Raer

Thanks for the prompt reply! I understand fat fingering keys at inopportune times..Even with rather small hand I manage to do that on occasion. I'm not sure why you would intentionally let SnD fall off. I can't imagine a situation where letting it fall off would be of greater gain than using even a <5 CP envenom to keep it up. Reapplying SnD is a waste of combo points, one of the biggest Rogue sins we can commit. I definitely understand having off nights, those nights where NOTHING seems to go right >,< You say you won't swap until full BiS is available? What's your logic behind that decision?

Hi Swayzee, I'm Raer and I play a Rogue in South of Heaven 25man raids. Looking over your logs, and I have to say I'm impressed on some occasions. Others I'm scratching my head in utter confusion. The fights you linked are very strong. Starting with Jin'rokh: Everything seems good, but your second potion timing seems a bit off to me. In the second pool, with no cooldowns. If you had waited until the 3rd pool (with Vendetta/SB) I'm sure you would have gotten better mileage. Tortos: AoE'ing the kited bats is fun. Big numbers but only helpful in slowing. I also notice you let Slice and Dice fall off several times, what happened there? Using Crimson Tempest on the bats...what's your logic behind this if you're only slowing? Using Envenom in it's place would have netted you a refresh on SnD and more poison procs so you could apply your slow more effectively. Magaera: I'm not looking at the normal mode kill, but the several wipes on Heroic. You did a minor amount of damage to the Wyrms. What are your thoughts behind pumping more damage into the heads and ignoring the Wyrms to lessen the number of spawns you have to deal with (even if it dropped your personal DPS)? Moving on to farm and other fights you didn't link: I notice on H Horridon on 7/5 you had trouble with Slice and Dice again. Also using Crimson Tempest. To be completely honest, I don't even have that spell bound as anything other than Subtlety. One last thing: What are your thoughts on the RPPM trinkets/meta system and our stat weights? Looking forward to your thoughts on the issues I've brought up. Cheers, Raer Mork...shame on you.

Congrats you lovely, lovely people!

Ji-kun is unreliable via WoL due to being out of range of the person running logs. Typically if you're not in the same nest group, most of your nest damage doesn't show up. Durumu is specifically one of the fights where Killing Spree can not be used efficiently due to the maze and possible assignments to the different light beams (this was the first encounter that forced me to swap to Assassination). On this one in particular 5/2 Durumu, your first use of Killing Spree was approximately 30s into the fight, AFTER you had used AR/SB. This is quite a substantial misuse of Restless Blades, wasting possible uses of Killing Spree. More on basic priority/rotation: it took you ~10 seconds to apply the first Slice and Dice. Then you let it drop during Deep Insight (HUGE nono). This is far and away the biggest dps increase ability we have as a Rogue so as close to 100% uptime as possible is what we aim for. Applying SnD ASAP is considered to be the highest priority. Looking further, it seems you applied Revealing Strike while the debuff had quite some time left on it's duration. I also notice that you're not using Tricks aside from the pull. This is a free ~3% increase for whomever you target (that's based on average uptimes I get with tricks). With your level of haste, 15.45 E/s, it's energy neutral to cast and increases your overall raid dps. Actually, that's not stupid. Using them separately would waste Restless Blades, resulting in overall less uses. Overall, I think there is room for improvement on the fundamentals of Rogue gameplay and would welcome any rebuttals to what I've said here. Cheers, Raer

Hi Montonobu, I'm Raer and I play a Rogue in South of Heaven 25man raids. Ashin and Alaska asked a lot of the questions that really need answering, so I'm just gonna give you my thoughts on Combat vs Assassination. Combat is also not overly useful in progression because the estimated increase in damage comes from the 0.5s GCD of AR/SB with the Tier 15 4 piece. Any loss of uptime on the boss or even the SLIGHTEST lag during them would be a GIGANTIC loss. Couple this with the fact that you can't fully utilize Killing Spree (usually enough in and of itself to not play Combat) on some fights and not having AR/SB up for a burn can be crippling. Also, Assassination isn't as weapon dependent as Combat, so the swap wouldn't be as bad as you think. Please pick out 1 or 2 particular logs for me to go over. Ones where you think you did exceptionally well. This way I don't evaluate you on what may have been an off night and not your typical performance (lord knows we all have those). Cheers, Raer

):

I have an alt raid scheduled for 8est, but I could hop in for a few minutes if that's alright.

