Get ready!

40 bux and comes with level 90 cap, Pandarans, new Monk class (roles of Tank, DPS, and Healer,) pet battles, new PvP, new dungeons/raids, new lands, squash 85s like bugs, and much more.

An Enhanced Version is available for $60, but doesn’t offer much (in my view.) ibtimes says there’s an $80 version as well, with DVD, sound track, art, and more stuff. Sounds a little more interesting to me.

You should be able to buy it all over the place, including the Bliz store and Amazon. Some sellers might have incentives.

Official Bliz splash page

Mists of Pandaria on Amazon
Mists of Pandaria Collector’s Edition ($80)

Due to the complete revamping of the talent system in Mists of Pandaria the Combat Rogue just might be interesting in PvP, as well as a DPS machine.

Rogues, all Rogues, have a pretty high skill cap. This means that it will take some work to get to the top, but you’ll rule when you do.

Contents

Stats

• Primary: Agility, and then more Agility.
• Secondary: 7.5% Hit > 7.5% Expertise > Haste
• Weaker Stats: Hit over 7.5% > Mastery > Crit > Hit over 17%
• Useless: Hit over 27%, Expertise over 7.5%, Int, Str, Spirit

Weapons

Once upon a time Combat Rogues had talents giving them extra stats with particular weapon types. That is no longer the case. Use the best one-hand weapons you can find, if you have a choice between available weapons then pick the one that matches your racial (eg: Human expertise with Axe and Mace.)

• Weapon speed is no longer a factor in Mists of Pandaria. Any one hand weapon should be fine in either hand, though you could put a dagger in the off hand if you want to experiment.

Poisons

Poisons are abilities and buffs, you no longer have to stock them in your bags or buy them from a vendor. You can use one lethal (eg; deadly) and one non-lethal (eg: Crippling) at a time. Each “dose” lasts for one hour and is weapon independent. You can switch weapons (and poisons) at any time and you’ll still have your poisons working, without having to re-apply them.

Lethal

• Deadly (lev. 10, ability) does damage over time. You will use this one in all PvE content (ie: dungeons and raids.) In PvP you should only use it when the opposition is not being healed.
• Wounding (lev 30, ability) does instant damage and suppresses enemy healing, which makes it more valuable for PvP.
• Instant poison is dead and gone.

• Non-lethal: Crippling (lev 20, ability) slows your opponent’s movement. Nice for mobs (or players) that run away.
• Mind Numbing (lev 28, ability) slows opponent spellcasting.
• Leeching Poison (lev 45, talent) heals you for a percentage of the damage done. Harder hits from you = better healing.
• Paralytic Poison (lev 75, talent) stacks up and on a 5th stack stuns your opponent for a few seconds.

Gems

Once you get into item level 417+ gear get into the M of P gems, even if they’re grimly expensive. They’re far superior to the Cataclysm gems.

In M of P the gems for secondary stats will have higher values than those with primary stats. For example, this quick gem vs the comparable delicate gem. In Cataclysm Rogues could stick with all Agility gems and be just fine, in M of P the gemming will be more interesting. You will probably want to match socket bonuses.

• Go here if you can’t afford the gems.
• Delicate Agility gems (Delicate Primordial Ruby) will probably be a good choice, but that remains to be seen.
• Yellow “Quick” gems (Quick Sun’s Radiance) for the added Haste might well be a good way to go.
• Yellow PvP gems (Mystic Sun’s Radiance) if you need added resilience for player smashing.
• Blue PvP Power gems (Stormy River’s Heart) for added PvP damage.
• Agile Diamonds for your meta gem (head piece.)

Enchants

As with gems, the Mists of Pandaria enchants are much better than the earlier enchants. Head enchants are gone, shoulder enchants come from the Inscription profession. Go for Agility first, then Haste, then whatever looks best according to the stats above.

