Mercs Rogue Basics Guide

So you've decided you want to become a master of the sinister arts. A veritable god of PvP. An unstoppable force of silent death. Well, practice makes perfect my new trainee. Lets put you through your paces. You'll need dual spec, for your two duel specs. I didnt become as good at Rogue as I am today by some divine gift or natural talent, I did it by dueling people. Learning about my opponents, and learning what I could do to make their efforts useless.

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. Sun Tzu Rogues rely not only on being able to do damage, but being able to counter any futile effort that the enemy produces to prolong their miserable life, or attempt to end that of the Rogue. Warrior uses Bladestorm? Disarm it. Shaman uses Spirit Wolves? Combat Readiness. Hunter uses Deterrence? Vanish and Cheap Shot, or Backstab through it. Simple things like this might just save your life.

Learn about your opponents. Duel them time after time. Spend a day, simply learning about your opponents. If you win, ask yourself how you did it, and try it again next time with less cooldowns, or against a better geared opponent. If you lose, ask yourself why you lost, and work out what went wrong. Ask your opponent questions regarding your loss; if you know why it happened, chances are you wont make the same mistake twice.

Follow these guides, and I guarantee you, you WILL be a better player by the end of it.

- Mercader

Subtlety - 7/2/32
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#fMhbZbZfGfcbucoho:qVRk0imVc

Summary
Use this spec for Mages and Hunters. Shadowstep provides you with the mobility needed to close the distance between you and your target. It does not provide as much steady damage as Mutilate does however, and should only be used for these two classes, where mobility is more important than damage. This spec relies on Backstab and Eviscerate damage, as well as heavy burst with Shadow Dance. Shadowstep is unique to this spec.

Glyphs
Prime Glyph of Backstab Glyph of Eviscerate Glyph of Shadowdance Major Glyph of Garrote Glyph of Ambush Glyph of Blind Minor Glyph of Poisons Glyph of Safe Fall Glyph of Blurred Speed

Poisons
Mainhand Wound Poison Offhand Crippling Poison Thrown Crippling Poison

Assassination - 32/2/8
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#fcIfRsGzoMobZbGz:qVRkbimVc

Summary
Mutilate should be used for every class apart from those previously mentioned. It has decent mobility, and very nice damage. Your main damage from this spec comes from poisons and bleeds, so having them up on your target at all times is an absolute must. `Glyphs Prime Glyph of Mutilate Glyph of Rupture Glyph of Vendetta Major Glyph of Garrote Glyph of Sprint Glyph of Blind Minor `Glyph of Poisons Glyph of Safe Fall Glyph of Blurred Speed

Poisons
Mainhand Instant Poison Offhand Deadly Poison Thrown Deadly Poison

Key abilities All specs

Smoke Bomb Smoke Bomb should be used to restealth in duels, or as part of a CC chain in order to finish off an opponent in arena. Its best used when your opponent is quite a distance away from you, in order to use the concealment of the smoke bomb to restealth. As part of a CC chain, it should be used when the healer is a fair distance away from your kill target; after all other CC has been exhausted. EG. Sheep -> Hammer of Justice -> Blind -> Smoke Bomb. Smoke Bomb has a 3 minute cooldown. Combat Readiness This is one of your core defensive abilities. Activate Combat Readiness against melee opponents in order to apply a stacking 10% damage reduction buff. The buff will stack 5 times, to a 50% damage reduction as long as you continue to be hit. The buff cannot be dispelled, but will drop off after 5 seconds if you are no longer taking melee damage. Use this ability when you know you will be sustaining a large amount of melee damage for a large period of time, such as when a Shaman uses Spirit Wolves, or against DKs with their pets. Pets and minions will still continue to stack and refresh the buff. Combat Readiness has a 2 minute cooldown. Dismantle Dismantle removes the weapons / shield of your opponent for 10 seconds. This duration is halved if your opponent has a weapon chain, or talent reducing disarm duration. This ability is best used to fill in time between other cooldowns against another Melee class, such as when youre taking too much damage, or you opponent has popped a cooldown (You notice a warrior has used Recklessness, you disarm the Warrior so he cant use the charges, and will take 20% extra damage for 5-10 seconds). It can also be used to cancel Bladestorm. Dismantle has a 1 minute cooldown. Evasion Evasion provides you with an extra 50% dodge for 15 seconds. Most Rogues have around 15% passive dodge, and an extra 5% chance to parry, bringing your total avoidance while using the ability to 70%, meaning as long as youre facing your target, your opponent will have a lot of trouble hitting you. Its best used when you need to avoid damage completely for a fairly long period of time. It is only worth using against Melee classes, it will do nothing against Casters. Evasion has a 3 minute cooldown. Cloak of Shadows This is your only real defensive ability against casters. Cloak of Shadows will remove all negative spell effects on you, and prevent any other negative spells from affecting you for the next 5 seconds. Cloak is best used when trying to restealth (getting rid of dots while trying to restealth in a smoke bomb, while out of combat, or in combination with vanish) or with Sprint to close the gap between you and your target, free of magical slowing effects. Cloak of Shadows has a 1 minute cooldown.

