Top 5...reasons to hate rogues

An alternate title to this post would be...they see me rollin', they hatin'.

Yeah, yeah, rogues are OP, it's imbalanced, unfair advantage, vanish needs to be nerfed, we've heard it all. I hear it everyday on the forums, I see it in BG chats, and at least one person makes a snarky comment every raid "they need to nerf backstab QQ".

Most of the hate is of course from the pvp crowd, as rogues are arguably the most pvp-oriented class. Here are the top 5 reasons why people hate rogues so much (based on observations gathered from forums QQs, trade chat, and an angry husband who has been kidney shotted for the 12th time in a BG):

5. Ambush is OP

I hear this a lot, and I've experienced this first-hand. At the low levels, a fully heirloom-geared rogue can 2-shot almost every other class with ambush. It's simple, really. Step one: get decked out in heirlooms. Steph two: stealth and wait for prey in a low level BG. Step three: sap anyone stupid enough wander close to you. Step four: ambush. Profit!

Ok, but let's be realistic. Low level pvp means diddly squat. It's like questing, it's just something you do to learn the class and earn some xp. Everyone knows that the real pvp action is at max-level BGs, and I guarantee you that no one is two-shotting anyone in those situations. I mean, unless someone tries to BG naked, two or three-shotting a level 85 player is simply impossible.

Here's the deal: I rarely even use ambush in pvp. It's an OP ability at level 40, not so much at 85. People usually have so much resilience that my role in a BG isn't so much damage as control. So my opener out of stealth is usually cheap shot, to incapacitate my foe. Which really brings me to my next point...

4. Stuns are OP and annoying

Yes, they are annoying. But have you ever been on the giving end of this? Like, have you ever seen someone about to cast a greater healing wave, and then ran up to them, and punched them in the face so hard that they stopped casting? Yeah, that's how good it feels.

In all seriousness, rogues are the best at stuns. And yes, it's really annoying especially if you're a caster and you're getting stunned almost continuously. But remember that stuns are now on diminishing returns, so that each successive application of a stun is shorter and shorter. Realistically, I can only stunlock someone for maybe 10 seconds straight, and that requires me to blow all my CDs. It's annoying for sure, but I mean...that's like, our thing. Deal with it. I don't see anyone complaining about how hunters get pets, because that's totally their thing. Our thing is to stun people.

We also like to sap people randomly on the road. I'm not gonna, lie, that is really annoying. But my god, it's so much fun.

3. Recuperate is OP

Ok, well the thing is...

Actually, you know what? Recuperate IS really OP. No argument there.

2. Vanish is OP

I actually agree that vanish is probably the most useful tool in a rogue's arsenal. The only thing even close to this is hunter's feign death, but that really only works in pve. No one is ever fooled by an FD in pvp. Night elves have shadowmeld, which is kind of like a really really weak and crappy version of vanish. Again, little utility against anyone of actual skill.

Vanish is great, because it literally lets you drop combat and escape with the last tick of your HP remaining. When used in conjunction with cloak of shadows, it also wipes your dots so that your stealth doesn't break right away. The only thing that can really prevent vanish is bleed effects, which many classes do have so it's not like vanish is useful all the time.

But it really is nice. You can use it, for instance, to drop combat, run away and bandage yourself and thereby escaping a tight situation. I often use vanish to sort of "reset start of combat". A rogue's best and strongest abilities require you to be stealthed, so being able to re-enter stealth is a huge advantage. For example, if I really wanted to keep someone locked down, I would start from stealth -> cheap shot -> kidney shot -> vanish -> cheap shot, etc etc.

Of course it is on a long-ish cooldown timer so it's not like we can spam it. And as much as people complain about it, no one has yet to complain when I use vanish to survive a wipe and mass rez people.

1. Rogues fight dirty

Um, yeah. We're ninjas, remember? Who said we had to fight fair? So what if we can stun you, sneak around undetected, drop combat and go invisible, heal ourselves back to full with recuperate, all the while doing insane amounts of damage in pve? As long as we win we don't care.

And honestly, it's not that hard to deal with rogues. We are, at most, really annoying pests. I never saw anyone who was like, "oh no a rogue is coming my way! Run!" It's always more like, "ugh that goddamn rogue is back again". We don't really pwn anyone. We just annoy the crap out of everyone.

Just brush it off, folks. You got griefed a little. Move along, now. Nothing to see here.