The Rogue's Gallery

[Treesh]

If  you get the time, an elaboration on the tactical differences would be appreciated.  My observations on Rogue is

You can go one level up on opponents easily, two takes a bit of planning, three is not healty at all, however, I am only 8.  (or 9, I forget.)

Occhi
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I have managed to take on six when soloing, but they weren't all at the same time. The groups did manage to space themselves out just enough so I managed to kill them all, but it was still dicey. They jumped me when I was trying to harvest some peacebloom. OT - peacebloom seems to be the most heavily guarded plant EVAH! (At least out of the low level ones. ;) )

Anyway, gouge the add, go back to swinging at the first critter. Use slice and dice with the first combo point you get. If you have quick enough weapons and have slice and dice up you can frequently get them locked in recovery animations and unable to do Bad Things to you. After that, you can use expose armor or eviscerate, whichever you prefer. I frequently do expose armor before eviscerate and it works quite well for me. YMMV. If you get three or more critters on you at once, use evasion ASAP so it can start its cooldown sooner. Keep health pots and bandages ready. If you see yourself missing a lot, move closer to the target. My gnome is usually standing right inside the critter - she seems to hit better that way and it also makes the monster frequently turn and move away from me giving me a backstab chance if I'm quick about it. Even if I'm not quick about it, the critter isn't using that time to beat on me so it's still good. If you've already drank a health pot, gouge whatever you can and slap a bandage on - some heal is better than nothing. When all else fails, Sprint your little butt away - preferably not into elites that are 6 levels higher than you are :blush: - and regroup a bit.

Keep in mind that my rogues are all alchemists as well so I almost always have troll's blood pots, defense pots, lion's strength pots, minor fortitude elixirs and agility elixirs on my little girls, which helps immensely, but still doesn't keep you from dying in every swarming. Oh, and I always try to have a well-fed bonus up as well. :)

Edit: Anyone who's had a higher level rogue can feel free to mention if these general tactics work higher up as well when you are soloing.

Also I got so wrapped up in telling about when you get swarmed that I completely forgot about the original request.

When soloing, I rely on the stealth skills heavily. If I can get them to half dead without being seen, that makes things a lot easier. In groups, it's a bit trickier to use those same stealth skills, although it's a hell of a lot easier to use backstab. Someone draws aggro, I backstab, someone draws aggro off of me again, I backstab. GG's druid and my night elf rogue frequently ping-pong the critters between us doing that. It's fun. :) I also managed to do that with some random mages, which was fun too. I also don't spam my sinister strike frequently if I'm generating too much aggro for the group setting. With slice and dice on, I seem to be able to still do good damage, but I don't quite generate the amount of hate so the healers can concentrate more on healing others than on healing me. Now, I've still got a lot to learn about my rogue playing well in groups and seeing how my skills affect the other classes, but really the biggest thing to learn is how to manage your aggro. In solo you don't have to worry about it, but you definitely do in groups. It's the main thing that decides whether or not your group is successful - does everyone know how to manage their aggro?