Complaints about the rogue class are mounting up on the forums, but once again the complaints seem to be entirely misplaced.
"I can't beat an equal-geared warrior!"
"I can't beat SL/SL warlocks!"
Wrong. You can beat them and should, in most cases. Resilience is not as much of an issue as it was in previous seasons, IMO. I can tear down a 450 resilience SL warlock PDQ. That's not to say that they are easy, or that I can't lose. I can, they are a dangerous class. As are warriors. But, they are far from unbeatable.
IMO, rogues have the advantage over every "non-healing" class in the game, except for, perhaps, a well-played frost mage.
So, where are rogues weak? They are weak against certain brands of healers. Healing classes are generally easy for rogues until they pass a certain gear threshold. Then, they can become nightmares, the worst of which being the resto-druid.
In a typical arena match, what determines who wins a 3v3 or 5v5 match? Class composition is obviously a primary factor, as is gear, and then relative skill. After that, what is more important? Good DPS or good healing? The answer is good healing. Healing wins matches, not DPS.
The best teams I've seen use a combination of CC and class abilities to help mitigate damage to themselves so they don't overburden their healers. Doing damage is a secondary concern and something that you do when the other teams reveals a chink in their armor. But, make no mistake. Healing is the backbone of the best teams. So much so, that teams will take out threats to a healer's mana pool as a high priority.
So, you are left with long matches which are not dependent on DPS until late in a match when a rogue's mobility is at its worst. Shadowstep was a nice fix to give rogues something similar to a warriors intercept. However, you have to make too many sacrifices in other places to get it.
Do warriors have to spec to get intercept? Do you see what I'm getting at here, Blizzard? At this point in time, I just can't see bringing a rogue into a 5v5 over an equivalently geared and well-played hunter, just for example. A marks PvP specced hunter brings CC in the form of frost trap, imp concussive shots, imp wingclips, and silences as well as being a threat to the opposing teams mana pool and buffs. And, to top it off they can do DPS, when needed, independent of mobility.
So, rogues are still the masters of 1v1 in the BGs and can do well in 2v2 and 3v3 (with very specific line-ups that require a very good healer), but are still quite weak for 5v5 IMO.
As for me, I'm going to work on a hunter alt.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Rogue Forum Topic of The Day: Welfare Epics
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3547621734&sid=1&pageNo=1
My take on things:
I really love some people on this forum. Arrogant, self-absored, and illogical. They try to derive individual worth out of what their team or guild has accomplished. And they try to demean others individually for what their team or guild has not accomplished.
Arena is NOT a primary measure of individual skill. It's a gear and class composition check first. Furthermore, a skilled player grouped with keyboard turning fresh L70 friends is not going to ascend up the ranks no matter how good they may be individually.
As far as getting gear. Getting gear via PvP is MUCH EASIER than getting gear via PvE. Actually trying to compare which one requires more skill is absolutely moronic since they require different skill sets.
If you think otherwise, then I'll have to ask what your end-game experience is. If you haven't been in a cutting-edge guild attempting content that has not been killed before, then you really have no place to speak. Dying repeatedly to learn a new encounter that may or may not be "tuned" correctly by Blizzard takes true f'n dedication.
I have much respect for the people in cutting-edge guilds and this is coming from someone who has mostly been dedicated to PvP. They quite literally beta-test the game for you.
My take on things:
I really love some people on this forum. Arrogant, self-absored, and illogical. They try to derive individual worth out of what their team or guild has accomplished. And they try to demean others individually for what their team or guild has not accomplished.
Arena is NOT a primary measure of individual skill. It's a gear and class composition check first. Furthermore, a skilled player grouped with keyboard turning fresh L70 friends is not going to ascend up the ranks no matter how good they may be individually.
As far as getting gear. Getting gear via PvP is MUCH EASIER than getting gear via PvE. Actually trying to compare which one requires more skill is absolutely moronic since they require different skill sets.
If you think otherwise, then I'll have to ask what your end-game experience is. If you haven't been in a cutting-edge guild attempting content that has not been killed before, then you really have no place to speak. Dying repeatedly to learn a new encounter that may or may not be "tuned" correctly by Blizzard takes true f'n dedication.
