Dunsparrow

BioWare Makes Trion Shine by Contrast

2012-01-28T02:01:00.010-06:00

In case you couldn't tell from my last post, I've been playing SWToR, along with Rift for the past month or so. I really like the PvP in SWToR, despite its enormous problems. You can see the hand of Mythic staff at work in the PvP map design, which is quite frankly, the best of any game.

However, the blight of problems that a company as big as EA/BioWare should have foreseen is an albatross around the neck of this game. The reason I mention this, is because these failings by BioWare really illuminate some of the things we don't always think about that make Rift awesome.

Weekly Maintenance Every Day

First of all, BioWare has maintenance multiple times each week, for 4, 6, 8 and sometimes 10 hours at a time. Not just for major patches, but for small updates like those that Trion hotfixes into Rift in 30 minutes or less. SWToR's shortest maintenance cycle has been 4 hours.

User Disinterface

The user interface and ability bars are horrendous. SWTOR has no macros and no UI customization (but its coming in some future patch some day!), no Addons and not even a combat log. Its like they don't even look at standard features of MMOs. There is a persistent bug for all players where pressing the middle mouse button or MB4 on your mouse will lock up your entire UI. Its existed since beta and is not even acknowledged, despite being 100% reproduceable for every single player in the game. The UI is a mess that you constantly have to fight while you fight enemies.

Character Control Fail

SWTOR has the absolute worst player control of any MMO I've ever played. Half the time I feel so disconnected from my character that I actually think I am someone else if there are a lot of players stacked in a small area. If you press your hotkeys too fast, you can actually interrupt your own instant cast abilities. Its unbelievable. Here's a video of some other annoying crap that happens.

Hope You Like Your Spec

There is no dual spec. You have one spec, and it costs more each time you respec, up to 100k credits (equivalent to 50 plat in Rift). You can't shift specs on the fly. You can't bring fight-specific specs like you can in Rift and you can't switch between heal/dps or dps/tank between fights like you can in every other major MMO on the market today. The Operations (aka raids) do not take this into account. Some fights require 1 tank, some require 2. I guess you're supposed to sit your off tank and tell him what a douche he is for the 1 tank fights. Meanwhile in Rift, you can bring a tank, dps and support spec to any raid and change roles between fights or between attempts so that you don't have to worry about what class is in the raid, but what player.

Failure to Plan

The first Open World PvP zone is the planet Ilum. They billed this as an amazing PvP zone, but players just traded objectives with the other faction until the 1.1 patch ruined the zone entirely. SWTOR's hapless community team attempted damage control, but with posts like this, it didn't work out too well. Contrast this with Trion, who always tries to own their mistakes, and make up for them. When the River of Souls opening went South, Trion immediately apologized and compensated everyone involved so they felt rewarded. They didn't say they would "work on a response." They responded.

Its Bad to be Good

If you're playing the Republic, you are probably outnumbered by Empire by a ratio 3:1 or 4:1 on your server. Oops.

Nerf to Balance

HOLYBUTTS I JUST DIED! NERF ROCK - Scissors

This is the mentality that BW listens to. Scoundrels are very good at killing low armor classes like Sorcerers. The problem is that there are 10 Sorcerers (Empire) for every Scoundrel (Republic). So when the Sorcerers start crying about Scoundrels, BW nerfs the hell out of them. Meanwhile classes that can literally spam 1 button to victory go untouched. Instead of making the underplayed classes more appealing, they nerf them to appease the more popular classes who are crying. If Scoundrels are so overpowered, why does no one play them?

If Hitler Developed a Community Management Strategy

BioWare would adopt it. They love to crack down on free thought and critical posts, and frequently disable all posting on the forum during maintenance to keep people from flocking to the forums to ask why the game needs a 6-hour maintenance every 2 days. Trion tries to improve the problems that people find with the game. BW tries to prevent people from talking about problems.

I could go on, but I won't. BioWare has basically wasted a very cool intellectual property. It will be a long time before we see another Star Wars MMO. Too bad, I'm a huge Star Wars fanboy.

UPDATE: 8:33 CST

The link I posted above-- disable all posting -- now shows up as a broken link. This is because BioWare always deletes their posts when the forums are re-enabled, instead of just updating the post to say that the forums are now live again. This directly contradicts their practice for when the servers go up and down. Clearly, they want to pretend that they don't shut down the forums all the time. The fact is -- they do.

Trion Decides to Ruin PvP - BioWare Applauds

2012-01-23T06:49:00.002-06:00

You know, I'm pretty choosy when it comes to games. I won't play just anything. It needs to have a certain flavor, or a certain uniqueness that draws me in and makes me want to explore possibilities.

Rift has that. The soul system in Rift drew me to the game like a moth to flame. The idea of being able to essentially design your own class was so cool that I just had to play. And being able to change your role to fit any situation was constantly challenging and interesting. There is no best spec. There is no best rotation, or best strategy or best class. You must constantly adapt. It's kept me hooked for nearly a year.

Now Trion plans to ruin it all with one fell patch.

I am not one who is prone to exaggeration. When I said that rogues were a joke back in August, they were. Trion eventually got around to agreeing with me. This is just as bad, but now its bad for everyone, and bad for the game.

With the new PvP Planar Attunement system on the PTS, you now have a new tree called Attunement of War. This tree includes most of the good stuff in the Infiltrator soul. Sound like a good thing? I thought so too, until I realized that you have to choose between putting your PA points into this tree or your other PA trees, like fire and air that actually increase your raid damage.

That's right. Trion is now going to make you choose between PvP and PvE. If you want to be good in PvP, you'll need to dump about 9,000 points into the Attunement of War. How much does that leave for the rest? In my case, not much.

Gone are the days of leaving a raid and heading to Warfronts or oPvP in Stillmoore or EI. Unless you want to get totally crushed, and I mean horribly massacred. Gone is the versatility and flexibility that make Rift so great.

You get to either have a massive handicap in PvP or in PvE. Which would you like? What a fun choice this is. I hope I'm wrong about this. I hope that what I'm looking at is just a partial implementation or a mistake. But I'm not hopeful.

How to do PvP Planar Attunement Right (and Avoid Pitfalls)

2012-01-14T21:50:00.001-06:00

Changing the PvP tree to Planar Attunement is a worthy -- but not easy -- task. This is something that could easily go horribly wrong if some muckity-muck high in the organization, but out of touch with the game and player-base, takes it in his teeth. So, some dos and don'ts.

DO
Create lots of new ranks. Grinding out 8 ranks is tough and progress comes slowly. SWTOR has 65+ PvP ranks where progress comes quickly and benefits are seen constantly. This multi-rank system makes more sense in the context of a PA tree, where many points are needed, and its more rewarding along the way. Too many companies forget that the game is about the journey, not the destination.

DON'T
Make everyone start over. I ground out Prestige 8, and so have a lot of other hardcore players. We did it to attain an advantage over our fellow players, and worked hard to get here. If you think we're going to start from scratch -- you're wrong.

DO
Translate current Prestige ranks into new PA levels. You could give everyone 10% of their total PA for each Prestige Rank (10% for rank 2, 20% for rank 3, etc.). This will keep the ranks in order, but still get P8s playing again.

DON'T
Remove any "core" abilities from the PvP trees. Rogues still need Anathema, Cleanse Soul and Camouflage, or at least the option to get them. Clerics still need Deathwings, stun shields and heal spreading. Yes, you can add things like minor vengeance/valor increases, damage against players, crit damage, against players, etc. but don't remove the cool PvP moves that we all love to use and hate to be used on us.

DO
Add new abilities. At least 1 for each class. Also consider pulling PvP-oriented abilities from other souls, and adding them to the PvP PA. Obvious candidates are Deep Wounds from the Warrior Champion tree, Neddra's Essence from Mage Warlock tree, Fell Blades from the Rogue Nightblade tree, and Slumber from the Cleric Druid tree. I'm sure there are others as well. This will make the PvP PA more interesting and rekindle some interest in PvP.

DO
Consider this an opportunity to fix problems that have always existed in PvP but were hard to address in the current system. PvP healing is a nightmare to balance around. Maybe its time give everyone a passive PvP healing debuff through their PvP PA. Something between 30-50% seems about right. If everyone is always heal debuffed in PvP, it will be easier to balance and will make for more fun and interesting gameplay. This could be balanced by allowing vengeance on healers to partially pierce this healing debuff, and make sure this stat is just as important for them as everyone else.

DO
Make sure people have many options for gaining PvP PA experience. Warfront grinds are inevitable, but lets encourage some world PvP or even strange tasks like invading capital cities or enemy territory. PvP PA experience is a new reward for doing stuff, so give it to us as a reward for doing new and interesting things. If you're worried about exploiting, put a cap on the amount that can be earned per day on the new/experimental things, so we don't have something like the PvP Rift exploits happen again. Learn from your mistakes, dont repeat your mistakes, but also don't be afraid to make new mistakes. New mistakes mean progress, which is something we all want.

1.7 on the Horizon - PvP Changes and More

2012-01-13T13:52:00.002-06:00

1.7 Looks like a big patch for not just rogues, but everyone. Infernal Dawn will soon be entering open testing, the PvP system is getting a complete overhaul, and several rogue souls are getting buffed or tweaked. Most of it, I like. First, what I consider the biggest news, the PvP overhaul. From some Trion talking head:

PVP planar attunement & Prestige system revamp and more!

Last but definitely not least we have a number PVP improvements coming with this patch focused on improving a player’s PVP leveling experience while still keeping the matches as competitive as possible. New level 50 players who are placed in both ranked and non ranked matches will have their base stats automatically bolstered to a minimum level, allowing them to be more than just a speed bump for a higher level player.

For existing PVP players, Items purchased from the Prestige store will get the same improvements as the rest of the game, making sure that the jump in power between each set of items is more consistent. In addition we are removing the prestige rank requirements from many of the items, which will give players more freedom when choosing to purchase / upgrade PVP equipment.

Speaking of ranks we will be adjusting the Prestige Rank system to have significantly more ranks, players will have their old rank automatically mapped to the new rank. With these new Ranks come new rewards, including costume versions of PVP armor sets, Planar Attunement Points, and more.

Additionally, we will be doing away with our existing PVP Souls. Moving forward we want PVP players to be able to play the soul combination they want to play and not have to worry about sacrificing soul points to obtain PVP bonuses. Instead we have taken many of the popular bonuses & abilities from these soul trees and placed them in a NEW planar attunement tree specifically focused on PVP.

Finally, we are continuing to look into a number of improvements for warfront queue’s and matchmaking which will be released in a future PTS update in the next few weeks. So keep tuned for more information!

I've long favored having the PvP trees as always-on instead of the soul that requires you to dump points from elsewhere, even before I heard of Planar Attunement. This new method sounds like just the ticket, if done properly. If not, it will be a mess.

PvP Attunement means greater versatility for everyone and a wider range of viable specs. It will make PvP a lot more interesting. It also means that getting caught in a PvE spec won't be quite so punishing as it is now.

Unfortunately, they seem to be too focused on matchmaking and on bolstering low-rank players. I think this is a mistake. While certainly no one likes being a "speed bump" for a Big Bad P8, it is a necessary part of a player's gaming development and its exactly what any game requires to build and maintain a loyal following.

I haven't discussed the Hero Factor before, and I may do that in a blog post soon, but what Trion is consistently doing in raids and now PvP is attempting to remove the disparity between the Best-of-the-Best and the Average Casual. This is a mistake. It ignores player psychology and falls firmly into the category of giving players what they ask for, instead of what they actually want (but don't know it).

Seeing the champions that killed Akylios wearing full Relic gear, or getting steamrolled by a team of badasses in full P8 gear has positive effects. It makes you aware of what your class is capable of and it makes you want to be that player, or that team, or that guild. This sends you out into the community to grow and learn as a player. It builds the community and creates a tiered system that players can climb as they wish.

Players may ask that the system be removed, but in reality, its this very system that makes the game fun. You can't be a hero if you've never had to overcome obstacles. Its not heroic to cruise to an easy victory in a raid or to grind out middling slogs in warfronts.

I hope Trion focuses more on the mechanics that make the game fun and less on making everyone the same.

RIFT 90-Day Time Card for $18

2011-12-29T12:09:00.000-06:00

http://uk.gamesplanet.com/buy-download-pc-games/Rift:-90-Day-Game-Time-Card-2785-37.html

Someone in my guild bought this and said it worked fine. It took about 24 hours for delivery. You have to buy it from the UK so you're paying in pounds sterling, but at the current exchange rate, its about $18. Not bad for 90-days. I just bought this myself.

I'm making no warranties or claims about the validity or trustworthiness of this offer, by the way. Just passing along something that was passed to me.

Infinity Shot

2011-12-19T14:57:00.002-06:00

http://forums.riftgame.com/rift-general-discussions/classes-telara/rogue-discussion/287169-idea-new-mm-buff.html#post3476349

Fun on the forums.

Return of Assassin PvP

2011-12-15T10:48:00.002-06:00

So any good dominator can trash ye olde NB/RS spec. But can they beat Sin? Turns out nope. This spec isn't quite as versatile as NB/RS but it has the advantage of being strong in the current mage-heavy metagame.

BlinkBlood
32 Sin / 18 RS / 16 NB

The main advantage to this spec is that its not really expected. With permastealth and vanish, you'll have the opener when you want it, and between Fell Blades and Leeching Poison, you get a good amount of healing. I've been experimenting using this with the Hammerknell 2-pc Assassin crystal instead of the PvP crystal and it does seem very powerful in some situations.

