Strategies vs. different classes follow:
Rogue:
Killing a Rogue is fairly straightforward, evasion is the best defense against their damage but it’s just as likely the
enemy Rogue will use evasion as well. At this time it’s a good idea to consider using blind, since it cannot be dodged
blocked or parried and waiting out their evasion timer before you use your own. Obviously a stun lock technique will minimize
the damage done to you, but depending on whether you are a backstab or combat spec Rogue you may want to just finish the
fight quickly and straightforward, as a dagger Rogue excels at. A sword Rogue may want to take more care to keep the Rogue
under his control, as its very easy for a Rogue to turn the tide of the fight using vanish to perform a second opener, if you
give them enough chance to use it. If you’re afraid a Rogue is going to use vanish, a dot is the best way to keep them
visible. Crippling poison and instant poison is a good combination against a Rogue, to help deal extra damage and keep them
from running away.
Warrior:
A Warrior is one of the tougher opponents for a Rogue to fight, for a few reasons. First, the Warrior has significant damage
mitigation, and the ones with raiding gear have even more in the form of dodge and parry. Second, the Warrior has a move
called Overpower which is active after the opponent dodges. Considering that one of the Rogue’s primary forms of damage
mitigation is dodge, this presents a problem. There are a few different ways to kill a Warrior, however if you are similarly
geared with the Warrior it may always be slightly difficult. For a Warrior that shows a preference for overpower and battle
stance, bleed kiting is a great idea. Such Warriors tend to rely on their overpower crits to deal their damage to Rogues, so
dealing your damage while you aren’t in range is the best way to go. If you can damage them fast enough, a series of stuns
and stun lock may be another possibility. It’s very likely that you won’t be able to keep them stunned long enough to deal
a significant amount of damage to them though, as you’ll be using a lot of energy and combo points through stuns. The
important thing to remember though, is that a Rogue has the advantage in being cheap and tricky. If you have to fight a
Warrior up close, save your gouge for when you dodge, and that way he’ll be stunned until his overpower timer is up. Stay
behind the Warrior as much as possible, since they can’t attack things behind them. Whatever you do don’t allow the Warrior
to just sit in front of you and hit you, as that’s the easiest way for the Warrior to win. If you aren’t using the bleed
kiting method, crippling poison and instant poison is still a good combination. You don’t necessarily need crippling poison,
but if you need a breather it may come in handy to help you get some distance. Be warned when trying to restealth: Warriors
with the appropriate talent place a DOT effect on you when they crit, which will prevent you from vanishing properly or
restealthing. However, you may try to time your vanish so that you can disappear and use your opener before their DOT ticks
again, though this will take some practice most likely.
Mage:
Winning against a Mage depends completely on how prepared you are, and how prepared the Mage is. While a thistle tea combo
may be able to kill a Mage, a well prepared Mage may blink before it is finished. For a lot of mages, once they are able to
polymorph you they can bring all their abilities to bear against you, potentially killing you before you get in range again,
so mages are the most unforgiving opponent in the game for a Rogue. Against any Mage ambush is the best opener, because they
can blink out of cheap shot. Obviously, if you are a combat Rogue cheap shot is practically your only option. In this case
you should cheap shot for the combo points and then run in the direction the Mage is facing, as he will likely blink out of
the stun. You must keep in range of the Mage to kick cancel his casts and damage him. You’ll have to use vanish to get out
of frost nova and blind has a decent enough range that you can stop him from running too far away if you get frostnova’d
again. It’s very likely you will use a lot of cool downs against a Mage, as they have many abilities designed to keep you at
range from them. Good poisons to use against a Mage are mind numbing and crippling, although the chances aren’t as good
against a Mage that you’ll be able to keep them in range long enough to apply them.
Warlock:
A warlock is most dangerous when it has its succubus out, since the succubus can keep you seduced for a while as the warlock
prepares his damage. One way to deal with this situation, if the succubus is not invisible, is to blind or sap the warlock
and kill the succubus quickly, and then wait 5 seconds and restealth to use your opener on the warlock. No matter what a
warlock will get death coil off on you and the best you can do is sprint back to the warlock or blind him if you’re still in
range, otherwise they will likely fear you again. If you have a PVP trinket a warlock is a good opponent to have it ready
for. When they have an invisible succubus you may try sapping the warlock so that it seduces you, using your PVP trinket and
killing the succubus, and then restealthing to kill the warlock. Once warlock pets and deathcoil are not a problem, the fight
is relatively simple. Use kick, as well as gouge and kidney shot to keep them from casting ANY timed casts, such as fear,
corruption or immolate. They will be able to cast a curse on you, usually agony or weakness so they can kite you, but if you
prepare with mind numbing poison and crippling poison you shouldn’t have any problems killing a warlock at this point.
Priest:
The priests only real defenses against a Rogue are Psychic Scream and Power Word: Shield. One backstab is usually enough to
take down a priest shield, and it’s a good idea to gouge to recover your energy. Given 15 seconds a priest will be able to
put their shield up again, which will soak another backstab. So, ideally you should get their shield down and then prepare
for a damaging combo. Keep your eyes open for their heals. If you want to kill a priest while taking minimal damage you must
keep them from healing, as this will only prolong the fight allowing them to likely use psychic scream again. A shadow priest
will follow psychic scream with mind flay, which will slow you and make it difficult to close to melee range again. A good
priest of any spec will also have shadow word: pain DOT on you at all times, so restealthing is not a reliable option here,
by vanish or otherwise. If you’re paying attention you can sometimes catch them right when the DOT wears off, before they
can reapply it. The safest way to handle a priest, especially when there are other enemies around or in a battlegrounds
situation, is a thistle tea ambush/backstab combo. Priests can be dangerous opponents to take your time with. Mindnumbing and
instant poison are a useful combination of poisons against priests.
