December 07 - State of the Rogue Address

Complaints about the rogue class are mounting up on the forums, but once again the complaints seem to be entirely misplaced.

"I can't beat an equal-geared warrior!"
"I can't beat SL/SL warlocks!"

Wrong. You can beat them and should, in most cases. Resilience is not as much of an issue as it was in previous seasons, IMO. I can tear down a 450 resilience SL warlock PDQ. That's not to say that they are easy, or that I can't lose. I can, they are a dangerous class. As are warriors. But, they are far from unbeatable.

IMO, rogues have the advantage over every "non-healing" class in the game, except for, perhaps, a well-played frost mage.

So, where are rogues weak? They are weak against certain brands of healers. Healing classes are generally easy for rogues until they pass a certain gear threshold. Then, they can become nightmares, the worst of which being the resto-druid.

In a typical arena match, what determines who wins a 3v3 or 5v5 match? Class composition is obviously a primary factor, as is gear, and then relative skill. After that, what is more important? Good DPS or good healing? The answer is good healing. Healing wins matches, not DPS.

The best teams I've seen use a combination of CC and class abilities to help mitigate damage to themselves so they don't overburden their healers. Doing damage is a secondary concern and something that you do when the other teams reveals a chink in their armor. But, make no mistake. Healing is the backbone of the best teams. So much so, that teams will take out threats to a healer's mana pool as a high priority.

So, you are left with long matches which are not dependent on DPS until late in a match when a rogue's mobility is at its worst. Shadowstep was a nice fix to give rogues something similar to a warriors intercept. However, you have to make too many sacrifices in other places to get it.

Do warriors have to spec to get intercept? Do you see what I'm getting at here, Blizzard? At this point in time, I just can't see bringing a rogue into a 5v5 over an equivalently geared and well-played hunter, just for example. A marks PvP specced hunter brings CC in the form of frost trap, imp concussive shots, imp wingclips, and silences as well as being a threat to the opposing teams mana pool and buffs. And, to top it off they can do DPS, when needed, independent of mobility.

So, rogues are still the masters of 1v1 in the BGs and can do well in 2v2 and 3v3 (with very specific line-ups that require a very good healer), but are still quite weak for 5v5 IMO.

As for me, I'm going to work on a hunter alt.