New spell effects for rogues (opinions)

[LFPO8k]

Greetings fellow rogues!
We are currently seeing loads of changes on all classes, including cosmetical ones, such as the amazing effects on the new mage spells ( have you seen those meteors? :O )
So, what are your opinions about the effects on the rogue spells/skills? I'd personally love new attack animations specifically for rogues (we deserve the same treatment as monks )
Also, I think the current Sprint effect is extremely outdated and lame ( we can have other ways of representing speed with better effects)
So, what'd ya think?

[Wow]

They could and should do a lot of changes, will they probably not.

At minimum they should make backstab, dispatch, and sinister strike all not look like auto attack 2.0. But they gave blade flurry a new animation so I think we're all used up on new animations until the next expansion. I wish I was joking..

The only thing we may get better animations on the 100 talents because they're new.

Things could change and that be great but so far they are following the same old patterns they always have with rogues.

[Anium]

Actions are going to look better with the new model updates, but i agree animations on rogues are pretty bland, same goes for warrior and to a less extent dks.
I don't want some hyped up ott attack style though so don't misinterpret, makes sense for melees not to look flashy. But as the guy before me said, i really wouldnt be surprised if the overhaul of animations (if it ever happens) will be next expansion hahahaha.
-side note. death from above does look sick doe.

[Khaza-R]

Stealth, Shadowstep and Vanish definitely need to be updated. Its sad when camo looks better than stealth.

[Tenjen]

Stealth should NOT be changed. Camo can keep its predator look. Sad my ass.

Actual stealth's translucent look is iconic and how it should be. Stealth is not about aesthetics. Having notable animations for shadowstep and vanish can get bad real fast, you do not want to immediately show everyone in the area that you just used it or incite a faster recognize/response in people.

Nothing to do with stealth should have notable animations. It's the anti-thesis of what they are intended for. They're supposed to go unnoticed and be subtle in execution.

Some unique body animations for incombat abilities would be welcome however. some of the races already have rather interesting rogue ability animations, while others are lacking.

Currently outside of, for example, Mutilate and kick, it looks like rogues are just autoattacking all the time and the only indicators of abilities are tiny shinies on the enemy and sounds.

Bladeflurry creating a very faded version of our weapon (or even a small notable slash across them) striking the enemies getting cleaved.

Give backstab a notable backstabbing motion, Let evasion do more than just "default dodge animation and faded", change it so the rogue has an afterimage (like some ethereals) or splits us into faded 2/3 static afterimages stacked almost ontop of each other

Have bleeds, hemo and eviscerate result in notable blood spew animations on enemies, with envenom having a "green" version. make poison drips more notable on our weapons.

Give us twirls, savage striking movements. Have sprint leave after-images or have our legs move faster than normal and leave afterimages whilw we're moving with it active ontop of the "speed line blur" it already provides.

Give sap a glyph for a star around head effect, or birds.

[Deleted]

Have bleeds, hemo and eviscerate result in notable blood spew animations on enemies, with envenom having a "green" version. make poison drips more notable on our weapons.

I agree with this part.

In general I don't think we need that much of a graphical/animation overhaul. But this is coming from a raiding PvE standpoint. Things happen so quickly in raids that I wouldn't notice half of the changes proposed in this thread. I think the really "special" animations can be reserved for the truly special attacks such as KS, Death from Above, etc. I think Blizzard have nailed those pretty well.

Further, too many specific skill animations on every class in a 20 man raid puts even more pressure on the graphical capabilities on people's PCs. Frame rates is already an issue to some players and thus not something I would enjoy.

[Thelxi]

I kind of like how subtle and similar rogue animations are. Especially in PvP it is nice not telegraphing everything you do to everybody. Like on my warlock back when life drain was still a big part of my rotation I felt like I was holding a neon sign over my head saying "target me, I'm right here!". Same with arcane missiles etc. Balance druids are probably the worst with extremely flashy spells. Monks for example are very easy to read without paying too much attention, I don't want that on my rogue.

[ro9ue]

I like subtle animations for a stealth class personally. But there are a few things that could be shadowy-er. One really cool shadowy animation is the black smoke that billows out of our challenge more gear.