MoP enchants require item level 372 or better and you’ll notice that they are somewhat better than their Cataclysm counterparts. New enchants (and gems) are always very expensive when the appear, and sometimes afterwards. If you need more cash to be able to buy these things then check our Tycoon review.

• Back
  • Enchant Cloak – Accuracy (MoP:) +180 Hit rating
• Shoulder
  • Secret Tiger Claw Inscription (MoP:) +520 Ag, 100 Crit, requires Inscription 600.
  • Greater Tiger Claw Inscription (MoP:) +200 Agility, +100 Crit
• Chest
  • Enchant Chest – Glorious Stats (MoP:) +80 to all stats
  • Enchant Chest – Super Resilience (MoP:) +200 Resilience
• Bracers
  • Enchant Bracer – Greater Agility (MoP:) +170 Agility
• Gloves
  • Enchant Gloves – Greater Haste (MoP:) +170 Haste
  • Enchant Gloves – Superior Mastery (MoP:) +170 Mastery
  • Socket Gloves – Self only, Blacksmithing, pop in a nice gem.
• Legs
  • Shadowleather Leg Armor (MoP:) +285 Agility & 165 Crit rating
  • Sha-Infested Leg Armor (MoP:) +165 Agility & 100 Crit rating
• Feet
  • Enchant Boots – Greater Precision (MoP:) +175 Hit rating
  • Enchant Boots – Pandaren’s Step (MoP:) +140 Mastery and Slight run speed increase.
• Belt Extra Socket
  • Ebonsteel Belt Buckle: put a Delicate Inferno Ruby or Queen’s Garnet or MoP gem into this slot.
• Rings
  • Enchant Ring – Greater Agility (MoP:) +160 Agility, Requires Enchanting 550
• MH
  • Enchant Weapon – Dancing Steel (MoP:) Sometimes add 1,650 Ag when striking.
  • Enchant Weapon – Landslide: +1,000 Attack Power Proc
• OH
  • Enchant Weapon – Dancing Steel (MoP:) Sometimes add 1,650 Ag when striking.
  • Pyrium Weapon Chain- Reduces duration of disarm effects, +40 Hit.
  • Enchant Weapon – Landslide: +1,000 AP Proc

Race Choice for Combat Rogues

Pandarens can become Rogues, Draenei and Tauren still can’t.

Blood Elf

• Arcane torrent restores some Energy and silences opponents. Skilled with Enchanting.

Goblin

• Rocket jump is a nice leap into or out of combat (it also breaks stealth.) Vendor discounts make compulsive buying less painful. A bit of added Haste is nice.

Orcs

• Blood Fury is a great burst racial, and expertise with Axes and Fist weapons is pretty cool.

Pandaren

• Bouncy for less falling damage, faster leveling through longer lasting Rest XP, better buffs from food, skilled with Cooking, can choose to be either Horde or Alliance.

Professions

Profession bonuses are much higher in Mists of Pandaria than previously and many crafts will requires Bind on Pickup items to create (requiring Spirit of Harmony, for example, though the finished item might well be Bind on Equip. Pretty much like the old Chaos Orbs from Cataclysm, but a lot more recipes will requires the Spirits. Maybe they’ll become BoE, like the orbs did, but they aren’t there now.

The Haste buff from Herbalism makes it worth considering.

• Alchemy – You get better and longer effects from your own potions. For example, and extra 320 Agility and an extra hour for the best elixir.
• Blacksmithing – Equip two more of the gems you can find.
• Enchanting – Enchant your own rings for added agility. +40 to each ring in Cata, 160 in M of P.
• Engineering – create useful items and equip Synapse Springs, for a big agility burst for 10 seconds. 480 in Cata and 2,940 in M of P. Beware of side-effects in PvE settings. Lots of generally useful gadgets and backfire don’t matter so much in PvP.
• Inscription – Nice shoulder enchant. +130 Ag in Cata, 520 in M of P. In addition to making glyphs you (or some other scribe) will be making everyone’s shoulder enchants.
• Leatherworking – The bonus is a pretty nice bracer enchant for added Agility. +130 Ag in Cata, 520 in M of P.
• Jewelcrafting – create (and equip) better gems than otherwise available. +67 Ag in Cata, +320 in M of P.
• Tailoring – Make your own flying carpet. Oh, you want damage. Well, you can add a nice cloak enchants that sometimes adds a nice chunk of attack power. +1000 AP in Cata, +8,000 Sp in M of P.
• Herbalism – A small heal over time with a very nice Haste effect (+2880 Haste rating for 20 seconds at skill level 600.)
• Mining – More stamina, 480 at max level.
• Skinning – More crit rating, also 480 at max level.

