Perhaps I'm misremembering
Ye Olde Days... but am I the only rogue main who thinks the rotation is way too complicated now?
Overly Complex Rotation.
What I loved about Combat rogue was the simplicity; it allowed me to keep track of and react to raid mechanics.
But now, I'm just spending way too much brain power barely trying to keep up with my rotation.
What I remember (if memory serves... which it might not):
- Keep [Slice & Dice] up.
- Keep [Rupture] up.
- Use [Adrenaline Rush] on cooldown.
That was it. The rest was just "Build combo points, then Eviscerate. DONE. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, BOOM.
Rinse, repeat.
Keep one buff running, keep one debuff running, and use the Big Power Button (Adrenaline Rush) when available. We eventually got a 2nd Big Power Button (Killing Spree), but still; easy rotation that can be done without thinking while you're paying attention to the boss. RUN AWAY NOW. RUN IN NOW. etc.
Then things got a little more complex, but still manageable.
- [Revealing Strike]: a debuff. Use it when available so your big cooldowns hit harder.
- [Bandit's Guile], which just meant we learned to sometimes hold back our cooldowns until we got the Big Red light and then let loose for big-mama damage.
But both are gone now, so whatever.
But then.. we got [
Roll the Bones], which has been
horrible (for me) since Day #1.
A special move that gives up to 5 random buffs, with two being garbage requiring a re-roll. I remember the early days which were HORRID because during a big boss fight when MY JOB was doing dps, I was just standing there re-rolling and re-rolling
and re-rolling AND RE-ROLLING AND RE-ROLLING... until I finally got one of the "good" buffs, and I can get back to dps'ing. What an infuriating waste of time!
Naturally I went back to [Slice & Dice]. You could do that back in those days (they were talents on the same row), and I was relieved to be back to doing plain, simple, dps. And I could get back to watching DBM timers and making sure I don't die like my peers because they were too focused on their rotation.
But the Rogue class developers were angry;
you were playing the game wrong. They wanted you to be a pirate and roll them bones! They put a LOT of work into designing and developing the Bones system and people were chosing to avoid it altogether.
Unacceptable! So they made it mandatory.
So look at my rotation now:
- Keep [Slice & Dice] up
- Keep [Roll the Bones] up
- Keep [Between the Eyes] up.
- Use [Pistol Shot] when available
- Use [Adrenaline Rush] on cooldown
- Use [Killing Spree] on cooldown
- Use [Shiv] on cooldown
- Use [Marked for Death] on cooldown
- Use [Vanish]+[Ambush] on cooldown
- Use Trinket #1 on cooldown
- Use Trinket #2 on cooldown (do whatever dance move it requires)
- use [Covenant ability] on cooldown
- Use [Racial] on cooldown
- ...
What?
WHAT?
(and that's me deliberately chosing NOT gain the [Dreadblades] and [Ghostly Strike] talent to try to
KEEP THINGS SIMPLE! I...)
... I'm dead. Boss did his 2 second cast and I didn't move in time. Maybe I could've kept track of the timer if I didn't have to manage and coordinate this ridiculous rotation AND the [Roll The Bones] minigame I'm forced to play while I'm playing!
For a time, it wasn't so bad. [Between the Eyes] was just the Outlaw version of [Kidney Shot], so it kept the same keybind when I switched from Outlaw to Assassination. It was the "stun" button. Simple, huh?
But then they gave [Kidney Shot] back to Outlaw rogues and turned [Between the Eyes] into a special debuff spell mandating it's own keybind. So now I have [Between the Eyes] AND [Kidney Shot]... and BOTH [Slice & Dice] and [Roll the Bones]. Literally doubled! And [Shiv] thrown in, cause why not?
Anyone else have this problem?
Speaking of "Is it just me?" issues...
Give the Borrrowed Power Back.
Does anyone else feel it's weird that we have our Shadowlands Expansion abilities in Dragonflight, when we really shouldn't?
Like everyone else I missed our Legion Artifact "golden dragon" spells when they were lost in BfA, but it still made sense to me. We got a magic sword that had a magic special ability. We don't have it anymore, so the ability is gone. Okay.
Makes sense.
And yet, in Dragonflight we're getting them all back, AND keeping our Covenant abilities? The abilities magically granted to us by death-realm people while we were in the death realm? The magic spells drawing upon the anima power the land and flora/fauna is soaked in? And now back in Azeroth, we can still reach into the realm of death and bring that anima power here to infuse our weapons? Rogue trainers
teach that?
Bad enough that this means I'm stuck with all these keybinds and 10-step rotations to monitor, but how does that make sense from a lore RP standpoint? I realize that I'm one of the dwindling few players who prefer to immerse themselves in the
world of Warcraft (the same bunch who didn't like it when the Rogue in the BfA cinematic clip
literally went invisible with magic), but how are we supposed to believe that rogue trainers in Azeroth are telling trainee rogues:
What?
I mean, I know
Gameplay Trumps Lore and always will, but if they're breaking that line anyway, why not just bring back our legendary ring ability? Having a ranged Eviscerate was great! So what if the Legendary Ring is gone? What does it matter? We've broken that wall anyway.
Or why not [Breath of the Dying] from our Azerite necklace? That was a great! What, a rogue trainer in a shack in Arathi Highlands can't teach you to blast someone with Azerite energy, but
can teach you to channel arcane energy from the Shadolands realm of Bastion into your weapon?
EXPLAIN THAT.
But that's just me complaining. I know Borrowed Power is the prominant buzzword fad we've all embraced like the word
Agency™, but I confess I was looking forward to be rid of the four Covenant abilities and having one less keybind to deal with (which used to be my On use Trinket button, before I had to let the Covenant ability take that slot over. Now I have that AND two On-Use trinket buttons.
AARGH!). And yes, I chose Kyrian, whch means I have to play the anima-charged combo point minigame as well as the [Roll the Bones] mini-game... and GOD I HATE the [Broadside] buff because then the 2nd anima-charged combo point is useless to me! And... er...
sigh.
Sorry for the rant.
But I just want my Combat Rogue back. I want things to be simple again.
I have five DBM timers to track at any given time that mean life or death and I want to be able to do my rotation again by muscle memory, without having to juggle 5 buffs, 7 debuffs,14 cooldowns, timing them all right AND playing the [Roll the Bones] minigame AND the 4-combo point Anima Charge minigame all throughout. I... I just want to stabby-stab the boss' ankles while he's hitting the tank.
Am I really too old for this?