[Arena] Rogue + S.Priest in-depth guide

[darbdavys]

I did not write this, so i don't take credit for myself, just found it on some forums and think it might be useful for some of you. I just added links for items here.

I found myself giving advice to a lot of people on a lot of very similar questions involving this set up. I got myself Gladiator in season 1 with this set up, and my current 2v2 is over 2300 as this set up. This is a very in depth look at Shadow Priest + Rogue 2v2, which should stay relevant through out s3, unless some unexpected change occurs.

Oh and I wrote this from the Rogue perspective for personal convenience... a Priest could just as easily read this, though.

Poison: Wound MH, Crippling OH. End of story.

Specs:
First of all, you should be specced something like 0/34/27 or 0/33/28 or 0/31/30. You'll always want nerves of steel over 4% AP. Resisting CC is much, much more important than doing a tiny bit more dps (keep in mind that 4% AP is not 4% more dps).
Your priest should be specced something like 18/0/43. Really it's up to personal preference. This is my priest's spec, and he has the imp mind blast because all 3 of our arena teams are full dps (even 5v5), meaning he just went for max dps.

Gear:
Gear is obviously a very large factor for this, and every, set up. What you want is your priest to have full survivability, and you to go full dps.

Rogue: Wear a good poppable dps trinket like Berserker's Call or Bloodlust Brooch, if you have one. Gem to maximize DPS. Personally, I'm gemmed for full AP. You'll also want to enchant almost entirely for DPS, definitely not stam. You'll want 15 resil on your chest though. It's simply the best chest enchant. As SP + Rogue, double mongoose > executioner MH mongoose OH. This is because you'll often target a high armor target, like a warrior, where executioner is least effective. Mongoose is 3% crit, 120 AP, some dodge, armor, and 3% haste. Don't underestimate 3% haste. Most of your dps is from white hits, so 3% haste is about as effective as 3% crit on high resil targets. Also, in case you were wondering, executioner does not stack if it procs from both weapons like mongoose does. You're going to want at least 300 resil, which is impossible to not have in full arena gear.

Priest: Your priest might want to gem partially for resil, and partially for spell damage, depending on his/her current resil. He/she'll want about 400 resil minimum. My shadow priest is very undergeared at 360ish resil, and it hurts, trust me. Once you hit 400 resil, though, you should be fine to go for more burst capability. The Shadow Priest isn't going to die that fast unless there's a Rogue on the enemy team. The 32 Resil self-heal trinket can be very nice. The new spell-dmg + self heal trinket is probably better though, unless you're really low on resil.

The priest being in full arena gear with loads of resil while you're in full t6 with twin blades can be advantageous. Pretty much you can just let people go for your priest, then pop out and smite them. You'll definitely want survivability gear yourself, though. Even though T6 can be a huge advantage for your combo... if I had to choose between 0 resil and huge dps vs. good survivability and okay dps, I'd still go with the good survivability. This is simply because a lot of teams will be smart enough to switch to you, especially if they've fought you before.
The best thing to do, though, if you have PvE gear, is to wear it against new teams, and then switch to arena gear when you get the same teams again. That would be hugely advantageous. Most of us don't have full t6 or twin blades, though, so we have to settle for terribad arena gear.

Matches:
I'll start with what I think are the easiest match ups, moving to the hardest. I'll try to keep the advice open regardless of race, but some fights vary depending on your race. This is all based upon the many, many arena matches I've played. This is not theory craft. It is entirely experience based.

Warlock + Druid: I feel this is the easiest set up for a Shadow Priest + Rogue, even if you don't play it perfectly. I've gotten pretty unlucky, and messed up a few times, and still won against this set up in high rated matches.
The warlock will be mounted with a fel hunter out. You can see what his buffs are since 2.3, and so you'll know if his partner is a Rogue or a Druid. The druid will be stealthed, and unfindable (unless he's terrible). Your priest should be mounted, and you should probably have fear ward.

You want to open on the lock before getting knocked out of stealth, without using sprint. This shouldn't be too hard with MoD. On Nagrand, you can simply go far around the side so you aren't seen, as many will rush straight in to find you. On Blades Edge you can go along the bottom up the back to get them.

If somehow you find the druid in stealth, just kill him there. Blind the warlock, and have your priest then silence the warlock. More, likely, though, you'll 1v1 the warlock until the druid pops out to heal. Your priest should hop off his/her mount to dispel you and the lock. If the druid likes to stay in stealth until the lock gets low, you can pop BF from the start, and you'll get the druid out a lot quicker.

