How To Kill A.... Guide

Introduction:
In PvP, most classes will likely attempt to kite a Rogue rather than engage one in melee combat. Warriors, other Rogues, Paladins, and occasionally (brave) Shamans are the exceptions. To avoid excessive kiting, make smart use of your cooldowns (Sprint, Blind, Vanish, Preparation) and Crippling Poison. Specific play style and strategy may vary quite widely according to the Rogue's talent build.


Strategy

Re-stealthing is an important Rogue skill, and mastering this tactic may greatly improve survivability. This skill can enable a Rogue to:

* Blind, run out of combat.
* Gouge, Sprint, run out of combat.
* Vanish.
* Apply Crippling Poison on the target and simply run away from combat.
* Kidney shot, run away from combat.

From stealth, a Rogue has many options available to him:

* Sap, bandage.
* Sap, wait for debuffs or a Priest/Warlock shield to run out, then Cheap Shot.
* Sap, Cheap Shot, run away and restealth for extra points on the target.

Against melee characters, stuns are everything. Melee characters usually have high chances to parry/block melee attacks. Since all the Rogues moves are melee, this can easily throw off your timing. Stunning an opponent (and running behind them, forcing them to turn around) removes his ability to parry (and possibly block) your attacks, and lets your moves go through much smoother.

Against melee characters wielding a slow weapon, stuns are even more important. A carefully timed kidney shot/gouge can mean avoiding an ugly chunk of Windfury. The best time to stun them is right before they swing. The worst time to stun is right after a swing. Just think of [Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros] as a big spell with a 3.70 casting time. You wanna interrupt it as late as possible.

Against pure casters (and even Paladins and other classes like elemental Shamans which rely heavily on spells), consider opening with a Garrote instead of cheap shot. Since garrote now silences the opponent for three seconds (completely shutting down Mages, Priests, and locks), you can think of it as a three second Cheap Shot that costs 10 less energy and leaves a significant dot on the opponent.

There are several common misconceptions held by other classes which you can use to your advantage in PvP combat:

* All Rogues use daggers and consequently must attack from behind
* The fight will open with high burst damage. Between bursts, the Rogue is helpless
* A Rogue will not rely on dodge during the fight
* Every Rogue has Preparation
* Combo points are lost on switching targets

Additional Notes

* Stunlocking is not always the best option. It depends mainly on what talent tree you've invested your points in. This is a technique done mainly by combat Rogues or Rogues fighting a high armor enemy.
* Subtlety Rogues are strongest against soft enemies. We typically open up with a Shadowstep (it doesn't matter if you're already behind them - Shadowstep is a 20% increase on damage) and ambush. This can take anywhere from 75% to 100% of the enemy's health. As for tanks, we have to resort to DoTs, such as shadow step, premeditation, garrote, rupture, evasion, and then wait it out. However, in this case, stunlocking works very well when dealing with high armor enemies.
* Assassination Rogues should depend mainly on debuffs. When it comes to fighting a cloth wearing enemy, cheap shot, mutilate, eviscerate is a great opener. As for tanks, you may want to use expose armor instead of eviscerate, because the battle will most likely last longer. However, in this case, stunlocking works very well when dealing with high armor enemies.
* Shadowstep is MORE than just a way for an opener. It can be invaluable when soloing quests for extraction (such as filling a vial, putting out a brazen, something where you simply have to click, wait for about five seconds and you're done). You can Shadowstep behind mobs that are several levels higher than you and walk off, versus getting caught by trying to walk past them.
Classes

Rogue

In fighting a fellow Rogue, gaining the initial attack is critical, and is often the winning factor of the fight. However victory is not guaranteed; many conditions can prolong or even lose the fight. These may include: having necessary abilities on cooldown (unavailable), using far inferior equipment, or having your pivotal attacks resisted/dodged/parried.

If an opponent Rogue manages to re-stealth, he may easily turn the tables on the attacker. To prevent this, try opening with a Cheap Shot, and instead of using five combo points for Kidney Shot or Eviscerate, use Rupture instead (now the other Rogue can't re-stealth or Vanish for 16 seconds). Vanish, open up again with Cheap Shot and stunlock the Rogue until he's dead. Keep an eye on your health, and Blind/heal as necessary.

Remember, Deadly Poison from a Rogue can be cleared with Cloak of Shadows then a Vanish can be used for restealthing.