Sprint wSprint (When Glyphed) increases your movement speed by 100% for 8 seconds. This is your only major gap closing cooldown as Mutilate. Use Sprint whenever you need to close the distance between you and your target. When fighting casters such as Mages and Warlocks, its best to use Sprint at the same time you use Cloak of Shadows to negate any slowing effects you may be under. Sprint has a 1 minute cooldown. Vanish Vanish will remove you from combat, and put you back into a state of stealth. After using Vanish, you have a 3 second grace period in which you can take damage, without stealth breaking. Use this time to make your escape, free of worry from AOE effects, or use it to reopen on your target with a Cheap Shot or Garrote. Blind Blind is your main CC ability. It is a 10 second disorient effect. It cannot be dispelled, cleansed, decursed, or otherwise. It can only be removed by use of a PvP trinket or the Human Racial Every Man for Himself. Blind is best to be used after the target has used its PvP trinket. Doing so will allow you time to bandage up, restealth, and even sap the target if needed. Blind (When glyphed) will remove all damaging effects from the target, so make sure you use it at a time when you actually need it. It is a very important ability in most CC chains in arena. Recuperate Meet your new best friend. Recuperate consumes combo points to heal you. Provided you have specced to the specifications above, your Recuperate should be healing you for around 5k, providing 6% damage reduction and restoring 12 energy if youre Subtlety spec per 3 seconds. Recuperate should be up permanently while dueling. I suggest using a 5 point Recuperate to make it easier to keep track of (lasts 30 seconds). Recuperate should only be used in Arena if youre playing a comp without a healer, or if youre being focused, for the 6% damage reduction, in combination with other cooldowns. Recuperate has no cooldown. Deadly Throw Deadly Throw should be used if you need to slow an enemy kiting you at range. It doesnt provide much damage, so unless youre going for a stylish finishing move to kill someone, or end a duel, its best to only use a 1 combo point Deadly Throw, strictly for the slow effect. The 50% reduced movement speed effect lasts 6 seconds. It cannot be dispelled. Deadly Throw has no cooldown. I suggest attaching Deadly Throw, and Throw together in this handy Macro. #showtooltip Deadly Throw /cast Deadly Throw /cast Throw This macro prioritizes Deadly Throw if you have Combo Points and Energy, otherwise it will use Throw. Kidney Shot The only stun you should be using, as it and Cheap Shot now share Diminishing Returns. 5 combo points gives you a 6 second stun on your opponent. Use whenever you feel it necessary to hold an enemy in place (EG. Smokebomb), avoid damage, or both. Kidney Shot has a 20 second cooldown.

Redirect Redirect places any existing combo points onto your current target. It is incredibly useful for quick swaps in arena. Kick Your primary interrupt ability. Use against spell casters to prevent a spell from being cast. Self explanatory. Kick has a 10 second cooldown, but isnt on the Global Cooldown, so you can use it at the same time you use other abilities. Gouge A second interrupt, an interlude between cooldowns, or both. You must however be facing your target in order to use Gouge. Keep this in mind. Gouge has a 10 second cooldown. Shiv A major ability in both specs, many Rogues do not understand just how useful shiv is. Shiv should be used whenever you need to apply your offhand poison to your target. Whether thats to refresh your stack of Deadly Poison, or to slow your enemy by way of shivving crippling poison on, it is an incredibly useful attack. Shiv also dispels enrage effects, and as such, is extremely useful when fighting Warriors, and Tanks (Prot Warriors, Feral Druids, Prot Paladins, Blood DKs) to dispel the stacking Vengeance AP buff they receive. Shiv has no cooldown. Tricks of the Trade Aside from the PvE threat transference applications of the ability, Tricks of the Trade also provides a 15% damage increase to the targeted party member. Particularly useful for coordinating burst in arena, no real applications in duels. For your convenience, Ive attached a Macro to aid you in use of the ability. #showtooltip Tricks of the Trade /target Playernamehere /cast Tricks of the Trade /targetlasttarget This macro will allow you to Tricks of the Trade a specified ally without detargeting your current target. Simply place the name of your Arena Partner or chosen player where it says Playernamehere. (EG. /target Swifty) Fan of Knives Fan of Knives is the Rogue class only AoE ability. Its primarily used to unstealth sneaking Rogues and Druids when you cant get back into stealth yourself. Fan of Knives has no cooldown. Distract Distract should be used while stealthed in order to successfully sap a target. It faces the targets within the distract radius, towards the center of the circle. It has a 30 second cooldown.

