Hey there, a brief introduction as to who I am. I’m Seezy, a 19 year old Australian rogue. I play on one of the strongest “Australian” realms on Vengeance, Jubie’Thos.
So here we are, on the horizon of Cataclysm, in arguably the most “balanced” arena seasons of the expansion. So let’s get down to business, first I would like to take you all back to the beginning of Wotlk. Remember the days of T.N.T stun? Hunter’s were quite literally untouchable unless they suffered from a serious disability.
Then there’s my personal favorite Death and Decay. Along with its aoe fear/stun effect “Cowering in fear” I would like to dedicate my now serene and calm nature to that very ability, I believe I have used up any, and all emotion during the short period of time it was in the game.
In all seriousness though, and from my own experience with Priest/Rogue, these were the darkest days of my time playing WoW, it really is astonishing how much has changed. From my Priest playing a Holy/Disc hybrid spec right down to Spirit of Redemption to try and keep me alive after the opposing team’s DK had been killed, then resurrected in Ghoul Form, Starfall’s ridiculous range and not distinguishing between stealthed and un-stealthed targets, the list really does go on.
This isn’t to say that Rogues during that time were weak, in fact I fondly reminisce about killing priests before the full duration of my opening Cheap Shot ended… I believe it’s important to look back on the broken mechanics of Wotlk and smile, after all what fun would it be without a few, “minor” flaws? Players shouted from the rafters, “Resilience will fix it! Wait for PvP gear!” In the vain hope that the extra Resilience would indeed fix the out of control damage from everywhere.
So did Resilience fix “it”?
By “it” we are talking about ridiculous damage in a short amount of time, so no. Even now with the extra buffs to Resilience as a stat I really struggle to feel the difference in 3’s or 5’s. In fact it was only a week ago that I was playing 5’s against the legendary “WE ARE THE FIVE FX”. (They were streaming at the time funnily enough.)
My 4dps team decided to open hard on the warrior, force at the very least a trinket and/or Shield Wall while we spammed cc’s and interrupts on the opposing healers, opening up a possibility for a quick switch.
We did get a trinket as hoped, and Jeego went defensive as fast as possible, intervening back to Athlete. What happened next was the single most jaw-dropping experience I have ever encountered. I got charged by Jeego, and then instantly died in the charge stun thanks to an Elemental Mastery + Lava burst, MS crit and a FoF shatter, all from 90% HP with 1127 Resilience.
I just sat there stunned, my team-mates were cackling hysterically on Skype as this all unraveled.
Blizzard has stated over and over that the problem is not damage, but health pools are just too small for the amount of damage that is being dished out. I do respect Blizzard in some ways for admitting such flaws, but will Cataclysm really be a return to a TBC style of play? It’s inarguable that individual skill in TBC shined a lot brighter than the current state of the game (Just watch any top end rogue from BC on WCM), which brings me to my next topic.
Will Cataclysm fulfill the hype?
I really would love to say “Yes”, but I feel the same mistakes are being made for this expansion. Too many unnecessary spells/abilities are being added to the game, I’m literally running out of comfortable binds.My own opinion on the numerous spells and abilities that Rogues “May” be receiving for expansion could be biased, but who doesn’t want the best for their class? I am very excited for a few of these, I will only touch on two.
-Combat Readiness (level 83): Combat Readiness is a new ability that we intend rogues to trigger defensively. While this ability is active, whenever the rogue is struck by a melee or ranged attack, he or she will gain a stacking buff called Combat Insight that results in a 10% reduction in damage taken. Combat Insight will stack up to 5 times and the timer will be refreshed whenever a new stack is applied. Our goal is to make rogues better equipped to go toe-to-toe with other melee classes when Evasion or stuns are not in play. This ability lasts 6 seconds and has a 2-minute cooldown.
The idea behind this ability is great. On paper it looks amazing. Who doesn’t want a defensive damage reduction ability on a 2-minute cooldown? The one and only problem I see is that it is not usable whilst stunned. I personally do not find myself dying outside of stuns; its while in them with no trinket that all hell breaks loose. Blizzard has stated that health pools and the extra armor/stamina on Leather items will help with damage, but my question remains… Will it be enough?
