Whit dae ye mean ah’m shifty lookin’? Did ah ever dae somethin’ to you?! Hmph.  Seems everybody these days thinks a rogue is some sort of bad guy or somethin’ *grumble

I am concerned.  There seems to be a prevalent belief amongst players that rogues are mean / idiots / kids / ninjas (not the cool bandana-wearing type).  I really don’t like that fact that people will assume, when I join a group, that I am one of the above.  I’ve never ninja’d something, I am not a child and I don’t think I act like one (with strangers, anyway) and I most definitely try not to be mean.  I am a happy person, an optimistic one.

Why is it, then, that rogues have such a bad rep?  I mean, I’ve personally had more issues with mages being arses to me but it doesn’t mean I’ll assume that any mage I group with is an arse.  What I think of people is usually based on their performance or manner.  They get kudos even if they do mess up, if they realise and apologise for their mistakes as it at least means they are aware of them (and is a courtesy I hope will be extended to me when I mess up).

So, why do people hate rogues?  The class makes up around 12% of the player base according to Warcraft Realms - not the highest but equal to warriors and just below hunters in popularity.  Hunters have had a bad rep in general for a long time but it’s only recently I’ve noticed such a high rogue hostility outside of pvp so whats the deal?

Stunlocking- Nothing can be more frustrating than not having control over your own character.  A lot of frustration about rogues seems to stem from the fact that a lollermaces rogue can keep someone stunned whilst smashing their health into the ground.  Calmly explaining that I hate pvp and couldn’t stunlock or burst damage my way out of a paper bag makes no difference.  All rogues are stunlocking buggers with…

‘No skill’ - It takes no skill to play a rogue, apparently.  It’s ‘easymode’ since all rogues can stunlock everyone to death.  See above.  About the only time I’d agree with this is when a rogue is weilding lollermaces - procs are not skill and this works for warriors, too.   However, learning to keep someone locked down takes a little time and effort.  Doing it well and being able to recover from their attempts to break out of it even more so.

From both these points, all I have to say is ‘don’t hate rogues just because they handed your arse to you in pvp’.

Also, rogue dps in pve is simple.  This does not mean that it is easy to be a good rogue.  To make the most of my dps I had to sit down and work on my combat cycle - yes rogues might have a reputation for sinister strike spam and that is partly true but I have to keep up SnD 100% of the time, try to juggle so that rupture has high uptime, too, and time my burst cooldowns to maximise both of these - just like most other classes.  Oh and I have to do it whilst running in and out of melee range for most bosses.  Now, this is something I, personally, revel in.  When we have a melee on Azgalor I ask to be that melee.  Standing killing infernals is deathly boring and though running in and out of a fire is less ’safe’ I know how to deal with it and relish the challenge it brings to playing my cycles.

Either way, I don’t think rogues are especially easy compared to other classes in pve dps situations.

Ninja-ing - Apparantly rogues are common committers of the foul deed of ninja-ry.  Now, I’ve never experienced this and never done it myself so I really don’t understand where it comes from - rogues are limited as to what they can wear (leather, cloth) and can wield a far smaller number of weapons than, say, a warrior or hunter.  I can’t explain this one as, like I say, I’ve never experienced it.

DPS - This is an issue of sheer e-peen and I have seen this working both ways.  Rogues are seen as being concerned overly with their dps.  Guess what?  It’s all a rogue can bring to most encounters (bar a little cc) so it will be foremost in their thoughts.  I have seen rogues picked on for not being top dps even when horribly undergeared comparative to whoever is preening and I have seen rogues who strut their epeen about being highest dps versus other class with dual roles or responsibilites.  This is a player-by-player issue and is committed to some degree by all classes capable of dpsing.

Any arse who cares more baout his personal dps than the raid / group is an arse - it doesn’t matter what class s/he is.

Loot Entitlement - This is another one where I can see from both sides of the argument - having to compete with feral druids, fury warriors, enhancement shaman and hunters for some loot can be irritating (as I’m sure it is for them to have to compete with rogues) but everyone is entitled to the loot which will help them progress.
However, the amount of bitching you hear when someone even suggests that a piece is ‘nice for rogues’ is astounding.  All I hear from most is ‘must justify why I want to take this piece of loot’ rather than being able to sit down and say ‘Yeah, nice loot for a rogue and, hey, my fury warrior would love that too’.  Some stuff will actually benefit one class more than another but, to be honest, it really depends on the player making best use of it so is more case-by-case.

I’d love to hear anything you could add to this list - even if just to be aware of possible prejudices I might face if I leave the swaddling of my usual guild groups.

However, I can’t let it rest at that, so I’m going to add some reasons you should like rogues.

Stuns - Not stunlocking, per say, but stuns in general - quite often myself and another rogue will take a necromancer in Mount Hyjal and trade stuns, burning down an untanked / un cc’d mob.  They can also take the heat from a healer in an aggro touchy fight, giving the tank a few seconds to pick the battered mob up before it chews its way through the squishy.

Vanish - Unlike some other dps classes the tank should not need to worry so much about aggro concerning rogues as a vanish will drop him/her below the radar with concern to theat even if their dps is phenomonal.

Lockboxes - Well, noone else is going to unlock those 20 Eternium Lockboxes you have stashed on your bank alt…

Lockpicking - I can’t count the number of times I’ve been asked to open Arca / SH / DM / whatever instance door when noone has a key.  Thank your local rogue for bothering to spend the time maxing their lockpicking skill!

Ok, so most of these are pretty arbitrary but, to be honest, you should appreciate any and every good player.  Their class does not matter, at all!  If someone is going to be a twit then they will be one irregardless.  Believing someone will be a bad player because of their class is unfair and will often make you judge them harsher than if you’d assumed neither way to begin with - thus fulfilling your (negative) expectations.

Appreciate any player who is good - no matter what their class.  Some classes are seen as ‘easier’ (lol faceroll huntard, warlol, rog) but to be great at something you have to try.  It’s usually obvious when someone is trying and when they’re not.

So, go out there and give your local lovable ruffian some /hugs!