OUTLAW ROGUE ADVANCED TIPS

OUTLAW VANISH TIPS

In this next segment of our course, we're going to be meticulously dissecting each of your key offensive cooldowns, giving you a comprehensive breakdown on how they work and the rules behind using them, starting off with the one ability that truly determines how we use every other cooldown that we have. Vanish.

Vanish might seem like a straightforward ability, as it simply lets you get back into stealth every two minutes, but it's actually one of your most powerful offensive tools. Now thanks to Subterfuge, all of your abilities used within six seconds of breaking Vanish count as if they were used from stealth.

This massively boosts the damage of Between the Eyes, removes cooldown of Between the Eyes during Subterfuge, and even triggers a dispatch for 50% of its damage. This synergy comes from the Crackshot talent, making your Vanish your strongest offensive cooldown.

But that's not all. Vanish also lets you spam Cheap Shot, either letting you lock down the kill target, or setting up Devastation.

This allows you to have a devastating triple crowd control on the entire enemy team, which can create huge game-winning opportunities. Relentless Blades makes Vanish an even shorter cooldown, and with two charges, you can expect to have it ready for nearly every single go.

And that's exactly how you want to set up your goes, with Vanish. Because of how powerful Vanish is, almost every Adrenaline Rush and Ghostly Strike should be paired with your Vanish, or at least Subterfuge if you can get a re-stealth.

This is your only chance to get a re-stealth, and you can't get a re-stealth without the Vanish. So it's crucial to stack your damage cooldowns to maximize your kill potential.

When setting up a go with Vanish, the first thing you need to check is whether the enemy team is off Stun DR. When using Vanish, it's usually smarter to Kidney Shot the healer instead of the kill target.

Why? Because you can continuously Cheap Shot the kill target during Subterfuge, but you're unlikely to be standing on the healer to stun them.

Trying to move to the healer would waste valuable Globals during your burst window. Locking down the kill target, while spamming Cheap Shot on the kill target, creates the perfect setup for a kill.

ADRENALINE RUSH

Welcome back to another installment in our Outlaw Rogue damage course. In this video we're going to be continuing to break down our offensive cooldowns with Adrenaline Rush, providing you with a comprehensive breakdown on how this ability works and the rules behind using it.

Adrenaline Rush isn't a true damage cooldown because it doesn't directly boost your damage. Instead, it enhances your ability to deal damage by increasing energy regeneration, increasing your maximum energy, and speeding up your auto attacks.

This means during your Adrenaline Rush windows, you won't have any dead globals which allows for non-stop pressure. Even better, Adrenaline Rush instantly gives you full combo points when you activate it.

Adrenaline Rush has a baseline 3 minute cooldown, but thanks to Restless Blades, that cooldown does get reduced every time we spend combo points.

Now depending on your uptime, the actual cooldown can vary pretty significantly, but you can usually expect to have it ready about every other vanish with moderately high uptime. Now there's really only two situations where you want to use Adrenaline Rush.

The first is with vanish. You don't really ever want to use Adrenaline Rush if you don't have a charge of vanish available.

You can activate Adrenaline Rush before using vanish to ramp up damage and start building pressure. You would then use vanish during your Adrenaline Rush window, with the goal of using vanish with more than 6 seconds left on Adrenaline Rush so that we can ensure that we get maximum value.

You can actually see the rogue execute this strategy right here in the video. Even with a charge of vanish available, they choose to use Adrenaline Rush first because the entire enemy team is still at full health and the warlock has dark pact available.

After breaking dark pact and crowd controlling the warrior with a disarm, the rogue then uses vanish to fully set up their burst and lock down the enemy with crowd control. The second situation where we use Adrenaline Rush is right at the start of the match.

Thanks to upper handed upper hand, Adrenaline Rush is able to open hard with Adrenaline Rush on your very first go as you are going to be opening from stealth and thus have subterfuge. We can see this in action right here.

Almost immediately after the gates open, the rogue activates Adrenaline Rush and you are going to notice how it stays at full duration while the rogue remains in stealth. This is something you want to do every game because a strong opener can really set the pace for the entire match.

GHOSTLY STRIKE

Welcome back to another video in our Outlaw Rogue damage course. Today we're going to be taking a closer look at Ghostly Strike.

