Outlaw Rogue PvP Rotation and Playstyle (Shadowlands / Patch 9.2)
PvP requires you to perform various actions in the course of a duel, match, or battleground: interrupting/silencing enemies, damaging them, bursting them down, defending yourself, keeping yourself alive, etc.. It is a game mode that fully utilizes your kit, especially spells that are rarely used in PvE. On this page, we go through all the spells you need to use in PvP as a Outlaw Rogue, how you should use them, and we explain what your playstyle should be.
This page is part of our Outlaw Rogue PvP Guide.
Playstyle for Outlaw Rogues
Outlaw Rogues have two roles in PvP: controlling the enemy team with
Sap,
Blind,
Cheap Shot,
Kidney Shot,
Dismantle, and
Gouge, and dealing high sustained single-target
damage. The extended control options the specialization offers
allow you to force the enemies into 2v1 or even 3v1 situations, very often
putting the Rogue's team at a major advantage. The most powerful control
option available to Outlaw is
Blinding Powder. This will desync
your
Blind and the enemy healer's trinket, allowing you to have
extremely long CC chains the enemy healer cannot get out of, allowing your
team to land a kill. Outlaw also has some burst damage when talented into
Dreadblades and/or when using the Legendary
Greenskin's Wickers
to secure a kill when the enemy team is in CC.
There are currently two slightly different ways to play Outlaw Rogue.
The first one is to play with an offensive Legendary power, such as
Greenskin's Wickers or
Concealed Blunderbuss. You will also play
the talent
Quick Draw on the first talent row. Playing like this will
give you the basic Outlaw toolkit with burst spikes when you use your
Pistol Shot with either Legendary buff active. This way of playing is
seen as slightly superior to the other, and answer more situations. The second
way is to play with the Legendary power
Invigorating Shadowdust,
allowing your
Vanish to reduce all your cooldowns by 20s. Since you
have the talent
Blinding Powder your
Blind will be on a very
short cooldown. Also, since you can reduce the cooldown of Vanish with
Restless Blades you will get a lot of value out of your Legendary. This
way of playing is particularly successful against melee specializations in 2v2
as you will also play the talent
Float Like a Butterfly, and thus will
have an extremely short cooldown on your
Evasion. You will be extremely
difficult to take down while having a lot of crowd control for one enemy
and while dealing a lot of sustained damage to their partner, allowing you to
eventually win the game thanks to the the sheer value of using your cooldowns
so often.
Before Gates Open
Discuss with your team to have a gameplan. Outlaw Rogue is a specialization that is often played in setup comps and that means you and your team need to agree on who to control and who to kill before the game begins, and you need to know who will use their offensive cooldowns first. Wasting an entire go because you did not plan and broke eachother's crowd control can make you lose the game.
Apply Wound Poison and
Crippling Poison. Your Poisons will
be removed after every arena match, so do not forget to reapply them everytime
you enter a new match.
Press Stealth and you are good to go!
Crowd Control
Outlaw Rogues have a lot of crowd control options. In the
opener, since you have access to your Stealth-based abilities you will aim to
push in and initiate crowd control chains on the healer with a Sap.
If you are not playing
Marked for Death you will then open on the kill
target with
Cheap Shot or without a stun and quickly build Combo Points
for a
Kidney Shot depending on the situation. In most cases it is better
to stun immediately to prevent the enemy from using their defensives before your
burst. Outlaw is a spec that likes to have time to setup its damage so it is not
an issue if your opener is not very explosive. After the opener you will be able
to use your
Gouge on the healer and your Kidney Shot on the
kill target, enabling your healer to use
Cyclone or
Psychic Scream
after your Gouge while you kill the DPS. In some scenarios, namely when you play
with another DPS who also has a stun, you may want to use your 7s Kidney Shot on
the enemy healer instead while your teammate stuns the enemy DPS you want to kill.
You can follow it with a Gouge or a Sap, or have your team follow up. On top of
all of that you have access to
Blind on a 90s cooldown thanks to
Blinding Powder which is an extremely powerful tool to setup a kill as
the enemy healer's trinket is on a 120s cooldown. You also have the ability
Dismantle which counts as a form of crowd control, albeit a defensive
one in most cases. Making good use of it can negate an enemy kill attempt. It
can also be use offensively sometimes, for example against an Arms Warrior, as
it prevents them from using
Die by the Sword, or against a Death Knight,
as it prevents them from using
Death Strike to heal.
