I've compiled a list of every single patch change I could find that directly or indirectly affects Rogues. This list only includes documented patch changes. Undocumented changes and changes made separate from patches have not been included.
N = Nerf
B = Buff
U = Useful addition or change, but not significant enough to be considered a Buff
F = Fixed bug
Patch 1.2 (12/18/04)
Rogue
F: Backstab will automatically target the nearest enemy if no target is selected.
F: Distract is now effective against creatures that are already distracted.
N: Sap: Players now have an increasing chance to break free of the effect, such that it is unlikely the effect will last more than 15 seconds.
F: Training costs adjusted. Total training cost was decreased.
F: Vanish will now break root and slow effects.
Patch 1.3 (3/22/05)
PVP
N: Patrolling scouts that can see through stealth and invisibility have been added to both Orgrimmar and Ironforge.
Rogue
U: A number of areas in the world now have footlockers in them. These areas are in place for rogues to visit to increase their lockpicking skills. The contents of these footlockers are only token amounts of treasure, but they should allow for a more interesting experience while increasing lockpicking skill. The difficulty of the locks in the area correspond to the level of the zone, so if your lockpicking skill is around 100, you would go to Durnholde Keep in Hillsbrad. But if your skill is 250, you might head to Tyr's Hand in Eastern Plaguelands.
- Hillsbrad Foothills - Durnholde Keep
- Redridge Mountains - Lake Everstill
- Ashenvale Forest - Zoram Strand
- Stonetalon Mountains - Windshear Crag and Associated Mines
- Wetlands - Murloc Camps
- Desolace - Sar'theris Strand
- Badlands - Angor Fortress
- Swamp of Sorrows - Pool of Tears
- Searing Gorge - The Slag Pit
- Tanaris Desert - Lost Rigger Cove
- Azshara - Bay of Storms
- Eastern Plaguelands - Tyr's Hand (elite)
N: Very high-end gems will no longer be acquired from junk boxes or pickpocketing.
F: Added a visual to Sword Specialization "proc" that will now show up in the combat log as well.
Items
F: Weightstones may now be used on fist Weapons.
F: Fixed a bug that was causing Thrash Blade, Flurry Axe, and Ironfoe to have an additional attack when the effect went off.
F: Shadowcraft Boots now have +21 Agility instead of +21 Intellect.
N: Finkle's Skinner is now Main hand only.
Quests
U: Smudge Thunderbrew in Ravenholdt Manor now sells the recipe for Thistle Tea to those rogues who completed the quest and inadvertently destroyed their recipes.
Pets
N: You can issue pet commands while you are stunned, fleeing, etc.
User Interface
F: You can no longer change armor sets while your enemies are stunned.
Bug Fixes
F: Fixed bug where Seal Fate and Blood Frenzy were giving two combo points instead of one.
F: Fixed a bug where instant melee attacks were not blockable.
Patch 1.4 (5/5/05)
Racial Traits
N: Perception - Increased detection bonus.
Hunters
N: Track Hidden - Increased stealth detection.
F: Viper Sting - This spell can no longer be used on warrior and rogue targets. In addition, while it can be used on a druid target at any time it will only drain mana when the druid is in caster form.
Rogues
F: Combo points will no longer be removed if the target is deselected. They will only be removed if a different target is selected.
F: Fixed a bug where combo points were not always being applied to the target when using Cheap Shot, Ambush and Garrote.
B: Vanish - Increased stealth bonus.
F: Ambush, Backstab, Ghostly Strike, and Riposte now properly increase the attack power contribution by the percent modifier. Our goal is to make the dagger-based Backstab/Ambush build a viable alternative to the sword/mace-based Sinister Strike build. As a side effect, fixing this bug also increased maximum critical Ambush damage beyond our intentions. After considering a variety of balance changes (including reducing the percent modifier or base damage of Ambush, or reducing the Improved Ambush talents) we decided to change the Lethality talent to no longer affect Ambush. This does not counteract the DPS increase from the bug fix as Backstab is the primary source of DPS while Ambush is a source of high, one-time damage and cannot be used as consistent DPS. After all balance changes are considered, here are some details:
(Using a Barman Shanker with 2.0 weapon speed and between 500 and 800 attack power)
- Ambush without the Lethality bonus and attack power bug fix (patch 1.4.0) causes between 4-12% more damage than - - - * Ambush with the Lethality bonus and attack power bug (patch 1.3.1).
- Backstab (patch 1.4.0) causes between 9-13% more damage than Backstab (1.3.1).
F: The Kick ability prevents the target from casting spells in the same school when channeled casting is interrupted.
F: If using Gouge triggers the Stormshroud Armor lightning effect, the Gouge effect will no longer be instantly interrupted.
U: The Rogue trainers will now point the player to an appropriate area with boxes to unlock depending on the lockpicking skill of the player.
F: Preparation - Will now clear the cooldown of the Blade Flurry ability.
F: Riposte - Fixed a bug that prevented the ability from being used when the target had no weapon or was already disarmed.
Warlocks
N: Paranoia (Felhunter) - Increased stealth detection.
World Environment
N: Patrolling scouts that can see through stealth and invisibility have been added to Darnassus, Stormwind City, Undercity and Thunder Bluff.
Bug Fixes
F: Extra attacks gained from spells and abilities are applied immediately and do not affect normal combat swing time.
F: Abilities which do an additional percentage of weapon damage now include attack power as part of the base weapon damage.
Patch 1.5 (6/6/05)
General
F: Fixed a bug where the PvP trinket rewards were not always removing the effects they were designed to remove (e.g. Polymorph, Fear, Stun).
PVP
N: Sitting characters will now stand up immediately after an attack, even if stunned.
Rogues
F: Riposte - Fixed a bug where the ability was not usable against a disarmed or unarmed target.
F: Vanish - Should be a lot more responsive when used to avoid incoming attacks.
Patch 1.6 (8/2/05)
General
F: Fist Weapons will now have the normal chance to parry that all weapons use.
F: It will no longer be possible to swap any equipment while stunned.
N: Damage caused by environmental effects will now cancel stealth (e.g. swimming in lava).
F: Special abilities which are parried will correctly activate abilities which are usable after parrying.
F: Fixed a bug where broken off-hand fist weapons would prevent main-hand dagger abilities from being usable.
Rogues
F: Riposte - Targets immune to disarm effects will now take damage from Riposte.
F: Disarming an enemy faction hunter's trap will now flag the rogue for PvP.
F: Ghostly Strike no longer deals damage to you when you use it.
F & B: Premeditation - Fixed a bug where the combo points gained using the ability were not properly removed after the duration expired. Also increased range and duration.
F: Fixed a bug where the energy gained by Relentless Strikes in some cases was increased beyond the value listed in the tooltip.
F: The UI now properly shows that Preparation does not clear a Cold Blood setup.
Items
F: The stealth detection bonus on the Druid PvP set gloves has been changed to work in all forms, including caster form.
U: Set bonus for Stormshroud armor improved. It should be more compelling for rogues and druids now.
Quest
F: Obtaining a set of Thieves' Tools in the quest "Tools of the Trade" no longer flags you for PvP.
Raids and Dungeons
F: The trapped chests in Stratholme will now show up for Detect Traps and can be disarmed. In addition, the number of creatures that come out of the trapped chests has been reduced.
N: Many creatures in Stratholme have gained Detect Invisibility/Stealth.
