WoW Class Balance: Rogue

Before I start I want to thank the
people who commented on my last blogs, as the feedback was amazing and
it changes how you look at things. With
that said, it brings me to the next class I am covering in detail, which should
please a lot of people: Rogues.

Rogues are an interesting class. They are good burst when it's needed and also
have the ability to be excellent sustained damage over a long period of
time. I really like the Energy Bar as
the best out of the three types (Rage, Mana, Energy) and think it allows for
some neat mechanics down the line.



What is very intriguing to me is how much the class changed
from level 60 to 70. At 60 they were
strong and everything worked well. The
long cooldowns were balanced and the ability to stunlock someone from full to
dead was their signature. At 70 though,
they are weak due to the large changes in the structure of the game (like
Arenas) and very limited by long cooldowns that are needed much quicker than
ever before. This is all on top of being
incredibly kite-able when compared to the only other melee class.



Rogues have a lot of problems, especially in 5v5
arenas. I have talked to a lot of rogues
over the past few weeks. Ming,
Supatroopa, Nitrana, some very important people and high rated rogues from other
battlegroups all gave the same message.
It was pretty clear what needed to happen. I would appreciate it if everyone tried to be
objective when giving feedback on anything you like or dislike. Give me reasons, not just ranting with no
purpose. Suggestions are good, but do
not take offense if I disagree.



When I read through my list of changes, it is a lot of
buffs. When I look closely, I realize
that a lot are merely fixes to broken or unused abilities and several
changes have a few parts to them. Keep
that in mind when reading all of this, as it will look like more then it actually is.
All of these are serious, but there is one change listed that I think
will make all of the rogues out there laugh.
You will know it when you see it.



I was debating how to break this up correctly, as there are
a lot of jumbled changes. I am going to
break it down into categories based off the qualities or concerns of
rogues. Crowd Control, Defensive Changes,
Offensive Changes, and Mobility Changes along with some Sideboard changes at
the end. In Italics under each change it
is explained in detail why I think it is necessary. If you disagree, say why.



Suggested Changes



Crowd Control (and Disarm)

• Blind
  is now a Physical effect with a cooldown of 95 seconds. Elusiveness
  reduces cooldown by 15/30 seconds. Blind no longer requires a
  reagent.
  
  
  
  • I
    will start with a change I think is needed. Back in the day blind was a nice extra
    ability for rogues as it was on a long CD and lasted only a short
    duration while still being removable.
    Now that Arenas are around, it's time to take this ability to the
    next level as a reliable CC spell that you guys bring to the playing
    field. Making it a physical effect
    while lowering the cooldown to 65 seconds (talented) brings it up to par
    with other forms of reliable CC.
    The reagent cost isn't needed anymore since this ability is
    completely required to play in arena, no other choice.
  
  
  
  


• Immune
  to Disarm abilities, items, or effects now reduce the time spent disarmed
  by 40%. These effects do not stack.


• Weapon
  Expertise now increases weapon skill by 5/10 and reduces the time disarmed
  by 20/40%.
  
  
  
  • If
    you read my warrior suggestions you would know I changed the immune
    disarm talent in Arms to 40% less time disarmed. This applies to rogues as well in a
    way. If they have a weapon chain
    or immune to disarm gloves, those would be changed to 40% less time
    disarmed. Weapon Expertise is
    edited to give rogues the disarm reduction in talent form like
    warriors. This isn't a large
    change to the rogue community, as most rogues have been disarmable for
    some time and run with a spare weapon chained in their bags incase it
    happens (which it rarely does).
  
  
  
  


• Riposte
  cooldown increased to 8 seconds and the disarm time reduced to 5 seconds.
  
  
  
  • Even
    with 40% reduction if the cooldown was kept at 6 seconds it would be too
    much. Putting it up to 8 seconds
    and moving it down to 5 seconds disarmed makes it so that if you use it
    every cooldown, a warrior is disarmed about 38% of the time he is
    attacking you. This is that "do
    not attack the rogue" effect you all have been asking for. If a warrior attacks you and you have Riposte,
    he will spend a lot of his time disarmed.
  
