Rogues trading Tricks - A Question

[FunkyMrMagic]

So I joined an ICC25 pug last night out of boredom more than anything else and there was only one other rogue other than myself in there. Early on, she whispered to suggest trading Tricks of the Trade off on each other and whilst I wasn't sure what she was talking about, I vaguely remembered about it being a damage boost, so I set up my macros and off we went.

Anyway, I noticed that when I cast Tricks on her, she was casting it back on me almost immediately. There were a few fights that mine was still on cooldown and I was approaching 95% threat and starting to worry some. I was wanting to try this tonight on a guild ICC10, but I wondered if it was best to have tricks on each other at pretty much the same time - so that the threat gains basically cancelled each other out, or should they be offset slightly, so one rogue builds some threat, the other casts Tricks, so that one rogue has more threat, but at a more manageable level?

[Zxian]

Always cast your first tricks on the tank, even if they don't. You'll be delaying your onset of threat by 6 or 10 seconds, depending on whether you have the glyph.

Vanish is your friend when it comes to threat, and is actually a minor cooldown for assassination (thanks to overkill). Use Vanish 20 seconds after you start fighting, and then every 3 minutes after that. Threat will never be an issue.

Here are a couple of macros that might help out with making Tricks easier to use effectively.

/focus [@mouseover,exists,noharm][exists]

#showtooltip
/run local p="player" for i=1,40 do if(select(11,UnitBuff(p,i))==59628)then CancelUnitBuff(p,i)end end
/cast [@focus,help,nodead][@targettarget] Tricks of the Trade

The first one will let you set your focus via mouseover on party or raid frames. Keybind that macro, hover over another party member, and press it - voila, your focus is now that player.

The second one looks more complicated than it is. On the first cast, it will cast tricks on your focus or target of target if that person is dead (or you have an enemy focused for some reason). Press it a second time and it will cancel your threat transfer to that person. It's useful if you're casting tricks on a non-rogue player who would otherwise rush off the threat charts and get stomped in the face.

[lradar]

thx for the macros it realy helps me out!

[Voradrac]

The tricks trading doesn't have to be at exactly the same time but it helps to get them close together. you basically negate each others threat transfers and get the 15% damage buffs traded (which is the reason for tricks trading). first tricks on tank of course.

If your the sole rogue you can of course tricks any dpser you want if the tank doesn't need the threat and that dpser isn't in danger of pulling threat (if your rocking 2pc T10 you especially want to tricks on CD as it generates rather than costs energy).

If threat is an issue you can of course vanish and/or tricks the tank again until threat is good again.

[Timberton]

if your rocking 2pc T10 you especially want to tricks on CD as it generates rather than costs energy

There is a bit of micro management to be done here, try to use it when:
- you have 4+cp
- are on low energy/are pooling in wait of the the envenom buff, which is close to expiring (as in 1 second)
- you will NOT hit energy cap when using it

If all are met, then it is a excellent time to trix, gain energy, envenom

the lazy version: while pooling energy as per usual, fire off trix when ready to envenom.

This way you will get the full benefit of the energy bonus, and the % damage bonus.

[Zxian]

@Timberton - if you're mainly concerned with only maximizing your own DPS, then making sure you don't cap on energy is fine. If you want to make full use of the TotT ability, you'll hit it every 30 seconds, regardless of your 2pc bonus or not. Without the glyph, it works out to a 3% damage bonus for another player - with the glyph it's 5%. That 5% boost is well worth your 15 energy if you're talking about rDPS.

[Timberton]

In any case, in most cases it is a +2 to +5 seconds delay for the proper conditions to trigger tott.Not exactly game breaking, and you will make full use of the energy bonus from 2T10.

(have your pie and eat it too!)

That's my 2 copper

[Callandor]

If threat is a problem for only the rogues in a raid simply use a macro that cancels the threat portion of ToTT, namely:

/cast [target=X] Tricks of the Trade
/cancelaura Tricks of the Trade

Something like that, I'll check later when I can log on WoW.

[Zxian]

If threat is a problem for only the rogues in a raid simply use a macro that cancels the threat portion of ToTT, namely:

/cast [target=X] Tricks of the Trade
/cancelaura Tricks of the Trade

Something like that, I'll check later when I can log on WoW.

The problem with the above macro is that if you cast tricks on another rogue after they've cast it on you, you'll cancel the 15% damage buff that you get from them (cancelaura will remove all buffs matching the given name).

The macro that I linked above works perfectly, and will deal with canceling threat if you wish.

[Timberton]

Awww, this takes the fun out of trixing and misdirecting the mage on the aoe trash pulls QQ

[Mallekai]

So I joined an ICC25 pug last night out of boredom more than anything else and there was only one other rogue other than myself in there. Early on, she whispered to suggest trading Tricks of the Trade off on each other and whilst I wasn't sure what she was talking about, I vaguely remembered about it being a damage boost, so I set up my macros and off we went.

Anyway, I noticed that when I cast Tricks on her, she was casting it back on me almost immediately. There were a few fights that mine was still on cooldown and I was approaching 95% threat and starting to worry some. I was wanting to try this tonight on a guild ICC10, but I wondered if it was best to have tricks on each other at pretty much the same time - so that the threat gains basically cancelled each other out, or should they be offset slightly, so one rogue builds some threat, the other casts Tricks, so that one rogue has more threat, but at a more manageable level?

she is likely tricksing you at the same time because they come off CD at the same time.
with 2pc t10 (which you should have), you should be hitting tott as soon as its off CD. the only time you want to wait is if your rogue partner is not dpsing and will be back soon, (dealing with some mechanic of the fight for example).

with vanish, and the first tricks going on the MT, thread should never be an issue.