Rogue PvP in MoP

Rogue class crest is so sexy.

What every Rogue wants:

"they should put blind on a 10 second cooldown make combat readiness baseline  and change it to a 40% damage shield wall, give us a better recup called dark recuperation that heals us to full health but is on a short cooldown 

shiv should have no cooldown and have a huge aoe radius and stun anyone that stands in it, we should be able to teleport and summon demons and use chaos bolt" ~ Unseenz of ArenaJunkies

This had me rolling on the floor in laughter, but in all seriousness Rogues are in need of some tweaking for PvP.

The main QQ I see in various Rogue forums is that we don't put out enough damage. Being a pure damage class you'd think that wouldn't be an issue.


Rogues don't put out enough burst damage in PvP but our sustained damage is phenomenal according to PvE parses. It's mostly white hits though. I would take a 90% nerf to our white damage to improve our finishers by 25%. So much of our energy and combo points go to just keeping up Slice and Dice/Rupture that we don't frequently use our finishers.

I'm really missing Prep but Step is essential. Our mobility is bad enough as it is. Shadowstep or Preperation needs to be baseline. I would kill for Prep again.


I always thought that Rogues and Feral Druids should be the fastest classes on foot. Agile, nimble, speedy.
At the moment some other classes can kite us with no snares up on us. That's just sad. Our mobility is lacking severely.

So they gave us 45 sec sprint and a 1 min blind but CC wasn't where we were weak and having sprint up more doesn't matter when you're rooted. I think Sprint should break snares/roots. That would solve a lot of our mobility issues.

The blind change brings us more in line with the Warrior AoE Fear CD but I think Blind was fine the way it was. If anything Warrior's fear could use a longer CD.

It's sad when you love playing a class and you see class icons like Neilyo and Reckful both rerolling.

When you're feeling down about your PvP performance just remember that rogues still offer amazing control. Rogues damage outside of cooldowns is mediocre but the utility is still there

I don't know how they could fix rogues damage and mobility in PvP without giving an even bigger advantage in PvE. Hang in there guys. This stuff happens to every class and Blizz always ends up buffing, even if it does take them an entire Xpac.


Some resources to check out if you're serious about PvP:

ArenaJunkies (Check out Vishas and Hildegard's rogue guide - approved by Reckful)
SkillCapped (Even just the free videos can be a big help sometimes. Watch other class videos as well to get an idea on how they play and how they could counter you.)
WarcraftMovies

If you have anymore PvP or Rogue resources I don't know about let me know in the comments!

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@IjiXD (Iji) & @IxiXD (Ixi)

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Adventures in Troll-dom

I mean Troll like the race, not the jerk with a lot of free time.

So in my last post I talked a little about this wondrous experience but I thought I'd elaborate about actual gameplay. Imagine that. I was really excited about playing a druid because I really like the idea of being able to turn into a cat and eat peoples faces and such. But of course it turns out that I'm pretty bad at melee classes. It's not much of a surprise since movement isn't my strong suit but I was a little upset. That is until I tried playing a Hunter. Oh hohoho! The stories I could tell!

I made a Blood Elf Hunter for a few reasons. I thought it'd be a good idea to try a ranged class and I want to collect pets (here meaning cats) like an actual psycho. The Blood Elf part was mostly for the lore. I find them to be a pretentious race, though. Regardless, I really enjoyed playing and it's my highest level character so far. It's only twenty something but I think I'm a big deal and you can't refute that. Mostly because I won't let you. In lieu of my enjoyment with the class, I switched servers and made a Pandaren Hunter and it was a great decision for me.

I don't know how those of you that have been playing longer feel about the Pandaren but I love them. I didn't level as quickly without awesome gear but I didn't mind because of the quest line. With the Trolls and Blood Elves I was like "alright fine, I'll help. I am pretty wonderful so you were smart to ask for my assistance." HOWEVER! The Pandaren quests really got me excited *suggestive eyebrows*. I got into the story and was excited to meet each new challenge. I doubt many of you haven't played one already but for those of you that haven't (including Iji) I won't go into detail.
I must say, the dude Pandaren are just... fat. I get wanting to play a female though I don't like my animals to have curves, anthropomorphic or not. It made me a little itchy at first. That aside I really recommend at least getting through the starter zone. I had a grand old time and it's not like it's a time-consuming venture.

I plan to keep playing at least one of my Hunters but aside from that I'm not sure what to do next. I'll try new classes and hope that something sticks. The only downside is that Iji and I are poor hobos so who knows how long we'll be able to play D: That aside, I'm happy about my recent gaming experiences and I like sharing my -insert appropriate adjective here- stories with you. You're aaaaaaaaall special.

-Ixi

P.S. I think the Blood Elf pet is pretty sweet. I get irritated by the noise it's wings make but just based on appearance I love it. And the Pandaren turtle makes a silly noise when it walks.

Countering Overpowered Battle Pets

The distraction that prevented me from leveling for days at a time.

I, admittedly, do love the Pokemon series and being able to use my beloved vanity pets in WoW in a Pokemon like mini-game makes me happy.

