Mr.WoW Gold - WoW Class Guides - Rogue Aggro Mechanics
Rogue Aggro Mechanics
As a class dedicated to punishing enemies and nothing else, we have an innate modifier of about 30% reduction to threat done. This is compared to the tanking classes having about double threat generation, so if we deal 1000 damage, we gain 700 threat, and if the tank does 500 damage, he gains 1000 threat. Good! Staying 30% behind the tank is a lovely target since we can get spikes in threat and damage with our finishing moves and many bosses just love to affect the meters with damage buffs, threat reduction, or flat out wiping the slate with phase changing, teleporting, or just feeling like it because they're a pain in the ass.
How To Get Ahead of the Tank - In a good way
All we have to do is keep convincing the opponent we're not the one hitting them. With liberal use of Tricks of the Trade every time it is up, ~20% of our hate generation will be directed to that guy in plate armor instead (or ... plated bear fur?). Ulduar has given us many encounters with the potential to become a wrecking crew. Take Hodir, for instance. It's possible to have a massive boost to our critical damage as well as having our attack speed increased 50% on top of our own buffs. When we are a tornado of destructive one-handed steel (Had to differentiate us from the Warriors, you see) due to these buffs, it's imperative that Tricks is used and has been used in the past. No tanking class has a chance at holding a monster for long due to these damage buffs, and it's up to us to give those tanks a fighting chance at keeping the opponent fighting them. Hunters have Misdirect. 3 shots is a good chunk of damage. Rogues have 6 seconds of 'here, blame this guy for what I'm about to do.' It simply has no equal and you will never be a good rogue if you do not have this macroed! In the heat of battle you don't have the luxury of changing targets. Designate your tank, off tank, and annoying warlock that needs to eat the dirt, separate Tricks macros with assists coded in afterwards to get back to your victim. Sometimes you'll need to be careful with this though; in a fight like Kologarn for instance, the tank might just stay on the body the whole time where as you have a date with his arms. If you're flailing at buttons and accidentally generate combo points on another target, of course upon switching back you'll have a nice 0/5 points on your real target. Suck it up and hit the Slice and Dice before the switch. You might as well get something out of your failure.
Evasive Maneuvers - Not the Evasion skill, sorry
If you're like most people these days, you have a threat meter mod running. If you're not, don't fret. It's easy to be aware of your surroundings and agro situation. With the amount of area of effect nonsense flying around in most encounters these days you need to bust out a skill that was gathering dust until a few months ago. It's time to Feint. It might take up a bit of your DPS pool, but you'll be saving your own hide potentially, saving a full spell from your healer's mana pool, and lowering your threat on the target by a solid amount. Almost everything in the game that is not targeted at your skull will have its damage cut in half by Feint. Some retard can't figure out the difference between Positive and Negative in Naxx? Feint, so you have twice as long for him to realize he's retarded before you kiss the pavement. Emalon charging a Lightning Nova and the melee running away in a mad panic? Not you. You're going to feint that and still have half of your life left comfortably. XT throwing a tantrum? Tell him to quit being a baby and feint it instead of being forced to use your health stone or potion. Feint has become a wonderful skill that enables us to stay in the fray when all hope is lost for the other classes. The threat reduction is just icing on the cake, really.