Patch 1.7 (9/13/05)
General
N: Switching weapons in combat triggers a 1 second global cooldown for all abilities for rogues and a 1.5 second global cooldown for everyone else.
F: Several stun spells and abilities that were previously unresistable can now be resisted as was always intended.
F: You can no longer unequip weapons while they are disarmed.
F: When you swap weapons in combat, you start your swing again, instead of continuing your last swing.
F: Fixed bug where self-inflicted damage, like Poisonous Blood, wouldn't break stealth.
Rogues
F: Riposte - Will now initiate combat when used.
F: Deflection - Will now increase parry chance when using Fist Weapons.
F: Mace Specialization - The stun effect can now be resisted.
F: Shoot Bow/Gun/Crossbow - Should no longer cause a global cooldown on all other abilities.
F: The fire damage from the Blazefury Medallion and the Gutgore Ripper's effect should no longer immediately break Gouge.
F: Riposte - Fixed a bug where the ability was not usable when a special attack (e.g. Gouge) is parried.
Items
F: PvP reward gloves that grant stealth detection have had the detection reduced somewhat.
F: The Fade effect on the Stealthblade will no longer trigger the cooldown for the Rogue's Feint ability.
Professions
N: Catseye Goggles have had their stealth detection increased somewhat.
Quest
U: A level 50 class quest has been added for the Rogue (Lord Ravenholdt in Ravenholdt Manor), Priest (Greta Mosshoof in Felwood), Mage (Archmage Xylem in Azshara), and Hunter (Ogtinc in Azshara).
Patch 1.8 (10/10/05)
General
N: Instant Attacks
The mechanics of most instant melee attacks have been modified to improve item balance. Previously, instant melee attacks did damage based on the damage range of the weapon, plus a bonus for the player's attack power. This bonus was then multiplied by the speed of the weapon. As a result, slow weapons did more damage than was intended, and fast weapons were considered inferior by most players. We have changed the way the attack power bonus is calculated for instant attacks. This change does NOT affect attack power calculations for normal melee attacks. Instead of multiplying by the speed of the weapon, the attack power bonus is now multiplied by a fixed number pulled from the following table:
- Two-handed weapons: 3.3
- Daggers: 1.7
- All other one-handed weapons: 2.4
As a direct result of this, many weapons have shifted position in their relative power. In particular, many Epic (purple) quality items are now more powerful than slower Superior (blue) weapons.
This change was not made to reduce the power of instant attacks, but to correct the relative imbalance of weapon itemization. At a given level requirement, epic quality weapons should always be more powerful than superior quality weapons.
Please also note that all normal weapon swings will be completely unaffected by this change. The following abilities are affected by the design change: Sinister Strike, Ambush, Backstab, Whirlwind, Mortal Strike, and Overpower.
F: Perception (Human Racial) is now usable while stealthed.
Rogues
F: Vanish - Fixed a bug where the Chilled effect caused by Ice Armor/Frost Armor was not removed properly when vanishing.
U: Parry - Minimum level to train this ability has been lowered to 12.
F: Blade Flurry - This ability will now trigger correctly off of special attacks such as Sinister Strike and Kick.
F: Shoot Bow/Crossbow/Gun - Fixed a bug where these abilities could be used faster than intended.
F: Throw - Use of this ability will now only cause a cooldown with Shoot abilities.
Ambush - Now uses normalized attack power. (See Instant Attack Nerf above)
Backstab - Now uses normalized attack power. (See Instant Attack Nerf above)
F: Riposte - Now properly sets its cooldown.
Sinister Strike - Now uses normalized attack power. (See Instant Attack Nerf above)
Items
F: Items which provide +hit chance will now be allowed to counteract the increased miss chance penalty of dual-wielding.
Patch 1.9 (1/3/06) & Patch 1.9.3 (2/7/06)
Rogue
F: Sword Specialization - Special attacks such as Sinister Strike, and Mortal Strike now properly trigger the chance to gain an extra attack.
B: Mace Specialization - The stun effect's duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc...).
F: Slice and Dice - This finisher can now trigger the Ruthlessness talent.
F: Deadly Poison V - The charges were inadvertently not increased with the new rank of the ability. Increased from 105 to 120 charges.
F: Slice and Dice - This ability should no longer miss.
Items
U: Stormshroud Shoulders have been fixed to be a superior item and have had the stamina on them slightly increased as well.
Raid & Dungeons
N: It should now be very difficult to remain out of combat while fighting the bosses in Molten Core.
Patch 1.10 (3/28/06)
General
F: Channelled spells are cancelled when a rogue vanishes.
U: Traps can now be detected in the same way stealthed units can be detected.
N: Stealth and Invisibility effects will now be canceled at the beginning of an action (spellcast, ability use etc...), rather than at the completion of the action.
Hunters
F: Distract no longer rotates hunters who have feigned death.
U: Hunter traps now use the same rules as stealth rather than being invisible. Detect Trap has been changed to reflect this.
Rogues
F: Slice and Dice - This ability can no longer be blocked, dodged, or parried, and cannot miss. If you attempt to use this ability when your target is dead, you will now receive an error message instead of displaying the spell animations.
F: Sap - Lightning Shield will no longer break Stealth when the Sap is resisted.
F: Remorseless Attacks - This ability will no longer trigger off killing creatures that do not award experience, or players that do not award honor.
F: Distract - This ability will no longer trigger a Shaman's Lightning Shield (which caused the Rogue to lose stealth).
F: Blade Flurry - The additional attacks generated by this ability will now properly take into account the armor of the second target.
F: Blind - Now considered a ranged attack. It can no longer be dodged or parried.
F: Creatures will no longer get one hit on a rogue before cheap shot takes effect.
Patch 1.10.1 (4/11/06)
World Environment
F: The Prophet Skeram is now properly affected by "Curse of Tongues" and "Mind-Numbing Poison."
Patch 1.10.2 (5/2/06)
Rogues
F: Fixed a bug which prevented Vanish from working properly under certain conditions.
F: Seal Fate will now correctly provide a bonus combat point upon landing a critical strike.
Patch 1.11.0 (6/19/06)
General
F: Temporary item buffs (e.g. poisons, sharpening stones and shaman weapon buffs) will persist through zoning or logging out.
F: Chain targeted spells and abilities (e.g. Multi-shot, Cleave, Chain Lightning) will no longer land if target cannot be seen by the caster due to stealth or invisibility.
Rogues
B: Detect Traps is now a passive skill.
F: Pick Pocket: This ability will no longer trigger effects on your target.
F: Slice and Dice: This ability will no longer play its sound effect twice.
F: Vanish: Canceling your Stealth aura while Vanish is running will now cause Vanish to be canceled as well.
F: Hemorrhage: Your damage over time effects will no longer consume charges of Hemorrhage.
Items
U: A number of items have had their stacking limits increased including leather, enchanting dust/shards and rogue poisons/reagents among others.
F: Deathdealer's Spaulders were unintentionally given higher stats than they should have had for an item of their level, this has been corrected.
F: Bloodfang Set Bonus: The damage effect from the 8-piece bonus on this set will no longer trigger on (and break) Gouge.
F: Stormshroud Set: The Lightning effect from this set will no longer break your Gouge.
Bug Fixes
F: The Rogue's ability Distract now works properly against other players.
