#0 - Aug. 10, 2007, 2:42 p.m.
After watching the Rogue class for some time i can conclude that the Rogue is quickly becoming a broken class in my eyes, and without some careful looking into may well soon be at the point of no return. There have been many things that have gone wrong with the class that it really makes this sad that blizzard still keeps throwing sand in our eyes even after saying that the Rogue class is being looked into. Here i shall portray some of these reasons why the Rogue class is falling further down the path of brokeness.
1) TBC - Level 70 and introduction of Resiliance. (Main Concern: PvP)
When The Burning Crusade was announced, I personally was excited about the new content and what potential it can bring to the Rogue class. However it soon became apparant i was partly wrong. Sure TBC introduced Level 70 and Cloak of Shadows as a trainable skill, but with it our PvP Ability we once possessed was lost, due to the new found Health Boosts from new Items, and the bane of all Rogues, Resiliance. With this Stunlocks are now a lot less effective as they were back before the expansion. Not only that but the Critical Hits we relied on with our Instant Attacks in PvP, became unreliable thanks to Resiliance, thereby making some builds suck as Backstab and Mutilate unreliable in PvP.
It is for this reason i believe that all Rogues are specced at least fairly deep into Combat, as it is pretty much the only effective build that doesn't rely on our Critical Hits, thus being as effective in both PvP and PvE as it is today in most Rogues eyes.
2) The Vanish Bug (Main Concern: PvP however PvE is also affected)
I'm pretty sure by now this isn't news to the Rogues around here. The Vanish Bug has been a great dent in the Rogue class as far as i'm concerned, as one of our primary escaping abilities has quickly become our least reliable. Hunter and Warlock Pets, Druids Treants, Mages Elementals, Preists Shadowfeind all of these things have been responsible for chasing us after Vanish and knocking us out of Stealth and in most if not all cases getting us killed. We can escape from some of the nastiest bosses in PvE and yet for some reason a Hunters Furball can somehow see us after vanishing and knock us out of Stealth. Blizzard has supposedly fixed this in 2.2, however some who have played in the PTR say that this problem is still evident.
3) The Windfury Nerf (Main Concern: PvE)
Some Rogues and other classes have stated that all the problems and nerfs on Rogues have been to our PvP ability and that we are fine if not great in PvE. That was true... until this soon became apparant. Although this directly affects the Shamans, this has serverely denting Rogue DPS and also Non-Prot Warriors. With Windfury no longer procing off our instant attacks, on average we lose around 70-80 DPS. Now Rogues generally get to #1 in the damage meters, but only by a few % or so ahead of the other classes. I think with the WF nerf we may quickly see Mages, Warlocks and the likes taking the top spots and making it more apparant that Rogues are just inferior when it comes to Raiding and Instances.
4) Kiting (Main Concern: PvP)
The main problem with our class is that we can pretty much be controlled and kited very easily. Frost Mages and Hunters being the worst culprits. Frost Mages slowing ability, Blinking and used in combination with other moves like Frost Nova and Ice Block means they can easily keep us slowed down without us doing much to stop it. Things like Cloak of Shadows and Improved Sprint helps, however more often than not do not pull through in the end. However this is just one example. Warlocks can keep us controled with Pets, Fear and Death Coil, Preists with Psychic Scream, and Hunters can keep us at bay with thier Pet and Traps. Some classes like Warrior simply do not need to kite us and simply obliterate us in a few seconds.
5) Resisted Cheap Shots do not yeild Combo Points (Main Concern: PvP)
For Rogues nothing sucks more than having our Opener resisted, basically giving the enemy the advantage. However it sucks even more when we don't get the 2-3 Combo Points from using it, thus making things even harder for us and not giving much chance to come back from a resisted Cheap Shot. This is essentially quite dangerous in PvP when it happens as it not only instantly put the battle in your opponents favour, but also the chances you can come back from it with 0 Combo Points to work with at the beginning quickly dwarfs your chances of winning.
