1. 10) Outro
1.1. Alright everyone, that's it for this Outlaw Rogue guide on dealing damage and using your crowd control. As always, thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.
2. 9) How to use cc defensively
2.1. How to use cc defensively 1
2.1.1. In this final part, we'll talk about how you can use your cc defensively. For the most part, this is fairly straight forward. You want to be on the lookout for a trigger to use a defensive cooldown. This means that you should be keeping an eye on the enemy teams dps, and using your cc on them when they use a major cooldown. A great example of this would be against sub rogues, where you should be on the look out for using disarm, gouge and between the eyes on their shadow dance and shadow blades. This same concept applies to almost any dps that can use major offensive cooldowns that heavily threaten your team, such as a ret paladins wings or a warriors avatar.
2.2. ADe
2.2.1. In this example, we're playing against a sub rogue. Because he's used his shadow blades, we ensure to use our disarm on him.
2.3. AFa
2.3.1. And in this example, the moment the rogue uses his shadow dance, we move over to him and use our disarm.
3. 8) How to use cc offensively
3.1. How to use cc offensively 1
3.1.1. Moving on, let's talk about how you can use your cc offensively. Whenever you're about to make any sort of offensive push, either because you have a lot of damage ready or because your team is about to get cc on the enemy teams healer for you, you can use your cc offensively to stop a dps from peeling you. A great example of this would be to use your disarm on a rogue before attempting to kill someone. This concept applies to any sort of cc, such as a vanish cheap shot or even a blind. The main concept to understand here is that you can use an ability on someone to prevent them from cc'ing you while you're trying to kill someone.
3.2. ADl
3.2.1. In this example, we've got their priest really low. As the rogue starts to move towards our mage, he's likely to use his shadow dance in order to peel our mage and then us. We stop this by disarming him as he's moving towards our mage, and in turn we're able to force their priests dispersion as our damage is now unpeelable.
3.3. How to use cc offensively 2
3.3.1. On top of waiting for your team to help you set up with cc on a healer, you can actually set up that cc yourself with your blind. A great time to go for a blind on a healer is after you've already been cc'd yourself. This is a great reason as to why you should be doing as much damage as possible at all times, because if your damage ever forces the enemy team to cc you, you'll be able to come out of that cc, on DR, and get a full blind onto a healer while you're immune to their cc, or at least while it's diminished.
3.4. ADd
3.4.1. In this example, their rouge has just used cheap shot on us. We make the most of this situation by using our blind on the shaman as soon as come out of that stun, as we're now on stun dr and can no longer be peeled effectively.
4. 7) What to do in the opener
4.1. What to do in the opener 1
4.1.1. Now that you know how you should be dealing damage and when you should be using your stuns, it's important for you to understand how to actually engage the enemy team in the opener. Of course, as a rogue you have access to Sap, which can play a huge part in getting a lot of momentum in the opener. In most situations, you want to run in, sap the healer, and open on a dps with a cheap shot. Running in and doing this straight away allows your team to be the one that pushes in and allows your team to play on top of the enemy teams healer, which can make it significantly easier to land cc on them. However, this entire concept only applies when your team has the stealth advantage, meaning that the enemy team has less stealths then your team.
4.2. ADa
4.2.1. In this example, we're playing rogue mage healer against rogue shadow priest healer. This means that we've got the stealth advantage because of our mages invis. We make sure to rush in, sap the shaman, and open on the priest with a cheap shot. We don't need to do anything fancy, and keeping our opener simple allows us to get a really strong opener without committing any cooldowns, and forces the priest to instantly fear us.
4.3. What to do in the opener 2
4.3.1. To further elaborate on the importance of getting that early sap, you can even consider using your sprint and grappling hook to guarantee the opener. This is great to do whenever you're not playing with a mage, so most likely when you're playing with a shadow priest, as it's much more likely that the enemy team will be able to get into combat quickly when you don't have a mage that's going into invis on your team.
4.4. AAa
4.4.1. In this example, because we're playing with a priest, we attempt to rush in and try to get the sap straight away. By using sprint and our grappling hook, we're able to get a sap onto the paladin. This is a very aggressive play and won't always work out, but it's a great option to have if you want to engage quickly with a sap on the healer.
4.5. What to do in the opener 3
4.5.1. There will be times where you shouldn't use sap immediately in the opener. Whenever you're facing an enemy rogue team, you need to make sure that you don't sap their healer while your dps partner is sapped. You should be waiting for the sap on your dps partner to be coming to an end before sapping the enemy teams healer.
