Why Dual Spec?

I’ve spent a couple days thinking about dual speccing Seenah. But the same thought always came back. “Why Bother?”. She’s a rogue, pure dps, why bother with a second spec. I don’t pvp with her, I solo quest, and run groups. That’s it. But I went ahead and bought the second spec anyway. Why you ask? Well I’ll tell you.

1. Changing it up. My main spec, combat, is fun. No doubt about it. And it does nice damage in groups, I can take multiple mobs out solo with things like Blade Flurry and Killing Spree. I don’t need a whole lot of Finesse, with Glyph of Pickpocket. I really enjoy it. However, I’ve also enjoyed the Subtlety tree in the past. The extra stealthiness, faster cooldowns, shadowstep is such a fun talent. Big Ambushes, starting fights with 5 combo points up, it’s just a fun spec. Doing the same thing all the time, gets dull for me…so having a second spec to swap to helps keep things fresh.

Combat is in your face battle, Subtlety is more stealth, finesse, the darker side of the rogue. It’s nice to be able to play both.

2. Experimenting. Having that second spec available, opens up a chance to experiment with other builds that may appear from time to time. Or that new glyph. We all know patches can bring with them serious class changes. With a second spec you can experiment with adjustments to help deal with them, and not lose your main spec and glyphs. You can even compare the output between the two without alot of shuffling around to the trainer.

I never really thought of dual specs outside of it being convenient for my healer. But now that I have…I’m glad I did. So if you’re thinking about dual speccing that pure dps class, go for it. There’s no reason NOT to, and at least two reasons you should.

Tags: Dual Spec, Rogue

Experiment Gone Badass

When I started my rogue, Seenah, it was a challenge I gave myself. After months of my husband hearing me say “pshh you think that [insert alt he was playing at here]’s hard…roll a priest!” he did. His main was and still is, a rogue. So, what’s good for the gander is good for the goose, and I rolled my rogue. Again. I’d had at least three that never made it to level 10.  This one would be different. But she’d never achieve what I did on my druid, afterall, she was just an alt, an experiment, a toon that leveled from 20-30 only through refer a friend levels granted from another account. But once she hit 30, and had a mount…well, I thought, maybe she’d get to outlands, and even 70.

She was 68 when WOTLK released, and leveled to 72 that month. Where she sat. Because I’d hit a wall. I was subtlety, I adored that spec for 72 levels. However Northrend presented me with a challenge. frequent multiple mob situations. So many times I’d get overwhelmed, and have to vanish, only to try again, and either have to blow cooldowns to vanish again, or die trying. Finally, my husband, tired of my flailing and wailing, suggested I try combat. I did, close quarters (daggers/fist) specced. In no time, she was 77, then flying, then (thanks to a very kind DK) flying quickly, and poof! level 80 was here.

But who cares about gear. She’s just an alt. An experiment. An alt to be my engineer. Right? I tried to convince myself of that. I really did. But I found myself grabbing weapons off the AH, being mindful of what quests would net the best rewards. I was browsing Atlas Loot looking at rep factions and rewards. I was healing in groups, and watching the rogues’ rotations in recount, and admiring their damage.  I found myself browsing BoE’s and the best items I could get outside raids. I found a few heroic drops that would be nice. And then…I found myself wanting to run things with her.

I once said, in a TNB interview, my rogue was my favorite alt. But then I fell in love with my hunter for a while. Now…I found, as far as being a DPS class, I’d rather play this rogue than use my druid’s dual spec, or play my hunter at all.

As of today, Seenah has reached over 3k Attack Power, 27% Crit, and hit the poison hit cap. She’s also…gotten some nice new clothes. No seriously, have you SEEN some of these things they make us wear? Pants. Oh lord the pants. They looked like  they were stitched together using leftover parts of pants that didn’t survive the plague! I am NOT obsessed with pants. I’m NOT. But ewww! Would YOU want to wear the outfit pictured below. I mean we have the pants of epic ugly, and the tabard of make me look fat, and those boots…dear lord.

