Difficulty of Rogues

[Deleted]

Hiya, im trying to decide on what class to level as a PVP alt: Frost Mage or Sub Rogue. I have looked at the talents and abilities of each class and i love the look of both. Thing is, i hear that Rogues are quite difficult to play and extremely hard to master, and as Im a casual player i would not be able to invest much time in it, while Frost Mages i hear are downright easy.

So basically, are Rogues easy enough to have fun in BGs and LOW RATED Arena (like i said, im a casual player) and to win a few duels and such? Or am i better off rolling a frost mage?

[Dispirit]

you're right. it is much easier to do well on a mage than it is on a rogue with little practice. you should go for mage.

[Deleted]

I have both, and personally i would say that a mage is easier to do well with but harder to master, rogues have a high starting point, don't really know how i should put it but the skill level of rogues feels like this [---------good---master] while mages feel like this [--good----------------------mastered] However i got way more experience as mage then i do as rogue so someone who got bit more with both might give you a more fair result.

[Gnu]

Rogues aren't difficult to play and you can have fun playing one casually. It's what I do.
However, there's a huge gap between an decent rogue and a good one. And to be a good one it certainly requires a lot of practice and probably also a certain degree of innate skill (that I obviously lack). But if you play often enough you'll definitely have fun.

I also have a lvl 90 mage but I don't play it much. It's much easier to have the feeling that you're "good" since the class is easier to get used to and has so much potential. But it's probably as hard to master as a rogue.

You should try them both and see which gameplay you like the most. What are you playing as main? do you like casters? melee?

[DechCJC]

There's not a single class that doesn't take a shit-load of skill to play properly with. It's very easy to just unload damage onto players though, play whatever you want if you just wanna mess around in random bgs or duels.

[Boricha]

I have mained both and play both very frequently. I would say Mages are much easier to just pick up and play than a rogue. Both classes are quite fun and have their own niche but rogues require more practice to do really well. At a higher skill level I also believe that in the end you can accomplish more on a mage than a rogue, perhaps it has a higher skill cap. Since you are talking about non and low rated stuff you really won't see a large difference either way but Mage is easier top the KB and damage meters with.

[Deleted]

You should try them both and see which gameplay you like the most. What are you playing as main? do you like casters? melee?

I have a 90 Frost DK, and a Destro Lock who i never play So yeah, only played Mellee in PVP and would be interested to try Ranged.

Any more opinions, thoughts? Hows PVE? Both mage and rogue? How fun are rotations or such for fire, frost and the rogue specs?

[Avengerx]

One thing I'd like to add is that for pve 90% of WoW content prefers ranged classes. For pvp I'd say that mages are easier to get into although a skilled rogue can (with the 5.2 buffs) match most classes, the silly positioning of backstab, rogue mechanics coupled with a slight lag can really make your life hard and unfun.

[Mausr]

shiny days of pvp-rogues were over when mop hit(even 5.2 didn't help much).
at pve i find ranged classes are more fun to play. at pvp side, things are not at rouges side either. so maybe mage can be a better option.
for more challenge try hunter or a boomkin

[Deleted]

There's a huge difference between pvp and pvp.

if you want to arena, rogue can be be very hard to master. You're kind of squishy and very CD dependant. But if you want to play BGs and rBGs its a bit easier because you are rarely focused (at least in cata it was like that. I don't pvp anymore that much since MoP)

[Nessus]

Mage is easier.

[Battlebeard]

Mage comes with elite gear when you hit 90.
Rogues come only with frustration of being the worst PvP class by far.

I giggled at this thread, "should I play the best class or the worst class?" is what I read, and the answer is obvious. Mage is OP, has always been OP and looks like they always will be as well.

Rogue was good in vanilla, good in TBC, good in Wotlk, decent in Cata (except DS patch, then we were good again), and completely worthless and unplayable in MoP.

[MiLLeR]

Mage comes with elite gear when you hit 90.
Rogues come only with frustration of being the worst PvP class by far.

I giggled at this thread, "should I play the best class or the worst class?" is what I read, and the answer is obvious. Mage is OP, has always been OP and looks like they always will be as well.