Once the druid pops out to heal, immediately blind the warlock and sprint for the druid. You should now blow AR (and BF if you didn't already). You should probably get a 1-2 point SnD and then a 5 point KS. Now here's a really important part: you have to pay attention to the lock and CoS before you get feared, especially during the KS. The druid will most likely die during the KS. If he doesn't, just make sure you have plenty of energy to shiv him. As prep, killing the druid should be extremely easy, hence this being the easiest match up. Soon as the druid is dead, your priest should pop out to heal and dispel, as it's very possible for a warlock to 1v2 two people who don't know how to play.

Shadow Priest + UA lock: This fight is very straight forward. Simply CC one and kill the other. Which to CC doesn't matter very much, as they're both very squishy. Fear ward shouldn't matter with this set up. Originally, we would kill the priest first, but lately we've found the lock to be a better target. This match up is pretty rare nowadays, which sucks for sp+rogue, as this is a very easy fight for us.

Hunter + Priest: This set up is also extremely easy, at least as far as I've seen.
If they play really aggressively, and rush in, you can probably get a sap off and open on one of them. If not though, you want to get out of the way, and avoid a flare. Your priest should avoid getting hit by viper sting.
You have to check the buffs of the hunter and priest to see which has fear ward. You want to kill the one with fear ward. Getting a sap off is a big plus, and often possible. Pretty much just sap>fear>blind the hunter, if you're killing the priest. You can sometimes get a vanish>sap after the blind, which is very GG. If you're killing the hunter, sap>silence>fear>blind>fear, ect. If you have the chance, you might need to do a ninja gouge or kick to stop a heal. Due to frost traps, though, that's usually not an option.

All in all, you shouldn't have much trouble downing one of the two as prep. Once one is dead, your priest will probably be oom or near it, and should pop out to heal/drink.

While fighting this set up, if killing the priest is giving you trouble, you could probably just stay on the hunter for so long that their priest goes oom, and you just pretty much 1v2 them. Really not too tough a fight.

Warrior + Druid: Warrior + Druid tends to be a joke of a fight. You can win a lot of rating off of some extremely easy war/druids. Beware, though, some warriors are actually good at surviving, and will throw on a shield to spell reflect, and intervene to save themselves.

The Warrior will start off mounted. Have your priest rush him. You should soon open on the warrior. Just before my cheap shot wears off, I always blow my evasion to avoid any annoying spamstrings he might try to lay on me. You'll probably want to blow AR/BF from the start, with a 5pt SnD or Rupture. Your priest should spam dispels on the warrior.

Once the druid pops out, immediately silence and your priest should head towards the druid. You should then sprint over and blind. Make sure you do it before silence wears off. Your priest may or may not get in fear range of the druid before the trinket. Hopefully your priest gets in range, fears, and the fight is pretty much over right there. You can quite often get a vanish>sap on the druid, due to a lack of CC breaks.

If your priest can't get in range to fear, just forget it and concentrate on dpsing the warrior. You can, quite often, simply out dps the druid's heals.

If the warrior is particularly amazing at surviving your damage for some reason (and some are), you can simply have your priest open on the warrior, get a VE up, and once the druid pops out, you get on him. Your priest will usually switch to the druid to kill him, and you shouldn't have too much trouble killing him. Just remember the things about lock/druid. Make sure you evasion preemptively. You'll probably want to trinket an intercept to keep the druid from getting away.
Sometimes, when you get on the druid, you can simply CS>Gouge>KS>Blind. If the druid is bad and trinkets your KS, when you blind him, the warrior is going to die. You can vanish/stealth > sap the druid after the blind, but you're going to want your priest to fear. If you get the fear off, there's no way the warrior will out live it. This doesn't work a lot, though, because some druids are smart, and wait to trinket blind. It's quite difficult to get in range for fear after the trinket, and you might get ****** with 0 wound on the warrior.

Shadow Priest + Frost Mage: I haven't fought many of these, but they could increase in popularity with 2.3.2. This could be a much harder fight than I'm making it, but I've never really fought one that was hard (possibly due to player skill). Pretty much, Frost mages are a counter to SP+Rogue, but this fight didn't seem too tough.

You should easily get a sap on the Mage, but don't if you think the priest is simply going to run away on his mount. A priest running away on his mount is the worst thing that can happen for you in arena. If you have to, just shiv the priest out of stealth. Remember, priests have a high stun resist chance. The chance of a priest resisting my CS is too high for me to open with it.
Pretty much you just rush the Priest down while avoiding CC from the mage. You'll want to pop a preemptive CoS if you need to. Remember to watch what the mage is doing. You have 1 trinket to break sheep. Don't rely on your priest to dispel you, or your target can get away.
You can simply sap>silence>fear>blind the mage, to lay down some pretty good cc on him. Unfortunately, he can break all of it but silence, so it's merely an inconvenience for him.
You should be able to down the priest, but your priest might need to pop out to heal a bit before your target dies. It's okay though, because you can solo a shadow priest in your sleep. Just make sure your priest doesn't die. That would be a bad thing. The 3rd time we fought this set up, my priest died just before theirs, and I had to 1v1 a frost mage with 0 cds and no prep. It's not pleasant, so avoid it.

