New Raider's Guide

Start here

Three rules apply in every mode:

1. Stay alive. A dead rogue does zero damage. Any damage you lose stepping out of fire is tiny next to dying.
2. Stay on the boss and keep pressing. Outlaw is a fast melee spec. Every second you are not in range, or standing there with full energy, is lost damage.
3. Keep Roll the Bones up. It is the buff that makes every other button better. Without it, you are playing a weaker spec.

What to check in your logs

Open your character on Warcraft Logs after a raid night and look at these five things, in this order. They tell you more than the big DPS number does.

Fix these in order. Deaths first, then active time, then Adrenaline Rush uptime, then Roll the Bones uptime, then finisher choice. Parse percentile climbs on its own once those are right.

Outlaw 101: the five ideas behind every button

Outlaw is a resource loop. You spend energy on builders that make combo points, spend combo points on finishers, and press cooldowns to make the whole loop spin faster. Learn these five ideas and every priority list below will make sense.

1. Energy and combo points are your two currencies. Energy refills on its own, about 100 at most. Sinister Strike costs energy and gives combo points. Finishers like Dispatch spend combo points. Full energy means regeneration is wasted, so never sit at the cap.
2. Roll the Bones is the engine. You press it and it rolls a number from 1 to 4. Higher is better, and each stage keeps the stages below it: 1 is more Opportunity procs, 2 makes Sinister Strike give an extra combo point, 3 makes your finishers cut more time off your cooldowns, 4 is more critical strikes. Reroll a 1. Keep a 3 or 4 for as long as you can.
3. Between the Eyes and Dispatch are the payoff. Two finishers. Between the Eyes is on a short cooldown and hits very hard; press it whenever it is up at 6 or more combo points. Dispatch is what you press when Between the Eyes is cooling down.
4. Finishers shorten your cooldowns. This is Restless Blades. Every combo point you spend cuts time off Adrenaline Rush, Killing Spree, Blade Flurry and friends. That is why Adrenaline Rush is up almost half the fight and why you never hold it.
5. Blade Flurry copies your hits. Press it when two or more enemies are near you. For a while every hit on your target also hits the others. It is the whole AoE plan in one button.

Easy Mode: six buttons, one order Mode 1

This is the whole rotation. Read the list top to bottom every time the global cooldown ends and press the first thing that is true. It uses the Trickster single-target build from the setup section. If you took Fatebound instead, the list is the same.

1. Adrenaline Rush if it is off cooldown and you have 2 or fewer combo points. Press it at the start of the fight and every time it lights up again.
2. Roll the Bones if the buff is missing or you rolled a 1. Check the buff on your bar.
3. Slice and Dice if it is missing. Cast it once in the opener and again if it drops.
4. Between the Eyes if it is off cooldown and you have 6 or more combo points.
5. Dispatch if you have 6 or more combo points.
6. Sinister Strike. When nothing above is true and you have the energy, press this. It is your filler and your main combo point builder.

That is it. Ignore Killing Spree, Blade Rush, Keep It Rolling, Preparation and Pistol Shot for now. They are a bonus, not the foundation.

The opener

Be behind the boss before the pull timer ends. At zero: Adrenaline Rush, Roll the Bones, Slice and Dice, then Sinister Strike until you have 6 combo points, Between the Eyes, and fall into the list above.

When you have to move

Roll the Bones and Slice and Dice can be pressed while you run. Otherwise just move. Energy keeps building while you run, so you lose less than a caster does. Grappling Hook back to the boss if it is up and the path is clear.

Poisons

Outlaw still uses poisons. Put a lethal poison on your weapons before every pull. They last an hour, so you will do this once or twice a night. Check both weapons at every ready check.

Intermediate Mode: three bonus buttons and a second target Mode 2

Same skeleton as Easy Mode, with Killing Spree, Blade Rush, Keep It Rolling and Pistol Shot slotted in. Each one is worth a few percent of your damage, and together they are the gap between a passable rogue and a solid one.