4.6. ABa
4.6.1. Contrary to rushing in and getting a fast sap, there will be many times, especially when you have the stealth disadvantage, where you have to be much more careful with the timing of your sap. In this example, our priest gets sapped. Because of this, we ensure not to sap their holy paladin straight away. We wait a few seconds so that our sap on the paladin won't be wasted, and once our priests sap is nearing its end, we sap the paladin. The end result is that our priest is out of sap while their paladin is still sapped ensuring that we can at least get something out of our sap if the enemy team opens.
5. 6) When to use offensive cooldowns without true bearing
5.1. When to use offensive cooldowns without true bearing 1
5.1.1. We already mentioned earlier in this video how important true bearing is. Again, be sure to watch our guide on true bearing for more information on it. A small concept for you to learn is that you're always going to be using your initial major cooldowns with your first true bearing buff. However, this doesn't apply to tricks of the trade as it's only a 30 second cooldown. Because of this, everytime you stun your target and are going to be dealing a lot of damage to them, you should be using your tricks of the trade to buff both your own damage and your dps partners damage.
5.2. ACi
5.2.1. You can see in this example that as soon as we stun the hunter, we use tricks of the trade on our mage. This is ideal as during this stun, our mage is likely to be dealing damage with us and so it maximises the effectiveness of our tricks of the trade.
5.3. AEf
5.3.1. And you can see in this example that even though we have some offensive cooldowns used, we still wait for our between the eyes stun on the paladin before using our tricks of the trade on our mage. Again, this is important because we want to ensure that our mage is able to deal damage with us at the same time as our tricks, and our stun means that the target won't be able to avoid our mages damage.
5.4. When to use offensive cooldowns without true bearing 2
5.4.1. We previously mentioned that you want to be using your major cooldowns with your first true bearing buff in every game. This means that you shouldn't be waiting to get another true bearing buff to use them as they come off cooldown, and should instead use them whenever they're ready. The point of using them with your first true bearing buff is that you get to stack all of your cooldowns, but you don't want to sit around waiting forever to get another buff once your cooldowns are ready again.
5.5. ACl
5.5.1. In this example you can see that we're using our adrenaline buff as soon as it comes off cooldown without our true bearing buff.
6. 5) The Outlaw Rouge general playstyle
6.1. The Outlaw Rouge General playstyle 1
6.1.1. In this section, we're going to explain what your general playstyle should look like as an outlaw rogue. For the most part, you should be playing with classes that are able to assist you with cc. This means that you're going to attempting to score kills during specific windows where your team has gotten cc on a healer and you're stunning your kill target. However, outside of these windows, it's important for you to be dealing as much damage as possible in order to generate pressure or keep pressure. This means that you should be doing as many finishers as possible when you're not stunning anyone. If you're not pressuring the enemy team, you're going to make it extremely easy for their healer to heal through your teams damage and it will just allow the enemy team to constantly play super aggressive, which will only hurt your team. The goal of doing as much damage as possible is always have the enemy team feeling pressured, which will make your actual kill attempts that much stronger.
6.2. AEh
6.2.1. In this example, we're waiting for our team to get some cc on the paladin. By focusing all of our attention into dealing damage to the warlock, we're able to get him to 80% when the polymorph lands on the holy paladin which is going to make this cc on the paladin much more effective.
6.3. AEk
6.3.1. A few moments later, we see a great demonstration of what the general outlaw rogue playstyle can look like. We focus entirely on dealing damage while using our stun and blind as they come off cooldown and just allowing our team to get their own cc. This clip begins with us dealing damage to the warlock and using our between the eyes stun on the warrior. We then continue focus on dealing damage to the warlock and use our blind on the paladin because it comes off cooldown. We then continue to dps the warlock, and even though the paladin uses his hand of protection to break our blind, we just focus on dps'ing the warlock and ensure we're doing as much damage as possible. Our mage then gets a polymorph on the paladin and because of our high dps, we're able to score a kill. Remember that all we're doing is using our pistol shot procs as we get them and using sabre slash to build up to 6 combo points, in order to then use run through.
6.4. The Outlaw Rouge General playstyle 2
6.4.1. And while you're focusing entirely on dealing damage and not trying to run around and do cool stuff when it's not needed, you're going to be keeping your kill target below 100% health, which can play a huge part in actually scoring kills when your team finally gets cc on a healer.
6.5. ACk
6.5.1. In this example, by ensuring we're just sticking to the hunter and doing as much damage as possible, we already have the hunter at 60% when our mage gets their paladin into a polymorph which makes our cc on the paladin so much more deadly.
