Dirty Deeds: A Rogue Story

PvP some people love it, others hate it.  Some raiders don't care one way or another but, feel that it isn't worth doing because it in no way will help them with their next boss.  To put it simply, those PvE heroes (I am a serious raider so I use that term in an affectionate way) are wrong.

There are many skills that PvP will help keep a lot sharper than Wrath's raiding content will. And unless you work at it, those skills will be rusty on the occasions where they are called upon in an encounter.  Let's take a look at a few:

• Situational Awareness - This is likely the biggest one.  If you want to be successful in PvP you have to know where your enemies are and what they are doing.  Many people find it overwhelming to try to keep track of so much (how many are near you, how many friends are there, what class is everyone, who is moving towards an objective and, who are just there for killing, etc.)  But, if you can start to keep track of all of that information in a  battleground, a fight like Mimiron or Rotface will be a piece of cake.
• Adaptation - Things rarely go as planed in any PvP encounter. You have to think on the fly and constantly adjust what you are doing depending on what cool downs you have and what ones they have. What spec they are and how they are playing it.  Not to mention terrain and other players joining the fight at any given time.  If you are used to thinking on your toes then it won't be such a shock if you have to do something out of the ordinary in a fight. (say kiting blood beasts or, taking over someone's role if they die mid fight)

• Knowing your class - PvP requires you to know all of what your class is capable of and how to best use every ability in your spell book. There are very few combat abilities that do not have a use in PvP. In contrast there are several abilities that most think (think being the key word) aren't useful in PvE. And to be fair, for the most part they are right.  However, Blizzard knows you have them and may require you to use them in a fight. So you had best know how to.

Those are only three but, important reasons to try your hand at PvP. Even if you hate PvP I'm sure you know someone who enjoys it and can show you the ropes.  Do it for yourself.  Do it for your raid.

This isn't a post about letting your poisons run out mid fight.  Or even about forgetting to check that you have poisons applied before the pull.  This is a mistake I make far too often after Faction Champions in ToC.

Using the wrong poisons.   As Mutilate I run Instant in my main hand and Deadly in my off hand.  However for Faction Champions I switch to my PvP spec and use Dual Wound Poison.  The moronic part is I often forget about my poisons when I switch back to my PvE spec for Twins.  I'll run my normal pre-fight routine: check my flask, check my food, check my spec (via looking at my action bars), check my poison duration and, check what I'm wearing via clicking on my riad dps button Outfitter.  However, I tend to miss the fact that I have wound poison on my weapons after Faction Champions because, why would I ever have wound poison on in my PvE spec?

So a note to all the rogues at there who switch between specs for fights (and mainly to myself), whenever you switch specs; be sure to also check that you are using the correct poisons for that spec in addition to their durations.

Atraira did an incredible job with this movie.  The editing and story telling in a boss kill movie are the best that I have come across.  While the movie is obviously not strictly rogue related I think it is worth a watch for everyone. The movie is dividing into 3 parts.

Part 1

Part 2




Part 3




I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.  And please head over to Atraira's YouTube page to let them know your thoughts as well.