How to Succeed with Mage/Rogue Compositions

In this post I will be going over some of the key ingredients you need to be able to succeed with class compositions such as Mage/Rogue, Priest/Mage/Rogue and Druid/Mage/Rogue. It’s no secret that a well coordinated Mage/Rogue has some of the highest burst potential of any two classes combined. The reason for this is mainly because of the obscene amount of damage mages can put out on someone who is unable to line of sight them.

The first thing you need to be able to do if you want to utilize Mage/Rogue burst is always try and force players (mainly healers) to use their pvp trinket, particularly at the start of a game if possible. The reason for this is because you’re going to setup almost all of your kills around if someone as trinketed. For example: Say you’re running P/M/R and you’re fighting a setup like Druid/Hunter/Warrior; you’re going to want to have your priest stay far away from the hunter and warrior mounted. The reason for this is because theoretically, a mage/rogue should have enough damage against a hunter/warrior before you get in any real danger of dying, to force the druid to pop out and toss some HOTs. When this happens, your priest should run in (on his mount) right on top of the druid to fear him, then proceed with dispelling hots off the hunter and assist the mage/rogue with DPS as well. Assuming your mage and rogue did their job and almost killed the hunter using half of their cool downs, the Druid should have had to trinket the fear to keep him alive. At that point, your priest can spam dispel on the hunter and your rogue can blind the druid, effectively keeping him out of the fight for 10 seconds. With dispel, another pet and another cheap -> kidney the hunter has almost 0 chance of living, thus winning you the game. Another thing to keep in mind is you can always vanish sap off of a blind, keeping the druid out of the fight even longer.

In order to succeed as Mage/Rogue, you really need to be very aware of what cool downs you have available, the reason for this is because you really can’t setup many kill opportunities on good teams without being able to stun lock a target down with the help of your mage, druid or priest. You have to be very in sync with when your team mates can and can not burst. Your rogue should always be warning his partners if he is able to vanish or get a re stealth off before doing so, this way everyone can be on the same page and ready for a kill shot.

I get a lot of tells in game about strategy for Mage/Rogue 2v2 so I’ll go over some of the more common compositions.

Mage/Rogue Mirrors.

Happyminty and I found that the most effective strategy against mirror matches is to start on the mage incredibly aggressive, making sure to SAVE your counter-spell unless you actually have the opportunity to hit the mage’s frost/arcane tree in order to force the rogue to open on either your mage or rogue. When this happens, immediately blind the rogue, he will almost surely trinket or his mage should die, if he does not trinket make sure you are vanish sapping him. If the mage has become too far behind to survive, kill him. If not, you still have counter-spell up and a rogue who has trinketed. Vanish cheap shot -> kidney Shot while your mage spams instant casts and counter-spells the mage’s polymorph as he attempts to peal the rogue with polymorph.

Mage/Rogue vs Warlock/Druid.

You lose, but you can try this strategy that has won us a couple of games vs good Warlock/Druids. Wait out sacrifice buff, have your rogue engage the warlock with a cheap shot - kidney shot. Side note - One of the most important things you can do is not allowing the warlock to get off any dots on either your mage or rogue before opening, putting him behind on damage. While your rogue is stun locking the warlock, have your mage pop his pet/IV/trinket and just spam scorches over and over. The reason for this is the warlock will potentially “Waste” spell-lock on your mage’s fire tree, freeing up frostbolt/polymorph for 20-odd seconds. When the druid pops to heal, have your rogue blind him and keep up your damage on the warlock. If he trinkets, which is really the key to this fight. Have your mage put trash debuffs up on the warlock and begin to sheep him, while attempting to kill the druid that has no trinket up. Save your counter-spell for fears so the warlock is unable to peal the druid and you can potentially pull off a victory.

Videos I recommend you watch for tips!

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=74311

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=81369