I personally use 21/8/22 build. Assasin tree down to cold blood. Combat tree down to improved backstab. Subtle tree down to preparation. It is a pretty straight forward dagger build, except it trades seal of fate for preparation. To put quite simply, seal of fate helps you win fights that you would have won faster, preparation helps you to turn a losing fight into a winning one. I prefer a very powerful skill that when I do use it, can truly turn the entire table, even if it is on a timer. Certain matchups are a lot more difficult (if not impossible) without preparation.
Dagger vs Sword/Mace:
To put it this way, Sword/Mace relies on finishers, dagger rely on big damaging backstabs. Late game sinister strikes simply do not do enough damage to be threatening on their own, rather they serve as quick combo points so you can get to your finishers in a hurry. If you prefer sword/mace I recommend Yojack’s 21/2/28 build. Although 30/0/21 is also worth trying if you can get enough gear for 25% critical rate which makes seal of fate shine.
Professions:
The best PVP combination is engineering + blacksmith. Yes it is very expensive, but engineering gives you access to the net gun and rocket helmet which are immensely useful in real PVP chasing down runners, as well as a slew of other options.
The antifear trinket from armorsmith quest is also the easier way for a Rogue to beat priests and warlocks.
All other professions, just get a friend and buy the products, you don’t have to be an alchemist to use free action potions
Must Have Consumables:
Flash Powder: A Rogue without vanish should not leave home.
Blind Powder: Extremely useful, whether as an escape or a chance to bandage yourself.
Thirstle Tea: Allow you to dish out most painful combos in the game. It is a must have when you need the biggest damage possible in shortest amount of time.
Heavy Rune Bandages: 2000 hp a pop, worth every silver.
Cripple Poison: Literally the most valuable poison in PVP & Duels. Movement advantage, even against classes that can dispel it, is EXTREMELY valuable. You always want at least one of your weapons to have this.
Deadly Poison: The damage poison of my choice that is truly deadly to other Rogues. 30% default proc rate makes this a fantastic poison to use without investing more than 21 points in assasin tree.
Mind Numbing Poison: The best poison against casters. Priests and Warlocks become a lot easier with this poison on. Vs mages it can add that critical extra second to a sheep which can mean the difference between life and death.
Key Skills:
Backstabs, when maxxed with all the proper talents, do far greater damage than sinister strikes (Life Force Dirk versus Thrash Blade for example, both easily acquired as quest items).
However in order to play a good dagger rogue you MUST be able to land backstabs WITHOUT gouging/stunning. There are several ways to do this:
1) Circle strafe a target while spamming backstabs. Use right mouse button to make AD strafe keys, circle away. It is a devastating technique when they are slowed by cripple poison or when you have sprint activated.
2) Jump into an opponent, turn around 180, backstab. Good mixup with circle strafe. Mix them up and your will disorient lesser skilled foes.
Even if you use sword/mace it is still EXTREMELY valuable to have good footwork. You should never stop moving your feet. Disorient them as much as you can.
It took me a very long time to be able to finally ditch sinister strike. However I have discovered that using dual cripple poison, backstabs are EXTREMELY easy to land and I finally ditched my weapon switch macro for a true dagger build.
Openers:
Cheapshot is your dueling opener. In real PVP it is usually better to open with ambush + backstab against soft targets at half life. However in duels it is very
hard to open with ambush on a moving target who is looking for you, go with CS.
If you have improved sap it is very easy to sap -> wait for energy -> ambush. Otherwise you have to pray your regular sap lasts at least 10 seconds to exceed your stealth cooldown.
The ability to basically do a non-positional ambush via improved sap, changed my perspective on the talent. However, the one class you love to open with sap->ambush on, can keep spamming level 1 arcane explosions to put themselve in combat, therefore immune to sap. As a whole I probably will take improved rupture over improved sap.
