Advice on playing combat rogue

[Aurorawind]

Hey all, but especially Assault ...

I'd like to bring Pikabooo to the Gruul run available to alts and she is currently subtlety for solo PVE and RP reasons.

Spec: I'm going to respec her to combat to be useful in the raid and I was examining Assault's spec, and I came back with only one question. I see how the build interacts on everything except improved sprint, does the need for that come up frequently or is that a PVP consideration? Also being a gnome I can cover some of the snares already. I was considering moving those 2 points up to dodge....opinions?

Playing: Is it more than the standard joke of spam sinister strike and keep slice and dice up? Do you alternate between evisc and imp. slice and dice? And anything else I've forgotten to ask?

Thank you for any advice from anyone.

[Assault]

Improved Sprint and Nerves of Steel are for PvP, though fear resist can on rare occasion be a tiny DPS boost in raids. (ie. I can DPS if I'm not running from Maulgar after he fears.) If I were going for a straight PvE build with no consideration whatsoever for PvP, I'd take all points out of both Improved Sprint and Nerves of Steel, put two points into +dodge, 1 point into +parry and 1 point into Improved Poisons in the Assassination tree:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classe...000000000000000 (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/rogue/talents.html?3053201050100000000000253150000050150 023210510000000000000000000000)

As far as playing a rogue, yeah, it's mostly slice and dice and sinister strike. There's lots of minutiae I use to maximize my DPS, but SS and SnD are the bulk of it. The most crucial thing you can do is keep slice and dice up at all times. That one buff, on Assault while I'm raiding, is worth like 250 DPS or something ridiculous like that.

I wouldn't say I ever "alternate" between eviscerate and slice and dice. Usually the first two points I get I put into slice and dice (depends how much energy I have..if I start out in stealth, say, I garrote then sinister strike. That's two combo points and that leaves me with 10 energy, but that's also two global cooldowns so I'll have gotten an energy tick in that time, putting me at 30 energy, that's when I use slice and dice...I could have used it after the garrote, but I only lost 1 second of the buff effect by putting another combo point into it so..meh) After that I just SS spam, if I hit 5 combo points I eviscerate, but more importantly, I refresh slice and dice whenever it hits 0 seconds on my buff list. I would never EVER not refresh it or wait for more combo points to refresh it unless the boss is about to die. (ie. if I estimate the boss will be dead in 15 seconds and I have 5 combo points and SnD is at 0 seconds, I'm not going to blow 5 points on the slice and dice, where 15 seconds of it is just going to go to waste. I'd eviscerate, hopefully have 1 point up on the dude from Ruthlessness, and then use slice and dice.)

Please note that everything I've said about slice and dice management applies only to raiding and particularly to boss fights. Slice and dice management is considerably different in 5mans.

- Assault

[attic]

Imp sprint is also useful for PVE. Assault is often zipping about during Gruul (to safer locations no doubt) while the rest of us are moving like molasses.

[Assault]

If by "to safer locations" you mean "to stand on top of Ladunch" then yes, you are correct, sir.

[Aurorawind]

Hrm, that resists the slowing on gronn lord's grasp?

[Assault]

Hrm, that resists the slowing on gronn lord's grasp?[/b]

Yeah, but so does Cloak of Shadows, and he doesn't do it more than once a minute, so it's a moot point. Escape Artist also gets you out of the slow, I believe.

[Aurorawind]

For poisons, you're still using instant?

[Assault]

If I have a shaman in my group who's dropping windfury then I use deadly poison on my offhand, and of course nothing on my main hand so the windfury takes. If I don't have a shaman I use deadly on my main hand and instant on my offhand. That's assuming that the fight doesn't require some other kind of poison, which I'd always put on my offhand to shiv. For example, oftentimes when fighting Moroes I'll put crippling poison on my offhand so I can shiv the poison onto the adds so the casters or paladins have an easier time kiting the adds around. However, poisons are at least 3% of my total damage, so I make sure to reapply a damage poison midfight if the situation permits. On Moroes I put instant back on my offhand during his first vanish after we've downed the adds. On Magtheridon, I use mind-numbing poisons on the adds, but put deadly poison (assuming Kub's in my group and is dropping windfury) back on my offhand as soon as the adds are dead. It's worth 5 seconds of zero DPS to gain 3% more damage for the 8 minutes or however long it takes to kill Mags. Poisons are useless for other fights, namely Hydross and Void Reaver, so I use <a class='forumitemlink' target='_blank' href='http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=23529&locale=enUS'> <tr> <td valign=\'top\' class=\'itemicon\'> <img class=\'itemicon\' src=\'http://wow.allakhazam.com/images/icons/INV_Stone_SharpeningStone_07.png\'> </td> <td> <body><div class=\'wowitem wowitemlive\'><span class=\'iname\'><span class=\'greenname\'>Adamantite Sharpening Stone</span>
Trade Goods
Requires*Level*60
Use: <a target=\'_new\' href=\'/db/spell.html?wspell=29453\' class=\'itemeffectlink\'>Increase sharp weapon damage by 12 and add 14 critical hit rating for 30 minutes.</a>*
</div> </td> </tr></table>',VAUTO,HAUTO,FULLHTML);" onmouseout="return nd();">[Adamantite Sharpening Stone]</span></a> for those if I have them.

[Aurorawind]

*scribbles notes* Thank you very much, I'm all ears for anything else too.