We're going to walk you through how it works, when to use it, and the strategies to ensure that you are getting the most out of this ability. Ghostly Strike is pretty straightforward.

It boosts your damage by 15% for 12 seconds and has just a one and a half minute cooldown. Now as you might expect, it also benefits from Restless Blades just like your other cooldowns.

This means you can usually have it ready to use alongside Vanish. Your goal with Ghostly Strike should be to pair it with your Vanish windows.

While you can desync it from Vanish if you're confident you're going to secure the kill or force cooldowns, it is generally better to save it for when you actually have damage to maximize the value of your offensive cooldowns and subterfuge windows. We can see this in action right here.

The Rogue uses Ghostly Strike on the Warlock while also using Vanish. This significantly boosts the damage of Ghostly Strike on the Warlock during subterfuge.

Outlaw does have very weak overall damage compared to Assassination, so just like Subtlety, we want to combine our cooldowns together.

FEELING LUCKY?

Are you feeling lucky today? Are you ready to turn that tie to battle with a single roll?

Well in this video we're going to be telling you how to master the art of Roll the Bones and unleash the true power of Outlaw Rogue. Let's stack those buffs and slice through the competition.

How many Outlaw Rogues can honestly say they truly understand how Roll the Bones works? Each time you use Roll the Bones, you have a chance to get 1, 2, or even 5 buffs, with one buff being by far the most common outcome.

But here's the twist. Rolling a single buff doesn't mean you're stuck with just one.

Every time you use Roll the Bones, it grants you a new buff and it removes the old one. There's no need to wait for the previous buff to expire.

Now you might be wondering which buffs are actually worth re-rolling for? Let's be honest, Grand Melee and Buried Treasure are easily our most useless buffs.

Sure they do something, but it's really not worth it. It's really not worth it.

It's really not worth it. It's really not worth it.

It's really not enough to matter. We want to re-roll these as fast as possible.

Now, Sculling Crossbones, it's okay. Gives your Sinister Strike a chance to hit an extra time, which can help with sustained pressure.

But when it comes to your big burst windows, it's just not very useful. That leaves us with the three big rolls.

These are the buffs you actually want to hold onto for as long as possible and will not be re-rolling. But let's be clear here.

Not all three are created equal. The worst of the best is Broadside.

This buff is a great option for a long time. This buff makes your combo point generators grant an extra combo point and deal bonus damage.

It's especially powerful during Subterfuge because you need fewer ambushes to reach the same number of between the eyes. It's a solid buff, but compared to the others, it's still the weakest of the top three.

Next up is True Bearing, and this one is an absolute game changer. It gives a 50% boost to Restless Blades, which means every finisher shaves off a massive 10.5 seconds from your cooldowns when using Subterfuge.

It's a great buff to use for a long time, but it's also a great way to get your combo points back. It's a great buff to use for a long time, but it's also a great way to get your combo points back.

Seriously, you won't believe how quickly Vanish resets with this buff active. Which saves the best for last.

Ruthless Precision. This buff boosts the critical strike chance of between the eyes by a massive 60%.

Combined with your passive crit and other buffs, this means every single between the eyes is going to crit. It also gives a 15% crit boost to your other abilities, which is pretty nice, but the real power is in the guaranteed crit on between the eyes.

It's a great buff to use for a long time, but it's also a great way to get your combo points back.

DON’T WASTE UPTIME

As a melee, you already know that uptime is absolutely everything. But do you ever catch yourself chasing a target for just a little bit too long, struggling to stick to that mage?

Or maybe an evoker just hovered away and your grappling hook is on cooldown? With restless blades constantly reducing your cooldowns, every single global matters.

So let's break down exactly what you need to do to maximize your uptime. Now first and foremost, do not overchase.

As a rogue, you generate a lot of pressure by forcing defensives from multiple targets. If your main target escapes, do not tunnel vision.

Tab to another enemy and keep the damage rolling. This way you can keep dealing damage until you have a way to reconnect.

This not only keeps up the pressure, but also lets you fully benefit from restless blades, helping you to maximize your cooldown reduction. Our second tip is to not waste grappling hook.

