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Rogue PvP guide

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Classes: Death knight Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior
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Contents

Introduction

In PvP, most classes will likely attempt to kite a rogue rather than engage one in melee combat. Warriors, other rogues, paladins, and occasionally (brave) shamans are the exceptions. To avoid excessive kiting, make smart use of your cooldowns (Sprint, Blind, Vanish, Preparation) and Crippling Poison. Specific play style and strategy may vary quite widely according to the rogue's talent build. Rogues are melee glass cannons. It is important that rogues get the first attack in.

Techniques

Since many of the rogue's most powerful abilities are used from stealth, the mastery of bringing your rogue back into stealth in the middle of a fight is an important skill and may greatly improve survivability and damage output. Following is a list of methods for a rogue to get back into stealth during combat.

From stealth, a rogue has many unconventional options available to him:

  • Sap, bandage.
  • Sap, wait for his own debuffs or an enemy's buffs/shields/heal-over-times to run out.
  • Sap, Cheap Shot, run away and re-stealth for extra combo points on the target.

Against Melee

Against melee characters, stuns and disables are very important. Melee characters usually have high chances to parry/block melee attacks. Since all the Rogues moves are melee, this can easily throw off your timing. Stunning an opponent (and running behind them, forcing them to turn around) removes his ability to parry, block, and dodge your attacks, and lets your moves go through much smoother.

Against melee characters wielding a slow weapon, stuns are even more important. A carefully timed kidney shot/gouge can mean avoiding an ugly chunk of Windfury. The best time to stun them is right before they swing. The worst time to stun is right after a swing. Just think of [Cataclysm's Edge] as a big spell with a 3.50 casting time. You want to interrupt it as late as possible.

Since an enemy melee character relies heavily on their damage output with their weapons, as opposed to casters who rely on spells, Dismantle can prove an effective way of rendering an opponent unable to produce any significant damage output.

Against Casters

Against pure casters (and even paladins and other classes like elemental shamans which rely heavily on spells), consider opening with a Garrote instead of cheap shot. Since Garrote (starting at rank 7) silences the opponent for three seconds (completely shutting down mages, priests, and locks), you can think of it as a three second Cheap Shot that costs 10 less energy and leaves a significant dot on the opponent. The silence effect is especially important now that pvp trinkets can remove any cc effects.


Strategy

In general, a rogue has three different play-styles available to him or her, namely: rush-down, control, and burst. Of these three styles, each talent build will tend to be strong in one and adequate/weak in the others. This section will cover each style in detail, including how they're used against opponents and to which talent builds they correspond.

Rush-Down

Knowing how to play a rush-down style is utterly important in high level PVP. To summarize, "rushing down" an opponent means playing as aggressively as possible, using most of your combo points for offensively-minded finishers such as Slice and Dice or Rupture and burning your cooldowns to drop an opponent as soon as possible. In a pure rush down style, Vanish is usually used to avoid attacks and get in a quick Cheap Shot. The preferred opener is Garrote to maximize DOT damage and the preferred poisons are crippling and deadly/wound. In a rush-down style, constant movement is crucial to keeping an opponent disoriented and sticking to your target's back. Timing your Kicks and Gouges is essential when rushing down casters since you will be using your combo points for finishers other than Kidney Shot. Rush-downs are best used against players with high health because it puts out the highest damage over time. It is, however, vulnerable to classes that can CC you easily since you spend most of your time out of stealth.

Control

Back in the days before the Burning Crusade, Control was king. It was possible to stun-lock most classes from 100-0 and the mark of a good rogue was one who never used his/her cooldowns to win a duel. With the release of The Burning Crusade, however, it became impossible to beat anyone as a rogue without using one's cooldowns due to the high amount of health/armor/resilience players now have. Stun-locking a player from 100-0 now is a near impossibility, unless there is an extreme gear discrepancy between the rogue and his opponent.

With this in mind, knowing how to maintain control over an opponent is still an important skill for PVP- it is just not as important as it used to be. With a pure Control style, you should try to avoid using DOTs since Gouge and Blind are crucial to keeping an opponent locked down. Putting a Gouge in-between a Cheap Shot and a Kidney Shot gives you an extra combo point for your Kidney Shot and allows you to regenerate energy for your Kidney Shot combo. Careful use of Blind will allow you to re-stealth and re-open or will give you an opportunity to bandage up. Kicks must be carefully timed- against a caster class, you should try kicking the opponent as soon as their stun wears off to maximize your chance of interrupting a spell. With Improved Kick, it is even more imperative since the added silence effect gives you a 2-second window for your next CC should you fail to interrupt a spell.

