Post by spcmack
You can not "off tank", but there are quite a few situations where rogues can viably hold off the rampaging, healer raping, trash while there is no tank available.
Evasion tanking is just as good now as it was in BC,
glyph of Cloak of Skill reduces damage taken by 40% in addition to the
standard cloak goodness, and
Combat Readiness while next to useless against the heavier hitting mobs, is fine for the little murloc crowds. Not to mention the
where the hell did that come from ability they gave us for an early Christmas present. And for some reason,
feint seems to reduce damage from cleaves...I guess thats like AOE...Most tanks have a few abilities they would gladly trade for those. The only missing mechanic is a taunt.
As far as specifics. If the tank in a heroic is having issues staying up, against two hard hitting, non cleaving mobs, with reasonably low hit points, and there is a holy pali healing (yeah I know, lots of specifics) then the rogue can evade tank one near the tank, receive the splash heals from the holy palis beacon, and if he is combat, use flurry to damage the tanks mob too. That might work better than having someone kite the other mob.
If there is a brez in the group, then in most trash pulls, a rogue can stay up long enough, for the tank to get back in the fight. Against a non caster heroic boss, the rogue is pretty boned, but can still generally stay up long enough for a brez to land on the tank.
Overall, it's really just situational, and it seems a lot easier for combat. If your group doesn't have a brez, the rogue is probably better off employing a macro like...
/cast vanish
/mourn
/raid I am going to grab a beer while you guys are running back...
cap?