OUTLAW ROGUE FUNDAMENTALS COURSE

OUTLAW ROGUE PLAYSTYLE

Welcome to our Outlaw Rogue Damage Course for The War Within, which is custom designed to equip you with all the essential knowledge that's needed to excel in PvP.

Now, in this introductory video, we're really going to be exploring what to expect from the Outlaw Rogue playstyle and what's changed going into The War Within.

Now, if you've enjoyed previous iterations of Outlaw Rogue, Outlaw and The War Within really maintains its core identity with a little bit of added flexibility as well. Outlaw isn't your traditional rogue spec.

While it retains staples like Kidney Shot and essential rogue abilities such as Blind, Outlaw shines through sustained damage rather than quick, bursty setups to close out games.

This spec is notably tougher to kill than other rogue specs, allowing them to go toe-to-toe with other melee thanks to reduced cooldowns on Vanish and Evasion, as well as enhanced mobility with Grappling Hook.

Now, in exchange for its lower burst potential, Outlaw games... ... it surmisedly retains durability and consistent pressure, allowing it to play in rather than going for resets constantly. Even better, Blizzard recently simplified the rotation by reworking Cut To The Chase, which now automatically applies Slice-n-Dice.

This change makes managing your combo points a whole lot easier and allows you to focus more on executing your high-priority abilities rather than constantly refreshing this buff. Now, if you enjoy a bit of Rng... ...

Outlaw really might be your spec. spec. The playstyle centers heavily around Roll the Bones, which is an ability that grants one of six different buffs, and they're definitely not created equal.

Outlaw Rogues have different approaches on how to handle this. Some prefer to wait for a strong roll before committing major cooldowns, while others really go for it regardless, hoping to land a game-winning buff mid-go.

Now, of all the possible buffs, Ruthless Precision stands out as the number one best. If you land this and the enemy healer has no Trinket, there's a really high chance of closing out the game right then and there.

The Fatebound Hero Tree is straightforward and mostly passive, which fits smoothly into Outlaw's sustained damage profile. With Fatebound, each time you use a finisher with five or more combo points, it triggers a coin flip, which either deals extra damage or gives you a temporary buff.

If you roll the same result seven times in a row, then you're going to deal even more damage or get a small bonus to agility. Trickster, on the other hand, doesn't see much play since it's significantly weaker compared to Fatebound, so really you're not going to have to worry about this.

Now that you have an understanding of the playstyle for Outlaw Rogue, it's time to take a look at your goals inside of Arena.

OUTLAW ROGUE GOALS

Welcome back! In this video, we're going to be outlining some key goals for Outlaw Rogues that you should aim to follow throughout your games.

These are the objectives that top players strive to achieve in every match they play. Now, although Outlaw emphasizes sustained damage over burst setups, remember that you're still a Rogue, and that means your first goal is to properly utilize your crowd control.

It's easy to misuse your DRs on Outlaw. With your reduced Vanish cooldown, you're going to be in subterfuge frequently, which allows you to spam Cheap Shot.

Despite this, it's crucial to lead with Kidney Shot whenever possible to get it on cooldown. If you just spam Cheap Shot, yes, you put them on Stun DR, but you leave your most powerful stun off cooldown, wasting potential casts.

This situation highlights exactly why we want you to use Kidney first whenever possible. Here we can see that the Rogue exits CC and goes straight for a Kidney Shot on the Paladin.

This opens up an opportunity for their partner to follow up with additional CC. The Rogue then uses Vanish to land Cheap Shots on both the Priest and the Druid.

Starting with Vanish and using Cheap Shot on the Paladin could have been an option, but it's less effective for two reasons here. First, you're going to be overcapping combo points.

And second, Cheap Shot has a shorter duration, which reduces the chance of follow-ups. Our second goal might seem obvious, but that's to maximize uptime.

Outlaw has a talent called Restless Blades. This talent reduces the cooldown of all of our abilities, including Vanish, by one second for every combo point spent.

To make the most of Restless Blades, maintaining uptime on your target is really going to be essential. Outlaw thrives on mobility, using tools like Grappling Hook and Sprint to stay in the fight and consistently generate combo points.

So, let's get started. First, we have the skill points.

Now, with this in mind, it's important to avoid wasting any potential cooldown reduction. For instance, if you have one charge of Vanish and the second charge is about to come off cooldown, you can use the first charge to initiate your burst.

Your next finisher will immediately reset the cooldown of the second charge. By carefully planning out your cooldowns, you're going to maximize the value from Restless Blades.

