The Patch 5.4 Rogue changes are mostly pretty good. Eviscerate does less damage, but a number of other buffs more than make up for that. You’re dodgier than before (Evasion buff,) get more from Recuperate, and got a number of positive changes to your talents. Combat even got a new ability.
PvP notes: Your (everyone’s) Resilience is now 72%, so geming for the stuff isn’t a good idea. Dodging is now better for all Rogues. The change to Killing Spree makes it a far more effective ability for single targets (PvE included) than before. Combat’s other buffs will help out, too. Assassination’s Dispatch and Mutilate now hit significantly harder, as do Sub’s Backstab and Hemo. Shadowstep’s cool down was reduced and the rage of Cloak and Dagger was doubled. The reduction in energy cost of Burst of Speed means that flag carrying in certain battlegrounds might be a lot more interesting. The new Glyph of Redirect makes your redirect ability a lot more useful. More 5.4 PvP notes.
PvE notes: As noted above, more damage is always good and all specs get some damage buffs. Fan of Knives will help with trash, especially when glyphed, Recuperate will help your healers, Combat should be able to pump out more and more consistent damage with the change to Vitality and the new (old) Ruthlessness ability. The patch 5.4 Rogue changes to all of the level 60 talents should make movement more effective.
The official patch 5.4 Rogue changes (and all the others) can be found here. If you’re not yet 90, or you have alts youi need to level, then go here.
General Changes
- Evasion now increases dodge chance by 100% (was 50%), cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes (down from 3 minutes), and duration has been reduced to 10 seconds (down from 15 seconds.) You’ll be much harder to kill for a shorter period of time.
- Eviscerate now deals 10% less damage.
- Fan of Knives damage has been increased by 25%. The new Glyph of Sharpened Knives goes well with this.
- Recuperate now restores 4% of maximum health every 3 seconds, up from 3%.
- Sinister Strike deals an increased 240% of weapon damage (up from 145%), but now costs 50 Energy (up from 40 Energy).
Assassination Spec
- Assassination Rogues should no longer be eligible for any other weapon types except daggers in situations where loot is automatically awarded (such as in Raid Finder, Bonus Rolls, Heroic/Normal Scenarios, and the upcoming Flexible Raid difficulty.)
- Dispatch now deals 645% weapon damage (up from 460%).
- Mutilate now deals 280% weapon damage (up from 200%).
Combat Spec
- New passive ability, Ruthlessness: This passive ability is learned by Combat Rogues at Level 32. The Rogue gains a 20% chance per combo point (100% chance at 5 combo points) to immediately regain 1 combo point while performing a finishing move. This is actually an old ability which had been slain and has been resurrected for patch 5.4.
- Killing Spree targeting has been changed. If Blade Flurry is not active, Killing Spree will now hit the Rogue’s target 7 times or pick the closest eligible target if none had been selected. Killing Spree will continue to work as it has while Blade Flurry is active.
- Revealing Strike now deals 160% weapons damage (up from 125%).
- Vitality now increases Attack Power by 40% (up from 30%).
- Fixed an issue where certain conditions can cause Blade Flurry to not deal damage to additional nearby opponents.
Subtlety Spec
With Eviscerate doing less damage and the following abilities doing more it looks like Crit might become more valuable than mastery, since the latter adds to your finishing strike damage, which got hit, while your basic strikes got buffed. .
- Backstab now deals 380% weapon damage (up from 275%).
- Hemorrhage now deals 160% weapons damage (up from 140%); 232% weapons damage if a dagger is equipped (up from 203% for daggers).
- Sanguinary Vein now increases damage against targets with bleed effects by 25% (up from 20%).
5.4 Rogue Changes to: Talents
Level 15: Nightstalker now increases damage dealt by abilities while stealthed by 50%, up from 25%.- Level 45: Cheat Death now reduces damage taken by 85% after activating (up from 80%.)
- Level 60: Cloak and Dagger now allows the Rogue to use Ambush, Garrote, and Cheap Shot from 40 yards away (up from 30 yards.)
- Level 60: Shadowstep now has a reduced cooldown of 20 seconds (down from 24 seconds.)
- Level 60: Burst of Speed‘s cost has been reduced to 15 Energy (down from 30 Energy.)
- Level 75: Paralytic Poison now stuns the target at 4 applications of the poison (down from 5 applications.)
Glyphs
Major Glyphs
- Replaced: Glyph of Adrenaline Rush‘s effect is now baseline and has been replaced with Glyph of Redirect.
- Glyph of Redirect now reduces the cooldown of Redirect by 50 seconds (down from Redirect no longer has a cooldown.) This will make target switching much more practical.
- Replaced: Glyph of Crippling Poison has been replaced with Glyph of Sharpened Knives.
- Glyph of Sharpened Knives now causes Fan of Knives to also damage the armor of its victims, applying 1 application of the Weakened Armor effect to each target.
- Replaced: Glyph of Debilitation has been replaced with Glyph of Recovery.
- Glyph of Recovery increases the healing received by the Rogue from other sources while Recuperate is active.
- Replaced: Glyph of Sap has been replaced with Glyph of Hemorrhaging Veins.
- Glyph of Hemorrhaging Veins causes Sanguinary Veins ability to also increase damage done to targets affected by Hemorrhage.
- Glyph of Recuperate now increases the healing of Recuperate by an additional 1% (up from 0.5%).
- Glyph of Blind now only removes damage-over-time effects that would cause Blind to break. For Rogues that also have the Dirty Tricks talent, this means Blind will no longer remove the Rogue’s poison or bleed effects.
- Glyph of Shiv now reduces the cooldown of Shiv by 3 seconds (was 2 seconds.)
New Minor Glyphs
- Glyph of Improved Distraction: Distract now summons a decoy at the target location.
- Glyph of the Headhunter: Throw and Deadly Throw abilities will now throw axes regardless of the Rogue’s currently equipped weapon.
Class Armor
- Rogue Tier-15 4-piece set bonus now causes Shadow Blades to reduce the cost of all abilities by 15% (down from 40%).
More Rogue Pages
- Rogue Guide – an overview of rogues, abilities, etc. Includes 5.2 & 5.3 patch notes.
- Rogue leveling – tips to get to 90 faster
- Assassination PvE and Assassination PvP
- Combat PvE and Combat PvP – Not just for raiding
- Subtlety PvE and Subtlety PvP – Not just for PvP
- Rogue PvP Gear guide – just the gear, for PvP in patch 5.4 .
- Rogue PvP – an overview of the Rogue in PvP