Warrior

If you're fighting a good warrior you do not want to get hit at all. Well-geared warriors can cut you down in a few attacks, as well as resist or dodge many of your abilities. Be ready to blow some cooldowns. Here's a basic attack plan:

* Cheap Shot, sinister strike (or Hemorrhage) then gouge, turn on sprint and rupture as you run through him. If you're unable to get it off fast enough to restealth then make good use of Vanish.
* Reopen and kill him.

Using evasion against a warrior is generally accepted as helpful (rather than harmful) for the following reasons:

* The warrior skill Overpower will hurt, but is generally much less painful than absorbing the damage from all of his attacks.
* The warrior will likely generate less rage.
* The Rogue will be dodging some of the warrior's attacks anyway.


Priest

If you catch a Priest without his shields up, the fight is already yours. Stunlock him and kill him.

If he does have his shields up, hit him a lot to take them down. Before he puts his shield back up, blind him and wait for the Shadow Word: Pain to fade. Vanish again and open up with Cheap Shot, stunlocking him until you've killed him. Trinket his fear if necessary.


Mage

Stunlocking is what you want to do versus a Mage. Open with Cheap Shot (see Discussion for discretion against using other abilities, such as Ambush), and after he Blinks run the other way to re-stealth or simply vanish and reopen (the latter being preferable due to the fact that it takes less time). If you don't accidentally run into his Frost Nova any semi-decently geared Rogue should be able to kill a Mage within the cooldown of his blink. If he's about to come out of this stun and still not dead, blind. With the addition of the Cloak of Shadows skill at lvl66, being caught in the Frost Nova is not as damaging as it used to be. With a bit of luck you'll be able to gouge before your 5 seconds of virtual spell-immunity is over.

Tips: -If you see him channeling a frost spell, kick him. This will prevent him from doing any spell that have the highest chance of allowing him to kite you easier (with the obvious exception of frost armor) for the next few seconds. If you do suffer from frost armor, sprint and kidney shot if you have 4 or 5 CP built up. This will help the most against frost spec Mages. -If you see Pyroblast, run through him while it is near completion. Don't bother to run around him as he will just spin around. Normally running through confuses them and they take an extra second to decide which way to turn. The goal of a Rogue is to be sneaky, after all. -if you get hit by frost nova, vanish. this will break it and stop them from casting at you. If possible, wait until you have 4 CP built up (3 if you're subtlety) so you will come out of stealth with 5 CP.

Also, if your a combat-specced Rogue (or just have the improved sprint), you can use sprint to break frost nova or any slowing effects he has on you. Combined with a crippling poison on him, he'll be going nowhere in a hurry, least of all kiting you (that is if you've already forced him to blink, if not he may try that.)


Feral Druid

The inherent weaknesses of the feral forms are as follows:

* Cat Weaknesses (see Cat Form)
o Cat Form gives Druids twice as much armour as a Rogue of equal level, but lower agility; they usually only have at best 75% of a Rogue's Dodge. Autoattacks will hit (and crit) for as much as a combat Rogue, and their attack speed is normalized to 1 sec. Shred is equivalent to a Backstab, Claw and Rake are equivalent to more powerful versions of Sinister Strike and Shiv, they have no directional requirements, and there are talents which greatly increase their damage. However, Druids have no Feral talents for increased energy regeneration.
o In addition, Feral Druids can get the equivalent of 5/5 MoD in 3 talent points, so expect every Druid to have improved stealth.
o If fully specced feral, a Druid with Mangle (increased Shred and bleed damage by 30%) can pose a significant threat to rogue. If allowed to get off a Rip with 3-5 combo points and mangle up the rogue can bleed for up to 3.5k over 12 seconds and it cannot be removed. Be weary of the druid finisher Maim as well, it works like Gauge but can load 1k damage before incapacitating for 6 seconds.
* Bear Weaknesses
o Bears have almost 5 times your armour and around 1.5 times your health. Of course, bleed and poison abilities ignore armour, and the form itself gives no inherent stun or snare resists. In addition, Bears have at their disposal fewer Rage-based instant attacks.


It is common to see three types of Feral Druids:

1. The shift-crazy Druid
* They may start out in cat form, switch to bear to stun you, heal and snare, switch to travel form to get out of range and combat, then repeat by switching back to cat form. The key is to catch them in cat or caster form, where they are relatively weak.
* If you are hit by a pounce (which has a bleed effect), blind the cat (they cannot shift out of it), wait for the DoT to end, bandage and reopen the fight. Alternatively, blow Evasion and melee them down. If you have no cooldowns to use, or wish to save them, keep them stunned and make sure to Expose Armour them.
* If a cat senses that you are trying to kite them, they will promptly Faerie Fire/DoT/stun you and shift to bear for the long haul. See below on how to handle bears.
* Keep in mind that using Evasion is a signal for the Druid to root you. Use this to your advantage, as they will no doubt try to flee from melee range; root them yourself.
2. Bear-only
* A bear will always open with a stun. It's safe to eat the first stun and resulting damage, as the Druid probably has no intention of shifting out. If you're a dagger Rogue, begin to bleed the bear. If you're a combat Rogue, don't be afraid to blow Adrenaline Rush, speed modifiers (Slice and Dice, etc), Expose Armor and just burn him down. Be wary while blowing any cooldowns as the bear will mostly likely try to stun you to reduce their effectiveness.
* Once the Druid reaches 1/3 health or feels that he's losing, it's likely that he will try to Bash (stun) you, and either shift and heal or use Frenzied Regeneration. Keep Evasion for this moment or alternatively keep a Kidney Shot / Gouge ready (his stun will end before yours).
* Improved Leader of the Pack has a chance to heal 4% of a Druid's total health relative to what form they are in. For a bear, this is a large chunk of health. Unfortunately, as with Frenzied Regeneration, this is not a spell and cannot be interrupted by anything.
3. Cat-only
* Treat as another Rogue. Many cats will use Dash and run erratically in order to desync your client and land blows to your back (which cannot be dodged). Stunning the cat or using Sprint will resolve this problem.
* A cat will most certainly spam Mangle, Claw, and Rake, but like all melee attacks, they can be dodged.

Balance

Jokes aside, a Balance Druid will try to Moonfire/Starfire you to death. Expect every Balance Druid to have Nature's Grasp, which has a (base) chance of 35% to afflict you with Entangling Roots for every one of your hits. Either Vanish or CloS, and quickly catch up to them, making sure to apply a snare. Alternatively, wait until they start casting Starfire (this is the hard-hitting spell) and use CloS at the last minute. In summary, remove their ability to kite you while Moonfire/Starfire spamming, and don't be afraid to use Expose Armour.
Restoration

Druids specced 41 talents into this tree gain Tree of Life form. An important note is that they will have Nature's Focus, which at 5/5 points gives a 70% chance to resist spell interruption from your kick (but the silence effect from Improved Kick is not affected). In addition, Nature's Swiftness allows for instant heals. The downfall to shifting into Tree of Life is that they are effectively in caster form - no armour bonus, no melee abilities. Stop all the heals you can and do not expect them to run out of mana in a hurry.


Hunter

The Hunter will try to kite you and you will try to avoid being kited so you can kill him. Hunter fights are reaction-and-cooldown based, so they vary greatly from encounter to encounter. Here are a few guidelines to remember, though:

* Crippling Poison is the way to go against a Hunter, because it slows down his movement speed.

* Hunter abilities that counter your Stealth are aggressive-mode pets, Flare and Serpent Sting. You can Vanish out of Hunter's Mark and Cloak-Vanish out of Serpent Sting, but Cloak of Shadows does not negate the Flare effect.

* If a Hunter sends his pet on you from range and you stealth, the pet will keep chasing you and eventually unstealth you - this is not considered a bug or exploit. You may Vanish to get the pet off you.

* Keep traps in mind at all times. You'll probably run into Freezing Trap, so the Hunter can get some distance on you. Don't freak out if you see the trap go down, just remember that it has a two second arming time, giving you some time to step away or use Cloak of Shadows. To avoid getting Scatter Shoted and wandering into the trap, you should pop your cloak in most of these situations.

If you are afflicted with Serpent Sting or another damage over time effect, the DoT will free you from the Freezing Trap the next time it ticks. Note that skilled hunters may hit you with a debuffing sting such as Scorpid Sting inside the frost trap to remove their DoT. If you get immobilized in a Frost Trap, Snake Trap etc. due to Entrapment, the only way to get out is Cloak-Vanish or the Gnome racial Escape Artist.

* Remember Insignia of the Alliance/Horde, which gets the hunter out of slowing effects and stuns. Most hunters will use the insignia after you Kidney Shot him, so always watch the hunter when using Kidney Shot on him, if you notice that a white animation is thrown at his head, he used his trinket - so use Gouge to regain control and/or Shiv him to re-apply Crippling Poison.

* If you see the hunter use Aspect of the Cheetah don't bother to sprint first. Use your thrown/bow/gun or Deadly Throw first, then sprint. This will ensure that the Hunter stays put and he will be forced to switch aspects (if they have any idea how to play).

* Cloak of Shadows will not remove flares or prevent you from being flared.

