3.1 went up yesterday on live realms after a somewhat shaky start (no more than expected). Here are the rogue patch notes, you can find the full notes here.
- Deadly Poison: The amount of damage this poison generates from the rogue’s attack power has been increased from 8% per application to 12%.
- Deadly Throw: Missile speed increased.
- Instant Poison: Redesigned to have its chance to be applied based on the speed of the weapon (frequency-based).
- Shiv: This ability can no longer generate a critical strike, and the poisons it applies cannot be critical strikes either.
- Tricks of the Trade: Will now begin following the first damaging attack.
- Wound Poison: Redesigned to have its chance to be applied based on the speed of the weapon (frequency-based).
- Talents
- Assassination
- Hunger For Blood: No longer stacks. Damage bonus changed to 15% for a single application. Requires a bleed effect active on the rogue’s target. No longer removes bleeds from the rogue. Now costs 15 energy and lasts for 60 seconds.
- Master Poisoner: Now also increases the bonus to apply Deadly Poison when Envenom is used by an additional 15/30/45%.
- Combat
- Adrenaline Rush cooldown reduced to 3 minutes.
- Killing Spree: Now also increases all damage done by the rogue while active by 20%.
- Savage Combat improved to 2/4% increased damage against poisoned targets.
- Lightning Reflexes reduced to 3 ranks for 2/4/6% dodge and 4/7/10% melee haste.
- Subtlety
- Shadow Dance now opens a new action bar when used.
- Sinister Calling: The damage bonus to Backstab and Hemorrhage is now 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.
I did have a chance to raid a bit before the instance servers crashed on us, and I can say that rogue damage is no joke anymore. The changes to Hunger for Blood make this spec a breeze to play now (it has a 1 min duration, only requires a bleed for the initial use and once you use it it is up for a minute regardless of whether a bleed is present or you change targets). The poison proc normalization is amazing as well.
At the same time, a rogue in my guild running HaT had very impressive numbers. A spec that really fell off the radar after the nerf seems to be close to par with mutilate, although I haven’t seen it enough in action to make an assessment. I’ll be sure to post more about it in the future. I’m sure that combat will be very competitive as well, if not the best PvE spec with all the changes to the tree (the haste from lightning reflexes is basically 10 percent passive haste from nowhere).
As many PvP balance problems as this game has, it’s nice to see that rogues are very solid PvE now. We bring probably top single target DPS to balance out our lack of utility, which consists of Tricks of the Trade (which is essentially just more damage in most cases). We have mediocre aoe through FoK but it’s better than nothing. We also have something a lot of classes don’t and something we haven’t really had for the majority of WoW now, and that is spec versatility. I think everyone wants there character to be unique and this is somewhat the case in PvE now, although don’t quote me on that because it’s too early to tell if one spec will show itself to be far and away the best.
Glyphing 3.1
Personally, as I intend to run mut/prep still in pvp, I’m going with mutilate glyph, vigor glyph and probably Tricks of the Trade glyph, but possibly sticking with prep glyph. I think that preparation glyph is a bit underrated, it is essentially two dismantles. By the time you prep for your second stunlock, being able to chain it to another dismantle is essentially another 5 s stun on most melee classes in arena. The tricks glyph is nice, but at the same time it’s a bit underwhelming, it will equate to a few hundred more damage in most cases. The effectiveness of this glyph has a lot to do with team coordination, if you’re someone who just runs into arena with ToT on and forgets it generally for the rest of the game I wouldn’t suggest it.
If you’re playing shadow dance, the dance glyph is a must have just as mutilate glyph is for any mut spec. For combat (and expect combat builds to get very viable this patch, both PvE and PvP) I would likely be running with Adrenaline Rush and Killing Spree glyphs to get the most out of your cooldowns, and Sinister Strike glyph as well.
Another very interesting glyph is the Cloak of shadows glyph. 40 percent physical mitigation for 5 seconds from a glyph is amazing, but at the same time for the most part you need to use cloak defensively against casters or offensively against casters and saving it for potential yet highly unpredictable melee burst is difficult, especially when the majority of the physical burst we take comes in stuns in which we cannot cloak. I’ll certainly be giving it a try to see if it has any place.
