Relatively new to WoW. I knew exactly what kind of class fantasy I wanted to experience, so I made a sub rogue as my very first character and spammed whatever random ability made the most sense (nonstop shadow strikes during shadow dance) on the way to level 70, doing mostly quests and a few random dungeons. I started watching some gameplay videos lately and decided it was time to actually learn how to properly play my class for the first time. Came home from work expecting to just jump in and play, instead I spent about 2 hours learning macros before I finally started playing. I spent another 2 hours yesterday porting over a talent build from WoW head and strategically thinking of how to key-bind my abilities. I know this is probably nothing to some people, but I’ve got 3, 12 ability action bars bound to my 12 button MMO mouse with a modifier for each bar. I spent another 2 hours trying to get the proper rotation down while trying to keep track of cooldowns, buffs, combo points, and energy.
I’ll tell you what. It was no different than when I was learning how to play guitar. Even though the key-binds are conveniently placed, it would still take me a long time to search for an ability I had key-binded among the other 35. Meanwhile, I would lose track of my cooldowns and combo points and end up dying to some weak overworld enemy I was trying to practice the rotation on.
Is this normal? I know people recommend learning macros, how to properly key-bind, and to also get an MMO mouse. I’ve done all those and it’s STILL an overwhelming amount of buttons to keep track of. My buffs are up by the minimap and my health with the avatar icon is up in the left corner. Should I move these things down to around where my character is actually at on the screen?
This game can be a bit overwhelming with how many buttons some classes have for someone new. I can understand your frustration.
If it would be easier for you to see the buffs or anything you need in your field of view, you should absolutely move them.
You may want to get some addons that can make things more visible for you. I have one for my cooldowns, Doom_Cooldown Pulse, which can be moved and can be made bigger or smaller.
I’m sure there are plenty of addons to help with your rotation if you want, but I would either google or ask in the rogue forums.
When playing a new class for me, I like to test out my rotations/specs/builds in Epic BGs. There if you make a mistake it’s not a huge deal and you can really experiment with different builds. If you do several, once you get your rotation down, it can really build your muscle memory. Then apply it to outdoor zones, etc.
Let me iust start out by saying I’ve been playing a very long time (since 2008), so I’ve had the opportunity to get to grow with the games general class design and the like.
The best advice I could give is to just keep working on your rotation. Rogue certainly has a lot of buttons, but the rotation is 90% of your time spent! Wowhead is a great source and the guides tend to be spot on!
As for the positions of your health and buffs, absolutely look to move them. Addons like elvui are very popular for prebuilt UIs if thats your jam, or you can mess with your own setup and see what makes you comfortable.
Ideally you want to have your vision centered on your character. So you should be able to not only observe your character to dodge mechanics, but at the exact same time be able to see your health, as well as the enemy’s health.
There are MANY class weakauras you can try to deal with your buff management. For a super simple easy to use out of the box WA, I would recommend luxthos rogue ui. You can grab it on wagio, or try any other, just search for rogue.
A slight explanation of what a class bar WA is: its a miniture UI, usually centered below your character for easy viewing, that tracks notable parts of your specs kit. For sub rogue, it will very likely show energy, combo points, vanish cd, shadow blades cd, symbols of death cd AND current buff duration, and of course shadow dance. It will also very likely show plenty of your utility, so that you can know when things like sprint are up fairly easily.
If you have any more specific questions I’m happy to help! It can dafinitely be a lot.
Eh. I really wouldn’t worry too much if you’re new to the game. I play about 5 classes consistently (3 specs per) and each one gets a couple macros, sometimes more depending. But outside of that, I boil them down to the 4-3-3 rule. 4 primary rotational abilities. 3 situational abilities. 3 main cooldown abilities. All the rest are put on separate bars located and configured in a way to make it easier to click with a mouse as these are lesser used utility abilities with the exception of my kick which is also keybound. My movement abilities are also mouse clicks believe it or not.
I don’t use macros. I just hit buttons. But I don’t play combo point classes, because I can’t stand how many combo point abilities exist, ect. I just hate it.
I also don’t do high end content, so none of that matters to me.
Balance Druid, Destro Warlock, Devastation Evoker, Fury Warrior, Elemental Shaman, Havoc Demon Hunter… those are what I play.
I steer clear of combo point classes (Rogue and Feral Druid) and I won’t touch whatever that wacked job of Enhancement Shaman is supposed to be.
If you were doing all these things at max level, I would be like o k… But if you’re doing that at lower level that’s weird.
It’s like you’re trying to be ultra efficient when it doesn’t matter.
You can space out doing those things. And as far as where to put your buttons, if it’s taking you longer than 20 seconds. What the heck are you doing?
To be fair, Rogues have like seven billion combo point abilities, along with all of their other attacks and they all need prioritized, so it’s a thing of “where do I put this if I need to do this here and that there but this needs to go in between…” Half of them I just stopped using and then I just stopped playing Rogue, because I hated it so much. lol
Yes, and in the first post. I said that makes sense why you would have to do that at max
If you’re a relatively new player this game sucks for tutorials. Whether you have a lot of buttons or little buttons, you’re going to have to research and that is going to be hours long.
Macros are a choice depending on your Action playstyle of keyboard versus mouse versus multi button mouse
Rogues are notoriously overburdened with circumstantial abilities. This is even after they paired down the N’zoth-on-a-bender level insanity that was Roll the Bones.
Unfortunately, you’ve managed to land on the class that even I, a staunch anti-pruning zealot, feel could really benefit from some intensive streamlining.
And sure, I’m sure there are some people who love their one-man-band rogue, but … does all that complexity make your class more effective vs. a class that’s more direct and to the point?
Sure, you can work around it - [mod:shift] and [mod:ctrl] things down, set up weak auras to track and alert the optimal time to do this, that, or the other thing… and if you enjoy that like I do, great. But all those should be a matter of adding ease to a playable class, not making it playable to start with.
I’m in the same boat. I love the challenge but it’s a bit too much for someone with no MMO experience. The progression between 0-70 is so fast you don’t get to learn step by step. It’s trial by fire and it can be exhausting.
You were in a position of basically understanding nothing and tried to jump right into a high end playstyle. You’re trying to do too much at once.
Yes, learning a whole new build, new abilities, and entirely new button layout, proper rotation and cooldown usage, entirely new button keybinds, on top of getting used to utilizing your new hardware will be a uniquely challenging experience.
Tackle a couple of things at a time man. Even changing a single keybind takes me time to get used to. Maybe start with adjusting to your new button layout and spec before worrying about all the keybinds and the optimal rotation.