Most people seem to decide whether they should take an item based on the following check list; Is it epic? Does it increase my overall gearscore/does it have a higher itemlevel than my current gearpiece? If the answer is yes to one or both of these criteria, then they will need the item. There isn't anything generally wrong with this procedure as it will most of the time reward you with a better item than your current.
Epics, gearscore and high ilevels do look pretty when people inspect you. I actually know alot of people who equip a ludicrous mix of items for when they're random pugging, just to look good on the outside. But there are plenty of items out there that rock ass, eventhough they're not of high ilevel (high is always relative of course, currently that would be around 232+) or even epic. Rough diamonds if you like, that can shine if you give them the chance.
One such item is Spark of Life (EDIT: Added link), that drops from Sjonnir the Ironshaper (the last boss) in heroic Halls of Stone. It is a trinket, and good trinkets could be hard to come by overall. It doesn't look like much, it is of blue quality and only has ilevel 200. So why on Azeroth would you want to equip such an item? What makes this trinket so good is that it provides a really nice amount of haste - 73 rating to be exact. At level 80 that is 2,23% (according to wowhead.com). The second mechanic gives an overall mp5 of between 42-50mp5, depending on your spell cast style. That too is a great amount. Compare that to the normal version of Sliver of Pure Ice which has an ilevel of 251 and requires you to raid to acquire. It has an average of 75mp5, which also isn't passive like in Spark of Life.
What makes this trinket so special? Well it is actually the only haste trinket available, that is also useful for healers. Every other trinket has a second mechanic that only works either for caster dps or melee/ranged dps. Haste is an awesome stat for healers, regardless of class most healers seek to get above 20% haste, at least. So it is quite strange that there are no more haste trinkets out there that aren't designed solely for dpsers. There are two pvp-trinkets that could work for healers as well, as one increases health and the other removes movement impairing effects. But these mechanics are not something you'd usually find useful in a pve-setting.
So if you want a good chunk of haste, and you're a healer - Spark of Life is where you'll have to go.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Cataclysm Priest Changes
Over at MMO-champion they've finally posted the compilation of priest changes that the devs hope will take place in Cataclysm. And we are (finally) looking at some really interesting things. Wotlk made some good changes to priest healing too, most notably making discipline a viable pve healer at all. What will happen to us priests in Cataclysm? At a quick glance I can sum it up to Blizzard wanting us to be good tank healers too, maybe just as good as paladins and shamans are today. My guess is that when looking at shaman and pala changes, they're going to be better aoe-healers as well (some changes in this direction can be found in the shaman heals, and paladin hasn't been posten yet). But we've also got some awesome new skills to look forwards to. Remember that these changes are still only preliminary and can be pulled away from under our noses at any moment.
"Heal (available at level 16): While priests already have a spell called Heal, the existing version becomes obsolete at higher levels, which is something we intend to change in Cataclysm. Introduced at a low level, the "new" Heal spell will functionally work much like a down-ranked Greater Heal did in the past, adding more granularity to your direct-healing arsenal. If you need to heal someone a moderate amount and efficiency is an issue (making Flash Heal the incorrect spell for the job), then Heal is what you want to use. Heal is intended to be the priest's go-to direct-healing spell unless they need something bigger (Greater Heal) or faster (Flash Heal). We will be following a similar philosophy with all the healing classes."
I've wondered about the spells "Heal" and "Lesser Heal" before. It's always felt kinda odd to have spells that actually become worthless after some levels. It seems like Blizzard want to add some extra flavor to our healing arsenal simply by bringing Heal into play again. The usefulness of it is pretty well desribed in the text above, and I think it will work nicely as a small filler heal. In my guide on my guild forums about priest healing I've actually written that one of the things a priest lack at the moment is that small, cheap, nifty heal. Well looks like we're getting it. This hasn't been much of an issue previously (Flash Heal works fine), but since Blizzard want to make us think about our mana efficiency, this will probably come in handy.
"Inner Will (level 83): Increases movement speed by 12% and reduces the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10%. This buff will be exclusive with Inner Fire, meaning you can't have both up at once. Inner Fire provides a spell power and Armor buff; Inner Will should be useful on a more situational basis."