Using a Control style, you run the risk of drawing out a battle too long to the point where you run out of cooldowns and are basically dead. Since you sacrifice a lot of DPS to keep an opponent locked down, it is best used against medium or low HP opponents. Using a control style is also the best way to take out a healing opponent; whether it be a Restoration Shaman, Restoration Druid, or a Holy Priest; since the frequent interrupts will prevent them from healing through your damage. Control however requires a little luck to pull off smoothly- should one of your Kidney Shots get dodged/parried, you'll lose momentum and may have a hard time recovering afterwards.

Burst

The term "burst" refers to the technique of doing a high amount of damage in a short period of time. A pure burst style thus requires re-stealthing and re-opening several times to execute multiple bursts of damage- needless to say, it is something unique to Subtlety Rogues. For Shadowstep Rogues, a Premeditation into a Shadowstep Ambush will take out a huge chunk of health in the very first strike and will also give you 3-4 combo points to build upon or with which to execute an early finisher. For Seal Fate/Premeditation Rogues, a Premeditation into an Ambush may yield anywhere from 3-5 combo points in the opener with which you can use a Cold Blood Eviscerate for maximum damage upfront.

The key to playing a burst style is to restealth as much as possible and stay stealthed until you can land the opener. Since there is a significant amount of dead time in-between bursts, it is not wise to use it against healing classes unless you are certain you can kill the target in 1-2 bursts. Otherwise, the target will simply heal through your bursts and you'll have wasted a lot of cooldowns. This style is best used against lightly-armored targets, especially those who cannot be locked down easily- most specifically, the Mage. It also excels in rogue v rogue duels since stealth, more often than not, is the key to victory in such duels.


With these three archetypes established, it is important to note which talent builds are best and worst for rushdown, control, and burst styles. In short:

  • Assassination/Mutilate builds are second to none for control, good for rush downs (assuming you have Dual-wield Specialization), and weak at bursting since their primary burst comes in the form of Cold Blood, a three minute cooldown.
  • Combat builds are the best for rush downs due to their high sustained dps, poor at control, and decent at bursting with Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush.
  • Subtlety builds are superb at bursting, weak in rush downs due to their lack of white damage and slow out-of-stealth combo point generation, and decent at control (provided they restealth multiple times in each encounter).
  • Seal Fate/Premeditation builds are also great at Bursting, good at control due to a high combo point generation along with Quick Recovery to minimize energy loss in case of a missed finishing move, and weak at rush downs due to a lower sustained DPS compared to Assassination and Combat builds.

PvP Trinkets

As of Patch 2.1.2,

"Insignia of the Alliance, Insignia of the Horde, Medallion of the Alliance, and Medallion of the Horde have all been redesigned. The trinkets for all classes now have the same effect: Dispels all movement impairing effects and all effects that cause loss of control of your character."

This means that Kidney Shot and Cheap Shot, but also the Deadly Throw debuff, Poisons, Sap, Blind and Gouge can be removed by any class at any time. Daze (from Blade Twisting) is surprisingly also affected - this misconception exists because there is in fact a difference between player Daze and mob Daze. Mob Daze is in fact only removable by complete immunity effects (pally bubble, Ice Block), while player Daze is treated as any other movement-impairing effect.

This also means that the 3 second silence from Garrote is more important than ever, completely shutting down casters without the threat of being removed.

Classes

Rogue

When fighting another Rogue, it is important to get the first hit. Since most Rogues are specced shadowstep right now and have both Master of Deception and Heightened Senses, this is particularly difficult for combat or mutilate rogues. When you do see the other rogue, try to sap them. Removing them from stealth will give you a huge advantage. After allowing time to regain your energy, you should use cheap shot to stun the rogue. Fighting a rogue is similar to fighting a warrior: you should keep them stunned. A smart rogue won't trinket until you blind, so be prepared for that. Some rogues may trinket your kidney shot as well, in which case you should immediately blind, restealth, sap, and then open with cheap shot again. Blind and sap are necessary to allow diminishing returns to fade before using cheap shot again. Against rogues you should be using crippling poison and deadly poison (although this obviously isn't always an option since it's unlikely you're switching poisons for every fight if you're in a battleground or any large-scale PvP). Remember not to blind when deadly poison is ticking or it will break. Remember to use any dodge abilities when going toe-to-toe with a rogue, especially since, unlike warriors, rogues do not have abilities to counter your dodge except dodging themselves. Evasion and ghostly strike do stack, giving a total of +65% dodge not including base dodge.

