I finally got my Undead Rogue, Darsino, up to LFR-levels, through a combination of finally realizing that I could replace those crappy boots of his simply by running the Sha of Anger once, dolling out over three and a half thousand gold for a new dagger, and getting really lucky on the aforementioned Sha and getting the normal-mode tier 14 gloves (I actually got the PvP gloves as the first drop, but decided to chance one of my three precious Charms.) So actually he's leapfrogged Ardten to become my #3 toon, but much as Jarsus and Oterro have been kind of jockeying this expansion, I expect Ardten and Darsino will do so as well (poor Tarbhad hasn't even run a heroic yet.)
Anyway, while the big news is that come tomorrow morning, 5.2 will be dropping, the LFR version of the raid will only open its first wing a week later. I'm as anxious as everyone to start downing some Mogu (or as the case may be, Trolls) right as the patch is released, but it looks like we're going to have a week to kill before we can start to scratch the surface of the raid (unless you have an actual raiding guild, which sadly mine does not seem to be these days - I partially blame myself, as I am a guild officer.)
This is actually good news for a guy who just barely got two toons geared for MSV, and needs to get them running to gear up. Hopefully we won't see a ridiculous jump in LFR queue times for the older raids, but if Blizz really wants alts and latecomers to gear up through LFR, they'd better have a plan if no one runs them anymore.
The rest of this post is me-stuff, if you're not interested in that.
It feels good to finally have Darsino on the road to better gear. He hit revered with Dominance Offensive today and he's done the first branch of MSV (no dagger yet from the first boss.) I'm committed to keeping Darsino specced as Sub this expansion, because it is my dream to see Sub work well, and I can't really see how well it works if I reforge and enchant for Assassination. I really do think Blizzard needs to examine the Rogue in a serious way. They've said they don't think it needs a Warlock-level revamp, but I disagree. This class is dying out, and if we ever get Demon Hunters (and yes, I do hope we do some day) they're going to be seriously endangered.
The things I'm noticing while playing on the rogue is that there's a lot of times when I think I can do something, but I can't yet. You might have enough energy for something, but then you won't have enough combo points, or sometimes it's the other way around. This would not be such a bad thing if finishing moves were simpler.
For example, on Oterro (and I realize that Frost DKs are not a terribly difficult spec to play) the biggest decision I have to make constantly is whether to hit Obliterate or Frost Strike when I have Killing Machine up. Sometimes, the runes for an Obliterate are right about to come up, and in that case I wait. But if my runes are all down, and I'm sitting on some runic power, I'll waste the proc on my Frost Strike to keep the momentum going, hopefully getting a Runic Empowerment proc, which will of course then feed me more runes and thus more Runic Power, etc.
On Darsino, first of all, I have a couple things to establish at the beginning - I need to Ambush out of Stealth for the Expose Weakness debuff, then I need to get Slice and Dice running for the Energy it provides Subtlety, then I need to get Rupture up for Sanguinary Vein, and then I need to squeeze in as many Eviscerates as I can before I need to refresh again. The durations of Rupture and Slice and Dice are such that they often fall off at the same time, so maybe I need to refresh them earlier or something. I don't know.
But we're not finished. Subtlety is also all about using Shadow Dance and Vanish to get more Ambushes in there (for the Expose Weakness, not to mention the damage from Ambush) and also get Shadow Power, which increases damage done while in Stealth and for a few seconds after breaking it.
OH, and don't let me forget - you have to be behind the target at all times because Backstab is your main CP generator. (But you also have to weave Hemorrhage in there even if you are behind them to keep that extra bleed ticking.)
Believe it or not, this is a simpler version than what we had in Cataclysm, where you had to maintain Recuperate as well, but while a little bit of juggling is ok, I think they have got to cut Subtlety some slack somewhere.
Barring some radical redesign (and frankly, it might not be a bad idea,) there are a couple things that could be done to make the spec less absurdly difficult to play well:
1. Do something about Backstab - I know Rogues Do It From Behind, but this positioning thing leaves you at the mercy of your tank and fight mechanics. Any time the boss spins around to cast a spell on a random person, your rotation (which as we just showed, is pretty damned complex) is interrupted. The most obvious but also most radical shift would be to rename it "Stab" and hopefully give it some mechanical difference to Sinister Strike so we don't have to use Sinister Strike. (Combat Rogues - go play a Warrior, amirite?) Dagger requirement! There we go.
2. Simplify Finishers - Assassination get to refresh their Slice and Dice to full with each Envenom. We should get a way to refresh either that or Rupture easily. I'd say every Eviscerate refreshes Rupture to its 5-point duration, plus a redesign that has Rupture's various combo-point levels only affect duration and not damage. With only Slice and Dice and Eviscerates, there's a lot more freedom to focus on the more interesting aspects of the spec.
3. Do something about Shadow Power - Vanish ought to be an escape or deception mechanism. You disappear, and then you can either flee, enjoy the drop in threat (not so much of an issue these days) or get a quick on-demand use of your openers while your enemies can't see you. It feels wrong to be blowing Vanish on cooldown in a boss fight, so I'd prefer they have something else proc Shadow Power, or perhaps allowing Shadow Dance to trigger it as well (though this starts to make Expose Weakness redundant. Is that such a bad thing?)
Now, I realize most of these things would make the spec more powerful, but all that would need is just a simple numbers nerfing.
I doubt Blizzard would implement all of these, even though I think the spec deserves all three, but I do hope that come the next expansion, when they see how low Rogue numbers have dropped, they'll really give the class a re-tooling like they did with Warlocks. Rogues used to be the most badass class in the game, and the underlying flavor of them remains pretty stone cold. Throw in a bit of decent Rogue lore (if that World of Cold Warcraft situation comes about, there'd be tons of potential for spy stuff) and most important: make the class easier to play.
Meanwhile, I'm happy to report that my Death Knight is absolutely destroying, and he's a lot of fun to play.
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