Our third goal is pretty straightforward, and that is to never commit to a go without Vanish or Stealth. Outlaw's burst revolves around the Crackshot talent.

This interaction removes the cooldown from between the eyes and casts Dispatch at the same time. This allows you to unload massive damage in a short window.

Pair this with Ace Up Your Sleeve, which gives you a 20% chance to instantly refund your combo points, and you've got an absolutely deadly combination. This clip perfectly showcases the burst potential of this combo.

We see the Rogue first soften up the Death Knight, then uses Vanish to set up a huge burst. Now, even though the Evoker is out of CC, they're struggling to keep up with the damage during the Subterfuge window.

This should emphasize how deadly this setup can be when executed correctly. But don't worry here.

While this might seem a little bit overwhelming at first looking at all this, we're going to gradually work toward achieving these goals throughout the entire course. For now, let's start with the basics by going over your sustain.

The sustain damage priority.

OUTLAW ROGUE DAMAGE PRIORITY: AUDACITY

Welcome back! Now that you have a broader understanding of both the playstyle and the goals of an outlaw rogue in the arena, the next step is learning how to deal damage effectively.

It's important to remember that this is not a rotation, it's a priority system though. What this means for you is that the abilities at the top of this list should be prioritized over the ones that are further down it.

Your top priority is roll the bones, especially if you don't have a decent buff. What you're aiming for is either ruthless precision or true bearing, but both are going to be ideal.

Ruthless precision boosts the critical strike chance of between the eyes by 60% and all other abilities by 15%. While true bearing makes restless blades 50% stronger.

The other buffs are definitely useful but they simply don't compare to the power of these 2 buffs. After that you're going to want to prioritize between the eyes if the buff it gives is about 20%.

The other buffs are definitely useful but they simply don't compare to the power of these 2 buffs. After that you're going to want to prioritize between the eyes if the buff it gives is about to expire.

Between the Eyes is your primary burst ability, but it also increases critical strike chance by 20%. With the cooldown reduction from Restless Blades and Vanish resetting the cooldown, you should have a pretty high uptime on this buff.

You can imagine just how important this is, especially when you roll Ruthless Precision. With a 20% buff from Between the Eyes, 60% from Ruthless Precision, and passive critical strike, you're going to have nearly 100% critical strike chance on Between the Eyes.

If Between the Eyes is on cooldown, then your next priority should be to use Dispatch with 5 or more combo points. Dispatch is a strong finisher, but it's nothing extraordinary, deals a bit of damage, and doesn't give you any extra buffs.

Next on the priority list is Pistol Shot with an Opportunity proc. This proc not only deals extra damage, but also generates more combo points and has the potential to trigger an Audacity proc.

Remember that RNG thing we were talking about? Well, Outlaw has a lot of procs, which leads into our next ability.

This is, of course, Ambush with an Audacity proc. With Audacity, you can use Ambush without needing stealth.

This is especially useful as Ambush is one of your most efficient combo point generators. Since every Pistol Shot with an Opportunity proc has a chance to grant you Audacity, you're going to want to avoid using an Opportunity proc while you already have an Audacity.

You can also use Pistol Shot with an Opportunity proc. This is a good way to get an Audacity proc active.

You then have Sinister Strike. This is your most basic damaging ability, and while it does synergize with several talents, it is your lowest damaging ability by far.

This should only be used when you have no procs, no combo points, and no other abilities to push. Finally, we have Pistol Shot without any procs or modifiers.

While it doesn't hit very hard on its own, it's still a solid way to generate combo points from range. Anytime you're being kited, you can use it to get a combo point.

This is a good way to get a combo point from range. Anytime you're being kited, you can use it to get a combo point from range.

Anytime you're being kited, you can use it to get a combo point from range. Anytime you're being kited, you can use it to get a combo point from range.

If you don't have a way to reconnect, then you can simply use Pistol Shot to build some combos in the meantime.

OUTLAW ROGUE HERO TALENTS: FATEBOUND

Hey everyone, welcome to the next video in our Outlaw Rogue damage course. Now as you likely know, while talents have mostly stayed the same in The War Within, one major new feature is the introduction of hero talents.

The tree you choose and the talents you select have a significant impact on your overall gameplay and rotation. So in this next video, we're going to be breaking down exactly what those impacts are and share some tips and tricks to help you maximize your damage along the way.

Outlaw is, very much, a spec primarily focused on maximizing damage and PvEing. Fatebound fits perfectly into this as it passively boosts your damage, making it a true set it and forget it hero tree.