Rogue was good in vanilla, good in TBC, good in Wotlk, decent in Cata (except DS patch, then we were good again), and completely worthless and unplayable in MoP.

Sorry mate but this is about PvP, sub rogues are very strong at the moment. Im not sure what you are basing your opinion on? Granted being a mage, you will always be in a good spot (Trying hard to think of a season where they werent glad viable) but gearing both will be a pain in the ass no matter what. Both have quite high skill caps, and with rogues you have to know when and how to use your CD's or yes, you will basically schmelt. But same can be said for a mage.

They have such vastly different styles of play that its a hard call, as its up to you (OP) to decide what suits your style better. I for one am very lacking in caster skills (as I basically only play melee) but the similarity if one could be drawn from the two, would be, you basically have a button for every situation, so knowing other class's, skills/talents/buffs/debuffs is crucial to success~

Rogues are VERY fun if you know what you are doing, however frost mages (I found) were much easier to step into in a casual PvP setting~

[Battlebeard]

Mage is the absolute counter class for Rogue

Blink, Iceblock, Frostnova, Ring of Frost, The stun (can't remember the name), Sheep, and lots of other stuff. And INSANE damage.

Main problem is Frostnova though, you are frozen to the ground. You can't shadowstep out of it, you can't attack, you just stand there getting smashed.
You can use cloak of course, but would you waste the cloak on a frostnova? Would you waste a vanish on Frostnova? or Trinket?

Frostnova can be done so often, that even if you use vanishx2, cloak and trinket, 4 escapes, then you will still getting more novas after, and you have No protection for other stuff and other CC. Also, mage can kite a rogue with that slow thing, if you use shadowstep on that one, the mage will just blink away. Sticking on a mage is not an option, cause of their shield etc, you can never burst them, and when you start, the mage freeze you to the ground, if you cloak it, the mage is already far away, if you then shadowstep him, he will blink, if you reach him without SS, he will just iceblock, after iceblock, he freeze you to the ground again, and this start all over. And, they also hurt, so you have to worry about not dying the same time.

A skilled frostmage can beat a rogue so crazily easy I'm not even trying anymore.

A Frostmage even did 2v2 solo, and beaten gladiators solo etc, can't remember his name, he has a very popular stream on twitch though.

[Deleted]

There's not a single class that doesn't take a shit-load of skill to play properly with. It's very easy to just unload damage onto players though, play whatever you want if you just wanna mess around in random bgs or duels.

frost Death Knight

[Deleted]

Rogue is a very complicated class to master in Arenas.
All those focus target kicks, blinds, gouges, shadowstep sap's etc. Also a lot of cooldown, energy and combopoint management involved. I've played most classes and i think playing rogue is pretty intimidating because of all the skills i need to develop.

Warrior is a plane breeze to pick up and learn by comparison. What's there to master? Weaponswap shield wall and Focus banner intervene?

[Speaknoevil]

Rogues can perform reasonably well in BGs/RBGs at a low skill level at this point in the game.
__

Once you're at a place where your gear is about the same as other people's gear, and you VS them in arena rogues can be difficult, but nowhere near as difficult as they used to be.

At the highest levels of play mages and rogues are fairly similar in difficulty.

There's not a single class that doesn't take a shit-load of skill to play properly with. It's very easy to just unload damage onto players though, play whatever you want if you just wanna mess around in random bgs or duels.

Frost Death Knight, Blood Death Knight, Beast Mastery Hunter

I hate Beast Mastery even though I play it in arena, it is mind numbing, if you want a simple spec pick one of the three above this line.

[Deleted]

Play with what you prefer Melee or Ranged. I had a Mage in Wrath / Cata and didn't enjoy it in PvP. I have a Rogue in MoP and really enjoy the PvP side of things. But that's because I prefer melee classes.

[Verain]

"Frost Death Knight, Blood Death Knight, Beast Mastery Hunter"

I think I'll second this.


If you really are stuck between the mage and the rogue, I would go with the mage. My reasoning isn't so much that the mage has a higher skill floor (though it does), but that you'll be able to contribute more with less gear as a mage, and if you play very casually you'll find yourself in that situation, I suspect.