cheat-death
Latest
Encrypted Text: Blizzard called and they want their OP back
Every Wednesday, Encrypted Text explores issues affecting Rogues and those who group with them. This week Jason Harper, the new Rogue feature blogger, discusses the state of the Rogue class, effects of the 2.4.3 patch and the news from the Wrath beta. I think I've got a pretty big job ahead of me as the new Rogue columnist here at WoW Insider. Sitting here, freshly unwrapped, I know I'll have to both balance the need to fairly represent "real" issues and not get too lost in "rah-rah-rogue" points of view. I'll need you, dear reader, to keep me honest and call-out the unintentional errors or oversights. We're a community and I absolutely want to know what you are thinking, what you love or hate and what you'd like to see me bring to this column that represent your needs. Like a "do-not-toast-in-the-wrapper" warning on your box of PopTarts, I'd like to point out that any references I make to skills or talents in the Wrath beta should be taken with a grain of salt since they are subject to change at any time.
Cheat Death is for PvP
Well, it finally happened. The dreaded nerf to Cheat Death was finally implemented in yesterday's Patch 2.4.3, and it seems like more than a few Rogues are unhappy. Oddly enough, the most important change to me wasn't the nerf itself but the adjustment to how Cheat Death works. If I'm not mistaken (I often am, though), Cheat Death is the only talent specifically designed to work with Resilience. No other talent or ability in the game works or improves with Resilience the way Cheat Death does. Because the ability scales with Resilience -- the more you have, the more it works like the old Cheat Death -- it's a clear indication that the ability is for PvP. While there are talents that are more suitable for PvP than others, no other abilities are designed to work specifically with the Resilience stat. In this case, a Rogue would need roughly 442 Resilience points (at Level 70) in order to achieve the maximum 90% damage reduction. It's an ability that requires players to gear a certain way in order to maximize their gains.Prior to Patch 2.4.3, many Rogues mixed PvP with PvE gear in order to increase their damage output (double Warglaives, anyone?) but were able to maintain high survivability thanks to Cheat Death. With the nerf to the talent, many PvE-geared Rogues suffered a significant reduction in survivability because low Resilience means an inefficient Cheat Death. It's an interesting shift because Blizzard has claimed in the past that it doesn't create trees specifically for PvP. In the future, it's possible that we'll see more PvP-specific talents that require Resilience or reduce Resilience directly. I think it's a positive direction in Blizzard's design philosophy.
Forum post of the day: Rogues are unhappy
The patch went live today, and Blizzard wasn't kidding about the Cheat Death Nerf. In case you missed it, here's how it reads: Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue's health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes. Needless to say, Rogues are pretty unhappy, especially since Blizzard hasn't taken much interest in fixing the "vanish bug." Skudo of Altar of Storms takes this as proof that Blizzard hates Rogues. On top of that this must mean that Blizzard favors Druids since they rescinded their decision to make Scare Beast an instant ability.
World of Warcraft 2.4.3 patch released
World of Warcraft players are in for a special treat today. The 2.4.3 patch has finally arrived! The live servers have been updated to the latest build and the patch size is 27.2 megabytes. The full patch notes are available after the cut below, but some highlights from the patch notes with some additional commentary include: Level 30 Mounts. Yep, characters only need to be level 30 now to qualify for an apprentice mount. Training costs 35 gold. For the pet collectors there is a new Nether Ray Fry (non-combat) available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. Exalted faction is required. Haris Pilton is still annoying and she has another use now: Gold-digging! Pilton is selling 22-slot designer handbags available for 1,200 gold each in Shattrath's Lower City. Other expensive and so hawt baubles are also available. Epic gems can be purchased with Arena points and they are not unique-equipped. The new in-game loot from the Hunt for Illidan TCG expansion is now claimable. The D.I.S.C.O. ball and the new Ethereal Soul- Pet that doubles as a vendor of fun are just a few of the popular items players will be drooling over soon. Expect these cards to sell for a small fortune on eBay. The Rogue's class cheat death ability has been rebalanced -- or in other words -- nerfed. World Wide Invitational attendees can use their in-game code to claim the new (non-combat) Tyrael archangel pet. Alcohol cooldowns have been rolled into drinks: All 10-second cooldowns have been removed and replaced with the 1-second drink cooldown. We'll drink to that!
