Rogue - A Dying Breed

When I first started and thought of this site, I wanted to do weekly Top 5 or Top 10 rankings of each class so people could get a feel of who is playing their class right or specs they can copy and do better. It slowly hit me that It would be a waste of my time seeing as to find the top Mage/Paladin/Warrior’s I would just simply look for the 1-5th ranked team and see if they have that holy trinity and 90% of the time they probably will.

Instead I will go a different direction and show you players who are breaking the mold, who are not playing the “cookie cutter” builds/lineups, and doing something out of the ordinary. This first week I will be examining the Rogue class since it is a little unorthodox to play a Rogue in the 5v5 Arena. I will take a look at teams that have Rogues on them and play them at least 75% of their games (the rogues that aren’t back ups or bench warmers.)

Here are the Top 10 Rogues in the US:

10) Nortix - No Warriors - (US #109) - 2085 - (110-46)
If you haven’t guessed it by now from their team name, they don’t run with a warrior. They run 2-Healer group, with a Paladin and Resto Shaman, not only do they not run with a warrior, according to their team roster they some times run with a 4-DPS with two Rogues instead of a Shaman! I don’t think I have ever seen a two Rogue team in 5v5 arena, that would be definitely something I would like to see.

9) Indra - Fluffy Bunny - (US #107) - 2085 - (71-29)
Another 4-DPS Group here, with an even more unconventional one with a resto shaman as their only healer, the Rogue has played every game along with their most used lineup: Rogue, Shadow Priest, Warlock, Mage, Resto Shaman.

8) Fistan - Team NoobSauce - (US #79) - 2107 - (112-59)
This team is a little harder to read just from the team screen, what you can make of it is: they do run with a 4-DPS team with a paladin as the solo healer, while the only character on their team that has played every game is their Shadow Priest, they do have two warriors on their team but both only have 90 games played each, compared to Fistan’s 170+. Not sure what his role on this team is, but he has played over 75% of their matches.

7) Hanzbiggums - Exalted with ur Mom - (US #75) - 2114 - (90-12)
Hanzbiggums has played every match for this team, which is ranked 75th in the US, they run a 2-Healer team with Priest/Paladin, Along with Warlock/Mage as the other two DPS, there are no Warriors on his team. Hanzbiggum’s role on this team is that of the Warriors, to keep Wound Poison up while the target his team assist on dies with a few good interrupts on opposing healers.

6) Ihategnomez - I Ebayed - (US #69) - 2119 - (98-16)Yet another 4-DPS group with a Shaman as their only healer, not a Paladin, this team plays the same 5 every game with Shadow Priest, Warlock, Rogue, Mage, Resto Shaman. It is interesting to see all these 4 DPS teams with only a Shaman healing, usually you would expect a Paladin to fill that role not a Resto Shaman. Even more amazing is this team has won 86% of their matches, something very hard even for Top 100 teams who usually win around 75% of their matches.

5) Nasty - Team GSO - (US #57) - 2138 - (116-29)
This team is truly ‘Nasty’ given their lineup; they don’t play nice they play very dirty. Not only do they take full advantage of Shadow Priest/Warlock compatibility, they take it to the next level and use TWO warlocks, both of with are Unstable Affliction Speced. Seeing as Nasty is speced 41/20 his role is probably to put up an Imp Kidney shot on what every target they want to kill first while the rest of the opposing team is feared/dotted to death. This is one team I wouldn’t want to face in the arena.

4) Voide - We lose cuz Rogues suk - (US #47) - 2148 - (104-38)
The Warlock/Rogue ‘4-DPS’ pairing is looking more and more common among these top ranked Rogue teams. Voide is spec’d 18/43, his main role on this team is that of a warrior to probably lock down one target and kill it with adrenaline rush, while the rest of his team targets another one killing it while crowd controlling the healers. His team consists of UA Lock, Elemental Shaman and Holy Paladin.

3) Gathanon - Clan HeX -(US #34) - 2159 - (59-7)
During Season 1 Arena, most teams were trying out different lineups with almost the entire top teams consisted of two some times three healers, except for one: Clan HeX. This was the first well-known ‘4DPS’ team, and they were quite good at it, consistently ranking in the Top10 in the US as well as #1 in their battle group. Playing a Warrior only 25% of the time (subbing in for Gathanon, unfortunately it seems) this team runs Warlock, Holy Paladin, Shadow Priest, Elemental Shaman, and Gathanon, and are doing quite well at it yet again, only playing 85 matches and already ranked 34th in the US.

2) Zabash - Bill has Downs - (US #25) - 2179 - (126-33)
This is the first team that runs with a Rogue and Warrior and its obviously working for them. They are ranked 25th in the US with a sub-par win percentage of 79%(low for such a top ranked team), but they are pulling it off. Zabash plays 23/38 spec, and this team probably uses him and the Warrior to assist down two separate targets at once with Wound Poison and Mortal Strike. The problem with playing Rogue and Warrior together on a 2-Healer team, your 3rd ‘DPS’ needs to be a complete crowd control character, and their 5th right now looks like a Soul Link warlock who probably spends all his time fearing the opposing DPS and Interrupting Healers.

1) Hb - Project Mayhem - (US #12) - 2218 - (91-11)
And finally here it is, the #1 ranked rogue in all of the US at the moment, Hb from Project Mayhem. Hb plays the typical Combat Arena spec of 17/34, with his 2-Healer team that consists of Resto Shaman, Holy Paladin, Ice Mage, Shadow Priest, and Hb. It’s nice to see teams like this where you don’t have to play cookie cutter builds and can still amass a great record and be ranked extremely high. Kudos to you Hb.

Overview: While it has become extremely uncommon to see a Rogue in the high level 5v5 Arena these days, these few players prove its definitely possible, unfortunately there are some things you have to consider when you want to bring a Rogue on your team. About 80% of these Rogue’s teams played with out a warrior using a Rogue instead of him in every case, you have to ask your self whether or not you want your ‘primary’ DPS being a squishy leather target or a not so squishy Warrior. Another factor would be how many healers you take, as shown above Rogues are extremely viable in a 4DPS group, an Adrenaline Rush spec’ed Rogue can kill a target in about 20 seconds that doesn’t get heals and that can be very deadly, if you do play with a Rogue in a 2-Healer group make sure one ‘DPS’ is committed to mainly crowd control and not DPS, unless he can do both at the same time (exp. UA Lock).