Know Your Rogue Lore: Scout Nisstina

Last weeks lore figure was note worthy due to the speculation about her back story. The week before, the impact he directly has on how the over all game FEELS to an entire faction. This week we look at someone whose personal lore we know nothing about but it is her CLOTHING that has everyone talking.

Scout Nisstina is located deep in the Dalaran Underbelly, in the Black Market section. She famously is in stealth at all times but you can locate her via her pet worg pup. Many feel that in Nisstina there is a tribute to the Rogues of  "Vanilla Wow", the era before Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. The reason for this is three fold, one, what she has to say when you talk to her, two, the type of non combat pet she has with her, and three, the motley assortment of gear she is sporting.

If you talk to Nisstina she has three things she will say that when put together are rather insightful:

I don't be worryin' 'bout no Lich Kings.
Seen a lotta big-shots come and go,
dey always messin' somethin' up. It
ain't long aftah that when a posse rolls
on through and sends dem quick on dey
way to da history books. Dis one ain't
no different.

 In essence: I'm not going to worry about the Lich King, I've seen a lot of Raid Bosses come and go, each one supposedly is going to End the World as we know it. But then the raiders all get in there and soon enough are farming them until the NEXT one comes along.

If you wonder why the choice of non combat pet is something so many rogues find a tribute to them it has to do with the fact that (until patch 3.3 at least) the Worg pup was the ONLY dog type vanity pet in the game. And to get one you had to complete a quest in Lower Black Rock Spire. Many rogues would just stealth through and solo the quest. At that time if you had a rogue in your party who was in stealth it was often difficult to keep track of them visually so many would keep a non combat pet out as a way to assist their raid and party members. (This is actually how I got my first non combat pet. One of my guild mates was tired of losing me so gave me a Mechanical Squirrel.)

Finally, Nisstina's gear. To rogues who leveled and played during the Pre-BC years many pieces of Nisstina's wardrobe are extremely familiar to us as we ourselves sported most of them at one time or another, often for months, sometimes even YEARS. Unlike today in which full regears happen on a seemly three month basis, then you got A LOT of use out of a piece of gear and what she wears are by many considered the "hallmarks" of that era.

On her head she sports the Eye of Rend. This was a piece much coveted by role players as well as others just for the "coolness" factor of the look so to actually get one for USE was more difficult then.

The shoulders are the infamous Nightslayer Shoulders. Few rogues cared for the style of these, with some refusing to wear them altogether because they felt they spoiled the over all intimidating look of the REST of the Nightslayer set. The nick names we had for them were ALL negative.

Her belt is also a part of that same set, the Nighslayer Belt. For being a Bind on Equipt item that came off of trash from Molten Core the drop rate on this was HORRIBLE, less than 1% on most mobs. To actually manage to have it was an achievement in and of itself.

Her pants are the Devilsaur Leggings. These extremely unattractive pants are crafted and were considered some of the best you could get pre-raiding at the time. Even now they are quite good for leveling due to their itemization but harder to come by because few people take the time to farm the materials.

Her gloves are the Bloodfang Gloves. When these were first released rather than having a disarm duration reduction of 50% they actually made the wearer IMMUNE to disarm. This became an issue in PvP situations and that was changed. Still many rogues kept these gloves for a VERY long time to use for PvP.

Her weapons are also very interesting. In her main hand she appears to be holding Spineshatter. Now this was considered the BEST main hand mace for rogues until AQ20's introduction despite the fact that it had defense on it. The majority of the rogues who actually GOT this item was because either they stole it from TANKS (never a brilliant move but it did happen) or their tanks already had it or something better. Her off hand is the Core Hound Tooth. This was the BEST off hand dagger for rogues for a VERY long time however the drop for it was a little spotty so there was a TRICK to it. Since it came out of the Cache of the Firelord you didn't actually have to be PRESENT for the fight to be able to loot it. This led to a lot of character swapping and summoning as you had to work fast, you only had an hour before the chest despawned.

As to her cloak, Virvia on Wowhead suggested the Shifting Cloak. I personally lean more towards the Deathguard's Cloak. I know for myself getting a well itemized cloak at that time was a pain and the PvP one was common to see. (Though for Alliance it was the Cloak of the Honor Guard.) While the Shifting Cloak fits the LOOK, it wasn't one you often saw due to the materials involved in crafting it and most rogues who DID use it were mocked for it.

Due to her tabard it is difficult to determine what chest piece she might be wearing so I won't even hazard a guess on that one. All told Nisstina is a wonderful representative of how many of us who have played rogues for a while started out. A little piece of history immortalized in a quite corner of Dalaran's sewer. Perhaps for another class that might not make sense but for us? The shadows are our friends.