FAQ

Please find below some questions I have been asked either here at this diary or during my time as a rogue. Separated into “serious” and “not so serious” questions

Serious FAQ

• What rotations do you run?
  • This is probably one of the most complex questions a rogue could be asked, imo. Other than, “What is your DPS?

    

    .
    Well, of course rotations are always dependant on what gear and talents you are using. Though there is a ton more blood involved, playing a rogue during a long PVE encounter is alot like playing chess, (FOLLOW ME HERE!) There is an opening, a middle game, and then an endgame. I’ve found, since I am always speced Combat in PVE, that my rotation looks something like this:

The Short Version

Opening- (TotT when applicable) – Stealth and then Garrote/Ambush or directly to middle game.

Middle Game- (ALL COOLDOWNS – i.e. Trinket-BF + KS, /Fok x2, then AR) –> SS – Rpt – SS – Snd – SSx5 – (Rpt, SnD, Evis, EA), (TotT and Feint as needed)

Endgame – (ALL COOLDOWNS) –> SSx1-5, (SnD, Evis) (TotT and Feint as needed)

The Long Version

Opening- I start Tricks of the Trade on the MT if applicable. As a combat rogue, I don’t benefit much from attacking out of stealth, so I generally just start hacking and slashing away and more right to the Middle Game, but when possible, I open in stealth with a Garrote (long fight), or Ambush (short fight, more damage then Back Stab and +2 combo points (CP).

Middle Game- I usually start this phase by immediately burning all my cooldowns, (combat tree would have Killing Spree (KS), Adrenaline Rush (AR), Blade Flurry (BF), plus any USE trinkets you might have). I generally use them in this order…

1. Trinket + BF + KS, FoKx2 – This little baby pumps a ton of front-end DPS into your (probably), still active TotT. Blade Flurry (BF) begins popping double damage, (see link for explanation), and then Killing Spree (KS) to up the damage and start attacking multiple targets/single targets, (yes, KS will work on one target, USE IT). I also have the optional Fan of Knives, (FoK)x2 at the end of that attack since not only should your TotT and BF still be active, but you have probably pooled almost 100% of your energy during the KS animation, so get that little extra out of that! Don’t worried you won’t have energy after that, since you should then be popping Adrenaline Rush after that to recover

The bread-and-butter formula for a successful rogue in PVE DPS is to make sure your Rupture (Rpt) and Slice and Dice (SnD) are up as close to 100% of the time as possible. I generally get them both started ASAP and keep them up as best I can. Dependent on talents and gear, one CP will keep your SnD up for about 15 sec, and your Rpt up for about 8 sec, so I start with one SS for each just to get the ball rolling and then build 5xSS and Rpt/Snd to get full effects from that point forward. (5 points for more damage and longer effect for Rpt, ESPECIALLY if you have spec’d ANY points into Relentless Strikes in the Subtlety tree).

At this point, I also try to get a few other abilities involved, (not at the expense of letting Rpt or SnD drop, however)… in order of preference would be 5x SS –> Eviserate (Evis), or Expose Armor (EA). You could possibly switch to EA being more important if you do not have a Warrior in your group.

Endgame- Generally, when I see a PVE boss at <5% health, I will go into Endgame mode. Basically, I let my Rupture drop and begin focusing on just keeping Evis at the highest CP i can get it… BURN ‘EM DOWN! Also, if my cooldowns are up again, I generally pop them again for a last burst of DPS.

A note on TotT and Feint- These abilities are NOT just for transferring/reducing threat!! You should be keeping both of these abilities off cooldown at all times during the fight! Here’s why:

TotT – not only does it transfer your threat to your focused target for 6 seconds, but gives you a boost your damage by 15% for 6 seconds (hmm, well!  This is obviously incorrect!  TY to Sapria for pointing this out.  Obviously this would boost your TARGET’S damage… so this was either a typo or the rantings of a rogue new to Lich King at the time of posting?  My bad either way!)

Feint- not only does it reduce your threat by “a large amount’ but also reduces damage taken by AOE effects by 50% for 6 seconds.

There, now you know

• What talents/spec do you use?
  • Rogues are so “flavor-of-the-month” most times that what I am spec’ed as I write this might not be the way I am spec’ed 2-3 days from now. Notwithstanding, for the most part, I generally run a what would simply be called a Combat spec, but more specifically could be characterized as a Hybrid Spec build that is a 75% Combat, 20% Assassination, and 5% Combat, (i.e. 5 points into Relentless Strikes). Probably the easiest thing to do would be to just link to my armory profile so you can see for yourself what I am currently doing. [LINK]

• Why did you originally choose to go rogue?
  • I have to be honest, when i started playing way back, I really didn’t have a thought process I used to come to the conclusion I wanted to play rogue… I just kinda read a little on what each class could do and probably though, “I can sneak around and stab crap from behind… then vanish and sneak away? AWESOME”. I think a better question is, “Why do I KEEP playing a rogue”. To that, I would say that I like the mobility of the rogue, the versatility I have with my talent specs, and the kick-ass ability to stab crap from the shadows and then vanish without a trace… plus Rogues are notoriously mysterious, which I am probably not, but I find intriguing nonetheless

Not-So-Serious FAQ

• Why do you hate feral druids so much?
  • I don’t necessarily HATE fearl druids… but two words sums it up…  “rogue wannabes”  But I will give feral druids one thing, they are a pain in PVP I do love Restorative druids though… great healers and very versatile; I love them as long as I am not fighting them… n

    othing, (imho) is as much a pain as Resto Druids i PVP…

    ELENTARI! MARRY ME AND LET ME HAVE YOUR ROGUE BABIES!

• • Well, two things here:
    • #1 – that really isn’t a question
    • #2 – sorry ladies, the El is taken… happily married IRL to a wife that plays an end-game raiding Human mage. ;P