Buffs are coming

In the ever-changing world of dps pwnage, the class at the top of the heap seems to change at the whim of the developers.  Currently, it seems like hunters and mages have it good  Rogues are competitive but clearly not the best dps.

In patch 4.2 it looks like there will be rogue damage buffs to all three specs.

I’m not going to go into any discussion here, because we know that anything on the PTR today might be gone tomorrow.  Here’s what is there right now:

• Assassination
  • Assassin’s Resolve damage bonus has been increased to 20%, up from 15%.
  • Vile Poisons now increases poison damage by 12/24/36%, up from 7/14/20%.

• Combat
  • Savage Combat now increases attack power by 3/6%, up from 2/4%.
  • Vitality now increases attack power by 30%, up from 25%.

• Subtlety
  • Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows by 15/30 seconds, up from 10/20, and now also reduces the cooldown of Combat Readiness by 15/30 seconds.
  • Sanguinary Vein damage to bleeding targets has been increased to 8/16%, from 5/10%.

Alas, as Blizzard giveth, they also taketh away.  Cloak of Shadows is getting a longer cooldown (2 minutes, up from 90 seconds).  /sadface

More comments on this when the patch is closer and we can believe what the patch notes say.

Rogue Tier 12

A whole month without a post – that is my longest blogging break since I started the blog.

I like to make rogue-related posts, but there isn’t much going on with rogues.  As usual, the notes for the upcoming patches don’t have any Azeroth-shaking changes to rogues because we’re darn-near perfect.

I also like to post about interesting experiences in my gaming, but there haven’t been many of those lately.   Its not that the game isn’t fun.  I still play a lot.  Its just that the things I do now are the same as what I was doing last month and the month before that.  I raid, I level alts, I sell glyphs.  Repeat.

I had written a post with assorted thoughts on current goings-on in the game, but given my lack of blog topics these days I think I’ll expand those thoughts into separate posts.

What I will say right now is this:  the rogue T12 may not look bad, but it also doesn’t look like something a rogue would wear.  Its too blousy and the sleeves are too big.  It does look like leather, which is a novel idea.  It also looks heavy enough to be cold-weather gear.  I mean, look at that and remember that its made from leather.  Can you imagine wearing something like that in Uldum?  You’d dehydrate!  That would have been a good design for the snows of Northrend.  But now?

On the other hand, it is probably flame retardant which will be good in Firelands.  Still – it just looks uncomfortable.  Rogues need to be agile and lithe.  They need to dress for practicality, with ease of movement.  Its easy to forget about that in a game where giant shoulderpads and swords that are bigger than the wielder have no impact on mobility.

I thought about posting all of the previous tier sets for comparisons, but that’s been done numerous times around the interwebs.  I will just point out my favorite, Tier 2

It is form-fitted (other than the shoulders, as usual), which is important for stealth and agility.  It has that threatening look that rogue gear always strives for.  The red is a good departure from the usual black. It doesn’t look like leather, but it also doesn’t *not* look like leather, if you can follow that.

Most importantly, neither the best set (T2) nor the upcoming set (T12) have another head on top of its head…