Always get into stealth mode during dueling count down and go for a cheapshot. Against higher tier opponents you will need to use sprint. For classes that can AOE you out of the opener you may want to stay away a bit then pop sprint for a fast CS. For humans who use perception and chase after you during count down you will need to sprint as far away as possible and hide for 20 seconds.
If you somehow miss the CS, gouge them, run away, you WILL BE ABLE TO restealth (without using a valuable vanish), and you can go back for another CS. This is a key technique to defeat Paladins. Remember every gouge (especially the improved version) allows you to restealth, it is VERY powerful in certain matchups. Be aware that if you do too many gouges in too short period a time, they become immune.
If you want to play cheap you can gouge him, restealth, regenerate to full before you CS him. I sometimes do this when Paladins hit perception and run into me at beginning of the duel for a hammer of justice.
Warriors:
A well built warrior is a very competent enemy. While you can easily drop his health by 30-40% off your opener, it is very likely he will beat you in the end if you stand toe to toe with him. A warrior with rage meter is a monster to deal with.
Open with CS->BS->Cold Blood + Evis. Play it safe, use gouge -> restealth to do an opener on him again, or use blind -> restealth -> CS combo again. A good warrior will rend/hamstring you to force you to play the toe to toe game.
Do not! Your leather armor WILL NOT last against his plate, especially if he uses overpower + mortal strike (even in its nerfed version, it devastating with one hand weapons).
My favorite strategy vs warriors at the moment, is CS->BS->Rupture. Against warriors who open the fight in defensive stance with shield (because they know they will get stunned and eat a big combo), this can be more effective than using a Cold Blood right away. I have been sprint->CS->BS->Rupture, run away (sprint still alive) to recover energy (but not give them the distance to do their charge attack), vanish->CS->BS->Cold Blood Evis. Works very well and most of the times I do not need to blow preparation. Rupture allows you to run away and restealth without worrying about them bandaging.
This is a matchup of control. If you can chain stun and avoid trading hits, you will win. If the warrior forces you to play his face to face game, you will lose. Never underestimate a low health warrior. As the best warrior on my server said:
“A 50% health warrior with a full rage meter is far more dangerous than a 100% health warrior with no rage”. A overpower from a 4.0 speed weapon can easily be 1400+ damage on leather.
Until you have a full energy bar, you always want to stay just outside of his melee range but not too far that he can intercept you. This is not very hard to do if he is crippled by poison. You can even get a free restealth if the warrior doesn’t do something to keep you in combat (like shoot you with a ranged weapon).
Be aware a warrior’s demoralizing shout and piercing howl can all pull you out of stealth. Piercing howl will allow him to bandage. It is very important you space yourself properly. Human Warrior can also use perception + wurg / barov to take you out of stealth, but prep will give you the second sprint + vanish that you need to defeat him.
Hunters:
A good hunter will always lay down a frozen trap before the duel. He can then flare the area to make sure you eat it. The duel will begin with hunter at maximum range and you are marked and frozen. It is a very bad situation to be in.
Here are CONFIRMED ways of dealing with a hunter.
Facts:
1) The trap can not be disarmed unless you are stealthed.
2) You can not sap the hunter and remove his trap at same time WITHOUT improved sap.
3) The flare is an instant AOE with 15 seconds cooldown, it makes the flared area “immune to stealth” for 30 seconds. You walk in you will not be able to stealth for 30 seconds.
If the hunter stands RIGHT ON TOP OF THE TRAP. It is impossible to hit him with melee without triggering the trap. The problem is there is nothing you can do if the Hunter steps back 3 yard and fire off an instant shot, then step right back into the trap. It is almost impossible to dance around the trap without triggering it. You will eat the instant. He will walk right back into the trap. If you try to sap him, the flare will reveal you and his trap lasts 26 seconds with talent, 11 more than sap.
