Like, seriously, y’all.
@Aulper7 It needs serious work.
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Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) December 19, 2012
Which leads into the obvious question: If completely rejiggering (without removing) Versatility is on the table — whether for Patch 5.2 or beyond — how would you rejigger it? Keep in mind that this needs to be within the context of a talent that is fun, meaningful and powerful, but *wouldn’t* be so powerful that it clearly overshadows the other two options in that tier. Assuming it remains a talent within our level-90 tier at all.
Let’s say, just for the sake of pure speculation, that Versatility was rewritten so that it made combo points stack on the rogue. GC has long been fundamentally opposed to this (as have other Blizzfolk), and it’s probably unlikely to become a reality. But what if it did? Would that not just make it the obvious choice in PvP? And would it do anything at all to unseat Anticipation as the undisputed talent for PvE? Leaving Shuriken Toss to wither away, alone and neglected, pining for happier times?
(I’ve cross-posted this over on the WoW rogue forum; if I’m feeling especially productive I’ll copypasta highlighted posts from there in this thread for the sake of posterity/consolidation.)
UPDATE 12/21:
@SvelteKumquat Well... a lot is changing right now. I'll just say two things: "I'm excited" and "More information in January."
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Nik Gianozakos (@Daxxarri) December 21, 2012
I’m thinking he probably isn’t just referring to Versatility.
Versatility is actually pretty nice in a situational group setup, where your target switching both in pvp and pve. The fact its on the global cooldown is a massive killer though
It also suffers from the fact Shuriken Toss is quite nice for pvp and pve and Anticipation is.quite nice for pve also, Anticipation helps make finishers better, helps you be a bit more lax on getting exactly that 5cp and generally if say bandits guild is up or keeping poison buff up consistently with continuous envenom in the damage phases of the fight.
Shuriken Toss is a bit meh imo, but i’ve found it useful in pvp and as a replacement move for energy pooling, it also helps sustain dps a little in pve by making sure you can definetly hit 5cp or maybe if your out of melee range for a while.
I guess the question is. What does versatility do that competes? I think its still got a lot of use as a pvp talent, or a minor damage boost (not over the other two talents though) in raids. But it does need that something else.
If you wanted a total remodel, think flanking rules in tabletop games, or maybe sneak attacks in NWN.
You can’t improve a no cooldown redirect as it can just be spammed by target switching if it gave a buff. Itneed to be designed so its not useful in any single target situation and you cant do things like, vs a mage+druid. premeditation on the mage, then redirect (get a buff) and then open on the druid. I thought maybe
“Reduces the cooldown on your redirect by 40 seconds, your redirect will now grant you 5% increased damage and reduce the energy cost of all specials attacks and finishers by 5 for 10 seconds, your aoe damage will be increased by 15%, Provided that you were not the redirected targets target and that there were at least two opponents within 15 yards, Lasts 10 seconds. If these conditions are not met your combo pts are just moved as normal. ”
Thus:
Not useful for 1 on 1 pvp/duels.
Not useful unless opponents are within a certain distance of each other.
You still get a reduced cooldown redirect even when the conditions are not true.
Useful for pvp against multiple opponents, you need to make sure your careful and chose a target who isnt targeting you.
It also gives the rogue a small arena bonus if the enemy are focusing down one of your partners (i.e your partner is their target) this makes up for the fact that the rogue has lost the “element of surprise” in arena compared to normal pvp.
Useful against packs of mobs or bosses with adds in pve due to either increased aoe damage or blade flurry cleave.
Scaling looks to be ok with all specs.
Combat, synergy with blade flurry in blade flurry situations, obviously blade flurry costs you energy regen. Line it up with AR/Shadow Blades?
Assassination, poison damage and flat damage increased from fan of knives, crimson tempest will obviously get the aoe bonus also. This build is unlikely to want to target switch unless their mob is in fact dead anyway so it benefits them in a multiple mob situation. Vendetta+Shadow Blades burst?
Subtlety, makes burst a bit better, but only if at least two opponents are standing together within the 10 second window, otherwise no bonus, Sub’s energy regen is arguably better than some others and their finishers are generally bigger. But will still get useful aoe dmg and all the benefits of a normal redirect.
I’m sure i’ve missed something but i’m not in blizzards rnd department.
This was just a thought for gaining an advantage when you are not the target like in NWN you couldn’t really sneak attack all the time if you were the target’s target (unless you had an attack of opportunity), but you could continually sneak attack (doing massive dmg) if you were not the target’s target.
Meh again a wall of text to define an idea xD
I really appreciate the amount of thought and consideration you put into these comments. But it is admittedly a lot harder to respond to them when I need to set aside time just to be able to read through them, much less try to write up a response. :)
haha, don’t worry I just have a brain dump. Quite frankly i’m surprised you read them xD