Welcome to another Tuesday edition of Build Shop! This past week I received an email from a Rogue reader in an up and coming guild that's just starting to raid Kara who says he's a non-believer in the "No Ruthlessness, No Murder, No Relentless Strike -- No Raid" policy. He also wanted to know about the viability of a hybrid build (30/0/31), and how it could be improved for casual instances, raids, and the occasional PvP skirmish. Well, that's kind of a tall order, and I plan to address it more fully tomorrow in Encrypted Text.
However, I will deal with part of the question today by talking about why Combat is the superior tree for PvE in many cases. Although there are many different types of Combat builds (Mace + Sword, Daggers, Fist, etc) these days, I'm going to focus on Combat swords (19/42/0). This is a build that doesn't rely on positioning like Combat Daggers or Mutilate, making it great for fights with a lot of movement. This is also a build which can really crank out the damage with the right weapons and gear. I feel that this is one of the finest and most effective DPS builds in the game -- read on to find out why.
However, I will deal with part of the question today by talking about why Combat is the superior tree for PvE in many cases. Although there are many different types of Combat builds (Mace + Sword, Daggers, Fist, etc) these days, I'm going to focus on Combat swords (19/42/0). This is a build that doesn't rely on positioning like Combat Daggers or Mutilate, making it great for fights with a lot of movement. This is also a build which can really crank out the damage with the right weapons and gear. I feel that this is one of the finest and most effective DPS builds in the game -- read on to find out why.
Combat swords is more than just Sinister Strike spam. As you get closer to the hit cap, Combat Potency just gets better and better, enabling an attentive Rogue to keep Slice and Dice up while building combo points towards Rupture or another finisher. To play the build effectively you've got to be aware of how long the fight will last, choosing the appropriate attack or finisher for the situation, and be able to manage your cooldowns so that you can DPS with maximum efficiency. Because after all, that's what being a Combat Rogue is all about -- dealing as much damage as you can with as much efficiency as you can muster. Sustained damage is the name of the game in raids and most other instances because that's what you are being brought for, and those who spec for burst damage will eventually fall by the wayside because they simply can't keep up.
This build snags all the traditional points from the Assassination tree to increase damage / energy regeneration / combo point generation (these points have been required for PvE Combat builds in some form or another for as long as I can remember), but then I'm going all the way down the Combat tree.
Assassination (19 points)
- Malice (5/5) - Increases crit chance by 5%. No reason not to take this.
- Ruthlessness (3/3) - Gives your finishing moves a 60% chance to add a combo point to the target. A great talent that helps with combo point generation.
- Murder (2/2) - Increases damage done to 4 different types of mobs by 2%.
- Relentless Strikes (1/1) - Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to give you 25 energy. More energy means more attacks and more finishers, so anything that gives you energy is a good thing.
- Lethality (5/5) - Increases the critical damage of many of your special attacks by 30%. Bigger crits means more damage, so don't pass this one up.
- Vile Poisons (3/5) - Increases the damage of your poisons and Envenom by 12% and an additional 24% for them to be dispelled. For this build, I wouldn't recommend using Envenom because you'll lose your 5 stack, but it will increase the damage of your poisons. Alternatively, on raids where mobs are immune to poison, you can consider putting these 3 points in Improved Eviscerate instead.
Combat (42 points)
- Improved Gouge (3/3) - Increases the duration of Gouge by 1.5 seconds. Has its occasional uses, but if you find yourself opposed to this on principle, take 3 points in Lightning Reflexes instead.
- Improved Sinister Strike (2/2) - Decreases the Energy cost of Sinister Strike by 5. As you'll be using Sinister Strike as your primary attack, this is a critical talent.
- Improved Slice and Dice (3/3) - Increases the duration of Slice and Dice by 45%. SnD grants you 30% haste, and this talent almost doubles the amount of time that it's up. Don't miss this one, as it's also necessary to maintain Combo Point cycles.
- Precision (5/5) - Increases your chance to hit by 5%. Very useful for helping you to get to the hit cap.
- Improved Sprint (2/2) - I like Improved Sprint over Endurance because it removes snares, which is often useful, but place these 2 points anywhere you like.
- Dual Wield Specialization (5/5) - Increases the damage done by your offhand by 50%. This brings the damage penalty to your offhand weapon down to 25% (from 50%), so pick this one up.
- Blade Flurry (1/1) - Increases attack speed by 20% and causes your attack to also hit a 2nd nearby target for 15 seconds. Use this often -- anything that increases your attack speed is fantastic.
- Sword Specialization (5/5) - Gives you a 5% chance to get an extra attack on the same target. The extra sword swing comes from your main hand, but a sword in your offhand can also proc an extra main hand attack.
- Weapon Expertise (2/2) - Increases expertise by 10. Decreases the chance your target will dodge or parry your attack by 2.5% -- yet another great talent.