I have much respect for the people in cutting-edge guilds and this is coming from someone who has mostly been dedicated to PvP. They quite literally beta-test the game for you.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
More Resto Druid Conversation.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3271126490&sid=1&pageNo=1
The topic that just keeps on giving.
It's really interesting how so many people can have different perspectives of balance in the game. Most of this comes from their own experience, I'd say.
I've had my differences with Ming, some of which may be of legendary status by now... but I've always considered him to be a good rogue who is very knowledgable about the class. Sometimes I disagree with him, but usually not. And, Ming agrees that resto druids exist that can just flat out tank the best a rogue can throw at them in CASTER form. What this means is that if they are just toying with the rogue and if they actually used their full abilities it would be even worse.
Sure, these resto druids might be rare. But, they exist and as others learn this is possible their numbers will increase.
The topic that just keeps on giving.
It's really interesting how so many people can have different perspectives of balance in the game. Most of this comes from their own experience, I'd say.
I've had my differences with Ming, some of which may be of legendary status by now... but I've always considered him to be a good rogue who is very knowledgable about the class. Sometimes I disagree with him, but usually not. And, Ming agrees that resto druids exist that can just flat out tank the best a rogue can throw at them in CASTER form. What this means is that if they are just toying with the rogue and if they actually used their full abilities it would be even worse.
Sure, these resto druids might be rare. But, they exist and as others learn this is possible their numbers will increase.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Nerf Hemo!
Nerf Hemo! But, restoration druids? NO PROBLEM.
NerfHemo.wmv
Clearly hemo does too much damage for this PvE restoration druid to handle! I'm kicking out around 500 DPS sustained DPS in this fight (most fluctuation between 400-600 DPS). But once the druid gets their instacast HoTs up, I can barely dent the druid's health. Strong healing is fine. What takes this way over the fucking line is the mana regeneration. You have instacast HoT healing doing more than 600 hps AND essentially an infinite supply of mana?
Please... this shit is broken. It's far more broken than hemo is, that's for sure. Will Blizzard continue to ignore this? Most likely.
I was thinking to myself. How could I possible take this druid down solo? My only idea was to use an AR/prep build and just absolutely cooldown dump at the beginning of the fight. You'd have to kill the druid outright before they get those instacast HoTs up and the only way I see doing that is a long duration "stunlock" utilizing blind/sap and two ARs (that's assuming no trinket, of course - heh).
Then, I came to the rogue board later in the day and saw that AR was being taken off of prep (something I agree with BTW - I disagree with the give-and-take-back hemo buff-nerf).
I posted this clip on an internal forum yesterday as well. Without previously talking about it, one of my friends said that the only way a rogue could take down that druid was with AR/Prep, agreeing independently with my earlier assessment.
Then I got to say in an ominous voice, "you haven't heard yet, have you?"
I've always wanted to do that. Keke.
In hindsight, I could have used EA here but I don't generally bother with a druid since they can just go into bear form anyway. So, I use my CPs to keep rupture and snd up. I've never seen a resto druid just stand there and take it like this without going into form before, so it didn't cross my mind. With that mana regen I don't think EA would have made a difference though.
My apologies for the music, I took one of the most annoying songs I could find and sped it up to reflect my annoyance with the fight.
Also, before my numerous lovable nitpicking fans point out that I blinded while the druid was dotted, I'll point out that was using blind to disrupt the root cast as it is more reliable than kick and gouge in a laggy enviroment. I went LD about 2 minutes after this fight.
BTW, an alliance paladin came by and the druid didn't get the GY back. Mission accomplished, heh.
NerfHemo.wmv
Clearly hemo does too much damage for this PvE restoration druid to handle! I'm kicking out around 500 DPS sustained DPS in this fight (most fluctuation between 400-600 DPS). But once the druid gets their instacast HoTs up, I can barely dent the druid's health. Strong healing is fine. What takes this way over the fucking line is the mana regeneration. You have instacast HoT healing doing more than 600 hps AND essentially an infinite supply of mana?
