Outlaw Rogue PvP Guide in Battle for Azeroth (BfA 8.2.5)

Outlaw Rogues have unmatched utility as a pure DPS class. With a ranged stun, blind, and countless other forms of crowd control, the Outlaw Rogue has some of the best control a spec can have. This Rogue specialization works great with other specs with strong single-target damage.

• Great control
• Decent mobility
• Potential for strong burst and sustained damage

• Relies heavily on RNG for damage
• Easy to swap to when in a stun
• Very few defensive cooldowns

The stat priority for Outlaw Rogues in PvP is as follows:

1. Agility;
2. Haste;
3. Versatility;
4. Critical Strike;
5. Mastery.

Agility is the best stat in all situations. Haste is the strongest secondary stat at all times due to it reducing the Global Cooldown on abilities and increasing your attack speed. Versatility is also strong because it increases all of the damage you do while reducing the damage you take.

Essences allow players to customize their characters while adding a new ability to use. This section will cover the best overall Azerite Essences for Outlaw Rogues in PvP. For a general guide to all the essences, as well as how to obtain them and increase their ranks, check out our Essence Guide.

The Crucible of Flame gives you a Major Power that blasts the target for damage ( Concentrated Flame). Each time you use this ability, it increases the damage dealt by 100% and stacks up to 2 times. This is a solid Essence that deals good single-target damage.

Memory of Lucid Dreams increases your Energy regeneration by 100% for 12 seconds. This is by far one of the best Major Essences you can have. More Energy regeneration results in being able to use more damaging abilities while buffs from Roll the Bones are active.

In addition to having a Major Essence, you can choose two Minor Essences to place in your neck at Heart of Azeroth Levels 55 and 65.

Memory of Lucid Dreams grants the Minor Power, Lucid Dreams. This gives your spells and abilities a chance to refund 50% of the Energy spent on them and heal you. This is great for increasing your damage, as you will frequently be refunded Energy throughout a match.

Conflict and Strife grants a very powerful Versatility Minor Power. Not only do your spells have a chance to give you Versatility, but any loss of control to your character does too. This means that, if teams stun you and try to swap to you, you have additional Versatility and take less damage.

Azerite traits are unlocked in you helm, shoulders and chest. With each Azerite level in your neck, you get closer to unlocking the center trait in your gear. These traits vary from increasing damage of certain abilities to helping increase your survivability. Depending on what traits you use, it can completely alter your playstyle and what talents you should be using.

Below are the best Outer Ring traits.

1. Deadshot
2. Snake Eyes
3. Keep Your Wits About You
4. Ace Up Your Sleeve

Outlaw Rogues want the trait Deadshot to be in all three of their Azerite pieces. You will be using Between the Eyes often and this trait is great for increasing your sustained damage output. If you do not have Deadshot in all of your Azerite Gear, Snake Eyes is also a good option because you will be using Roll the Bones often. Both of these traits are focused on Between the Eyes. Both of these trait builds are strong and increase your sustained damage.

Below are the best Middle Ring traits.

1. Heed My Call
2. Gutripper
3. Overwhelming Power
4. Elemental Whirl
5. Earthlink

The Middle and Inner Rings are important for additional damage and stat bonuses. Heed My Call is the strongest Middle Ring trait. This will increase your sustained damage output by quite a bit. Elemental Whirl, Overwhelming Power, and Earthlink give an increase to your stats. These are minor stat boosts, but still increase your damage. Gutripper will help increase both your single target and spread pressure.

Below are the best Inner Ring traits.

1. Longstrider
2. Resounding Protection
3. Impassive Visage
4. Shrouded Mantle

All of these traits give you additional ways of surviving. These are all passive, but are crucial to have.

In general, Outlaw Rogues want to get trinkets that line up well with Killing Spree. These trinkets can have a passive or on-use effect. The stat you want to be increasing is Agility. The reason you want to increase Agility is because it drastically increases your overall damage output.

To be successful in 3v3 arena, you need to have all of the pieces of your gear to have the Snake Eyes trait. You will also want either Heed My Call or Overwhelming Power in the second tier.

Below, we list the items that have these traits.

• Irontide Captain's Hat;
• Cowl of Righteous Resolve;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Hood;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Hood;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Cap;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Cap.

• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Shoulderguards;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Shoulderguards;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Mantle;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Mantle;
• Gorak Tul's Mantle;
• Pistoleer's Spaulders.

• Mekkatorque's Bomber Jacket;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Chestguard;
• Notorious Gladiator's Leather Chestguard;
• Gonk Outrunner Vest;
• Gravethorn Jerkin;
• Raiment of the Blighted Tribe.

Notorious Gladiator's Maledict is a great trinket to have. The on-use damage and healing absorption is capable of forcing defensives by itself. This can be used by itself or while you are using your burst rotation to force multiple cooldowns out of enemy teams.

Notorious Gladiator's Safeguard is a mandatory trinket if you think the enemy team can swap to you and kill you. This provides an additional defensive for when you drop to low health. If you do not think a team will swap to you and kill you, you can use replace this one with any of the trinkets below.

Notorious Gladiator's Badge is strong for the versatility and the on-use Agility effect. The 2-minute cooldown lines up well with Killing Spree.

Notorious Gladiator's Insignia has a good amount of Versatility on it and has a passive effect. This effect increases your Agility. This increases your sustained damage.

Enchant Weapon - Quick Navigation and Enchant Weapon - Versatile Navigation are the best weapon enchants. You will be duel wielding weapons and having one of each of these enchants on your weapons. These enchants give you a strong Haste and Versatility buff that can be crucial in multiple ways. Both of these procs increase your damage output and are great if you can line it up with your burst.

Level	Choices
15	✘ Weaponmaster	✔ Quick Draw	✘ Ghostly Strike
30	✔ Acrobatic Strikes	✔ Retractable Hook	✘ Hit and Run
45	✘ Vigor	✔ Deeper Stratagem	✘ Marked for Death
60	✘ Iron Stomach	✘ Cheat Death	✔ Elusiveness
75	✘ Dirty Tricks	✔ Blinding Powder	✔ Prey on the Weak
90	✘ Loaded Dice	✔ Alacrity	✘ Slice and Dice
100	✘ Dancing Steel	✘ Blade Rush	✔ Killing Spree

While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.

Quick Draw is the best talent in this tier. That talent is strong for multiple reasons. It helps with generating additional Combo Points and for random bursts of damage. It also works great with the Deadshot Azerite trait.

Retractable Hook is the best talent in this tier. This not only lets Rogues push into other teams or chase down targets, but it also allows us to get behind a pillar quickly if we are in trouble. It adds even more mobility to the Outlaw spec. However, if you do not plan on using Retractable Hook for crowd control or you will not be focused, Acrobatic Strikes is the best choice. This will allow you to stay out of range of some melee AoE abilities or attack enemies even when rooted/slowed.

Deeper Stratagem is the best choice. Having the ability to have Finishing Moves be affected as though with 6 Combo Points is a great talent. A few examples of what this works well with are increasing the duration of Between the Eyes and the damage of Dispatch.

Elusiveness is an all-around solid choice, and the best talent in this tier. Just make sure to keep using Feint when the enemy team is targeting you.

If your team's goal is to kill an enemy in a stun, Prey on the Weak is the best choice in this tier. This talent is crucial if your team is not crowd control based and just focusing on targeting person.

If your team's goal is to relentlessly crowd control the enemy healer, Blinding Powder is the best choice. Blind will now have a 90 second cooldown. This means that even if the healer trinkets the first Blind, they will not have a trinket for the second.

We recommend taking Alacrity in this tier. This talent stacks up to 5 times, which will result in a total of 10% Haste. If this buff does not expire, this will help with overall sustained damage.

Killing Spree is the best choice in this tier. This is one of your strongest burst cooldowns.

The first PvP talent tier is will give you a choice between Gladiator's Medallion, Relentless, and Adaptation. Gladiator's Medallion is the best choice in this tier. It is great for removing crowd control on you that your healer cannot dispel. Outlaw Rogues are also notorious for dying in stuns and this well help you trinket and kite incoming damage.

You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has their uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful, but can be replaced with other PvP talents depending on your team's goal.

Control is King is crucial for your sustained damage. If you are playing with a Mage and they Polymorph an enemy, you will have 3 seconds of Adrenaline Rush. This not only gives you additional damage, but it saves you from pressing an additional button while you are doing damage.

