Outlaw Rogue Playstyle and Rotation Guide

Patch 11.0.5 Last Updated: 1st Nov, 2024
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Playstyle & Rotation

General Rotation for Hidden Opportunity

  • Roll the Bones if you have 0 buffs, or you have 1 or less buffs and Loaded Dice active.
  • Adrenaline Rush on cooldown at 2 or fewer combo points.
  • Ghostly Strike on cooldown. This ability is off the GCD.
  • Killing Spree at 6 or more combo points. Do not cast during Subterfuge and do not cast over Vanish if Adrenaline Rush is active and has 5 or less seconds remaining.
  • Vanish followed by Between the Eyes at 6 or more combo points while ANY 1 of the following conditions is met. Adrenaline Rush has 3 or less seconds remaining. Vanish has 15 seconds remaining on overcapping. Between the Eyes is on cooldown AND Ruthless Precision is active.
  • Between the Eyes if buff duration is 4 or less seconds, or you have Ruthless Precision buff active at 6 or more combo points. During Subterfuge finish at 5 or more as your only finisher.
  • Dispatch if at 6 or more combo points.
  • Ambush if you have Audacity, or are in Subterfuge at 5 or less combo points.
  • Pistol Shot if you have Opportunity at 5 or less combo points.
  • Sinister Strike at 5 or less combo points.

General Rotation for Keep it Rolling

  • Keep It Rolling if you have any 4 active Roll the Bones buffs.
  • Roll the Bones if you have 2 or fewer buffs if neither consist of Broadside, Ruthless Precision or True Bearing. Cast ONCE immediately after using Keep It Rolling.
  • Adrenaline Rush on cooldown at 2 or fewer combo points.
  • Ghostly Strike on cooldown. This ability is off the GCD.
  • Vanish followed by Between the Eyes at 6 or more combo points while ANY 1 of the following conditions is met. Adrenaline Rush has 3 or less seconds remaining. Vanish has 15 seconds remaining on overcapping. Between the Eyes is on cooldown AND Ruthless Precision is active. Supercharger is active.
  • Between the Eyes if buff duration is 4 or less seconds, or you have Ruthless Precision buff active at 6 or more combo points. During Subterfuge finish at 5 or more as your only finisher.
  • Dispatch if at 6 or more combo points.
  • Pistol Shot if you have Opportunity at 5 or less combo points.
  • Sinister Strike at 5 or less combo points.

Opener

  • Make sure you have Instant Poison applied.
  • Enter Stealth.
  • Roll the Bones.
  • Adrenaline Rush.
  • Slice and Dice.
  • Proceed with normal rotation.

Due to Outlaw rogue being centered around procs, it’s hard to suggest an opener past this.

Multi Target

The multi target rotation is identical to single target, except you have to make sure to keep up Blade Flurry combat. If you talent into Deft Maneuvers, Blade Flurry becomes your highest priority ability at 5 or less combo points.

General Playstyle

The playstyle of Outlaw is to remember ABC. Always Be Casting. The spec has the highest APM in the game, so you always want to plan with your globals to make as few mistakes as possible. With talents such as Underhanded Upper Hand, there is a massive payoff for perfect play. 80%+ Adrenaline Rush uptime is easily achievable if you are playing as well as possible.

Cooldown Usage

Outlaw doesn’t have large burst cooldowns like most classes in the game. The power of the cooldowns is their high uptime.

Roll the Bones is an ability that when cast gives you a 79% chance of 1 buff, a 20% chance of 2 buffs, and a 1% chance at 5 buffs. These buffs do the following:

  • Broadside - Combo Point generators grant 1 additional combo point and deal bonus damage.
  • Buried Treasure - Increased energy regen.
  • Grand Melee - 5% increased damage, and 10% increased Blade Flurry damage.
  • Ruthless Precision - 15% increased crit for all abilities, 60% increased crit for Between the Eyes.
  • Skull and Crossbones - Chance to proc Opportunity increased.
  • True Bearing - Restless Blades increased to 1.5 seconds per combo point spent.

Adrenaline Rush grants you an energy increase, attack speed increase, and a lower GCD scaled with haste. You want to keep this up as much as possible and try to avoid holding it.

Vanish is our primary way to leverage all of the spec's stealth-related passives right now. You want to ensure you only cast that Between the Eyes is ready for whenever Vanish is up.

Keep it Rolling is the longest cooldown the spec has at 7 minutes. However, due to the ability to extend premium Roll the Bones buffs, we can get this cooldown really low thanks to Restless Blades.

Defensives

Rogue defensives toolkit is some of the best in the game, thanks to Feint, and Cloak of Shadows. Feint gives you a 40% damage reduction to AoE damage on a 15 second cooldown, and Cloak of Shadows gives you full immunity to magic damage on a 2 minute cooldown.

The other 2 defensive cooldowns Rogue has are Evasion and Crimson Vial. Evasion has a few niche uses for attacks that are frontal cleaves, and Crimson Vial is just a generic heal that costs a small amount of energy.