  
  
  

Defensive Changes

• Vanish
  now grants 1 second of 1,000% 360 degree miss chance against the rogue.


• Rogues
  may now vanish or stealth while under flare or faerie fire, but are immediately pulled back out of stealth.
  
  
  
  • This
    is a two part fix to vanish. The
    first is to TRY to stop the "get hit out of stealth" effect that happens
    so often. That really sucks and makes
    the ability a lot worse than it should be. The second note is to let rogues use
    the snare/root break effects of vanish but the effects of faerie fire and flare are retained. Something as cheap as Faerie Fire
    should not negate a 5 minute cooldown so completely.
  
  
  
  


• New
  Rogue Ability: Swirly Ball. 0
  Energy. No cooldown. When used, the old detect traps
  animation is played. That's
  it. Nothing else happens.
  
  
  
  • I
    know for a fact all rogues are grinning like idiots reading this if they
    played back when detect traps was a buff.
    For you unknowing few, detect traps used to be a buff you had to
    cast on yourself and it would play basically a color altered Dispel Magic
    animation over your head. When
    they made detect passive, they removed the animation. Many rogues claim that this was the
    single worst thing Blizzard has done, as now they have nothing to do while
    bored. With the return of Swirly
    Ball they can now spam it to entertain themselves once again! You may use this ability while mounted
    (normal or flying), swimming, running, sitting, standing, walking,
    eating, dying, in ghost form, in pirate form, in ninja form, in skeleton
    form, and while tiny. If you
    wonder why this is in Defensive Changes... defense against boredom!
  
  
  
  


• Cloak
  of Shadows is now 100% spell resistance (or 100% spell absorb?).


• Cloak
  of Shadows is now off the Global Cooldown.
  
  
  
  • This
    is a two part fix to Cloak of Shadows.
    All rogues have turned on cloak and then been nuked right through
    it like nothing. Why should a
    rogue have to play the RNG game on such a key survival skill? Here is a good example of what I want
    to eliminate (it is a .jpg): http://tinyurl.com/23dnzb.
    Yea, that mage was skilled the way he went right through
    cloak. Anyway. Taking it off the global allows it to
    be a good reactionary defense like ice block and divine shield for those "Oh
    ****" situations where you are crit by spells suddenly.
  
  
  
  

Offensive Changes

• Wound
  Poison now grants an 8% healing debuff per application, max of 40% with a
  stack of 5.
  
  
  
  • This
    is a combo with the warrior change of reducing mortal strike to 40%. Overall healing buff since damage is
    starting to get too high because of gear in Arenas.
  
  
  
  


• Deadly
  Throw is now a 4 second cooldown.
  
  
  
  • The
    ability to just spam this over and over based off of the RNG if you get a
    combo point back or not is really silly.
    Adding a 4 second cooldown it lets it be used enough to snare your
    target so you can catch them but not to the point where axes are being thrown at them faster then they can
    think about casting.
  
  
  
  


• ONHOLD - Kick
  is no longer on the Global Cooldown.
  
  
  
  • Basically ONHOLD means its in the sideboard, but I am not physically moving it. I heard a lot of arguments for or against this, so let me know what you think. I am close to removing it, so for now consider it mostly gone. This
    is also a chain off my last blogs.
    I have a vision of all essential twitch interrupts taken off the
    GCD. So, as with all the
    others, this applies to kick.
    Taking it off lets it be more reactionary and lets good players
    separate from the not as fast ones.
  
  
  
  


• Mutilate,
  Backstab, Garrote and Ambush can no longer be dodged.
  
  
  
  • I
    have always wondered to myself the following: "One cannot dodge from behind, yet
    attacks that require you to be behind your target can be dodged. WTF?"
    I finally came up with the reason: there is none. I cannot think of a single design
    reason why a positional attack from behind should be able to be dodged
    when game mechanics say it should not be able to. This is a bit of a common sense change
    to alleviate a problem with server lag and client-side reporting.
  
  
  
  


• Envenom
  is now usable with Wound Poison and consumes the stack when used.
  
