Short vacation

I'll be in Barcelona (Spain) and thus unable to post from 2-4 Oct. If you live in the area and want me to say hi, just let me know. Druid My Druid is currently level 62, and now starting outlands. Replacing every bit of gear he's got and his health has already nearly doubled. Outland quest rewards are so funny. At least the gear changeover in WotLK will be slightly less. Well, sorta anyway. Poll end Closing one poll that ended a few days ago. Looks like wow players go hand in hand with altitis ;)

2-3 : 247 (46%)

4-5 : 121 (22%)

Just my main : 107 (20%)

6-7 : 23 (4%)

None :( : 17 (3%)

8+ : 16 (3%) I'm currently listening to Di.fm What sort of music do you listen to while playing wow?

Rogue Trees

I'm sure you've been following the updates as well, build 8982 currently on the beta servers. The combat tree still sucks, assassination got some nerfs from the original version. However, there's some good news. Blue post: We're looking into pumping the damage up in Combat, still Time will tell. Perhaps 5% agi added to lightning reflexes? Which is a junk talent in it's current place and form. All your honor belongs to blizzard As soon as 3.0.3 hits, your honor will be gone! (note I wrote 3.0.3 and not 3.0.2) Your arena points as well. So yeah, that's the first patch after the WotLK patch which should arrive sometime next month. ETA of your honor being deleted : ~12-13 november 2008. No, you don't have to believe me, but that's what the Big Bad Blues have announced. They're adding 4 new trinkets and 4 cloaks to spend your points on quickly, or even some gems which could then be traded off: All of the gems that can be purchased with honor will have the Bind on Pickup and Unique-Equipped tags removed so multiples of them can be equipped and they can be traded (or auctioned). So, if you're one of the many players foolish enough to have gathered 75K honor in "preparation for WotLK", then you're pretty much screwed. You can always buy some nice black colored mounts in preparation of the new mount achievement. More reading material Hey, I got to keep you busy somehow right?! If you enjoyed the links in the previous post then you should enjoy these as well.

Neo Earth

Customers Suck

Least I Could Do

Las Lindas

Two Kinds

Three Panel Soul

Zap in Space

Wayfarer's Moon

Xylia Tales

Wish 3

Neko the Kitty

Two Lumps

Darken Enjoy :)

Crap to do during raids

Whether because of players not releasing and running back fast enough, tanks going afk, people not buffing, nobody having read a boss' strategy, people showing up with pvp spec, whatever. There will be times you got a few minutes to kill during the raid. Obviously you could start a long discussion on TeamSpeak about the meaning of life.... turn up the music, or.. well plenty of options really. What do you usually do if you end up with a spare moment like that? Some may remember the Bored in KZ post from earlier this year. You could play bingo! Obviously the chart could be modified to work for BT or Sunwell just as easily. And the big list of wow and other comics hasn't stopped growing either. Supposedly the guys from popcap games (which appears to be on a blacklist on my peerguardian) are going to release a wow addon soon for a classic game called Bejewelled. Source: Wow Insider. Personally I hate bejewelled, never been any good at it, and doubt I ever will be. But, I'd keep still keep an eye on that. If it turns out they like making wow addon games, they might well start releasing more in the near future. Dragon Tavern It's a text based browser RPG, it was running an advert on the site so I figured I'd check it out. It's not half bad once you figure out how it works. There's a big long FAQ you can check out if you're confused. Maximum number of characters you can make it 20. Stay alive, and once you get enough points be sure to get yourself a "banner of exploration". If you're going to play around with it, be sure to join the competition group I made called: "Random Ravings". You'll be able to check your own progress vs some of my characters. Comic Highlights I realize I haven't given you a lot of comic links lately, but there's many many in my bookmarks. So let's see. Not sure if I've listed some of these before, but they're all pretty awesome so there's no harm in listing them again. Be sure to check em out.

Aikida.

The Awakened.

College Roomies.

The Demon's arrival.

Dresden Codak.

Exiern.

Flipside.

Grim Tales.

Kiwis.

Lowroad 75.

Sequential Art. That should keep you busy a while. More at a later date. WotLK not standing still WotLK beta is still getting frequent updates. Inscription is aparently getting some craftable BoP shoulder enchants. MMOC also posted some screenshots of the new mounts mentioned earlier. Be sure to especially check out the Proto-Drakes, they look damn awesome. There's also a pic of the Albino drake which doesn't look very albino-ish imho. Blizzard even managed to slip in some rogue updates again, Gouge awards one combo point once again.... go figure. The combat tree is looking a bit better than last week. Vitality is changed to improve your energy regeneration by 10%, Agression was moved to Tier 5 and changed to 5 points which give a total of 10% dmg to your evisc, sinister strike and backstab. Some decent changes, but the main griefances still stand. Combat tier 4 stinks, and relentless strikes is still 5 points in the subtlety tree.

New Mount Achievement

So, you were looking for a gold sink? Ha! Ok, here's one 15k gold for a mount. It carries up to 3-4 people and some vendors aparently. Worth 15K? You decide. Also interesting are the following achievements:

Leading the Cavalry - Obtain 75 mounts. Reward - Albino Drake

For The Horde! / Alliance! - Slay the leaders of the other faction. Reward - Black War Bear

Glory of the Hero - Complete the Heroic Dungeon achievements Reward - Red Proto-Drake

Glory of the Raider - Complete the Normal Difficulty raid achievements Reward - Plagued Proto-Drake

Heroic: Glory of the Raider - Complete the Heroic Difficulty raid achievements Reward - Black Proto-Drake

What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been - Complete the world events achievements. Reward - Violet Proto-Drake You see that first one? "Leading the Cavalry". How would you like to be the first person on your server with that mount? That's impossible right? Maybe not, 75 mounts is quite possible, perhaps not feasible but certainly possible. Once the expansion hits it'll be easier though. A word of warning however, this is expensive stuff. Also, if you're a tauren you are at a severe disadvantage. Yeh, go cry in a corner hornboy, you won't be the first on your server with this here dragon. Nothing you can do about it except re-roll. Gold sink? Pretty much. Why else would anyone buy a boat load of mounts if you can only use a single one at a time anyway? The new WotLK mounts have a pretty heavy pricetag as well. 15k for the mammoth, 700g for some of the others. Some are free as different achievement rewards though. The goal So, we need 75 mounts. Crazy I know, but like the mini pets all mounts are being made into "spells" of a sort and they will no longer take up inventory space. They still do right now though. Lets have a look at WarcraftMounts, a site which has a fairly good list of all the mounts currently in the game. So, let's make an overview of mounts we can get before WotLK. Horde Faction

6 Orgrimmar Wolves. 3x10g + 3x100g = 330g total.

5 Undercity Horses. 3x10 +2x100g = 230g total.

5 Thunderbluff Kodos. 2x10g + 3x100g = 320g total.

6 Darkspear Raptors. 3x10g + 3x100g = 330g total.

7 Silvermoon Hawkstriders. 4x10g + 3x100g = 340g total.

7 Basic Flyers. 3x100g + 4x200g = 1100g total. That's 36 so far for the horde. 2650g so far. Alliance Faction

7 Human Horses. 4x10g + 3x100g = 340g total.

6 Dwarfen Rams. 3x10g + 3x100g = 330g total.

6 Night Elf Cats. 3x10g + 3x100g = 330g total.

7 Gnomish Mechanostriders. 4x10g + 3x100g = 340g total.

6 Draenei Elekks. 3x10g + 3x100g = 330g total.

7 Standard Gryphons. 3x100g + 4x200g = 1100g total.

1 Winterspring Frost Saber. 100g 40 For the alliance so far. An advantage of 4 over the horde... Also a nice price tag of : 2870g Both factions

3 (Weren't there 4?) Arena drakes. Quite unlikely you'll have all 4 colors if any, but still.

