Friday, April 27, 2007

2.1.0 Patch & Tier 6 Armor

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Well, let's start with the armor. I'm going to pretend I didn't see it. OMFG, who am I kidding? I've seen it. Apparently, they were running out of time and decided to alter the Nightstalker armor rather than come up with something cool. We also apparently have forever been assigned the colors red and black. I'm beginning to know how the druids feel with their brown and green. HA! Whatever. At least red and black are cool. Poor druids. T_T The patch includes the introduction of more Darkmoon Faire cards. I think this may be the rogue card:

Wrath (Furies)

Each time one of your direct damage attacks does not critically strike, you gain 17 critical strike rating and 17 spell critical strike rating for the next 10 sec. This effect is consumed when you deal a critical strike. (Stacks up to 20 times)

That's a maximum of 15.38% increase to critical. Wow. It may be trinket slot-worthy.

Rogues changes in the patch, categorized with comments

  • LAME! Added a new double-attack animation for "Mutilate".
    I'm sure rogues everywhere were dying for this one.
  • NERF! "Cloak of Shadows": The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate this ability removes hostile effects, rather than dispels them. "Cloak of Shadows" does not count as a dispel, and will not interact with dispel resistance or effects triggered by dispelling. This ability no longer removes the "Weakened Soul" debuff.
    Ever since I've read this I've wanted to try this out before it gets patched.
  • BUFF! "Deadly Throw": This ability will now damage hunters and their pets when they are affected by "The Beast Within" or "Bestial Wrath". Those targets will still be immune to the movement impairing portion of "Deadly Throw".
    Hmm. Maybe I'd care more if I mapped this ability.
  • BUFF! Fixed a data error that caused "Ghostly Strike" and "Riposte" to generate more threat than intended.
    Awesome! But I don't have either, so "meh".
  • BUFF! Fixed a bug where the "Silence" effect on "Garrote" was getting resisted too often.
    The Man is always trying to put the Rogue down.
  • NERF! "Insignia of the Alliance/Horde" and "Medallion of the Alliance/Horde" now remove "Fear", "Stun" and "Polymorph" effects and no longer remove "Charm" effects.
    Boo. This is one of the three reasons I equipped this trinket. Rather disappointing.
  • BUFF! "Improved Sap" (Subtlety) renamed "Dirty Tricks": Increases the range of your "Sap" and "Blind" abilities by 2/4 yards and reduces the energy cost of your "Sap" and "Blind" abilities by 25/50%.
    Alright, apparently all the gold I've slipped GMs is finally paying off.
  • BUFF! Increased the frequency and amount of "Blinding Powder" found in pickpocketed junk boxes.
    OMG!! OMG!!!! So lame.
  • NERF! "Mutilate": This ability will now always consume the "Cold Blood" buff when it strikes an opponent.
    Hmm.. Another one of those "doesn't affect me why should I care" changes.
  • NERF! Poisons: The difficulty of dispelling these is now based off the level of the player, not the level of the weapon the poison is applied to.
    Makes sense, but it doesn't make it cool to nerf.
  • BUFF! Reduced the reagents required to create most poisons.
    Sweet!
  • NERF! "Remorseless Attacks"(Assassination): "Hemorrhage" added to the buff tooltip. This ability will no longer trigger from killing totems.
    Yet they still allow warriors to generate rage from totems and critters. h8 warriors
  • BUFF! Rogue poisons no longer have charges.
    You had me at "Rogue poisons no longer have charges."
  • BUFF! "Sap" now automatically gains the full benefit of "Improved Sap".
    2 free talents points for damage. w00t!
  • BUFF! "Shadowstep" (Subtlety): The cooldown has been reduced to 15 seconds.
    Someday, I'll have 123 Talents points to be able to take advantage of all of these buffs.
  • NERF! "Stealth" will now be broken correctly by damage shield such as "Oil of Immolation".
    What IS the reasoning behind a rogue unstealthing when damaged? Total crap I tell ya.
  • BUFF! "Surprise Attacks" (Combat): This talent now correctly prevents "Envenom" from being dodged.
    I wonder why no one cared before. Let me think. Oh yeah. Envenom is useless without Mutilate which is at the bottom of the Assassination tree and Surprise Attacks is at the bottom of the Combat tree. *sigh*

Well, there you have it. We got a few Buffs, but mostly, Nerfs. Obviously, Blizzard hates Rogues. Please lobby for more Rogue buffs.

Hmm.. Wait... There's more:

  • Creatures will no longer "Cleave" targets that aren't in front of them.
  • "Polymorph" spell duration has been changed from 20 seconds to 8 seconds.
  • Creatures will no longer perform "Sweeping Strikes".

These changes were obviously placed in the game for feral druids. =/ So disappointing.

the end

2 comments:

Loni Huff said...

Um, I'm not sure what kind of crazy rogue math you're specced for, but I counted 10 buffs, and 6 nerfs in that list. I'm a druid and I even know that 10 > 6.

Oh and, in response to, "What IS the reasoning behind a rogue unstealthing when damaged? Total crap I tell ya." I think it's because rogues are generally pansies who can't help but yelp in pain at something as small as a papercut.

Chris Connelley said...

Keep your oppressive druid math to yourself! =P

And I think rogues scream, "Hyyyyahh! The charade is over! Prepare to meet your death, foul monster!" Cause that's how we roll.