If you can close the gap by simply walking to your target, do that. Many rogues make the mistake of using grappling hook when it's just not necessary.

Save this ability for when your target uses instant movement skills like leap, blink, or demonic circle. That is when grappling hook truly shines.

Our final tip is to use vanish. If you're preparing for a go, vanish is the perfect tool to help you close in on your target.

Now we've covered its amazing offensive benefits, but did you know vanish also serves as a freedom? It clears all routes.

It clears all routes and all snares. But before you start using vanish just to avoid being slowed, remember, it's important to use your vanish with the goals in mind that we discussed in our vanish video.

Simply vanishing to remove slows, it will not give you the results that you're after.

ABUSE THIS MECHANIC

Blade Flurry seems pretty boring, am I right? Just makes your attacks cleave.

So what's there to even talk about with it? Well, what if I told you Blade Flurry has a hidden mechanic that no one talks about?

And it can be an absolute game changer. Trust me, you will want to know this one.

Sure Blade Flurry does exactly what it says, cleaving damage to nearby enemies. But what it doesn't tell you is that the cleave can actually bypass certain immunities.

For example, if you're hitting a rogue who pops evasion or a warrior who parries, you can swap to a nearby target and still hit them through the defensive even though they would normally be immune. This even works against abilities like Aspect of the Turtle.

This only applies to certain immunities though. You won't be one shot in a mage through Ice Block or a Paladin in Bubble, sure, but it can be clutch in those moments where you're right on the edge of a kill.

The main downside is that Blade Flurry deals reduced damage to objects. So unless your target is already low, you probably won't kill them.

However, it's still a great way to keep up pressure while you swap targets and look for that perfect opportunity.

USING DEFENSIVES OFFENSIVELY AS OUTLAW

Defensives are meant for living, right? Well, what if I told you that Evasion and Cloak of Shadows can be a game-winning tool when they're used offensively?

So let's find out how. Now you might be thinking, how in the heck can a defensive cooldown help me win?

It doesn't deal any damage at all. Well, that's true, but it's not about the damage they deal.

It's honestly about how you use them. Evasion can be a game-changer.

The most common tactic is using Evasion to prevent physical crowd control when you're confident you're about to secure the win. It can stop abilities like Bash, Scattershot, or even Disarm to ensure that you maintain pressure to close out that game.

Evasion can also be a powerful tool to stop healing. It's particularly effective against Fury Warriors during Enraged Regeneration as it can prevent them from landing Bloodthirst, which they rely on to heal.

Similarly, it works against Death Knights by denying their Death Strikes. Using Evasion this way not only disrupts their healing, but it can help you secure the win.

The best part about playing an Outlaw Rogue is having access to Float Like a Butterfly, which significantly shortens Evasion's cooldown. This gives Outlaw far more flexibility to use Evasion offensively, which is something other Rogue specs really can't do as effectively.

Cloak works in a similar way when dealing with casters, though. If you need to remove crowd control effects like Roots, you can activate Cloak of Shadows.

Alternatively, you can use Evasion to prevent Evasion from landing Bloodthirst, or use it preemptively during a go when you're confident you're going to win. Strategically using Cloak can help you maintain pressure and ultimately close out the game.

ELUSIVENESS VS CHEAT DEATH AS OUTLAW

You might be scratching your head wondering why anyone would ever not take Cheat Death. But if you start looking around you're going to notice many rogues opting for Illusiveness.

So what the heck is going on here? The answer really isn't as clear cut as you might think.

So let's break down when it's better to choose Illusiveness over Cheat Death. Cheat Death might seem like a no-brainer on paper.

You get to Cheat Death and avoid dying when you should have. It's pretty simple.

Now in most cases it works just as you'd expect. However it's really not quite as good as it seems.

Cheat Death can fail into certain classes. If you watch top rogue streamers you're going to often see them proc Cheat Death and die in the exact same second.

The reason for this is that Cheat Death doesn't stop incoming damage. It just has a small delay before it activates, which can sometimes be enough for you to die before it kicks in or you just die shortly after it procs.

Now what this means is that Cheat Death isn't particularly effective for you. It's more effective against classes that deal a lot of small hits all at once, like certain dodge classes or demo warlocks.

