Rogue P3 Boss DPS Guide – Black Temple & Mount Hyjal
Video version of this guide:
I found tracking the Blessing of Protection and Shield on Council a little annoying with it being small and mixed with other buffs/debuffs, so I made my own weakauras that tracks it in bigger icons.
I also added tracking for demonslaying potion to remind you to use demonslaying potion during specific boss fights. It only triggers during those boss fights and only when you have the specific boss targeted (to stop it reminding you at wrong time/on trash mobs).
Illidari Council shield notifications (large + movable):
Demonslaying potion reminder (for only during boss encounter):
Link to grab this weakaura is on the patreon:
What professions are best for P3?
Same as previous phase – engy is still basically a must have if you care about overall damage at all. Nerfs to battle chicken don’t matter because the value of engineering was always in spamming explosives on multiple mobs.
If rich use these:
- Super Sapper Charge
- Goblin Sapper Charge
- Fel Iron Bomb (these are often better than adamantite grenades because of larger radius)
- (optional) Arcane bombs – they can be swapped in for Fel Iron Bomb and sometimes do slightly more damage + help silence on Hyjal packs (not really required though, so don’t sweat it over having these unless you’re in a speedrun guild)
- (optional) Oil of Immolation – if you really want to bump your Hyjal dps up by a tad
- (optional) Flame Cap – for psychopaths who want to cycle these into their Thistle Tea rotation (honestly really not worth)
All 3 are on separate timers and you can cycle through using super sapper > goblin > fel iron bomb x2 (then back to super sapper again).
If poor use these:
- Fel iron bombs (or dense dynamite if really poor)
The overall dps gain for using +2 sappers vs. just using more grenades/dynamite every 60 seconds isn’t much and if you want to save money then just using grenades alone works just fine. You’re still going to do a ton of extra trash damage using fel iron bombs for everything.
What about holy water?
You can use holy water to substitute for bombs if you don’t have engineering, but farming them is annoying and you should honestly just have engy if you really care about your trash damage anyway.
What about 2nd profession?
Your 2nd profession doesn’t matter much for PvE honestly speaking. Enchanting will be the biggest +dps gain from ring enchants and Jewelcrafting is still okay for the +atk gem, but neither are game changers like engineering.
The exception is if you don’t have a reliable drummer for your group then leatherworking is of course the best profession for you to pick.
What buff consumes should I use?
You will be using the following:
- Food (+20 agi or +20 hit) – ideally +agi for trash and +hit for bosses assuming you gemmed to be roughly hit capped for level 72 mobs
- (for demons) Elixir of Demonslaying – the best offensive battle buff consume for any demon type mobs (only lasts 5 mins though, so bring enough to last)
- (for non demons) Major Agility / Atk Flask – you’ll be swapping in agility or flask when not fighting demon mobs. Technically flask is a minor dps increase over major agility, but most rogues will likely opt for major agility because it’s much cheaper when rotating with demonslaying
- (optional) Swiftness of Zanza – most rogues not speedrunning won’t use a guardian buff, but technically this would be the best guardian buff for +dps if you choose to use one (because run speed is good for uptime on mobs)
What about poisons vs. sharpening stones?
Deadly Poison is still king. There are use cases for sharpening stone if a fight is super short or mechanics stop you from stacking poison, but for the most part deadly poison is still your main offhand poison.
And for those asking – consecrated stones aren’t worth using and are less dps than the regular adamantite sharpening stones.
Mount Hyjal Boss DPS Tips
General note: If you’re not engy and not using bombs non stop during Hyjal waves, then your overall damage is going to be REALLY bad (and honestly rogues aren’t very good on overall here even with bombs included – but we’re even worse if not engy).
For trash – you should be very aware of your 2 min and 5 min CDs. You should use full CDs at wave 1 to get your CDs back up faster, and you should also keep in mind the ‘point of no return’ for 2 min and 5 min CDs (the point where you cannot use CDs or they won’t be back up in time for the boss).
If super sweaty you can use sharpening stones on trash, then swap to deadly poison for the bosses.
1. Avoiding Icebolt (the play it safe strat)
If you are unlucky and get picked for icebolt you can break out of the debuff using pvp trinket or use a living action potion (LAP). You’ll have to pick between giving up a trinket vs. giving up your haste potion CD to do so though, but this is the ‘play it safe I’m in a casual guild’ strat.
