Maybe it would be best if I didn’t post this. Perhaps the powers-that-be at Blizzard won’t even notice if I don’t draw it to their attention. Maybe if I don’t say anything this will slip under their radar without bringing out a massive nerf stick.
I guess I’ll take the chance.
On Monday, December 7th (pre-patch) I went to a Heroic Practice Dummy and did a 5-minute dps test in my Mutilate spec. I took a couple of screenshots to set a baseline for comparison. I was running a cookie-cutter 51/13/7 Mutilate spec with Golem-Shard Sticker MH and Dirk of the Night Watch OH. Overall GearScore around 4850 by the add-on, or 2639 by WoW-Heroes. Poisons are IP/DP of course. Here are the results…
Note that Instant Poison makes up just under 14% of my overall damage. I was not doing any kind of weapon swapping.
On Tuesday after I was able to log in, I went to the same Heroic Practice Dummy using the same gear and the same spec. I had made no changes since the previous day. No extra buffs or consumables that I was aware of. Here were the results the second time around, post-patch 3.3…
Huh? A 936 dps increase? Nice!
First, notice that post-patch my white melee attacks were hitting a little harder. The same was true for all of my attacks… they were just slightly higher. That came from the change in Murder…
- Murder: This talent now provides a flat damage increase of 2/4% against all targets, instead of only targets which do not appear in Icecrown.
Since the Heroic Training Dummy is categorized as a Mechanical, I would not have had any benefit from the talent pre-patch. Now I get the 4% from Murder on all targets. That would account for about 150 out of the 936 dps increase.
The big effect that stands out is the change in my Instant Poison. It went from 14% of my damage to a whopping 29% of my damage! That’s from the new change in DP…
- Deadly Poison: In addition to its existing effects, when a rogue applies Deadly Poison to a target which has already reached the maximum number of applications, this will also trigger the poison which the rogue is using on his or her other weapon.
Boy, did that ever have an impact! Look how many more IP procs there were the second time!
This won’t help our trash dps much, and its not going to be a huge effect in pvp I’d think. It only appears when you can get your DP stacked to 5 and keep it refreshed. That means extended single-target dps.
For maximum damage output, Mutilate rogues will want to get DP stacked to 5 quickly. Even on small trash packs, we will be better off picking one mob and burning it down rather than using FoK, as long is it lives long enough for DP to stack. Once DP is at a 5-stack on your target you’ll see your dps jump as IP starts proccing. (don’t give up on FoK – its still useful on large trash packs or on trash that dies before DP can stack)
Is a nearly 1000 dps increase what Blizzard intended? Are there nerfs inevitable? Maybe there are not many tank-and-spank bosses in ICC, so we won’t get to realize that kind of damage in raids. Time will tell.
In any case, there is no excuse now, rogues! Lets show those mages and warlocks and ret pallies who the kings of single-target dps are!
With the changes to deadly poison, wouldn’t it be better to now put DP on main hand and IP on off hand?
Try 51/18/2 (2/5 Relentless).
Yeah I was thinking the same, I wonder if using DP on the main hand and IP on the off hand is a better idea now.
Damn, I hope I have a chance to raid something with my Muti Rogue, before blizzard nerfs us all to hell again! >_>
Also keep in mind that some of the added dps is a flat add, it will not scale in a raid group. Your other values will, and will catch up on the poison procs.
I haven’t looked to change spec yet. And that would have invalidated the point I was trying to make. My point was the size of our baseline buff with all talents, rotations, and gear the same.
And your DP should go on your fastest weapon to stack quickly. Since your fastest weapon should be your off-hand, then you should still have IP main hand and DP off hand.
The current specs being thrown around (like the 51/18/2) are for completely ruptureless cycles. They drop talents like Blood Spatter. Those assume that you have someone else in the raid who will apply a bleed for your HfB. If you are mostly running 5-mans pr 10-mans with no druid or warrior, then you’ll be putting your own bleeds and you’ll probably want to keep the old spec for your ruptures.
Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted.
12/10/09
- Hunger for Blood now increases a rogues damage by 10% down from 15%.
Damnit, too late, we took the hotfix nerf bat straight from the oven and I didn’t have a chance to raid with our imba buff :\
Yeah, HfB knob nerf =P
Overall, around %4.24 damage decrease. =(
My oh my oh my… I’m weeping tears of pure, unadulterated happiness.
Even with the HFB nerf, I’m still happy. 