We proved the worth of our world, Azeroth, tonight to Algalon the Observer.

He had this to say:

• I have seen worlds bathed in the Maker’s‘ flames. Their denizens fading without so much as a whimper. Entire planetary systems born and raised in the time that it takes your mortal hearts to beat once. Yet all throughout, my own heart, devoid of emotion… of empathy. I… have… felt… NOTHING! A million, million lives wasted. Had they all held within them your tenacity? Had they all loved life as you do?
• Perhaps it is your imperfection that which grants you free will. That allows you to persevere against cosmically calculated odds. You prevailed where the Titans’ own perfect creations have failed.
• I’ve rearranged the reply code. Your planet will be spared. I cannot be certain of my own calculations anymore.
• I lack the strength to transmit the signal. You must hurry. Find a place of power close to the skies.
• Do not worry about my fate <name>. If the signal is not transmitted in time re-origination will proceed regardless. Save. Your. World.

Upon our hunter’s transmission of the Reply-Code Alpha  in Dalaran:

Rhonin says: We received Brann’s message and we begun preparations.

Rhonin yells: Citiziens of Dalaran, raise your eyes to the skies and observe.

Rhonin yells: Today our world’s destruction has been averted in defiance of our very makers.

Rhonin yells: Algalon the Observer has been defeated by our brave comrades in the depths of the titans city of Ulduar.

Rhonin yells: Algalon was sent here to judge the fate of our world.

Rhonin yells: He found a planet whose races had deviated from the titans’ blueprints. A planet where not everything had gone according to plan.

Rhonin yells: Cold logic deemed our world not worth saving. Cold logic however does not account for the power of free will!

Rhonin yells: It’s up to each of us to prove this is a world worth saving! That our lives… our lives are worth living!

And on that note, RogueRaider is taking a nice jaunt to the sunny beaches of Florida for a week. Happy Raiding and living!

*credit to WoWWiki.com for the in-game scripting*

You’ve made it through the 4 boss trials Tirion set forth to test our strength for the upcoming confrontation with The Lich King in Icecrown Citadel, but the fight isn’t over yet! After your raid defeats the Twin Val’kyrs and their orbs and shields of devestation, the Lich King enters and threatens to steal your soul.

Enter Anub’arak. This fight will test your raid’s ability to maximize positioning, tanking, healing, effective AoE damage, and ability to burn Anub to 30% and get to phase 3 with a minimum of burrow phases.

This is a great, intense fight for the rogue class and allows us to use our new WotLK abilities to their max potential. There is an awesome discussion going on over at the Rogue theorycrafting area on Elitist Jerks which you can read at the link posted below:

http://elitistjerks.com/f78/t77307-anubarak_hard_mode_tips/

We started worked on our first full night of attempts, and were pleased with the progress we enjoyed. All that’s left to continue building on our phase 1 and 2 success, and manage DPS and healing to finish out phase 3.

I chose to run two combat specs in our first night of attempts to get some raid testing on which would grant me the most success in achieving my role. Rogues are generally expected to help provide great initial threat for the add tanks through well-managed usage of Tricks of the Trade combined with our combat abilities and cooldowns such as Fan of Knives, Blade Flurry, Adrenaline Rush, and Killing Spree.

I ran the 15/51/5 Combat CQC spec, and for this fight I dropped glyph of Rupture for glyph of Fan of Knives. A good majority of my guild’s strat for this fight relies on quick burn of the 4 adds that spawn in two cycles in Phase 1. With three rogues in the guild and a three tank strategy, we had no issues with add tank threat. After completing some more research, I’ll be throwing the poison combat build 18/51/2 in my dual spec to test the increase in poison damage in conjunction with so much FoK spam.

Looking forward to more work on this fight over the next week, and best of luck in your raiding adventures!

I’ll try to keep these to a minimum, but this is one of the most exciting moments for me. We’re not world first or server first, but we worked hard as a team and it was rewarded!

Heroic Glory of the Ulduar Raider! We defeated Yogg with only Thorim to guide us.

For a sort of World Series themed post, I think we all believe that the Wrath of the Lich King expansion is heading for home with what is probably the last major content patch before Cataclysm hits Azeroth moving closer to live.

