Project Lore

Patches are always such hard work.  When I head that Secrets of Ulduar was coming this Tuesday, I instantly budgeted extra time into my game playing schedule.  The catch was that it wouldn't be used for actually playing World of Warcraft.  All the changes to the MMORPG's core mechanics meant that I would need to do a whole lot of research to perfect my toons.  Sure, I could have done some ahead of time by using the PTR information, but I hate conducting experiments based on unfinalized data.  Over the past 48+ hours, I have spent every free moment I had to check on spec, gear, gem, and enchant changes.  There was also that Dual Spec thing to consider.  Who would have thought that a game could be so overwhelming sometimes? I know I try to be a bit general on my tips, but things are going to have to be granular for the time being.  Perhaps Hearthbourne or Pixiestixy can weigh in with specific Combat/Subtley advice, because I will be focusing on the changes to Mutilate (although some tips are applicable across the board), and what the poison loving rogues need to know to keep their DPS rocking. Let's start off with the basics, the re-tweaked Mutilate spec, which really isn't that different from pre-v3.1.  The main points of contention are the selection of Close Quarters Combat over Turn the Tables, and your Major Glyphs.  From the theorycrafting I have been privy to, CQC will lend an approximate .6% increase in damage over TtT.  A drastically simplified explanation is that CQC will always grant you 3% critical strike increase, while TtT only adds its 6% critical strike buff to combo point generating moves, under certain circumstance, and for a limited time.  The randomness of TtT's benefits happen to be its downfall. I've seen a few different setups for Glyphs, but to me, HfB, Mutilate and Rupture are the best choices for raiding rogues.  Sure, Garrote is nice, but you should be using Rupture far more frequently.  Envenom and Feint are useless since you can get that stack of poisons up in no time, and you always have Vanish.  I am tempted to give Fan of Knives a go in the future.  I do a fair amount of overall damage with my AOE spell (I hate the new graphic), so adding 20% to it may be worth it, even if FoK is incredibly situational. Outside of our spec, the most important thing to be aware of are the changes to poisons.  First off, our Deadly Poisons now generate 12% of their damage from our Attack Power, up from 8%.  The game changer for us is that poisons are no longer simply chance to apply.  As of Tuesday they are now under the procs-per-minute frequency model.  That modification nerfs the previous bread and butter of fast daggers because they can no longer apply more poisons than their slower counterparts.  Due to the change, Mutilate rogues should go back to slow main hand daggers in order to maximize the damage of Mutilate.  However, don't toss that speedy blade to a vendor just yet.  Fast daggers are still recommended in your offhand for Deadly Poison applications (Instant Poison should now be on your MH weapon) and Focused Attacks. What about gems and enchants you ask?  Assuming that you have meet the hit cap and expertise cap, you should put your gems towards agility and your enchants towards attack power.  Feel free to leave additional tips!  Pooled knowledge is a good thing.  Enjoy smashing faces. I may come off as a bit of a know-it-all when it comes to rogues (or at least my spec), but I have been playing the class since beta.  On the flip side, I have only been seriously playing a priest since I signed up a friend for the Refer-A-Friend promotion.  My spacegoat remains at level 70, but I have slowly, very slowly, been leveling her.  With Dual Spec now available, I foresee her hitting level 80 in the near future thanks to her new achievement.  This is where you priests come in, I need help with my specs yet again.  I've settled on this Shadow-based build for leveling (obviously).  On the healing side of the tree I went with a regen-heavy Holy spec that is very close to the spec Solidsagart rolled with pre-v3.1.  The healing spec is currently for 5-man, but will need to be tweaked for raids down the road.  Any and all pointers are appreciated. On a more general note, Naxxramas was completely playable last night.  Assuming we can get Naxxramas done in two days next week, we should be venturing into Ulduar.  I've also started my Argent Tournament dailies, expect a report on that next week.  How's the patch treating you now?