Rogue Legends: Interview with Woundman
Woundman. A legendary name in the memories of a whole generation of World of Warcraft players and especially PvP’ers. Renowned for being one of the greatest rogues of his time, he was – a decade ago – part of the Evil Geniuses’ team who won the IEM 4 world championship finals alongside Cdew and Azael, with the emblematic RLS team composition. (the Rank 2 team during this tournament was Hydra’s RMP, with KalimisT and Flyn).
Aware of his interest in TBC Classic, I took my chance and contacted him a few days before the announcement of the TBC Classic release by Blizzard. I hope you will enjoy this fourth interview!
Woundman, first of all, could you please introduce yourself to our readers? How long have you been playing? The class/server on which you started.
My name is Emerson Condon. I am 31 years old. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, USA. Been playing since Beta. Originally from Ursin (HappyMinti and Neilyo’s) server. The first class I played was Druid. A friend I met from MSN messenger let me play his account and kicked me off because I messed his gear up.
Ha ha, nice anecdote. And are you still active in retail WoW or Classic?
Currently playing Classic. I enjoy the old playstyle. Look forward to TBC PvE and Arena. Get ready for everyone to wear resist gear. 🙂
Before talking about World of Warcraft, I received two very (!) important questions from our community members.
How is it like to be working on a farm? Is there any free time left to play video games? What is your favorite one right now?
LMAO. I currently own Coffeol Roasting Company. Coffeol is a wholesale coffee roasting business. My father passed the business down to me. We’ve been in business for 42 years and even though covid hurt business, we’re still doing well. I’m thankful for all the support my customers have provided us throughout the years.
I’m currently playing WoW Classic, Hades and Risk of Rain 2. Hades and RoR2 are awesome games. If you have time to play them, give them a shot. Wasn’t a huge fan of Rogue-like games, but those games definitely absorbed me into them. Highly recommended.
Yay thanks for these two recommendations.
Before talking about the game, I recall hearing a story on Cdew’s stream about you claiming a black belt inside of Burger King restaurant? Is that true, haha?
True. 🙂
I was being an idiot and 100% said that out loud. LOL.
A community member asked us how you picked your nickname. Was it inspired by wound poison? How have you picked it?
Correct. Back in TBC, Rogues were AWFUL at 5s and my teammate started calling me “Woundman” because all I did was apply wound poison to targets for kills. My OG name was “Serration”.
What was your most favorite expansion? And the least favorite?
Coin flip between TBC and Wrath. TBC was awesome because of how many carries and games I played with my friends. It was a HUGE leap in learning and growing for me. Learned A LOT in the expansion and applied my knowledge to Wrath. Learned A LOT playing against Neilyo. Wrath was awesome because that was basically the start of my professional career.
Hell yeah, and what a career!
…What’s your most favourite comp for 2v2 and 3v3?
Hands down Rogue, Shadow Priest, Shaman in TBC. Destroyed RMP and went back and forth vs WLD.
For Wrath, I really enjoyed playing Rogue, Lock, Shaman. Overall just a strong comp vs everything.
Yeah RLS was a nightmare of a comp! That’s interesting that you mention Spriest Rogue Shaman because Pshero also mentioned it in our previous interview! This comp is very poorly represented in the current TBC private server scene, so I am looking forward to seeing it!
Would you share the coolest moment in your entire career as a rogue?
One moment that pops into my head is when I played against Hoodrych’s team in TBC. I believe it was WLD (can’t remember for sure). Anyways, I predicted he was going to intervene my blind on his Druid and I pre-threw his intervene and INSTANTANEOUSLY blinded his Druid. He logged over and asked me what happened because he was positive he intervened my blind. I explained what happened and he said that was the most insane thing he had ever seen in his life.
Haha, love this. Typically the kind of scene that, as a moviemaker looking for insane moves, I truly cherish when rewatching in my own videos actually.
What’s your most favorite trick rogue move?
