There you have it, a quick and easy macro for weapon swapping.

Awesome, we’re done here. Let’s go eat some Halloween candy!

No can do, voice in my head, we’re not done here.

Are you sure about that?

Damn sure, we still have to explain what weapon swapping is and how/when/why to do it.

Oh, well can I eat candy?

Knock yourself out.

If you’ve had your ears open to a lot of the recent rogue chatter you may have heard the term “weapon swapping” being thrown around a lot lately.

What is weapon swapping exactly?

Weapon swapping is switching your offhand weapon when you have a full 5 stack of Deadly Poison to another weapon with a strong (Wound or Instant depending on your spec) poison and then quickly switching back to your deadly offhand to refresh the stacks.

Why would we do this? Well, the same reason we do anything: If done properly it can be a nice boost to your DPS.

Sounds awesome, how do I start? Well, you need a couple of things to be successful at weapon swapping:

• Two Similar (preferably identical) offhand weapons
• Low Latency
• Quick Reflexes
• The ability to keep track of another timer with razor sharp accuracy

These last two are really really important because if you aren’t timing it right and you let the deadly poison stacks drop off then you will actually be hurting your DPS.

So, if you have all these things, give weapon swapping a shot but remember to practice, practice practice.

Alert – INCOMING EXPERIMENTAL PATCH 3.3 PTR TIP – Alert – THIS TIP IS EXTREMELY EXPERIMENTAL AND HAS NOT BEEN TESTING – Alert

You’re probably not familiar with the weapon enchant Black Magic. Currently it causes your damaging spell to cause a DOT but on the PTR it increases your haste rating whenever you deal spell damage.

What does this mean for rogues? Well, poisons will proc this effect. Is this enchant better than berserking then? No, BUT, using weapon swapping (provided you have enough weapons laying around) you could possibly swap in an offhand with black magic, wait for the proc, then swap back to your berserking offhand and then repeat this action when the internal cooldown of black magic is up.

Sounds nifty, keep a eye out for this one.

BOOOO…no one likes history, just tell us what we need to know.

Relax, it’s going to be quick. Remember in BC and (for the most part) before patch 3.1? I know it was awhile ago but think hard. Remember when Armor Penetration (ArPen) was…awful? Seriously, ArPen was arguably the worse stat in the entire game and you might as well have avoided it like the plague (save for Grim Toll which actually gave enough of it to make up for it’s general weakness as a stat).

You’re boring me buddy. So ArPen used to be bad, I remember, what’s your point?

My point, my patient-deprived, figment of my imagination, is that in patch 3.1 ArPen received a significant buff: A 25% increase in the effectiveness of ArPen.

Alright everyone, here is the short skinny

The short skinny?

Yeah, it’s a phrase, it means “here’s the deal”

I’m pretty sure you just made that up.

Maybe. Anyway, here’s the deal. Gear and stat scaling are getting a little out of hand, at least a bit more absurd than Blizz originally intended and the buff to ArPen turned out to be too much, so they’re nerfing it. Sad but true, such is life, etc, etc.

So, we can whine, we can complain or we can suck it up, look at the numbers and figure out what (if anything) we need to do.

Oh lord, you’re going to do math now aren’t you? No way man, I’m out of here.

Fine. Good riddance. So, here are the current ArPen numbers according to Elitist Jerks:

Hard Caps

Soft Caps (Mjolnir Runestone)

These are soft caps because Mjolnir provides 665 ArPen during it’s uptime (1232-665 = 567) so any ArPen above these caps is wasted during the proc uptime (which is significant).

So, the patch 3.2.2 nerf:

Currently, 1 ArPen Rating ~= .08% Armor Reduced (100/1232, rounded for simplicity)

Reducing this by 12% we get: 1 ArPen Rating ~= .07% Armor Reduced (.08 – (.08 *.12) again, rounded for simplicity)

So, what are our new caps?

Hard Caps

Soft Caps (Mjolnir Runestone)

So, what we’re looking at it about ~150 or so more ArPen to reach the caps (depending on your setup). Is the cap still attainable? Probably. Is this a nerf because it is going to cost you other stats to obtain it? For sure. Is this a bad thing? Well, if you think all nerfs are bad, then yes, but really, no. It’s a balancing act (and it doesn’t just affect rogues, all us melee -and I guess those silly hunters- are going to feel it too).

So there it is: History and Math, what a joyous day! Don’t forget to study for your Science test next week.

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!

