I think it is good that Monk is not the only guy with the FD type pulling potential. That said, the monk's will be superior likely for the reasons you mentioned (lower cooldown, no reagent cost) but most importantly - not limited to mob type. The Rogues ability has retriciton on who it works on, and of course in addition any see invis type mobs won't be affected either.
Not sure how it would work for PvP, that could be an issue, but the advantage of being a seperate server is things can be tinkered with without effecting everyone (perhaps against players the invis lasts X seconds, if they don't get somewher out of the way to hide again then they are seen)
There are a few assumptions going here that should be addressed.
1) What we have been provided in the class pages is just a snapshot of what each character will be. We don't know their full roles.
2) Pulling is not a "pillar" of Pantheon and it is certainly not restricted to one class. Neither the Monk or Rogue have "pulling" listed in their class role, although "utility" might cover that field.
3) There are a very limited amount of hard numbers provided in the class reveals and there is no way anyone can develop an informed opinion on balance from what we have been given. If the Rogue feels like they were given the coolest stuff, then maybe that's an indication that the Rogue class fits your personality?
4) Pantheon is not patch notes to EQ. We should not make assertions based on how things *would* have changed the class balance in EQ.
With all that said, I think that if FD-style pulling is important in Pantheon that they should absolutely have multiple classes be capable of doing it. I would love to see the bard be able to do it too or maybe another class.
BamBam, I'm guessing the key difference between Flash Bomb and Feign Death is that Flash Bomb immediately removes you from combat, while Feign Death (I'm guessing) does not. That would likely mean instant/simultaneous resets for the aggroed mobs and would be much less useful for pulling. I feel like Flash Bomb is intended to be merely an escape tool, though I could be wrong.
>4) Pantheon is not patch notes to EQ. We should not make assertions based on how things *would* have changed the class balance in EQ.<
This.
Many people here make the assumption that much will be done the way it was done in EQ. In this they may be correct, but let us not denigrate the ability of the VR people to come up with their own ideas and make significant changes in what was state of the art 20 years (rounding off) ago.
Every Rogue ability requires consumables, except maybe one or two. It likely will cost gold to do any of this. Possibly a lot of gold.
In EQ1, many classes had FD, (Monk, SK, Necro) and bards had Fade. Didn't cause any problems. Pulling is not a Quaternity combat role. Tank, DPS, Heal, CC are roles in the Quaternity.
What you're arguing against is handled (somewhat) by the limited action set mechanic. You can only pick 12 in-combat abilities. Once combat starts, you can't change them. In other words, a Rogue wouldn't be able to have a full set of tricks as well as a full set of DPS abilities on their in-combat hotbar. Also, FD is superior to invis, hide, sneak, all of that, and costs nothing. We also don't know when Shadow Dwell is even available for upgrade. Rogues might spend 40 levels with a mana consuming inferior hide/sneak, and have a serious movement speed penalty even in Shadow Dwell.
Also, the current lists (from the Interview on the 18th) of abilities are not complete, and damage types are also something to consider. If half of your time is spent fighting undead, and you need a piercing weapon for backstab, guess what creatures are severely resistant to piercing damage? Undead.
Finally, it's going to be hard enough to attract people to playing Rogues as it is, let them have their 15 minutes of fame before they're nerfed. ;) They adjusted Smoke and Mirrors up to 24 seconds, but with a 1 minute recast (or 1m12s?) and what appears to be a 48 second TTK, currently? I don't think it counts as a role assignment, and the web page reflects that.
My guess is FD will have the shorter cooldown making it more useful (as fd is a more class defining ability).