This spec is really a 1v1 spec and should be used for world PvP and in Warfronts like Whitefall and Codex where 1v1 and small group situations are more common. Its a lot less useful in Libarary or Scion.

Here's the builder macro I use:

#show Puncture
cast Backstab
cast Puncture
cast Dusk Strike
cast Twilight Force
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Spike

For finishers, keep Impale up and use Final Blow the rest of the time. Don't forget about Foul Play.

On a caster, usually I open with Jagged Strike, do an immediate Shadow Assault, then Foul Play, Impale, Backstab, Puncture, before they are even able to get out of Foul Play or CC me. Then I'll Shadow Stalk out of their CC and finish them with a Final Blow or use an offensive Slip Away to re-open with Assassinate to finish.

I'm still not a huge fan of the Assassin soul, but who wants to play FOTM specs all the time? A little variety never hurt anyone.

Trolling SWTOR

2011-12-14T19:37:00.001-06:00

I made this post on the SWTOR forums:

*CONFIRMED* Guaranteed Trick for Early Access

I'm not sure if this will work for everyone else but it did work for me.

Negative Ghostrider is currenty recruiting a Tank/DPS warrior for Hammerknell Fortress. Normally, we have a 2 week recruitment process, but because we have an immediate need, we can guarantee early access to our raids, beginning this week.

We could also use a rogue.

For more details please check my blog: http://dunsparrow.com

The thread got 10 replies and was deleted within 45 second. This site got 16 referrals from those forums in that time. If you don't know why I'm amused, its because they are only letting a few people into SWTOR at a time, so the vast majority of pre-orders can't play now, but they can rage on the forums. Its pretty funny, unless you care a lot about the game.

Troll on, bros.

Damnit, Now I'm Going to Have to Go Blinkblade

2011-11-29T10:12:00.001-06:00

From Ailion, the Rogue lead.

In 1.6.1, I will be adding a new ability, Planar Reversal, which will be unlocked when 14 soul points are invested into the RS soul.

This is a non purgable toggle ability and causes you to Plane Shift behind the target when using Shadow Stalk, Shadow Assault or Shadow Blitz.

Shadow Stalk, Shadow Assault and Shadow Blitz now causes you to Plane Shift towards the target by default, regardless of whether you are in Stalker Phase or Guardian Phase.

With this change, Rogues can now use targeted Plane Shift abilities without being forced into a detrimental situation.

And here I was, so happy not being forced to use some stupid blink'tard spec.

Raiding Nightblade

2011-11-27T11:42:00.001-06:00

Nightblade is back in PvE with the latest patch. Its been discussed a lot on the forums, but in case you missed it:

Raid Nightblade
49 NB / 17 Sin

The macros and rotation are all pretty standard, but there are a few things worth mentioning. Even with Fervor, you'll be energy starved if you're spamming Expose Weakness on CD, since its off the GCD. This means you should use a tablet with this spec. Any tablet will work, since they all give the same amount of energy regen. You don't need Elder (although Elder gives more strength). If you don't have a tablet, then Expose doesn't really increase your DPS much at all.

Macros

ST Macro 1

#show Puncture
cast Puncture
cast Dusk Strike
cast Twilight Force
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Chains
cast Fiery Spike
cast Expose Weakness

ST Macro 2 (use with 4 CPs)

#show Twilight Force
cast Twilight Force
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Chains
cast Fiery Spike
cast Expose Weakness

Macro 3

#show Scourge of Darkness
cast Scourge of Darkness
cast Dusk to Dawn

Synching up your SoD and DtD is very important for boosting DPS and thats the point of this macro. You want to cast Scourge on the rotation when your Nightrage falls off, and then go right into DtD to re-apply Nightrage. This way you'll never have that sad rotation where you have to use a Blazing Strike without Nightrage up.

Comments

Its still a very awkward spec to use in raids because of how stupid it is for a melee class to have to use a channeled ability to get a necessary buff. It would be much better for Nightrage to proc on Scourge of Darkness and last 35 seconds, or from Twilight Force / Dusk Strike and last 10 seconds. Whatever. The point is that Dusk to Dawn is a stupid ability for rogues to need to use in raids, and its not something that Warriors or any other Rogue spec is saddled with.

Still, the spec is probably our highest DPS at the moment (still putting us firmly behind equally geared/skilled Mages and Warriors). Rogues need a buff, but this is our best current option.

Lightning Ragnarok Shining Majesty - The Return of the King

2011-11-18T12:38:00.001-06:00

Yes, this spec still works in 1.6 and is more important than ever for surviving alone on Ember Isle, and many other things.

Lightning Ragnarok Shining Majesty
20 BD / 22 RS / 24 Sin
This build's strength lies in its versatility. Here is what I use the spec for currently:

Soloing Major Rifts
Soloing Ember Isle
Handling tomes on Matron Zamira encounter in HK (so I don't have to bring a separate Sin/NB spec)
Tanking encounters for which I'm overgeared
World PvP (unless it gets serious)

Macro

#show Precision Strike
cast Precision Strike
cast Phantom Blow
cast Puncture
cast Quick Strike
cast Keen Strike
cast Flash of Steel
cast Expose Weakness
cast Reprisal

If you're on something tough, make sure to use Guardian Phase. It reduces the damage you take but the Leaching Poison healing remains constant, so you gain survivability and still deal damage constantly with Planar Vortex. Don't skip the point in Shadow Mastery. This alone is about 10% physical damage reduction.

Nightstalker 1.6

2011-11-16T18:04:00.000-06:00

Trion thought they nerfed Nightstalker in 1.6. They thought wrong. The new Nightstalker has more survivability than ever, and only slightly reduced damage. Feel the power.

Nightstalker 1.6
38 Nightblade / 28 Riftstalker / 0 Infilitrator

This build has it all. Defensive cooldowns, offensive cooldowns. CC breaks. Solid offensive power, Fell Blades. Nom nom. From 1.5 version, you gain about 10% physical mitigation from the new Shadow Armor, Rift Prison and some other stuff. Its highly versatile. The talents on Zam don't exactly match live, but the points are in the right place.

Macro

#show Dusk Strike
cast Dusk Strike
cast Twilight Force
cast Phantom Blow
cast Fiery Chains
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Spike

Play it basically the same as originally Nightstalker. You have slightly less offensive punch, because of the changes to cooldowns, but your defenses are rock solid and mobility is even better than 1.5. Enjoy.

Hope you went Air Attunement

2011-11-16T14:56:00.001-06:00

In case you didn't notice, Tier 2 Air planar attunement lets you use a weapon buff for +30 dex to one-hander. Pretty nice for ranged. If you were smart and saved your points, congrats. I didn't. Here's the GM response to my request to have my points reset.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
On November 16, 2011 14:39:23 [Customer Service] wrote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Dunsparrow! Thank you for contacting us regarding Planar Attunement! Please note that the period during which we offered limited Attunement resets has concluded. This feature is designed to offer permanent, unique character advancement past level 50: your paths to Planar Attunement—and the benefits you unlock along the way—are shaped by the irreversible choices you make and the Planes with which you choose to align. However, we continue to read your feedback about the issue and take your suggestions into consideration when discussing the future of endgame advancement! Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any further questions or recommendations. Thanks again for your continued support of Trion Worlds and for playing RIFT. Your reference number for this question is *redacted*. Sincerely, GM Lasaira Game Master Trion Worlds Inc.

Really, a permanent choice based on incomplete information, because Trion chose to add abilities after we chose where to put our points? Great logic.

Unnecessary Rogue Nerfs Inc

2011-11-01T14:29:00.000-05:00

I saw this one coming. Trion is looking to nerf Rogues in PvP and lower our damage in PvE by nerfing the MM crystal to 30% bonus damage on electrified munitions.

We are aware that certain Nightblade related specs are creating issues in PvP. We are looking to address the issues that we perceive.

I'm not going to discuss the issues in this thread - I'm just popping in to let you know we are looking at things.

~Daglar

No, its not because rogues are overpowered, its because idiots from other classes don't know what to do with themselves when rogues are competitive DPS in PvE, and aren't free kills in PvP. So, they head to the forums and whine.

Prior to 1.5, healers could -- quite literally -- ignore rogues, keep themselves alive and heal their team. Rogues were a non-factor in PvP. Even as the old 51 MM, Improved Hit and Run only gave Rogues brief periods of time to do competitive damage. They still were no threat to high-rank healers or warriors.

Obviously, any change to rogues that takes them into the realm of playability is going to present some growing pains. Of course that P8 rogue is going to kill the P6 cleric who previously ignored him. It's obvious. The cleric is not used to rogues being a threat, and the rogue has been fighting an uphill battle for 3 months in PvP. It's like someone finally took the weights off the bat.

When that happens, some players run to the forums to cry, and some dig in and work on improving. If Trion listens to the whiners, who are complaining with obviously incomplete information about mechanics that they obviously don't understand, then nothing good will ever be accomplished.

Maybe the next time that cleric runs into the rogue, he'll be a damn sight more careful. He might even have to start using abilities and cooldowns he didn't use before or he might have to focus heals on himself instead of letting hots do all the work.

Eventually, each class will come up with new strategies to adapt to the new gamescape. I've already seen it happen with equal-rank members of every class. I've beat them, they've adapted, they've beat me, I've adapted, etc. That's why we play.

It's not supposed to be easy for you to trash an equally skilled and geared player from another class. If it is, that is a problem. Rogues were in that untenable position in 1.5. Now we're not. Its imperative that Trion gives everyone time to adjust, and not make knee-jerk changes to put rogues right back in the crapper.

I'm Back

2011-10-25T10:59:00.000-05:00

Got back from vacation and there's a lot of new changes on the PTS. For Rogues, these are tanking changes, but other classes are getting some DPS tweaks as well and mages are getting worked over quite a bit. Let's start with what will effect DPS the most, and that is the new lesser essences on PTS that will cost 150 Inscribed Sourcestones each, or 900 for 6. Yikes.

Some of these are pretty amazing, and there are basically 5 AP-based lessers that massacre anything in the game right now. This works great for Marksman, because you can keep your Ranger greater for 100 AP on Shadow Fire, which is still going to be awesome.

If you're putting together a water resist core for Inquisitor/Darktide or a PvP core, then these will be able to help you as well, but there is a hell of a lot of Inscribed needed for it. Hopefully the new Tier 2 Raid Rifts in 1.6 will offer more inscribed, and a greater challenge as well.

The Best Spec in the World

2011-10-08T02:20:00.003-05:00

In my travels across Telara and the interwebs, I have discovered many powerful secrets. Some I must keep to myself, but I at last feel free to reveal a great boon to rogues: a new spec that I have humbly dubbed...

Lightning Ragnarok Shining Majesty
22 RS / 24 Sin / 20 BD

The best part about this spec is everything. With it, I can clear all 3 Chronicles in 20 minutes (most of that waiting for boring RP sequences to finish). With it, I can solo level 50 elite Rifts. With it, I can farm planar attunement levels without ever drinking, stopping (except for scheduled breaks for food and romance), or otherwise doing things that lesser beings consider necessary to their gaming. Rift Scavenger takes care of my healing and Twin Strike takes care of the bad guys not being dead.

I have successfully tanked Tier 1 (and some T2) instances while being the #1 DPS in every fight, even in Guardian Phase. Rift Barrier sends damage back at my attackers, while Planar Vortex aggros and kills everything that is foolish enough to attack me instead of drinking cyanide. Yes, I wear super-amazing P8 and some Hammerknell tanking gear and your results may vary. Sorry if I'm too awesome for your "accurate testing." Whatever.

When some git decides they think they can gank you in the midst of killing the patrolling commander packs in Stillmoor, they find out that they are simply caught in the whirling dervish of teleporting carnage that your blades deliver. Because it lacks a healing debuff, you are susceptible to high rank chloro/lock type mages or hybrid clerics. Don't cry to me about this. It's not even a dedicated PvP spec. Just avoid them.

Macros

Name: I-WIN
#show Dunsparrow's Avatar
cast Precision Strike
cast Puncture
cast Quick Strike
cast Keen Strike
cast Reprisal

#show Shadow Blitz
cast Shadow Blitz
cast Shadow Assault
cast Shadow Stalk

However, you really won't be using these much. Mostly you just teleport into a pack of mobs (bigger the better) in Stalker Phase and massacre them with Twin Strike, using combo points to self heal and regen energy. Trion will probably nerf this because they are big jerks and hate rogues. Warriors can do 3000 DPS on Murdantix. How about you nerf them instead?

BRB soloing Regulos.

It's the Little Things

2011-10-04T10:08:00.000-05:00

I'm doing some good damage in raids with 51mm/15rang but I don't see the reason for the AOE nerf with Electrified/Silver Tip Munitions. These munitions deal good damage, but by no means was 51 MM the top AOE DPS spec. Cabs, Stormcallers, etc. still crush Rogue AOE damage.

Also, its not even possible for them to nerf Rending Munitions the same way, so they are only nerfing the munitions that scale with points in MM. I don't really get it. Also, it was clumsily implemented, with the munition only proc'ing on the target closest to you, instead of your main target, so you can't even keep stacks on your main target when AOEing. Annoying.

Cut and Shoot - PvP Spec

2011-10-01T06:00:00.002-05:00

I've found that my theorized top MM spec (51 MM and 15 Inf) didn't pan out nearly as well as I hoped. Nightstalker is doing awesome though. The problem with it is that on BG and PS, you really need a ranged DPS spec and try as I might, I can't find a bursty-enough Gunblade spec for the new patch, although some variants are decent.

Reluctantly I gave up NB for Sin and I'm relatively pleased at the results.

