Well we are far enough into the season and patch to start to get a real feel for PvP balance in general and specifically for our class. The first thing I can say without a doubt is that the class as a whole feels weaker than it did in the past. The resilience change did have a negative effect on us.
Our class design is not currently and has not been since WOTLK an “outlast” or “outmana” class. Right now this role can be better served in most cases by a warrior for the simple reason that warriors don’t become invariably weaker after using their cooldowns and if anything become stronger as a match goes on. Rogues have weak survivability and a set of cds that allow us to perform for the period of their use at a reasonably high level. This patch has slowed things down slightly and that is never a positive thing for us. We have less personal viability and our role as a support class feels more cemented in this era of the game.
Now before you get the impression I’m just here to cry, I’m not. I don’t think rogues are terrible and that we aren’t very much viable. Although weaker this patch, we still have our place, and it is a strong one. Our best bracket in arena is 3 v 3, and luckily that’s WoW’s most important and balanced bracket (as decided by the powers that be).
3.2 Rogue Comps
Our best comps still lie in the conventional rogue / caster / healer teams, especially RMP and RLS. Setups of this nature have been viable since the beginning of arena for many reasons, and work best when the healer has offensive dispels or purge and the ability to put out offensive pressure. The big reason an offensive healer is important is because, as always, rogue teams are most successful when games end quickly. Comps of this nature just have so much synergy through controlled burst, lockouts, MS effect, and a ton of crowd control on separate diminishing returns that you can expect rogue / caster / healer to remain strong this patch.
Rogues can also play in cleave setups (double melee + healer) and although you can say that any cleave will always have a chance to win through the raw damage of two physical dps classes, it seems as though priest cleave (specifically ret + rogue + priest) are the best bet for success as a rogue in a cleave. Once again, a priest’s abilities to remain offensive while keeping up their teammates best accentuate the rogue. The problem with running cleaves with a shaman as a healer is that they are far too viable a target to be trained when running a cleave that can’t really control or peel opposing dps classes. Shaman may be generally stronger this patch, but they also lost their bullet heals that were so fast one would have to guess to get an interrupt.
Rogue / Ret / Priest works because you have so many defensive cds that can be used while doing damage that you can drop other teams within the time frame of rogue cds, bubble, and pain supression. At the same time it’s a very difficult team to control with the rogue being slippery and the priest and paladin both having dispel.
Beast Cleave
A big trend thus far in 3.2 has been the presence of the EmG popularized “beast cleave”. The comp of Enhancement Shaman / Hunter / Paladin is named obviously for the fact that it runs a zoo on its target with a pack of wolves and a Bestial Wrathed Pet. This comp is taking some big hits in the next patch:
Hunter
Beast Mastery
- The Beast Within now reduces the mana costs of all spells by 50% for 10sec. (Up from 20%)
- The Beast Within: The duration of this talent has been reduced to 10 seconds. In addition, hunters with this talent will do 10% additional damage at all times.
- Bestial Wrath: The duration of this talent has been reduced to 10 seconds.
Shaman- Cleansing Totem: No longer pulses instantly when dropped.
- Earthen Power: No longer causes Earthbind to pulse a persistent snare immunity aura. It does still remove snares from allies as an instant pulse, but there is no lingering immunity. Earthen Power now also brings Earth Shock’s melee attack speed reduction up to -15%/-20% (with 1 or 2 points in it, respectively).
- Envenom’s scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.
- Fan of Knives: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 30%.
- Talents
- Assassination
- Master Poisoner: No longer increases the Deadly Poison application rate following a successful Envenom and instead now provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.
- Combat
- Throwing Specialization: This talent no longer causes Fan of Knives to interrupt spellcasting.
- Subtlety
- Honor Among Thieves: A 1-second cooldown is now enforced on how often a rogue can gain combo points from his party via this talent.
- Assassination
Related posts:
first!
Comment by keit — September 17, 2009 @ 9:28 am
FIRST
Comment by discostu — September 17, 2009 @ 9:29 am
arg almost
Comment by discostu — September 17, 2009 @ 9:29 am
I agree with you. Good post. (Your armory link doesn’t work)
Comment by Sheft — September 17, 2009 @ 10:30 am
where the eff have u been
Comment by tasd — September 17, 2009 @ 10:31 am
you said the next post was going to relate to rogues in cataclysm >.>
Comment by Maiv — September 17, 2009 @ 10:46 am
Akrios! Where have you been?