  
  
  • Nitrana
    has been bothering me about this for about 7 months. I do not see any reason why it could not work with Wound Poison. As a
    note, though, it WOULD consume the charges, so keep that in mind. This would give you a valid attack that
    does good damage against heavy armor targets but it is a risk to use, so
    it's up to you guys to use it properly.
    When used well, though, it can be quite good.
  
  
  
  

Mobility Changes

• Shadowstep
  is now usable in combat and roots the target for 2 seconds.
  
  
  
  • Mobility
    change 1. This one is for all the
    sub rogues out there! You still
    retain the damage buff and the move behind your target. On top of that they are rooted for 2
    seconds (even if you use it in stealth) so you are sure to land a hit or
    opener (or if you are slow they will pull you out of stealth). Be warned, though, the root can be
    resisted, shifted out of, freedom'd out of, etc. Same cooldown and energy cost.
  
  
  
  


• Sprint
  duration changed to 5 seconds, cooldown changed to 60 seconds, and for the
  duration the rogue ignores any snares on him (they persist and re-snare
  after the effect ends).


• Endurance
  now lowers the sprint cooldown by 7/15 (or 12/25) seconds.


• Improved
  Sprint now successfully removes Curse of Exhaustion.
  
  
  
  • The
    second mobility change. Yes, you
    read it right. 45 (or 35) second cooldown
    5 second duration sprint where you cannot be slowed during the
    length. This gives you the same
    effect that is granted to warriors when they intercept, only it lasts for
    5 seconds. If you are slowed (like
    curse of exhaustion) before you sprint, you will not be slowed at all
    during the sprint, but be re-snared after it ends. If you are snared (hamstrung for
    example) during the sprint, it will not slow you until after the sprint
    ends. It does not dispel your
    snares or roots when used UNLESS you have the improved sprint talent,
    then it will remove both upon activation.
    You CAN be rooted, stunned, CC'd, etc during the sprint. This is will allow rogues to be able to
    negate a frost trap for 5 seconds before being perma slowed again and at
    the same times makes improved sprint not a mandatory talent. If sprint stayed the way it was and just
    the cooldown was changed, rogues would basically be forced to take
    improved sprint and that would kill a lot of partial sub builds. Think of it this way. A warrior can get almost 3 intercepts
    on you in the time it takes for the rogue to use this and have the
    cooldown finish. Or if a rogue sprints and someone HoJs him, it will counter the sprint completely.
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Fleetfooted
  now passively increases your movement speed by 20% instead of 8%.
  This effect does not stack with other movement increasing effects.
  
  
  
  • The
    third and final mobility change.
    This is passive and while it would not play much of a difference
    in matches when the rogue is snared, when he is not snared he will
    finally be able to keep up with someone who has blessing of freedom on or
    is trying to kite him by just running away. This also helps rogues who do not have
    the stealth movement talent to move faster while trying to land an
    opener. More of an anti-kite talent. Not necessary to have, but very good
    for mutilate rogues REMEMBER THIS: Druids have a passive 30% movespeed buff in cat form. Rogues would still move slower then cat druids, how is that so bad?
    
    
  
  
  
  

Sideboard



The sideboard is a place I put talents or abilities I think
have potential, but I have either cut them from the true suggested changes or I
am not sure if it is completely needed. In
this will be two changes. The first is a
damage increase and the second is a group utility. I am not advocating these right now, but if you
think they should be added to the Suggested Changes portion, post a comment and
tell me why. And "just because" is not enough;
something in the Sideboard would take a really strong argument to move back up. The first person to post "OmG the changes
your sideboard are overpowered!" gets the ‘IQ of a Park bench' award and I
ignore anything you have to say. They
are in this section for a reason.

• Agility
  and Strength now give 1.5 Attack Power instead of just 1.
  
  
  
  • This
    came about because I was curious how much of an increase this would be
    and I enjoy doing math about changes like this, so I whipped up a
    spreadsheet that you all can see: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p4LB-eZIz13daEueTCCEdUA. It ends up being roughly a 10% increase
    on white damage, which is the reason I put it down here. I think it's probably way too much
    seeing as rogues already top the PvE charts, but I put the work into it
    so here it is. If you think rogues
    SHOULD get this increase, post on Gameriot and let me know why. You will need one hell of a good reason
    to convince me of this. I think a better PvP damage buff if rogues need one lies with eviscerate, but I am still working on that.
    