2 Halaa Talbuks. Cost tokens.

6 battleground mounts for Horde and Alliance. Cost tokens.

2 Engineer Flying machines. Cost varies.

8 Maghari / Kurenai exalted riding talbuks. 4x70g + 4x100g = 680g

1 CE exalted Hippogrgryph. 2000g

6 Netherwing drakes. Yes you can get all 6. (One free) 5x200g = 1000g

5 Skyguard Nether Rays. 5x200g = 1000g

2 Brewfest mounts. This year the epic kodo and ram drop off a summoned boss in BRD. It's possible to have the rare version of the ram if you got it last year.

5 Trading Card mounts. 2x10g + 2x100g = 220g

8 Dungeon dropped mounts. Stratholme horse, Karazhan horse, The Eye Phoenix, Magister's terrace bird, Raven mount, ZG Raptor, ZG Tiger, ZA Bear.

1 Zhvera mount, recruit a friend reward. Unlisted A blue post sadly informed us the AQ mounts do not count toward the total of this achievement. Not sure about the black one though... But at least the red one has it's own achievement. There's also several "retired" mounts, but if you don't already have these, you're fresh out of luck to get them now. Paladins, Warlocks and Deathknights get a summoned mount. I'll not add these to the list right now, but keep them in mind. Totals

36 Horde. 2650g.

40 Alliance mounts. 2870g.

50 non faction mounts. 4900g. For a grand total of:

84 (7550g) Mounts available to the Horde, and 88 (7770g) available to the Alliance. Taurens and most of the Alliance races will be at a disadvantage however. Happy farming! If you find any errors or miscalculations, just let me know and I'll edit the list accordingly. Relevant links * Wowwiki mounts info section. * Wowwiki mounts category list. * Blizzard's official mounts page. * WarcraftMounts.com. A list of mounts and pictures. * Wowhead's list of items with a shared cooldown.

Ack!

Damnit, I had a post half finished about the 75 mount collecting achievement, but blogger decided that "everything" typed in the last 2 hours shouldn't be saved after all....

*poof* gone.

Well that sucks.. Seems the update is going to be a bit later then.

*grumble grumble*

I guess I really should work from notepad more often....


Update

Seems it was a blogger glitch. The half finished post is back! So I can get back to work on it.

Stay tuned! :P

Blizzard store

The authenticators are back in stock for the EU! I just bought one, so I'll let you know how it works out. According to blizzard (quote below) Blizzard Authenticator for use with your World of Warcraft account. Protect your World of Warcraft account with industry leading account security - introducing the Blizzard Authenticator! The Blizzard Authenticator is designed as a supplemental authentication method for your World of Warcraft account, giving you the security of Two-Factor authentication. Each time you log in using the Blizzard Authenticator you are provided with a unique, one-time use password to use in addition to your regular password. Log in with both and you can rest easy knowing that your account is now even more secure from malicious attacks such as keyloggers and trojans.

Simple and easy to use – Press one button and you will have your additional password. Setup of the token is simple and takes only a moment.

Small and convenient - Take your token to wherever you play World of Warcraft and know that your account information is secure.

Tough and durable - lasts for years and replacement is easy.

Provides for the highest account security available in the game industry today. Once you have purchased the Blizzard Authenticator you can login to World of Warcraft Account Management to attach the token to your account. Onyxia Blue post : Onyxia's Attunement Removed on Beta Quote: The attunement requirements for Onyxia's Lair have been lifted. The Alliance quests had to be removed due to King Wrynn's return. As I said in the quest forum, we'll try and come back to this one and adjust the questline to work with the current timeline. That won't happen for launch. A shame in a way, the most "difficult" attunement still in the game being removed. But, it's got a positive side as well, you can drag your alts trough there for some quick loot now. I presume this will become a "feat of strength". (Achievement)

Short update

3.0.2 is on the PTR. So you're able to test it out. Release date for WotLK is 13th of November 2008 bytheway. See: WoWHead as well. The first part of the patch is already active on the background downloader, and measures a hefty ~800MB So, be sure to have your way with the wowwiki Patch mirrors in case the regular downloader isn't behaving the way it should. (As it tends to) I've been working on the druid this week. Currently at lvl 54 and finishing the last few green quests in Searing Gorge. You can never have enough alts! That's him right there. Ugly ass armor, so I make sure he's in catform as much as possible. Still on the planning Some stuff that may show up on the blog sooner or later, suggestions are always welcome, but these things quite simply don't write themselves. * Why the 3.0.2 rogue trees suck. * 1-375(450) Inscription levelling guide. * Gaming Hardware. Stay tuned :P

