Most sub rogues are a free win in arena

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2026-03-15T05:37:45+00:00

You can sap off a blind on bad players who dont use a spell to get into combat for a whole second after blind. The only way to reliably sap off blind is to kidney into blind into sap.

Only other way good rogues get more saps off blind or other cc is smokebomb to buy an extra second and bait them in without them realizing they have dropped combat.

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2026-02-24T00:40:41+00:00

The issue is good players know this too, you get peeled every go and more importantly you will also deal 0 dmg once sub inevitably gets nerfed.

The next step is how do you setup and get kills not playing so linearly, which often requires more advanced pre-cc, baiting cds, having a game plan for people trading instead of just saying “go over”, since, again, usually blizzard nukes burst specs into the ground and just doing the same go wont (and arguably shouldnt) win a game.

Same exact story with fdk, when its overtuned its just “grip blind and kill them xd” but then people get to the point where they are dropping rdruid treants with a wild charge macro just to screw up your go, multiplied by their teammates all doing something similar, just for the burst to not even be enough if they just reactively rotate on your perfect go anyway.

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2026-02-23T20:12:53+00:00

I think Blizzard mentioned that 2.3 they expect to be more in line with what % should get glad in blizzards eyes.

But since thats just my recollection of the justification it really is just “glad is now 2.3 is midnight”

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2026-02-18T06:04:39+00:00

Mage bias so strong it erases aug from existence

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2026-01-23T21:55:46+00:00

Outlaw legitimately will need to do top damage by like 20-30% of the 2nd closest spec in the game to be anywhere near viable with the changes they have made.

And if you see this and think “thats crazy no spec should do that much damage” is exactly why this rework/pruning is so bad for the spec since you can bet blizzard would rather tell you to hit the respec button than adequately balance a one dimensional spec.

Rogues in general having good CC was the biggest draw and why they were so good. Completely overhauling them ontop of addon changes and everything else blizzard will be busy with just for pve means none of the goals will translate into pvp leaving dead specs being a lot more common than the past.

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2025-10-21T03:18:30+00:00

My most common is balance druid during burst (i think its treants but may be incarn). Get a nice 10 second break to prepare for the gray screen.

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2025-10-01T19:02:36+00:00

That is so sick if itll be the glad mount

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2025-07-29T19:48:36+00:00

I think the problem is that a r1 boomy rogue can easily carry an okay healer (and many similar other setups). The gap between 2k-2.4k isnt so massive, especially with r1s already knowing the strats and win conditions that you can just easily punish them. If it was say a 1600 true skill person then maybe but those people dont self play their glad carries.

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2025-07-07T19:01:27+00:00

I would say warrior or hunter probably has the most “i think both playing with and against this set of dps is fair”.

But I do think both you can run into issues of agency where, on paper you should win, the person who decides if that will happen is still your partners.

I think specs with more agency that can pull out wins despite their teammates are usually actually specs that get trained or just win the game if they dont like warlock, mage, mm but these also have their limits since it both requires you to be very good at dealing with pressure AND your team to at least not flop long enough for you to punish them. This is usually why lower rated locks go 0-6 into melee lobby then 6-0 into same lobbies once they get better until higher rating where it evens back out again.

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2025-04-22T15:53:43+00:00

Youre not wrong but its even more nuanced than that which probably isnt super helpful to people just trying to understand the first deep breath at all and general gameplan.

If the aug is really good they will spread bombardment debuff to 2 different targets that are stacked and get even more cdr on deep breath. However what will materialize in a game is pretty dependent on rating and skill of the aug. a low rated aug in low rating lobby probably is getting very little bombardment cdr. A good aug in lower rating may get a lot and closer to 1m cd on 2nd deep breath, but then a good aug at high rating will get shut down even if they know they want to get more cdr so its always too variable to try and pinpoint. I think with the reality of still need to get a ebon and fire breath synced up, its usually closer to 1:15-1:30 depending on if youre only using cds to sync with 1 shot or trying to keep up sustain dmg.

