Rogue Levelling Compared to Other Melee

#0 - May 4, 2010, 6:35 p.m.

Why is it so painful and slow?

I have leveled multiple classes to 80...Mage, Shammy, DK, Warrior, Pally. I'm leveling this toon with some friends and I have a Rogue on the same server at a similar level.

This Pally can tear through mobs for hours without having to stop once.
The DK was the same. Warrior as well. Even the Shammy (as Enhance) was a non stop killing machine.

With the Rogue I either play very Rogue-y and use stealth and opening stun-locks which minimizes downtime (but can be slow and tedious) or pretend I'm a Warrior and go toe to toe which leads to frequent bandaging or eating.

Rogues need something to let them match the efficiency other melee has when leveling. Rogues are a blast when you want to be stealthy and sneak around. I just wish they were as fun to level and play with as the other melee are.

Something like Shadow Step but for leveling. Maybe a lower level (40ish) ability that allows you to basically Shadow Step to the next mob after you've killed a mob that generates xp?

Ghostcrawler

#81 - May 5, 2010, 5:46 p.m.

Rogue leveling is getting some pretty significant changes for Cataclysm. The original intent seemed to be that you would constantly be in stealth using openers on targets. That's fine for particularly powerful foes, but it gets pretty tedious when you have to approach every single kill quest that way.

A related problem is things dying so quickly that you don't ever really get a chance to use finishing moves.

We're changing the levels at which every class gets spells and abilities. It's one of the major factors behind the talent tree changes.

Ghostcrawler

#96 - May 5, 2010, 7:54 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Quick question about the "1 rank" thing... does this mean that when I level from 59-60 and get a new rank of <insert ability I use 5 times per mob while grinding>, I wont' have to go back to town and learn the new rank... or I'll have to go buy the new rank but it'll just replace the old rank in my spell book?

The abilities just improve the second you ding. Trainers only teach new spells.

Ghostcrawler

#102 - May 5, 2010, 8:28 p.m.

1. The gain is every level. You don't have to reach certain milestones for your Shadow Bolt damage to increase. One of the scaling problems we have currently is that any spell without a level 80 rank starts to fall behind. Imagine Shadow Bolt just has 85 (free and automatic) ranks.

2. We changed the level at which you get abilities, in some cases dramatically. Currently, you get showered with abilities at low level, many of which aren't even useful when soloing. By sliding these around we have every class to where you get an ability about every odd level. There are still some dry spells for some classes, but then you have talents and other things that fill in some blanks.

3. Related, the spell book tells you at what level you will get future abilities so you can plan accordingly. In addition, when you ding, the UI tells you not only about newly available spells, but also systems and mechanics not tied to your class trainer, such as the ability to train riding, dual spec or use Dungeon Finder. It's pretty sweet. Our UI team is kicking some major booty for Cataclysm.