Cut and Shoot
44 MM / 22 Sin / 0 x
This utilized MM ranged abilities with Assassin openers. You can do enormous damage on a single target with your openers and it has a good amount of utility. You should be running Vamp and Elec munitions and Baneful Touch works great with Elec. I find rending a bit lacking.

Macros

Finisher 1
cast Expose Weakness
cast Rapid Fire Shot
cast Deadeye Shot
cast Hasted Shot

Finisher 2
cast Expose Weakness
cast Bull's Eye
cast Deadeye Shot

Gameplay

This spec has a ton of viability now. With Baneful, your munitions damage is very nice, and then adding in Cut and Run really de-emphasizes the need for Infiltrator. If you want you can run 0 Inf for a 2nd Break Free, but I prefer Side Steps or Shadow Shift, making this the first PvP spec I've ever run that doesn't have Infiltrator. You also have Foul Play if a warrior or 51sin-type closes to melee on you and if they break it, you can immediately hit them with Static Shot which is on a different DR.

I tend to open on tough targets in melee if I can, to get the Cloak and Dagger bonus. Ideally, things go thusly:

EW > Assassinate > Barbed > Swift x2 > RFS

This combo will kill the crap out of anyone 2+ ranks below you. If its a mage, I might use Paralyzing Strike instead. A good burst rotation:

Having 5 CPs > Finisher 2 Macro > Strafe > RFS

This combo frequently clears 7k damage for me with a string of crits. It does very well in the open field as well because of the crit bonuses in assassin and it isn't bogged down with stacking debuffs that 51 mm/15 inf suffers from. The problem with Silver Tip in PvP is that by the time you get the bonus up, its often time to change targets. This one frees you to choose targets of opportunity and that flexibility is very nice.

D-Day

2011-09-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

1.5 is here. I have a brief wrap up of what you can expect, what you should do and what works and doesn't in PvE and PvP. First, the obvious:

Planar Attunement

AKA "So you thought you were done leveling" this basically requires you to earn tons of experience to get marginal upgrades that are nonetheless necessary for min/maxers. I'm not thrilled with the system and before you ask, no one has seen the 2nd/3rd tiers. There are 6 elements and you have to max the first tier in an element before you can unlock the 2nd tier. My guess is the 2nd tier isn't even implemented yet. Its a very long grind.

Chronicles

You got that chronic-what? -cles of hammerknell! Hooray for 2 player instances. They're easy and although I hated the idea of them, they're actually pretty entertaining and give Attunement points, yeah! Good for running with a noob friend that you just forced to level to 50. Gogo casual content.

Sourcestones

All your Crystal Sourcestones were just converted to Inscribed. Grats. Prices were tweaked and so were rewards for Rift dailies. Experts give 6 inscribed, Raids give 10 and there's a new weekly for 25. Costs were increased as well and you can now buy gear and synergy crystals with Inscribed (60 each) which work with your Raid 1 gear.

PvE Specs

Whet your whistle, your DPS just went up. Here are the parses I made. All parses were 5 min with fervor and the same gear (no greater essences or synergy crystals) unless otherwise noted. No other buffs or stones, etc. Bear in mind that some talents have changed, but the points are in the correct location. Just waitin on Zam to update. Thanks to Geriatrix and Bloatality for theorycrafting and Woetoyou for bardbotting it up after he went to bed.

Deep Nightblade - 1550 DPS
38 NB / 18 Sin / 10 MM
This is a relatively fun spec, and the synergy crystal is pretty good for it. Run the macro and Scourge every CD. Make sure to use Dusk to Dawn right after a finisher. You need the time to regen energy while it channels.

cast Dusk Strike
cast Puncture
cast Twilight Force
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Spike

Full Marksman - 1650 DPS
51 MM / 15 Rang / 0 whatever
Finally, a viable ranged spec. The Shadow Fire greater essence (100 AP) is amazing for this and so is the synergy crystal. This is more than likely what I will be raiding as. The reason for no Head Shot is you basically have to choose between 2/2 Head Shot and 3/3 Exposure, and if you don't max Exposure, you will overwrite the warrior's armor debuff with your inferior one. With 3/3 yours is better. This also simplifies the rotation, as you no longer have to mess with Head Shots for the 5% damage. Use Bull's Eye with Deadeye Shot.

cast Empowered Shot
cast Shadow Fire
cast Crippling Shot
cast Piercing Shot
cast Quick Shot

cast Rapid Fire Shot
cast Deadeye Shot

Blinkblade - 1650 DPS
25 Sin / 21 BD / 20 RS
This is a fairly complex spec and with skill, patience and practice it may be tops. However its simply too complex to run successfully in raids, especially since I am raid leader. It likely won't be used on much progression by anyone but will top meters on Murdantix, so people will claim its good. If you're interested, check out the thread by the spec's creator.

Dundancer - 1600 DPS
26 Sab / 20 BD / 20 Sin
If you fear change, fear not. Dundancer still rocks the house and is solidly competitive. You need to make a few changes though, to grab improved blast charge. You'll also need another macro or two, since Expose Weakness is now off the GCD. Otherwise, your rotation and skills are largely unchanged. Swap in Shrapnel for AOE (and prepare to be disappointed).

cast Blast Charge
cast Expose Weakness
start attack

cast Precision Strike
cast Keen Strike
cast Expose Weakness

PvP Specs

Marksman may not prove viable in its new form, but that's not stopping me from rockin' out. We'll see how NB does too. Gunblade variants could be promising as well. Followup posts are a certainty.

Full Marksman
51 MM / 15 Inf / 0 whatever
The spec hasn't changed, but the play style has. Gone is Improved Hit and Run. We'll see how bursty the spec can be without the go-to burst ability. Damage is up overall and Silver Tip Munitions go nicely with Focused Intent. New strafe aint bad either. *Not responsible for deaths by warrior when mashing Hit and Run fails to produce results.*

Nightstalker
38 NB / 18 RS / 10 Inf
Nightblade is back. I think this spec will kick ass, but I haven't been able to test it. I also think every damn person in the universe is going to have RS in their builds. Joy.

cast Dusk Strike
cast Twilight Force
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Spike

Teleporting Sniper
38 MM / 18 RS / 10 Inf
I almost wish I was joking. This build could annoy the crap out of people, and has better survivability than 51 MM. Not sure if the burst will be there, but you have a lot of tools at your disposal. Didn't I see this in the Rogue preview for Rift like 5 months ago?

Dunsparrow Podcast is Coming

2011-09-26T07:14:00.000-05:00

Here's a little preview, for your amusement. I'll probably be doing the podcast weekly and I would like to spend at least part of the time answering your questions or responding to your comments. Leave em here if you like or tune in to the podcast. Times and dates will be announced soon!

Insightful Post By Developers

2011-09-23T01:58:00.002-05:00

The Devs did a really thorough content dump that you should take a look at if you have time. A lot of is just documenting stuff that's already been reported by players, but at the bottom, they list a lot of the rogue specs that they used for testing, and they made a huge list of specs that they believe are competitive with Sabdancer.

The Full Post by Elrar

The interesting part (dev testing specs) is at the bottom, but some of the specs are honestly pretty ludicrous and would never be competitive with any top-tier spec. However, I think the post is very informative to the devs line of thinking, and there are some specs I had not thought of, but are at least worth looking at. Here are some takeaways:

The devs key in on 51 point specs. If you notice, every souls they tested and said was competitive with Sabdancer had 51 points in at least one variation. They clearly balance around 51 point specs, and if anything significantly beats it, they look to nerf it.
The devs prefer to change damage modifiers, not mechanics. If you look at what led to the rise (and fall) of the blinkblade, it was completely due to changing damage modifiers. They solved energy starvation by increasing rogue energy regeneration across the board. They "solved" the low damage of 51 BD by increasing the BD strike damage. On the other hand, they did change mechanics in MM, but once the first pass was done, everything else was just tweaking and juggling.
The devs don't understand what makes Warriors so far superior to rogues in PvP. Like it or not, these classes are comparable, because they have largely the same function. Warrior damage, health and mitigation is so far above rogues, and so much less dependent on cooldowns and gear, that the dichotomy is almost humorous. Yet the patch does really nothing to address it. The lackluster Infiltrator soul is untouched and while warriors can't unload as many off-global abilities as before, their damage and mitigation are still tremendous.

Rogues will certainly be in better shape when 1.5 hits this Wednesday than they are now, but by no means will we be on even footing with Warriors in PvE or PvP. I'm okay with that, because it will make success all the sweeter when its not handed to me, but I'm concerned that Trion will see it as "mission accomplished." The job ain't over.

1.5 Specs to Watch For

2011-09-21T04:25:00.001-05:00

With the changes to souls still in flux and more probably still to come, a few specs are beginning to emerge.

Blinkblade
25 Sin / 21 BD / 20 Rift
This is one getting a lot of attention and it is definitely going to be one of the strongest contenders for top DPS. The talents are changing with the patch, but these are where the points will go.

This spec is strong because it takes advantage of the buffs to Stalker Phase in RS to rotate teleports and keep 25% additional damage and 15% additional crit active 100% of the time. The spec is a mess and the teleports don't fit well in any rotation, but you can't argue with results. Unfortunately, this is probably the top melee spec.

Deep Marksman
51 MM / 15 Rng
Variant 38 MM / 28 Rng
Marksman is getting a whole lot of love. With the new Silver Tip Munitions (15% extra damage), and less reliance on burst cooldowns, this spec is going to provide some extremely competitive ranged damage.

Also check out the new 4-pc synergy crystal (HK crystal has the same bonus as 2-pc)

Nightstalker
38 NB / 18 RS / 10 Inf
Variant: 44 NB / 22 RS / 0 Inf
For PvP, I'm working on some variant of NB and RS. It may or may not be what you see above, and it will likely take some warfronts to sift out what works and what doesn't. I don't think the 4th port is necessary in PvP like it is in raids.

This spec will have incredible mobility and damage output, plus the reflective shield in RS. I expect it to shred a lot of things.

More to come as D-Day approaches.

Ride the Raptor

2011-09-19T18:45:00.001-05:00

New mount in 1.5 and the way to get it. No damn Mossy Tartagon this time.

More PTS Rogue Changes

2011-09-10T20:21:00.002-05:00

This is the reason I didn't want to start speculating on builds. A new wave of changes have hit PTS and they appear to be both good and bad.

First, the bad. Rogues now get .5 crit from str and .5 crit from dex. Same for AP. This makes str and dex the same for rogues and makes a huge nerf to our crit, since we're dex-heavy. This might be a bug, but its not clear from what Trion is saying.

Apart from that, Marksman is receiving additional buffs, which should lead to significantly increased raid damage, possibly having the best single-target damage of any spec. Master Archer is scaling now to 35% increased damage with 51 points in MM, and the new 51 point talent gives a new munition for a stacking buff of 20% more damage. Not bad.

Riftstalker mitigation is getting increased with a new ability called Shadow Armor, that reduces physical damage taken by 5% +1% for every 1000 armor, up to 20%. It won't bring RS in line with warriors, but its a start.

Big one: Flash of Steel is now a root Bladedancer ability with 10 points in the tree. The 21 point talent now gives you temporary CC immunity when you use FoS.

More to come...

Crack of Dawn

2011-09-07T02:39:00.004-05:00

Finally, a silver lining in the rogue cloud. Still early yet, but keep an eye on the PTS. Rogue changes are starting to appear. Here's what they've put on the launcher for now:

General gameplay goals for the Rogue update:

* Competitive PvE Alternatives to Sabodancer, both melee and ranged.
* Competitive PvP DPS. You should fear seeing a Rogue the same way you see a Warrior. Of equal Prestige Rank, the two should be capable of providing a similar amount of PvP threat.
* Survivability improvements. Some self heal improvements and vampiric-type Healing Siphons - Abilities that reduce the healing intake capacity of one's target, with a portion of the stolen amount going to the rogue.
* Better synergies between souls
* More utility without giving up the majority of their DPS to get it, bringing them closer in line to the flexibility that other callings have.
* Large pack tanking improvements - Improvement to threat on multiple mobs
* Running capacity remains -- BUT, Double-teleport-invulnerable runner (the "bugged" one) goes away.
* Reduction in required reliance on "unfair" tactics (invuls, slips, etc) via adding true competitive power

Themes used to arrive at the goals:

* Marksman: No longer suffers an identity crisis around being the mobile-soul-that-requires-mostly-stationary-play. Pedestals are gone. Sniping remains. They get enchanted Ammo buffs (via their new "Munitions" line), and can bring one more ability into an AE rotation. New survivability as well. Better synergy.
* Ranger: Synergizes with other souls better. No longer overly dependent on Shadow Fire.
* Riftstalker: Offensively synergizes through +AP and reflect shields. Some new multi-target threat coolness here too. You should be able to take some RS without flooring your DPS, as melee souls' ability to close all currently lives in this tree.
* Saboteur: Use of bombs should not be a DPS downgrade.
* Bladedancer: Should be a viable in-your-face combat rogue.
* Nightblade: Some more survivability, without having to rely on pure immunities.
* Assassin: More up front damage, less reliance on super-long, annoying DoTs. Better poisons. Less "waste a finisher to apply a short buff." Slip away should not be a requirement to compete. Slip away will be receiving changes in a future update as well.
* Bard: A little more low level survivability - More of a reason to take this as a 3rd solo soul if you're inclined to get some more survivability back.

This thread lists many of the changes in detail (posted at the start and throughout the thread), but no notes have been posted yet. I've looked and all the changes on the first 10 pages are accurate as of tonight.

