Thread: [4.3] Rogues in Dragon Soul - Everything you need to know!

Hey everyone,
I've decided to give my fair share of contribution to the Rogue community in form of this "4.3 guide".
This thread will include Rogue guides for every boss encounter in Dragon Soul, probably a legendary questline guide as soon as the last 2 stages are clear and BiS lists for all specs. In the beginning I intended to add changes to our class as well, but...
It's been important to me to get this out about 2 weeks before 4.3 (which is why you're reading a rather incomplete version now) so that you guys can add ideas/requests which might be done as well before 4.3 goes live. Also this should give you guys plenty time to prepare!
Any feedback is appreciated!


1 Boss Encounters (normal)
1.1 Morchok
1.2 Warlord Zon'ozz
1.3 Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
1.4 Hagara the Stormbinder
1.5 Ultraxion
1.6 Warmaster Blackhorn
1.7 Spine of Deathwing
1.8 Madness of Deathwing
2 Boss Encounters (heroic)
2.1 Morchok
2.2 Warlord Zon'ozz
2.3 Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
2.4 Hagara the Stormbinder
2.5 Ultraxion
2.6 Warmaster Blackhorn
2.7 Spine of Deathwing
2.8 Madness of Deathwing
3 Gearing
3.1 Assassination
3.2 Combat
3.3 Subtlety
3.4 Normal Mode Lists
4 Fangs of the Father
4.1 Jaws of Retribution
4.2 Maw of Oblivion
4.3 Fangs of the Father



1 Boss Encounters (normal)
Overall Dragon Soul seems like a very good instance for rogues. I can see ourselves topping quite a few fights in there even before the legendary daggers.
You are expected to run with an itemlevel of >=378 to make speccing Subtlety viable. Also this guide often makes use of PowerAuras/WeakAuras. If you're running without those addons you might think about getting one of them.


1.1
Recommended Spec: Subtlety
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Safe (debuff you get from the Crystal)

Boss Strategy:
This is a pretty straight-forward fight. The boss has 3 different abilities which are relevant to you. Other than those you have a 1-phase encounter from 100%-0%.

The first one is cast on a ~15 second cooldown and is called Stomp. You should always use Feint to reduce the damage taken by this ability. Plan ahead and use Feint according to your timer instead of waiting for the cast because it may be hard to fit a GCD in a 1.5s cast with a spammy rotation.

Morchok also spawns Resonating Crystals which need to be "tanked" in a similiar way as Baleroc's shards. The closest persons are sharing the damage in an explosion. If you are part of the shard team make sure to get to them in time (about 10 seconds) and move close enough so that you get a blue beam with the debuff Safe.

His "ultimate" is the Black Blood of Earth which he will cast about once every minute. He will pull the whole raid into his hitbox and then start casting the BBoE spreading black blood which deals more damage the longer you stand in it.
This is the reason why Subtlety is the recommended spec for this encounter. If you Feint as he starts this cast, then use Cloak of Shadows as Feint wears off and Feint again after CloS you can survive this AoE damage with a little outside heal granting you a massive uptime increase.
If you are not playing Subtlety for this encounter you will have to line of sight the Blood by hiding behind huge rocks.


1.2
Recommended Spec: any
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Disrupting Shadows (knockback on dispel)

Boss Strategy:
This is a basic tank & spank for you. You should probably know the major mechanic in this encounter to make sure you understand what your raid leader calls out.

Sometimes he spawns a huge shadowy orb which can be bounced by other players on contact. Every bounce will deal increasing shadow damage. The point is to bounce it a few times and then have it hit the boss to get an increasing damage buff on him and reset some tank-related stacks.
Important for you is to move either out of its way when it's supposed to go into the boss or bounce it back if your raid leader makes a melee team for it.
Also important for you is to never ever stand in front of the boss because of a life leech he does.

The debuff which I mentioned above will knock you back if dispelled. Nothing you can really do about it, however you should make sure to not get knocked into the orb when you're not supposed to. You always get knocked into the opposite direction you're facing.