There are a lot more options here now and these are just my initial thoughts. In the next week or two I’ll put together a guide on viable and optimal 3.1 rogue specs and glyphs, once I take a closer look at things.
Season 5 comes to an end, Beware of Destruction Locks and Priests
Season 5 came to a close on Tuesday, so I hope everyone was able to firm up their titles and spend their points before they were reset. Reflecting on the season, I think it was a lot of wasted potential. Overall the game is moving in the right direction but the entire season was marred by 3 class’s complete domination because Blizzard was unwilling to fix evident mistakes quickly. Hunters, Death Knights, and Paladins had free reign over season 5. It was probably the hardest season to get gladiator for anyone, but for rogues and warriors especially.
If you haven’t been completely decimated by a destro lock in a battleground or duel yet, expect to be soon. Destruction damage has gone way up. Look at it this way, if you see a destro lock you’d better kill him quick before he kills you. In spite of the fact they do ridiculous damage now, they are still a very squishy target. With the changes to demon portal, if you see a destro lock in arena you will probably need to be shutting him down and killing him fast. Priests are another class to look out for this patch, both healing specs and shadow.
One of the Biggest PvP Rogue changes
The nerf to stoneform could prove to be huge for arena. Dwarf players had an extra window of life against rogues, negating our ms and making essentially 50 percent of our damage (through wound poison) inconsequential for a period. The new stoneform has no immunity, it simply clears poisons, bleeds and diseases on use. This is a huge change for arena and rogues.
The next biggest change you’ll notice will probably be the nerf to shadowfrost DK spec (in which Dk’s had an army of pets and their main ability was ranged and insane damage, icy touch) and the nerf to survival (no more TnT stuns!). Although I think DKs and Hunters still need to be looked at further, at least we’re moving in the right direction.
On a final note, Unmercey’s new video is finished and should be up sooner than later, and it’s pretty impressive. I’ll post it here when it gets released.
Related posts:
Thanks for the info.
Unmercey movie is ready! Yay! =)
Comment by AlexSmith — April 15, 2009 @ 9:31 am
Interesting, sounds like rogues are getting put up a bit for wotlk… I rerolled a warrior when wrath came out disliking my rogue but might return to it; this fury nerf really sucks.
Last patch playing with a DK my warrior was semi-viable in PvP, I run in, do masive damage, die, get raised as ally, do huge crits and stuns as ghoul form…
But they nerf’d my damage pretty hard, 10% seems like a lot more than I thought it would be, and with no more raise ally we can barely win any games. I guess I might have to go back to my rogue. I still find warriors a playable class, but I would miss fury, arms \ prot are great but seem slow paced to me. Oh well, this is a rogue site so thats enough crying for one very long comment
Comment by Naravus — April 15, 2009 @ 9:33 am
Yeah Im glad they nerfed DKs, one shitty ting for me is I got 1197 arena points(had plans of buying thrown for 1.2k) is there a way I can talk myself into blizzard skipping those 3 points? Ty.
Comment by Dirtyman — April 15, 2009 @ 9:47 am
Very doubtful man.
Comment by Dalazar — April 15, 2009 @ 9:51 am
>< that’s painful
Comment by Akrios — April 15, 2009 @ 10:03 am
great post… please post more about the patch and different glyph setups if you get the chance.
great site! keep up the good work.
Comment by cara — April 15, 2009 @ 10:08 am
You are 100% correct with your summarization of the Warlock. Conflagurate is critting for 12k in T7 with only a 10 sec cooldown. With T8, better enchants, and better gems.. I’m confident that will go up to 15k. (unbuffed vs. lvl 80 dummy)
My advice. Dont let a lock put immolate on you, EVER! Cloak out of it ASAP, cause if you see immolate, a 15k crit is only 2 secs away. (FYI, I’m saying crit becuase well over 50% of my Conflag casts were crits. Non-crits are hitting between 4 and 6k) Also, an immolate spell is going to be the first spell a destruction lock will cast. Kick it or stun him fast. It’s a 1.2 sec cast.
