CREATOR OF THIS GUIDE IS NO LONGER ACTIVE.
PvE vs PvP
First off to get high in arena these days its recommended to be in a PvE guild, which I hate because I donÔÇÖt enjoy PvE. Get yourself OS (off set) gear which is either having this:
PvE neck and ring with PvP Boots and belt
or
PvP neck and ring with PvE Boots and belt
The additional DPS is crucial! Sure you loose maybe 100 resilience but itÔÇÖs not necessary when considering youÔÇÖre still running with 1.1k resilience. This is not always the case, running double DPS in 2?s you will most likely be the kill target so you should go for as much resilience and battlemasterÔÇÖs trinket.
Stats
As a mutilate rogue in PvE your main stat you will go for is Attack power, with attack power you will be able to do the most amount of damage in a short time than any other stat. Why? Good question. Using attack power not only increases damage done by special attacks and auto swings, it also scales up the amount of damage that your poisons do. Your second priority is resilience, this stat is basically the difference between you surviving and you dieing. Rogues get focus targeted in arena very often so itÔÇÖs crucial that you get 1k+ resilience (Patch 3.3.5).
Arena Comps
As a rogue you really donÔÇÖt have much of a variant compared to some classes when it comes to comps that do and donÔÇÖt work in 3s, but 2s you have a lot that can work.
2v2
RP ÔÇô Rogue/Disc Priest is one of the most common as they are the most harassing DPS and Healers in the game. Rogues train (stick on) one target mainly a dps while the priest rotates fears and mana burns onto the healer whilst keeping the rogue alive. While you can have other healers, Paladins lack CC and harassment and shaman/druid can do good harassment/CC they lack the benefits priests give.
R/DPS ÔÇô Rogue/DPS you have many different variants, one of the best is Rogue/Paladin (Ret or Pret) they call it a GCD comp which means you will kill someone in one global cooldown. Rogue/Boomkin, Rogue/Lock, Rogue/Spriests are all common and strong 2s comps, we canÔÇÖt forgot good old Mage/Rogue which use to be a very strong comp but no days isnÔÇÖt the best.
3v3
RLS ÔÇô Rogue/Lock/Shaman has many benefits and is a comp capable of 2800, with good co-ordination sap/blind/fear/hex the lock down is amazing while still having the burst of a lock/rogue + bloodlust/heroism. Totems help to stop CC on your casters while the rogue trains a healer or caster DPS. This is recommended to be played with a destro lock but affliction still works.
RMP ÔÇô Rogue/Mage/Priest is one of the most popular played comps in the 3v3 bracket this comp has a lot of potential but requires a great deal amount of co-ordination the be able to get the burst and CC down pack. I suggest the mage gets Glyph of Polymorph and do some skirmishes to get your co-ordination and strategies second nature for the real thing.
There are more comps for 3v3 but they arenÔÇÖt as strong as the two I have mentioned. RLD (Rogue/Aff lock/Druid) or RRP (Rogue/ret/priest) are the only ones that come to mind that could come close to those two mentioned above.
This Mutilate spec is based on more ÔÇ£Team PlayÔÇØ burst, with improved kidney shot for 9% more damage from all effects itÔÇÖs a good spec for double DPS or RLS comp in 3v3 (Rogue/Lock/Resto Shaman).
This Spec gives your rogue some more self burst damage and survivability with 2/2 in murder for 4% increased damage from ALL attacks and 3/3 deadened nerves for 6% less damage taken from all sources. Also in subtlety you have serrated blades which lets your attacks ignore 9% of your opponents armor which is great for warriors, paladins and Death KnightÔÇÖs.
Major
Glyph of Cloak of Shadows
Glyph of Mutilate
Glyph of Preparation
Glyph of Vigor
Glyph of Sprint
Minor
Glyph of Blurred Speed
Glyph of Safe Fall
Glyph of Vanish
Glyph of Distract
Why these?
Major
Cloak of Shadows when active on top of making you 90% magic immune with allow you to take 40% less physical damage also which is good for making kills or escaping sticky situations.
Mutilate is your main move so the energy decrease is crucial!