1.3
Recommended Spec: Combat/Assassination
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): n/a

Boss Strategy:
Once every minute Yor'sahj spawns 3 (out of 6 possible) differently coloured slime mobs. You should learn which colour is where in the room so that you're not wasting any time running to the one you're supposed to kill. Which one of those 3 you should kill depends on your guild's strategy.
Sprint and Redirect will always be up. Use Sprint always on the way to the add and use Redirect either on the add or from the add on the boss depending on your current combo points and Bandit's Guile state.

The remaining 2 slime mobs will grant the boss new abilities. The 2 most important things for you are 2 different type of adds that can spawn after he has absorbed black/blue slimes. There are "Forgotten Ones" which need to be AoE'd or cleaved down if the black slime gets to the boss and there is a Mana Orb which either needs to be focused (or cleaved down if possible) if the blue slime gets to the boss.
If your group lacks AoE you may find assassination to be the spec of choice here. If your group has plenty of AoE Combat will likely get more damage onto the boss while still dealing some damage to the Adds/Mana Orb via Blade Flurry.


1.4
Recommended Spec: Combat
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Target (Ice Lance related)

Boss Strategy:
This boss has 3 different phases in the following pattern: Normal - Ice/Lightning - Normal - [other one of the Ice/Lightning phases] - Normal - etc.

During her normal phase there's two things you need to watch out for.
The first one would be the mentioned debuff Target. She puts up Crystals of Ice which target melee players and have white beams connecting the crystals to the player. These beams are usually intercepted by ranged DPS or healers however you might want to take a step or two out of the melee team until a ranged DPS/healer is tanking it because of splash damage the Ice Lances will do.
The second one is a blue arrow over your head which means you're marked for an Ice Tomb. You will not get a debuff so make sure to watch out for it. If you're marked move to a designated position and wait to get frozen. If you're not a target of the Ice Tombs, cleave them out ASAP.

During the Ice phase you need to get to the outer ring of the platform and make sure to avoid the Ice Waves which are coming out from the center and then rotating clockwise. Your goal in this phase is to kill the 4 Ice Crystals on the outer ring while avoiding to get hit by the Ice Waves. You can use Sprint & Redirect to get extra damage on the crystals if your guild struggles with getting them down fast however I'd suggest using it for Hagara after this phase. After she is done with the Ice Phase she gets a 100% damage debuff for which you should use Sprint to get to her ASAP.

During the Lightning Phase the goal is to activate 4-8 Lightning Conduits with pure lightning. The first 1-2 are activated by killing Elementals which spawn during this phase. The remaining ones need to be activated by forming a human chain between an active conductor and an inactive conductor. Below is an example to make it clear what I'm talking about.
[active] -- [player1] -- [player2] -- [player3] -- [player4] -- [inactive -> active]
If you're not part of the linking team stay away of any active conductor and of the elemental when it's close to dying. The middle area of the room is usually safe.
After she is done with the Lightning Phase she gets a 100% damage debuff for which you should use Sprint to get to her ASAP.


1.5
Recommended Spec: Combat
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Fading Light (requires duration as well)

Boss Strategy:
As much tank & spank as it gets. There's 2 things you need to react to but else just DPS as hard as you can.
The first thing is the Hour of Twilight. It's a 5 second cast which Ultraxion does about once every 45 seconds. Your guild will likely require you to soak this 300k hit. You can and should Feint (Cloak of Shadows if you're below 150k) to survive it. If you're not one of the soakers you will have to use the Heroic Will ability shortly before the cast ends. Heroic Will is an encounter-specific ability. You will have an extra button for it at the bottom of the screen if you use the standard action bars. If you use an AddOn like Bartender you should either keybind the "ExtraActionButton1" in the keybindings menu of WoW or make a macro for it (/click ExtraActionButton1).

The second thing to watch out for is the debuff I mentioned above. There's a chance that you'll get this debuff throughout the encounter with a random duration from 3-10 seconds. You need to use Heroic Will with <5seconds left on the debuff, preferably with <1s left on the duration.

Also note there is heavy AoE damage going out in this encounter. Help your healers and use Feint as often as possible but make sure it's ready for the Hour of Twilight.