Warrior

If you're fighting a good warrior you do not want to get hit at all. Well-geared warriors can cut you down in a few attacks, as well as resist or dodge many of your abilities. Be ready to blow some cooldowns. One method that is very successful against warriors is to employ all the DoTs available to you, and then kiting him with Crippling poison, dive-bombing occasionally to either incur large damage or go for the killing blow. Warriors have abilities which feed off of their opponents dodging, so be careful of using evasion against them. Consider using evasion early on in fights with warriors, as the damage taken from Overpower will be negligible in comparison to the full amount of melee damage a warrior can deal, yet if a warrior is wielding a very powerful two-hander, then (as overpower is an instant cast) be very careful even considering using this ability.

If you know you are fighting a warrior, equip Deadly poison in your main hand, and Crippling poison in your offhand. Wound poison instead in main is helpful in encounters where healers are involved. Due to the warrior ability second wind, stunning an arms specced warrior will cause them to get healed for 10% of their health in the form of a HoT. Try not to stun if you can help it. Another important tool for a rogue fighting a warrior is Dismantle, which negates all damage output for the opponent, use this ability at a point in the fight where you know he will have high burst damage coming, such as right after a charge or intercept. A dismantled warrior will also be unable to Hamstring (snare) you.

Priest

Fighting priests is similar to fighting warlocks. Your best option here is to stun the priest to death, using the CS -> KS -> Blind -> Restealth -> Sap -> Repeat method. Discipline priests are hardest, as their ability pain suppression will absorb a large amount of damage. Try to interrupt their heals, and don't forget about their DoTs (especially if they're shadow). It's easy to start whacking a priest and forget about their DoTs which will ultimately kill you unless you use cloak of shadows. Their fear is on a moderate cooldown (about 20 seconds, depending on talents), so have your trinket ready. They don't have any abilities like preparation: they cannot fear twice unless they wait out the cooldown. It is, however, a instant cast fear so be careful of that. Use wound poison and crippling poison against them. Against shadow priests, a common tactic is to fear, throw on some DoTs as you run away, and then mind flay you as you run back. Use shadowstep to negate this. Save cloak of shadows for the end of the fight when you can kill them in the 5 seconds of immunity it provides. Use expose armor to increase their damage taken.

Mage

Open with garrote on mages to apply the silence effect. The mage will immediately blink or frost nova and run away. If the mage blinks, use shadowstep to catch up and be sure to shiv crippling poison to limit his mobility. If he frost novas, he will begin to attack you at range. Use deadly throw to interrupt his casting (if you have the PvP gloves), or vanish to escape frost nova. If he has already used blink, you can then cheap shot to open on him and apply a rupture. Mages have excellent mobility and it can be hard for rogues to stay on them. The key is to try and do as much damage as you can without having to be within melee range. Make good use of garrote, rupture, and deadly throw. If you have time to prepare, you should also use deadly poison. As with all cloth-wearers, it is advisable to use expose armor to increase the damage they take.

Updated Patch 3.2 As with any fight, start with sap. With any luck he will panic and waste his PvP trinket. Stay atleast 20 yards away as it is common practice for mages to Trinket and immediately Arcane Explosion, taking you out of stealth and giving him the edge.

Life saving abilities: Kick, Gouge, Blind, Clock of Shadows (CoS)

Many rogues over look the defensive abilities of the mage because it wears a dress. Any rogue knows from experience that frost mages are one of the most feared opponents one can encounter because of their nearly endless snares from Frost Aura. However, the rogue has many abilities at his disposal that can used to defeat all specs of mages.

The Frost Mage - Very Hard

The most difficult of the three. Frost Aura slows to 50% when attacked and has a high chance to snare. Note that when fighting a frost mage being snared by Frost Nova or otherwise is extremely deadly as the mage gains a huge amount of DPS with frozen targets. Avoid this.

