Tricks of the Trade

Tricks of the Trade is a rogue ability learned at level 75. It is similar to a hunter's Misdirection in which it will transfer all threat gained from the rogue's next attack and all the of the rogue's actions taken for 6 seconds after that attack to the party or raid member on which it is cast. Casting Tricks of the Trade on a member will give the rogue a thirty second window to start attacking or it will expire.

Uses and Tips
Tricks of the Trade removes any inhibitions for rogues opening up on a target with high burst damage and taking the chance of pulling aggro away from the tank. Not only is pulling aggro from the tank less of a concern, but the threat transfer and damage bonus conferred by this ability help make sure that the tank maintains enough aggro to keep mobs off of healers in healing-intensive fights (or in parties where the designated tank is not well-geared or skilled enough to maintain aggro).


 * Many rogues forget that this ability has only a 30-second cooldown and use it only on the initial pull of a trash mob group or boss. Even if aggro is not an issue in the fight you're in, the damage boost (particularly if glyphed) is a nice buff for the tank (or even another party member), and thus Tricks of the Trade should be applied as often as is practical in any given fight.


 * This ability can serve as a useful escape mechanism in situations such as having a Sap go bad or accidentally being detected while in Stealth, by redirecting aggro onto the tank. In certain situations this can even be used as a "creative" pull method, with the rogue using Vanish following the aggro redirect.


 * Can be paired with Fan of Knives to do an AoE misdirect with correct timing and placement.


 * Handy in trash group pulls where one mob - often a caster mob - stops short of the AoE area of the tank, doesn't gain sufficient aggro on the tank, and begins engaging other party members (such as, horror of horrors, the healer) with ranged attacks/spells. The rogue can apply Tricks of the Trade on the tank and move to engage this mob solo, hopefully tossing in some interrupts in the process, without worrying about having the mob turn and attack him or her.


 * If you wear two pieces of the Shadowblade's Battlegear or it's upgraded versions your Tricks of the Trade ability will grant you 15 energy instead of costing energy.

Issues

 * Tricks of the Trade has a 100 yard range which means if your target is not nearby and you try pulling something you will have to be sure you have the buff active.


 * Sap is considered an offensive ability and will therefore activate the six-second countdown you have for aggro gain. Since you will most likely be needing this only for 5-man dungeons you can sap the target, move back closer to your tank and cast Tricks of the Trade, then move to the mob pack to start attacking.


 * The release notes for patch 3.1 indicate that the damage bonus of Tricks of the Trade will no longer stack with the following other buffs: Hysteria, Enrage, Wrecking Crew, Death Wish, Arcane Power, Owlkin Frenzy, The Beast Within, and Avenging Wrath. Depending on the composition of the party you are in, this may impact the glyph choices of the rogue or the buff choices of the party - you may want to keep your party members informed of this, especially in situations where you significantly outstrip the rest of the party in DPS and it is thus imperative that you transfer as much of your aggro as possible to the tank.

Useful macros
Casts TotT on your focused target. (Typically the tank you want to misdirect to without having to target them every time.) /cast [target=focus] Tricks of the Trade Same as the above macro with an alert to the focused target that they have this buff. Please refer to IsUsableAction to find your hotbar's button to replace #TOTT# with. /script if(IsUsableAction(#TOTT#) and GetActionCooldown(#TOTT#)==0 and UnitInRange("focus")) then SendChatMessage("{square} Tricks of the Trade {square} on YOU!", "WHISPER", nil, UnitName("focus")); end /cast [target=focus] Tricks of the Trade