Holy or Disc Priest + Soul Link Lock: This fight is not too hard, but definitely not as easy as SP+UA. Your priest should usually have the fear ward. You're going to want to really lock the lock down in CC, and kill his priest quickly as possible. You should be able to get a sap off, but again, a priest running away on his mount is BAD. We've actually lost quite a few games to this set up simply because the priest was able to run away from me. So open on the priest, pop AR/BF, and be very careful with the lock. Be ready to preemptively CoS a fear. You'll want to silence, fear, and blind the warlock. This fight can get a little frantic with all the CC the lock can put out... but just don't let the priest cast a heal, and you should be fine. Your priest, again, may need to pop out to heal before the enemy priest dies. Remember, dispels are very important!

Resto Druid + Rogue: Very, very few of these exist, so I'm not that sure how strong they are anymore. I've only fought maybe 2-3 this season. What you do, though, is have your priest run over to where the sight buff spawns. Wait there, and just stand in a position where you won't get sapped from behind. You can kill either the druid or the rogue, and it shouldn't be that hard. If you're on the Rogue, he shouldn't be doing too much dps to your priest, and you can fairly easily blow him up. Just remember to silence and blind the druid. Fear if possible. Remember ruptures so that the rogue can't just vanish and hide for a full heal.

Warrior + Pally: The difficulty of this fight is very, very gear dependent. If the pally is in full merciless, this fight is actually very easy. If the pally is in full t6, this fight is very difficult.
Go for a sap on the pally, you should get it off. Your priest should dispel the warrior to remove blessing of sacrifice (the pally should have applied it), and then dot him up. You'll want to open on the warrior with probably an AR and SnD to get the wound going quickly. Soon as sap breaks, fear.
Remember to DISPEL SPAM -- Blessing of sacrifice can **** you.
Blind as soon as, or before, the fear breaks. The pally will almost always bubble now. Your priest should try and remove the bubble. I usually have KS up and ready on the warrior when the pally bubbles, and I use it to prevent the warrior from pummeling the mass dispel.
Mass dispel seems to almost always get resisted, which sucks. If it gets resisted, you should just forget it, and have your priest continue to dispel/light dps the warrior. Once bubble runs out, silence. Now's when you AR/BF and blow everything you have. Soon as silence runs out, fear again. This is the most likely fight for you to ninja gouge or ninja kick the pally to prevent a holy light. Gouging or kicking a holy can really save you the fight.

Pretty much, after the bubble is down, you should easily be able to kill the warrior.

The reason I said t6 on the pally is terrible is that you can not kill the pally. He will simply run away from you, spamming cleanse, while the warrior spamstrings the both of you, and you both die.

Even if the pally is in full t6, you have to just kill the warrior. Yes, out dpsing a T6 pally's heals is very difficult.

Warlock + Rogue: I've never fought UA lock + Rogue, but that would undoubtedly be insanely easy. You would simply rush the lock, and kill him. Just open a fear on the rogue, then blind. If the rogue focuses you, then just evasion/vanish ect to avoid being cc'd by him. I can't imagine it being hard to kill a UA lock, or even let him do much damage.

SL lock + Rogue, though, is a bit tricky. You must kill the rogue, or you will lose. If I felt I had no chance of finding the Rogue, I would simply open on the lock. If I were really scared of a sap, I'd even open with a weapon throw on the lock, then sprint to him. Once the Rogue pops out, you want to switch to him, and begin CCing the lock. You'll probably want to handle it like Druid/Lock, and simply blind, then silence, then fear the lock. The Rogue will be tough to deal with. Just evasion asap, and vanish>CS like a pro. You'll want to make sure he definitely has rupture on him. Just remember, if he has rupture on him, he'll eventually die. He can't remove rupture, and he has no healer. Pretty much communication is very important in this fight. Make sure you know when the lock used his trinket, and when the rogue used CoS. Once the Rogue uses CoS, pretty much the priest can dot him up and just heal, because the rogue will die from there.
Once the Rogue is dead, be very careful. Your priest should definitely be dispelling and healing. As I said earlier, a good lock at full hp can easily solo 2 baddies.
Shadow Priest + Rogue: This fight is actually almost entirely dependent upon race. If you're double UD, you're going to win against alliance of the same set up.
The best strat I have for the mirror match is to simply wait by your priest. If they're alliance, get somewhere a human rogue wouldn't find you, but not far from your priest. Just wait for their rogue to open on your priest.
Once the Rogue is out, immediately get on him and blow AR/BF. You'll want to KS after CS before the evasion. He'll probably trinket your ks, so you might want to get a rupture on first. Also, be ready to vanish cheap shot.
The first thing your priest should do is SILENCE THE OTHER PRIEST. You'll want to blind/fear immediately afterwards.
Killing their Rogue hasn't been hard for us, ever, really. It's probably the best strat for a mirror match.