Bind to Account

The rumors were true then. Fortunately it won't work for "all" items. That'd be pretty pointless if that were the case. What am I talking about? Oh right, well the thing is.... Blizzard is adding a new "type" of item in WotLK. "Binds on Account". They'll be available for the next kind of heroic badges. Emblem of Heroism to be exact. I kid you not, Gold colored text as was expected to be the artifact level item or such. But it seems that color is being used for account bound items now. Red will be artifact level. (Perhaps Frostmourne?) You can find a list of some more items over at MMOC. The list is small still, but it appears there'll be plenty to spend your emblems on. Mail caster shoulders, Mail physical shoulders, 2H axe, 1H Dagger, MH Sword, Bow, 2H Staff, 1H Caster mace, Caster leather, Caster Cloth, DPS Mail-Plate, Physical trinket, Caster Trinket and undoubtedly many more coming. So, what are these? It's quite simple really, it's a reach out from blizzard to all the QQ and whiney kids who complain about having to level from 1-70 all over again after already owning 2-8 max level characters. Aside of lowering the required XP from 60-70 by 30% they're adding these items. The shoulders as you can see will increase your XP gain from killing monsters by an additional 10%. It's not certain yet whether the other armor pieces will also gain your XP gains, but I highly doubt that. The items are only available if you have a level 80 character. So blizzard still wants you to go out there and play the game to get them. The items are weak. Very weak even, and appear to be itemized in such a way to scale in much the same way as an equal level blue item would. Just look at the weapons. A lvl 80 blue sword would have 120.0 DPS, just like the BtA dagger would if you were level 80. The blue would have better stats though. Obviously, this also means these items are a lot weaker than the level 80 epic badge gear would be. So you're not likely to buy any unless you're: A: Planning to reroll B: Already equipped in the best of the best and have nothing else to spend your badges on. C: Are plain retarded. What's the point? As stated, it's a reach out from blizzard to help players level new characters faster. 10% extra XP, and always a good piece of armor and weapon at hand without having to worry too much about trying to find a group for uldaman, gnomeregan, scholomance, blackrock depths, etc, etc. It's a great badge sink. See "B" a bit higher. It also helps to urge some familiar altoholics to go and level at least "one" character all the way to 80 so you can farm badges to equip your alts with. It urges players who normally can't be bothered to make alts, to start collecting gear for an alt, and perhaps even level it. This should help reduce the low number of tanks or healers at the high end of the game. In theory anyway. It helps level the playfield at the twink stage. Anyone can get "good" items for their low level alts now without too much effort. Low level battle grounds would no longer be a complete massacre of blue geared chars vs green geared chars. Or perhaps more so... What can you do? Blizzard has responded on the finding of these items and confirmed what we know about them.

Mail them between your own characters on the same account. Finished making a shadow priest? Make a mage or warlock by re-using the same gear! Done with a paladin? Then you can make a Death knight or warrior just as easily.

Use them on a level 1 character and keep using them all the way to level 80, the stats will scale as you gain levels.

Use low level enchants on them. What can you NOT do?

The itemlevel is marked as iLvl "1". That means that for any and all enchanting purposes these items can not be enchanted with anything but the most basic enchants that were available before TBC. e.g. lifestealing, fiery weapon, +4 to all stats on chest, 7 stamina on boots, stuff like that.

Mail the item to characters that are not on your account.

Put the item on the auction house.

Disenchant the item. Nope sorry, no easy shards. What is still uncertain? WotLK Also has some other new enchant type professions. A familiar example will be the ring enchants, these bound an item to your character. In the expansion there's wrist and leg enchants for leatherworkers, leg and cloak enchants for tailors, glove and feet enchants for engineers and even sockets on your chest, belt and gloves by blacksmiths. Those new enchants all cause the item to be bound to your character. How these will affect the new Bind to Account items is not certain yet. However, as it's not possible to use high level enchants on low level items, it's fairly safe to assume that you'll be unable to use any of the WotLK profession specific enchants on these items. Another uncertainty, is how these items will be affected by character transfers. It seems logical that the items will remain with the character and be bound to the account that they arrive on. Yes it's possible to transfer a character from one account to another. Costs you a bit though. Repair cost, will it scale too? Obviously having to repair an item worth 30g will be a bit much for your poor frequently dying alt. Having a repair cost of only 3 silver would be rather unfair to your level 80 character though. Can you mail the item if it's not repaired? Some classes get a new type of armor when they reach level 40. Shamans, Paladins, Hunters, Warriors. Initiallyl they may use leather or mail, and then learn to use mail or plate when they reach 40. Would these armor pieces change from leather to mail automatically? It seems very unlikely. Update: They do in fact upgrade. See this image or blizzard's confirmation. So... What do you think, good idea, bad idea? Personally I think the items should be toned down and scale like they were green items instead of blue items. Opinions may vary though.

Release the Hounds!

Core hounds! High on many a hunter's wish list since Molten Core was first released. Sadly we couldn't tame them as they were above our own level. When TBC came around a good few hunters tried and found they were marked as non-tameable. However, WotLK is going to change this. A new talent in the BM tree for hunters "Beast Mastery" allows for the taming of Exotic pets. Exotic pets are much like any other pet, and needs your love and caring like any other pet. (Or just the occassional whip and dog biscuit if you're that sort of person) Devilsaurs, Silithids, Chimerae, Rhinos(northrend only), Worms and Core hounds are all the exotic pets discovered so far. Moths and Wasps will also become tameable in WotLK. These two are not exotic and will thus be available to all hunters. Mania has a nice list of all the new pet models up at Petopia. There's some pretty sweet looking stuff coming. I don't think you'll beat running around with e devilsaur very easily though. You can compare all the pets and their abilities here on the wowhead list. Raids So, you may be wondering what will you end up using in raids? * Wasps look to be pretty awesome for a raid buff : Decreases the armor of the target by 1260 for 20 sec. Which has a 6 sec cooldown and does quite decent damage as well. * Worms will get a similar ability but less value: -785 (stacks 5x). * Spore bats got a skill which does -700 to target armor. * Wolves however get Party members within 20 yards of the wolf receive an extra 5% damage to their next Physical attack. Lasts 10 sec. Which is a lot better scaling than +40 damage would have been... Update: The howl got changed to an attack power value. That is..... If blizzard hadn't decided to change some debuff stacking. The wasp sting will not stack with the druid faery fire, acid spit (worm) won't stack with sunder armor or expose armor. So much for pet buffs being useful in raids. not. Some of the pets get a cast speed reduction (curse of tongues), some get thunderclap, some get a snare or a slow. Each pet will have a unique ability as well as a generic focus dump that does the same damage as all the other pet focus dumps do. (Bite, smack and claw) At least hunters won't need to worry too much about utility in raids. Just get the right pet to replace another member's debuff and you're set to go. Great for PvP as well. Also interesting to note is that pets, Instead of the previous -5% -7% +10%, all pets now only get +5% +10% to their stats. See here for old values and here for the new values. A decent improvement for most pets, especially in terms of armor and health. DPS? I'm not certain whether the pet instant attacks will scale with attack power, or how much. Some might, some might not. Previously only spells such as lightning breath and poison scaled with attack power. Hopefully blizzard has found time to implement a generic damage increase to pet abilities across the board. I can only speculate right now though, perhaps someone else will be able to shed some light into that matter? From what I see though the main contenders for highest dps pets would be: * Wasps. If you have no druid or warlock in the group. -Attack power is always quite powerful, and the wasp has a low 6 sec cooldown on it's special where most other pets have 10 seconds or more. The wasp also has a +10% base damage modifier. * Devilsaurs. Also blessed with a nice +10% damage modifier, and a self buff which stacks up to three times. Allowing an additional +9% total extra damage for itself. Self buffs are good for soloing, but generally less wanted for raids. * Wolves. These may be a pretty strong contender, depending if you can get your hunter into a melee group or someplace where your entire group will benefit from the attack power buff. Other hunters will do great since you'd also buff their pets. Again, a 10% base damage modifier for the wolf itself. Other than that most pets have gotten their utility abilities nerfed or changed in such a way that you'd probably be best not bringing them to a raid by default unless your raid is very unbalanced. Or more likely, you're going out for some PvP!