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

So, as a rogue, our number 1 priority of our rotation is to maintain 100% Slice and Dice up-time and our number 2 priority is to maintain as high a Rupture up-time as possible. We then attempt to slip in as many Eviscerates as possible without breaking priority 1 or 2.

Hello dead horse, how nice to see you again. How have you been? Dead and stinky huh? That’s a shame.

Yeah, yeah, quiet down, I’m just reiterating some important rogue tenants that are relevant to the points I’m about to make.

Fine, fine, pad your post with repeated information. Be my guest.

Jerk.

Noob.

Right, now that that is over with, back to the topic at hand.

Today I’m going to talk about Energy Pooling, namely when you should be doing it. Energy Pooling is the tactic of waiting a few seconds for your energy to regenerate a little bit before throwing a finishing maneuver.

Why (and when) would you do this?

Let’s take a look at a real world example:

Real world?

Don’t get smart with me, you know what I mean. So, the example:

You have 5 combo points, plenty of time left on Slice and Dice, 3 seconds left on rupture and 35 energy, what do you do? Well, in this situation I feel you have 3 choices.

1. Eviscerate
   You can Eviscerate right then and there and then proceed to Sinister Strike your way back to 5 combo points for a Rupture. There is nothing particularly wrong with this choice, except that it is going to cost you some rupture up-time since rupture will for sure fall off before you can get back to 5 combo points (you should never throw a less than 5 cp rupture). Of course, this loss of up-time could be even worse if you have to refresh Slice and Dice before you can get your rupture up again.
2. Rupture
   You could just reapply rupture right away. If successful you are keeping your up-time up but you are missing out on a couple of ticks of the previous rupture’s damage, wasting them and defeating the purpose of keeping your up-time so high.

   I say “if you are successful” because it is possible that you will run into the “a more powerful spell is already active” error when trying to overwrite your previous Rupture. What is this error? Well, the damage of rupture is based on Attack Power, namely, the amount of Attack Power you have when you first apply it. Rupture will also not allow you to overwrite a stronger version with a weaker version. Therefor, if you applied the Rupture during a trinket proc or other AP buff that is no longer present when trying to apply the new Rupture you will get this message and probably end up spamming the Rupture button until the previous application drops off, which would actually unintentionally be option 3:

3. Pool your energy until Rupture drops off, reapply and then dump your energy. If you simply wait the few seconds for the previous Rupture to drop off and then immediately reapply you get the extended up-time of option 2 without the loss of Rupture ticks. The extra energy you built up can then be “dumped” with a few quick Sinister Strikes (which you would have had to wait for energy to do using method 2). You see, you only gained, you didn’t lose (as long as you didn’t let your energy cap out, more on that below).

You see, energy pooling can be very effective in helping your Rupture up-time which will give a little boost to your DPS but there is one thing you must avoid at all costs with pooling.

DO NOT LET YOUR ENERGY CAP OUT

Let’s say it one more time for good measure.

DO NOT LET YOUR ENERGY CAP OUT

If you’re energy caps out, you are losing DPS every second (that’s energy you could be spending on combo moves which would allow you to regen more energy, and so on and so on).

An important thing to remember is that Relentless Strikes will give you 25 energy for a 5 point Rupture, therefor the “cap out” level when pulling is actually 75, not 100.

So, you’re probably asking, “Zaltu, you handsome, handsome man, what are the exact conditions in which I should pool?”

That, my friend, is something you have to figure out for yourself. Meaning, there are no hard and fast rules beyond what I have mentioned previously. The only way to get a feel for it is to add the concept to your knowledge bank and practice it. It will eventually become second nature. A quick and dirty tip I can tell you now is that it is better to throw an extra Sinister Strike than let your energy cap out.

Energy Pooling is boring. Stab stab stab stab!

Yeah, but it’s a good technique.

Your face is a good technique.

Thank you?

I hate you.

No one missed you, just give them the damn information. People come here for advice and strats not to hear about your mundane life. If you must talk about that, throw it at the bottom.

Valid point, though very meanly said.

So awhile back I did a post on Feint in Ulduar. Some time has past since then and I’ve actually seen a lot more of this little instance.

You mean more than 5 bosses?

Yes, Mr spiteful, I’ve actually seen 12 of the 13 bosses at this point.

Still haven’t killed Yogg yet though, huh?

You’re as much to blame on that as I am.

