Outlaw Rogue Battleground Blitz Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)

In Battleground Blitz, Outlaw Rogues are mobile melee DPS with access to Stealth that are not performing overly well in any department, and are massively outclassed by the other two Rogue specializations. It suffers from being inferior to Assassination when it comes to team fight damage and flag carrier hunting, and being inferior to Subtlety when it comes to CC and burst damage. They are decent at attacking and defending bases because of their extensive CC toolkit that is common to every Rogue, but it stops there.

Outlaw Rogues aren't able to deal great damage in team fights. Therefore they are best used to crowd control enemy healers with Kidney Shot, Blind and Gouge while disrupting the enemy DPS with Cheap Shot while doing damage on priority targets. Outlaw Rogues are able to reset the cooldown of Vanish, so they can access Cheap Shot often enough to be annoying to the enemy team.

Outlaw Rogues are not amazing at killing enemy flag carriers but can successfully defend their own flag carriers. Their CC toolkit allows them to make it difficult for the enemy team to reach the flag carrier. Rogues are generally not very good flag carriers themselves but Outlaw is the best at it out of all three Rogue specializations (it had to be the best at something!). It is reasonably durable, has access to powerful defensives, and with the standard Rogue mobility plus Grappling Hook it can move away from incoming enemies without requiring an ally to Shadowstep to. That being said it is always better to have a more durable class carry the flag, and protect them.

At the start of a Capture the Flag map, you should either:

1. Identify who the likely enemy flag carrier is and move to slow/crowd control/kill them to delay their push to your base for as long as possible
2. Join the edge of the team fight, look for targets of importance to CC and help your team on priority targets.

Outlaw Rogues are great at fulfilling both of these roles.

On both Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks, if you are defending your own flag carrier, you should encourage them to keep running away from the attackers once they come at him. With your CC and slows you can make it difficult for the enemy team to connect to your flag carrier.

If you are attempting to recover your flag from the enemy flag carrier and are not alone you should always focus on controlling the enemy defenders so that your team can freely kill the carrier. You should also save your burst damage for moments when the carrier is isolated and stunned, either in a Smoke Bomb, or because you landed CC on everyone able to save him.

When nobody is available to take the enemy flag, and it is nearby, you should take advantage of your mobility and defensive cooldowns to bring the enemy flag back to your team as soon as you can and, if possible, pass it to a more durable specialisation when it is safe to do so.

Before a Resource Race battleground starts, you should decide with your team which base you should focus on first.

Whenever you are defending a base you have an advantage over most attackers because you are in Stealth. That allows you to CC them with Sap and call for help if you need it, or, if only one enemy is attacking, to have the initiative of the fight, stun them, and kill them. Stealth is the best tool to delay the enemy, and you should abuse it as much as possible. If you are not confident in being able to defeat the attackers use Sap to delay them, stun them, and Vanish to start over once they can be sapped once more. That should give your team enough time to come to your aid provided you called for it.

Smiliarly you have the advantage of Stealth when you attack enemy bases. As an Outlaw Rogue you can choose to accompany your team to team fight on a base you want to capture, in which case you will simply play it as a standard team fight until your team is able to kill the enemy force and capture the base. You can also attack bases alone or with another stealthed ally. In that case the enemy defender will not see you come and will not be able to call for help before you reveal yourself. Always try to cap while controlling the defenders with Sap, Blind, Cheap Shot, and Kidney Shot. If the enemy defender is alone this should be easy, but if there are several it will depend on how they use their trinkets, and you will surely have to fight to claim the base.

Outlaw Rogues can be good at defending/attacking bases or decent at fighting for the flag at the center of the map. During the game, you can choose whichever your team needs most. Ideally you will take care of a base and leave the team to a specialization more suited for it.

When none of your team are attempting to pick up the flag at mid and you are able to, you should pick it up yourself and carry it back to a friendly base.

If none of the teams if winning the fight in the middle, or if your team is losing it consistently then you should look to break off and push enemy bases. You should always be aware of what is happening at friendly bases, though, and be ready to support your team at those when needed in case an enemy has the same idea.

First and foremost, never pick an orb on Temple of Kotmogu unless you literally lose within the next seconds if you don't. Rogues in general are terrible orb carriers, and on top of that carrying an orb prevents you from stealthing to attack enemy orb carriers, or from defending your own orb carriers with CC spells that require Stealth. It is very tempting, and smart, to play the objectives in battlegrounds, but in this specific case this is not your role, and you will hurt your team more than help it by trying to carry orbs.

Once the team fight is won, you should move towards where the enemy team is respawning. Your goal is to be between them and your team so that you can use your CC arsenal to delay the enemy and allow your team to kite with orbs in order to gain more victory points.

If the team fight is lost and the enemy team has control of the orbs the enemy team should behave similarly, with some of them standing in between your team and their orb carriers. The fact that you are in Stealth allows you to circle around unseen, and quickly dispatch the orb carriers so that your team can once again assume control of the orbs and work towards victory.

Below is the recommended build. It features all the single target damage Outlaw can muster, as well as all the usual Rogue trickery to CC enemies and attack/defend bases.

Your default talents will be:

1. Enduring Brawler (mandatory)
2. Smoke Bomb (mandatory)
3. Take Your Cut

Smoke Bomb is simply amazing. It can be used to kill an enemy, or to capture an objective by denying the defenders line of sight to prevent the capture. The burst damage of Outlaw might be limited, but with your team dealing damage with you finding kills in Smoke Bomb should be easy.

Take Your Cut will buff your team with a pseudo Heroism in team fights everytime you use Roll the Bones. It can be very valuable.

• /cancelaura Alliance Flag
• /cancelaura Horde Flag
• /cancelaura Netherstorm Flag
• /y FLAG DROPPED

This Macro will drop a flag if you are carrying one on a capture-the-flag map.