Nax lewtz

Unlike regular servers, blizzard tends to update the PTR at rather odd times. At least from a European point of view. Those "few weeks" in which we were said to receive the 3.0.2 patch on the live servers appears to be turning into more than a few weeks, and is more likely going to be a month and a bit at the current rate. WotLK Build 8905 is up In this build Naxxramas has been opened and a lot of items are available for viewing. The 10 man ilvl seems to be 200 with loot from Kel'thuzzad being at ilvl 213, whereas the 25 man version of Naxx seems to have ilvl 213 as a base. Not much else is available from the 25 man Naxx yet as it's not fully itemized yet. Some of the armor sets are also available. Keep in mind these are beta and still unfinished. But it appears that blizzard is reusing the original (recolored) Naxx models. You can find the stats for the Rogue set and others over at MMOC and WoR. Wowhead doesn't seem to have picked up the items yet. Other changes Further class changes including the poorly designed rogue combat tree as was announced earlier, are now available on the PTR. Two new rogue glyphs:

Glyph of Pick Lock - Reduces the cast time of your Pick Lock ability by 75%.

Glyph of Safe Fall - Increases the distance your Safe Fall ability allows you to fall without taking damage. The WotLK wiki will likely have the full list up soonish. If not then WoWWiki probably will. Future changes Racials. Indeed, some of your racials are getting changed, and some races will receive extra racials. Trolls for instance (/woo!) are getting a 15% reduction in snare effects upon them. Where Orcs previously had a 15% stun resistance, they now have a 15% reduction in the stun duration upon them. All the flat resistances for all races are being changes to a 1-3% chance for spells of that type to miss. Undead are getting the lower end of that stick with only 1% against shadow type spells. As you might have feared, the Tauren health bonus is being scaled down a bit as well. The human racial "perception" is being nerfed as well. (Rogues and druids rejoice!) Instead of an activated +10 stealth detection level, all humans now have a passive +1 stealth level detection. This should be a lot more in line with the other races. It's uncertain whether any other racials (such as the +1 crit on ranged weapons for trolls and dwarves) will get changed as well. Time shall tell. See here for more details on the matter. Poll end Closing one poll, and putting a new one in it's place. Zug Zug? See: this post.

Hell yeah! - 71 (48%)

Get back to work. - 54 (36%)

Maybe... - 13 (8%)

Not today. - 8 (5%) I was wondering, what's the highest level dungeon you expect to have cleared before the 3.0.2 patch starts? KZ, SSC, TK, BT, Sunwell? Let us know. It's a multiple choice this time so hopefully you get to do a lot of clicking :P

You dummy!

No, I wasn't calling anyone any names, though I might as well be. Blizzard is actually adding dummies to the game. Not a new version of the target dummy, but actual "NPCs" much like you see the orcs beating in Hellfire Citadel. These have been requested for a long time, but apparently the big blue in france just never saw a need to comply to our wishes in this regard. Until now. According to WoR there'll be some level 80 and boss level dummies for us to test our DPS on. They'll be located in the sewers of Dalaran. Odd place, but these will prove quite useful in testing some item proc chances and personal DPS. It's unlikely they'll be able to help you in your weapon training much in the same way the servants in blasted lands will no longer give you weapon skill. Hopefully they'll add level 60 dummies in orgrimmar, and level 70 dummies in shattrath as well. But I highly doubt it. Inscription Also interesting, is that we've finally been given slightly more info on the glyph slots. As well as confirmation on the Glyph mastery spell.

level 15: Unlocks 1 Major and 1 Minor glyph slot

level 30: Unlocks another Minor slot

level 45: Unlocks another Major slot

level 60: Unlocks 1 Major and 1 Minor slot

Glyph Mastery: An "Inscription only" skill which unlocks a 7th slot. Most likely major. Since Death Knights start at level 55, they'd have 2 Major and 2 Minor glyph slots.

More rogue changes

More rogue changes have been announced. Some good (Precision buff) some not so good (Relentless Strikes nerf). Personally I'm not too happy with this yet, (combat is slowly being turned into shit by blizzard) there's still a lot of changes that need to be made to put rogues on par with the other class changes. Stay of execution got removed which is quite lame vs warriors as well. Though, at least we now know that the combat tree will have the 1-2% physical damage buff for the raid which was discussed earlier. If you wish to play around with these new talent tree changes you can use this tree over at war-tools. Some sample specs (non theorycrafted): mutilate, combat, combat hemo. The rogue talents feel very much unfinished, especially combat and the high level tiers of the other two trees. I'd even drop off some suggestion talents for blizzard, but I doubt they'd reach the test team in time for the patch. I haven't got much time so I'll quote the entire post for your reading pleasure ;) ---- Gamnin Wrote: ---- Hello again, Here’s a quick update on some additional changes we’ve made over the weekend. Most of these, but not all, will be in the next beta build. General - Cloak of Shadows cooldown changed to 1.5 min. - Disarm Trap range increased to 20 yds, cast time reduced to 1 sec, now requires stealth. - (NEW – Level 75) Tricks of the Trade: The current party or raid member becomes the target of your Tricks of the Trade. The threat caused by your next attack and all actions taken for 6 sec afterwards will be transferred to the target. In addition, all damage caused by the target is increased by 15% during this time. 30 sec cooldown. (Surprise! :) Yes, this is the new group/raid utility ability. We haven’t put any stacking protection on it yet but we’ll need one type of solution or other to prevent the need for 5 rogue Trick rotations. Note also that you cannot use this ability on yourself.) Assassination - Vigor moved to Tier 3. - Relentless Strikes moved to Subtlety Tier 1, made 5 ranks for 4/8/12/16/20% chance. - Murder moved to Tier 6, now increases damage by 2/4%. - (NEW – Tier 7) Overkill: Abilities used while stealthed and for 6 seconds after breaking stealth cost 10 less energy. - Focused Attacks and Turn the Tables have swapped locations. - Master Poisoner moved to Tier 9, no longer increases chance to hit with poison attacks, now increases the critical hit chance of all attacks made against any target you have poisoned by 1/2/3% and reduces the duration of all Poison effects applied to you by 17/34/50%. (This does not stack with the Paladin talent Heart of the Crusader.) - Hunger for Blood duration increased to 30 seconds. Combat - Precision now also increases chance to hit with poison attacks by 1/2/3/4/5%. - Nerves of Steel will now reduce damage taken while stunned or feared by 15/30% rather than reducing duration. - Improved Sprint moved to Tier 4. - Blade Twisting now slows movement speed by 70%. - Mace Specialization now ignores 3/6/9/12/15% of target’s armor. - Throwing Specialization now also has a chance to interrupt target when Fan of Knives is used. - Unfair Advantage: Whenever you dodge an attack you strike back for 50/100% of your main hand weapon’s damage. - Stay of Execution removed, replaced with Blood Poisoning. - (NEW – Tier 9) Blood Poisoning: All physical damage caused to enemies you have poisoned is increased by 1/2%. - Prey on the Weak now increases critical strike damage of all attacks. - Killing Spree is the new name for Murder Spree and should be working much better very soon. Subtlety - Shadowstep will no longer be usable while rooted. - Elusiveness moved to Tier 3, now reduces cooldown of Cloak of Shadows by 15/30 sec. - Premeditation cooldown reduced to 20 sec. - Preparation no longer refreshes the cooldown to Premeditation. - Master of Deception reduced to 3 ranks. - Opportunity reduces to 2 ranks for 10/20%. - Camouflage reduced to 3 ranks for 5/10/15% speed and 2/4/6 sec off the cooldown of Stealth. - Initiative moved to Tier 4, increased to 33/66/100% chance. - Improved Ambush moved to Tier 4, reduced to 2 ranks for 25/50%. - Serrated Blades moved to Tier 3. - Wrongfully Accused replaced with Filthy Tricks. - (NEW – Tier 9) Filthy Tricks: Reduces the cooldown of your Tricks of the Trade and Distract abilities by 5/10 sec. - Slaughter from the Shadows now also reduces the energy cost of your Hemorrhage ability by 1/2/3/4/5. - Shadow Dance redesigned, now allows the use of Sap, Garrote, Ambush, Cheap Shot, Premeditation, Pickpocket and Disarm Trap regardless of being stealthed. Those abilities all gain a cooldown of 2 sec. Lasts 10 sec.