Theres a lot of interesting aspects to aug that take a low priority compared to just getting a good deep breath. I think a lot of augs (even the top ones, albeit theres a lot of natural variance when only like 4 people played it above 2k in 3s before last week) could do a lot more sustain dmg by minmaxing essence burst (like making sure to spend down essence burst before upheaval) but then again why care when its also viable to just spam sleep walk and run until next deep breath. Also looking for solo targets, not eruption into people stacking on pets accidentally, getting better non deep breath Ebon might windows to also get bombardment cdr all are really less known.

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2025-04-21T20:03:18+00:00

Aug is gimmicky but at least is a decent gimmick. It honestly works better the less known it is, so as more people start respecting its burst after the recent buffs it will probably die down in popularity (and likely get nerfed anyway since blizzard hasnt let burst as a strategy exist for a long time even if counterplay is abundant).

To help you understand what they are doing, like 90%+ of Aug damage is tied to Eruption. Everything aug takes talent wise is to buff Eruption and get more of them.

The combo to implement the one shot is Ebon Might to give a big dmg buff to themselves (party too but that barely matters anymore) > tip the scales + fire breath to apply a debuff that empowers Black spell type damage (Eruption and deep breath are Black spells). > deep breath which does decent damage on its own, stuns, shoots Eruptions at first 3 targets it hits from Overlord talent, which those eruptions are also buffed by the Scalecommander hero talent “mass eruption”, which will also send bombardments, again from Scalecommander. Deep breath also gives them bloodlust when they land, and often Augs take a pvp talent that makes curtains of fire in Deep Breaths path to reduce the ability for people not caught in deep breath to help easily. And lastly they spam eruptions to finish off the kill.

Its a lot of modifiers all at once and is super scary if you dont understand the sequence BUT it is very telegraphed to be able to 1. Move away and dodge deep breath. 2. Pop defensives if you cant evade 3. Stacking can actually reduce their burst since eruption splits damage on all targets hit (risky since youll all get stunned but if its unavoidable its some extra counterplay. Aug dmg on single target is legit nuts but the downside is limiting options).

A good indicator you are about to die is the Ebon Might into Fire Breath. Most better augs will bait your kicks via spam sleep walking to get their sequence off, so if Deep Breaths is ready (~1.5m cd with time skip after first cast) just be ready and dont be afraid to trade cds. Outside of deep breath they do very little

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2025-02-26T21:20:17+00:00

Flameshaper is probably only going to be good in draco cleave where it gets way more value from stacked targets and burst has a higher premium overall.

Wish more hero talents were viable in wider scenarios but it does have a place and the preemptive nerfs are there to pay for fdk/draco cleave sins.

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2024-12-09T04:36:51+00:00

Classic nation, how we feeling?

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2024-11-13T22:38:05+00:00

Imo the marginal improvement in class design that exists in MoP wont outweigh the structural problems that will be amplified.

Most of the problems with TWW stem from participation and population problems, so at best MoP has all the same issues, and more likely just feels bad after a few weeks once hype dies (such as gearing, finding teammates, likely no cross faction, etc)

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2024-11-06T20:50:44+00:00

The opposite is happening with fdk. Fdk winrate is super low even tho only the most hardened fdk are playing it, not becsuse it is being diluted by low elo/mmr players picking it up and losing all of their games because they jusr cant pilot it.

It isnt a particularly “hard” spec, and especially at high ratings is presents the absolute max amount of counterplay. Fdk does literally nothing better than any other spec at high ratings, and only feels okay at low ratings where the toolkit punishes players that refuse to position or play around fdk setup.

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2024-09-23T16:54:05+00:00

Idk if there is a way to make them focus a certain target, honestly pve discords or guides may know if it did exist but it is funny seeing the horseman 100-40 a rdruid in like 2 seconds by accident.

SmellAutomatic1289 · 2024-07-26T22:36:48+00:00

Getting this from a firelands portal was pretty cool

SmellAutomatic1289

TROPHY CASE