I believe I may have deleted my original post on this subject but I have some concepts to try and make the rogue runes more balanced and appealing. I raise this because currently the meta rogue play is for tanking, Mutilate, Just a flesh wound, Blade dance or Envemon, for pve dps its Mutilate, Deadly brew, Envemon, for pvp its Mutilate, BTE and what ever you decide to use.
You see the issue, mutilate is obviously the meta choice because the changes the devs made at the start of p2 has made mutilate BUSTED in comparison to the rest of the rogue toolkit. It also makes slaughter from the shadows completely obsolete.
Iāve thought about this probably too much, but i would really love to see the class decently balnced with options that are viable and fun. One of the main things people are shouting about is bringing something to the table in raids such as a debuff / party buff as currently i believe rogue is the only class offering nothing unique.
Chest Runes
Deadly Brew - this rune is beautifully worked. as an idea for a group debuff for the poison build of rogues my thought was - Deadly brew now also affects Envemon, when envemon is used with the deadly brew rune active a debuff is also applied to the target for the same duration as the envemon poison buff the rogue gets. This debuff increases the magic damage taken by the target for 6%. Exactly the same as the Epic fist weapon debuff from Gnomer last boss. I feel this would work nicely, as a rogue scales with later game and gains access to more combo points/energy etc the more they can keep this debuff up on the target.
Just a flesh Wound - Rework this, remove blade dance rune and rolling with the punches(see later about this). Just a flesh wound now gets as a passive, 20% physical damage reduction, 6% less chance to be crit, 30% increased health pool. 200% increased threat, -20% damage output in pve, -50% damage output in pvp content.
Slaughter from the Shadows - All abilities that benefit from Opportunity talent cost 20 less energy. Bleed damage from the rogue whilst they rune is active is increased by 20% and backstab increases the duration of rupture by 2s per use up to 6seconds. Whilst the rogue has a bleed on the target the target recieves a debuff increasing physical damage taken by 5%.
Quick Draw - Stays the same, but add, other combo point generating attacks have a chance to reset the CD of quick draw and make it cost no energy.
Hand Runes
Main Gauche - rework this completely, Main Gauche is off the GCD, costs 10 energy, 6second CD, increases the rogues chance to parry by 30% for 6 seconds has 2 charges. When the rogue parries an attack with the Main Gauche rune active the rogue gains 15 energy.
Doing this makes the rogue have access to normal Main hand attacks that generate decent threat. it also gives access to some energy regeneration that is tide to the avoidance style tanking you want rogues to have. Means they also can potentially keep this up 100% of the time versus bosses.
Mutilate - increased energy cost to 50 energy. does not benefit from Slaughter from the shadows.
Saber Slash - Iāve thought about this a fair amount, and this ability is fairly ok. but it doesnt hit quite hard enough and increasing the damage % on the instant could make sinister strike completely useless. My thoughts for saber slash is: Increase the cost to 50 energy, remove the bleed from saber slash. Saber slash hits 3 targets in a cone infront of the rogue, hits main target for 110% weapon damage, and cleaved targets for 90% damage, works with blade flurry. - Saber slash, you slash in a wide arc in front of you kind of thing.
Shadow Strike - Keep the same but - Slow weapons stays 150%, Daggers damage is 190%
Shiv - Remove from rune system, put on a skill book.
Leg Runes
Between the Eyes - Dont feel this needs changing.
Blade Dance - Remove this, as above have the benefits gained from blade dance baked into Just a Flesh wound and the choice rune of Main Gauche.
Envemon - Keep the same, add the debuff when used with deadly brew for increased magic damage.
New Rune - Cloak of Shadows, 1Minute CD, 25 energy, Rogue gains a cloak of shadows granting 90% magical damage reduction, and proviing 90% chance to resist spells for 1 x seconds/Combo point spent. (This provides rogues with a magic damage reduction but at the cost of combo point spending choice, I feel this would satisfy the people who think rogues are already too powerful due to stuns etc, but also gives the rogues a choice of Cloak or KS etc.)
New Rune - Exposing Eviscerate - Eviscerate now ignores all armor and applies an improved Expose armor debuff to the target.
Waist Runes
Poisoned Knife - maybe just tie this in with shiv and delete shiv from the game, just remove the minimum range so it works from 0 - 15 yards and keep its CD.
Shadow Step - maybe remove the GCD, but I know some people think even with a GCD this is too OP
Shuriken Toss - Increase the threat generated using this ability, Rogues can spam this 5 times to gain threat on a pack and a shaman can use Their aoe threat ability once and easily take threat on everything. Come on balance it, doesnt have to hit hard but make it actually generate a moderate level of threat.
Feet Runes
Master of Shadows - No Changes required.
Rolling with the Punches - As above just bake this in with Just a Fleshwound passively and remove this rune
Waylay - this is probably fine if you make backstab and ambush actually viable.
New Rune - As we remove rolling with the punches, Change this to Crimson Vile - 30 CD, rogue gains 10% hp instantly and 10% over 6s, costs 20 energy.
These changes balance the rogue tanking talents to be similar to the other tanking classes, instead of needing to use 3 different Runes to be viable they can use 1 and then have optional runes to use for more threat/more survivability etc. It also balances the CP generators a little more. Gives access to multiple different builds:-
Backstab bleed build offering a physical damage debuff for groups.
Mutilate poison build offering a magical damage debuff for groups.
A Slow weapon Cleave build, possible to do incredible cleave damage in multimob situations.
Makes Tanking deal less damage but not have to jump through 3 hoops to enable the āTankā mode. you just get it naturally the same as all the other tanking classes but makes it not oppressive and game breaking in pvp.
Hope you guys like the ideas would love to hear your feedback, and hopefully the devs see this and Enjoy / make use of some of the ideas.
I dont think anything ive put in here is particularly game breaking, but at least opens the doors to rogues being a little more viable that the current state its in now.
. You have no more SoD experience as a rogue than anyone else.