Rogues have traditionally been one of the nastier classes in World of Warcraft when it comes to player versus player (PvP) combat. With the new expansion Dragonflight, a player has now found a way to kill almost any other player before they can even react.
Rogues are currently this strong: According to initial estimates, Rogues are at the top of the DPS rankings for the 1st season in Dragonflight even in PvE. Now they are even nastier in PvP than they were 18 years ago in Classic.
The player and Twitch streamer Palumor has found a combination of talents for the Subtlety Rogue, abilities, and items that can kill almost any other player in just about one second.
The enemy cannot even defend themselves, as they are stunned the entire time. And even if they could react fast enough, the damage is so incredibly high that most characters would simply fall over.
Are you still looking for a class to play? Well, Rogues also land in our recommendations:
How does it work? Palumor uses the abilities “Echoing Reckoning” and “Shadow Strike” in combination with some buffs that allow him guaranteed and stronger critical hits. However, all of this requires precise execution, exact timing, and macros to even work:
- opens with a Shadow Dance to activate the talent “Danse Macabre”
- uses a Solar Plexus to activate the first stacks of Danse Macabre and stun the opponent
- Nasty Trick stuns the opponent a second time and builds further stacks
- Symbol of Death, Shadow Blades, and possibly trinkets increase the following damage
- Shadow Strike now hits the opponent guaranteed critical for about 50,000 damage
- then Echoing Reckoning in combination with Cold Blood hits again guaranteed critical for about 110,000 damage
- this also includes damage from sources such as normal attacks and the Shadow Blades themselves
If that is not enough, the finisher “Disembowel” can be added to give the opponent the rest. In Palumor’s damage layout, a total of roughly 300,000 damage can be seen within a few moments.
Update: In the upcoming patch on November 7, Echoing Reckoning will be heavily nerfed. Whether the build will still work then remains to be seen.
You can see all of this in the video:
“I hope they don’t nerf this”
Palumor calls on all his rogue colleagues to “exploit this before it gets nerfed.” He firmly believes that Rogues will not have this opportunity permanently, as the damage is simply too insane.
Echoing Reckoning is the ability that Rogues got in Shadowlands when they joined the Kyrian. It was already too strong in Shadowlands and was nerfed in PvP because of that. Now, with Dragonflight, all the nerfs have been reverted.
On the other hand, Rogues with this build can do nothing else but kill an opponent directly. This helps tremendously in arenas, but hardly at all in battlegrounds. The build is absolutely useless for sustained damage.
At least it is not a mistake for this strong combination. WoW has already had some pretty quirky…
If the opponents have a Paladin who can react quickly enough, the Rogue has missed their one chance. The time until they can use the combo again is simply too long. The Shadow Blades have a 2-minute cooldown and without them, a good part of the damage is lost. Even Echoing Reckoning alone takes 45 seconds to be ready again.
For the class fantasy of a common assassin, who can take down a target and then disappear again, the build is just right. Whether it will be nerfed remains to be seen. Rogues are generally one of the least popular classes, at least among you:
All 13 classes from WoW Dragonflight in ranking – from unpopular to popular