Hi Olef, I had a chance to look over your logs more in depth and they are quite good in terms of personal performance. I don't notice any glaring survivability issues, just once where it looks like you forgot to cast Tricks on a Horridon pull and he ate your face. Also a Rockfall death early on H Tortos progression. This is one of those times where Elusiveness/Feint would have saved you, as the crystal shell debuff really never falls off with it and proper healing. All the Rogue fundamentals are on par and I expect with time in a 25m setting you could improve even further (not that there is even much room for!). Nitpickery on your usage of Vanish and Garrote: I see that once or twice you used it to silence an add on H Horridon but other random casts that could be attributed to fat fingering in the heat of the moment. Something on your CD usage as Assassination on Horridon: I noticed you hardly used Vendetta/Shadow Blades but on Horridon twice, Jalak once, and a Frozen Warlord. I suppose this is good practice in 10 man, but in 25 the adds have substantially more health and if you're saving/using CDs on Horridon it's very likely we can get behind on adds. I see that you're not using Tricks at all aside from the pull. That's a free ~3% increase for your target (usually another Rogue, but lately I've been prone to toss it around with our lack of another Rogue). That's estimated by percent of uptime on the buff * 15. Yes, it is a ~1% loss for yourself, but whomever you cast it on can have a significant impact on their overall performance (especially a multidotter with several targets). All of these things are fine tuning and usually come with the experience of playing a Rogue on the cutting edge. Overall, I can give your logs my blessing. I do have to warn you though, Ashin is not tolerant of Killing Spree and it's inclination of killing us. That being said, Combat is also not overly useful in progression because the estimated increase in damage comes from the 0.5s GCD of AR/SB. Any loss of uptime on the boss or even the SLIGHTEST lag during them would be a GIGANTIC loss. Couple this with the fact that you can't fully utilize Killing Spree (usually enough in and of itself to not play Combat) on some fights and not having AR/SB up for a burn can be crippling. With that said, I strongly suggest you maintain Assassination for progression. One thing I do have to ask, is your thoughts on the RPPM system and how it affects our stat weights given the Legendary Meta and 2 ToT trinkets. Cheers, Raer

I'm posting from my phone. Those are all solid answers except your opener as combat doesnt account for initial killing spree and adrenaline rush uses. Using any finisher aside from slice and dice is a waste of restless blades. Also as assassination you should replace Ambush with mutilate. Since the buff to dispatch the chance for mutilate to generate more damage via blindside is more valuable than ambushs slightly higher base damage I'll look over your logs when I get home tonight.

Hey Val, I played on Velen years and years ago. I remember Veritas being one of the better guilds at the time, is Takisis or Yuten still playing?

Hi Olëf, I'm Raer and I play a Rogue in South of Heaven 25man raids. I'll be reviewing the logs you post and providing feedback on them. I notice you're logged out in Combat gear/reforges, do you play Combat for a majority of progression? Could you elaborate on your typical opener as Combat? There seems to be a lot of diversity on opinions as to what the "correct" way to open a fight is. You listed as "Combat/Assassination", what are your thoughts on each spec compared to each other for Throne of Thunder encounters? Going over your talent and glyph choices, which for a Rogue aren't really choices most of the time. Most of your choices seem solid, but what strikes me as odd is that you take Leeching Poison over Elusiveness. Can you explain the reasoning behind that? I look forward to your answers and hopefully some logs to go along with them! Cheers, Raer

I wouldn't count on it, we've had some notorious unlucky streaks with people going full clears without a single Secret. Although that does seem to be the exception, good luck with your Secrets!!

Grats!!

Hopefully we love him as much as Kel loves Orange Soda!

Hi :3

1, no 2, only when I have to 3, KCCO 4, split, lick, put back together.

Welcome to the SoH forums Kristen! Armory for those interested.

No one huntars like Gaston

<3

Also a big increase comes from encounter familiarity. Better timing of cooldowns and knowledge of where to stand lets you focus more on your rotation. Nice work!!

-snip- Ashin too fast! What are your thoughts on transmog as a boomkin?

Ara...I like it (much better than Rae, I'm sure it could get confusing >.>) Welcome aboard!