The core mechanic of the tree is Hand of Fate. Each time you use a finisher with 5 or more combo points, you flip a coin.

If you land on heads, you deal 10% more damage for 15 seconds, or until you land on tails. What's even better is that if you manage to flip the same outcome multiple times in a row, you're going to stack additional buffs, further increasing your damage potential.

Under normal circumstances, there's no way to force a specific coin flip here. However, there are some unique talents that can really help influence the outcome.

The edge case talent makes it so that when you activate Adrenaline Rush, your next coin flip will count as both heads and tails simultaneously. The next coin flip will be a coin flip that will be used to activate the next coin flip.

This means you gain both buffs, the 10% increase and the extra damage, without losing the heads buff. Now, you would never push Adrenaline Rush just for this talent specifically, but it is a nice bonus.

Double Jeopardy is a solid talent that makes your first coin flip after breaking stealth flip the same outcome twice. As with edge case, this is just a pretty nice bonus, but not something that we're going to actively try to proc.

Deliver Doom is a great talent that amplifies the damage of your tails coin flip, and it's a great talent that you can use to activate the next coin flip. However, this bonus is reduced by 6% for each additional enemy that's near your target.

The good news is that the reduction is capped at the 30% bonus, meaning that tails will never deal less than its baseline damage, even with more than 5 enemies nearby. Fateful Ending is the capstone talent of the tree.

This mechanic is pretty straightforward too. If you roll the same result seven times in a row, you're going to trigger an additional effect.

You're going to get 7% agility, or if you already have this buff, you're going to do a big hit. Now let's talk about our choice nodes.

Keeping with the trend of coin flips, let's talk about Inevitable End versus Destiny Defined. Destiny Defined is our choice by default because, well, we don't have Cold Blood to play Inevitable End.

Now this is a nice talent because it makes your flips have a 5% higher chance to match the last flip. Death's Arrival is our pick for the next choice node, and there's really no doubt about it.

If you roll the same result seven times, you're going to get 7% agility, or if you already have Cold Blood to play Inevitable End, you're going to get 7% agility, or if you already have Cold Blood to play Inevitable End.

With this talent, you can use Grappling Hook twice within three seconds, which allows you to move across the entire map in just two global cooldowns. The sheer mobility of this talent is way too good to be passed up.

Now while Inexorable March does offer some value by preventing your movement speed from dropping below 70%, when you maintain an active streak of at least two flips, it simply just can't compete. Our final pick is a defensive option between Chosen's Revelry and Tempted Fate.

Tempted Fate is our default, as we have a chance equal to our critical strike chance to absorb up to 10% of damage taken per hit, and we not only gear for crit, but we proc crit as well. Chosen's Revelry just gives us some passive leech when we flip the same result twice in a row.

Leech is relatively weak in PvP, so there's not really a whole lot of value here.

OUTLAW ROGUE BURST SEQUENCE

This is the video you've been waiting for. As in this next section of our Outlaw Rogue course, we're going to be breaking down the exact sequence you want to be following in order to set up the highest burst damage possible.

Now we're only going to cover the fate-bound burst sequence as Trickster, which simply isn't played. So before you start your burst, make sure to roll the bones if you either have no buffs, or your current buffs aren't ideal.

This will also proc Supercharger, which we definitely want before bursting. Start by using Kidney Shot on your kill target.

It's crucial that you don't have any combo points before activating Adrenaline Rush, as it's going to instantly give you full combo points. After Kidney Shot, you're going to use Adrenaline Rush for the massive buff to our damage.

Afterward, you'll use Ghostly Strike to increase the damage the target takes from you by 15%. Next up is Killing Spree for big burst damage.

It hits random enemies, so you are going to want to aim for a solo target and definitely avoid standing on top of lots of pets. Next, Pop Banished, which is a combo that can be used to activate Subterfuge, which activates our Crack Shot talent.

You're going to then use Between the Eyes, which may trigger a reset of your combo points through Ace Up Your Sleeve. Your next global is going to depend on procs here.

If you get the combo point reset from Ace Up Your Sleeve, or you have 5 or more combo points, then you're going to use Between the Eyes again. If you have an opportunity proc, then you're going to use Pistol Shot.

If you have no procs or resets, you're going to use Ambush. Once you have enough combo points again, though, use Between the Eyes.

Finally, when Subterfuge ends, you can go back into your sustained priority.

