Encrypted Text: Trunks of the Trees, Assassination and Combat

Encrypted Text: Trunks of the Trees, Assassination and Combat Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we explore two of the new 51 point talents coming soon. If you ask 75% of the top Rogues worldwide what the premier PvP spec is, they’ll tell you Subtlety. If you ask an even greater margin of raiders what Rogue spec pumps out the most DPS, you’ll get a solid shout of “Combat, duh!” And if you should ever feel the urge to pick up a pair of daggers, every brother of the shadows will direct you towards Assassination. These three trees have been neatly defined by Blizzard, and it’s fairly obvious what each is designed for. What separates Rogues from every other class is our nearly unilateral use of 41 point talents. A dagger Rogue without Mutilate is gimped while a Sub PvP Rogue without Shadowstep is the laughing stock of the arena. And don’t bother stepping into Sunwell without Surprise Attacks, unless getting trashed on the damage meters is your idea of fun. We’ve gotten so used to the comfort in knowing that

WoW Arena Tournament down to top three teams

WoW Arena Tournament down to top three teams After three straight heartbreaking losses against American team Selective Queuers, Worldwide Invitational champions Council of Mages bowed out from the tournament today leaving only three teams to battle it out for the prestigious — and kingly — prize of $75,000. The Korean team of Hyoga, Snowstorm, and Student, considered by many to be the best RMP in the world, was the last Asian team in the tournament. They were also the last non-WLD (Warrior, Warlock, Druid) team to be eliminated, as the top three — Europe’s Nihilum Plasma, and the United States’ Selective Queuers and Fnatic Orz all predominantly ran WLD throughout the competition. Selective Queuers ran a soft counter comp to Council of Mages’ RMP by swapping in Rogue for Warrior, but otherwise performed as expected as RMP do not handle WLDs (or RLDs in this case) very well. Although the matches that managed to get streamed were fine examples of professional Arena play, the dominance of WLD teams showed just how strong the comp is in the 3v3 format. Despite brilliant play from Council of Mages, they simply couldn’t get over the hump of a