Blizzard is going to release a 3.09 patch, and it’s a big nerf to mutilate damage.

Rogue (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)

• Hunger for Blood (Assassination): Now increases damage 5% per stack, (up from 3%.)
• Mind Numbing Poison now reduces cast time by 30%, down from 60%.
• Mutilate damage will now do 20% increased damage against poisoned targets, down from 50%.
• Slice and Dice: This ability now increases melee attack speed by 40%, up from 30%.

Firstly, from a PvE standpoint, I think it’s safe to assume that mutilate damage will still be competetive. The buff to hunger for blood will be an overall increase of 6 percent static damage, which should make up for the mutilate nerf. The 40 percent slice and dice buff is huge as well, from both a PvE and PvP standpoint. This buff coupled with the nerf to mutilate could mean the return of combat to PvE dominance, but either way I see rogue damage getting better in terms of raiding.

What does this nerf mean in PvP? It isn’t the end of the world, but it’s at least a kick in the teeth. Although raw damage won’t be much different, it cuts a lot of our burst. I don’t disagree with the change, but I think it’s ridiculous that blizzard would nerf rogue PvP damage without touching Death Knights, Hunters, or anyone else other than Arcane mages.

Blizzard has effectively nerfed the two glass cannon classes. I think it’s the  right thing to do, the game is far too burst oriented. But how could they nerf the damage of rogues and arcane mages and leave everything else alone? Rogues are doing well in arena, but we’re far from best right now. The same thing could be said about arcane mages. The PvP classes that are dominating at the moment have gone untouched. Hopefully this burst reduction will continue across the board, because it feels strange that only rogues and arcane mages were nerfed when I can be solo’d by a dancing rune weapon.

Mind-numbing poison was also nerfed, but all cast slowing abilities were, so this is fair. To be honest, this isn’t really a big deal, mind-numbing is only effective against classes that have to cast, and at the moment these classes are by no means dominant in PvP. Here are the rest of the changes. (more…)