Combat Rogue Raid Build

These are the abilities that you pick up from choosing Combat as your specialization (spec.)

• 10 Ambidexterity increases off-hand weapon damage.
• 10 Blade Flurry - strike additional oppnent, regen less energy.
• 10 Vitality - Increased energy regeneration and attack power.
• 20 Revealing Strike – Improves effectiveness of finishing strikes and Sinister Strike.
• 30 Combat Potency - off-hand and Main Gauche strikes have a chance to recover energy.
• 40 Adrenaline Rush
• 50 Restless Blades - your damaging finishing moves reduce several cooldowns.
• 60 Bandit’s Guile - Your Sinister Strike and Revealing Strike abilities increase your damage dealt
• 80 Killing Spree - strike many targets
• 80 Mastery: Main Gauche - chance for extra attacks

Talents are completely revised. Take all your Cata build and throw them away. You now have six tiers of talents, gained (one tier each) at levels 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90. Any spec can pick any one talent from each row. Any level 60 Rogue can now take Shadowstep, for example.

Talents and glyphs are swapped in the same way. Tome of the Clear Mind is what you use to swap glyphs at 86+.

Combat Rogue Talents

Talent Descriptions:

1. Shadow Focus – Abilities no longer cost Energy while you are stealthed. Sap to Ambush (or any opener) at zero energy cost. Nightstalker might be better for leveling, with it’s speed and opening damage.
2. Combat Readiness – Take less damage as fight gets longer. Not really a great tier for PvE and CR’s probably the best of the lot.
3. Leeching Poison – your strikes heal you. Toss up between this and Elusiveness. Leeching might provide more general utility and take a bit of pressure off your healers.
4. Preparation – Finished cooldowns. More vanishes to energy free Ambushes. Also resets defensive cooldowns for added survival.
5. Prey on the Weak – When you disable an enemy with your stuns they suffer increased damage from all sources for the duration of the effect. If your opponent can be affected by Cheap Shot or Kidney Shot and and is being attacked by several people then it can take quite a bit more damage. Paralytic Poison might have value against trash that survives long enough. Dirty Tricks is more for PvP.
6. Anticipation – Stores excess CPs on target and applies them after a finishing strike.No more wasted Combo Points. If you do a lot of target switching then Versatility might be a good choice.

Glyphs are a bit different from before. Primes are gone, Majors modify damage and effects, Minors make small changes to some effects, such as increrased range.  You can have three each, six total, at level 90. Tome of the Clear Mind is what you use to swap glyphs at 86+. Get supplies to changes talents and glyphs from your Inscription supplies vendor or off the Auction House.

Major Glyphs: 

1. Deadly Momentum - Kills refresh Slice and Dice and Recuperate. Great for leveling and fighting trash. Leaves more Combo Points to spend on damage.
2. Adrenaline Rush - Reduces important cooldowns by a small amount.
3. Sprint - Faster sprinting, for the Usain Bolt Rogue, when you just have to be there right now.

 Blast through Mists of Pandaria to the level cap, Click Here to Start!

A lean, mean, backstabbing machine. Known for PvP ownage, Sub also can do very well in PvE, you just have to be good at managing your finishers and energy. Nothing wrong with Shadowdancing a boss, ya know.