Patch 1.12.0 (8/22/06) & Patch 1.12.1 (9/26/06)
Rogues
Due to significant talent changes, Rogues will have all talent points refunded and can be re-spent. Training costs for all talent spell replacements have been significantly reduced.
F: Vanish now removes effects that allow the caster to always remain aware of their target (currently Hunter's Mark and Mind Vision).
U: Pickpocket can now be used on targets that are in combat, as long as the rogue remains stealthed.
U: All manner of rogue reagents can be found in locked junkboxes (obtained from pickpocketing).
F: Fixed a bug where the Slice and Dice ability wasn't playing an animation.
F: Lethargy Root has been removed from poison vendors and is now a gray item.
F: Reduced the number of messages in the combat log when using the Vanish ability.
F: Fixed a bug that made Combo Points disappear from your target when using Vanish.
B: Eviscerate: Manual of Eviscerate (Rank 9) now drops off Blackhand Assassins in Black Rock Spire. In addition, Eviscerate now increases in potency with greater attack power.
B: Garrote: The damage from this ability has been increased. In addition, Garrote now increases in potency with greater attack power.
F: Relentless Strikes: This ability will no longer trigger when your finishing move does not hit your target.
B: Rupture: Rupture now increases in potency with greater attack power.
F: Sap: Enemy rogues will now always lose stealth when you Sap them.
Bug Fixes
F: Chain-targeted abilities cast by creatures no longer hit stealthed or invisible players.
F: If a Hunter is unflagged for PvP, an enemy faction rogue won't be able to disarm his trap.
World Environment
N: Cities: Neutral guards are now able to see through the rogue Vanish ability.
World PVP
F: Players will no longer receive honor if a tower in Eastern Plaguelands is captured while they are stealthed.
Patch 2.0.0 (12/5/06)
General
N: Weapon skill will no longer reduce the percentage damage lost due to glancing.
U: The player will gain 0.1% to their critical strike rating per weapon skill against monsters above their level.
Items
F: The damage Proc from the item "Misplaced Servo Arm" will no longer break the Rogue ability "Gouge".
Bugs
F: Fixed a bug where Rogues were able to use the ability "Ghostly Strike" when not facing their target.
F: "Vanish" will now properly un-target the Rogue from the attacker when the attacker is in the same party.
Patch 2.0.3 (1/9/07)
Priests
F: "Mass Dispel" will no longer cause stealthed Rogues and prowling Druids to lose stealth.
Rogues
Due to various talent changes, Rogues will have all talent points refunded.
N: "Evasion" (Rank 2) now reduces the chance that ranged attacks will hit the Rogue by 25%, reduced from 50%. It is now available at level 50.
B: The "Cloak of Shadows" cooldown has been reduced to 1 min, from 2 min. Now a trainable ability at level 66.
B: "Shadowstep" (New Subtlety Talent) attempts to step through the shadows and reappear behind your enemy. Your next "Ambush", "Backstab" or "Garrote" ability is increased by 20% and lasts 10 sec. This is only usable while stealthed.
B: "Premeditation" (Subtlety Talent) has had its range increased to 30 yards.
N: "Preparation" now only resets the cooldown of the "Evasion", "Sprint", "Vanish", "Cold Blood", "Adrenaline Rush" and "Premeditation" abilities.
B: "Wound Poison" now causes damage and reduces all healing by 10%, stacks up to 5 times.
B: The Cooldown for "Blind" has been reduced to 3 min, from 5 min.
F: There is no longer a random chance the effect of "Sap" will end (i.e. removed the heartbeat resist check). The effect will still end early when the target is damaged.
U: Each rank of "Weapon Expertise"now provides 5 weapon skill.
B: "Surprise Attacks" now increases the damage from "Sinister Strike", "Backstab", "Shiv" and "Gouge" by 10% instead of 8%.
F: Resisted spells will no longer break "Stealth"/"Vanish".
F: Combo points added to a target should not be reset until you add a combo point to a different target.
Bug Fixes
F: Updated the tooltip on "Cloak of Shadows" with the additional line, "Does not remove effects that prevent you from using Cloak of Shadows."
F: The rogue Assassination Talent "Quick Recovery" will no longer refund energy back to the Rogue if a finishing move is partially blocked.
F: A "Vanished" rogue will no longer be taken out of their "vanished state" when they resist a spell.
F: The rogue Assasination talent "Find Weakness" will now work properly with the finishing move "Deadly Throw".
F: Using the rogue ability "Mutilate" when not behind your target will no longer initiate combat.
F: The rogue ability "Slice and Dice" will no longer be reported twice in floating combat text when used.
F: "Mind-Numbing Poison" will no longer stack with both "Curse of Tongues" and "Slow".
Items
N: The energy gained from "Thistle Tea" now decreases with levels past 40.
N: The energy gained from "Renataki's Charm of Trickery" now decreases with levels past 60
Patch 2.0.7 (2/13/07) & Patch 2.0.10 (3/6/07)
General
B: The amount of haste granted by a point of haste rating has been increased by about 50%.
Big Fixes
F: The talent "Combat Potency" no longer causes rogues to have a chance to gain energy when other players hit them with off-hand attacks.
Raids and Dungeons
F: Shattered Hand Gladiators will no longer break players' stealth when engaged in combat.
Patch 2.1.0 (5/22/2007)
General
B: Glancing Blows have significantly less of a chance to occur during a player's melee attacks when targets are near the player's level.
U: The amount of parry rating needed to get 1% parry has been reduced by 25%.
Arenas
N: The Shadow Sight buff now allows players to see other stealthed players at a greater range.
Hunters
F: Frost Trap: This trap no longer breaks stealth from its slowing effect.
Rogues
F: Added a new double-attack animation for Mutilate.
F: Added a visual, sound, and combat log message when the Cheat Death talent saves the rogue from death.
U: Blade Twisting: The delay on the daze effect has been reduced.
F: Cloak of Shadows: The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate this ability removes hostile effects, rather than dispels them. Cloak of Shadows does not count as a dispel, and will not interact with dispel resistance or effects triggered by dispelling. This ability no longer removes the Weakened Soul debuff.
F: Deadly Throw: This ability will now damage hunters and their pets when they are affected by The Beast Within or Bestial Wrath. Those targets will still be immune to the movement impairing portion of Deadly Throw.
F: Fixed a data error that caused Ghostly Strike and Riposte to generate more threat than intended.
F: Fixed a bug where the Silence effect on Garrote was getting resisted too often.
F: Gouge: This ability will no longer trigger poisons (and thus break itself).
U/N: Insignia of the Alliance/Horde and Medallion of the Alliance/Horde now remove Fear, Stun and Polymorph effects and no longer remove Charm effects.
B: Improved Sap (Subtlety) renamed Dirty Tricks: Increases the range of your Sap and Blind abilities by 2/4 yards and reduces the energy cost of your Sap and Blind abilities by 25/50%.
U: Increased the frequency and amount of Blinding Powder found in pickpocketed junk boxes.
F: Mutilate: This ability will now always consume the Cold Blood buff when it strikes an opponent.
F: Poisons: The difficulty of dispelling these is now based off the level of the player, not the level of the weapon the poison is applied to.
U: Reduced the reagents required to create most poisons.
U: Remorseless Attacks (Assassination): Hemorrhage added to the buff tooltip. This ability will no longer trigger from killing totems.
U: Rogue poisons no longer have charges.
B: Sap no longer removes you from stealth when used.
U: Shadowstep (Subtlety): The cooldown has been reduced to 15 seconds.
F: Stealth will now be broken correctly by damage shield such as Oil of Immolation.
F: Surprise Attacks (Combat): This talent now correctly prevents Envenom from being dodged.
B/F: Sword Specialization: This ability now grants extra yellow attacks instead of extra white attacks. This change will make Sword Specialization no longer reset the weapon swing timer when it triggers off special attacks, and results in a net increase in damage dealt.
Items
U: Khorium Lockboxes will now drop occasionally off creatures over level 65.
F: Corrected a typo in the tooltip of Anesthetic Poison in regards to the number of charge applied.
F: Khorium Lockboxes will now contain loot of the appropriate level.
F: Assassination Set: The haste bonus from this set will no longer be triggered if your attack does not land on the target.
F: Devilsaur Set: The hit rating set bonus will now stack correctly with hit rating bonuses from other items.
F: Netherblade Set: The set bonus giving a chance to gain combo points on finishers now works correctly with Slice and Dice and Deadly Throw.
F: The Stealther's Helmet of Second Sight will now properly hide facial hair.
F: Adamantite Weight Stones now work on staves and fist weapons.
F: Fel Weightstone now works on fist weapons.
N: The Night Blade: The chance for the effect on this item to trigger has been reduced.
F: Updated the General's Leather Boots to properly reflect the Alliance counterpart.
U: Leatherworking made Primalstrike set now has an attack power set bonus rather than a strength set bonus.
Dungeons and Raids
U: Creatures will no longer Cleave targets that aren't in front of them.
U: Creatures will no longer perform Sweeping Strikes.
World Environment
F: Dust Howler: This creature's "Howling Dust" ability is now correctly removed by "Cloak of Shadows".
Patch 2.1.2 (06/19/2007)
Rogues
N/F: Sword Specialization: The change to Sword Specialization making its extra attacks appear in yellow has been reverted. Extra attacks will appear in white and act like any auto-attack. They will no longer reset the swing time of your weapon.
Items
N/B: PvP Trinkets: Insignia of the Alliance, Insignia of the Horde, Medallion of the Alliance, and Medallion of the Horde have all been redesigned. The trinkets for all classes now have the same effect: Dispels all movement impairing effects and all effects that cause loss of control of your character.
Patch 2.2.0 (09/25/2007)
General
N: Haste: Haste has been rebalanced. It has returned to the ratios from the launch of Burning Crusade. Melee attacks and spell casts will now benefit at identical rates from haste. This change results in a reduction in the benefit of haste for melee attacks and an increase in the benefit for spellcasters.
Priests
F: Mass Dispel: The portion of this spell that removes immunity effects (Blessing of Protection, Ice Block, etc.), now has a chance to be resisted, and will display correctly to the combat log. It will no longer cause Rogues and Druids in Cat Form to lose stealth.
Rogues
F: Blade Flurry: This ability will now do damage to secondary targets when the primary target takes no damage due to a damage shield (such as Power Word: Shield).
F: Cold Blood: This effect will now be consumed by all crits, including those against targets with damage shields.
F: Master of Subtlety: The bonus damage from this talent is now properly removed when a Rogue loses stealth from zoning.
F: Sap: It is no longer possible to Sap two targets at the same time in the outdoor world.
N: Sap duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds.
N: Sword Specialization: This talent's free extra attacks can no longer trigger additional extra attacks.
Shamans
F: Earthbind Totem: This totem will no longer break Rogue stealth.
Items
F: Ashtongue Talisman of Lethality: This trinket now works properly with Kidney Shot.
F: Blazefury Medallion: This item will no longer trigger against targets affected by Sap.
F: Slayer's Armor: The set bonus for Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Mutilate now also works for Hemorrhage.
Patch 2.3.0 (11/13/2007)
General
N/B: Weapon Skill: All items and abilities that granted weapon skill have been changed. In most cases, they were converted to expertise or expertise rating. Ranged attacks do not benefit from expertise, so ranged weapon skill has generally been replaced by critical strike bonuses or hit bonuses. In a few cases, talents have been changed to other effects to avoid granting players excessive amounts of expertise.
Druids
F: Force of Nature: This ability will no longer automatically break stealth on victims in its casting area. Nearby stealthed characters may still be attacked if they are too close to the summoned Treants.
Rogues
U: All poisons will now enchant the weapon for 1 hour, increased from 30 minutes.
F: Blade Flurry: This ability now works correctly in all cases with shielded targets.
B/U/N: Blind is now a physical (no longer a poison) attack. Reagent requirement removed. Now shares the same diminish category as Cyclone and is now diminished in PvE as well as PvP.
B/N: 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.
F: Cold Blood: Fixed an issue where this buff was sometimes getting removed when an attack missed.
B: Dirty Deeds now also increases special ability damage against enemies below 35% health.
F: Dirty Deeds: This talent will no longer interfere with getting the bonus damage from the Druid ability Mangle on Rupture and Garrote.
B: Fleet Footed (Assassination) now increases movement speed by 8/15%.
B: Hemorrhage: This ability now does 125% of weapon damage.
F: Kick: Interrupting a channeled spell with this ability will now always properly prevent casting spells from the same spell school for 5 sec.
U: Precision: This talent now also applies to ranged weapons.
F: Remorseless Attacks: This talent can no longer be triggered by the death of a rogue's target dummy or other pet.
N: Riposte is now subject to diminishing returns in PvP.
B: Rogue's Deadly Throw missile speed increased significantly and snare duration increased slightly.
N: Ruthlessness now only affects melee finishing moves. It no longer works with Deadly Throw.
F: Sap: Multiple Saps placed by multiple Rogues will now be handled correctly in all cases.
B/U/N: Shadowstep (Subtlety) can now be used at any time, not only while stealthed. Now increases the damage and reduces the threat caused by the next damaging ability. Cooldown increased to 30 seconds. Range changed to 25 yards.
F: If you are in Stealth and try to use an ability that may not be used while stealthed, you will leave stealth and use that ability. This can be disabled with /console autoUnshift 0
Items
F: Ashtongue Talisman of Lethality: This item will no longer trigger when the victim of your finishing move is immune to that attack.
F: Lockboxes will now display the numerical lockpicking skill required to open them.
Patch 2.3.2 (1/8/2008)
Rogues
B: Ambush: The damage multiplier on this ability has been increased from 250% to 275%.
F: Cheat Death: When multiple attacks land simultaenously, all those resolved after the attack which triggered Cheat Death will now have their damage reduced by 90% as intended. However, the combat log will still report them doing full damage.
F: Hemorrhage: Rank 4 of this ability no longer has its charges consumed by non-physical attacks and spells.
N/U: Hemorrhage weapon damage reduced from 125% to 110%, but the damage debuff has been increased.
F: Hemorrhage: This ability now correctly does additional damage when its debuff has already been applied.
B/N: Preparation now resets the cooldown of Shadowstep and no longer resets the cooldown of Adrenaline Rush.
B: Shadowstep now adds a 3 second, 70% movement speed increase.
B: Sinister Calling now also increases the percentage damage bonus of Hemorrhage and Backstab by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Patch 2.4 (3/25/2008)
Rogues
F: Abilities that can be used while stealthed, without breaking stealth, can now be cast without breaking Vanish when used at the same time.
F: Cheat Death: A combat log message will now show when this ability activates and now has an animation.. It will now almost always be accurate in displaying the amount of damage done to a rogue when under the effects of Cheat Death.
B: Improved Backstab is now called Puncturing Wounds. Puncturing Wounds increases your critical strike chance with Backstab by 10/20/30%, and the critical strike chance with your Mutilate ability by 5/10/15%.
F: Improved Sprint: This ability will now always remove Entangling Roots.
U: Sap mechanic changed from �Incapacitate� to �Sap�. This will allow more humanoids that were previously immune to Sap to be vulnerable to Sap, but still immune to Gouge. Note that anything that removed Sap previously will still remove Sap after the change.
F: Vanish: This ability will no longer sometimes cause the UI to display Shadowmeld as active when it has been cancelled
Battlegrounds
F: Battleground Rune Buffs: Speed, Restoration, and Berserking buffs received from battleground runes will no longer cause Stealth or Prowl to break.
Items
F: Gladiator's Leather Gloves: This arena bonus will now properly school lock enemies when the damage from Deadly Throw causes them to stop channeling.
Dungeons and Raids
U: Non-corporeal Undead and Mechanical creatures are now susceptible to bleed effects.
U: Elemental creatures are no longer explicitly immune to poison and disease effects. Elementals with nature school immunities will still be immune to nature-based poisons, however.
Patch 2.4.2 (5/13/2008)
Rogues
F: Ability: Blade Flurry: This ability can no longer hit critters as its secondary targets and will now use a proper range calculation for all secondary targets.
F: Talent: Mutilate (Assassination) will no longer incorrectly appear multiple times in the combat log when used.
Items
N: Renataki's Charm of Trickery has had its energy reduced.
Patch 2.4.3 (7/15/2008)
Rogues
N: Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue's health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes.
N: Sinister Calling now increases damage to Backstab and Hemorrhage by 1/2/3/4/5% (down from 2/4/6/8/10%.)
Items
F: Brutal Gladiator's Pummeler has had its Stamina value increased to the appropriate value.
Bug Fixes
F: Hunter Snake Trap will no longer break players out of stealth if the snakes pass near the stealthed character.
F: Rogues: The talent Heightened Senses, Rank 1 and Rank 2 will now affect attacks from wands.
F: Cloak of Shadows will now properly remove the curse Shrink.
Patch 3.0.2 (10/14/2008)
Rogues
- Aggression has been moved up 1 tier and now adds 3/6/9/12/15% damage to Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Eviscerate.
- Anesthetic Poison now also dispels one Enrage effect on the target.
- Blade Twisting (Combat) now cause all damaging melee attacks to have a 10% chance to daze for 4/8 seconds movement speed reduced by 70%, also adds 5/10% dmg to Sinister Strike and Backstab.
- Camouflage (Subtlety) reduced to 3 ranks for 5/10/15% speed and 2/4/6 secs off the cooldown of Stealth.
- Cloak of Shadows cooldown increased to 1.5 min.
- Crippling Poison reduced to 1 rank, slowing movement by 70%.
- Dagger Specialization (Combat) renamed Close Quarters Combat, moved to tier 3, now increases critical strike chance with Daggers and Fist Weapons by 1/2/3/4/5%.
- Damaging poisons now scale with attack power.
- Deadened Nerves (Assassination) reduced to 3 ranks, now reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%.
- Deflection (Combat) reduced to 3 ranks, increasing parry by 2/4/6%.
- Disarm Trap range increased to 20 yards, cast time reduced, now requires stealth.
- Dual Wield Specialization (Combat) moved to tier 1.
- Elusiveness (Subtlety) moved to Tier 3, now reduces cooldown of Vanish and Blind by 30/60 sec and Cloak of Shadows by 15/30 sec.
- Energy regeneration should now be smoother.
- Endurance (Combat) now reduces cooldown of Evasion and Sprint by 30/60 secs.
- Enveloping Shadows: Now reduces damage by 10/20/30%.
- Envenom now also increases your chance to apply poisons by 25% for 2-6 seconds (based on combo points).
- Evasion, Sprint and Vanish cooldowns reduced to 3 min.
- Find Weakness (Assassination) is now a passive talent, reduced to 3 ranks, increases damage of offensive abilities by 3/6/9%.
- Fist Weapon Specialization (Combat) removed.
- Fleet Footed (Assassination) now reduces duration of movement impairing effects by 15/30% rather than increasing resist chance.
- Focused Attacks now gives 2 energy regardless of rank.
- Gouge is now only 1 rank and causes damage based on attack power.
- Improved Ambush (Subtlety) moved to Tier 4, reduced to 2 ranks for 25/50%.
- Improved Eviscerate (Assassination) now increases damage by 7/14/20%.
- Improved Expose Armor (Assassination) now reduces the energy cost by 5/10, no longer increases duration.
- Improved Poisons (Assassination) now increases chance to apply poisons by 2/4/6/8/10%.
- Improved Slice and Dice (Combat) reduced to 2 ranks, increases duration by 25/50%.
- Improved Sprint (Combat) moved to Tier 4.
- Initiative (Subtlety) moved to Tier 4, increased to 33/66/100% chance.
- Kick is now only 1 rank and no longer causes damage.
- Lethality (Assassination) now also affects Riposte.
- Lightning Reflexes (Combat) moved to tier 4.
- Mace Specialization (Combat) no longer stuns enemiesnow ignores 3/6/9/12/15% of target's armor.
- Master of Deception (Subtlety) reduced to 3 ranks.
- Mind-Numbing Poison reduced to 1 rank, slowing casting speed by 60%.
- Murder (Assassination) moved to tier 6, increases damage by 2/4%.
- Mutilate (Assassination) no longer requires you be behind the target.
- Nerves of Steel (Combat) now reduces damage taken while Stunned or Feared by 15/30%.
- Opportunity (Subtlety) reduced to 2 ranks for 10/20%.
- Pick Lock and Disarm Trap no longer require Thieve's Tools.
- Poisons skill removed. All finished poisons are available on vendors rather than created by the rogue.
- Precision (Combat) now also increases chance to hit with poison attacks by 1/2/3/4/5%.
- Premeditation (Subtlety) duration increased to 20 seconds, cooldown reduced to 20 seconds.
- Preparation (Subtlety) no longer refreshes the cooldown of Premeditation.
- Relentless Strikes (Assassination) moved to Tier 1 Subtlety, made 5 ranks for 4/8/12/16/20% chance.
- Riposte (Combat) now slows the target's melee attacks by 20% instead of disarming them, awards one combo point.
- Serrated Blades (Subtlety) moved to Tier 3.
- Setup (Subtlety) chance to gain a combo point increased to 33/66/100%.
- Shadowstep (Subtlety) is no longer usable while rooted.
- Surprise Attacks (Combat) now also increases Hemorrhage damage.
- Vanish no longer requires the reagent Flash Powder.
- Vigor (Assassination) moved to Tier 3.
- Vile Poisons (Assassination) reduced to 3 ranks, now increases damage of poisons and Envenom by 7/14/20% and increases dispel resistance by 10/20/30%.
- Vitality now regenerates 8/16/25% energy.
- Wounding Poison no longer stacks, reduces healing by 50%.
Patch 3.0.3 (11/4/2008)
Rogues
N: Combat Potency: Now only works with auto attacks (no more Shiv.)
B: Fan of Knives changed to be castable with no targets, further improved the visual affect and it no longer plays an impact on the caster. Now benefits correctly from the Find Weakness talent. Cooldown reduced to 10 sec.
F: Killing Spree: Instead of making the rogue untargetable, now causes all players to lose targeting on the rogue and the rogue to be unstoppable during its duration.
F: Riposte: Duration of this effect no longer reduced by other effects that reduce disarm duration.
B: Shadow Dance: The cooldowns on Sap, Garrotte, Ambush, Cheap Shot, Premeditation, Pickpocket, and Disarm Trap are no longer increased while this ability is activated.
Bug Fixes
F: Glyph of Rupture: The tooltip has been corrected.
F: Rogue: Deadly Poison Rank 8 will now do less damage than Rank 9.
Patch 3.0.8 (1/20/2009)
General
N: All Silence spells now have diminishing returns. This includes: Arcane Torrent, Garrote silence effect, Improved Counterspell effect, Improved Kick effect, Silence, Gag Order, Silencing Shot, Spell Lock, and Strangulate.
Rogues
B: Cheap Shot: This ability no longer has diminishing returns against anything other than itself.
B: Fan of Knives: The cooldown has been removed. In addition, now deals 150% of weapon damage when used while daggers are equipped.
B: Feint: Rank 8 now reduces the damage taken from area of effect attacks by 50% for 6 seconds in addition to its existing effects.
N: Kidney Shot: This ability now has diminishing returns against all other stuns.
Bug Fixes
F: Envenom: The tooltip values have been corrected to be accurate.
F: Fan of Knives: All poisons will now trigger correctly when used with this ability.
F: Honor Among Thieves: The bug where stacking multiple rogues with this talent caused them all to gain additional combo points has been fixed. In addition, it no longer cancels eating and drinking if a party member gains a critical strike while it is active.
F: Killing Spree: This ability no longer breaks stealth if it fails due to all targets being out of range.
F: Mutilate: this ability will no longer give poisons on the off-hand weapon two chances to be triggered.
F: Turn the Tables: This talent no longer generates threat when it triggers.
F: Glyph of Ambush: This glyph will now interact correctly with Initiative when Ambush is used outside of combat range.
Patch 3.0.9 (2/10/2009)
Rogues
B: Hunger for Blood (Assassination): Now increases damage 5% per stack, (up from 3%.)
N: Mind Numbing Poison now reduces cast time by 30%, down from 60%.
N: Mutilate damage will now do 20% increased damage against poisoned targets, down from 50%.
B: Slice and Dice (Rank 2): This ability now increases melee attack speed by 40%, up from 30%.
Patch 3.1 (4/14/2009)
Classes: General
B: Armor Penetration Rating: All classes now receive 25% more benefit from Armor Penetration Rating.
Rogues
B: Deadly Poison: The amount of damage this poison generates from the rogue's attack power has been increased from 8% per application to 12%.
B: Deadly Throw: Missile speed increased.
B: Instant Poison: Redesigned to have its chance to be applied based on the speed of the weapon (frequency-based).
N: Shiv: This ability can no longer generate a critical strike, and the poisons it applies cannot be critical strikes either.
F: Tricks of the Trade: Will now begin following the first damaging attack.
B: Wound Poison: Redesigned to have its chance to be applied based on the speed of the weapon (frequency-based).
N/B: Hunger For Blood: No longer stacks. Damage bonus changed to 15% for a single application. Requires a bleed effect active on the rogue's target. No longer removes bleeds from the rogue. Now costs 15 energy and lasts for 60 seconds.
B: Master Poisoner: Now also increases the bonus to apply Deadly Poison when Envenom is used by an additional 15/30/45%.
B: Adrenaline Rush cooldown reduced to 3 minutes.
B: Killing Spree: Now also increases all damage done by the rogue while active by 20%.
B: Savage Combat improved to 2/4% increased damage against poisoned targets.
B: Lightning Reflexes reduced to 3 ranks for 2/4/6% dodge and 4/7/10% melee haste.
F: Shadow Dance now opens a new action bar when used.
Items
B: Glyph of Adrenaline Rush: Now increases duration by 5 seconds.
N: Glyph of Backstab: Now increases remaining duration on Rupture by 2 seconds each time it is used, up to a maximum of 6 seconds.
NEW: Glyph of Cloak of Shadows: While Cloak of Shadows is active, you take 40% less physical damage.
B: Glyph of Crippling Poison: Poison chance bonus increased to 20%.
B: Glyph of Deadly Throw: Increases the movement reduction by 10%.
NEW: Glyph of Fan of Knives: Increases the damage done by Fan of Knives by 20%.
NEW: Glyph of Hunger for Blood: Increases the bonus damage from Hunger for Blood by 3%.
NEW: Glyph of Killing Spree: Reduces the cooldown on Killing Spree by 45 seconds.
NEW: Glyph of Mutilate: Reduces the cost of Mutilate by 5 energy.
B: Glyph of Pick Lock: Now reduces cast time by 100%.
B: Glyph of Sap: Increases duration by 20 seconds.
NEW: Glyph of Shadow Dance: Increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 4 seconds.
B: Glyph of Sprint: No longer reduces the duration.
NEW: Glyph of Tricks of the Trade: Your Tricks of the Trade grants an additional 10% bonus damage to your target.
F: Heavy Junkboxes will no longer have deprecated poison materials.
Bug Fixes
F: Master of Subtlety: The amount of time remaining on the damage bonus for this talent is now displayed.
Patch 3.1.2 (5/19/2009)
Items
F: Guise of the Midgard Serpent: The base attack power on this item has been lowered to balance it against items of a similar quality.
Bug Fixes
F: Shadow Dance: Issues with action bars and ability use arising from using Stealth while Shadow Dance is active have been fixed.
F: Tricks of the Trade: To prevent exploits, this ability can no longer be cast on non-player targets.
Patch 3.2.0 (8/4/2009)
Dungeons and Raids
F: Players can now use Blink, Shadowstep, and Demonic Teleport while participating in the illusion events in the Yogg-Saron encounter.
Races: General
B: Axe Specialization (Orc): The weapon bonus from this effect now applies to fist weapons in addition to axes.
Items: General
N: Agility: The amount of agility required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This change required recalibrating the amount of dodge a player has with 0 agility by a slight amount as well, so all players will see their dodge percentage vary a small amount.
N: Dodge Rating: The amount of dodge rating required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply.
Rogues
B: After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.
B: Sword Specialization: This talent is now called Hack and Slash and applies to axes as well as swords.
B/N: Shadow Dance: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute. Now lasts 6 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
Items
N: Glyph of Shadow Dance: Now increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
N: Glyph of Tricks of the Trade: Now increases the duration of the damage bonus effect instead of increasing the damage bonus.
Bug Fixes
F: Honor Among Thieves: Periodic critical strikes now grant combo points for rogues with this talent.
F: Killing Spree: Error message when no targets are in range has been changed to "Out of Range."
F: Master of Subtlety: Being under the effects of Cyclone when the buff from this talent is about to expire will no longer make it last indefinitely.
F: Overkill: Being under the effects of Cyclone when the buff from this talent is about to expire will no longer make it last indefinitely.
F: Shiv: Deadly Poison will now apply properly when Shiv is the attack used to break a Gouge.
F: Tricks of the Trade: Using this ability on a target affected by Cyclone or Banish will no longer place the ability on permanent cooldown and will instead give an error message.
