Outlaw Rogue PvP Best Covenants, Soulbinds, Conduits, and Legendary Powers (Shadowlands / 9.1)

For more information about what Covenants bring you, please refer to our page about Covenant abilities for Rogues.

There are four Covenants available: Night Fae, Kyrian, Venthyr, and Necrolord. Each Covenant will provide you with a class ability and a Covenant ability. Outlaw Rogue players have two very good options, since underperforming Covenants have been buffed with Patch 9.0.5. The other two are playable, but do not bring as much to the specialization as the two best Covenants. Necrolord and Venthyr are the best options at the moment, each promoting a different playstyle, followed by Night Fae and Kyrian.

1. Necrolord is the Covenant that will give you the most survivability as well as the most sustained damage. The class ability, Serrated Bone Spike, deals decent damage, is very cheap, and allows you not only to generate Combo Points from a distance but also to keep dealing damage to an enemy who managed to get away from you. It is a great spell overall. The Covenant ability, Fleshcraft, is a channeled ability that grants you a large shield and reduces all damage you take by 20% while channeling the shield. This is a very powerful defensive ability, especially with the Ultimate Form passive that comes with one of the Soulbinds, as you will get a crowd control immunity and healing on top of the shield. Outlaw is already a durable specialization, even more so against melee DPS. By playing Necrolord you will make it extra hard for the enemy team to take you down.
2. Venthyr is the Covenant that will give you the most burst damage. The class ability, Flagellation, deals large amounts of damage for every Combo Point spent, even more so with the Lashing Scars Conduit. It also gives a bit of Haste, which is great as Outlaw. This ability works particularly well alongside Dreadblades as they share the same cooldown and have effects that work well together. During your Dreadblades window you will consume 6 Combo Points every second GCD, causing massive Flaggelation damage. The Covenant ability, Door of Shadows, is decent as it allows you to escape a dangerous situation and may even allow you to re-Stealth, but it can be interrupted, making it unreliable when enemies have their interrupts ready.
3. Night Fae is the Covenant that will give you the most mobility. The class ability, Sepsis, is a DoT that deals moderate damage by itself. It also allows you one use of a Stealth-based ability without being Stealthed. The Covenant ability, Soulshape, is the reason why Night Fae is such a great Covenant for Rogues. It allows you to teleport 15 yards away every 4 seconds for 12 seconds. This is a great tool to escape lethal situations and go for re-Stealths. This gives you more mobility, allowing you to get re-Stealths more. Of course it can also be used to reach a target that has been kiting you. As an Outlaw Rogue DoT damage is not really what you need, and getting the use of a Stealth ability is not great either, as Outlaw has very few benefits from stealth attacks as opposed to other Rogue specializations. Outlaw Rogues also have good mobility already so Soulshape is not extremely useful in most cases.
4. Kyrian is the most likely the worst Covenant you can pick just because it does not offer anything amazing. The Rogue Covenant ability, Echoing Reprimand, deals very little damage in PvP combat due to being heavily nerfed in PvP, so the only benefit you would get from it is the possibility of landing a 7 Combo Point Dispatch. This is decent damage, but it is also random due to the fact that you cannot know which of your Combo Points will be anima-charged, and you will have a hard time controlling your Combo Point generation because of Sinister Strike being able to hit an additional time. The Covenant ability is a spell that will summon a steward, and the steward will give you Phial of Serenity. The cooldown on this heal is excessively long, and it does not start until you leave combat. It is not worth the healing from the Necrolord ability, or the ability to simply avoid damage by escaping provided by both Venthyr and Night Fae. With a mediocre class ability and a Covenant ability overshadowed by all other Covenant abilities, it is easy to see why Kyrian is not a great option. The new Covenant Legendary could make it better, but that remains to be seen.

Soulbinds are unlocked as you progress your character within a Covenant. Each Covenant features 3 Soulbinds, and every Soulbind has its own set of passive effects. In every Soulbind you will have to choose a path, and that path is important as it determines what passives you get, and what kind of Conduits you can use.

Here are the Soulbinds and paths you should take if you chose Necrolord. There are two good options, depending on the situation.

You should use this Soulbind when facing a team with a lot of consistent damage. This Soulbind gives you the Ooz's Frictionless Coating passive, which will amount to quite a bit of healing overall despite its recent nerf in PvP combat. You also gain the passive Ultimate Form that allows Fleshcraft to heal you and provide you with crowd control immunity for a short period of time. This can be useful in many situations if you know the enemy team is about to crowd control you.

You should use this Soulbind when facing a team that will try to kill you in a stun, such as a Rogue team or a Feral team. The first passive of the Soulbind, Lead by Example, is a decent damage increase. The passive Sulfuric Emission is the reason why you want to pick this Soulbind when facing a team that will kill you in a stun. As soon as you go below 20% health, everyone around you is feared for 3.5 seconds, and this can happen every minute. This will allow you to survive burst damage by fearing the enemy melee DPS. However this forces you to play with three Finesse Conduits and that is not very good as Outlaw Rogue.

Here are the Soulbind and path you should take if you chose Venthyr.