I haven’t done a list post in a while, and I love some lists! So here are my favorite memories from Wrath of the Lich King:

1. Veteran of the Wrathgate

If I didn’t love WotLK until this moment, at 74 it captured me. The series of quests that start in Wintergarde Keep with my Rogue assisting the 7th Legion at the foot of Naxxramas, and leading up to the ill-fated joint Horde/Alliance assualt led by Bolvar and Saurfang on the Lich King at the Wrathgate captured my imagination. I enjoyed the series equally on my two alts that I levelled to max. This is truly the most epic chain I think I have experienced. I was a part of history, and a part of the world.

2. In the mountains

Catch phrases are fun. From the many wipes on Thorim and his hard mode, every guild enjoyed some form of joke at the forgetful Keeper’s expense. IN THE MOUNTAINS…this one lives on as an inside raider joke and an Elitist Jerks Blizzcon Tee.

3. War of the Fish Feasts

Fish Feasts. A buff food feast that can be shared by your entire team. Raiders old and new love you for providing this feast of less grinding for raid buffs. And sometimes your worth more than one. Grats to one of our hunters who won the coveted 5 dkp prize for spelling our guild’s initials out in fish feasts, and gave us all a screenshotted raid memory.

4. Firefighters

More than any of the Ulduar hardmodes, I’m going to take this Mimiron hard mode fight with me. It requires a coordination and personal accountability that isn’t to be found in many of the WotLK raid fights. It was sometimes frustrating, and we worked on it for hours. The kill was a blast.

5. Defeating the Twin Val’kyrs

Another favorite raiding moment, we struggled for several raids to manage the Twins Pact a moment when the raid has to burn down a shield and interrupt a healing cast. On our kill, the MT for Darkbane died at 11%, our last special was a light shield with 6 DPS down, and we managed to burn it and get the kill. Epic shouting and rejoicing for all. Luckily for our raid leaders nerves, subsequent kills are cleaner.

6. Massive Sinster Calling Runs

Everyone became more helpful and friendly than usual doing multiple Headless Horseman runs to ensure that those working on “The Hallowed” could achieve their goals.

7. Battleground Experience

I am having a blast levelling my DK that would probably have sat untouched. My significant other and I have taken our toons from 58-69 (thus far) mostly by taking advantage of the new PvP levelling system. You meet interesting people to be sure, and it’s a great break from the grindy feel of questing.

I’m sure I’ll have many more things to add with the 3.3 Icecrown Citadel Patch experience. Overall, I’m playing less and having more fun than I did in TBC days, even if I do miss some of the raiding aspects that made TBC fun. Things I wish would go away forever? Gear scoring and people that live for trade chat trolling.

Optimal builds for Rogues in PvE have always hinged on the weapons available to us. We are in the unique position in Crusader’s Collesium of having various weapon setups to choose from. Despite the slight outcry from the raiding community of the repetitiveness of the instance, Rogues play some key roles in several of the fights. So, it is a great instance for us as far as our role in the raid as well, but back to the gear!

As always the theorycrafting team over at Elitist Jerks, has provided us with best in slot recommendations and our optimal setup based on the gear currently available to us.

You can find this information here, as well as a great discussion on the EP values used to determine the information. There are also links to the most recent versions of the Combat and Mutilate spreadsheets.

The most common builds in Tier 9:

15/51/5 Close Quarters Combat – MH Fist weapon of slow speed (2.6 or higher) and OH Dagger of fast speed (1.5 or lower)

15/51/5 Mace/Dagger Combat – MH Mace of slow speed and OH dagger of fast speed

15/51/5 Hack and Slash Combat – MH Axe of slow speed and sword or axe OH of fast speed

51/13/7 Mutilate – MH dagger of slow speed and OH dagger of fast speed

While I am far from having best in slot yet, I have picked up a nice set of item level 245 gear. I was able to grab, The Grinder, from 10 man Trial of the Grand Crusader last week. My set up for this week’s raiding will be the 15/51/5 Combat Mace/Dagger setup. I’m going to try the ruptureless cycle that is discussed here at the end of the BiS discussion.The real thing to take from all of the discussions is that we are no longer on set rotations for combat. You have to have 100% uptime for Slice and Dice, but to pull the massive numbers we are capable of prioritizing finishers, energy pooling, and watching your trinket procs is the key to maximizing your output as a rogue.

We’re also getting ready to start our attempts on Heroic Anub in 25 mans. I’m really looking forward to the fight as it appears to have very tight tuning, and there are some interesting strats being tossed around in the raiding community.

Best of luck in your raiding adventures!