F: Turn the Tables: Rank 2 of this talent will now work properly with raid members, and not just party members.
F: Deadly Gladiator's Dreadplate: The set bonus will now trigger properly from Crippling Poison.
Patch 3.2.2 (9/22/2009)
General
N: Armor Penetration Rating: The amount of armor penetration gained per point of this rating has been reduced by 12%.
Rogues
B: Envenom's scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.
N: Fan of Knives: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 30%.
B: Master Poisoner: No longer increases the Deadly Poison application rate following a successful Envenom and instead now provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.
N: Throwing Specialization: This talent no longer causes Fan of Knives to interrupt spellcasting.
N: Honor Among Thieves: A 1-second cooldown is now enforced on how often a rogue can gain combo points from his party via this talent.
Bug Fixes
F: Vanish: This ability now correctly removes the snaring component of Frostfire Bolt.
F: Honor Among Thieves: This talent will now work properly again if two rogues with different ranks of the talent are in the same party.
F: Stoneclaw Totem's pulses will no longer break stealth on nearby hostile units.
Patch 3.3.0 (12/8/2009)
General
B: Default Equipment: Starting weapons are now more uniform. Rogues now start with a pair of daggers equipped.
Rogues
B: Deadly Poison: In addition to its existing effects, when a rogue applies Deadly Poison to a target which has already reached the maximum number of applications, this will also trigger the poison which the rogue is using on his or her other weapon.
B: Dual Wield: Rogues now know this ability upon logging into the game at level 1.
B: Stealth: This ability no longer has multiple ranks. While active, the single rank of this ability (available at level 1) allows rogues to move at 70% movement speed.
B: Improved Poisons: Bonus chance to trigger Deadly Poison from this talent increased.
B: Murder: This talent now provides a flat damage increase of 2/4% against all targets, instead of only targets which do not appear in Icecrown.
B: Preparation: The cooldown on this ability has been reduced to 8 minutes, down from 10 minutes.
N: Filthy Tricks: The cooldown reduction this talent provides for Preparation has been reduced to 1.5/3 minutes, down from 2.5/5 minutes.
Bug Fixes
F: Ambush: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
F: Backstab: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
F: Deadly Poison: Another rogue using a higher rank of this poison will no longer prevent the lower rank Deadly Poison from being applied to the target.
F: Eviscerate: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
F: Glyph of Rupture: Now updates the duration on Rupture's tooltip.
F: Killing Spree: Entering a vehicle will now cause this ability to halt, and attempting to use it while on a vehicle will result in an error message.
F: Mutilate: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage. In addition, the damage from this ability can now be blocked.
F: Sinister Strike: The tooltip on this ability will now update properly from talents which increase its damage by a percentage.
F: Slice and Dice: Improved Slice and Dice and Glyph of Slice and Dice now update the duration of this ability.
F: Throwing Specialization: Deadly Throw will no longer cause multiple spell interruption combat log entries when used with this talent.
Patch 3.3.3 (3/23/2010)
Rogues
B: Rupture: The damage-over-time component of this ability can now produce critical strikes.
B: Filthy Tricks: Now Reduces the cooldown by 5/10 seconds and energy cost by 5/10 of Tricks of the Trade, Distract and Shadowstep abilities, and reduces the cooldown of Preparation by 1.5/3 minutes.
B: Ghostly Strike: If the rogue has a dagger equipped, this ability now deals 180% weapon damage instead of 125%.
B: Hemorrhage: If the rogue has a dagger equipped, this ability now deals 160% weapon damage instead of 110%.
B: Serrated Blades: This talent now allows the rogue to ignore up to 3/6/9% of the target's armor, rather than a fixed amount of armor ignored per level of the rogue.
B: Slaughter from the Shadows: Now adds 1/2/3/4/5% damage to all attacks and reduces the energy cost of Backstab and Ambush by 4/8/12/16/20, up from 3/6/9/12/15.
B: Waylay: The debuff from this talent can now be caused by Backstab in addition to Ambush and can be triggered by all hits from these abilities rather than just critical strikes, but the snare component is now 50%, down from 70%.
Items
B: Glyph of Deadly Throw: Now increases the slowing effect on Deadly Throw by 20%, up from 10%.
B: Glyph of Expose Armor: Now increases the duration of Expose Armor by 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds.
B: Glyph of Feint: Now reduces the energy cost of Feint by 20, up from 10.
Patch 4.0.1 (10/12/2010)
Classes: General
- Many class talents, spells, and abilities have been overhauled, added, or removed.
- Ammo has been removed from the game.
- The character levels at which classes gain new spells and abilities have changed.
- Many item and class stats have been changed or removed.
- Mastery rating has been added as a new stat which provides unique benefits for characters based on class and talent specialization. Mastery rating does not currently exist on items in the game, however, Reforging can be used to add Mastery rating as a secondary stat to existing items.
- Spells and abilities no longer have multiple ranks and now scale with character level.
- Talent trees have been altered. All player talent specializations have been reset, allowing for free re-specialization.
- Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
- Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend at level 85.
- Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
- Once a talent specialization has been chosen, players may only place points in the primary tree until at least 31 points have been spent there.
Rogues
- Lockpicking now skills up as you level, you no longer need to practice. Hovering over your Pick Lock icon will show the current level of box you can open. Feat of Strength for maximising lock picking before patch was not implemented.
Patch 4.0.3a (11/22/2010)
Classes: General
N: Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks, Wound Poison, Widow Venom, Permafrost, Improved Mind Blast, Monstrous Bite, and Legion Strike now reduce healing by 10%, down from 25%.
Rogues
B: Deadly Poison base damage and attack power coefficient have been increased by 30%.
N: Recuperate now restores 2% of maximum health, down from 3%.
B: Venomous Wounds base damage and attack power coefficient have been increased by 30%.
B: Aggression now increases damage of Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Eviscerate by 7/14/20%, up from 5/10/15%.
B: Bandit's Guile now gives 10/20/30% increased damage as the rogue gains greater insight, up from 5/10/15%.
N: Executioner no longer affects Recuperate.
F: Bandit's Guile now applies more consistently to all of the abilities it's supposed to modify.
F: Player guardians and temporary pets now stop attacking when a rogue uses Vanish, but city guards will not.
Patch 4.0.6 (2/8/2011)
Classes: General
N: Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks, Wound Poison, Widow Venom, Permafrost, Improved Mind Blast, Monstrous Bite, and Legion Strike now reduce healing by 10%, down from 25%.
Rogues
N: Blind now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
N/B: Combat Readiness now lasts for 20 seconds, down from 30 seconds, but the Combat Insight stacking buff lasts 10 seconds, up from 6 seconds.
N: Crippling Poison now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
B: Garrote now costs 45 Energy, down from 50.
N: Sap now has a PvP duration of 8 seconds.
N: Smoke Bomb now lasts for 5 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
B: Stealth is no longer broken by enemies using Demoralizing Shout or Demoralizing Roar.
B: Deadly Momentum critical strike bonus now lasts for 15 seconds, up from 10.
B/N: Blade Flurry is now a toggle that can be turned off by pressing the button again. In addition, this ability no longer has a fixed duration, but will go on cooldown for 10 seconds after being canceled (similar to Stealth). In addition, Blade Flurry now reduces energy generation by 30% while active, up from 20%.
B: Main Gauche (Mastery) now provides a chance to deal an attack for 100% of main-hand damage. This attack can trigger Combat Potency.
