Sunday, November 27, 2011
at
11:42 AM
|
Nightblade is back in PvE with the latest patch. Its been discussed a lot on the forums, but in case you missed it:
Raid Nightblade
49 NB / 17 Sin
The macros and rotation are all pretty standard, but there are a few things worth mentioning. Even with Fervor, you'll be energy starved if you're spamming Expose Weakness on CD, since its off the GCD. This means you should use a tablet with this spec. Any tablet will work, since they all give the same amount of energy regen. You don't need Elder (although Elder gives more strength). If you don't have a tablet, then Expose doesn't really increase your DPS much at all.
Macros
ST Macro 1
#show Puncture
cast Puncture
cast Dusk Strike
cast Twilight Force
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Chains
cast Fiery Spike
cast Expose Weakness
ST Macro 2 (use with 4 CPs)
#show Twilight Force
cast Twilight Force
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Chains
cast Fiery Spike
cast Expose Weakness
Macro 3
#show Scourge of Darkness
cast Scourge of Darkness
cast Dusk to Dawn
Synching up your SoD and DtD is very important for boosting DPS and thats the point of this macro. You want to cast Scourge on the rotation when your Nightrage falls off, and then go right into DtD to re-apply Nightrage. This way you'll never have that sad rotation where you have to use a Blazing Strike without Nightrage up.
Comments
Its still a very awkward spec to use in raids because of how stupid it is for a melee class to have to use a channeled ability to get a necessary buff. It would be much better for Nightrage to proc on Scourge of Darkness and last 35 seconds, or from Twilight Force / Dusk Strike and last 10 seconds. Whatever. The point is that Dusk to Dawn is a stupid ability for rogues to need to use in raids, and its not something that Warriors or any other Rogue spec is saddled with.
Still, the spec is probably our highest DPS at the moment (still putting us firmly behind equally geared/skilled Mages and Warriors). Rogues need a buff, but this is our best current option.
Posted by
Dunsparrow
Labels:
1.6,
PvE Specs
Friday, November 18, 2011
at
12:38 PM
|
Yes, this spec still works in 1.6 and is more important than ever for surviving alone on Ember Isle, and many other things.
Lightning Ragnarok Shining Majesty
20 BD / 22 RS / 24 Sin
This build's strength lies in its versatility. Here is what I use the spec for currently:
- Soloing Major Rifts
- Soloing Ember Isle
- Handling tomes on Matron Zamira encounter in HK (so I don't have to bring a separate Sin/NB spec)
- Tanking encounters for which I'm overgeared
- World PvP (unless it gets serious)
Macro
#show Precision Strike
cast Precision Strike
cast Phantom Blow
cast Puncture
cast Quick Strike
cast Keen Strike
cast Flash of Steel
cast Expose Weakness
cast Reprisal
If you're on something tough, make sure to use Guardian Phase. It reduces the damage you take but the Leaching Poison healing remains constant, so you gain survivability and still deal damage constantly with Planar Vortex. Don't skip the point in Shadow Mastery. This alone is about 10% physical damage reduction.
Posted by
Dunsparrow
Labels:
1.6,
PvE Specs
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
at
8:00 AM
|
1.5 is here. I have a brief wrap up of what you can expect, what you should do and what works and doesn't in PvE and PvP. First, the obvious:
Planar Attunement
AKA "So you thought you were done leveling" this basically requires you to earn tons of experience to get marginal upgrades that are nonetheless necessary for min/maxers. I'm not thrilled with the system and before you ask, no one has seen the 2nd/3rd tiers. There are 6 elements and you have to max the first tier in an element before you can unlock the 2nd tier. My guess is the 2nd tier isn't even implemented yet. Its a very long grind.
Chronicles
You got that chronic-what? -cles of hammerknell! Hooray for 2 player instances. They're easy and although I hated the idea of them, they're actually pretty entertaining and give Attunement points, yeah! Good for running with a noob friend that you just forced to level to 50. Gogo casual content.
Sourcestones
All your Crystal Sourcestones were just converted to Inscribed. Grats. Prices were tweaked and so were rewards for Rift dailies. Experts give 6 inscribed, Raids give 10 and there's a new weekly for 25. Costs were increased as well and you can now buy gear and synergy crystals with Inscribed (60 each) which work with your Raid 1 gear.