Rogue tanking 101(.8)

As mentioned a couple of days ago in this post, this post is about rogue tanking. You may be thinking, leather, barely 10k health, we're doomed for sure! Not quite. With proper gear a rogue can actually tank certain bosses. Threat and spell damage are the only real problems. Even bosses such as Mother shahraz and Illidan have successfully be tanked by rogues in the past. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) this mechanic does not work everywhere. As said threat is an issue, in full avoidance gear we have very little DPS, and thus pathetic threat. The second issue is this, sunwell radiance. It basically ensures we'd have -25% avoidance and are thus unable to continue tanking in Sunwell. It basically comes down to this. Rogue tanking is fun, hilarious in pvp, and a nice quirk to do in case one of your other tanks gets hit by a car. But, not a reason for you to steal armor off your druids, hunters, warriors or paladins. Just keep that in mind. How much we'll be able to do in WotLK is still fairly uncertain, however blizzard has made the statement (threat?) that we won't likely be able to continue this fun abuse of the avoidance system in the upcoming expansion. Quote: I can't give you exact numbers, but you are correct that Sunwell Radiance was added simply because we let tanks get crazy high avoidance. It does feel like a bit of a band-aid, but when you think about the alternative we would have needed to balance those encounters (dodge, dodge, parry, dead), lower avoidance was probably the right call. We've learned a lot about itemization since then and certainly have no plans of going back to Sunwell Radiance. But don't expect to get 100% avoidance any time soon. Oh well. Let's make the most out of this while we can! Either way, I intend to gather an avoidance set as my second gear set in WotLK. Speccing Speccing for tanking is fairly straightforward, you really don't have much choice in the matter. Subtlety is primarily the way to go due to the +15% agility talent Sinister Calling. You could go Combat spec and take 2/2 Vitality, but the 13% less agility will ensure you'll be unable to gain enough avoidance. Something like this should do the trick: Subtlety (raids) or Combat for better threat but less avoidance (5 man dungeons). Don't take it as a holy grail of any kind though, there's always room to improve the spec based on your needs and preferences. Stat values Before you can give gear a value, you'll need to know how much avoidance each stat is worth. This is largely made easy by Combat Ratings. 18.923 dodge rating = 1% dodge 22.4 parry rating = 1% parry 2.3654 defence rating = 1 defence 59,135 defence rating = 25 defence : +25 Defense will grant you an extra 1% Miss, Parry and Dodge = 3% avoidance total We need to set all stats to a similar line, so we divide that by 3. 19,7116 defence rating = 8,33~ defence = 1% total Agility Agility is special since this stat can be affected by our talents, blessing of kings and sayge's dark fortune. Since the darkmoon faire is only active once a month we'll skip on that last buff for now. 20 agi = 1% dodge 1/20 = 1 agi = 0,05% avoidance With Sinister Calling (+15%) + Blessing of Kings (+10%) the formula becomes : 1 x 1.1 x 1.15 = 1.265 agi. So, 1 agi = 1.265 * (1% / 20) Dodge = 0.06325% Avoidance. With Vitality (2%) instead of Sinister calling the formula is : 1 x 1.1 x 1.02 = 1.122 agi. So, 1 agi = 1.122 * (1% / 20) Dodge = 0.0561% Avoidance. Now, if for example you had 750 Agi total, with SC + Kings you'd get 750 x 0.06325 = 47.4375% dodge With Vitality + Kings you'd get 750 x 0.0561 = 42.075% dodge 47.4375 - 42.075 = 5.3625% dodge difference. Sinister calling is clearly the way to go for now. Point values 1 Agility = 1.265 * (1% / 20) Dodge = 0.06325% avoidance 1 Dodge rating = 1/18.923 = 0.052845743275379168208000845531892% avoidance 1 Defence rating = 1/19,7116 = 0.050731377356895239705758011330025% avoidance 1 Parry rating = 1/22.4 = 0.044642857142857142857142857142857% avoidance Agility seems to be the best choice out of the four stats. (Parry is good for threat though, but that's another story) Avoidance Goal So, how much avoidance do we actually need to be "un hittable"? This will vary slightly depending whether a boss is dual wielding or not as well if the boss has any special abilities which increase it's hit rating. Gurtogg Bloodboil and Illidan for instance have been changed to be counted as dual wielding mobs. Thus their base miss chance is 24% rather than 5% as most bosses. They've been given what appears to be a +19% hit chance talent however which means their normal attacks will still have a 5% miss chance but special instant attacks will have a 0% miss rate. Much like rogues. You need 100% dodge, parry and/or avoidance in general not to be hit by mobs equal to your level. For each level that a mob/boss is a level higher than you they gain 0.6% to hit you. This is because your chance to parry, dodge and chance to be missed go down by 0.2% each. This is caused by the fact that they have 15 weaponskill more than your base defence. Their 365 vs your 350 at level 70. As a result you'll need 100% + 3x 0.6% = 101.8% avoidance. Hence the clever post title ;) Base Agility Completely naked, with no talents the values below are your base agility. However, since we need to include the agility modifiers in all calculations we'll assume that blessing of kings and Sinister calling are active for the avoidance math and multiply the result by 0.06325%. Night Elf : 163 * 0.06325% = 10.30975% avoidance Gnome : 161 = 10.18325% avoidance Troll : 160 = 10.12% avoidance Blood Elf : 160 = 10.12% avoidance Human : 158 = 9.9935% avoidance Undead : 156 = 9.867% avoidance Orc : 155 = 9.80375% avoidance Dwarf : 154 = 9.7405% avoidance Base