Rogue Nugget from Tiggole

[Bolty]

Well in the end game mages do 2 very different types of damage which in itself makes them attractive. They can go single target or AOE.

Well done AOE is fantastic in many situations.[right][snapback]70814[/snapback][/right]

This is dead-on true, yes. Given a choice between a mage and a rogue, most everyone (myself included) will take the mage along on a trip. This is because:

1) Mages can sheep in combat.
2) Mages can do damage from afar (rogues take AoE damage from mobs that dish it out).
3) Mages have the best AoE attack in the game (Lyceum, anyone?).

That being said, Rogues make great party members. I did a BRD run a week or so ago with a warrior and two rogues in the party. Every group of 5 down there (near Marshal Windsor) was reduced to 3 before the fight ever began, as both Rogues would sneak up and Sap away. Nobody complained about the "slowness" of the group, because we were just romping everything. If a party is willing to let a Rogue contribute, they benefit.

I do see your point about the raids, though. With Molten Core mobs dishing out AoE fire damage to anyone close, Rogues instantly become a total liability that sucks mana from the healers at a rapid rate. This needs to be corrected in some way. I remember various fights against the Princess of Maraudon to be brutally hard because of her AoE damage beating up the Rogues in the party. I'd run out of mana far too quickly trying to keep people healed.

I have so little Rogue experience, but I know that when a mob is stunned it's basically crowd controlled - unable to hurt your party, with the added benefit that you can pound on it. The inability to stun raid mobs is another problem. It's more that the design of raids makes Rogues irrelevant than the Rogue is broken, much like the design of PvP makes Warriors irrelevant because they can't "tank."

In group PvP situations, who even bothers paying attention to the Warrior? Kill the Priest, secondary healer, damage dealers, and finally tank. The Warrior's frustrated because their whole purpose (absorbing damage to protect the squishy folk) is negated when fighting other players. Imagine if Taunt forced enemy players to target you and only you for 5-10 seconds in PvP. Suddenly everyone would want a Warrior along in group PvP fights...

Anyhow, I'm rambling. Raid design has made Rogues irrelevant, though they remain the gods of PvP. Raid design has made Warriors a necessity, although they remain the joke of PvP. Perhaps you can't have it both ways. When Battlegrounds comes out, people will be looking for Rogues constantly.

-Bolty