Offensive Rotation
Generating and Spending Combo Points
Rogues have two resources to manage. The first, Energy, is quite straightforward. Using a spell costs Energy, and it regenerates over time. The second resource is Combo Points. Some abilities generate Combo Points, and powerful abilities called Finishing Moves consume them. In order to maximize your damage output as well as your Energy regeneration you need to use your Combo Points efficiently. You have several ways to generate Combo Points.
- From
Stealth there are 2 ways to generate Combo Points:
Cheap Shot stuns the target and generates 1 Combo Point.
Ambush can only be used in Stealth as well. It deals damage and generates 2 Combo Points.
- When not in Stealth, you generate Combo Points with the following:
Sinister Strike deals moderate damage and generates 1 Combo Point. It has a 35% chance to strike an additional time, granting a second Combo Point. That chance may be increased through Talents, Honor Talents, and
Roll the Bones.
Pistol Shot generates 1 Combo Point. It will generate 2 Combo Points instead if you have an
Opportunity proc, which you get when
Sinister Strike hits an additional time and are playing the talent
Quick Draw.
Shiv generates 1 Combo Point.
Ruthlessness has 20% chance per Combo Point spent to grant 1 Combo Point. Using a Finishing Move with 5 Combo Points will therefore automatically grant 1 Combo Point. Be aware that using a Finishing Move with 6 Combo Points when playing with the
Deeper Stratagem talent has a 20% chance to grant 2 Combo Points.
Marked for Death instantly generates 5 Combo Points. This can be used for
Kidney Shot to setup crowd control, or for an additional
Dispatch during a kill attempt. It should never be used to deal damage in between two setups.
Now that you know how to generate Combo Points, knowing how to spend them is
even more important. As an Outlaw Rogue you should always use your finishers with
5 Combo Points or more to be certain you will benefit from Ruthlessness.
Here are the abilities you will be spending Combo Points on and what situations you
will use them in:
Kidney Shot is your stun to setup a kill on your target.
Between the Eyes deals damage and applies a debuff to your target that lasts longer based on how many Combo Points you spent. While the debuff is on your target your Critical Strike chance is increased by 20% against that target. Use this before your burst window to increase your damage output.
Slice and Dice increases your attack speed. Slice and Dice should almost have a 100% uptime during an arena match as autoattacks and
Mastery: Main Gauche procs are a significant part of your overall damage and your Energy regeneration. Be aware that the combat buff
Grand Melee will extend Slice and Dice, allowing you to spend your Combo Points on other abilities.
Dispatch is your primary damaging ability. This will deal more damage based on the amount of Combo Points used for it.
Roll the Bones
Roll the Bones is a core ability to Outlaw Rogues. When you use it it
will give you random combat buffs. There are 6 possible buffs. Most of the time
you will only get one, sometimes you will get two, and extremely rarely you will
get five. The different buffs are the following, sorted from best to worst:
Roll the Bones has a cooldown, so you cannot reroll your buffs at
will. However the cooldown is reduced by
Restless Blades so if you do
not have good buffs when the ability comes back off cooldown, you should reroll.
You will never reroll a set of five buffs as Outlaw is most likely the best spec
in the entire game when under the effects of 5 buffs. You will almost never
reroll a set of two buffs as having two buffs is very valuable unless the two
buffs are
Grand Melee and
Buried Treasure. Regarding single
buffs you want to try and have
Ruthless Precision before your burst as
it increases your Critical Strike chance by a lot, and paired with
Between the Eyes will make you crit a lot of attacks.
Broadside
is also good to burst down an enemy as it increases your damage and Combo Point
generation, allowing you to use more attacks. It is especially good when running
Greenskin's Wickers or
Concealed Blunderbuss as the
Pistol Shot damage will be increased.
True Bearing is great
when you are not about to burst and need to reset important cooldowns.
Skull and Crossbones used to be a bad buff but with the new Honor Talent
Enduring Brawler you will be almost certain to make your
Sinister Strike hit an additional time, giving you more Combo Points,
more damage, and a lot of
Opportunity procs which also translates into
more Combo Points and more damage. This is especially good when running
Concealed Blunderbuss as well as the
Triple Threat Conduit.
The Opener
The opener refers to your team's opening CC 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 or your kill target uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble.
