Encrypted Text: Cataclysm heroics from a rogue's perspective
by Chase Christian 
Sep 29th 2010 at 3:00PM
I remember what it was like to play a rogue in dungeons in vanilla WoW. Our only form of long-term crowd control was Sap, and it brought us out of stealth every time we used it. Subtlety rogues could spend three talent points on Improved Sap, which still left Sap knocking us out of Stealth a tenth of the time. Every mob had some sort of AoE or whirlwind-style attack, and rogues were often right behind tanks in terms of healing necessary.
We've come a long way since the old days. Tricks of the Trade, with its instant threat transfer, has become the crutch that supports even the greenest tanks. Fan of Knives is one of the best AoE abilities in the game and synergizes with our poisons for incredible potency. Improved Sap has been baked in to the ability, and we can use our CC safely on a wide variety of targets. Feint's new ability to reduce our AoE damage taken also allows us to survive most attacks. You might say that rogues are nearly perfect for running heroics. Unfortunately for us, Cataclysm's heroics have a thing or two to teach us about complacency.
Crowd control is absolutely necessary
Whether it's that tanks are less capable of mitigating damage, or that healers are less capable of healing as much, or that mobs are just hitting like Saurfang the Elder mixed with Chuck Norris -- you can't simply AoE down every room in a heroic anymore. You'll end up on the floor very quickly without even killing a single mob. It will also take some time for players to learn all of the new mechanics in each heroic, similar to how everyone used to wipe to Loken in Wrath. The easiest way to simplify a fight and slow down the pace while learning is to apply a lot of crowd control. While Sap was once the weakest CC in the game, it's come a long way since then. In Cataclysm, it's effective against demons and dragonkin, which expands the range of targets we can control.
While Sap's being both reliable and versatile is important, there's something even more critical to our success in using crowd control. Master of Deception has also been baked in to our normal Stealth, so we're nearly invisible to our enemies. This allows for us to Sap nearly any mob in a pack without fear of being discovered. We can also Stealth ahead to scout for patrols. There's even a Glyph of Sap that extends its duration to more than twice its normal length -- any rogue running heroics in Cataclysm should invest in this glyph.
Be the hero -- use your cooldowns
Rogues have a lot of cooldowns. After about 15 minutes of playing a rogue, you'll realize that we've really got every tool in Batman's utility belt and then some. There have always been two schools of thought when it comes to cooldown usage. The first mandates that you save your cooldowns so that they're available when you really need them. The second paradigm, which I follow, instructs you to use your cooldowns as often as possible to ensure that they're never wasted. When you're learning new content and you can't always rely on your teammates, using cooldowns can turn the tide of any battle.
Your top priority should be ensuring that the healer is safe and sound. If the healer is OK, he can keep the tank alive, and the fight should be simple from there. Utilize every short cooldown you have, like Gouge and Blind, to prevent someone from dying. I keep my eye on the healer at all times, just in case any mob happens to head his way. Sometimes it only takes a few seconds for the tank to be able to get control of a group, and every second of CC you can provide counts. If you don't have that option, you can still pop open "tank in a can," also known as Evasion. The death of one rogue wouldn't normally even be noticed, but if you save the healer, you've become the group's savior.
All three specs are pretty comparable
While damage meters on the beta servers are unreliable at best, I have been seeing pretty even performance from each of the rogue talent specializations in the heroic dungeons. Combat rogues have an edge in terms of raw damage due to Blade Flurry's new 30-second cooldown, which means you're nearly always attacking two targets at once. Assassination rogues have been very fun to play, with Vendetta providing some burst damage when necessary. Subtlety rogues are actually doing reasonable damage, though it can take some time to get into a full rotation. Once I started using the Glyph of Hemorrhage to provide the bleed debuff quickly instead of using Rupture early, my damage was much higher. I am eager to see how each spec performs once raids are unlocked on the beta servers.
Check back every Wednesday for the latest strategies in Encrypted Text! Get ready for Icecrown Citadel with our rogue guide, part 1, part 2 (Plagueworks), part 3 (Crimson Halls) and part 4 (Frostwing Halls). Just hit 80 and need information? Try Combat 101 or Mutilate 101.Filed under: Rogue, (Rogue) Encrypted Text
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Peter Jones Sep 29th 2010 3:16PM
Great article! One cool thing I noticed on PTR is that Ambush doesn't need a main hand dagger but any 2 weapons. Only Backstab needed 2 daggers. Made my combat spec have a new (read hardly used) opening.
Daniel Fritz Sep 29th 2010 4:06PM
It is great to read an article that is up-beat when talking about Rogues. Truly, we can deal massive damage, but what makes Rogues a delight to play is the ability to dominate our opponents control mechanics. From what it looks like, we might just need those twenty button mice, and I applaud it. Instead of biting our fingernails and not allowing ourselves to invest in those fun mechanics in our talent tree, we can now become a overflowing bag of tricks that every party will be happy to have. Of course this all depends on if the Rogue in question will be intelligent enough to understand them, and be motivated to use them too.
jfofla Sep 29th 2010 3:21PM
The big lesson of Cata Heroics...Slow down the pace.
Videos from Cata Heroics are showing it takes about 90 minutes to run one. When was the last time we spent 15 minutes in a Heroic much less 90?
CC and making sure everyone is ready to pull is the name of the game now, not "Go, Go, Go".
