"Rogue weapon swapping isn't a big deal"

As some players are pointing out, it's not the existence of an add-on that's the issue. It's what this means for playing a rogue. We don't want to see the "How to play a rogue FAQ" that starts "Step One. Download the weapon swapping add-on."

It's one thing if it's a niche deal that generates a marginal dps increase. It's another if rogues feel like they have to play with the add-on.

We're still not convinced this will become super mainstream, but we'll see. I said before it's a concern and it's still a concern.

Let me put it this way....

Fine: A rogue changes targets so needs to swap weapons to get a different poison on that target. This is more of a strategic thing -- something you only do a few times per fight.

Not fine: A rogue swaps weapons constantly on the same target in order to get lots of poisons on that target. This is more of a hassle, not an interesting decision the player is making. This is more in line with a caster switching weapons to maximize a proc and then swapping back. It's not fun and it feels like you have to do this annoying and unintuitive (unless you read the forums a lot) trick to maximize your dps.

Now like someone said above, you could make a weapon swapping mod for say Feral druids and few people would feel the need to use it. It's not the existence of a mod that's a problem. Mods do lots of crazy things. It's a problem if it feels mandatory to raiding rogues. That however is a very subjective call and one that's ultimately up to us to make. We're keeping an eye on it.

Q u o t e:
The solution is very easy (conceptually) - when Deadly Poison procs and a 5-stack is on the target, cause your other hand's poison to proc. This effectively replicates the effect of weapon swapping, works for all specs, and slightly buffs rogue PVE DPS beyond where it's at right now - something which rogues are in dire need of, looking at the parses coming out of 3.3 so far. Additionally, it ensures that raiding rogues will use Deadly Poison, as Blizzard has worked so hard to make it attractive to us.

We've heard that suggestion a few times and it might be something we explore. We'd certainly rather make swapping not necessary rather than just be mean and prevent it.

Some of you are posting that rogues will use anything that maximizes their dps and this maximizes their dps. That's not really the point.

Our original comment on swapping was that it appeared to provide a marginal dps increase and we knew that some rogues who tried it weren't happy with how it worked because the risk was high of screwing something up. So while it theoretically maximized dps, it was risky enough and the gain low enough that we weren't sure it would become mainstream.

Now things are trending that the dps increase is significant and Adrine's mod is written so well that it takes a lot of the risk away, even in PvP. That weights things more towards doing something about it, though judging from Adrine's posts, I don't think he'll mind. :)

Q u o t e:
I wouldn't mind in the slightest. I don't want an across-the-board nerf, of course, but I'd much rather mechanics be fixed so that I don't have to struggle through dual-wield swing timer guesses to gain some DPS. :P

Edit: Please don't hate me. I just write addons because I want to Do It Better(TM).

Agreed. We're not interested in nerfing rogues here, just making an annoying mechanic less attractive.

How could we hate you? You've done so much for this game. :)

Q u o t e:
How do you justify that stance when you've repeatedly said that weapon swapping for warriors in pvp is acceptable. And we're talking about basic abilities like spell reflect, shield wall, stance dancing for intervene or interrupts, shattering throw, et al. We're talking about mods and macros for every ability in every situation, both pve and pvp.

The dichotomy involved here is palpable and I, for one, resent it.

I'm not sure why you'd resent a dichotomy. Maybe you could resent favoritism or a double standard.

In any case, the warrior one is situational. Dude is focusing on you, so swap to a shield. You want to Spell Reflect, so swap to a shield. All shield users occasionally swap to a shield when focused (even in PvE). That's cool. We don't want to kill that. We don't want to kill rogues swapping weapons to put Mind-Numbing on an add or a mage either.

The equivalent would be if a warrior had to weapon swap to Rend a target and then swap to a two-hander to Mortal Strike. That would be annoying. It's not an interesting decision -- it's just something the mechanics make you do. That is why we're not fond of rogues weapon swapping to max dps on a single target but don't mind if they swap to apply different poisons to another target. The alternative is just that rogues always run with the same two poisons and lose out when they guess wrong on which poison to apply.