Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we dive deep into the 3.0.9 patch changes for Rogues.
I remember where I was at when I read the 3.0.9 patch notes when they were forwarded our way on the WoW Insider tip line. I was in line at the grocery store,
picking up a gallon of milk and some sausage to make biscuits and gravy. Reading the tiny print on my iPhone, I scrolled down to the Brittle Yellow class text that triggers an instant reaction from any fellow assassin: Rogue changes.
Just four tiny lines, yet our entry doubled that of nearly every other class. These short, simple sentences would set the blogging community and the Official Rogue (and General,
and Damage Dealing, and Paladin...) Forums ablaze in riot. How could we keep believing in Blizzard? My first thought upon reading the now infamous Assassination nerf: "They're nerfing Mutilate by HOW much?"
Let's take a step back for a moment. Trying to isolate a single change and crucify Ghostcrawler for something that was taken out of context is not going to be an effective negotiating strategy. Taking the
patch notes as a whole will give us a better picture of what's really happening:
Mind Numbing Poison now reduces cast time by 30%, down from 60%.
I feel it's safe to say that while the Mind Numbing Poison change was a nerf, it was also applied to all other classes with cast time slowing abilities. The classes that were most affected by Mind Numbing Poison are also the classes that had the ability to dispel it, and so I see this as a simple rebalancing versus a changed intended to weaken the Rogue class.
Hunger for Blood (Assassination): Now increases damage 5% per stack, (up from 3%).
Slice and Dice: This ability now increases melee attack speed by 40%, up from 30%.
The Hunger for Blood and Slice and Dice changes on the other hand are directly intended to buff Assassination's
PvE damage to be competitive with HaT builds in crit stacked parties. While every spec benefits from the Slice and Dice change, it will end up being a larger buff for Assassination. It appears that Blizzard is waiting until 3.1 to give Combat Rogues the royal treatment, and so most Rogues will be floating to the far left or right talent trees until Ulduar hits.
Mutilate damage will now do 20% increased damage against poisoned targets, down from 50%.
Finally, the real reason that Acherus is crowded with Death Knights named "Iusedtostab" and "Whereisthestealthbutton". Many Rogues will mistake this for a 30% damage nerf to Mutilate: it's actually a 20% nerf. Mutilate previously did 150% damage against poisoned targets, and now does 120% damage. The removal of 30% from the bonus damage only nerfs the overall damage by 20%. So what does this translate into for you? I spent a few minutes before and after the patch beating up on the level 80 target dummies and checking how my Mutilate damage changed; I recorded the top hits from each category. Here's the data:
Patch 3.0.8
Without Poison: 1200 (no crits), 2000 (single crit), 2900 (double crit)
Target Poisoned: 1800 (no crits), 3000 (single crit), 4700 (double crit)
Patch 3.0.9
Without Poison: 1200 (no crits), 2000 (single crit), 3000 (double crit)
Target Poisoned: 1500 (no crits), 2500 (single crit), 3600 (double crit)
These
numbers are exactly where we would expect them to be, with the unpoisoned values not varying and the poisoned values dropping by around 20-25% in my rough testing. This translates to a 4-5% nerf to a Mutilate Rogue's damage. Judging from hundreds of WoWWebStats reports, the Mutilate ability only accounts for 20-25%
of our overall damage in a raid, meaning that the nerf is not nearly as severe as one would expect.
Why PvE Rogues are rejoicing:
The change to Slice and Dice on the other hand is a huge buff. With white damage making up 30% damage and Instant Poison providing another 15%, we should see another 4-5% increase in damage from this change alone. This doesn't even take into co
