Encrypted Text: A savvy rogue's guide to starting Dragon Soul via the Raid Finder
by Chase Christian 
Dec 7th 2011 at 9:00PM
The introduction of the Raid Finder is one of the biggest features in patch 4.3, and so far it has been everything that we could ask for and more. The queues have been quick, the bosses are tuned just right for the demographic, and the rewards are potent enough to keep the system running. Anyone with decent gear can queue up for a raid, gaining valuable experience and gear. I think the new system is perfect for allowing new raiders to get their feet wet, preparing them for what lies ahead.
Even as a pure DPS class, the Raid Finder queues haven't been too bad for rogues. Between my own experience and the word on the street (not Greg), queue times are between 15 and 30 minutes, and groups are mostly competent. To a class that's historically had problems finding a spot in a raid group, the Raid Finder looks like our new best friend. The only bummer is that we can't start or progress in our legendary quest line in the Raid Finder. In order to maximize our random group's chance for success, we need to be prepared to do our best.
Raid Finder trims the fat
The Raid Finder versions of the Dragon Soul bosses are much weaker than their normal- and heroic-mode counterparts. Bosses have less life, their attacks deal less damage, and their powerful abilities are typically weakened or removed completely. While the fights are easier than usual, you will still have to know your role and duties if you want to succeed. If you treat the bosses without the proper amount of respect, it will come back to bite you.
Stomping Morchok
Morchok isn't a difficult fight for rogues, but there are a few optimizations we can take advantage of. Morchok will be using his Stomp ability pretty regularly, which deals some AoE damage to everyone nearby. Feint will help by reducing our damage taken, which helps the healers spend less mana healing us. Ensure that you're using the Glyph of Feint, as it is a required glyph for any PvE rogue. By removing Feint's energy cost, we can use it at any time without costing us any damage. Feint is one of the few defining abilities of the rogue class, so use it well.
Morchok has a special phase where he brings everyone close to him and then starts bleeding all over the ground. We're forced to run away from the creeping blood, hiding in the safety behind the stone pillars that are created. While spending time away from the boss hurts our DPS, we can mitigate some of the damage loss by using Throw. Poison your throwing weapon with Deadly Poison before the fight starts, and use Sprint to quickly run way behind a stone pillar. You should be able to use your Throw ability to keep your Deadly Poison stack active, which will minimize your lost damage when you return to attacking the boss.
You might be tasked with running to a Resonating Crystal on the ground. Some raids will have ranged players handle this instead, so ask your raid leader. If melee are participating, you'll know you need to run to the crystal by looking for a laser beam shooting out of your body toward the crystal. Just run over to the crystal and wait for it to explode. You can use the Throw tactic again here to keep your Deadly Poison stack around. In fact, using Throw when you're unable to reach a boss is always a good idea.
A rude awakening for Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
Yor'sahj might seem complex but ends up being relatively simple for rogues. We alternate between burning down the boss and attacking one of the oozes that he spawns. Follow your raid leader's plan for picking the ooze to kill, and you won't have any issues. Run over to the ooze with Sprint and nuke it down as you follow it toward the boss. Note that the oozes don't have a front or back and can't parry, so feel free to attack from any direction you please. You might also be assigned to nuke down a Mana Void, which follows the same rules.
If the boss spawns add via a black ooze, then you'll be using Fan of Knives to nuke down a few weak adds. If the boss starts dealing AoE damage via a yellow ooze, you'll want to pop Feint to reduce the damage. Otherwise, you'll sit in melee range, attacking as usual. The other oozes are inconsequential for rogues.
Bouncing Warlord Zon'ozz
The ranged DPS and healers have a lot of work to do against the Warlord, while we rogues get to simply burn the boss down the entire time. If there ever was a tank-and-spank fight for us in this tier, Warlord Zon'ozz would be it. We can stay in melee range for the entire fight, only strafing for a moment to avoid colliding with the Void Orb. Your raid leader will go over how many bounces the orb should reach, and it's our job to simply step to the side to let the orb collide with the boss instead of with our backside. When the orb is going to hit us, we can Feint to cut down the damage a bit.