* It's a bad idea to sap the hunter and kill his pet. You'll need at least 40 seconds to kill his pet, while Sap lasts 12 seconds max. Usually, the damage from the pet will not be too much of a threat, but if you feel that the pet is inflicting too much damage on you, pop Evasion.


Warlock

The trick to Warlocks is to kill them as quick as possible. If you linger in killing a Warlock his DoTs will eventually bring you down. DoTs also prevent re-stealthing, so completely stunlocking a Warlock is even better.

Fear is generally predictable because the Warlock will use it:

* If he is low on health
* After he DoTs you
* If you approach him dealing a lot of damage. Warlocks are soft (cloth-only) and won't tolerate a Rogue quickly bringing them down.

Since Fear has a 1.5 second cast time, it gives you plenty of time to use Cloak of Shadows and become immune to his fear effect after he casts it on you. If you're an Undead Rogue, your racial Will of the Forsaken gives you a HUGE advantage over Warlocks since it can be used whilst feared. If you possess a PvP trinket capable of dispelling fear once it is cast then all the better. The best strategy is to Sap the Warlock, kill his minion, re-stealth, then stunlock the Warlock. If you don't see the pet, it's best to avoid the Warlock. If he death coils you, you're likely dead.


Paladin

This is one of the most difficult classes for Rogues to beat. Paladins are basically tanks that can heal themselves, so it makes it that much harder. There are several things to remember whilst fighting Paladins. The basic rule is "trick them into popping their shield, then restealth and kill them".

* Never let them Divine Shield/heal themselves. That effectively restarts the fight for you minus some of your health/cooldowns. If they cast Divine Shield, simply waste 1 second checking if they're going to heal themselves, if you see them beginning to cast heal, use bandage fast, and when you're done, or they begin moving to you, move back, you must be out of combat at the moment, so stealth fast, and reopen the fight, with you and the Paladin full on HP, but he's probably low on mana.
* If a Paladin knows you're coming, they will spam Consecration so they can break your stealth. There are two things to do when they do this, one is to stay waiting until they feel like you left, or just give up and try attacking him between two Consecrations, which is not preferred.
* Keeping a Paladin stunlocked is essential, therefore
* Cheap Shot is a valid opener against a Paladin unless your ambush gives a guaranteed kill. However many Paladins will simply Divine Shield out of it and kill you, which is a low chance that they might do it, usually a Paladin prefers the big chance that he wins against you, which means saving his Divine Shield for a rainy day -When low on HP-, so wasting the Divine Shield only for stopping stunlock is useless, and a waste of a 5 minutes cooldown, and a making-sure he's free from Divine Shields for 1 minute, thanks to Forbearance. Once they know you're there, level 1 consecrates will easily prevent you from getting another opener.
* Evasion is invaluable against a Paladin. This will allow you to dodge every hard-hitting 2-hander blow.

Retribution trees have their own versions of stunlock with hammer and repent and will slam you with a lot of damage in that time with Seal of Command, Consecration, and Crusader Strike. Never open on a protection tree unless you're very sure of what you're doing; holy shield, Redoubt, and Reckoning easily tear Rogues apart. Probably your easiest fight will be with a Holy tree since Rogues fare better against casters. Good Paladins will shield themselves out of stunlocks at all the right times, spam Consecration to stop Vanish, and keep you slow and unhappy with Judgement of Justice. Hammer of Wrath can be used in a far range and the 1 sec casting time makes it very hard to counter, so once you're low on HP, and you see the Paladin casting his Hammer of Wrath, say your prayers.


Shaman

Rogues fare pretty well against Shamans because they have no crowd control. You can use Evasion to negate their melee damage and Cloak of Shadows + Deadly Throw to avoid being kited. Provided you maintain a certain degree of control over your opponent during the entire fight, you should be able to kill most Shamans without problems. Anticipate the trinket as you stun them and have energy for a Gouge ready. You should stunlock and control Elemental and Enhancement Shamans, and try to rush down Restoration Shamans. Wound poison is a must against Resto Shamans, because you want him to waste as much mana as possible. If you see a poison cleansing totem being dropped, kill it fast and get back in his face. Resto Shamans cannot kite you well because they waste the Earth Totem slot on poison cleansing, and will waste too much mana/global cooldown on using their poison removal spell.

Note that if the Shaman sets you up you may lose the fight, this is especially true for Windfury bombing enhancement Shamans. As of patch 2.1, Earthbind Totem removes stealth on each pulse, so you could either use Sprint and get the opener, use Cloak of Shadows and get the opener, or if you have 2/2 Dirty Tricks simply sap him and kill the totems, then restealth and get the opener.