Blizzard on Subtlety and Rogue Talents
Blizzard has posted a response to a forum post relating to how Sub is performing in PvE and PvP. It talks about the long lasting issue of utility vs damage and the challenges there are with finding a balance. It does not offer solutions but it gives us hope that significant changes will be done to the rogue class in the future (Cataclysm?).
(SOURCE)
Now, we do want Subtlety to be more attractive. All of the pure dps classes have a spec that isn’t as popular as the others. Mages may be the closest because at least Frost has a viable PvP use, but there are also plenty of mages who want to be able to use Frost in end-game PvE too.
Subtlety (and Frost for that matter) are specs focused around utility. The problem is that players understandably nearly always choose damage over utility for raiding and often choose utility over damage for PvP, unless the damage is really high or the utility just doesn’t cut it for some reason.
What we are talking about doing is sharing more of the utility among other specs, or the core class, so that there aren’t “utility trees.” To do that though, we have to make the way the different specs do damage different enough so that players might choose a play-style preference over highest damage. This is particularly challenging for rogues, who have a history of giving up a preferred spec or play style for one with a sub 1% dps increase.
I think we are closest with the Arcane vs. Fire mage specs at the moment. They play a little differently, which goes beyond just the type of magic damage they do. While Fire might still do the highest damage overall, Arcane is close enough and plays different enough that even competitive players don’t feel stupid for playing that spec. There are a lot more Arcane mages out there than I think a lot of players assume.
That is harder with rogues. “I’m the sneaky one” doesn’t translate into sustained raid dps. Assassination feels like it emphasizes poisons more and Combat feels like it emphasizes weapons more, so we’re a little closer there. Subtelty needs a stronger yet damage-oriented niche.
HaT, sadly, is not a niche. HaT has scaling problems. It’s appropriate for a 5-player group, but gets too in larger groups with all of their raid buffs. We don’t want HaT to be the one talent that pushes players into Subtlety.
So what does this tell us? Well basically Blizzard is telling us that they would like that players choose specs becuase of play style over damage potential but they have not managed to bring the game to that point yet. It is clear that the choice is happening over utility and damage for PvE and PvP and Blizzard states that they have tried to balance it out amongst the three specs in order to diversify rogues without one spec being better by default.
It would seem they are trying to achieve this by making the way each tree does its damage more diverse. Assassinations through poisons and Combat through weapons. The problem with Subtlety is finding a special damage generating path. Poisons and weapons are already taken, so what is left?
For PvP the problem is a little easier to fix because utility is much more important and Assassination and Combat both have their utility in PvP. Subtlety however still has some problems because of how easily Shadow Dance can go wrong or be wasted if CCed when it is activated amongst others. Other signature abilities such as Killing Spree from Combat cannot be wasted due to its immunity effect for example but Shadow Dance doesn’t have such a security measure for fear that it would become too powerful. So for Subtlety to reach equal ground with the other specs serious ability changes will have to be done. Blizzard seems to be on the right path in Cataclysm with their idea of making some stat talents passive to their respective talent tree allowing for more utility talents which could make up for the weaknesses of some abilities.
Blizzard is not promising anything in this statement but it shows that they have understood the issue and are actually trying to change it.
Posted by Coope | 2 comments
Rogue PvP Talents
Rogue talents are pretty simple; you can choose between damage, damage, or damage.
The trick of course is to find the spec that is good for YOU. The first reflex most rogues have is to just go with the mainstream spec that everyone uses because it works. There is always a mainstream spec but it sometimes changes from one expansion to the next or even from one patch to the next. There are advantages and disadvantages to going mainstream. The biggest advantage is that the mainstream spec is usually the easiest to master or even easiest to use. There is also a major disadvantage that rogues ignore. Choosing a mainstream spec means that your actions are easily predictable by your opponents, you lose some of that crucial element of surprise which can give you the slight edge needed to win. Diversity pays off.
Let us start with the current mainstream spec.
Mutilate Prep (41/5/25)
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#fhxcoeMoirsMzZ0xZebfbh0db
This is a good multipurpose spec that works ok in almost every situation. It has both burst and sustained damage potential. The major disadvantage of this spec is its weakness against plate classes or bear druids.
Mutilate Envenom PvP (44/2/25)
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#fhecofMoirsMuZ0bZebfbh0db
The spec born from the recent buffs to Envenom and Deadly Poison. It still has most of the power on squishies from the standard mutilate spec and also allows for more damage against plate and bear druids thanks to armor ignoring envenom. Disadvantages is that Deadly Poison breaks Blind and Gouge. Should be used with Instant Poison on main-hand for Deadly Brew and Deadly Poison on offhand allowing for Shiv application if needed.
Deep Combat PvP (17/51/3)
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#fhe0oxZGxVo0bE0MubTRtc
This spec is less effective against cloth compared to other specs but does well against plate and bear druids. Killing Spree can be very powerful but is difficult to use. The advantage of Killing Spree is that it makes you immune to CC during its duration and for the time being ignores Evasion. It lacks a little in mobility but imp sprint makes up a little for that. This spec requires a good amount of crit rating and high weapon damage.
Shadowstep Assassination (27/0/44)
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#fheoRxMobbZZezfdh0ddAzVco
My personal favorite at the moment, a revisit of the old hemo spam spec that dominated previously in TBC. This spec has a great amount of mobility, Shadowstep is totally unexpected now days and has shown its utility in both BGs and Arena. Damage is consistent and works decently even against plate. Requires a high damage main hand.
More will come soon! Please send us any talent specs you think are viable! (coope@rogueweekly.com)
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Rogues and Cataclysm
With all the information revealed at Blizzcon a lot of websites have already started speculating on the future of individual classes in the next expansion. It is still way too early to judge the full effect of the expansion on the rogue class as the information given to us at Blizzcon is most likely just the first course in one big meal of an expansion. However let us look at the information we have so far.