"Neither Inner Fire nor Inner Will has charges. The decision is on which armor you want up at the time"
Interesting new spell. Apparently we're going to switch between healing "modes" alot more in Cataclysm. The addition of the talent "chakra" which makes your spell more efficient if you use the same in a row (i.e. three single target heals make single target healing more efficient, three aoe heals make aoe healing more efficient and so on) points toward this too (look below for some further details on that one). Priests, and healers generally I think, shouldn't be locked into a special role anymore, but be able to switch between different ones as needed. Question is if this will become a part of healing rotation or something we chose before each fight. I guess it depends on the mana cost of these Inner spells.
Chakra?
"We want to make Holy a little bit more interesting to play. One new talent will push the Holy priest into an improved healing state when he or she casts Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. The empowered state varies depending on the heals cast."
"The idea behind the Holy "cast three in a row" talent (it's called "Chakra") is that we've always positioned Holy as a versatile healer. This talent lets you shift into different modes. If you need to be a tank healer, cast three single target heals and your single-target healing is now better. Cast three area heals, and you can be a temporarily specialized group healer. We're going to try to play this mechanic up with a cool UI to try to get that "I'm almost in the zone" feel. We'll let it apply to as many types of spells as we can, perhaps even Smite for those times when nobody's taking damage."
"Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or "Life Grip") is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown."
Blizzard themselves call it "life grip" as a pun to "death grip" and I am quite sure this is what it will be called in game. But look at it, it looks awesome! Being able to pull someone out of harms way, and there are plenty of situations where that could come in handy, will give us even more responsibility and thus chances to shine. I am really looking forward to this one.
"Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield."
"The closest analogue to PW:B is the DK Anti-Magic Zone, but it has some important differences, such as a way to counter it in PvP (since it absorbs all damage, not just magical damage)."
They had plans to introduce this one already a long time ago, maybe even as early as the coming of Wotlk, I don't remember exactly. It never came however, don't ask me why. Blizzard are promising us ponies again and we can only hope that this time, it will be for real.
They've also mentioned something about wanting to prevent dot-clipping. This means classes like warlocks and shadowpriests (and maybe and dotter) won't be able to clip dots, but only add to the duration of a dot. If this also applies to hots, I don't know yet. It's a really interesting mechanic however, and me and Love thought if that doesn't just mean you'd place a 3 min dot/hot on your target for the total duration of the fight? Haste will also not change the duration of a hot/dot, but rather the amount of ticks.
Yet again it seems like Blizzard are making the grand overhaul of healers, and yet again it seems to be for the better. I haven't had much thoughts about Cataclysm before eventhough people around me have been going all nutty about them changing the world and whatnot. But reading about these very interesting changes to priest healing I really long to test it out!
Blizzard are promising us ponies again and we can only hope that this time, it will be for real.
"Heal (available at level 16): While priests already have a spell called Heal, the existing version becomes obsolete at higher levels, which is something we intend to change in Cataclysm. Introduced at a low level, the "new" Heal spell will functionally work much like a down-ranked Greater Heal did in the past, adding more granularity to your direct-healing arsenal. If you need to heal someone a moderate amount and efficiency is an issue (making Flash Heal the incorrect spell for the job), then Heal is what you want to use. Heal is intended to be the priest's go-to direct-healing spell unless they need something bigger (Greater Heal) or faster (Flash Heal). We will be following a similar philosophy with all the healing classes."
I've wondered about the spells "Heal" and "Lesser Heal" before. It's always felt kinda odd to have spells that actually become worthless after some levels. It seems like Blizzard want to add some extra flavor to our healing arsenal simply by bringing Heal into play again. The usefulness of it is pretty well desribed in the text above, and I think it will work nicely as a small filler heal. In my guide on my guild forums about priest healing I've actually written that one of the things a priest lack at the moment is that small, cheap, nifty heal. Well looks like we're getting it. This hasn't been much of an issue previously (Flash Heal works fine), but since Blizzard want to make us think about our mana efficiency, this will probably come in handy.