Imprttuner2 Sep 29th 2010 3:24PM
I'm prob gonna get negative repped for this... But am I the only rogue happy that we are getting back into CC's... I loved the strategy involved with coordinating CC's in both vanilla and BC and sorly missed it in wrath to the point where I my rogue fell from my main toon status several times... Do I love massive amounts of damage... Heck Yes! But AOE'ing instances seemed to take away from the spirit of our class
ruggerjj Sep 29th 2010 3:35PM
You aren't the only one looking forward to to CC coming back. My mage hasn't had a chance to polymorph during a non-PvP fight in a long time.
Daniel Fritz Sep 29th 2010 4:16PM
Quite the opposite from what you were expecting, but yes, I am also excited that we get back to being masters of the shadows. :)
Jorges Sep 29th 2010 4:06PM
Nope, on the contrary, there's a lot of people who wanted CC back. I never liked the AoE playgame to be honest. Sometimes I run old BC dungeons with my lvl 73 rogue and some friends just to the remember the good 'ol days.
Lucidique Sep 29th 2010 4:17PM
You're nowhere near alone.
I been bored, and been sighing, for the Heroics from TBC. AE-fests are boring, grindy and almost insulting - dumping something down *that* much.
I'm looking very much forward to the hardcore, intense Heroics of Cataclysm :D
ChaosInc Sep 29th 2010 5:18PM
As others said, you're not alone. My "main" is a rogue. I say "main" because since Wrath the toon as felt very useless other than just dps and even then people would rather take an Arcane Mage because they can AoE. The thrill of sneaking up for saps and feeling like I have a purpose was long gone after the first couple of heroics when AoE became the norm. Sorry, FoK has nothing on Blizzard/Arcane Explosion. Thus the leveling of my mage instead and my rogue becoming strictly PvP.
I look forward to when I can say my rogue is my main again without the quotes where I take him in dungeons AND PvP.
stuart Sep 29th 2010 5:41PM
Absolutely. I think many people are looking forward to the return of cc. Without it the heroics have become boring, and the need for different dps classes all but gone. It will be great to see some planning going into the pulls again!
Bruce Sep 29th 2010 6:24PM
One of the saddest days for my warlock was early on in Wrath heroics when I realized that I could do 1100dps single target... but rain of fire bumped me up over 2000.
That is pretty much his only "rotation" (other than boss fights) since then and that's made it hard to want to run much with him anymore.
Andromaton Sep 29th 2010 6:45PM
Back during TBC days my tank would lovingly assign me to sap the hardest to reach mob in a pack. Sure I died alot because of it but man did I feel proud when I was able to CC my target. I miss those days.
CottonCandi Sep 30th 2010 10:24AM
Absolutely. I applaud their goal, if they stick with it to make heroics hard! A huge portion of the boredom is easysauce two button heroics for nearly every class.
Make us CC. Make the tank look at what he is going to pull. Make the healer think about how to use heal buttons...Kudos
I look forward to needing to CC on my chars as long as it lasts (this time).
EdiBomb Sep 30th 2010 7:08PM
I still remember that in the beggining of wrath, when we just got to lvl 80, some heroics where really hard to complete, like Halls of Stone and Halls of lighting. Funny enough, it was known in the server that only a couple of guilds could manage to do them smoothly.
It required some good CC on the trash pulls and even the bosses where hard to kill.
The way wrath worked gave too much importance to raw stats, and more hp and healing where enough to make any pull an easy job even without CC.
The difficulty of the trash pulls shouldn't rely on pure NPC damage, cuz after we get to the higher tiers of gear, it's going to become stupidly easy to kill the trash, just like it is today.
The difficulty should rely on the abilities these NPC have and on the game mechanics involved on a trash pull. Thats the only way the game can require some skill without depending much on the quality of your gear.
In other words, once we get to the higher tiers of gear, it should still requiere the same skills it did the first time we did the heroic, but better gear should mean it will get done faster.
Jam Sep 29th 2010 3:27PM
"I have been seeing pretty even performance from each of the rogue talent specializations in the heroic dungeons."
You mean I can now raid as Subtlety? To the Batmobile! *Fumbles keys*
mads.teilmann.rasmussen Sep 29th 2010 5:05PM
Hehe, excellent comment!
Husher Oct 2nd 2010 1:12AM
I really hope so. wouldn't the sap be easier if we could just shadow step a target?
Siorra Sep 29th 2010 3:28PM
Feint's been reducing AoE damage taken through most, if not all, of the WotLK expansion. Just sayin'.
perderedeus Sep 29th 2010 4:07PM
Thank you for mentioning how you keep an eye on the healer, and will use Gouge/Blind/etc. and even Evasion to handle a stray mob if needed. There are many DPS warriors who will not Off Tank a rampant mob, some even going so far as requesting a Crowd Control ability... they forget that they ARE crowd control, they just need to go to Defensive Stance, equip a sword/board, and remember where the Taunt button is.
When a rogue - a pure DPS class - is playing so attentively, and considerately, maybe there's hope for the warriors out there.
omedon666 Sep 29th 2010 4:43PM
THANK. YOU.
I swear, people forget that, in a world where no one's getting two shot, (said in "movie trailer voice!") an arms warrior with a shield, in defensive stance, with no other changes, is an offtank in a 5-man. Heck, depending on specifics, one might not even need the danged shield!
Same with rogues and evasion! If said offtank is at 20% health when the actual tank takes over, it's fine, he can always SIT AND EAT when the fight is over!
Meaty bodies saying "look at me for a sec!" are living, breathing crowd control!