^_________________^

That happy.

I actually can't say it's all the battle pets' fault. I think I just suck at leveling. Now that I'm going to be leveling my stealthies to 90 I'm actually considering buying a guide like Zygor or something, but that's for another day. Back to battle pets.

I've noticed a few "overpowered" battle pets. I figured someone out there could probably use some help getting past some of them so I'm going to provide you with some quality pets and how they're frequently used.

Pandaren Monk
QQ: Takedown, Focus Chi, and Fury of 1000 Fists. The only real fear is if they manage to stun you. The best thing to do when you get stunned is switch pets. They are really hard hitters so your best bet is to just beat them down. Trying to stall out a Pandaren Monk is pretty difficult in tit's current state.

 Counter: Use a pet with an Undead attack. Even better if it's a Beast.
Any Spider will do. Maggots do well too.
Any pet with a move that dodges, blocks, or reflects can do well too. Flayer Youngling comes to mind.

TLDR - My favorite has been a Spider. Easy to obtain and they are a Beast with an Undead attack. In addition to that, their attack recovers some much needed health.

Any Frog
QQ: Frogs are fast and Frog Kiss is a real pain.
I'm sure that it really is only a 25% chance but it doesn't feel that way at all when you get turned into a frog 4 times in a row.

Counter: Anything with a flying attack should do. I don't know if there's anything that will prevent or lower the chance of transformation. You could also opt for a magic pet to take less damage from Frog Kiss.

The only thing that could trip you up is if they're using Lifelike Toad, a mechanical type.

TLDR - Enchanted Broom is magic and learns Sandstorm, a flying type move.

Clockwork Gnome
QQ: Speaking of Mechanical types...
Build Turret. Period.
They can set up 2 Turrets and swap out to a staller like a crab (we'll get to these fuckers soon)

Counter: There are actually quite a lot! Let's start the list.
ANY elemental. Mechanical pets take more and deal less damage against elementals.
Pets with moves that destroy objects like Tidal Wave and Magma Wave

TLDR - Lil' Ragnaros is elemental and learns Magma Wave. 

Magical Crawdad/Any Crab
QQ: They can whittle you down while they laugh at you and your ineffectiveness.
Between Shell Shield and Renewing Mists, Healing Wave or Wish, they can shut you down.

Counter: Honestly I didn't have a strat aside from attack til it dies... If it dies. I kept going through my flying types til I found Gilnean Raven.

Either of the first slot abilities are fine.
Call Darkness reduces the amount they can heal by 50%
For the last slot I prefer Nevermore over Nocturnal Strike, but often times it doesn't work out to your favor.
With Nevermore whether it stops their shield or healing you should be able to beat em up before it becomes usable again. They could, however, use an attack instead and get that disabled so they can continue stalling.

TLDR - Gilnean Raven can halve their healing and attack effectively with flying attacks.

Chew users (Esp. in combination with Stampede and Soothe)
QQ: This combo was a serious pain. I think the only people that liked sheep and rams were users of this strat. Luckily it got nerfed but it can still hurt in the right hands.
For a while there I was seeing triple Summit Kid users in PvP.

Counter: Magic pets because they can't take more than 50% life in one turn.
Anything that can reflect damage/block damage. I can't think of any in particular right now except Flayer Youngling.

TLDR - Flayer Youngling take less damage from critter attacks and can reflect damage. To be honest, you don't have to worry about this strat anymore. I started this post before Chew got nerfed.



I've heard that Lil' Rag and Lil' Deathwing are OP too but I haven't faced either one in PvP yet so I don't feel I can accurately assess them. I have a Lil' Rag but I only ever used it to beat the Gnome. Eventually I dropped it from my team because it felt too slow.

Ultimately I don't feel that any one pet is OP (anymore... *cough* chew *cough*). There are counters to everything. Even when Chew was still a bastard move it could be countered with a little know how.

If you wanna plan a team or get a better idea of what's out there, check out:
http://www.warcraftpets.com and http://www.petbattlearena.com

If anyone has any other pet battle resources, or anymore strats/counters I've left out, leave a comment!


If you like our blog follow us on Twitter!
@IjiXD (Iji) & @IxiXD (Ixi)

#showtooltip Iji
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PS - I published a more refined version on Squidoo!
http://www.squidoo.com/countering-overpowered-battle-pets

Give it a look. I may update the blog version as well. The only thing I left out of the Squidoo version was a lot of the links (moves, etc)

Level 90! or am I?

So, after countless distractions (pet battles, I'm looking at you) I finally made it to 90!

I started queuing up for BG's as Ele but after realizing that no amount of THUNDAH would help some of these nubs I switched back to Enhancement.

I would have more RBG viability as Ele for the knockback but I enjoy melee too much! So after wasting about 6000 HP on Ele gear I started buying Enh gear only to find out that my guild is short on stealthies and won't run me as Enh...

>.>

<.<

So I decided to dust off my stealthies and start leveling them.