6) Off-Hander availability (Main Concern: PvE)
For Rogues, an effective Off-Hand Weapon is just as important as having an effective Main Hand Weapon. However with TBC there are not very many viable Off-Hand Weapons made available to avid PvE players. For example, with Swords the player can get a Latros Shifting Sword from The Black Morass. However there is not a better Off-Hand Sword until the later bosses of the Black Temple and Illidan Stormrage himself. This basically means that through Karazhan, Serpentshrine Cavern, The Eye and Mount Hyjal, we are still using the same crappy 71.8 DPS Sword from 5-Man instances with no upgrade in sight.
This is unless of course we do Arena, the Rogues one stop shop for some of the best and only off hand weapons available without busting your butt in raids. However with our current PvP State as it is, finding Arena teams can be difficult. In addtion come Season 3, Arena Weapons will have a Ranking Requirement in order to continue using, thus making it harder to obtain such weapons for us. Which brings me to my next point.
7) Arena Viability (Main Concern: PvP and PvE Players seeking an Off-Hand)
I don't think theres much suprise by now that the Warrior + Druid / Paladin combo owns the Arena at the moment. However Rogues have the capacity to do well in 2v2 with right gear and partner. In 3v3 Rogues are a little less viable, with other 3 man combos being much better than those with a Rogue. 5v5 is just a joke, Rogues are very rarely wanted in this field and can almost never get an effective 5v5 Team, the worst part being the Devs know this and yet we are still getting nerfed left right and centre by them. The fact the Devs can say that Rogues aren't effective in 5v5 without so much as batting an eyelid gets to me, but continuing to nerf things that are important to us in Arena Play (Like Sap) grinds my gears further.
8) Crowd Control PvP Nerf (Main Concern: PvP)
Although this also effects Polymorph and Freeze Traps, our Sap is useless enough as it is without this coming along and further ruining our class' PvP ability. Basically Sap will now only last for 10 Seconds on an opponent. Now, why does this effect sap greater than the others? Well Polymorph and Freeze Traps can be used in Combat and can thus be reapplied. Sap on the other hand cannot.
9) Energy Regeneration loss after Opener in PTR 2.2 (Main Conern: Both PvE and PvP)
Now if i remember correctly this may have been addressed already but i think incase it hasn't this is worthy of mention. In the PTR after an Opener our Energy Regeneration is pretty much halved for a short period of time (maybe one or two ticks), thus making it harder for us to execute more actions after our Cheap Shot, Rupture, or Ambush. This not only nerfs our PvP Ability, but temporarily dwarfs our damage in PvE.
NOTE: If this has been fixed please tell me
10) The Wrath of the Lich King - The Speculations (Main Concern: Both PvE and PvP)
Many Rogues are not so excited about the new expansion just recently announced, introducing a new Level 80 Cap and boasting new items better than the gear from the 70 Raid Dungeons. If this follows the same suit as TBC, then this can only mean more Health, more damage against us, and more Resiliance. Thus greater increasing the impact point 1 had. We could predict Stunlocks taking down a player to a mere 90% of thier health, ver and very low chances to crit due to resiliance.
With all this in mind it's clear that there is something wrong with the Rogue class which has to be addressed soon, or else we could well face the first class in World of Warcraft to receive the Banhammer completely wihtin the WoW Community at the very least.
Well thats all, thanks for taking the time to read this rant if you want to call it that heh. As always any comments, corrections, opinions are welcomed.
EDIT: OK I WOULD HAVE PUT THIS ON A NEW POST BUT I FEEL THIS IS ONLY WORTHY OF BEING PUT WHERE EVERYONE CAN SEE IT!
On 14/07/2007, Page 7 of this very topic. Blizzards very own Vaneras said the following:
Q u o t e:
I agree with this statement actually. It is a whine indeed, but it is a good one and I enjoyed reading it :-)
There are a lot of valid concerns and thoughts inhere, so I would like to blue-tag this thread just to let you know we have both seen and read this thread. Most of the things posted inhere have been forwarded to the developers already, and some of the things have already been commented in other threads both on these forums and the US forums.
This gave many Rogues hope, that Blizzard Devs would begin fixing our class in the right ways. Turns out this was merely a sack of hot air, as on 18/07/2007 the following PTR adjustment was made:
http://boards.worldofraids.com/topic-6576-2.html
Yup another nerf. Vaneras, if your going to say Blizzard are listening, at least make sure you got your fact straight first! This is not the correct way to start fixing the mess you guys created with this class!
