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Lengz
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re: Lengz advanced combat rogue guide for pros

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Sup guys, decided to write a more advanced combat rogue guide, which will cover some of the more complex parts of playing the class. I'll possibly write some for other specs at some point but combat is my MS so this one is first. I'll assume you know the basics already so I won't spend too much time on them, I'll just skim over them to begin with.

 

Basics

Single target rotation:

Open from stealth with ambush.

Keep revealing strike applied at all times.

Spend energy on sinister strike to build combo points.

Keep slice and dice up at all times.

Keep rupture up MOST of the time (more details on this later)

Spend combo points on eviscerate.

Use killing spree on cooldown, and shadow blades+adrenaline rush on cooldown too (apart from some special cases, again, more on this later)

 

2-8 targets

Turn blade flurry on and continue single target rotation. Don't bother using rupture as it doesn't cleave. If there are more than about 4 targets, mix in a fan of knives every now and then to keep poisons applied. It's not worth using crimson tempest with this number of targets.

 

8+ targets

Turn blade flurry OFF for more energy regen and spam fan of knives. Use crimson tempest at 5 combo points and keep it applied. Put blade flurry on before you killing spree for the cleave, but turn it off again when spree is done.

 

 

Now to move on to some more advanced stuff. I've done a section on each thing to be aware of.

 

DPS

Rupture

In a purely single target situation, rupture is a dps increase. A pretty small one, only about 2-3%, but it is still worth using to maximise dps. Another reason it is good to use is its energy cost - 25 as opposed to eviscerate's 35. However, clipping even one tick of rupture is probably going to be a dps loss so be careful with this. Also, due to rupture's lower energy usage, it's not really worth using it during times where you have a lot of energy regen. If you have adrenaline rush + hero + whatever other haste buffs, you're likely to have trouble stopping yourself energy capping. In this case, just use eviscerate. I usually only use rupture when it won't cause me to energy cap. Also, on any more than one target rupture becomes pretty much useless.

 

Revealing strike

You obviously want to keep the revealing strike debuff up as it increases the damage of your finishers and gives you a chance for an extra combo point from sinister strike. However, it's not the end of the world if you let it drop, as the debuff only actually affects you when you use sinister strike or a finisher. It's fine for it not to be up, but only if you don't use any abilities than benefit from it. It's not necessary to keep it up when you are just spamming fan of knives, for example.

 

Insight

Every four combo generators you use gives you one stack of insight, giving you 10% damage up to three stacks. You then have 15 seconds of 30% increased damage before the cycle starts over again. It is pretty useful to save peroids of big burst for deep insight to maximise its damage increase. Try and pool energy and combo points (via anticipation) and blow it all once you get deep insight and are able to do a lot more damage with it. You can also delay killing spree for this.

 

Cooldowns

Killing spree

Killing spree is a huge nuke and should be used pretty much on cooldown. However, it's fine to delay it for a few seconds to wait for a higher level of insight or a trinket proc, as these will hugely increase its damage. The key is judging whether it's worth waiting before you use killing spree. Generally, I never wait more than 10 seconds before using it.

Another thing to point out is that you can't use other abilities while spree is active (3.5 seconds). This means you should dump as much energy as possible before using it so you don't cap energy while it's active. It also means you're extremely vulnerable for these few seconds, so MAKE SURE it's safe to use spree before doing so, as misjudging it can easily get you killed. Don't be scared to cloak before using it if you think it's too risky.

 

Adrenaline rush/Shadow blades

I've lumped these two together as you should really be using them at the same time, preferably with a macro. These cooldowns gives you a huge amount of energy regen and cause you to generate extra combo points. Be ready to mash your sinister strike hotkey while these are up. You generally want to use these on cooldown, the only exception is if killing spree is about to come up shortly. The reason for this is that these two cooldowns mean you will pump out an insane amount of eviscerates which will reduce your cooldowns by a lot. You're looking at 5 or 6 eviscerates in the 15 seconds these cooldowns are active - that means if killing spree is already up when you use them you've missed the chance to knock 50 or 60 seconds off its cooldown. You really want spree to be on cd when you use these. Generally if spree has 20 seconds or less on its cooldown I will hold off with blades+rush until after spree. Any less than 20 seconds and you're going to waste a lot of potential cooldown reduction, and any more and you're leaving blades+rush off cooldown for too long.