I'm excited because my first 2 classes were Druid and Rogue. Even thought I loved them to death I was a die-hard Enh Shammy for the longest time and I felt like I NEEDED a main and that I couldn't spend to much time on my alts. Since my highest level was Shammy at the time I just stuck with it.

I've forgotten how much fun stealthing is. Both my stealthies are still only mid 20's on this realm which is kind of disheartening. I just got to level 90 and I've already abandoned my Shammy and must now embark on a quest to get one of the others to 90 T_T.

I have a level 85 rogue and druid on my Horde realm, but now that me and Ixi play together I think we're gonna be sticking to Alliance. That's fine by me! There are Dwarves here! My only issue with that is that I do not want to pay to transfer and faction change my toons.

Either way I was going to be leveling all of my toons to 90 eventually anyway so I could use more professions in my AH PvP, I just didn't expect it to be so soon.

Now I only get on Shaman to do dailies so I can get the new Enchanting stuff from... uh... Those Panda's with the Enchanting stuff. (You know the ones)

Since I was predominantly on my Horde realm I have no BoA gear on my Alli realm so I'm farming Honor to convert to JP since it seems faster than running dungeons. Only things I need now for my Rogue are off-hand dagger and Head/Chest. Then I just need the new BoA Staff for my Druid!

I've decided I'm not gonna stress when I get to 90 on my Rogue/Druid. I'll probably miss out on this Season but I don't wanna treat WoW like it's my job and get burnt out again. I'm gonna have fun with it.

We'll see how this all works out later!

If you like our blog follow us on Twitter!
@IjiXD (Iji) & @IxiXD (Ixi)

#showtooltip Iji
/cast Vanish

Good news, everyone!

I have officially started playing WoW *bows*

I made a Troll druid because trolls have the niftiest hair styles and I like being able to turn into a cat. According to Iji it gets really complicated later though so I'm super excited for that... As if I wasn't spastic already. I'm gonna have to keep track of so many things D:
Speaking (sort of) of Iji, I'm really awful at being taught something by a family member or loved one. He keeps trying to help me out with a few things and every time he does I get nervous and flustered. It really has nothing to do with him, I just don't like being reminded that I'm not instantly great at everything.

Anyways, thanks to some BoA gear I'm leveling pretty quickly. Do I take credit for it even though it's thanks to my life mate that I own said gear? Yes. Yes I do. Shamelessly. He's encouraged (here meaning almost forced) me to make a hunter and mage as well so those are in the works as I type. My only concern is that WoW is very addictive and we only have one computer to play on. We share like good kids but eventually he wants to start playing pretty frequently and I don't want to get left out. Until we can save up for another PC, I'll just have to play when he's not around. Gamer problems, amirite?

Feel free to leave me tips because I'm frequently sad and confused. You can comment below or tweet me if you'd like. I'm not exactly a big deal but just you wait, internets. You will be mine.
@IxiXD

Love and e-rage,
Ixi

PvP Nao?!

I was going to write a blog post on MoP-lessness. It was going to be about how to make gold even without MoP, but then I got MoP and I've lost the will to finish it. Now I want to PvP!

I really want to finish leveling my Shammy to 90 and make a Monk now. I want to so badly that I haven't even been to the AH since I got MoP. I've just left the stuff that didn't sell sit in the mailbox. On top of that I have to set up all my TSM lists again because I had to wipe my PC and my internet has been less than reliable. Hopefully I can finish leveling over the weekend so I can PvP again. I'll probably try setting up my TSM lists in between BG queues.

Well, we'll see how that goes. My mind has been everywhere lately. Hopefully I can focus on one thing long enough to get something done.

Sweet Tiny Victories

I've done it, everyone. I've entered the nether. I entered the nether and I made it my bitch!
Okay, it wasn't really that exciting or impressive but if you read my previous post about Minecraft, then you know how terrified I was of the nether. Correction: how terrified I AM of the nether. But I decided to put my man pants on and try it out. I like my man pants because they flatter my figure.

The first trip in wasn't eventful at all. My original plan was to get in, build a little cobblestone shield around my nether portal, get a few stacks of netherrack, and get the hell out. With much swiftness. Fortunately, my curiosity got the best of me so I took another dive down the rabbit hole. This venture was much more exciting and only almost made me pee my pants.

I'm digging myself out of this little cave and BAM! Ghast. It clearly didn't like my ethnicity (ghasts are known racists) so it shot it's fiery crap at me. There I am, on fire, wasting water because I totally forgot that it's useless in the nether, making a weird "nehhh" noise that I most definitely have used to scare off the locals. Luckily, it stopped and I didn't die which was like winning the Olympics for me. I washed my man pants and put them back on so I could go kill the ghast and dance around it's corpse. I considered leaving after that but I really wanted some glowstone because it's purdy so I viciously slew a few zombie pig men and got dat stone. Then went "home" and cried.

The moral of the story is that trying new things blows.
But sometimes it doesn't totally blow.

Stay tuned for more... whatever it is that I do!
With mild contempt.

-Ixi and her dry clean only man pants