PvP trinket is definitely more reliable than LAP since you can’t accidentally put it on timer by using your potion CD.
2. Riskier parse strat
If you want to risk it for the parse, you can just yolo and not use either PvP trinket or LAP and hope that your healers keep you alive if you get unlucky with icebolt. If you don’t get ice bolted this is obviously a dps gain, but I would not do this if your guild is newer to the fight or struggling still.
3. Death and decay is low damage
Death and Decay aoe is actually fairly low damage, so unless you’re low on hp you can stand in it and be healed through just fine. I have tried cloaking it but I still took damage the one time I tried, so cloak needs further testing there.
Cooldown usage: Typically only 1 set of CDs used in this fight, but might get 2 usages if guild is slightly slow.
1. Swap to demonslaying potion for boss
If min/max parsing then swap your battle elixir to a demonslaying potion when guild is pulling the boss.
2. Use wound poison if no arms war / if needed for backup healing debuff
Anetheron has a vamp aura, so if for some reason you have no arms warrior or the arms warrior dies, it’ll be your job to stack up wound poison to reduce healing.
Having a wound poison offhand weapon ready just in case can be a good idea if your guild is newer to the encounter (you likely don’t need to use it unless your arms warrior dies for some reason).
3. Be careful of the Infernal aura
Towering Infernals have an aoe damage aura that can hurt, so just be aware not to stand near them without cloak – if you get hit by that aoe and the Carrion Swarm it can drop your hp quicker than you expect.
4. Should you use ‘Sulfuron Slammers’?
Sulfuron Slammers from BRD can break the sleep if used ahead of each sleep timing window, BUT they reset your swing timer. If you want to use them then you need to time it really well just as you finish a swing each time.
If not timed really well then you end up losing dps (so definitely do not spam use these). The chance you get picked for sleep is also rather low as only 3 people out of your whole raid get slept each cast, so there’s going to be plenty of weeks where you never get picked for sleep unless you’re really unlucky.
Cooldown usage: Typically only 1 set of CDs used in this fight, but might get 2 usages if guild is slightly slow.
1. Swap to demonslaying potion for boss
If min/max parsing then swap your battle elixir to a demonslaying potion when guild is pulling the boss.
2. Use FAP potion instead of haste potion
You 100% want to be using free action potions instead of haste potion on Kaz’rogal due to the constant war stomp aoe
3. Play safe on IEA
When not having free action potion active up, you’ll need to play it a bit safer to refresh IEA earlier just to ensure it doesn’t drop while you’re stunned.
The usual safe point is 17-18ish seconds as the final timing window to dump combo pts and re-gain back to 5 pts in time to EA, but you may have to extend that by a few seconds on this boss.
4. You can cloak Cripple debuff
If you get unluckily picked for cripple debuff then you should CoS it asap.
Cooldown usage: Typically only 1 set of CDs used in this fight, but might get 2 usages if guild is slightly slow.
1. Swap to demonslaying potion for boss
If min/max parsing then swap your battle elixir to a demonslaying potion when guild is pulling the boss.
2. Cloak of Shadows works on Rain of Fire
Feel free to use Cloak of Shadows liberally to avoid rain of fire damage if needed.
Cooldown usage: Typically only 1 set of CDs used in this fight, but might get 2 usages if guild is slightly slow.
1. Swap to demonslaying potion for boss
If min/max parsing then swap your battle elixir to a demonslaying potion when guild is pulling the boss.
2. You can vanish Air Burst if you’re quick
If you see yourself warned by DBM, watch Archimonde’s cast bar and you can vanish at the end of the cast to prevent getting Air Bursted.
3. Fears can be cheated with vanish
Vanishing in the last 0.5 to 0.25 second-ish of the fear cast works for vanish immuning fears (if undead you can pre-use WoTF once you see him casting fear).
Note: Fear is not cloakable on checking further into it.
4. PvP trinket for non undead characters is a good idea for progression
If your guild struggles on this boss or you want to play it super safe, then using PvP trinket isn’t a bad idea here for breaking fears that might run you into the fire.
Cooldown usage: Typically 2 sets of 2 min CD for this fight, so use first set early enough to get 2nd set back up in time.
Black Temple Boss DPS Tips
1. JC Necklace/frost protection potion your whole raid
The only real mechanic for this fight is the pause most guilds take to heal everyone up before breaking the Tidal Shield. This is a dps loss, so a handy way to avoid this pause is to use the player made JC necklace with the clicky frost shield or a protection potion to eat the 8.5k damage before breaking the Tidal Shield.