Some highlights:

Marksman - New "Munition" weapon enchantments that give extra damage or healing debuffs (pedestals removed) and now synergizes with non-ranged souls.
Ranger - Shadowfire: now buffs all ranged weapon damage and scales with points spent in ranger.
Bladedancer - Contra Tempo: Now gives a 25/50% chance for Quick and Precision to add an additional Combo point (just as I wished for??)
Nightblade - Enkindle: Increases AP contribution of fire abilities by 10/20/30% (and Primal Strike is now Death damage!)
Assassin - Backstab: AP contribution increased to 150% (the highest of any CP builder)
Riftstalker - Annihilate: Now increases AP by 20% (instead of a fixed amount).
Saboteur - Improved damage/scaling of bombs. Doesn't mesh with Sabdancer at all. Not sure what they were thinking here because the soul is still worthless without Deadly Dance.

Still missing?

Anything to address Riftstalker's horrible tanking situation. If you're planning to tank HK as a rogue, cross your fingers that more changes to this soul are in the pipe.
Anything to address the CP builder AP contribution disparity. NB builders still get 50% AP contribution, while BD gets 100% and Sin gets 100-150%.

More to come...

Rogue Vision

2011-09-02T16:59:00.004-05:00

Today Begins the Rogue's Darkest Hour

2011-09-01T10:44:00.006-05:00

http://forums.riftgame.com/official-rift-news/news-announcements/250095-valor-updates-vengeance-arrive-tomorrow-9-1-a.html

This patch is now live. Here's what you have to look forward to upon logging in.

Old Words of War - 20 Endurance + 16 AP + 250 AP on use

New Words of War - 20 Endurance + 60 AP/Vengeance on use

Old P7 Synergy Crystal - 500 HP + 200 AP

New P7 Synergy Crystal - 500 HP + 75 AP/Vengeance

If you haven't heard of Vengeance, its a new stat. Essentially, its Attack Power that only works in PvP.

If you're like me and did the grind in Codex and to P8 so you could have the best gear possible for PvE, you just lost 141 AP in a single, shining moment. Really, its more than that, because you won't have the use function of Words of War anymore. The trinket is now garbage for PvE and basically anything else is better.

The Cold Heart (final boss of DH) remains best in slot, but now there is nothing else even close. Start running DH and hope your luck is running hot.

Top 5 Trinkets, ranked:

Its hard to say if the P8 gear will remain BiS until HK. At the very least, you will be more inclined to break the set earlier in HK, so having the Raid 1 pieces to use when that happens will be important.

I parsed 2049 DPS on Murdantix this week, using Dundancer. We'll see next week how much these nerfs have hurt.

Lurching Into the Darkness

2011-08-31T00:51:00.002-05:00

If you haven't seen the "improvements" to PvP, brace yourselves.

http://forums.riftgame.com/official-rift-news/news-announcements/249546-pvp-gear-improvements-now-touch-vengeance.html

Trion has obviously never heard of incremental change. Hope you didn't grind to P8 yet.

Finally

2011-08-28T14:51:00.003-05:00

Now to start on my warrior, the real PvP calling. :/

Zee whetstones do nothing!

2011-08-27T01:03:00.017-05:00

Well, its finally confirmed. Whetstones are bugged and have no effect. I thought I was just going crazy. A Trion poster confirms, its not just your imagination.

Atrius
We are currently looking into what is causing this, and as soon as we find the culprit it will be dealt with. Thank you all.

How comforting. Save your stones gents.

Dundancer - Sabdancer Refined

2011-08-24T10:47:00.003-05:00

I've been working on squeezing as much DPS as possible from the general Sabdancer spec, and I've come up with a Puncture-less spec that has been giving me slightly better results on both single and multi-targets. I have humbly interjected my own name into the spec:

Dundancer - 26 Sab / 20 Sin / 20 BD

The only real change in this from the standard Sabdancer, is that you don't get puncture, and instead get another point in Ambidextrous for 3% more dex. The real refinement is in the rotation:

Spike x4 > Keen > Deadly > Precision > Spike > Detonate

Shrapnel x5 > Detonate

What this does is allow you to use the "extra" Deadly Dance charge in the standard Sabdancer rotation to power a Precision Strike. This offers superior single target damage compared with standard Sabdancer, both by utilizing this strike and by no longer needing to take Puncture, to get more dex.

For AOE situations, such as Zilas and Matron, you can still just drop Precision from your rotation to maximize AOE damage.

This isn't going to move you from #7 to #1 on the damage meters, but it should help you eek out an additional few percentage points of damage. With HK's tight tuning, this can mean the difference between victory and a 1% wipe. Hope it helps!

Our Rogue Tank Finally Quit the Game

2011-08-19T11:15:00.002-05:00

I usually keep this blog focused on rogue PvP and DPS, but as I spend a good amount of time tanking, I wanted to chat briefly about Rogue Tanking.

Anyone who has played Riftstalker for any length of time knows the severe limitations it has compared to the shield-tanks. Without blocks or any self/reactive heals, rogues are not able to mitigate/offset the damage of multiple mobs nearly as well.

Many rogues consider this a tradeoff as the difference is not as noticeable on single targets, like raid bosses, and Riftstalkers have increased mobility and magic mitigation compared to warriors and clerics.

However, as the bosses have scaled higher in physical damage output, we quickly saw the inferiority of the rogue tank. Rogues in Hammerknell take approximately twice as much physical damage as a similarly geared warrior or cleric. They tend to have more health, so they can survive these hits, but they quickly become a mana sponge for healers that makes them by far the most difficult tank class to keep alive in all those physical HK boss fights.

Our Riftstalker had been our MT from the beginning of GSB, through RoS and all those T2s and 10-mans in between. He was our raid leader, friend and stalwart shield and he never wanted to be anything other than a tank. As we moved into HK and he could see that his class was a liability, it had a negative effect on our raids and progression and was no doubt the reason he quit the game.

I'm sorry to lose a friend, but glad we're no longer being held back by our full-T3 best-in-slot everything Riftstalker tank that spent so much of his time getting geared for HK only to have his efforts overshadowed by T2 warriors with much better mitigation.

Our guild now uses 2-3 Warrior tanks, depending on the boss fight and I step in to tank a couple magic-damage fights in RoS. It's good for progression, but not so good for the game, if Trion really wants to keep all tanks roughly equal. Riftstalker is largely dead.

Rogue - The Lite Warrior

2011-08-14T17:48:00.002-05:00

You know, I was thinking the other day as a warrior was killing me from 100% to 0% during a Titan Strike stun that Rogues don't have a lot to offer in PvP that isn't done better by another class.

For single target damage, we are outpaced by warriors, and warriors have much greater survivability. For AOE damage, all the other classes outpace us completely. Warriors can even apply an incurable AOE healing debuff.

When it comes to healing, bards are light years behind chloro/lock or almost any healing-type cleric.

In fact, the only areas where rogue has an advantage are speed with the flag runner specs, and Eradicate, which is the best offensive dispel in the game.

Nightblade used to be an exception to this rule, but the other classes are so far outpacing NB damage now that it feels like your spitting into the wind.

Just some thoughts. Anyone have a PvP spec or style that doesn't feel like you're a massive underdog? Let me know!

Rock, Paper, Nightblade, Marksman

2011-08-09T08:44:00.002-05:00

With the changes to Nightblade in 1.4, many players are coming into the NB fold from other specs. Since this spec was already on the ascendancy due to its burst cooldown and defenses, NB is definitely the most common spec to see a rogue in WFs at this point.

However, the new buffs to NB are weighed down by the nerf it received through the changes to Anathema. No more 75% reduction in healing. Since Anathema + Fell Blades was really required to kill healers most of the time, NB really lost its edge in a key area, although all-around it is still very strong.

With the predominance of the spec but the loss of surefire healer killing, I have decided to venture into the Marksman tree. MM is very powerful and while I rarely had Marksman rogues kill me as NB, it always felt vulnerable to them. And vulnerable it is. Here is my group PvP and NB-slaying spec I've embraced after various MM build tests:

51 MM / 15 Inf / 0 Sab

While many MM like to go 38 + x and spend points in Ranger or Assassin, I feel the final 13 points in MM are just too good to make up anywhere else. Adding Retreat, Eradicate and Sniper Pedestal is well worth the additional points.

Key abilities: Swift Shot, Barbed Shot, Rapid Fire Shot, Empowered Shot, Deadeye Shot

Macros

#show Improved Hit and Run

cast Improved Hit and Run

cast Empowered Shot

use Words of War

#show Deadeye Shot

cast Deadeye Shot

cast Bull's Eye

Playstyle

Like Nightblade, Marksman is cooldown-dependent to a degree. However, the major MM cooldown, Improved Hit and Run has a shorter cooldown (86 seconds) and adds an incredible amount of damage, especially if you remember to put down Sniper Pedestal (naysayers be damned, its awesome).

MM is very powerful in group situations with its ability to assist melee and add huge amounts of damage, or pick off wounded targets without putting you at great risk. The biggest downside is that it is very squishy, so you need to rely on your speed and maneuverability to stay out of trouble. If you get pinned down, you're done.

This spec massacres Nightblades. Eradicate will remove nearly any cooldown they pop (Ebon Fury, Nightrage, Blackout, Twilight Shelter, etc.). Without Ebon Fury, a NB has no chance of killing you, as you can keep him at range all day. If needed, Cleanse Soul can get you out of a sticky situation, as 90% of NB damage is magic, but you really shouldn't need it. A NB can protect another buff for 6-9 seconds by popping Cleanse Soul or Twilight Transcendence himself, which makes him immune to eradicate, but this is fairly uncommon and with Getaway, you should be able to still get to range and remove his CD as soon as this ends. Plus, you just made him waste 3-4 cooldowns and not even survive.

I'm not giving up on Nightblade. I still love the soul and the play style. I am currently toying with a spec that abandons all reason and drops Infiltrator entirely, but its not ready for prime time yet (if ever). For now, I think the sustained damage of NB is not quite there, and its damage is too easily mitigated by kiting.

I still have Gunblade, but the current metagame makes killing Nightblades a priority and this spec does that just fine. There are a few Gunblade variants that are now more viable since the patch, including a MM-heavy Gunblade. I think the synergy between NB and MM still exists and that you can weight these 2 souls to your liking. I'll post a few of them soon.

Oh, and Deadeye crits for 2000 on 900 valor targets. Weee.

Not Rift-related but I can't NOT post this headline

2011-08-08T00:03:00.001-05:00

German throws puppy at Hells Angels bikers then flees on stolen bulldozer

1.4 Nightblade PvP Specs

2011-08-03T03:27:00.000-05:00

Looks like 1.4 is tomorrow which means new raid-quality crafted items, new Unseen PvP quests and items (including PvP Rifts) and a new 10-man instance - Drowned Halls. We cleared this instance on the test shard and I'll post those videos up later today. I'll also be posting my new Nightblade PvE spec in a bit. I doubt it will beat Sabdancer, but it will be fun and interesting to play NB in raids for a change. I'll be giving it a shot.

With Fell Blades and Anathema no longer stacking, a few things will shift with rogue PvP specs. My only new spec is a variation of Gunblade that is more defensive, if you're lower rank or feel a bit too squishy in standard Gunblade spec. I'm not sure which I'll use yet.

Gunblade 2.0

Because Anathema no longer stacks with Fell Blades, this spec drops 5 points from Infiltrator to pick up Blackout in Nightblade. You lose a bit of damage from Focused Intent and Murderous Thoughts, but make up for it with defense:

Gunblade 2.0: 44 NB / 10 Inf / 12 MM

Original Gunblade will still be viable as well. Either way, you probably don't want to use Hasted Shot anymore, because you'll be better off waiting to get in range to Flame Thrust with the Nightrage buff.

Living Flame

This spec will remain relatively unchanged. While Anathema no longer stacks with Fell Blades (and is inferior to Fell), it will still be worth getting 15 Inf, because you need at least 10 for Cleanse Soul and there is really nothing else you would get with 5 points.

This leaves you with the standard Living Flame spec: 51 NB / 15 Inf / 0 BD.

Since I haven't gone over macros and play with this spec, I'll go over it here. Although most things are the same as with the Deep Nightblade spec.

Macros

#show Dusk Strike
cast Dusk Strike
cast Primal Strike
cast Fiery Spike

#show Twilight Force
cast Twilight Force
cast Fiery Spike

#show Scourge of Darkness
cast Scourge of Darkness
cast Blazing Strike
cast Flame Thrust

Gameplay

Unlike the Deep Nightblade spec, this spec relies heavily on being in melee range. You can do reasonable damage at medium range but your damage output is much lower than melee. This spec has a wide array of defensive and offensive cooldowns.

Offensive CDs

Living Flame
The namesake of the spec is also a great ability. This creates a physical damage AOE around you that pulses for about 400 per tick for 5 seconds. Its not channeled so you can continue doing your DPS rotation, which is what makes this spell worth getting.

Ebon Fury
Know it, use it, love. This is your greatest damage CD and allows you to spam Dusk Strike and Twilight Force, so it allows you to deal good damage even at range if needed.

Dusk to Dawn
It's barely a cooldown, but with the new Nightrage buff it grants, you'll want to pop this puppy ASAP when its off cooldown. Nightrage gives your Blazing Strikes and Flame Thrusts an additional 40% damage. Should be badass, but its purgable so its not reliable against dispel classes.

Defensive CDs

Twilight Shelter
Reduces incoming damage by 80% and outgoing by 40%. You generally want to use this one against assassins to deal with their dots while you kill them. Also useful to time with a mage popping their own damage shield.

Blackout
This one is awesome against any non-dispel class, though marginal against Assassin. Best used against warriors and Marksman who pop Hit n' Run (cover it with Cleanse Soul).

