#0 - Feb. 6, 2007, 7:35 p.m.
The main idea behind my concern is the gap in DPS by other classes (specifically mages and warlocks) has closed dramatically, their aggro control is almost as good as ours, AND they still have 100X the utility that we have.
Rogues live for two things in DPS, yellow crits and white damage. Both were nerfed in the expansion. The main decrease in DPS that we have is twofold:
1) Resiliance. Yes resiliance effects all players, however it particularly harms melee over casters do to the additional bonuses we get from crits (100% verse 50%, and abilities like lethality and SF). Rogues need this for bigger and better numbers. We are not trash mob killers, we aren't AoEers, we are single target killers. We are (well, were) boss killers - the best there was. Resiliance hurts these numbers far more than something like blizzarding the 5 trash or something like that.
2) Glancing blows. Specifically the weapon skill nerf. This destroyed our DPS. In one move Blizzard took some 15% - 20 of our white DPS off the table verse bosses. At the same time I am seeing more spell pentration then ever before. Care to explain that? Why does our ability to stop the decrease in our base damage go away, but a caster's ability to get less resists persist?
Now - take all that in. We got nerfed some. Okay, we could over come that. I mean we have the ability to dishout more damage over time especially in fights were aggro is a concern. We have the second best aggro control out there. Now - mages and warlocks have almost as good aggro control.
Let me preempt a caster claim right here and now - no mana has not been as big an issue in the past as aggro has. Between pots, blessing of wisdom, judgement of wisdom, mana springs, evocation, life tap, and mana emeralds - mana hasn't been your limiting factor - aggro has many more times than not.
So - casters are getting:
1) More spell penetration - basically the same as glancing blows. Yet we had ours nerfed into next to nothing.
2) MUCH better aggro control - which was a main reason rogues could dish-out as much DPS in boss fights as we could.
3) No loss in utility. Whereas the rogues gained none.
The thing that most raid leaders look at is, "What do we need to kill X boss." It isn't the trash, it isn't anything leading up to the boss. It is the boss. The utility that mages and warlocks offer (polly, banish, health stones, soul stones, imp buffs, curses for more DPS, decurse, AI, food, water, etc etc etc). Far far exceed the utility that rogues bring to the table. Now the one thing that we could hang our hat on (hey - you better have 3 or 4 of us or you won't get through that boss in time) is no longer the case. Now - with all the other utility, you are seeing, and you will continue to see - more and more raid slots given up for other classes instead of rogues.
We need all, some, or at least one of the following:
1) Removal of the aggro dump for mages, and warlocks
2) Going back to the old weapon skill. Basically removing glancing blows from the game
3) A form of utility that we DESPERATELY need. We asked for a to hit aura - looks good on those dreani shaman/warriors/hunters/etc etc etc. We asked for an ability to trasnfer our aggro to another player - were told that could cause some abuse. Now we can see that on hunters - the ONE class that didn't need more aggro control - but hey.
The best answer would be #2 and #3. Get weapon skill back, and give us SOMETHING to give to a raid. And don't say - CC becuase 1) raid mobs are GENERALLY immune to it, 2) Sap is the worst PvE CC since we have to be next to the mob, and 3) don't confuse a stun locking - no DPS - rogue for a combat DPS built rogue. Also - picking locks that a profession can do - isn't somethign special. Sorry - it isn't.
