I prefer how combat used to be, too much to juggle now. Maybe I should play classic?

Classes Rogue
1

As an old player who recently returned, combat has gotten way too complicated.

So far, I’ve tried subtlety and assassination.

Subtlety seemed crazy as it seems to rely on shadowdance. I never used shadow dance back in the day, and the current shadow dance might not even be the same thing. But from what I gather it relies on using both stealth skills and regular skills at the same time? That is too many skills to juggle.

Assassination they turned into a dot spec, which I think is retarded. It used to be a single target burst spec, you know, assassinating someone. How it would work was, stun, get behind target, backstab/mutilate, after getting max combo points eviscerate. Of course enemy players dont just stand there and let you hit them so it wasnt that simple but that was the gist of it.

Now assassination revolves around making sure I have up garrote and puncture at same time as well as slice and dice. With my attempts at this, I never seem to do much damage, its amazing to watch a priest just sit there healing it self and never going below 75% mana.

Yes, I guess I suck now but it just seems like theres too much you have to do now to be decent. It wasnt like that when the game first came out, there were still a lot of things you had to do compared to most games but it was manageable, I dont feel like its manageable now.

I think one tell about how combat is overly complicated now, is all the macros and addons and probably use of MMO specific mice. I used a few macros and addons back in the day but nothing like how it is now and I used a mouse that had 4 extra buttons, not 20.

For the new assassination I feel like to need to learn how to use that auras addon so I can somehow track having garrote, punture and sliceNdice up at the sametime.

4 Likes
2

*Outlaw

But yes, the new spec is a lot more convoluted and designed on different principals than Combat was. I venture to say that it may be the most complex spec as far as moment-to-moment reactions go.

I’ve been working on a write-up/script to help people ease into the spec a bit, but that is already over 6000 words and 11 or so pages of content just in the explanation of the basics.

Adding rotational stuff, nuance to abilities, and actual tips beyond the basics is going to bring it over 8000 words easy. So, yeah, it’s a lot.

I wouldn’t say “play classic” per say. Just look into Fury or Enhance maybe, or Ret like half the people who left the class did. You might find a home in one of those specs. Similar feel on Enhance/Fury with less complexity. And Ret is just where everyone who wants a DPS spec that’s easy to deal with is going, not just from rogues but like everything.

S-Priests, Hunters, Boomkins… All of the ones I know for the most part have looked at or actively have moved to Ret.

2 Likes
3

I’d also like to add on that Outlaw/Combat has kind of flipped on itself; instead of relying on heavy-hitting builders and judicious use of CD’s, you’re now encouraged to chain Between the Eyes as frequently as possible while keeping your Cool Down (Adrenaline Rush) on Cool Down.

2 Likes
4

Currently OUtlaw plays like old Sub but the problem is the rest of the spec can’t breathe if all you are doing is lining up stealth/vanish windows.

Combat was objectively and subjectively better for easy to learn but hard to master.

:surfing_woman: :surfing_man:

5

I used to play Combat back in the day. Things started going downhill when they introduced the dice and the gun. Now we’re constantly flipping coins, too. We’re like some kind of unhinged pirate gamblers. But for some reason, the main DPS spec uses subterfuge like some kind of bootleg shadow dance or something. If you want that Ninja Turtle or Ninja Gaiden-like class, you should probably look at Monks, who get Hadokens, Hurricane kicks, and Shoryukens, and 2 swords.

2 Likes
6

The problem is that the devs do not understand the class fantasy of a toe to toe fighter coming out stealth. Combat was a specialist with multiple combat at arms like Mace, Sword, Dagger, throwing, etc. Currently Outlaw doesn’t do enough to dabble into that aspect as it only has gun and sword. If it focused on other things like throwing fire bombs, or being able to set a trap it would be more well rounded and closer to the fantasy of Combat.

:surfing_man: :surfing_woman: