A Noob's LifeFollow

So, in the last 6 weeks I dinged 70 and have been doing 2v2 arena since then. Our ratings have gone from 1440 to 1764 in that time with no arena gear (for me) on the Cyclone battlegroup. I'm going to post what I've learned in the hopes that it helps other new arena rogues in terribad gear new to arena. This is more a log than a real guide.

If you look back, you'll even see some of my completely noobish questions back in early October. One thread in particular was helpful and I recommend:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/class.html?wclass=4;mid=1190935905184228881


Week 1
I joined a 2v2 team with a lock friend. I was greens/blues and he was greens/blues/1 epic. My MH and OH were green Iron Skull Sword of the Bandits. I was not spec'd for pvp (no imp sprint, but 19/42 combat) and did not yet have a stun removal trinket.

We went 2-8. Finished with 1440 rating.

What I learned:
Positive: Arena isn't so Scary.
Negative: There is no point to arena without the pvp trinket. Half those games I was CC'd the entire time until the lock was dead. Get the trinket or arena will be no fun at all. This truly is required.


Week 2
Same 2v2 team, I've added Latros to OH but still sportin my green MH. I've respecced to PvP combat swords 19/42 and skipped riposte.

We went 6-4.

What I learned:
Positive: Spec matters.. A lot. Also, the trinket is REQUIRED. Respeccing with improved sprint pretty much was the difference in 3 of the games here, and we probably would have gone 0-10 without the trinket.
Negative: I'm a noob and should never, ever switch targets without a very very good reason. This lost us a couple games.


Week 3
Added vet ring and two pieces of the fel leather set. I still have 5 greens on me and only the +8stam enchants from LW. My blues are gemmed with the 3g +6 to hit gems lol. My partner is working on his battlecast set, and respec'd to Sl/Sl. His survivability is much improved, which is good because they generally dps him.

We went 8-2

What I learned:
Positive: You can overcome gear. Geared teams are gonna beat you if they're good, but you can overcome a lot of well geared teams. There are so many amazingly powerful CC talents for both rogues and locks. If done right, you can shut down healing or dps on the other team for quite a while. I did like getting stunlocked to death by the geared rogues though in the losses :D. Bastards running Ar/Prep before the patch.
Negative: Don't use Evis! Don't do it. No no no. Bad rogue. Just unbind the button if you find yourself using it. Unless it's the killing blow or you've got BF with 2 targets in front of you, it's always a bad finisher.


Week 4
Added a couple enchants, assault to gloves, added Sergeant's cloak + agil. Still rockin that green MH because Edge of the Cosmos hates me and am not exalted in aldor yet. Got the revered aldor shoulder enchant for my green shoulders.

We went 11-3

What I learned:
Positive: LoS Rules. This was the first week we handled a couple paladin/warr teams very well. If you're going to beat teams better geared than you, you need to master LoS. We no where near mastered it here, but just using it effectively once per match is enough to tip the scales in our favor. If you're not in the 1900+ brackets, people lack one of two things: Skill or Gear. If they lack gear, you're on an even playing field. If they lack skill, use yours to minimize their effectiveness (naturally CC, poisons, CoEx, and kiting-- but LoS will separate the men from the boys).
Negative: Don't forget poisons. Lost a match because I forgot to switch my dead/inst PvE poisons to Wound/Crip. If the mage is good, you're not going to kill him easily. Do not target the mage, and if you do, do not open with CS!

Let me expand on how to use LOS vs War/Pal teams. You run around pillars so the war has to follow you to DPS. If he does, the pal can't heal him until he runs within LoS. This can add 3-5 seconds of a paladin not healing, which is as effective as a extra stun on the paladin. Once the paladin gets in LOS, the Warr is a little lower on health. You now have the option to CC the paladin with blind and try to burst down the not 100% warrior. This is one way to use LoS, and I'm f'n terrible at it.


Week 5
Still rockin the green MH. My resil is somewhere around 20 and I can be 1-hit with 6.5k hp.

We went 12-5

What I learned:
Positive: When teams lose to someone rockin a green MH, they cry. Seriously though, if you're weapons suck like mine, you're gonna want S&D because you need the sword and energy procs in the longer fights. Everyone who PvP's has +stam on their gear, so you're not bursting down people with green weapons.
Negatives: I'm really a little lost on what to do vs Rogue/Rogue teams. Without stam or resil, they do great burst damage on us. Maybe I'll need to respec and put some points in the sub tree, because if I don't get the opener I'm dead. Too bad sub sucks.

Week 6

Edge drops! Aldor Exalted! Hourglass drops! S1 next week :/. Respecc'd to Ar/Prep mace (even though I dont have those yet) lol. I don't bother buying Vind since in half a week I'll have S1 maces. Oh well.

We went 12-8

What I learned:
Positive: AR/Prep freakin rocks. It gives you so much control, especially in 2v2's. As an undead with CloS, Trinket, Vanish, and Sprint, it's very hard to kite or CC me through my first AR. Then... I've still got another one. I think Prep/AR is the spec for 2v2's. This also is the first week where I significantly outdamaged the lock, and I do believe some of that is Edge, but most of it was AR/Prep. I still can't find a good time to use S&D.
Negative: Blow your cooldowns early if you don't have resil. If you get focused and don't at least get your burst damage off, you lose. At this level, people have their epic S2 weapons and focusing on a rogue can burn him down quickly if they have stuns. I think this might not be true if you have good resil/HP or a healer, but on a dps/dps team undergeared it is.


Post S2

Now I have picked up both S1 maces, PvE heroic epic leggings and necklace, S1 Shoulders, S3 boots and belt. Resil is up to 150, HP is up to 9k, Crit's up to 21% and I can't wait to see how we do. One note though, go Malice instead of deadliness unless you're in 400 resil area. I should have grabbed that since my targets still only have around 200-300 resil. It's at 400+ resil deadliness is better.


Conclusion

I'm not a good rogue. I'm a crappy rogue. I'm not good at LoS, I'm not good about my blinds, and I still can't get comfortable with deciding on my 2nd finisher between EA, Rupture, and S&D. I still am not good at switching targets, and I need to do a better job of sapping the healers. I'm bad. But, you will not go 0-10 in arena if you and your partner spec right, get the pvp trinket, and generally play smart. Also, that green MH is better than many blues due to its high damage range. For 20g, it's not bad to tide you over until you get your S1 weapon.

In closing, I'd like to advise new rogues to not panic in arenas. Find a target, stay on them until they die. Do not blow your finishers early. Do not use evis unless he's below 10%. Switching targets is very tough, and if you aren't 100% sure it's the right move, odds are you're just wasting time running you could be doing damage/kicking/stunning.

I wrote this so other rogues can see my mistakes, and not feel bad about making the same ones themselves.


Hopefully this helps people. /flamesuit

Edited, Nov 28th 2007 2:36pm by Tromo

LOL!!! Don't be offended by this, this is an excellent post, and it will help me immensely. Buuuut when you wrote this:

"You run around pillars so the war has to follow you to DPS. If he does, the pal can't heal him until he runs within LoS. This can add 3-5 seconds of a paladin not healing, which is as effective as a extra stun on the paladin. Once the paladin gets in LOS, the Warr is a little lower on health. You now have the option to CC the paladin with blind and try to burst down the not 100% warrior."


...I pictured a chase scene from the three stooges.

Oh god... I feel like a complete fool now. Even though i've played on PTR once or twice with that trinket, I never noticed it was on a 2 minute CD... And the 20 resilience ain't too shabby either...
Well, fortunately I have the honor for the better one, so I'll go pick it up right now and not feel stupid any more. :)