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Patch 1.12 PTRs Online!
Well, at least the US public test realms are sort of online... in my experience I get a few seconds of connectivity before getting kicked off and needing to log on again. And of the two pre-made characters I attempted to copy over, one wound up on the PVE test realm and another on the RP-PvP test realm. But, usual technical problems aside, the realms are online. Of special note is the fact that the two world PvP objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands are not yet up on the PTR, though Blizzard explains they will be patched in later for testing. So what is there to test? Well, you can check out the rogue changes, the cross-realm battlegrounds, and anything else that didn't make it into the patch notes. Head over to the PTR site to download the client and copy a character. Head over to the PTR site to download the client and copy a character.
Patch 1.12: Rogue Review Revisited
CM Drysc has updated us with additional news of the rogue review - including some substantial changes. The talent calculator has been updated to reflect these new changes, and presents rogues with some interesting new opportunities in the subtlety tree. The changes are as follows: Murder has been changed to increase damage caused against Humanoid, Giant, Beast, and Dragonkin by 1%/2%. Remorseless Attacks has been reduced to 2 ranks, with the new effectiveness being 20% and 40%. Endurance has been changed to reduce the cooldown of your Sprint and Evasion abilities by 45 sec/1.5 min. It no longer increases the duration of Evasion. Weapon Expertise will now increases your skill with Fist, Dagger, and Sword weapons. It will no longer affect Maces. Mace Specialization will now also add 1-5 weapon skill with Maces, in addition to the stun effect the talent already provides. Adrenaline Rush now has a reduced cooldown of 5 min. Elusiveness has been reduced to a 2 point talent and now reduces the cooldown of Vanish and Blind by 45 sec/1.5 min. It no longer reduces the cooldown for Evasion. Opportunity is being moved to a tier 1 talent, swapping places with Camouflage. Ghostly Strike has been reverted back to the previous 125% weapon damage, but retains its new Energy cost of 40. Setup will now also provide combo points if you fully resist an attackers spell. Improved Rupture, Improved Cheap Shot, and Improved Garrote have been removed. New talent 'Serrated Blades' is a tier 4 talent in the Subtlety tree, causes your attacks to ignore X of your targets Armor, and increases the damage dealt by your Rupture ability. The amount of Armor reduced increases with your level. At level 60, the ranks will reduce target Armor by 100/200/300 respectively. New talent 'Dirty Deeds' replaces the Improved Cheap Shot talent, reducing the Energy cost of both the Cheap Shot and Garrote abilities by 10/20. Garrote, Eviscerate, and Rupture now all scale with Attack Power. (For the druids in the audience, Drysc has confirmed that the druid's cat form abilities ferocious bite and rip will also scale in this way come patch day.)
Patch 1.12: Rogue Talent Preview
Though the rogue talent review is still a work in progress, CM Drysc has posted a peak at the changes to come. The following information is all subject to change based on testing and player feedback - so if there's something here that troubles you, I'd encourage you to post your concerns on the rogue forums before breaking into a full-scale panic. And now, for your reading pleasure, the rogue changes! The following talents have been removed: Improved Deadly Poison, Improved Distract, Throwing Weapon Specialization, Improved Vanish, and Rapid Concealment. Improved Instant Poison is now "Improved Poisons" and increases your chance to apply ALL poisons by 2/4/6/8/10%. Rapid Concealment has been merged with Camouflage, by combining these talents you not only get a great talent to start off the tree, but obviously it frees up a number of points to be spent elsewhere. Murder will now also apply to all finishing moves. The benefit this will provide to output and attack combinations is fairly straightforward. Vile Poisons now gives your poisons a chance to resist dispel effects, in addition to increasing poison damage. Improved Kidney Shot has been changed, and will instead increase the damage taken by the target while they are affected by Kidney Shot. This talent no longer reduces the cooldown of Kidney Shot. Improved Sprint has been changed, and will instead have a 50/100% chance to remove all movement impairing effects when you activate your Sprint ability. This talent no longer reduces the cooldown of Sprint. Improved Evasion renamed to Endurance, and will add a Sprint cooldown reduction. New talent Weapon Expertise in the Combat tree, increases your weapon skill with all melee weapons. The recovery of damage with an increased weapon skill should be a good boost to overall output. Initiative is being reduced to a 3 point talent, but resulting in the same 75% end chance to add an additional combo point. Elusiveness is being reduced to a 3 point talent, but resulting in the same 75 sec cooldown reduction to Evasion, Blind, and Vanish. Ghostly Strike now has a reduced Energy cost, the reduction of Energy was enough to make it necessary to also reduce the damage output slightly. Improved Garrotes damage reduction will be removed. This is being changed as part of an overall improvement for Garrote. Setup is being moved higher up in the tree, becoming a 16 point talent with no prerequisites, helping move the talent in reach of specific builds. New talent Heightened Senses in the subtlety tree, increases your Stealth detection, and reduces the chance for you to be hit by spells and ranged attacks. Hemorrhage will be moved up in the tree to become a 21 point talent. This should help to place the ability in a more reachable position, and allow for a little more versatility with specific talent builds. New talent Deadliness in the Subtlety tree, increases your Attack Power by a percentage. Premeditation will have its Energy requirement removed, changed to an instant cast, and range increased. Its cooldown will remain the same. Premeditation will now be pre-reqd by Preparation. Vanish will now remove effects that allow the caster to remain aware of the rogues presence, such as Mind Vision and Hunters Mark. Garrote, Rupture, and Eviscerate are being increased in damage. More details to come. Expose Armor will now reduce armor by a percentage. [Fan art by Astrid Hansen]
Patch 1.12 Preview
After the release of patch 1.11, Blizzard has wasted no time in posting an overview of what to expect in the next content patch. On the agenda are cross-realm battlegrounds, a completely new world PvP system (which suggests to me something along the lines of Arathi Basin, only un-instanced), and (of course!) the rogue talent review. I'm quite interested in seeing how these PvP changes flesh out, but this is all the news we have for now. Stay tuned for more news as it becomes available![Thanks, spencer]
