I was not expecting that kind of grievances for outlaw. Muscle memory, having to maintain an extra buff and debuff, not being able to reroll all day, remove Slice and Dice (which is a huge buff)… Really ?
What makes outlaw fun is having a different rotation after you roll if you want to be optimal. Here are a few things that can be improved :
- Redesign/tune buffs that aren’t doing a great job at changing the rotation (Grand Melee, Buried Treasure).
- Fix existing bugs : Kidney Shot does not reduce the cooldowns of Restless Blades abilities, shiv doesn’t benefit from Broadside, Dreadblades does not benefit from Acrobatic Stikes and the health penalty isn’t applied with Kidney Shot, Slice and Dice consumes the Loaded Dice buff without giving buffs, Count the Odds conduit buffs are lost when using RtB.
- Rework Between the Eyes : it went from having great ranged stun utility (the ranged part isn’t useful anymore if you can’t hit the target with the debuff) to being a debuff than first gave +20% crit and +20% critical strike damage (which was a +28% damage buff with 20% baseline crit) and then was only +20% critical strike damage, which means your crits do 2.2 (not 2.4) times normal damage instead of 2, which amounts to an average of +4% damage. This doesn’t even make BtE worth using for the debuff in a single target rotation (except with Ruthless Precision but that was already the case).
Otherwise, I think the changes are great. Outlaw is getting a lot :
- Slice and Dice is akin to having two buffs compared to the BfA version. This helps a ton with energy regeneration and gives extra damage.
- You can Roll the Bones from stealth before engaging, less rampup time and opportunity for a strong opener, especially in pvp.
- You get poisons back, which are great utility especially for pvp with the Mortal Strike effect, 12 seconds slow, and slowing attack/casting speed.
- The first iteration of Between the Eyes was a huge buff to single target, which Outlaw is not great at. Maintaining the debuff is fun and changes your rotation (use low impact finisher like SnD when the debuff is not up).
- Blade Flurry is now affected by Restless Blades, which means more control over and more uptime, frees up more potential in the last talent row, and the damage was buffed, which means Outlaw will be the best in their cleave target cap category. It also becomes a strong single target ability and part of the rotation, which is nice considering the low energy cost, and it is also buffed by the Ambidexterity conduit.
- Dreadblades as a new talent has a great burst capability (especially in pvp) and works well with the cd reduction mechanic.
- Being able to use Shiv (which is great for the slow) or a free Gouge through Dirty Tricks for a low energy cost combo point.
- 7 seconds Kidney Shot with deeper stratagem, which is standard for Outlaw unlike assa/sub.
- Getting a buffed version of Evasion (soft energy regen / damage cd) that procs mastery on dodges instead of Riposte (which was crap)
- Some legendaries, covenant & soulbind abilities and conduits have a great synergy with some Outlaw mechanics, which allows for fun/creative builds.