12.11
Feint has always been one of those rogue abilities that most of my stabby brethren and I ignored. The tooltip says a “large amount” but it really didn’t reduce that much threat and for 20 energy it was a big waste. It’s not even on my action bars right now and I can’t think of a time it ever was.
That’s all about to change.
From the latest patch notes on the PTR for patch 3.08
Whoa…ow..damnit…sorry, I fell out of my chair. I’m better now, my butt hurts a little but I’m ok, thanks for asking. So, whoa…now we’re talking. Welcome to the game feint. With proper timing a clever rogue can really take some strain off of the healers (That reminds me, have you hugged your healer lately? You should.)
Now I just have to find a place for you on my bar, I can probably work out a spot next to Cloak of Skill.
Hey, I use Feint… it’s my barometer for how shitty a tank I’m dealing with. If I have to Feint immediately after my opening attack because the tank isn’t front-loading enough threat… shitty tank.
[...] At the time, I was completely wrong. I haven’t had to use it once since Wrath. However, as Kaltu discussed in his latest post, Feint is back. The latest change to Feint reads “Feint: Rank 8 now reduces the damage taken [...]
It’s funny because I think this ability is great too, but for the opposite reason – I’m not going to use it to take strain off the healers, I’m going to use it so I don’t have to run out of AoE such as Sjonnir’s lightning ring, Slad’ran’s poison nova, or Loken’s nova attack.
It should be a massive increase in time-on-target for certain fights, which makes up for some of the inherent disadvantages in being a melee DPS class.
Of course I’m going to use it responsibly, and of course I’ll use CloS in preference, but I still see it as primarily a tool to increase my DPS.
(Came here via Valenna’s link btw, nice blog!)
I fail to see how the change to Feint does anything except introduce another reaction ability like Kick which I do not have time to use as a mutilate build. It will not reduce WW damage and in most cases the AE is instant and we are not able to use Feint. Additionally it requires that you land the feint on the target. Its a bad designed ability and even though I may put it back on my bar I doubt it will get used. Worrying about a feint is not likly to enter my mind unless its a timed ability on a raid boss that I know is comming. In which case I am still going to run out as that is 0 damage. Even if I can actually survive with feint the other debuff on the AE’s from bosses are likly to screw me up anyway and the raid leader is going to want me to run out.
basically this should read
Feint: Rank 8 blah blah blah blah ….still useless.
Being a Rogue that has been around since the days of Molten Core, Onyxia, and Blackwing Lair I can say that if you’re in a situation where you need to actually use Feint for it’s original purpose, then either you, your tank, or your healer are doing something miserably wrong. In today’s version of WoW, with abilities like Tricks of the Trade being massively more effective than Feint, Feint’s original intent is negligible.
Surviving AoE’s better? I’d have to agree with Ozzmeg that if I’m so worried about taking AoE damage, then I’m just going to get OUT of the AoE. I thought our original purpose was to do massive damage done with minimal damage taken. That purpose wasn’t a problem in Molten Core, and remains the same now, even given changed battle dynamics.
Seems to me like Blizzard is trying to give us nice eye-candy to quell the roar of Rogues who believe they are no longer able to do what we were meant to do on the highest level – deal damage. You could write this new Feint as a hybrid PvE/PvP ability, but who in the $@*& is going to run around Feinting their favorite Mage? No. I’m going to stab, slice, and bludgeon.
Ultimately, this new rank is a piece-of-tape-over-the-mouth, and a cute, mocking slap in the face.