Hotfix: Elemental Force Enchant No Longer Procs From Heals

Stealthed rogues, rejoice! From the Dec. 5 edition of the official Patch 5.1 hotfix notes (this appears to be the only rogue-relevant fix from today’s batch):

Enchant Weapon: Elemental Force will no longer incorrectly activate from healing effects, and can only be triggered by damaging melee attacks or spells.

For us, this likely means no more procs from Recuperate or Leeching Poison. That’s a good thing, because a number of rogues reported being knocked out of stealth because of this. (Sample scenario: Rogue attacks a player. Rogue gets Recuperate rolling. Player dies. Rogue stealths. Rogue sneaks up on new player. Before rogue can use opener, Elemental Force procs, because Recuperate is still running. Rogue is now visible, standing there, naked. Everyone in class is laughing at rogue. Rogue enters deep depression and skips senior prom.)

Also, just in case anyone was concerned about possible adverse effects of this hotfix: Given that this is a Real PPM poison, I think it’s highly unlikely this change will result in a reduced proc rate for Elemental Force.

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Hotfix: Poisons Proc During Shadow Blades Once Again

Managed to completely miss this in my initial sweep of the 11/29 additions to the official Patch 5.1 notes. Bad me! Bad!

Poisons will now continue to be applied normally while Shadow Blades is activated.

This corrects a bug introduced with the patch that appeared to make it so that poisons didn’t proc at all during Shadow Blades. Should be all better now.

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Hotfix: Dancing Steel, Windsong, Other Real PPM Procs Now Stack

From the 11/29 hotfix notes (which I suspect didn’t technically appear until 11/30 YES I AM A STICKLER FOR DETAILS LEAVE ME ALONE):

Enchantments using the Real PPM system will now generate two buffs simultaneously, rather than simply refreshing the duration of an existing effect.

Assuming it is indeed working as newly intended, this should wrap up the whole “why have my Dancing Steel enchants suddenly stopped stacking when they proc on both weapons OMGWTFBLIZZ Y U HATE ROUGES GC DOESNT PLAY A ROGEU ELS EVERYTHING 4 US WUD ALAWSY WORK NOOBZ” thing from earlier this week.

For a full list of rogue patch changes and hotfixes in 5.1, I gotch’a cover’ed’.

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Forum Post: Daxxarri Clarifies New Dancing Steel Proc Mechanic (Updated 12/1: Proc Stacking “Restored”)

Oh, Dancing Steel, why dost thou disturb forum rogues so?

A number of folks have posted angry missives in the official WoW forums over the past few days, excoriating Blizzard for what some have suggested is a “stealth nerf” of the Dancing Steel enchant, the top weapon enchant currently available for rogues. In particular, people have had called out the fact that if Dancing Steel is was on both of a rogue’s weapons, it can could no longer “stack” — i.e., since 5.1 launched this week for a few days after 5.1 launched, there can’t couldn’t be two procs active at the same time, which means meant the effect can could no longer double. (Instead, if the proc is was already active and then procs again on either weapon, it refreshesd the duration of the sole active proc.)

Turns out this is was entirely intentional, and probably isn’t wasn’t nearly as catastrophic for our DPS as some were assuming. (People who play WoW overreacting to small changes with forum tirades? Unpossible!) [UPDATE 12/1: And, as of sometime late on 11/29, a hotfix made it so that Dancing Steel and other Real PPM procs *can* now stack just like the unReal PPM procs have long been able to.]

Here’s what Daxxarri posted in a General Discussion forum thread late on 11/29:

The change to Dancing Steel is actually part of its status as a Real Proc Per Minute (RPMM) system, which was in the patch notes.

• The Dancing Steel, Jade Spirit, Colossus, and River’s Song enchantments now use the Real PPM system utilized by Windsong and Elemental Force.

You can read more about how RPMM works here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6893549789#1

Dual wielding with a RPMM enchants means that you’ll get double the frequency of procs, but the system doesn’t currently allow for double active procs.

We’re happy with how the RPMM system has turned out, and we think it’s a stronger proc system than those we’ve used in the past, and offers more consistent results for players too. That said, we know that some players find double active procs fun, though, so we’re exploring the possibility of altering the system to allow for them in the future.

Later in the thread, Daxx posted an update on the no-stack issue:

Good news, everyone!

As I mentioned, we’ve been investigating the possibility of altering the Real PPM system to allow double procs. It hadn’t been done previously due to technical challenges, but we found a solution much faster than expected, and we’re currently working on a hotfix to allow Real PPM enchantments to proc separately per weapon.

Yes, this means that if everything goes smoothly, you’ll soon be able to have two simultaneous Dancing Steel procs, or (very rarely) six simultaneous Windsong procs.

[UPDATE 12/1:] And finally, the 11/29 edition of the official hotfix notes confirmed that:

Enchantments using the Real PPM system will now generate two buffs simultaneously, rather than simply refreshing the duration of an existing effect.

How’s THAT for service?

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On Twitter: Ghostcrawler confirms Raining Blood nerf

<This will make world PvP rogues and some Dread Wastes daily quest-doers very sad.>

@AbeAmes “@Ghostcrawler GC, was there a nerf to the stacking frequency of the Raining Blood augment in Dread Wastes? It seemed much slower today.”

