Number Four: Rogues
The final member of my group, and the most questionable to some people, is the rogue. The rogue provides some decent CC ability pre-fight. The other two members who do CC in my group will have to either pull the mob or start the pull with their abilities. In comparison, a rogue (who is skilled) will be able to slide into position and sap the target making for one less member of a mob to worry about. This is a numbers game to me. Besides the ability for their CC, rogues have the ability to level some sick damage and damage over time from their poisons. Along, with this ability they can disrupt casters and stun targets mid fight. These are invaluable on a bad pull or a run where we may not know the instance inside and out.
The buff of choice for rogues I run with is GBoM. This increases the steady amount of damage that they can put out, which to me, is more important than a minor buff to their health. The real trick to having a rogue present is that they tend to pull agro when they start piling on the damage and this can make it hard to heal both a tank and a rogue. It use to be I would opt for some sort of mail or plate wearing DPS for that very reason; however, since the introduction of Beacon of Light (BoL), I am now able to heal both the tank and the rogue. I cast BoL on my rogue and continue to heal the tank in a more steady fashion with the rogue receiving the benefit of being there close to the tank, they too receive their heals. With this set up it allows me to be much more efficient in my healing duties and be able to heal multiple members, something that we paladins could use a little more of (but that would take less skill).
So in wrapping up my "A" team, let's review the line-up. For my tanking duties I like the solid numbers and rotations of warriors. For CC/DPS I squease every last drop out of my hunters, mages, and rogues. I will be honest, with this group of characters, I have never ran an instance where it did not turn out successful, but as is the case with anything in life, there are always exceptions. I am sure there are many combinations of groups which can meet these needs, but this is simply from point of view.
Over the next few days, I will continue the "Know Thy Friends" series and examine Death Knights, Druids, Paladins, Priests, Shaman, and Warlocks. In the continuation of this series, I will not number these classes, as they all do have something to offer, but in a more limited way, at least I feel. I definitely have ran groups with all of these classes and there have been numerous successes, so please do not feel I am saying that I will not run with these classes because I will, but as we look at each one individually I will establish my thought process as to why they were not the preferred classes that I run with.
This post was originally published on January 12, 2009, on the original Holy Shock blog site.