Patch 2.4.3 is going live today
It's official now: Patch 2.4.3 is indeed going live. You can download it now by logging into the game, and when the servers go up again, you can go buy mounts for all your level 30 alts. Here's some of the other highlights of the patch: Epic gems can be purchased for Arena points -- and yes, the Arena versions are not unique-equipped! You can now undertake a quest to beat up an old man and steal his hat. Haris Pilton is showing off her new line of 22-slot designer handbags, now for sale in Shattrath's Lower City. A new holiday boss and holiday boss loot appeared on the test server and will hopefully appear in time on live. Coren Direbrew is now a 5-man boss for the Brewfest, and new Headless Horseman loot should appear this Hallow's End. There was a bit of a nerf for the Rogue talent Cheat Death WWI attendees can now use their pet code to grab their own pet archangel! The new in-game loot from the Hunt for Illidan TCG expansion is now live. There were many profession changes as well, including new tailoring patterns. You can also check out the full official patch notes (via MMO-Champion) after the break.
WoW Insider Show Episode 43: Post-Dingstravaganza glow
Yeah, Turpster was pretty thrilled with the way his big event went last week, and this past Saturday on the podcast, he just "rode the wave" of player support and basked in the glow of everyone cheering him on for the ding. Lucky guy. I was unable to make it this past weekend, but that didn't stop the steamroller that is this podcast: John "BigBearButt" Patricelli (he of the Shifting Perspectives) kindly stepped in and oversaw the festivities, with help and input from Amanda Dean, and they chatted about -- what else -- all the greatest news of the past week in WoW. John P stood up for me on Clockwork Rocket Bots -- I agree 100% with him that we need them buffable once more. They asked whether the Gigantique bag is worth the extra cash (short answer: no, but people who have the cash will spend it anyway). They chatted about Season 4 and the changes arriving with it, including that Cheat Death nerf. And apparently birthdays were celebrated -- if you've ever wanted to hear Turpster sing, this is the show for you. Good thing I wasn't there -- I celebrate nothing! Ever! At any rate, it was a fun show, and you can listen to it right now over on WoW Radio's website. Thanks very much to John P for covering for meI will be back next week for sure, though Turpster may not be -- I believe he just may be at WWI this coming weekend, so maybe we'll be able to get a live-on-the-spot report out of him. We'll see -- listen to last week's show right now on WoW Radio and in iTunes, and tune in as always next Saturday at 3:30pm Eastern for the WoW Insider Show, the official podcast of WoW Insider.
Breakfast topic: Cha cha cha changes
I have to admit, I was a little bit astonished by news of patch 2.4.3. We know that Blizzard is ramping up for the release of Wrath of the Lich King, as they did for the Burning Crusade. The two things that stand out most to me are the Cheat Death nerf and the reduction of riding skill level requirement to 30. Even as a Cosmo Girl, I don't really care much about Harris Piltion's new line of designer bags. (Unless those bags have 24 slots and don't have tacky, brand-name logos on them.) I think we can expect more changes in the not-too-distant future. We've already seen the death of most raid attunements. I expect to see the cost of epic flying skill reduced considerably in future patches. The same thing happened with epic land mounts, and long ago Drysc hinted that such a change may be in the works. I'd also like to see an additional character slot or two added to each realm. What changes do you predict will occur prior to Wrath's release?
Understanding the Cheat Death nerf
As regular forumgoers may have noted, there's been a lot of antipathy toward rogues in PVP lately. Most of this is based on the newfound popularity of the seventh-tier subtlety talent Cheat Death, which was buffed to mega-awesome proportions. Here's the old Cheat Death: You have a 10/20/30 percent chance to survive any damaging attack that would otherwise kill you. In patch 2.3, this was changed to: You have a 33/66/100% chance to completely avoid any damaging attack that would otherwise kill you and reduce all damage taken by 90% for 3 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute. This was even more powerful than it looks -- until 2.4, a bug actually reduced all damage by 99% instead of 90%. However, today's 2.4.3 patch notes stated that the ability will be changed: Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue's health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes. So what does this mean, besides an extremely long tooltip?
Patch 2.4.3 patch notes
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Patch_2_4_3_notes_are_now_live_with_a_few_surprises'; Patch notes for patch 2.4.3 are up. Click below for the full patch notes, and stay tuned to WoW Insider for more analysis of the effects these changes will have. Additionally, the PTR client for 2.4.3 is now available to be downloaded. However, the PTR server is not up yet.Highlights of this patch include: Mounts at level 30 Changes to non-combat pets Curse of Shadow and Curse of Elements have been combined Hunter pet changes Magisters' Terrace nerf Changes to Rogue's Cheat Death ability
Sunday Morning Funnies: Root for ambition
This week we are cheating Death, building a new future, and harassing the opposite faction. What could be more entertaining? As always, feel free to post updates to your favorite comics, as well as new ones, so that they can be featured in this column! Ding! explores the nature of the warlock. Action Trip comics decided this week to Cheat Death. Fidget has a nasty experience after attempting to blink his way to safety. Richard is still missing, and the activities going on in his absence are not all that they seem on the surface. NoObz continues to explore some of the faulty MMO logic. Teh Gladiators struggle with their latest opponents. Disgraph finishes his orphan story. Check out Dark Legacy's latest! Are you ready to vote? Head through the break and pick your favorite!