Vanish sapping another Rogue’s vanish. The first one to vanish loses. Little game I learned playing against Neilyo. 🙂
…I already have an idea of the answer, but which rogue player(s) have been influential to your playstyle if any?
Neilyo. Hands down, no question. He made me reevaluate everything I knew and copied and learned a lot of his playstyle.
Yeah, that makes sense, I can see a lot of respect for Neilyo, and I am sure we’re a lot to feel the same about him. He always was a very inspiring rogue player, to watch and listen to, and he also demonstrated that in his interview with Silent Shadows. What a legend.
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So let’s talk a bit more about Classic WoW. Did you give it a try?
Yes, I’m currently playing Classic. Still playing Rogue. Love Classic. Hate world buffing, other than that it’s a lot of fun.
You recently tweeted about Burning Crusade with a screenshot taken on Endless TR server.
Have you enjoyed playing there? Are you still active on it?
Played briefly there, gonna start practicing for when TBC comes out. I am no longer active on it as of right now.
Any chance to know your nickname?
Nope. I am curious now though.
Haha okay, at least I’ve tried!
Have you played any other private servers since TBC and WotLK ended? (this was asked a lot)
Nope.
During the BlizzConline, WoW TBC was announced, as you probably know. How did you react to hearing such news?
Excited to get back into the scene.
I’ve wanted to stream WoW Classic but it’s so boring without arena.
Does that mean you will come back for Classic TBC ?
Absolutely!
Great news! So, what are your expectations, or plans, with The Burning Crusade?
Play hardcore. Get Rank 1. Get Warglaives. Maybe World 1sts in PvE?
Okay, some casual plans as I can see haha.
Do you know which team composition you’d play to reach your R1 in 2v2 ? and 3v3?
Going to play Rogue, Shadow Priest, Shaman (Or Druid). Rogue, Warlock, Druid (Or Shaman). May even try out Double Rogue Druid. We’ll see. Warlocks are going to be insane Season 1-2. Rogues will get strong in Season 3-4.
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing! Do you already have your arena partners for season 1 and maybe the next ones?
Nope, just going with the flow for now. I have some people I definitely want to play with, but I don’t think they’ll want to play anymore.
Okay, and what about your PvE guild? As you probably know, T4 and T5 aren’t especially melee-friendly, so rogue is quite rare in a raid. Some guilds don’t even use them. Have you secured your raid spot? Or are you searching for a guild for this achievement?
I have several guilds who want me to raid with them. Can’t really go into too many details, haven’t really made my mind up yet. I don’t remember Rogue being weak in TBC. Maybe I am remembering incorrectly, but Cloak of Shadows is extremely strong in TBC. People need to think more about overall class design. Obviously, some fights aren’t melee-friendly, but that doesn’t mean a melee or Rogue can’t do his job correctly. Only people who should be worrying about stuff like that are World Class Speed running guilds, and even then I think that is kind of cringe. Always being the player, not the class.
Before to finish this interview with our usual question, I would like to ask you one more thing about Silent Shadows.
Hopefully, you have checked a bit at our website and community social media.
That would be a blessing to hear your opinion about our community and maybe get some advice for our future.
I’ll be honest, I have not. I’ve been super busy lately. COVID took a big toll on my business, but everything is shaping up strongly again. My advice is to do what you love and just keep doing it. Every single day.
But I watched the trailer, and it brings me back to the old days of WarcraftMovies. Those were the days.
What would you like to find on Silent Shadows, that you wouldn’t find somewhere else, to enjoy even more Silent Shadows? (could be content, people, or something else)
Macros, AddOns, Keybinds, Scripts, High-Level Rogue player opinions, and feedback.
What advice would you give to your younger self wishing to become excellent as a rogue?
Bind your spells properly. Focus macro everything capable of focus. Bind Stealth abilities out of Stealth. Bind Target Arena123 and Focus Arena123 (if available on TBC). Learn how to focus on multiple targets and learn how to punish cooldown usage. Practice every day and always try to learn something new. 🙂
