| abstract
| - Rogue tanking is the use of a rogue as a/the tank of a party or raid. However, rogue tanking was a phenomenon that is no longer practically feasible. During TBC, many bosses could be tanked with the right party/raid setup and by stacking agility/dodge rating. However, with the addition of diminishing returns to dodge rating in patch 3.0.2, it is highly unlikely that rogues can have the necessary avoidance (102.4%) at level 80. This article discusses some of the history of the use of rogues as capable alternative tanks, and describes some of the tactics and circumstances that made rogue tanking feasible. The information on this page is more for historical or nostalgic purposes.
- Rogue tanking is the use of a rogue as the primary meatshield of a group or raid. This article discusses some of the history of the use of rogues as capable alternative tanks, and describes some of the tactics and circumstances that make rogue tanking feasible. Rogues' advantages as tanks are their high damage output, potentially extreme avoidance, and several key abilities such as kick and especially Cloak of Shadows (a 5-second magic debuff remover and spell shield). Limitations are their lack of AoE capabilities, inferior threat generation compared to conventional tanking classes, lack of a "taunt" ability, and poor damage mitigation in most circumstances. Also, having low health means they have no hope to survive bosses that do frequent and significant spell damage. Rogue tanking is all about 2 objectives; becoming unhittable while maintaining aggro. Neither of these are easy tasks to accomplish. Keep in mind that if you want to be an effective rogue tank you CAN make it happen, but it isn't cheap whatsoever. Be prepared to spend around 5000g easily to gather all of the "required" gear and delicate crimson spinels (+10 agi gems). To become physically unhittable by a level 70 or below, you will need an avoidance rating of 100%. Blizzard doesn't actually let you see your avoidance rating ingame, so you'll want to memorize the formula and constantly calculate it yourself. Formula is... Avoidance=Block+Parry+Dodge+Enemy Miss Chance(5% base, increases with defense) or A=B+P+D+EMC. This is the formula that any good rogue tank should memorize. Since rogues cannot block, our formula is A=P+D+EMC. Remember that. Now the idea behind avoidance is that if you can get those numbers (parry + dodge + enemy miss chance) to add up to 100% by any combination of the three, you CANNOT be hit by ANY physical attack by anyone level 70 or below. Since you will fight level 72 and 73s in raids, you will want about 102.4% Now, getting your avoidance to this high of a number is NO easy task, you will have to have specialized gear, talents, and gems for maximum avoidance. Fortunately, the best avoidance stat to stack happens to be one of our best offensive stats as well. AGILITY. 1 point of agility = .025 crit, .05 dodge, 1 attack power, and 2 armor. You are gonna need about 1000 agility. Which in essence will give you 25% crit, 50% dodge, 1000ap, and 2000 armor. By getting your dodge up to 40% with a 10% chance of parry (5% class base and 5% from deflection) EVERYTIME you use evasion you will be unhittable. Now keep in mind the goal here is to become unhittable 100% of the time WITHOUT evasion, so you will need at least a 60% passive dodge chance (daunting, i know). Some key talents that will help you tank: 1. Lightning reflexes (5% total avoidance) 2. Deflection and Riposte (5% total avoidance and the ability to disarm) 3. Preparation (Double evasion) 4. Sinister Calling (15% more agility) 5. Improved sprint (So you can't get rooted, you can always get back to the action) 6. Improved Kick (silence on your kick) 7. Ghostly Strike (15% avoidance for 7 seconds (20second cd) 8. Blade Flurry (ESSENTIAL when pulling mobs of 3 or more) 9. Setup (45% chance to gain combo point everytime you dodge) The rogue must be sure to use stuns, interrupts, and avoidance abilities (Evasion and Ghostly Strike) effectively to prevent dying quickly. Between Gouge, Kick, Cloak of Shadows, Blind, and Kidney Shot, a rogue should be able to mitigate a large share of whatever spell damage is facing them. Never use Evasion except in an emergency, but Ghostly Strike should be used as often as possible (that is, every 20 seconds). In addition to granting Ghostly Strike, subtlety is probably the optimal spec for basic rogue tanking because of the talents Preparation and Setup. Setup grants a combo point 45% of the time the rogue dodges (which may be a lot), assisting threat generation substantially. Preparation can be used to cancel the cooldown on Evasion in a pinch, allowing for up to 30 seconds of nigh-invulnerability. Subtlety spec will also net a rogue Cheat Death if enough points are invested, which can easily mean the difference between a wipe and glorious success. If worse comes to very worst vs. a single stunnable mob, the rogue may also vanish and immediately Cheap Shot, buying time for either a heal or for their Kidney Shot cooldown to end (such that the rogue may stunlock it further). Other than these basic strategies and spec details, the other main factor to rogue tanking damage. Besides being the only means of threat generation, it also benefits a group because the rogue is effectively both a tank and an additional damage dealer. In essence, a group using a rogue tank has one healer and FOUR dps classes, meaning mobs die much quicker. This both makes the instance run more smoothly and makes the tank's chances of survival much greater. In reality, when party buffed a rogue tank should have 100% avoidance while doing much greater damage than a prot warrior or pally could hope for. However, we do not have moves that grab aggro. So we have to generate threat through damage alone. Since this is the case its is very wise to bring a paladin for salvation buff to put on everyone BUT the rogue. This will even the threat field. Now, just make sure you pull first and use blade flurry asap, switching targets afer every finisher to grab threat on all. Make your party wait about 3-5 seconds before they unleash on the mobs.
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