Since TBC came out, Rogues have been complaining about how the subtlety tree just isn't good. For anything. Shadowstep and the surrounding talents just weren't tuned for the way that arena playstyle was evolving, where mutilate and combat maces were shining. Fair enough. Blizzard can only give skills and talents, they can't dictate how to actively use them. They can, however, adapt talents, retune, and reapply.
From what I have experienced so far on the PTR, the changes to sub have been very good. The improvement to hemorrage is actually quite nice when paired with the upgrade to dirty deeds (2/2 points gives 20% additional damage from specials when enemy is below 35% health). Since I don't PvP much at all, I have been fooling aroud with builds that would allow the new hemo to be used as a raid buff while still dealing significant dps.
More on that later, as I am still getting some screenshots and theories together.
But.
This new change, released this morning. Is. In. Sane.
Cheat Death (Subtlety) chance to trigger increased to 33/66/100% and now also causes the rogue to take 90% less damage for 3 seconds when the effect triggers. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.
It seems that Blizzard wants to give the sub tree a real strong boost for those who enjoy pvp and arena, and the change to this talent is proof. But seriously, don't expect the new cheat death to hit the live realms as it reads above.
If it does, watch every other class QQ until it gets nerfed back to something between what it is now and it's current PTR capacity.
Think of it this way. I am in an arena battle, getting pounded by an arms warrior. I have 3k health left and his next mortal strike crits for 4k. I've been hit by this before. It's not fun. It hurts. With 3/3 cheat death, not only do I completely avoid that amount of damage, but for the next 3 seconds I am pretty much invincible. Granted, this cannot happen again for another minute, so his next big crit will most likely kill me anyway. But 3 seconds could be all I need to finish off his healer...or something else that could turn the battle. I don't know much about arenas, but enough to know when a talent buff is overpowered. This is one of those times.
Even more daunting is what this could mean in PvE and raiding: Roguetards. In other words, rogues who don't care about strategy because they know that once a minute, they cant die. Rogues who spec deep into a tree being retooled mostly for arena to get a talent because it's "cool". Rogues should not be raid speccing for death avoidance. If you need to avoid death once per minute it's because you aren't paying attention to the strategy of the fight.
I don't know, I'm kind of shocked at this one still. I keep checking my calendar to make sure it's not April 1st.
Another change I would like to see to hemo is the addition of a bleed. Not a significant bleed like garrote or rupture, something more along the lines of a rend. It wouldnt stack, only being reapplied after it's duration has run out.
Anyway, what do you all think about this change to cheat death? Am I just being a huge negatron? To those who do arena often, is this as OP as I really think it is?
