Rogue Comprehensive PvP Guide Part 1: General Theory

First, a brief background on my WoW PvP experience:
I've been playing WoW since December 2004. I've been playing my Rogue since Spring of 2006. It took me ages to reach 60, because I spent so much time PvPing. Once I hit 60, I grinded to High Warlord against some very steep competition.

Once TBC came out, I started making some silly PvP videos, and reached top 10 of the battlegroup (and subsequently Gladiator) in 3v3 (as Druid/SP/Rogue) and 2v2 (SP/Rogue), Season 1, as 41/0/20 Sub Mutilate.

Season 2, Mutilate's mind numbingly simple playstyle nearly drove me to quit the game, until I went combat, and then AR/Prep. I made top 10 Season 2, with a Shadow Priest and Balance Druid (Lewt) in 3v3 and 2v2, as AR/Prep.

In Season 3, the competition really died down. I got my shoulders first week, but by the end of the season, no one really cared. I made Gladiator as Rogue/Warlock, specced Shadow Step.

Season 4, the competition was even worse, and so I only played the first week to get my weapons, and then quit until the 2nd to last week of the season. We only played one session, for one day, and I got Gladiator S4 as Double Rogue Priest, with Mahiko and Adamman.

Other than that, I've made 25 videos on WCM, most well known being "Lewt carries Buddhist in 2v2", "Mahiko and Buddhist 2v2", "Dancing with Shadows", and "Buddhist Enlightenment". Enough about me, though. I'm not trying to brag, I'm just putting down my own experience, so you can put my advice into perspective. I'm not infallible, I mean, if I were, I wouldn't have any fun playing WoW anymore. The fun in WoW comes from self improvement.

Rogues, the class where the cap of skill is nearly beyond human reach.
I've been playing for so long, I get asked every day how I can keep going, how I still find the game fun. It's simple: Rogues are DIFFICULT TO MASTER. They really, really are.

There's a difference between being successful as a Rogue, and being good at a Rogue. Some Rogues reach Gladiator, and yet suck terribly. It's not because our class is over powered, it's because our class is effective, even when handled by a novice. It's just like that for Hunters. Hunters don't have to be skilled in PvP to succeed, and when they are, they're insanely effective.

What makes Rogues so interactive and difficult to master?
Good question. Several things:

Energy: Energy is like mana, except you go OOM every few seconds. Yes, it comes back just as quickly, but how often does a Mage say, "Damn, I can't counterspell because I don't have enough mana."? Not very often, because matches usually don't last long enough for that kind of situation to appear. Sure casters go OOM pretty often, but by that time, their enemy team is likely going OOM as well. Point is, we have to manage our energy very precisely, otherwise we're screwed from the start of the game.

Interrupts, stuns, silences, and incapacitates: Rogues have to keep track of the cool downs of Gouge, Kick, Kidney shot, Vanish, and Shadow Dance(when it applies), to keep an effective Interrupt Rotation spinning.

"Keeping track of CDs? That's not very tough with a little practice."

Sure, but we also have to decide between using an ability to stop a cast, or as a CC. A good Rogue often has to choose between using Gouge to stop enemy DPS, or to cancel enemy heals.

Also, kick is much more effective when used at the end of a cast, and not as the very beginning, for a couple reasons:
A) That is how to avoid being juked (a fake cast intended to waste your kick)
B) They waste their time casting the spell, only to be interrupted at the last moment.

Sap. It's one of our best CCs, and yet it's probably the most difficult CC to use in the entire game. It must be used while in stealth, while the target is out of combat. This poses a number of problems:
A) Landing a sap before an arena match has "begun" can be difficult with the number of AOEs in the game at this point.
B) Vanish is very very unreliable. You may see that healer sitting in a full fear, and you have it planned out to Vanish sap, but 50% of the time, Vanish simply fails to put you in to stealth to use the ability.

Combo points:
Combo points are just another thing that makes playing a Rogue like defensive driving. You have to maintain a proper rotation of interrupts, and you have to maintain a proper rotation of finishers. It's simple in concept, but in practice it takes time to learn which finisher is most effective for which situation.

What will give me the biggest DPS boost on this target? Expose armor? Rupture? Slice and Dance? Kidney Shot? Eviscerate? Each one of those answers is correct, given the proper situation. Learning that situation takes time and experience.

A big thing about combo points is the common need for Kidney shot. Kidney shot is perhaps our most key ability in arena. When an opponent is stunned, he's helpless. He can't dodge, parry, block, or use [almost] any defensive ability. You need to know when you need to kidney shot, so that you have the combo points to use the ability.

Poisons:
Poisons have become very easy to use in WOTLK, especially with deadly brew. In the past, we had to maintain a constant stack of 5 wound poison, which could require using SnD over another finisher, and a weapon swap. Now, it's fairly simple. However, as Shadow Dance, for example, applying Mind Numbing requires a weapon swap, which is fairly difficult to do effectively mid match.

Positioning:
Rogues have, perhaps, the most difficult job of positioning in the game. Why?

-To be effective, we must remain behind our enemy, in melee range.
-We have no ability which sends us to our team mates, like intervene.
-Without Shadow Step, staying in melee range almost certainly will require one or more Sprints before the target is dead. If your target gets out of melee range for an instant, he may be able to lose crippling poison and kite you.

Why is this so hard? Because, at higher ends of arena, LoSing your healer for a moment will mean your death, where at the same time, staying in LoS of your healer may require leaving melee range of your enemy, allowing him to kite you until you lose the game. Deciding what to do takes practice.

Situational Awareness:
Every class needs to be aware, so why is this subject relevant to Rogues specifically?

Because, when you are spending so much time staring at your UI (how many CPs you have, how much health you and your enemy have, how much energy you have, what cool downs are up, if you still have your poisons up, if you still have EA/Rupture/SnD running), it's really tough to not tunnel vision, for a Rogue.

Also, being a melee class with very limited mobility (sprint on a high CD, must be used to chase down the target you intend to kill, usually), there are few things we can do to someone we don't intend on killing, so it's hard to get used to watching other people. Not to mention, in the past, switching targets would make you lose your CPs, which built an instinct into many Rogues to never switch targets.

However, to be a good Rogue, one must pay attention to the positioning of his partners, enemies, the health of his partners and enemies, what everyone is casting (to vanish or CloS incoming CC, or to interrupt the heals of someone you aren't targetting) and what CDs/Trinket everyone has used.

Why spend so much time reading all of that?
Because once you realize how much there is to learn, you can open your mind to new possibilities, and focus on what you're missing.

Click here to read part two, for a guide on real scenarios and general practice.