Let’s talk about: Perception (Human racial trait)
On WoW Classic, Perception is quite a neglected racial trait as there are better choices for PvP (eg. Stone Form as Dwarf, Blood Fury as Orc, etc). In The Burning Crusade, however, Perception has proven to be extremely powerful; everyone remembers these Human Warlocks able to detect a stealthed player “from the other side of the map, I swear”. Let’s get a closer look at this underrated trait.
A racial trait reserved for human players
If we read the description of Perception, we can only find that it ”dramatically increases” stealth detection for 20 sec. But what does that mean? How is ‘dramatically’ quantified?
As explained in our Ultimate In-Depth TBC Stealth Guide the rule of Stealth is quite simple: “The closer you are to your target, the higher the probability that you will be detected.”
It relies on two factors not so readily apparent in the game:
– Subtlety score (stealth),
– and Detection score.
For both these stats, the base score is 350 for a level 70 player (5 per level).
By default, a level 70 player will be able to see a stealthed unit from 5 yards away, with every 5 incremental points of Stealth corresponding to one incremental yard.
For a level 70 player, the Stealth Detection score is increased by +50 when Perception is active.
In other words, using this racial would give you a total Detection score of 400 (350+50=400).
As 5 points equal to 1 yard, this means that +50 grants you an extra +10 yards to detect an enemy that has no Stealth bonus equipment (5 yards from base skill and 10 yards from Perception = 15 yards). Of course, this does not take into account talents such as Master of Deception, which is extremely popular on TBC.
As you can see, this racial trait can make a huge difference with non-human rogues. That explains why human rogues have to be considered as a serious danger for any other stealthed class, especially in arenas.
A must-have if you plan to play rogue for the Alliance
In our guide that details everything to help you choose a race as a rogue, we have demonstrated that humans are without a doubt the best race to pick as a rogue, whatever your orientation in the game (PvE, PvP or both). Here, we’ll discuss the PvP benefits of playing a human rogue.
If you plan to play arenas, you probably already checked what was the best race to choose and also the best arena comb to get started with 2v2 as a rogue on TBC. If so, you are hopefully aware that the best choice is either a Human (as Alliance) or an Undead (as Horde).
If playing undead rogue is arguably the best pick for high rated arena goals because of Will of the Forsaken (which is somewhat like having a second trinket), playing human offers something that can be a lot more interesting: good openers.
A game changer for and against Double DPS
This is the kind of comments that you can read on Khuna’s first TBC video as Double human rogue. Note: To watch this video, since the WarcraftMovies link is dead, make sure to visit our TBC rogue movie library (soon).
Being a human rogue, particularly for double or triple DPS, was considered lame, because back in the days most openers were guaranteed due to the general lack of knowledge in terms of positioning.
Hopefully for today’s meta, playing this race is not considered boring or without merit since the dominant TBC Rogue race is undead, and walking the road less traveled should be appreciated, at least more than in 2008.
Playing double DPS relies a lot on optimizing your openers, especially if you play against Healer/DPS combs. While there are multiple ways to do that, the most efficient is obviously Perception, as it acts like a radar to detect stealthed units in an extended perimeter (+10yards with few variations if we count talents and gear that offers some stealth bonuses) for 20 seconds. This ability allows you to Sap rogues or open druids more often than not. Against other double DPS, it changes the matchup significantly.
For example, as a common undead Shadow Priest / Rogue you typically hate facing Rogue/Mage teams because they bring insane pressure through big damage and CC. If you play it as Alliance (Human Rogue, Dwarf SP) then it becomes more comfortable because you may detect opposing rogues pretty often, which affects RM strategies greatly.
As a Human rogue, dealing with double (mostly undead) rogue teams becomes very fun, as you can opt for an aggressive opener (like Shadowstep into Garrote) on one enemy and immediately Vanish to Sap the other one, usually found near his partner.
Note for Disc/Rogues
One of the top team compositions of the TBC 2v2 bracket is the popular Discipline Priest + Rogue (soon) combo. Most of the time, this team composition is played by double undead…
From a Discipline Priest’s perspective, playing correctly involves having perfect positioning. Then, it appears to be “not so mandatory” to play with WotF because if you’ve got nice synergy with your partner, it is unlikely to get feared by enemy priests (thanks to Shiv). On the other hand, playing Dwarf offers three very powerful racial abilities for priests :
– Stoneform (which removes poisons, bleeds, and diseases)
– Chastise (which is a 2 sec root on enemies with moderate holy damage)
– Desperate Prayer (which is almost like an instant Greater Heal for zero mana).
This makes Human Rogue/Disc teams extremely good as well because playing DPR with openers is a severe danger for mirrors as well as other rogue/x double DPS teams.
NB: This observation about Dwarf Discipline Priests works pretty well for 2v2, but if you’re aiming at performing a lot in the 3v3 bracket, especially as Rogue Mage Priest (RMP), then playing with WotF becomes a lot more necessary at high rating. Fear is the most common CC to deal with and in 3v3 there are a lot more situations where you will be exposed to Fear effects, no matter what you’re doing.
Convinced? Then it’s time to roll a human rogue and let us know your thoughts on it!
The day I started playing human made me instantly addicted to the unlimited options as a fan of double DPS comps I then spent most of my time trying exotic arena team compositions such as Rogue/BM Hunter or Mutilate/Shadowstep double rogue and optimizing openers for guaranteed victory against every type of R1 team. This was also an excellent 3v3 game changing trait if you play double melee combs or triple DPS, so yeah, I wish you have as much fun with it as I did!