27/0/44 As Rogue/Ret/Priest, Feeling Old At Big 30

Emailing you from an airport paid computer thing, I was supposed to arrive in NY Sunday night but one of my connecting flights got delayed which basically screwed up the entire itinerary and its all behind now. - Serennia

Serennia-sama in New York already?  Believe it!  Although I want to make it clear I will never provide lodging, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Vance "The Comeback Kid" Phuoc.  Anyone want to have lunch with Ming AND Serennia?  Maybe we should auction lunch opportunities like Warren Buffet and donate it to www.saveserennia.org.  

Sorry about the WOM scheduling issues last a few days, but with Azael out of town this weekend and Serennia-sama moving to NY, we had a hard time swapping people in and out.  Bodi and Zilea did an amazing job covering given the circumstances!

Shadowstep Is Already Addictive  

I was seriously prepared to tank a lot of points tonight as 27/0/44 and rogue/ret/priest.  We did hit a wall before especially against destruction lock teams, hence the desire to change things up a little.  But I did remember stuck in Eye Of The Storm 1v1ing a discipline priest, and it took so long his pain suppression came back up before I was able to drop him.  I also remember 1v1ing a restoration druid, I had berserker buff for +30% damage and I still could not kill him.

However, any spec built around honor among thieves is simply not meant to be a solo spec.  When playing as rogue/ret/priest, I haven't noticed any damage loss at all.  Ret/priest give me lots and lots of combo points, and with my own crits and ruthless procs I throw out on average, one eviscerate or kidney shot every two hemos.  A lot of the times I get CCed with just 1 combo point on, by the time I am out of the CC and shadowstep back to the target, I already have 4-5 combo points ready to evis and 2 hemos later I just dropped another 4-5 point evis.  I still get solo kills, in fact I get them more than before with shadowstep allowing me to finish off a 50% target quicker.

The hemo debuff is also more valuable when you are playing with another physical DPS class.  The average weapon damage of a retribution paladin is around 2500, adding 100 damage to that is still +4% damage.  For rogue it is a lot more.  Honestly all they have to do is make hemo debuff scale with attack power (4% attack power just like wound poison, keep the 40% glyph as is, with 5000 attack power is it too much to ask for 300-400 damage debuffs?  And maybe allow ghostly strike to consume all remaining hemo charges), and I will be buying the 2.6 sword first thing tomorrow.

You get the same benefit of shadowstep you always remembered, like shadowstep to get cheapshot/sap off against any target, instantly catch up to a warlock as soon as he teleports, immediately get onto a paladin as soon as his DK grips you off.  I just hope they lower the CD to 20 seconds to make it in line with comparable abilities like intercept and death grip.  30 seconds is way too long with the pace of WOTLK.  I don't even mind the root part, just lower the CD please!

You Do Lose Deadly Brew, And Cheat Death Is Not What It Used To Be

That is what I was missing most playing shadowstep, not necessarily the damage from wound poison but reliable snares against druid/shaman teams.  And god knows there are a lot of shaman teams with poison cleaning totems in 3.2.  I ended up taking the crippling glyph and I believe with a 1.4 offhand it will eliminate the need to shiv against anyone except an evasioning rogue, just like deadly brew.

And cheat death, even with 850 resilience did not win my team a single game out of the 20 we played.  Playing against rogue/lock/shaman I ate a 9K chaos bolt right through cheat death.  Playing against other teams I just die one global later anyway.  When cheat death procs at 10%, I do live through it, but more often than not a big hit takes me to 300 health or less, next hit procs cheat death and the opponent kills me right through it.

I almost want to drop it for master of subtlety, but both Hid and Litreocola still keep cheat death in their specs.  As rogue/ret/priest however we blow all of our CDs first 30 seconds of the game against half of the teams out there.  With 27/0/44 I think we actually front load more damage than mutilate thanks to premeditate, throw master of subtlety in there and we will probably drop even more people during cheap shot.

It is interesting to see two rogues who played 27/0/44 for a very long time, yet completely different glyph choices.  Is the glyph of hemorrhage worth it?  Litreocola is running with sprint, cloak of shadows and eviscerate.  Hid is running hemorrhage, ghostly strike and vigor.  Hid swears by Ghostly Strike while Litreocola doesn't even have it in his build.  I will most likely end up with my own set of 27/0/44 glyphs.  I really like the crippling glyph to remove the need to shiv against shaman/druid teams.  I like ghostly strike but it is costing me a glyph for marginal benefits so I dropped it from my build.  I would really like to include eviscerate into the equation as I throw it out a lot more than 41/5/25 builds, but I will have to sacrifice either vigor or hemorrhage.  Decisions, decisions . . . 

Will I Grab A 2.6 Weapon Tomorrow?

I will probably wait for the 3.2.2 release before deciding on weapons, although playing shadowstep is so incredibly addicting after two season's worth of 41/5/25.  I am really, really tempted but I have to make the best possible decision for the team.

So far at least as rogue/ret/priest, I don't think I am giving up much for a cleave team.  I am rarely tanking other cleaves (and if I am, evasion + set up helps a lot, so does shadowstep kidney on an evasioning rogue), and shadowstep really helps me to get to my target after stuns/snares and unload with ret assist.

For the top two rogue 3v3 comps at the moment (RMP and RLS), I don't think 27/0/44 cuts it, as mobility is not a premium when you are locking someone down when he is trying to get to your lock, and you need more reliable bursts when playing with a mage who is trying to line up his shatter.  Both lock/mage do a lot more than just unloading damage, so honor among thieves is not nearly as effective with them as with another cleave.

However, for rogues who are struggling in cleave teams and wanting a chance of pace, I really don't think you will actually lose points switching to shadowstep.  The mobility and hemo debuff makes up for the loss of 3 global bursts.  You will do more sustained damage as well because you can actually stay on your target.  Cleave is about sustained damage pressure as much as getting the burst window.

I feel like I am playing AR/prep when hemo was still 100% weapon damage.  The S7 gear is closing the damage gap, we just need a bit more love from Blizzard to make this THE spec!

Feeling Old At Big 30

Yeah I crossed the line yesterday, and I feel old and gray.

Three years ago I was a jobless scrub, no girlfriend, no future, all I could see was darkness.

And that is when I started WOM which brought me to Estel.  Six months later I got myself a job in a Fortune 500 company and shortly after, WOM got me a second job here at Gameriot.  Busy life style?  Check.  Married?  Check.  Kid?  Check.

If there is one thing I missed about life before 30, it was actually the times when I could afford to raid for the best possible gear, grind for rank 14 and be the best player I can possibly be.  Why should you be ashamed of your hobby?  What is the difference between playing WOW vs sitting in a bar with a drink in your hand?  You are wasting time either way, at least WOW is cheaper.

Being able to play as much WOW as you want is a luxury, just ask the Chinese players.  Enjoy the moment, because it will not last forever.  WOW is a mirror of RL, you can learn all the RL lessons in it, without RL consequences.  Take advantage of it and make your mistakes in a virtual world today, so you won't piss off your boss the same way you did to your guild leader.

WOW was the fuel that took me out of the depression.  It made me feel if I put my mind into something, I can be somebody at it.  I believe the same feeling will power Serennia-sama out of his own depression.

Believe it.