1. Roll the Bones if the buff is missing or at stage 1.
2. Keep It Rolling if your current Roll the Bones is stage 3 or higher. It extends the good roll by 30 seconds. On paper it is a 6-minute cooldown; with Restless Blades it comes back about every minute.
3. Adrenaline Rush on cooldown at 2 or fewer combo points, then Killing Spree straight after it. Killing Spree is now your hardest-hitting finisher, and Adrenaline Rush makes it faster.
4. Blade Rush on cooldown. It gives energy back and powers your tier set.
5. Between the Eyes at 6 or more combo points.
6. Dispatch at 6 or more combo points.
7. Pistol Shot when Opportunity has 6 stacks, or when it has 3 stacks and you are at 1 to 3 combo points. It is instant and ranged, so it is also your best movement button.
8. Sinister Strike at 5 or fewer combo points.

The opener

Adrenaline Rush, Roll the Bones, Slice and Dice, Keep It Rolling if you rolled a 3 or 4, Blade Rush, then Sinister Strike and Pistol Shot until 6 combo points, Between the Eyes with trinket and potion, Killing Spree. From there, use the list.

Blade Flurry: your second target

Any time two or more enemies are near you and live more than a few seconds, such as a boss plus a big add, Blade Flurry is the answer:

• Press Blade Flurry when 2 or more targets are in range and it is not already running.
• If you know a cleave moment is coming, press it just before, even pre-pull.
• It copies hits from around you, so stand close to the adds, not at the edge of melee range.
• Everything else in the list stays the same. You do not change targets or finishers.

Planning movement

Before the pull, ask the raid leader or read the boss guide for the two or three moments when everyone has to move. Walk into those moments with a few combo points and some Opportunity stacks so you can Pistol Shot on the way out. Save Grappling Hook for the way back. If the move is long, that is the time for Feint.

Full Send Mode: the complete priority Mode 3

This is the Trickster single-target list as the top guides write it, plus the habits that separate a 70th-percentile parse from a 95th. Nothing here is new. It is the Intermediate list with tighter timing.

Single target

1. Roll the Bones on cooldown if you are at stage 1 or have no buff.
2. Keep It Rolling if a stage 3 or higher roll is active.
3. Preparation whenever Between the Eyes, Adrenaline Rush, Killing Spree and Blade Rush are all on cooldown. It resets all of them.
4. Adrenaline Rush on cooldown at 2 or fewer combo points, followed by Killing Spree.
5. Dispatch whenever the 4-set tier bonus is active, regardless of combo points.
6. Blade Rush on cooldown.
7. Between the Eyes at 6 or more combo points.
8. Dispatch at 6 or more combo points.
9. Pistol Shot if Opportunity has 6 stacks, or has 3 stacks and you are at 1 to 3 combo points.
10. Sinister Strike at 5 or fewer combo points.

Reroll discipline

Stages are cumulative, so a 3 already includes the 1 and 2 bonuses. Reroll only a 1 or an empty bar. A 2 is kept until it expires. A 3 or 4 is kept and then extended with Keep It Rolling. Maxroll's Fatebound list allows Keep It Rolling at stage 2; Method and Maxroll's Trickster list both say stage 3 or higher. As Trickster, wait for the 3.

Opportunity and energy

Pistol Shot is a free builder, but only when Opportunity tells you to press it. At 6 stacks you are about to waste procs, so fire it. At 3 stacks fire it only if you are at 1 to 3 combo points, so the extra points do not overflow the bar. Between those thresholds, Sinister Strike. Never sit at full energy waiting for a finisher cooldown; spend a Dispatch instead.

Lining up the burst window

On-use trinket, Light's Potential and racial all go into the opener's Adrenaline Rush and Killing Spree. Restless Blades means your cooldowns never land on a clean clock, so instead of waiting for a realignment, press them when they are up. Ask the raid leader when Bloodlust is coming and, if Adrenaline Rush will be back within 10 seconds of it, hold it. Preparation is your emergency button for a burn phase: if no casts are lost by holding it, save it for the moment the raid leader calls for damage.

AoE (3 or more targets)

1. Blade Flurry if 2 or more targets are in range and it is not already active.
2. If it is already active, recast Blade Flurry at 4 or fewer combo points when 4 or more targets are in range.
3. Everything else follows the single-target list. Roll the Bones, Adrenaline Rush, Killing Spree and Between the Eyes all cleave through Blade Flurry.
4. Stand in the middle of the pack. Blade Flurry copies hits from around you, not around your target.
5. For dungeons, swap to the Cleave build so Blade Flurry lasts longer and hits more targets.