1.6
Recommended Spec: Combat
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): n/a

Boss Strategy:
This is a 2-phase encounter. In the first phase you'll be fighting adds and in the second phase you deal with the Warmaster himself.
Your priority for the first phase will be Twilight Sapper > Twilight Dreadblade > Twilight Slayer.

Three times throughout P1 one Twilight Dreadblade and one Twilight Slayer will be dropped off. Cleave them hard. Make sure to never stand in front of the Twilight Dreadblade as he cleaves almost as good as you do! Also both of these adds do a charge which does damage to anyone in its way. You can tell by a rather small white/yellow line on the ground. Avoid these!

Twilight Sappers are also dropped off and Vanish rather soon after that. After they re-appear focus them. You can and should stun them and they're also able to be slowed (preferably not by you). They don't have much health but it's crucial that you kill them.

Also during phase 1 you will notice lots of void zones. Most of them are small and rarely a big one spawns. You absolutely should stand in the big void zone and likely the Dreadblade/Slayer will be dragged there as well so that you can continue to DPS. For the small ones it depends on your guild's strategy. However you should know that you can soak one on your own with Feint up. If you're not doing this, Feint for the big void zone.
This phase ends after 3 Dreadblades/Slayers are dead.

Warmaster is mainly tank & spank for you. He does an AoE Shout which you should Feint, especially once he reaches low health and he sometimes does a Shockwave into a random direction. It's rather easy to avoid.


1.7
Recommended Spec: Combat
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Grasping Tendrils (safe for Barrel Roll), Fiery Grip ("on raid/party member")

Boss Strategy:
This will heavily depend on your guild's strategy but here's the basics for you.
In the beginning you'll likely kill 3 of the Corruption tentacles. After that you'll dps a Hideous Amalgamation and cleave Bloods as soon as they're tanked next to the Hideous Amalgamation. Listen to your raidleader though as you may have to stop DPS on the Hideous Amalgamation to get more Bloods absorbed into him or maybe to stop cleaving to get the Hideous Amalgamation lower on health before getting more Bloods into it.

Once the Hideous Amalgamation has absorbed 9 blood and is brought to 1 health it will cast a final explosion called Nuclear Blast. Stay 10 yards away and you should be safe. This explosion lifts one of Deathwing's plates and a Burning Tendon will be able to be DPSed for a short amount of time. Make sure to have cooldowns ready for it and burst it! You can use Killing Spree on it without issues if no adds are nearby. You can DPS it from the middle area (huge hitbox) and you should do so to be safe of barrel rolls. If you kill the Burning Tendon the plate will fall off. Repeat x3 and you're done.

On the topic of barrel rolls.. Every now and then your raidleader will call out for a "Barrel Roll left/right". This means for you that you have to get on this side and stand next to an open blood wound till you get the Grasping Tendrils debuff mentioned above. This means you're safe and won't fall off when Deathwing does a barrel roll.

The other debuff is cast randomly on you or other party members by the remaining Corruptions. If you see (or hear in VT/TS) that someone has this debuff, DPS the Corruption till it stops casting the Fiery Grip. Depending on your tactic only ranged DPS might do this.


1.8
Recommended Spec: Combat
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Shrapnel (requires duration as well)

Boss Strategy:
You'll be starting on one platform out of 4 depending on your guild's strategy. For you it won't matter a lot which platform you're on though. Basically it goes down like this x4.
You start by DPSing the Arm/Wing Tentacle until a Mutated Corruption spawns in the back. Then this will be your main focus until it's dead. After the Mutated Corruption has died you get back on the Arm/Wing Tentacle. At some point a few Regenerative Bloods will spawn and move towards the boss. Cleaving them should suffice.
As long as you still have Ysera's Support, use the Dream Ability (ExtraActionButton1) whenever high group damage occurs (usually in the low % phases of the Arm/Wing Tentacles).

Now there's 2 other kinds of adds which spawn on these 4 platforms.
First, Blistering Tentacles. You can ignore those completely until Alexstrasza has stopped supporting you. When you lose Alexstrasza those will have to be killed with single-target damage. Depending on your group makeup you will or will not be assigned to kill these adds.