General
Every class has a specific talent spec that just fares better then others in PvE or PvP and so specs every time the “standard” good spec changes everyone changes to it. This completely kills individuality and diversity. Blizzard seems to have seen that talents are not as much of a character customization tool as they would have liked. The introduction of the new “Paths” of the Titans shows Blizzard’s response to this class diversity problem and will probably impact rogues by allowing more options for players of all playing styles and will therefor make PvP in particular much more interesting (and complex) due to it being harder to anticipate the reactions of a class.
PvP and PvE
In PvP racial abilities such as human Perception have always given certain races an edge as rogues over others. When seeing the Worgen and Goblin racials many players instantly thought they would be the ideal rogue races but they have forgotten one thing, Blizzard has stated that the current races will have their racials revised so expect to see an approach which would make every class equal(ish) in terms of advantages for the rogue class.
Something that will affect PvP and PvE are the stat changes. Agility filling the role of AP (1 agi = 2 ap) solves a lot of problems rogue have when it comes to pimping out their gear using gems and other enchants, no more sacrificing one stat for another! This also goes towards Blizzard’s goal of making classes more diverse. We can not talk about stat changes without mentioning the usually neglected haste. The once barely useful rogue PvP stat haste will stage a comeback by contributing to energy regeneration! I don’t think I have to explain how that will drastically change how rogues view haste 
Blizzard has also mentioned passive bonuses from the different talent trees. Maybe this will finally give rogues talents that we should passively have anyways like Master of Deception which is absolutely necessary or else there is no reason to even bother to stealth. Blizzard has stated that the more “boring” talents which offer lets say a certain % increase in crit chance will be eliminated and made passive for certain trees and they will be replaced by more “fun” talents. Now all that is left to see is if these “fun” talents don’t make certain classes too overpowered.
PvE rogues have not been left out and by looking at the patch notes of the PTR of patch 3.2.2 we can see Blizzard is already implementing PvE Assassination changes to already start bringing diversity to the PvE rogue scene mostly dominated by combat. The aim is to bring daggers back to the PvE world which has basically forced rogues to use heavier weapons for quite some time. The way Blizzard is doing this is by buffing up the good old ability Envenom. To put it simply Envenom’s damage will be buffed and the Master Poisoner talent will have a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison which will solve a very basic problem with Envenom which is the reduction of DoT.
That’s all for now! Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with breaking news!
Just to clarify the “weekly” part of Rogue Weekly, We will try to submit one article a week concerning the Rogue and PvP community such as news.
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Blizzcon (Day 2) – Breakdown
Another very informative day at Blizzcon with lots of new information concerning PvP and revolutionary Guild improvements and (surprisingly) a tiny bit of Rogue information! PvP has been generally streamlined and guilds have become very important towards individual player experiences. I was disappointed with the lack of rogue questions during QA and amazed at the vast amount of Shaman questions but in the end we have much to hope for in terms of Rogues getting more diversified and getting more fun abilities as Blizzard has promised for every class.
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Blizzcon (Day 1) – Breakdown
The first day of Blizzcon 2009 has come and gone and the announcements are very overwhelming. The expansion Cataclysm was confirmed and all the epicness attached was unleashed. Sadly no specific Rogue information was released but we have our hopes up for tomorrow! Huge announcements on the PvP front and also fundamental game mechanics changes which are bound to have a huge impact on class diversification.
Read MorePosted by Coope | 5 comments
Top Rogue Macros
We have compiled a collection of what we believe are the best and most useful rogue macros at the moment. These are mostly for PvP but that is simply because there is a much greater need for macros in PvP then PvE. If you know a macro that you think is important don’t hesitate to contact us!
Mouseover Blind
/cast [target=mouseover, exists] Blind; Blind
This macro allows you to blind a target by putting your mouse over the target and clicking the macro without losing your current target. If you have no mouse over target it will just blind your current target. Very valuable in arena but you have to be careful and not accidentally mouse over something like a pet or other target while using this macro.
Improved Sap
/console targetNearestDistance 10.000000
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
/console targetNearestDistance 41.000000
/cast [harm,nodead] Sap
Just spam with macro while running around in stealth and it will sap the first target you see. Great against other rogues as it will really give you the upper hand when it comes to getting the first sap off.
Multi Throw (+blast)
/use INSERT GLOVES HERE (if they have Pyro Rocket)
/cast Deadly Throw
/cast Throw
This macro uses your Pyro Rocket if available and tries to cast deadly throw but if there are no combo points it will cast normal throw, in addition to freeing up one of your keys the macro also is very useful when you just need to get one last hit in and you have no combo points to deadly throw.
Imp Tricks of the Trade
/cast [target=focus,help] Tricks of the Trade
This macro lets you use Tricks of the Trade on a player without losing your current target. To make it work you have to set your focus on the player you want to cast Tricks of the Trade on. Alternatively you can also use /cast [target=insertplayernamehere] Tricks of the Trade if you want to always cast it on a specific player. I find the focus version better because you don’t have to go and replace the name in the macro every time you play with someone else.
Uber Preparation
/cast [nostealth] Evasion
/cast Vanish
/cast Cold Blood
/cast Sprint
/cast Preparation
Most rogues do not use all the cooldowns reset by Preparation when they blow it. Usually the reasons for using Preparation are for another Vanish or another Cold Blood but sometimes we forget that it also resets other cooldowns such as evasion that you might as well use since you are about to have them reset. This macro will not do Evasion if you are in stealth to avoid unstealthing you.
Stealth Eat
/cast INSERT FOOD NAME HERE
/cast Stealth
If you are going to eat, you might as well eat safely.
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