Holy or Disc Priest + Rogue: This fight, again, depends almost entirely on your racials. The undead should win this fight. You pretty much CC one and kill the other, that simply.
You're going to want to kill the one with fear ward, probably. I prefer killing the rogue over the priest, though. Some times I feel like my best shot at winning is driving their priest oom and out lasting them.
This is a very, very situational fight, so you need to just think on your feet.

Don't forget your ninja kicks/gouges on the priest, though!

Lock + Pally: This set up is extremely gay for you. You have to kill the pally, but he is just going to run away and cleanse while you get feared out the ass. Pretty much, you should just blow an AR and rush the pally down. Use silence, blind, and fear on the warlock. Spam dispels on the pally to remove BoF and what not.
Once the pally bubbles, try for a mass dispel. If you don't remove it the first time, try again if you can. Once the bubble is gone, AR/BF, and finish the pally off. Your priest will have to pop out to heal at this point, because you'll both be low. Don't let the pally get away. Preemptive CoS, WoTF and what not is very important here. You should be able to finish the pally off, and 1v2 the lock.

Lock + Mage: The lock is going to be SL, the mage frost. This is a very difficult fight. You should sap the mage, and immediately both try to burst the lock down asap. Your priest should silence the mage as soon as sap is broken. After silence, fear then blind. You really want to avoid any CC, and to kill that lock as fast as possible. They can focus either one of you, and do TONS of CC.
This fight can be very closed in, some times, so you may be able to ninja kick a frostbolt if you're cool like that.
Your priest may want to pop out immediately after dotting. This will probably increase your chances of winning considerably, because you can easily solo a lock, and hopefully neither of you will die before you do.

Mage + Rogue: This is your counter. A good mage+rogue is extremely difficult for SP+Rogue. Even a terrible Mage+Rogue is extremely difficult. I was playing some 2s not long ago, and then mage would ride up, hop off with his pet pulled out, and I would sap him before he did anything to my priest. That's what you call terribad. He could have icelanced but he didn't. Anyway, point is, even with this terribleness, it was still a very close match. The Rogue immediately opened (again, terrible with a sapped partner), and we got on him. Remember to use rupture, it's very important. The rogue can't remove your rupture and has no way to heal other than bandages. Just keep the pressure on him, while doing your CC on the mage and you might win. Silence the mage from the start, then fear then blind then fear ect.
Your priest needs to be good at running away during your stuns on the rogue, and such. Your priest will probably want to pop out to heal pretty early so neither of you die.
If they focus you, just use your CoS wisely. Evasion immediately. If you can vanish without getting popped out of stealth, just stay in vanish as long as possible! Don't open with cheap shot unless you need to. Trust me, it completely ***** them up, just allows your priest to continue dpsing while they can't do ****.
This fight, again, is very situational, and so you have to think on your feet.

You may want to have your priest dot and VE both of them, I honestly don't know which is better. It's probably situational. VE on the mage can give extra crucial healing, but also breaks your CC for him. The fact that it breaks CC, though, isn't that big a deal, since he has trinket+double ice block anyway.

It's also possible to kill the mage. You can quickly sap him, have your priest dispel him, and if you're lucky sap the rogue. You want to just get the mage fully dotted so that he ice blocks. Rogues are much easier to CC than frost mages, so you can usually CC the rogue pretty well. As soon as the block ends or is mass dispelled, blow everything you have to kill the mage. If the priest gets all his dots on the mage, he can just pop out to heal, and you can finish the mage off.

Tough fight.

That was every common high rated 2v2 match up you should face. There are some unique ones, like Shaman+warrior that I left out. You can pretty much adapt strategies from similar match ups (in this case, druid+warrior is very similar to shaman+warrior as far as you should be concerned) for these unique fights. If you want to see a specific match up that I missed, just ask, I'll add it.

Remember, this was all based upon personal experience. I don't care if you think my strats won't work, because, in practice, they do work. If you have suggestions to improve my strats, though, please suggest away.

[Alth]

Nice guide you found there. Was quite intresting even though I don't play my rogue anymore atm. +rep for the find!

[cripling]

TLDR but if you are an dedicated rogue/spriest who isn't already pwning (look at the buffs lol) then you should read this, not that i've read it but things that are really long usually contain something good? :P

[TforTyranth]

very very good guide, i play rogue/sp also i play mutilate tough, 2.2k max rating last season. but ye this guy tell you all you need to know

+rep

[issuesbunny]

Rogue/SP is the new Warlock/Druid which was the new Warrior/Paladin.

[TforTyranth]

bump for this great topic

[lordwing1]

Very nice, +Rep for contributing to all

[Exemplar]

Good guide.