Not So Naked in Season 3

Image stolen from MMO Champion

As Phaelia pointed out on Resto4Life, it looks like a few of my wishes come true; Season 3 armor has several of the things I wanted on my list. Here was my initial list from my response to the Rogue class review on the WoW forums:

• Less Critical Strike rating.
• More Hit.
• More Stamina.
• More Armor.
• More Stealth.

Here's what we got with Season 3 over Season 2:

• More armor. A lot more armor value. We went from 1740 to 2186 Armor. That's not including Armor value from Agility. Counting Agility we went from 2096 Armor to 2514 armor.
• More hit. Three items have +12 Hit Rating. +36 Hit Rating total. Wow. Amazing.
• Less Agility. This surprised me. They still increased our Attack Power and Critical Strike Rating, but overall Agility went down 356 to 328 on these five pieces.
• More Stamina. 29 more points total.
• More Critical Strike Rating. 18 more points. However, with the decrease in Agility, Critical Chance goes up by a little less than half a percent.
• More Attack Power. Counting Agility changes, Attack Power only sees a gain of 22 points from Season 2 to Season 3.
• More Armor Penetration 252 total from 3 pieces.
• No additional Stealth Levels, no change to Resilence, no change to number or types of sockets.

Finally, the ones that have most changed are the Head, Legs and Chest pieces. So, if you already have Season 2, I'd save up for those first. Each of them have the added Hit Rating and Armor Penetration.

I know I'm saving all my Arena Points for Season 3 at this point.

Continue reading 'Not So Naked in Season 3'

Now with Less Parry! and Dodge!

On the official WoW Rogue Discussion forum, Palaelf asked,

Why no changes for combat rogues? Us combat rogue stuck it up with a boring spec to play with in Arenas how about something nice for us? All I see is changes to Sub and Mutilate trees and the only thing I see so far for Combat Rogues is a NERF with this new "Expertise" rating how will Arena rogues keep a proper hit rating? We already miss a ton in a full arena gear set. Now we are going to be missing our sinister strikes making us a shiv only class?

Drysc replied,

Nope. No changes. We're not required to make changes to every class or every tree just because other trees may see changes. Have you tested or even thought about the dps increase of actually being able to stop your target from dodge/parry with the expertise rating? I'm going to guess not.

So, how good or bad is Expertise going to be for Rogues? I guess that depends on a lot of factors.

Currently, it is widely acknowledged that +Weapon Skill is most useful when fighting against level 73 NPCs, aka boss mobs. Weapon Skill has a unique mechanic in that once a mob's Defense exceeds your Weapon Skill by 11 points or more, your Miss chance is increased by an extra 2.5%, rather than just an extra 0.5% to Miss. Thus, a level 73 mob has 365 Defense and players have a natural maximum Weapon Skill of 350. 5 points of Weapon Skill are enough to eliminate this 2.5% advantage. 5 points of Weapon skill is also enough to improve your to Miss chance against any mob by 0.5%. So, if you have 355 Weapon Skill versus a level 73 mob with 365 defense, you have given yourself a 3% bonus to hit versus the mob.

At level 70, 3.9 points of Weapon Skill Rating are required to increase your actual Weapon Skill by 1. However, in Patch 2.3, all Weapon Skill bonuses will be converted Expertise. Expertise Rating will convert at the same rate as Weapon Skill rating.

So, what exactly is Expertise then? A totally separate mechanic from Weapon Skill. In fact, after patch 2.3, there doesn't appear to be a way to increase your Weapon Skill except waiting for level 71 when Wrath of the Lich King is released. Every piece of gear, every talent, every racial abililty that affected Weapon Skill has been removed. Racial abilities have been converted to +Crit. Talents have converted to Expertise and gear from specific weapon skill rating to an expertise rating.

For each point of Expertise, you eliminate 0.25% of your target's Parry and 0.25% of your target's Dodge. Where does the eliminated Parry and Dodge go? Straight into the ordinary hit part of your attack table. I'm not going to go into an entire discussion of the attack table, but I do suggest you read up on it on WoWWiki if you are not familiar with what I am talking about.

So, while 5 points of Weapon Skill eliminates 3% of the Miss chance on Level 73 target, 5 points of Expertise will eliminates 1.25% of your target's Parry and Dodge for a total of 2.5% to hit. This may be very disappointing to some tanks. However, Expertise scales much more quickly than Weapon Skill. 6 points of Expertise gives a total of 3% to hit and the 7th points of Expertise gives a total of 3.5% to hit. You need 10 points of Weapon Skill to eliminate 3.5% Miss Chance on a Level 73 target. 10 points of Expertise is going to eliminate 2.5% Parry and 2.5% Dodge from your target. Would you rather than a 5% better chance to hit your target or a 3.5% chance.

