The problem with going combat is that you you can't easily control who your second target is. If you tank all drakes on top of each other, it will be difficult to position yourself so you only hit the targets intended to be dpsed. The other downside is that by the time you hit execute range, you really only need to be attacking Halfus, at which point combat falls way behind mutilate.

But otherwise it is a great way to inflate your numbers.

Combat will be an entirely viable choice for Halfus (it was even before the patch, honestly). Assassination will still do more damage to whelps, but there are other classes that can provide effective AoE and, honestly, the whelps aren't that dangerous. The real issues, at least in my experience, are 1) killing drakes quickly (so the raid can start killing Halfus and meet the enrage) and 2) damage on Halfus in P2 (so the raid doesn't die from attrition due to too many Furious roars).

An assassination rogue can either attack the drakes (at regular damage) or attack Halfus (at 3x damage, assuming 3 drakes and the whelps are pulled). A combat rogue can now attack both Halfus and a drake at 3x normal damage (well, 3x normal reduced by the loss of 20% energy which is likely less than a 10% overall dps loss, so let's call it 2.7x normal damage to both targets or 5.4x normal damage overall). Note that before the patch, a combat rogues damage (if they stayed on Halfus the entire time and BFed on CD) was 3x regular less 10% energy reduction damage to halfus and 1.5x regular less 10% energy reduction to a drake (more, if CDs used intelligently). And even then top combat damage wasn't far off top assassination and would have been ahead of any assassination rogue who was helping to kill drakes.

So, a combat rogue is going to do more damage to the drakes while still damaging Halfus, thus getting the raid to P2 faster which will make the enrage easier to meet. So, if that's your issue, combat's the name of the game. However, assassination will still do more damage to the boss in P2 due to the execute mechanic. So, if you're having issues with not getting through P2 fast enough (and dying to having too many furious roars) then assassination may still be superior.

However, just one note, a combat rogue may have some threat issues since the tanks won't be receiving a 3x damage bonus to the drakes.

Easy no. Possible yes. With one tank handling the whelps and the drake you aren't going to kill (assuming you pull 3 drakes + whelps, and only kill 2 drakes before P2), the whelp tank can easily position close enough to the boss so that the whelps get AoE cleave while still keeping the drake to one side or the other. Then all the rogue has to do it position themselves away from that drake and they'll be cleaving the two drakes you actually want dead.

Combat is going to be AMAZING for Halfus. It already is, and it's getting buffed.
World of Logs - Real Time Raid Analysis

For our 10 man strat, we had the Mage and Warlock focus down the whelps while I was on the Storm Drake with the Elemental Shaman. Making sure I was hitting the Storm Drake was quite easy since they start near each other, and they have enormous hit boxes. Hitting 2 targets for 150-200% more is just too much to ignore. And keep in mind the 52k which matches the top Assassination Rogue, is only going to get MUCH bigger with Blade Flurry being up full time.

So re-reading the 4.0.6 notes, there is actually a pretty big "nerf" for combat on Halfus that will make it much harder to get huge numbers like this.

The captured drakes in this encounter now apply Dragon's Vengeance when they are killed instead of when they are freed. To account for this change, the health and damage of the drakes has been reduced, and the damage bonus gained from Dragon's Vengeance has been increased.

So you can no longer start on Halfus and Blade Flurry an add for 150-200% extra damage. Once adds start dying then it will pick up, but for that initial burst, it is certainly less useful.

Actually, the Springs also had their cooldown reduced to 10 seconds, for average of 80 Agility (same as most other profession bonuses). FYI.

So I'm just curious, but the SnD showing Haste on the char sheet didn't actually buff our energy regen correct? Because before this patch, and even on the PTR I had no issues with energy, yet now whenever I pop Adrenaline Rush on the target dummy completely unbuffed I can't not spend enough energy to not be perpetually capped.

You're definitely right. And it will hurt the initial burst, which can certainly be one of the most challenging phases of the fight. But even without dragon's vengeance combat will be leagues ahead - and it's the good kind of damage as opposed to the meters padding kind.

Here you state that mastery gives a chance at another MH atack im curious as to whether or not its been confirmed as a MH attack and if so has it been tested as to whether or not it can chain itself?

Main Gauche is certainly a MH attack. I have not tested whether it can chain though.

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/d...y813/MG_MH.png <-- this image is a link to a quick test. I bought a cheap 2.8 speed axe (for 100% wound poison proc chance), put wound poison on main hand weapon and no poison on off-hand weapon. I then hit a target dummy from an angle so that there are no autoattack swings.

