Encrypted Text: Upcoming Rogue changes
by Chris Jahosky 
Dec 19th 2007 at 5:30PM
This week on Encrypted Text, I'm going to go over some upcoming changes to the Rogue class that everyone should be aware of. Rogues have some nice tweaks and some serious changes in the pipeline, so let's get to it.
As a long time fan of the Subtlety tree, I've been really enjoying the last couple changes Blizzard has made to Rogue abilities. In patch 2.3, Hemorrhage was buffed to deal 125% weapon damage, Shadowstep became usable out of stealth, Cheat Death became more reliable -- all great changes. Although the next patch will nerf Hemo down to 110% weapon damage, there's also a talent in the Subtlety tree to increase it's damage by 10%, so heavy Subtlety rogues won't feel the pinch quite as bad.
Another important change that we reported on indirectly a few days ago was a new tweak to Shadowstep -- once activated, it grants a 3 second, 70% speed increase. What does this mean for rogues? Read on and find out.
As a long time fan of the Subtlety tree, I've been really enjoying the last couple changes Blizzard has made to Rogue abilities. In patch 2.3, Hemorrhage was buffed to deal 125% weapon damage, Shadowstep became usable out of stealth, Cheat Death became more reliable -- all great changes. Although the next patch will nerf Hemo down to 110% weapon damage, there's also a talent in the Subtlety tree to increase it's damage by 10%, so heavy Subtlety rogues won't feel the pinch quite as bad.
Another important change that we reported on indirectly a few days ago was a new tweak to Shadowstep -- once activated, it grants a 3 second, 70% speed increase. What does this mean for rogues? Read on and find out.
My Rogue is the oldest character I have, and for as long as I can remember, rogues have been asking for Sprint to be on a shorter cooldown (and to balance it, have it last a shorter amount of time). Well, it looks like Blizzard finally thinks that this idea has some merit, because the new Shadowstep also acts as a mini-Sprint.
Sprint rank 3, learned at level 58, grants a 70% speed increase for 15 seconds with a 5 minute (3.5 minutes with talents) cooldown. This new mini-sprint grants a 70% speed increase for 3 seconds with a 30 second cooldown, in addition to the bonus damage and blink-like effect of Shadowstep. Between the 25 yards you can skip and the additional speed boost afterwards, you can cover some serious ground on a fleeing opponent. If that weren't enough, Preparation will also reset the cooldown of Shadowstep as of the next patch, allowing you to Sprint > Shadowstep > Prep and then blow Sprint and Shadowstep again immediately if necessary. Although this adds some much needed mobility to the Rogue class, the downside is that you have to spec heavily into Subtlety to access this new mini-sprint, so it isn't available to all rogues. Still, it's a step in the right direction.
Preparation is also being tweaked next patch -- it will reset the cooldown of Shadowstep, but it will no longer reset Adrenaline Rush. Unfortunately, this is quite a large nerf to the AR/Prep (0/31/30) spec which is popular in arenas currently. The power of a 30 second Adrenaline Rush combined with Hemorrhage and Mace Spec was a sight to behold, and while this change doesn't completely kill the spec, it does make it far less potent.
Ambush and Backstab are also seeing buffs next patch -- a 25% increase to the former (bringing it from 250% damage to 275%) and a 10% increase to the latter (bringing it to 160%). Sad news for Combat Dagger rogues, though -- the 10% damage increase to Backstab is only granted by taking the Sinister Calling talent, deep in the Subtlety tree.
Finally, Blizzard is still investigating problems with Vanish and Cloak of Shadows. There have been numerous reports of Vanish failing to apply stealth at all when activated, and Cloak of Shadows being ineffective against PvP opponents. Vanish has long been a pet peeve of mine, simply because it has never reliably worked 100% of the time. For a long time the devs have attributed this to server / client lag and have stated that there are some situations when Vanish can be broken due to latency (just an unfortunate limitation of current technology), but recently they've identified one issue with it and are investigating it. Although I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a 100% guaranteed Vanish, the current issue(s) with Vanish and Cloak of Shadows should hopefully be fixed by the next patch, if not a hotfix earlier than that.
Filed under: Rogue, (Rogue) Encrypted Text
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
infection Dec 19th 2007 5:42PM
ok ok blizzard, you don't want rogues playing with maces and swords.
we will all make dagger builds now.
glad i didn't spend my new aquired arena points on that mace.
Flaure Dec 19th 2007 7:34PM
Finally, my sub spec will kick some ass again!
I was hoping they would realize that the points spent in combat kind of made very little sense... make the people who spent heavily into the PvP based tree, suck at PvP, while others who use the PvE/PvP balance of combat and sub get a HUGE advantage?