Forum Post of the Day: Rogue killed by an AFK Warlock
Hotlunch of Thunderlord has a bit of a problem - It seems she was out on the prowl recently, and found herself an AFK Warlock. However, despite the fact that she jumped out of hiding and wailed away at the poor Warlock, the Warlock's faithful Felguard came to his aid and killed her first. To Hotlunch's credit, she didn't immediately chalk up the blame to overpowered Warlocks but, probably rightly, to her gear. It's pretty true that poorly geared Rogues aren't much trouble to your well geared Warlock. As long as you have the hp and armor to last through their barrage of stuns to get off a fear and trinket out of Crippling Poison, then kite them around while they burn through Cloak of Shadows and Cheat Death, they're pretty easy. It's when you get the well geared rogues with tons of armor penetration and resilience that you start feeling the sting of those blades. Of course, some people in the thread rightfully pointed out that she should start looking at Opportunist's Battlegear for a quick leg up on PvP gear - it seems like her situation is exactly what it was implemented to help out with, and might have helped out a bit with the Felguard. Good luck to Hotlunch on getting geared up. With a little more preparation, I'm sure the next AFK Warlock won't be so lucky. But thinking about the situation, I think it's also a good counter to those people who get caught in complaining about "welfare epics" and all that.
Return of the Hemo talent builds
For the sake of other rogues out there who are pretty excited about the return of Hemo, Deadeight has complied his own list of favorite Hemo builds for us to try if we want to use the ability but aren't really sure how it should fit with our other talents.One of the builds is quite a bit like my rogue's new leveling build (as well as Chris's latest Build Shop rogue build), so I guess that means a number of other players love the new Cheat Death too, and not everyone thinks Shadowstep is a waste. I'm not a high-end raider going for the top damage, or a PvPer going for the ultimate skill combination. I just like zipping about all over the place every 30 seconds while questing or doing normal instances, and I figure whatever I lose in damage in order to get that is more than made up for by the "wheee! teleport!" factor.So if you're the type of rogue who suddenly feels tempted to cause lots of hemorrhages, this guide could be a handy starting point, or else a nice way to measure up your own personal build against what other people thought would be good.
Is the new Cheat Death cheating?
I was standing under Moen's Nozzle of Inspiration a while ago. No, that's not an in-game item, I'm talking about my shower head. Ever since I got back from my mini-vacation this week I've just been completely blank about what to write about. There were a few topics rolling around in my head, but no stories. Suddenly, the rabbit joke appeared and everything came into focus. You've all heard the rabbit joke. A guy is traveling down the road when he accidentally sends a rabbit to its permanent death. He pulls over to verify if the rabbit is indeed dead, and as he's standing there staring at the rabbit cadaver, a mysterious passerby stops and asks what's happening. The saddened man explains that he didn't mean to kill the rabbit, and points to the dead animal on the ground. The mysterious passerby goes to their vehicle and returns with an aerosol can. He picks up the rabbit, sprays the rabbit, and in a moment reminiscent of the Mr. Jingles scene from The Green Mile, the rabbit springs to life. The happy varmint leaves the two onlookers, travels down the road, waves, travels a little further, waves, and continues doing this until it disappears out of sight. The two relieved strangers part company leaving our original rabbit killer standing confused on the side of the road wondering what was sprayed on the rabbit. He picks up the can to read it. "Hare spray. Revitalizes hare, and gives it a permanent wave." Well. Some people are mighty worried about what Blizzard is intending to spray on some previously nerfed rogues, and I would be one of them. I was personally so sickened by the Subtlety talent tree (that served me well from levels one to seventy) that I recently respec'ed to a common Assassination/Combat blend. While mere words can't explain how deeply amusing it is to watch something die when you're not even hitting it, I really miss the "WHAMMO" effect I used to have in the subtlety tree. It looks though, from changes on the PTR to the subtlety tree that subtlety may not be a lost art form after all. Eliah applied more than adequate emphasis to the changes in the Cheat Death talent the other day, but Doomilias over at A View From Behind has experienced the changes first-hand and even as a rogue says the changes are overpowered. He believes there is no way that Cheat Death is going to go to the live servers with a 33/66/100% spread. He thinks that a 100% immunity to killing blows coupled with a brief period of invincibility and a short cooldown is a recipe for disaster. Doomilias thinks that this "new and improved" Cheat Death is going to breed an entire nation of roguetards that will flood battlegrounds like an army of ants. What do you rogues think? I don't know what the rest of you think, but I think I'm going to copy to the PTR and spec back to subtlety and give this new stuff a try!
