Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Rogues

I want to write today about probably the single greatest source of emotional pain which currently exists in my life at this point, as ridiculous as it may sound; the Rogue class in World of Warcraft.

Most people, even the most positive and mature, have at least one thing in their lives that bothers them to the point of complete and total irrationality. For some people it's spiders. For others it's cockroaches or slugs. For me, it's the Rogue class in this game. I actually don't like mentioning the above animals in association with Rogues, since to be honest, my feelings towards those three groups of animals are actually highly compassionate and tolerant, compared to how I feel towards Rogues.

In just under two years of playing this game, I can honestly say that I have encountered three rogues who were played by people that I did not consider at least partially (and usually completely) sociopathic. The rest were people who had no concept whatsoever of working with people in a group, and generally caused silence and bad feeling in groups, as well as having an overwhelming tendency to hijack control of groups and engage in dominant behaviour.

In other scenarios where, for example, a member of a group had died and needed help getting back to our position in an instance due to respawns, the Rogues that I have grouped with will generally refuse to assist the rest of the group, instead announcing that they would rather continue to solo mobs in the instance by themselves. They also tend to be obsessive about people waiting for Sap, and I have no patience for that...mainly because I know that virtually every other form of CC in the game can be used after combat begins.

Part of the reason why I think they are like that is because the mechanics of their class are actually designed around sociopathic behaviour. The class was fairly obviously designed almost exclusively with pvp griefing in mind; with possibly the single exception of Sap, it has virtually no value within a group pve scenario at all. An adjunct of this is that, despite the shameless favouritism that the class has been shown by Blizzard historically where class balance is concerned, players of the class typically have the gall to turn around and accuse other classes of being overpowered. Of course, I understand; in a Rogue player's mind, any class is overpowered unless said class is completely unable to defend itself against a Rogue. If any of the other classes in the game are in any way able to defend themselves against the Rogue, then in the archetypical Rogue player's mind, said other classes are overpowered.

The Rogue can do generic DPS, yes...but for group PvE I'd generally prefer to get that from another class which not only usually doesn't attract the same degree of psychological problems, and from a mechanic point of view has other redeeming characteristics as well.

Given the consistently negative experiences that I've had with players of this class over time, I will confess that it is the one class in the game that I now refuse to group with or really associate with in any way at all. This might come across as bigoted, discriminatory, and generally highly unpleasant...but on one side of the coin there are the number of problems I've had with Rogues, and on the other, as I've stated, the fact that the class contributes nothing whatsoever that cannot be obtained from virtually any other.

I tell myself it's immature...I tell myself it's petty, and that it only brings me down...but I can't bring myself to cease honestly, fervently wishing that the Rogue class in general quite simply did not exist.

8 comments:

Pike said...

I'm not a big fan of rogues either, though my experiences with them don't come from PvE grouping so much as from PvP and from actually trying to play one...

Rogues used to be the bane of my existence in PvP, the second one showed up I was pretty much dead. I've gotten better at taking them out now, but still... they're annoying.

I tried to play a rogue once, the way I've tried to play every class... I got to level 7 or 8, I think, and quit, because I couldn't stand it. There was something about the class that bugged me in a way the other ones didn't. I'm still not sure what it was.

My only grouping-with-a-rogue experience that stands out in my mind is the time my pet out-DPS'd our group's rogue in an instance... and I was Marksman-spec'd at the time. Yeah, that was a pretty bad rogue. I'm sure there are lots of better rogues out there though.

Karthis said...

Responded here:

http://teethandclaws.blogspot.com/2007/10/in-defense-of-rogues.html

Unknown said...

That's the great thing about rogues in PvP... they fear hunters. Get them out of the dead zone and keep the pet on them... dead rogue!

In my guild, the rogues are and always have been some of the top dps'ers. Then again, my guild invites people and not toons, so the people behind the toons are always pretty darned cool.

BUT! The thing is, this sort of sociopathic behavior can be seen in any dps class. One hunter in my guild is so dps obsessed it's ridiculous and he actually thinks that openly bragging about it in guild chat or vent actually impresses people.

That's what the ignore list is for.

Wayne said...

It can be only within your server, or the group of people you met. As a rogue, rather I saw those behavior that you described in warlock and hunter. Again, this is particular in my server.

It is not the class, but the person behind playing it. If you play in a circle full of childish kids playing rogue, yeah maybe I can understand what you feel, like how I feel on those warlocks/hunters. :)

Rob said...

Wow.

So, I have a 70 Rogue as well as a 70 Resto Shaman. I'm a bit of an introvert... but come on... sociopathic? That's harsh.

I have a friend at work that hates rogues just as much as you. I can talk about Warcraft with him just fine, but as soon as I mention something specific to my Rogue he'll start spewing the same senseless venom that you are here.

All of this silliness is shame. I really like rogue. It's a very fun class to play. I love the mystique of the class (for lack of a better term). They have some of the best designed equipment around. But it truly has to be the most hated class in the game. And have you read the official forums? That says something!

If it wasn't for this, I probably would have never rolled a shaman. I mean... who doesn't like a resto shaman?

Cutyerthroat said...

LOL this from a hunter. Looks like some rogue trained a boss or something on you during a wipe and you got hit with a repair bill instead of him.
So ya..sociopathic?? Hmm not fitting I don't think...maybe malicious..yep malicous. Armory me plz Cutyerthroat and cry about my gun thx.
Yep and vindictive.

joshie said...

I also hate rogues, though not quite as much as you do, it seems. Most of my ire is based in PVP experiences with rogues. While things might even out a bit more in later levels, early in the game rogues are ridiculously overpowered in PVP. I can't tell you how many BGs have been ruined for me by twinked out rogues.

I only recall beating a rogue in world PVP once. I was playing on my ehancement shaman in Hillsbrad Foothills. I was running back to Tarren Mill when I saw another Horde player get jumped by a rogue a few levels above her (I forget what class she was, but I think she was a squishie). I immediately came to her aid, tossing a quick heal and slamming into the rogue. We killed the rogue and the other player went back to doing her thing (killing lions and bears for quests I think). I stayed nearby and watched, and sure enough the rogue popped up and attacked her again. I ran back and we again killed the rogue. I couldn't really stick around much longer, so I fear as soon as I wandered off the rogue probably returned to his griefing. Oh well, it felt good to lay the smack down anyway.

When I play on my druid or pally, I generally buff random players that I encounter if they could use it. The exception is rogues. I will not buff a rogue; they are on their own.

Unknown said...

Lol rougues are the best. We are the most hated class and we thrive on that. The reason why we are hated is because we are just better overall so get the hell over it.