StealthIf you arent killing something, you should be stealthed. If you are unstealthed, you are vulnerable. If you are vulnerable, you are prone to attack. If I personally see a Rogue that isnt in stealth, I will kill him, just to teach the silly bugger a lesson. I cannot stress this enough, you should be in stealth whenever possible. Stealth has a 4 second cooldown when talented

#showtooltip Stealth /cast [stance:0] Stealth

This simple macro will allow you to mash your stealth button without worrying about accidentally unstealthing yourself. Slice and Dice and Expose Armor While these two abilities are valid finishing moves, I dont really use them at all. The other finishers are much more beneficial for both specs than these two at the time of posting this guide.

Key abilities Stealthed

These abilities can only be used while Stealthed, or while using Shadowdance. Sap Sap is a ten second incapacitate effect. It is ranged (10 yards) and should be used to sit your target in place while you line up your opener, or to take a target out of play while you attack something else in arena. It is one of the most important spells in your entire arsenal of abilities. It has no cooldown. Garrote Garrote is one of your three main openers. Garrote applies a 5 second silence effect, and bleed effect to your target. Every time your Garrote deals damage (Every three seconds) you have a 60% chance to gain 10 energy, and deal extra 3023 Nature Damage to your target. This makes it a perfect opener as Mutilate, and against mages as Subtlety. Garrote requires you to be behind the target in order to use it. It has no cooldown. Cheap shot Cheap shot is the second of your three main openers. It is a 4 second stun that shares diminishing returns with Kidney Shot. Only use this ability when you know you wont be using a kidney shot in the next 20 seconds. It has no cooldown. Ambush

Ambush is the last of your three main openers. It deals physical damage and is a key opener for the Subtlety tree, however it is relatively useless for mutilate compared to garrote. You must be behind your target in order to use Ambush. It has no cooldown.

Key abilities Assassination

These abilities and descriptions are unique to the Mutilate PvP spec. Cold Blood Cold Blood is best used when you have a 5 stack of Deadly Poison for a 5 Combo Point Crit Envenom. Cold Blood increases the Critical Strike Chance of your next ability by 100% and restores 25 energy. Use it when you need to burst down a target, but use it carefully. Cold Blood has a 3 minute cooldown. Vendetta Vendetta is an ability that increases the damage you do to the affected target ONLY, by 20%. When glyphed, it lasts 36 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown. It also allows you to see your target regardless of whether or not theyre stealthed. Only use Vendetta when you know which target youll be focusing for the next 36 seconds. Dont use it if youre switching between targets a lot, or it will go to waste. Envenom Envenom is your primary damaging finishing move for the Mutilate tree. It deals poison damage based on how many combo points, and stacks of deadly poison are currently on your Target. If you have Recuperate up, and Rupture is up on your target, this should be your main use of combo points. It is best used with a 5 stack of Deadly Poison, and 5 combo points. Envenom has no cooldown. Rupture Rupture is your only major way or regenerating energy as Mutilate. Every time your Rupture deals damage (Every two seconds) you have a 60% chance to gain 10 energy, and deal extra 3023 Nature Damage to your target. This also makes it one of your main damage abilities and it is imperative that Rupture is up on your target at all times. Mutilate Mutilate is your main damage and combo point building ability, as the name of the spec suggests. It generates two combo points (3 combo points if it crits, due to the Seal Fate talent in the Mutilate tree) and has no cooldown.

Key abilities Subtlety

These abilities and descriptions are unique to the Shadowstep PvP spec. Shadowstep As previously explained in the guide, this subtlety spec is designed for use against Mages and Hunters ONLY. It is for this reason that Shadowstep is your most powerful ability. Not for damage, it does none, but it provides you with the opportunity to do damage to a target that would otherwise be out of range. Shadowstep has a 20 second cooldown, and a 25 yard range. When used it also applies a 10 second buff to you, which increases the damage of your next Ambush or Garrote by 30%. Premeditation This is the ability you should use straight after sap as a Subtlety Rogue. It can only be used while stealthed, and generates two combo points on your target. It is best to open on the target (Cheap Shot, Garrote, Ambush etc.) after using Premeditation, as the combo points generated by the ability only last 20 seconds. It can also be used to heal with Recuperate while stealthed. It has a 20 second cooldown. Preparation Preparation resets the cooldown on your Vanish, Evasion, Sprint, and Shadowstep abilities. It should be used as a last resort only, after prep is gone, you have no backup cooldowns. Preparation has 5 minute cooldown. Shadowdance Shadowdance allows the use of the openers mentioned earlier, regardless of being stealthed, for a duration of 8 seconds. While Shadowdance is active, your best method of dealing damage comes from spamming ambush, and using your other abilities as you normally would (Ambush becomes your primary combo point building attack for those 8 seconds, instead of Backstab) With Garrote and Cheap Shot to be used as needed. Keep in mind that the Garrote Silence and Cheap Shot stun are on diminishing returns with themselves. (EG. Using Cheap Shot a second time will only stun the target for half the time of the first Cheap Shot). Shadowdance has a 1 minute cooldown. Backstab Backstab is your primary damage and combo point building ability. It deals physical damage and requires you to be behind your target in order to use it. Eviscerate -

