Rogue vs. mage is dominantly based on who attacks who first. Rogues are defeated much like warriors. Do not blink out of the initial attack, you won't gain much ground considering the Rogue will likely sprint, and then you'll be unable to blink out of the endless stun. Instead of blinking initially, Frost Nova. Then run just out of melee range and polymorph the rogue. That move will effectively reset the battle, except now our Rogue friend is unstealthed and thus, weakened. From this point on, it is literally almost the same as fighting a Warrior (esp. for a Frost Mage). Get to maximum range ASAP and begin to kite the Rogue. You should make quick work of him once you're at max range.


[[Alternately, if the Rogue manages to Vanish out of your frost nova before you can polymorph him, stay as close to the spot where he was and use arcane explosion as quickly as possible. Since Rogues don't move as quickly in stealth, he likely won't have gone far. Also, after he vanishes, he'll likely be moving TOWARDS you anyway attempting to CS/Ambush you, so it's beneficial to use arcane explosion immediately after he uses Vanish. If you're quick, he'll rarely get another jump on you via vanish. In some situations, if a rogue has vanished from within melee range of you, you can use cone of cold or dragon's breath to unstealth him. Since the area's of effect are smaller, and these skills have cooldowns, they're usually not preferred to arcane explosion.]]

This fight is largely about having the advantage, and the way to do that is to keep the rogue out of stealth or to not allow him to benefit from it. Rank 1 arcane explosion and Rank 1 blizzard are your friends here.


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Keep your mana shield up at all times, but even that might not save you. Every sixth hit you take will crit for 2000+ hp. Get the rogue out of stealth and keep him/her from restealthing. The dot on fireball and pyroblast are handy for this role. You will absolutely have to polymorph them, but beware, your opponent can counter all your tricks (once every 5 minutes, twice if they have preparation up). A rogue can sprint in stealth and when chilled, they can vanish out of frost nova, and he will almost certainly kick you when you're trying to polymorph at point blank range. Once in sheep form and without vanish, they are usually yours to play with. Save your blink for their cheap shot/kidney shot. Try spamming lvl 1 Arcane explosion if they are stealthed, and your blink is still recharging.

Most mages consider rogues an even matchup, usually the one to initiate battle wins.

Since the new patch, rogues can start popping Cloak of Shadows (CoS) on you once a minute. This basically amounts to a 5 second stun as there isn't really much you can do except blink away (and if you do you'll probably end up getting stunned). A mage's best bet is to save ice block for these moments, as CoS makes rouges extremely difficult against mages.

When a rogue opens on you with a garrote silence, immediately move away and frost nova. This will usually prompt the rogue to pop his Cloak of Shadows. You have five seconds to run immediately away from the rogue (flipped camera on keybind helps here) until the cloak wears off, don't stand still as five seconds is shorter than you think. Usually it's much easier to burst the rogue down at this point with instants and slow than to risk getting kicked or deadly thrown trying to polymorph the rogue. Use presence of mind to sheep or don't try it. As mentioned above, high AP rogues will have equivalently low hp. Don't attempt to cast anything on the rogue like fireball as he has various tricks to stop your cast or otherwise avoid damage like vanish, cloak of shadows, kick, deadly throw, gouge, and blind. Generally you want to tank some of his hits while saving a blink when you know the big damage is coming.

-- From a different point of view, never keep your mana shield up, unless your health decreased disproportional to your mana. Using mana shield will quickly leave you with half health and no mana when fighting a Rogue. My advice is to take that first hit or two.

Frost mages can kite rogues relatively easily. Note that sprint is on a 5 minute cooldown, and preparation is on a 10 minute cooldown. While, for a frost mage, your ice block is on a 5 minute cooldown, and cold snap is on a 10 minute cooldown (HINT HINT). Then again, cooldowns are not always necessary.


An easy way to combat a rogue is in fact down to talents, as said above PoM is very very useful, and can make the idea of "first hit wins" not be correct. Allow me to explain: If its at the start of a fight and you find yourself in trouble, then use it to poly the rogue. But if lets say your struggling near the end of the fight, and he has aprox a few hundred/1-2k health points left, then using PoM - Pyroblast, or PoM - fireball/frostbolt is actually better, as if you know your damage for them and feel you can finish them by using it, go ahead. I've done this quite a few times and have changed from losing; to winning a duel very very quickly.

[Arcane] medium. [Fire] medium. [Frost] easy-medium.