Rogue Guide

ed Ambush- Increases your chance to crit with ambush by 40%. Ambush stinks without a crit. You have to get this if you’re going to ambush.

Initiative- 75% chance to get an extra combo point when doing any opener but BS. I love this talent. I love it despite the fact that I don’t get that point 75% of the time. There’s nothing like doing a cheap shot, having 3 points, knowing that you are about to do a cold blood eviscerate in a couple of seconds.

Ghostly Strike- This is another one that people ask me about a lot. I’m not a big fan. If the cooldown were shorter it could be used more consistently. The energy cost is kind of high too. 15% dodge for 7 seconds is not a lot of extra dodge. What I do like is

Improved Garrote- It increases the duration of garrote by 6 seconds but reduces the damage by 10%. The math works out in our favor, but why on earth would we want to extend the duration? Sure a rogue would have trouble getting back into stealth for an extra 6 seconds, but we also can’t gouge or blind him either. Alex, I’ll take talents that don’t impress me much for $200.

Improved Vanish- This talent makes me want to stick a hot poker in my eye. No, it makes me want to bob for apples in a vat full of piranhas and rubbing alcohol. No, it makes me want to turn on my gas oven, crawl inside and play with matches. Hold up one second. In theory, one could vanish in which they would be able to move faster than normal walking speed if they have camo for 10 seconds. Throw this talent on and you move another 30% faster. Sprint and you’re moving 70% faster. In theory you could run faster than a level 60 mount for 10 seconds. I guess that’s kind of cool in theory, but I’d rather spoon with Rush Limbaugh than spend 3 points here. But do keep in mind that some long jumps can only be made if you have enough speed. If there was a spot that only a rogue could get to, I suppose I would consider it if they payoff was worthy.

Improved Rupture- Increases rupture damage by 30%. That takes rupture up to 1215 from 935. That is big damage that ignores armor. Consider this for your templates.

Improved Sap- After you die about 100 times from sap failing, missing or not getting you back into stealth, you will wish you never had to sap. It’s a necessary evil and so is this talent. If you are in a position of not having to sap, you could pass on this talent. There’s literally 50 rogues in my guild. When 5 of us are in a raid in UBRS we don’t all need to be sapping.

Preparation- No hemorrhoid jokes today. I love this talent. It automatically ends the cooldown of all rogue abilities. This gets into some pretty advanced stuff that I cover later. This is a lot of power. To vanish, evade and cold blood twice in a fight is a massive amount of power. It’s cooldown is once every 10 minutes. I make it a point to keep a close eye on it at all times.

Improved Cheap Shot- Reduces the energy cost of CS by 20. That is huge. I almost exclusively open with CS. That extra 20 energy insures a stun lock when it lands.

Improved Distract- Increases the radius of distract by 5 yards. If anything, I wish the radius were smaller. Sometimes I use distract in a manner that it is difficult to pull off a single mob.

Setup- 45 % chance to add a combo point when you dodge. This sounds really good at first glance. It sounds even better if you do the math. What it really comes down to is that you must never stun your opponent and have to use ghostly and evasion as often as possible. One use of evasion is good for 1-2 combo points. In the run of the entire fight you might get another. Still sounds good, right? I just didn’t like it. I don’t like leaving myself open and never stunning. In PvP I stunlock. I instances my tanks take the damage. I guess this would be a nice one to get if you only solo PvE. The game isn’t designed for much solo play after level 60. I’m just not a fan of this talent.

Hemorrhage- Another talent that I love. Hemorrhage costs 35 energy, does normal melee damage, adds a combo point and for the next 30 hits or 15 seconds increases the damage that a mob takes in melee by 7. I realize that doesn’t sound like much. Spam it on the giants in Molten Core and what how much of a difference it makes with 20 melee pounding on it. It can add thousands of damage in a single fight. It stacks up to 5 times. The damage doesn’t stack but the charges do. With 20 melee on a single target those charges get used up fast.

Basically it is a 35 energy SS without the damage bonus but a sweet proc that lands every time. So should we use it instead of SS? No. You will give up a lot of DPS in many situations. SS just does too much damage for 5 extra energy, especially when it crits. In solo PvE I use it when I hit specific energy levels. If I’m at 35-39, 50-54 or 70-74 energy, I will use hem instead of SS. Not so much in the 70&#