Please... this shit is broken. It's far more broken than hemo is, that's for sure. Will Blizzard continue to ignore this? Most likely.
I was thinking to myself. How could I possible take this druid down solo? My only idea was to use an AR/prep build and just absolutely cooldown dump at the beginning of the fight. You'd have to kill the druid outright before they get those instacast HoTs up and the only way I see doing that is a long duration "stunlock" utilizing blind/sap and two ARs (that's assuming no trinket, of course - heh).
Then, I came to the rogue board later in the day and saw that AR was being taken off of prep (something I agree with BTW - I disagree with the give-and-take-back hemo buff-nerf).
I posted this clip on an internal forum yesterday as well. Without previously talking about it, one of my friends said that the only way a rogue could take down that druid was with AR/Prep, agreeing independently with my earlier assessment.
Then I got to say in an ominous voice, "you haven't heard yet, have you?"
I've always wanted to do that. Keke.
In hindsight, I could have used EA here but I don't generally bother with a druid since they can just go into bear form anyway. So, I use my CPs to keep rupture and snd up. I've never seen a resto druid just stand there and take it like this without going into form before, so it didn't cross my mind. With that mana regen I don't think EA would have made a difference though.
My apologies for the music, I took one of the most annoying songs I could find and sped it up to reflect my annoyance with the fight.
Also, before my numerous lovable nitpicking fans point out that I blinded while the druid was dotted, I'll point out that was using blind to disrupt the root cast as it is more reliable than kick and gouge in a laggy enviroment. I went LD about 2 minutes after this fight.
BTW, an alliance paladin came by and the druid didn't get the GY back. Mission accomplished, heh.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Boycott China
First Ming, now this.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/12/some-maxtor-personal-storage-3200s-shipped-with-virus/
What is going on in China? They ship our kids lead-based toys and candy laced with date-rape drugs, and now pre-installed viruses. It seems to be that no product from China can be trusted until they start cleaning house. Or perhaps the Chinese government just lets this go on with a wink-and-a-nod.
Boycott China. Just kidding about the Ming thing.
Sort of...
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/12/some-maxtor-personal-storage-3200s-shipped-with-virus/
What is going on in China? They ship our kids lead-based toys and candy laced with date-rape drugs, and now pre-installed viruses. It seems to be that no product from China can be trusted until they start cleaning house. Or perhaps the Chinese government just lets this go on with a wink-and-a-nod.
Boycott China. Just kidding about the Ming thing.
Sort of...
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Gaming Malaise
I'm back at work now, and most of my friends have either left WoW completely or are cutting down online time to take care of real life projects. Things are definitely in a slump and ATM I am in solo mode. I have no interest in forming an arena team with a bunch of people I don't really know for the same reasons that I never do PvE dungeons with a PUG.
When it comes right down to it. I don't trust people very much. Well, not most of them anyway. ;)
Mortale said in a recent discussion on the rogue forums that social skill is now a part of pvp skill, and you know... I laughed. But, when you think about it the statement is very insightful and correct. Having good connections and knowing the right people will take you farther in the current system than individual skill ever will.
One of my problems is that I've always treasured independence. I have no problem helping other people complete a task or some goal, BUT... I absolutely HATE asking for help and recieving help makes me feel uncomfortable. The only people I feel comfortable asking for help are my good friends. I would never ask someone I don't know well for help. Never.
So, what do I do when most of my friends are gone? Hrm, I've been struggling with that one for a bit myself. I messed around with Tabula Rasa for a few weeks, and I don't regret it. It was a fun game, particularly the instances. Very fast paced PvE combat with a FPS type of feel to it. However, I don't think it will serve as a good platform for PvP so it's lifespan was short with me. I'm still looking for my Warhammer invite. We know one person so far who has been invited. Hopefully more of us will be invited sooner rather than later.