(All credit for this information goes to the EJ team including Aldriana especially, just a bit of my usuage of it and easy access to the links to the info!)

Devious achievement. I just found a Sinister Squashling in a treat bag in Dalaran. It was indeed, A LONG, Strange trip through the holidays of Azeroth. Some were a bit of a grind, but most were easy and fun to complete. Sinister Calling. Apt sounding achievement for a rogue, I think.

I’m looking forward to Icecrown Citadel, and meeting Arthas face to face. This is the true completion to the Warcraft story that we’ve been involved in since RTS days.

From the snowy hills and mountains of Dun Morogh to the Violet City of Dalaran overlooking The Lich King stronghold of Icecrown Citadel, looking forward to more adventures in the world of Azeroth!

Hallow’s End is here! I’ll be trick or treating, and summoning the Headless Horseman in my attempt to fulfill the last meta I need, the Sinister Squashling pet. Day 1 has been unsuccessful thus far.

There are some great guides posted for the event both on the Achievement forums if you’re still working your way through the event.  http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20437375078&sid=1

For now, I’m a pirate! Yargh! What’s your favorite costume? Wisp, leper gnome, bat?

Happy Hallow’s End!

Posted on WoW.com, formerly WoW Insider, today in Moviewatch was a link to Ulduar: The Movie Part 3. I’m always up for a good show, so I went to the creator’s site. This three part series captures the lore, bosses, and “feel” of Ulduar beautifully in my opinion.

In Ulduar, you are the hero. You are fighting at first to unlock the secrets and then to save your world. Heady feeling if you think about it.

A high quality version as well as the youtube links can be found here:

http://www.modenstudios.com/invisusira/

Made me realize one of my favorite boss quotes from the Stomcaller, “Whether the world’s greatest gnats or the world’s greatest heroes, you’re still only mortal!”

Below is the two minute trailer for the three part series. Total length of the three parts is thirty minutes.

I took a bit of time out this weekend to give the new free to play version of Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) a try. Now the game is not WoW, but it’s definitely a fun game with it’s own style and gameplay.

One thing that DDO and Turbine get completely right, in my opinion, is the Rogue class. From your first moment in game, you are paired up with a rogue NPC and your main class abilities are searching for traps and secret doors, opening locks, and disabling control panels for deadly traps. I’m having a ton of fun with the party/instancing levelling format, and learning the ins and outs of my new Halfling Rogue.

It won’t replace WoW for me, but I except to definitely spend more time in this world and learning how to rogue in that universe. The community  is open and friendly. There are many resources for new and returning players on how to use the more complicated character customization/creation screens. My favorite post was one by sirgog on adapting to DDO for current or former WoW players:  http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=197117

Tonight it’s back to WoW and our guild’s first attempts at Algalon 25. Looking forward to this one!

The information is pouring out from the PTR for Patch 3.3. In what is probably the final content patch for The Wrath of the Lich King expansion, we will finally get to face The Lich King and his Scourge horde in the final battle for dominance in Northrend.

Initial screenshots of the new 5 man dungeon and aspects of the new raiding tier are being released, and gear models and set bonuses have been datamined over at mmo-champion.com. The new raid instance is featuring the ability to toggle between Normal and Hard Mode encounters via the user interface, rather than the multiple lockouts available with the current Tier 9 content, Call of the Crusade. Also being introduced, Weekly Raid Quests. Now you can overnuke Sartharion for more than just another raiding commute machine. Character copies and premade characters are available for those wishing to test content and be spoiled.

Here’s the breakdown on what 3.3 will mean for the Rogue class in the next patch (source mmo-champion):

Rogue

• 4 piece Tier 10 – Gives your melee finishing moves a 13% chance to add 3 combo points to your target.
• 2 piece Tier 10 – Your Tricks of the Trade ability now grants you 15 energy instead of costing energy.

• Dual Wield: Rogues now know this ability upon logging into the game at level 1.
• Stealth: This ability no longer has multiple ranks. While active, the single rank of this ability (available at level 1) allows rogues to move at 70% movement speed.
• Vanish: For the first half second after this ability is used, neither Vanish nor Stealth can be broken by taking damage or being the victim of a hostile spell or ability.

I want to have a positive outlook, but the Tier 10 set bonuses seem pretty lackluster when compared to the deadly poison energy regen and rupture crits of Tier 8. Also, not totally trusting the whole fixing vanish thing. But I’ll save my conspiracy theories for another day.