"Inner Will (level 83): Increases movement speed by 12% and reduces the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10%. This buff will be exclusive with Inner Fire, meaning you can't have both up at once. Inner Fire provides a spell power and Armor buff; Inner Will should be useful on a more situational basis."
"Neither Inner Fire nor Inner Will has charges. The decision is on which armor you want up at the time"
Interesting new spell. Apparently we're going to switch between healing "modes" alot more in Cataclysm. The addition of the talent "chakra" which makes your spell more efficient if you use the same in a row (i.e. three single target heals make single target healing more efficient, three aoe heals make aoe healing more efficient and so on) points toward this too (look below for some further details on that one). Priests, and healers generally I think, shouldn't be locked into a special role anymore, but be able to switch between different ones as needed. Question is if this will become a part of healing rotation or something we chose before each fight. I guess it depends on the mana cost of these Inner spells.
Chakra?
"We want to make Holy a little bit more interesting to play. One new talent will push the Holy priest into an improved healing state when he or she casts Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. The empowered state varies depending on the heals cast."
"The idea behind the Holy "cast three in a row" talent (it's called "Chakra") is that we've always positioned Holy as a versatile healer. This talent lets you shift into different modes. If you need to be a tank healer, cast three single target heals and your single-target healing is now better. Cast three area heals, and you can be a temporarily specialized group healer. We're going to try to play this mechanic up with a cool UI to try to get that "I'm almost in the zone" feel. We'll let it apply to as many types of spells as we can, perhaps even Smite for those times when nobody's taking damage."
"Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or "Life Grip") is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown."
Blizzard themselves call it "life grip" as a pun to "death grip" and I am quite sure this is what it will be called in game. But look at it, it looks awesome! Being able to pull someone out of harms way, and there are plenty of situations where that could come in handy, will give us even more responsibility and thus chances to shine. I am really looking forward to this one.
"Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield."
"The closest analogue to PW:B is the DK Anti-Magic Zone, but it has some important differences, such as a way to counter it in PvP (since it absorbs all damage, not just magical damage)."
They had plans to introduce this one already a long time ago, maybe even as early as the coming of Wotlk, I don't remember exactly. It never came however, don't ask me why. Blizzard are promising us ponies again and we can only hope that this time, it will be for real.
They've also mentioned something about wanting to prevent dot-clipping. This means classes like warlocks and shadowpriests (and maybe and dotter) won't be able to clip dots, but only add to the duration of a dot. If this also applies to hots, I don't know yet. It's a really interesting mechanic however, and me and Love thought if that doesn't just mean you'd place a 3 min dot/hot on your target for the total duration of the fight? Haste will also not change the duration of a hot/dot, but rather the amount of ticks.
Yet again it seems like Blizzard are making the grand overhaul of healers, and yet again it seems to be for the better. I haven't had much thoughts about Cataclysm before eventhough people around me have been going all nutty about them changing the world and whatnot. But reading about these very interesting changes to priest healing I really long to test it out!
Blizzard are promising us ponies again and we can only hope that this time, it will be for real.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Gear Score - Our savior or spawn of satan?
There is alot being said about the addon GearScore at the moment. Some people simply say alot about it because they use it. That looks something like this - "DK DPS, 5,5k gs LF raid". Some people say alot about it because they think anyone who uses it are twats. That looks something like - "people use gs to hide their own incompetence".
What's the deal with GS anyway? Where did it come from? Why do people use it? Is it even useful? I think we have to go ask the old folks over at Memory Lane about this one. Maybe they can straighten out some of the question marks surrounding GS.
First of all, it is a well known fact that pug raids generally don't run as smoothly as a raid among friends/guildies. Why this is, is a topic for another post, but it is still so, with exceptions of course. There are always exceptions. This means however that when picking a pug group together you have to take people a little over the top, so that you can overcome whatever barrier the general pug raid always faces (most often poor teamwork). This means you have to put demands on people, on their knowledge, skill and gear. These are overall valid demands, in my opinion. People just want a nice smooth run without any wipes, and will do anything to get it. Failing with strangers just make people go cranky. This has always been so, from the very first pug until the very last, for sure. The way of sorting people from another has changed some over the years however, and this is where GS comes into play.
