Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 2:09 AM |  
The more things stay the same, the more things stay the same.

So the lack of patch notes relating to rogues might make you think that nothing has changed for rogues in 1.3. Well, you'd be right. Nevertheless, with Hammerknell set to start "soon" and people wanting to get geared up to clear Greenscale, here is my take on the top 3 DPS specs for Rogues.

Good old melee sab is going great guns this patch, with the change to Deadly Dance's interaction with charges streamlining the rotation. In my (still) mostly T2 gear with some raid gear, my spike charge crit ticks for 2.2k and Shrapnel crit ticks for 1k. The rotation is more complicated than the standard saboteur, but the damage is also better.

Rotation:
3x Spike > Puncture > Deadly Strike > 2x Spike > Detonate
5x Shrap > Detonate

You can use Backstab if you want to, but I prefer Puncture because of the positional nature of Backstab. There's also not much difference in energy because a 2 Point Detonate costs less energy than a 1 point detonate that you would do with Backstab. Of course, if you prefer ranged sab, there is always the standard saboteur.

Still going strong, the BD tribrid deals considerable damage to a single target. It's simple to play, to allow for good raid awareness and is extremely competitive for the top spot on the damage meter. More info is available in my complete writeup.

I tested this and had very good results. It's bizarre running a melee ranger spec and you do have to run in and out of melee range to use Head Shot, but it deals very good DPS and may wind up being the best DPS of all, depending on your gear. You can read more about the spec in his thread on the rift forums. Note that my spec varies slightly from his. I find having instant-pet is too valuable to go without.

I was lagging too bad to give a good test to Hoko's spec this week (thanks Trion for those server mergers by the way) so next week will be the test on that one, hopefully.

Also, Guardians now massively outnumber Defiants on Deepstrike. Because sometimes being able to do Raid Rifts was too simple.
Posted by Dunsparrow Labels:

15 comments:

tbroc said...

nice writeup bro. I really enjoy the sab spec!!!!

June 24, 2011 at 10:19 AM  
Rashiem Mims said...

Def nice writeup.. So this link in one of your post.. and the only thing I can think of is.. is this "The" dunsparrow from Andorhal... Aand here you are.. Good to see ya around in some form or another. Played Andorhal from 2007-2011..

June 24, 2011 at 10:24 PM  
Dunsparrow said...

One and the same. :]

June 26, 2011 at 2:05 PM  
Troy said...

Hey on the r 26 Sab / 21 Sin / 19 BD
Build you have deadly dance in the rotation...i can not find that skill do you mean deadly strike?

June 26, 2011 at 10:39 PM  
Dunsparrow said...

Sorry, yes Deadly Strike. I'll amend the post.

June 27, 2011 at 12:13 PM  
Anonymous said...

Dunsparrow, is there a viable PvE MM spec with 44 points for eradicate? Chatter on the forums suggests that 51mm/15nb will parse higher than any of the 44mm specs.

June 29, 2011 at 8:36 PM  
Dunsparrow said...

Bottom line is that 51 MM is going to beat 44MM+x. Unfortunately, no spec with MM is going to do very well on the meters.

If I were to make a PvE MM spec, it would look like this: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0MfiN.EGtRqdAudR.V0h.VM probably.

June 30, 2011 at 12:29 AM  
nivek ov said...

Hey dunsparrow, I just wanted to know what you think about this build for PvP. http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0MbMp..GARftobodbR.VcxchobMkz Thanks!

June 30, 2011 at 3:24 AM  
Vanity said...

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1MfMi.xhxoVzAudR.0VMcx0o.V0xM is what I use for PvE marksman. Puts up solid numbers and is fairly easy to use.

June 30, 2011 at 9:53 PM  
Vanity said...

I do have a question about the Sabo spec you posted. What is the single target rotation? Just repeat the spike charge rotation you have listed or do you actually use 5x shrapnel in your single target rotation?

June 30, 2011 at 9:55 PM  
Dunsparrow said...

Yes, you alternate Shrapnel and Spike on single target. The talent that gives Shrapnel charge a DoT actually doubles its damage and puts it right behind spike charge for single target DPS.

For AOE DPS you would use 5x Shrapnel only.

July 2, 2011 at 4:57 AM  
Vanity said...

Interesting... Never would have through to use that over Blast charge. Thank you!

July 2, 2011 at 5:17 AM  
Daniel B said...

Standard sab is NO GO - since you put the points into NB. Put the points into ranger, and you will autoattack with your ranged weapon, and apply your poisons too. - HUGE difference.

July 30, 2011 at 12:13 PM  
Rasix said...

curious as to why you've chosen not to put 1 point into annihilation bomb, effectively making your spike charge AoE every 3 rounds?

July 30, 2011 at 12:40 PM  
Rasix said...

Alright, Make that at least 2 points, forgot about the fact that you need the next skill as well for that.

July 30, 2011 at 3:09 PM