On Twitter/Patch 5.3 PTR: Cloak and Dagger Nerf Clarified (It’s All About the Stealthjamins)

Amidst the hue and cry over our latest rogue PvP nerf revelation (in Patch 5.3, Cloak and Dagger likely won’t work when Subtlety rogues try to use it during Shadow Dance), WoW PvP honcho Brian Holinka dropped this little nugget:

@JRoosy CnD's range is back to 30 yards, but no longer usable unless stealthed—
Holinka (@holinka) May 03, 2013

Holinka and Ghostcrawler have been tweeting like CRAZY over the rogue changes since word of this CnD adjustment got out; read my previous post for a (mostly) complete listing.

Between Twitter, datamining and official patch note updates, the Patch 5.3 rogue change revelations have been pretty rapid-fire lately, so just to recap where we think we’re at right now:

• Cloak and Dagger will still be usable at 30 yards; the nerf to 20 yards will be reverted. However, rogues will only be able to use CnD while stealthed — this is why it can’t be used during Shadow Dance, because you’re technically not stealthed when ShD is active. (I’m assuming we will also be able to use CnD during Vanish or, for those of us who play a night elf, while Shadowmelded, but I haven’t seen any solid info on this yet.)
• All the Shuriken Toss changes are still happening. (Energy cost doubles, damage doubles, damage bonus at range removed.)
• The crowd control glyph nerfs (to Cheap Shot’s stun and Garrote’s silence) are probably still happening. (Aeriwen notes in the class forum that the Glyph of Cheap Shot tooltip hasn’t been updated with the nerf, but it’s still in the official patch notes.)
• The Find Weakness PvP nerf/PvE buff is still happening.
• We still haven’t heard a thing from anyone official about the datamined Revealing Strike buff.
• The Recuperate PvP buff is still happening (though that’s not a rogue-only change; it’s part of the broader PvP Power adjustments the devs are implementing for 5.3).

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Blue Post: New 5.2 Change Clarifications, From Shuriken Toss to Smoke Bomb

Earlier today, Ghostcrawler added a second ginormous data-dump of answered questions into the new Patch 5.2 discussion thread he created yesterday. Here’s the new roguey stuff; I’ll intersperse my comments between each item.

 

During Shuriken Toss, your auto attacks are replaced with throwing Shurikens, which do 80% weapon damage, but are on the ‘yellow combat table’, meaning they don’t glance, and don’t suffer the dual wield miss penalty. The 80% number was chosen because that approximately offsets those other benefits.

This is a clarification of some of the specifics that players have come across while testing out the new Shuriken Toss autoattack system on the PTR. These autoattacks, which kick in for 10 seconds if you use ST from a range of more than 10 yards, behave pretty similarly to a hunter’s autoattacks. To offset the fact that ST autoattacks will have a drastically higher chance to hit the target (and thus apply poisons) than our regular melee autoattacks, they nerfed the damage. That way we won’t feel enticed to do some seriously wacky stuff with our combat rotations (like constantly moving into/out of range so we can keep refreshing out ST autoattacks).

 

In our above description of Blade Flurry, ‘normal’ means the same as it previously did; that is to say, the damage that the ability would have done had it hit the secondary target.

This clarifies GC’s comment yesterday that, in the next PTR build, Blade Flurry would be further de-nerfed to deal “40% of normal damage to up to 4 additional targets.” This clarification certifies that BF won’t work any differently from how it used to — i.e., it won’t start copying poison damage or Elemental Force procs or any of that stuff.

 

The 2pc does encourage using Rupture as Combat.

The two-piece Tier 15 raid set bonus elongates finishing moves that have durations based on the number of CPs we used. As I mentioned in this EJ post (and others have likely noted as well, but who pays attention to THEM?), this feels likely to result in Rupture becoming more desirable for Combat rogues. GC appears to have confirmed that’s the intent.

 

Burst of Speed saying “movement-reducing” means that it no longer breaks roots, but does break snares.

The tooltip for BoS on live uses the phrase “movement-impairing” instead. Between the text change, the phrasing of the official patch preview notes, and the results of player testing on the PTR, we were already pretty sure we knew what “movement-reducing” meant. Now we know for sure.

 

We are experimenting with allowing Smoke Bomb to reduce the damage done to allies by 20%. We agree that rogues are lacking in the group utility department and we’d like to see less use of Smoke Bomb strictly as an offensive ability in PvP.

Cool. :) (What do you want from me? PvP is like that scary old aunt with a huge ugly mole on her face whose house I’m afraid to visit.)

 

We are going to reduce the PvP set bonus from +50 energy to +30 energy.

This is a more solid affirmation of something Ghostcrawler tweeted about yesterday regarding the new four-piece PvP set bonus. Keep in mind that the starting point here is +10 energy (that’s what we have now), so this is still a huge deal. A number of rogue players have been pretty frank about how they felt +50 was likely too much, so this buff-reduction is unlikely to bother folks who aren’t wearing aluminum foil on their heads.

