WTB Blue Responses

Q u o t e:
A majority of rogues feel like they were "short changed" in the expansion. Besides a few lackluster 51 point talents, rogues didn't get much "new". Combat plays very close to it did before, and mutilate doesn't seem very different. Is blizzard working and actually expecting to give us anything?

The "lackluster talent" thing is something almost every spec throws around. In almost every case, we weren't trying to make the 51 point talent the best in the tree and we weren't trying to make the 51 something you use as part of your standard rotation.

As I have said before, what we wanted to do with rogues in BC included getting poisons back into the game, making sap a more useful CC, and getting rogues to pay a little more attention to the rest of the group (with things like Tricks).

Q u o t e:
I'll admit, dps is very well balanced between all the "pure" dps players, and in several ways this is a very good thing (Bring the player not the class). But, when looking at a pool of all skilled players, very few guilds will grab an equal or even slightly more skilled rogue/melee over a ranged that is pulling the same DPS, simply because of melee disadvantage.

I think you get into dangerous territory with the "very few guilds" argument. Unless you have really done a comprehensive review of most guilds, you can't really say that, and even then you would need to know a lot about the guilds and players in question.

I do think there is a melee disadvantage, and I do think rogues are probably not quite doing the damage they should in ideal situations.

Be careful with Patchwerk though. It's an ideal situation for rogues, but it's an ideal situation for any dps that doesn't have to move or run around. You need to look at the LK equivalent of Void Reaver (and I'm not sure there is one -- Grobbulus maybe) where the ranged dps have to move and the melee can more or less go crazy. Another problem with Patch is that the fights are short. You can burn all your cooldowns and have them active for a decent percentage of that fight. Rogues typically need to lay down a groundwork before they really start pumping out the dps, and they really start to shine in situations where the casters have to start worrying about mana.

We knew this was the risk with introducing the combat dummies, but some players do have the tendency to generate numbers from those tests and then expect to see that dps in a raid. Usually encounters are much more complex than that.

Q u o t e:
The new FoK change is great, but it really doesn't address the issue. Rogue aoe is lackluster because they are supposed to shine on bosses/single targets. Just making us go from 15th on trash to 10th really isn't going to make much of a difference in the long haul.

We aren't trying to turn rogues into an AE class. We just want them to have something to do in AE situations besides making Heavy Borean Leather. The new Fan works pretty well for that.

We do think rogues might be a little low on single-target bosses, but we're also cognizant of the fact that they tend to do much better with good gear and good buffs. We have some plans in mind.

Q u o t e:
Along with the statement of 51 point talents, you specifically said that the entire Assassination tree is basically built for Hunger for Blood, and a different talent would need an entire tree rehaul. Most rogues are very unhappy with Hunger for Blood, simply because it's another "thing we have to keep up". The "fun" of it was quickly taken away after most of the needed nerfs. However, several other classes received new 51 point talents when their current ones just didn't work. Is blizzard willing to actually put in the work to do it correctly and change around a few of our 51point talents and trees? Or must we just wait for the next expansion and hope you do it then?

I think you are expecting more out of the 51-point talents than we are. The death knight may be the best example. They are useful 51 pointers, but none feel mandatory and the trees aren't balanced completely around them. Unholy Blight is probably the closest to feeling necessary, but really only for tanks.

We do still think that those comments about Hunger for Blood still stand. However, it's not a simple fix because Assassination can do very high (if not the highest) dps (in a world without HaT bugs), but only for a skilled player who invests a lot of time into it and only on long fights. That means to juice up the tree in some places we'd need to nerf it in others in order to avoid Assassination becoming THE PvE spec. It is something we're working on -- just too early for any announcements.

Q u o t e:
Few Blue responses and even fewer mention of rogues in the patch notes makes it very disheartening to keep at the rogue character I love to raid with.

Please don't evaluate how much we care about or are working on a class based on the number of blue responses. My words are over-analyzed enough. If you try to do a meta-analysis based on the kinds of things I respond to you're going to end up making me have to be so careful about how and when I post that I'll end up sounding more like a politico than I already do. :)

Q u o t e:
Why does GC waste his times with threads that have asked him questions he's already addressed?

Some players seem to get really upset if they haven't seen a recent response on an issue. We don't honestly design things by going around a table saying "Okay, what are we going to give rogues this week?" but I guess I can understand the concern from the other side of the forums.

Q u o t e:
And if you don't want people to think it's a number of blue responses basing how we're being looked at...how about giving us a weekly status update on what's being looked at?
A kind of newsletter, as it were. Make it a locked thread if you have to, so noone but you can post in it, but it would be nice to actually KNOW that we're being looked at rather than getting vague roundabout answers or flatout trolling in threads with our concerns.

I'm not sure a newsletter would really accomplish what you think it might. For one it would take a lot of time -- not just the writing itself, but all of the questions it would no doubt spawn. You say you are looking at Demonology dps? How? Are you changing talents? When can we expect these changes? Why aren't you considering the idea I suggested?

Second, and much more importantly, we actually get a lot out of the two-way communication. Selfishly, I am here looking for information. I answer questions now and then, but really my motivation here isn't to be some kind of goodwill ambassador, but to understand player concerns and problems. Posting a list of what we were working on wouldn't accomplish that.

I don't know a kinder way to say this, so please forgive my harshness, but you don't get to decide where and when I respond to a post. Complaining about which threads we respond to is not viewed favorably.