Official Patch 5.3 Rogue Changes: The Breakdown

The third major patch of the Mists expansion has arrived! Several rogue-related changes are on the menu for Patch 5.3, and they are almost entirely PvP oriented. In a teeny nutshell:

• Shuriken Toss will be nerfed (mostly).
• Cloak and Dagger will be nerfed.
• Find Weakness (Subtlety) will be buffed in PvE and nerfed in PvP.
• Revealing Strike (Combat) will be buffed.
• Blade Flurry (Combat) damage will be adjusted in PvP.
• Glyph of Cheap Shot will be nerfed.
• Glyph of Garrote will be nerfed.
• Recuperate will be buffed in PvP.
• Tricks of the Trade will get a minor, extremely specific tweak that doesn’t affect rogues, but does nerf death knights.

For more in-depth details on each of these changes, step inside. (C’mon in; nothing to be afraid of. Promise. ish.)

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Patch 5.3 PTR Note Update: Cheap Shot, Garrote Glyphs Nerfed

Newly updated official notes on the Patch 5.3 PTR were posted today, and they include these two new items for rogues:

• Glyph of Cheap Shot now increases the duration of Cheap Shot by 0.5 second, down from 1 second.
• Glyph of Garrote now increases the duration of Garrote’s silence effect by 1 second, down from 1.5 seconds.

Rogues have made a huge comeback in competitive PvP since Patch 5.2 launched. Probably a little too huge a comeback. Although their damage output isn’t imbalanced, their ability to effectively lock down enemy players (particularly casters) has proven so strong that the Blizzfolk clearly feel it needs to be dialed back.

So, in addition to the Shuriken Toss nerfs, we also now see some relatively minor adjustments made to a couple of key rogue crowd-control abilities. By altering the Cheap Shot and Garrote glyphs rather than nerfing the abilities themselves, it’s pretty much ensured that the changes will only impact players in PvP situations, since most PvE players wouldn’t bother using either of those glyphs.

Here’s a bit more on the thinking behind these changes, courtesy of WoW’s PvP chief Brian Holinka:

https://twitter.com/holinka/status/323879152249876480

For a full rundown of all rogue-related changes coming in Patch 5.3, you know what to do.

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