For anyone that has visited the class forums in the past month, it comes as no surprise that many rogues are feeling some pain in the arena. After significant increases to cooldowns and a decrease in utility via the separation of Shadowstep and Preparation (combined with a reduced number of skills affected by Preparation’s reset), rogues seem to be fighting an uphill battle against other physical damage dealers.

State of Mind or Reality?

Despite what many people may feel about the issues affecting rogues, over exaggeration and bias can surely affect perception. So do current arena statistics back up what many rogues are feeling? According to www.crossladder.com, rogues now represent only 2% of the entire 3v3 bracket (compared to 18% for warrior and 11% for hunters). Across all brackets, rogues are represented on 3% of the teams.

If we examine the upper end of the 3v3 bracket, more is revealed about the current state of the class. After adjusting for current rating vs. team rating issues and activity, Crossladder reports that 14 teams (across both US and EU servers) above 2200 are using a rogue in the main line-up. Expanding the selection to teams above 2000 yields only 42 rogue-based compositions. Excluding RBG rating and incorporating rogue-based 5v5 teams (where the rogue has current rating over 2200), the story becomes more clear. From arena alone, only 19 active rogue teams in the world are eligible for tier two weapons at the moment.

Diving Deeper

With the start of this expansion, many US-based arena junkies migrated to the Bloodlust battlegroup. While arguments could be made against it, many believe BG9 to be the most competitive US battlegroup at the moment. So how are rogues doing in a more intense competitive environment? According to current armory standings, no rogues have current rating above 2200 in 3v3 on BG9.

Is Anything Working?

Now, we must take this with a grain of salt, as it is still early in the season. Many rogues may be team hopping to find better compositions or to play with other friends. Some rogues are still able to break the mold, and stand above the rest. Rzn, for example, has had great success on BG9 running RMD and RMS (at 2300-2500 MMR).

So besides a few “heroes”, what is working for the majority of higher rated rogues? According to Crossladder, the most popular setups above 2000 are RLS (7), RPS (7) and RPM (14). Narrowing the field to 2200 teams, we see RPM at the top (5) and RPS in close second (4). It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the most popular comps of the last two expansions (which could extrapolate to the most practiced) continue to be the rogue’s bread and butter teams.