Other than that, use these two cooldowns whenever possible. A trinket proc is a nice boost but don't go too far out of your way to line them up. As for insight, it doesn't really matter what insight level you use them at. If you use them during deep insight, you benefit from the 30% damage which is nice, but if you use them with no insight, it helps you build back up to deep really fast with the amount of sinister strikes you're able to use.

 

Vanish

Vanish can actually be used as a mini dps cooldown, as it gives you a virtually free ambush. It's your choice as to whether you want to use it like this or keep it up just in case something goes wrong and you have to vanish for whatever reason. Just remember than while stealthed you don't auto attack so make sure you ambush back out of stealth ASAP.

 

 

DEFENSIVES AND UTILITY

As a rogue you have a tonne of defensive abilities and a fair amount of raid utility too. The key is learning how and when to use these to maximum effect.

 

Cloak of shadows

Cloak dispels most harmful debuffs from you and causes you to become magic immune for five seconds. It's a great ability that you can use to completely bypass some mechanics. Examples are clearing stacks on Galakras P2 and avoiding all damage from Garrosh's whirling corruption. It's on a 1 minute cooldown and is decreased by the assurance of consequence (AoC) trinket, so it's up pretty regularly. Don't be afraid to use it to negate damaging abilities from bosses.

 

Feint

Feint is a great skill which reduces all AoE damage by 50% for 5 seconds. This is an amazing ability for nearly every boss and you should always make use of it to avoid heavy raid damage. It has no cooldown so can be used a lot, so you can't really waste a feint. One thing to note is that it does use a global cooldown, so try and space out your feints as much as possible. That said, there aren't a whole lot of cases where you'll need to chain feint - most bosses have one big AoE pulse to feint, like Juggernaut shock pulse, Shaman falling ash, and Nazgrim war song. You can glyph feint for the cases where you want a large uptime on it such as Thok.

One think to think about when feinting is raid healing. On fights like Thok, everyone is going to be stacked up and there will be massive amounts of AoE healing going out. On the first few pulses, the raid will be full healed in a split second. It's not really necessary to use feint here because even if you don't use it you will get healed up just like everyone else. Using it doesn't take that much pressure off the healers because they are just throwing AoE down. Use when the healers will be struggling to keep everyone up.

 

Evasion

Not a whole lot to say here - you only really need evasion when you have aggro of a mob, which isn't all that often unless Jarsen is tanking, in which case use it pretty much on cooldown. Other than that, just hit evasion when you see you have aggro of a mob. Also useful for things like mark of anguish on Protectors.

 

Smoke bomb

This is your raid cooldown. Remember it has a fairly small radius so get as many people stacked in it as possible. This is invaluable on fights with heavy AoE, and it can also be used to prevent people inside being affected by single target boss mechanics. It uses a global cooldown so make sure it's actually been popped in amongst all your other ability spam.

 

Sprint/Burst of speed

 

Shadowstep

 

Redirect

 

Tricks of the trade

Tricks is an amazing buff that you should be using on cooldown. It can be a bit annoying but it is made a lot easier through use of macros. The way i do it is by targeting the person i want to tricks and use /focus to set them as my focus. I then use the following macro to put tricks on them:

/cast [target=focus] Tricks of the Trade

/run SendChatMessage("Tricks on you, get some sick deeps son go on","WHISPER",nil,UnitName("focus"))

This casts tricks on my target and whispers them to let them know they have the buff. It is ALWAYS worth using tricks - don't delay it to dps whore, as it adds a huge amount of damage to the raid overall.

 

Poisons

 

Combat readiness

 

 

--- That's it for now guys, I will update later with some other stuff like

  • Talents, glyphs, reforging, etc
  • Gearing
  • Some specific boss tips
  • How to make adoxe cry

 



Last edited by Lengz on Sat Mar 15, 2014 5:52 pm; edited 3 times in total
Lengz
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re: Lengz advanced combat rogue guide for pros

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5k please jarsen

Bertey
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re: Lengz advanced combat rogue guide for pros

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L2guide pls


 

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