Parry! Dodge! Spin! is an entertaining and informational rogue blog written by Valenna. He has brought up an interesting idea: in some instances, in some situations, rogues can be viable main tanks.

To understand this better, you first have to read his earlier post: Dirty Tricks To Surviving. This should be required reading for every rogue that out aggros the tank in a PuG. Obvious to some, but then you come across a rogue that doesn't understand why they are getting rezzed every five minutes.

After that, check out Dirty Tricks To Tanking. Valenna recommends the Surviving tricks minus the deaggro moves. Then he recommends piling up the Stamina gear, a Medallion of the Alliance to remove impairments and have some heavy dps and a back up tank along. With this set up, he has tanked Old Hillsbrad and Steamvault.

Any one else tried a non-standard role and survived? Any other Rogues pull off the tanking role with some cleverness and forethought?

Even though I haven't raided on my rogue for about two months, I'm still pretty happy when I look at her gear. 4/5 T4, the Chestguard of the Conniver, the awesome offhand dagger from heroic Ramparts that I obtained after my guild found it in the chest, held the chest open, and summoned me in -- *Monty Burns voice* why, this is less a rogue than a god. (Disclaimer: My rogue is not actually a god, and yours is probably better geared and also prettier.)

But there are two blues disrupting my sea of adequate purples -- I have yet to replace either of my trinkets. And when I talk to other rogues, many of them have the same problem. The truly good epic trinkets for rogues are hard to find or have many competing rogues after them, and many of the other trinkets are just ... meh. So to help out my fellow rogues, I'm posting a guide to some of the best max-level trinkets (as rated by their power and their ease of attainability.)

In the past, MVP Schwick of the European forums has solicited players for their opinions about how their class can be improved. Now he has put out a call to the readers for a list of issues concerning the Rogue class in particular.

Schwick read through all the rants, complaints and well-thought out solutions. Then he compiled the best suggestions into one post. In it he covers Rogue issues with PvE, PvP, itemization, talents, abilites and combo point abilities.

There is no guarantee that the Blizzard devs will see the list, but if they are looking for class issues, this thread would be a great place to start.

Check it out and let us know if you feel anything needs to be added.

Celene has an interesting point: "Who in their right mind thought that the Subtlety tree needed additional threat reduction? Even the rogue class as a whole?" Indeed, she points out multiple ways that rogues already have to get rid of all the threat they can possibly build up: Feint, improved Fein (via the Sleight of Hand talent), Anesthetic Poison -- not to mention Vanish! And now, in patch 2.3, the Shadowstep talent is set to give an extra 50% threat reduction on the next attack the rogue makes after using it. (This is on top of the change to make Shadowstep useable regardless of whether you are in stealth or not.)

But the 5000-gold question is: Why? As you can see, rogues are buffed up with threat-reduction options already. Is Blizzard blind to the actual needs of the rogue class? Bornakk shadowsteps into the thread to point out, basically, that we ought not to look a gift horse in the mouth: "Rogues with Shadowstep will probably be attacking mobs at some point and this will help them use the ability and not pull aggro."

The problem here, as I see it, is that players sometimes assume that devs are handing out some abilities and buffs at the expense of others. A player sees a reduction in threat gained after using Shadowstep, for example, and thinks that the devs are opting to put that in rather than look at the class's real problems and get around to fixing them. In reality, I believe, the devs take their time with the small changes, and wait and wait for the big ones; they do a lot of internal testing to make sure that they don't mess up the class even more by trying to apply a "fix" to whatever problem is presented to them. If there are going to be sweeping changes that revolutionize the class, they'll either come bit-by-bit, or else they'll coincide with the release of an expansion, which is really the only time when huge changes make sense.

Personally, I'm all for more threat reduction, but it's really not that big an issue for me. I'm more excited about being able to teleport about out of stealth as well as in. This and other changes coming up for rogues might actually make me go back to playing my rogue alt again.

Ahh, patch week. You know the time-honored dance by now: enable your outdated mods, and log in to see what explodes. As many of my guild-mates and I were discussing on Tuesday, different classes really have different UI needs. I know when I used to run my Mage as my raiding main, Decursive was one of the biggest mods that I simply couldn't live without. Now that I've shifted to my Rogue as my raiding main, it's a whole different ballgame mod-wise. (I couldn't even tell you the last time I thought about Decursive.) As such, I thought I'd take this patch week to open the floor to the discussion between Rogues of what mods are absolutely crucial for us, and what mods are just "nice to have."

In a move that many Rogues knew was coming, but some are acting shocked at nonetheless... The "Stealth in and Sap flagged players just to annoy them" routine isn't working so well anymore. Specifically, if you're on a non-PvP server and you Stealth in and Sap a flagged player, it now flags you for PvP. There have been reports of folks getting their faces eaten by guards in neutral cities for just Sapping other people. There's also been some good World PvP starting up out front of instances for the normal/RP servers due to Rogues thinking they're going to be smart and interrupt flagged folks using the summoning stones/mounting up/etc. Whoops...