[Deleted]

Give sap a glyph for a star around head effect, or birds.

I want that!!!

[Deleted]

Yar I'm very much of the school of thought that less is more for rogues. Let the other classes look like they're summoning cthulu every time they pop a skill ours should look understated, efficient and brutal/deadly.

Few more poison splashes, blood splashes & smoke would be ok but no more shadow ninja magic stuff for me please.

Garrotte could get a better animation though it would be hard to pull off I guess - a Gnome trying to reach round a Taurens neck to do the business would be hard, though funny.

[Tenjen]

garrote could be an animation of a convex curving spiked wire passing through the victim for a moment.

[Souflikar]

Blood...more blood. For our victims, that is.

[Deleted]

Iwould be happy with some more spatter and swing lines in places.
Maybe some smoke and stuff. But mainly spatter.

[Hitei]

I'd enjoy a toggle option for stealth having the invisibility world effect, where everything becomes shadowy and wavy. I seem to recall there being a brief time (during BC?) where stealth was bugged for a while and did this. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[Deleted]

There are ways to have interesting and cool looking animations without being too flashy guys, some of the suggestions here are a good example. Poison, Blood, swirly starts on sapped targets...

Also our cooldowns can and should be flashy. Here are some crazy ideas.

Adrenaline rush should increase our size just a tiny bit, or have a faint yellow glow aura for the duration.

Vendetta is all about that 1 target so maybe it should make every other enemy's opacity drop a tiny bit. Right now you can't even tell who you used Vendetta on most of the time.

You know how ethereal's leave a trail when they move? I always thought Shadow Step and Killing Spree should leave a shadow of yourself that only lasts like 0.3 seconds, each time you teleport. Kinda like mages have that blinky light when they blink.

Burst of speed and sprint do look outdated when compared to speed of light, but I think the new running animations will do most of the work for this skill

[zoomgpally]

There are ways to have interesting and cool looking animations without being too flashy guys, some of the suggestions here are a good example. Poison, Blood, swirly starts on sapped targets...

Also our cooldowns can and should be flashy. Here are some crazy ideas.

Adrenaline rush should increase our size just a tiny bit, or have a faint yellow glow aura for the duration.

Vendetta is all about that 1 target so maybe it should make every other enemy's opacity drop a tiny bit. Right now you can't even tell who you used Vendetta on most of the time.

You know how ethereal's leave a trail when they move? I always thought Shadow Step and Killing Spree should leave a shadow of yourself that only lasts like 0.3 seconds, each time you teleport. Kinda like mages have that blinky light when they blink.

Burst of speed and sprint do look outdated when compared to speed of light, but I think the new running animations will do most of the work for this skill

Wouldn't the ethereal trail fit better for BoS and sprint?

[Selekah]

Killing Spree after images would be sooooo dope. Sprint could give us a blur effect, or have the world blur around us(think force speed from KOTOR). I agree would love to see poison dropping from idle weapons and maybe being flung around in battle. Maybe Slice and Dice could leave trails behind our weapons, and a cool body glow for Adrenaline Rush sounds fitting as well.

[Naiattavain]

might as well just redesign the class if we think about changing all the spells.

[Verain]

might as well just redesign the class if we think about changing all the spells.

Mostly this is about changing the animations.

Historically most rogue animations use one of the few melee strike hits. Mutilate gained the two-handed hit (the mutilate animation), but overall we don't see what we should be seeing. Revealing Strike and Sinister Strike should be different motions, and neither should look like an autoattack with a "motion stripe" of a different color.


Shadow Blades should actually turn your blades into purple shadows, instead of using the heroism animation. Also shadow blades should not be removed, of course. The current animation is actually somewhat strange for a rogue, and the actual shadow blades would be what is "really" going on.

Blade Flurry casts a strange seal above your head when you cast it, and then everything else just looks totally normal from that point forward. Blade flurry should change your attack animations while active to something entirely different, if we're actually swinging more, and if we're using ninja magic then a faint form should appear mirroring our motions or something, if that's going on.

Adrenaline Rush seems like it doesn't have anything interesting going on, and should. Evasion has a perfect animation.


Simply put, sinister strike should be a sinister strike, backstab should probably be a backstab, etc.