    
  
  
  
  

• Rogue new
  ability: Smokescreen. Instant. 20 Yard Range. 3 minute cooldown. Reagent: Flash Powder.
  The targeted teammate is thrown into improved stealth (+55) by the rogue
  and taken out of combat. Snare and Root effects are removed but any
  action taken by the player will break the effect. Stealth lasts 4 seconds. Damage or debuffs
  do not break this stealth. Cannot
  target self.
  
  
  
  • This
    is a quick mechanic to try to save someone being bursted, but it does not
    remove Mortal Strike effects. It is
    a way to give group utility to rogues while not making them any stronger
    in 1v1 situations since they cannot use it on themselves. The reason it is down here is because I
    am split and unsure if rogues need such an ability to make them wanted/needed
    in Arena groups or if this is just overkill. I know that all of the readers will
    have an opinion on this, so it should be an interesting debate.
  
  
  
  

By popular demand I am going to write out all the changes I suggested without the explanations real quick. I have gotten quite a few requests for this so people can copy and paste thing easily, so here you go:



Crowd Control (and Disarm)

• Blind
  is now a Physical effect with a cooldown of 95 seconds. Elusiveness
  reduces cooldown by 15/30 seconds. Blind no longer requires a
  reagent.


• Immune
  to Disarm abilities, items, or effects now reduce the time spent disarmed by
  40%. These effects do not stack.


• Weapon
  Expertise now increases weapon skill by 5/10 and reduces the time disarmed
  by 20/40%.


• Riposte
  cooldown increased to 8 seconds and the disarm time reduced to 5 seconds.

Defensive Changes

• Vanish
  now grants 1 second of 1,000% 360 degree miss chance against the rogue.


• Rogues
  may now vanish or stealth while under flare or faerie fire, but are immediately pulled back out of stealth.


• New
  Rogue Ability: Swirly Ball. 0
  Energy. No cooldown. When used, the old detect traps
  animation is played. That's
  it. Nothing else happens.


• Cloak
  of Shadows is now 100% spell resistance. (Or 100% spell absorb?)


• Cloak
  of Shadows is now off the Global Cooldown.

Offensive Changes

• Wound
  Poison now grants an 8% healing debuff per application, max of 40% with a
  stack of 5.


• Deadly
  Throw is now a 4 second cooldown.


• ONHOLD - Kick
  is no longer on the Global Cooldown.


• Mutilate,
  Backstab, Garrote and Ambush can no longer be dodged.


• Envenom
  is now usable with Wound Poison and consumes the stack when used.

Mobility Changes

• Shadowstep
  is now usable in combat and roots the target for 2 seconds.


• Sprint
  duration changed to 5 seconds, cooldown changed to 60 seconds, and for the
  duration the rogue ignores any snares on him (they persist and re-snare
  after the effect ends).


• Endurance
  now lowers the sprint cooldown by 7/15 (or 12/25) seconds.


• Improved
  Sprint now successfully removes Curse of Exhaustion.


• Fleetfooted
  now passively increases your movement speed by 20% instead of 8%.
  This effect does not stack with other movement increasing effects.

So I thank you all for reading and appreciate any
comments that you may have. On Wednesday
I am leaving for GenCon Indy and will not be back until Monday. I should have access to computers there to
check Gameriot, but do not be surprised if I cannot reply for a while. If (or When) I edit this article (because
balance is an ever changing art), changes will be below in bold. I will also link any response blogs I get on
Gameriot down here under the edits when I can.




EDITS:


Changed Sprint cooldown to 15 seconds.

Put kick change ON HOLD. This means its basically on sideboard status.

Re-worded vanish change.

Re-buffed Weapon Expertise for PvE rogues. Sorry, had a stupid moment.

Added spell absorb idea for cloak

Edited sprint to show origional




Response Blogs:

Ming:

http://www.gameriot.com/blogs/World-of-Ming/Response-To-Idejders-Rogue-Balance-Changes/



Thank you again. If
there are any spelling or grammar errors let me know. I am no English major, so I will just
apologize now.