Warcraft WoW Arena - Rogues 101

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[WoW Arena] Rogues 101 by @tKeR


Introduction
This will not teach you how to play a Rogue but rather it will list their weaknesses and how to defeat them. This way, this guide can be useful for the person playing or playing against the rogue.
Rogues were known as the PvP champions Pre-BC because of their stuns and very good sustained and burst damage. Like many other classes, the ways rogue play is very different now and rely more on timing and setup than ever.
A key strength of Rogues is that they can be effective against any class and that they rely on energy. This means the rogue will hit just as hard 5 minutes into the fight as they do in the beginning.
For Alliance Human will be the best choice. The jump on other rogues and druids is very important. For Horde, Undead is a very strong pick for its ability to have another CC break.


Common Specs
ShS 20/0/41 - http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info...000000000000000000000005002431002321210501351

Weaknesses:
-Needs to constantly shiv in order to maintain crippling poison. This results in harder time to stay on target and maintain high DPS.
-Combo point generation is slower than an Assassination build would have.

Mutilate 49/0/12http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info...000000000000000000000005502000000000000000000

Weaknesses:
-Loses cheat death and shadowstep. Cheat death is needed for surviving and shadowstep prevents being kited.
-Very vulnerable to snare effects because of shadowstep.
-A lot of the burst requires being behind the target. Sometimes this is not always possible.


Common Compositions
2v2
Rogue/x
It’s that simple, Rogue can do 2v2 with any class with any viable PvP spec. This includes Rogue/Ret Pally, Rogue/Boomkin, etc. Rogues are very versatile and excel at 2 DPS compositions.

Most successful rogue 2v2 (2DPS):

Rogue/Warlock – Rogue is best Shadowstep spec. This is a 2DPS team which means they will try to burst and kill something as fast as possible. Make use of pillars and if you are playing with a healer, then try to outlast and play defensively. If you are playing a 2DPS team yourself, then you might have trouble because this is the best 2DPS team but you just have to hope for the best.
Weaknesses:
-Weak against any type of CC.

Most successful rogue 2v2 (With Healer):

Druid/Rogue – Rogue is best Shadowstep spec. A very versatile team except for the fact that offensive dispels are absent. There is good CC and very good sustained DPS making this one of the most popular healer combos for a Rogue.
Weaknesses:
-Unable to cleanse magic. This includes freezing trap, entangling root, etc.
-Has no offensive dispel which means buffs would be all intact.

3v3
In 3v3, Rogues still has a lot of choices but the most popular stand out the most.

Rogue/Priest/Mage – Both Shadowstep and Mutilate work fine. This build is very burst oriented and they will try to kill something very fast. This is because of how mages work in their current state, which is an essentially glass cannon with a limited mana pool. Once the mage pops his cooldown, it is best to stay on the mage, but be worn that if you leave the priest open he can cast Mana Burn at will. Make sure you line of sight or interrupt those mana burns!

Weaknesses:
-Unable to cleanse poison.
-Mage theoretically only has 2 spike periods, after that the mage will be out of mana or his spells will be on cooldown.
-Rogues like to go PvE gear for this composition, which is a huge gamble if they choose to go after the rogue.

Druid/Rogue/Rogue – Any spec work fine for this build. This is a very solid counter to any priest team. The key reason is that Mana Burns are very inefficient against this setup. If this combo is executed perfectly, it can be very hard to beat. The key is CC because druids cannot cleanse magic. This is another combo that has no offensive dispels.

Weaknesses:
-Unable to cleanse magic
- Weak against CC
- Frost novas and sheeps can shut down the offensive presence of this combo for a long time.


Conclusion

I hope that this guide helped rogues and people who want to overcome rogues!
 
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