Rogue sword spec fixed for 2.1
by Eliah Hecht 
May 16th 2007 at 10:46PM
This isn't in the patch notes, but I'm still surprised I didn't hear about it sooner. Ming writes that the Rogue talent Sword Specialization, which has been broken for a very, very long time, is fixed in patch 2.1. What do I mean by "broken?" Well, here's the talent's tooltip:
Gives you a 1/2/3/4/5% chance to get an extra attack on the same target after dealing damage with your Sword.
Sounds like it should work out to basically 5% more white damage plus a little more due to it proccing off special attacks, right? Well, that's not how it's been working. What it's been doing is resetting your main hand swing timer whenever it procs, causing your main hand to swing at that time. If it procs off a regular main hand swing, you're getting your money's worth. However, say you've got a 2.0 speed mainhand, and it swung 1.8 seconds ago. You cast Sinister Strike, which happens to proc Sword Spec. This causes your main hand to swing and resets its timer to 2 seconds -- but it was about to swing anyway, so you've gained very little from the talent. Off-hand procs share a similar fate, since they also cause main hand swings.
However, things have changed in 2.1. Sword Spec procs no longer reset the swing timer, so in the above-mentioned scenario where your main hand was 0.2 seconds away from swinging when Sword Spec procced, you now get your "free" swing from the talent, and then you get your regular swing 0.2 seconds later. Furthermore, these procs are now considered "yellow" damage, which means they only have a 5% miss chance and are never glancing blows, like other specials. And off-hand procs still cause your main hand to swing, which is good because the main-hand weapon is usually slower and therefore higher in average damage than the off-hand.
Ming's angle on all this is that Sword Spec may come out superior to Fist Spec in PvP once this change becomes live. I'll leave the PvP theorycrafting to others, but this is certainly enough to make me consider speccing my own Rogue, who mostly farms with a bit of instancing on the side, over to swords (from fists) if I get some good ones. Probably not though -- even if swords edge out fists in the numbers, fists win in cool points (especially when I'm rocking Reflex/Stormreaver).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sacdaddy May 17th 2007 12:14AM
Sweet, been waiting for this for a loooong time!
chris poloncic May 17th 2007 12:51AM
I just put a thrash blade on my 45 rogue, I hope these stack.
Eliah Hecht May 17th 2007 12:52AM
They do.
Scalin May 17th 2007 1:36AM
What about warrior sword spec? Has it shared a fate just like this, since they are both the same? Admittedly I haven't been sword since before 2.0 (and I'm still working on the Mights to make my Lionheart), but never really paid attention to it back then.
Dabura May 17th 2007 3:11PM
This is gonna be imba in PvP I can see it coming, espcially since I play a mage who is often the victim of rogue attack
Ebiru May 17th 2007 9:41AM
Wasn't warrior sword spec fixed a couple of patches ago, remember warriors whining about it because when the proc is yellow they won't get any rage from it.
Dahlaine May 17th 2007 11:35AM
#5, your thinking of Windfury procs.
The rogue thing is fabulous because sword spec has always been extremely annoying as it messes up Combat Potency by affecting the amount of offhand hits you get over a period of time.
Gman May 17th 2007 1:00PM
This is the exact thing that happened with the Shaman's Stormstrike a while back. Because it used to reset the swing timer, there was a macro that you could use to get two extra swings instead of only one. But Stormstrike used to cost a heinous amount of mana, so even with two swings it wasn't all that great. Nice for burst in PvP though. Now it's a yellow attack and the mana cost is in-line with the ability.
chris poloncic May 17th 2007 5:37PM
Haha, mages complaining one class being able to kill them as easily as they kill everyone else complaining about balance. GG!