Rogue tanking experience and suggestions

WoW Classic Season of Discovery
1

Wall of text INC.
Yes another thread on this just to put all my thoughts in one place.
Some of these have already been mentioned in other threads but whatever 2H shamans did it.

So after a day or two of tanking (mainly dungeons, WC/SFK, BFD will be largely the same) here are my thoughts:
Overall rogue tanking WORKS, but it is awkward and clunky at best, and i feel unless addressed (whether with tweaks to existing runes or by new runes) - higher level dungeons will become a big problem (but still doable).

My main rotation going into fights was SS > Main gauche > (sometimes another SS) BD.
usually a riposte proc by now and was tab to the next enemy for riposte, then it gets awkward as i need to be tabbing between mobs while trying to get 3 CPs to keep BD up.
whilst dropping CPs doing so … even using taunt and kick drops CPs which is a mess.

Just a flesh wound

  • When i first saw the name of this rune for tank runes i INSTANTLY thought of brewmaster monks stagger but the DoT changed to a bleed effect (Luffa BIS?) and as a huge fan of that mechanic i was VERY excited.

  • Then i read the tooltip and saw that it 100% REQUIRES another rune to even get full effectiveness ?

  • I am not aware of any other class runes that do this, and honestly it completely removes the freedom of choice on rune slots in the leg slot entirely (if more leg runes get added? unlikely probably).

    • Honestly my dream would be for this to just get re-worked to a stagger mechanic like brewmaster monks as the name of the rune wouldn’t even need to be changed for it to make sense. and honestly part of me thinks this was the original idea based on the rune name alone.

Blade Dance

  • Outside of the issue mentioned on just a flesh wound requiring this rune to function

  • This rune is very awkward to use due to the parry% increasing based on CP spent.

  • Rogues tend to use SnD at the end of a fight as the mob is about to die to carry into the start of next.

  • the issue here is if during the fight i get off a 3-5 CP blade dance, and i have anything less than that on the mob as its about to die (which is likely due to losing CPs constantly) - while blade dance has a few seconds less remaining, i WANT to refresh it for the next pack… but i cant.

    • My suggestion would just be to make it a FLAT parry% at all CPs and tweak the duration to compensate for us having easier uptime.
    • Another suggestion (which may not be needed with the main gauche suggestion below)
      is to have combo points retained when tab-targeting for X seconds based on the CPs spent on BD.
      • so using a 2 point CP retains 2 combo points when you tab target for a certain amount of seconds. Or have it to a flat CP retention.

Main Gauche

  • I like the low energy cost on this ability, 50% uptime is ok.

  • the damage is pretty terrible if you have a fast OH but i guess its main use is the parry% buff.

  • saber slash just feels like the better choice 100% of the time as the DoT helps maintain agro and it does more damage for better agro.

    • My biggest suggestion for this is while the buff is active have parrys regen like 2 energy, this will help tremendously with the tab-targeting losing CPs.
      • This would even open the option for non-tank rogues to take it for questing with the energy regen. Currently there is 0 reason to take this over saber slash, even with tanking in most cases.

AoE capabilities:

  • I’m honestly not bothered if we get 0 AoE if the awkwardness of tab-targeting with CPs and/or energy regen on parries is added.
  • but with other classes getting additions later (and even now) it will become an issue of them ripping threat constantly in AoE pulls.
  • something really minor such as having parried attacks apply our OH poison would be more than enough.
  • Unfair advantage (added in later expacs) - when you dodge an attack you strike back with you MH weapon damage.
  • Poison Bomb - change distract to poison bomb which applies a stack of deadly poison to all targets (or applies your OH poison, would be useful in WPvP AoE applying crippling).

Sorry for the wall of text,
Overall im still enjoying rogue tanking ALOT and will be continuing to play it regardless of my gripes and issues with it.

2 Likes
2

+1 to all of this. It would be great if they supported rogue tanks being tab target specialists with no AoE abilities.

It doesn’t feel good that main gauche is so outshined by other options.

My only differing opinion is that I think the CP retention bonus from Blade dance should be a flat amount. 2 or 3 seems right. Otherwise I think it could get confusing and run into “a more powerful spell is active” issues like it currently does with parry %.

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I think it could get confusing and run into “a more powerful spell is active” issues like it currently does with parry %.

This would be solved if they just made it a flat parry%, its abit awkward as it is right now - is should just behave like SnD IMO.

4

Agreed! I just think the flat nature should apply to the CP retention bonus as well.

I also think 2 energy per parry is a little low. Assuming plausible best case scenario:

  • parry is at 30% with full blade dance, main gauche and talents

  • you are being attacked by a large group (let’s say 5 enemies, all targeting you with melee attacks, one attack each per second)

  • that means you’ll parry about (50*.3 = 15) 15 attacks for 30 energy over 10 seconds.

That means that in the plausible best case scenario you’re only refunding the cost of the ability.

I personally think 5 or more energy is more reasonable, because this lets the ability fill the resource ramp up mechanic that every other tank has.

5

Yeah 2 energy was just a random number i put, thats up to blizzard for balancing.
2 would also be offset later by talents like setup in sub allowing us to get CP for dodging.

1 Like