Last and definitely not least is what every rogue is talking about,
-Smoke Bomb (level 85): The rogue drops a Smoke Bomb, creating a cloud that interferes with enemy targeting. Enemies who are outside the cloud will find themselves unable to target units inside the cloud with single-target abilities. Enemies can move inside the cloud to attack, or they can use area-of-effect (AoE) abilities at any time to attack opponents in a cloud. In PvP, this will open up new dimensions of tactical positional game play, as the ability offers a variety of offensive and defensive uses. In PvE, Smoke Cloud can serve to shield your group from hostile ranged attacks, while also drawing enemies closer without the need to rely on conventional line-of-sight obstructions. Smoke Cloud lasts 10 seconds and has a 3-minute cooldown.
When I first read about Smoke Bomb, my first thoughts were about RMP. Could Smoke Bomb really stop all single target heals on your enemy if he sits in Smoke Bomb through a full cs > ks if the enemy healer is trying to heal from range? It sounds too good to be true and I believe there will be a lot of changes to this ability. It does open up a lot of options for the rogue though, all of them have potential to swing games back into your favor with a well timed Smoke Bomb. Will it be what every rogue is hoping for? Or will the ability become useless in its inevitably nerfed state?
In my eyes RMP is only going to get stronger, the synergy between the three classes at this point in time is still top tier, if only just. Come Cataclysm will it get better? Or will Blizzard nail the coffin shut and end quite possibly the most popular 3v3 setup? Only time will tell.
And that concludes my very first blog, I’d like to thank you for taking my… Bloginity? :s
Related posts:
- Rogue Cataclysm Class Preview! Update – Looking for Additional Contributors!
- TR is Up! Will Cataclysm make things less Sloppy? Looking at Blue’s Thoughts
- Looking back at S7 and forward to S8, Coming Resilience Change, Duel Vid Next Week, Unmercey 8 on it’s Way
- A Close Call, Cataclysm: My Rogue Wishlist
- Cataclysm Class Previews: The Rogue Perspective, Part 2
YES!
I approve this!
And yea, i hope that RMP isnt nerfed to the ground, it is one of my favourite and most enjoyable setups to watch
Comment by .. — April 15, 2010 @ 7:05 pm
^^^lol,
me being a retard
Comment by Unforgived — April 15, 2010 @ 7:05 pm
Why obviously RMP will get stronger so will any team bearing a mage. I think that comparatively to some of the other classes upgrades from Cataclysm (mages’ for instance), the rogues will only benefit from features they should’v had since a while.
Comment by Chaosthane — April 15, 2010 @ 7:24 pm
nice jaja i liked it
Comment by roozter — April 15, 2010 @ 7:37 pm
Nice post, i’d like to thank your insight on the matter at hand!
.
peace.
Comment by Phy — April 15, 2010 @ 7:57 pm
+1 for sticking to PVP.
Keep dragon slaying topics off this place plx
Comment by Flair — April 15, 2010 @ 8:34 pm
ily xoxo
Comment by kimberley newland — April 15, 2010 @ 9:42 pm
nice post Seezy!
Comment by ren — April 15, 2010 @ 9:53 pm
nice post
Reminds me of somethings i hadn’t thought of in ages, stupidly enough hunters still put out crazy damage and seem to scale so well at the moment,would hate to think of them with tnt stuns now or the double bm lol
Comment by Damnimfyne — April 15, 2010 @ 10:06 pm
awesome, looking forward to more like this!
Comment by rawss — April 15, 2010 @ 10:15 pm
i like seezy. i like him alot
Comment by bravewizard — April 15, 2010 @ 10:35 pm
i can fap to this
Comment by Ramathorne — April 15, 2010 @ 10:49 pm
Hello Seezy,
HELL YEAH this post rocks!!!
Comment by Cheif Wizard — April 15, 2010 @ 10:58 pm
Nice post. Now go buy a 25$ mount from blizzard so they can take your money and laugh.
Comment by TrueWan — April 15, 2010 @ 11:27 pm
Could you recommend a strong oceanic alliance pvp realm? I’m currently playing on a US realm but probably going to switch to an oceanic one for cata…
Comment by chronic — April 16, 2010 @ 12:04 am
I believe that the wording of Combat Readiness implies that it will give Rogues an extra cool down for survivability when we are unable to cast evasion or stun our opponent. I can see how this could be confused with it “not being able to be used while stunned”, every rogue’s nightmare.
Smoke Bomb as you said will inevitably be nerfed. Nice first article.