Twilight Transcendence
Makes you immune to all damage for 3 seconds. Also removes magic-based stuns/cc. I tend to use this right when an Assassin jumps me to prevent him from applying Impale. I also use it against casters if I get a huge number of debuffs.

Cleanse Soul
Makes you immune to magic for 6 seconds. Its awesome against Duracell-type clerics and any mage. Also very good when fighting another Nightblade.

Sidesteps
Most useful against any other rogue. I generally pop this any time a rogue opens on me, if its up.

This spec is vulnerable against talented Marksman (not many of those) because of their long range and dispels, and against Riftblade warriors. Anyone with a mana bar is a target.

Crafted Items 1.4

2011-08-03T03:15:00.003-05:00

Hammerknell - Usual Suspects vs. Matron Zamira

2011-08-01T05:26:00.001-05:00

Hammerknell - First Thoughts

2011-07-29T13:31:00.004-05:00

As Usual Suspects moves into Hammerknell, I've been very impressed by the complexity and difficulty of the instance so far. It's also very cool looking. There is a lot for rogues to do in this instance, but so far, one thing is clear: Sabdancer is king.

Murdantix is going to be the new benchmark for raid DPS in Raid Tier 2, just as Plutonus was in Raid Tier 1. It's a single target fight with good uptime on the boss and not too many secondary mechanics to worry about. It looks like 2.2k DPS is the highest benchmark being floated about.

Matron Zamira is a fun and challenging encounter that basically requires Saboteurs for AOE and has a few mixed mechanics as well. We were able to get Shard First on this encounter and if you see "skull" talk on the forums, you know what its about. I don't anticipate the fight will be much more difficult next week.

We haven't done any of the other bosses, but judging from videos and discussions, there is a wide array of mechanics and strategies that should keep us busy for a long time. However, if you're a rogue DPS, it really looks like Sabdancer is the only spec you need.

Oh, and a little humor.

Hammerknell Today

2011-07-27T02:18:00.004-05:00

From the rift forums:

I understand everybody's disappointment that we're not allowed to reveal the date of HK's release. I will say that we've had a very solid release date for many months and that we plan on meeting that date.

As a reward for your patience... here's an image from one of our dungeon team white boards.

So it seems like HK is today.

1.4 PvP New Items

2011-07-24T01:40:00.007-05:00

As you can see, the PvP synergy crystal will add 125 AP at Rank 5. This makes the 4-piece PvP gear best in slot for raiding until Hammerknell 2-piece.

Good amount of favor/prestige for closing PvP rifts.

1.4 - The NEW Best Rogue Spec Will Be...

2011-07-23T11:03:00.005-05:00

...Still Sabdancer.

Yes we have some new changes to potential viable specs and they are all nerfs to prospective "sab-beater" specs.

Currently fast weapons are better than slow weapons, because whetstones add a flat amount of damage, so daggers get a much larger boost than, say, maces. Also, Spotter's Order benefits fast attacks and pet classes for basically the same reason - it adds a flat amount of damage to each attack, so the more attacks you have, the more DPS you will do. This all changes, come 1.4:

So with the new Spotter's Order, it will add a fixed amount of damage every 3 seconds, meaning it will be about 170 DPS for everyone in the raid, regardless of their spec.

With some specs, this will mean as much as a 300 DPS nerf, just from this change alone, but Sabdancer will not be greatly affected.

Combine this with the new whetstones now adding DPS to the weapons instead of a flat amount of damage, and daggers will not be any better than axes or maces.

Incidentally, the new Oilstone means that two-handers will be good for warriors once again. It's too early to tell if anything will beat paragon, but at least 2h specs won't be far behind.

The specs that will be greatly nerfed by these changes will be the Hoko Spec (because pets won't proc Spotter's) and the raiding bleed spec (Because Spotter's can only proc every 3 seconds).

For now, this will leave Sabdancer as the king of DPS mountain.

Also, if you're like me, you probably already use multiple pieces of PvP gear while raiding. Next patch, this will pay off big time, as the new PvP synergy crystals for rogue will add a nice smattering of attack power:

Rogue PvP Synergy Crystal

2-piece: +500 Health

4-piece: +200 Attack Power

This bonus is for Rank 7/8 gear, so we'll get a bit less, based on our current rank, but this will still put 4-piece PvP gear as best-in-slot until we start getting PvE synergy crystals out of HK. Glad I wasted all my DKP on stupid tanking weapons!

While this AP-boost will be nice, eventually we'll still want to use PvE synergy crystals in PvE and PvP. I'll take 30% increased Blazing Strike and 7 extra stacks of Scourge of Darkness over 200 AP any day.

Oh Trion, why can't you balance anything properly.

You mad bro?

2011-07-21T23:09:00.006-05:00

From my youtube video comments:

Don't wait 48 hours bro. Act now!

Crit Cap in 1.4

2011-07-17T11:01:00.004-05:00

From the Rift forums, some rogues have been doing some good investigations on the new crit cap and I want to summarize the situation here. According to Trion, the "soft" crit cap is 45% crit. This includes any stat increase buffs, but not any % increase buffs/talents.

What this means is that anything that increases your stats (Fanfare of Power, Powersurge Vial, Vitality of Stone, Ambidextrous, etc.) pushes you toward the soft crit cap of 45%.

Anything that increases your crit percentage by a fixed amount (Ruthlessness, Eagle Eye, Motif of Focus, etc) does not count toward the crit cap.

This means that the soft crit cap is actually a crit rating cap. The crit rating to reach the cap is currently 1187 crit. This is easily reachable in Raid gear if you're using a crit sourcestone and if you are heading into HK, its a virtual certainty you'll be reaching it.

What happens after the crit cap? Normally, its 26 crit rating for 1% crit. After the crit soft cap is reached, its 132 crit rating for 1% crit. That is a 5x increase in rating to get the same 1% crit. This means you want to avoid at all costs going over the crit soft cap.

The best way to avoid this is to swap out all your crit essences for AP essences. Here are the top 7 AP essences that every rogue should be using once they start approaching 1100 crit rating fully raid buffed (and where to get them):

Flowing River - 20 Inscribed Sourcestones (Mercurial Savants)
Woodland Hunt - 20 Inscribed Sourcestones (Students of the Vale)
Rushing River - 20 Inscribed Sourcestones (Mercurial Savants)
Grave Rites - 20 Inscribed Sourcestones (Grim Disciples)
Necrotic Rites - 20 Inscribed Sourcestones (Grim Disciples)
Shade Slice - Drop from Death Raid Rift
Final Cut - Drop from Death Raid Rift

As you can see, your main goal should be to amass Inscribed Sourcestones, and if you run any extra rifts, they should be death, for a chance at Shade Slice or Final Cut. Good hunting!

1.4 PvP - Additional Thoughts

2011-07-15T23:38:00.011-05:00

So 6 months after Rift is released, someone at Trion finally observes "Hey clerics might be healing too much" Hurrr.

As a result, Cleric instant/reactive heals are getting shitcanned. Finally. I think the way they are doing it is stupid, though. Heals will be normal until the player enters PvP, then many of his heals are nerfed.

Clerics in PvP

All instant and reactive heals reduced in PvP only.
Barb of Shackles (Templar) removed. Replaced with...
Nysyr's Brand (1o point Templar root). Increases target's chance to be crit and prevents stealth for 30 seconds. Eat shit Assassins. Blahaha.

Seriously, it does seem strange to single out stealthers in this way, but whatever. Anway, the healing nerf is stupid for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that new players won't understand why their heals start to suck when another player attacks them. It will amount to a Fell Blades-style debuff for all classes in PvP. Kinda... clumsy.

I also don't think that Healing clerics need this much of a nerf. It's pretty OP for hybrids to heal out the wazzoo, but pure healers should be able to have a few instants at their disposal, especially self-heals. I think this patch goes too far.

Also Dominators are finally getting a good old fashioned nerfing. They were way overpowered, as I mentioned weeks ago.

Dominators

Split Personality damaged reduced
All energy/power drains reduced by about 50%
Transference no longer completely prevents energy/power regen

Dominators will still be good, but you might actually see a mage or two with a different spec. Gasp. Drama.

If you want to see my thoughts on the viability of rogue builds in 1.4 and the general outlook for rogues, check my post from a couple days ago.

Other PvP Changes

2011-07-13T16:44:00.002-05:00

http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?225785-PVP-1.4-Discussion

Got plenty to say on this, but its a lot to sift through. For now digest the pvp spec analysis below.

1.4 PvP Nonsense

2011-07-13T16:13:00.006-05:00

1.4 Notes: http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?225786-Rogue-1.4-Discussion

Seems like Trion is faltering once again on the PvP front. I hope you like Assassins, because that's all you will see.

Highlights:

Assassin

51 Assassin/15 Inf will be getting a massive buff in PvP. I hate Assassin, because its impossible to be extremely good at it, like you can with NB. The worst Assassin is decent, and the best Assassin is pretty good. Here are the relevant bits:

Impale now increases Final Blow by 30% instead of 8%. This amounts to a 20% increase in an already hard-hitting ability.
Anathema now works exactly like Fell Blades. Because Assassins did not get Fell Blades, this amounts to a huge buff to Assassin, as they now get a much-improved healing debuff with the same cookie-cutter spec.

Assassins are going to seriously destroy anyone.

Nightblade

Nightblade is getting a mixed bag. While the Anathema change is (apparently) a direct nerf to Nightblade, it is getting a bone tossed its way that could even make it raid viable... maybe. Deets:

Dusk to Dawn - that pesky problem where it didn't work if the target was immune to snare is now fixed.
Nightrage - When you use Dusk to Dawn you get a 1m buff called Nightrage, which increases your Blazing Strike and Flame Thrust damage by 40%. Bear in mind that Blazing Strike already gets 30% extra damage when a target is below 30% and the new set bonus gives it another 30% all the time. Get ready to one-shot everyone for 2 days until they nerf it. Except Assassins, who will kill you in stunlock.
Fell Blades - It appears that this ability will now be redundant with Anathema. If so, you won't use it anymore, since Anathema can't be dispelled. You would instead just use Molten Blades, I guess. This means that healers will be significantly more effective against you, which won't be a big deal until they nerf Nightrage and you can't one-shot them anymore.

The reason I say "apparently" when talking about Fell Blades/Anathema redundancy is that I have a sneaking suspicion that a big change is coming to Fell Blades. If you look at the post, Fell Blades is not mentioned as a redundant debuff, but debuffs from other classes with identical functionality are mentioned. This is a strange word choice, seeing as its the rogue thread.

This leads me to believe that Fell Blades may get reworked into something different (like a power drain or something) or removed entirely and replaced with a new ability. I'd settle for an immunity to power drains.

There's also the outside chance that Fell Blades will stack with Anathema for 100% reduction. If so, that will be nasty, but like Nightrage, it will be nerfed. I don't think anyone wants a complete healing shutoff.

Marksman

Who cares, bunnyhopping suckbags. But seriously, nothing is changed.

Other PvP Specs

Do not exist.

Why I Love the Water Raid Rift Daily

2011-07-13T15:49:00.000-05:00

PvP Bugs

2011-07-11T04:55:00.001-05:00

Still quite a few PvP bugs floating around that need fixing

Any stun/disable effect will interrupt someone trying to capture a flag, even if they are immune to the effect. This is especially annoying with rogue Lost Hope as they can spam it at range from stealth indefinitely in a place like Vault.
Similarly, clerics can cast Circle of Oblivion on the flag while being out of line of sight. This likewise needs a fix.
Dominator Split Personality scales far, far too well with gear. The dominator soul is extremely powerful, with the ability to crush and/or disable entire groups on their own. The extra damage from the Split Personalities is much too high. In 750 valor, these pets crit me for upwards of 700 damage each.

I post about these bugs because Trion has a propensity to ignore bug reports until they reach some kind of critical mass. Just like the old bunnyhopping bug, the more people that are aware of the bug, the more likely it is to be fixed.

I'm really tired of rogues sitting in stealth and chain sapping at vault.

[VIDEO] A Nightblade for All Seasons

2011-07-09T18:53:00.001-05:00

Rogue T3 Synergy Crystals Revealed - Sorta

2011-07-07T15:31:00.005-05:00

From Riftjunkies.

These crystals look fairly amazing overall for those of us who enjoy melee rogue. Obviously some things are unfinished or bugged, as they show a bonus of +0 but we can still extrapolate some data.

A poster on the forum said he tested and the MM bonus is 10% energy reduction and the BD bonus is 1% per stack up to 20 stacks, and it self-refreshes.

This makes the BD crystal the best one by far, especially considering every raiding spec right now uses BD. The 4 piece bonus is junk, but thats fine.

The Nightblade crystal will be extremely awesome for PvP. I'm not sure if their will be a way to get multiple synergy crystals, but if so, running 4 piece R2 in PvP as Nightblade will rock, with 30% bigger Blazing Strikes and 15 stacks of Scourge of Darkness. Pretty awesome right there.

The Saboteur 4 piece bonus looks very good as well, but unless they nerf Sabdancer, the BD crystal will be better. I'm not sure why Trion keeps putting Frag bomb bonuses on Sab things. Frag bomb is garbage for everything. Very strange.

Guide: Fresh 50 to Raid Ready in 2 Days

2011-07-07T05:42:00.005-05:00

I've received a surprising number of people asking me about specs and one thing that seems to come up in conversations is some variation of "whats the best way to get ready for raiding?" I decided to address that here. Behold: everything you need to know about getting ready to raid.