Personally, I feel that Sapping another flagged player just to be a prat should always have flagged the Rogue in question. Sure, you've still got a chance to get away if nobody happens to see through your stealth and/or you can pop Vanish or Sprint away fast enough. But 'lo and 'ware to any young Rogue thinking s/he can annoy another player by Sapping them and not get flagged by it any longer.

My oh my, it's a veritable information storm out there in the forums. We've already talked about Shaman and Priest buffs in patch 2.3. Here are a few changes that are coming for the sneakier ones among us:

• we actually have some changes coming in 2.3 for Deadly Throw. The speed at which it travels is being increased significantly, so it will reach your target much faster, and the snare duration is being increased slightly. One second longer if I remember correctly. (Drysc)
• It won't be able to activate Ruthlessness anymore though, no more chain deadly throws. (Kalgan)
  
• Do you mean the amazing change to Shadowstep so that it can now be used at any time, not only while stealthed? In addition, after use of Shadowstep threat caused by the next Ambush, Garrote or Backstab will be reduced by 50%. The cooldown will however be increased to 40 seconds.
  
  Also on the Subtlety front is a change to Dirty Deeds so that it will also be increasing damage of special attacks by 10/20% against targets that are below 35% health.
  
  We're also taking a look at bumping up Hemorrhage a bit, but no details yet on what that may be. (Drysc)
• Fleet Footed will now be a 15% speed increase instead of 8%. (Kalgan)
• In 2.3 Blind will no longer require a reagent. It will also be changed to a physical attack, will share the same diminish category as Cyclone, and diminish in PvE as well as PvP. (Drysc)
• we've updated [Blind] to be a ranged physical attack (also no longer counts as a poison) (Kalgan)

That's quite a bit of stuff. I'm especially pleased to see Shadowstep increased in viability, so I no longer have to wince whenever a SS rogue joins one of my groups. Deadly Throw gets both a buff and a nerf, which I suppose will make it more generally useful, but less useful in the specific case of DT kiting. The Dirty Deeds buff is extremely interesting; +10% when the target is below 35% translates to a 3.5% increase in damage overall to special attacks, which is not at all shabby for one talent point (and that's not even including DDs' current, lackluster effect of energy reduction on CS and Garotte). As for the Blind changes, all I have to say is that it's about time. I have no opinion on Fleet Footed, since I've never used it, but maybe someone else does.

Most raiding rogues I know tend to look for pure, solid stats on their weaponry. Agility, stamina, AP, crit and hit -- these are the backbone of the rogue arsenal. Procs can be less than ideal, given their unreliable nature and spiky DPS increase.

But there are some procced abilities that stand out above the others. Procs that are frequent enough or major enough to turn the tide in boss fights, destroy your enemies in PVP, or just look really cool and flashy on your weapons. Read on to discover which Burning Crusade procs to use and which procs to lose.

Weapon: The Night Blade
Weapon type: Epic 1.8 speed dagger
Proc: Your attacks ignore 435 of your enemies' armor for 10 sec. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
Proc rate: Approximately 6.5%.
Analysis: This proc used to be ridiculously overpowered. With a proc rate of 21 percent, rogues could have this up constantly, adding an extra 11-14 percent more damage in raids. Blizzard nerfed the proc down to a more managable 5-8%, but it still seems to proc in "stacks", making it a worthwhile investment -- though probably not worth several thousand gold.

Keen and Graev have a good post up about why (according to them) players prefer playing DPS roles. Statistically, it appears to be more or less true-- according to Warcraft Realms, four of the five highest class percentages are traditionally DPS classes: Mage, Rogue, Warlock, and Hunter. Warriors also have a higher population, but it could be argued that only 1/3 of the Warrior specs (Prot, as opposed to Arms or Fury) out there are actually meant for anything other than DPS.

So why do players seemingly prefer to play DPS? K&G give three main reasons. They cite something they call "Big Number Syndrome," which is the idea that unless you're dealing big damage, your class is worthless. They say that doing DPS requires less responsibility-- tanks and healers have to pay attention to everything, but DPSers choose a target and kill it. And they say that DPS classes level faster, which seems anecdotally (at least) to be true-- more damage means a faster kill, which means XP more often.

In general (very generally, in fact), I tend to agree. For these reasons, some people are definitely drawn to the DPS lifestyle. But I don't think that these reasons are why people chose these classes in the first place. Hunters, for example, have pets, and I think that's a much bigger draw to the class than "big number syndrome" ever was. And let's not forget that these are more or less the most archetypal classes in the game-- someone who's never played the game probably would immediately know what a "Mage" or "Rogue" could do, whereas a Shaman (the lowest class population, according to the census) is a little harder to explain.

So I think K&G are putting the chicken before the egg-- these things may be true about DPS looking back (and they may in fact be reasons people choose DPSers as alts). But when people first choose a class to call their own, I think it's a little simpler than that.

[ via Hardcore Casual ]

Rogues got a good bit of blue response on the forums today. First, player Snlper of Ysondre server wanted to know why Vanish and Blind still required reagents. The Fadeleaf component to make Blinding Powder is particularly annoying to her as it has to be gathered with Herbalism, pickpocketed or bought at inflated price on the Auction House. Community Manager Drysc thought the complaint holds merit and will hopefully bring it to the attention of the devs.