This Soulbind gives you the Thrill Seeker passive. This will grant you 20% Haste at times, and Haste is a great stat for Outlaw Rogues. You also gain Agent of Chaos, allowing you to disorient enemies with Door of Shadows. Beware, this will put the target on diminishing return for Blind. Last but not least, the final passive, Fatal Flaw, is extremely powerful as it will give you 20% Versatility once Euphoria ends, which means a 28% flat damage boost thanks to the PvP Trinket bonus as well as a 10% flat damage reduction. If you choose this Soulbind you can decide to drop a Potency Conduit in favor of Prepared for All on the middle row in some match-ups.

Here are the Soulbind and path you should take if you chose Night Fae.

This Soulbind gives you the Grove Invigoration passive. This will allow you to gain 300 Mastery when using Sepsis, which can be a small damage boost on your kill attempts as you will inevitably proc Mastery: Main Gauche. This buff will become 450 Mastery for the first 5 seconds thanks to Bonded Hearts, the last passive, if the condition is met for even more burst damage. You also get Run Without Tiring, which is a bit of healing when kiting away with Soulshape. The passive Survivor's Rally also provides passive healing which is always a huge help in PvP. Bonded Hearts also provides a bit of passive healing, but most importantly allows Sepsis to heal you and your allies upon use, which can help your healer a little bit. If you are Night Fae as Outlaw, since Mastery is not as critical as it is of the other two Rogue specializations, you have the option to play the other two Soulbinds as well as they bring interesting effects too.

Here are the Soulbind and path you should take if you chose Kyrian.

This Soulbind gives you the Combat Meditation passive. This will allow you to gain Mastery when using Echoing Reprimand, which is a small damage increase. You also get the passive Let Go of the Past, which is a small defensive bonus. Phial of Patience allows the Kyrian potion to become a strong heal-over-time effect, albeit on a long cooldown. The last two passives are the strongest of the Soulbind. Path of the Devoted will reduce all incoming damage by 20% after recovering from a crowd control effect once every 30 seconds. While this may be triggered by crowd control abilities that will not hurt you it could also trigger on very dangerous abilities such as Kidney Shot or Storm Bolt. If you are the target it is likely that you will indeed get value out of it as many crowd control attacks on you3 will be meant to kill you. The last passive, Newfound Resolve is a powerful damage increase when you manage to get it, although it may not always be very practical to do so while in PvP combat.

Conduits are passive buffs that you can use to fill empty slots in your Soulbind Trees. There are three types of Conduits: Potency, Endurance, and Finesse. Here are the best Conduits for each of those different types:

1. If you are Venthyr, Lashing Scars increases the damage of your Flagellation, increasing your burst damage in a short period of time.
2. Sleight of Hand increases the chance that Roll the Bones gives you two buffs instead of one. Roll the Bones buffs can be very powerful, making this Conduit really good.
3. Triple Threat gives Sinister Strike a chance to deal even more damage every time it hits an additional time. With the recently-added Honor Talent Enduring Brawler, the chance for this to happen has greatly increased in PvP combat, making this Conduit a decent sustained damage increase.
4. If you are Night Fae, Septic Shock increases the damage of your Sepsis, making the DoT much stronger.

1. Recuperator makes Slice and Dice heal you over time. This is good to help your healer with sustained healing as you will have Slice and Dice up most of the time.
2. Nimble Fingers reduces the Energy cost of your low-cooldown defensive options, which will let you keep the Energy for offensive purposes.

1. Quick Decisions reduces the cooldown of Grappling Hook and increases its range. This is great for both running down enemies or kiting away from them if you need to. This Conduit makes Grappling Hook the spell with the best reach in the entire game, a great tool to have.
2. Prepared for All reduces the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows when you successfully interrupt a cast, and of Evasion when you dodge an attack. It is not mandatory, but can be a good pick when you know you will get a lot of value out of it. The fact that you can have your defensives back off cooldown when the enemy thinks they are still unavailable can cause them to make mistakes. It is a great pick when playing with the Float Like a Butterfly Honor Talent for even more cooldown reduction on Evasion, making you extra durable against melee enemies.

Legendaries have many different effects and some can alter how you should use some of your abilities. For more information on Legendaries, check out our general guide on them.

Here are the best Legendaries for an Outlaw Rogues.

1. Greenskin's Wickers is an excellent Legendary power. It significantly buffs the damage of your next Pistol Shot after using Between the Eyes. By using that Pistol Shot with an Opportunity proc when playing the Quick Draw talent it will deal high damage. As Outlaw is a specialization that lacks burst damage this is a great help to kill people in your stuns as they will all of a sudden receive an unexpected big hit.
2. Concealed Blunderbuss has recently become a very viable option thanks to the addition of the Honor Talent Enduring Brawler. Since Outlaw Rogues are a lot more likely to get Sinister Strike to hit an additional time, this Legendary gains a lot of value and will be an noticeable increase to both burst damage and sustained damage.
3. Invigorating Shadowdust is a great pick. Outlaw Rogues have a lot of ways to reduce the cooldown of key spells with Blinding Powder, Float Like a Butterfly and Restless Blades. By using this Legendary you will be able to reduce important cooldowns even more, catching your opponents off guard and making a lot of value with your cooldowns, both offensive and defensive. You will use them a lot more than you should have been able to, and the enemy will not be able to answer them every time. Also, since Restless Blades reduces the cooldown of Vanish you will benefit from the Legendary effect a lot more than any other Rogue specialization.