Secondly there's the Elementium Bolt. As soon as you're still having Nozdormu's support this one will be slowed enough that cleaving of the Arm/Wing tentacle onto it should likely be enough. If you're currently on the Mutated Corruption it depends on your ranged DPS if you need to switch or not. However, once you have lost Nozdormu you will have to move away from the bolt's impact position (and use Feint) and after it has landed you should DPS it.

After all 4 Arm & Wing Tentacles are dead, Deathwing's head will fall towards Ysera's platform. This is the time to finish him off however there's 2 more different kind of adds spawning again!

Some Elementium Fragments spawn in the back of the platform which need to be killed. Again, depending on your strategy you might be able to stick on the boss but usually those are high priority targets so help killing them! These adds have a 6 second cast called Shrapnel which also place a debuff on you for the duration of the cast. If you are targeted by this, use the Dream ability of Ysera (ExtraActionButton1) within the last few seconds of the cast (<4s)

The other adds are Elemental Terrors which have some more health. They should be tanked next to the boss so that you can get some nice cleave damage in there. Cleaving of Deathwing onto these adds should be enough.


2 Boss Encounters Heroic Mode [placeholder]
This section of the guide assumes that you read all of the normal versions and all of those things still apply unless stated otherwise. I will not mention them here again.

2.1
Recommended Spec: Subtlety
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Safe (debuff you get from the Crystal)

Boss Strategy:
The major difference in this fight is that you'll be fighting 2 Morchoks. You'll have your raid split in two groups which are doing their own thing.
What this means for you? You will have to soak the double-damage Stomp which your tanks did in normal mode. You can do this by being the person closest to the tank. So, every time before he casts the Stomp ability you run to the tank for 2 seconds, wait for the Stomp to happen with Feint up and then get back behind the boss.
If your raid has good positioning you won't have to stand in front of the boss but only inside the hitbox of Morchok while the rest of your melee (&healer/caster) stand at the back of Morchok.


2.2
Recommended Spec: : Subtlety or Combat (see strategy part)
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Disrupting Shadows (AoE knockback on dispel)

Boss Strategy:
One difference is that the Disrupting Shadows debuff now does an AoE knockback + AoE damage when dispelled. Your guild will likely heal through the damage but if your guild wants to dispel the debuff you should run out as soon as you get it.
Then the fight changes completely in "P2". What I mean with P2 is the phase which begins as soon as the orb hits the boss. 3 different kind of adds spawn which need to be killed. Those are the same creatures you know as the Zon'ozz trash: Claws, Flails & Eyes.

Possible Strategy 1: You may stick on the boss which is dragged to the 2 different claws and you cleave them to death with a Combat spec. This works very well due to the damage debuff on the boss and obviously helps with the damage requirements on the boss enrage.
Possible Strategy 2: You will have to kill plenty of different Eyes throughout the room and then get back to the boss after they're dead. If your guild wants you to do this you should play Subtlety for less damage taken, higher mobility and higher single target damage.


2.3
Recommended Spec: Combat
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): n/a

Boss Strategy:
This fight doesn't change a lot for you. I'll still give you a list of what you should do in heroic mode when the adds get through. If your group is having serious issues with the adds you may want to spec Assassination.

Black: Adds spawn. Kill them either with Blade Flurry or FoK depending on your spec. You can use Combat Readiness if you have an add hitting you and the current combination of adds is hard.
Yellow: Nothing changes for you here except your AoE preference possibly.
Red: Stay in the boss. No matter what you have to do or what you want to do, stay inside the boss' hitbox and not a meter outside of it! And use Feint!
Blue: This will depend heavily on your strategy.
Green: Nothing changes for you.
Purple: Use Recuperate. It'll help your healers a lot in this phase and it won't generate stacks.


2.4
Recommended Spec: Combat
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Frostflake (add Releases in tooltip check), Target (Ice Lance related)

Boss Strategy:
The normal phase doesn't change for you.

In the Lightning Phase you'll now have to light up 8 conductors. No real change here.

In the Frost Phase you can get one additional debuff. It slows you and you drop a frost zone which slows everyone once it gets dispelled. The idea behind the phase is to run in the inner circle and move to the outside once you get the debuff. After the dispel you get back into the inner circle. Improved Sprint, Cloak of Shadows and Vanish all help if you need to run through existing zones and fell behind.