Goals

100 Hit for T2s
All T1 blue or better gear
200-220 Hit for Raids
Weaponating your Weapon slots

44-49

In this level range, you need to spend 100% of your time in instances or in the following 3 zones doing quests: Ironpine Peak, Shimmersand, Stillmoor. The reason is simple: you need the reputations from the major factions in these zones for important items that will help you not be a 300 dps charity case when you get into T2s or Greenscale. Once you're 48, the only instances you should be running are Charmer's Caldera or Abyssal Precipice.

Day 1: Ding 50!

Grats! Now shut the hell up. We have to work to do.

Buy at Wyrmbane Spire (requires Decorated with Dragonslayers): Drake Scale Choker for +26 hit
Run Chamer's Caldera (CC) at least once (preferably before 50) to complete the quest and get: Wind-Touched Mace for +26 hit
Buy at Zareph's Return (requires Decorated with Mathos): Sapphire Studded Mathosian Band x2 for total of +40 hit
Crafted: Spined Compound Bow with augment. +30 hit
Crafted: Wayward Breeches with augment. This is equivalent to T2 leg.
Get your 6-slot Sigil/Core and throw some cheap level 40+ lessers in there with dex/crit. Get as many Agile Reflex as you can afford, and fill the rest with whatever is on the AH. Put lessers in your greater slots. Greaters are bad.
OPTIONAL Crafted: Sword of the Order or Callous Blade. +25 hit. Only do this if your weapon is particularly bad.

If you're not decorated with Mathos and Dragonslayer yet, get there. Its very easy. In the rest of the slots your questing/leveling items will suffice. You now have over 100 hit and are set for Tier 2 dungeons. Do not spend time in Tier 1s unless you just want the experience.

Runes

Now that you have some shiny (and some not-so-shiny) gear. What runes to use? Eventually, you'll want to be using the Mathos, Icewatch and Dragonslayer runes for your Belt, Helm and Legs, but you're probably not there yet. Runecrafters can get you started and the vendors in the zones you leveled through can fill in the gaps:

Helm

Get the Radiant Accurate Rune or Luminous Accurate Rune if you're not hit capped. If you are hit capped, grab Icewatch Bandit's Rune if you have the notoriety, otherwise the Redscar Strider's Emblem from Perspice.

Shoulder/Chest

Blazing Deft Rune or Radiant Deft Rune.

Gloves

Use the Blazing Steadfast Rune.

Belt

Get the Mathosian Pugilist's Rune if you have the notoriety, otherwise the Runeguard Battlemaster's Emblem.

Legs

Get the Radiant Accurate Rune or Luminous Accurate Rune if you're not hit capped. If you are hit capped, grab the Crafty Dragonslayer's Rune if you have the notoriety. Otherwise, get the Arcane Sneak's Rune from Lantern Hook.

All Weapons

Get the Blazing Dexterity Runeshard.

Day 2: Tier 2s

If you are LFG for T2, you stand the best chance of finding one if you can queue as both DPS and support. You should have at least 2 roles.

Your DPS role should be ranged saboteur. This will allow you to crush the DPS meters while having maximum awareness to not stand in fire and do other stupid crap that will make people hate you. The rotation is 5x Shrapnel > Detonate, 5x Spike > Detonate. Cake.
Your support role should be raid bard. Focus on learning to be a good bard, keeping Motifs active, group healing, timing cooldowns and not dying.

You may have different ideas about these specs. You might think you know better or you might have a pet spec that you used while leveling. Maybe you really are smarter than everyone else, but I encourage you to learn to use the cookie cutter specs first and then once you have the basics down, you can use them as a baseline to compare with whatever you want to try. You will find that the cookie cutter specs are there for a reason: they are best in the vast majority of situations.

Which T2s to run?

As a DPS rogue, your weapons are of paramount importance. Expert Runic Descent should be your #1 priority and I encourage you to queue for that first before using the random queue function. RDx has the Eyemangler and Blackheart Blade for weapons, the trash drop Rune-Carved Bow (best for a long time) along with the Cover of Night, Loop of the Dangerous, Shard of Planes, and several excellent blue items. Its a rogue item bonanza.

There are great upgrades in every T2, and eventually you'll want to run them all many times. Your best items will come from RDx and DSMx.

Once you run 2-3 T2s, you should have the hit required for Greenscale/RoS.

Day 3: Ready to Raid

Your target hit is 220. On the off chance that your T2 runs didn't put you over the 200 hit soft cap, craft Mask of the Hunter for +20 more hit. You can then stick this in the wardrobe slot when you find an upgrade.

Before you march off into Greenscale and RoS, make sure you are doing the Daily Raid Rift each day. The quest is available in your faction's capital city and doing this will get you 7 Inscribed Stones, and a chance at some nice items each day. Every 3 days of doing the Daily RR will allow you to purchase one epic lesser essence and start tricking out that source core and replacing those blue/green essences. Nice!

Good luck in your raid career!

There are no stupid questions. Except this one.

2011-07-05T06:54:00.004-05:00

From the Rift forums, we get this genius.

Since the patch I seem to be having a problem with intermittent pulls when prestacking my 5 bombs prior to pull.

I'm using the 44/20/2 sabo/assasin/ranger build and I have made two macros to use specifically to load bombs pre pull that I "thought" were supposed to force melee auto-attack mode and make sure that ranged auto attack did not kick in. Macros are:

/cast Spike Charge
startattack

and

/cast Shrapnel Charge
startattack

but it seems like every now and again when I'm stacking bombs or even when I just click on the boss I seem to pull.

Never noticed this pre-patch, and I've never "seen" an arrow from me, but others say they have, and its clear i'm occassionaly pulling somehow. Others having isssues or am I just special.

To summarize his problem: he is targeting the boss and attacking, and can't figure out why the boss is getting pulled.

Target Analysis: Cleric

2011-07-03T23:09:00.012-05:00

When PvP'ing, its often difficult to tell what class you're facing, much less what souls he is using. This makes it difficult to know your enemy, so what's a rogue to do? Continue reading.

Melee Clerics

These guys come in 2 flavors: Shaman and Druid. Both rely on melee weapon attacks to deal primary damage, so avoiding melee range can significantly reduce your incoming damage. Shaman-Druid is a common PvP spec, and in this spec, kiting and/or healing debuffs are your best friends.

Shamans

Easily identifiable by the snowflake buff, or if they charge you, Shamans deal combination melee and magical damage. Of their damage, the magic damage is more "bursty" so preventing it with Cleanse Soul is extremely helpful. Avoiding melee damage can be a big help as well, especially when they use Faceroll of the North. Shamans have self-heals and shields so healing debuffs and/or Eradicate can help quite a bit.

Druids

If they have a Satyr demon pet, they're a druid. Druids also do combination melee and magical damage, and their pet is full-on melee and does solid damage. Because druids are so often paired with Shaman, and because, like Shaman, druids primarily rely on weapon strikes to deal damage, moves like Side Steps are extremely effective against druids. Druids also have self-heals and shields.

Caster Clerics

Caster Clerics come in 3 flavors: Inquisitor, Cabalist and Cherry. These Clerics deal heavy magic damage, and thus having Cleanse Soul or some other form of magic avoidance is crucial to surviving. Like all clerics, expect some self-healing even if they are full-out DPS oriented.

Inquisitor

This is an extremely popular choice because of the high damage, versatility and AOE. You can identify them through the shield buff and when you see it, expect bursty-magic damage. Most of them mindlessly try to cast AOE Soul Drain or Circle of Oblivion in groups of your teammates. If you're ranged, go ahead and kill them, otherwise don't eat the damage. These guys spam the high-damage instant Sanction Heretic, which is the biggest thing you have to worry about. Cleanse Soul is vital.

Cabalist

This rare animal is not spotted much on the PvP battlefield because it sucks, except as a support soul. If left alone they can deal heavy burst magic damage, so if you see one of these, just go fucking kill it.

Healing Clerics

Warden

Wardens are really the only healing soul that is a major threat. With their major hots and reactive healing from orbs, they are a big pain in the ass. Typical they will be difficult to kill, and so should be saved until last, as their healing output is not as high as other healer souls against focus fire.

Not Warden

Purifiers and Sentinels are much easier to kill than Wardens, and are also much better healers. As a result, Purifiers and Sentinels should be priority targets in an engagement, which an emphasis on interrupting their castable heals and Eradicating if you have it to remove shields. If warden is also sentinel, they will have less damage reduction abilities and should be treated like a non-Warden. Just kill them.

Support Souls

Justicar

This is easily identifiable and immediately tells you that the cleric is spec'd into passive-healing and damage reduction. You most often see this paired with Warden and Inquisitor but it can be done with anything. Anyone sporting the Justicar soul will be harder to kill but also deal less damage or do less healing.

Templar

Templars are hard to quickly identify because they don't have any tell-tale buffs. Typically if you see a Warden-Justicar, this will be their third soul. The giveaway is that most of the time, when they cast a heal, they will receive a golden shield buff. Treat them basically like Justicars.

Putting it Together

Obviously, you can't think of someone as "just" an Inquisitor or "just" Druid. Instead, categorize them by their playstyle. Do they intend to cast on you from range? Treat them like a caster. Do they try to hang back and heal? Healer. Do they try to melee? You get the idea. You can then isolate their abilities by their buffs, as I've outlined and get an idea of what options and they have, and thus how they will try to kill or survive you.

For example, Shaman-Inquisitor is very common. This type of cleric will attempt to melee you, but he has a lot of magic damage at his disposal. Recognize the Inquisitor soul, despite his melee attacks, and be ready to use Cleanse Soul at the right time to survive his onslaught.

The key is being versatile and observant. Knowing what your opponent can do is the first step to knowing what he will do. Don't be surprised when that Druid self-heals to full. Don't be shocked when that healer suddenly hits you with Sanction Heretic for 2k. Be ready.

Soloing Doesn't Have to Suck

2011-06-30T19:10:00.002-05:00

If you're like me, you hate drinking. I refuse to do it in raids and I'm constantly running out in the world and fighting things with 3% HP so that a random scrub rogue with a name like Darkshasta or Mugger can come along and one-shot me with a 200 damage Assassinate.

So to combat this I have been using what might be the ultimate solo PvE spec: 32 BD / 18 Sin / 16 RS this build relies primarily on Rift Scavenger and Combat Culmination which restore your energy and health if you have combo points left on the target when it dies. Combine this with the massive CP generation from having mobs attack you as a BD, and you can tear through packs of mobs that would leave any other spec dead, and come out with 100% HP.

Macro

cast Reprisal

cast Precision Strike

cast Puncture

cast Quick Strike

cast Disengage

cast Keen Strike

cast Flash of Steel

cast Blade Tempo

cast Double Coup

cast Poison Malice

Press repeatedly for victory. Keep False Blade and Dauntless Strike up, but make sure to have combo points on the mobs as they die for health/energy boosts.

It's sick for closing Rifts solo, farming, doing dailies or whatever. I don't recommend it if you expect PvP though. You'll get trashed by anyone except champ or beast warriors (and maybe bad assassins). Props to Archaego for originally coming up with the idea.

I'd also recommend this spec for anyone thinking of leveling a rogue. The key idea is to get 3/3 Rift Scavenger in RS, then put the rest of your points in Bladedancer up to 32, then build up Assassin or RS as you wish.

Leave your water in the bank. You won't need it.

FPS Boost

2011-06-28T21:24:00.005-05:00

I did a little research and if you have FPS in Rift that is lower than other games or if you have spikes in your FPS where it jumps up and dips sharply at times, a few changes in your config file can help.

The file is in your Rift game directory and is called Rift.cfg. You can open it with notepad and you should make a copy of it before changing anything. In the file, you are looking to change the following variables to these values:

VfxCullDistance = 256

VFXLimit = 75000

LightingComplexity = 10.000000

MainThreadCPU = 0

VfxCullDistance might not exist. Just add the line above VFXLimit.

What this does is take advantage of the high memory in most graphics cards to load effects and keep them loaded. With smaller values, the effects load/unload repeatedly at the edge their range and this causes dramatic drops in FPS as your graphics card works to load things at the proper distance. MainThreadCPU = 0 lets the game choose the processor core that is under the least load. Thanks to Xensimilla for that one.

Thus, by increasing these values, you should see an increase in performance and not have the wild swings in FPS. It's worked well for me. Hope it helps.

World ZvZ

2011-06-27T04:17:00.005-05:00

1.3 World PvP has been... interesting. It's good that Trion has moved PvP away from Zareph camping all day (though I do feel bad for the unwitting level 40s in Mage's Mark), but populations being what they are, its a bit zerg-or-be-zerged out there. With Condemned gone, its not so one-sided in favor of Guardians, even though they outnumber us by a good bit now.

After messing with various Assassin specs this week, I threw up a little in my mouth and decided NB is just more my style. I wish there was a viable NB spec for PvE, but Deadly Dance is just too good and has basically 0 synergy with NB, plus NB lacks the AP modifiers in BD and Asssassin. It's too much of a handicap. Maybe some day.

I've finally settled on Living Flame for PvP. I resisted it for a long time with my Nightblade Beast and Gunblade specs, but I love Nightblade and I think that despite how much I hate 51-pointers, it doesn't make much sense to go 44NB 16 Inf 6rng when I can go 51 NB 15 Inf 0 MM and only lose a snare and some AP, while gaining Living Flame.

I like 0 MM over 0 Ranger with NB because you already have a ranged finisher with Flame Thrust and Swift Shot is helpful in getting you back into range (or staying out of it).

The problem with this spec is it doesn't do too well against Assassins (at all) and struggles against Parry-gons and shield warriors as well. It is strong against mana bars and it will bring down a cleric solo. However, if a good 51sin opens on you, you are 50/50 at best, even with every cooldown up. With 600 valor, I have sins take me to 40% in 5 seconds then vanish and let me bleed.