This strategy is riskier in that people who are low can still die, so your guild still needs to be good about having everyone spread out to reduce needle spine aoe damage and keep people topped up as best possible.
Cooldown usage: Typically only 1 set of CDs used in this fight.
1. Swap to demonslaying potion for boss
If min/max parsing then swap your battle elixir to a demonslaying potion when guild is pulling the boss.
2. You do not need to run out during P2 (usually..)
During the kite phase Supremus will usually knock you back if you are in melee range of him before he starts running at you. This means you can just stay in and do dps fairly safely without worrying that he will swap to you and make you go splat.
However, keep in mind I have heard of rare instances where Supremus will give someone a big melee hit before knocking them away, although this hasn’t happened to me so far.
3. Threat seems to reset between P2 and P1
The threat seems to reset when swapping back to P1 mechanics again, so either wait a few seconds before engaging or use evasion+vanish if you still have it to attack earlier and reset your threat after a few attacks.
3. Hateful Strike is top 3 by hp – early evasion/vanish isn’t a bad idea
The hateful strike mechanic seems to target the top 3 on threat in melee range. It’s easy to feel safe while not realising you’re 3rd on the list due to those above you being ranged caster – so throwing in an early evasion or vanish isn’t a bad idea for safety.
Cooldown usage: Typically only 1 set of CDs used in this fight, but if guild kills slow you *might* get a 2nd use of 2 min CDs.
Note: This fight has been removed from all stars, so it doesn’t actually count towards your overall ranking for anything. You can still parse on it, but it’s like Gothik fight in Naxxramas with no real effect on your overall rankings.
1. Only Sorcerers, Channelers and Shade of Akama count towards damage (so pray for cleave opportunity)
If you still want to try parse on this fight then your goal should be to max damage to these 3 mobs. Any damage done to other adds doesn’t count for anything.
The ‘ideal’ scenario is you can get a sorcerer + channeler up next to each other and they survive long enough for you to get a really good cleave with BF + full CDs. You’ll want your shaman to also pop lust early enough to get full usage on both Akama + trash (if they hold it until Akama then he’ll die faster than lust runs out usually).
2. Expose Armor not worth using
Shade dies so fast for most guilds that you don’t usually need to worry about expose armoring.
Cooldown usage: Typically only 1 set of CDs used in this fight.
1. If you are targeted by Teron, vanish after he starts casting ‘Shadow of Death’
As a rogue you should never get hit by his mechanic if you are quick since it is vanishable. He also does not recast it again after you vanish so it helps your guild avoid one person dying.
2. Cloak of Shadows doesn’t work on Shadow of Doom
Before you try it, CoS doesn’t work, so don’t try to cloak it – just vanish instead when he starts casting on you.
Cooldown usage: Typically only 1 set of CDs used in this fight, but 2 sets if guild kills slow.
1. Evasion if you get Fel Rage
Gurtogg is a tank and spank for rogues and the only real mechanic for you to worry about is if you get Fel Rage he will attack you, so you should hit that evasion button.
2. Cloak of Shadows the fel-acid breath if you get hit
No sense taking extra damage, so cloak the fel acid if it lands on you.
Cooldown usage: Typically 2 sets of 2 min CDs in this fight (unless you guild is particularly high dps/fast kill time), so use 2 mins early to get 2nd usage back up in time
1. Skip expose armor in Phase 1
RoS doesn’t have enough armor in P1 for you to need to expose, so skip it and go ham.
2. Save evasion for P1 tanking
A lot of guilds have the rogue step in to tank the enrage during end of P1, so save your evasion for this. I don’t typically worry about having a dodge set just for this fight and cross fingers I don’t get unlucky enough to get hit through evasion and die.
3. Vanish trinket swapping works between phases
If you really want to min/max I would recommend not using warp spring coil on this fight (since P1 has no armor and you have downtime between phases since adds die instantly). Active trinkets like Bloodlust Brooch and brewfest trinket perform well here.
For full max sweaty strat, you can queue up a trinket swap then vanish between one of the phases to swap between Bloodlust Brooch and another dps trinket (such as brewfest trinket). This way you could potentially get 1 extra usage of active trinket timing depending on your guild’s kill time.
