In the five years or so that I've been playing, my time has mostly been dominated by interest in casters. I started off playing a cleric, took a break from that to play a warrior (not terribly well), and then moved onto druid which has been my main for a very long time. These days though my fancy has been piqued by the various alts I've got lying around and I finally broke down and made the rogue who I've promised myself I'll always hang onto. With that territory comes a great change in the combat paradigm, however, and my experience is limited. I have thusly reacted by creating this thread where anyone can accrue knowledge in this particular field through asking about whatever piece of information eludes them, or to partake in the spirit of giving and lay down your knowledge on the table. The rules are simple: anybody can ask questions and anybody else can answer them. I'm not looking for a doctorate thesis or anything but it would be nice if there was some foundation on the information given. With that I'll start off with some of the burning questions that have begun to plague me.
Surprisingly, I've managed to play a monk to 57 without knowing a lot of these in full.
-- How does the delay of the offhand affect the actual speed of attacking in relation to dual wield? When does the chance for a dual wield actual occur and does the delay of the offhand then react to that or is it moot?
-- In relation to the primary and secondary slots, I've heard that items in the primary get a damage bonus, what then would be the most effective setup for two weapons? Is it better to have a slow, powerful weapon in the primary and a good ratio in the secondary? Naturally one would want a good ratio on both but assuming the ratio is the same does that mean that the primary weapon should always have the highest damage? How is this calculated?
-- Does haste have the exact same effect on the secondary weapon as it does on the primary speed? (This sort of connects to my first point).
-- When one has two procs on a weapon, do they work on separate timers or does it just randomly select whichever proc for the "three a minute" rule? As in, will it always proc only three times a minute or is each proc listed on a weapon three times a minute. Would that mean then that two weapons with two procs each should theoretically proc 12 times a minute?
-- Does the offhand, assuming dual wield is always successful, proc any less?
-- For rogues in particular, I've heard that one wants a high damage piercer in the primary with a good ratio weapon (usually it ends up being blunt or slashing) in the secondary. Is this merely to maintain a balance of aggro or is it the most efficient way to damage? (I know backstab only checks the primary weapon).
-- Putting aside the obvious Horn of Hsagra, what are some powerful starting weapons for a rogue? Money is not an issue.
-- Does using hide in combat after turning off auto-attack as a rogue reduce hate significantly? It says you "duck away from combat" but I'm unclear on the actual effect of that.
That's all from me for now, I'll try to answer as many questions as I've asked and if you've got any, be it about melee skills, caps, crits, equipment, strategies, whatev. ask it and hopefully somebody can accomodate you.
Edits are generally for spelling, grammar, and clarity.
Edited, Fri Mar 31 10:25:33 2006 by Brudish