Comment by Ultorskoss — April 16, 2010 @ 12:39 am
Good jop ..keep it up and looking forward for some more:D
Comment by m.k — April 16, 2010 @ 2:29 am
Great job Akrios with the “new blood” around, welocome Seezy and waiting for other interesting and debating posts like this one . Cheers
Comment by RaditZ — April 16, 2010 @ 3:08 am
Guys dont you notice nowadays blizzard is taking ideas from the well known ”dota”?
The idea about teh smoke bomb is from the hero called rikiful or something.
Comment by m.k — April 16, 2010 @ 3:26 am
APPROVED.
Where do I sign up to give you a hug?
Comment by tora — April 16, 2010 @ 4:13 am
cant agree more than this +1
Comment by apih — April 16, 2010 @ 4:34 am
Nice entry, keep it up.
Comment by iso — April 16, 2010 @ 7:11 am
Yes, hopefully burst isn’t as much of a problem in cata as it is today. I really do think Combat Readiness should be able to be uses while stunned tho,kind of like a Barkskin.
Comment by Evolas — April 16, 2010 @ 7:13 am
Bitchin’, nice to see some Oceanic blood getting around
.
Buff to rogue survivability will help RMP a lot come cata, as well as life grip as a defensive peel for the rogue (possibly alleviate the stun issue you brought up).
Though I really think disc priests need some form of snare escape to assure the composition is top tier in next expansion; possibly improved shadowform>fade effect baseline?
Look forward to your next article!
Comment by Pen — April 16, 2010 @ 8:25 am
I dont wanna be a warrior using leather –’
Comment by nydjer — April 16, 2010 @ 10:53 am
Great post =]
Comment by Murahki — April 16, 2010 @ 12:14 pm
This game is terrible. Maybe if cata brings back life to the game then i will have some interest and maybe play again.
Comment by errr — April 16, 2010 @ 1:31 pm
Good post, hope you get to write more posts like that in future. The only thing I want to know is when vanish will be fixed. I feel like blizzard is avoiding to talk about vanish and when they’ll actually fix it by putting this smoke bomb ability. It’s great but I still want to know whats going on with the vanish problem.
Comment by Warcer — April 16, 2010 @ 2:00 pm
Very good post.
Comment by Varmt — April 16, 2010 @ 2:47 pm
@ 19. Note that DotA is a custom game from Warcraft III which is Blizzard’s property. Besides, I’m sure Icefrog didn’t just popped Rikimaru’s smoke bomb concept out of pure nowhere. Alot of fantasy games are just alike, can’t blame them.
Comment by Chaosthane — April 16, 2010 @ 3:05 pm
* Shadow Dance Instantly enter stealth and begin the Shadow Dance. For 9 sec you will reenter stealth every 3 secs. (2 min CD)
I wonder how different Smoke Bomb will be when it goes live…
Comment by Corrahn — April 17, 2010 @ 12:22 am
CloS will grant 100% spell resist… at last
Comment by baruch — April 17, 2010 @ 9:06 am
From Blizzard’s Cataclysm Dev chat: Oh, and Cloak of Shadows now provides 100% resistance.
Comment by Ultorskoss — April 17, 2010 @ 9:26 am
keep posting, you’re good
Comment by MadiM — April 17, 2010 @ 12:59 pm
Great post, keep them coming.
Comment by Juice — April 17, 2010 @ 1:18 pm
AWESOME a Rogue from my Server
<3 RogueRogue.com now!
Comment by Surpriselols — April 18, 2010 @ 7:21 am
the only use that i see of smoke bomb is in arena..or when you have pa party member…in bg the it will be useless if we fight a mage(blinck),warlock(teleport),hunters(disengage)…in woltk rogue has become a set of cc skills that it’s arena partner/partners gets when he enters the arena..i don’t like that…and in 1v1..i think it will give us a bust in duels when we fight warriors,paladins(but the results will still be the same)..all classes that doesn’t have an aoe witch they can put it where they want..and we will have a big advantage over casters like locks and priests..and elemental shamy’s because of combat readiness
-i really don’t see what is the big deal with smoke bomb…because …in my opinion i think its weak compared to the abilities that other classes get..and makes them extremly easy to play(i mean come on..shamys get to cast while moving,and more other things and if it still goes like this..wow will become MARIO)
Comment by cover — June 1, 2010 @ 3:18 am