If you want to win against a top hunter, use a free action potion, or if you are an engineer like me, you blind the hunter and drop a target dummy on his trap. If you feel this is cheap, you will start the fight frozen, the hunter at maximum distance. He will feint (out of combat) and lay down a second trap. So you will eat two traps and each one he gets to do some free damage to you. Properly done there is simply no comeback against a top tier hunter once you are frozen. I usually try to blind the hunter right away and use a target dummy and drop it on the trap. You can use the Barov’s Peasant caller or the Wurg Pulp. Plenty of options, I would not duel a Hunter without something to take away his trap however, it is a SURE WAY to lose.
Because of flare you probably won’t be able to open with CS after you get rid of his trap (if you do it is a 100% win). Once the trap is gone activate sprint and evasion and give him a nice backstab. From here it is very simple, you have two sprint+evasion with preparation. Kill him before they run out. Dual cripple poison is key.
Your execution has to be perfect. The dagger build has an advantage here because vs a Hunter he has quite a few tricks to make you deselect him (and lose combo points). You have to click on him again immediately. 2-3 point kidney shot -> Tea -> Backstab also helps a lot not just in damage but to make sure you are sticked to him like clue.
Deterrence and Counterattack. Deterrence add 25% to dodge & parry (in addition to monkey aspect). It is basically a 10 second evasion. Counter attack gives them an attack that immobilizes off a successful parry. Those are very powerful skills. It is the reason why sometimes a second sprint + evasion is needed.
Improved Wingclip sometimes will immobilize you, don’t be afraid to hit preparation and blind to prevent from him getting out of range.
Stoneform from Dwarf make them immune to cripple poison for 20 seconds. Fortunately most people play night elves. If you blind and see IMMUNE you know they activated the stoneform. Again the second sprint + evasion helps.
The nastiest trick a hunter can pull is scatter shot -> feint -> another freezing trap in the middle of battle. I have yet to find a hunter who can pull this off consistently. There is a very short delay between feint and another freezing trap. Make sure you keep on clicking on him while you are scatter shoted and mash Sinister Strike. All you need is one hit on him to put him back in combat and prevents him from dropping the trap.
Vs Mage:
The CS opener is tricky to land as they can nova or aoe you out of it. You will need to stay back and sprint in to land the CS. It takes some practice. If you have improved sap or feel your sap can last at least 10 seconds, go for a sap -> restealth -> ambush -> backstab. My first sap in duels seems to always last the full duration. However understand that if they spam level 1 AOEs to try to hit you out of stealth, they will be in combat and immune to sap.
AS SOON AS YOU LAND THE OPENER go for a gouge. A mage will always try to blink, but regardless of whether he actually blinks, he has a good chance to eat the gouge. He will be either disoriented 20 feet away from you, or disoriented in your face. Cold Blood evis even if you only have 3-4 points. However, a mage with no lag and top tier skill WILL BE ABLE to blink as soon as you CS every single time.
If you went for sap->ambush, do the ambush to the side of their body so you can quickly spin in their face for the gouge. Or you can always go for the easier ambush->backstab. It takes a LOT of practice to be able to ambush->gouge a mage who is mashing blink while he is sapped. It is still not guaranteed if they blink as soon as you ambush.
You will need to activate sprint before they blink, vanish as a sheep is coming, with a properly positioned blink it is impossible to sprint to them with a kick, but you can sprint to them while vanished for a second CS. Now you should have 5 point, go for a Cold Blood. If you feel really lucky, you can sprint to them with a blind. Blind has the same range as hammer of justice but you are risking him polying you and you blind him at same time which is a very bad situation for you.
They will be low on health and try to nova root you or blink again. Blind and go for an ambush if they nova. Hit preparation immediately and vanish -> sprint to them for a third CS if they blink. This time it is more often than not, fatal.
If they nova you at any point during the match, hit blind immediately. 9 out of 10 times due to lag they will eat blind even from deceivingly long ranges, you recover first and can restealth for another opener.