2.5
Recommended Spec: Combat
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Fading Light (requires duration as well)

Boss Strategy:
There are two small changes for you.
The first one is a 2 minute debuff you get after you soak one Hour of Twilight. This means you'll need to have a 3-team rotation for his ultimate. This also means that you now should use Cloak of Shadows to soak the Hour of Twilight (cloak immune only, not cloak resist) and keep Feint on cooldown through the encounter.
The second change is that the Hour of Twilight cast now only lasts 3 seconds instead of 5. Be aware!


2.6
Recommended Spec: Combat
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Twilight Barrage (stacks/duration)

Boss Strategy:
Phase 1 doesn't change much. You'll get a debuff if you stand in the small zones (Barrages) which lasts for 5 seconds. If you have this debuff you should not be running into other small zones. You can survive them with Feint still however the debuff stacks and might kill you in a big zone (Onslaught).
Else it's the same fight. Still cleave stuff, still avoid charges on the ground.
Phase 2, however, is somewhat different. Goriona will land after losing some of her health and should be tanked next to the boss by your tanks. There's 2 possibilities right here.
1) Cleave hard with Goriona as your main target. This will help you if you have enrage issues and will boost your personal DPS. It'll make the fight end faster.
2) Don't cleave with Goriona as your target again. Warmaster's damage as well as his shout deals more damage the lower health he has. This will make the phase with Goriona safer but the fight will last longer.
After Goriona is gone the fight is the same as in normal mode.

1.7
Please see this thread.


1.8
Recommended Spec: Combat/Assassination
Important debuffs (PowerAuras/WeakAuras): Shrapnel (requires duration as well), Corrupting Parasite (requires duration as well)

Boss Strategy:
The encounter, itself, doesn't change much however you'll likely play it a little differently.
There is one new debuff which you can get on platforms 1-4. It will be applied to one random raid member twice per platform. As soon as the debuff runs out a parasite will spawn at your position which needs to be killed within 10-15 seconds. You'll place the Parasite in the Nozdormu zone or behind your melee camp depending on your strategy. Usually (in 25m at least) you will not have to switch to this parasite till platform 3-4.
Also, you will likely change your blood strategy on platforms 1-4. This will be the reasoning for which spec you're going to play. If your guild keeps one blood alive so that you can cleave it during Cataclysm for additional Spellweave damage, play Combat.
If your guild doesn't, spec Assassination. The blood will likely be tanked next to all of your focus DPS targets and you should keep Deadly Poison up on them for additional damage. This does not mean you should spam FoK all the time. You should simply keep DP up by FoK'ing once or twice every 10 seconds.
On the fourth platform you absolutely need to focus both the Elementium Bolt and both Parasites. You can Blade Flurry both of them if you play Combat if the Mutated Corruption is still alive (which it likely will be). The hitbox of the Mutated Corruption is HUGE.

In Phase 2, there is one new kind of add called Congealing Blood. They have 3(4?) different spawn points and they need to be slowed & killed before they reach the boss. It doesn't matter if you're Combat or Assassination - you need to help AoE them. They're the #1 priority in this phase. You should spec 1/2 Deadly Brew if you're Assassination because a 70% slow can never hurt however you should not rely on it.


3 Gearing
Normal mode lists will hopefully be done before 4.3 as well if I'll have enough time.
Trinkets are not set in stone yet.

3.1 Assassination
Head: Blackfang Battleweave Helmet (Warmaster Blackhorn)
Neck: Choker of the Vanquished Lord (Ragnaros)
Shoulder: Underdweller's Spaulders (Morchok)
Back: Dreadfire Drape (Lord Rhyolith)
Chest: Blackfang Battleweave Tunic (Ultraxion)
Wrist: Shadow Wing Armbands (Warmaster Blackhorn)
Gloves: Blackfang Battleweave Gloves (Warlord Zon'ozz)
Waist: Belt of Flayed Skin (Warlord Zon'ozz)
Legs: Blackfang Battleweave Legguards (Yor'sahj the Unsleeping)
Boots: Molten Blood Footpads (Spine of Deathwing)
Ring: Signet of Grasping Mouths (Hagara the Stormbinder)
Ring: Seal of Primordial Shadow (shared boss drop)
Trinket: Wrath of Unchaining (Spine of Deathwing)
Trinket: Vial of Shadows (shared boss drop)
Main Hand: Golad, Twilight of Aspects
Off Hand: Tiriosh, Nightmare of Ages
Ranged: Razor Saronite Chip (Morchok)