Thick as Thieves is just a great damage increase for both you and your DPS partner.

Plunder Armor is another offensive cooldown that lines up well with your Killing Spree. If your team's goal is solely based around killing an enemy as fast as possible in a stun, you will want to use this PvP talent.

Smoke Bomb creates a cloud around you. Enemy players who are outside the cloud will not be able to target anyone inside of it. This talent is strong for multiple reasons. The first is to land a kill while your target is stunned without a trinket. The enemy healer will not be able to heal and you will easily secure a kill while Smoke Bomb is active. The second is to stop incoming spells. This is not done often, but you can use Smoke Bomb on your healer to prevent enemies from crowd controlling them. It all depends on the situation. You can replace Plunder Armor for this PvP talent.

Dismantle disarms an enemy for 6 seconds. This is a defensive PvP talent and works well in situations where you can disarm an enemy while they are using their burst cooldowns. For example, you can use Dismantle on an Enhancement Shaman after they used Heroism/Bloodlust. You can also use this on a Demon Hunter that is in Metamorphosis. You can replace Plunder Armor for this PvP talent.

Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction. The races are sorted from highest impact in arena to lowest. However, all races below have their own unique ways of making an impact in a PvP match.

The Orc racial bonus ( Hardiness) is great for reducing the duration of stuns on you. This is absolutely the best Horde racial to have if you are primarily focusing on PvP. In addition to Hardiness, Orcs also have the Blood Fury racial. This is off the global cooldown and should be used when you are using your burst rotation.

The Blood Elf racial bonus ( Arcane Torrent) has multiple effects. The primary use for this ability is that it removes 1 beneficial effect from all enemies in range. This is great for removing abilities such as Blessing of Protection from Paladins or Soul of the Forest from Restoration Druids. It can also be used versus players using the The Crucible of Flame Major Essence to remove the stacks it creates. The other effect is that it restores resources based on what specialization you are.

The Undead racial bonus ( Will of the Forsaken) removes any Charm, Fear or Sleep effect from you. This is a great racial versus specializations, like Destruction Warlocks, that are able to fear you constantly throughout an arena match. It is important to note that this does share a 30-second cooldown with Gladiator's Medallion, so it is advised to only use it when you do not want to waste Gladiators Medallion.

The Human racial bonus ( Every Man for Himself) is a great way to get out of stuns. If you think you will be the focus target versus teams with multiple stuns, this race allows you to play Relentless. This will help increase your overall survivability. It is also important to note that Humans also have The Human Spirit. This increases your secondary stats (Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, Versatility). This is another beneficial reason to play Human.

The Night Elf racial bonus ( Shadowmeld) is always a strong choice. This racial has a high skill cap, but using it to avoid crowd control can be very powerful. For example, if a Mage is casting Polymorph on you, use Shadowmeld to avoid it. If you use Shadowmeld at the same time that a Priest uses their Psychic Scream, you will not be feared.

The Dwarf racial bonus ( Stoneform) removes Poison, Disease, Magic, and bleed effects. In addition to this, it reduces all Physical damage taken by 10%. This racial can make a large impact versus teams that have multiple Bleed or Magical damage over time abilities. It is also important to note that this racial lines up with the cooldown from Maledict trinkets and can be used to remove the absorption that is placed on you from Maledict. Another example is removing bleeds versus Assassination Rogues or Feral Druids that are focusing you. This will significantly slow down the damage being dealt to you.

The Gnome racial bonus ( Escape Artist) removes any movement speed reduction effects on you. With only a 1-minute cooldown, this can be used both defensively or offensively. You can use this to help kite incoming damage or use it to remove slows on you while chasing down an enemy. Another racial that Gnome provides is Expansive Mind. This will increase your maximum Energy, which helps with not running out of resources.

The Outlaw Rogue has two roles in PvP: shutting down casters/healers with relentless mobility and crowd control and having strong sustained damage outside of burst cooldowns. With high damage, high control and great sustained damage, this is the top PvP spec for Rogues.

To lock down healers, you will aim to push in and get crowd control on the healer ( Sap, Blind when they do not have trinket, Between the Eyes).

The ability to deal sustained damage is what makes Outlaw Rogues so deadly. They have the ability to damage an enemy down to below 50% without using a single cooldown. It is at this point that they can stun you and use your burst rotation.

