A few good combat rogue macros

I've scurried around the official rogue forums in search for a few useful macros for a combat specced rogue such as myself. The first one incorporates riposte into a mashable sinister strike/riposte macro. I am not overly enthustiastic about it since it relies on spamming the button. It does allow you to use riposte a wee bit more at the sacrifice of full control.

/startattack
/castsequence reset=1.5 Sinister Strike, Riposte


The next one covers blind. Using blind against multiple targets can sometimes get a bit tricky, especially if both are all over you. This macro allows you to throw blind by simply moving the mouse over your intended target and press your button.

/cast [target=mouseover] Blind


Finally the I.W.I.N. Button for combat rogues. Pressing it turns on all those killing moves and ends with a sinister strike for good measure. I've not really used this one and I am told that if evasion is on CD it will end right there.

/startattack
/castsequence reset=120 Blade Flurry, Evasion, Adrenaline Rush, Sinister Strike

Regarding macros - I very rarely use them. The only one I've used extensively was a weaponswap macro for my warrior - swapping between sword+shield and my trusty 2-hander.

How many macros do you use?

Work in progress...

Doing some changes to the visual layout of this blog. Don't worry I'll have it refreshed in no time. Actually it do feels a little bit of what I am doing when the main character is getting a bit boring - i.e. getting a new alt.

New rogue build - combat mace

With my beloved horde rogue Warspike dinging 62 last night I bought him a spanking brand new mace (Fist of Reckoning). Its a great weapon for Hemo but even although I love the sub tree I want to investigate a combat mace spec first. Not being 70 yet I had to ditch a few assassin/combat talents...

My build (11/41/0) - I might actually end up placing the next points into MOD instead of more DPS from the Assassin tree.

I was extremely pleased with the result. Adrenaline Rush + Blade Flurry = God Mode

Combat Potency procs alot - giving me faster energy regen. It is more like I am used to with hemo or even seal fate. I need to get myself an even slower offhand. Right now I have some Unyielding sword from a quest.

Surprise Attacks - Increase damage 10% and make the finisher undodgable.
The mace spec procced very often and I can't wait to take this build into the battlegrounds to see how it fares against various classes.

Recruited by the Horde

So for the last couple of weeks I've been playing almost horde exclusivly. A year ago or so when I played my first horde alt (a rogue named Rippz) I used to despise the other horde players. When they talked in general complaining about the weak alliance I just wanted to log in my alliance rogue and gank the living daylights of them.

Now that my main is a horde character (well.. I guess Warspike is my main character by now) I've learned to appriciate the horde much more. It is funny though.. when I played as alliance I always had to listen to the whining in the battleground channels. I thought this was mainly an alliance phenomenon:

- "just let the other side win so we can get a mark"
- "AV is so unfair"
- "We always loose - why bother"
- "Quickly, all turn in your marks before we loose"


However now that I play horde I keep hearing the same thing... did those players switch as well or do both faction have the same kind of players. I believe the latter... and that the green always seems greener on the other side.

Warspike update
Lately I've been playing in AV to get enough honor to get the Insignia of the Horde. I realized that just after a few games I have enough marks and honor for the lobotomizer. Back in the days... I never managed to finish the grind to get the lobo for Hexapuma. AV was simply too slow, too long queues and the rep required too much for me. As soon as I have the insignia I am going to wait with the BG until close to 70.

Simple Lockpicking guide

Skilling up lockpicking can be tough, especially if you don’t concentrate on it from the start. There are basically four ways to skill up lockpicking and that is from junkboxes, footlockers, doors and treasure (chests/lockboxes).

For me I’ve used footlockers to around 250 and then moved over to junkboxes and doors. When arriving in the Outlands I rely completely on pickpocketing all the junkboxes i need.

First of there is an excellent guide to lockpicking at http://www.wowwiki.com/ and if you have the time check out their lockpicking article. I am going to just mention Junkboxes and Footlockers in this post…

JUNKBOXES
I’ve only marked the skill level to when it turns green…

Battered Junkbox – skill 0-75 (drops from level 22-32 mobs)
Worn Junkbox – skill 50-120 (drops from level 32-42 mobs)
Sturdy Junkbox – skill 175-225 (drops from level 42-52 mobs)
Heavy Junkbox – skill 250-300 (drops from level 52-60 mobs)
Strong Junkbox – skill 300-350 (drops from 61+ mobs)

A hot tip is to save all junkboxes you find in the outlands and use them to skill up while you level. When you’ve filled your level’s five skill ranks, mail the remaining boxes to an alt and have them returned when you ding!

