Much like the rogue class itself, Elizabeth Wachowski's Encrypted Text usually pops up just when you're not expecting it, is prone to disappearing without notice for large periods of time, and steals your lewtz.

Hey, fellow rogues! It's been a while! Well, more like nearly two months. Sorry. But we're back with some fresh ideas, one of which is this: how can you roleplay as a rogue without seeming like a cliche?

Admittedly, I'm new to RP, and my RP character is a draenei priest -- about as far from my beloved troll rogue as one can get. So this article is geared to people who, like me, are new to RP. The more experienced RPers can correct all my horrifying, glaring errors in the comments.

So, let's start out with:

Picking a race

Each race has different rogue traditions, heroes, and senses of morality. Here's a quick overview:

• Humans control several rogue organizations: the Ravenholdt guild, their archrival Syndicate organization, and SI:7, the official intelligence agency of Stormwind. If you're interested in "joining" any of these organizations (or the vaguely rogue-ish Defias Brotherhood), human would be a good choice.
• Night elf rogues would seem to have some difficulty fitting in with their peaceful, nature-loving society. However, night elves have skills at stealth, and every society needs its enforcers. The night elf police force, known as the Wardens, always has room for a good rogue -- and the archdruid Fandral Staghelm might not be above employing some sneaky folk to advance his political goals.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Roleplaying as a rogue

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Surprised to see us again so soon? Well, with 2.4 hitting today (Elune willing), it's time to see what there is out there for rogues in the new patch -- at least gear-wise, since rogues don't have many mechanic changes on the PTR right now. This new gear is available as badge rewards, drops from Magister's Terrace, and even crafted loot! (Sorry -- since the Sunwell isn't going to be open at first, loot from the 25-man raid has been left out of this one, and we talked about the Shattered Sun rep rewards already.)

Badge of Justice Loot

The first things you'll probably be staring at in the new badge vendor's inventory are the new daggers. The Blade of Serration, Swift Blade of Uncertainity, and the Mutilator clearly have a lot in common -- all three have the same 103.1 DPS and stam/hit/AP stats. However, the Blade of Serration is 1.8 speed, one-handed, and costs 105 Badges of Justice, while the identical Mutilator is off-hand only and costs only 45 Badges. The Swift Balde, intended as an off-hand for combat dagger rogues, boasts a speed of 1.5 and the same discount off-hand price of 45 Badges. Since these daggers clock in as the fourth-best daggers in the game DPS-wise, they're a must-have for all small-group dagger rogues.

Combat fist spec rogues can also enjoy some hot new weapons. (Sorry, swords and maces, but no new pointies/blunties for you.) Vanir's Right (and left) Fist of Brutality and Vanir's Left Fist of Savagery forgo the hit rating and stam of the daggers in exchange for agi and haste rating. They share the same 105/45 badge price as the daggers, so you can pick up the whole set for 150 Badges of Justice. Drawbacks include that the models look like rejected monsters from AQ40.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Gear me up in 2.4

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One of the biggest challenges for new rogues is figuring out the combo points/finishing move system. Sure, the combo points are easy, even though they really don't rely on "combos" per se. You hit stuff with your main move and get points. Any human, great ape, or intelligent robot could do it. But without an understanding of finishing moves, your target will die with five combo points on him and you will curse yourself for ever getting involved in this soul-sucking game.

So, to help you decide what move is appropriate when, here's a guide to the seven rogue finishers. (We'll get to openers in a couple of weeks.)

Eviscerate

• What it is: Your first finisher, and if you're like most rogues, probably your favorite. This most basic of spells does direct physical damage based on how many combo points you have.
• Mechanism: According to WoWWiki, the official damage range of Eviscerate Rank 10 is:
  Eviscerate = (Base Damage Minimum + Attack Power * (Number of Combo Points used * 0.03)) - (Base Damage Maximum + Attack Power * (Number of Combo Points used * 0.03)). Yeah, I'm bad at math too.
  So what does this mean? Well, starting in 1.12, Evis finally began scaling with AP (a change many rogues were clamoring for.) But it scales very slightly -- and the more combo points you have, the better it scales, since the AP multiplier increases with each point.
• Affected by: Improved Eviscerate, a first-tier Assassination talent, improves Evis's damage by 5/10/15%. Aggression, a sixth-tier Combat talent, improves it by 2/4/6%, along with SS and Backstab. The two-piece bonus of Tier 5 armor increases Evis's damage by 40 per combo point.
• Analysis: Sinister Strike/Eviscerate is the bread and butter of rogue leveling, particularly for combat swords/maces/fists rogues who don't spend a lot of time stunning. It's also great for grinding and finishing off opponents who have low health. However, when it comes to raiding, Evis is nearly useless. Unless the mob can't bleed (like in Kara), Rupture will always end up doing more damage than Evis, assuming the mob doesn't die before Rupture finishes ticking.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Finish him!

