Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 10:59 AM | 3 comments  
Got back from vacation and there's a lot of new changes on the PTS. For Rogues, these are tanking changes, but other classes are getting some DPS tweaks as well and mages are getting worked over quite a bit. Let's start with what will effect DPS the most, and that is the new lesser essences on PTS that will cost 150 Inscribed Sourcestones each, or 900 for 6. Yikes.
Some of these are pretty amazing, and there are basically 5 AP-based lessers that massacre anything in the game right now. This works great for Marksman, because you can keep your Ranger greater for 100 AP on Shadow Fire, which is still going to be awesome.

If you're putting together a water resist core for Inquisitor/Darktide or a PvP core, then these will be able to help you as well, but there is a hell of a lot of Inscribed needed for it. Hopefully the new Tier 2 Raid Rifts in 1.6 will offer more inscribed, and a greater challenge as well.
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Saturday, October 8, 2011 at 2:20 AM | 28 comments  
In my travels across Telara and the interwebs, I have discovered many powerful secrets. Some I must keep to myself, but I at last feel free to reveal a great boon to rogues: a new spec that I have humbly dubbed...

Lightning Ragnarok Shining Majesty
22 RS / 24 Sin / 20 BD

The best part about this spec is everything. With it, I can clear all 3 Chronicles in 20 minutes (most of that waiting for boring RP sequences to finish). With it, I can solo level 50 elite Rifts. With it, I can farm planar attunement levels without ever drinking, stopping (except for scheduled breaks for food and romance), or otherwise doing things that lesser beings consider necessary to their gaming. Rift Scavenger takes care of my healing and Twin Strike takes care of the bad guys not being dead.

I have successfully tanked Tier 1 (and some T2) instances while being the #1 DPS in every fight, even in Guardian Phase. Rift Barrier sends damage back at my attackers, while Planar Vortex aggros and kills everything that is foolish enough to attack me instead of drinking cyanide. Yes, I wear super-amazing P8 and some Hammerknell tanking gear and your results may vary. Sorry if I'm too awesome for your "accurate testing." Whatever.

When some git decides they think they can gank you in the midst of killing the patrolling commander packs in Stillmoor, they find out that they are simply caught in the whirling dervish of teleporting carnage that your blades deliver. Because it lacks a healing debuff, you are susceptible to high rank chloro/lock type mages or hybrid clerics. Don't cry to me about this. It's not even a dedicated PvP spec. Just avoid them.

Macros

Name: I-WIN
#show Dunsparrow's Avatar
cast Precision Strike
cast Puncture
cast Quick Strike
cast Keen Strike
cast Reprisal

#show Shadow Blitz
cast Shadow Blitz
cast Shadow Assault
cast Shadow Stalk

However, you really won't be using these much. Mostly you just teleport into a pack of mobs (bigger the better) in Stalker Phase and massacre them with Twin Strike, using combo points to self heal and regen energy. Trion will probably nerf this because they are big jerks and hate rogues. Warriors can do 3000 DPS on Murdantix. How about you nerf them instead?

BRB soloing Regulos.
Posted by Dunsparrow
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 10:08 AM | 9 comments  
I'm doing some good damage in raids with 51mm/15rang but I don't see the reason for the AOE nerf with Electrified/Silver Tip Munitions. These munitions deal good damage, but by no means was 51 MM the top AOE DPS spec. Cabs, Stormcallers, etc. still crush Rogue AOE damage.

Also, its not even possible for them to nerf Rending Munitions the same way, so they are only nerfing the munitions that scale with points in MM. I don't really get it. Also, it was clumsily implemented, with the munition only proc'ing on the target closest to you, instead of your main target, so you can't even keep stacks on your main target when AOEing. Annoying.
Posted by Dunsparrow
Saturday, October 1, 2011 at 6:00 AM | 8 comments  
I've found that my theorized top MM spec (51 MM and 15 Inf) didn't pan out nearly as well as I hoped. Nightstalker is doing awesome though. The problem with it is that on BG and PS, you really need a ranged DPS spec and try as I might, I can't find a bursty-enough Gunblade spec for the new patch, although some variants are decent.

Reluctantly I gave up NB for Sin and I'm relatively pleased at the results.

Cut and Shoot
44 MM / 22 Sin / 0 x
This utilized MM ranged abilities with Assassin openers. You can do enormous damage on a single target with your openers and it has a good amount of utility. You should be running Vamp and Elec munitions and Baneful Touch works great with Elec. I find rending a bit lacking.

Macros

Finisher 1
cast Expose Weakness
cast Rapid Fire Shot
cast Deadeye Shot
cast Hasted Shot

Finisher 2
cast Expose Weakness
cast Bull's Eye
cast Deadeye Shot

Gameplay

This spec has a ton of viability now. With Baneful, your munitions damage is very nice, and then adding in Cut and Run really de-emphasizes the need for Infiltrator. If you want you can run 0 Inf for a 2nd Break Free, but I prefer Side Steps or Shadow Shift, making this the first PvP spec I've ever run that doesn't have Infiltrator. You also have Foul Play if a warrior or 51sin-type closes to melee on you and if they break it, you can immediately hit them with Static Shot which is on a different DR.

I tend to open on tough targets in melee if I can, to get the Cloak and Dagger bonus. Ideally, things go thusly:

EW > Assassinate > Barbed > Swift x2  > RFS

This combo will kill the crap out of anyone 2+ ranks below you. If its a mage, I might use Paralyzing Strike instead. A good burst rotation:

Having 5 CPs > Finisher 2 Macro > Strafe > RFS

This combo frequently clears 7k damage for me with a string of crits. It does very well in the open field as well because of the crit bonuses in assassin and it isn't bogged down with stacking debuffs that 51 mm/15 inf suffers from. The problem with Silver Tip in PvP is that by the time you get the bonus up, its often time to change targets. This one frees you to choose targets of opportunity and that flexibility is very nice.
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