Cooldown usage: Typically 2-3 sets of 2 min CDs in this fight and 2 sets of 5 min CDs. You should burn first full set of CDs early to get it up in time for later usages (but be careful to check guilds kill time – you want to make sure your 5 min CDs are up for P3 burn).
1. Swap to demonslaying potion for boss
If min/max parsing then swap your battle elixir to a demonslaying potion when guild is pulling the boss.
2. Don’t forget your dog whistles/thornling seeds
Pets count towards the possible teleport targets, so having your entire guild pop pets such as thornling seeds is really great for reducing the amount of actual raiders picked for Fatal Attraction.
3. Engy rogues generally can get away without shadow resist (but use shadow resist for progression)
Generally I’ve found it pretty safe to just go full damage gear with the rocket boots + jc necklace to save me if I get picked for Fatal Attraction, but this is something I’d only do AFTER your guild is killing her easily/consistently and not doing progression raiding anymore.
With rocket boots + pendant of shadow’s end necklace (the JC neck with clicky shadow shield), you can be very safe for one teleport round. If you get picked a 2nd time you also still have sprint available to get out in time. If you get picked a third time somehow then you accept that fate wants to kill you.
4. Cloak of Shadows doesn’t work on Fatal Attraction (but use it anyway)
No, CoS doesn’t work on Fatal Attraction, but you should use it anyway since it will block extra shadow damage from her other abilities that might kill you while you are low on hp.
Cooldown usage: Typically 2 sets of 2 min CDs in this fight. Burn CDs early enough to get 2nd usage in on time.
1. If you are interrupting, your parse is already doomed
Yes you can try to do more damage between interrupts, but it’s honestly not really worth worrying about if you are on kick/interrupt duty. Your parse won’t be high regardless of what you do and you risk letting some crucial spells go through.
2. You only really need to interrupt Circle of Healing and Divine Wrath + use mind numbing is needed
While it’s very possible for you to interrupt all 3 of Lady Melande’s spell with PvP gloves + deadly throw, letting smite get through is actually fine because it really doesn’t hurt all that much. It may be preferable for guilds to just let her cast it instead of doing other things.
I also recommend using mind numbing in offhand if needed since sometimes locks aren’t able to get curse back up quickly and it’s nice to be able to shiv a quick mind numb on her.
3. Installing a weakaura/add-on for Reflective Shield + Blessing of Protection icons is very handy
The only annoying thing on interrupt duty is the reflective shields and bops. I highly recommend you install an add-on or weakaura to monitor those spells specifically in a different spot – it makes it way easier vs. trying to watch for those 2 spells buried under all the other buffs/debuffs.
4. Max throwing skill or you’re going to miss a throw eventually
I speak from experience when saying you definitely want to max your throwing skills before trying to interrupt with deadly throw. It only takes 1 missed heal to cause the fight to go on quite a bit longer than needed.
If you need to max throwing skill I recommend going to the bomb npc ‘Dr Boom’ in Netherstorm and sitting on a rock while spamming throw at him. Bring extra throwing weapons too, because throwing eats through weapon durability fast.
5. If not interrupting, try to get a good cleave at start
If you’re not interrupting the best chance for a good parse is to try get a good cleave right at the start when you can pull both the rogue + paladin together and cleave them down.
Damaging the rogue is good since he has almost no armor, but it can be hit or miss because he gets Blessing of Protection quite often and you might be charged with doing IEA on the paladin.
Cooldown usage: Whenever you want if interrupting – when you see a window go for it (but priestess will be BoP or reflective shield A LOT of the time)
1. Swap to demonslaying potion for boss
If min/max parsing then swap your battle elixir to a demonslaying potion when guild is pulling the boss.
2. Expose may/may not be worth it for your P2 – check the warglaive kill time
Some guilds burn through P2 super quick, so it may not be worth putting up expose armor by the time you get it up, check your guilds kill time on each of the glaives to see if you’d be better off just full dps in P2.
3. You may want to keep wound poison offhand handy
Illidan has a spell that heals himself, so if you don’t have an arms warrior or the arms warrior dies then you’ll need to get wound poison up. Good idea to keep a spare offhand with wound poison ready just in case.
4. You cannot cloak the eye beam (I tried)
Just an fyi for those who wanted to try – don’t try CoS and sit in the eyebeam flame, it hits you through it… I know from trying this already.
Cooldown usage: Use 2 mins in P1, but don’t use 5 min/2 min in P2 if your guild does the burn strat – you’ll need your cooldowns for that later burn.