Awryn's personal guide to the Northrend rogue!

Hey there chaps and chapesses! Been a while huh?

Well, over the next few posts (and by few i mean when i can be bothered to discuss and explain the new goodies and baddies us rogues will be handed) i will be chatting aobut the Northrend expansion and it's affect on rogues.

This is , of course, open completely to dicussion, wether agreeing or critisizing, and i would love to hear people's opinions and presonal preferances!

Today comes my talk about combat, and it's roles and changes come WOTLK!

First of all, the (current) new ablities we can learn!

Fan of knives:
Instantly throw both weapons at all targets within 8 yards, causing 100% weapon damage.
(50 Energy, Instant, 30 sec Cooldown, 5 yd Range, Requires Melee Weapon)


This unfortunately, is the only ability trained for rogues in the combat section of the spellbook. At a first glance, it seems a little, i don't know, semi-pointless? But if you think about instances like Mount Hyjal, this becomes something a little worth while. With both weapon damage at the same time, you should do a nice bit off aoe damage. Overall though, its not really that much of an improvement to our dps, as i'm pretty sure mages would get annoyed with all the sheeps (or penguins!) you'll be breaking :P
Pros: an aoe, so can't be too bad.

Cons: Energy cost and rediculously long cooldown.

Next we will talk about the talent abilities learnt within the combat talent tree!

Throwing Specialization:
Increases the range of Throw and Deadly Throw by 2/4 yards and gives your Deadly Throw a 50/100% chance to interrupt the target for 3 sec.
(2 Ranks)

Requiring 35 points down the combat tree, this actually seems, to me, a bit silly. As far as i can tell, this is mainly a pvp based talent, and won't really help with combat pve very much. In my opinion this would probably be better suited in the subtlety tree, where a majority of pvp based talents are. However i'm sure there isn't much worng with a combat specced pvp rogue :P

Pros: Great for pvp.

Cons: Have yet to determine a proper raiding use for it. (it disrupts, but so does kick.)

Unfair Advantage:
Whenever you dodge and attack you gain an Unfair Advantage, increasing your chance to hit by 2/4% and the chance that attacks will miss you by 2/4% for 8 sec.
(2 Ranks)

This, to me, is a must have for both pve and pvp. The extra hit benefits us raiders greatly, and the pvp'ers are going to love both the hit and the dodge increase. Found in the must spend 40 points section, probably the best rogue combat talent to come out of wotlk.

Pros: Extra hit and extra dodge!

Cons: There aren't any... It's a winner! -Unless of course there's some long invisible cooldown on it, however it's still an excellent talent regardless.

Stay Of Execution:
When you have less than 35% health, all damage taken is reduced by 5/10/15% and you are treated as if you are at full health.
(3 Ranks)

Found directly opposite Unfair Advantage, costing 40 points to get to, is Stay Of Execution. Regarding it's description, i'd say this is another pvp based talent. However, like they say, a dead rogue does zero DPS, so you decide. It's a personal getback at the warrior's execute, and renders it useless against us. How can they execute when our life is technically full? Pvp frustration fun!

Pros: Warriors and raid bosses alike will be screaming 'WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!'

Cons: doesn't 'actively' enhance our dps.

Update: Waylander kindly pointed out this handy piece of advice that never crossed my mind: 'If you see the description of "Stay of Execution", you are treated as if in Full Health.
Imo this goes excellent with "Prey on the Weak" since you'll be always treated as if having full HP, then your crit will go up like crazy. Assuming of course that its based on a % basis.'

This would therefore, make Prey on the Weak, and Stay of Execution, and extremely useful combo to have!


Prey On The Weak:
Your normal melee critical strike damage is increased by 5/10/15/20/25% when the target has less health than you (as a percentage of total health).
(5 Ranks)

This talent, just like Unfair Advantage, is an incredibly useful talent to have. It has it's advantages in pvp and pve alike. Am i right assuming the second a bosses/opponent's health gets to 99%, and yours is 100%, your crit strike damage gets that increase? If so, this talent is priceless!
Pros: Extra crit strike damage within seconds of a boss/pvp encounter.

Cons: Are there any? -If it's percentage health like the discription, no, but if its actual health (eg 1000, 2000) then fighting a bear druid or a boss with millions of hp would render this useless until the very end! Let's hope it's the first one :P

Murder Spree:
Step through the shadows from enemy to enemy within 10 yards, attacking an enemy every .5 secs with both weapons until 5 assaults are made. Can hit the same target multiple times.
(1 Rank, Instant, 2 min Cooldown)

This is the last talent in the combat tree, costing 50 points to reach. At first, i was like 'Oh another pvp talent. Great for 5v5 or crowded rooms in BG's' But upon closer look i realised just how useful this ability could be in pve too! If i'm reading this right, it sounds like an opener, and if, like me, you have a great set of tanks in your guild, you could do this:
First of all, i'd open with garotte. Good old fashioned bleed effects! Then, i'd vanish again, and cast Murder spree. This means that not only have i applied a bleed affect, ive then hit the same target (assuming this is a boss) five times with both my weapons instantly. I can then continure to dps as usual, hoping this wont give off too much initial threat. Now this is assuming that it's a 'from stealth' ability. If it's not, then i'd use it whenever it's cooldown is off, for an extra DPS boost. 'Step through the shadows' on the tooltip would make me presume it's from stealth however.

Pros: Potentually, this could be an excellent addition to the combat raid rotation. However, i have yet to confirm it's energy cost (because surely an ability this good needs one)!

Cons: Possible high energy cost, and the fact that proabaly from stealth means you cannot use it's cooldown of 2mins to it's full potentual.

Well, thats about it folks for the combat tree! To summarise, the talents i strongly suggest you pick for a pve raiding rogue such as myself are:

• Unfair Advantage
• Prey On The Weak
• Murder Spree
• Stay of Execution (as above)
  

Thanks for reading! -Assasination should follow shorty!