Hey all,
I’ve noticed that, since the return of SnD, my melee swings are making up a huge percentage of my damage as Outlaw. They’re often top in ST fights, and even at the end of a mythic I just ran they were second (only behind Blade Flurry). My melee hits and SS hits are comparable in terms of numerical output, but the melee hits happen at a much quicker rate.
I’m not against melee whacks having value, but I wonder how it will affect the tuning of class abilities. After all, I’d rather have my Sinister Strikes and finishers do more work than my passive damage, especially after such a long patch of passive gameplay via corruptions.
I’m not complaining about having SnD back, by the way. I just want my keystrokes to feel meaningful, and it seems to follow that “more white damage” will result in less damage from other sources.
What are the community’s thoughts on this?
2 Likes
Lowering passive white hit damage is why “some” of us numbers nerds have kind of wanted SnD to go. But don’t worry, we’re no where near as high as we have been in the past with white hit damage.
Funny enough, there have been a couple small changes over the years to lower white hit damage. Now they have to make SnD for Mut 70% attack speed to make it seem worth it…lol
Even before SnD my melee would be between 1st-4th on my meters. If you have high haste and use the BiS Haste trinkets from Ny’lotha you are going to see high melee damage. Even more with SnD coming back. Try stacking more crit/Mastery to put damage into your abilities.
Me, I don’t mind white damage that much. Damage is damage for me it don’t matter much where it comes from.
2 Likes
There was a change in Antorus iirc that increased white damage by a lot.
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You can never have too much!
4 Likes
It’s not vanilla where white damage was all (55% at least) of your damage. But it’s not early Legion where white damage was basically removed (<10%).
I like, as *Combat* specialization having white damage being a crucial part of the kit. I’d say ideal range is ~25% of a single-target setup with Sinister Strike around ~25% too. ~10% poisons, ~10% mastery (depending on how deep you stack mastery, maybe cannibalizing your other abilities). The other 30% between Dispatch, Between the Eyes, Pistol Shot, traits, and essences.
Obviously this should be talent and stat dependent but a rough sketch of how the kit feels.
Honestly what I dislike is how combo points feel like a vanilla system, capping at 5, when building is so much easier and faster in today’s game. I’d rather see a 10 combo point maximum and push the top end of some finishers higher with the reduced frequency.
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Me to another rogue in my guild (at a time when outlaw was FotM)
“why do you stack so much haste? You’re surely overcapped in energy”
Him: “my whites don’t cap”
3 Likes
That’s what the game should be lol. I’ll never get why people enjoy getting rewarded for afking in front of a boss.
1 Like
And that’s what the game is if you ignore maintenance skills. 
Wait until you’re in group with a WF totem.
With poisons back it feels like haste has some increased value along with more white damage.

For outlaw, haste is now our worst. Even behind mastery.