Patch 2.3 and you: Rogue edition
by Eliah Hecht 
Sep 26th 2007 at 6:25PM
My oh my, it's a veritable information storm out there in the forums. We've already talked about Shaman and Priest buffs in patch 2.3. Here are a few changes that are coming for the sneakier ones among us:- we actually have some changes coming in 2.3 for Deadly Throw. The speed at which it travels is being increased significantly, so it will reach your target much faster, and the snare duration is being increased slightly. One second longer if I remember correctly. (Drysc)
- It won't be able to activate Ruthlessness anymore though, no more chain deadly throws. (Kalgan)
- Do you mean the amazing change to Shadowstep so that it can now be used at any time, not only while stealthed? In addition, after use of Shadowstep threat caused by the next Ambush, Garrote or Backstab will be reduced by 50%. The cooldown will however be increased to 40 seconds.
Also on the Subtlety front is a change to Dirty Deeds so that it will also be increasing damage of special attacks by 10/20% against targets that are below 35% health.
We're also taking a look at bumping up Hemorrhage a bit, but no details yet on what that may be. (Drysc) - Fleet Footed will now be a 15% speed increase instead of 8%. (Kalgan)
- In 2.3 Blind will no longer require a reagent. It will also be changed to a physical attack, will share the same diminish category as Cyclone, and diminish in PvE as well as PvP. (Drysc)
- we've updated [Blind] to be a ranged physical attack (also no longer counts as a poison) (Kalgan)
Filed under: Rogue, Patches, News items, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tiodi Sep 26th 2007 6:33PM
Rouges...buffed? Uh....
So When Is the next Know your lore coming out? Its been like, 3 weeks
Snuzzle Sep 26th 2007 6:37PM
They are actually talking in the druid forums too!! Reduce cooldown on Battle Rez and changing to Intensity!
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1778587118&pageNo=1&sid=1#3
my2cents Sep 26th 2007 7:19PM
So if blind will be a physical attack, not a poison, will that make it undispellable in any way (other than pvp trinket i'm guessing)? And if so, I wonder if that change will carry over to the Moroes encounter.
fred Sep 26th 2007 7:40PM
dirty deeds currently lackluster and never having used fleet footed?
oookay
Eliah Hecht Sep 26th 2007 7:42PM
Fred: it's worth noting that my perspective is entirely a PvE one. Those talents may be amazing in PvP, I dunno.
robotrock Sep 26th 2007 7:57PM
Although I welcome the changes I don't see any of these improving a Rogue's viability in a 5v5
gante Sep 26th 2007 8:40PM
Of all the things listed above only removing the reagent for blind is significant change. Everything else leaves me scratching my head and wondering if Blizzard understands rogues at all. Most of this affects talents that are not even in the primary rogue tree, Combat.
Charlie Taylor Sep 26th 2007 9:20PM
You know what I would love to see? Blade Flurry damaging everything within a certain radius! I mean, warrior has whirlwind, every caster class has an aoe, rogues are the only class that do not have a true AOE ability of any kind! This seriously damages our viability in raids where there are large amounts of low hp mobs. (IE the guests in the room before moroes) If you think that's causing too much damage, you could always reduce the amount of damage over time, like your rogue is becoming tired or something, or maybe it stops when you run out of energy.
Izbay Sep 26th 2007 9:43PM
Blizzard just... doesn't... get it. We've been nerfed into the ground every time they change us. Even when they mean to buff us, they nerf the crap out of us. >.
sensadiva Sep 27th 2007 7:22PM
Thanks for letting me know about the changes in 3.2. I am very excited to try out the new shadowstep. Right now it is so fun and so sucky. I think these changes will make rogues more viable in 5X5. The ability to shadowstep while unstealthed will bolster the rogues role as a control piece incredibly.
sensadiva@blogspot.com
YPEELS40 Sep 27th 2007 12:38AM
I welcome the changes.. and appreciate them too, dont get me wrong.
But vanish is still broken.
AndyF Sep 27th 2007 1:47AM
Ok this is great for many reasons:
Deadly Throw needed to be speeded up to help with the PVP glove ability to interrupt spellcast, which it can now do. The fact you can't chain it removes, imo, a cheese tactic, so not bothered about that.