You might have noticed I keep using Weapon Skill against a Level 73 target. That's because that's where you get the most benefit. On a level 60-72 target, each point of Weapon Skill above 350 merely gives you a 0.10% reduction to miss your target. So, if you have 355 Weapon Skill, you have a 0.5% better chance to hit your target. 365 Weapon Skill only gives you a 1.5% better chance to hit your target. Compare this with Weapon Expertise which gives you a 0.25% reduction to your target's Parry and Dodge, so 0.50% reduction per point. At 15 points of Expertise, you'll reduce your opponent's Parry and Dodge by 3.75% each, or 7.5% total, regardless of their level.

However, Rogues and other melee DPS fight from behind their targets if possible. We do it to avoid nasty Cleaves, but also because when you attack an NPC target from behind, they are denied their Parry. Thus for Rogues, half of the benefit for Expertise is negated by this mechanic. Against Level 73 targets, 10 more points of Weapon Skill from Weapon Expertise gave Rogues 3.5% to hit. After Patch 2.3, Weapon Expertise will grant 10 points of Expertise attack ing from behind will give Rogues a 2.5% chance to hit.

Lastly, players do not get a chance to dodge attacks from behind. So, in PvP, if you are focusing on attacking another player from behind, you will gain no benefit from Weapon Expertise as they cannot parry or dodge.

Overall, this may eventually help Rogues. We'll do more damage against trash mobs and we won't always be behind our PvP opponents. There have been some extensive testing posted on the Elitist Jerks boards, but I still think the verdict is out on whether Expertise will be better than Weapon Skill.

Continue reading 'Now with Less Parry! and Dodge!'

Blinding Powder's New Tooltip

LOL! At least Blizzard has a sense of humor still.

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New Rogue Badge Loot and AEP

Recently, MMO-Champion posted all the new Badges of Justice loot from Patch 2.3. Among them were some major Rogue upgrades for neck, back, wrist, hands, legs, feet and trinkets. So, start running some Heroics and saving up your Badges of Justice as you'll need 475 to get everything that's new.

I plugged the items into Shadowpanther's Excel spreadsheet to determine their AEP. As far as I know, Ming was attributed to coining the phrase or at least making it so widely known. His work is the backbone behind most Rogue theorycraft. Shadowpanther uses a group of fixed values for AEP, though some other Rogues theorycraftsmen have a dynamic AEP based on current gear, talents, etc.

Quick rundown on AEP. AEP stands for Agility Equivalency Points. Each stat an item possesses is given an AEP score to measure it against Agility. Each point of Attack Power is valued at .5 AEP because Agility gives Attack Power, Dodge and Crit. Strength is also valued at .5 AEP because it is worth 1 AP. Stamina is valued at 1 AEP for survival in the base AEP ratings but there are also two other AEP values called DAEP and MAEP. See, normal AEP is weighed for PvP, DAEP is weighed for PvE and MAEP is weighed for Maximum Damage. Once each stat is given a weighed AEP value, you can then look at a piece of gear convert all the stats to AEP and add them together. The item with a higher overall AEP should be better for you character than an item with a lower AEP. This isn't always the case, but it's a pretty good estimation.

The other two stats that are useful to examine are Total Crit (TCrit) and Total Attack Power (TAP). TCrit is a calculation of the total crit for an item converting Agility into +Crit and adding it to the item's +Crit. TAP is the same concept adding Strength plus Agility plus Attack Power to give you one score.

Brooch of Deftness, neck slot, cost 35 Badges of Justice. It ranks only 28 MAEP (Maximum DPS AEP) and 49 on DAEP (PvE AEP) which is incredibly low down with the level 70 blue and greens, but not surprising given only +22 Hit Rating. It ranks much higher on AEP (PvP AEP) at 67 (Worgen is rated at 76). While this won't replace the Worgen Claw Necklace because it lacks Agility and Attack Power, it might go into my PvP set as it has 37 more Stamina.

Brooch of Deftness Binds when picked up Neck +48 Stamina Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves hit rating by 22.

New gloves, Trickster's Stickyfingers, costs 60 Badges of Justice. AEP 120, DAEP 106, MAEP 93, TCrit 0.75%, TAP 98. Like the Shallow-grave Trousers below, +25 Haste makes these gloves much more desireable based on AEP. They rank about 4th overall even above the Tier 4 Netherblade Gloves.

Trickster's Stickyfingers Binds when picked up Hands Leather 252 Armor +30 Agility +28 Stamina Durability 40 / 40 Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves haste rating by 25. Equip: Increases attack power by 68.