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Every Wednesday, Elizabeth Wachowski or Chris Jahosky write Encrypted Text, a look into the shadowy world of rogues.

Last time, when I discussed raiding on your rogue, I talked about the differences between the 3 talent trees as they relate to raiding, and the Hit cap. A couple of people made comments that basically say there is no magic number for Hit rating that you need to be at, and this is true. I'm not advocating stacking hit at the expense of all your other stats. There should be a balance, and you don't want to gimp yourself in other areas just to stack Hit rating.

Today, one of the things I'm talking about is the Expertise cap, which should be viewed in a similar light -- the information is there so that you can make good decisions regarding your gear. Don't just run out and start stacking Hit and Expertise and leave your other stats to twist in the wind.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Raiding as a Rogue, Part II

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Sometimes, in all the drama of raiding and arenas and new patch days, we forget that not all rogues are 70 and geared out the watoozle. A lot of rogues -- whether they be alts, new players, or just seriously behind the times -- are still struggling through the levels. And with the myriad number of quests out there for levelers, it can be hard sometimes to figure out which ones to focus on. Will skipping this quest leave me out of a fantastic chain quest reward, or just save me hours of searching through fel droppings?

So in the spirit of helping our newbie brothers and sisters, Encrypted Text presents the top ten must-do Outland quests for rogues, with their corresponding rewards and tips to help you through them. Note: This only includes non-dungeon quests. Sorry, you'll have to get that Hauberk of Karabor by yourself ...

10. The Trampoline Quests

• Starts with: I Must Have Them! from Wazat in Nagrand (61,67)
• Requires: Two players
• Steps in the chain: Two
• Rogue rewards: Delicate Green Poncho or Nomad's Cloak
• Details: This is either one of the most fun or the most frustrating quests in Outland, depending on your sense of depth perception. Basically, you need to collect gas from air elementals to power the "Jump-a-tron", which is a trampoline for some reason. After that, you need to use the trampoline to get on top of a tree, steal an egg, and defeat the angry mother bird who comes to attack you (a 66 elite.) This means that you have to click off the trampoline's "float" buff at the exact point when it'll get you onto the tree. And if you try it with anything less than full health, you'll probably die. Note: This is one of the few points on my heavily contested PVP server where I have ALWAYS seen Alliance and Horde working together. It's such a pain to get up on top of the tree that dying to the mother bird is a devastating blow.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: The Lazy Alt's ten must-do Outland quests

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Every Wednesday, Elizabeth Wachowski or Chris Jahosky write Encrypted Text, a look into the shadowy world of rogues.

This week on Encrypted Text is the first part in a small mini-series of articles that should serve as a guide for any up and coming rogues looking to start raiding. I will cover a few of the more raid-friendly specs, talk about their strengths and weaknesses, the hit and expertise caps, and the type of gear you should be looking for.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Raiding as a Rogue, Part I

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Of all the things I fail at in WoW, one of my most epic failures is my reputations. Something about facing the long grind to exalted kills a part of me. Looking at my Armory, I'm exalted with exactly three factions: Sporeggar (because I wanted to be the only alchemist with Shrouding Potion), Frostwolf Clan (for the ram), and Scryers (for the offhand dagger that I replaced, like, FIVE DAYS after getting the rep to buy it.)

I blame my dislike for rep grinds squarely on the Cenarion Circle. Endless hours in the desert of Silithus for a mediocre cloak made me lazy. But there are lots of decent reputation rewards available out there, mostly for newly 70 rogues. So what are the best factions for rogues to grind?

