Rogue VS Mage

[Zenpth]

Okay first off. I played a heap of arenas/bg's back in TBC as a rogue but never experienced much of Vanilla. I'm currently 37 as my rouge and not been able to take on any Mage my level in bg's/world pvp, I notice the same thing with warlocks although I have managed to kill a warlock at a earlier level. When I snuck up to a mage my level and ambushed him then took him down to 15% health, he polymorphed me for 23 SECONDS!, what!. During the time I was polymorphed he managed to evocate (correct me if i'm wrong) but that's what the spell they use to recover mana, then he healed up back to full health with first aid. Then when I finally left polymorph I had evasion and sprint ready for when he decided to slow me down with frost bolt. I assumed this would be the best move at the time and it was useless as frostbolt just ruins my sprint, he has hit me with a fireball that has taken around 25% of my health, I was just about to come close to him to swing my first hit and he froze me into place (not sure what the spell is called but it's instant) then blinked away. At this moment I was close to giving up as i'm close to half my health left, so I vanish to get a somewhat advantage but as soon as vanished ended and I returned to stealth, the deception wasn't strong enough and he seen me and spammed me with fireball within two shots I was dead. I just want to remind people that I played ALOT of PvP as a rogue in retail before I quit and joined nostalrius and I realise this is Vanilla and times were different but I stand 0% chance against mages and this goes for warlocks too although I haven't come into contact with many yet so it's hard to tell. I'm looking for a logical explanation to why mages are so OP, against rogues anyway, I don't want to hear kids telling me i'm just really bad at the game when I know i'm not.

[Arise]

Vanilla is not balanced. Pick your fights wisely.

[milkribs4k]

A good Rogue which is only a halfway decent player of any other class since it's the #1 noob class would save his PvP trinket for when he evocates or bandages which would mean he'd have to cancel one of those things and be quite fucked.
I am presuming he blinked after you ambushed him to sheep, at that point you could against many Mages sprint vanish before he can sheep and try to avoid his AoE which many mages don't even throw and get in another opening later which would be sure to kill him. if you got him 15% hp.

[Zenpth]

Hmm I agree with that tactic but I don't have the PvP trinket yet and that would only work if he didn't freeze you into place when you hit vanish and sprint

[jak]

Evasion won't help against spells

[Swerved]

Always open with Garrote against mages, stops them blinking away right at the start

[Busdriverx]

Always open with Garrote against mages, stops them blinking away right at the start

Garrote does not silence

[Lithic]

12:08
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=223655

[Fear3d]

At your level, as a rogue, you should be able to handle the average warlock pretty well. If you can't, then something is wrong with your spec, play style, or gear. They are clothies, so you should be able to shred them up like paper, and you've got enough interrupts and stuns to keep yourself safe for the relatively short amount of time that it takes to tear them open.

Now, at high levels, a well played mage should always beat a well played rogue, and that's just the way that vanilla WoW is. Every class has advantages against certain classes and disadvantages against certain classes. However, in the scenario that you described, the fight was definitely winnable. If you got to start off the fight with the element of surprise and your enemy only had 15% health, you should have had enough tools at your disposal to finish the job.

My advice would be to always analyze all of your fights and to try to figure out what you could have done differently to change the outcome. In order to do that, you have to have a pretty good understanding of both what you are capable of and what your opponent is capable of--you gotta know what abilities they have, what the cooldowns are, etc. Don't beat yourself up too much over losing to a mage, because your are honestly disadvantaged against them, but you also don't want to just assume that it was impossible to win and shrug off all your losses without analyzing them. Another thing to keep in mind is that, as a rogue, you aren't necessarily obligated to give people a fair fight. You have the luxury of stealth, so don't feel like you've gotta just charge into people and solo them. Be a sneaky little bastard. Wait until your opponent is fighting somebody else, and then fuck his shit up. Or wait until the mage just got done fighting and is at half health and 0% mana. Then when he sits down to drink, you get a guaranteed crit on your ambush and you can oneshot him. It might make you feel lame to use cheap tactics like that, but that's what rogues are made to do, and that's what makes rogues dangerous.

[Creatine]

At your level, as a rogue, you should be able to handle the average warlock pretty well. If you can't, then something is wrong with your spec, play style, or gear. They are clothies, so you should be able to shred them up like paper, and you've got enough interrupts and stuns to keep yourself safe for the relatively short amount of time that it takes to tear them open.

Now, at high levels, a well played mage should always beat a well played rogue, and that's just the way that vanilla WoW is. Every class has advantages against certain classes and disadvantages against certain classes. However, in the scenario that you described, the fight was definitely winnable. If you got to start off the fight with the element of surprise and your enemy only had 15% health, you should have had enough tools at your disposal to finish the job.

My advice would be to always analyze all of your fights and to try to figure out what you could have done differently to change the outcome. In order to do that, you have to have a pretty good understanding of both what you are capable of and what your opponent is capable of--you gotta know what abilities they have, what the cooldowns are, etc. Don't beat yourself up too much over losing to a mage, because your are honestly disadvantaged against them, but you also don't want to just assume that it was impossible to win and shrug off all your losses without analyzing them. Another thing to keep in mind is that, as a rogue, you aren't necessarily obligated to give people a fair fight. You have the luxury of stealth, so don't feel like you've gotta just charge into people and solo them. Be a sneaky little bastard. Wait until your opponent is fighting somebody else, and then fuck his shit up. Or wait until the mage just got done fighting and is at half health and 0% mana. Then when he sits down to drink, you get a guaranteed crit on your ambush and you can oneshot him. It might make you feel lame to use cheap tactics like that, but that's what rogues are made to do, and that's what makes rogues dangerous.

Well said