FOOTLOCKERS
Opening footlockers is the reliable way to grind your lockpicking skill up to 300 as it doesn’t require you to rely on luck from pick pocket. Your rogue trainer will tell you where suitable footlockers for your skill level are located. Personally I switch place as soon as the footlockers are turning yellow… after that it fails too often for me to have the patience to continue.

Ashenvale (Zoram Strand) 75-95+
Hillsbrad (Durnholde Keep) 75-95+
Stonetalon Mountains (Windshear Crag) 75 – 110+
Stonetalon Mountains (Windshear Mine) 105 -150+
Wetlands (along the coast) 110-145+
Desolace (along the northern coast) 150-175+ (bring water breathing apparatus/potion)
Badlands (Angor Fortress) 150-200+
Swamp of Sorrows 175-200+
Searing Gorge (slag pit/quarry) 200-225+
Searing Gorge (slag pit/upper quarters) 225-250+
Tanaris (Pirate area) 225-250+
Azshara (bay of storms) 235-275+ (bring water breathing apparatus/potion)
Eastern Plaguelands (Tyr’s Hand) 250-275+
Zangarmarsh (Feralfen Village) – 305-310+
Nagrand (Kil’sorrow Fortress) - 325-350+

I strongly recommend you to avoid Angor Fortress and instead go for Desolace. The trafic in Angor Fortress on my server is unbelieavable...

That's it!

The Light at the end of the tunnel - Ding 60!

After several days of hard labor - my undead rogue turned 60! It is time to go over to the dark side of the horde for good.

The last part was boring and nearly crushed me - only my alt hunter kept it going.

So introducing Warspike soon in a battleground near you.

My first big adventure will be going into Stormwind to do the mandatory ganking on poor unsuspecting PVP flagged players.

Hunting high and low...

So I have two pet projects at the moment... one is to level up a new horde rogue to go arena fighting and dungeon-crawling with my RL friends. The other is a Blood Elf hunter..


Introducing Hexaspider - the hunter of all hunters (or at least of my characters). At the time of writing he is approaching level 22 - and it goes fast. I had almost forgotten how quick this class levels. Zero downtime and capable of handling multiple mobs at the same time. Given I've played a hunter to 60 before and knows the in and outs of the class - especially how to manage the pet.


My first challenge with Hexaspider was to get myself a worthy pet - and that pet is a spider boss at the Draenei starting area of Bloodmyst Island. Just going there at level 20 was a very exciting mission. It took a few deaths at the Auberdine docks, but otherwise it went just fine.

I've been taking the path of the Beastmaster... being a loyal reader of Big Red Kitty, I've been following his advice on how to build a beastermaster.

By the way.. extra kudos if you recognize the band this post pays homage to.

Another trick up the rogue sleeve

The rogue has a unique set of skills that allows him to respond to a situation in an instance going ballistic. Take the following example. Your party is inside an instance busy fighting a group of mobs, the mage has one mob sheeped and the others are being dealt with. Then behind you a new group of patrolling mobs appear... this is usually disaster for a PUG group trying an instance at the correct level. As a rogue you have several means of avoiding this....

1. Throw a distract, turning the oncoming patrollers away for a few precious seconds. Might give you enough time to down that mob and avoid panic.

2. If the group is humanoid - vanish, distract and sap one of the incoming patrollers.

Usually #1 is the correct way as it gives the group valuable reaction time to the new threat.

The New and Improved Rogue
For awhile I've been levelling a new rogue, albeit on the horde side. The time has come for me to switch to the other side. I am still fighting with the road to 60 and to speed up the process I've decided to stay away from battlegrounds (a vice of mine). I am also dangerously close to getting burned out on WOW. My own recipe for that is to take up another alt until the feeling passes. So... I have a little hunter in training as well.

Damn this altism =)