On Twitter: Will “Hit & Run” Become Rogues’ Next Swirly Ball?

So, I says to Ghostcrawler, I says, “HEY. YOU. What’s the big idea, teasing people with this talent you say you hated, only to have a whole mess of them tell you they love it? Is this some kind of weird reverse-psychology shizbang you’ve got going on?” And he says, he goes to me, he’s like, “Yeah, man. That shit’s cray.”

OK, I might be paraphrasing slightly.

 

@SvelteKumquat Honestly, yes. The targeting reticule was a deal-breaker for many of our internal folks.

— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 11, 2013

 

And then things got more interesting:

 

@Seerows_Law Heroic Leap played into the decision. We like the ability (and so do many warriors) but for some the reticule is a hard sell.

— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 11, 2013

@Fromnowear If players react really positively to it, then yes, we'd consider it. Our internal feedback is good but not flawless.

— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 12, 2013

 

So, there you have it: If the outcry is great enough, there may yet be a future for Hit & Run — maybe not in 5.2, maybe not in 5.3, but someday, and for the rest of our Azerothian lives.

Here’s lookin’ at you, reticule.

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On Twitter: It’ll Definitely Be Cloak & Dagger, Not Hit & Run, Ghostcrawler Says — Updated 1/11

(Post updated 1/7 and 1/11 with additional tweets.)

Staying consistent with his earlier tweet on this subject, Ghostcrawler affirmed today that, in Patch 5.2, the level-60 talent option that will replace Preparation (which will become a baseline ability all rogues learn at level 68) is indeed going to be Cloak and Dagger, not the Hit and Run ability that is currently on the PTR.

 

@EpyonTV It's Cloak and Dagger. The targeting reticule and time teleport for Hit and Run weren't popular internally.

— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 4, 2013

@Yasko89 It sounds like the patch notes (Cloak and Dagger) are more up to date that the PTR (Hit and Run). That happens.

— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 6, 2013

 

It’s really been something to see the explosion of discussion around H&R since it hit the PTR — and the huge variety of opinions regarding its value. I haven’t played the PTR at all, but the videos I’ve seen of H&R in action make it look pretty fun, and I can think of a few raid situations (such as the Feng fight) in which it could be handier than Step or BoS. In fact, Ghostcrawler commented about how many unexpectedly pro-H&R vibes there were toward the ability during the brief time it was available for testing:

 

@SvelteKumquat Honestly, yes. The targeting reticule was a deal-breaker for many of our internal folks.

— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 11, 2013

@Seerows_Law Heroic Leap played into the decision. We like the ability (and so do many warriors) but for some the reticule is a hard sell.

— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 11, 2013

 

Ah well. Now all our conjecture about the ability is even more pointless than it was before. Long live Cloak and Dagger’s stealth openers from range! Starting at some point in the next PTR build or three, at least.

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On Twitter: Why “Hit and Run” Didn’t Quite Make It to the Patch 5.2 PTR

(NOTE ADDED 1/2/13: Despite the post below, when the Patch 5.2 PTR was made available on 1/2, Hit and Run was indeed occupying the level-60 talent tier spot left behind by Preparation, not Cloak and Dagger. Awaiting word from Blizz on what’s up.)

With Preparation slated to become a baseline talent for all rogues in the upcoming patch, something needed to replace its former position in our level-60 talent tier. The new toy that will make it onto the PTR is Cloak and Dagger, which allows you to use Ambush, Cheap Shot and Garrote from up to 30 yards away — and will teleport you just behind your target, Shadowstep-style (but not precisely the same as Shadowstep, which remains another option in that talent tier), in the process.

But there was apparently some pretty healthy debate among the class design team about what that slot would be filled by — so much so that another proposed talent, Hit and Run, was programmed and tested internally. And was picked up by MMO-Champion and Wowhead in their first datamine of the PTR, leading to a big ol’ hunk of confusion when the official patch preview notes were released and there was no Hit and Run to be found.

According to the datamine, Hit and Run was supposed to allow a rogue to designate a spot on the ground and then be teleported to it for 10 seconds, after which they’d return to their original spot. Sounds kinda cool (how many rogue players have asked for a targetable Shadowstep over the years?), but as Ghostcrawler said in a recent tweet:

@JohnAbes The early playtesting was not kind to that talent. The dread word "clunky" was used.

— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) December 22, 2012

It’s a cool little insight into the kinds of discussions the class design folks have, as well as the sheer number of possible changes they chew on, debate, and even internally test without us ever knowing about them. Makes me wish they shared more of these stories with us; I’m a total nerd, I know, but I find “how we came to X decision” stories fascinating in WoW, and I think if we got a glimpse of more of them, there’d be a lot less complaining that Blizzard doesn’t put enough thought into its design decisions or that they are “ignoring” the userbase. Or, at least, it’d be easier for people like me to show them they’re wrong. :)

To those who celebrate, have a warm and wonderful Christmas Day!

(Thanks to Timat for giving me a heads-up on this tweet; my Spidey sense that tingles whenever GC tweets about rogues must’ve been overloaded by patch notes at the time. Yeah, that’s it.)

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