Have a plan for who you will be mainly using your crowd control on. Rogue crowd control is powerful, but dealing any damage to the target and will break and waste it. Also, remember to enter Stealth.

Regarding Roll the Bones, it is worth mentioning that some buffs are better than others. If you get a buff that is not as good as the others, continue your rotation, but use Roll the Bones again when you can spare the Combo Points to get a better buff. Each time you use Roll the Bones, you can get 1,2 or 5 of the following buffs. Here is a list from best to worst for the Roll the Bones buffs.

1. Ruthless Precision
2. Broadside
3. Grand Melee
4. True Bearing
5. Buried Treasure
6. Skull and Crossbones

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns.

If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. Blind is one of the most devastating crowd control abilities in the game, with very few ways of getting out of it without having a trinket. Save Blind for when the enemy healer does not have their trinket.

If an enemy DPS uses their trinket, you can crowd control the healer and stun the DPS without a trinket. This means they can be burst down in a stun and possibly killed. You will often use Smoke Bomb as once they are stunned with no trinket.

When opening, always try to Sap the enemy DPS player who is trying to bring you out of Stealth,then Sap the healer. Then, use your burst rotation. After you are done with your burst rotation, perform your sustained damage rotation until your burst abilities are available again.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.

1. Use Sap on the enemy healer.
2. Use Sinister Strike and Pistol Shot to generate Combo Points.
   • Use Opportunity procs immediately if you need the Combo Points. In combination with the Quick Draw talent, Pistol Shot will generate 2 Combo Points.
3. Use Roll the Bones.
   • You now have a full duration of any combination of the buffs.
   • As long as you do not have both Buried Treasure and Skull and Crossbones, continue with the opener.
4. Use Cheap Shot.
   • This stuns the target and applies Prey on the Weak.
5. Use Concentrated Flame, if you are using the The Crucible of Flame Major Essence, for instant damage and to apply a DoT on your kill target.
6. Use Sinister Strike to 6 Combo Points.
7. Use Between the Eyes to stun your kill target.
8. Use Sinister Strike until you have 2-4 Combo Points and then use Dispatch.

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage. You also want to make sure you have at least 1 good buff from Roll the Bones. However, this may not always be possible.

1. Use Sinister Strike to get to 6 Combo Points.
2. Use Tricks of the Trade on your teammate that is bursting with you.
3. Use Plunder Armor.
4. Use Between the Eyes.
5. Use Pistol Shot if you have an Opportunity proc.
6. Use Killing Spree.
7. Use Concentrated Flame, if you are using the The Crucible of Flame Major Essence, for instant damage and to apply a DoT on your kill target.
8. Use Adrenaline Rush.

For the remainder of your burst, you will want to use Sinister Strike to generate Combo Points and use them on Dispatch. Use Pistol Shot, especially when you get an Opportunity proc. Also, depending on your buffs, Between the Eyes might come off cooldown. Use it immediately for an additional stun and a large amount of damage. If your kill target trinketed, you should use Smoke Bomb next time you have Killing Spree. If you are using Memory of Lucid Dreams, use it when you are low on Energy and have high uptime on your kill target.

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.

1. Use Concentrated Flame, if you are using the The Crucible of Flame Major Essence, for instant damage and to apply a DoT on your kill target.
2. Use Sinister Strike and Pistol Shot to generate Combo Points.
   • Use Opportunity procs immediately if you need the Combo Points. In combination with the Quick Draw talent, Pistol Shot will generate 2 Combo Points.
3. Use Roll the Bones.
   • You now have a full duration of any combination of the buffs.
   • The damage of your Sinister Strike is now increased from the Snake Eyes Azerite trait.
   • You want to see Ruthless Precision, Broadside or Grand Melee buffs. These are the best buffs you can get after using Roll the Bones.
4. Spend Combo Points on Between the Eyes to stun your kill target or to crowd control the enemy healer.
5. Spend Combo Points on Dispatch to deal single target damage.
6. If you are using Memory of Lucid Dreams, use it when you are low on Energy and have high uptime on your kill target.

