This comment is coming from a new outlaw player.
The gouge ability seems pointless, and I struggle to find ways to use it.
It does the same thing as blind it seems, but its shorter, and you have to be in melee range. They are both interupted by damage.
Every rouge I know tells me you have to use gouge but I can’t understand why.
To me its just a worse version of sap and blind.
I can only think of three reasons to use it over the other two abilities.
It can interrupt (which i can already do with kick), it may be helpful in pvp, and it has a shorter cool down than blind.
How can this be helpful exactly?
P.S. You also have to be in front of your target to gouge them, making it more pointless for pvp.
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I find myself using Gouge when kick is on cooldown or if the spell isn’t normally interrupt-able. It can also be used to give your self a quick breather to either regenerate energy, wait for something to come off cooldown, or you need something to stop while you focus on another enemy.
In PvP it’s mainly a harassment tool I’ve found, doesn’t have much use outside of that however.
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It’s extremely useful in M+ because it will allow you to stop mobs from channeling abilities without having to use your interrupt and it can also be used to force a mob to either A) Cast a different ability or B) Delay long enough for your interrupt to come off CD. Since BTE is part of your core rotation outlaw doesn’t have a stun on demand unless you use vanish to stop mobs from channeling that are also uninterruptable.
Can you use blind for the same purpose? Yes but blind is on a 2m cd. Gouge is 15s.
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Gouge your focus target (healer) to chain with another CC when you can’t get a sap. Alternatively, gouge your focus target (dps) to peel for your partner.
Idk it’s been a while since I had gouge since I don’t play outlaw but it should still dr with sap if I’m not mistaken.
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I promise you, if the other two specs had Gouge, you’d see how versatile it can be.
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As others mentioned it can be used as a kick.
You can use it as an escape too.
Run away and use those crucial seconds to get a restealth WITHOUT using CDs.
Back in vanilla when all specs had it, there was a rogue on my server that would gouge a warrior.
Run.
The warrior would charge.
And in that second he would shadow step while the warrior was charging. Essentially switching places and get the re stealth.
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Gouge is useful for a variety of things as listed above; you can use it to peel, to “interrupt”, to give yourself a little more space for a restealth, to force or shut down a cooldown, et cetera, so forth. Very little is as satisfying as baiting a Warrior’s Berserker Rage so they’re forced to eat a full Sap or Fear/Psychic Scream later.
As long as you can track the DR it shares with other abilities, you’ll find it is a highly, highly useful thing.
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Ok thanks for the suggestions. I was totally confused as to its use
I use it in AD to prevent certain effects that are cast or channeled with interruption immunity. Gouge lets me do that often. It would be a waste of blind and, my stun is usually being used on the kill target.
In PVP, it’s great as a defensive ability, and equally good when being aggressive. You may want to use that stun talent for extra damage against the player you are killing, and that’s where gouge really shines. Use the stun on the kill target, blind the healer, and stop any disruption from the other DPS with gouge. Or, stop heals with a kick, follow with gouge for extra pressure between CDs.
Gouge is great, it just requires more coordination than other spells. Not unlike Blind, like you mentioned.
As a sub rogue, I really miss gouge.
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gouge /bandage. all day long
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Kinda wonder why assassin doesn’t have it anymore.
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Give back Gouge to Sub and Assassination.
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Didn’t you read the patch notes - class fantasy.
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Probably when it came out but I don’t remember. Used to be every spec had gouge.
In case you didn’t pick up the sarcasm.
Legion brought us revamped class specs across the board in what is referred to as “The Great Pruning”. Many specs don’t even resemble their former glory (Subtlety). A lot of abilities were removed or redistributed (Gouge, Poisons)
This was all done in the name of “Class Fantasy”. So, whenever someone asks, “Why did they do that?”, the response is “Class Fantasy”.
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Interesting and yeah I can be…gullible or a blockhead most times.
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If you ever pvp as outlaw, you’ll find out how awesome gouge is when fighting Paladins/casters in general
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In PVP, it’s a good way to sort out the bad players.
Those who’ll Trinket gouge.
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A free interrupt that gives combo points and allows me to pool energy? Yes, please.
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