Stats

• Primary Stat: Agility, nothing else comes close especially with your Sinister Calling ability (+30% Agility)
• Secondary:
  • PvP: Hit to 3% > Crit > Expertise to 3% > Haste
  • PvE: Hit to 7.5% > Crit > Expertise to 7.5% > Haste
• Weak: anything else (Mastery, excess Hit or Expertise.)
• Reforge to your Hit cap, then all else to Crit. If the weapon already has Crit and you’re Hit capped, then reforge to Haste.
• Note: If you dual spec and you’re not switch gear sets, then Haste is a good stat to reforge into. It’s at least a decent stat for all Rogues.

Weapons

• Daggers in both hands
• Main: Wound poison in PvP, Deadly in PvE
• Off: Leeching in PvE, Crippling in PvP.

Gems

• Gems and enchants can be expensive. Go here if you can’t afford them.
• Delicate Agility or Mystic Resilience gems only. Nothing else matters. MoP gems are much better than Cata counterparts.

Enchants

Race

Pandarans can be Rogues, Draenei and Tauren are the only races that can’t.

MoP = Mists of Pandaria

• Pandaren: May join either Horde or Alliance, can stun with a touch, level faster (longer lasting rest XP,) increased benefits from food buffs, less falling damage, good with cooking.
• Alliance
  • Night Elf: Quickness helps with survival, Shadowmeld can be used in combat to drop aggro or break incoming spells. Faster stealthy movement.
  • Worgen: Sub loves Crit and Worgen  get a 1% bonus to that stat. Good with Skinning, which adds to Crit rating. Sprint ability is quite useful.
  • Gnome: Expertise with daggers is nice, small size really is useful in PvP, escape is nice. Good with Engineering and Synapse Springs is a nice Engie gadget to use.
  • Human: Diplomacy is nice if you’re rep grinding, escape ability allows you to use two DPS trinkets in PvP.
  • Dwarf: Stoneform washes away bleeds and reduces damage, Ranged expertise is next to useless.
• Horde
  • Orc: Bloody Fury for the burst, stun resistance (reduces a 6 second stun to about 5 seconds.)
  • Undead: can remove effects, consume dead players, can drain health from enemies.
  • Troll: Berserking, damage Vs beasts (Worgen don’t count,) reduction in movement impairing effects.
  • Blood Elf: Arcane Torrent restores energy and silences opponents
  • Goblin: Rocket jump (breaks stealth) is a good escape, increased Haste, Good with Alchemy for an action bar full of potions.

Professions

Most of the professions offer a net gain of about 80 Ag. points over the regular enchants or item enhancements. In Mists of Pandaria it will be about 320 Ag.

• Alchemy: Better effects and more duration from Chemisty. Figure an extra 320 Ag and and extra hour from your Flask of Spring Blossoms.
• Blacksmithing: Slot two extra Agility gems.
• Enchanting: Enchant your own rings with additional Agility (40 each in Cata, 160 in MoP)
• Engineering: Useful gadgets, Synapse Springs adds a lot of Ag for 10 seconds on a one min cooldown.
• Inscription: Very nice shoulder enchant.
• Jewelcrafting: Slot better gems
• Leatherworking: Nice bracer enchant.
• Tailoring: Flying carpet and a cloak enchant that sometimes adds Attack Power.

Sub Rogue Raid Build

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I can’t say if this will survive the beta, but given the health pools for Mists (I’ve seen level 90s with over 400k HP) this won’t be a big ability. It also adds some Undead color, so I think the odds are good that it will survive.

As I write this the ability isn’t listed on WoWhead, so I might have beat their data miners. I expect that will last about another 6 seconds.

Comments?

