Whuzzaaaa

It's been a busy weekend. Update: * I'm going to kill my neighbor, and I'm working on a good murder plan. * The police are generally retarded, unhelpful, and useless for anything other than making your life harder. They sure as heck are proving to be unwilling to help in any domestic disputes. Hence I'm going to kill my neighbor. Or at least make the bitch suffer. Then kill her after. * Also looking for a new house so I don't have to look at the red bloodstains on my roof all day. * Remind me to delete those previous lines so I don't leave evidence of that fact. * Cooked and cleaned, installed heat reflective insulation material of some sort behind one of the radiators here, three to go. I cut it to size and placed books on it so it flattens first.. That first batch was a horror to install. * Killed a plant, possibly by drowning it with water.... * Got "brewmaster" completed today, and "what a strange long trip it's been". Up to 7075 achievement points or so. Haven't really been making an effort on that though. Yeah that damn mount is pink, of all things. * Alt paladin dinged 80 at last. Making the total tally 3x80 and 5x70, all of them with epic flying skill. No shortage on gold here. * Got another tinfoil piece, just two to go then all the F-ranks are done. * Armor games slacks on updates. * MSN messenger is STILL acting weird. * Cleaned out my old Old OLD pc that I'm using as a lamp stand (p2 350 with 6gb hd) and found out it still has some 35 MB of data that I'd like to save somehow. However..... It can't access internet, It won't recognize USB sticks, doesn't have a CD burner, and it freezes up every 10 or so minutes. Still trying to work out how to get it off in an efficient way that doesn't involve chopping the data into 1.44MB floppies. So I can turn the thing into an aquarium afterwards. And, well,,,, OMG it's sunday evening already o_O

What a long strange trip, conslusion

Brewfest started this sunday. And with that has arrived the "nearly" one year anniversary of the achievement system. Some crazy no-lifes have already gotten over 10.000 points farmed. Crazy. Brewfest and more importantly the Brew Master achievement. Which should be the last most people need to complete this achievement and obtain the 310% speed Violet Protodrake. The same speed as birdy and metal birdy, all the pvp arena flyers, and even the Yogg+0 reward: Mimiron's head are. While most of those 310% mounts require either some effort, or a crazy amount of luck to obtain, the violet proto drake is just the result of dutifully doing all the World events and festivals. Which, a lot of people did. That violet drake is a HORRIBLE color, but an important (useful) thing to remember is that blizzard "may be" intending to allow a few things to be linked to the achievement of getting a 310% mount. Such as allowing some crafters to create more 310% speed mounts - flying carapets, copters etc - and any owner of said achievement would (in the next expansion) be able to use any of their flying mounts and enjoy 310% speed. A good reason to put a little effort in trying to get one at least. It's only 30% faster than the regular 280% one, but combined with the multiplying talents (15% or 30%) that adds up. Faster flight means faster farming, faster questing, more profit! I still want that Remote T_T It's the only item from mr.direbrew that's any use. The rest are (cute for alts) ilvl 200 trinkets that you wouldn't use for much. Update: Got it :) The teleporter would come in handy in the expansion, when Blackrock Deeps / caverns, and the new raid "above" BWL are added. Would save so much flight time.

Raging sheep!

