Roges Using Axes- Done Right

I KNOW- I have been really lazy with my postings, but in my defense, I am very pregnant, so pfft. My guild rogues of Common Blood are all excited about trying out Axes. In doing some of the leg work for them, I quickly researched what was being said about the new usable weapon. Below is the brief, yet to the point, summary of my finding. I should have done a better job at citing my references, but like I said, I am very pregnant, so pfft. The full articles of all my references are at the bottom.
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If you are going to wield axes then you will want to do it right.

The idea behind Axes for rogue is fast and furious slicing. Don’t bother rolling on something slow and hard hitting, leave those to the warriors and droods; you want fast axes just like your daggers. Try Last Laugh and Axe of the Sen’jin Protector.

After you obtain a couple of worthy axes, make sure you are spec'd for it. Sword specialization is now called Hack and Slash and includes Axes.

Next, gem and enchant for haste.

The following spec is recommended for pure DPS-no stealthy tricks needed, just charge in and do some damage. Axe Spec 1

For those who want to play with Axes, but keep your daggers close by, or for those who want to have axes and keep Throwing Specialization for Ulduar (see Ulduar rouge tips part 4, found here) the following spec is recommended: Axe spec 2



Below are my references:
http://www.wow.com/2009/06/24/encrypted-text-the-lumberjack-rogue/
http://www.wow.com/2009/08/04/world-of-warcraft-patch-3-2-rogue-guide/#continued
http://www.wow.com/2009/06/10/encrypted-text-rogue-tips-for-raiding-ulduar-part-4/
http://www.wowwiki.com/Trial_of_the_Champion
http://elitistjerks.com/f78/t37112-wotlk_rogue_gear_discussion/p37/

I have an idea

This is what I am noticing about my Naxx runs. I stink at trash, but I am ruling on bosses. My sustained dps is very nice, but my burst dps on trash is lacking badly. I will chalk it up to my difficult rotation and that fact I can only get half my spells up by the time the trash goes down. I have a new crazy idea though. I am going to keep my current rotation on spell bar 1 and use only on bosses. I am going to set up a second ration for trash mobs on my 2^nd spell bar and toggle between the two. Consider this my disclosure that if start to really stink, this is the madness behind it. -heh

Boss rotation

(Opener) 3 HfB, garrote, SnD, Trinket Cooldown

4/5pMut, Rupture, ToT, 4/5pMut, CB if up, Env, HfB-if needed

My spell bar:

1-HfB, 2- Mut, 3-Env, 4-Rupture, 5- SnD, 6-Cold Blood, 7-ToT

Trash rotation

3 HfB, Mut, SnD, 4/5pMut, Eviscerate, (4/5pMut Env)-if mod is still alive!

My Spell Bar:

1-HfB, 2- Mut, 3-Env, 4-Eviserate, 5- SnD,

In the 3hour Nax fight last night Quick Recovery only gave me 180 energy, so I am going to replace it with improves Eviscerate to improve trash DPS.

Also, I am going to install a new casting bar addon(Z, suggested it to me months ago, but never installed one ) This addon will put the casting bar of SnD and HfB at the feet of my toon, so I can monitor them better. I might turn on the “show combat points” option of the interface. It would be more efficient if all we at my feet and not on opposite corners of my screen.

My Preferred Rogue Enchants-WOTLK

Weapon 1-Berserking -Enchanted
Weapon 2-Mongoose -Enchanted
Head 1- Arcanum of Torment -Revered with Ebon Blade
Head 2- Arcanum of Ferocity -Revered with Cenarion Expedition
Shoulder 1- Master's Inscription of the Axe -Inscribers only
Shoulder 2- Greater Inscription of the Axe -Exalted with The Sons of Hodir
Shoulder 3- Greater Inscription of Vengeance -Exalted Aldor
Shoulder 4- Greater Inscription of the Blade -Exalted Scryers
Chest 1-Powerful stats-Enchanted
Chest 2-Super stats-Enchanted
Cloak 1--Swordguard Embroidery-Tailors only
Cloak 2- SMajor Agility-Enchanted
Bracers 1- Fur Lining-Leather workers only
Bracers 2- Greater Assault-Enchanted
Gloves 1- Hyperspeed Accelerators -Engineers only
Gloves 2- Major agility -Enchanted
Gloves 3- Crusher -Enchanted
Waist- Eternal Belt Buckle -Crafted by Blacksmiths
Legs 1- Wyrmscale Leg Armor -Leather workers only
Legs 2- Nerubian Leg Reinforcements -Leather workers only
Legs 3- Icescale Leg Armor -Crafted Leather workers
Boots 1- Icewalker -Enchanted
Boots 2 Greater Assualt -Enchanted
Rings 1 (Enchanters Only)-Assault -Enchanted
Rings 2 (Enchanters Only)-Stats -Enchanted
Ranged (optional)- Hearthseeker Scope -Crafted Engineering

Fast Daggers for WOTLK

Zarena said I could re-post this guild thread to my blog. He is my right hand rogue and I thank him very much for writing this out, because I can't even tell you how many times I have explained it over vent.

