Friday, September 23, 2011 at 1:58 AM |  
The Devs did a really thorough content dump that you should take a look at if you have time. A lot of is just documenting stuff that's already been reported by players, but at the bottom, they list a lot of the rogue specs that they used for testing, and they made a huge list of specs that they believe are competitive with Sabdancer.

The Full Post by Elrar

The interesting part (dev testing specs) is at the bottom, but some of the specs are honestly pretty ludicrous and would never be competitive with any top-tier spec. However, I think the post is very informative to the devs line of thinking, and there are some specs I had not thought of, but are at least worth looking at. Here are some takeaways:

  • The devs key in on 51 point specs. If you notice, every souls they tested and said was competitive with Sabdancer had 51 points in at least one variation. They clearly balance around 51 point specs, and if anything significantly beats it, they look to nerf it.
  • The devs prefer to change damage modifiers, not mechanics. If you look at what led to the rise (and fall) of the blinkblade, it was completely due to changing damage modifiers. They solved energy starvation by increasing rogue energy regeneration across the board. They "solved" the low damage of 51 BD by increasing the BD strike damage. On the other hand, they did change mechanics in MM, but once the first pass was done, everything else was just tweaking and juggling.
  • The devs don't understand what makes Warriors so far superior to rogues in PvP. Like it or not, these classes are comparable, because they have largely the same function. Warrior damage, health and mitigation is so far above rogues, and so much less dependent on cooldowns and gear, that the dichotomy is almost humorous. Yet the patch does really nothing to address it. The lackluster Infiltrator soul is untouched and while warriors can't unload as many off-global abilities as before, their damage and mitigation are still tremendous.

Rogues will certainly be in better shape when 1.5 hits this Wednesday than they are now, but by no means will we be on even footing with Warriors in PvE or PvP. I'm okay with that, because it will make success all the sweeter when its not handed to me, but I'm concerned that Trion will see it as "mission accomplished." The job ain't over.
Posted by Dunsparrow Labels:

5 comments:

Igorok said...

Hmm so with other words that every soul where i spent my 51 points will be competetive in dps with sabdancer?

September 23, 2011 at 3:57 AM  
Timber said...

By the sounds of it, if I want to be competitive in PvP ever again (since Trion thinks we are up to snuff with warriors) I should reroll a Warrior or play my Mage more. Hmmmm golf-clap for the (half) effort Trion.

September 23, 2011 at 9:36 AM  
Mags said...

I agree, I think this is a 1/2 effort with little testing however, even when others said rogues weren't good I found ways to be in the top 3 dps on all my raids and found ways to destroy in pvp. As players we can either play with the cards dealt or piss and moan about what cards we don't have. Personally I think most of these changes are nothing more then smoke up my ass but... I see a few changes that will help us have more pve chances (range for sure) and a few pvp changes that i'm sure people like myself and Dun will spin into some good pvp builds as well. Don't look at the cup 1/2 empty look at it 1/2 full. AT LEAST they looked at us finally.. its a start.

September 23, 2011 at 1:58 PM  
Timber said...

Oh don't get me wrong, I will always play my rogue no matter what. And I am looking at the cup as 1/2 full its better then nothing. And as builds go I am sure Dun and others will come up with a Kick ass build that will be competitive in PvE and well as PvP. ( just hopeing NB coomes back I loved the NB specs) now I just play 51 sin. You just have to pick tragets right. Just can't go balls the the walls as warriors do.

September 23, 2011 at 3:48 PM  
Igorok said...

I love NB in PvP they own, i can kill almost everyone, not easy tho...

For PvE i would really wanna see some imba melee dps spec, altho im now good equipped still hard to be in top, cuz warrs just outdps me etc ...

September 23, 2011 at 4:10 PM