Back to combat

While I still haven't had the chance to test the new patch (I have no DVDs to burn that anime on so I'm a bit stuck at the moment), the constantly updating patch notes have assured me of one thing: I will respec combat.

First of all, I don't like the Hunger for Blood changes. As it stands now, it's a self buff, costs 15 energy, and lasts one minute, but requires a bleed on the target. This means a 15% damage nerf on trash. (Unless someone else applies a bleed or we open with garotte.) Combat was already stronger on trash, now it's just clearly better.

Second, they've added some talented melee haste into Lightning Reflexes. 3 ranks means 10% melee haste. This works even better with the recent buff to Slice and Dice.

And third, Mutilate isn't that much better as one would like. While it is potentially better in a tank and spank fight where you just stand around and DPS, there's a lot of fights out there (and in Ulduar as well I guess) where a lot of crap is happening and that's just not possible. Worse, there's a lot of abilities out there that can make your HfB and SnD drop (like Maexxnas Web Wrap), severely nerfing your damage until you can get them up again (especially with SnD having been buffed to 40% and HfB having been buffed to 15%, it's even more of a blow when they fall off).

And last but not least, bigger weapons just look cooler than small daggers, k?

So I'm gonna have to nag at my guildies to run Heroic CoT with me, so I can pick up Greed for my Main Hand. With my Mongoosed Librarian's Paper Cutter in the off-hand, that should make for a fairly decent combo to start the combat life with.

As a final note I'm getting closer to my epic flying mount again. I had reached 3500g, but made some investments in the AH, and currently only some of them are selling. Perhaps I can sell them during the weekend.

Then I can start spending money on enchants and the likes :p

2 comments:

  1. I know combat has practically ALWAYS been the PvE spec of choice for rogues. However, I looooooooooove mutilate and the challenges it presents. It's a shame with the choices offered to hybrids as to their roles and specs we don't have at least a couple of competitive specs for DPSing.

    I don't want to go combat. I moved on to mutilate through Northrend to get to grips with it and loved it. It's much more interesting and challenging. Though there is no real reward in terms of DPS for using a more challenging spec, even when you pull it off as near perfect as possible (given the encounter).

    To be honest I couldn't care less about damage on trash. It's the bosses I'm here to kill.

    For me getting SnD up and Rupture while spamming SS is not that challenging (and of course hitting AR + BF and KSp when available).

    However, my job as a rogue is to bring "insane" DPS to the fight and I have to respec combat I will... For the time being I will just hope that the changes announced so far are not final and not the only changes.

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  2. I know trash isn't representative of one's DPS, but clearing it faster does mean you can get to bosses faster.

    But it's mostly a thing of preference of course, I just feel that with these HfB changes and the buffs to combat, I really don't have to feel guilty about wanting to go combat. And if you want to stay combat, I think you will still be more than competitive to be honest. I don't think the changes are that significant that combat will emerge as the clear winner, especially with the changes to poisons where Mutilate will have more room to play with weapon speeds.

    I miss the days when I leveled with a Grand Marshal's Longsword with Mongoose as combat :p

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