#1 - Sept. 12, 2013, 7:07 p.m.
So the obvious question is why. Why have rogues almost been passed in popularity by the newest class on the block? Why do people start rogues and not keep playing them? And can anything be done to reverse this trend?
I believe the issue is of perception, and of class ‘flair’. Each class, I think it can be said, has a special ‘something’ that sets them apart. The most popular classes also have an extra catch to them that makes people want to play them, even if they aren’t the flavour of the month. This is something that, when you’re sitting at the character select screen, makes you choose a class because of a preconceived notion about HOW they will play.
For example, paladins have ALWAYS been popular. Even when they were horrible, they were still played. If I say Paladin, what do you think? A holy warrior in full armour flinging divine power at enemies and healing friends.
Hunter? Powerful pets fighting by your side.
Mage? Master of the arcane.
And so on. In a well-designed gaming system, each class will have something special about them that makes people want to play them, and want to keep playing them. I think Warcraft pretty much nails this for each class, except for rogues.
Now when I say rogue, what do you think? Perhaps a slightly evil character hiding in the shadows, leaping out at enemies to assassinate them in one strike. In a group, perhaps a nimble fighter staying behind the enemy, daggers flashing, death by a thousand cuts. Roleplaying wise, perhaps the dashing swashbuckler sweeping the opposite sex off their feet (or hooves, in WoWs case).
I posit that part of the reason that people start rogues, start any class, is because of this idea that they have in their heads. For rogues, perhaps they want to play the scoundrel – Han Solo shooting first and getting the girl. Walking away with a bomb exploding behind them, metal music playing. Leaping from the shadows to dispatch their foes before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
But the thing is, in an online game, this ‘solo assassin’ trope really doesn’t work. You can’t have the rogue assassinating people in one strike because BALANCE. It’s very difficult to play the scoundrel, sweeping the other sex off their feet with a disarming grin, because online games don’t really allow for those types of personalized experiences. So I think people start playing the rogue, then give up because it doesn’t meet their expectations. Expectations that are inherently hard to meet in an online game.
So what … should we just delete rogues from the game?
Well, no. Because rogues can be a very fun class to play. At higher levels, and with better gear, they can really bring the damage. In a full group, in the hands of an experienced gamer, they are competitive.
But this post isn’t about the bleeding edge. It’s about why a casual player would pick up the game, start a rogue, and then quit or roll a new class instead of leveling them. And I think I can sum up why this happens in one sentence:
I don’t have enough energy.
For those of you who have played a rogue, the above words will be burned into your mind, because your character will be saying it like a skipping record. You’re just starting out, so you target a mob and start attacking. Sinister strike! Sinister strike! “I don’t have enough energy.” Insert confused face here.
Gradually you get used to the tempo of the rogue class. You understand that you have to build up to 5 combo points before spending it in a massive strike of DOOM. And you start realizing that, in a typical fight, you spend a lot of time doing nothing but waiting for your energy to build up. Suddenly your mental image of a daring fighter leaping from the shadows to strike your enemies down is replaced by the reality of a really tired brawler that can attack a couple of times before he needs to rest. Attack attack … rest. Attack attack attack. Rest. Finishing move! Rest.
Compare this to the recently introduced monk class, and specifically the windwalker spec. Both classes are very similar in design. Build up combo points / chi using base attacks that cost energy. The difference is that monk abilities cost, generally, 2 chi. So you jab jab (energy down), blackout kick (chi spent, energy builds back up). You are usually doing something, and almost always have something to do. The challenge then becomes maximizing your uptime on certain abilities, and finding the perfect combination of attacks, rather than building up combo points with one attack that costs energy and two finishing moves that use those combo points (and cost energy). Oh, while also maintaining a haste buff that costs energy (and combo points) and a health regen buff if you’re soloing. Your time is spent waiting for a resource rather than reacting to the situation.
The above is, I feel, a very significant flaw in the rogue class. They are not the fast hitting, deadly class that people might expect when they first start out. They are a class that waits and slowly builds points to unleash a strong attack.
Beyond that, we are left with the ‘leveling problem’. This is a class in the second weakest type of armour that is forced to fight mobs head on whilst leveling. Compare this to the other pure dps classes – warlocks and mages. Warlocks can use a pet to distract enemies while they burn them down (and, in demo spec, can just straight on tank thing). Mages have a plethora of control spells that allows them to take down enemies from afar. Rogues are forced to go toe to toe, and since by necessity their control / stun abilities cannot become too plentiful (because of the pvp implications) they are essentially left hoping to finish off a mob as soon as possible, or else lose significant HP during a fight, leading to downtime. And really, how many classes have significant downtime in leveling / pve these days?
So what can be done? Well, this is the part of the post where I make a few bold suggestions, and hope that the feedback to it isn’t too painful.
Before beginning, I just want to state that these are purely gameplay changes. We all know that the actual numbers can be whatever Blizzard wants them to be. So that would mean tweaking numbers up or down, based on the new flow of the class, with the expectation that rogues achieve the desired / current damage output, but with an improved ‘feel’.
So shall we being.
1) Remove energy from offensive abilities. I mean, we might as well start big. This means that all attacks (hemo, SS, rupture / finishers) do not have an energy cost. You can spam to your heart’s desire, with perhaps a 1.5 second CD (damage numbers to be trended downwards because of this, obviously). What will this do? No more ‘you don’t have energy’. You ALWAYS have an attack you can do. I feel this will speed up combat and play into the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ idea. NOTE: You still use these attacks to build up combo points to a finishing move.
2) Combine SnD and Recup into one buff. Haste + regen in one.
3) Energy is moved to defensive abilities, and slowly replenishes (1 energy per second). In addition to the current ‘defensive abilities’ (kick, gouge, evasion), we add in a new ‘parry’ ability that costs x energy per second. This would become a soloing ability. It would be pretty overpowered against 1 mob, and would really cut down on the damage taken, but you can only keep it active for x seconds (60?) before you run out of energy and have to wait 100 seconds (1 energy per second) for it to replenish to full. Where it would really shine, however, is against multiple mobs. Suddenly a rogue can more easily take on a pack of mobs without having to vanish and reset.
4) Now for some FLAIR. Add, either as an x% chance or a targeted ability, a true assassination attack. Bam, mob dead. Monks get Touch of Death (which is pretty much insta death every 3 minutes), so why can’t rogues get a souped up assassination? Either have it where, x% of the time (20%, perhaps), if opening from stealth, you will straight out kill the mob. One out of every 5 (trash) mobs being attacked from stealth … BAM, dead. This would become something fun for people playing the class, and would add a “Friggin’ cool” ability that I feel is missing. Alternatively, make a 2.5 minute cooldown ability that can be used at any time where the rogue leaps behind the (trash) mob and plungs both weapons into its back. BAM, dead. By the way, for PvP, make it similar to touch of death where you can use it (without a 4 set bonus) on targets below 15%.
The rogue class rotation, as it stands, is almost identical to what it was in vanilla. While some might say don’t fix what ain’t broken, it’s pretty obvious, given the class population numbers, that something IS broken.
I posit that a combination of slower paced combat, lack of defense (especially against multiple enemies), and lack of a true class defining ability, cause people to start the rogue class expecting it to be fast, exciting, and memorable, only to quit before reaching top level because the class does not meet their expectations. The above four suggestions would, I feel, make combat faster and more exciting, make the rogue more durable whilst solo, and would add a true class defining ability that wouldn’t be too game breaking.
Thanks for your time.