Poisons: MH - Mind Numbing, OH - Crippling

Open with Garrote. Next get a shiv in as it is absolutely essential you keep him within melee range. It is very likely you will become snared at this point. If so, wait for the mage to blink away, then vanish, sprint and re-open with Cheap shot. At this point you will have 3-5 CP, depending on spec. Use gouge to gain an extra CP and then KS him. Use your burst damage cooldowns now as his shield should be down at this point and he is most vulnerable (Cold Blood 5pt Evis, Killing Spree, Shadow Dance) If the mage is somehow still alive at this point he will be in complete survival mode, meaning he will try to kite you with a mix of Frostbolts, Ice-Lance, and Polymorphs. He will most likely Ice Block at any time during your barrage, at which point you must STAY in melee range. Stop auto-attacking and wait out the IB, then BLIND! If he hasn't already, he will use his PvP Trinket at this point. Immediatly shiv and begin attacking again. If you become snared or otherwise get out of range, blow CoS and finish the fight. Use your trinket as necessary, IE during his stuns (which are brutal).

Fire Mage - Medium

Poisons: MH - Mind Numbing, OH - Crippling

The Fire mage's primary defense is his offense. These mages can produce an insane amount of damage very quickly, especially if they have the right points in Arcane. For this fight Sprint is you best friend. Since he will likely be using Molten Armor, you will be constantly stuned. Keeping him poisoned is essential, when he blinks away from you, Sprint, CoS if necessary, blow a 5cp KS and finish the fight with your nukes.

Arcane Mage - Medium

Poisons: MH - Mind Numbing, OH - Crippling

Similar to the fire mage, these mages will typically try to crowd-control you to win the fight. A combination of CoS, PvP Trinket and Vanishes will save your ass. If you're in melee range, interupt his Polys with Kick, if you can't kick, use CoS, PvP Trinket or Vanish to escape the wrath of the sheep. Coak him into a Blink with sustained DPS (no CDs yet) and Vanish right after the blink, sprint, open with CS and finish the fight. Use Blinds and re-enter stealth if the fight starts going the mage's way.


Remember for all specs when using kick, always use it on their primary spell tree. IE Against a frost mage, kick Frostbolts. 4 seconds may not seem like a long time to a rogue but for casters a silence is absolutely devastating. Also note that gouge is an extremely powerful ability against mages as they cannot blink during its duration. It is very useful for regained energy for another burst of damage if points are put into Imp Gouge and the glyph is used.

Druid

Druids will almost always fight in one of their forms: moonkin, cat, bear, or caster (sometimes using tree as well). Druids have arguably the best mobility in the game, and are especially difficult for rogues. When fighting a druid in cat form, treat them as another rogue. When fighting a druid in bear form, treat them as a warrior. When fighting a druid in caster form, make sure to use wound poison and try to stun them to prevent them from healing themselves. When fighting a druid in moonkin form, fight them like you would a mage. Although they don't have blink, their superb mobility skills will require that you fight them in a similar fashion. Some druids alternate between forms in combat. In this case, try to catch them in cat or caster form where they are weakest. Expect every balance druid to have Nature's Grasp, which has a (base) chance of 35% to afflict you with Entangling Roots for every one of your hits. (As of Wrath of the Lich King this spell is now a baseline skill for druids.) Either Vanish or CloS, and quickly catch up to them, making sure to apply a snare. Alternatively, wait until they start casting Starfire (this is the hard-hitting spell) and use CloS at the last second. In summary, remove their ability to kite you while Moonfire/Starfire spamming, and don't be afraid to use Expose Armor.

Hunter

Against hunters, you should attempt to keep them within range as much as possible. Letting them slip out of melee range for a second could completely change the outcome of the fight. Always make sure crippling poison is up. Because of their pet, blinding for a restealth is not an option so use deadly poison (if you have time to prepare) and rupture. Ignore their pet unless they activate bestial wrath: in that case, you should attempt to vanish and wait out the ability. Bestial wrath lasts 18 seconds. A common hunter tactic is to lay down a trap on top of a flare and stand right on top of it. The patient rogue will wait for the hunter to get bored and leave or wait for the flare to fade and attack in between flares. If you need to attack while the flare is up, you can shadowstep and cheap shot before the flare removes stealth if you're fast enough. The hunter will almost always lay down a freezing trap on top of a flare (freezes you in a block of ice). If they're beast mastery, trinket the trap and then shiv crippling poison to keep the hunter close by. There's no way the hunter can out-DPS you in melee combat unless there's a huge gear difference. If the hunter is marksmanship, they will freeze you, move away, and then scatter shot. Wait for the scatter shot before you use your trinket. If you're unsure of their spec, stay in the trap and wait for them to move away. If they scatter shot, they're marksmanship. If they don't, they're probably beast mastery. Remember that in an emergency you can use cloak of shadows to remove hunters mark (along with anything else) and escape. Just watch out for flares. If you're beating the hunter to a pulp, they'll probably use snake trap as a last resort and try to get distance. In that case, use cloak of shadows and finish them off. Shadowstep or sprint if necessary. Getting near a hunter is hard but once near you should be able to defeat them easily.