Cenarion Expedition

This reputation is worth it to drive to revered, if only for the Glyph of Ferocity, which is the best rogue head enchant in the game. Otherwise, it's all profession stuff and druid/hunter gear -- with one exception. The CE is a necessary stop if you're planning on getting the Opportunist's Battlegear, the new, rep-based version of the old PVP GM/HW gear. This set is meant as a starter for arena newbies, or PvErs looking to try out some PvP. You need to be revered with CE to pick up the headpiece. Watch out, though -- it's going to be a long haul to get all five pieces.

Honor Hold/Thrallmar

This isn't one of the best rep grinds for rogues, although you'll need to get to honored if you want to grab the Opportunist's Leather Gloves. And considering that the gloves make your Deadly Throw silence enemies, you'll definitely want them. Other than that, Alliance can pick up the Footman's Longsword at honored, which is okay for early Outland leveling, and exalted brings both sides an excellent bow or gun.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: My bad reputations

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I love the profession system in WoW, but sometimes it strikes me as odd that we're basically paying money to go to work. I wouldn't run around the world and skin animals, pluck feathers, find rare threads and cause massive environmental destruction for a leather jacket in real life, but I'll gladly do all that to make an epic leather chestpiece in WoW.

Nevertheless, it's a good idea to pick up a crafting profession in WoW, just for the perks. (Unless you want to be one of those ultra-capitalists who take two gathering professions.) We've covered this in general terms before, but today we're going to focus on the crafting profession-specific BOP items and abilities that can really help out rogues in the end-game.

Alchemy

Honestly, alchemy doesn't have a lot of good BOP stuff. It's good for money-making and as a support profession for an alt (someone has to get all those transmutes done), but it doesn't offer a lot of enhancement for your main, unless you count "Being the guy at the raid who sucks up to everyone by giving them pots" as an enhancement. Which, for rogues, is not a bad thing -- there's enough of us out there that being an alchemist can help get you that coveted raid spot. But for pure min/maxing, it might be better to buy herbs off the AH or farm them on an alt and then have a guildie make you your pots. Particularly useful pots include Flask of Relentless Assault, Haste Potion, Insane Strength Potion, Fel Strength Elixir, Elixir of Major Fortitude, Onslaught Elixir and Super Healing Potion.

The Alchemist's Stone is one of two items that are only usable by alchemists, and though it's a good starter trinket, it'll be quickly eclipsed for everyday wear by more rogue-specific trinkets. It really shines for hybrid classes and mana-users, but rogues shouldn't be popping healing potions like bubble wrap in PVE. If you are, you have bigger problems than your trinket selection. The other alch-only item is the Mad Alchemist's Potion, which restores health and mana and gives you a random buff. Nice, but not reliable when you need it.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Job perks

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Continue reading Encrypted Text: Levels 21-40

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Continue reading Encrypted Text: Examining your spec

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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.

Continue reading Build Shop: Rogue 19/42/0

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Welcome back, fellow rogues! Everyone on the site has been going into a leveling guide frenzy, and it's our turn to cover the earliest possible levels.

However, I rolled my rogue ... well, I rolled my rogue a long time ago. An embarassingly long time ago. Suffice it to say that when I rolled my rogue, Gwen Stefani was singing about not being a hollaback girl, whatever the frude that is. So the memories of level 1-20 are sort of fuzzy in my head. But I recall it being a lot easier than my hunter (gee, ten levels of raptor striking anything with no pet) and less boring than my pally (seal, judge. seal, judge.)

The first thing you need to do is pick your race. Krystalle covered this fairly in-depth in the past, but for the quick and dirty, here's a few tips:

• The best PVP racials are those of the undead (Will of the Forsaken), gnomes (Escape Artist) and blood elves (Mana Tap/Arcane Torrent).
• The best PVE racials are those of the trolls (Regeneration and Berserking, theoretically) and the humans (Sword and Mace Specialization, Diplomacy).
• Night elves, gnomes and trolls have the most starting agility.
• Dwarves and orcs have the most starting stamina and health.
• The most common rogues are night elf, blood elf, human and undead.
• Dwarf, orc and troll rogues are fairly uncommon.
• The best all-around choice for a new rogue planning on a mix of PVP and PVE will probably be a night elf, human, troll or orc.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: 222223, or how to level 1-20 as a rogue

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Ah, New Year's Eve. At midnight tonight, we'll drink champagne, kiss our loved ones, and bid 2007 a fond farewell. Or alternatively, we'll sit in our bedrooms, accidentally spill Pabst Blue Ribbon all over our keyboards, and prepare to hibernate through the presidential primaries.