dodge modifier : -0.59% dodge for rogues. Most classes have a 0% modifier, but blizzard decided to be evil and give us -0.59% so we wouldn't get too high dodge. Go figure. I'm a troll myself, so I'll use that as a base example for now. 10.12% - 0.59% = 9.53% Gems Gems are the cake and butter to get you up to the avoidance limit. Since it's red gems that give +10 agility you may end up with a hefty price tag. No pain, no gain as they say. Dig deep in that bundle and get the best you can get. You'll also want to ignore socket bonusses for the most part. +2 stam, +4 Crit, +2 hit or +4 AP isn't going to help your avoidance at all. Red Delicate Crimson Spinel : 10 agi * 0.06325 = 0.6325% Avoidance Delicate Living Ruby : 8 agi = 0.506% Avoidance if you wish to be cheap. Subtle Crimson Spinel : 10 dodge = 0.528457432754% Avoidance Flashing Crimson Spinel : 10 parry = 0.446428571429% Avoidance As you can see, the Delicate Crimson Spinel is a clear winner for any socket. Yellow + Red These gems are tricky to get as you'll have to run some heroic dungeons, but mandatory if you wish to use the meta gem. Glistening Fire Opal : 4 agi, 5 def = 0.506657744678% Avoidance Stalwart Fire Opal : 5 def, 4 dodge = 0.46504071778% Avoidance Glimmering Fire Opal : 5 parry, 4 def = 0.426140481457% Avoidance blue + Red Sadly there's no real blue gem alternatives to these gimp little purple things. Look on wow gem finder if you don't believe me. Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst : 5 agi = 0.31625% Avoidance Shifting Tanzanite : 5 agi = 0.31625% Avoidance Shifting Nightseye : 4 agi = 0.253% Avoidance Meta Gem There's a few meta gems that you can use, but only one that doesn't "completely" nerf all your other sockets. Relentless Earthstorm Diamond : 12 agi = 0.759% avoidance Activation To activate this Meta gem you need 2 blue and 2 yellow gems. This can be done by simply socketing in 2 green gems and thus losing 2x 10 stats, but there are simply no viable green gems that give any avoidance at all. If there hadn't been any good orange gems this might have been a different case however. Heroic gems are no longer unique as of a recent patch so we can use the best that are available. To activate the meta gem, you sacrifice: 4x Delicate Crimson Spinel : 0.6325 * 4 = 2.53% Avoidance And replace these with: 2x Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst : 5 agi = 0.31625% * 2 = 0.6325% Avoidance 2x Glistening Fire Opal : 4 agi, 5 def = 0.506657744678 * 2 = 1.013315489356% Avoidance Total loss 2.53 (4 red gems) - 0.6325 (2 blue) - 1.013315489356 (2 yellow) = 0.884184510644% Avoidance lost 0.884184510644 (total lost) - 0.759 (Meta gained) = 0.125184510644% Total Avoidance lost. 0.125184510644% (Total avoidance lost) / 0.06325% (1 agi) = 1.979201749312 Agi needed to compensate. Meaning, you'd need to make sure you gain at least 2 agility from socket bonusses in order to make using a meta gem worthwhile. Not to mention the +3% extra damage from crits for threat. This shouldn't be too difficult I think. Unlike what some other people claim, using a meta gem can actually be beneficial for your total avoidance. In theory it'll be easier in WotLK, since the new meta gems won't have requirements(or so I'm told). Also, jewelcrafters can make BoP gems for themselves that will fit all three sockets regardless of color to achieve extra socket bonusses without the loss of avoidance. Avoidance socket bonus These are suitable items for accommodating the activation of the meta gem, I think their socket bonus speaks for itself. B: Quad Deathblow X44 Goggles : 71 Agi = 4.49075% Avoidance. 4 = 0.253% Bonus B: Deathblow X11 Goggles : 58 Agi : 3.6685% Avoidance. 4 = 0.253% Bonus B: Demontooth Shoulderpads : 58 Agi : 3.6685% Avoidance. 3 = 0.18975% Bonus BY: Harness of Carnal Instinct : 74 Agi : 4.6805% Avoidance. 4 = 0.253% Bonus BY: Shadowprowler's Chestguard : 70 agi = 4.4275% Avoidance. 4 = 0.253% Bonus Y: Insidious Bands : 38 Agi = 2.403% Avoidance. 2 = 0.1265% Bonus B: Gloves of the Forest Drifter : 54 Agi = 3.4155% Avoidance. 3 = 0.18975% Bonus B: Shadowed Gauntlets of Paroxysm : 61 Agi = 3.85825% Avoidance. 3 = 0.18975% Bonus Y: Wastewalker Gloves : 52 Agi = 3.289% Avoidance. 3 Dodge = 0.15853722982613750462400253659568% Bonus B: Belt of One-Hundred Deaths : 49 Agi = 3.09925% Avoidance. 3 = 0.18975% Bonus Y: Belt of the Silent Path : 44 Agi = 2.783% Avoidance. 2 = 0.1265% Bonus BB: Belt of Deep Shadow : 52 Agi = 3.289% Avoidance. 3 = 0.18975% Bonus B: Dunewind Sash : 41 agi = 2.59325% Avoidance. 3 = 0.18975% Bonus B: Leggings of the Immortal Beast = 4.807% Avoidance. 4 = 0.253% Bonus B: Skulker's Greaves : 62 Agi = 3.9215% Avoidance. 4 Dodge = 0.21138297310151667283200338212757% Bonus Buffs I'm not including blessing of kings on this list, as it is already included in the agility calculations. Hunter - Scorpid Sting - 5% Avoidance Druid - Insect Swarm - 2% Avoidance (Won't stack with Scorpid sting in the 3.0.2 patch) Elixir of Major Agility : 35 Agi = 2.21375% Avoidance Warp Burger / Grilled Mudfish : 20 Agi = 1.265% Avoidance Scroll of Agility V : 20 Agi = 1.265% Avoidance Mark of the Wild : 14 Agility (18.9 Improved) = 0.8855% Avoidance (1.195425% Improved) Totem - Grace of Air : 77 agility (88.55 Improved) = 4.87025% Avoidance (5.6007875% Improved) Embrace of the Dawn applied by a party member : 10 agility = 0.6325% Avoidance (not sure whether it stacks more than once) Total available from the above buffs : 19.1724625% Avoidance These buffs are also options, but aren't realistic to use very often. Songflower Serenade : +15 Agi (Felwood) Spirit of Zandalar : +50 Agi (Zone buff) Sayge's Dark Fortune of Agility : +10% (Darkmoon Faire) Enchants Helm: Glyph of the Defender : 16 def, 17 dodge = 