Rogue Instance Guide

Tips For Rogues

* Crowd Control
o Rogues are well placed to handle stopping, stunning, and otherwise debilitating enemies at all stages of an encounter.
+ Crippling Poison and Kidney Shot can help slow down or stun fleeing enemies.
+ In fights where it is necessary to kite a target, Crippling Poison can also help a great deal.
+ Kick is an invaluable tool in stopping enemy casters and healers. Keep tabs on any enemy magic users. If they are preparing a spell, a well-placed Kick can silence them temporarily, occasionally sending them running into the melee, where they are much less dangerous. If Kick is still cooling down, Gouge can be used in a pinch.
+ Sap is incredibly useful in managing the number of enemies in a fight. As of Patch 2.1, Sap no longer breaks stealth, which significantly reduces the danger to a rogue tasked with knocking out a mob. This also means that a party with more than one rogue can more easily Sap multiple targets.
* In the fight
o There are a few important safety tips that can increase your usefulness as a rogue.
+ Opening a fight with Cheap Shot is often a bad idea, as stunning the target can prevent the tank from taking damage and thus building rage. A tank with little or no rage will not be able to protect you! The obvious exception to this is fighting solo or taking out a target the tank has not engaged.
+ There are very few scenarios where Expose Armor is a wise use of combo points.
# While a single Expose Armor may have a greater effect than a warrior's individual Sunder Armor, the cumulative effect of 5 Sunder Armors is much greater.
# Using Expose Armor can cause a warrior to receive the error "A more powerful spell is already active" when trying to use Sunder Armor. Being completely unable to use this ability can seriously reduce his aggro. Also, if he can't use it once, he obviously can't stack 5 levels of the ability. As mentioned previously, a single Expose Armor does not weaken the target's armor nearly as much as 5 Sunder Armors, and this means that the party will do less damage.

Working With A Rogue

* Don't follow a Stealthed rogue if you don't have a similarly sneaky ability. The last thing a rogue wants while trying to sap an enemy is some plate-wearing, axe-wielding idiot standing on his heels.
* Don't use a rogue as main assist in a raid. Raid members in other parties cannot assist a Stealthed rogue. However, in single parties, rogues make excellent main assists.
* The order of crowd control abilities is very important. As Sap only affects creatures out of combat, it must be the first crowd control ability used before a fight. This means that everyone else in the party must wait to use their crowd control abilities (Polymorph, Banish, etc).