The idea is you want to save your vanish for “inescapable” sheeping situations. Use blind as the substitute whenever you can to counter novas.
If you get sheeped, they will bandage themself to full, sheep again, and go on to show you how fast a mage can kill a melee without taking any damage. Sheep any point during the match = death against good mages. As soon as they blink, vanish.
You will encounter mages who spam level 1 arcane explosions to hit you out of vanishes. Gouge/Blind them immediately. Restealth for ambush->backstab combo to make them pay. Save the vanish for their blinks. Generally speaking if you sprint to them you will be able to CS them because arcane explosion range is very short.
Your worst nightmare is a frost mage who can ice block himself to buy time after you gouge/sap/stun him. Therefore guarantees a 2nd and 3rd blink (he can cold snap to ice block twice).
Your execution has to be perfect vs such a mage. I try to restealth if they ice block (but be sure to stand outside of nova range). It is always close vs a frost mage. He will activate ice block when you CS him the second time and make you waste the cold blood. It is a very technical matchup. I usually activate cold blood before I CS him the second time. When the ice block comes, walk backward and try to restealth without using a vanish.
There is simply no easy solution to beat a frost mage. I generally find spider belt even the nerfed 1 use every 30 minutes one is neccessary to finish him off. A free action potion will also help a lot against those pesky novas. Fortunately there is only one frost mage on my server who truly understands this matchup, and with the strategies I posted you can beat all others fairly easily.
Against someone who knows everything about this matchup, you will have to blow a free action potion so you don’t have to use up a vanish when you get novaed. Although it is possible to win if you catch him with a blind while he doesn’t have shield on and half health during the match.
Against someone who Presence of Mind sheep you, run the other direction and restealth. Without Presence of Mind pyro their Arcane Powered string of spells probably won’t be fatal to you. Restealth and try again.
Fortunately top tier Frost Mages are rare and few in between. With the strategies I posted above don’t be surprised if you beat 100% of the mages on your server. Just understand it is the ones that use cold snap + ice block that gets us
Vs Priest:
Without antifear trinket, it is very difficult to beat a top tier priest unless you are undead. However I use the same opener regardless of whether I plan to use the trinket.
1) Open with Yojack opener CS->SS->Gouge (you must have 1 level in improved CS to make this a guaranteed combo), wait for 40 energy, KS.
2) Wait for 1 tick of energy, BS, tea, BS again, blind.
3) Restealth as late in the blind as possible, CS him again, cold blood evis immediately as you should have 5 CP.
This combo will do 4K damage on cloth. Cold Blood Evis will do 1700, 2 backstabs one should critical will do 1200, the SS + Gouge + a few extra melee hits will make up the 1000. I have killed quite a few level 60 priests with this combo alone.
4) Hit preparation and blind him again as soon as you get off cold blood evis, if the blind lands before he can fear, it is a guaranteed kill, doesn’t matter how many HP the priest have, he won’t survive a third CS into Cold Blood or even a good old Ambush at this point.
The problem is without antifear capabilities, fortitude + shield + decent stamina gear they will have 5K HP easily. They will be down to triple digits, but still alive. You will get feared.
This is where mind numbing poison on your mainhand comes in (cripple always on offhand to prevent a priest from dancing around to buy time for his second fear). He is low on health, he will reshield and heal himself, the mind numbing poison makes his major heal a lengthy process, which means he has less time to damage you as you sprint back in his face.
This is truly a matchup of best defense = a strong offense. You want to force him into healing, a shadow priest who is free to unload his damage will kill you in two fears, the second fear you will die barely before you get back in his face.
Avoid using any gouges since you can not afford to wait, you only have 30 seconds to finish him off. Alternate between kick and kidney to interrupt his heals. Hopefully by almost killing him early and via mind numbing poison, his casting is slowed greatly and you can deal enough damage to kill him before the second fear. Flash heal takes longer to cast with mind numbing poison and you have a much better chance to kick him out of it.
