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Comment by 8611

Use this to interrupt a spell caster when kick is on cooldown. When several players are beating on a mob it won't stun him of course, but it will often prevent the spell being cast.

Comment by 99096

this is 1 of the best skills to regain energy for a rogue, use all ur energy hit gouge run back 15-20 yards wait for the mob to get to you and unload ur energy again and repete since the time it takes for the mob to get back to you runs the cooldown u can use it again after ur energy is gone this tip has been brought to you by Skittles taste the rainbow HA j/k, but not really

Comment by Mythical

I'd really suggest avoiding this ability while leveling. Sure, you can get energy regains, or get behind your enemy so you can backstab, but think of the damage loss you get while waiting for the energy. In those four seconds you could've done more damage, and leveling fast is all about killing fast and efficient.

Comment by InvisibleElf

This ability is mainly used to interrupt spellcasts, to escape, or to restealth. Restealthing is hard if you don't have improved gouge however.

Comment by 125716

I also find gouge very helpful as an "oh !@#$" button in the very early levels, before vanish and your major stuns. If you're getting your butt kicked by a mob without any CDs or potions available, use Gouge and immediately bandage yourself, and hope you gained enough health to kill off the mob.

It may not always work, but it's sure worth a try for the saved time from corpse running.

Comment by 102890

According to the WotLK entry for gouge, it will be losing the ability to generate a combo point, but the flip side is that they are removing the various ranks in favor of giving it damage based on attack power, approximately 1/5 of total attack power to be exact. Even in the mediocre blues my rogue has right now, that more than doubles the damage compared to the current incarnation.

My only real beef with gouge is that periodic damage breaks it. As previously stated, it is popular with mutilate rogues because it allows us to get our signature ability off when stunlocks aren't an option. When I'm grinding, I stack deadly poisons both to ensure mutilate does its full damage, and to utilize envenom as a finisher, since it usually does near double the damage of my eviscerate. So a chance tick of deadly poison sometimes foils my attempt to step behind and deliver a mutilate.

My two options to avoid this situation are either taking note of the ticks, and timing the gouge/mutilate to strike between, or to use wound/crippling poison instead. The latter option is annoying because I lose access to my favorite finisher. The former is less annoying, but seems like an unneccesary complication, especially considering the druid's cat-form disorient ability ignores periodic damage.

A talent to add a similar feature to gouge would be nice.

EDIT: Ignore everything I just complained about. Apparently mutilate is being changed in the near future to no longer require that you be behind the target. Thank you Blizzard.

Comment by Carlotta

Does any1 know the damage/attack power formula for Gouge?

Comment by hermantf

Is it true that Mage's CAN'T blink out of Gouge (Gouge incapacitates. Blink frees the caster from Stuns and Bonds)?

Comment by corners

That doesn't make one lick of sense.If hes incapacitated, not attacking you, how are you losing damage? If anything you are gaining energy back, without losing anything or getting hit. Lets not forget it shortens the cd on stealth and all your other cooldowns.Vanilla rogues realize the big importance of this. Gouge is literally like a time out. You can do so much, bandaid anyone?

Anyways, i just had to point out to all the new rogues that gouge is a very important tool for rogues especially in pvp.Considering it doesnt have a DR on pve stuff its perfect for leveling.\

Arong 60 Rogue ,Dark Iron Ally
Nabin 80 Rogue ,Auchindoun Horde

Comment by 139909

To crit with Ambush is the way of the Rogue,
to crit with gouge is the way of true power.

...but criting with ambush will generally leave you better off.

-Buddhist proverb

Comment by makron

Gouge can be fully negated by successful block.

Comment by 87278

I'm surprised it hasn't been said yet but Gouge does share diminishing returns with Polymorph (Mage spell).

Comment by 236763

Although Gouge itself can crit, if you have Cold Blood up, it will NOT guarantee your next gouge to crit. Gouge will go off like normal and you will still have the Cold Blood aura up, waiting for your next skill use.

Not sure if this is a bug, or if Gouge doesn't count as an "offensive ability" for some reason; just discovered it by accident while testing a macro.

Comment by 581826

Well just a little tip for farming/leveling rogues: Gouge does not work on mechanical class mobs. You deal the damage, but the Incapacitated debuff is not applied. Just have that in mind if you level up in Westfall for example.

Comment by Lester1986

A change fort gouge glyph in one of Cataclysm beta builds:

Gouge - Your Gouge ability no longer requires that the target be facing you.

Sounds kinda interesting.

Comment by 1107124

No more cps for gouge?
At least mages can't blink out of it since it's not a stun.

Comment by Thottbot

This skill you use to do Back Stab on the target. Use it and then run around the target and then do it. You can allso use it to run away or other skills that i havent lerned yet.
//Il be BackInBlack

Comment by Thottbot

Well, I never use gouge as a way of landing a backstab on a target. Insted I use it sciense it's an easy CB and also to regain my energy...
If you're combat specced, then you will also do as I do, because we have improved sinisterstrike

Comment by Thottbot

Get imp. gouge.

You use it, you're out of combat 5.5 seconds.

That's enough time to restealth without using vanish up.

Comment by Thottbot

Land one of these on your opponent, and it will give you a chance to bandage up. If you get imp. gouge, it lasts even longer, more healing. Thats how i usually use it, but I have also used it to get a BS in.

Comment by Thottbot

da fool is right,with a combat spec and 5.5 sec gouge, you can easily gouge and run back (strafe) to ranged position and be nearly full energy by the time they get to you.

Comment by Thottbot

Nice way to beat on an elite is to continually gouge them, run off and use your ranged weapon. If they don't parry/block/dodge that is. If you backpeddle while your Shoot is on cooldown by the time it gets to you Gouge will be ready to use again. If you do it right you'll hit the guy 4 or 5 times for every one time he hits you. Not to mention you're bulding combo points the whole time.

Gouge is also a lifesaver for giving you time to bandage or just plain run away.

Comment by Thottbot

I really dont get wat gouge is. its just the same as sap.

Comment by Thottbot

anyone tell me why 50% of the time the mob comes out of gouge straight away before I have time to get behind forr a BS strike ?

Comment by Thottbot

/cast gouge
/cast heavy wool bandage

heal and a combo point :D

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Gouge

Gouge

45 Energy	Melee Range

Instant	10 sec cooldown

Gouges the eyes of an enemy target, incapacitating the opponent for 4 sec. Target must be facing you. Any subsequent damage will cause the target to recover immediately.

Buff

Spell Details

Duration

4 seconds

School

Physical

Mechanic

Incapacitated

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

Normal

Cost

45 Energy

Range

5 yards (Combat)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

10 seconds

GCD

1 second

Aura proc chance

100%

Effect #1

Apply Aura: Stun (AP mod: 0.21)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Mod % Damage Taken (Arcane, Fire, Frost, Holy, Nature, Physical, Shadow) (AP mod: 0.21)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Flags

Is Ability
Wearer Casts Proc Trigger
Cannot be used while shapeshifted
Do Not Sheath
Stops auto-attack
Prevents Anim
Discount Power On Miss
No Proc Equip Requirement
Completely Blocked
Requires main hand weapon
Can Proc From Procs
Suppress Weapon Procs
Show Mechanic as Combat Text
Aura Points On Client

Gouge

Buff

Spell Details

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