Rogue ICC Musings

Rogue Guide to Lower Spire

Traps:
** Marrowgar: Four traps exist leading up to Marrowgar. They can only be detected and disabled by rogues. It is important to remember that the traps interact with each other so sometimes early traps may not spawn until after later traps have been triggered.
** Frogger: A rogue can detect a lever directly to the left after zoning into the Upper Spire. The lever is no longer bugged and will disable frogger after being pulled.
** Plague Quarter: Two traps spawn randomly in the halls of Stinky and Precious. If triggered these traps spawn several geists that will attack from the stairs leading up to the halls.

Marrowgar:
Spec: Either spec is viable for this encounter but I feel Combat has the advantage. While this fight is single target; the mobility of Marrowgar can interrupt the constant melee attacks needed for Mute to fully ramp up and out dps combat. With Combat you can utilized your CDs to maximize dps output when the boss is within range.
Encounter: Fairly simple for us. Tank and spank between his Bonestorms for the most part. He does cleave, so be careful to not get caught in front of him. He will cast bone spikes to impale players that have to be dpsed down. FoK or Bladeflurry is usually sufficient for taking them down without losing dps on the boss. For the first Bonestorm I like to cast sprint and evasion; keeping dps up as I chase the boss and negate damage from the whirlwind. The damage from the whirlwind is manageable so you can pursue even if evasion is on CD. The flames he creates spread in straight lines starting outside of his hitbox so they are easily avoidable when he is stationary. You may have to move through them as his movement become erratic during the bonestorm but a CoS can negate most of the fire damage. At the conclusion of the bonestorm Marrowgar’s agro table is cleared so make sure you have tricks up on the tank when that phase ends.

Deathwhisper
Spec: Rogues are best utilized as single target dps on the boss with a mute spec. The fight allows for long single target dps to ramp up the spec to full dps potential if you are on the boss the entire fight. Mutilate does however have difficulty on assignments that call for constant target changes like the dpsing downt he adds. 1/3 of a Mute Rogue’s damage comes from poison which is considered magic damage causing problems with magic/physical resistances of the adds. Combat is superior for add assignments.
Boss: DPS is simple during phase 1 if you are assigned to the boss. Keep out of Death and Decay and be aware of the shield’s status. Be sure to time dropping the boss’s shield between add phases. Agro persists through the phase transition so vanish to wipe your agro and a trix to the tank right before the shield drops is suggested.
Adds: While rogues can produce far more dps on the boss our utility can be a great help to add tanks. Your add tank should be focused and trixed on CD. Fanatics generally will be left for magic dps but be aware of their positioning because they have a nasty cleave. Adherents are our targets. Adds are completely cc/stun/interruptable so agro is less of a concern for Adherents as their casting can be largely negated by a rogue. Adds will periodically be reanimated gaining empowerment and dps priority.
Phase 2: All dps turns to the boss and his frostbolts must be interrupted. A two rogue kick rotation is sufficient, at least for normal mode.

Gunship:
Spec: Combat performs far better in encounters like this where we are constantly switching targets.
Encounter: I like to focus the defensive tank for Trix as adds drop from the portal come onto our ship. Use Bladeflurry with FoK to help the tank grab agro and AoE down adds. When the guns freeze we follow the other tank to the opposing ship. Primary dps priority of this whole fight is the Battle Mage so focus him upon reaching the other ship utilizing Killing Spree and Adrenaline Rush. After the battle mage move the rocketeers at the far side of their ship. Listen for the offensive tank to be sure to get back before they do. Rinse and Repeat. Specials Notes: Rocket packs do 2k AoE damage. Also, enemy adds take a portal from their ship to ours that you can also take to get back to your own ship when it is up.

Saurfang:
Spec: Mutilate. This encounter is perfect for mutilate since this spec has no AoE effects in its rotation and the fight is all single target dps to allow for mute’s full ramp up.
Encounter: You can stealth and get fairly close to Saurfang without his notice at the start. After he raises attacking npcs into the air the encounter begins. I like to open with garrote – using the bleed to activate Hunger for Blood and the Combo point for a cheap SnD, then I mutilate, refresh SnD with envenom and roll into a steady mutilate rotation.
Marks can be Vanish immuned. If he targets you to be marked and you vanish he will just target someone else and begin the cast again. If he casts it on you and you Vanish before it lands the mark will be lost. The window for this is only .2 sec so it’s clearly not easy to hit especially with lag variation but it is possible. If you’re marked CoS will not drop the mark but you can use it as well as feint to reduce damage taken from the mark.
Adds: Blood Bests should ideally never be a concern for you but they are stunable in the event you need to control one loose in melee or you do not have the range to kite them. You can vanish and Cheap Shot to stun the beast while you build up your Combo points for a Kidney Shot. If vanish is not available you need to pop evasion.