The opener is a key part of the game as Rogue, even though it is a bit less
important as Outlaw as you do not have impactful burst damage to force as many
cooldowns in the opener as other Rogue specializations. Stealth gives
you the advantage as you get to choose how the fight begins. Because people will
not be in combat right after the gates open you will be able to
Sap a
target, already providing your team with numerical superiority. With stuns on
the other enemies you can create a situation where your kill target is stunned
for you and your team to deal damage, without any external help.
If you forced a trinket in the opener you are on the right track to win the
game. If the enemy healer used their trinket then you will be able to do a go
with a Blind on them, followed by a
Sap while you kill the
enemy DPS. If the enemy DPS uses their trinket you will be able to do a go on
them with a
Kidney Shot followed by a
Smoke Bomb if you play it
to prevent the healer from helping, and hopefully kill the DPS in that stun. Even
if you do not play Smoke Bomb forcing the DPS trinket is great as they will not
be able to get out of your next Kidney Shot during which you will use offensive
cooldowns.
The opener as Outlaw is very straightforward as your only way to CC
your kill target from Stealth is to use Cheap Shot. If you play
Marked for Death then you can use
Kidney Shot instead.
Below is an example of the opener;
Adrenaline Rush is included but you
do not have to use it:
- Use
Roll the Bones from Stealth.
- Use
Sap on the enemy healer.
- Use
Cheap Shot on the kill target.
- Use
Adrenaline Rush.
- Use
Sinister Strike.
- Use
Pistol Shot if you have an
Opportunity proc.
- Use
Dispatch.
- Repeat the last three steps.
Because your stun is not very long in the opener you usually do not
want to use powerful abilities that the enemies will counter once your
Cheap Shot ends. It is better to wait for a
Kidney Shot so that
they have to use trinket on top of their defensives. Below is an example of an
opener allowing you to use Kidney Shot on your kill target, but it only works if
your kill target can be sapped and if you will be able to hit a target freely
during the Sap :
- Use
Roll the Bones from Stealth.
- Use
Sap on the kill target.
- Use
Ambush on the healer to get a buff from the Conduit
Count the Odds.
- Use
Sinister Strike
- Use
Pistol Shot if you have an
Opportunity proc.
- Use
Gouge on the healer once you have 5 Combo Points or more to allow your own healer to CC them, with
Psychic Scream or
Cyclone for example.
- Use
Kidney Shot on the kill target now that you have 6 combo Points. This target still be in a Sap and unable to defend themselves.
- Use
Adrenaline Rush.
- Use
Sinister Strike.
- Use
Pistol Shot if you have an
Opportunity proc.
- Use
Between the Eyes.
- Use
Sinister Strike.
- Use
Pistol Shot if you have an
Opportunity proc.
- Use
Dispatch.
- Repeat the last three steps.
You can decide to your burst cooldowns with such an opener if your buffs are
good enough. Then you will use your Covenant ability, and Dreadblades if you play
it, right after Adrenaline Rush.
Burst Damage
When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill
an enemy, you use your burst damage. Of course you want to have a buff from
Roll the Bones up already, preferably a good one, and you want to have
Slice and Dice up as well before using your burst rotation. It is assumed
in the following burst rotation that you do have them before you pull the
trigger.
- Use
Kidney Shot on your kill target.
- Use
Adrenaline Rush.
- Use
Tricks of the Trade on your ally if you play the Honor Talent
Thick as Thieves.
- Use
Sepsis,
Flagellation, or
Echoing Reprimand if you have these abilities. If you know you are not going to be stopped because the enemy has no CC for you or no defensives available then you may use these abilities before
Kidney Shot to gain one GCD.
- Use
Dreadblades. If you know you are not going to be stopped because the enemy has no CC for you or no defensives available then you may use that ability before
Kidney Shot to gain one GCD. Keep in mind that using Dreadblades fills your Combo Points, so if you play with this ability and use it then you have to skip the next step in the present rotation as it is a Combo Point builder.
- Use
Sinister Strike. Even if you have an
Opportunity proc you do not want to use it here if you play
Greenskin's Wickers as you want to save it for after your
Between the Eyes, which is the next GCD.
- Use
Between the Eyes.
- Use
Sinister Strike or
Pistol Shot depending on whether or not you have an
Opportunity proc.
- Use
Dispatch.
- Repeat the last two steps.
Players often fail to react to Outlaw offensive cooldowns due to how rare it was to face one during the last seasons. Sometimes you will land a kill because people are unaware of how much damage you can really do.
