Hello. Recently I’ve started playing rogue and I’m coming from mage. This is really my first time playing melee dps, as I mained a mage, I’ve got a warlock I play around with and a hunter I’ve leveled to 70 in remix. But playing rogue is absolutely insane. I’ve got a 70 assassination rogue and don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of fun, but I’m just dying so much! I’ll instadie pretty often. It seems like the rogue defensives are pretty mediocre. Do you guys have an oh-^%&* macro for defensives? I’ve also hotkeyed health potions and stuff which I’ve never had to do for mage, between ice cold and cauterize I’m generally alright. Even for warlock I’ve never dropped dead this often–but that’s all ranged. Obviously I try and stay out of the green puddles and what have you, but does anyone have any constructive advice or macros that they’d recommend? Thanks 
Insta death is usually due to frontals, learn what they are and what mobs cast them.
I agree.
It’s probably a mechanic of some sort you are not used to.
Do your best to stay behind your targets to avoid any frontal attacks.
Watch for stuff on the ground. Alot of times there is AoE that only effects melee.
While unlikely, make sure you are not pulling threat from the tank. Always give the tank a moment to collect the mobs and hold aggro.
^ There’s custom Platerprofiles which colour code which mobs cast frontals. Worth getting.
We have some of the best defensives in the game. Try taking Elusiveness over cheat death. And remember to actually use feint. It’s amazing. And Evasion allows you to negate a hell of a lot of frontals, and aoe effects.
Just remember these 3 things. Cloak before spells, evasion before physical hits, feint before unavoidable aoe. Also spam that vial any time you take more than 1/3 of your health, because unlike ranged, you can get hit by lots of stuff in melee range in quick succession.
Are there particular dungeons you find yourself getting insta-wrecked in more often? Rogue defensives are very good so dying that fast is usually a) standing where you aren’t supposed to (HoI, Uld, etc.) or a fixate mob targeting you (BH, for example).
To add onto this, make sure you have the tank marked. Knowing exactly where the tank is will do a world of good in keeping you out of frontals/cleaves.
Thank you for the replies everyone, I’ll download a plater profile for frontals and figure out how to use evasion and feint. I think it’s the proactiveness of using evasion and feint that is what is hard for me to get used to—when I played mage, screen go red = ice cold, and obvs cauterize is automatic. Anything else I just spam the fire shield and/or move out of the way.
TBH I downloaded GTFO and it’s helped a lot. I didn’t realize how often I’m stepping in poo so to speak.
Thanks everyone
There’s also a Seasons 4 Dungeons - Dragonflight WA which literally calls out when to use defensives.
But try to make note of which you can mitigate entirely with evasion and which you’ll have to feint through. That nasty stomp on the third boss of Uldaman for example can be completely negated with evasion as its physical damage.
(I suppose you could run a follower dungeon and test out what evasion works on and what doesn’t if you really wanted to?)
And if you spec into Float Like a Butterfly you’ll have nearly endless DR available.