Can't hold back anymore so got on test to try stuff out.

1) Blind wipes paladin reckoning charges. In 1.8 this isn't all that great since you have to save blind for divine shield. In 1.9 however it is absolutely positively awesome. They only have one shield to begin with.

2) Hunter flare leaves a mark on the ground. You won't see the full radius of the flare but you will see the center of the flare so to speak.

3) 2 hand + reckoning bomb paladins got easier. They have to pick between Vengeance (+15% damage after a crit) and Repetence with the new talent tree. It is no longer possible to have both. A sulfuras paladin only reckoning bombed me for 2500 on test.

4) 1 hand + shield paladins got a lot nastier. I was on seal fate dagger when I fought this paladin (I have to test with combat spec) with the exact same gear (aurastone, engineering shield, full epic) as the guy I dueled countless times on live server. His DPS was amazing. It seems holy tree has a lot of damage buffs, I have to do further research. There was lag and I couldn't see exactly what he did but with 1 hand he took my health down as fast as a rank 14 2 hand paladin I beat on test server.

5) Riposte is finally fixed. In 1.8 it was literally a non-factor sometimes, I would duel a dagger rogue in a no-stealth no-timer fight and it would not go off even once in three duels. In 1.9 I actually get to riposte people again, feels very solid.

6) Blade flurry is finally fixed. Secondary target will take EXACT same amount of damage as first. The way it should be. This is already a very, very situational special in PVP, now it is actually a threat instead of something you laugh at. Unfortunately, this also means dagger rogues even with backstab 9 will not be able to beat a combat rogue in an entire MC/BWL run. There are just too many opportunities to spam this and paint the stat sheet. I love to save adrenaline rush for firelord + spawn and with blade flurry I will double the damage of a dagger rogue for that pull and it really adds up.

7) Fist spec appears to have been fixed. I went to Tyr's Hand and scored 14.5% miss rate with just +3 in items (400 hits). I have yet to miss any specials so hopefully we are good on this.

8) Sword procs appears to work just like I remembered it on live. I did see a sword proc into a hand of justice proc but I didn't see a sword porc into a sword proc. I only had it for a hour so not going to draw conclusions from that.

9) Mace spec is now a top spec, especially for rogues with faster maces. The stun doesn't seem to diminish. To make full use of it, you really need fast reflex and luck, there are times it procs perfectly and wins me the fight (right before a warrior with ashkandi is about to execute me), other times it procs in the middle of a kidney shot and is completely wasted. It messes up stunwatch hopefully the author will update that mod since stunwatch still thinks mace stuns diminishs your other stuns. In 1v1, you are trying to control your opponent and you will not gamble for mace procs. In group PVP it will probably be very effective.

10) Overall, fist spec was probably my favorite. Fixed fist spec, when you get those chain crits (and they happen often), absolutely tear people up. However I would say for the first time ever, the four weapon specs are all equal now. If you have one, don't bother go for the other.

11) New stone form kills my "zero cooldown" strategy against warriors. Dwarf warrior will be EXTREMELY nasty from this point on. I fought an Ashkandi dwarf warrior from Death & Taxes, while the AR + Evasion is still very hard for him to beat, stone form basically forces me to burn at least 1-2 CDs to stand a chance. Dagger rogues beware of dwarf warriors.

12) Gnome escape artist is now 0.5 second cast I believe. Someone please confirm this. Either way, this is now probably the best alliance racial in the game and easily on par with any horde racial.

-Posted by Ming WoW Rogue Forums