Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 3:27 AM |  
Looks like 1.4 is tomorrow which means new raid-quality crafted items, new Unseen PvP quests and items (including PvP Rifts) and a new 10-man instance - Drowned Halls. We cleared this instance on the test shard and I'll post those videos up later today. I'll also be posting my new Nightblade PvE spec in a bit. I doubt it will beat Sabdancer, but it will be fun and interesting to play NB in raids for a change. I'll be giving it a shot.

With Fell Blades and Anathema no longer stacking, a few things will shift with rogue PvP specs. My only new spec is a variation of Gunblade that is more defensive, if you're lower rank or feel a bit too squishy in standard Gunblade spec. I'm not sure which I'll use yet.

Gunblade 2.0

Because Anathema no longer stacks with Fell Blades, this spec drops 5 points from Infiltrator to pick up Blackout in Nightblade. You lose a bit of damage from Focused Intent and Murderous Thoughts, but make up for it with defense:


Original Gunblade will still be viable as well. Either way, you probably don't want to use Hasted Shot anymore, because you'll be better off waiting to get in range to Flame Thrust with the Nightrage buff.

Living Flame

This spec will remain relatively unchanged. While Anathema no longer stacks with Fell Blades (and is inferior to Fell), it will still be worth getting 15 Inf, because you need at least 10 for Cleanse Soul and there is really nothing else you would get with 5 points.

This leaves you with the standard Living Flame spec: 51 NB / 15 Inf / 0 BD.

Since I haven't gone over macros and play with this spec, I'll go over it here. Although most things are the same as with the Deep Nightblade spec.

Macros
#show Dusk Strike
cast Dusk Strike
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Spike

#show Twilight Force
cast Twilight Force
cast Fiery Spike

#show Scourge of Darkness
cast Scourge of Darkness
cast Blazing Strike
cast Flame Thrust
Gameplay

Unlike the Deep Nightblade spec, this spec relies heavily on being in melee range. You can do reasonable damage at medium range but your damage output is much lower than melee. This spec has a wide array of defensive and offensive cooldowns.

Offensive CDs
Living Flame
The namesake of the spec is also a great ability. This creates a physical damage AOE around you that pulses for about 400 per tick for 5 seconds. Its not channeled so you can continue doing your DPS rotation, which is what makes this spell worth getting.

Ebon Fury
Know it, use it, love. This is your greatest damage CD and allows you to spam Dusk Strike and Twilight Force, so it allows you to deal good damage even at range if needed.

Dusk to Dawn
It's barely a cooldown, but with the new Nightrage buff it grants, you'll want to pop this puppy ASAP when its off cooldown. Nightrage gives your Blazing Strikes and Flame Thrusts an additional 40% damage. Should be badass, but its purgable so its not reliable against dispel classes.
Defensive CDs
Twilight Shelter
Reduces incoming damage by 80% and outgoing by 40%. You generally want to use this one against assassins to deal with their dots while you kill them. Also useful to time with a mage popping their own damage shield.

Blackout
This one is awesome against any non-dispel class, though marginal against Assassin. Best used against warriors and Marksman who pop Hit n' Run (cover it with Cleanse Soul).

Twilight Transcendence
Makes you immune to all damage for 3 seconds. Also removes magic-based stuns/cc. I tend to use this right when an Assassin jumps me to prevent him from applying Impale. I also use it against casters if I get a huge number of debuffs.

Cleanse Soul
Makes you immune to magic for 6 seconds. Its awesome against Duracell-type clerics and any mage. Also very good when fighting another Nightblade.

Sidesteps
Most useful against any other rogue. I generally pop this any time a rogue opens on me, if its up.
This spec is vulnerable against talented Marksman (not many of those) because of their long range and dispels, and against Riftblade warriors. Anyone with a mana bar is a target.
Posted by Dunsparrow Labels: ,

12 comments:

The Shepherd said...

I just found your blog through the RIFT forums a couple of days ago. Darn good reading. Informative and written from a professional point of view. I dont mean it to sound like I'm blowing smoke up your butt. But you can just tell when someone knows what they are talking about. I'll be checking back frequently.

August 3, 2011 at 1:55 PM  
Vand said...

I'm trying 44 NB, 21 BD, 1 Inf at the mo, unfortunately we're not yet on 1.4 to try the new D2D but I love the damage burst from BD and the survivability/range of NB

August 3, 2011 at 3:12 PM  
Kraus said...

Your site is very good mate--it has made me into a much better rogue all around. i reached rank 6 last week and now have to look a another grind :( for 1.4

My old raiding guild has gone back
to Wow for firelands. So i have joined a new low lev guild to give them a hand--i am the dps officer :) --thanks to you

August 3, 2011 at 11:06 PM  
Syntex said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
August 4, 2011 at 5:36 AM  
Syntex said...

So correct me if I'm wrong but you said for gunblade 2.0 that we should use Flame Thrust over hasted shot provided we have the nightrage buff. Why not use Blazing Strike instead? It is affected by the nightrage buff as well and we can put 2 points into imp Blazing Strike for 10% crit on the finisher that does more damage. Your build has 1 point into flame thrust the weaker finisher and 1 into primal death which is a dead ability as we don't use Primal Strike in the Gunblade builder. I love the build and PvP with it but I just want to know if you say that these changes are what we should do that there is a reason as I don't see one. Love the site, spec, and video though, keep up the good work :)

Raitoken of Freeholme

August 4, 2011 at 5:38 AM  
Dunsparrow said...

Thanks for the positive comments, they're appreciated.

@Syntex, you should use Flame Thrust over Hasted Shot, because FT damage is so much higher with Nightrage, but you should definitely use Blazing Strike if you're in melee range no matter what. Guess I didn't make that clear. ;)

August 4, 2011 at 6:37 AM  
Melty72 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
August 6, 2011 at 2:49 AM  
Shadowevil said...

Hey, Dunsparrow.

Realy thanks for all this great informations! They´ll help me all the time and I still using them!

I view your Blog 2 times a day because i hope for new updates >,<

Ive got a question... Can u load up your PvE Nightblade build soon? I want to try it out.

You are still doing great work!

PS: Sry for that bad english.. but i am a german player..^^

August 7, 2011 at 3:32 AM  
Vixtrola said...

LOVING gunblade since i hit rank 2.. although I stay back and range a lot its still working out great

August 7, 2011 at 10:16 AM  
Sigma said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
August 8, 2011 at 6:19 PM  
Sigma said...

For the macros that you have posted, are they all 1 macro, or its 3 of them?

August 8, 2011 at 6:20 PM  
Volrath said...

hi there,

You have "side step" on the defensive CD's although you dont have that ability in this spec :P

August 28, 2011 at 5:16 PM