If you you look at the screenshot (it is linked rather than put inline due to size), you will see that the total number of wound poison procs is equal to the number of attacks, including the lone main gauche attack (5 sinister strike, 1 eviscerate, 1 Main Gauche, 7 wound poison).

One quick note, using the EP values from the OP, it actually looks like Enchant Gloves - Greater Mastery - Spell - World of Warcraft manages to pull ever so slightly ahead of the 50 Haste enchant. Obviously, 50 Expertise is ideal if your reforging can accommodate it, and you're specced purely Combat, however, having 65 Mastery be this competitive is notable because it makes the ideal enchanting setup basically identical for both specs, and using an ideal gem layout for Combat as Assassination is only 4-8 ep behind an ideal gem layout for that spec.

Sharing gear for both specs has never been easier, so long as you're willing to spend 5 minutes at the reforging NPC every time you switch.

So "my" question is, should combat rogues put in the initiative and spec a little more into mastery or just leave it the way it is for what ever gear I get with it on their? Because if it is somewhat of a dps boost, you may want to find a good number for it so that you can benefit from it a bit.

The change to mastery was a buff to the stat, to be sure, but it doesn't really change the way you gear *that* much. You're still gonna want expertise and haste. The only main implication is that now if you can't avoid both mastery and crit in a given slot, you opt for mastery now instead of crit. If the gear has both stats on it, you reforge the crit instead of mastery.

The only time your gearing choices significantly change from before is if you are both expertise and spell hit capped and there are no options for gaining haste, then mastery is preferable over additional hit.

Does this mean that we should use 4 combo points finishers when the RvS debuff in on?

Maybe I worded this in a confusing way (I’ll take suggestions). The way I understood the discussion was that originally, it was suggested you only RvS before a Rupture or Evis if you have exactly 4 combo points which of course will not always happen. One thing you could do to increase your chances of adding RvS to a finisher is to use it before you SnD with the intention of doing a Rupture or Evis after (and before the RvS debuff falls off your target). If you do this and end up with 4 combo points after that particular SnD, you need to remember to not RvS again and instead should Sinister Strike to 5 combo points and do your intended damage finisher.

But it seems to me that the possibility of watsting combo points is still the same.
Did i miss something or 5 combo points SnD is superior to 4 combo point one ?

You might still waste a CP, making the end result +-0, BUT you might also get a glyph of ss proc from 3 to 5 cp for the next finisher and still have the RvS buff, making it a win. So you might end up gaining from it and can never lose anything from it if you do it right.

I know that the method is better by seeing the 5 SnD and the after damage finisher as a whole.
I just mean maybe we could avoid using 5 combo points SnD that will probably waste combo points if 5's advantage over 4's, which i am not sure, is less than the damage lost from wasting points.

The idea of using RvS before Snd is as follows:

1. You only want to use RvS when you are at four points:
   • The damage of RvS is inferior to SS
   • Losing an extra CP off SS makes it inferior to gaining the RvS buff.
2. Using RvS at 4pts before SnD, allows you to gain the RvS buff without losing a CP, which is a DPS gain so long as the buff is consumed by a following Evis or Rupt.
3. If you arrive at 4 CP again after that SnD, and your RvS is still active, using RvS again will be inferior DPS because you already have the buff so do not gain anything by using RvS again. SS is then your best option as it does more damage. If you arrive at 5 CP from using SS by getting a proc from 3->5, you have gained a free RvS buff, which increases your DPS.

Actually I'd argue that the mastery enchant is strictly superior. In raiding gear, a combat rogue is capable of capping expertise through reforging with no enchants. Since expertise is a capped state, all the expertise enchant does is allow you to change the reforging on an item from expertise to the next best stat, probably haste. So the net effect of the expertise enchant is +50 haste, not +50 expertise, so its value is 75 EP as compared to 78 EP for 65 mastery. Not a huge difference, obviously, but slightly better.

Of course, EP values vary with gear, but, realistically speaking, the mastery enchant is the way to go. As Feist-Mok points out, the best part of this is that there's no need to swap enchants back and forth anymore when swapping specs (mastery being clearly superior for assassination).

I underastand your idea of using RvS before SnD.
But the RvS before SnD increases DPS only when you have to use a "5cp" SnD while you could just use 4cp one except in some situations that energy would cap.

When able, higher point SnD's are more efficient per energy spent; the extended duration also allows you to spend a greater number of finishers on damage rather than refreshing SnD. While you should never let SnD drop in order to get 5 pts, using a 5pt SnD over a 4pt SnD when possible will be a gain in energy efficiency.