This is where Illusiveness becomes a solid option here. When you activate Feint it reduces all damage taken by 20% which provides you with an additional wall you can use throughout the game.

Illusiveness also has the added benefit of giving a 20% damage reduction to Evasion. When you combine this with Feint you can survive almost any situation.

As an outlaw rogue with the float like a butterfly talent. You can maintain Feint with nearly 100% uptime, making it extremely difficult for enemy teams to kill you.

If you're really struggling to survive, consider taking the Preemptive Maneuver talent along with Illusiveness. This combination makes Feint reduce your damage taken by an additional 40% while stunned, while also lowering its energy cost by 30%.

With this combo you can consistently use Feint, which makes you extremely difficult to kill during stun setups. The best way to decide is to consider how you're most likely to die.

If you're facing a huge burst setup, like against sub rogues or red paladins, Cheat Death might be the better choice. On the other hand, if you're more likely to die over time from smaller hits then Illusiveness is going to be the way to go.

EVASION DEFENSIVE TIPS AS OUTLAW

Hello everyone and welcome to this course video guide on Outlaw Rogue defensive plays. In this course we are going to be discussing in detail all the important defensive spells for you to use in situations where you need to survive or peel for your teammates.

Today's topic, we're going to be going over Evasion, being an essential defensive cooldown that you must know how to use. So let's get right into it.

Evasion is a powerful defensive on a 2 minute cooldown, increasing your dodge chance by 100% for 10 seconds. As such, this defensive cooldown is typically used to trade with enemy offensive cooldowns.

This is going to make a much more lackluster, denying the enemy from a lot of pressure. A good example is when facing Feral Druids, using it against their Incarnation cooldown.

It shares the exact same cooldown with your Evasion and it's a powerful offensive, so reducing its pressure with Evasion is an excellent trade for yourself. One big downside with Evasion is that if you're stunned during it, then your dodge effect will no longer work.

Especially making it useless. So if you can help it, try to avoid being stunned on it or possibly save your trinket for the stuns to make sure your Evasion works well.

Also, some spells work through Evasion, so you're going to want to be careful of them when facing certain classes. For example, Cheap Shot can land during your Evasion, which makes it useless and allows the enemy team to keep pressuring you.

If this happens, you may need to use more defensive cooldowns in order to survive.

CLOAK OF SHADOWS DEFENSIVE TIPS AS OUTLAW

Welcome back to another video on Rogue Defensive Plays. Today we're going to be going over Cloak of Shadows, being a key defensive cooldown for any Rogue spec.

We're also going to discuss this defensive in detail on how to best use this for defensive situations. Cloak of Shadows gives Rogue an immunity to all spell effects, as well as removing current magic debuffs on themselves.

It's incredibly powerful against casters, as it can immune all of their damage, denying all of their pressure. You should ideally trade Cloak of Shadows for offensive cooldowns, keeping yourself aggro and denying the enemy from any spell pressure.

You could also use it as a lifesaver cooldown if you ever drop too low on HP and need to survive caster pressure. This is the backup way to use it, where you're better safe than sorry in these certain circumstances.

You could potentially use Cloak to remove CC from yourself if you know that it could be deadly. If you know big spell damage is coming and you're in CC, then using Cloak to stay aggro and keep yourself safe is going to be a great way to survive.

It can be useful if the trade-off is good, so make sure you know the matchup that you're in, expecting to trade Cloak of Shadows well against heavy magic offensive cooldowns.

VANISH DEFENSIVE TIPS AS OUTLAW

Welcome back everyone to another video on Rogue Defensive Plays. Today's topic is going to be on Vanish, being an important cooldown that you have to know to use in defensive situations.

So without further ado, let's get into it. Many players believe that Cloak of Shadows or Evasion is your best defensive cooldown, but in fact, it's actually Vanish.

This cooldown allows you to go back into stealth while in combat, preventing enemy players from being able to hit you for at least 3 seconds. Now it doesn't sound powerful, I get that, but think of it as having a divine shield for 3 seconds.

Makes it an excellent lifesaver cooldown in any situation. Rogues can be vulnerable without other defensive cooldowns ready, and if you're a main kill target, you may need Vanish defensively in order to live.

