Well Patch 1.10 is out... it brings weather and some changes for Priests. But more importantly lots of tweaks for Rogues. Some of which are direct and others indirect. We now have the ability to apply poisons while stealthed which is a huge help when the situation calls for something more specialized. It also gives Rogues a reason to carry more then the default two poisons. Blind has been fixed as well being made a ranged attack so that it cannot be parried or blocked. There are a bunch of other small changes concerning slice and dice and blade furry. One of the indirect boosts to Rogues comes in the way of a Hunter Nerf! Flare now has a visual effect for its duration hopefully making the accidental revealings less common for the smart Rogues. Honestly I wouldn't call this a Nerf for hunters though I am sure they are screaming over it... I wont even go to the Hunter forums im just gonna assume they are complaining. This is more of a bug fix in my mind.

The only real nerf is the Trinket cooldown which will now be effecting several classes that use the duel trinket combo to get incredilby hard crits etc. Overall this is a pretty good patch for Rogues.

~Cerias Shadows

Some of the users have been noticing difficulty posting to the RogueSpot problems. I am currently looking into the situation and looking for a fix. It maybe something simple. RogueSpot has grown quite a bit and my desire not to prune the forums... has started to create quite a large database. Hopefully this will be an easy fix.

Updated: 3/28/2006

~Cerias Shadows

Ok, so I got this thing last week and I'm wondering: "Where has it been all my life!" I haven’t gotten much PvP practice with this thing and I’ve already gotten used to its comfort and accessibility but I’m having trouble hitting those bottom four buttons for some reason; so I remapped the left column to tab alt and shift and made them change states on my flexbar. Things are going to get better, or so everyone tells me, and I have to admit that I can see myself using this for a while. WoW or not (If you have a good Warcraft3 load out post it on our forums!).

Props to Belkin for such a wonderful device. Silyth out!

I am not sure about other servers, but on mine the Fury warrior is alive and kicking. They are not nearly as popular as the ever present MS warrior, but you see them every now and then in the battlegrounds. Fighting a fury warrior is a much different fight than a Mortal Strike warrior, and I would like to share some of my thoughts on it. But first, I will define the nature of the beast for those that aren't up on their warrior knowledge.
A warrior is the toe to toe master of WoW. Don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise. They wear the heaviest armor in the game, have a truck load of hit points, and are capable of neutralizing a rogues key strengths. Good warriors will always Rend you, so that stealth is not an option. They will also Hamstring you, so that escape is a fleeting hope. Here is where Fury and Arms warriors split. Arms is the most popular talent tree for Warriors because it has Mortal Strike. A really strong attack that will make you wish you could shield+hearth when it crits, and also has the benefit of a healing debuff. So, can't even rely on a blind+bandage or a potion to recover from a nasty MS. The issue that MS warriors have is that their weapons are slow. They are slow for the same reason a Rogue likes slow weapons; they hit harder. What this means to us is that if they miss, it seems like an eternity before they swing again. It is debatable whether or not you want to use Evasion against these guys. Overpower is really nasty, but it might be worth getting hit with Overpower rather than MS. Personally, I prefer not to use it, because MS warriors sing so slowly that giving them a free overpower with those huge two handers has worked out poorly. It always seems to work out that they get Overpower -> Execute. Not good.
The flip side of the plate wearing, battle shouting coin is the Fury warrior. (I will leave Protection warriors out of this because they are Pve only by and large) A fury warrior is a dual wielding warrior that speeds up as they get critical strikes. At the beginning of a fight, they are not too nasty, but once they start to crit, they are like a thresher. These guys generally go for the same weapons and jewelry that we do, so watch out for ninja 'dps warriors'... So, when you are fighting a Fury warrior, what do you do differently, and how do they behave. They will still charge/intercept -> Hamsting+Rend. After that it like you are dancing with another rogue. Their attacks come fast and hit hard. They can sustain really high DPS, and it only gets nastier as the fight goes on. I treat this fight just like I would treat a fight with another Rogue. They swing so often, and their momentum is based on getting crits, so Evasion can really stall them out. Their Overpowers are done with one handers, so they hit way lighter than an MS warrior's Overpower, so you don't have to fear it very much. Ideally its best to stun lock a Fury warrior as long as you can, and get their health nice and low before you begin the dance of death, but often in BG's that is not an option. Here are some other things you might consider doing if you know that a Fury warrior is about...
Try Instant Poison on these guys. They will intercept you anyway if you get too far away, and they want to be close to you in order to kill. Generally a warrior won’t run away, so crippling is not as huge. Besides, you need the extra dps that by passes their huge armor.
Even when you are bleeding from a nasty Rend, if you are quick about it you can get off a Vanish+Cheapshot between the ticks of the bleed. This will stop them in their tracks. Momentum is everything to a Fury Warrior. Try to stop them and make them start slowly again.
No MS means no healing debuff. Don't be afraid to bandage in a fight. Even half of a bandage is 1k hit points back.
As stated before, Evade.
Obviously, if you blow all of your cool downs in a fight, you will probably win. I am suggesting that you start with one, and if you have to use others, don't be afraid. That is what they are for.