Hunter:
A hunter is another difficult opponent for a Rogue, depending on the situation. A Rogue’s primary advantage against a hunter
will be the element of surprise, and crippling poison. A hunter that knows you are coming is nearly impossible to sneak up
on, though there are ways. If a hunter knows you are there, they will likely set a trap and stand on top of it. Here’s where
the technical aspect of stealth comes in. Even if you don’t have the Master of Deception talent, stealth detection from
directly behind you is extremely poor. What this means is that you can actually sneak up directly behind the hunter, disarm
the trap, and begin your opener without him even realizing what’s going on. To actually fight the hunter, if you are going
to be using crippling poison it’s a good idea to open with cheap shot to make sure it procs on your target. The first thing
a lot of hunters try to do is run away, which will give you an opportunity to backstab. Some will scatter shot, which will
stun you while they run for melee range. No matter what a hunter decides to do the good ones will almost always put hunters
mark on you, meaning they can see you in stealth. This means that vanish is useless at range against a hunter, although you
may still get use out of it for a vanish opener at melee range. If a hunter gets out of your melee range without crippling
poison and gets concussive shot on you, you can use sprint to close the range but without sprint it will be extremely
difficult to kill the hunter at that point. Don’t forget to use blind to keep enemies from running away, if necessary. It
may be expensive and use a reagent but with its range and length it is invaluable in these situations. The whole ideal for
fighting a hunter is to keep him in melee range where you can damage him, and he won’t be able to do as much damage to you.
The hunter’s pet may be annoying, but in almost all cases it’s a waste of time to try and kill it. Unless you’re just
feeling malicious, of course.
Druids:
Fighting a druid is like fighting a combination of every class in the game. Some will go catform to try and dps you, some
will go bear form to try and soak your damage, some will stay in caster form and try to keep you rooted and at range. The key
to winning a fight against a druid is adapting to their strategy. Fight a bear how you would a Warrior. Stay behind him, DOT
him up and let him bleed while you hammer on him. Fight a cat as you would a Rogue. Fight the caster form as you might a Mage
or warlock. Some of the most dangerous abilities a druid caster has are faerie fire and root. Faerie fire will prevent you
from stealthing, and root will simply keep you in place. Vanish will remove the root effect from you even while faerie fire
is on you, you just won’t be able to disappear. The most important thing to look out for against a druid is a Nature’s
swiftness heal. That is, many druids have a talent that allows them to cast any nature spell instantly. In most cases a druid
will save it for their biggest heal. Usually, there is nothing you can do about this unless you stunlock kill them from a
relatively high amount of life. The alternative is to save your burst damage such as cold blood eviscerate and thistle tea
until after nature’s swiftness has been used. From there you simply have to keep them from casting timed spells, or rooting
you and running away to cast. For this reason mind numbing and crippling poison are probably good combinations for use
against a druid. Against most classes, if you’re confident in your ability to stay in range and cancel casts those poisons
are interchangeable with instant poison, which will provide some more DPS against your target.
Shaman:
Against Shamans there is the similar problem of the nature’s swiftness heal, which many have. Aside from that Shamans can be
very tough depending on their spec. Some Shamans will prefer to melee you with windfury on their weapon, so evasion will be a
good idea. A lot of Shaman damage will come from shocks, so really it’s a good idea to kill the Shaman as fast as possible.
If there are no particularly annoying totems up a stun lock will help you deal a lot of damage unhindered by their shocks and
totems. Keep in mind that like fighting druids, you want to save your cool downs until they try to heal, or if they have it
until after they nature’s swiftness heal. A Shaman with a shield is generally going to have more armor than a hunter and so
your backstabs and sinister strikes will do less damage. Some totems can be very annoying, such as the earthbind totem.
Totems are worth killing if you can do it during a gouge by using auto attack. That way you don’t use any energy or combo
points to kill them. Some Shamans will prefer to frost shock and earthbind kite you. Against this type of Shaman crippling
poison is almost a must. Sprint can be used to cover the gaps when either the poison hasn’t procced or it wears off.
Paladin:
A pretty difficult class to kill, for most classes even. A Paladin’s greatest strength is his survivability, which is rock
solid. You can expect to use consumables such as bandages and even potions against this class. You can start off with either
a cheap shot or ambush, it likely won’t make much difference by the end of the fight. Paladins have a few ways to damage you
and while some of them rely on sheer luck, some of them work completely against you. Some Paladins will have an ability
called reckoning, which will grant then an extra attack against you whenever you get a critical strike against them.
Obviously, this puts backstab Rogues at a severe disadvantage, and even dagger Rogues are better off using sinister strike
until later on in the fight. Fighting a Paladin can be a lot like fighting a druid or Shaman with nature’s swiftness. At
some point during the fight, most Paladins will use their Divine Shield, and the really desperate ones will sometimes even
use Lay on Hands, which will heal them at the expense of all their remaining mana. So you simply need to whittle them down
until they use their shield and heal themselves. This is a really good time to either run a bit and restealth to get the
opener when their shield wears off, or simply bandage yourself. If they are a reckoning Paladin, bleed kiting is an extremely
good idea, since DOTs completely ignore armor in how much damage they do, and also since a Paladin has no offensive ability
at range. They may use cleanse to remove the poison effect, but since deadly poison stacks 5 times they may end up using a
lot of mana to keep it off. Think of a Paladin’s mana bar as a second life bar. Once the Paladin has used his shield, and is
down on mana, you can go in for the kill, and use everything you have.
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