With the release of the 3.2.2 patch notes, rogues have had the nerf bat swung around their head repeatedly.
And I am very happy about it.
The patch notes state that Fan of Knives will have its damage output reduced by 30%, and Throwing Spec no longer causes FoK to interrupt spellcasting. The Throwing spec nerf is obviously meant for PvP, (although it will have some effects in PvE), and while most bloggers are saying that this is meant as a big PvP nerf which has effects on PvE as well, I truely think that Blizzard has meant this to go acoss the board.
Fan of Knives has always given me the shits. I’ve said it in previous posts and I’m saying it again. It is an un-rogue-like ability. It was born out of Blizzard pandering to the whingers on their official forums who pleaded, begged, sulked and cried for an AoE ability for rogues. And they gave in, the morons. And we got Fan of fucking knives. And rogues passed from a class of skill to a class of one button spamming, at least on trash. So this nerf is awesome. We are back to where we should be. Single target dps, which means skill. It brings a little ability back in to play called positioning. It means you have to target select with care. Things which I have continued to do during the FoK dark time. But I was getting called out by other players. “Just use your fan of knives, get them down quicker.”
Excuse me? I am playing this game for enjoyment as well, you know. Not just as a dps spam meter. And I just stun-locked that healer that was going to heal the whole group, and then I interrupted that spell caster who was casting chain lightening.
“Yeah, lol, whatever, just use Fan of knives, okay”
I am so happy that Blizzard has done this. It means that they understand not only our class but the type of people who play it. Yes, WoW has had to pander to the masses a great deal. You can only get 11 million players if you do that. But at the same time they have kept certain apects of the game for the original gamer. Rogues are one of those aspects of the game. With Fan of Knives they were in danger of losing that vision. Thankfully with this patch they are back on the right track.
September 30, 2009 at 4:59 am
Hey I have a question for ya lol, Im a rogue myself and I actually loved having FoK since it allowed me to do AoE damage cus either way how you say it, with all of the new raids and whatnot we NEEDED a multi attack besides blade flurry which was NOT enough. Aside from that though I agree with you how any rogue could just run in their, spam FoK and easily be on top unless there was a AP hunter lmao! So Im just wondering and think carefully setting all anger aside (i wouldnt know if there was any bud) …this…30% debuff to FoK…it would still do fairly competitive damage in multi mob fights wouldnt it? All Im asking for is that I could live with the buff as long as the ability still competes with everyone elses AoE abilities on a fair plane following afterwards the proper rotation and skill to boost the #s even higher. I’m just curious if this could lower my DPS back to 7k lol
September 30, 2009 at 7:00 am
Actually, you do bring up an excellent point about the state of present raids. Crowd contol abilities are gone for the most part, (although they can still be used in the PvP part of the Trial of the Cahmions), so yes, maybe a rogue AoE ability is necessary. Just not the out of control FoK + Blade Flurry + Adrenalin Rush + Noob buttom spammer nightmare of before.
To answer your question, yes it still does competitive damage. I was in the new Onexyia raid last night, and on the second stage one of the tanks needs to use his threat to gather up all the whelps. Once the tank had done that I simply popped Tricks of the Trade, ran in there and hit Fan of knives three or four times. Is still does impressive damage, (particularly when you hit 40 odd whelps at the same time), but I don’t have any exact damage figures for you. The whelps are level 80 elites, so I didn’t take them all down, but I hurt them a lot. Next time we go in there, (and we might go in tonight), I’ll run the figures.
September 30, 2009 at 9:58 pm
This is nice to know, 30% sounded like a lot but since the damage remains competitive on an equal level to everyone elses AoE attack Im sure I can live with it lol. Im not used to being nerfed either (*tells myself its really no big deal*)but its nice to know I can compete and thats all i really care about its part of the fun to have to try on a fair lv lmao