Preparation also resets your cool downs on some more abilities the main ones being Kick (cast interrupt) and Dismantle (Disarm).
Vigor is basically 10 bonus energy which can increase your self burst by quite a bit and that is handy for quick fights.
Sprint is a used commonly at high end pvp, being able to activate it in stealth you will reach your enemy for a critical sap early in the game.
Minor
Vanish is the most important of the minor glyphs increasing your movement speed by 30% when you activate vanish it helps avoid getting broken out of stealth by AOE.
Distract is handy for some extra range to get help get the saps off on the enemy.
Safe fall isnÔÇÖt really needed itÔÇÖs mainly a little asset when doing bgs or farming.
Blurred Speed is also not need just a little fun for bgs and farming.
When it comes to AddOns, I highly recommend getting curse client! It is a nifty tool that lets you update and automatically install AddOns for your World of Warcraft game.
Download here:
http://www.curse.com/client/
My Recommendations:
Now every person has personal preferences on certain AddOns work best for them. The ones that I am going to recommend are essential or optional (still recommended).
Essential
Gladius: A must have Arena Unit Frames, highly customizable, tells you important information; Trinket use, enemy drinking and enemy spec.
Gladiminish: An extension of Gladius, it shows more important information about DR (Diminishing returns) on CC (crowd control) spells such as; Sap, Polymorph and Fear.
Optional
Doom Cooldown Pulse: A great AddOn that pulses the Icon of the spell that comes off of cooldown on your screen, great for non-clickers to see what they have and when they can use it.
CCReport: Just a basic AddOn that reports to your party when you get Feared, SheepÔÇÖd, sapped etc.
DominoÔÇÖs: A customizable bar addon that lets you move and customize your bars to fit you.
Mutilate
Code:
#showtooltip Mutilate
/cast Mutilate
/startattackIf you have no energy your rogue wonÔÇÖt sit there doing nothing he will start auto attacking.
Blind
Code:
/cast [target=focus, exists] Blind; blind;This macro will blind your focus target (not your target youÔÇÖre attacking!) right click your CC Target and click set focus or make a macro /set focus and click on your CC Target and press the macro.
Tricks of the Trade
Code:
#showtooltip Tricks of The Trade
/cast [target=NAMEHERE] Tricks of The TradeUse this if your AddOns mess up the one above
Code:
#showtooltip Tricks of the Trade
/target Nameofteammate
/cast Tricks of the Trade
/targethostileThis team mate buff can be casted in stealth, which increases their Damage by 15% for 6 seconds only when you attack it will activate so donÔÇÖt do it after you open, do it just before!
Vanish
Code:
#showtooltip Vanish
/stopattack
/cast VanishA basic Vanish macro stops you auto attacking so you donÔÇÖt break yourself out of stealth when you use it by accident.
Sap
Code:
#showtooltip Sap
/targetenemy [harm][nodead]
/targetenemy [noharm][dead]
/cast SapThis macro will tab targets and sap the closest target. Use it to find stealth targets ONLY, use regular sap to sap a non stealthed target or you could sap the wrong person.
Preparation
Code:
#showtooltip Preparation
/cast [nostealth] Evasion
/stopcasting
/cast sprint
/stopcasting
/cast preparationPreparation resets your cooldowns so this macro blows your unused cooldowns before using preparation.
Stealth
Code:
#showtooltip Stealth
/cast [nomodifier] !StealthThis Stealth macro allows you the mash the stealth button without accidentally going in and out of stealth.
Movement Recommendations:
W ÔÇô Keep as Foward
S ÔÇô Unbind this! Back peddling the worst thing you can do in arena!
A ÔÇô Bind this to Strafe Right (Unbinds Q)
D ÔÇô Bind this to Strafe Left (Unbinds E)
Spell Bind Recommendation:
1-5 ÔÇô This should be all you use (With modifiers)
Q/E/F/C ÔÇô These are the easiest binds to use for spells.
Modifiers:
Modifiers let you use more buttons for spells. ALT is the most common then CTRL then SHIFT.
Using a modifier allows you press ALT+1 at the time to cast a spell that isnÔÇÖt the spell on that is binded to 1.