3.2 Combat
Head: Blackfang Battleweave Helmet (Warmaster Blackhorn)
Neck: Cameo of Terrible Memories (Valor Points)
Shoulder: Underdweller's Spaulders (Morchok)
Back: Dreadfire Drape (Lord Rhyolith)
Chest: Blackfang Battleweave Tunic (Ultraxion)
Wrist: Shadow Wing Armbands (Warmaster Blackhorn)
Gloves: Blackfang Battleweave Gloves (Warlord Zon'ozz)
Waist: Belt of Flayed Skin (Warlord Zon'ozz)
Legs: Blackfang Battleweave Legguards (Yor'sahj the Unsleeping)
Boots: Molten Blood Footpads (Spine of Deathwing)
Ring: Signet of Grasping Mouths (Hagara the Stormbinder)
Ring: Seal of Primordial Shadow (shared boss drop)
Trinket: Wrath of Unchaining (Spine of Deathwing)
Trinket: Starcatcher Compass (Warmaster Blackhorn)
Main Hand: Golad, Twilight of Aspects
Off Hand: Tiriosh, Nightmare of Ages
Ranged: Razor Saronite Chip (Morchok)

3.3 Subtlety
Head: Blackfang Battleweave Helmet (Warmaster Blackhorn)
Neck: Cameo of Terrible Memories (Valor Points)
Shoulder: Dark Phoenix Spaulders (Majordomo Staghelm)
Back: Dreadfire Drape (Lord Rhyolith)
Chest: Blackfang Battleweave Tunic (Ultraxion)
Wrist: Shadow Wing Armbands (Warmaster Blackhorn)
Gloves: Dark Phoenix Gloves (Baleroc)
Waist: Belt of Flayed Skin (Warlord Zon'ozz)
Legs: Blackfang Battleweave Legguards (Yor'sahj the Unsleeping)
Boots: Molten Blood Footpads (Spine of Deathwing)
Ring: Seal of Primordial Shadow (shared boss drop)
Ring: Signet of Grasping Mouths (Hagara the Stormbinder)
Trinket: Wrath of Unchaining (Spine of Deathwing)
Trinket: Vial of Shadows (shared boss drop)
Main Hand: Golad, Twilight of Aspects
Off Hand: Tiriosh, Nightmare of Ages
Ranged: Horrifying Horn Arbalest (Warlord Zon'ozz)

3.4 Normal Mode Lists
Here are the lists for normal modes only. The LFR lists should be very close, if not the same. I will not post the full lists here but I hope the profile links are enough.

Assassination: http://ptr.wowhead.com/profile=33875958
Combat: http://ptr.wowhead.com/profile=33876301
Subtlety: http://ptr.wowhead.com/profile=33876752

The list assumes no previous heroic gear else Dreadfire Drape would be the best cloak for all specs and Choker of the Vanquished Lord would be better for Assassination.


4 Fangs of the Father
It's been a while since we got one of those legendaries. And even though we're getting it in the last content patch of the expansion let's make the best out of it.
Please note that there will be quest spoilers posted in the following sections. Read only if you don't wish to discover this amazing questline on your own.

4.1 Stage 1: Jaws of Retribution
Q1 - Proving Your Worth
You start the very first quest inside Dragon Soul at Lord Afrasastrasz. Right as you enter the instance he should be to your right leading the assault.
To complete the quest you simply must pickpocket Hagara and obtain the Cryptomancer's decoder ring. While the actual task is easy you need to clear the 3 bosses before her (or join a group which has) and clear the trash gauntlet leading up to her. This cannot be done solo.
After you have gotten the decoder ring you turn in the quest at the same NPC you got the quest from. If he's not standing at the entrance anymore you should walk along the path to the Wyrmrest Temple and possibly look inside.