So, give some of these things a try, and let me know how they work. Also, leave a comment and tell me some of your Fury strategies.
Lastly, I'd like to give a tip of the hat to my buddy Hasmed, who is not only an old Rogue pro, but plays a top notch Fury warrior. Most of my tactics are derived from conversations with him.

Cheers,
Zyk

I am orginally an EQ Rogue and while I love the Rogue in WoW I am always watching to see how they turn out in other games. With that said The Safehouse has an awesome article / interview with one of the devs of Vangaurd on the Rogue Class. All I can say is it looks cool... Staying stealthed all the way through combat... sounds freaking sweet! While the article is from february I just recently discovered it so give it a read and give your feedback in the forums.

~CS

First off, allow me to introduce myself... Along Silyth, I am fresh blood on the Roguespot team. I won't dwell on details about myself, but I am a Pvp enthusiest primarily, but I have been known to head into an instance. I prefer small group content to uber raiding, but to each his own I suppose.

That said... I was reading some posts in the WoW forums that spurred some thoughts. When you are riding through a zone, and you see a grey member of the opposite faction, do you bother to dismount and serve them a healthy serving of death? For some, the answer is always the same. Answer 1. Yes. I kill all (insert alliance or horde as appropriate), regardless of level or class. Answer 2. No. I don't kill greys, because it's not my style. (something to that effect)
For me, it has never been that simple. At one point I took the high road, and would not kill a grey at all. That opinion has slowly changed as I have been leveling an alt. I never noticed how many times I avoided getting ganked simply by stealthing between kills. I don't have that option on my warlock alt (gasp, a caster), so I find myself on the receiving end of alot of alliance skulls. Its almost comic to see a skull that I recognize as a low 50's from AV, and see them proceed to destroy my lowbie world. These new experiences have led to a changing of attitudes.

That brings me back to the topic question; To gank or not to gank? Why bother? Why not?
I guess, in the end it's a matter of style, taste and preference. Do you want to be known on your server and a merciless killer, who /spits in the face of all who oppose you? Do you want to be known as an honorable foe who /salutes the fallen with respectful dignity? There are many shades of grey on this topic, and there is no right way to go.
For me, I choose the middle ground and both. I will kill with impunity if my mood is black, or I will dance with a lowbie and ride away with a /train. Like it or not, your actions define the opinions of your foes and friends alike. If none of that mattered to us, why play an online game?

Cheers,
Zyk
Gul'dan

Hey everyone, this is Silyth of the Shadow Moon server. Thanks to Cerias Zyk and I will be posting/ranting for your entertainment as the latest additions of the RogueSpot team. Hopefully something interesting comes up in the next few days, because Rogue news has been pretty bland.

On another note AQ20 and AQ40 are terrific fun, looks like Blizzard has considered Rogues just a bit more than they usually do. My favorite fight so far has to be Battleguard Sartura in AQ40. Oh, and Poisons are a GO. Apply them, experiment with them, top the dmg meters with them =D.

Happy Hunting.

I don't get to reading outside RogueSpot forums as much as I used to. When I do I like it when I find gems like this post. I have visited Psyae's blog before but obviously not recently enough. Check out her post about an attempted ganking, coming out on top and the analysis. There is also a Video included that lets you see what happened in slow motion. This fight was exciting to watch in Slow Mo.

~CS

Looks like 1.10 has quite a few changes up and coming for Rogues as well as Priests. Has anyone had a chance to get on test and try these changes out? The cheapshot improvement is something thats been needed for quite a while and honestly just makes sense.

Opened a topic in Ravenholdt Manor for Open Discussion

~CS

Just noticed a huge spike in site usage yesterday which is normal with servers down. However it looks like Blizzard linked to their class guides page again causing traffic at RogueSpot.com to double.

The server should be able to handle it thanks to the guys at Azzor.com! I definitly dont mind the traffic!

~CS