Not right IMO.
robotrock Dec 19th 2007 5:43PM
There's latency and there's just plain not doing anything at all....I can sit there smashing my hotkey repeatedly and nothing happens.
Markymark Dec 19th 2007 5:45PM
Wow this is tempting me to roll a rogue lol.
Oldbear Dec 19th 2007 5:53PM
Vanish does suck - it real should be a 100% "gone" ability - even if we had to spend a talent or two... What a great way to save yourself from a Stranglethorn ganking
xtrout Dec 19th 2007 5:55PM
Before people start going of on it being unfair that Rogues are getting buffed, I would like to state that only subtlety is getting buffed. Being full on combat swords for raiding, this means nothing to me as a Rogue. Buff our combat tree....I'll be singing a different tune :D.
Beth Dec 21st 2007 2:27PM
Rogues aren't getting buffed.
Rogues of nearly any spec will do less damage after the patch, with the one exception of deep subtlety daggers. Shadowstep's sprint means it's possible it won't be completely useless (lag means you nearly always landed out of range), but it is not a real "buff".
I'm sorry, but 5% less damage on Subtlety's main attack multiplier is not a buff no matter how happy the ShSers are that the rest of us are getting nerfed.
Balasan Dec 19th 2007 6:00PM
Kinda sad, as the way i see it is that Blizz is really working hard to make daggers *the* pvp spec, but not making daggers any better in PvE, especially compared to swords.
My housemate won't like it. He loves to raid, and he's in my arena team as well, but he's ending up like prot warriors in a sense, in that once he specs for arenas he's next to useless in raids, and vice versa. It also doesn't help that he doesn't like the gameplay of combat swords, and was really hoping that he can spec combat daggers for good raiding and OK pvp.
Pseosis Dec 19th 2007 6:10PM
Yay more ways for a rogue to stun me, kill me, and run away YAY!
vak Dec 19th 2007 6:21PM
A sig I once saw on the forums:
"paper is fine, nerf rock..."
- scissor
=]
Straga Dec 19th 2007 6:27PM
So they nerf hemo to 110% because of arenas (i.e. the AR/Prep build) then change Prep to no longer reset AR? So a double nerf to handle PvP complaints... which then spills into PvE world. Why, when one or the other would have 'fixed' it? Anyone else shaking their head at the see-saw?
I actually enjoyed being decent at raiding and PvP for once without the constant respecs... back back in the box for all of us.
Zhalseran Dec 19th 2007 6:41PM
I'm actually really not happy with these changes. All its doing is reaffirming that 41 points in combat is the only way to PvE and that 41 points sub is what Blizz wishes would be the only PvP spec, except it still sucks
Fold Dec 19th 2007 7:02PM
I agree with you Zhalseran, and hopefully they're not done tweaking Sub yet. My simple suggestion, which is also easy to implement, is to move Mace Spec to the Sub tree.
This will give heavy Sub some extra control to make up for the loss of sustained damage and/or energy starvation typical of Sub. To me, control over the opponent truly defines the Sub tree, and Mace Spec is ultimately about control.
There's no reason why one of our very best PVP talents should be stuck at the 20+ tier of our PVE tree.
Atilim Dec 19th 2007 6:54PM
What is wrong with CLoS, never met a rogue where it failed.
Verit Dec 19th 2007 7:04PM
Me neither - typical scenario is I get in stun lock, then pop howl of terror - then fear and dot the rogue up - the clos out of that and are back on me seconds later :(. I've never seen it fail.
Soapinmouth Dec 19th 2007 10:57PM
you can't cloak of shadows out of fear nub.
Suzaku Dec 20th 2007 12:01AM
As I understand it, it isn't preventing damage from all abilities, and sometimes fails to remove certain debuffs when activated. People have tested it and reported it being completely ineffective after numerous attempts, and not simply being a case of that 10% out of 90% full resists.
Vanish has been broken for a while now, and not in the same way that people used to complain about it (IE that hunter pet just took me out of stealth). It's been breaking without any outside help at all, simply going "You gain vanish. You lose vanish."
Heilig Dec 20th 2007 1:21AM
"You can't cloak of shadows out of fear nub"
Yeah, but you can trinket out of fear and cloak of shadows out of the dots.
.....nub
schwonga Dec 19th 2007 7:00PM
No complains from me, I love my up and coming sub rogue, just not sure what to take after 41 pts in sub. Now I guess I'll have to decide once and for all whether to focus on pvp or spread the pts around to try to do raiding at the same time. Yeah yeah, i know all you all are nay sayers about trying raiding with sub, but still worth trying to give it a shot.
dmurlor Dec 19th 2007 7:07PM
lol... And they say Druids are OP.