@Boogieknight31 “@AbeAmes @Ghostcrawler wondering the same thing, I couldn’t get full stacks of 8 on much of anything except large health things like rares.”

@Ghostcrawler “@Boogieknight31 it was okay for casters but overpowered for melee.”

Twitterated 11/29/12

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Official Patch 5.1 Rogue Changes (Patch Notes + Hotfixes) — Updated 12/15

Here’s a collection of all rogue-relevant changes in Patch 5.1, according to Blizz’s official patch notes, hotfix notes and other forms of official Blizzardy communication (forum posts, tweets, smoke signals, etc.). Everything in the list below is a direct quote, except for stuff in <angle brackets>, which is mine.

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Patch 5.1 Rogue Bug Reports ‘n’ Undocumented Changes — Updated 12/17

Sometimes, patches come with unexpected surprises — both lovely and not-so-lovely. While the official 5.1 notes/hotfixes cover most of the noteworthy stuff that’s changed for rogues in this patch, we’ve also got  anecdotal (i.e., unconfirmed) reports coming in of the following, which I’ll update as more info becomes available:

• Poisons not proccing properly with some abilities (including Mutilate, Fan of Knives). Reports and discussion are in this Bug Report forum thread.
  • UPDATE 11/27: As per this tweet from Ghostcrawler (and a subsequent hotfix note posted on 11/28), this problem was fixed as of 6pm ET on 11/27.
• Poisons not proccing properly during Shadow Blades. (Reported by numerous folks, including a few in this EU forum thread.)
  • UPDATE 12/1: A hotfix on 11/29 should have fixed this issue.
• Dancing Steel enchant now breaks stealth when it procs. (Reported by @Rei_Irr)
  • This is probably related to some kind of interaction with the Subterfuge talent; a number of events seem to trigger the Subterfuge countdown, as noted within this thread in the WoW Bug Report forum. Best thing to do if this is really bugging you is to choose another talent in that tier.
  • UPDATE 12/17: A hotfix on 12/13 should have resolved this issue.
• Dancing Steel proc can no longer stack (i.e., be active on two weapons at once); if it procs on either weapon while a proc is already active, it simply refreshes the duration of the active proc rather than adding a second one. (Reported by @jjones186 and @Billynolegs, among others.)
  • UPDATE 12/1: As Daxxarri explains in this forum post, this was an expected result of Dancing Steel being switched to the new Real PPM system. A hotfix applied on 11/29 added in the ability for all Real PPM procs to stack if the enchant is active on two weapons at the same time.
• ADDED 12/6: Poison buffs fall off when equipping a fishing pole and are not restored after re-equipping weapons (axe, dagger, etc.). (Reported by Bigbleed and several others; this is listed in the “5.1.0 MOP Known Issues” thread on the official forums)
• Using Cheat Death now applies a debuff with a timer, which should allow you to more easily track its cooldown. (Reported by Fierydemise)
• The Zen Alchemist Stone trinket got a buff: According to the in-game tooltip, its item level is now 458 (up from 450), it now increases mastery by 809 (up from 751) and its proc now increases our agility by 4353 (up from 4041).

Meanwhile, the following are even-more-unconfirmed-er anecdotal reports that at this point I’d qualify more as rumors than anything else. I’m only putting them here for the moment so I can follow up on them later; will move to the list above if they grow stronger legs.

• When I was testing out the upgraded Zen Alchemist Stone on 11/29, I found myself getting some weird numbers whenever it procced — the agility boost it gave me didn’t match the tooltip, and appeared to change depending on my gear. Same for other agility increases, such as the Searing Words trinket and even my Alchemist’s Flask. I feel like I must be missing something obvious about how these things work, though. Will poke around further.
  • Yknow, for a journalist, I can be pretty unobservant sometimes. :) Pathal/Pins reminded me that Reinforced Leather gives us a 5% agility bonus. I hadn’t even considered that it would apply to procs alongside everything else.
• Wound Poison tooltip not updated to reflect patch change (Busst)
• Subterfuge no longer fails to kick in when a stealthed rogue uses FoK or BoS (Busst)
• Poison buff falls off when swapping weapons (Gimi) <this doesn’t happen for me>
• Some mobs have lost their pockets (Juggliest)

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Twitter: Ghostcrawler clarifies “more responsive” poisons and Revealing Strike in 5.1

@MegalonFaria: “@Ghostcrawler In 5.1 Killing Machine and other proccs will be “more responsive”. What does it means?”

@Ghostcrawler: “@MegalonFaria instead of a 0.5 sec delay or so it should be less.”

Twitterized 11/21/2012

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Twitter: Ghostcrawler on planned rogue changes

@benpickering: “@Ghostcrawler playing devil’s advocate a little, if the 5.1 changes don’t ‘fix’ rogues, will further changes happen immediately or in 5.2?”

@Ghostcrawler: “@benpickering Depends on the degree. If I say “immediately” though, then I’ll just hear about how I broke promises, so I can’t say. :(“

Twitterized 11/19/2012

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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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