Resisting Hagara the Stormbinder
Hagara is by far the most complicated boss out of the first half of Dragon Soul. She has two special phases, Frozen Tempest and Lightning Storm. During Frozen Tempest, focus on running away from the ice walls and spend a few seconds killing the ice crystals. The ice walls move clockwise around the outside edge of the room, but they're not that fast. Rogues with Quickening or a speed enchant on their boots will be able to outrun the ice walls with ease. Don't bother with using Cloak of Shadows against the ice walls. During Lightning Storm, we'll be killing an add and then running as a group from totem to totem, blowing them up.
After both Frozen Tempest and Lightning Storm are over, the boss takes extra damage for a few seconds, so save Sprint or any movement speed cooldowns you have for that phase. The rest of the right is pretty easy for rogues, as we're simply killing the boss as usual. Because we spend so much time running around and not actually attacking, your DPS might not look so hot, but that's just the nature of the fight.
Sneak in every Wednesday for our Molten Front ganking guide, a deep-dive into the world of playing a subtlety rogue -- and of course, all the basics in our guide to the latest rogue gear.Filed under: Rogue, (Rogue) Encrypted Text
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
sLpFhaWK Dec 7th 2011 10:05PM
These 1st 4 bosses are loot whores.. They are so easy in LFR, but I will gladly take the opportunity for some free easy loot. I just wish you could pick pocket the ring for the quest, honestly that should be in LFR.
boil.san Dec 7th 2011 10:13PM
I totally agree, the start of the quest chain & the pickpocketing should be available in the Raid Finder…
Everything else after that, which means the gathering of a metric buttload of gems, should be regulated to the Normal & Heroic DS Raids…
Emophia Dec 7th 2011 10:34PM
No, they're already the easiest 397 weapons that everyone and their mother can get.
They don't need to made even easier. Not to mention even if you don't raid just ask some friends that raid and they'll easily let you come pickpocket her after the hagara trash.
scherbaddie Dec 8th 2011 12:31AM
I'd like to see a "lower quality" decoding ring drop in the raid finder (possibly from a Corn Flakes box that you pick pocket from her), that doesn't decode the message properly and just gives you gibberish.
sLpFhaWK Dec 8th 2011 5:43AM
but you still have to pay the 10k just so you learn a lesson. lol ouch that would be bad =)
ZodiacDragons Dec 8th 2011 1:03AM
Wait time for me has only been 10-15 which is awesome...only problem I have is getting loot from bosses. Jackasses be needing shit they dont use (i.e. Paladin needing on Starcatcher trinket with agility stats on it).
ZodiacDragons Dec 8th 2011 1:13AM
uhg sry for the double post. when I posted this first one, it brought me to my homepage and when I came back to the site, my comment wasnt here so I reposted it. Feel free to downvote into oblivion. :(
Chase Christian Dec 8th 2011 1:24AM
No worries, the comment system could use some work. :)
I am hoping the wait times remain low as the "newness" of RF wears off.
ZodiacDragons Dec 8th 2011 1:08AM
Wait times for me have only been 10-15 which is awesome. The only issue I've had is getting loot is a pain in the ass, especially with jackasses needing shit they shouldn't be (i.e. Non-druid tanks needing on agility trinkets, rings, wepons, ect.) Pally got Starcatcher from Blackhorn today and he even got the +100 to his roll for it...pretty sure Pally's dont need agility -_-
twbrienn Dec 8th 2011 1:47AM
I've been seeing queue times of 6 minutes or less queuing from Hellscream-US on my rogue. Our guild raid's tanks have been seeing them upwards of 45mins. Oh how sweet the role reversal is. Also on the topic of getting the ring, our Sunday raid had no less than 7 rogues come through to get their rings. Beyond that a buddy from an old guild found out a few of us were going for our rings on Sunday and felt bad about not letting us come through his Tuesday raid to get it early. lol
Fubar Dec 8th 2011 9:04AM
"If the boss spawns add via a black ooze, then you'll be using Fan of Knives to nuke down a few weak adds. "
Or, if you're Combat, use Blade Flurry. Cleave-y goodness!
weapon.ozma Dec 8th 2011 11:00AM
This isn't so much a guide as a 'if your not already doing this stuff then re-role plz'
Chase Christian Dec 8th 2011 11:24AM
Many of the RF rogues are first-time raiders or alts, so I wrote this guide with that in mind. Any experienced rogue should be able to trounce the RF bosses without issue.
