Rogues, Death Knights, Mages, and Demon Hunters in WoW will die more often. Their “Second Chance” talents will be nerfed.
The Patch 7.1.5 of World of Warcraft is currently on the PTR and changes are rolling out almost daily on the servers. In the latest update, the cooldown of a popular mechanic has been increased. “Cloak of Shadows” from the Rogue now has a cooldown of 6 minutes. For those unfamiliar with the effect: Whenever the Rogue would die from damage, the damage is instead avoided and they receive a strong damage reduction for a short time. This effect could previously be triggered every 2 minutes, but now it is only available every 6 minutes.
However, the Rogue is not the only one affected. Mages (Cauterize) and all other classes with a similar mechanic will also have to deal with an increase in cooldown time in the future.
Blizzard justifies this step by stating that the abilities have become far too reliable. In some boss fights, you could even “Depend on it every time,” which would render some mechanics obsolete.
Moreover, “Cloak of Shadows” is far too powerful compared to “similar” mechanics, such as Reincarnation from the Shaman – which has a cooldown of 30 minutes. There is simply no justification for Rogues, Mages, Death Knights, and Demon Hunters to receive a “second chance” so often. Back when the talent was introduced with Burning Crusade, it was located at the very end of the talent tree and was a powerful choice. Today, that is simply not the case anymore, which is why they are adjusting its availability.
However, there is also a positive change to the talents: The cooldown will reset immediately if you are supposed to die. This means especially in PvP that the abilities remain frequently available, and even after a death in a dungeon or raid, you can benefit from them right away.
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