Kidney Shot has been from the very start of the game the iconic rogue stun finisher, however time has changed and the game is quite different now than it was 15 years ago. Remember that when they designed the spell back then cheapshot and kidney were on different DRs.
Talking more specifically about PvP, i strongly beleive Kidney Shot should no longer cost combo points, here is why :
Kidney Shot is your longest duration stun and as rogue’s job is to stun targets for elimination, it should feel good to press your kidney on your kill target, however since Shadowlands, this is only true for Assa and not for Outlaw or Sub.
As Assa you have the Internal Bleeding talent which not only deals signficant damage but also gives you energy back, making Kidney Shot very potent and it feels good to press.
Outlaw used to stun with Between the Eyes, which also did a lot of damage, now using Kidney Shot as outlaw feels miserable (straight up damage loss compared to 2 previous expansions with nothing to compensate)
Sub was not played at all during BFA since both it’s design and tuning was mediocre, now it became the go to spec for PvP since they removed the awful nightblade, so the design is a bit better than in BFA and people started enjoying the spec again, however i think it still has some major design flaws, one of which being, you guessed it, Kidney Shot.
Same as outlaw using kidney shot as sub is a straight damage loss, so what people ended up doing instead was to spam cheapshots on the kill target since this stun generates combo points, which allows you to use an extra eviscerate and do more damage during your burst.
I personnaly think spamming cheapshot is very unelegant and should not be the most efficient way to do a lot of damage while stunning your target.
Also, going back to a more general rogue idea (not sub specific), when engaging a target from stealth you’d much rather kidney shot them than cheapshot since it lasts longer, the current workaround is to use marked for death in order to generate combo points, virtually making Kidney Shot combo point free, and admitedly this feels really good right? But then marked for death is on a 30sec CD while kidney is 20sec so it doesnt line up perfectly, and again it is a rather unlegant way to approach the same result : Being Able to kidney regardless of current combo points.
I would also like to add that it is NEVER good to use kidney bellow maximum combo points, so why make it a finisher in the first place? Beside hindering it’s use, i don’t see the benefits, it just doesn’t feel as good as before. Back in the days you could open with a cheapshot build combo points and then kidney your target, it was arguably very OP and frustrating to play against so they ended up making both stuns on same DR, but without reworking Kidney Shot, it used to be a good follow up to cheapshot, but it isnt the case anymore!
TLDR : Make Kidney Shot Combo-Point-Free !
