The different faces of the rogue

While endulding myself in the deepest ressesses of altism - to level a horde rogue to be able to play with friends again - I've discovered a few types of rogues.

There are actually three types of rogues:

1. The War Rogue - Only plays the rogue for the PVP. If they progress beyond mid-level they end up doing countless and countless of AB/WSG/AV and now probably also the new outland BG - The Eye of something. These rogues are usually horrible in instances. Going for very specific PVP gear such as all-out-AP, disregarding lockpicking totally, have no clue of aggro-management at all. Finally they lack all the finer finesses that is possible with the rogue class. How to recognize them - they will challenge you to duels over and over and are most likely twinked beyond all reason.

2. The Raiding Rogue - These rogues have raided for far too long. Actually they spend very little time on their rogue not raiding - PVP is done with a warlock/hunter/shadow priest and they might even have an arsenal of alts to keep wow being fun. Take these rogues into an instance and they over-aggro over and over again while putting all of the blame on the tank or priest. While they are powerful they expect themselves to be able to handle any instance by themselves - and are over and over proved wrong.

3. The True Rogue - This is a player dedicated to the rogue class - PVP, PVE and raiding, The true rogue knows his class's strengths and weaknesses. They are the ones that can pull an ace out of their sleeve when the shit hit the fan. In an instance they will almost never pull aggro unless it is to save a clothie. They have full lockpicking, switches poison depending on the situation and knows when to vanish =)


Personally I love to group myself as #3 =)

Incoming altism - take cover!

I don't know if it is the pain of leveling enchanting or if it is just the fact that most of my old WOW friends have rerolled and now plays on the dark side..err the Horde, but I feel a strong pull towards creating a new toon.

I know it is going to be a rogue.. but I can't decide if I am going with a Blood Elf or an Undead. I don't care about the racial traits (if so I would probably have chosen a gnome) but style and appearance.

I've alreay created two horde rogues on my preferred server, one elf and one undead. I did create a female bloodie mostly because of the sick cool stealth animation they have. If you haven't seen it... roll a blood elf rogue and level her to 2 and get stealth... its currently maintenance over here or would gladly have posted a fresh screenshot. Didn't find any animation on youtube besides this one.

Getting enchanting 1-300

So previously Hexapuma was herbalist and engineer. Engineering was really sweet in PVP with all those little gadgets and especially spell interrupting grenades. In a couple of patches ago the grenades were nerfed big time. A grenade throw would be aborted if you took any damage.

I do understand that the developers might have considered grenades or actually engineering a wee bit too powerful for PVP. At one time almost everyone dedicated to PVP had to be an engineer.

Come TBC I didn't find any new gadgets or gear I thought interesting... so why keep the old profession. Also the factions out there doesn't give any cool engineering recipes when gaining reputation.. I decided to take up enchanting. Now I always find myself wanting loads of enchants but never the patience of waiting around in Ironforge to find a decent and trustworthy enchanter.

So last Friday I dropped engineering and went for enchanting. I figured that if I spent sometimes in deadmines and then the higher instances I don't have to spend a fortune in buying reagents.

Boy was I wrong!

Running Deadmines did help me raise enchanting from 1-100 but thereafter... oh the pain. You actually need to disenchant ALOT to get the required stuff. I've heard that it is actually totally worth it to level tailoring at the same time to be able to control the enchanting ingredients. And cloth is easily farmed.

By the end of the weekend I've raised enchanting to about 275 and it has so far cost me about 200 gold. I expect to spend almost the same amount on the next 25 skill points. And then its the next level from 300-375... although I am not that stressed out of increasing that last part so quickly. It is getting it up to 300 that is important for me now.

To help me level enchanting I've used this Enchanting 1-300 guide. It is excellent and I strongly recommend it!

Oh.. Hexapuma dinged 67 while finishing up the last quests in Terrokar Forest!

T6 rogue armor

Even though I am not a raider I do find the new T6 armors interesting. The rogue T6 armor is somewhat cool looking but nothing special. I sometimes wonder if Blizzard's art department do make the tier sets look cheesy so that we casual gamers can laugh behind the raiders' backs.

From MMO-Champion.com:

Have gun, will travel

Hexapuma turned 66 this weekend and in addition to getting the fantastic rogue ability Cloak of Shadows, he can now wield the very slow fist mainhand weapon: Nexus-Claw! The weapon is fantastic because it has a whooping 2.8 weapon speed which is very uncommon among the new weapon arsenal of TBC.

Why get so excited about a slow mainhand you ask? Well for a rogue a slow mainhand is king as it allows bigger insta attacks. In addition attack power addition to the talent hemorrage (or plain and simple hemo) is not normalized - which means that hemo takes full benefit of a weapon being really really slow such as the Nexus-Claw.

The Claw is a green vendor item sold by Dealer Jadyan in the Netherstorm. The weapon is rare so odds are you'll find it overly expensive at AH or worse, you reach Jadyan soldout.

For me it was pretty exciting to travel to his location as it included lots of ganking (with me being the victim) and a fine moment of revenge at an over-confident L69 undead rogue.

Now with my amazing pair of claws I am actually thinking of respeccing into a build containing both combat and subtlety...

Musings from Terokkar Forest

Going from Zangarmarsh to Terokkar Forest was a wee bit of disappointment for me. The washed out colors of the zone does not sit well with me and for some reason the initial kill X timber worgs to collect their tails isn't doing it for me either. I guess I really hate animal-collection quests. That quest aside - I did have a lot of fun with the numerous birdmen quests.

I've now reached The Bone Wastes, helping refugees and what not. More collection quests, although these have better drop rates. I am seriously thinking of leaving this zone and move on to Nagrand or the Blade's Edge Mountains.

Did you like Terokkar Forest?

Epic Tiger Mount....

So while I have been doing the first parts of Terrokar forest, I've also taken Hexapuma over to the Night Elf starting areas and completed all quests.. all on Teldrassil, Darkshore and in Ashenvale.. the result was exhalted status with Darnassus and a brand new epic tiger mount.

With the remake of the riding skill around the release of TBC, an epic mount now only cost 90g (with exhalted discount). The part that is expensive is actually getting the epic riding skill. So without having to spend a single gold on runecloth I dinged exhalted. Now... do I need one of those mechanostrider-thingys as well?

I guess in the end it is quite pointless since I expect to start grinding for a flying mount soon.. but hey.. you have totravel in style while grinding.

So what are you riding?

The Underbog

I've tried another instance last week... the Underbog in Zangarmarsh. Compared to the Ramparts it is much more fun, more interesting fights and way cooler layout. I wouldn't mind going back in a couple of times. The loot was all mail or plate so no goodies for me. Did pick up a mushroom trinket though that grants 200 health after each exp yielding kill. Don't see myself using that anytime soon. 200 health is less than peanuts above level 60.

Hexapuma dinged 64 as well and I am actually already close to 65... Looking forward to 66 as it marks the level where I'll be getting new weapons.

Still questing in Zangarmarsh. As soon as I think I am almost ready a whole new bunch of quests opens up. This time it was getting friendly with the Kurenaithat unlocked a new quest hub.

Even though I really love the marsh it is time to move on... thinking of going south to Terokkar Forest next.

Regarding PVP - I've not found one shaman in the zone... plenty of hunters and other rogues though. And lets not forget all the Blood Elf paladins running around judging things. So far none of them are causing me any trouble.