Parry-gons you basically need to avoid DoTs and Dark Contain them when you see them start parrying every attack. If they have Break Free up, you'll need another CD, like Twilight Shelter. You can still sneak attacks in from behind, but Rift is not so good at detecting where you are in relation to the other player's orientation, so you can try, but they are mostly invincible.

I still keep Gunblade around also, because its the best overall. The kiting capability from Marksman gives you a strong chance to beat anyone. It's not as strong against bluebars but can still win, and Swift Shot/Hasty Departure/On the Double let you kite Assassins and warriors and win that battle.

So, Dominators

2011-06-26T20:16:00.003-05:00

Mass Betrayal
+9 Charge
Generates chaos within the enemy's ranks, cursing up to 10 enemies within the targeted area. Abilities used by affected enemies cause the enemy, and up to 5 additional enemies within 7 meters, to suffer 82 Death damage and lose 30 Power or Energy, or Mana equal to 3% of the Mage’s maximum Mana each time they use an ability. This can occur up to 5 times over the next 15 seconds.

If you have one ability that does so many different things that you need a wall of text to describe it, it might be overpowered. Trion has done it again. If there is one thing they have down pat, it is overcompensating.

Dominators are already a pile of awesome because of their crowd control and nasty damage abilities, but the AOE and "shut down" ability of the Mass Betrayal skill really needs to be examined. It's a virtual disarm for any rogue or warrior that can't cleanse it, while simultaneously dealing damage every time you manage to get an attack off (which is about half as often as usual). To top it off, the damage it deals is AOE, so casting it on a group of players essentially turns them into chum. Stormcallers eat your heart out.

1.3 Rogue Specs

2011-06-23T02:09:00.010-05:00

The more things stay the same, the more things stay the same.

So the lack of patch notes relating to rogues might make you think that nothing has changed for rogues in 1.3. Well, you'd be right. Nevertheless, with Hammerknell set to start "soon" and people wanting to get geared up to clear Greenscale, here is my take on the top 3 DPS specs for Rogues.

Sabdancer 26 Sab / 21 Sin / 19 BD

Good old melee sab is going great guns this patch, with the change to Deadly Dance's interaction with charges streamlining the rotation. In my (still) mostly T2 gear with some raid gear, my spike charge crit ticks for 2.2k and Shrapnel crit ticks for 1k. The rotation is more complicated than the standard saboteur, but the damage is also better.

Rotation:

3x Spike > Puncture > Deadly Strike > 2x Spike > Detonate

5x Shrap > Detonate

You can use Backstab if you want to, but I prefer Puncture because of the positional nature of Backstab. There's also not much difference in energy because a 2 Point Detonate costs less energy than a 1 point detonate that you would do with Backstab. Of course, if you prefer ranged sab, there is always the standard saboteur.

Bladedancer Tribrid 27 Bladedancer / 21 Nightblade / 18 Asssassin

Still going strong, the BD tribrid deals considerable damage to a single target. It's simple to play, to allow for good raid awareness and is extremely competitive for the top spot on the damage meter. More info is available in my complete writeup.

Hoko's Nonsense Spec 26 Ranger / 21 Bladedancer / 19 Assassin

I tested this and had very good results. It's bizarre running a melee ranger spec and you do have to run in and out of melee range to use Head Shot, but it deals very good DPS and may wind up being the best DPS of all, depending on your gear. You can read more about the spec in his thread on the rift forums. Note that my spec varies slightly from his. I find having instant-pet is too valuable to go without.

I was lagging too bad to give a good test to Hoko's spec this week (thanks Trion for those server mergers by the way) so next week will be the test on that one, hopefully.

Also, Guardians now massively outnumber Defiants on Deepstrike. Because sometimes being able to do Raid Rifts was too simple.

2011-06-22T16:52:00.004-05:00

Just a little vid I made of some whitefall cappin fun, utilizing my Run N' Gun capper spec. Hope its enjoyable!

Gunblade - Nightblade PvP Variant

2011-06-20T21:37:00.005-05:00

I've been working on a variant of my Nightblade PvP spec that is still a work in progress but I wanted to go ahead and post about it.

I call it the Gunblade - 38 NB / 15 Inf / 13 MM

This spec generally works on the same principles as Nightblade, but makes a few key substitutions. Namely, you're dropping Blackout and Ranger for Marksman. Losing Blackout hurts, but the build is not viable without it.

Key concept: Gunblade works by using ranged attacks from melee range. A side effect is a nearly-permanent increase in movement speed (from MM skills), so you'll never be kited again. Your goal is to open on an opponent, apply Scourge of Darkness quickly and then go for a point-blank Rapid Fire Shot finish. Meanwhile you are ripping out damage with Dusk Strike and talented-Swift Shot.

Advantages: Compared to my Nightblade beast spec, Gunblade has far greater speed and maneuverability, and is able to deal considerably more damage from range. In close, the Gunblade damage is higher when utilizing Ebon Fury due to adding Rapid Fire Shot.

Disadvantages: Compared to my other Nightblade spec, Gunblade has less survivability when being focus fired, due to not having Blackout. Furthermore, unless you have Ebon Fury up, this build deals slightly less damage in melee range, due to losing a few key Assassin talents.

Macros

Builder

cast Dusk Strike

cast Twilight Force

cast Swift Shot

Finisher

cast Scourge of Darkness

cast Rapid Fire Shot

cast Hasted Shot

cast Blazing Strike

Notes: The only melee attacks utilized in this build are Dusk Strike and Blazing Strike, so damage is not considerably lower if you have to stay at range, however you want to melee for Hellfire/Fell Blades procs at the very least. Your ranged shots proc Increased Fire Power, which is important for keeping your damage up. This is another reason to never use Primal Strike.

This build can be more effective against Riftblade or Paragon warriors as you can outrange them and kite using the speed bonuses. It also works very well against mages. It's important to remember that you want to try to be in melee range whenever you can, despite having a wide arsenal of ranged attacks.

This build still bears some refinement, and right now I struggle most against 51Sins who get an opener on me (luckily there's not many of those right :x). Pretty much anyone else I can put away with little effort. Enjoy!

Nightblade PvP Beast Spec

2011-06-19T22:33:00.005-05:00

I've had tremendous success in PvP using a Nightblade PvP build. With this spec, I've been able to kill healers and even R6 clerics in WFs and 1v1. It offers strong survivability, especially as valor increases and though it is reliant on 2 min cooldowns, it has a lot of them.

Dunsparrow's Nightblade: 44NB / 16Inf / 6 Rang

This spec offers what I consider to be the best combination of damage, utility/versatility and survivability. The combination of Fell Blades and Anathema is enough to kill a healer when timed well, and cooldowns allow you to take out your target and survive against heavy odds. It can deal good ranged damage and Crippling Shot allows you to slow. I skip Improved Twilight Force because I feel those points are better spent elsewhere, since you have a ranged snare already.

Macros Used:

Kill Macro

cast Dusk Strike

cast Twilight Force

cast Primal Strike

cast Fiery Spike

cast Quick Shot

Snare Macro

cast Crippling Shot

cast Twilight Force

cast Fiery Sike

cast Quick Shot

Finisher Macro

#show Scourge of Darkness

cast Scourge of Darkness

cast Blazing Strike

cast Flame Thrust

cast Head Shot

Finisher Macro 2

cast Blazing Strike

cast Flame Thrust

cast Head Shot

Cooldowns

#show Ebon Fury

cast Words of War

cast Ebon Fury

The 2nd finisher macro is for targets that are nearly dead and you don't want to cast a SoD that won't get used. This spec revolves around pounding people down from melee range while still being able to deal reasonable damage out to 30m.

The points in Ranger not only give you a 30m CP-generator and finisher, but also 5% crit, 46 attack power, and a ranged snare.

The macros are designed to prioritize your abilities based on distance, so you'll use the most powerful ability you have at a given range. Flame Thrust is worth it (imo) because of Lingering Flame, even though you could use Head Shot. I try to throw a Fiery Spike on people right at the start.

For fighting mages and caster clerics, you have Cleanse Soul, which absolutely wrecks casters. You can use it to immune the most powerful abilities like Incinerate, Stream of Reclamation, Degeneration, Mortality etc. If you need another magic immunity, you have Twilight Transcendence. Of course, Blackout will work too on incoming spells.

For fighting melee, you have fewer options. If a rogue gets the jump on you, you can pop Twilight Transcendence to go immune to his Impale, and then dip into Twilight Shelter to reduce his DoT damage while you beat him up. Against Warriors you're screwed against tanks (just ignore them) but you can usually pop Blackout and Ebon Fury and just win a head to head match against any 2h user.

Against healer clerics, you have Fell Blades and Anathema. When used in combination, they reduce a cleric's healing on himself by 75%. Typically you want to jump a cleric, get 5 CPs, then pop SoD and go to town. Once you get the cleric to 50%, pop Anathema and your Ebon Fury macro and go for the finish. If a big heal is going to get off when he's low and Anathema is gone or almost gone, use Dark Containment as an interrupt. Watch for Fell Blades getting purged and re-apply it.

I find this spec to be highly effective in group and solo situations and ran with it almost exclusively from Rank 4 to 6. I'm working on a variation of it right now and have not yet decided if its worth it. My PvP video is going to showcase this build primarily.

Centurion

2011-06-17T20:54:00.003-05:00

Well, finally hit Rank 6. 5 Achievement points though? Come on.

Anyway, I'm loving my new Whitefall capper spec and I encourage others to give it a go. It's extremely effective and fun.

I'm working on my first video. It's going to be a PvP video but I'm not just hammering a bunch of clips together, and instead I'm going a little artsy, so I'm not sure when it will be done.

1.3 is next week, then Hammerknell a week or 2 after that. Looking forward to the fun in PvE while I finish grabbing my R6 gear by running all over people in Whitefall.

Disaster Averted - For Now

2011-06-16T00:55:00.010-05:00

Well, the Devs finally realized what I pointed out the minute Valor changes were announced. Archonix breaks the news that the Valor changes are being reverted after 15-minute battles with 0 deaths in multiple test server warfronts. Yeah, healers overpowered, go figure.

As we've been known to do in the past, we're not afraid to mix things up and try crazy things every now and then. This was definitely one of those times. With that said, we're not happy with the results of the Valor changes, and will be rolling them back for 1.3.

Increasing overall survivability is a goal we're going to continue to work towards. It's time to roll up our sleeves and spend more time focusing on individual changes to class abilities that affect PvP combat only, much like the updates you'll see coming out to the PTS environment later in the week for Pyromancers. This will be a primary focus for 1.4.

For 1.3 we're happy with the results we're seeing with the queuing changes, and look forward to you continued feedback and support!

Derp. This means for now, Rogues survive to get nerfed another day. There's little else that will change for Rogues in Warfronts, other than Pyros getting shitcanned along with Stormcallers. I hope these specs remain viable without the one-shots and ridiculous AOE (respectively) as it would be boring for every mage to be a necro/lock.

Cleric survivability will remain largely unchanged and mages may be a bit easier to kill.

I'll give Trion some credit. At least they realized their mistake before alienating their (non-cleric) players. If Hammerknell is as good as it looks, 1.3 could be a great patch.

Run N' Gun - Capper Spec

2011-06-14T23:58:00.003-05:00

So yes, the world is ending in 1.3 (Test server runs confirm it) but for now, I'm having fun running flags in Whitefall Steppes. Won't be much else for Rogues to do in 1.3.

I've seen several variations of capper specs for Whitefall (and Scion, I guess) and most center around Bard combat speed and Riftstalker. I went in a little different direction and have been having great success with a spec involving Marskman.

The spec: 29 Rift / 20 Inf / 17 Marks

This build goes deep enough in Rift for all the blinks and decent mitigation with Improved Rift Guard. It goes deep into Inf - all the way to improved movement speed if you're R5 or higher. The linchpin though, is the 1 7 points in Marks that give great escape potential, with On the Double / Getaway, Hasty Departure, Improved Swift Shot and Hasted Shot all boosting movement speed. Then you have Repelling Shot and Static Shot to help get some distance.

With this spec, you don't have the guaranteed full-time 20% speed like you do with bard, but with all the run speed buffs, you'll have at least one up any time enemies are around, which is key. All the additional tools at your disposal are great, plus you have some points free if you want to go deeper into Rift for a bit more survivability.

This is not a great spec for surviving a flag standoff, but for getting their fang to your base, this is a fun little spec to tinker with.

10 Ways Trion Could Fix PvP Without Making Healers (more) Overpowered

2011-06-12T18:20:00.002-05:00

The basis of most complaints about PvP balance stem from two areas.

Class M (typically mage) just killed me with a 6320 crit.
Class C (typically cleric) heals through virtually limitless amounts of damage.

It's hard to believe that both problems could co-exist on servers, and so Trion assumes that Clerics aren't really that strong, because after all, everyone has a screenshot of a 6k Fulminate and there are no screenshots of Clerics not dying because... well they're not dead, so what's to screenshot?

Trion has thus decided that crits are the problem and that crits need to be nerfed. No, not just Incinerate/Fulminate crits and Lightning Field/Soul Drain triple crits, but all crits.

The problem? Rogues are reliant on crits to deal damage, but we don't go around one-shotting (or even 10-shotting) anyone. We deal sustained damage with reasonable burst potential centering around cooldowns. Some of the burst may be a bit strong, depending on where Trion wants burst damage, but none of it is anywhere near the uberCrits being dished out by Mages and Clerics. In many ways, Warriors are in the same boat.

