Filthy Tricks: Return to the Shadows

Well, it happened. I stopped playing WAR for a few weeks, because I was tired of not having a real computer to play it on (a luxury my better half enjoys in lieu of myself). This last week has seen a few key hardware purchases, however, and hopefully within a fortnight we'll both have decent rigs. This will mean, of course, that we'll be playing WoW together. /yay

WTB AoE?

So I logged back in and brought Taraka up to level 50 with a few mostly-painless dungeon runs. If I have complained about this before, I apologise, but seriously: Fan of Knives at level 80? What is a low-level rogue supposed to do until then? I tend to blow my first five combo points getting one target as periodically damaged as I can manage before finding something else to stab. /yawn

Scheming and Planning

I am quite pleased with Shadowstep, as it most embodies my desired character theme: to be as much like a ninja as possible. My next talent points will go into Honor Amongst Thieves, which will be the turning point in PvE effectiveness for this toon. Even though Combat and Assassination both offer officially-supported damage output, I won't be abandoning the subtle path anytime soon.

I was most appalled to discover that my locksmithing skills are quite dated. Enemies have started yielding lockboxes far beyond my ken. The thought of grinding really doesn't appeal, but the thought of abandoning it altogether until I reach max-level seems even worse. I will probably end up murdering pirates (a ninja's arch-enemy) in Tanaris while waiting for Dungeon Finder to pop.

We're thinking of switching to Horde on these toons so we can experience a slightly different Outland (and beyond). I am a little lost when it comes to choosing Horde races. There currently are no Horde Gnomes, so my default choice doesn't apply. If only sneaky cows were possible, I would definitely pick the bovine folk. Any ideas?

Azeroth: The Sequel

I've taken a quick look at WowHead's latest Rogue Cataclysm Preview. What I am seeing is a handful of good talents are being moved from other trees to Subtlety, which will make spending at least 51 points (to get maximum Mastery) a bit more practical. In fact, the deep end is looking so tasty that I can't see myself spending less than 61 points there. Here's hoping people will stop laughing at me and my favourite talent tree. :P

I plan on having all my current toons waiting at level 80 so I can make a last-minute swap, although at this stage I think I'll be playing Vocah when the expansion hits. In between being shamed over and over again in StarCraft 2, that is.

I am looking forward to a certain Gnomish world event too. ;)