It sounds a bit kinky, doesn’t it – warriors in leather. Like we’re going to dominate you and then lop off your head at the shoulders. But it needs to be asked as it pertains to the rogue class now in WoW. Are we just warriors in leather?
Spinks wrote a post the other day about the problem of stealth in MMO’s. What gave her the idea for the post was her experience in LOTRO with her burglar and how stealth is great if you’re doing stuff alone but in a group, not so much. It made me think back to the Burning Crusade. When I ran 5 mans in BC I used stealth a lot, because I used crowd control a lot. I also used it in raids as well. I remember being sent to scount ahead in Karazhan before Monroes, to see when to pull the nasty mobs through the ballroom dancers. I don’t use stealth in raids now. There is no point as a combat rogue to do so in fights, so you sure don’t open from stealth. I just run in and start hacking away. Which sounds kind of warrior in leather when you think of it.
To maybe show how trivial the whole stealth thing has become just think of those traps at the very beginning of ICC. When ICC was released the rogue world went briefly nuts with delight at those traps.
“Yey! I can use stealth again! I can be usefull!”
Which is kind of pathetic when you think about it and it just goes to show how far stealth has fallen when a couple of traps make you feel all warm and fuzzy.
Do you ever pickpocket much? Pick a lock on a door? Disarm a trap? Use sap on a mob? I don’t much in the PvE world, and in PvP I only use sap out of those abilities. And now in Cataclysm our stun locking abilties are to be nerfed with Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot going on the same cooldown, which means you’ll have to use vanish to have the same effect as you do now and it will still be shorter. It’s kind of crazy when a paladins Hammer of Justice stuns for longer than a rogues 3 abilties lined up one after the other.
I’m beginning to understand why we have improved leather in the talent tree now. Because when it’s all said and done, we’re really looking like warriors in leather.
June 25, 2010 at 8:22 am
Which I personally feel is a sad and sorry shame. Rogues were to me a unique class, now I dont see what they are for in pve. I enjoyed my rogue a great deal, right up until a guildie started playing with me, watched my routine(gouge, run through mob, quick flick of the mouse wrist and backstab) and started yelling at me. Never mind though you will still rape us hunters in pvp
June 25, 2010 at 9:06 am
Because the game is already appealing to a different generation.
Think about it its been 6 years of WoW. The gameplaying kids that started to play wow back in the days are now adults and the new generation of gamers has come.
The old generation was about hardcore games like Doom or Arcade games and what not, which were (mostly) single player, designed to be really difficult to finish and only doable by only the best.
On the other hand, the new generation is all about facebook. Social networking around a topic which implies pushing some buttons sometime.
June 26, 2010 at 10:32 am
Very interesting. So where does that leave us?
June 25, 2010 at 10:46 am
hmm interesting point about us being warriors in leather armour but I think that mainly pertains to the combat tree and from my point of view it kinda always has.
One thing that has disappointed me is Combat rogues getting to use ambush which imo doesnt fit and seem right. Maybe its just me and I’m stuck in my ways of believing Rogues should be dagger wielders exclusively.
June 25, 2010 at 1:15 pm
/agree
all those axewielding dwarf/orc rogues look a littlebit wrong to me.
June 26, 2010 at 12:01 am
I wholeheartedly agree. Combat rogues are an abomination. Even assasination is a little off, since it sometimes stabs in the face, but at least it uses daggers and a lot of poison.
@Poptart: Those are at least slightly predictable, then again, rogues rarely stealth all the way across the BG and you can tell they’re there in arenas.
June 26, 2010 at 10:33 am
Yeah, it’s sad to say but you can hardly see my rogue for her axes strapped across her back.
June 25, 2010 at 11:58 am
Oh how I feel this post…especially now when my main weapons for combat spec are two HUGE axes that look more like two handers.
They keep teasing us that CC will be back in Cata, I hope so, cus sneaking around is part of what a rogue IS.
While mowing down mobs can be fun, it certainly doesn’t have the same rewarding feel as slipping by them all to take out a single target, then sliping away with out them noticing.
June 25, 2010 at 12:24 pm
I agree with you and like others I think it’s very sad. I don’t want to be a warrior in leather, that isn’t what appealed to me about the rogue (the warrior bit, of course I like the leather).
Stealth is only really useful to turn off the steam taps things when you go from Saurfang to the upper spire. Waste of time stealthing to a target, so I lose the opener, it’s only background noise anyway.
CC, yeh, I remember that, what’s it for again ?
I even resent having to renew my poisons, yes I have others but I use them so infrequently that the main ones might just as well be an enchant.
June 26, 2010 at 10:33 am
Remember when we actually had to brew our poisons?
June 25, 2010 at 3:20 pm
I remember leveling lockpicking, because I didn’t want to buy the Scholomance key
And using cc in dungeons was fun and a challenge.
You should try a PVP sub/backstabbing spec for a change. Imo that’s the only way to currently enjoy stealth and make things more challenging overall. From my experience it’s a 100% win spec when it comes to world PVP (if you surprise is on your side, ofcourse)
June 25, 2010 at 5:55 pm
I love being combat but even I miss using stealth more. Upon reflection I suppose Blizzard moves away from stealth because players whine “it’s not FUN to be attacked when you don’t expect it!”, to which I reply, no shit, it’s no fun to be bladestormed on, cycloned, repented, and the list goes on. But apparently only being caught offguard because of stealth is a legitimate complaint.
*sigh*
So the thing that makes the rogue class fun is “inconvenient” for others, so I think that’s why they tend to shy away from it. At least in PvP in the new expansion. Not sure about PvE.
June 25, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Are warriors just rogues in plate?
June 26, 2010 at 9:21 am
No.
June 26, 2010 at 10:34 am
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
June 27, 2010 at 4:21 pm
I suppose they are combat rogues in plate. But then the question is, why go rogue and be squishy when you can go warrior, do the same thing as a rogue (practically) and live a lot longer? This post is depressing.
June 28, 2010 at 11:48 am
because some people prefer and embrace the challenge of playing a Rogue.
One of the main reasons Rogues are my favourite class is they aint a facerolling class like a paladin. Sure it has become easier to play as the years have passed but I remember when playing a Rogue was really situational and you had to be behind your target, had to have improved sap to get in a group etc etc