1.70864665% Avoidance Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Warding : 15 dodge, 10 def = 1.299140953% Avoidance Cloak: 12 agility = 0.759% Avoidance Chest: 15 defense = 0.75949367% Avoidance Bracers: 12 defense = 0.607594936% Avoidance Gloves: 15 agility = 0.94875% Avoidance Legs: Nethercleft Leg Armor : 12 agility = 0.759% Avoidance Boots: 12 agility = 0.759% Avoidance Rings: 2x 4 agility = 2 x 0.253% = 0.506% Avoidance Weapons: 2x 20 Agi : 2 x 1.265% = 2.530% Avoidance : 2x mongoose is miles better for dps and threat, but procs are unreliable and will get you killed in the long run. Total from enchants: 10.636626209% Avoidance Gear This list for Lootzor will show a decent collection sorted by avoidance value. And, you can always search manually using thottbot's recently added point based filtering. It's a bit clunky still though. Or even shadowpanther's list. And even this list on lootrank. Plenty of options really. I've tried to add items for all tiers to this list, so it should be suitable for everyone. All sockets are assumed to be filled with a +10 Agi red gem, all meta sockets are assumed to be empty. Head Quad Deathblow X44 Goggles : 71 Agi = 4.49075 Grimgrin Faceguard : 70 Agi = 4.4275 Mask of the Fury Hunter : 60 Agi = 3.795 Deathblow X11 Goggles : 58 Agi = 3.6685 Slayer's Helm : 55 Agi : 3.47875 Stealther's Helmet of Second Sight : 54 Agi = 3.4155 Duplicitous Guise : 53 agi = 3.35225 (Optimal -1.1385) Cursed Vision of Sargeras : 49 agi = 3.09925 Mask of the Deceiver : 42 agi = 2.6565 Neck Necklace of the Deep : 41 Agi = 2.59 Telonicus's Pendant of Mayhem : 27 agi = 1.70775 The Darkener's Grasp : 27 def, 23 dodge = 2.58519928397 Pendant of Titans : 21 def, 25 dodge = 2.386502506379 Jagged Bark Pendant : 26 agi = 1.6445 Clutch of Demise : 25 agi = 1.58125 (Optimal -1.00875) Earthen Mark of Razing : 23 agi = 1.45475 Saberclaw Talisman : 21 agi = 1.32825 Shoulder Brutal Gladiator's Leather Spaulders : 59 Agi : 3.73175 Demontooth Shoulderpads : 58 Agi : 3.6685 Slayer's Shoulderpads : 54 Agi = 3.4155 Shoulderpads of Assassination : 45 agi = 2.84625 Shoulderpads of the Stranger : 45 agi = 2.84625 Shoulderpads of Vehemence : 33 agi = 2.08725 (Optimal -1.6445) Back / Cloak Phoenix-Wing Cloak : 22 def, 27 dodge = 2.542925370287 Cloak of Unforgivable Sin : 36 agi = 2.277 (Optimal -0.265925370287) Slikk's Cloak of Placation : 16 def 25 dodge = 2.132845619594 Illidari Cloak of Agility : 33 agi = 2.08725 Cloak of Enduring Swiftness : 12 agi 23 dodge = 1.974452095334 Devilshark Cape : 20 def, 18 dodge = 1.965850926095 Thalassian Wildercloak : 28 agi = 1.771 Chest Slayer's Chestguard : 75 Agi = 4.74375 Auchenai Monk's Tunic : 54 agi, 24 dodge = 4.683797838609 Harness of Carnal Instinct : 74 Agi : 4.6805 Bladed Chaos Tunic : 72 agi = 4.554 (Optimal -0.18975) Carapace of Sun and Shadow : 72 agi = 4.554 Warden's Hauberk : 69 Agi : 4.36425 Shadowprowler's Chestguard : 70 agi = 4.4275 Nether Shadow Tunic : 66 Agi : 4.1745 Tunic of the Dark Hour : 54 Agi = 3.4155 Wrist Insidious Bands : 38 Agi = 2.4035 Guardian's Leather Bracers : 38 Agi = 2.4035 Slayer's Bracers : 37 Agi = 2.34025 (Optimal -0.06325) Vambraces of Ending : 34 Agi = 2.1505 Shard-bound Bracers : 30 agi = 1.8975 Master Assassin Wristwraps : 27 agi = 1.70775 Hands / Gloves Shadowed Gauntlets of Paroxysm : 61 Agi = 3.85825 Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation : 55 Agi = 3.47875 Gloves of the Forest Drifter : 54 Agi = 3.4155 Wastewalker Gloves : 52 Agi = 3.289 Gloves of Immortal Dusk : 50 Agi = 3.1625 (Optimal -0.69575) Slayer's Handguards : 44 Agi = 2.783 Waist / Belt Lurker's Grasp of Agility : 55 agi = 3.47875 Belt of Deep Shadow : 52 Agi = 3.289 Belt of One-Hundred Deaths : 49 Agi = 3.09925 (Optimal -0.3795) Don Alejandro's Money Belt : 49 Agi = 3.09925 Belt of the Silent Path : 44 agi = 2.783 Girdle of Treachery : 41 Agi = 2.59325 Dunewind Sash : 41 agi = 2.59325 Slayer's Belt : 39 agi = 2.46675 Bladeangel's Money Belt : 35 agi = 2.21375 Legs / Pants Leggings of the Immortal Beast : 76 Agi = 4.807 Leggings of the Immortal Night : 75 Agi = 4.74375 (Optimal -0.06325) Tameless Breeches : 65 = 4.11125% Trousers of the Scryers' Retainer : 63 Agi = 3.98475 Skulker's Greaves : 62 Agi = 3.9215 Wastewalker Leggings : 61 agi = 3.85825 Slayer's Legguards : 56 agi = 3.542 Feet / Boots Nimble-foot Treads : 32 agi, 25 dodge = 3.345143581884 Shadowmaster's Boots : 50 Agi = 3.1625 Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots : 49 Agi = 3.09925 Edgewalker Longboots : 49 Agi = 3.09925 Slayer's Boots : 40 Agi = 2.53 (Optimal -0.815143581884) Finger / Rings Amber Band of Eluding : 21 agi, 21 dodge = 2.438186562 Arcane Loop of Eluding : 21 agi, 21 dodge = 2.438186562 Delicate Eternium Ring : 25 agi, 16 dodge = 2.426781892406 Ring of Sundered Souls : 18 def, 25 dodge = 2.234308374308 Arcane Loop of agility : 33 agi = 2.08725 Amber Band of agility : 32 agi = 2.024 Elementium Band of the Sentry : 20 def 19 dodge = 2.01869666937 Hard Khorium Band : 30 Agi = 1.8975 (Optimal -0.540686562) Andormu's Tear : 10 def, 26 dodge = 1.881303098729 Band of the Eternal Champion : 29 Agi = 1.83425 Angelista's Revenge : 29 Agi = 1.83425 (Optimal -0.603936562) Signet of Primal Wrath : 28 agi = 1.771 Trinkets Shadowmoon Insignia : 36 def 32 dodge = 3.51739336966 Guardian's Alchemist Stone : 54 def = 2.739494377272 Scarab of Displacement : 42 def = 2.13071784899 Ancient Aqir Artifact : 45 parry = 2.008928571429 Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch : 38 dodge = 2.008138244464 Brooch of the Immortal King : 32 def = 1.623404075421 Onyxia Blood Talisman : 20 parry 12 def = 1.50163367114 Weapons Umbral Shiv OH : 32 Agi = 2.024 (You can use 2 of these, but your threat will be pathetic) Blade of the Unrequited OH : 30 Agi = 1.8975 Rage MH : 30 agi = 1.8975 Crux of the