It’s come to my attention that I may change servers in days to come, for stalker-type reasons. You play where your friends are, right? A little extra leveling comes with the territory, but it’s also a period of opportunity. In the face of potentially starting over, I’ve been playing about with other classes on my back-up server of Suramar. It’s the experimental do-it-all in me that loves Druids so much, so it only stands to reason I’d constantly be dabbling in other classes. I don’t exactly relish the thought of pushing another druid to 20 (life without Critty Kitty is sad), though I expect that’ll be my ultimate course of action. My first test class of choice was Rogue, with which I’ve been hitting the instances a bit on and off.
I picked Rogue because:
- I like my Cat Form, and Rogue is apparently everything Critty Kitty is and more.
- Rogue is one of the two classes I’ve never managed to level to 20, and I generally consider 20 what it takes to get a realistic feel for a class. (The other is Priest. I just can’t level a Priest.)
Last time I tried to level a Rogue, I went Combat spec. Everyone told me to go Combat spec. It apparently makes leveling easy, but at level 19, all I did was die. Even when I lived, it was boring beyond belief. Find an enemy alone, pull it, spam Sinister Strike, Eviscerate, rinse and repeat. Yawn. So this time, I went Subtlety, and now I’m a hatchet-wielding James Bond Orc from hell! Slow leveling, but good times. No, I don’t use daggers. I’m the Hatchet Ninja.
In my short time as a Rogue, I’ve had an in into the Rogue community, and it is something different, I have to say. Much like the class lore might imply, Rogue players seem to have a close-knit yet competitive relationship. They’re quick to offer advice and quicker to try and top you on the damage charts. This seemed to be the case with just about any other Rogue I grouped with. Things began with advice on what I was doing wrong with specs, gear and attacks, and ended with the recount stats, almost like clockwork. I do question some of the advice I was given, though.
In my more recent instance runs, I’ve deviated from my usual hatchet ninja death dealing since the Meteor Shard and Stinging Viper that dropped for me are far superior to any axes I’ve been able to come across. Still, I don’t typically use daggers, and so I’ve not started making use of attacks like Ambush and Backstab. Until I get Cheap Shot, my preferred opener is Garrote. It does reasonable damage, and doesn’t have the aggro spike of attacks like Ambush. Still, most Rogues suggest I favor Ambush, and in the easier dungeons I’m on, trash goes down so fast that Garrote really doesn’t ever see its full damage potential, so maybe they’re right. I just don’t want to get used to it, when I know I’m ditching the dagger as soon as something better comes up.
The one suggestion I keep getting that I don’t really understand is to put the Meteor Shard in my off-hand and the Stinging Viper in my main hand. The reasoning is that rogues should have their fast weapon in their off-hand and slow weapon in their main, and this makes them “attack faster”. The problem is I don’t understand the logic at all. I use the Meteor Shard in my main hand, because it is the higher damage per second weapon. It just happens to be faster by chance. It is the weapon that gets used with my instant attacks, all of which are normalized to only consider the average DPS of the weapon, so slower weapons don’t benefit at all. The off-hand takes a damage penalty, so I figure I want my weaker weapon there to minimize the loss. In fact, the only reason I can find at all to have a fast off-hand is because of Combat Potency, a 5 point, tier 8 Combat talent that gives the off-hand a flat 20% of generating energy every hit. Since I have absolutely no interest in taking 40 points in Combat, it’s not ever going to be relevant to me, and certainly not in my 20s.
Has years of weaponless cat clawing really put me so off base that I’m getting this entirely wrong? I do tend to bottom the damage charts, but I’m just not aggressive like the other Rogues. I don’t come out of stealth until the tank has established some aggro, and favor DoTs over spikes. If someone gets lost or falls behind, I go back for them and lead them to the rest of the group while the others keep pressing on ahead. I figure I’m the best to go back, as my stealth will keep me alive if I cross patrols while solo and I’m not as vital to the main group as the tank or healer. (Of course, the whole group going back is ideal, but I almost never see this happen.) I think, maybe, I just don’t have the mentality for a Rogue. I enjoy playing with abilities like Stealth, Sap and Pick Pocket, and its a shame Critty Kitty doesn’t have the stealth game of a Rogue, because it’s actually a lot of fun.
Next is Priest… maybe… ugh… Ick. Blue bars…