Combat and Me....I Mean You!

So over the next couple of posts I'll try to cover as much about the Combat spec as I can. In this first post I'm going to cover the optimal Combat spec(s) and glyphs.

In order to maximize your damage output you are going to want to use the common 20/51/0 talent build. Using the full 51 points in the combat tree is essential in order to take advantage of our big burst damage from Killing Spree. The only talents taken in Combat tree that can be moved around are based on our Weapon Specialization. Like any Rogue you have 3 choices, Maces, Swords/Axes & Fist/Daggers so let's go over each one and explain the pro's and con's:

1) Maces - For PvE this spec should be avoided, while the armor reduction is nice, the bonus this grants is inferior to those of the other two. There is talk of the Mace spec being buffed in the future but for now let's stay away shall we?

2) Swords & Axes - My personal favorite if for nothing more than the title "Hack and Slash." All things being equal this spec is your best choice, assuming of course, you have the weapons to pull it off.

3) Fist/Dagger - Despite not being my personal favorite, I am currently spec'd CQC based solely on the weapons available to me for the time being. Let me be very clear here...rocking this spec with TWO daggers is less than ideal...in fact its plain stupid. The damage we do in Combat relies greatly on weapon speed (slow in MH, fast in OH) and the fact is there just is not a dagger slow enough to be able to get away with one in your MH. There is a bit more to this and since it is my current spec I'll go into greater detail...*sigh*

So now you are vendoring those maces you've been running around Stormwind with and scrambling to open Atlas loot to see where your Swords, Axes, Fists and Daggers will come from...good, you're on the right track. As I mentioned earlier, you want a slow MH wep, DEFINITELY something 2.0+ so 2.5 speed will do but 2.6 is better (you get the picture). Having said that you are going to want an OH wep faster than that 2.0, preferably 1.4 but 1.5 will do (see what I did there?). If you're lucky enough to have Swords and/or Axes that meet that criteria then grats, you can stop reading this paragraph, otherwise, indulge me...CQC is only viable if you have a slow Fist in your MH for the reasons stated up there ^^^^.

This fast OH I keep speaking of has everything to do with your Poison applications....more poisons applied = more better SO the faster you attack the better, got that? Since our buff to poisons, a larger portion of our damage output is from our Instant Poison, thus the reason why we spec into Improve Poisons in the Assassination tree.

At higher gear levels we need to be careful when spec'd in CQC because of issues with Crit Capping...we have issues already w/o the +5% crit from CQC which is another reason why Hack and Slash is the ideal weapon spec, again, if you have the weapons to pull it off. It's very possible that you already have CQC AND Hack and Slash weps but just aren't sure which to choose with your current gear set up...well guess what...that's where the spreadsheet comes into play. I know a lot of people use and swear by Rawr but in my experience, the spreadsheets available here have proven to be more accurate and eventually easier to use (from a numbers standpoint at least).

OK so we got our spec and enough useful (?) advice to make an informed decision about weapons so lets move on to Glyphs. The bread and butter glyphs for Combat Rogues are Killing Spree, Sinister Strike & Eviscerate. 45 second cooldown reduction for Killing Spree? Yes please. Chance for more combo points on Sinister Strike crits? Gimme! Those 2 are must-haves here so don't go playing around with them. If you have to switch out any or want to experiment a bit with your play style, switch out Eviscerate. While this glyph does add to our dps, comparatively speaking, this is our weakest glyph of the three recommended ones.

If you've followed my advice outlined in this post then you're ready to start working on your rotation...which will be covered in my next post so make sure to check back and stay tuned!

-Untolld

...And Here We Go!

To all my readers out there, I apologize for the 'lag' in posts, unfortunately some RL came up and took me away from the time I had allotted for this blog. That, combined with my computer failure, did not allow me to post my long-anticipated (and promised) "How-To" for the Roguecraft Spreadsheet. I've made a couple changes since my last post and some readers will be happy to hear I've made the switch back to Combat...loving every second of it by the way.

Anyway, just wanted to give a quick update here and please keep an eye out for my next post later today!

-Untolld

Updated #2...

OK so you are all probably wondering where this infamous "spreadsheet" how-to post is and the answer is...well...half is gone. Apparently when Blizz decided to swing the dreaded 'Nerf-Bat' at Rogues, my computer took some splash damage and quit on me. Seriously...reimaged my computer thanks to some nasty trojans and the only thing I could save from the post is some of the write up, all the excel images of how to play around and add gear, etc, are gone. For some reason Dell can send me a new OS reinstall disc BUT can't send me MS office? What this means for YOU is that I can't do the excel work at home until I find the disc...the good news? Next week is not busy at all for me at work so I plan on filling in the 'missing' pieces by mid-next week and getting that up right away. I suppose the timing is for the best seeing how the spreadsheets have just been updated for the recent nerf. Stay tuned, sorry for the much longer than anticipated delay!