7. 4) What to do with your stun
7.1. What to do with your stun 1
7.1.1. In this section, we're going to talk about what you should be doing with your between the eyes stun. In general, you want to be using it as it comes off of DR on your kill target, while your team can get cc on the healer. Be sure to watch our guide on targeting and swapping for more information on who your kill targets should be. However, for now the most important thing for you to learn about using your between the eyes stun, is to just make sure you're using it every time your target comes off stun DR. If you ever allow yourself to DR your own stuns, you're only shooting yourself in the foot because between the eyes is the only time you're guaranteed to have up time on your target and when they're locked down and unable to get away. If you don't already have one, you'l need an addon like Gladius to track stun DRs.
7.2. AEb
7.2.1. In this example, we've stunned the warlock which has put him on stun DR. We want to switch over to the paladin because he's used hand of sacrifice on the warlock, however he's on stun DR from our shamans cap totem. We make sure to wait for that dr to fall off before using our between the eyes stun on the paladin. The result of this is what we're actually able the chain stun the paladin into another between the eyes stun that's only 50% duration instead of only 25%. This is made possible because of true bearing, something that we cover in our true bearing guide.
7.3. What to do with your stun 2
7.3.1. Now that you know how often you should be stunning your kill target, it's important to know what you should be doing while your target is stunned. As we mentioned earlier, your between the eyes stun is one of the only times you're guaranteed to have up time on a target when they're locked down and unable to get away. Because of this, it's important to put out as much damage as possible during your stun. You should use as many sabre strikes and run throughs as possible during your between the eyes stun.
7.4. ADc
7.4.1. In this example, after stunning the rogue, even though he's an orc and he's playing with the relentless talent, which reduces the duration of our stun, we still ensure to generate max combo points and use a run through
8. 3) How to deal damage and when to use roll the bones
8.1. How to deal damage and when to use roll the bones 1
8.1.1. To start things off, let's talk about what your optimal damage rotation looks like. You want to be using sabre slash to generate combo points, pistol shot only when you get a proc, and then run through when you're at max combo points. Following this rotation will allow you to deal as much damage as possible.
8.1.1.1. Now, you may ask why shouldn't you be using pistol shot to generate combo points as it costs less energy then sabre slash. You don't use pistol shot to generate your combo points because even if you account for the increased combo point generation which will give you more run throughs, you're actually going to be getting less overall dps. Sabre slash has a chance to hit twice which will also give you the free pistol shot procs, so make sure you're using sabre slash as much as possible!
8.2. AAf
8.2.1. In this example, our focus is entirely on dealing damage. You can see here that we're at 1 combo point and we actually have our broadsides buff from using roll the bones which will give us an additional combo point for every combo point generator we use. We'll go into roll the bones more later. We first use a sabre slash, which procs our pistol shot. This gives us three combo points and leaves us with four. We then use our pistol shot proc, which gives us three combo points and takes us up to 6. And finally we use our sabre slash.
8.3. AFa
8.3.1. In this example, we've just opened on the priest with a cheap shot, leaving us with 2 combo points. We use a sabre slash to get up to 3 combo points, which also gives us a pistol shot proc. We use another sabre slash and then our pistol shot which takes us up to 6 combo points. We then use up our 6 combo points on a run through.
8.4. How to deal damage and when to use roll the bones 2
8.4.1. Now that you know exactly how you should be dealing damage, the next most important thing is making sure you're using roll the bones. It's absolutely imperative that you always keep your roll the bones buff up. If you're not keeping this buff up, not only will your dps heavily suffer, but you'll also be missing out on the opportunity to go into true bearing mode, which is where outlaw rogues really shine.
8.5. ABb
8.5.1. In this example, we're in the opener so we don't yet have our roll the bones buff up. As soon as we get up to 5 combo points, we use roll the bones and get our buff up.
8.6. ACb
8.6.1. In this example, we're about to set up on the enemy teams hunter. After generating a few combo points, our mage goes for cc on their paladin and we use a gouge on their hunter to prepare for bursting him down. We make sure to first use our roll the bones to get our buff up before using marked for death to stun the hunter.
8.7. ADb
8.7.1. This next example is the perfect demonstration of combo point generation and getting your roll the bones buff up in the opener. We cheap shot the priest for 2 combo points. We then sabre slash for 1 combo point, which procs our pistol shot and gives us an extra combo point, leaving us on 4 combo points. We then use our pistol shot proc which gives us 2 combo points, putting us at our cap of 6 combo points. And we finally then use our roll the bones buff.
8.8. ACj
8.8.1. In this final example, you can see that our roll the bones buff is about to expire. After getting up to 6 combo points, we make sure to use our roll the bones buff to get a new buff, before allowing the previous one to expire. This is important because we don't want to spend any time not having a buff up as it can severely reduce our damage.