Your powerful burst cooldowns will not always be available. However you can
still have less potent burst windows every Kidney Shot, thanks to your
Between the Eyes. It would look like the following:
- Use
Kidney Shot on your kill target.
- Use
Tricks of the Trade on your ally if you play the Honor Talent
Thick as Thieves.
- Use
Sinister Strike or
Pistol Shot depending on whether or not you have an
Opportunity proc until you have 5 Combo Points or more.
- Use
Between the Eyes.
- Use
Sinister Strike or
Pistol Shot depending on whether or not you have an
Opportunity proc until you have 5 Combo Points or more.
- Use
Dispatch.
- Repeat the last two steps.
Sustained damage
Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not
available, and when your enemies cannot be crowd controlled because of
diminishing returns. Outlaw Rogues have very high sustained damage
so unless you need to retreat because you are under pressure or because
you know the enemy is about to setup a kill of their own you will want to
keep doing damage to make sure the kill target is low on health before your
next Kidney Shot. The spells you will use during your sustained
damage window need to follow the priority list set below:
- Use
Roll the Bones if it is about to fade or if you want to reroll your buff.
- Use
Slice and Dice if you have 5 Combo Points or more and it is about to fade. You can use another finisher instead if your current buff is
Grand Melee, as the buff will extend Slice and Dice. It will simply grant you Slice and Dice instead of extending it if you do not have it up.
- Use
Dispatch with 5 Combo Points or more.
- Use
Sinister Strike to generate Combo Points, or
Pistol Shot if you have an
Opportunity proc. Weave in some
Serrated Bone Spike if you have it and are about to be capped on charges, or if the enemy is kiting you.
- Be sure to maximize your melee uptime as an important part of your sustained damage comes from your autoattacks
Do not use Between the Eyes outside of a
Kidney Shot window,
unless the debuff will still be present on the kill target during your entire Kidney Shot window.
Some targets do not need to be stunned before being burst down, in that case you
will use the Kidney Shot on the healer instead, but you will want to make
sure that the debuff from Between the Eyes is on your kill target during that
time.
Defensive Techniques
Vanish is one of your main defensive cooldowns. Use Vanish when you
want to avoid damage and get away from the enemy team. It can also
be used to land crowd control with
Sap or
Cheap Shot.
Cloak of Shadows is a strong defensive cooldown when playing against
casters. Use this when in trouble against caster teams and run to safety. You
can also use it to mitigate incoming magic crowd control abilities, such as
Mortal Coil or
Hammer of Justice.
Evasion is a strong defensive cooldown when playing against melees
and Hunters. Use this when the enemy team is using offensive cooldowns on you.
You can also use it to dodge incoming Physical crowd control abilities, such as
Kidney Shot or
Mighty Bash. You may pick the talent
Float Like a Butterfly to reduce its cooldown when facing melee-heavy
teams.
Feint (with the
Elusiveness talent) is the trickiest, but
most useful defensive ability a Rogue has. It grants you a flat 30% damage
reduction from everything for 6 seconds on a 15-second cooldown. This is a very
powerful tool to mitigate incoming damage. A Rogue is very weak against stuns,
so preemptively using Feint when a stun is coming your way greatly increases
your chance of surviving heavy damage from the enemy team. Of course it can be
used when the enemy team is using cooldowns on you, even if there is no
stun.
Crimson Vial is a small heal-over-time effect. It can be used the
same way as
Feint, either when you are about to get stunned, or when
the enemy is using cooldowns on you and your healer needs to extra help.
Macros
It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.
Changelog
- 23 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Already up to date with Patch 9.1.5.
- 25 Jul. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 27 Mar. 2021: No updates needed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 16 Dec. 2020: Updated Burst and Sustained Damage rotations.
- 05 Dec. 2020: Updated Rotations to include Covenant Ability.
- 29 Nov. 2020: Removed outdated Traits and Essences.
- 04 Nov. 2020: Added Generating and Spending Combo Points section.
- Updated all Damage Rotations.
- 16 Feb. 2020: Updated Burst and Sustained Damage rotations.
- 20 Jan. 2020: This page was checked for Patch 8.3 and no update was deemed necessary.
- 05 Jan. 2020: Page added.
This guide has been written by Shadenox, an experienced Gladiator Rogue player who has achieved over 2850 rating. You can find him on his YouTube channel, where he creates guides and other informational content regarding Arenas.
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