Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 2:39 AM |  
Finally, a silver lining in the rogue cloud. Still early yet, but keep an eye on the PTS. Rogue changes are starting to appear. Here's what they've put on the launcher for now:
General gameplay goals for the Rogue update:

* Competitive PvE Alternatives to Sabodancer, both melee and ranged.
* Competitive PvP DPS. You should fear seeing a Rogue the same way you see a Warrior. Of equal Prestige Rank, the two should be capable of providing a similar amount of PvP threat.
* Survivability improvements. Some self heal improvements and vampiric-type Healing Siphons - Abilities that reduce the healing intake capacity of one's target, with a portion of the stolen amount going to the rogue.
* Better synergies between souls
* More utility without giving up the majority of their DPS to get it, bringing them closer in line to the flexibility that other callings have.
* Large pack tanking improvements - Improvement to threat on multiple mobs
* Running capacity remains -- BUT, Double-teleport-invulnerable runner (the "bugged" one) goes away.
* Reduction in required reliance on "unfair" tactics (invuls, slips, etc) via adding true competitive power

Themes used to arrive at the goals:

* Marksman: No longer suffers an identity crisis around being the mobile-soul-that-requires-mostly-stationary-play. Pedestals are gone. Sniping remains. They get enchanted Ammo buffs (via their new "Munitions" line), and can bring one more ability into an AE rotation. New survivability as well. Better synergy.
* Ranger: Synergizes with other souls better. No longer overly dependent on Shadow Fire.
* Riftstalker: Offensively synergizes through +AP and reflect shields. Some new multi-target threat coolness here too. You should be able to take some RS without flooring your DPS, as melee souls' ability to close all currently lives in this tree.
* Saboteur: Use of bombs should not be a DPS downgrade.
* Bladedancer: Should be a viable in-your-face combat rogue.
* Nightblade: Some more survivability, without having to rely on pure immunities.
* Assassin: More up front damage, less reliance on super-long, annoying DoTs. Better poisons. Less "waste a finisher to apply a short buff." Slip away should not be a requirement to compete. Slip away will be receiving changes in a future update as well.
* Bard: A little more low level survivability - More of a reason to take this as a 3rd solo soul if you're inclined to get some more survivability back.
This thread lists many of the changes in detail (posted at the start and throughout the thread), but no notes have been posted yet. I've looked and all the changes on the first 10 pages are accurate as of tonight.

Some highlights:
  • Marksman - New "Munition" weapon enchantments that give extra damage or healing debuffs (pedestals removed) and now synergizes with non-ranged souls.
  • Ranger - Shadowfire: now buffs all ranged weapon damage and scales with points spent in ranger.
  • Bladedancer - Contra Tempo: Now gives a 25/50% chance for Quick and Precision to add an additional Combo point (just as I wished for??)
  • Nightblade - Enkindle: Increases AP contribution of fire abilities by 10/20/30% (and Primal Strike is now Death damage!)
  • Assassin - Backstab: AP contribution increased to 150% (the highest of any CP builder)
  • Riftstalker - Annihilate: Now increases AP by 20% (instead of a fixed amount).
  • Saboteur - Improved damage/scaling of bombs. Doesn't mesh with Sabdancer at all. Not sure what they were thinking here because the soul is still worthless without Deadly Dance.
Still missing?
  • Anything to address Riftstalker's horrible tanking situation. If you're planning to tank HK as a rogue, cross your fingers that more changes to this soul are in the pipe.
  • Anything to address the CP builder AP contribution disparity. NB builders still get 50% AP contribution, while BD gets 100% and Sin gets 100-150%.
More to come...
Posted by Dunsparrow

8 comments:

Hangfire said...

Well done dude. Always look forward to listening to you're blog on this stuff.

Though I take the "I'll believe it when I see it" stance as far as bringing our damage in line with warriors.

We haven't squared off in a while...

-Hangfire

September 7, 2011 at 12:35 PM  
f3llyn said...

Well some of the changes to assassins sound quite promising. Though I've moved on from playing assassin, nightblade is much more fun and 'in yo face'.

September 7, 2011 at 2:34 PM  
Dantae said...

I cant wait please leave us up to date on the Top dps build when there changes come out

September 7, 2011 at 3:06 PM  
KaiserWarrior said...

This is going to be interesting.

So Marksman will be synergizing with melee souls now, and Annihilate from Riftstalker is a 20% AP boost.

If you take a 51/7/8 SIN/MM/RS build, you replace the Infiltrator goodies for Sin with:

5% single target damage
10% AP on crit (2 points Increased Firepower)
15% AP flat (riftstalker)
20% AP finisher (Annihilate)
6% increased healing effects (new Brew and improved Leeching Poison)

With all of your stuff up, that's 51.8% AP boost.

In R8 gear, around 1K attack power... that's over 500 AP from soul bonuses, for a total over 1500.

And backstab gets 150% contribution from AP, so it's as if you had 3000 AP.

This... could be interesting.

September 7, 2011 at 11:45 PM  
Glow said...

Too bad Vampiric is 36 points in MM

If you could pair that up with the new NB Fell Blade buff, it could a good constant heal for the Gunblade.

September 8, 2011 at 12:17 AM  
Anonymous said...

Very interesting stuff here, I'm glad to see they are making MM more viable. Although I hope they don't screw up sabdancer (dundancer) as I oddly enjoy it. My guild and I ran DH yesterday and myself and the other sabdancer were top on the meters. I just hope if they screw up sabdancer that there is something else equally viable for PvE to replace it.

September 8, 2011 at 7:21 AM  
Dunsparrow said...

It doesn't look like Sabdancer will change. All the talents that affect it remain the same.

The new specs being kicked around are all single target specs that might beat Sabdancer, but I don't see anything knocking it off #1 AOE.

September 8, 2011 at 10:44 AM  
Glow said...

Also as KaiserWarrior said, if we can buff our ap too 3k, and if enduring brew scales with ap, won't that be a potential massive heal for rogues?

September 11, 2011 at 2:24 AM