Keep a close eye on the DOT he places on you, if he is too busy healing / fighting to refresh them, blind him just when the dot is about to run out, bandage yourself and restealth into a nice CS combo all over again. Even if you still have a DOT on you, consider blind him and CS him all over again when you think the second fear is coming (takes practice to learn the timer, but a well timed blind into CS combo can win you the fight).
Druid:
Vs Druid:
After several hours of repeated testing and dissecting the matchup with two of the best druids on our server, I have finally come to a conclusion.
Against a top druid, without FAP, you have to dodge his bash in bear form. If you get bashed you lose the fight, as simple as that. He will druid form -> insta heal -> fairy fire -> root you and you simply won’t have enough to finish him off. Get perma rooted and nuked to death without being able to do a thing is very frustrating, however I have compiled the golden strategy vs Druids.
Here is the breakdown:
1) A druid will always start in bear form. None of his other forms can survive a good stun lock combo (instant death). He will have nature’s grasp, a 45 second duration spell that roots you as soon as you strike him. He has 100% chance to root you with talent, and if he is into PVP you bet he is going to have 100% nature’s grasp. Nature’s grasp has a 1 minute cooldown and you basically have to kill him in this minute.
2) Open with CS->BS or SS and you will be rooted here. Here is where you should KS, pop a tea, BS (or SS x 2) then blind him right before KS ends. Hopefully the root will wear off before the blind ends, if not you will have to burn a vanish. Be sure to blind before KS ends as with Wildheart a Druid can have decent dodge rate.
3) You will have full energy bar and you will get a second CS on him, add a SS if you don’t have 5 points, then cold blood evis right away (a rupture will do better on bear if you have improved talent) ACTIVATE evasion right before you evis him. Right before the first evasion ends, hit preparation and start the second evasion + sprint. You will have 20% chance to dodge by default, 5% chance to parry, 50% chance from evasion, plus 5% chance that he will miss the bash, that is 80% chance he will not land the bash which stuns you for 4 seconds and essentally spells “GG”. This is THE MOST critical segment of the matchup. You can not leave any hole from stunlock to evasion because he will be mashing the bash button. It is like doing a stunlock on a Rogue, you know they will be mashing blind/gouge.
4) Your stun lock should do a good 40% damage to bear form. He will be forced to go into druid form after he miss the bash because his health will be low. He will be using nature’s swiftness here. You will be trying for a gouge->vanish or blind->restealth. He will use it either on a insta root, which you still have your second vanish left and can break the root and go for a CS->Cold Blood for win. Or he can use it on a insta heal, which unless it crits, you will simply blind him and restealth into another CS->SS->Gouge->Cold Blood Combo for the win.
5) Ideally, you want to gouge him or blind him before he can do the insta-heal (there is a slight delay between going to druid form and casting the heal). You should have cripple poison on offhand, hopefully he is slowed and you can gouge him right before he can cast the instant heal (guaranteed win). In fact you should activate sprint sometimes during the fight when you anticipate him going druid form.
6) If he did get off a crit instant heal (rarely but happens), you will blind -> restealth -> CS->SS->Gouge->CB Evis while he is in druid form. It will be major damage and he will be in a very bad situation. Kick/KS him out of his heals / roots if he tried to fight in druid form. If he gets back into bear form most likely he won’t have his bash back yet (it is on a one minute cooldown), and he will be low on health.
Summary:
Open up with a damaging stun lock combo on bear form (hopefully you won’t have to use a vanish against nature’s grasp). Bring him to 60% or lower health in one combo. Use evasion right before he is out of stunlock, then force him to get into druid form WITHOUT stunning you.
If he does get the bash to connect, it is almost instant gg against a good druid. Fairy fire -> root -> heal (can be instant if they want to). Yes a lot of nasty things can happen in 4 seconds.
