How does a rogue kill a disc priest with 400+ resil?

[Memnoch]

I was duelling a disc priest the other day and geez they are hard to take down. The most I could do was get him down to about 30% but he just reheals and the DoTs kill me. I blew CLoS twice (I have Prep) to get rid of the DoTs and the fear and kicked and blinded a couple of times to stop the heals but he just rehealed and reapplied the DoTs till I died. He resisted a few of my stuns too - even when I did have him stunlocked I wasn't doing enough damage (and I have 1800+ AP) before he would get out of the stun and then heal himself again. Used my trinket, used ShS - still couldn't do it. They have some frigging thing that absorbs damage.

And the second time we duelled it was even worse because I'd blown all my CDs. He got me out of stealth and I was pretty much @#$% from there, I didn't even get him down past 60% before I died.

This priest's a friend of mine and we chatted afterwards. He basically said his entire strategy against me was to layer the DoTs, and reheal whenever he got below 50%, and use his absorb damage thing. The bloke was probably sitting there watching TV, occasionally pressing his hotkeys to fear and DoT and heal while I ran around like a headless chook.

Any suggestions on how to take them down? (As I'm sure I will meet plenty of them in arena.) I guess the only way is to trick him somehow to use his absorb shield thing and then restealth then garotte before dpsing him?

Keep in mind he has 400+ resil and is T4-T5/S2-S4 geared and I'm only S1-S2 geared with 280 resil. I have a feeling this last sentence is the answer...but still, is there a way? Anyone done it? I'm sure it's all to do with timing...

I don't think it's just the resil, as I've found it easier to take down warriors with the same amount of resil than disc priests. I can take down a better-geared warrior or pally than me without losing more than 50% health (pallies take longer than priests, particularly if they're holy spec with that @#$% Lay On Hands thing that instantly replenishes all their health) but I always get pwned by the priest.

[SpiritWarrior]

Well, it sounds like you were simply outmatched but not by class, by gear really.

An evenly geared disc. priest could be taken down but it still requires some skill. This "dot your enemy and reheal self tactic is also the shadow priest trick (just shielding myself then coming out of shadowform to cast big heals as your dots siphon health back to you). I wouldn't sweat it, there's no real thing you did wrong, you just came up against a well-geared and well skilled disc. priest. Their PWS are better, their concentration and resistance to stuns/interrupts are better too. They had 400 res. and probably a shitload of stam. Make sure you are using your anti-heal poisons, anything with an extra stun or attack is good. The best thing to do vs. any healer is good 'ole burst damage. By the time they realize they are 35% HP and begin to heal, you come in with your CC (stuns, blind etc.) to prevent it pulling off.

[Ivelliis]

Disc priests are made to be just that, a royal pain in the arse and very difficult to kill. A mate of mine, in just blues, was shadow spec and died a lot in battlegrounds. Respecced to disc and just healed everyone and stayed alive.

As a rogue, I love having one follow me around

But to kill, yeah they are a pain. If you get the jump (ie. no shield to take down/pain supression/whatever) you can keep them locked down for a while, assuming you have blind and also improved gouge (5.5seconds is enough to restealth and cheap shot, and start the stunlock again (albeit with diminishing returns). I'd keep blind for when they blow their pvp trinket (if they have it, they'll use it to catch you off guard and break a stun). Wounding poison helps, as does improved kick. Deadly throw bonus (from the pvp gloves) could help if you were feared away and see a heal coming.

To be honest I hate priests, they can't kill me but it takes so long to kill them. One resisted stun and bang they are up to full health and you have to start again...not good. Fighting one on one isn't a true reflection of battlegrounds anyway, most times if I'm fighting a priest someone runs along to save him/her before I can finish them off anyway. Fighting a disc priest+another is very very difficult.

[Zink Whistlefly]

A must for taking down priests is to use a 5 combo point expose armor which will give you roughly 15-20% more DPS against them for 30 odd seconds - use this as your first finishing move.

Keep slice and dice up at all times to capitalise on expose armor, and use any AP increasing trinkets whilst they are exposed and SnD is up for maximum benefit.

Ivelliis has some good advice - use wound poison - you will eventually give him a 50% penalty to his healing spells. Sure he can spam dispel but he's wasting his GCD doing that, and chances are you can re-apply as fast as he can clense it if you have slice and dice up.

Obviously use ShS to close the gap right up after a fear.

Kick might not be that handy, as PW:S, PoM and Renew is often enough to keep them alive, but still, never drain your energy right down, save a bit in case you do need to interrupt that spell. If kick fails, you might have enough energy to pull off a gouge instead, or KS if it is available.

If he's blown his trinket on a KS, you can try blind -> CloS (if you have DoTs) -> bandage to give you a bit more longevity!

