Rogue

As my liberal arts background dictates I should self examine periodically so I decided to apply this to my Rogue who primarily is PVE/Raiding. Yes, I know most people will be tl;dr because it’s just me rambling.

Why should you take an Assassination Rogue as raid dps besides the fact we are dps? In no real particular order.

1. 8% Increased Spell Damage Debuff.
2. Interrupts
3. Expose Armor
4. Casting Speed Slow Debuff (via Mind-Numbing Poison)
5. Healing Debuff (via Wound Poison)
6. Saps/stuns
7. Feint/Recuperate/Evasion for survivability
8. Remove Enrage with Shiv
9. Tricks of the Trade to boost another’s dps.

Let’s take #1 & see who can also bring this 8% increased Spell Damage Debuff since Blizzard was promoting the “bring the player not the class” philosophy.

• Balance Druid – part of normal rotation, just as with Assassination Rogues. Plus they come with Rebirth, Tranquility, Mark of the Wild, the ability to decurse/remove poisons, a spell haste buff, an interrupt (60 sec cooldown), & an AOE slow.
• Unholy Death Knight – again part of normal rotation. They come with Raise Ally, Horn of Winter, attack speed slow debuff, cast speed slow debuff, an interrupt (10 sec cooldown)
• Warlock – any warlock can cast Curse of the Elements. Affliction locks may pick up the talent Jinx which spreads it to up to 15 targets. It lasts 5 min for 1 global cooldown. With a lock you also get Soulstone, Healthstones, Summoning boxes & self-heals via Drain Life. Depending on Spec and/or pet you get Buffs: mana increase, mana regen, replenishment, spell power, stamina; Debuffs: healing & spell critical strike chance.
• Hunters with Dragonhawk or Wind Serpent pets – depending on spec/pet it’s almost easier to ask what can’t they bring to the table as far as buffs. Marksmen have an interrupt with Silencing Shot (20 sec cooldown). Tranquilizing shot removes enrages.

For #2 Interrupts we work with Shaman (Wind Shear 6 sec), Paladin (Rebuke 10 sec), Death Knight (Mind Freeze 10 sec), Warriors (Pummel 10 sec), Druids (Skull Bash {talented} 10 sec). Lots of options as a raid leader to chose from.
For #3 Expose Armor? 3x Sunder Armor from a Warrior or 3x Faerie Fire from a Druid do just as well.
For #4 & #5? Because of current poison mechanics you can’t run anything except Instant/Deadly combo without significant dps loss.
For #6? Sap’s great for CC, but many others also have options. Kidney Shot to stun? Umm…. Only thing I can think of this working for in a raid environment are occasional adds like Sons of Ragnaros as raid bosses aren’t stunable.
For #7? Feint’s nice that that’s half the AoE damage that the healers don’t have to heal you for, but the other players? Yeah that AoE heal has to be done. Recuperate is also nice, but most healers don’t notice it ticking away at 3% every 3 sec. If you’re taking damage, it’s more than likely going to be more than Recuperate can heal. Evasion? If I’ve hit this in a raid it usually means the tank is down & the raid has 15 sec to try to finish the boss.
For #8. I really like that Shiv can now remove an enrage without Anesthetic poison. In Trial of the Crusader I had a macro for Icehowl’s enrage & I kept a weapon with the poison on it for that fight in case someone got hit. So far this expansion I can only think of the Lynx boss in ZA that has an Enrage remove mechanic. Only other classes that can cover this are hunters & druids iirc.
Which brings me to what could be done to make a rogue a more attractable option to raids?

1. Make us a team player. Maybe extend Feint to others. It only works against AOE damage & would be a big help to healers in the phases where you group up & all the healers/dps throws out raid cooldowns such as Tranquility, Healing Rain, Power Word: Barrier, etc.