Sorry to bog your rogue forum down with a lock post, but hopefully it’s helpful to the rogue community. Not to mention, I’m sure locks will be getting a lot of talk soon.
Comment by Feight — April 15, 2009 @ 10:54 am
Looks okay. Awesome about Unmercey`s new video!:D
Comment by Scatman — April 15, 2009 @ 10:54 am
ya, feight is right.
my lock friend was telling me about how he was critting like a tank in some duels and more or less 1shotting people.
i agree with Feight, get that off or your dead in 2seconds.
Comment by scizok — April 15, 2009 @ 10:58 am
Uh what spec will you be running in 2s/3s Akrios?
Comment by RogueHeroMing — April 15, 2009 @ 11:16 am
Hey Feight don’t apologize we’re glad to see you and wish more people would give us insight into the other classes as well. Thanks for the support.
Comment by Edondia — April 15, 2009 @ 11:47 am
prob prep mut but I don’t know yet I want to try dance with the new glyph or maybe try combat too
Comment by Akrios — April 15, 2009 @ 11:55 am
I can confirm that Combat is very viable so far for raiding in 3.1, tried it out tonight in ulduar. Before the patch I had was usually somewhere in the middle of the dps charts, depending on fights anywhere between first and 10th place. was playing 51-13-7 then. my first try with combat since tbc i was clearly on top on the single target encounters. and thats totally without any good rotations. I see a bright future for combat dps…
Comment by Gömd — April 15, 2009 @ 1:41 pm
I have chosen Mutilate for 3.1 as my raid spec. I have been using Sinister Revenge x2. So my question to akrios is if you know if SLOW/SLOW is the best dagger setup or is it SLOW/FAST? Some people only have one slow dagger so they swear that its slow/fast for focused attacks. Also what have you heard yet as far as IIV (instant, instant, evis) VS IDN (instant, deadly, envenom)? I would like to give IIV a go at least. THANKS!
Comment by CritsMcgee — April 15, 2009 @ 10:32 pm
Well, pre 3.1 it was fast MT and slow OH with instant in MH and deadly in OH. Now I’m not sure. With the envenom glyph I’m not sure you’ll be needing to have it on your fast weapon. The frequency kind evens out slow and fast. Though generally faster daggers are good for focused attacks.
Comment by Centh — April 15, 2009 @ 10:45 pm
YAY
Comment by DDwannabe — April 15, 2009 @ 11:42 pm
Couple things,
Envenom Glyph , I hear this is in the game but does nothing. From other sites someone said it was making Hat rogues insane and blizzard took it out but the glyph is still in game for some reason, anyone confirm or deny this?
Also about the DPS change, I think they did some tiny boosts but do any of you also think that them Nerfing TG Warriors which use to hold the top DPS spot is what makes us appear to be boosted in pve on the meter?
Last, has anyone tried a 51/18/2 spec as mutilate? Dropping relentless strikes to get deep enough for the Haste in combat? Might make managing energy alot harder but just wondering.
Comment by Bearhuggy — April 16, 2009 @ 5:38 am
the prep glyph imo is useless because prep is one if not “the” attack u use on the most precise moment, if i were to blow all cds just for a dismantle i dunno if it would be gr8.
Imo.
btw wuddup with evis x?
Comment by jedz — April 16, 2009 @ 1:16 pm
It was the fastest nerf in history, just 12 hours and the crit damage of Conflag is now 50% less. Destro isn’t looking so hot now
Musta been a mistake?
Comment by Feight — April 16, 2009 @ 2:48 pm
what are the best glyphs for mut PvE? I was thinkin rupture, mutilate, and hunger for blood. I dont think the SnD is necessary now that HFB lasts so much longer.
Comment by A rogue — April 16, 2009 @ 3:36 pm
Akrios, if you have some time left in Eviscerate 10 or are working on an Arena/Duel Movie, please try out Shadow Dance. The playstyle is different from Mutilate, but I think you would do great with it. ShS/ShD is very effective in Arenas. It is a little tougher against skilled rogues, but when their trinket is down and you have Shadow Dance up, you win.