- Aggression (3/3) - Increases the damage of Sinister Strike, Backstab and Eviscerate by 6%. Every bit helps, and since we're going further into the tree anyway you should definitely pick this up.
- Vitality (2/2) - Increases your stamina by 4% and your agility by 2%. A small bonus, but a bonus nonetheless.
- Adrenaline Rush (1/1) - Grants you 100% increases energy regeneration for 15 seconds. Still a great talent, as it potentially doubles your damage output from special attacks while it's up.
- Nerves of Steel (2/2) - Increases resistance to Stun and Fear by 10%. There are many mobs and bosses that can do both, and maintaining control of your character is generally preferable to running around aimlessly or being stuck in one spot.
- Combat Potency (5/5) - Gives your offhand attacks a 20% chance to generate 15 energy when they land. An amazing talent, and only gets better the closer you get to the hit cap. Many rogues like to run with a fast weapon in their offhand to maximize the chance that this procs. Using Shiv can also cause this to proc, but it's generally not worth the energy expenditure.
- Surprise Attacks (1/1) - Your special attacks can no longer be dodged, and increases the damage of Sinister Strike, Backstab, Gouge and Shiv by 10%. Don't pass this up, it's absolutely worth it.
If you're a sword Rogue who's looking to raid, I highly suggest that you try this build out. Tomorrow on Encrypted Text I'll be going a little deeper into why Combat builds generally outperform other builds on long fights, so if I've piqued your interest on the subject make sure to point your browsers towards Encrypted Text tomorrow.
That wraps up this edition of Build Shop, but I'll be back again next week! What do you want to see on Build Shop? Send me an email with your questions or comments, and we'll talk shop.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
1-15-2008 @ 6:26PM
Saiforune said...
Awesome! Thanks, i'm gonna try this build out for when my rogue alt hits lvl 70!
Reply
1-15-2008 @ 6:42PM
ruleofthumb said...
While Combat Sword specs slightly vary from one Rogue to another, this is a very good spec. I'm a combat spec'd Rogue and I love using AR/BF on bosses. With Druid tank (LotP) I can unleash all hell.
Personally, I use a 16/45/0 ( http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=f0eboxZMeV00VzEMGot ) Fist/Sword build and do very well. My Rogue is my alt and I decided to get him into Karazhan. Despite being in 90% blues, he still topped the damage meters against those with Kara/TK/ZA gear.
Reply
1-15-2008 @ 7:32PM
Fuon said...
I've recently swapped into the 16/45/0 from 19/42 as well. 19/42 as swords would still top it by a small amount, but I use a Dragonstrike mace in my main hand and a S2 sword in my offhand. Noticed a decent jump in damage on WWS parses, well worth the loss of 3 in vile poisons.
1-15-2008 @ 6:56PM
Corrodias said...
Don't be down on having to position yourself behind a boss. Even if you don't specialize in attacks that must be done from behind, as i used to keep having to tell our non-rogue/druid melee dpsers, attacking from the front hurts both your own DPS and the tank's health as your attacks get parried and the boss counterattacks the tank. Don't let this happen to you. As a tank, i notice when there's somebody next to me who shouldn't be there, so you won't remain anonymous.
Reply
1-15-2008 @ 7:03PM
Furien said...
Any melee dps should be aware of this.
1-16-2008 @ 5:07AM
Dan said...
Not only that, but you take cleaves in the face...
Always stay behind, when possible. No block, no parry.
1-15-2008 @ 6:58PM
Spoony said...
Mutilate spec in raiding is just fun. You say it's all about watching which finishing move to use when for the best dps possible with combat but in reality you're still just sinister spamming while watching percent hp to warrant slice and dice or rupture.
With Mutilate spec you just have to do more, watch your aggro from crits (since you're burst damage) manage you're combo points to not waste any from crits, keeping your eye on positioning so you don't loose downtime because you're not on the back ark. And more.
I guess it's like driving a manual and an automatic car, sure automatics are much easier and have more going for them now a days. But manuals are so much more fun to drive even if at times it's not as good.
Reply
1-15-2008 @ 7:02PM
Furien said...
I'm running with 20/41 with a very similar build. I have 4/5 Vile Poisons (more damage) and 1 in Endurance instead of Nerves of Steel. NoS can have its drawbacks, e.g. Tank gets feared and you don't resulting in a dead you. Might not happen a lot in Raids but more common in Heroics. Really just a personal preference thing.
Reply
1-15-2008 @ 7:15PM
Brian Arnold said...
Actually, they'd said in 2.3 (I think it was) that they changed it such that NPCs won't go for non-feared people but will stick with their threat, and as a tank that got feared while others didn't, I watched this particular boss stay on me. It was very relieving, and makes stuns/fears not quite so deadly.