PvE Specs
Whet your whistle, your DPS just went up. Here are the parses I made. All parses were 5 min with fervor and the same gear (no greater essences or synergy crystals) unless otherwise noted. No other buffs or stones, etc. Bear in mind that some talents have changed, but the points are in the correct location. Just waitin on Zam to update. Thanks to Geriatrix and Bloatality for theorycrafting and Woetoyou for bardbotting it up after he went to bed.
Deep Nightblade - 1550 DPS
38 NB / 18 Sin / 10 MM
This is a relatively fun spec, and the synergy crystal is pretty good for it. Run the macro and Scourge every CD. Make sure to use Dusk to Dawn right after a finisher. You need the time to regen energy while it channels.
cast Dusk Strike
cast Puncture
cast Twilight Force
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Spike
Full Marksman - 1650 DPS
51 MM / 15 Rang / 0 whatever
Finally, a viable ranged spec. The Shadow Fire greater essence (100 AP) is amazing for this and so is the synergy crystal. This is more than likely what I will be raiding as. The reason for no Head Shot is you basically have to choose between 2/2 Head Shot and 3/3 Exposure, and if you don't max Exposure, you will overwrite the warrior's armor debuff with your inferior one. With 3/3 yours is better. This also simplifies the rotation, as you no longer have to mess with Head Shots for the 5% damage. Use Bull's Eye with Deadeye Shot.
cast Empowered Shot
cast Shadow Fire
cast Crippling Shot
cast Piercing Shot
cast Quick Shot
cast Rapid Fire Shot
cast Deadeye Shot
Blinkblade - 1650 DPS
25 Sin / 21 BD / 20 RS
This is a fairly complex spec and with skill, patience and practice it may be tops. However its simply too complex to run successfully in raids, especially since I am raid leader. It likely won't be used on much progression by anyone but will top meters on Murdantix, so people will claim its good. If you're interested, check out the thread by the spec's creator.
Dundancer - 1600 DPS
26 Sab / 20 BD / 20 Sin
If you fear change, fear not. Dundancer still rocks the house and is solidly competitive. You need to make a few changes though, to grab improved blast charge. You'll also need another macro or two, since Expose Weakness is now off the GCD. Otherwise, your rotation and skills are largely unchanged. Swap in Shrapnel for AOE (and prepare to be disappointed).
cast Blast Charge
cast Expose Weakness
start attack
cast Precision Strike
cast Keen Strike
cast Expose Weakness
PvP Specs
Marksman may not prove viable in its new form, but that's not stopping me from rockin' out. We'll see how NB does too. Gunblade variants could be promising as well. Followup posts are a certainty.
Full Marksman
51 MM / 15 Inf / 0 whatever
The spec hasn't changed, but the play style has. Gone is Improved Hit and Run. We'll see how bursty the spec can be without the go-to burst ability. Damage is up overall and Silver Tip Munitions go nicely with Focused Intent. New strafe aint bad either. *Not responsible for deaths by warrior when mashing Hit and Run fails to produce results.*
Nightstalker
38 NB / 18 RS / 10 Inf
Nightblade is back. I think this spec will kick ass, but I haven't been able to test it. I also think every damn person in the universe is going to have RS in their builds. Joy.
cast Dusk Strike
cast Twilight Force
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Spike
Teleporting Sniper
38 MM / 18 RS / 10 Inf
I almost wish I was joking. This build could annoy the crap out of people, and has better survivability than 51 MM. Not sure if the burst will be there, but you have a lot of tools at your disposal. Didn't I see this in the Rogue preview for Rift like 5 months ago?
Posted by
Dunsparrow
Labels:
1.5,
PvE Specs,
PvP Specs
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
at
4:25 AM
|
With the changes to souls still in flux and more probably still to come, a few specs are beginning to emerge.
Blinkblade
25 Sin / 21 BD / 20 Rift
This is one getting a lot of attention and it is definitely going to be one of the strongest contenders for top DPS. The talents are changing with the patch, but these are where the points will go.
This spec is strong because it takes advantage of the buffs to Stalker Phase in RS to rotate teleports and keep 25% additional damage and 15% additional crit active 100% of the time. The spec is a mess and the teleports don't fit well in any rotation, but you can't argue with results. Unfortunately, this is probably the top melee spec.