Q2 - A Hidden Message
Return to Orgrimmar/Stormwind City and visit the new house with the reforgers/transmogrifier/void storage guys. You should find the NPC you need to talk to rather fast considering he has no other use as of now. You'll have to pay him 10,000 gold to get the ring charged.
After 12 hours of waiting (real time, can be logged out) fly to Corastrasza at the Vermillion Redoubt, Twilight Highlands. Talk to her to get the Singed Cypher and then decode it with the ring. Turn it in at Corastrasza as well.

Q3 - To Ravenholdt
Speak to Mostrasz outside of the cave to fly to Ravenholdt with him.

Q4 - To Catch a Thief
You need to infiltrate Ravenholdt's mansion without getting caught. You'll have a red circle around you to show you your safe zone. If a guard gets within this red circle you'll be caught. If a guard is sapped or distracted into a different direction you can basically run through them though.

Run to the back of the mansion (east) and look for a "convenient rope" on the ground. Now, use your amazing ninja skills (right-click) to get up on the rooftop and climb through the unsecured vent. Watch out for a few more guards on the inside though. You can jump down the stairs and then further down into the cellar.
Watch the nice cutscene and then turn in the quest at Wrathion inside the mansion.

Q5 - Our Man in Gilneas
Fly to Gilneas and find Zazzo Twinklefingers.


Q6 - Assassinate Creed
The fun begins! First off, my recommendations for this quest are this combat spec and Dense Embersilk Bandages. It can be done in many, many ways but we'll talk more about the fight later.

You'll have the same red safe zone as earlier but this time there's way more guards and a longer route to master. I strongly advise you to ignore the following movie and try it out, yourself, first. It's a lot of fun stealthing around, distracting and sapping to save your surrounded ass while trying to get to Hiram Creed.
There are many working routes but if you fail to find one on your own, don't worry. Plenty of others have failed before you! Here's a video with one working route made by Alcois which was originally posted here. Show him some love if the video helped you!

Now, for the fight against Lord Hiram Creed. There's many ways to do this using all your rogue tools available. However I can suggest a rather easy one. Use the modified combat spec, keep Recuperate up at all times and interrupt as many casts as possible. Use Feint whenever he casts his void zone (Consuming Darkness) and avoid his Shadow Breath by simply moving out of it. Now, every time possible (once per minute) use a 5 combo point Revealing Strike -> Kidney Shot on him and use a bandage. This along with the 100% Recuperate uptime should be plenty of heal to win the fight. Use Evasion and Combat Readiness as well (not at the same time!) at some point during the fight.
Rogues with high end raiding gear will notice you won't even need modified glyphs/spec to survive his damage. If your gear isn't that great though, use consumables! Buff food, flask, stamina scrolls, Kings drums are all helping your damage and your Recuperate ticks.
Turn in the quest outside of Gilneas.

Q7 - The Deed is Done
Fly back to Ravenholdt and turn in the quest at Wrathion. This will reward you with Fear and Vengeance.

4.2 Stage 2: Maw of Oblivion
Q8 - Cluster Clutch
The farming of raid bosses starts. For this quest, you need 333 Shadowy Gems. Those are obtainable by looting Elementium Gem Clusters of Dragon Soul raid bosses and then opening them. 10m bosses will drop 1 cluster and 25m bosses will drop 1-3. Every cluster contains 3-9 gems.
This quest is turned in at Ravenholdt again.

Q9 - Our Man in Karazhan
Fly to Karazhan.

Q10 - Blood of the Betrayer
This quest is similiar to Q6 but a little harder.
You need to enter the Master's Cellar here (<pic>). Walk straight till you get to a rather huge room. You need to enter the long hallway to the right of you and get to its end to encounter Nalice. This is considerably harder than the stealthing part in Gilneas. Learn the ways of the patrolling mobs and use Distract/Sap smartly! If anyone has a movie for this part and the permission of the owner, please PM me.

