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When it comes to questing and grinding, Rogues have it pretty good. We're finely tuned killing machine with the defensive abilities to prevent unnecessary deaths and the offensive abilities to turn those group quests into solo outings. We've been fielding several questions from other Rogues about where to level, questing tips and gear choices. We'll break down the first couple levels of the trek to 80 and share what we've learned so far.
We informed of that Ambush is now affected by the talent Lethality, making Ambush a very attractive opener in the short, bursty fights that typify Mutilate leveling when coupled with the early 70's Assassination Rogue's inability to pick up Dirty Deeds. As solo fights are rarely long enough to warrant a Garrote, combat and non-dagger Subtlety should be opening with Cheap Shot.
We recommend that you can drop talents like Blood Spatter while leveling, as Rupture will be wasted in a short fight where it doesn't get to run its full duration. Deadly Poison is a similarly taboo, the chance of getting 5 stacks up to Envenom is very low and you will never get all your ticks out of the poison itself.
This carries over to your gear choices. Haste gear is great for PvE and long duration fights where that 1-2% speed increase can make a difference. Because you start most fights with full energy, the ratio of yellow (special) damage to white (normal) damage is very high. This means burst wins out over endurance. The key is to hit hard and hit fast. After AP/Agility, Crit/Hit gear is what you should be looking for while leveling. Haste should take a backseat to other stats.
It is important to note the reason that gear now has crit rating instead of the old "% chance to crit" when it comes to the various ratings you see on the gear in Northrend. The idea is that while it takes 22 Critical Strike Rating to gain 1% crit at 70, it takes almost 46 rating to gain the same effect at 80. This means that if you replace none of your gear on the way to 80, you'll have less than half the bonus critical strike chance that you had previously.
It is well worth that many Rogues are reporting a significant loss in the amount of crit/haste percentages that they're sporting as they level up. Focusing on gear and stats that doesn't diminish with level is the best way to circumvent this. AP is one of the stats we like. It never declines in value and is pretty awesome anyway. When given a choice, focus on maximizing your AP first and let the rest fall as it may.
Blizzard has pulled out all the stops for Wrath of the Lich King and you can tell that they are flexing their designing muscles with some of the new mechanics. They compensate our lack of air mobility by introducing new methods of transportation like ferries and boats on zip lines, which allow us to quest in very different areas very efficiently. It makes questing the way to go, when coupled with superb and varied rewards.
Those who are used to grinding your way to the next level, it is a very different play-style. First and foremost Rogues are designed to kill and grinding was previously one of the best ways to gain experience. But now, with the quest structure being much defined and the obvious flow from one area to another, there's really no reason not to quest. The amount of running around, quests that don't overlap, and those drop quests that rely solely on luck have been removed or corrected in this iteration of the leveling process.
We informed of that Ambush is now affected by the talent Lethality, making Ambush a very attractive opener in the short, bursty fights that typify Mutilate leveling when coupled with the early 70's Assassination Rogue's inability to pick up Dirty Deeds. As solo fights are rarely long enough to warrant a Garrote, combat and non-dagger Subtlety should be opening with Cheap Shot.
We recommend that you can drop talents like Blood Spatter while leveling, as Rupture will be wasted in a short fight where it doesn't get to run its full duration. Deadly Poison is a similarly taboo, the chance of getting 5 stacks up to Envenom is very low and you will never get all your ticks out of the poison itself.
This carries over to your gear choices. Haste gear is great for PvE and long duration fights where that 1-2% speed increase can make a difference. Because you start most fights with full energy, the ratio of yellow (special) damage to white (normal) damage is very high. This means burst wins out over endurance. The key is to hit hard and hit fast. After AP/Agility, Crit/Hit gear is what you should be looking for while leveling. Haste should take a backseat to other stats.
It is important to note the reason that gear now has crit rating instead of the old "% chance to crit" when it comes to the various ratings you see on the gear in Northrend. The idea is that while it takes 22 Critical Strike Rating to gain 1% crit at 70, it takes almost 46 rating to gain the same effect at 80. This means that if you replace none of your gear on the way to 80, you'll have less than half the bonus critical strike chance that you had previously.
It is well worth that many Rogues are reporting a significant loss in the amount of crit/haste percentages that they're sporting as they level up. Focusing on gear and stats that doesn't diminish with level is the best way to circumvent this. AP is one of the stats we like. It never declines in value and is pretty awesome anyway. When given a choice, focus on maximizing your AP first and let the rest fall as it may.
Blizzard has pulled out all the stops for Wrath of the Lich King and you can tell that they are flexing their designing muscles with some of the new mechanics. They compensate our lack of air mobility by introducing new methods of transportation like ferries and boats on zip lines, which allow us to quest in very different areas very efficiently. It makes questing the way to go, when coupled with superb and varied rewards.
Those who are used to grinding your way to the next level, it is a very different play-style. First and foremost Rogues are designed to kill and grinding was previously one of the best ways to gain experience. But now, with the quest structure being much defined and the obvious flow from one area to another, there's really no reason not to quest. The amount of running around, quests that don't overlap, and those drop quests that rely solely on luck have been removed or corrected in this iteration of the leveling process.