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Datamined Patch 5.1 PTR Changes for Rogues

MMO-Champion’s datamining efforts have turned up a bunch of rogue-related Patch 5.1 PTR adjustments. Here they be!

Please remember that anything labeled as “Datamined” is *NOT CONFIRMED*. Datamining is notoriously unreliable, especially when it comes to ability/talent/item changes; don’t trust datamined info until it’s in the official patch notes or has been confirmed by an official Blizzard source or by reliable in-game testing.

All notes are exact quotes from the source unless contained within <angle brackets>; those notes are mine. The list is in reverse date order from most recent to least recent.

————-

Posted 11/13: Build 16297

• Zen Alchemist Stone:
  • <Item level is now 458, up from 450.>
  • <Now increases mastery by 809, up from 751.>
  • <Proc now increases highest primary stat by 4,353, up from 4,041.>
• <Relix of Xuen proc now increases Agility by 2,682, down from 3,027.>
  • <The above datamine was quickly debunked by CM Daxxarri: “The change that got picked up was actually an adjustment to Darkmoon Card trinkets for Challenge Mode stat scaling.”

Posted 11/8: Build 16281

• Kick now costs 10 energy, down from 15.

Posted 10/26: Build 16208

• Blind now has a 1.5 min cooldown, up from 1.
• Sprint now has a 60 sec cooldown, up from 45.
• Assassination: Envenom now does Nature damage. <likely just a tooltip change>
• Subtlety: Sanguinary Vein now causes you to deal 16% additional damage to targets afflicted by your Rupture, Garrote, or Crimson Tempest, down from 20%. <likely just a tooltip change; identical to 5.0.5 hotfix note on 9/20/12>

Posted 10/23: Build 16173

• Blind now has a 1 min cooldown, down from 3 min.
• Sprint now has a 45 sec cooldown, down from 60 sec.
• Wound Poison damage increased by 33%.
• Talents:
  • Burst of Speed now costs 50 energy, down from 60.
  • Shuriken Toss damage is doubled if the enemy is farther than 10 yards away.
• Assassination: Seal Fate now only works with melee attacks.

Posted 10/17: Build 16155

• Dismantle disarm now lasts 8 sec, down from 10.

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Patch 5.1 PTR Notes for Rogues (Official)

Here’s a snapshot of the rogue-relevant changes upcoming in Patch 5.1 according to Blizz’s official PTR notes. Everything in the list below is a direct quote from the official notes, except for stuff in <angle brackets>, which is mine.

Below the main list is a date-ordered list of additions/changes that have been made to the official notes at various points in the PTR process. Also be sure to take a look at the datamined Patch 5.1 changes; though they may not be accurate, they also may include changes that haven’t been officially documented yet.

• Shuriken Toss now deals double damage when used against targets further than 10 yards away.
• The energy cost of the Burst of Speed talent has been reduced to 50 energy (was 60 energy).
• Wound Poison now deals 33% more damage.
• The cooldown of Blind has been reduced to 90 seconds, down from 3 minutes. <was 60 seconds in earlier build>
• The durations of all disarm effects have been reduced to 8 seconds.
• Seal Fate will now only be activated by melee combo point generating abilities.The Dancing Steel <snip> enchantments now use the Real PPM system utilized by Windsong and Elemental Force.
• The responsiveness of many abilities and effects has been improved, including <snip> Rogue Poisons, Revealing Strike <snip>. <Ghostcrawler explains “responsiveness” here.>

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Added 11/8:

• The Dancing Steel, Jade Spirit, Colossus, and River’s Song enchantments now use the Real PPM system utilized by Windsong and Elemental Force.
• The responsiveness of many abilities and effects has been improved, including: Renewing Mist, Halo, Rogue Poisons, Revealing Strike, Rime, Killing Machine, Maelstrom Weapon, Sudden Doom, Ultimatum, Scent of Blood, Crimson Scourge, and Sudden Death.

Added 11/2:

• The durations of all disarm effects have been reduced to 8 seconds.
• <The following is an earlier PTR change that, as of this update, has been completely reverted to its pre-change state: “The cooldown of Sprint has been reduced to 45 seconds, down from 1 minute.” It’s back to one minute again.>
• The cooldown of Blind has been reduced to 90 seconds, down from 3 minutes. <was 60 seconds in earlier build>
• Poisons should now be more responsive.
• Revealing Strike should now be more responsive.

Added 10/23:

• Seal Fate will now only be activated by melee combo point generating abilities.
• Shuriken Toss now deals double damage when used against targets further than 10 yards away.

These were listed in the initial batch of PTR notes posted on 10/18:

• The cooldown of Sprint has been reduced to 45 seconds (was 1 minute).
• The cooldown of Blind has been reduced to 1 minute (was 3 minutes).
• The energy cost of the Burst of Speed talent has been reduced to 50 energy (was 60 energy).
• Wound Poison now deals 33% more damage.

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