How to Keybind:
Using the Blizzard standard Key binding in the Interface can be a bit confusing at first, personally I use dominoÔÇÖs UI AddOn (Bartender works as well) which has a custom Key Binder inbuilt which is really easy to use!
As a Mutilate rogue you will be using Mutilate to accumulate most of your combo points. When you reach 5/5 Combo points, you use Envenom. Not Eviscerate, Envenom as a mutilate rogue having improved poisons does allot more damage against plate wearers.
Envenom:
Envenom requires deadly poison, which stacks up to 5 times on a target. The more stacks of deadly the enemy has the more damage it does!
Cold Blood:
Cold Blood is a move that makes your next attack 100% chance to critically hit, the most effective way to use this is when you have 5/5 combo points and 5 stacks of deadly poison built up and envenom. (On my rogue hits for 6-8k)
Opening:
You have two options as a rogue; Cheap Shot or Garrote. Cheap Shot is a small stun that generates 2 combo points and Garrote a Silence + Bleed DOT that only generates one combo point.
Garrote is a very good option to use against casters or even other rogues.
Finishing Move: Again you mainly have two options, Kidney Shot or Envenom. Kidney shot is the long 6 second stun that takes 5 combo points with a 20 second cooldown. As mutilate spec it also generates 9% damage bonus from ALL attacks so use it when you want to make a guaranteed kill or after your first opening.
Daggers, poisons and Enchants
Dagger Speed
2048
I feel that this is a very important part of the guide I left out. Many people get confused about what speed daggers to use and what poisons. First of all as mutilate PvE DPS you do infact use a fast Off hand dagger but as PvP you want to try use two 1.80 speed daggers. Mutilate attacks with both weapons therefore increasing burst.
Poisons
Poisons are probably the most important thing with a rogue and different comps. If you are running without another form of MS (Mortal Strike (Healing Debuff)) it is required that you use Wound Poison in your offhand, if you do have a form of MS use Mind-Numbing. In your main hand as a mutilate rogue you will need Deadly Poison, stacks up to 5 times and the more stacks you have the more damage your finishing move Envenom does.
Enchants
In your main hand you will want Berserking because AP (Attack Power) is the main stat you will want to go for in PvP. Haste in PvP as a mutilate rogue is not recommended as it is in PvE. In your OH you will want to get Titanium Weapon Chain which is an enchant that reduces the duration of disarm by 50% which is great because a rogue thats disarmed for a full 10 seconds is a useless rogue.
Now for my favorite part of the guide! Strategy! I will help you win duels/arena with tips to beating other classes.
Rogue VS Hunter:
I had to do this one first as a Rogue you will despise hunters. They have flare, Hunters Mark and Pets. You are going to have to either have no ping and make a lucky opening or deal with none at all.
You will 9/10 not be able to re stealth because pets tend to be able to see you and they will bust you out or a fast hunter will flare straight away.
The basic strategy is to stay on their feet at all times. Force them to Deterrence and then try for a vanish. Hunters are by far the hardest class to beat as a rogue in my opinion.
Rogue VS Mage:
MageÔÇÖs are probably the second hardest but easily beatable when played right. I myself like to open against a mage using Garrote.
Why? Well itÔÇÖs simple if you cheap shot, they will blink away. Garrote lets you silence them and get a good decent amount of damage off. I usually envenom after garrote and force them to Ice Block or Blink. If they Blink you can then cloak to get close and built combo points to Kidney or Vanish and open with Cheap shot. If they block simple run away and re stealth.
Rogue VS Rogue:
This fight is all determined by who uses what when correctly. The first sap is crucial, they will have to eat some damage or use PvP Trinket and vanish, which are important cooldowns. As horde VS human/Nightelf the racials are sure to make you rage allot.
After you open with cheap shot, I mutilate then Rupture. I only rupture against rogues! Bleed effects will disallow a rogue to go back into stealth! After the rupture I vanish and re open with a stun and try to win the duel then and there. If they use evasion, dismantle the rogue and try re stealth and re open on them. If Rupture is about to run out open with Garrote.