A quick note about an important passive you have, Restless Blades. This passive makes Finishing Moves ( Between the Eyes, Roll the Bones, Dispatch) reduce the cooldown of multiple important abilities by 1 second for each Combo Point used. For example, if you use Sinister Strike to generate 6 Combo Points followed by a Roll the Bones or Dispatch, it will reduce the cooldown of certain abilities by 6 seconds. This is what makes Outlaw Rogues so powerful.

Cloak of Shadows is a strong defensive cooldown when playing against casters. Use this when in trouble against caster teams and run to your healer or re-enter Stealth.

Feint (with the Elusiveness talent) grants you a flat 30% damage reduction from everything. This is a buff that should be active on you at all times. A Rogue is very weak against stuns, so having Feint up when stunned greatly increases your chance of surviving heavy damage from the enemy team.

The 100% parry chance from Riposte is great against melee teams. Use this when you are in trouble and cannot get away from melee players.

Retractable Hook is very strong for kiting. It can be used when in trouble to get behind a pillar.

Crimson Vial is the trickiest, but most useful defensive ability a Rogue has. If you feel a hard swap onto you or you are about to be stunned, use Crimson Vial. Using this efficiently can enable you and your teammates to save your other cooldowns.

Now that you have the correct talents and understand your damage rotation, it is time to step into the Arena with your team. Outlaw Rogues have more crowd control than the other Rogue specs, with equally strong burst damage.

In 2v2 Arena you will be focusing on single target damage. Depending on what healer you are playing with, use Between the Eyes on the enemy healer to setup crowd control. What makes this ability great is that it has a 20-yard range, so you do not have to use mobility to get to the healer. For example, if you are playing with a Restoration Druid, you should use Between the Eyes on the enemy healer so your Druid can get close enough to use Cyclone. If the healer is out of range, you can use your Retractable Hook to get back to the kill target.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:

• Outlaw Rogue + Holy Paladin
• Outlaw Rogue + Restoration Druid
• Outlaw Rogue + Restoration Shaman

Your role in 3v3 is similar to 2v2 Arena. You will likely be focusing on maximizing your single target damage. If you are playing against a healer that is not mobile (Discipline Priest, Holy Paladin or Restoration Shaman), you can open on them and try to force a trinket or a major defensive cooldown. If the enemy healer trinkets, you can use Blind with your next setup. Your overall goal is to focus an enemy without a trinket. When you and your teammate have damage, use Between the Eyes on the enemy healer. If you are playing with a healer that has a reliable stun, they can stun the healer and you can use Between the Eyes on the kill target. A great ability that Outlaw Rogues have is Gouge. With such a short cooldown, it can be used in multiple ways. The first way is to use it to peel for you or your teammates. When the enemy team is using their burst rotation, use Gouge to stop them. The second way is to use it to set up crowd control. If Between the Eyes is on cooldown, use Gouge on the enemy healer to help your teammates.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 3v3:

• RMP (Outlaw Rogue + Fire/Frost Mage + Discipline Priest)
• Outlaw Rogue + Elemental Shaman + Discipline Priest/Restoration Druid
• Outlaw Rogue + Balance Druid + Holy Paladin
• RLS (Outlaw Rogue + Destruction + Restoration Shaman)

Important note for both 2v2 and 3v3 Arena: knowing when to use your burst rotation is crucial. Because Outlaw Rogue damage can be random, you should not burst until you have the correct buffs. Although all the buffs are situational, some are better than others. Do not burst unless you have one or two of the following buffs:

• Ruthless Precision
• Broadside
• Grand Melee

Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall damage/healing and general awareness in the arena. Here are a few macros that all Outlaw Rogues can benefit from.

• #showtooltip Kick
• /cast [target=focus] Kick

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Kick on that player while you are still focused on your target.

• #showtooltip Blind
• /cast [target=focus] Blind

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Blind on that player while you are still focused on your target.

• #showtooltip Between the Eyes
• /cast [target=focus] Between the Eyes

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Between the Eyes on that player while you are still focused on your target.

• #showtooltip Sap
• /cast [target=focus] Sap

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Sap on that player while you are still focused on your target.

• #showtooltip Gouge
• /cast [target=focus] Gouge

Put an enemy on focus and this macro will use Gouge on that player while you are still focused on your target.

• #showtooltip Stealth
• /cast !stealth

This makes it so when you use Stealth it will not cancel if you click it a second time.