Patch 4.1 = Best Ever

The patch notes for 4.1 were released today and I have to say I'm a little surprised. I wasn't expecting them for at least a couple more weeks (then again releasing the patch notes doesn't necessarily mean we're even close to the actual release of the patch). I scrolled down to the rogue changes expecting a few anemic sentences carrying nothing but bad tidings, but it was almost the exact opposite. The changes are awesome! They're almost too good to be true. If this patch was released today it would be literally the best patch for rogues that I can remember.

Kick Will Never Miss

• All non-damaging interrupts off the global cooldown will now always hit the target. This includes Pummel, Shield Bash, Kick, Mind Freeze, Rebuke, Skull Bash, Counterspell, Wind Shear, Solar Beam, Silencing Shot, and related player pet abilities.

This was at the very top of the patch notes. It's pretty awesome. With kick being a special ability it can already be taken to 100% hit chance against players by simply by having 5% hit rating, but if my memory serves me it can still be dodged or parried. This makes it so kick will always land which takes some of the  RNG out of the ability. It's already difficult to kick a well played caster...we didn't need the RNG element to add an extra layer of frustration and apparently Blizz thinks so as well.

Better Baseline Recuperate

• Recuperate base effect now heals 3% per tick, up from 2%.

• Improved Recuperate now adds 0.5%/1% to the health restoration effect of Recuperate, down from 1%/2%.

Another great change! From the outset I've always felt that Recuperate was simply too weak untalented. It feels like I'm being healed by a level 27 paladin, and playing any build without imp recup is just horrible. I still use it, because if SnD is already up what else is there to do with dead cpbs? But it just never felt like it was doing much. Thankfully Blizz is paying attention to the little things and is buffing the raw version of recup. Overall it's not really much of a buff, but it was definitely needed.

Supercharged Stealth

• Stealth base cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10, and the movement penalty from being in Stealth has been removed.
• 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.

From what I understand this means we'll move at 100% speed in stealth and 110% with Nightstalker so we'll actually move faster while in stealth than out of stealth. The cooldown is also being shortened and Nightstalker can completely remove the cooldown. In the words of Neo: whoa.

For WoW players this might seem like a huge buff, but from what I've heard (I don't play other MMOs) this is how stealth/invisibility operates in many modern MMOs and RPGs. WoW is simply trying to keep pace with the competition. After all, if you've been playing a rogue analogue in Vindictus or Rift and you decide to give WoW a try having a stealth than makes you slower instead of faster would feel like a huge step backward. I could honestly see someone getting turned off of the game or at least the rogue class over something like that, so these changes really make a lot of sense.

Longer Tricks Range

• Tricks of the Trade now has a 100-yard range, up from 20.

Completely needed. I still remember Rotface in ICC. My tricks target would get the slime debuff and be forced to run out of tricks range. At that point I would either spam the button until he came back or I'd just tricks the tank. It was pretty annoying. With all the other things happening in a raid encounter, it's not really something we should have to deal with simply to give a single raid member 10% more damage for a measly 6 seconds (which only equates to something like .1% more raid damage). Great change.

Sockets...Finally

• Leatherworking: Assassin's Chestplate now gives +321 Agility, down from 341. Now gives 173 Hit Rating, down from 183. Now gives 243 Critical Strike rating, down from 253. Now has a Red Socket (Socket Bonus: +10 Agility)
• Leatherworking: Belt of Nefarious Whispers now gives +233 Agility, down from 253. Now gives 174 Hit Rating, down from 184. Now gives 134 Mastery Rating, down from 144. Now has a Red Socket (Socket Bonus: +10 Agility)

In the last patch many crafted epics received a socket, but oddly enough agility leather did not. Now Blizz is remedying that. My only question is...what too so long? Is it really that difficult to reitemize two pieces of gear? Now anyone who's wearing these items will have to wait until 4.1, which could still be months away, to get a measly socket. Oh well, better late than never I suppose.

Conclusion

This first glimpse at 4.1 makes me glad to be a rogue. A quick glance at the changes to other classes tells me they've only gotten nerfs, small buffs, or nothing at all! But rogues are coming out of this thing looking pretty good. If we can make it from this point to release with all these buffs intact I will be a very happy man.