Or, suck up to the Argent Crusade for a while til you reach exalted, and can ditch the tabard, and the Frenzyhearts, and come out dressed like this…

Notice the slimming tabard, the plusher boots, and the much more rogue like pants. Why are they more rogue like? Well simple…throwing daggers strapped to the thighs, and ankles!

They say the clothes make the man…well in this case, the Rogue. That doesn’t make me obsessed, it makes me aware of my appearance, as a professional. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. And, I’m sticking to this rogue. She’s got me hooked.

I’m pretty happy with her armory, considering she only just hit 80 last week.  Special thanks for that main hand weapon going to Big Birch Butt Blogger for healing that Heroic CoS Run and to the awesome Mrs Bear, who didn’t know it but inspired me to be better! And my other awesome guildies for being so patient with the newb 80 rogue learning how to do the group thing. I’d have never gotten up the nerve to try groups on her without the encouragement. And of course to Sonare, from Mythos on Draenor…without whom, she would have been abandoned in her early teens. Had he not appeared with two goblin screwdrivers, and a bunch of advice.

And i’m not obsessed with pants. I’m not. I swear. Stop LOOKING at me! NO! You’re wrong! The voices in my head are beautiful!

CHARGE!!

I was getting this achievement thanks to the willingness of my husband (whom you can see kneeling in defeat behind me). I use a mod called Multishot to capture such moments, and was quite taken aback by this one!

I liked it so much, I made me an icon out of it!

Sometimes, I just get lucky.

Seenah’s Rogue UI

So I’ve been playing with my rogue ALOT. So much in fact that she needed a UI that wasn’t just a flat out copy from my others. We have to track Rupture and Slice and Dice and make sure both are always up. I have to know how many combo points I have, and when I have 5, since my best rotation seems to be 5 combo points > Slice and Dice/5 combo points > Rupture. And of course I need to see my health and my opponents health. I need to watch all of these things, but don’t want my eyes bouncing around the screen to see my buffs, my health, and my targets health. I also don’t want to get tunnel visioned into watching healthbars.  So I worked on my UI today, and came up with this. Click to enlarge.

It turns out, Mik’s Scrolling Battle Text has alot of what I need for combo points. So I just tweaked it’s existing settings a bit to get my “Finish It!” notification front and center when I have 5 cp up. As I gain cp, they scroll up the center of my combat area.

Thanks To Nib and her suggestion of Power Auras, I have my little skull and crossbones with timer to track rupture, and my crossed daggers and timer to track Slice and Dice. This was MUCH better than quartz, which I found to be obtrusive on my screen real estate. As you can see I really like an uncluttered screen. Call me silly, but when I need to get a quick action shot, I don’t want to have it cluttered to death with bars if I don’t have the extra second to hide my UI.

For health monitoring, A guildie suggested a mod called Digits. It’s a simple mod, very little configuration needed, and simply shows your health and your target’s health either as a full number, or percentage.

Obviously you can still see X-perl up there in the left, but I’m planning to minize them, since I really only need unit frames for trading, inspecting, etc.  For my debuffs I’m using Bison, I keep the buffs up by my minimap. But my debuffs I placed just near my feet for ease of watching for those stupid bosses that require you to react to their debuff. I’m quite happy with how it turned out!

Twists of Fate: Prologue

Seenah sat at her usual table at the Pig and Whistle. It was “their” table once, but she shares it now with her new companion. It was a quiet night, just what she needed after weeks of battling scourge all over Northrend. It was work she would never have foreseen herself doing. She looked briefly at her hands. Her parents would be so ashamed. She had “commoner’s” hands. A bit rough, nails beaten and cracked both by hard work and a bad nail biting habit. They’d definitely chastise her for such an offense. That is, if they knew she was alive.

Her companion broke through her dark thoughts by tugging on her hand gently. A smile brightened Seenah’s face, immediately changing her entire outward appearance. “Oh Sam” she said, “at least we know ours is an unconditional love right?” as she fed him a bite of her dinner.

A voice broke the quiet.

“HOW on earth can you love that…that…MONSTER??”

Seenah sighed, and grinned at the stranger.

“I might have asked the same once, when I was young and naive like you. Sit with me, and I shall tell you how I’ve come to love this…as you called him, monster”