 Deep Marksman
51 MM / 15 Rng
Variant 38 MM / 28 Rng
Marksman is getting a whole lot of love. With the new Silver Tip Munitions (15% extra damage), and less reliance on burst cooldowns, this spec is going to provide some extremely competitive ranged damage.
Also check out the new 4-pc synergy crystal (HK crystal has the same bonus as 2-pc)
Nightstalker
38 NB / 18 RS / 10 Inf
Variant: 44 NB / 22 RS / 0 Inf
For PvP, I'm working on some variant of NB and RS. It may or may not be what you see above, and it will likely take some warfronts to sift out what works and what doesn't. I don't think the 4th port is necessary in PvP like it is in raids.
This spec will have incredible mobility and damage output, plus the reflective shield in RS. I expect it to shred a lot of things.
More to come as D-Day approaches.
Posted by
Dunsparrow
Labels:
1.5,
PvE Specs,
PvP Specs
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
at
10:47 AM
|
I've been working on squeezing as much DPS as possible from the general Sabdancer spec, and I've come up with a Puncture-less spec that has been giving me slightly better results on both single and multi-targets. I have humbly interjected my own name into the spec:
The only real change in this from the standard Sabdancer, is that you don't get puncture, and instead get another point in Ambidextrous for 3% more dex. The real refinement is in the rotation:
Spike x4 > Keen > Deadly > Precision > Spike > Detonate Shrapnel x5 > Detonate
What this does is allow you to use the "extra" Deadly Dance charge in the standard Sabdancer rotation to power a Precision Strike. This offers superior single target damage compared with standard Sabdancer, both by utilizing this strike and by no longer needing to take Puncture, to get more dex.
For AOE situations, such as Zilas and Matron, you can still just drop Precision from your rotation to maximize AOE damage.
This isn't going to move you from #7 to #1 on the damage meters, but it should help you eek out an additional few percentage points of damage. With HK's tight tuning, this can mean the difference between victory and a 1% wipe. Hope it helps!
Posted by
Dunsparrow
Labels:
PvE Specs
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:
PvE Specs
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
at
11:55 PM
|
I mentioned this spec briefly in a previous post but I wanted to go a bit more in depth on it.
2 CP Macro suppressmacrofailures cast Precision Strike cast Puncture cast Dusk Strike cast Quick Strike cast Keen Strike cast Flash of Steel cast Fiery Spike cast Weapon Barrage
1 CP Macro suppressmacrofailures cast Backstab cast Quick Strike cast Keen Strike cast Fiery Spike cast Weapon Barrage
The rotation basically comes down to this:
2CP > Fiery Spike > 2CP > Deadly Strike 2CP > Fiery Spike > 2CP > 1 CP > Deadly Strike
Various things can interfere with it, but always make sure to get Fiery Spike applied while Deadly Dance is active. It makes a huge difference in your DPS.
You use the 2 CP macro the majority of the time, and only use the 1 CP macro when you have 1 CP to go. A few things you may notice or disagree with: Flash of Steel and Fiery Spike in the macros.
I use Flash of Steel to "fix" my rotation if I accidentally flame out and fumble something up. This extra 2 pointer gets me back on track. Its also nice to automatically rush back to the mob if you have to run out for some reason or if he moves. You have to be careful with this because on some fights (like Warmaster), you dont want to go charges after the boss when he teleports, so you need to be judicious in its use.
I keep fiery spike in the macro so if the boss is out of melee range and I hit it, I haven't wasted that key press. I still keep FS on its own key.
For cooldowns, you have Ebon Fury and Blade Tempo. I also use the Words of War trinket from Codex reputation. I synchronize my cooldowns by popping Ebon Fury and Words of War together every 2 minutes, then at the very tail end of Ebon Fury, popping Blade Tempo. Make sure to get both your CDs into the Words of War duration or you're losing damage. You can do the same thing with any on-demand damage trinket such as the Token of Stolen Souls from Alsbeth or even the blue trinket from normal CC (forget the name).
I've had good results from this build getting about 1.4k+ DPS (without Spotter's, so estimate 1.6k with) on Plutonus.
Posted by
Dunsparrow
Labels:
PvE Specs
|
|
Posts
