Roll the Bones Information

[Carrn 284]

Short little info thread about Roll the Bones why it sucks and I hate it how to use it most effectively.

So Roll the Bones is an absolute pain in the ass, but has some very interesting gameplay associated with it which makes it sort of fun. Some of this might be review for some people, but I'm assuming that you're coming in here either a) very confused, or b) very new (and probably also confused), and aren't sure how it works at all

If RNG hates you like it does me, you can completely ignore this topic... It doesn't matter how many times you fish for 2 buffs, it won't happen (I'm only partially kidding).

Anyway, on to the matter at hand. 

How does Roll the Bones work?

Roll the Bones (RtB) gives you between 1-6 buffs, chosen at random from the following list:

• Shark Infested Waters (25% Crit)
• Broadsides (double CPs)
• Grand Melee (50% Attack speed and 25% Leech)
• Jolly Roger (more SS procs)
• Buried Treasure (Energy regen)
• True Bearing (cd reduction on finishing moves)

When you cast RtB, the game first decides how many buffs you will get, then picks the buffs. You can either roll 1, 2, 3, or all 6 buffs. Getting more buffs is a distinctly lower chance than less; there is under a 2% chance to get all 6, and roughly a 35% chance to get 2.

Rerolling

Due to how random the buffs are, when to use which ones is sort of awkward and not very intuitive. Sometimes it is better to reroll your buffs and look for different ones, and sometimes it's okay to stick with what you've got. 

As a general rule, you always want to reroll for 2 or more buffs. There are, obviously, exceptions to the rule:

• If you roll SiW while you have cooldowns on, or they are going to come up in 15 seconds or less, do not reroll
• If you roll TB at any point (assuming your cooldowns are on cooldown) do not reroll.

If you are in a situation where you don't really need to be doing much damage but there is a high damage phase coming up in the near future (think Feast on Gorefiend in HFC), you can try and fish for 3+ buffs or 2+ with SiW / TB being one of them. This will give you less damage in the meantime, but significantly higher burst during the high damage phase if you do manage to find a good roll.

Here's a Flowchart style image, courtesy of the guys at Ravenholdt:

There are also scenarios where you can reroll even if you do have 2 buffs. You don't HAVE to, but if you're feeling lucky you can give it a shot. If it pays off it will be great, but if not you're going to cripple yourself while you search for a better roll.

• If you have Broadsides and Jolly Roger / Buried Treasure while both AR and CotDB are active, you can reroll
• If you have Broadsides and Jolly Roger active during CotDB, you can can reroll

 

[santria 0]

Am I missing something or should the flowchart be adjusted to the beautiful attachment of mine?

Because even if AR or CotDB is not coming off cooldown soon and you get shark, with lets say Broadsides, you probably don't want to reroll.

[Carrn 284]

7 hours ago, santria said:

Am I missing something or should the flowchart be adjusted to the beautiful attachment of mine?

Because even if AR or CotDB is not coming off cooldown soon and you get shark, with lets say Broadsides, you probably don't want to reroll.

Haha yeah I understand what you're trying to change and it makes sense

[Fuggan 0]

Very much a love/hate relationship with RtB. Can be the best thing ever when you hit a 6 stack, but constantly refreshing 5 CP RtBs for a single buff is frustrating.

[Carrn 284]

On 10/02/2017 at 11:32 AM, Fuggan said:

Very much a love/hate relationship with RtB. Can be the best thing ever when you hit a 6 stack, but constantly refreshing 5 CP RtBs for a single buff is frustrating.

Mine is almost exclusively hate :D

[demonardvark 556]

1 hour ago, Carrn said:

Mine is almost exclusively hate :D

This. Combat was one of my favorite specs and frankly I felt in WoD the passives it gained were amazing. I loved what it turned into. Then all of a sudden its a pirate motif where you aren't allowed to play until you get a RNG assigned buff. Then frankly once you get your buffs up the rotation is rather...... bland. I tried so hard to like outlaw especially with thunderfury and fencing artifact appearances, but man roll dem bones being the core of the spec gameplay just really hurts it. I don't feel heroic at all standing in a boss and rolling dice four times before attacking it

HAVE AT THEE GUL'DAN

*rolls dice*

uhhh crap nothing JUST YOU WAIT GUL'DAN, JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED

*rolls dice*

man buried treasure again, not even a second buff? UHHHH JUST YOU..... WAIT OVER THERE GUL'DAN, I'LL.... BE RIGHT.... THERE

*rolls dice*

oh man @#$@# this @#$@$@# stuff @#$@ this *guldan destroys world*

the end.

[Carrn 284]

1 hour ago, demonardvark said:

This. Combat was one of my favorite specs and frankly I felt in WoD the passives it gained were amazing. I loved what it turned into. Then all of a sudden its a pirate motif where you aren't allowed to play until you get a RNG assigned buff. Then frankly once you get your buffs up the rotation is rather...... bland. I tried so hard to like outlaw especially with thunderfury and fencing artifact appearances, but man roll dem bones being the core of the spec gameplay just really hurts it. I don't feel heroic at all standing in a boss and rolling dice four times before attacking it

HAVE AT THEE GUL'DAN

*rolls dice*

uhhh crap nothing JUST YOU WAIT GUL'DAN, JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED

*rolls dice*

man buried treasure again, not even a second buff? UHHHH JUST YOU..... WAIT OVER THERE GUL'DAN, I'LL.... BE RIGHT.... THERE

*rolls dice*

oh man @#$@# this @#$@$@# stuff @#$@ this *guldan destroys world*

the end.

Basically, yeah.

It'll be much more playble in 7.2 when we get the new trait that guarantees 2+ after using AR, so at least the entire burst phase isn't spent rolling.

I've never liked Combat as a spec though, so it's not like it's ruined for me. If anything, I think Outlaw is far cooler than Combat ever was (simply because the idea of concealed pistols is amazing), but the current level of RNG with RtB really takes away from it.

[demonardvark 556]

5 minutes ago, Carrn said:

Basically, yeah.

It'll be much more playble in 7.2 when we get the new trait that guarantees 2+ after using AR, so at least the entire burst phase isn't spent rolling.

I've never liked Combat as a spec though, so it's not like it's ruined for me. If anything, I think Outlaw is far cooler than Combat ever was (simply because the idea of concealed pistols is amazing), but the current level of RNG with RtB really takes away from it.

Combat wasn't necessarily a complex spec but I liked that about it. The aoe was clear the single target was clear and there was room for there to be good vs awesome combat rogues based upon how well the managed guile. Now, outlaw is on paper better (what is a combat rogue, aren't we all in combat?) but yeah rng isn't great. The sad thing is they claimed they were going to buff slice and dice to be competitive and well....... they didn't XD. If they made slice n dice work better, that might salvage it but certainly the new traits come 7.2 will help :)