Dory's Embrace is a new cloak, 60 Badges. AEP 106, DAEP 69, MAEP 54, TCrit 0.90%, TAP 45. If you look at AEP vs MAEP and AEP is twice as high, you can immediately surmise an item was built for PvP. The high AEP is a result of more Stamina than any cloak rated on Shadowpanther's list and +20 Resilence and a feature from the Tier 6/Season 3 gear: Your attacks ignore 112 of your opponent's armor. Nice.

Dory's Embrace Binds when picked up Back 114 Armor +34 Stamina Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 20. Equip: Improves your resilience rating by 20. Equip: Increases attack power by 46. Equip: Your attacks ignore 112 of your opponent's armor. "Approximately priceless."

New bracers, Master Assassin Wristwraps, 35 Badges. AEP 93, DAEP 81, MAEP 71, TCrit 1.33%, TAP 67. There's not much special about these except they rank 4th for sheer awesomeness. You'll probably still want to wear your Veteran's Leather Bracers for PvP though.

Master Assassin Wristwraps Binds when picked up Wrist Leather 177 Armor +17 Agility +22 Stamina Yellow Socket Socket Bonus: +2 Critical Strike Rating Durability 40 / 40 Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 18. Equip: Increases attack power by 50.

Shallow-grave Trousers, 75 Badges. AEP 171, DAEP 148, MAEP 127, TCrit 1.13%, TAP 137. Due to its +30 Haste Rating component, this is rated 3rd on MAEP, 5th on MAEP and 4th on DAEP. That's about Tier 5, Deathmantle, equivalent. Wow.

Shallow-grave Trousers Binds when picked up Legs Leather 353 Armor +45 Agility +46 Stamina Durability 90 / 90 Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves haste rating by 30. Equip: Increases attack power by 92.

Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots, 60 Badges. AEP 126, DAEP 117, MAEP 105, TCrit 0.73%, TAEP 89. Imagine these boots did not have the gem slots or the slot bonus, this item would still hover around 5th on all 3 AEP lists. With the slots and the slot bonus, these boots rise up to the 2nd (or 3rd) best boots for Rogues.

Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots Binds when picked up Feet Leather 278 Armor +29 Agility +21 Stamina Blue Socket Red Socket Socket Bonus: +3 Hit Rating Durability 60 / 60 Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves hit rating by 22. Equip: Increases attack power by 60.

Two new trinkets, Cruelty and Determination.

Cruelty gives +Crit and for 15 seconds, once every 3 minutes, 1750 maximum health. This doesn't rate high on the AEP charts, but is definitely important for PvP players.

Cruelty Binds when picked up Unique Trinket Requires Level 70 Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 40. Use: Increases maximum health by 1750 for 15 sec.

Like Cruelty, Determination gives the same On Use effect for 15 seconds, but instead gives +80 AP. As I'm a Sword Rogue, I'll be using Determination over Cruelty, because of the +AP.

Determination Binds when picked up Unique Trinket Requires Level 70 Equip: Increases attack power by 80. Use: Increases maximum health by 1750 for 15 sec.

So, should you start racing through Heroics now saving up or wait until Karazhan and Zul'Aman bosses start dropping Badges as well? That's up to you, probably both! Don't forget about the great items already available from Badges like the Bloodlust Brooch, Blood Knight War Cloak, Choker of Vile Intent, Ring of Arathi Warlords, and the Mask of the Deceiver. Now, you have get a full set of epic gear without having to raid 10-man or 25-man instances, and if you do, you have even more options.

Continue reading 'New Rogue Badge Loot and AEP'

Er, Kick was Broken?

While most of the changes in the recent 2.3 patch that made it to the PTR today are well-known, there was one interesting note from the official World of Warcraft notes on the 2.3 PTR notes for Rogues that I haven't seen before:

Kick: Interrupting a channeled spell with this ability will now always properly prevent casting spells from the same spell school for 5 sec.

Now, I have Improved Kick for PvP:

Improved Kick: Gives your Kick ability a 50/100% chance to silence the target for 2 seconds.

I honestly didn't realize Kick was broken. And now it makes me realize how relatively worthless Improved Kick seems. How many schools of magic do most casters employ? Two? Three for mages? I hope that Blizzard also takes 2.3 as an opportunity to look at Improved Kick and improve it somewhat (we can call it Improved Improved Kick). A one tick silence doesn't really seem all that useful when we are already silencing for 5 seconds the school of magic they were using when we kicked them.

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Let There Be (Back)Light!

And Valenna saw it was good. Nah, good is an understandment. It's sexy. It's futuristic. Just looking at it makes my swords sharper. It makes me want to play with the lights off.

I... I think I need a moment. ... K, I'm done.

If you didn't read my post about the Belkin Nostromo n52 SpeedPad before, go do it now.