And why dosent your armory link work?
I really wanna see what gear your using right now, could you please
post a screen shot of your Gear/Talent Tree
What server do you play now?
Also someone said you aren’t Undead anymore is this true ?
Comment by Shade — September 17, 2009 @ 10:48 am
Nice post, as usual.
1 question:
Can you tell something about the progress you are doing on eviscerate 10 ? Like plans or something.
Comment by Cyles — September 17, 2009 @ 11:34 am
there may be a good side to weakening rogues, i’ve had a feeling lately that there are to many of us, know i’m hearing ppl say rogues are hard to play and i’m thinking only the badasses will stick to it.
Comment by Maciej — September 17, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
He’s playing casually. He’s not going to update his website everyday. If you want his armory, search “Akriios”. I’m guessing the reason it took him some time to post on his site was because there hasn’t been anything big to write about.
Comment by JizzTheThug — September 17, 2009 @ 12:34 pm
I recently ran into the most rediculous yet fun comp. Protwar/rogue, anyone who reads this site should try some skirms with it, its hilarious how many teams you will perfect just because one player will be entirely locked down while you cc the other.
Comment by Suhwoo — September 17, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
Missed you Akiros!
Comment by Flair — September 17, 2009 @ 5:39 pm
I thought you died bro. If I can give you some advice, it would be to bring in other rogues like when you collaborated with Nition to ease up some stress on writing blogs.
@Comments: Akriios on Blackrock.
Comment by Kzrs — September 17, 2009 @ 5:58 pm
I still love you Akriios!
Comment by Faeyna (Kul Tiras/Arena Realm 1) — September 17, 2009 @ 7:16 pm
For the people who obviously dont know where all the hordies went, most pro Horde players xferred to US-Blackrock while most Alliance pros went to US-Tichondrius. Akrios is under the name Akriios.
As for the post…kind of old stuff that I already knew. Would’ve liked an update on Rogues in Cataclysm. Please post more often, I check this website daily and it gets questionable sometimes when we go nearly a month without a new post.
Comment by Evolas — September 17, 2009 @ 8:06 pm
You guys need to understand he’s human, I am sure he is doing everything he can but he also probably has a social/family/work life. In time I am sure he will have what everyone is wishing for.
In the meantime, this game has became so boring.
Comment by Med — September 17, 2009 @ 9:10 pm
i am positive when evis10 comes out we will http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pXfHLUlZf4
Comment by Med — September 17, 2009 @ 9:12 pm
good to see you havent given up.
I thought you stopped playing
Comment by Slunk — September 17, 2009 @ 10:18 pm
Please don’t make us wait this long next time :<
Nice post though
Comment by Sulf — September 18, 2009 @ 2:43 am
Hello, Akrios. Im a huge fan, watched all your movies and try to learn as much as I can.
I was wondering if you had any advice on 1v1 against holy priests, as rogue. As I find them very annoying and very troubling.
Thanks in advance!
Comment by Stjimmy — September 18, 2009 @ 3:42 am
you mean disc priests.. right?
Comment by irpete — September 18, 2009 @ 7:54 am
Hows Eviscerate X coming?
Comment by Alc — September 18, 2009 @ 9:30 am
Ohh an Akrios plz fix your wow armory since u transfer to blackrock and changed your name to akriios http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blackrock&n=Akriios
Comment by Alc — September 18, 2009 @ 9:48 am
Both holy and disc in PvP gear are being a pain in the ass to me, really :/ It’s like hitting a brick wall.
Comment by Stjimmy — September 18, 2009 @ 1:07 pm
Wow..about time..
anyways was guuud Akrios?
This game is getting boring lol
I own a mage but love rogues.
too lazy to lvl one
Comment by Wizex — September 18, 2009 @ 2:54 pm
From what I believe, Akrios is now playing on the US server Blackrock in the Bloodlust battlegroup. Reason for saying this, I have been vsing Neurological and Ely in 2v2 and my mate said he went into a 3v3 against Neuro, Ely and Akrios.
Comment by Pasinius — September 19, 2009 @ 1:05 am
I’m quitting soon and will sell you my rogue if you want. 2300~ ratings + Relentless / Furious gear.
Comment by Random — September 19, 2009 @ 1:06 am
U R BACK!!! great post.
Comment by Torton — September 21, 2009 @ 6:56 am