For the fight against Nalice, I again recommend the modified combat spec and some bandages. Neither of it is neccessary but it helps. Keep up the Improved Recuperate during the whole fight.
The encounter has 3 phases in the following pattern: P1 - P2 - P1 - P2 - P3

In phase 1 there are 3 different abilities you need to counter. The first 2 are announced by an emote, the third one you'll have to notice yourself.
Arcane Infused Armor needs to be countered by using expose armor on her. Any combo point amount will suffice.
You should save your stun DR for Arcane Infused Weapon. If she casts this stun her (with Revealing Strike -> Kidney Shot preferably). Gouge and/or Evasion also works if you currently have no combo points. If you're low on health use a bandage during this stun.
She also randomly buffs herself with Enrage. Simply use Shiv to remove this buff.

In Phase 2 you only have one goal: deactivate the arcane devices. You'll be teleported to one side of the room and you need to run to the opposite side and simply right-click them. You should save Sprint for this as you'll only have a limited time! There are some arcane zones on the floor which deal about 15-20k damage. You should avoid these, however getting to the devices in time is more important.

Phase 3 is the same as P1 with one additional spell. Blazing Shadows is cast on you randomly. You can cloak this once and for the other times simply keep moving.

Q11 - Victory in the Depths
Fly back to Ravenholdt. This quest will reward you with The Sleeper and The Dreamer.

4.3 Stage 3: Fangs of the Father
Q12 - Sharpening Your Fangs
You need to collect Elementium Gem Clusters..again! Those are the same items you needed for the previous farm quest however you don't need to open them anymore and eliminate the RNG with this. 10m bosses will drop 1 cluster and 25m bosses will drop 1-3.
This quest is turned in at Ravenholdt.

Q13 - Patricide
You only need to kill Deathwing in the Madness of Deathwing encounter and loot a Fragment of Deathwing's Jaw for this quest.
Turning this quest in at Wrathion in Ravenholdt will reward you with Golad, Twilight of Aspects and Tiriosh, Nightmare of Ages. Congratulations!


Change log
17-11-11 Small cosmetic changes, first draft of BiS lists
20-11-11 Stage 1 of legendary chain
26-11-11 BiS lists final, normal mode lists added
28-11-11 Legendary quest chain
08-12-11 Heroic bosses 1-5, minor changes in the other parts

Thank you so much for this. Mods, please make it a sticky!!

Good start. I haven't read through it (yet), but there's a few adjustments I would make to make the OP look nicer:

-Put a '.' after the number title for each section. ie. '1. Introduction'. Probably a typo on your part, but I thought I'd point it out.
-I wouldn't even label the boss encounters as '1.x', personally. Just put the anchor beside the image and leave it at that, the number doesn't fit well with the image in my opinion.
-Sub-headings look a little too much like the standard headings. Maybe make sub-headings italic, without bold.
-Add italics for sub-sub headings, like 'Recommended spec' and 'Boss strategy' in your boss guide section. Or do something to make them stand out a little from the rest of the text.

I don't know what you plan to do with the section dedicated to the specs, but I think you should just add a general stat priority list and BiS list, a full blown guide for each spec would be a little out of place I think. Maybe link to EJ/other guides for spec-specific details.

I vote sticky!

This very well may become a sticky if we have your permission. It is very well done, organized, and will be a huge help to many in the community.

I do have concern that you more then likely be holding off Heroic content info until your guild is 8/8. Do note if this becomes a sticky and others provide credible Heroic info before the end of your progress, myself and other moderators will hold the right to add content to that section until your willing to maintain it. I do not believe its fair to promote this with a sticky if its completion is "handcuffed" or delayed by your guilds progression. I personally hope you have a quick clear so the very best info can be provided quickly. Once again, thank you for the quality guide.

Great looking guide so far. Thanks for the work.

Originally Posted by RogueDurr

It is very well done, organized, and will be a huge to many in the community.

A huge what, exactly?

I have a question about Morchok, do you assume Cheat Death in the Sub spec, or did you just forget while writing this guide that he does a stomp immediately after he stops channeling BBotE, which you really can't soak on your own, no matter if you feint or not?

Gah, anyone else find it ironic that stickied topics are less viewed because they're sticky and everyone just goes straight past them until they get the unsticikied topics? Or is that just me that does that?

Thanks for the guide, any kind of eta on when you'll get the FotF section done?