In matchups where this is the case, using your Medallion Trinket in combination with Vanish may be a good idea. This is going to be your safety net to always being able to get out of trouble when you're low on health.

You want to use Vanish defensively whenever you're on the brink of death and you need to keep yourself alive. This is common when you have no Cloak of Shadows or Evasion ready, and you need that extra defensive to survive when low on HP.

Sometimes you may even need to use it during Evasion or Cloak of Shadows if the enemy pressure is overwhelming. This can absolutely be common against melee plus caster matchups or when the enemy team has a ton of pressure.

So don't be afraid to Vanish. Even with your other defensives up, if it's necessary for you to stay alive.

FEINT DEFENSIVE TIPS AS OUTLAW

Welcome back everyone to another skill-capped guide on Rogue Defensive Plays. In this course, we're going to be discussing all the important spells to keep you and your teammates alive.

For today's video, we're going to be going over Feint and how to use this spell properly to survive well in any game. The reason why Feint is so powerful is that there's multiple talents that bolster its effect, being Elusiveness, Graceful Guile, and Preemptive Maneuver.

Combined together, you have a 15 second cooldown Feint with two charges that'll reduce all damage taken by 20% while it's active. With Preemptive Maneuver, this gets buffed by an additional 15% if you have Feint up while you're stunned.

Now as you can imagine, this is absurdly powerful as you're basically unkillable if you can get Feint off before you're stunned. That means the best use of your Feint is just before a stun lands, reducing all incoming damage by a ton.

Even if you don't do it directly on the stun, it can delay a stun go on yourself, buying you time to either kite away or for your healer to keep you alive if need be. They could also be more prepared to use defensive cooldowns knowing you won't have Fade ready for the next go.

Even during Feint, without being stunned, you still take 20% less damage, making you much more durable to constant pressure. Now due to its low cooldown and two charges, you'd be able to use it to save you from the next go.

However, you still want to try and time your Feint properly to do it preemptively on stuns when you expect them. Doing this well is going to keep you in the fight for much longer, making it very difficult for enemy players to take you down.

It's the essence of survival for rogues at the moment, so keep practicing to use it well and become nearly unkillable for your team, making it much more likely for you to win a game.

GOUGE DEFENSIVE TIPS AS OUTLAW

Welcome back to another video guide in this course on Rogue Defensive Place. Today's topic is going to be based on Gouge and how using this peeling tool can be vital in certain defensive situations.

We're going to go in-depth on the best way to use this to help your team live. Now even though Gouge is usually used offensively, there can definitely be times where it's vital to use for defensive measures.

It incapacitates the enemy target for 4 seconds, preventing them from using any spells during this time. Now one reason for this is that Rogue Mage is usually a popular composition, and Gouge shares diminishing returns with Polymorph.

Usually, Sheeps are used commonly on DPS targets, meaning that defensive Gouge is rarely used when playing with Mages. However, in times of need, or when you're playing with other DPS partners, you can look to use Gouge as a way to peel pressure from the enemy team.

This can be good during offensive cooldowns, but whenever your team needs extra damage, you can use Gouge to peel pressure from the enemy team. Just make sure you don't always do this, as it is commonly used on healers to set up CC on them.

So don't overuse it defensively, but know that the option is definitely there for whenever you need extra peeling.

BLIND DEFENSIVE TIPS AS OUTLAW

Hello everyone and welcome to another video guide on Rogue Defensive Plays. Today we're going to be going over Blind, discussing how to use this for defensive measures when needed.

We're going to go over it in detail, when exactly to use it defensively, and how it can help your team stay alive. Blind is usually another ability that's used for offensive measures, typically on healers, so you can chain it with other CC, gaining huge pressure on DPS players.

It disorients a target for 6 seconds, denying them from being able to use any spells at their disposal. It's also undispellable, making it easy to apply as long as people aren't on the same diminishing returns as fear spells.

Using Blind defensively can happen during times of desperation, when you or your partners don't have a great answer to deal with powerful offensive CDs. You can use Blind on them in these situations, preventing them from getting off their big pressure.

Sometimes they may have the Medallion Trinket to get rid of this, but doing so opens them up to your stun windows or other forms of CC, which you could absolutely control them with.