Whatever your New Year's plans, we can all agree on one thing -- it's been a year of changes in WoW, both for the game in general and the rogue class in particular. From the Burning Crusade to Wrath of the Lich King to Vanish STILL NOT WORKING, here's the lowdown on 2007 for Azeroth's rogues.

January

Early January: Rogues playing the Burning Crusade beta begin complaining about the amount of cleave and AOE attacks in raids and dungeons. Everyone else playing the Burning Crusade beta begins complaining about Cloak of Shadows in PvP. This will continue until ... forever.

January 15: Ashamed rogues stealth through the mall to wait in line for Burning Crusade's midnight release.

January 16, 12:01 AM: The race to the Dark Portal culminates in huge, bloody battles on nearly every server. Attempts to sneak through are foiled by mages spamming Arcane Explosion.

January 16: Hundreds of thousands of rogues walk into Outlands and immediately begin looking for a Ramparts tank.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: A stealthy year in review

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This week on Encrypted Text, I'm going to go over some upcoming changes to the Rogue class that everyone should be aware of. Rogues have some nice tweaks and some serious changes in the pipeline, so let's get to it.

As a long time fan of the Subtlety tree, I've been really enjoying the last couple changes Blizzard has made to Rogue abilities. In patch 2.3, Hemorrhage was buffed to deal 125% weapon damage, Shadowstep became usable out of stealth, Cheat Death became more reliable -- all great changes. Although the next patch will nerf Hemo down to 110% weapon damage, there's also a talent in the Subtlety tree to increase it's damage by 10%, so heavy Subtlety rogues won't feel the pinch quite as bad.

Another important change that we reported on indirectly a few days ago was a new tweak to Shadowstep -- once activated, it grants a 3 second, 70% speed increase. What does this mean for rogues? Read on and find out.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Upcoming Rogue changes

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Two weeks ago, I discussed how enchanters can make your shiny new level 70 rogue gear sparkle even more. But post-BC, enchanters aren't the only gear-enhancers in the game.

Leatherworkers can make armor kits and leg armor that can "enchant" gear that could previously only be enhanced by those stupid ZG enchants that drove everyone nuts. The Aldors and the Scryers are engaged in a constant war over what you put on your shoulders, and many places are offering relatively inexpensive head glyphs. And, of course, the jewelcrafters have a multitude of lovely gems to socket your stuff.

So rogues, if you're ready to squeeze the most out of your gear, head onward to glory! Edited to make it clearer that these are rogue suggestions as part of the class column.

General

• Heavy Knothide Armor Kit: This 10 stam "enchant" is new in patch 2.3, and can also go on heads, shoulders, chests, legs and feet. If you need to stack stamina for PVP, give it a whirl -- it shouldn't cost you too much. 5/10 PVE, 7/10 PVP.

Head

• Glyph of Ferocity: This 100g, Cenarion Expedition-revered head enhancement is really your only choice here, unless you have a burning desire to shepherd a group through Zul'Gurub a bunch of times. Luckily, at 34 AP and 16 hit, it's totally worth it. 10/10 PVE, 8/10 PVP.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Enchanting your gear, part 2

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So your rogue has finally hit 70, you've gotten some decent blue gear, and you're preparing to raid, PVP, or do whatever else your little heart desires. Then one day, your guild leader, class leader, or some random jerk on the forums calls you out. Sure, you've got nice gear, but you've done nothing to improve it! No expensive enchants, no gems, no leg armor, no shiny little items from various professions.

Making the mental shift from quickly-discarded quest gear to long-term end-game gear can be tough -- and it can be just as difficult figuring out what enhancements to use. Is it time to spring for the big-name enchantments and such, or should I stick to what's cheap and easy? To help you out, today we'll cover what your friendly neighborhood enchanter can do for your gear. In two weeks or so, we'll revisit the topic to look at glyphs, armor kits, gems, and other such non-enchanty enchants.