Mutilate rogues now get the boost to mobility they've needed with the increased movement speed from Fleet Footed. I guess 30/0/31 Rogues will also be grinning at being able to get around quicker to stab people more.
Shadowstep is buffed .. but .. not sure people are still going to give it much thought. The change to threat from a PVE point of view is nice, if anyone uses it, but for PVP I guess it will depend on how your team can get people down to 35% health so you can get that potential killing blow from shadowstep-backstab, or vanish-shadowstep-ambush.
BUT from a PVE point of view, the extra damage to low health targets and a HINT of a hemo buff mean the increasingly more popular hemo/serrated PVE build may actually really close up on Combat for sustained DPS..
Rob Sep 27th 2007 2:11AM
I just wanted to say that fleet footed is awesome.
While it doesn't stack with other speed increases... it DOES "stack" with Camouflage on the sub tree! I have both on my 41/0/20 Mutilate build and I can barely tell the speed difference between being stealthed and normal.
Jablodovo Sep 27th 2007 5:42AM
Is rogue becoming an exclusive PVP class ? No PVE improvement since BC, just nerf. PVE rogues exist and want still to live. It is harder and harder to justify our raid spots. Please help PVE rogues.
Tinil Sep 27th 2007 5:14AM
@7
That's...that's because combat doesn't NEED a buff. When combat rogues are the best DPS class in the game, and not by a little bit, but by an overwhelming margin, you don't have much room to complain.
The rogue tears of late are falling on deaf ears.
Smurk Sep 27th 2007 8:08AM
The changes to Shadowstep surprise me. Is this something people were asking for?
Still, I'm looking forward to trying it in PVP. If this is like a "rogue blink" and can get you out of snares, it'll be huge. Plus, if someone's almost dead and runs from you, you can use a Shadowstep/Backstab (+20%!) macro to finish them, or a Shadowstep/Kidney Shot for an instant stun if you have combo points on someone (which you could add with Premeditation if you're Subtlety). Seems like a solid buff to me.
jamphat Sep 27th 2007 8:21AM
i was about to respec out of fleet footed... now i dont know if i want to... 15%!
Zechleton Sep 27th 2007 9:57AM
So, when is Blizzard just going to come out and delete the Fury tree outright?
Angelus Sep 27th 2007 12:43PM
I'm lucky to be in a good raiding guild that likes to experiment. I'm a deep spec sub rogue and am curently in a raiding team that clears Kara weekly.
When we go thru trash mobs, I do everything I can to stay up with the combat rogue. And you can bet he sees me inchin just behind him in DPS and so now he's doing all he can to keep ahead of the 'taboo for pve' SS rogue. I usually run about 5% below him in DPS, but that does take some skill, other rogues build the same spec and see their DPS drop into the dirt. Just takes some practice.
He's pushin 3 buttons, I'm using everything I got. I use about 30 vanishes in a run, lol. During Prince, I always pull ahead of everyone in DPS. It's because of this, I've always been told to just stay deep sub and keep the competition alive with the combat rogues and combat hybrids in our guild.
If this change is made it will be a huge buff for me in PvE, and kind of nerf PvP, because I cant tell you how often I was able to slip back into stealth and drop a shadow step ambush on a guy who was previously winning the fight, now a corpse on the ground(so in a way this makes sense). But if this is a true change going to happen, I believe I'll smoke our combat rogues in PvE. That DD buff is huge. Shadow stepping and back stabbing every 40 seconds (and with reduced threat) will be a huge buff. Buff to hemo, etc.
Once I get the Prince fights filmed I'll post because a lot of people dont really buy it until they see it, or they think our combat rogues must be gimped.
stapleboy Sep 27th 2007 2:05PM
Everything here sounds well and good except the possible Shadowstep changes. Why would Shadowstep work outside of stealth? That makes no sense. As for the threat reduction, I specced Subtlety for PvP. In situations where a Subtlety rogue is worried about threat, I don't know how many of us are going to be diving in for an Ambush (and those of us who might don't deserve talents built around our crappiness).
I love being able to restealth->Shadowstep after killing a target, or burn Vanish and then Shadowstep if I can't get out of combat. Waiting a couple seconds for Shadowstep to cool down is one thing, but a 40 second cooldown... boy do I hope that's a suggestion that gets axed.