Ok guys I'm not gonna get too deep into this,'cause I think half the fun of theorycrafting is researching it for yourself but I will give you a brief overview.
The whole thing about fast daggers in Wraths is all about poisons. In the past you wanted a slow MH and (assumed but not true) Fast OH. The whole Slow / Fast thing is only for Combat.
Combat:
The purpose of a slow MH is so that your damaging abilites (i.e. Sinister Strike) will do a maximum amount of damage. As I'm sure you may have noticed the slower a weapon is the higher the damage range is (xxx - yyy) This is what affects ability damage. Many Moons ago weapon speeds on all weapons were normalized during special abilites (to 1.8). This is why you can have a faster weapon with DPS doing less damage over all.
The purpose of the Fast OH is purely and simply to get energy procs, and in some cases Sword procs (if you're sword spec)
Assassination / Sub:
Okies now to the point of this post. Fast daggers
In Wrath Poisons got a signifigant buff, this being they now actually scale with AP (YAY!). As well as in Assassination you generate energy from critical strikes.
About the AP buff...
This should be simple math for you guys so again I won't get too far into it. Since Poison does such a large amount of damage now it only stands to reason that you want it to proc as often as possible and since it procs on swing, you want to stab that bady as many times as you can!
"So Z people keep tellin' me to put my fast dagger in my MH and not my OH wtf!?"
Well in the past that was wrong, you wanted the slower weapon in your MH again for the higher damage (prolly from Backstab) but with the Muti spec both weapons hit on special any way so there's no reason to mind much. Moreover your MH will ALWAYS hit more than your OH no matter if you're at hit cap or not, so you want your fastest dagger with your instant poison in your main hand so that you have more chances to proc! ^.^

WOTLK Pre-raiding Gear for Rogues

Below is my wish list for Pre-raiding Naxx gear.

Head Head of Cheated Fate Drop-Heroic Gundrak
Head Headguard of Retaliation Quest reward-Heroic Dungeon

Neck Pendant of the Outcast Hero 25 Heroism Emblems

Neck Titanium Impact Choker Jewel Crafted

Shoulder Trollwoven Spaulders Leatherwork Crafted

Cloak Cloak fo the Gushing Wounds Drop- Heroic Violet Hold
Cloak Centrifuge Core Cloak Drop-Heroic Oculus

Chest Darkheart Chestguard Exalted with Ebon Blade

Chest Eviscerator's Chestguard Leatherwork Crafted

Bracers Dragonfriend Bracers Exalted with Wryrest

Bracers Drake-Champion's Bracers Drop-Heroic Oculus

Hands Handwraps of Preserved History Quest reward-Heroic Stratholme

Waste Trollwoven Girdle Leatherwork Crafted

Pants Mind-Expanding Leggings Revered-Kirin Tor

Feet Boots of the Neverending Path Exalted-Argent Crusaders

Feet Boots of the Whirling Mist Drop-Heroic Halls of Stone

Ring Hemorrhaging Circle Drop-Heroic Gundrak
Ring Mobius Band Drop-Heroic Stratholme

Ring Titanium Impact Band Jewel Crafted

Ring Band of the Kirin Tor Vendor-8500 gold

Trinket Mirror of Truth 40 Heroism Emblems

Dagger Titansteel Shanker Blacksmith Crafted

Throw Razor-sharp Ice Shards Quest Reward

Throw Lillehoff"s Winged Blades 15 Heroism Emblems

Mutilate Rogue Gear Wish List-WOTLK

Below is a list of the Top DPS’ing gear for Mutilate Rogues.  I know what you’re thinking…….the Combat list is next.

 

I love it when people do the hard work for me :P. Aldriana created a spreadsheet to calculate the top DPSing Mutilate gear. I took that list and made it pretty for you because that is what I do :P 

 

You can find the original post here at Elitist Jerks

Valorous Bonescythe Helmet	Head	Kel’Thuzad-Naxx
Favor of the Dragon Queen	Neck	quest item-Heroic Naxx
Valorous Bonescythe Pauldrons	Shoulders	Loatheb & Gluth-Naxx
Drape of the Deadly Foe	Back	Kel’Thuzad-Naxx
Chestguard of the Recluse	Chest	Malygos-The Eye of Eternity
Valorous Bonescythe Breastplate	Chest	Archavon-Vault of Archavon
Thrusting Bands	Wrist	Noth & Gluth-Naxx
Sinner's Bindings	Wrist	Maexxna-Gluth-Naxx
Valorous Bonescythe Gauntlets	Hands	Archavon-Vault of Archavon
Frosted Adroit Handguards	Hands	Malygos-The Eye of Eternity
Stalk-Skin Belt	Waist	Heigan & Glith-Naxx
Valorous Bonescythe Legplates	Legs	Archavon-Vault of Archavon
Leggings of the Honored	Legs	Sartharion- The Obsidian Sanctum
Dawnwalkers	Feet	Anub & Gluth-Naxx
Footwraps of Vile Deceit	Feet	Loatheb & Gluth-Naxx
Surge Needle Ring	Ring	Archavon-Vault of Archavon
Strong-Handed Ring	Ring	Various-Naxx
Ring of Invincibility	ring	25 Emblem of Valor
Fury of the Five Flights	Trinket	Sartharion- The Obsidian Sanctum
Mirror of Truth	Trinket	40 Emblem of Heroism
Darkmoon Card: Greatness	Trinket	Darkmoon Faire Deck
Sinister Revenge	Dagger	Kel’Thuzad-Naxx
Webbed Death	Dagger	Anub & Gluth-Naxx
Spinning Fate	Thrown	Noth & Glith-Naxx