You can break root with vanish even if you are fairy fired, but he will be at range and simply root you again (no stealth allowed when you are fairy fired). Now you are probably out of vanishes just let go of the keyboard and ask Blizzard why didn’t they give roots a diminishing return (and fixed spider belt). A druid will nuke you to death from full health once you are fairy fired, and you will never be able to move one step.
Shaman:
Only fought those in open ground. Devastating damage in bursts, with nature’s swift they also get an instant heal. This is another matchup you can not trade hits with. Chain stun them with CS->Blind->Restealth->CS repeat. Again I will have to duel them over and over to see exactly how this matchup works.
Being Alliance this is quite difficult, perhaps a top Orc Rogue can give tips.
Warlock:
Once again the antifear trinket helps immensely but unlike priest it is NOT the only thing they have. You can kick them out of fear. Yet you can not avoid the charm.
If the Succubus is casting, vanish won’t do anything. I am not sure if this is a bug or intended feature. I have tested this to death with a warlock under low lag condition. I would ambush the guy and vanish right away, I would still get charmed. I tried CS->Gouge, CS->Blind, nothing stops the charm. You have to accept the fact that you will be charmed.
A good warlock will have his succubus invisible. Avoid perception early (if he is human) for a charm to start the duel is very ugly. Keep in mind your own perception/catseye stuff won’t do anything against Succubus which has lesser invisibility. If you want a sure win, use a detect invisibility potion (if there is an item that allows you to detect invisibility please let me know) and ambush->backstab Succubus. It has 1700 hp and 2000 armor at level 60 with proper talents, it will go down in 2 hits and you can vanish to avoid the fear, then own the warlock. In fact in real PVP I almost always try to kill the succubus in 2 hits then vanish because it won’t be invisible.
CS->Backstab->Rupture and you will be charmed. However it is VERY important you get the rupture off so he can take some damage but can’t bandage himself. You should have mind numbing poison on mainhand and cripple on offhand. Cripple makes it difficult for him to move to a good spot since you will be charmed next to him. Mind numbing poison makes it much longer for him to cast spells which means less damage to you and more time to interrupt him.
He will most likely cast fear at this point so as soon as you are out of charm you will be feared. Here is where decision making comes in. You have to keep an eye out of Succubus and its positioning and animation is critical.
1) If you have no DOT on you (you probably won’t because he will try to do a direct damage nuke so he can charm you again), vanish. Then ambush->backstab succubus. Blind the warlock, bandage, and you win. However, there is a chance you will get pulled out of vanish by his seduce spell.
2) You can sprint toward the succubus as the third move in a fear/charm chain is another charm. Blind it then hit vanish for a CS into cold blood combo on warlock. Or you can BS->KS(stops his fear attempt)->Tea->BS->BS. However, you have precisely 12 seconds to kill him (10 from blind and 1.5 for Succubus to cast charm, 0.5 second for a good warlock to realize he can cast charm again).
I use plan 2 if I did good damage to warlock and he didn’t bandage himself. I use plan 1 if the warlock plays defensive and bandages himself while I am feared.
It is a very technical matchup and you have very little margin for error. The initial opener has to be done as fast as possible, I would even consider ambush -> rupture -> SS if the person is really fast with charming. You need the DOT to prevent bandaging. You will be charmed no matter what.
I saved the hardest matchup for last as a well played Paladin is a Rogue’s worst nightmare. This is the most challenging matchup save for a flawlessly played Frost Mage and it will everything you learned to pull it off.
You will need to identify which type of Paladin you are dealing with. A holy Paladin will wait for a seal of command proc -> stun -> holy shock -> divine shield to finish off. A protection Paladin will use hammer of justice to damage you (macro switch to 2 hander), repetence to heal themselve, level 1 holy shield spammed to get super high blocking rate.