Warlock

Warlocks are arguably the easiest fight for a rogue post-TBC and the addition of cloak of shadows. Fighting a warlock is relatively straightforward: open with cheap shot, followed by kidney shot, followed by expose armor and cloak of shadows. Within this time, most warlocks will be dead. If they're not, vanish and do it again. Trinket their fear, if they are able to get it off. Remember to use kick or gouge. Blind as a last resort to interrupt fear, especially if your trinket is already on cooldown. Blind -> restealth won't work here because warlocks have damage over time spells which will break stealth unless you've got some way of removing them. Pre WOTLK you were advised to be wary of felhunters as they had been giving the warlock and all his party members greatly improved stealth detection. Post WOTLK, though, this ability was removed from the felhunter and instead something similar was given to the voidwalker (additional effect of the voidwalker's consume shadows ability). Since few, if any, warlocks use voidwalkers at higher levels, and since this ability is only usable outside of combat, you need not worry too much about it.

There is a common trick Demo warlocks may try on you, they will set their felguard to defensive and make him stand 10(feet) away from the warlock. when you open with a cheap-shot, the felguard will charge and stun you, the warlock will trinket out of cheap shot and death-coil you, and fear+dot, if you cloak of shadows, he'll most likely blow metomophsis and begin shadowcleaving you, with the lock and his felguard on you in heavy melee you may be in a tricky situation, considering warlocks have large hp pools and in demo form, they get 600% more armour.

Paladin

Fighting paladins is very similar to fighting warriors, except they can heal themselves. Use cloak of shadows to get through consecration. Unlike warriors, paladins gain no advantage from you dodging so use evasion and ghostly strike if you have it. If a paladin is able to bubble, they will heal themselves up to full. Use this time to back off and restealth. Try not to use any cooldowns (blind, vanish, etc.) until they blow their bubble. Paladins can be hit many times and will keep coming.

Updated patch 3.2

The dreaded paladin. Considered the anti-rogue since their insane ret buff in 3.1, but never fear, while these foes are difficult to defeat the rogue has many tools to defeat him.

Retribution Paladin - Extremely Hard

Poisons: Double Deadly or Double Instant (crippling is useless as he will just Blessing out of it, as is wound and mind numbing because of Cleanse and Purify)

As with any fight, start with sap. This is to trick the Paladin into using his Divine Shield (Bubble) or use his trinket. Remember to stay out of Consecrate range, since it is to be expected after he comes out of the sap. Then open with garrote for the bleed (as high armor is a paladin's primary defense against rogues) and the 3 second silence. During the 3 seconds you have of the silence, accumulate as many combo points as possible, and as the silence is up use the Cloak of Shadows and Dismantle abilities to avoid the Paladin's very high burst spell damage with Crusader Strike. The Paladin may use Hammer of Justice (stun) during this disarm and it is advisable to wait this out if possible, but if you're getting too low on health, Trinket out of it.

At this point you have a 10 second window to lay down some massive damage which is well spent in a 5 point Rupture for the bleed then get back up to 5 combo points again and stun him with a 5 point KS. After the 5pt KS, which he may or may not have trinketed, it is a melee fight at this point as his burst damage spells are on cool down. Always, always, always, kick his heals. This is priority number as Pallies essential have 1 spell tree - holy - and disabling it for only a few seconds is devastating.

Make use of Gouge for Flash of light and Blind for Holy Light as well. It is at this point where player skill takes a large part as you must beat the pally into the ground while avoiding his powerful 2h weapon with Gouges and good movement. Try to stay behind him at all times. Wait for the bubble, then run away and re-sealth. Do not waist a Vanish here as the majority of the time you can renter stealth with out it. Now open with CS -> 5cp and KS, and open up - this is the time to use your damage cooldowns.

The key to this fight is drawing it out as long as possible. Retribution Paladins usually have small mana pools and go through it quite quickly. If you can survive the initial barrage of spells as he opens on you the fight is yours. In this instance Slice n' Dice is a very powerful spell against Paladins as there is no cooldown and it is a huge boost to your DPS. 2-combo point Slice and Dice usually are enough.

