Upcoming Changes For Rogues Announced
Posted by 
iTZKooPA on Monday, September 1, 2008 - 14 Comments Tags: changes, class, patch 3.0.2, rogues, wotlk, wrath, wrath of the lich king
iTZKooPA on Monday, September 1, 2008 - 14 Comments Tags: changes, class, patch 3.0.2, rogues, wotlk, wrath, wrath of the lich king 
Mmm, finally Rogues have received a nice blue post from Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Poster Gamnin updated the stabbing community on changes they can expect to see in the near future. Gamnin admits that these are changes that are currently being worked on, as well as future goals. Therefore, some of these changes may not come for some time. Nevertheless, many of them have me in a twitter.Got me in a twitter:
- Removal of numerous reagents (Thieves’ Tools, Flash Powder).
- Poison skill removed – poisons available via vendors.
- Level 75 unannounced ability designed and teased as adding group utility.
- Fist weapon spec merged with dagger spec.
- Mace Specialization will now grant armor penetration when using a mace.
Much hotness:
- Cooldown reduced to 3 minutes on Evasion, Sprint, Vanish.
- Subtlety Tier 1 redesigned to be more attractive
- Fewer dagger specifics talents in subtlety to allow more diverse build options
- Hunger for Blood will remove any harmful physical effects. No longer just Bleed or Magic.
I have always fancied the dagger specialization more, just because I felt that it required more “skill”. In actuality, it just requires that you move around a lot more (and have more patience) but I will keep telling myself that that equals skill. Unfortunately, raiders have claimed that dagger builds were doing less DPS than the other specs for some time, a statement which Blizzard owned up to. With that in mind, the merger of maces into the dagger spec and armor penetration instead of a stun proc make maces much more attractive to me. Maybe it is time to give up my trusty blades?
The removal of the poison skill makes sense, as it was simply as waste of time to create them so often. On top of that, its not like it was difficult to do or troublesome to locate the materials. For those reasons, the switch to a vendor item makes a lot of sense. But seeing as I never carried around poison mats, just a few stacks of crafted poisons, I don't see how it will help bag space.
As for the hotness changes? I did not note that Cloak of Shadows' cooldown is being raised to two minutes since I was focusing on the good. But that makes the changes to Hunger for Blood look more enticing for the PvP players out there. And should I make that jump to maces, it is nice to know that Blizzard will try to make the subtlety tree a viable option.
Be sure to check out the blue post though. Gamnin mentions a lot of other changes and future additions that I did not touch upon. Sadly, there wasn't enough to convince me that daggers will be taking over as highest DPS again – and I feel they should be the highest.
Reader Comments (14)
1st post!! Anyways they should also make some classes more defendable against rogues, and their stupid stupid ganks.
Wow congratz man you made the first post did you tell your parents about that I bet they were well proud of you son!!!
Just to let you know. The rogue ability has been revieled.
Tricks of the Trade - The current party or raid member becomes the target of your Tricks of the Trade. The threat caused by your next attack and all actions taken for 6 sec afterwards will be transferred to the target. In addition, all damage caused by the target is increased by 15% during this time.
Instant, 30 sec cooldown
"Tricks of the Trade - The current party or raid member becomes the target of your Tricks of the Trade. The threat caused by your next attack and all actions taken for 6 sec afterwards will be transferred to the target. In addition, all damage caused by the target is increased by 15% during this time."
So basically Rogues are getting a better version of Misdirection? Seems a little odd; if they're going to remove the exclusivity of the misdirect mechanic, why not give it to all DPS classes instead of just Rogues and Hunters?
But hunters also have other ways to aid the party. Aspects and Ice Trap, the new snare. Rogues on the other hand have sap and nothing else. I don't play either so I'm not an expert on talking about them but thats just how I see it.
What no one seems to be noticing is how this ability can also work for arena. A 2 dps team where the rogue gives his partner 15% MORE damage >_> Crazy
Xup: dude that's a waste of a post, and also very much hilarious, and also Tricks of the Trade: awesome, if you have another hunter in the group then you won't have to worry about others getting aggroed a lot. Also now my alt can do just trick of the trade onto someone and attack galv or drek in av lol. Gj blizzard
Re; Tricks of the Trade. As an old school RPG'er it's nice to see some more rogue-like skills being added to the rogue's repertoir. I've been kinda dissapointed in the look and feel of Blizz's rogue class, but might have to have annother play =)
how is that rogues always get the nerf hammer since bc came out? we use to be gods of pvp now we are just poop dps compared to other classes.
finnaly no more running out of crippling poisen during a bg
eer well not having to get the mats is what I meant =)
btw,about the threat passing spell,I'm pretty sure one of the reasons this is done is because of the nerf on BoS(will work similar like Bosacrifise,same duration as cd,only works on 1 person) so this way instead of giving the dps less threat,they're giving the group more ways to increase the threat from the tank(and with the dmg bonus they can feel like they're actually doing something in bringing the enemy down,not just taking the hits.this+avenging wrath=hawt
My 2v2 arena partner will be glad to hear of these changes. Rogues are a very delicate class, they've been screwed over in past patches so to see things coming together for the balanced benefit is very promising in the upcoming xpac.
Sweet, now rogues are going to be even more fun to deal with.
More cooldowns for them please.
I love rogues, was my first toon. Grew up on PVP, but switched to PVE at 70. Had serious problems played sub spec on PVP, just may be the way I play. Shadowstep was great against mobs, but too many cool downs to keep out of open battle in PVP. Very delicate spec for open battle. Glad to see they are revamping some of these specs as well as specific weapon abilities. I liked the removal of making flash powder, but haven't play rogue since the removal of poisons. I hated doing that quest, and have run into a lot of other rogues that have skipped the quest, especially going combat spec. This change is very nice. Of all the talents and jobs, seem rogues initially came into the game very over powered, which was nice, and have constantly been nerfed since.
Drou, 70 Subtlety Rogue
Female, Undead