Therefore, Trion's across-the-board nerf to crit damage and base damage of all abilities hurts Rogues and Warriors the most, because our crits are being reduced just as much as mages, but we don't crit nearly as hard.

Here are some things Trion could do to fix the crit situations without ruining PvP:

Take a look at the crit potential of each skill on a case by case basis. Incinerate, Fulminate, Lightning Field, Forked Lightning Soul Drain, Sanction Heretic, among others are all candidates for adjustment.
On abilities that deal ubercrits, look at ways of making them usable more often, for less damage.
Remove abilities that deal uber burst and replace them with abilities that deal less spike damage, but equivalent or more DPS.
Increase the Endurance on PvP gear. Yeah, simple.
Make burst abilities more avoidable and more obvious. If a mage is winding up a Cinderburst, lets see some Kah-meh-ha-meh-ha powerup action around him.
Make burst abilities require setup abilities that give warning. Sab charges already work this way. Have powerful abilities require a debuff on the target or some other method to give warning that they're coming.
Give penalties to burst abilities. Maybe casting Lightning Field should make the caster more vulnerable to magic damage. Maybe casting Soul Drain should reduce incoming healing.
Reduce the contribution of Red Ball to high damage abilities, or give Red Ball a penalty like increased damage taken as well as dealt.
Un-nerf CC a bit. Melee classes are not the problem, but are significantly impaired by targets being constantly immune to snares. Lets reduce snare immunity to 5 seconds. That will do a lot to stop the annoying bunnyhopping too.
Increase the number and power of survival-oriented talents in the PvP trees for non-Clerics.

Trion needs to stop taking all their queues from WoW. If we wanted to play WoW, we wouldn't be here.

Well, it was fun while it lasted

2011-06-11T19:27:00.003-05:00

If 1.3 goes live as it is, Trion has officially killed PvP.

I'm not being dramatic. I'm not using hyperbole. They clearly don't understand their own game. The #1 problem for mages, warriors and rogues right now is the extreme power of healing in PvP. In some ways this affects mages less, because they can heal themselves in many specs, but they still struggle with killing clerics.

It is undeniable and indisputable that Clerics are the hardest class to kill in PvP, especially healing clerics. I have been able to kill clerics in 1v1 situations, but most rogues can't. Most warriors cant even get close.

* Base Valor amounts have been adjusted to account for a significantly larger amount of damage reduction.
- Level 1-40 characters have 10% reduction.
- Level 40-50 characters scale through 11-20% damage reduction.
* Valor now reduces the critical hit damage bonus received from player hits, capping at 50%.
- Reduction scales based on character level.
- Level 50 characters with no additional Valor receive a 33.7% reduction in critical hit bonus damage.
- A full set of rank 2-3 PvP gear (356 Valor) provides a 50% critical hit bonus damage reduction.
* With the increase to base Valor, the amount provided by ranked PvP gear has been adjusted.
- Rank 1/2 sets provide 323 total Valor, for 26.9% damage reduction and 45.4% critical bonus damage reduction.
- Rank 3/4 sets provide 394 total Valor, for 32.8% damage reduction and 50% critical bonus damage reduction.
- Rank 5/6 sets provide 480 total Valor, for 40% damage reduction and 50% critical bonus damage reduction.
* Runes that grant Valor bonuses have their Valor stat values adjusted but still provide the same percentage of damage reduction.

What these notes mean is that the amount of damage in PvP is being severely cut across the board. Since healing will heal for the same amount against less damage being done, healing is going to be considerably stronger.

This is such a stupid decision (and a slap in the face) because healers are already the strongest classes in PvP by far. This decision has no logic or thought behind it whatsoever. It is simply an acrosss-the-board healing buff in a game already dominated by healers.

To be honest, I don't mind cutting damage dealt, as long it came with a corresponding healing decrease. It would make for longer and more interesting battles that emphasize teamwork. Instead, the game will now be decided by which team has more healers. It's also apparent that PvP gear will no longer be very important. PvE gear will rule with the static valor boosts.

Bottom line, clerics raiding Hammerknell will rule PvP. Everyone else will be their toys. There are some good changes being made as well, but in light of these healer buffs, they are truly inconsequential.

Two of them that I liked before reading about valor changes are fixing the bug with players becoming invincible when being stunned while jumping, and players being able to break channeled spells when running out of line of sight. Those are smart drops of rain into a sea of idiocy.

If 1.3 goes live with these valor changes, PvP will be retarded. I'm moving toward quitting the game, or just turning into a PvE-only guy.

The Sindancer - PvP

2011-06-08T12:17:00.006-05:00

Never much for cookie cutter specs, I worked out an Assassin/Bladedancer hybrid that is a blast to play in Warfronts. The spec is 32 Assassin / 21 Bladedancer / 13 Infiltrator.

What it offers (compared to 51 assassin, its closest relative):

Blade Tempo - Offensive Cooldown

Side Steps - Defensive Cooldown

Weapon Barrage - Spell Interrupt

Flash of Steel - Gap Closer

Sprint - Gap Closer

Group 40 Dex buff

Better energy efficiency

What it lacks (compared to 51 sin):

Serpent Strike

Anathema

I'm not counting things like Poison Gas and Hidden Veil because (to me) those are gimmicky at best.

This spec offers far more versatility than full Assassin and is much hardier when caught out of stealth (something 51 Assassin fails at horribly). It also has significantly more cooldowns and has the potential to beat any class, though like most builds it struggles against high-rank clerics.

Macros Used

2 CP

cast Puncture

cast Precision Strike

cast Quick Strike

cast Keen Strike

1 CP

cast Backstab

cast Quick Strike

cast Keen Strike

Generally speaking, the goal is to get Jagged Strike and Impale ticking, then start pumping out Deadly Strikes for bigger hits. Never use Final Blow. Sindancer lends itself to various playstyles and strategies, and because of that I'll describe some of my common matchups here, and what I do in various situations.

Maximum Damage Combo

If you're trying to kill a necro/lock or cleric, your best bet is to pump out the most damage possible, using all your cooldowns. Your biggest advantage here is that they won't take you seriously because you're a rogue, so you can usually get all your DoTs up before they freak out.

Open with Jagged Strike > Puncture > Blade Tempo/Trinket > Impale and then get 5 combo points as quickly as possible, interrupting any heal being cast during this time and they should be hurting a bit by now. As soon as you get 5 Combo points:

Deadly Strike > Slip Away > Assassinate

This should hit almost anyone for well over 2k damage and if they are below 500 valor it can go upwards of 2500 with Blade Tempo and trinket active. If they're still alive, follow with Foul Play/Backstab and dump down to 0 energy. If they manage to heal through that, you gave it your best shot, but now you're dead. :)

DoT-Cheesing Non-Healers

You can do this as 51 Sin also.

Open with Jagged Strike > Puncture > Impale then Slip Away and immediately start spamming them with Expose Weakness. This will add damage to your DoTs, but more importantly, it will force them to stay in combat so they can't drink. Once your DoTs expire, reopen and even an 800 valor warrior will be below 50%.

You can also use this Expose-spam technique to prevent rogues from stealthing if you're not ready to engage them yet (like if his friends are hanging around at Vault). He'll stay unstealthed and when the time is right, you get the opener.

vs. Marksman

This is actually fairly challenging if they have high valor.

Open with Jagged Strike and immediately Foul Play to give yourself time to Puncture and Impale. Don't snare. You'll need it later and he's about to break it with On The Double.

If he pops Improved Hit and Run, you need to either Side Steps or Slip Away.

If he gets to range on you, you need to use Flash of Steel or Sprint, but don't use FoS while his OTD is up or you'll waste it on his immunity.

Bladedancer Tribrid Spec

2011-06-07T23:55:00.007-05:00

I mentioned this spec briefly in a previous post but I wanted to go a bit more in depth on it.

The spec is 27 Bladedancer / 21 Nightblade / 18 Asssassin and it focuses on utilizing Deadly Dance to boost all your combo boosters. I only use 2 macros, and they are pretty self explanatory:

2 CP Macro

suppressmacrofailures

cast Precision Strike

cast Puncture

cast Dusk Strike

cast Quick Strike

cast Keen Strike

cast Flash of Steel

cast Fiery Spike

cast Weapon Barrage

1 CP Macro

suppressmacrofailures

cast Backstab

cast Quick Strike

cast Keen Strike

cast Fiery Spike

cast Weapon Barrage

The rotation basically comes down to this:

2CP > Fiery Spike > 2CP > Deadly Strike

2CP > Fiery Spike > 2CP > 1 CP > Deadly Strike

Various things can interfere with it, but always make sure to get Fiery Spike applied while Deadly Dance is active. It makes a huge difference in your DPS.

You use the 2 CP macro the majority of the time, and only use the 1 CP macro when you have 1 CP to go. A few things you may notice or disagree with: Flash of Steel and Fiery Spike in the macros.

I use Flash of Steel to "fix" my rotation if I accidentally flame out and fumble something up. This extra 2 pointer gets me back on track. Its also nice to automatically rush back to the mob if you have to run out for some reason or if he moves. You have to be careful with this because on some fights (like Warmaster), you dont want to go charges after the boss when he teleports, so you need to be judicious in its use.

I keep fiery spike in the macro so if the boss is out of melee range and I hit it, I haven't wasted that key press. I still keep FS on its own key.

For cooldowns, you have Ebon Fury and Blade Tempo. I also use the Words of War trinket from Codex reputation. I synchronize my cooldowns by popping Ebon Fury and Words of War together every 2 minutes, then at the very tail end of Ebon Fury, popping Blade Tempo. Make sure to get both your CDs into the Words of War duration or you're losing damage. You can do the same thing with any on-demand damage trinket such as the Token of Stolen Souls from Alsbeth or even the blue trinket from normal CC (forget the name).

I've had good results from this build getting about 1.4k+ DPS (without Spotter's, so estimate 1.6k with) on Plutonus.

Rift, Rogues and Romance

2011-06-06T10:21:00.003-05:00

So I'm a Rogue in Rift now.

With 1.2 recently out and 1.3 looming, I want to spend some time talking about the current state of rogues in both PvE and PvP. I play as Tank and DPS in raids/PvE (all content cleared) and I'm currently Rank 5 in PvP.

Enough about me. Let's talk turkey.

Overview of Rogue tanks

Riftstalker rogues are currently the best single target tank in the game. We take the least damage thanks to our superior mitigation with Rift Guard and do by far the most threat. The only thing Riftstalker lacks is a Spotter's Order equivalent to let our raid do more damage without a warrior gimping themselves to put the debuff on bosses.

My current tank spec is 51 Rift / 8 BD / 7 Ranger which is essentially the standard. Our main tank uses the Max Effective Health variant which gives him a very big health pool, at the cost of some threat generation and avoidance. His spec is superior for tanking bosses, while mine is more geared for tanking multiple mobs and 5-mans, although I have tanked both Greenscale and Alsbeth with this spec.

Overview of Rogue DPS

Rogues are currently the best single target DPS in the game. For single target melee, I have had the best results with a Bladedancer Tribrid spec that focuses on using Deadly Dance to maximize damage on combo generators. I typically parse 1.3-1.4k on Plutonus without Spotter's Order, so you can add about 200-300 DPS compared with most raids which have this debuff. I'll go into more on this spec, including macros, rotation and other considerations soon.

Saboteur rocks the house for ranged DPS/AOE. It's single target damage is lower than many melee specs on single targets, but for AOE it is rivaled only by Stormcaller mages. The 2 points in ranger are so that your bow is used to calculate charge damage instead of your melee weapon (as long as you're not in melee range). What really makes this spec shine is Incriminate, which lets you shunt all your threat onto the tank for 6 seconds. Because of how effective and versatile this spec is, I have actually dropped my other PvE DPS specs for PvP specs and now only have Saboteur and Riftstalker for PvE.

Rogues in PvP

Despite much of the crying you hear on the forums. Rogues are very strong in PvP Warfronts. The most common specs (by far) are 51 Assassin and 51 Marskman builds. However, I won't describe them and won't go into them here because they are pretty obvious and also rather unimaginative (and I kill them).

I have three PvP specs, 2 of which I'll describe here and one I will save for my next post (still tweaking).

My favorite spec is my Assassin-Bladedancer Hybrid which I have used to great effect. I find it to be far more versatile than 51 Assassin while offering at least as much killing power, and more survivability. Compared to 51 Assassin, you gain a DPS-boosting cooldown that works on your Assassin DoTs, several gap-closing abilities to prevent getting kited, Deadly Dance (which is amazing used in tandem with Slip Away + Assassinate) and little things like Side Steps and Reprisal. I love it.

I also finally broke down and joined the FOTM Marksman crowd, though I do things a touch differently. This spec offers tremendous burst damage from range, but suffers from a significant lack of survivability. I also have used this variant, which is played the same, but adds Anathema and Cleanse Soul for some survivability and anti-healing. The major problem with Anathema is that the range on it is significantly shorter than your max engagement range, so you have to move in close to apply it, which is often a bad idea.

Overall, I find the Assassin/BD build works best in maps where you can use stealth to your advantage to get fights in small groups. This is usually going to be Codex and Whitefall Steppes. Because Black Garden and Port Stormcaller tend to be Zerg-on-Zerg engagements, being melee is often a liability, so MM tends to shine there. That said, I've used both specs on all warfronts and it really depends on the texture of the game. Sometimes Codex gets very zergy and sometimes Port Scion groups split up enough that melee is not instantly killed.

For this reason I think having 2 or more PvP specs is a big advantage, as it lets you adapt to the game and play the role that best fits the situation.

I'll post more soon with an analysis on the state of PvP and Rogues in general and possibly unveil my latest spec.