This whole “class identity” thing and unpruning missed a class. The rogues (((:
We are the supposed kings of CC, burst and utility, but I feel we have been sorely powercrept on over the years as other classes have had upgrades to their toolkits, while the constant pruning has left us with some weird mechanics.
These days it is hard to stay in range of the target, and I don’t think the blinking ambush from sub or blinking evisc from outlaw is the right way to go (sorry the names escape me, I have not played in a long time). Rogues are supposed to be melee fighters, once we get a hold of you, you die. Or at least almost die. That’s the trade off from having poor movement, whilst other classes can easily run away. High control instead, and burst that is balanced because it requires skill to set up. That’s at least what I loved about being a rogue.
So, since we are all about the openers, everyone needs to have Garrote, Ambush and Cheap Shot. It is iconic. I’m even fine with CS generating only 1 CP, because the stun is powerful enough and this offers more choice - do I want more cps with ambush, or does he need to be stunned or silenced. Some in these forums argue having a silence is too strong, but… it’s what we always had. Guess what, we don’t spend much time in Stealth, that’s the balancing factor.
Because of how much utility other classes have, and entertaining the idea of rogues not having teleport built into certain abilities, this is why Preperation would be nice to get back. A mage for example has multiple blinks and ice barriers, shields, a wide range of slows and stuns and insane damage. So the idea of me having a double vanish just doesn’t seem so strange in comparison. Sorry that’s the best I got on this one.
Dismantle is another cool lost utility. Sure it’s a pvp talent now, but it’s actually useful in more instances than PvP. It only affects certain classes which makes this niche = good. More niche abilities are needed and creates more situations in PvP = greater the fun. Less abilities in PvP = less content for us PvPers. Hence, the unpruning. And this is one of those abilities I think would be healthy to have back in the game for all 3 specs.
Rupture… Yes, it’s a DoT. Nothing special. But you ever considered a rogue other than assassin would be able to cause a bleed? It’s nice to have more spenders, as I have argued in other threads, and being able “mark” stealthers with Rupture so they can’t run away is something that feels extremely crippling that I no longer can do.
Disarm traps also felt very crippling when it was pruned in WoD. I could still see hunter traps, but not being able to do anything about them just felt… stupid? It can’t hardly be considered an ability bloat and it was something rogues had to offer that was unique to us, along with pick lock.
SnD = More energy, more attacks/white dmg (which used to be a big chunk of dmg for us - idk how it works these days, but heard a streamer say it works differently now) and ofc more poison applications. Especially important for us combat rogues with our clunky swords, that poison application was helpful. Sure it’s “boring upkeep” but as many have explained it’s a good ability to set up for a kill and it’s good choice for a spender.
Gauge = Iconic ability we always had, everyone should have it. Nuff said really.
Right, onto…
OUTLAW:
RtB on a cooldown = good improvement. But this ability was supposed to offer us diverse gameplay, something which it has never been able to deliver. All it’s done is cause grief as players try to min/max. Make the rolls actually impact how you play, or leave well enough alone.
Don’t make them flat out buffs because those buffs can likely never be equal to one another. I suggest you only get ONE buff at all times, and the whole roll is just more of an RP thing. Or, the roll impacts how strong it is or how many combo points you must spend to gain whatever perk you gained.
Or it could work like this for example: You roll nr 4. Maybe using a non-damaging spender also did damage = 4 spent combo points used on Eviscerate. This seems fair to me, I think… Or it could flat out give me 4 combo points. Having a random combo generator on a long cd does not seem too OP to me, at least. Especially considering it would be extremely random from 1-5 cps, and it would be more like a nice little extra thing instead of you worrying about what buffs you’re gonna get. But what do I know.
If more spenders would come back baseline, then I’d honestly say Outlaw might be looking quite nice, however… There’s one thing lacking, though. The burst damage.
Back in MoP when I still had fun, our burst was Shadow Blades, AR and Killing Spree. These had quite long cooldowns and was nowhere near the burst of sub rogues, but it was enough to make me feel powerful and to hold my ground so that I could go toe to toe with other classes.
Evasion coming back is a huge win to return to this playstyle. Without shadow blades though, AR on its own never did so much damage. It was more good for pumping out more attacks in pve. And now i see AR has been gimped as well, and forget killing spree - that stuff died in WoD (to me, anyway). Perhaps it’s just time that Outlaw got another burst button altogether? Or simply empower AR to be more of what it was back in “the good days”.
Lastly, the talents… What the heck are those?? I don’t think I’ve heard a single person say those are good choices of talents. None of them feel fun or inspiring. Alacrity is the most yawn thing I’ve ever seen in my life… Surely there’s plenty of fun things that you can give us other than that.
For any dev reading I desperately beg of you to look into rogue forums for more feedback and constructive critivism, and hopefully you’ll reconsider your stance on rogues.