A Huge Mistake

I often over analyze. Hardly ever satisfied with what is, I probe/consider/examine/experiment different avenues of change. Changing just for the sake of improvement, however, is not always necessary. In fact, changing that which already has found synchronicity can prove, in the end, to be counter productive.

Why, then, did I respec my rogue from combat mutilate (41/20/0) to combat daggers (15/41/5)? Because. I wanted to try something old again.

5 minutes into leading the mid-week Kara group last night and I was furious. Howling mad. Everything that I had come to love about raiding with my rogue was gone. No cold blood. No shiny double crits. Nowhere near enough combo points.

I spent the better part of yesterday running spreadsheet calculations comparing the situational differences of backstab and mutilate. This is why I hate paperdoll scenarios. I somehow figured that over the course of a long raid, with an increased amount of critical chance from improved backstab (after respec, it was at 60% [30 base and 30 from the talent]), that backstab would out-damage mutilate by close to 55%. Maybe my math was wrong, but I checked and rechecked and it seemed to be right.

30 gold and two hours later I was standing behind mobs spamming backstab and waiting what seemed like forever to generate enough combo points to do any kind of finisher. BS, SnD, BS, BS, BS, BS, BS, Evisc.

2-7-2-2-2-2-2-3
2-7-2-2-2-2-2-3
2-7-2-2-2-2-2-3

Shoot. Me.

I don't know, maybe if I had the patience. But I don't. I am too much in love with the micromanagement of cooldowns and countdowns that drive the combat mutilate build. I adore the incredible combo point generation.

Anyway. A bit of an analysis.

Combat Mutilate
Pros:

Highest single-hit damage offensive rogue skills

Increased healing taken improves survivability

Pseudo group buff via improved kidney shot

Superior stun-locking

Superior combo point generation

Cons:

Gimped against poison immune enemies

Higher hit rating cap makes pushing miss from the attack table an itemization nightmare

Heavy crits increase threat generation

Intangibles:

Maximizing dps output requires serious micromanagement

Combo point generation allows for robust rotation of finishers and offensive abilities

Combat Daggers
Pros:

Weapon expertise decreases miss/block/parry/glancing chance

Increased base critical damage

Superior sustained melee dps

Cons:

Slow combo point generation

Limited options for combo point sink

Boring

Anyway, there you have it. I know that it's somewhat crude in that I'm not giving any calculations or theorycraft as proof or backup. Neither of those, however, is relevant to my ultimate conclusion.

For me, combat mutilate is infinitely more enjoyable than combat daggers (and presumably combat swords/maces/fists). I just plain have more fun with the deep assassination talents than I do with combat.

I should have been ecstatic last night. I co-led the raid (with the help of Brigin as MT) to clear Moroes, Opera(BBW), Curator(2d evocate), Aran, Chess, and Prince in just over 3 hours. Only one wipe in the beginning because of an accidental pull and one wipe on prince because of those damned infernal drops. Only three pieces of gear were sharded. It was an extremely successful run.

But I didn't have fun. And that is the most important thing. This is a game. A game, by nature, should be fun.

No worries though. As soon as we were through handing out the prince loot I hearthed to IF and respecced back to 41/20/0.

I'll never make THAT mistake again.