For the most part, WoW players are sheep. And not just any kind of sheep either, mindless drooling idiots that will believe anything and everything you say and take it as actual truthful facts. No, don't worry, there's no don't get offended just yet. Since you're reading this you've already proven you're to be different and unique from the general herd. Lets clarify with the use of some examples. Presume you're in one of the three high end raiding guilds on the server. Competition is strong, sometimes you get the first kill on a boss and sometimes the other guild will beat you to it. At the same time you're having fun and socializing with the other members of your guild, while the other guilds are doing the same in their collective green text environment. All good so far. A new content patch arrives and all the guilds on the server start trying to get the usual first kills. Your guild manages to kill the first two bosses and then wipe the rest of the evening on the next one. One of the other guilds kill the boss you spent all night wiping on, and just like you made a post on the forums showing off your first kill screenshots, they do so of their first kill screenshot. Nothing unusual right? Until, someone from their guild decides to make fun of the fact that you wiped on the third boss. One becomes two, two becomes three, and suddenly a whole bunch of players are crossposting over the two topics about who was first, who was better and then the real fun begins. Someone starts calling the other group idiots, losers, and plenty of other degeneratives that I'll leave to your imagination to fill in. A guild feud started that day, and competition for the next bosses will be even stronger. People from guild-A will refuse to group or Pug with people from Guild-B because they're idiots, assholes, can't play for shit, etc etc. Even if it's a new recruit from another server, or a recently leveled character from a completely different guild. As soon as a player has the Guild-B tag above their head Guild-A will boycott them. Why? Because most WoW players are sheep, cattle, herd animals, unable to form their own opinion. Comical So, you may wonder were I'm going with this rant. It's not so much a rant as a thought that was raised on a not-so-recent discussion on the MMOC forums regarding Tim Buckley, the author of Ctrl Alt Del. As WoW players once again displayed the uncanny ability to act like sheep. Tim Buckley is an asshole, Tim Buckley is an idiot, Tim Buckley can't draw for shit, and the list goes on. So, I ask one of the ranters, "why" do you feel this way about him? His answer, quite blatantly came down to: "Because people said so". Wow! I mean, would you jump off a 20 story flat "because people say so"? I sure wouldn't. Me: Do you personally know him then? Him: No. M: So basically you came to the conclusion of him being an idiot solely on the opinions of other people? H: Well, yeah, everyone says so, it must be true right? Everyone says so. Rrrright. A perfect example of sheep. Now, I'm not going to say Tim "isn't" a complete asshole as I can't prove or disprove his character traits. In all likeliness he is in fact a complete ass, but since I don't personally know the guy I'll keep my opinion on him neutral. I refuse to act like a sheep. (Insert lol haha you're playing WoW just like 11 million other players joke here) But seriously, more people should stop and think about that. Your opinion is your own, at least take the time for come to your own conclusions rather than let others dictate your mind. Whispers from the dark Funny enough, I ran into another sheep myself while playing on my rogue some time ago. I didn't think to make a screenshot to show it off here for comedy value, but I think you'll get the idea. SomeIdiot whispers you: Asshole! Huh? OK, so, I'm not stealing anyone's mobs, I'm practically alone in the zone, and didn't gank or corpse camp anyone for weeks if not longer. What would this be about I wonder.. I shiftclick his name. SomeIdiot Level 58 (Some minor guild) - Orgrimmar He's not in my zone, probably an alt, and in a guild that I've never had any dealing with in my life. This should be interesting. Me: While I'm certainly not the nicest guy on the server,,, I highly doubt I've done anything to offend you recently. Why exactly would you then call me an ass? Him: Everyone in the guild says you are. /spit Me: And, everyone in your guild has known me exactly how long? -SomeIdiot- is ignoring you. Amazing. No doubt the pinnacle of human evolution. I did some asking around and had a chat with one of the more reasonably minded characters in that guild, and it turns out they were talking about evil raid leaders in the high end raiding guilds. A conversation apparently during which some 12 year old got so hyped up that he decided to whisper me. Sheep. Black sheep. I might be a judgmental bastard at the best of times, but if you do get on my shit list at least you'll know it's personal. So, ask yourself this. Do you control your own opinion?