Vivendi might be looking to sell Activision/Blizzard. The price tag would be rather steep, but there are companies that could afford it. Why would they sell? Apparently that company has a serious debt burden and sinking share prices. (They’ve probably been spending the WoW money on vacations and expensive offices, rather than game development? Actually, Vivendi is big, and made an ill-timed acquisition or two. )

Microsoft, for one. IF MS was actually interested, the move would strengthen its position in various markets. But, then again, there’s are Chinese and Korean companies which might be more intereested (Tencent and Nexon, to name two) and the buy would give them a stronger position in western markets.

What it would mean for WoW is anyone’s guess. Who knows? If Bliz was bought out maybe the new owners would demand some story/lore consistency?

Story on Forbes: Could Microsoft Buy Activision-Blizzard?

More complete story on Reuters.

From Forbes, via Yahoo:

If you see your password below, STOP!

Do not finish reading this post and immediately go change your password — before you forget. You will probably make changes in several places since passwords tend to be reused for multiple accounts.

Here are two lists, the first compiled by SplashData:

1. password

2. 123456

3.12345678

4. qwerty

5. abc123

6. monkey

7. 1234567

8. letmein

9. trustno1

10. dragon

Here’s the whole list: 25 “Worst Passwords” of 2011 Revealed

The article also includes tips on making good passwords. Check it out, now.

Roboform comes well recommended for protecting your passwords.

With the Pilgrim’s Bounty Holiday event you can actually level your cooking from 1 to 430 with amazing ease.

Grab the recipes book from the event’s cooking vendor and cook up the recipes. You can buy all the mats from the city vendors and they’re cheap. At 280 you will be able to cook “Slow Roasted Turkey.” The interesting thing about this recipe is that you get 2 points of skill per turkey cooked and you get it until you’re over 400 skill, even though the skill greys out. (This is probably a big, either they grey point or the level that you can reach.)

Hunt down a whole bunch of turkeys and cook ‘em up. You’ll hit 420 easily, then it start to slow. I hit 429 and ran out of turkeys and got bored with hunting them. I don’t know how high it will go, but you’ll need a lot of turkeys to get much last 430.

Here’s a Pilgrim’s Bounty cooking guide

and a Pilgrim’s Bounty Achievement Guide.

WoW Cooking guide to 525

It’s the Gold Speed Run.

Check it out here

Apart from being a killer game concept, Jon Kenins (creator of the Massive WoW Gold Blueprint) tells me that the Gold Speed Run is also the fastest way to make extreme amounts of gold. And he’s got the proof to back it up.

What’s a Gold Speed Run? Hop onto a brand new server. No friends, no guilds, no gold buying, no transfers, start from zero. Create as many alts as you like. Amass as much gold as you can in 30 days.

He organized a Gold Speed Run for his exclusive insiders’ gold-making club in March this year, and the results were amazing:

• 2.8 Million Gold earned in 30 days, starting from zero
• top gold earner alone brought in 359,313 gold
• average gold earned by all challengers: 63,901 gold – this needs more explanation: 11 people broke 100k gold, 40 broke 1k. How do you think you would do?

Keep in mind that he’s talking about doing all this with level 1 toons, and starting on a new server with no other help of any kind… not even start-up cash. Want more proof? I did my own run, not as a part of his contest, just to see if anyone could do this.

Using his techniques it’s almost trivial to break 1k gold. (300k is a bit harder… .) I wrote it up on GotWarcraft: 30 Days to (over) 1k Gold

So maybe you’re asking…

“How can I get some?!”

Well now’s your chance!

Jon is running a new Gold Speed Run Challenge starting next week. And he’s inviting newbie speed runners to sign up for a preview video series that shows you exactly how to get the same kind of results in your own gold game. Get the videos here!

Speed Run FTW!

One more thing:  Jon is limiting the entries in this Speed Run to avoid overwhelming the auction house economy on any one Realm. Sign up for the preview video series, and you’ll be on the early bird list for first shot at a spot when the challenge opens up next week!

MegaDamage and Item Squishing.

This is actually a serious post on an interesting issue: the exponentially increasing stats and damage.

Check it out, here.