The most effective anti-Rogue paladin since the crusader nerf, is a Retribution Paladin. Retribution Paladins with a slow 2 hander and seal of command will do 1k damage on a crit proc, and there is no way you can anticipate when will it happen. Their AOE can be spammed in its level 1 form indefinitely to hit you out of stealth. Expect the final rank version if you get stunned and you will eat the full duration. They will parry/dodge a lot of your crucial attacks (gouge/blind/CB Evis).
Top tier Paladins will use bandages while immuned, divine favor heal to full for no mana, that’s 2000 + 2000 + 3000 healed for no mana. Throw in a LOH you are looking at 10K that can be healed for no mana. Expect them to use retribution aura so you take 60 damage every round of combat from 2 melee hits + 1 SS or BS.
They will use shield spikes and some of the end game shield already returns damage when blocking an attack succesfully. They will also use poison trinkets to prevent you from bandaging / restealthing. Even worse, many of the end game 2 handers have some sort of DOT proc and you won’t be able to stealth for a very long time.
So you are looking at a long fight and at some point you are bound to eat a seal of command critical. There are times there is simply nothing you can do as the crit proc from command happens when you are below 50% health. Thankfully those do not happen all that often.
Fortunately, a Rogue does have several tools at his disposal. After playing this matchup to death, the best poison combination for me, is cripple poison on offhand, and deadly poison on main hand. Why deadly instead of instant? Because it has 30% chance to proc, and it is a LAYERED poison. This is crucial as poisons that are multi-layered requires multiple cleansings to remove. For example a Paladin could eat cripple poison then 2 layers of deadly poison, he will be forced to cleanse 3 times to restore his speed. I used to use dual cripple poison but I found against top tier Paladins it doesn’t work as well as a layered poison + cripple poison. Quite simply they will cleanse very very fast and your hit and run game is not as good as it should be.
Instant poison does great damage but because it does not require cleansing, I try not to use it too much. Cripple poison need to stick on the Paladin for our hit and run game to work. You never want to toe to toe with a Paladin until you have a nice energy bar. The purpose of deadly poison is not just to do damage (that ignores armor) but to bother him and make him cleanse it.
For starters, gouge -> run away restealth is the key technique here. You should restealth (without using vanish) as much as you can. If he divine shields, run away and restealth. If he blessing of protection, run away and restealth. A Rogue without his opener will be forced to trade hits with a Paladin, and that is a big no-no. You always want to land an opener on him every time he heals. Save your vanish for emergency situations.
My opener of choice, is CS->SS->Gouge->KS->SS->Rupture. Then hopefully they are crippled and dotted I step away a little to get back energy. Try to stick to 2-3 point ruptures, they do same damage per tick as longer ruptures, and give you back the ability to gouge/blind them sooner. Try to use evasion as soon as he stuns you, then get in his face and SS away. This is one of the matchups I use SS as often as BS.
You NEED to force them into an early healing, AND have a stronger one hitter in Cold Blood if they play their health too low. Save up a 5 point cold blood evis once he drops below 50%.
Watch your own health carefully as a stun into 2 whacks can be fatal to you. As soon as you lose 2000 hit points, you need healing. There are two ways to heal versus a Paladin. The first way is to blind him. The second way is to gouge -> restealth -> sap him (SAP is NOT reliable as they can get out of it earlier than 15 seconds and they could be in combat). If you can blind, do not sap. If you miss the blind (or it gets parried/dodged), go for a sap.
NEVER EVER bandage yourself while they go immune. They can hit you out of bandage while in divine shield. They can cancel blessing of protection with another blessing. They can even use the boomrang trinket to hit you out of bandage. DO NOT heal unless they are either blinded or sapped.
The idea is, you can heal yourself once every minute with the gouge -> restealth trick, it helps IMMENSELY in a war of a attrition. Keep them CSed, KSed and Gouged. Never trade hits with them.
This is another fight of control. You want to kill his first bar with as little loss on yourside as possible. It simply snowballs into a bigger and bigger advantage. If you are forced to bandage before he immunes, it is a very bad situation for you.