Rogue FAQ 1.0

It's pretty basic so far, but feel free to drop in some suggestions. e.g. "stuff you wish you knew earlier but never bothered to ask" It's a FAQ though, not a guide. Simple questions, simple answers. Rogue FAQ 1.0 Q: What's the ArPen Cap? 100%, or 12.31 * 100 = 1231 Armor Penetration Rating. Less if you have talents that boost this obviously. Be aware that having both of these active: * http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40256 (612) and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45931 (665) Is already more than the cap, especially since you'll likely already have a decent number of ArPen rating on your gear. So it is highly discouraged to use both at the same time. Q: What's my HitCap? Assuming you have 5/5 precision: * To cap specials (yellow attacks) you need 99 hit rating. Shouldn't be too hard to reach that. * To cap poison attacks 315 hit rating. Poison is considered a spell and affected by precision as of 3.0.1 * To cap poison attacks, while improved Faery fire or misery(shadow priest) are active, you'll need only 237 hit rating. * To cap white attacks you need 722 hit rating. Don't bother with that though. * If you have a Draenei in your group, you'll need 33 rating less. If you don't have 5/5 precision or simply less of it: ~32.78 hit rating equals 1% hit ~65.56 hit rating equals 2% hit ~98.34 hit rating equals 3% hit ~131.12 hit rating equals 4% hit ~163.9 hit rating equals 5% hit Once you reach your poison hit cap the value of hit rating will decrease substantially (provides you with much less dps increase per point), thus, once you reach the poison cap it's recommended you try to work on the expertise cap and/or start stacking agility or ArPen. Q: What's the expertise Cap? ~32.78 expertise rating equals 4 expertise = 1% less dodge, parry, and block on your target. So 1% increase to hit your target from behind, 3% increase from the front. Bosses are presumed to have 6.5% dodge, which means you need 26 expertise, or 214 expertise rating. If you have Weapon expertise 2/2 you need 16 expertise, or 132 expertise rating. If you're a human(or dwarf) wielding a sword(or mace) or Orc(with axes) then you only need 13 = 107 rating Q: What gems should I use? Epic ones obviously. Or the Jewelcrafting ones if you have access to those. Alternatively, The difference between 20 Agi, 40 AP, or 20 ArPen are "very" marginal. Personally I'd suggest the following: Meta: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41398 Red sockets: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40112 Yellow sockets: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40147 Blue sockets: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49110 : only one though, you can usually just flood the rest of your gear with red gems. Q: What does AEP/EP/MAEP mean? Agility Equivalence Points and alike. Basically it is a way to compare other stats to 1 point of agility as a base. For example 1 Agi = 1.5 hit = 1.75 crit = 2 AP (Those values are just an example, for now) Q: What weapons are best for Mutilate? Two big juicy high dps daggers, a slow (1.7-1.8 speed) for mainhand, and a fast (1.3-1.5 speed) one for offhand. Q: What weapons are best for Combat? That really varies what the best weapons in the current patch are. For 3.1 that was Mainhand fist + offhand dagger. For 3.2 it's 2 axes (MH slow, OH fast obviously), nobody knows yet what 3.3 will bring but the MH slow OH fast will always remain true. Q: What is better for DPS, combat or mutilate? Or Honor among thieves? This is a FAQ, not a theorycrafting guide. And it really depends on your playstyle. HaT got nerfed in 3.2 so it's worthless now. Combat is king, but only marginally ahead of mutilate at the time of writing this. Mutilate isn't bad, and blizzard has intentions of making it more prominent. As they want rogues to be a primarily "dagger wielding class" Q: What stats are beneficial to me? Get: Agility and Attack power. Avoid: Spirit and Strength (Strength only gives half the AP value per point) Get: Crit, Hit, Haste, Expertise, ArPen rating. Avoid: Spell power, Mana regen, armor, block, dodge, parry rating. Stamina is never bad, but it doesn't help your DPS either. Q: Why can't I use some abilities when I'm not standing behind my enemy? Some abilities require you to be in front (gouge) while some require you to be behind (backstab, ambush) your target. You can't really go "lol backstab in your face". Front and back are actually two 180 degree circles, but don't take those as 100% accurate all the time. If you want to backstab something, get behind the target. This also means combat spec (which doesn't rely on backstab) is quite good for leveling. Mutilate can also be used from the front as of a recent patch. Q: Why "is" a slow mainhand better than a fast one? Slower weapons have a bigger damage range than faster weapons. e.g. a 1.3 speed dagger might do 50-60 damage, while a 2.6 speed sword will do 100-120. Even if their DPS is the same. Over time the damage will be the same, but that only applies to autoattacks (white damage). Since sinister strike, mutilate, ambush, backstab, hemo all use the weapon's damage