1-15-2008 @ 10:21PM
Dan said...
Amen to that, I do the same thing in my build. When a mob is close to dropping, if I'm lucky enough to have 5cp and 5 deadly poison charges, a last-second envenom crits easily for 3k or more. That little 1 point in vile poisons adds up, especially on the odd boss that is vulnerable to them for even more sustained damage over time.
1-16-2008 @ 5:07AM
Dan said...
I did a heroic SP the other day, and several times, on different mobs, the mob would fear the group and then chase me (a rogue) instead of the tank. Because I was being feared, I had no choice but to take 4k melee attacks, and of course I didn't last very long. I don't know if it was a bug or by design, but the mobs always followed me instead of the tank regardless of my threat.
1-16-2008 @ 10:07AM
roger3 said...
Yeah, it also makes tanking Summoner in Gruul's lair MUCH harder... ah well, we've never wiped because me and my team-mate couldn't control him. We just have to work at it now.
1-16-2008 @ 1:53PM
Alkahn said...
@11
Intimidating shout effects still work like old fear affects; the tank is "cowering in fear" instead of properly feared, and apparently mobs still de-aggro in this case. More usual fear/horror affects still cause the tank to retain aggro (fear for sure, pretty sure on horror as well).
So on those guys (when tanking) I use however long berserker rage gives me, load up on threat, and then hamstring/kite the mob unless there's a tremor totem or fear ward available. You can out-range intimidating shout and the mob will still try to cast it on you if your'e out of range, preventing your poor rogues from getting turned into goo.
If the tank gets hit by intimidating shout and you have evasion, good time for it :).
1-15-2008 @ 7:07PM
Zargris said...
Regarding Surprise Attacks, still a nice talent, but it only removes the chance for your finishing moves to be dodged in the current build.
They flipped that talent around quite a bit pre-BC, so it's forgivable to have overlooked.
Reply
1-15-2008 @ 7:35PM
Fuon said...
No, he's got the description of the talent 100% correct.
1-15-2008 @ 7:38PM
Fuon said...
Gah, well, not 100% as it is not all special attacks, but it does still increase the damage by 10% on SS, Shiv, backstab and gouge.
1-15-2008 @ 7:18PM
Scoottie said...
Imp Evis will be more of a benefit then vile poisons. Riposte is the most overlooked talent for combat rogues. Nerves of steel is a whatever talent. Imp sprint is not really needed for gnome rogues. Weapon Expertise is the most useless talent post BC. A better combat build is 17/44/0
Reply
1-15-2008 @ 7:44PM
hellshire said...
No, do not do what this guy says. Imp Evis is useless because you will rarely if ever be using Evis as a finisher. Rupture or SnD are your two finishers never use anythin else.
Evis should only beused in one of two occassions: You have plenty of rupture time left, SnD is nowhere near done and you just happen to have 5 combo points left. Or you're fighting a boss mob with ridiculously low armor, namely Teron Gorefiend in BT and even then it's a toss up.
Riposte is also a no. Yes it is the best energy to damage attack a rogue has but it also requires you parry an attack. Quite frankly if you're in a position that you're parrying an attack in a raid, you're doing it wrong (not to mention dead).
Drop nerves of still and get imp kick, the silence is good for clearing casting trash mobs.
1-15-2008 @ 7:57PM
Scoottie said...
To hellshire: If you are not using evis as a combat rogue you need to either respec, reroll, or just stop playing the game.
1-15-2008 @ 8:08PM
hellshire said...
http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t16940-roguecraft_101_a/
Learn it, live it, love it.
I'll save you some effort and quote the important part.
"On Eviscerate: at nearly all reachable levels of gear, Rupture will be superior to Eviscerate on any target that isn't immune to bleeds. At 5 CP, Rupture deals 1000 damage plus 24% of your AP for 25 energy, or 40 damage plus 0.96% of your AP per energy. At 5 CP and with T5 2pc, Eviscerate deals 1245 damage plus 15% of your AP for 35 energy, or roughly 35.57 damage plus 0.43% of your AP per energy. Applying 3/3 Improved Eviscerate and 3/3 Aggression (121% modifier), 40% crit and RED (142.4% modifier), and 30% armor reduction (assuming a typical debuffed raid boss), Eviscerate comes to 42.90 damage plus 0.52% of your AP per energy. Thus, Eviscerate holds an advantage of 2.90 base damage per energy, but Rupture gains an additional 0.44% of your AP. At this rate, it takes only 656 AP for Rupture to overcome Eviscerate's base advantage. Simply, in any situation where you can Rupture, you should Rupture."
Rupture scales insanely well, evis doesn't. No Raiding rogue will ever use Evis over Rupture. If you can't understand this I suggest YOU reroll.