So, what have I ended up deciding to do to pass time? I'm playing Chromed in the 60-69 bracket as a mutilate build and having fun. The 60-69 bracket reminds me of oldschool PvP that isn't corrupted by ridiculous resilience values and gear imbalance. I've never played this game with a gear advantage, ever. I've always been behind the curve and I've shown that the curve can be beaten (at least in the past). But, I'm tired. I'm tired of fighting people with better gear than me. Just, so damn tired of it. It takes me a hell of a lot more effort to kill someone than it takes them to kill me. And even then, the fights are just often long and boring. So long in many cases that a rogue is forced to use every single tool at their disposal just to win... one... fight. And that sucks.
So, I'm just going to stay in the 60-69 BG until my Warhammer invite arrives and gear myself as best I can with my limited resources (me). From time to time I'll release some clips just to remind people of what it was that once made playing a rogue fun.
Here is the first of such clips. It's just a small collection of a few uneditted straight forward clips. The song is "Insect" by Die Warzau.
homage.wmv
The file is only around 80 MB, I'd suggest the full download over the stream.
When it comes right down to it. I don't trust people very much. Well, not most of them anyway. ;)
Mortale said in a recent discussion on the rogue forums that social skill is now a part of pvp skill, and you know... I laughed. But, when you think about it the statement is very insightful and correct. Having good connections and knowing the right people will take you farther in the current system than individual skill ever will.
One of my problems is that I've always treasured independence. I have no problem helping other people complete a task or some goal, BUT... I absolutely HATE asking for help and recieving help makes me feel uncomfortable. The only people I feel comfortable asking for help are my good friends. I would never ask someone I don't know well for help. Never.
So, what do I do when most of my friends are gone? Hrm, I've been struggling with that one for a bit myself. I messed around with Tabula Rasa for a few weeks, and I don't regret it. It was a fun game, particularly the instances. Very fast paced PvE combat with a FPS type of feel to it. However, I don't think it will serve as a good platform for PvP so it's lifespan was short with me. I'm still looking for my Warhammer invite. We know one person so far who has been invited. Hopefully more of us will be invited sooner rather than later.
So, what have I ended up deciding to do to pass time? I'm playing Chromed in the 60-69 bracket as a mutilate build and having fun. The 60-69 bracket reminds me of oldschool PvP that isn't corrupted by ridiculous resilience values and gear imbalance. I've never played this game with a gear advantage, ever. I've always been behind the curve and I've shown that the curve can be beaten (at least in the past). But, I'm tired. I'm tired of fighting people with better gear than me. Just, so damn tired of it. It takes me a hell of a lot more effort to kill someone than it takes them to kill me. And even then, the fights are just often long and boring. So long in many cases that a rogue is forced to use every single tool at their disposal just to win... one... fight. And that sucks.
So, I'm just going to stay in the 60-69 BG until my Warhammer invite arrives and gear myself as best I can with my limited resources (me). From time to time I'll release some clips just to remind people of what it was that once made playing a rogue fun.
Here is the first of such clips. It's just a small collection of a few uneditted straight forward clips. The song is "Insect" by Die Warzau.
homage.wmv
The file is only around 80 MB, I'd suggest the full download over the stream.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Rogue IS Hard.
You might have noticed that I have a bit of a split personality when it comes to rogues. One half of me hates them, and the other half is sympathetic towards them and still thinks they are the most fun class to play. The latter of those personalities is responsible for this post.
If you are a rogue, I'm sure you've had this kind of thing happen to you numerous times and it kind of captures the true essence of playing a rogue. I'm low health from just killing someone when a warrior charges me from behind, then...
retard.wmv
... some retard breaks my blind halfway through it's cycle while I'm bandagin and feeds the warrior a shit-ton of rage. But, hey... you don't need to display teamwork or intelligence when you can put out that kind of damage. Amirite?
If you are a rogue, I'm sure you've had this kind of thing happen to you numerous times and it kind of captures the true essence of playing a rogue. I'm low health from just killing someone when a warrior charges me from behind, then...
retard.wmv
... some retard breaks my blind halfway through it's cycle while I'm bandagin and feeds the warrior a shit-ton of rage. But, hey... you don't need to display teamwork or intelligence when you can put out that kind of damage. Amirite?
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