for instant attacks it's simply a matter of BIGGER is better. And thus slower weapons are a prime choice for your main hand attacks. Q: What are the best glyphs to use for DPS? Combat: Sinister strike, slice and dice, rupture, killing spree, tricks of the trade. Sinister strike is mandatory really. Minor glyphs don't matter much. Mutilate: Mutilate, tricks of the trade, hunger for blood. (rupture and slice and dice can be used, but probably won't give you much benefit) Q: Why doesn't Vanish always work? Server sync lag mainly. You click vanish, and your client thinks you're in stealth. The server receives an attack command from the other player or npc. The server "then" receives your vanish command. The server allows you to get hit. You lose stealth, you die, etc. As a "fix" blizzard has added a 0.5 second immunity to vanish. It's nearly impossible to notice but there have been many cases where a rogue has been able to survive a lethal crushing blow from a boss mob by vanishing "right" at the correct time. Your combat log will show you received a 60K hit, gain stealth. But not actually taken damage. At any rate, blizzard is "aware" of the issue and has some plans for fixing it in due time. Obviously, it's not a very high priority. Q: What professions will give me the best DPS improvement? See this link. Basically: * Engineering gives "up to" 47 EP for mutilate and "up to" 57 EP for combat, depending how good you keep all your cooldowns on the glove enchant and belt enchant running. See here * Jewelcrafting gives 42 EP (or, AEP if you prefer) * Blacksmithing, inscription, enchanting, leatherworking and skinning are all 40 EP. * Alchemy is 40 but requires you to have a flask active. Don't bother with the rest if you're looking for more damage. Tailoring is shit, and both herbalism and mining are primarily just for PvP. Q: What races are best for PvE? In order from good to bad: * Horde: Orc, Troll, (goblin?), blood elf, undead. * Alliance: Human, Night elf, Dwarf, Gnome. If you want to know "why", just look at the racials. Q: What addons do you recommend I use? Classtimer, to see your "timers". Bartender, for more bars. Grid, to see who else is in the raid with you, and allow you to select tricks of the trade targets more easily. Fubar, just because it's awesome. Bigwigs, because you need it for raid warnings. Get them on curse (yuck) or through mmoui minion. Q: What enchants should I use? * Weapons: Berserking. This one was made a bit less dramatic in 3.0.8 -5% reduced armor instead of a whooping -25% * Helm: Arcanum of Torment. Requires revered with Knights of the Ebon Blade. * Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe. Requires exalted with the Sons of Hodir. (Or inscription enchant) * Chest: Powerful Stats +10 to all. * Cloak: Major Agility +22 (or engineer enchant) * Bracers: Greater Assault +50 AP (or Leatherworking enchant) * Gloves: Crusher +44 AP (or engineering enchant) * Legs: Icescale Leg Armor +75 AP +22 crit. * Boots: Icewalker +12 hit, +12 crit (or engineering enchant) * Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle +1 socket = 20 agi Q: What poisons work best in PvE? For combat: * MH Wound poison and OH Deadly poison. Depends on the speed of your offhand, attack speed, and haste which one should be MH and OH though. Generally you want it like that however. Without sword spec (fist/mace MH and dagger/fist/mace OH): * OH speed = 1.4: DP/WP : For example 2.6 MH, 1.4 OH * OH speed > 1.4: WP/DP : For example 2.5 MH, 1.6 OH With sword spec (either MH or OH sword or axe or both): * OH speed = 1.4: WP/WP * OH speed > 1.4: WP/DP For assassination: * Deadly + Instant (someone verify?) Q: Why not use Instant poison as Combat? Without talents wound poison simply does more damage. Less damage per hit, but WAY higher proc rate = more damage over time. Instant poison is still useful, but only if you are specced deep into mutilate. Q: What poisons work best in PvP? Crippling is pretty much mandatory. Mind numbing poison / Wound poison depending on the situation. Q: Why can't I use cloth / Mail? You can use cloth, but there is no cloth with stats that benefit you. And, you can't train mail or plate armor. Rogues are "stealthy", so no clinking mail for you. Q: Where do I train certain weapon skills? At the weapon master, see: http://www.wowwiki.com/Weapon_master As a rogue you can learn: * Melee: Unarmed, Daggers, Swords, Axes (as of 3.2), Maces. All one handed only. * Ranged: Bows / Crossbows / Guns / Thrown Q: Are there any useful links where I can look for more information? Some Extra info sources: * Some old stuff this FAQ is based on: http://rrvs.blogspot.com/2009/01/rogue-wotlk-stuff.html * 3.2 Professions in detail: http://rrvs.blogspot.com/2009/07/slow-week-for-32-professions.html * PvE DPS: http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t24301-rogue_pve_dps/ * Spreadsheet: http://elitistjerks.com/f78/t39136-combat_3_2_mutilate_3_1_spreadsheets/ * Spreadsheet: http://elitistjerks.com/f78/t27244-roguecraft_spreadsheet/ * Rogue Info: http://www.wowwiki.com/Rogue * Rating values: http://www.wowwiki.com/Combat_rating_system * Gear list: http://www.shadowpanther.net/