Remember some years ago, what you had to do to get a group? To convince someone you were the perfect choice for their pug raid? Back then there wasn't many ways for someone to control your claims of imbaness. People usually demanded that you know the tactics of a fight, just like today, but there was no way for them to really know if you did or not. Until the fight had already started and your lack of knowledge had already wiped the raid. The same problem was with gear. You could claim to have a great gear, and there wasn't a good way for anyone to tell you weren't lying except for good old "inspect". Those were the old days, and even then people had demands on their puggers. Only there weren't many ways to control claims with facts.
Then came achievements. Suddenly people could demand proper proof that someone had completed a fight at least once, which had to mean you knew something about it. Waving your achi around became something like a school degree. "Look I made it, I know how to do this". Linking your achi is practically mandatory for most raid pugs going out there, only exceptions being the easier weekly raids and perhaps VoA.
People starting asking questions like - "well how will I get my damn achi without any achi?". A valid question of course. The answer is - with people who don't care if you know tacs and don't mind risking a wipe or two because of it, namely your friends or maybe guildies. It is the harsh truth, and it has always been the harsh reality. Things haven't changed there, it simply has become a little easier for people to check if you really do know tacs or not. Some people say - "well you can know tacs without having done the fight, maybe you've read up on it". True, but reading about it and doing it isn't the same thing. Having done the fight will always be the better of the two. But then again, having done the fight once isn't a guarantee that you really know much about it. But chances are definitely greater than when picking someone who hasn't done it. Other say - "well I have done it, but not on this char yet". Most people I know would invite someone who claim they know the fight from some other char, if the char they wanna join with is at least properly geared.
And then came Armory. Suddenly you could check the gear of someone without having to inspect them. Anyone who wanted to join your pug was just some clicks away from inspection. There was no way to hide and sorting out the bad ones from the better ones had become even a little more time efficient. But yet again, nothing new was actually asked for. People didn't demand anything extra, compared to before Armory. They just checked Armory instead of waiting for you to come into inspection range.
But looking people up at Armory is actually quite tedious. It is slightly more effective than having to inspect them in game of course, although that is actually the method some people still deploy when collecting a pug raid. But anyone who's ever used Armory, quickly notices that not only does it seem to need Viagra to produce a decent uptime, having to switch between WoW and Windows (Mac users are a myth) all the time to check people up can easily become tiring on a slow computer (and trying to find someone with a crazy name can take ages).
Right here is where GearScore makes it grand entrance. As with any other addon, and I know I've said this before, it doesn't actually add anything to the game. It simply shows stuff you could find out anyway in a simpler to reach fashion. Basically, it is there to allow you to check someones gear without having to use Armory at all. It isn't as good as Armory of course, GS is in fact an addon that could use some extra work. As it is it takes no regard to gemming, enchanting or most importantly - skill (which of course Armory doesn't show either and is why you ask for achis), but only gives a rough estimation of the general ilevel of someones gear. And that is exactly how it should be used - as a tool to give you a rough estimation of someones gear, instead of having to tab over to Armory all the time. It will help you decide not between the guy who has 5000 gs and the other dude who has 5100 gs. But between the guy who has 2500gs and the dude who has 5000gs. Ok, I exaggerate some, but hopefully you get the general idea. Someone with 5000+gs will most likely do well in ICC. Someone with 4000ish gs will most likely have more trouble in ICC. Someone with 6000gs has probably plenty of knowledge about their class and current raid content.
Is GS useful? Yes definitely.
Do people rely too much on it? Yes, sometimes.
GS is a tool. Just as any addon. You can't say a tool isn't good, because that depends entirely how it is used and on what. I admit people tend to forget the flaws about GS (and most importantly that gs isn't in any way linked to skill), but that isn't really the addons fault at all. Yes, alot of incompetent people think GS is the easy way to tell if someone is good or not, well they are quite wrong of course. But it does give you a general idea. Never put too much faith into something that doesn't take everything into consideration. Use GS for what it is good for instead - providing with rough estimations, for quick decision making.
