Just swung by to confirm that the rogue domination continues in battlegrounds in the 20s bracket, and in some ways it gets worse. With the addition of Cheap Shot and Vanish, rogues are truly a terror in this bracket.
Only level 24, I was able to effectively dominate a battleground, one-shotting all classes but paladin and warrior, and in pursuit of an enemy flag carrier multiple rogues can take out any target in very short order.
This might be the first time I will ever get the Wrecking Ball achievement on any character.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The Ambush Everyone Sees Coming
Right now in World of Warcraft in the lower-level battlegrounds there is nothing more imbalanced than the subtlety-specced Rogue. There are a lot of interesting little changes to spice things up in the 10-19 bracket such as resto Shamans with Earth Shield and frost Mages with their elemental pet, but giving a rogue Shadowstep at level 10 is just mind-boggling.
Hearing about the outrage on the forums yesterday, I decided to quick roll a new rogue to test out the allegations. I dinged 10 and joined the WSG queue and immediately noticed how there were few hunters, but more rogues than usual. Immediately I saw why. There was a L10 warlock boldly running alone, and I quickly saw the opportunity to test my damage. Shadowstep - Ambush - crit! - 1-shot kill. I was critting for over 300 damage at level 10 on an undetectable, indefensible opening move.
There were a couple of other rogues L16 and L19 who were dominating. The L19 didn't even bother to stealth much, and after one-shotting any character of their choosing would stay unstealthed and fight packs of enemies until eventually killed. She finished the match 36-10.
So now I have two heirloom daggers with +15 agility enchants and heirloom chest and shoulders, and the heirloom bow. I hit L12 last night, almost 13, and I plan on leveling to about 15 tonight and then going the rest of the way to 20 just in battlegrounds. As long as Blizzard doesn't fix this - and history shows they are very slow to fix class abilities - I should be able to level most of the way to 80 in battlegrounds with my overpowered rogue.
There's a number of things that go into making this ability overpowered. They include:
- Glyph of Ambush increases Ambush range by 5 yards
- Shadowstep range of 25 yards puts you right behind your target, and adds 30% damage to ambush
- 3/3 Improved Ambush increases Ambush crit chance by 60% and damage by 15%
- 3/3 Opportunity increases Ambush damage by 30%
Add it together and the level X9's are one-shotting everything.
Hearing about the outrage on the forums yesterday, I decided to quick roll a new rogue to test out the allegations. I dinged 10 and joined the WSG queue and immediately noticed how there were few hunters, but more rogues than usual. Immediately I saw why. There was a L10 warlock boldly running alone, and I quickly saw the opportunity to test my damage. Shadowstep - Ambush - crit! - 1-shot kill. I was critting for over 300 damage at level 10 on an undetectable, indefensible opening move.
There were a couple of other rogues L16 and L19 who were dominating. The L19 didn't even bother to stealth much, and after one-shotting any character of their choosing would stay unstealthed and fight packs of enemies until eventually killed. She finished the match 36-10.
So now I have two heirloom daggers with +15 agility enchants and heirloom chest and shoulders, and the heirloom bow. I hit L12 last night, almost 13, and I plan on leveling to about 15 tonight and then going the rest of the way to 20 just in battlegrounds. As long as Blizzard doesn't fix this - and history shows they are very slow to fix class abilities - I should be able to level most of the way to 80 in battlegrounds with my overpowered rogue.
There's a number of things that go into making this ability overpowered. They include:
- Glyph of Ambush increases Ambush range by 5 yards
- Shadowstep range of 25 yards puts you right behind your target, and adds 30% damage to ambush
- 3/3 Improved Ambush increases Ambush crit chance by 60% and damage by 15%
- 3/3 Opportunity increases Ambush damage by 30%
Add it together and the level X9's are one-shotting everything.
Monday, October 4, 2010
On the Horizon
Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King is winding down, with the populous becoming bored of the current content (which never came close to the levels of fun in Burning Crusade, in spite of the subject material). Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is also suffering from rampant hacking on the PC platform and ordinary players are getting frustrated at the diminished gameplay. Fortunately, these games are seeing sequels in the coming months that should cure player malaise.
World of WarCraft: Cataclysm has an (unofficial) official release date of December 7, 2010. In two months' time the new addition to the WarCraft universe will bring forth Goblins and Worgen as playable races, and the mighty Deathwing as a major villain. It remains to be seen if the class/talent changes are viewed favorably or if they are too limiting, and if the Archeology profession helps cure the between-content blues during this xpac.
There are still no features on the horizon that encourage creation over destruction (player housing, armor dyes, building construction, etc.) and in some ways the trend is further against them. The new talent changes are going to box players into a single talent tree for most of their development, and leveling will require fewer visits to trainers. The city portals are also being removed from Dalaran and Shattrath, which will require more travel from players, and make mages a class in high demand for casuals. This should be another well-crated expansion from Blizzard, but I'm having a hard time getting excited about it. So far it only feels like more of the same.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is arriving a little sooner on November 9, 2010, and offers a cure for what ails the legit FPSer - dedicated servers. Peer hosting was a low-cost solution, but it was rampant with hacks and cheats and offered little fun in exchange for a lot of diminished gameplay. With dedicated servers the Steam network can easily identify client hacks and disable accounts, and at $60 a pop it's not likely that gamers will risk having their license banned from network play.
The game itself offers character customization that we wish WarCraft had - everything from face paint to weapon mods and textures, when someone gets the knife up close they're going to remember you for a long time. They've added new killstreak rewards and battle types, including wager matches. For my dollar this is more of a must-have upgrade than Cataclysm.
And if either of the big 2 coming out this fall doesn't appeal to you, there are still more games coming soon. DC Universe is dipping a toe into the MMO genre and available for preorder, and SWTOR is approaching ever closer on the horizon. In all, there should be plenty to do to entertain yourself this winter.
World of WarCraft: Cataclysm has an (unofficial) official release date of December 7, 2010. In two months' time the new addition to the WarCraft universe will bring forth Goblins and Worgen as playable races, and the mighty Deathwing as a major villain. It remains to be seen if the class/talent changes are viewed favorably or if they are too limiting, and if the Archeology profession helps cure the between-content blues during this xpac.
There are still no features on the horizon that encourage creation over destruction (player housing, armor dyes, building construction, etc.) and in some ways the trend is further against them. The new talent changes are going to box players into a single talent tree for most of their development, and leveling will require fewer visits to trainers. The city portals are also being removed from Dalaran and Shattrath, which will require more travel from players, and make mages a class in high demand for casuals. This should be another well-crated expansion from Blizzard, but I'm having a hard time getting excited about it. So far it only feels like more of the same.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is arriving a little sooner on November 9, 2010, and offers a cure for what ails the legit FPSer - dedicated servers. Peer hosting was a low-cost solution, but it was rampant with hacks and cheats and offered little fun in exchange for a lot of diminished gameplay. With dedicated servers the Steam network can easily identify client hacks and disable accounts, and at $60 a pop it's not likely that gamers will risk having their license banned from network play.
The game itself offers character customization that we wish WarCraft had - everything from face paint to weapon mods and textures, when someone gets the knife up close they're going to remember you for a long time. They've added new killstreak rewards and battle types, including wager matches. For my dollar this is more of a must-have upgrade than Cataclysm.
And if either of the big 2 coming out this fall doesn't appeal to you, there are still more games coming soon. DC Universe is dipping a toe into the MMO genre and available for preorder, and SWTOR is approaching ever closer on the horizon. In all, there should be plenty to do to entertain yourself this winter.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)