In late game Paladins have weapons that have DOT effects, there is also poison trinkets that cast DOTs. Jungle Remedy is the cure, although you can always hit and run your way through the effect of the DOT (once again by gouging and running away, although you won’t be able to stealth while DOTed). If they use DOT trinkets that last 45 second to 1 minute you will almost have to blow a restorative elixir to remove it (or you simply won’t survive).
Some Paladins like to run at you at the start of the duel (with perception) and hammer you out of stealth right away. I gouge them, restealth, and wait for full health via regeneration. Then CS them (now they don’t have perception).
If some Paladin use LOH and I see that I can not beat him with what I had left. I gouge him, restealth, and wait for full health + full timer (yes preparation too). Make them cry foul. This time they won’t have LOH.
Vs protection paladins with dual stuns, 3 minute blessing of protection, first aid, 2 minute divine favor. This match can easily go into infinity. You heal yourself 2000 hp every minute (gouge -> run away -> restealth -> bandage far far far away from him). He can heal himself 3 times in 5 minutes for zero mana. He doesn’t do enough damage to kill you and you will be hard pressed to finish him off before blessing of protection / divine favor refreshes. Fortunately, protection paladins are hurt most with the seal of crusader nerf. It is very hard to find a Paladin without seal of command nowadays. Seal of Righteousness just doesn’t compare to the old crusader.
Against a top tier Paladin with a 4.0 weapon (the ideal weapon speed for command proc), it will come down to the command procs. If he spams lots and lots of level 1 conserations when you do your restealth tricks it will almost completely depend on seal of command procs (if both players have solid execution).
Rogue vs Rogue:
In high level play, the one who gets the opener off wins 90% of the times (10% being mistakes or bad luck misses). There are several things you can do to increase the chance for you to land that opener. Being Night Elf with free rank to MOD AND have MOD 5 helps a lot. Catseye Goggle and Nightscape Boots are also must haves. Sadly if all else being equal a Night Elf Rogue will win every single time.
There are two openers you can use in this matchup. You can stunlock a Rogue until he is dead with the same anti-priest combo:
CS->SS->Gouge->KS->BS->Tea->BS->Blind
Restealth->CS->CB Evis
A Rogue doesn’t have much more armor than priest with innerfire, they sure as hell have a lot less HP (shield + fortitude). If the Rogue you are facing is a critical rogue with 3K HP you won’t even need a tea.
CS->BS->KS->a few melee hits->blind
Restealth->CS->CB Evis
Another option is to use a DOT strategy. This requires deadly poison, cripple poison and rupture.
CS->SS->Gouge->KS->SS->Rupture. No matter how much damage you deal to him, blind->bandage undo it. Rupture takes bandage out of the equation. It also does wonders in real PVP if they try to vanish and run away. Hit your evasion and he will likely hit his. Vanish immediately and go for a CS. Like how Hammer of Justice from Paladin shuts down the evasion every time, CS does the same job. This time around you can go for CS->BS/SS->Cold Blood evis, peace out.
If he lands the opener on you starting mashing gouge. Most Rogues go for cold blood combos, but unless they have either 1 point in vigor or at least 1 point in improved CS, there will always be a tiny delay and a chance for you to gouge, heal yourself and vanish to make them lose all the combo points. If he went for a stun lock combo you can bandage yourself to full and show him how a real stun lock is done (unless of course you are dead in one combo).
If he uses the rupture/deadly/cripple combo you have to pray something didn’t land. Perhaps you didn’t get crippled and you can sprint run the other way. Perhaps you were able to gouge then blind him and even if you are crippled you have enough time for it to wear off and run away.
Evasion makes you almost immune to blind/gouge so be sure to use it when you know a key combo linker is coming (like a blind). If you mess up you won’t get gouged or blinded. If the other person has evasion the only counter is vanish->instant CS.
Related posts:
You must log in to post a comment.