What's the deal with GS anyway? Where did it come from? Why do people use it? Is it even useful? I think we have to go ask the old folks over at Memory Lane about this one. Maybe they can straighten out some of the question marks surrounding GS.
First of all, it is a well known fact that pug raids generally don't run as smoothly as a raid among friends/guildies. Why this is, is a topic for another post, but it is still so, with exceptions of course. There are always exceptions. This means however that when picking a pug group together you have to take people a little over the top, so that you can overcome whatever barrier the general pug raid always faces (most often poor teamwork). This means you have to put demands on people, on their knowledge, skill and gear. These are overall valid demands, in my opinion. People just want a nice smooth run without any wipes, and will do anything to get it. Failing with strangers just make people go cranky. This has always been so, from the very first pug until the very last, for sure. The way of sorting people from another has changed some over the years however, and this is where GS comes into play.
Remember some years ago, what you had to do to get a group? To convince someone you were the perfect choice for their pug raid? Back then there wasn't many ways for someone to control your claims of imbaness. People usually demanded that you know the tactics of a fight, just like today, but there was no way for them to really know if you did or not. Until the fight had already started and your lack of knowledge had already wiped the raid. The same problem was with gear. You could claim to have a great gear, and there wasn't a good way for anyone to tell you weren't lying except for good old "inspect". Those were the old days, and even then people had demands on their puggers. Only there weren't many ways to control claims with facts.
Then came achievements. Suddenly people could demand proper proof that someone had completed a fight at least once, which had to mean you knew something about it. Waving your achi around became something like a school degree. "Look I made it, I know how to do this". Linking your achi is practically mandatory for most raid pugs going out there, only exceptions being the easier weekly raids and perhaps VoA.
People starting asking questions like - "well how will I get my damn achi without any achi?". A valid question of course. The answer is - with people who don't care if you know tacs and don't mind risking a wipe or two because of it, namely your friends or maybe guildies. It is the harsh truth, and it has always been the harsh reality. Things haven't changed there, it simply has become a little easier for people to check if you really do know tacs or not. Some people say - "well you can know tacs without having done the fight, maybe you've read up on it". True, but reading about it and doing it isn't the same thing. Having done the fight will always be the better of the two. But then again, having done the fight once isn't a guarantee that you really know much about it. But chances are definitely greater than when picking someone who hasn't done it. Other say - "well I have done it, but not on this char yet". Most people I know would invite someone who claim they know the fight from some other char, if the char they wanna join with is at least properly geared.
And then came Armory. Suddenly you could check the gear of someone without having to inspect them. Anyone who wanted to join your pug was just some clicks away from inspection. There was no way to hide and sorting out the bad ones from the better ones had become even a little more time efficient. But yet again, nothing new was actually asked for. People didn't demand anything extra, compared to before Armory. They just checked Armory instead of waiting for you to come into inspection range.
But looking people up at Armory is actually quite tedious. It is slightly more effective than having to inspect them in game of course, although that is actually the method some people still deploy when collecting a pug raid. But anyone who's ever used Armory, quickly notices that not only does it seem to need Viagra to produce a decent uptime, having to switch between WoW and Windows (Mac users are a myth) all the time to check people up can easily become tiring on a slow computer (and trying to find someone with a crazy name can take ages).
Right here is where GearScore makes it grand entrance. As with any other addon, and I know I've said this before, it doesn't actually add anything to the game. It simply shows stuff you could find out anyway in a simpler to reach fashion. Basically, it is there to allow you to check someones gear without having to use Armory at all. It isn't as good as Armory of course, GS is in fact an addon that could use some extra work. As it is it takes no regard to gemming, enchanting or most importantly - skill (which of course Armory doesn't show either and is why you ask for achis), but only gives a rough estimation of the general ilevel of someones gear. And that is exactly how it should be used - as a tool to give you a rough estimation of someones gear, instead of having to tab over to Armory all the time. It will help you decide not between the guy who has 5000 gs and the other dude who has 5100 gs. But between the guy who has 2500gs and the dude who has 5000gs. Ok, I exaggerate some, but hopefully you get the general idea. Someone with 5000+gs will most likely do well in ICC. Someone with 4000ish gs will most likely have more trouble in ICC. Someone with 6000gs has probably plenty of knowledge about their class and current raid content.
