Rogue Guide

w we go into stealth while in combat. I can’t stress enough how important it is to carry an insane amount of flash powder at all times. I used to carry 20 at a time. I kept running out and moved it up to 40 then 60. Now I completely fill a 16 slot bag. Yes, I agree, that is ridiculous. Why do I go through so much? I sap, I miss, I vanish. A lot. I hate dueling. But guildmates challenge me to duels every chance they get. I prefer real PvP, but I don’t often refuse a challenge. Each duel burns one or two flash powders. I also vanish quite a bit on instance runs especially when things go bad and I quickly need to control a situation. If I don’t have an off tank and I am not main assist, I will on occasion pull aggro off of casters. Vanishing and hitting a mob with cheap shot is a great way to do this. I also vanish when I draw too much aggro from too many mobs. I don’t do it often, but I do sometimes fail to judge my distance from a set of mobs and get aggro from 4 elites. I vanish and yell into teamspeak, “I DIDN’T DO IT”.

I will on rare occasion vanish in solo PvE. This of course is only in emergency situations where I am doing it to survive a bad situation. In solo PvE you cannot vanish without resetting the mob. They will evade and move back to their point of origin. However, if you have a mechanical yeti, or any trinket that summons something to fight for you, you can vanish to start a new opener. I don’t do this myself, but it would be a great way to solo elites.

Try to NEVER use vanish without stunning your target or sprinting away to get some distance. Obviously you can’t stun 5 elite mobs, but whenever possible, stun or run. Sprint will get you out of harm’s way very quickly, so you might not need to vanish, but it will likely give you the safe distance you need in case sprint itself is not enough.

Kidney Shot- I am finding myself using this more and more, even in PvP. I am typically the main assist on instance runs. If we are not taking a mob down quickly or if the warrior isn’t holding aggro well, I will use kidney shot to take the mob out of commission for 6 seconds. Don’t overuse it. A warrior generates rage from striking a mob and being struck by a mob. If he has control and it seems like the healers aren’t draining mana quickly, then just use eviscerate.

I don’t use kidney much in solo PvE. I have tested it extensively. While it will increase your damage to tankability ratio, it is a very slow means of grinding. You could CS, SS, gouge, KS, SS, SS, gouge, SS, SS, evisc. This might be enough to kill a mob. Maybe a few extra hits. But using eviscerate instead of KS kills mobs much faster. Speed isn’t everything when grinding for XP or cash, but it is enough of a speed difference where I will typically not use KS in solo PvE. The only time I will use it is when I am low on health, am about to kill the mob I am on and get an add.

Blind- 8 seconds of stun as long as your opponent takes no damage. I LOVE this ability. Blind them and apply first aid with a full energy bar before your opponent recovers. I really don’t use it in PvE much unless I am soloing elite mobs. It is great for PvP. What I don’t like about this skill is that it misses more than any other attack we have. Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s the glue and paint thinner talking.

Safe Fall- You fall…..safely. Use it when…..you fall. Seriously though, it reduces the amount of damage you take when you fall. You don’t fall slower, you just take less damage. You don’t have to activate it. It’s a passive ability. Just keep in mind that it is buggy. Sometimes I will fall a great distance and take no damage or just a scratch, other times I make a drop that shouldn’t damage me much and I end up dying. Again it could be the glue talking.

ASSASSINATION

Improved Eviscerate- If you EVER use eviscerate as your finisher, this is a no brainer. Max it out. At level 56, 3 points brings a 984 max damage eviscerate up to 1131.

Remorseless Attacks- Nothing has been nerfed as hard as this talent has. Maxed out you have a +40% chance to crit with SS, ambush, backstab or ghostly strike. While this isn’t terrible, it is not the double damage crit move of the gods it used to be. It is very common for a rogue to get the last hit in when in a group. We tend to be very good at timing that last eviscerate as a finishing blow. I find myself getting the remorseless counter in instances quite a bit when I have this talent.

Malice- Increases your chance to crit by 5%. That doesn’t sound like much, but an extra 5% to crit means a lot. No brainer in my eyes.

Ruthlessness- With 3 points you have a 60% chance of gaining a combo point when performing a finishing move. Lies. I think the proc is bugged because I almost never get that point. It is in my template, but it needs to be fixed.

Relentless strike