Outlaw Rogue DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

• Use Roll the Bones when it isn't active or you are only in Stage 1.
• Use Adrenaline Rush, Killing Spree, and Blade Rush on cooldown. Use Preparation to refresh their CD.
• Use Sinister Strike as your main builde, and Pistol Shot when you have an Opportunity proc.
• Use Blade Flurry whenever there is more than 1 target to hit.
• Cast Between the Eyes on cooldown with 6+ CP.
• Use Dispatch as your main finisher with 5+ CP.
• Use Keep It Rolling when you are at Stage 2 or higher. Use Roll the Bones immediately after.

You will want to use finishing moves at 6+ Combo Points or higher, or 5+ if you are in Subterfuge or have an Opportunity or Audacity proc available.

Do not use Vanish if Between the Eyes is off cooldown, to benefit from the cooldown refresh on BtE after using Vanish. Only Vanish when Adrenaline Rush is active.

This is the general priority list on how to use your abilities. This is NOT a list that should be followed step by step; it simply serves as a good idea of which things to prioritize in your moment-to-moment gameplay, as you will often be faced with multiple choices on which buttons to press. The priority list simply highlights which buttons are more important than others. You can find a sample opener sequence further below on this page.

1. Use Roll the Bones on cooldown unless you are already in Stage 2 or higher, in those cases you want to wait out the buff until Pandemic.
2. Use Keep It Rolling when you are in Stage 2 or higher. If your next RtB will be buffed by Loaded Dice, you can hold onto KIR and hope to get into Stage 3 or 4. Use KIR immediately even if you only land in Stage 2.
3. Use Adrenaline Rush on cooldown, at low Combo Points.
4. Cast Dispatch as your first finisher with 5+ CP if Slice and Dice is not active.
5. Cast Between the Eyes on cooldown with 6+ CP.
6. Use Blade Rush on cooldown as if it were a regular builder.
7. Cast Dispatch as your main finisher with 5+ CP.
8. Cast Pistol Shot at low CP if you have an Opportunity proc and 6 stacks of Fan the Hammer. Do not overcap FtH stacks. You can use it with 3 stacks if you are at 1-3 CP.
9. Cast Sinister Strike to generate Combo Points.
10. Use Vanish with an Ambush right after on cooldown.

This is the general priority list on how to use your abilities. This is NOT a list that should be followed step by step; it simply serves as a good idea of which things to prioritize in your moment-to-moment gameplay, as you will often be faced with multiple choices on which buttons to press. The priority list simply highlights which buttons are more important than others. You can find a sample opener sequence further below on this page.

1. Use Roll the Bones on cooldown unless you are already in Stage 2 or higher, in those cases you want to wait out the buff until Pandemic.
2. Use Keep It Rolling when you are in Stage 2 or higher. If your next RtB will be buffed by Loaded Dice, you can hold onto KIR and hope to get into Stage 3 or 4. Use KIR immediately even if you only land in Stage 2.
3. Use Adrenaline Rush on cooldown, at low Combo Points.
4. Use Killing Spree on cooldown, at 5+ Combo Points.
5. Cast Dispatch as your main finisher with 5+ CP, if it is buffed by Coup de Grace.
6. Cast Between the Eyes on cooldown with 6+ CP.
7. Use Blade Rush on cooldown as if it were a regular builder.
8. Cast Dispatch as your main finisher with 5+ CP.
9. Cast Pistol Shot at low CP if you have an Opportunity proc and 6 stacks of Fan the Hammer. Do not overcap FtH stacks. You can use it with 3 stacks if you are at 1-3 CP.
10. Cast Sinister Strike to generate Combo Points.
11. Use Vanish with an Ambush right after on cooldown.