B: Restless Blades now also reduces the cooldown of Redirect.
B: Revealing Strike now increases finisher effectiveness by 35% (45% glyphed), up from 20% (30% glyphed).
B: Vitality now increases attack power by 25%, up from 20%.
N: Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows by 10/20 seconds, down from 15/30 seconds.
B: Executioner (Mastery) has been increased from 2% to 2.5% per point.
B: Find Weakness now grants 35/70% armor reduction, up from 25/50%.
N: Preparation no longer resets the cooldown of Evasion.
B: Sanguinary Vein now gives a rogue a 50/100% chance for their own Bleed effects to not break their Gouge.
N: Shadowstep's cooldown has been increased to 24 seconds, up from 20 seconds.
B: Sinister Calling now grants 30% Agility, up from 25%, and increases Backstab and Hemorrhage damage by an additional 40%, up from 25%.
N: Glyph of Garrote now increases the duration of Garrote by 1.5 seconds, down from 2.
F: Cloak of Shadows now functions properly to protect the rogue from the following boss and creature abilities: Gravity Well (Terrastra, The Bastion of Twilight), Burning Corruption (Crimsonborne Seer, Grim Batol), Lava Fissure (Slabhide, The Stonecore), Geyser (Lady Naz'jar, Throne of the Tides), Noxious Mire (Naz'jar Sentinel, Throne of the Tides).
F: Cheat Death was activating by a warlock's Chaos Bolt but not working. Chaos Bolt will still trigger Cheat Death, but will not kill the rogue.
F: Eviscerate was showing reduced energy cost at low levels, even though the cost should remain 35 energy. This has been corrected.
F: Feint correctly reduces Quake damage from Rom'ogg Bonecrusher (Blackrock Caverns).
F: The Honor Among Thieves buff icon is now correctly displayed for the rogue, and not just for the rogue's party members.
F: Ruthlessness has the correct chance to proc when Envenom is used.
F: Blade Flurry's tooltip is now correctly augmented by Glyph of Blade Flurry.
F: The Hemorrhage tooltip is now correctly updated to reflect the bleed effect when Glyph of Hemorrhage is applied.
F: The Preparation tooltip is now augmented by Glyph of Preparation.
Items
B: Weapon Chains now reduce disarm duration by 60%, up from 50%.
Professions
B: Meta gems with the Chaotic and Relentless prefixes now have a requirement of 3 red gems.
Patch 4.0.6a (2/11/2011)
Classes
F: Area-of-effect abilities such as Consecration, Efflorescence, Healing Rain, Holy Word: Sanctuary, Ring of Frost, and Smoke Bomb now function correctly when cast on any trapdoors (ala Cho'gall) or transports even while the caster is not standing on one of those same objects.
Rogues
F: Combat Readiness now triggers from all ranged attacks.
F: Gouge is now breaking properly from spell and ability damage.
Patch 4.1.0 (4/26/2011)
Classes: General
B: All non-damaging interrupts off the global cooldown will now always hit the target. This includes Pummel, Kick, Mind Freeze, Rebuke, Skull Bash, Counterspell, Wind Shear, Solar Beam, Silencing Shot, and related player pet abilities.
U: Several persistent ground effects now display different visuals for hostile and friendly players. The following spells have the same visual effects for friendly players, but new alternate visuals for hostile players: Ring of Frost, Consecration, Desecration, Wild Mushroom, Flare, Ice Trap, Power Word: Barrier, Smoke Bomb, and Hand of Gul'dan. As a general rule, the alternate effects have a red tint or hue indicating they are created by an enemy player.
Rogues
B: Recuperate base effect now heals 3% per tick, up from 2%.
B: Stealth base cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10, and the movement penalty from being in Stealth has been removed.
B: Tricks of the Trade now has a 100-yard range, up from 20.
N: Improved Recuperate now adds 0.5%/1% to the health restoration effect of Recuperate, down from 1%/2%.
N: Cheat Death now reduces damage taken by 80% while in effect, down from 90%. Its internal cooldown has been raised to 90 seconds, up from 60.
B: Nightstalker now reduces the cooldown of Stealth by 2/4 seconds, and instead of negating the movement penalty from Stealth, it adds a 5/10% movement speed bonus (stacking with other effects) while Stealthed.
F: Kick can no longer be blocked.
F: Certain non-damaging AoE attacks cast by NPCs will no longer break Stealth.
F: Hostile pets should now be less inclined to follow rogues that are in Stealth.
Patch 4.2.0 (6/28/2011)
Rogues
N/B: Cloak of Shadows cooldown is now 2 minutes, up from 90 seconds. In addition, Cloak of Shadows is no longer on the global cooldown.
N: Combat Readiness and Cloak of Shadows now share a cooldown.
B: Blind duration against enemy NPCs is now 1 minute, while the duration against players remains 8 seconds.
F: Stealth now once again begins its cooldown once the rogue leaves Stealth.
B: Assassin's Resolve damage bonus has been increased to 20%, up from 15%.
B: Vile Poisons now increases poison damage by 12/24/36%, up from 7/14/20%.
B: Savage Combat now increases attack power by 3/6%, up from 2/4%.
B: Vitality now increases attack power by 30%, up from 25%.
B: Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows by 15/30 seconds, up from 10/20, and now also reduces the cooldown of Combat Readiness by 15/30 seconds.
B: Hemorrhage base damage has been increased by 40%.
B: Sanguinary Vein damage to bleeding targets has been increased to 8/16%, from 5/10%.
Patch 4.3.0 (11/29/2011)
General
B: New Legendary Item: Fangs of the Father. The most deadly and experienced rogues will play a central role in the fate of the world the rogue's way: by manipulating key events from the shadows. Players will travel across continents to accomplish crucial missions of reconnaissance, burglary, infiltration and, of course, assassination. Rogues who succeed will receive a paired set of daggers that will become increasingly lethal as their bearer progresses along the legendary quest. At the height of their strength, they will be imbued with the vile essence of the Old Gods, as well as the maddened fury of the Black Dragonflight -- bestowing great power upon their bearer. These powers include a stacking increase to Agility which builds until dark wings unfurl from the rogue's back, removing the combo point cost and increasing damage of finishing moves for a short time. In addition, the wings which can be spread on command (with no combat benefit) to slow a rapid descent, allowing the rogue to slowly fall to the ground... or enact a little death from above!
Rogues
B: Wound Poison now reduces the target's healing received by 25%, up from 10%.
Patch 4.3.2 (1/31/2012)
Rogues
F: Adrenaline Rush no longer triggers a global cooldown.
Patch 5.0.4 (8/28/2012)
Classes: General
- All classes have been updated with a new talent system, improved abilities, and spells (accessible throughout levels 1-85). Your character's talents have been reset.
- Many old talents have been converted to specialization abilities.
- New spells are now learned automatically. Class trainers are only needed to change talents, glyphs, class specialization, or to utilize the dual specialization feature.
- All characters now take 40% less damage from other players.
Items
- Head enchants removed
- Enchants that modify the gear in your head slot have been removed from the game. This includes older head enchants of every type.
- The slot in which ranged, relics, and thrown items were previously equipped has been removed. All weapons should now be equipped in the weapon slot.
Professions
- The glyph system has been updated. Many class glyphs have been added, altered, or moved to different glyph types.
- Prime glyphs have been removed.