Is GS useful? Yes definitely.
Do people rely too much on it? Yes, sometimes.
GS is a tool. Just as any addon. You can't say a tool isn't good, because that depends entirely how it is used and on what. I admit people tend to forget the flaws about GS (and most importantly that gs isn't in any way linked to skill), but that isn't really the addons fault at all. Yes, alot of incompetent people think GS is the easy way to tell if someone is good or not, well they are quite wrong of course. But it does give you a general idea. Never put too much faith into something that doesn't take everything into consideration. Use GS for what it is good for instead - providing with rough estimations, for quick decision making.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Lich King Down!
Yes, we finally made it earlier this evening (april 5th)!! The Lich King is no more. Or no more until next reset anyway. We had been stuck at phase two for a while, and in retrospective I can easily say that is the toughest phase, having to counter defile, valkyrs, infest and whatnot all at once. Of course, once you get the hang of it it feels easy. Some weeks ago I actually doubted whether we'd ever down that bastard, it felt like everything was just too chaotic. You can really feel the difference when you get that "aha"-feeling of understanding the fight and all the fight mechanics. There is nothing like successfully completing every task thrown into your lap -popping cds when the tank goes down low, moving from defile, not standing in front of Raging Spirits and healing whoever needs it. And to see your fellow raidmembers complete their tasks with bravur, like the valkyrs where I as disc priest can do little good.
If everyone do what they should there isn't much raid damage except during phase transitions. In phase one there is only one thing to keep track of and that is tank damage. If you're the designated cleanser you will have to have an extra eye on this. I covered these factors somewhat in my earlier post about fighting Lich King. Infest isn't much of an issue if you keep shields up on everyone at all times. The main tank will be the one needing the most attention, but keep shields and PoMs up at all times of course. In phase 3 there is a Harvest Soul that does some damage, but I didn't feel that it was much of an issue (which probably just means the other healers did all the work ^^). Our raid setup was as follows;
Druid Cat
Druid Bear
Druid Moonkin
Paladin Prot
Paladin Retri
Paladin Holy
Priest Disc
Shaman Resto
Warrior Arms
Mage Arcane
Here are some stats of my own healing on the kill fight;
PoM 29%
Penance 26%
Flash Heal 21%
Glyph of PWS 13%
PoH 7%
Blessed Healing (t10 2set) 2%
Divine Hymn 2%
I had approximately 5,344.000 total healing done and 1.722.00 absorbed (72% PWS, 28% Aegis). I played as disc since that offers a neat solution to the infest mechanic, since the initial damage is absorbed the dot vanishes immediately. Being able to throw out a quick Penance when the tank takes a huge blow is also worth alot. Being able to pick the tank, or some other unlucky guy, up fast was quite necessary in this fight, even though we had both a holydin and a resto shaman (who both did an awesome job btw). Penance, PoM and Flash Heal at the top show that, like I said, there will be some raid healing, but mostly point healing to be done in this fight.
He dropped no loot for me unfortunately, but it was a hellofa fight which I'd love to do again. Apparently we're going to try hard modes first, so we'll see when I get a shot at LK again. Hardmodes will be interesting though. Same same but different? We'll see.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Small tips for small rogues/cats
I'm back again! Rejoice! Hope you had a happy eastern. Although it's not really over yet...
To warm myself up I'll just make a little post about some things to think about when leveling a rogue/cat. Rogue is in fact the only class I haven't played to 80 yet, but I have started one and I am thinking about deleting my old bank alt one and start one fresh on my main server. I have to give them a proper chance!
While playing my lowbie rogue I noticed some things that are valuable to think about while questing.