1. Use Roll the Bones on cooldown unless you are already in Stage 2 or higher, in those cases you want to wait out the buff until Pandemic.
2. Maintain Blade Flurry, try to use it at low Combo Points due to Deft Maneuvers.
3. If talented: Use Keep It Rolling when you have 4+ buffs already. If you are still missing Broadside, wait until the last second of your lowest duration RtB buff to use KIR in the hopes of getting Broadside as well.
4. Use Adrenaline Rush on cooldown, at low Combo Points.
5. Cast Between the Eyes on cooldown with 6+ CP.
6. Use Blade Rush on cooldown as if it were a regular builder.
7. Cast Dispatch as your main finisher at 5+ CP.
8. Cast Pistol Shot at low CP if you have an Opportunity proc and 6 stacks of Fan the Hammer. Do not overcap FtH stacks. You can use it with 3 stacks if you are at 1-3 CP.
9. Cast Sinister Strike to generate Combo Points.
10. Use Vanish with an Ambush right after on cooldown.

1. Use Roll the Bones on cooldown unless you are already in Stage 2 or higher, in those cases you want to wait out the buff until Pandemic.
2. Maintain Blade Flurry, try to use it at low Combo Points due to Deft Maneuvers.
3. If talented: Use Keep It Rolling when you have 4+ buffs already. If you are still missing Broadside, wait until the last second of your lowest duration RtB buff to use KIR in the hopes of getting Broadside as well.
4. Use Adrenaline Rush on cooldown, at low Combo Points.
5. Use Killing Spree on cooldown, at 5+ Combo Points.
6. Cast Dispatch as your main finisher with 5+ CP, if it is buffed by Coup de Grace.
7. Cast Between the Eyes on cooldown with 6+ CP.
8. Use Blade Rush on cooldown as if it were a regular builder.
9. Cast Dispatch as your main finisher at 5+ CP.
10. Cast Pistol Shot at low CP if you have an Opportunity proc and 6 stacks of Fan the Hammer. Do not overcap FtH stacks. You can use it with 3 stacks if you are at 1-3 CP.
11. Cast Sinister Strike to generate Combo Points.
12. Use Vanish with an Ambush right after on cooldown.

Sadly the Assisted Combat system is of little use to Outlaw for a multitude of reasons. By far the biggest issue is the increase of the Global Cooldown. Since the spec relies quite heavily on reducing its GCD, with our GCD being 0.8 seconds during Adrenaline Rush (provided we have ~20% Haste), the added delay to the button presses causes a significant DPS loss by itself. This alone drops its performance by ~25-30%.

On top of this, it also fails to properly use certain high-impact cooldowns correctly, making it an even bigger DPS loss compared to even the simplified rotation. As such it is not recommended to use the Combat Assist for Outlaw at this time.

After years of Roll the Bones working the same, the ability was reworked. It is such an important change, that we are listing it ahead of the rotational priorities. The ability is much more consistent now, and when using RtB, you will gain a certain stage:

• Stage 1
  Sinister Strike has a 20% increased chance to strike twice and grant Opportunity.
• Stage 2
  Sinister Strike and Ambush generate 1 additional combo points and deal 15% increased damage.
• Stage 3
  Restless Blades cooldown reduction increased by 30%.
• Stage 4
  Critical strike chance increased by 10%.

Depending on which stage you enter, you will also receive all the buffs of the previous stages. I.e. if you gain Stage 3, you will not only gain the cooldown reduction increase from Restless Blades, but also gain the bonuses to Sinister Strike and Ambush from Stages 1 and 2.

This serves to normalize the rotational flow quite a bit, by moving most of the power into the first two stages, which you can get the most often, while the rarer outcomes do not offer as many benefits that feel required for rotational fluidity, yet still offer nice bonuses you want to gain.

The current odds of receiving the buffs seem to be 55% chance to gain Stage 1, 30% chance to gain Stage 2, 10% chance to gain Stage 3, and a 5% chance to gain Stage 4.

It can be very beneficial to "pool" your Energy and Combo Points, which involves auto-attacking while your Energy regenerates. The advantage this provides is variable, meaning that pooling does not always result in damage gained. Situations where pooling Energy and Combo Points is beneficial include:

• before an important add spawns, so that you can apply as much instant pressure as possible;
• an encounter-specific buff or damage phase is imminent.

Pooling Energy is not a magical DPS gain by itself. It allows you to slightly adjust the timing of your abilities so that you fit more attacks during periods of increased damage, provided you can properly identify when such periods are going to happen.