Comment by Gaust — April 16, 2009 @ 5:03 pm
hey look im akrios
Comment by Akrios — April 16, 2009 @ 5:03 pm
Hey
Well its some shit for me that the movie is lagging like hell when im trying to watch Unmercey Encore :s
Comment by unknown — April 17, 2009 @ 4:46 am
I find Glyph of sprint a very good alternative to Glyph of Prep, especially since back to back dismantles arent really that big of a boost, seeing how most people have a chain equipped.
100% sprint is really nice, especially while stealthed it’s amazing how fast you can get where you want to be.
Comment by Fer — April 18, 2009 @ 8:14 am
My Toon
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Arygos&n=Dazartham
Any Constructive Input Would Be Appreciated I am always looking for ways to improve.
This is my general dps cycle for raids
After 3.1
open with Garotte > hfb > Snd > Mut > Env (to refresh Snd) > Mut > Mut (rupture or envenom) depending on you snd timer. Alway use envenom or rupture with 4 or 5 combo points (unless circumstances dictate a quick Snd refresh)
It is important to note that any bleed will alow you to refresh your HfB not just one you have initiated.
Get the HfB glyph it adds another 3% overall damage to your HfB ability.
Now I am not claiming to be the best rouge ever or anything but with this rotation i am doing
2700 dps unbuffed on the training dummies and 3500 buffed in 25 mans at the very least it is a good place to start.
Comment by Dazartham — April 18, 2009 @ 8:52 am
after the patch we went to ulduar 25 and on almost all bos me and an other rogue from the guild was the top dps on all bosses and mostly above 5k dps on all of them, so i am happy to see that rogues again on the top in raids to
Comment by Janonymus — April 19, 2009 @ 12:09 am
http://wathefok.mybrute.com
Comment by mybrute — April 20, 2009 @ 2:53 pm
I quit playing WoW after i got my DK to lvl 80 because the whole game was just a mess…PVP and PVE wise.
My main was always a rogue and if i ever come back to WoW it will be again my rogue.
After reading the patch notes and akrios’ comments, it seems to me that WoW is moving back to how TBC used to be.
Imo TBC was the best….and i was a mutilate rogue through out the whole TBC so i was not one of the rogues who had it easy. I just loved that playing style.
Comment by Lagann — April 20, 2009 @ 7:38 pm
wanna know how u move like tht do u use a 7 button mouse are do u click all your spells
Comment by truliez — April 21, 2009 @ 10:52 am
man i take all your advice u are a great rogue and your always on point the videos are insane thx alot
Comment by truliez — April 21, 2009 @ 10:55 am
hey man with the new patch if im mut spec would it be right if i place a fast dagger in MH and slow in OH while doing pvp just asking man im always open for improvement
Comment by truliez — April 21, 2009 @ 11:03 am
Tru man, go slow in MH and whatever in OH. I happen to have 2 Daschal’s Bites which tear massive holes in clothies
Comment by Pengi — May 6, 2009 @ 6:20 am
ROGUES SUCK SO MUCH, ANY HUNTER CAN MARK US, SEND PET, AND GO GRAB SOME MCDONALDS AND WTFPWN OUR FACES, SO ANYONE WHO HAS HALF A BRAIN DELETE YOUR ROGUE NOW AND GET A RET PALLY PLEASE!
Comment by lagann — May 13, 2009 @ 12:25 pm
Hey, what is upwith hemo?used to be all the rage, is it worthit for pvp, hoe doesit stack up vs. Mut?
Comment by Durzan — May 14, 2009 @ 8:58 am
LOL @ lagann,
Yeah that’s why as an admitted noob rogue I routinely OWN hunters. Try again.
Comment by Paramessu — May 22, 2009 @ 12:20 pm
@lagann
and this is why we have cloak of shadows and vanish
Comment by Ken — June 10, 2009 @ 3:15 am