Two targets is the same Blade Flurry game. There is no separate two-target rotation.

Fight-specific habits

Before a progression night, open the boss guide and write down three things: when adds spawn (pre-cast Blade Flurry), when the raid has to move (bank Opportunity stacks), and when Bloodlust is called (hold or press Adrenaline Rush). Those three notes are worth more than any sim.

Talents, consumables and setup

Import one of these talent strings and the guide above matches your bars. Open the talent window, click Import, paste, and save as a loadout. Both are from Method's talents page, updated 18 Oct 2026 for patch 12.1.5.

Method lists no separate Mythic+ string; the Cleave build is the one it describes for dungeons, swapping Sleight of Hand and Summarily Dispatched for Dancing Steel and Grand Melee so Blade Flurry hits more targets and lasts longer. Both builds share Ace Up Your Sleeve, Keep It Rolling, Killing Spree and Preparation, so the lists above work with either.

Stat priority

Haste first, up to about 25%, then Critical Strike, then Versatility, Mastery last. Both Method and Maxroll agree on the 25% Haste target, because Adrenaline Rush's faster global cooldown depends on it. Once you are comfortable, run a Raidbots Top Gear sim with your own gear to find your exact Haste number. Until then, take the higher item level piece.

Consumables checklist

Bring these to every raid. Half of them are provided by the raid, but a new raider should carry their own.

• Flask: Flask of the Shattered Sun, or Flask of the Blood Knights if you are already past 25% Haste
• Food: Harandar Celebration, or eat the raid feast
• Combat potion: Light's Potential, one per pull
• Health potion: Concentrated Silvermoon Health Potion
• Weapon oil: Thalassian Phoenix Oil on both weapons
• Augment rune: Void-Touched Augment Rune
• Poisons: lethal poison on both weapons before the pull
• Enchants: Mark of the Worldsoul (chest), Forest Hunter's Armor Kit (legs), Eyes of the Eagle (rings), Acuity of the Ren'dorei (weapons), Empowered Hex of Leeching (helm), Silvermoon's Mending (shoulders), Shaladrassil's Roots (boots)

Addons that matter

BigWigs for boss timers and Method Raid Tools for raid notes. Method's Outlaw page recommends no addons for Midnight; the built-in Cooldown Manager tracks Roll the Bones and your cooldowns. Nothing else is required to start.

Macros

Put these on your bars. The first throws Grappling Hook to wherever your mouse cursor is, with no second click. The second interrupts whatever your mouse is over, or your target if nothing is. The third stuns your focus target.

#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Grappling Hook

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Kick

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus][] Kidney Shot

Your utility kit

Damage is only half the job. Raid leaders remember the rogue who interrupts, uses Feint on every raid-wide hit, and Shrouds the group past trash, not the one who parses 5% higher. Rogues bring no battle resurrection, no Bloodlust, no raid buff and no dispel, so your utility is interrupts, stuns and staying alive. Cooldowns below are the base values. Talents shorten some of them, so trust your tooltip over this table.

Two habits to build now:

1. Set a focus target. Before the pull, target the add you are assigned to interrupt or stun and press your focus keybind. The Kidney Shot macro then works without ever leaving the boss, and the mouseover Kick covers everything else.
2. Feint before every raid-wide hit. Watch BigWigs for the next big ability and press Feint a second before it lands. Healers notice the rogue who takes 40% less from every mechanic.

Reading your logs and what to practice next

After each raid night, open your character on Warcraft Logs and spend five minutes on one boss. Pick the longest single-target fight. Check the five items from the logs section, then do the one drill below that matches your mode.

Three things to compare against a top log of the same boss (Warcraft Logs, Rankings tab, filter to Outlaw):

1. Count their Between the Eyes casts and yours. If theirs is 50% higher on a fight of the same length, you are pressing Dispatch when Between the Eyes was ready, or sitting on combo points.
2. Count their Adrenaline Rush casts and yours. The gap is almost always one missed cast at the start or end.
3. Look at their Deaths and yours. If they have zero and you do not, that is the whole gap.

The Venomous Abyss is the current Midnight Season 2 raid, with eight bosses from Nek'zali the Soulcoiler through Ula'tek. Read the Icy Veins page for each boss before the night you first see it, and write down the three notes from Full Send Mode: when adds come, when you move, when Lust is called.