Found a killer guide to Fire Mage DPS. It’s very much raid oriented and covers talents, gear, stats, gems, buffs, and a bunch of other stuff. Also included are several links to more mage DPS goodness.
Check it out: World of Warcraft Mage DPS Guide
Sep 252008
Aug 292008
[tag-tec]Wrath of the Lich King[/tag-tec] is going to do some interesting things to pets, especially in terms of leveling your pet and loyalty ratings.
Big Red Kitty has the story. WotLK Beta, Pet Winners and Losers
For example:
Bats Sonic Blast. What makes this two-second stun better than everything other pets’ is the uber-short cooldown. If you’re mana-draining hunter in a 5v5 team and your primary target is the paladin, it’ll be hard to choose a better pet than a Bat to interupt that paladin’s heals.
So if you play a Hunter, or you’re being played by one, or you want to know about that odd pet that’s going to be attacking you in the BGs, or you want to know more about the new pet leveling system, then check it out.
Parry! Dodge! Spin! has a post covering the various Glyphs that the new Inscriptions will add to the [tag-tec]Rogue talents[/tag-tec] and abilities:
First of all, I think every other class needs to send Blizzard a thank you card for the following change to Mace Specialization. As a Combat Swords Rogue (and as a Resto Druid), I’m pretty excited to see it myself. This should make Mace Specialization a bit more attractive for raiding as well.
Mace Specialization (Combat) no longer stuns enemies, and instead increases critical damage bonus by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Here’s the rest: WotLK Beta 8820 Rogue News
You’ll want to look at the comments, too. As usual with something like this there’s a wide differing of opinion.
One of the comments points out that resilience pretty much negates the crit bonus. Still, not everyone in PvP is running around with 400+ resilience or s4 gear. For leveling the damage bonus might be better than the rare stun proc.
Keep in mind that this is still in beta test and the final numbers may well be somewhat different. I’m sure that no matter what change Bliz make there will be whoops of praise and howls of outrage.
I think a lot of the Glyphs look pretty nice. What do you think?
Edit: Azande, in the comment, has some interesting stuff for the rading Rogue and more remarks on the raiding potential of Glyphs.
Twinking is the fine art of taking your character to levels far beyond what he/she should be able to do at any given level. For example, a Rogue twink, at 19, with 2,000 HP? It’s been done.
The [tag-tec]Warsong Gulch[/tag-tec] Battleground (Capture the Flag) has a level 10-19 bracket. Naturally one wants to be level 19, otherwise rapid doom will happen. Then one needs that little edge over the other 19s…
AzerothNow.com has a killer twinking guide for those level 19 Rogues bent on mayhem and slaughter in Warrsong Gulch (and maybe a duel or three.)
So you’ve done your dailies - everyday, you’ve cleared Heroics and Karazhan for Badges until your eyes bleed, maybe you’re even utterly tired of farming Illidan every week or wiping on Kil’Jaeden. But what now? Level another character? Cancel your subscription until Wrath?
Well, I have your solution: why not create a lvl 19 Twink Rogue? But what is a lvl 19 twink Rogue, you may ask. The simple explanation is that they are characters with the best possible gear for their level (including enchants), whose purpose is PvP, and their playground is the 10-19 bracket of Warsong Gulch Battlegrounds.
Here’s the rest: The Ultimate Guide to Lvl 19 Rogue Twinking
edit: A commenter points us to his twinking guides and I may just make use of his level 39 Warlock guide. Very cool. WoW Twink Guide: 39 Affliction Warlock
There’s an extensive list of WotLK patch notes here. Lots of info on what sort of tweaks might happen to your favorite class(es.)
Of course, since this is the beta test everything will probably change between now and the release date.
So look at it as what they’re playng with now, not what the final version will be.
Jul 292008
Actually, it’s a Cunning Blade and I’ll skip further Black Adder
[tag-tec]Rogues[/tag-tec] at level 10 can do a quest chain to get this Cunning Blade as a quest reward. This quest chain is entirely optional and if you browse the Auction House regularly you’re likely to find better weapons for not much gold. (And you twinks can stop laughing now.) 
Still, it’s a fun little quest chain and it can be quite challenging for your average level 10 Rogue. Each race has a different quest, in its own area, but the quest rewards are the same.
Gwynne’s done a complete walk-thorugh of all of these level 10 quest chains. So if you have an up and coming Rogue, here you go:
Jul 022008
I’ve been fussing around with macros for my Rogues and have come up with a couple of useful ones. Now, I’m more the “copy and paste” type than any kind of macro programmer, but the macro system is worth learning and will save you a lot of clicks and keymashes.
Basically a good macro set will make you a leaner meaner killing machine.
By the way, this naturally applies to classes other than Rogues, it’s just that I’m working with [tag-tec]Rogue macros[/tag-tec] at the moment. There are a variety of other sources for WoW Rogue Macros and I list a couple at the end.
So here are the macro basics to start:
- Type /macro to open the macro interface
- Hit “new”
- Pick an icon
- And then you’ll enter your code.
For my Shadowstep (Swords) Rogue I use this:
/cast Premeditation
/cast Cheap Shot
Replace Cheap Shot with the opener of your choice, eg: Ambush. Premeditation adds 2 combo points right before the attack (with a 2 min cooldown.) So with this build I Cheap Shot and can frequently add an immediate 5 pt combo finisher. If the cooldown hasn’t finished then just the Cheap Shot will fire.
This one makes sure you bandage yourself and not the other guy. 
Replace the bandage with whatever bandage you’re using at the moment.
/use [target=player] Heavy Netherweave Bandage
This next one allows me to strike with Ambush and immediately switch to swords or maces or whatever. Probably not the most efficient thing to do, but it’s fun. Slot 16 is your main hand, 17 is your off hand. Just swap in whatever weapons you’re using.
If Ambush doesn’t fire for whatever reason then the weapons still swap. If you’re one of those people who likes to spam the Ambush key as you approach then this won’t work so well, because the weapons will swap before you get the ambush off.
/cast Ambush(Rank 2)
/equipslot 16 Diamond Hammer
/equipslot 17 Ironpatch Blade
Here’s a quick swap macro. Make a couple of these and switch back and forth as the situation dictates.
/equipslot 16 Mainhand weapon
/equipslot 17 Off hand weapon
Macros can get far more advanced than these, allowing you to simplify many different actions.
Killer Guides’ Rogue Guide has a bunch of other macros and a ton of great Rogue info. Get your’s here.
Arena Junkies has a page with macros for all classes that’s worth checking out, especially if you do PvP.
Jul 022008
In order to apply poisons to their weapons Rogues have to undergo a little test. Alliance Rogues have to sneak into a tower, open a lock, steal something, and get back. Horde Rogues have to kill a few things.
Here are all the details, whether you’re Alliance or Horde.
Edit: Added pics to the guide.
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