The Nostromo, in my opinion, raises your play to a new level. Yeah, it may just seem like a "keypad", but the ability to create macros, rebind keys for different profiles and its comfortable layout make it indispensable. Playing without one makes me feel like a n00b. I'm lost with it.

Besides looking cooler than anything else on earth, why am I so excited? Belkin joining forces with Razer. Razer is renowned for its mice and keyboards. Combine their style and technological style with Belkin's ultimate gaming accessory and there's no question in my mind that it's worth the $70 price tag and the te, Tournament Edition, label.

Need more reasons?

• On-board memory. Why? Right now you have to store your profile on your system. Now you can take your Nostromo, plug it into your laptop and it will remember all your keys and all your macros.
• It matches my slick LG Widescreen LCD monitor.
• It glows. Yeah, I'm not really going to be looking at it when I use it. But let's face it, gamers love glow. Razer put it in their mice, people install glows inside their cases and under their streetracing cars.
• It's more responsive. While my current Nostromo is quite responsive, there are a few moments when I can feel I don't press the thumb button just right and I have to press it again. From the appearance, the new thumb button is metal with a lower profile which will make it easier to tactilely find and use.
• Look at the backlight. Look a the metal. It looks awesome.
• It appears like it can receive some punishment. I'm on my second Nostromo and I know people who are on their 3rd Nostromo. This is not really an indication as to the quality of the Nostromo. They hold up well, but when you play one for 3-5 hours every day for more than a year, they tend to start showing that wear in responsiveness.

Hopefully, it should have one of the features I've desired the most. A way to macro in the keymap states into my games. Not only does the Nostromo have 15 buttons, the keypad, a mousewheel and a button, but you can change the keymap state between normal, red, green and blue for a completely different set of keybinding for each keymap state. However, right now there's no way I can combine the change in keymap state into a macro so I can also alert the game I'm playing that I've changed my keymap state. In other words, I want to map a key to change the keymap state to red and press another key like "Q" to alert my game that I've entered Stealth. I've managed to get around this in World of Warcraft through in game macros and never changing my keymap states on my Nostromo, but I'd love to be able to use this functionality on the Nostromo n52te.

Continue reading 'Let There Be (Back)Light!'

I Feel Naked in the Arena

...and not in a good way. No, I'm not talking about ERP. I'm talking about craptastic armor values of my Arena gear!

After reading about Season 3 gear and armor penetration over on Phaelia's Resto4Life, it made me start thinking about the armor value I have now compared to the armor value of the cloth wearers.

With a little digging, I discovered the following:

• For Tier 5 gear pieces that correspond to Season 2 gear (head, shoulders, chest, gloves, legs), cloth wearers get about ~1k in armor, leather wearers gets about ~2k in armor, mail ~4k, plate ~7k.
• For Season 2 gear pieces that correspond to Tier 5 gear, cloth wearers get about ~2k in armor, leather wearers gets about ~2k in armor, mail ~4k, plate ~7k.

Uh... what? In our Arena Gear, the gear that is supposedly designed toward survivability against those who would rather we not continue stabbing them in the eye, we have as much armor as a Priest. Yeah. Priests and all other clothies got a 100% boost to their armor from Season 2 gear. Meanwhile, Rogues (and to a lesser degree the various Druid specs) get virtually no armor boost.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the various classes and their abilities designed around the type of armor they wear? A Warlock has Fear and other tools to help compensate for his cloth armor. A Mage has Polymorph and Frost Nova and other abilities. Every cloth wearer has already been balanced for their armor type.

Now this is probably the result of them already giving the cloth wearers the +910 armor that will be partially negated by the armor penetration of Season 3. However, why should Rogues (and Restoration Druids) be penalized by not getting any armor bonus? No wonder why in a 5v5 match, our team met with a Priest who seemed to have more armor than me. Add on Inner Fire and all their other abilities, she had way more armor than me.

Therefore, since the beginning of Season 2, cloth wearers have gotten tougher, while melee characters and healers in leather have received zero compensation. Even next season, it will take weeks for melee players to get Season 3 pieces. Meanwhile, cloth wearers will continue to enjoy their day in the sun.

All of this and rogues still get to stand toe to toe with their opponents to do damage. Cloth wearers already have ways to distance themselves from melee characters and now they have twice the armor as they did before as well!

It seems to me that the entire idea of armor penetration is flawed and this solution is even more flawed. Even a proposed solution of giving all characters 910 more armor just seems like a bad fix because PvP characters will have an advantage over PvE characters.

I'm under no illusion that game mechanics are easy to balance for PvE and PvP, but there has to be a better solution.

Continue reading 'I Feel Naked in the Arena'