First of all, unless your best friend happens to be a rogue, or you already have one yourself - max your lock picking. It always annoys me when rogues don't do this. There is really no reason not to. It takes way less time than most other professions (although it's not really a profession, I know). Glyph it with Glyph of Pick Lock (which reduces cast time from 5 seconds to instant, a must have!) and create a macro which uses Pick Pocket before using Cheap Shot on a mob (which you get at level 26). These two combined will not only make skilling lock picking very easy, you'll be plenty rewarded since lock boxes often contain good stuff. Potions and poisons for example, and even the occasional green (and even blues!.. even epics!). So seriously... get lock picking.
EDIT: Here is the macro I use btw. I am sure it can be done in a way more neat and cool way, but this works.
#showtooltip Cheap Shot
/cast Pick Pocket
/cast Cheap Shot
So that's the first tip, my second one will be one that might sound obvious. Keep a good eye on your skills. Which skill has the highest dpe (damage per energy) will vary greatly from one level to the other. At one level you might need two combo points for an eviscerate to be worth more dpe than a simple sinister strike, the next you might need three, depending also on your talents. The same goes for all finishing moves, so keep track on it, if you're interested in maximizing your efficiency (and you are of course!).
Keeping track on your skills to always use the most efficient one is of course something everyone should do, no matter if they use mana, rage or energy. But because of the nature of how energy works - you only have one set amount to use at every given moment - this is particularly important to maximize rogue/cat efficiency. A warrior could get 100 rage the next second, a caster could use a pot or just go all out and drink after the fight, this isn't really an option for an energy user (although there are energy pots to use of course). You've got your 100 energy (unless you talent for more) and you have to use them the best you can, the amount you can use at any given moment is very predefined. The same goes with DK runes for example. That means using 20 energy on a less good skill is more wasteful than using 100 mana on a less good skill. There is still more mana to take from (unless of course you're close to oom in which case this might be important as well).
Thinking about "small" things like this is what make the big numbers ;)
To warm myself up I'll just make a little post about some things to think about when leveling a rogue/cat. Rogue is in fact the only class I haven't played to 80 yet, but I have started one and I am thinking about deleting my old bank alt one and start one fresh on my main server. I have to give them a proper chance!
While playing my lowbie rogue I noticed some things that are valuable to think about while questing.
First of all, unless your best friend happens to be a rogue, or you already have one yourself - max your lock picking. It always annoys me when rogues don't do this. There is really no reason not to. It takes way less time than most other professions (although it's not really a profession, I know). Glyph it with Glyph of Pick Lock (which reduces cast time from 5 seconds to instant, a must have!) and create a macro which uses Pick Pocket before using Cheap Shot on a mob (which you get at level 26). These two combined will not only make skilling lock picking very easy, you'll be plenty rewarded since lock boxes often contain good stuff. Potions and poisons for example, and even the occasional green (and even blues!.. even epics!). So seriously... get lock picking.
EDIT: Here is the macro I use btw. I am sure it can be done in a way more neat and cool way, but this works.
#showtooltip Cheap Shot
/cast Pick Pocket
/cast Cheap Shot
So that's the first tip, my second one will be one that might sound obvious. Keep a good eye on your skills. Which skill has the highest dpe (damage per energy) will vary greatly from one level to the other. At one level you might need two combo points for an eviscerate to be worth more dpe than a simple sinister strike, the next you might need three, depending also on your talents. The same goes for all finishing moves, so keep track on it, if you're interested in maximizing your efficiency (and you are of course!).
Keeping track on your skills to always use the most efficient one is of course something everyone should do, no matter if they use mana, rage or energy. But because of the nature of how energy works - you only have one set amount to use at every given moment - this is particularly important to maximize rogue/cat efficiency. A warrior could get 100 rage the next second, a caster could use a pot or just go all out and drink after the fight, this isn't really an option for an energy user (although there are energy pots to use of course). You've got your 100 energy (unless you talent for more) and you have to use them the best you can, the amount you can use at any given moment is very predefined. The same goes with DK runes for example. That means using 20 energy on a less good skill is more wasteful than using 100 mana on a less good skill. There is still more mana to take from (unless of course you're close to oom in which case this might be important as well).
Thinking about "small" things like this is what make the big numbers ;)
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