Next, player Istarian of Lightninghoof suggested a new talent/skill that shifts some unused combo points to the next target when the current target dies before the rogue can pull off a finishing move. This is how he worded it:

Redirect Focus
Passive
When your target dies with 3/4/5 combo points on it, your next attacked hostile target within 15 seconds gains 1/2/3 of those combo points. (This effect will only be active if you have at least 3 combo points on your target).

CM Drysc responded that the dev team has considered ways to deal with unused combo points, but hasn't decided on anything yet.

Finally, this last bit of blue lovin' is a clarification on the melee haste nerf and the impact on casters. Drysc explained that haste and attack power were of similar value to melee players at their base level, but +haste was scaling much faster than +attack power when a player loaded up on it through equipment. Blizzard is bringing down the benefit of +haste for all classes. But then they noticed it impacted casters too much and now they are bringing back up (all the way? a little bit? just for casters? that wasn't clear.)

We've covered many different aspects the world of Roguecraft has to offer thus far -- from class quests to gear to number crunching. However, one of the things I've heard from people who are new to Rogues is the question of what trade skills are useful to take up and why. As such, this week's edition of Encrypted Text will contain some of my views on what each trade skill can offer a Rogue. Obviously, short of starting a wiki -- this is not going to be a fully comprehensive version of all that Trade skills can offer. But hopefully between my experience of bouncing between many, many trade skills, and comments from the seasoned Rogues in the WoW Insider crowd, we'll be able to de-mystify one of the earliest choices facing the new Rogue.

Cach, a player on the Spanish-speaking Zul'jin realm wrote in to tell us a little story about him, a GM, and the chests in the Mechanar. So the story goes that Cach was going through his usual sneaky-stealthy chest farming run in the instance, when he was messaged by a GM. It appears that such a run is about to be considered an exploit, and that Cach was getting a note on his Permanent Record and would soon be sent to the Principal's Office if he didn't stop.

Didn't stop? If he stops playing a rogue, they mean. Okay, I may be wrong on this, but I honestly thought being sneaky and inventive was what the rogue class was all about. Turns out that using their skills to achieve monetary gain is a no-no. Oh wait, what about Pick Pocket you say? Yeah, my point exactly. I fail to see how using the skills programmed into the class is exploiting the game. Yes, he is able to stealth through the instance and collect items from chests. Yes, this enables to rogues to make cash in an inventive way. So does AoE farming fire elementals on the Elemental Plateau. Will this too be considered an exploit soon?

There is a fine line between using the skills your characters have in an inventive way and exploiting weaknesses in the game. A rogue's ability to stealth by enemies? I really hope they don't consider that an exploit. Otherwise why not just roll a warrior and have done with?

[thanks Cach!]

If you've ever watched Monty Python (and of course you have), you've probably seen the wonderful informational film "How Not To Be Seen." It takes the form of a crash course on how not to be detected, with explosive consequences for anyone who fails. Among the tips are not to stand up, not to choose an obvious hiding place, and not to let anyone know where you're planning on taking your holiday.

How Not To Be Seen reminds me a lot of questing and world PVP as a rogue. As long as you're invisible, you're fine -- but if you get caught out in the open, prepare to get pyroblasted into eternity. Other classes have huge swords, the light of the gods, demonic powers, endless channels of arcane magic, angry animal companions, and the powers of nature itself. We've got, what, two measly daggers? No wonder we need to hide.

So this week, Encrypted Text will present some tips -- both physical and psychological -- on how not to be detected when in stealth.

One of the many things that I remember from raiding pre-Burning Crusade was how often many Rogues would lament the lack of real use for poisons. As such, a whole generation of PvE Rogues let their Poisons get dusty, and judging from some of the things I've seen in pick-up groups since then, I can only wonder if there is a true appreciaton for the art of poisons. (There again, I could just happen to be getting continually unlucky in PUGs and always seem to luck into the Rogues who just don't know better.)

Now this isn't to say all elder Rogues abandoned their poisons altogether, nor that all new Rogues don't understand them. This is instead an open letter to those Rogues who simply haven't messed with them enough to know the difference between an instant poison and a hole in the ground, and who continually use caster poisons on melee targets. It is for those folks that I'm writing this week's column. (Well okay, and for anyone curious about poisons in general...)

So recently, I decided to respec ret and give the most-vilified spec in WoW a swing while I leveled. I used the popular Seal/Judge Crusader, Seal of Command, Judge Command, Crusader Strike combo. But I kept forgetting to instantly re-seal Command after Judging, and as a result, I was pretty slow to kill things. I decided it was time to make a macro.

Now, I've used macros before on my rogue (usually involving pickpocketing when cheapshotting), but I had yet to make any for my pally. So I did a Google search and lo and behold, there were a ton of good paladin macro sites! These will be old hat for any experienced macroers, but for noobs like me, I figured a list would come in handy.