Wound vs Instant poision

Because Z prompted me, I did the very awful math behind Wound and Instant poisons and he is correct.  But to elaborate on his point, if you do not have 5/5 Improved Poison in the Assassination Talent tree then Wound Poison is always better than Instant.  If you do have 5/5 Improved Poison then use Wound Poison until you have 2500 AP, and then switch to Instant.  The math is below in case number people like me want to see the break down. 

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Wound poison VII has a 50% chance of poisoning the enemy, causing [231 + 0.04 * AP] Nature damage and reducing all healing effects used on them by 50% for 15 sec.

Instant poison IX has a 20% chance of poisoning the enemy which instantly inflicts [300 + 0.10 * AP] Nature damage.

Wound VII: (231 + 0.04 * AP) * 0.5 = 115.5 + 0.02 * AP 

Instant IX: (300 + 0.10 * AP) * 0.2 = 60 + 0.02 * AP 

5/5 Improved Poisons- 0.01 * AP > 115 - 90

Wound VII: (unchanged) = 115 + 0.02 * AP 

Instant IX: (300 + 0.10 * AP) * 0.3 = 90 + 0.03 * AP 

Why Rogues should use a Damage Meter

Raid Leaders and Class Captains are highly discouraging the use of damage meters during raids. This rant will shed light on why.

However, using a damage meter can greatly improve a rogue. It can help formulate combo sets, compare damage output of two rogues during one fight, pinpoint areas of needed improvement, motivate for higher dps and retain constancy.

To uphold my high standards for rogues and keep maximum dps a requirement, I have decided to encourage rogues to use damage meters under the following conditions.

1. NEVER break the tank’s agro. A dead rogue does ZERO damage so. Only dps as much as the tank can agro. Omen, a meter for tracking agro, is a raiding requirement and will help with agro issues.
2. Save the dps bragging for outside of raid. It is distracting and inappropriate to discuss dps stats during raids. Everyone has their own job to do and you better be keeping up your own stuns and kicks.
3. Use it as an improvement tool. Formulate combo sets, pinpoint areas of needed improvement, and compare damage output of two rogues during the same fight.
4. Use it as a motivator to stay consistent. Watch your dps and don’t let it slip, especially in the last 30 mins of raiding.
5. Read this this article and comments found on WOW insider and don't be a damage meter zealot. The reason I require such high damage and dps is that a rogue’s primary role is the

Damage Dealer. Many dps classes perform secondary functions, for example; crowd control, off-tanking, healing, dispelling, buff/debuffing, mana regeneration, and misdirection. Of these secondary functions, Rouges only perform a Sap, kick, and stun. Sap is an out of combat move which does not affect dps and damage output. Kick and stuns are only used periodically and therefore do not greatly impact sustained damage.

If a rogue is going to us a damage meter, it is important to understand the difference between dps and damage done and how to differentiate it on your meter and paper doll.

Even though we speak of damage in terms of doing, it is actual a stat based on taking away. Damage is a reduction in health or an action that reduces health from an attack. For example, a weapon attack that reduces the health of the target is damage (1). Damage done is the total amount of health points you have taken from a target and therefore is not based on a time scale.

DPS is Damage per Second and is a measure of the total damage done by the time instant hits and dots were active. For example, if using the target dummy for 10 seconds deals 1000 damage, your damage done is 1000 and your dps is 100 (1000 /10 = 100). If you stop dealing damage, then start again for another 10 seconds doing 1000 damage, your damage done is now 2000, but your dps remains 100.

Over the length of a raid you should maintain a steady level of dps but have increasing amounts of damage done. Reasons that your dps rank may be different from you damage done rank is the rate to which you are locating and approaching a target for damage. For example, if you take down 2 mobs in the time your buddy has taken 3 because you were slow at targeting, you will have lower damage done no matter your dps.

Also good to know is the difference between Burst dps and Sustained dps. Burst dps refers to damage dealt over a relatively short period of time. High burst damage is the preferable form of damage against targets with relatively low health. Sustained dps refers to constant damage dealt over an extended period of time. High sustained damage is the preferable form of damage against targets with relatively high health like bosses (2).

You will find that Burst dps yields a higher stat, but as burst dps turns into sustained dps the stat equalizes, giving a more actual account of one’s own dps.

Note: The information delivered in the tooltip on your paper doll window does not take into account hit rate. Some addons do, and may display the total average DPS in a tooltip (2).


(1) “Damage.” Wowwiki. Retrieved Nov. 2008 <http://www.wowwiki.com/Damage>


(2.) “Damage per second.” Wowwiki. Retrived Nov. 2008 <http://www.wowwiki.com/Damage_per_second>