Cloak

• Dodge: Dodge is nice for rogues, but this is really more of a tanking enchant. Plus, the pre-BC mats are probably too expensive for the mere 12 dodge rating. Twinks only! 2/10 PVE, 5/10 PVP.
• Greater Agility: 12 agi is worth a lot for rogues, as a major infusion of our best all-around stat. And with only one Primal Air and a minimum of enchanting mats, this is a serious bargain for serious PVE and PVP rogues. 9/10 PVE, 8/10 PVP.
• Major Resistance: To gain a mediocre 7 resist to all schools of magic, expect to spend upwards of 300g on this sixteen Primal enchant. Pass! PVE 1/10, PVP 2/10.
• Stealth: This interesting enchant effectively gives you an extra level of stealth, giving you an advantage in battlegrounds and world PVP. However, unless you're farming chests, it does little good in PVE. 3/10 PVP, 6/10 PVP.
• Subtlety: By far the most desired cloak enchant for most DPS classes, rogues shouldn't need the 2% decrease in threat from this moderately expensive enchant. Get it if you keep pulling aggro, or if your Vanish button is broken. PVE 6/10, PVP 0/10.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Enchanting your gear, part 1

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I am not, generally, a mean, vicious, or all-around evil person -- except when UNC plays Duke in basketball, when my venom becomes more potent than a black mamba's. I help my friends move, I call my mother every week, and I give money to beggars on the street if they can come up with an entertaining story. I even volunteer with rescued dogs at the SPCA, as the many pit bull tooth marks on my shoulderblades can attest to.

But yet, I'm also a rogue -- one of the two least ethical classes in WoW, along with those demon-loving warlocks. For us to be effective in WoW, we have to be sneaky, deceptive, and just plain evil. But how can those good-natured rogues among us find ways to be bad? Sure, we can gank, but in the end, ganking is just an artless exercise of brute force. And ninjaing is just tired and outdated. Real evil/insanity requires a bit more creativity.

Fun with Lowbies

• Follow a lowbie around, close enough that he can hear your stealth sounds but can't see you. If you're feeling lucky, you can also stealth and unstealth around him, hoping that he has a mod that will show your stealthing on the screen. The lowbie will either think you're a same-level player and AOE to knock you out of stealth, whereupon you can kill him for "attacking you first", or he'll leave you alone, and you can watch his nerves become frayed to the breaking point as he wonders when the other shoe is going to drop.
• Team up with a rogue or rogues of the opposite faction on a PVP server and station yourselves outside a popular instance or city. Demand that anyone passing through pay a "docking fee" or "road toll.'" If they refuse, have your friends unstealth and attack. Two guilds on my server completely controlled Booty Bay using this method in the early days of WoW, making them forever e-infamous.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: How to be evil

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Even though I haven't raided on my rogue for about two months, I'm still pretty happy when I look at her gear. 4/5 T4, the Chestguard of the Conniver, the awesome offhand dagger from heroic Ramparts that I obtained after my guild found it in the chest, held the chest open, and summoned me in -- *Monty Burns voice* why, this is less a rogue than a god. (Disclaimer: My rogue is not actually a god, and yours is probably better geared and also prettier.)

But there are two blues disrupting my sea of adequate purples -- I have yet to replace either of my trinkets. And when I talk to other rogues, many of them have the same problem. The truly good epic trinkets for rogues are hard to find or have many competing rogues after them, and many of the other trinkets are just ... meh. So to help out my fellow rogues, I'm posting a guide to some of the best max-level trinkets (as rated by their power and their ease of attainability.)

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Ten great rogue trinkets

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Continue reading Encrypted Text: Rogues, Patch 2.2, and the exploding UI

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Most raiding rogues I know tend to look for pure, solid stats on their weaponry. Agility, stamina, AP, crit and hit -- these are the backbone of the rogue arsenal. Procs can be less than ideal, given their unreliable nature and spiky DPS increase.

But there are some procced abilities that stand out above the others. Procs that are frequent enough or major enough to turn the tide in boss fights, destroy your enemies in PVP, or just look really cool and flashy on your weapons. Read on to discover which Burning Crusade procs to use and which procs to lose.

Weapon: The Night Blade
Weapon type: Epic 1.8 speed dagger
Proc: Your attacks ignore 435 of your enemies' armor for 10 sec. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
Proc rate: Approximately 6.5%.
Analysis: This proc used to be ridiculously overpowered. With a proc rate of 21 percent, rogues could have this up constantly, adding an extra 11-14 percent more damage in raids. Blizzard nerfed the proc down to a more managable 5-8%, but it still seems to proc in "stacks", making it a worthwhile investment -- though probably not worth several thousand gold.

Continue reading Encrypted Text: Most valuable procs

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