Disc priests are a pain, but a rogue can take them with the right tactics.

[Memnoch]

Originally Posted by SpiritWarrior Well, it sounds like you were simply outmatched but not by class, by gear really. An evenly geared disc. priest could be taken down but it still requires some skill. This "dot your enemy and reheal self tactic is also the shadow priest trick (just shielding myself then coming out of shadowform to cast big heals as your dots siphon health back to you). I wouldn't sweat it, there's no real thing you did wrong, you just came up against a well-geared and well skilled disc. priest. Their PWS are better, their concentration and resistance to stuns/interrupts are better too. They had 400 res. and probably a shitload of stam. Make sure you are using your anti-heal poisons, anything with an extra stun or attack is good. The best thing to do vs. any healer is good 'ole burst damage. By the time they realize they are 35% HP and begin to heal, you come in with your CC (stuns, blind etc.) to prevent it pulling off.

I find shadow priests so much easier to kill though - they don't have anywhere near as much resistance to stuns and they don't have that absorb damage spell. These disc priests are a PITA though - they just wear you down.

[Memnoch]

What's that spell they have that absorbs damage? Inner Fire or something?

[Lavindathar]

Power Word : Shield.

And the duel you describe is mainly a gear question - against a Disc priest, you want to be in PvE gear as a rogue.

And Zink's tactic is interesting, I'd go with the stunlock approach myself. Inner Fire gives the priest around 1600 armour btw, so by removing it with expose, takes you down to like normal cloth levels - 400. Which yes is nice, but hmm, dunno. try it both ways.

[Zink Whistlefly]

Oh I still think you should stunlock as much as you can, but that is a relatively short lived tactic over the course of a long battle with a disc priest.

KS is on a good old 20s CD, and CS can only be used now and again (it's unlikely that you'll blow prep for a double vanish in a duel, and if you do it's not likely to be ready to use again for a few more bouts). Improved gouge unfortunately doesn't factor into most ShS builds, so you can't really recover the 45 energy cost with those 2 ticks of energy you will receive back, or restealth.

I load up the expose armor and slice and dice and then start to deploy KS each time it is up.

For high end PvP, it's often worth dropping 2 talent points from Lethality and putting them in expose armor to help with < mail opponents, as that's around 1000 more points of armour penetration. Also remember that rogues have good natural armor pen from serrated blades and S3/S4 items, all of which stacks nicely with expose armor (and even Executioner if you have that particular enchant). Lethality is actually overrated for ShS as it's responsible for a very small percentage of your overall damage - the only attack it will boost of any worth is Hemo, a boost that is often surpassed by an additional 1000 armour pen (easily against cloth and leather at least).

Agreed - priests may well have inner fire up, but expose armor is still giving you 2050 more armor penetration than if you didn't use it - so it's still giving you that very significant DPS boost. Also, between hasted white attacks from SnD and hemo, those 20 charges get eaten up in a few seconds - let them waste 400 odd mana recasting it if they want .

[SpiritWarrior]

Yep about inner fire. With a quick rogue the charges can spend in seconds. In this case I would also go with the expose armor tactic (I never left home without it on my rogue). CC what and when you can of course, but in times like this when all else fails, those stacks of expose armor will make the difference.

[Memnoch]

Originally Posted by Zink Whistlefly Oh I still think you should stunlock as much as you can, but that is a relatively short lived tactic over the course of a long battle with a disc priest. KS is on a good old 20s CD, and CS can only be used now and again (it's unlikely that you'll blow prep for a double vanish in a duel, and if you do it's not likely to be ready to use again for a few more bouts). Improved gouge unfortunately doesn't factor into most ShS builds, so you can't really recover the 45 energy cost with those 2 ticks of energy you will receive back, or restealth. I load up the expose armor and slice and dice and then start to deploy KS each time it is up. For high end PvP, it's often worth dropping 2 talent points from Lethality and putting them in expose armor to help with < mail opponents, as that's around 1000 more points of armour penetration. Also remember that rogues have good natural armor pen from serrated blades and S3/S4 items, all of which stacks nicely with expose armor (and even Executioner if you have that particular enchant). Lethality is actually overrated for ShS as it's responsible for a very small percentage of your overall damage - the only attack it will boost of any worth is Hemo, a boost that is often surpassed by an additional 1000 armour pen (easily against cloth and leather at least). Agreed - priests may well have inner fire up, but expose armor is still giving you 2050 more armor penetration than if you didn't use it - so it's still giving you that very significant DPS boost. Also, between hasted white attacks from SnD and hemo, those 20 charges get eaten up in a few seconds - let them waste 400 odd mana recasting it if they want .

How do you know all this stuff, Zink? Are you getting this from that Rogue DPS spreadsheet?