…

Nothing to said to that? Good. Back to the business at hand, let’s go through the bosses of Ulduar and see where Feint can make your healers love you. I’ll be rating the usefulness of feint on a scale of 1 to 5 stab wounds, where 1 is basically a waste of your time and 5 is a must must must use always, because everybody loves numbers.

Flame Leviathan

Usefulness: N/A

Obviously you’re in a vehicle here, so no feint.

Why did you waste space on this then?

It’s called consistency, I’m listing all the bosses.

It’s called padding your post.

Razorscale

Usefulness: 1 Stab Wounds

While using Feint will help you take less damage from the whirlwind of the adds, I don’t consider that a very viable use.

Just say it, if you get hit by the whirlwind you’re noob and even if feint saves you you’ll clearly noob it up in some other way and die anyways.

Don’t be mean. But yeah, don’t get hit by the whirlwind.

Ignis

Usefulness: 5 Stab Wounds

Flame Jets is your target here. You should be using cloak of skill to avoid it whenever possible but you won’t be able to cloak them all. Whenever cloak is down, throw a feint to decrease the load on your healers.

No lame math this time?

Well, since you asked. On Heroic mode, Flame Jets does 8,483 to 9,517 damage and then 2,000 damage every second for 6 seconds. A well timed Feint can halve the initial damage and about 4-5 ticks of the dot, preventing anywhere between 8,241 to 9,758 damage (8,483-9,517 /2 = 4241.5-4758.5) + (8000-10000/2 = 4000+5000)

XT

Usefulness: 5 Stab Wounds

Keep your eyes open for Tympanic Tantrum because it does 10% of your hit points every second for 8 seconds for a total of 80%. With Feint you can knock that down to 50% ( (10% *6)/2 + (10% *2) ).

…Well? No comment?

What, huh? Were you saying something? I wasn’t listening.

…

Assembly of Iron

Usefulness: 1 Stab Wound

It is possible to use Feint when a rune of death is dropped on you to negate a few of the ticks, however, I wouldn’t recommend it, it is better that you just GTFO, as they say.

As who says?

You know, they.

Oh…right…loser

Kologarn

Usefulness: 2 – 3 Stab Wounds

This big Santa Claus looking guy’s right left arm will cast shockwave periodically which does (on heroic) 13,875 to 16,125 damage to the entire raid so a successfully timed Feint will save you 6,937 – 8,062 damage. The reason this doesn’t score higher on the usefulness scale is that is very unpredictable and you really have to guess when to feint to get it off right.

Too much work, let the healers handle it.

It can feel that way, yes and if the healers aren’t struggling on this fight then sure, don’t worry about it but if they are struggling (particularly when the fight is being learned) you can help take a little bit of the strain off of them.

Auriaya

Usefulness: 3 Stab Wounds

Her sonic screech ability does (on Heroic) 190,000 to 210,000 damage divided equally among all enemies standing in front of her. This seems like a ton but divide 25 ways (as it should be) it is only 7,600-8,400, your Feint will knock this down to 3,800 – 4,200. Not essential but a nice bit of help to your healers.

I like kitties.

Yeah me too, I guess we can finally agree on something.

‘Bout time.

Hodir

Usefulness: 3 Stab Wounds

Frozen blows will cause (on Heroic) 4,000 Frost Damage to the entire raid every 2 seconds for 20 seconds. Feint will reduce 3 ticks for a total of 6,000 frost damage. It may not seem like a lot but it can really add up in the course of this (healing intensive) fight.

I like this fight, it’s cool.

I thought I said no puns?

Yeah, like I listen to you.

Thorim

Usefulness: 1-2 Stab Wounds

Like on Razorscale you can use Feint to take less whirlwind damage (a lot of which is unavoidable when in the pit) but that’s hard to time and you’re much better off just dismantling the champions before they whirlwind.

When Thorim himself is engaged you can use Feint to take some of the sizzle off of chain lightning but it is very hard to time which is why the usefulness rating is as low as it is.

This fight is the pits.

I hate you so much.

<3

Freya

Usefulness: 1 1/2 Stab Wounds

If you find yourself too close to detonated lashers and your cloak is down…

AKA, you screwed up

Please don’t interrupt, if you find yourself in this situation a quick Feint can save the day but you’re best just avoiding this situation.

In phase 2, you can Feint the explosion from the bombs she drops but, again, she should just be avoided.