When playing the Trickster Hero Talent tree, you will be playing around your Coup de Grace procs. Coup de Grace enhances your next Dispatch by making it much stronger, casting it as if you had used 5 additional CP. These additional CP count towards our cooldown reduction from Restless Blades, so you will want to use this as soon as possible.

Fan the Hammer is a talent that dramatically increases your ability to use Opportunity-buffed Pistol Shots. It also lets you build multiple stacks of the buff, and consumes 2 stacks of the proc instead of 1. This means that every Opportunity PS you cast generated 4 Combo Points, and you will want to pay attention that you do not overcap on stacks at any point. Ideally you also avoid overcapping CP as a result of this, but it is more important to not overcap on stacks, than to not overcap on CP.

Adrenaline Rush increases your Energy regen, maximum Energy, and attack speed dramatically. It is not uncommon to overcap while it is active, and you may end up wasting a lot of resources. That is normal. There is also a hidden effect that is not mentioned in the tooltip: While AR is active, your Global Cooldown is reduced by your Haste value, up to a reduction to 0.8 seconds (down from 1 second baseline). Reaching enough Haste to benefit from this is almost always recommended, and you will want around 20-30% Haste to do so (accounting for procs and other Haste sources).

After years of Roll the Bones working the same, the ability was reworked. It is such an important change, that we are listing it ahead of the rotational priorities. The ability is much more consistent now, and when using RtB, you will gain a certain stage:

• Stage 1
  Sinister Strike has a 20% increased chance to strike twice and grant Opportunity.
• Stage 2
  Sinister Strike and Ambush generate 1 additional combo points and deal 15% increased damage.
• Stage 3
  Restless Blades cooldown reduction increased by 30%.
• Stage 4
  Critical strike chance increased by 10%.

Depending on which stage you enter, you will also receive all the buffs of the previous stages. I.e. if you gain Stage 3, you will not only gain the cooldown reduction increase from Restless Blades, but also gain the bonuses to Sinister Strike and Ambush from Stages 1 and 2.

This serves to normalize the rotational flow quite a bit, by moving most of the power into the first two stages, which you can get the most often, while the rarer outcomes do not offer as many benefits that feel required for rotational fluidity, yet still offer nice bonuses you want to gain.

The current odds of receiving the buffs seem to be 55% chance to gain Stage 1, 30% chance to gain Stage 2, 10% chance to gain Stage 3, and a 5% chance to gain Stage 4.

Between the Eyes is your main finisher to deal damage, and it increases the damage you deal with all your abilities for each use. Each cast has its down duration though, so the amount of increased damage will ebb and flow depending on your procs on CP generation and cooldown reduction. Make sure to use this ability on cooldown!

Keep It Rolling extends the duration of your current Roll the Bones by 30 seconds, and is particularly potent when used on a RTB that is in Stage 3 or even 4. You will generally want to use KIR on cooldown, but if you have a Loaded Dice proc ready or it you will soon gain it by casting another Adrenaline Rush, you may want to hold on to Keep It Rolling-

Since Loaded Dice grants you +1 Stage, it is very likely that you will end up with a Stage 3, or possibly 4, RtB, which you can then immediately extend with Keep It Rolling. Even if you do not end up getting a good RtB roll, use KIR immediately after, as it has a very high cooldown and you do not want to miss out on one of its uses.

Blind is not part of our DPS kit, but still has some interesting use-cases in Mythic+ that may not be immediately apparent. While Sap allows a player to safely pass a CC-ed creature without getting into combat, a blinded enemy will walk around confused and still get into combat with the first player that gets close to it. Once the Blind debuff ends, it will engage said player. It will not, however, get into combat with any other player that gets close to it.

You can still make great use of Blind to pass enemies by abusing the fact that only one player gets into combat with it. The best and easiest way to do this, is to ensure that after blinding the target, you get close enough to enter combat with it, and then you and your entire group can pass the enemy. Once you are far enough away from it, you can safely Vanish, drop combat, and skip the enemy.

This is particularly useful in situations where an entire pack of enemy is in your way that you would like to skip, but one or two enemies are too close to pass by without body-pulling them. As a Rogue, you can Sap one, and then use the above trick for the other, allowing you to skip past enemies that would either detect you if you were to use Shroud of Concealment, or if Shroud is on cooldown.