Apocalypse : 28 Agu = 1.771 Blade of Infamy MH : 28 agi = 1.771 Felsteel Longblade MH : 26 Agi = 1.6445 The Sun Eater OH 13 def, 19 dodge = 1.663577027872 Fang of Kalecgos OH : 25 Agi = 1.58125 Vanir's Right Fist of Brutality MH : 23 Agi = 1.45475 Warglaive of Azzinoth MH : 22 agi = 1.3915 (Optimal -0.6325) Warglaive of Azzinoth OH : 21 agi = 1.32825 (Optimal -0.69575) Ranged slot Barrel-Blade Longrifle : 36 Agi = 2.277 Twisted Blades of Zarak : 23 Agi = 1.45475 Legionkiller : 21 Agi = 1.32825 Arcanite Steam-Pistol : 20 agi = 1.265 Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix : 19 Agi = 1.20175 Golden Bow of Quel'Thalas : 18 Agi = 1.1385 Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury : 17 Agi = 1.07525 (Optimal -1.20175) When one takes the highest available avoidance item for each slot, only skipping the alchemist trinket in favour of the scarab your total max avoidance from gear would be: 52.841303294821 The meta gem slot is still empty though. Filling up the Meta slot The goal is to use the minimum of 4 gems and get the most extra avoidance. As described above, doing so will mean we lose 0.884184510644 Avoidance. Assuming you're an engineer and managed to get lucky enough to find yourself with a nice pair of Quad Deathblow X44 Goggles then you're pretty much set for the head piece. Alternatively there's the Mask of the Fury Hunter or Deathblow X11 Goggles you can use to insert the meta gem, but those have a lot less avoidance. B: Quad Deathblow X44 Goggles : 71 Agi = 4.49075% Avoidance. 4 = 0.253% Bonus Y: Insidious Bands : 38 Agi = 2.403% Avoidance. 2 = 0.1265% Bonus BY: Harness of Carnal Instinct : 74 Agi : 4.6805% Avoidance. 4 = 0.253% Bonus Using this combination would mean we only lose 1 agility on the chest, while we gain 10 agility in socket bonusses. This should more than cover the loss of 0.125184510644 avoidance we got by swapping out 4 of the red gems. 0.06325 * (10-1) = 0.56925% Avoidance gained, as well as 3% extra damage on crits. Totals Troll Rogue lvl 70 vs lvl 73 boss. Professions: Enchanting + Engineering. * Enchant Avoidance = 10.636626209% * Base Dodge = 9.53% * Base Parry = 5% * Spec Avoidance = 10% (5% dodge 5% parry) * Racial = 0% (Night elves get 1% dodge) * Boss Miss Rate = 5% * Buff Avoidance = 19.1724625% * Sub Total Avoidance = 59.32% without gear 101.8 - 59.32 = 42.48% that gear needs to produce. * Max Gear Avoidance = 52.841303294821% (Base gear) + 0.56925%(Meta change) = 53.410553294821% * Grand Total Avoidance = 112.730553294821% * To spare : 112.682553294821 - 101.8 = 10.930553294821% Avoidance. For sunwell you'd need an extra 25% : http://thottbot.com/s45769 Which is simply not possible to obtain at this time. When patch 3.0.2 hits the live servers Scorpid sting and Insect swarm will no longer stack, thus you'll need an additional 2% Avoidance. Or rather, you'll have 2% less to spare. See this blue post for details. Optimal setup (High threat) To tank effectively you'll need threat, lots of it. Sadly this isn't always possible. The 2p and 4p slayer's set bonus is very good, but in order to get it you'd have to sacrifice a lot of avoidance. Also, since you don't have any combat potency the 2p set bonus is pretty lacking as well. I'll skip on the trinkets, as they'd reduce avoidance too much. Obviously you'll want the Blackened Naaru Sliver, Dragonspine trophy, Shard of Contempt or Madness of the betrayer if you have access to them. Changing all the max items we used earlier into the ones marked as optimal would reduce avoidance by: -9.938942076171% That will mess up the meta gem again however so you need to reduce that value by another: -0.56925%. Which causes you to end up at : -10.508192076171% Don't forget you can also switch out the 2x20 agility for Mongoose. This means you'll lose 40*0.06325 = 2.53% Avoidance, but gain a lot of threat. Since we had 10.930553294821 to spare, that's all good. We're losing another 2% in WotLK though, so you'll have to make some choices then. Realistically though, if you're able to ge the ones marked as optimal you shouldn't have too much difficulty skipping on 1-2 of them either and still do a lot of DPS. Macros This macro should allow you to test your current avoidance in game. It assumes 5% boss miss rate. /script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Need 101.8 combined avoidance. Currently at:",0.8,0.8,1) /script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(GetDodgeChance() +GetBlockChance()+GetParryChance()+5+(GetCombatRating(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL) *150/355+20)*0.04,1,0.5,0) Playstyle Smash riposte whenever you can. Since you've got 10.x% parry and are taking a lot of blows in your general direction it should be available fairly often. A good amount of threat for very little energy is never a bad thing. Keep slice 'n dice active and rupture when the last stack drops off your target. If a boss has a cast timer for certain spells save your cloak of shadows to counter it. Onyxia's fire breath or gurtogg's acid breath for example. Since you've got max avoidance most boss enrage timers shouldn't be a problem for you. Low threat and aoe or random spells will definitely kill your raid buddies though. Never forget you need them to keep your avoidance the way it is. Additional information * Downfall. Project: rogue tank. * The wow forums. this thread, and this one. * Shadowpanther's rogue avoidance armor list. * Thoughts for food. tank kit choices. * WowWiki. Defense, Parry, Agility. * EJ Forums. 100% avoidance, making a rogue tank, Survival itemlist. Look, even Hunters can do it. * Recount forums: Rogue tanking. * Raidcalc Rogue DPS Spreadsheet. Allows you to calculate most of the avoidance, and threat. * Curse: Tank Totals addon. ps: Cowgirl ate my bacon sandwitch :(