Mimiron

Usefulness: 1 Stab Wound

You’d think there would be more to Feint on this fight that contains so much crazy AOE but the truth is you really just need to avoid all of that. In phase 2 he casts Heat Wave. You can Feint the initial damage but not the DOT, it’s hard to time and not worth it.

God. I LOVE robots!

Me too!

I still hate you.

Right back atcha big guy.

General Vezax

Usefulness: N/A

You shouldn’t be taking any damage in this fight.

Enjoy your kicking duty.

I’m leaving Yogg and Algalon off the list for now since I don’t have enough experience (or in the case of the later, no experience) to speak on them.

Noob.

No, you.

Touche

So that is that. Feint in Ulduar. Use it, love it.

So, where the hell have a been? Short answer is I just took a little unannounced break.

Lazy Jerk.

Shut up you. Medium answer is that life just got a little hectic for awhile and I was just really busy.

Again, lazy jerk.

The long answer is well, long, so I’m not going to go into it.

QQ more.

Shut up.

Anyway, I make no promises but I’m going to be doing my best to get back on track.

This is a very simple question and that’s part of why I choose it to answer directly in a post. It is relatively easy to say that Mutilate rogues use Envenom, while Combat rogues use Eviscerate. Sometimes I feel like the why of things are glossed over a bit too much. So why do mutilate rogues use Envenom?

Well, the quickest answer is that Envenom ignores armor and thus will do more damage than Eviscerate.

Simple huh? Well, until next time…hey wait…what are you doing…I’m done here…let go of me…I don’t wanna explain anymore…ow…ow…STOP HITTING ME. FINE!

OK, OK, so if that’s the case than why don’t you use Envenom as combat?

Well, first off most Combat builds do not take Vile Poisons so there Envenom will do less damage.

Secondly, Combat builds lack the Improved Poisons and Master Poisoner talents. These talents add an additional 55% chance to apply deadly poison! What this means is that a Mutilate rogue will be able to reapply a 5 stack of deadly poison in no time flat. The time it takes for a Combat rogue to reapply the same stack is significantly higher and thus actually turns into a lose of DPS (particularly when you take into account the T7 2-piece bonus).

And those reasons, are why you use Envenom as a Mutilate rogue. Pretty snazzy huh? Snazzy is a good word, people should use it more often.

Got a question you just must have answered? Leave a comment or drop me a line.

Is it better to gem with agi or attack power?

The quick and simple answer is to consult a spreadsheet. That wasn’t the answer you wanted though was it? So yeah, more often than not, AP gems provide an ever-so-slight advantage over AGI. The difference is so slight, however, that it is generally up to personal preference. I, personally, always gem for AGI.

It should be noted that once you have the T8 4-piece bonus, AGI will always come out on top.

What is the best talent build and glyphs for Assassination?

51/13/7

Often, depending on your gear, you can switch some points around in Master Poisoner for Turn the Tables. You’ll have to check a spreadsheet to be exact on this and it’s generally not worth worrying too much about.

What is the best talent build and glyphs of Combat?

15/51/5

Obviously, you can change Close Quarters Combat out for your weapon of choice. A good thing to note is that if you are using fists/dagger, you can replace that one point in Endurance with one point in Throwing Specialization. I’m a fan of this, as it helps on a couple of fights in Ulduar.

What poisons should I be using?

For Combat: Wound on the Main Hand and Deadly on the Off Hand.

For Mutilate: Instant on the Main Hand and Deadly on the Off Hand.

Why are you so awesome?

Just born that way I guess.

Will you have my babies?

Yes.

You’re damn sexy.

Not a question, but you are correct.

Overkill currently decreases the energy cost of abilities by 10 while in stealth and for 6 seconds after breaking stealth. So yes, this is a nerf but not a particularly huge one and I’m actually pretty happy about it. Happy about a nerf? Zaltu you crazy, handsome bastard what are you talking about?

Well, it’s simple really.  This change cuts down on our opening burst which is, admittedly, slightly over the line. It is a nice, balancing change that certainly won’t gimp us in any terrible way. Trust me, we are still going to be able to front load a lot of damage with a full energy bar. I’m actually willing to bet that the 30% increased energy regen will be really nice after a Vanish. Time will tell on that one.

Side Note: The previous comments apply mostly to PvP, I don’t expect this change to have a huge effect (if any) on PvE Mutilate. I haven’t run the numbers but I expect the increased energy regen to more than make up for the loss of the decreased energy cost (so yes, you will still be using Vanish on cooldown).

So, bravo Blizzard, this one is well played overall.