ScrubRogue Dec 8th 2011 2:49PM
Yes, I've yet to enter ANY raid because of people like weapon.ozma who take one look at your achievements and say "delete your toon losor!" because you happen to only have PVP achieves.
BTW, not being allowed into a raid until you have the final boss achieve makes it pretty hard to go. I think LFR is great I'll have to give it a try sometime.
Dankie Dec 8th 2011 1:38PM
I disagree with technique on Morchok. If you run out normally and then sprint on the way back - instead of the other way around - you'll get to the boss quicker and not suffer such a damage loss. You'll take maybe one small tick if you're unlucky or lagging, but if you're concerned you can use your left over cps prior to the 'pull in' with recoup. If you know you lag, then go with sprint on the way out. If you do have left over points and aren't recouping, deadly throw first before you do your awesome throwing knife damage! Or save it for a SnD as you sprint (or not) on your way back.
For Yor'sahj - as a combat rogue - you'll want to hit up those AoE adds with blade flurry and killing spree as it's a dps increase instead of a loss that FoK is. Focus boss during those adds and flurry away, popping KS when you're low on energy. Also sprinting to the slime that's to be killed is a good way of keeping dps time up, as you'll be fine running-n-killin' it on your way back to the boss. When the mana void shows up, use blade flurry whenever it is near another target - mana void dying quickly is important.
As this is more for raiding first timers or alts I'll leave the following advice:
-Use recoup when you see your health low and you're concerned you may not get healed - or during times when you know they'll be low on mana.
-Use feint during aoe damage, it really helps.
-Remember not to stand in bad stuff, if you are in bad stuff move quick - as even a short time in bad stuff can cause a significant dps loss - a dead rogue does no damage.
-Use cloak of shadows to mitigate hard spell damage, or if you have the glyph use it when you need to mitigate major physical damage.
-If you get aggro off of a tank, vanish - your life depends on it. Don't expect the tank to taunt immediately, it's their responsibility to get aggro back normally but they may have already put taunt on CD. If you vanish, they'll be happier.
-Don't vanish if the next target it'll go to is a healer. Tank it with evasion and whatnot, totting to a tank until the tank can pick it up. Use your defensive cds and recoup. Don't make a healer dead by vanishing.
-Use your tott on your tanks whenever there's adds - prior to you going all-out with aoe damage, and at the start of the pull.
Above all else: have fun and don't roll on strength gear.
Rem Dec 8th 2011 7:06PM
Except you fail to understand the gap between the ooze and the boss is biggest at the beginning so from strictly a keep your dps higher perspective sprinting to the ooze is far more logical.
Dankie Dec 8th 2011 8:43PM
"Also sprinting to the slime that's to be killed is a good way of keeping dps time up, as you'll be fine running-n-killin' it on your way back to the boss. "
You fail at reading comprehension.
weapon.ozma Dec 8th 2011 3:32PM
I dont remember sayong anything about achievments? I dont believe in taking people along because of an achievment. Anyone can be carried through a boss fight. I do care about taking people who know their class though. If this post helps with that then thats a good thing. I was merely jokingly pointing out that this is all stuff that a raiding rogue should already know.
rask Dec 8th 2011 11:34PM
I'd like to see the legendary quest items (gems and whatnot) drop in LFR, however only to those rogues who have ground their way to exalted with Ravenholdt.
I think this would be the ideal compromise between rewarding the hard working rogues and keeping the legendary what it is: legendary.
goldeneye Dec 9th 2011 10:26AM
Or make a duplicate quest-chain that rewards "less awesome" daggers, decent epics, but no legendary...