OUTLAW ROGUE OPENER

Let's move past all this theory and get straight to the practical. In this next part of our Outlaw Damage Course, we are going to be guiding you through the best strategies for how to approach your openers.

Now, out the gate, you're going to notice that the Rogue starts by using Stealth and Roll the Bones. Using Roll the Bones right away allows us to start our opening burst sequence a whole lot faster.

The Rogue moves toward the Healer and saps the Monk on the way. You always want to sap DPS on your way to the Healer as it makes it harder for them to knock you out of Stealth.

The Healer sees that Monk get sapped, so they respond with Verdant Embrace to put up Shroud. Now, in situations like this, you can just hang back in Stealth like the Rogue does here.

You don't want to open while Shroud is active since it makes it much easier for the enemy team to peel your go. This is especially true against a Preservation Evoker who can just Deep Breath or toss out Landslide.

Now, once Shroud ends, that Rogue opens with a Chainsaw. You can see that the Rogue is going to be able to get a good amount of damage from the Healer.

If you can't get a sap, aim for something else on the Healer, like a Cheapshot or even a Blind if you have a strong opener. You're going to notice that Rogue opens on the Healer.

Outlaw plays a lot more like Assassination in that you want every target to be a viable kill target. Applying pressure with your stuns is going to be key to forcing cooldowns.

The enemy team peels the Rogue, but you're going to see the Rogue isn't using a Trinket. Since no one has traded a Trinket or Defensive Cooldown yet, and the Healer is on Stun DR, there's really no value in Trinketing here.

Once the Rogue is out of CC, they swap to the Monk, but then use Kidney Shot on the Shaman when the Monk uses Fist of Fury to parry. Remember, everyone should be a viable kill target.

If a target isn't on Stun DR, you should be looking to put damage on them. This is especially important if you're playing with a class that has strong spread pressure, like a Shadow Priest, a Death Knight, or an Elemental Shaman.

The Rogue gets disarmed by the Monk, but still doesn't Trinket. Trinketing offensively could definitely be good, but it needs to count.

Using a Trinket just to remove a disarm for a DR stun doesn't necessarily add value, especially when the enemy team is at full health and their cooldowns are rolling. At this point, the Rogue is focused on their sustained priority using Vanish to initiate their goes, and peeling for their team in between setups.

OUTLAW ROGUE WIN CONDITION

All right, so far in this course we have outlined our goals in Arena, we've provided you with a straightforward damage priority, we've thoroughly explored each and every ability, and even covered how you should be approaching openers.

Now, it's finally the time to bring it all together and demonstrate precisely how you should use all of this knowledge to win you games. The win condition of Outlaw is a bit unique given that Outlaw is more of a support class.

Since you can't burst really well compared to the other Rogue specs, you're instead focused on helping your team secure wins. Let us show you what we mean.

Let's break down this game and pay close attention to the Priest that they are attacking. The Rogue starts by using Blind on the Healer, forcing an instant Trinket.

As the Holy Priest attempts to cast a Heal out of the Blind, the Rogue shuts it down with Grappling Hook and a perfectly timed kick. The Holy Priest tries to fear root the Rogue, but the Rogue quickly uses Vanish and follows up with a cheap shot.

And just like that, the kill target goes down. What stands out here is that the Rogue wasn't even attacking the kill target for nearly 6 seconds.

Instead, they were supporting their team through well-timed crowd control, ensuring that the enemy Healer couldn't react while their team closed out the game. Just because you're playing a support spec, it really doesn't mean you can't secure wins with your own damage.

You still bring high sustained damage to the table, and if your teammates are able to land some crowd control, you can absolutely capitalize on the opportunity and go in for the kill yourself. Let's take a look at what happens here.

The Monk is sitting at about 50% health, and the enemy Healer gets caught in a Hammer of Justice. With no Trinket or Bubble available, the Healer is forced to sit through the CC.

The Rogue knows that they can't stun the Healer, and can see that Blind is on cooldown. With all of that in mind, the Rogue decides to commit the kill on the Monk.

The Priest manages to land a well-timed fear on the Healer, and this secures the kill. This moment highlighted how even as a support focused spec, Outlaw can still contribute directly to securing the win.

But at the end of the day, there are really two main win conditions for Outlaw. The first is to CC the enemy, allowing your teammates to secure the win through their burst damage.

The second win condition comes into play when your teammates are using their CC, and in these cases, you should focus on dealing as much damage as possible. In many cases, you're going to alternate between focusing on CC and going in for damage.

Balancing both strategies is key to winning as an Outlaw.