  • Expose armor is also useful is you have CP to spare.
  • Most of the Retribution Paladin's damage output is magic-based (Holy).
  • Use Evasion, Dismantle and Cloak of Shadows to avoid burst damage.
  • Interrupt heals using Kick, Gouge, and Blind.
  • Re-stealth if the Paladin uses Divine Shield (do not spend the vanish cooldown).

Holy and Protection You won't be able to kill a protection Paladin if he is well geared. Don't bother fighting him, but if you must go 1v1 against these tanks you will literaly have to use every ability in your arsenal to defeat him. There really is no good strategy against Protection paladins as they are so resilient against melee attacks. Dismantle is helpful as it removes his shield, and Sacred Shield (damage absorption shield) will become temporarily ineffective. Use this time to lay down serious DPS (i.e. save your energy for this moment).

Holy pallies are in the same boat, they will be able to over heal your DPS so the only real way to defeat is to control their heals. Concentration aura prevents you from using your melee swings as a way to push back casting. I'd recommend using double mind numbing since wounding will do little against crits that can reach as much as 20k. Use all possible forms of interrupts against these foes; Kick, Gouge, Blind, KS, CS and Imp FoK and Deadly Throw.

The best rule of thumb against plate wearers is Rupture over Eviscerate, unless he is < 10% HP.

Shaman

Enhancement

This fight can be decided by whoever attacks first depending on spec and gear. If you're sub, and get the jump on them, this fight is easy. Wound poison, keep them stunned, run around them and bash the crap out of them. However, if the shaman gets the jump on you, they'll storm-strike and flame shock you and throw down an earthbind totem. EVASION is a key here if they're duel wielding they'll take you down quickly if you don't get this up. Try and stun them when you can, make sure you get wound poison up or they'll run away in ghost wolf form and spam lesser healing wave on themselves.

Elemental

This is a very simple fight, if you get the jump on them, you're guaranteed to win- keep them stunned wound poison, kick etc. If they get the jump on you, don't panic- use cloak of shadows, run up to them, kick their nature school and start bashing them up with your weapons. If they use any shock other than flame- vanish if you can and re-open the fight quickly before they can heal. Be warned most elemental shamans are 40/0/21 spec which means they have nature's swiftness and can instantly heal themselves for 2k health depending on gear.

Restoration

Kick spells in the nature school whenever you can, keep them stunned and dish out as much damage as you can before they break your stuns and use nature's swiftness. You really shouldn't worry about dying; Resto shaman damage output is low compared to the other specs. Be aware of earth shield and nature's guardian these make restoration shamans VERY hard to kill. Just run the fight until they run out of mana, when they do the fight is yours.

Death Knight

Death Knights in general can be pretty difficult for a Rogue,but there are some things to remember.

Keep it in your control.Give them half a chance and he'll pop Icebound Fortitude making him immune to your stuns. Frost DKs-High armour.They're pretty good at kiting with Chains of Ice and Howling Blast,so try to stay on them at all times.

Blood DKs-High health regen.Mark of Blood restores hp to the DK everytime you hit them-CloS this if the DK is nearly dead,you don't want them gaining an advantage when you're both low on HP.

Unholy DKs-Dish out a bat[expletive deleted] insane amount of damage using diseases and Scourge Strike.Control is key here,dismantle him to avoid a nasty SS-Gargoyle can be pretty annoying as it attacks through stealth-don't try vanish while it's out.

If you Vanish and haven't left a DK incapacitated he's going to Death and Decay-so be on your toes.You don't want to have wasted your Vanish.

Follow the steps listed by Buddhist below aswell.

-Gigs of Dreadmaul.


from Buddhist of TKoE: Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult

Death knights are pretty much like Warriors that have pets that can stun you, and spells to hit you through dismantle. They also have dots, and all sorts of [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted]. 

1) Cheap Shot 
2) Cold Blood Mutilate, Rupture 
3) Dismantle 
4) Mutilate twice more and evi 
4) Sprint, CloS if needed, Vanish as dismantle ends 
5) He probably popped ice bound fortitude already, expecting a KS earlier on, if so, wait it out before you open 
6) Reopen with a cheap shot, kidneyshot if he isn't on icebound fortitude, and try to burst him down

Vanishing to avoid damage while you're out of energy is very important against a DK.

References 

http://thekingdomofernor.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/36-Rogue-Comprehensive-PvP-Guide-Part-3-1v1.html

http://shadowpanther.net/links.htm#1v1
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