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Bugs confirmed for Cloak of Shadows and Vanish
A fairly lengthy thread on the official Bug Report forum today led to the discovery of a problem related to two Rogue skills. Cloak of Shadows and Vanish were both reported by players as simply not working. For whatever reason, rogues were unable to escape the attacks of their opponents in PvP when using these skills.Reports of problems with Vanish often plague the forums. Most often these issues are caused by client/server latency, as Hortus reminds us, but this time they've identified a separate problem. While not disclosing the nature of the bug, Hortus has informed the rogues in the thread that their feedback has resulted in the discovery of a problem with these two skills and they're currently investigating the issue in hopes of finding a fix.It's nice to see that players are able to help contribute to fixing the game. If you've had any problems with these skills recently, I'd suggest that you read over the thread and see if your experience adds anything to the discussion.
Breakfast Topic: Abilities you'd like to see in the Warcraft movie
I was recently playing my hunter in a situation where I could not use my pet because I had to use a special item to mind-control a demon in the Netherstorm, and apparently having a pet and mind-controlling at the same time isn't allowed in the game mechanics. As a beast-mastery hunter, I'm pretty weak without my pet, so I had to use Feign Death a lot to get into position next to the demon. Suddenly I imagined my character as a star in the Warcraft movie, feigning death left and right, and laughing at the demons who fell for it every time.In a movie, certainly, it couldn't be so simple. The plausibility of the plot would require the monsters to figure out something was fishy when the hunter got up from apparent death the first time. Still, I thought if the ability was used once or twice in particularly appropriate moments, it could be really funny and also make the fans go wild, because they would recognize the game mechanics making a cameo in the film. Imagine: the hunter character in the movie is separated from his pet, surrounded by monsters, shot by an arrow and appears to die, only to be fine later on when his friends come to pick up his dead body. Then maybe towards the end, the bad guy feigns death too, and tricks the heroes with their own trick.What other in-game abilities would it make you jump with glee to see get a cameo in the movie? What place do you think it would take in the story? The first abilities that come to my mind are Polymorph, Vanish, and a paladin's bubble shield -- anything with a strong visual impact that could play a significant part on the story.
Cooldowns are meant to be hot!
Super-power gamers probably know this one already, but for my part I know this is something I always struggle with. If I have an ability or item with a cooldown of more than one minute, I find myself always hesitating to actually use it; I keep wanting to save it for that emergency moment when I'm really going to need it. The problem is that those situations don't come once every minute, or even every 5 or 10 minutes. They come unexpectedly, and often that one cooldown you've been saving for that situation isn't really enough to save you.So, as Matticus says, "Use them. Please." It makes a lot more sense to use the cooldowns on a regular basis (like, roughly every time the cooldown is up) than it does to hardly use them at all, or only in situations where it's too late. Now, if you're like me and you think about this for a while, and reluctantly agree that yes it does make sense, then you come up with another problem that you want to use these cooldowns only at moments when it'll be most effective. On my hunter, for example, I hate to use "Bestial Wrath" (and "Beast Within") unless I believe there's at least 18 seconds left in the fight, because I hate seeing myself and my pet all Big and Red with nothing to kill!But the plain and simple fact is, people like me need to be less stingy with cooldowns. I don't mean we should blow them at moments that don't matter, of course, rather we would do better if we used them much more often, especially when they're not absolutely necessary to succeed. They can help the various sorts of grinding, farming, and trash-mob fighting go by a bit faster, and sometimes in long boss fights you can use them more than once!Can you think of any cooldowns that you think should be saved for that somewhat rare panic-button moment (such as a rogue's "Vanish," perhaps)? Can you think of cooldowns that you see people often forgetting or hesitating to use?
You're flagged, you sap!
In a move that many Rogues knew was coming, but some are acting shocked at nonetheless... The "Stealth in and Sap flagged players just to annoy them" routine isn't working so well anymore. Specifically, if you're on a non-PvP server and you Stealth in and Sap a flagged player, it now flags you for PvP. There have been reports of folks getting their faces eaten by guards in neutral cities for just Sapping other people. There's also been some good World PvP starting up out front of instances for the normal/RP servers due to Rogues thinking they're going to be smart and interrupt flagged folks using the summoning stones/mounting up/etc. Whoops...Personally, I feel that Sapping another flagged player just to be a prat should always have flagged the Rogue in question. Sure, you've still got a chance to get away if nobody happens to see through your stealth and/or you can pop Vanish or Sprint away fast enough. But 'lo and 'ware to any young Rogue thinking s/he can annoy another player by Sapping them and not get flagged by it any longer.
Blue notes for Rogues
Rogues got a good bit of blue response on the forums today. First, player Snlper of Ysondre server wanted to know why Vanish and Blind still required reagents. The Fadeleaf component to make Blinding Powder is particularly annoying to her as it has to be gathered with Herbalism, pickpocketed or bought at inflated price on the Auction House. Community Manager Drysc thought the complaint holds merit and will hopefully bring it to the attention of the devs.Next, player Istarian of Lightninghoof suggested a new talent/skill that shifts some unused combo points to the next target when the current target dies before the rogue can pull off a finishing move. This is how he worded it:Redirect FocusPassiveWhen your target dies with 3/4/5 combo points on it, your next attacked hostile target within 15 seconds gains 1/2/3 of those combo points. (This effect will only be active if you have at least 3 combo points on your target). CM Drysc responded that the dev team has considered ways to deal with unused combo points, but hasn't decided on anything yet. Finally, this last bit of blue lovin' is a clarification on the melee haste nerf and the impact on casters. Drysc explained that haste and attack power were of similar value to melee players at their base level, but +haste was scaling much faster than +attack power when a player loaded up on it through equipment. Blizzard is bringing down the benefit of +haste for all classes. But then they noticed it impacted casters too much and now they are bringing back up (all the way? a little bit? just for casters? that wasn't clear.)
