, go acquire one so that you may hold onto it.

What do I think about this nerf?

Good.

What??? Good? How can you say that? They’re nerfing us! Nerfing us! IT BURNS! OH THE PAIN, THE PAIN OF IT ALL!

Calm down you. Yes, they are nerfing our fan of knives damage but let’s be honest with ourselves: Fan of Knives is absurd right now. There is just no reason for us to be that good at AOE when we’re already so good at single-target (some people might argue against how good we are single-target but I personally think we’re in a great place). Plus the dress-wearers were getting really upset.

But I love the taste of the tears of mana users.

They are pretty delicious, I’ll give you that.

This makes me a bit sad. The interrupt from FoK was pretty awesome, even with only a 50% chance from having 1 spare point in it. It was nice to have in Thorim’s pit even to interrupt a few lightnings and heals and I’ll miss it.

Where this really hurts is guilds that have been using this to take down Yogg +0 and the devs have even said that “[the encounter] may be too difficult without the interrupt”. But then they also said that they will be nerfing that encounter a bit to compensate.

Oh well, I guess an AOE interrupt that did a ton of damage with no cooldown was too good to be true huh? I could see it causing quite a ruckus in PvP too.

There are Combat Rogues in PvP?

I don’t know, probably.

The Expansion

So there’s been a lot of talk about the expansion lately. With the new races being leaked and the different possible race/class combinations that have been floating around and I’ve got to say that most of the changes to the old world have been intrigued, I love the idea of a place I already know changing and becoming “new” again.

If I have to level through the barrens again I WILL stab someone in the eye.

Agreed.

Now, I won’t lie, my interests as of late have been firmly distracted by other games, but you have my attention Blizzard so try to drop something really interesting on me at Blizzcon will ya?

Oh and I’m totally re-rolling Goblin*

*Not a chance in hell.

So patch 3.2 dropped on Tuesday and with it the new raid instance: Trial of the Crusader. I’d like to talk about the first boss you’ll encounter in this new raid but first: Tuesday, September 1st, eh?

Yeah, what about it?

Seems you were a little off on your estimation of patch day huh?

No. I was actually a hundred percent right.

The patch came out two days ago and you say you were right about the September the 1st date?

Yup, exactly. I don’t expect you to be able to follow my reasoning so allow me to explain myself. As far as I’m concerned the patch is not fully released until all the content is at least accessible in some way, shape or form. The bosses in the Trial of the Crusader raid are on a lock out and will unlock one week at a time, therefor you will not be able to access the final boss (and thus the Heroic version of said instance) until, wait for it, Tuesday, September 1st, the actually full release of the patch.

Oh yeah, what then, how do you like me now?

That’s kind of a stretch don’t you think?

Not at all, now let’s take a moment to bask in my epicness before moving on to whatever it is you want to talk about today, something about a farm?

Sigh. I’m going to talk about the first boss encounter in the new raid: Northern Beasts. This boss fight is actually broken up into 3 different encounters. Let’s take it from the top.

Gormok

Gormok is pretty much a tank and spank as far as us rogues are concerned. The tanks apparently have to do some sort of taunting back and forth to deal with a debuff but…

Blah blah blah, tanks get hit in the face, who cares.

…Right, exactly. So the one little gimmick to this encounter is that every so often a “Snobold” will jump from his back and onto a random raid member. You’re going to have to break off, run to this person and burn down the Snobold. A simple “/targbet Snobold” macro will do nicely here.

In the normal version there is only 4 Snobolds, so deal with then, tank, spank and move on to the next encounter.

Dreadscale And Acidmaw

Say hello to the pair of worms, Dreadscale and Acidmaw or as I like to call them Firey and Farty respectively.

You’re so clever…what are you, 8?

Thank you, and 7. Anyways, Firey and Farty will alternate between mobile and immobile (one of them will always be each). Farty leaves poison clouds along the ground so he will need to be kited while he is mobile.

So, technically these two don’t need to be killed close together in time but they have a mechanic that makes doing so pretty useful.

Farty will throw Paralytic Spray on random raid members which will slow them and eventually paralysis them.

Firey will throw Burning Bile on random raid members, which causes a dot that causes damage in an area around them.

How are these related? Well, if someone with burning bile comes near someone with paralytic spray it will remove the paralytic spray. Ta-Da.

Rogue Note: You can Cloak of Skill out of both of these.

Correct, anyways, burn them down (I like the idea of focusing on whatever one is immobile at the time, they have a whirl knockback but it’s not a big deal).

Moving on.

Icehowl

I like this guys gimmick. Every so often he will leap into the air, doing damage to the whole raid and knocking them back into the walls, stunning them.

After that he will turn and focus on a raid member, after a moment he will charge. You have a speed buff so GTFO, because if he hits anyone he gains an enrage, increasing his damage and attack speed by 50%.

For the love of god, don’t keyboard turn. Strafe out, it’s not hard to avoid. DON’T KEYBOARD TURN!

Yeah, exactly, the best part is, if he doesn’t hit anyone he will be stunned and take 100% more damage, so, burn burn burn.

And that’s all there is to the Northrend Beasts. Now, collect your loots. Here are some awesome rogue loots (as discovered so far):

10-man Normal:

• Collar of Unending Torment
• Acidmaw Treads

25-man Normal:

• Stygian Bladebreaker
• Cloak of the Untamed Predator
• Legwraps of the Broken Beast