Eviscerate is the Primary finishing move for Subtlety. It deals physical damage. Best used when you have 5 combo points. It doesnt rely on Deadly Poison, unlike Envenom, making it the finisher of choice for Subtlety. It has no cooldown.

Tactics - Assassination
Now that weve covered what each ability does, and when they should be used, Im going to take you through the basic Assassination rotation applicable to every class, though individual duels will differ. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Sap Vendetta Garrote Mutilate Rupture Mutilate x 2 Recuperate

That is your opener. After your opener, it is imperative that you keep Rupture up on your target at all times and Recuperate up at all times on yourself.

If Rupture and Recuperate are up, making sure that you also have a 5 Stack of Deadly Poison on your target, you can go for a Cold Blood 5 Combo Point Envenom. Envenom should be your main finishing move if Rupture and Recuperate are up.

Refresh Recuperate and Rupture, and use defensive cooldowns when needed. Making sure also, that Deadly Poison doesnt fall off your target.

If your target still isnt dead, repeat your opener from Step 3, using Vanish to restealth. If Rupture and Recuperate are already up, replace steps 5 and 7 with Envenom.

Read through this a few times, test it against a target dummy if needed, then try some duels.

Tactics Subtlety
This rotation is designed to combat Mages and Hunters specifically. It relies on burst damage, as you wont be able to keep any consistent rotation on classes that will ultimately try and kite you around. Your basic burst opener for Subtlety is as follows. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Premeditation Ambush (Garrote if Mage) Kidney Shot Shadowdance Ambush x 2 Recuperate

or

At some point, the Mage / Hunter will most likely Blink or Disengage away.

7. Shadowstep 8. Backstab x 2 9. Eviscerate Chances are youre going to be able to get some attacks in between Shadowstep cooldowns. IMPORTANT - Your combo points should be used to keep Recuperate up at all times. If Recuperate is currently active, your points should be used to Kidney Shot the target. If Recuperate is active, and Kidney Shot is on cooldown, you may then use your combo points for Eviscerate. Combo Point Priority Order 1. Recuperate 2. Kidney Shot 3. Eviscerate Keeping a Ranged class in melee range is essential. So that means you want them stunned and slowed as much as possible. It also means you need to use your Mobility cooldowns (Shadowstep, Sprint, Cloak, Vanish etc) to keep them in your range, and under pressure.

Also make sure that Crippling poison is always applied to your target. If it isnt currently active, use Shiv to apply it to your target.

Unlike other classes, you cant afford to play completely defensively at any point when facing a ranged class. If you do, you will end up being kited all over the area. In the end however, practice makes perfect, and a lot of these duels come down to reaction speed. Practice this rotation against Mages and Hunters and make small alterations to suit your playstyle.

Gearing your Rogue

Now that you have the knowledge, its time to go forth into the Battlegrounds to hone your skills, and get some honor points while youre at it. The first thing you put your newly earned honor points towards are 4/5 the Rogue Bloodthirsty main pieces. http://www.wowhead.com/itemset=-306 The 2 set and 4 set bonuses greatly outweigh the immediate benefits of any other gear pieces. 2 pieces: +400 resilience rating. 2 pieces: Increases Agility by 70. 4 pieces: Increases your maximum Energy by 10. 4 pieces: Increases Agility by 180. Gem and Enchant for Resilience wherever possible, but do not miss out on any Stat bonuses from matching the gem slot to a correspondingly coloured gem. Red Socket Delicate Inferno Ruby (+40 Agility) http://www.wowhead.com/item=52212 Blue Socket Steady Dream Emerald (+20 Resilience and +30 Stamina) http://www.wowhead.com/item=52245 Yellow Socket Mystic Amberjewel (+40 Resilience) http://www.wowhead.com/item=52226 You dont really have a lot of choices where it comes to enchanting your gear. Enchants will always be in the form of Critical Strike Rating, Mastery Rating, Haste Rating, or Resilience. Any of these will suffice for your enchanting your gear.

Thanks for reading Mercs Rogue Basics Guide. Individual Class Guides, Arena Guides, and other Advanced Guides coming soon. http://www.youtube.com/user/MercaderGaming